Cooley was at her side before she finished speaking. Positioning himself in front of her, he began to stare into her eyes. It reminded Marilyn uncomfortably of the meeting in the cavern, when the old demon had looked at Guptas the same way. She shivered.
“I can’t tell for certain,” he muttered to Zenobia, who was standing at his side. “But I think she’s all right.”
“Of course I’m all right!” snapped Marilyn, pushing at his hand. Her arm passed through his, and she suddenly remembered that she was dealing with a ghost.
“This is too much,” she said.
Kyle came over, holding the cat. “Where are we, sir?”
Cooley turned to him. “Somewhere at the edge of your world. When the last Suleiman left the castle, he pushed it over some magical border, to move it away from the world we know.”
“Then what would it hurt to let Guptas free here? It’s not as if we’d be letting him go in the real world.”
“Other than the fact that he might kill you instantly, you should be able to see that he can transport himself between our world and this castle with no trouble. He’d be back on earth raising hell in no time flat. No, there is no way around it. He must be destroyed.”
“I’ll bet you support the death penalty, too,” said Kyle, scratching Brick between the ears.
“I won’t destroy him,” said Marilyn flatly.
“Marilyn, be reasonable,” said Zenobia. “He’s an evil creature. Look what he did to me!”
“He didn’t mean to,” said Marilyn uncertainly. “He just wanted you to give him the amulet.”
“Why?” cried Cooley, pouncing like a cat that had spotted a mouse. “Why did he want the amulet back?”
“Because I was afraid she might be as much of a fool as you were!” roared Guptas, suddenly reappearing beside them.
Marilyn was sure that if Cooley hadn’t been a ghost, he would have gone pale at that moment.
“The owner of the amulet has power over me,” continued Guptas. “I don’t like that, so I don’t want anyone to own the amulet. I don’t want anyone to control me. Most of all, I want to be free. But it was clear you had poisoned the woman’s mind against me. If I couldn’t get her to free me, I wanted at least to be free of her control. I never meant for her to die. I was terrified when her heart gave out. I had had no idea that might happen. You people are much weaker than the Suleimans.”
“And me,” said Cooley. “What about what you did to me?”
“You,” said Guptas simply, “deserved to die. But I didn’t do it. It was your own greed that did you in.”
“What do you mean?” cried Cooley. “I ordered you to lead me to something valuable in this castle.” He stopped and looked around him, then added defensively, “Because I wanted to prove to Zenobia what kind of possibilities I had uncovered.”
“You’ve been here before?” gasped Zenobia.
“Of course. This creature led me to a valuable artifact, all right. But it was a trap. When he took me back to my hotel room and I opened the thing—”
“When you opened it, you found death,” said Guptas.
“That’s right!” shouted Cooley. He turned to the others. “He admits he tricked me! He showed me a precious box, but inside was some curse of the Suleimans.”
Even now, as a spirit, the memory made him shudder. “When I opened the box, a hideous centipede scuttled out. It was a great purplish thing, mottled and twice as long as my hand. It slithered up my sleeve.” His eyes grew wide with remembered horror. “It ran up my shirt, and while I was trying to tear open my collar—it bit me.”
“It had a very powerful poison,” said Guptas softly.
“You see!” screamed Cooley. “I asked him for a treasure, and he gave me death!”
For a moment no one said a word. Then Zenobia began to chuckle.
Guptas smiled. “I see you understand.”
Comprehension dawned in Cooley’s face. “You tricked me,” he repeated bitterly.
“Not at all,” said Guptas. “You merely leapt to conclusions. That box was a mere trifle for the Suleimans. The treasure was inside. You asked for something valuable, and I gave you the most precious thing I could think of, the thing I have longed for for ten thousand years. I gave you death.”
Cooley was furious. “Give me that amulet!” he said, snatching at Marilyn’s hand. His fingers passed right through hers, and he made a gesture of impatience.
