“Sneaker,” I began.
She touched a finger to my lips.
“Later,” she said with a soft smile. “I wouldn't want you to say anything you might regret while you're delirious.”
I kissed her finger and closed my eyes, relieved I didn't have to tell my feelings, worried that I wouldn't have the courage to tell them later. Change can be so confusing.
“Thanks for rescuing Cappy,” Sneaker said. “I thought he was lost for good.”
“I didn't know you knew him.” I actually felt a quick pang of jealousy. I'd seen too many green monsters lately to pay it any attention, though.
“We've been best buds for years,” she said. “He's helped me get a few jobs. And I can't afford to lose any supporters, you know.”
Gregory pushed aside the curtain over the door. He asked the usual solicitous questions, then I asked him about Mephisto.
“Oh, he hasn't forgotten ye, Getter. Though, thanks to yer brave actions, he has other problems—how to make more troops.”
“Thank Cappy,” I told him. “What about the Wizard?”
“You tell me. Everybody here thought Wizards were folktales.”
“They're real, all right.” What was that green sphere? Kryptonite? How curious. “Mephisto's still planning war?”
“Yes.” His eyes wouldn't meet mine when he said, “Ah, Getter, when you are recovered, the Council would like to talk with you.”
“What about?” I asked, not too tired to feel suspicious.
“They just want information,” he said. Yeah, right. I closed my eyes and enjoyed Sneaker's gentle touch.
“Gregory,” I asked. “Why are you here? I vaguely remember you telling me Sanctuary is for dead Hell Cops.”
“I am a Hell Cop,” he answered with pride. His Scottish accent waxed heavy as he continued. “I was on only me third trip here when I was murdered.”
“I see,” I mused. “That explains why you didn't know much about Hell when I met you. I knew you weren't an ordinary soul. McFetter?”
“Aye, the bastard McFetter murdered me. ‘Tis evil he is. He will pay for what he did. I swear that.”
“The last I saw he was dangling from a Skyhook's hook.”
“Aye, he was, and I looked forward to watching Sazz eat his black heart. But those bloody Pragons attacked. The bastard slipped off the hook, and one of the black beasts caught him and took him away.”
“He's probably already paying,” I said. “In a Pragon's gut.”
“A possibility, but it's not enough,” Gregory said to Hell itself. “Not enough.”
The hate in Gregory's face sent a chill up my spine.
“Why'd he do it?” Sneaker asked.
“A girl. No, a woman.”
“The one in the haystack?” I asked.
“Aye, Robina. A lovely and sweet lass, she was, and cursed with Andrew McFetter for a father.”
“I take it he loved his daughter, but not you?”
“He offered to teach me to retrieve deserving souls. He waited till the third trip so Robina would not get suspicious. An evil man he is.”
Sneaker touched his arm. “Gregory, I'm so sorry. What happened to Robina?”
“I do not know. But I mean to find out. Gone to Heaven, I suspect, where I'll never go.”
“So that story about the land owner and the Sheriff was just a story?”
Gregory's frown turned to a sheepish grin. “Ah, well, not exactly. ‘Tis true for the most part. I met Robina just outside of Edinburgh.”
“So you deserve to be in Hell after all,” I said.
“I was defending my property,” he replied for form's sake. We all knew it wasn't a good enough excuse for a review.
Into the growing quiet Gregory said, “You have a visitor.”
Brittany stood framed in the hut's low door. She approached the bed and stood next to Sneaker. She reached for my hand then drew back. Sneaker assured her it was okay.
“Hi, Getter, I'm glad you're okay. Thank you for rescuing me. Are you still going to take me to Heaven when you're better?”
“Yes, I certainly am.”
“I don't mind staying here if you don't want to. Everybody is so nice. Though there aren't many kids here.”
“It's good of you to offer, but you deserve to go to Heaven and I plan to take you there.”
“Okay,” she said, attempting a smile. She held my hand nervously with both of hers and kept her eyes down. Obviously she had something else on her mind.
I gently squeezed her hands. “What is it, Brittany?”
She took a deep breath and said as a statement and question at the same time, “Gregory says that it might be quite awhile before I can go to Heaven, and I was thinking ... wondering, if you would ... like ... sort of be my father while we were here.”
Whoa. I wouldn't have seen that one coming in a million years. My first reaction was that it was a completely crazy idea. She had a father. Then I remembered where we were and what kind of a father he had been. I'd long ago stopped dreaming of having a daughter of my own. To have a chance now, even a temporary one, was flabbergasting to say the least. Not to mention as scary as any demon.
I took a few minutes to consider the pros and cons, the upside and downside and the ramifications for the universe. A waste of time. Caught completely by surprise, I'd made my decision about five seconds after she asked.
Brittany chanced a peek to see my reaction. She must not have seen what she hoped.
“It was a dumb idea,” she said. “I'm sorry.”
She tried to pull away. I held tight to her hands. I looked to Sneaker for some help. She was as stunned as I was.
“It wasn't a dumb idea,” I said. “It was a surprising one, to be sure, but I think it's a good one. I'm touched that you asked me.”
“Really? You'll really be my father?” she asked, not quite ready to accept it yet.
“Really. On one condition.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What's that?”
I put on a serious face and looked her right in the eye. “We try out Sneaker here as temporary mother.”
Brittany's eyes grew wide as she looked up at Sneaker.
Sneaker, mouth open with astonishment, spread her arms wide, accepting the inevitable, and said, “Just call me Mom.”