“It’s hers by right,” said Guptas calmly. “You might take it from her, but it will do you no good. The amulet can be stolen, but its power must pass freely.”
“Marilyn,” said Cooley, forcing himself to be calm, “please give me the amulet. This creature must be dealt with now.”
“No,” said Marilyn. Her voice was shaking.
“Now, listen here, young lady—”
“Eldred, shut up!” said Zenobia sharply.
To Marilyn’s surprise, Cooley backed off like a whipped dog.
“Marilyn, be reasonable,” said Zenobia. “This creature is evil. He is a demon!”
“Half demon,” said Marilyn.
“Well, that’s interesting,” said Zenobia, raising a ghostly eyebrow. “But it doesn’t make any difference. In his heart he is wicked. And he is powerful. All the time the amulet lay in the desert, the world was safe from him.” She glanced at Cooley. “Far better the amulet should have remained there,” she said pointedly. “But it didn’t. It was brought out into the world. And now it is an unbelievable menace. If you do not free Guptas, somehow, someday, someone else will. And when that happens, I fear the whole world will pay.”
She paused for a moment, then touched her niece’s cheek with a hand that wasn’t really there. Marilyn shivered at the sensation.
“It isn’t fair,” said Zenobia. “But it has come down to you. You must decide for everyone.”
“So I’m judge and jury,” said Marilyn softly.
“That’s right,” said Zenobia. “No matter what Eldred thinks, we cannot force you to make this decision.”
“What do you think I should do?”
“I’m not certain,” said Zenobia. Her face was troubled. “In a way, I could say it makes no difference to me. After all, what happens to the world now is little of my concern. But I don’t want to see innocent people suffer.”
“Is he so guilty?” asked Marilyn. “He didn’t ask to be born. Do you know his story?”
“Do you believe it?” asked Zenobia. “And even if you do, does it make any difference? He is too powerful—and he is a creature out of time. Once the world could hold him, because there were others with power great enough to keep him in check. But free him now and you unleash an uncontrollable force. There is no one left who can master him, no safe place to put him. He can wreak unimaginable destruction.”
Marilyn turned away from her aunt. “Kyle?” she whispered.
Kyle looked at her hopelessly. “I don’t know what to tell you. I think Guptas got a bum deal. But I sure don’t want him walking the streets of Kennituck Falls at night.”
Marilyn went to the window and stared out at the great peaks surrounding them. The air was cool. Glancing down, she could see a break in the clouds, and the ground, incredibly far away. She leaned her head on the sill and tried to think, but her mind was whirling with fear, with anger, with sorrow.
“Why me?” she whispered. “Why do I have to make such a decision?”
The amulet was warm in her hand.
She stood up. “Guptas, I want to see you!”
At once the demon appeared.
“Do you have anything to say?” she asked.
Cooley started to protest. Zenobia cut him off.
Guptas looked around the circle of faces. Marilyn could sense a great weariness in him.
“I have been imprisoned for thousands of years,” he said at last. “My world has vanished, and I have no home. I am a slave to whoever holds the amulet.”
He turned to Marilyn and looked directly into her eyes.
“I want to be free. If you can’t free me from the amulet, then free me from life.”
He stepped closer to her.
“Let me go, or let me die.”
“I thought you couldn’t die,” she said, her throat tight.
He looked away. His voice little more than a whisper, he said, “There’s a way. If you’re willing.”
18
JOURNEY INTO FEAR
When she thought about it afterward, Marilyn was never certain how much time passed before she spoke again.
She studied the faces around her. Kyle, sweet and gentle, seemed very sad. She wondered what he was thinking. Cooley was fidgeting, chewing his ghostly lips, fighting to keep his mouth shut. Zenobia’s eyes were filled with pity. And Guptas looked blank; there was nothing to be read in his face.
Her grip on the amulet tightened until the edges of it were cutting into her hand. She held it pressed against her chest. Closing her eyes, she could feel a tear trickle under her lashes. At last she whispered, “Guptas, I can’t do it. I can’t free you.”
The demon nodded. “So be it.”
She opened her eyes. “What do I do now?”
“You kill me.”
“I can’t do that, either!”
Guptas grinned, a hideous smile filled with fangs. “It’s easier than you think. You simply destroy the amulet.”
“I tried that,” said Zenobia. “Remember?”
He laughed, a harsh, short sound. “I remember. It was pathetic. There is only one way to destroy the amulet, and that is in the forge where it was made.”
“Where is that?” asked Marilyn.
“Below us. Deep in the bowels of the castle.”
“Make him take us there,” said Cooley.
“Shut up!” snapped Zenobia and Marilyn together.
Silence fell over the great hall. Brick came and rubbed against Marilyn’s legs. “Will you show me the way?” she asked at last.
Guptas nodded.
Marilyn sighed. “Then let’s go.”
She couldn’t hear it.
She couldn’t see it. (Several times, when she thought it was close, she spun around to try, but found nothing.)
Even so, she was certain it was there, following them; some force, some power she did not understand.
She had no idea how she knew it was there, but the knowledge of it was driving her to distraction.
“What are you?” she wanted to scream, but resisted, for fear the others would think she was crazy.
They had been walking for hours. At least, it seemed that way to her. With the image of Guptas leading the way, they had left the Hall of the Kings through a secret door behind the throne, entering a world of twisting passages that the demon threaded as if it had been only yesterday when he last walked them.
The sensation of being followed would not go away.
“Do you feel anything strange?” she asked Kyle at one point.
“Everything is strange here,” he answered.
She gave up and kept to herself what the rational part of her mind insisted was a mere nervous reaction to the insanity that had enveloped them.
She tried to pay attention to the sights around her, telling herself this was a place no other human eyes had ever seen.
It was strange, but strangely beautiful—all out of proportion to her senses, the doors and ceilings built for the great race of the Suleimans. But it was in perfect condition, as if not a moment had passed from the day Guptas’s father had sealed the place and left it to the ages. She saw no decay, no dust. The strange carvings in the doorsills were without nicks or chips. The floors in the winding halls gleamed as if they had been polished yesterday.
Each room and corridor had been treated as if it were a work of art. Even as they penetrated deep into the hidden heart of the castle, they found breathtaking tapestries adorning the walls.
She lost count of the rooms they passed. Once in a while Guptas stopped to point through a door, saying, “That’s where the king came to be alone” or “This was where they sent me to be punished when I was little.”
Marilyn began to have an odd sense of the demon’s life, of a quiet domesticity that seemed oddly incongruous for such a creature.
As they went deeper into the castle, they left the bright areas behind. Here there were no more windows—only strange glowing stones set in the ceiling, stones that cast an eerie light over the halls through which they wandered.
Guptas’s comments on the rooms grew stranger: “Here is where the king met his wizards. Here is where the demons came to perform their ceremonies.”
“Ceremonies?” asked Zenobia, ever curious.
“I cannot speak of them,” he replied.
“How do we know he won’t lead us into some kind of trap?” Zenobia had asked earlier.
“That’s simple enough,” Cooley had said. “Marilyn can compel him to lead us safely. Remember, he is still bound by the amulet.”
“He’ll lead us safely,” said Marilyn.
The moment the words left her mouth, she caught her breath and wondered what would happen: Without intending to, she had shown some trust in Guptas. Would that be enough to release him?
She waited nervously, but nothing seemed to change.
She began to wonder what was happening inside her. How much did she believe in the ancient demon after all? Would her emotions betray her and free him against her will?
She wished they would reach the forge.
And then what, Sparks? Can you really destroy the amulet, knowing that it will mean killing Guptas? You know that demon better than you’ve ever known any living creature. You’ve been inside his mind. You’ve experienced his life. You’ve felt his pain.
Can you really destroy him?
She backed away from the question. It was too much for her to deal with at the moment.
The sense that something was following them increased. She reached up to stroke Brick, who was riding on her shoulders. The cat’s black-and-white tail flicked back and forth.
Ahead of her Guptas stopped. His tail lashed warily from side to side, much like the cat’s.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I’m not certain,” he growled. He turned restlessly, a worried look on his face. “I sense dan—”
Before he could finish, the floor gave way beneath her.
Marilyn screamed. She felt a ripping sensation on her shoulders and realized, in some corner of her mind, that it came from Brick’s claws. The cat had jumped away, using her as a launching pad.
She hit something solid, and all the breath was knocked out of her.
Forced into silence, as soon as she caught her breath she began to scream again, because she was in a darkness deeper than anything she had ever experienced. It was as if something had swallowed the sun, had swallowed all the light that ever existed.
“Be quiet!” snapped Guptas.
“I can’t stand the dark!” she sobbed.
He turned on a light. She didn’t know how he did it, but she almost wished he hadn’t, because the first thing she saw was so horrible it made Guptas look almost pretty by comparison.
The monster sat in a corner. It was obscenely bloated, a dripping mound of flesh with an almost human face and a score of scaly tentacles sprouting from its body. It blinked for a moment when Guptas turned on the light. Then it began to smile.
Welcome, it whispered in her mind.
Marilyn began to inch away.
Oh, don’t do that! I’m very hungry. It chuckled softly—a bubbling, slimy sound that made her skin crawl. I’ve been waiting a long, long time for someone to step into my little trap.
As it spoke, a tentacle slithered across the floor and wrapped around her leg. At its touch, her skin began to burn. An odor of death rose from the tentacle’s slimy casing.
“Let her go!” roared Guptas.
Her attacker shrank back against the wall for a moment, then sent another tentacle lashing out to wrap around the demon. It made a loop abo
ut Guptas. But closed in on itself, passing through the illusion of the demon’s presence.
Marilyn beat at the tentacle that held her leg. She could feel blisters erupt on her hand where she struck it. The creature only tightened its grip.
Suddenly she heard a clattering noise. A small cloud of dust erupted to her right. When it cleared she saw Kyle standing near her, looking slightly dazed. He looked around, and the blood drained from his face.
The creature struck out at him. Kyle jumped, avoiding the tentacle, and grabbed a shard of the broken floor that littered the area around them. He slashed at the tentacle that held Marilyn, severing it with one stroke.
The creature howled in rage. The severed tentacle began spurting a green fluid that fell in steaming gouts around her.
“Marilyn, get out of here!” yelled Kyle.
A dozen tentacles shot toward him. But the creature was confused, disoriented by its pain, and Kyle was able to jump away from the attack.
“I’ll hold him off!” he shouted. “You get out!”
“Follow me!” cried Guptas, racing past Marilyn. She scrambled to her feet, but looked back when she heard Kyle cry out in pain.
The creature had managed to snare him with one of its tentacles. Now several other tentacles were snaking in his direction.
Though Kyle was screaming, he was still fighting, slashing with the piece of flooring at the tentacle that held him. Each time he struck at the monster it gasped, its cries merging with Kyle’s screams in horrible chords of anguish.
“Wait!” Marilyn cried to Guptas. “Wait!”
Guptas stopped. She dashed back and stomped as hard as she could on the tentacle that was holding Kyle. The sickening squashiness beneath her heel made her stomach lurch. The creature shrieked, but loosened its grip on Kyle, who pulled himself free and scrambled backward.
“Come on!” She grabbed him by the hand and they raced after Guptas.
Behind them the creature howled in rage, thrashing its tentacles, one of which reached far enough to lash against the back of Marilyn’s leg.
The burning pain spurred her to even greater speed. Letting go of Kyle’s hand, she ran on, gasping and panting, every breath cutting into her like a sword of fire. Following Guptas, she raced through tunnels that led to other tunnels, and tunnels beyond that.
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