Brittany finally let go with a smile that would have lit up the darkest corner of Hell, and tears of joy, something as rare as Wizards. Her tears brought my tears. She buried her face in my neck and hugged me. The hug hurt, but it was worth it to be able to hug her back. Sneaker sat on the pallet and hugged us both. Zat was wrong, there was Good in Hell.
I wondered briefly if this was what Reech meant about it being a long time before I'm truly home. I doubted he meant passing the time at something so pleasant as recuperation in Sanctuary with Sneaker and Brittany.
I closed my eyes, hugged my new family, and put it out of my mind. If the ages-old Flier Reech had been waiting millennia to tell me his prophecy, I was willing to wait just as long to find out what he meant.
Unfortunately, I didn't have to wait that long.
Chapter Thirty-three
I had almost forty-eight hours of rest and blissful family life before Hell returned to business as normal. Pure scarey shit.
Most of the Hell Cop souls lived in natural caves at the base of the high, steep mountains that formed an elongated bowl. The ground ran flat for a hundred feet, then a steep, rocky slope descended to cliffs that surrounded Lake Serene.
I stepped out of the cave my temporary family was living in when, literally, all Hell broke loose. Fireballs streaked from the sky. Jagged rock rained down from the cliffs above. The deep hunting scream of Pragons of Dern filled the air, overshadowing the surprised cries of the Hell Cop souls.
Fifteen or twenty or a hundred Pragons circled above Sanctuary. One by one they dove, belching fire while their riders blasted away with automatic flameguns.
One cry cut through the sizzle-bangs of fireballs. Brittany! I spot
ted her crouching by a boulder at the edge of the steep drop off above Lake Serene. I grabbed my backpack, staff, and Hellshot gun, I hadn't yet let down my guard enough not to be ready to run or fight at a moment's notice, and ran into the open. Then ran back as flameballs burst in front of me setting up a wall of fire. Brittany screamed again. I ran out, jumped through the fire, dodged falling rocks, fireballs, and a Pragon's flame as I weaved a course toward Brittany.
I slid to a stop under the boulder's overhang. “You okay?” I asked, drawing her to me.
“Yes,” she said, voice shaky. “Are they after me?”
“They're after everybody. We need to get out of here.”
SSSSSSS Bang! A fireball smacked down close enough to give me a hot foot. The thick odor of brimstone made me gag.
“Where's Sneaker?” I asked.
“She was with the Council,” Brittany said, holding her ears against the explosions and the battle cries of the Pragons. “They sent me to get you.”
I slung on my pack and checked my gun. Where was Sneaker? And Dimitri and Cappy? We were the living ones. Besides Brittany, that's who I had to worry about. Though the Hell Cops could feel pain, they were dead and trapped in Hell for eternity. Nothing I could do about that. They knew the chances they took. Brittany was dead, too. But she didn't deserve to be in Hell, and it was my duty as a Hell Cop, and an almost father, to get her to Heaven.
The dead Hell Cops were getting their shit together and fighting back. They had few weapons—spears, slingshots, throwing rocks—but they were accurate with them and not afraid to die again. And the Skyhooks were dropping from their cliff lairs. They wielded their hooks with deadly accuracy, yanking demon riders from the Pragons’ backs, severing wings and heads on the fly.
“Okay Brittany,” I said. “We're heading for the main cave. I'm told a tunnel in the back leads through the mountain to a trail to Heaven Gate.”
“What about Sneaker?”
“Sneaker can take care of herself.”
“No. You can't leave her. She's in our family. And what about Dimitri and Cappy?”
I looked into her pale face bright with a few days of safety. Scared, sure, but not for herself. Great. The big bad Hell Cop undone by a ten year old's sense of ethics.
“We'll get to the cave, then look for her. Okay?” I said. Back in charge. “Let's go.”
I rose to a crouch, took her hand, blasted a low flying rider about to flame me, and took one step.
BOOM!
A huge explosion on the other side of the boulder knocked us off our feet. My staff went flying. I made an effort to stand up. My legs straightened. Nothing happened.
“Getter!”
Brittany was ten feet away, sliding down the slope followed by the boulder, me, and the remains of a Pragon that had crashed and burned. The boulder rolled over her and accelerated. Half the slope followed, a rock and dirt avalanche.
I scrambled across the moving dirt and grabbed Brittany. If we didn't stop ourselves we were headed for a long fall into a shallow lake. The lake I could handle. It would probably just kill me. But the long fall before that terrified me.
“We have to get to solid ground,” I yelled. She didn't need any urging from me. We scrabbled toward solid ground that I knew we weren't going to make. The avalanche picked up speed and swept us along toward the cliff edge.
“Brittany,” I cried. “Dead or alive I will get you to Heaven. I promise.”
She quit struggling and took my hand in both of hers. “I know you will,” she said as we sped down the ever steeper slope.
While the battle continued above us, the only sound I heard was the shush of sliding dirt, solid clunk of colliding rock, and the thump of my heart. Then I heard a voice—I'm coming, Getter. I'm coming.
I scanned the area. Nobody close.
I'm coming.
“Who?” Then I saw. The voice was in my head. Ixsess dove toward us.
Hold the soul tight.
I gathered Brittany to me with my left arm. I didn't dare look down. Ixsess swooped. He flapped his great wings twice above us. Hovered long enough for me to grab the shaft of his hook and place one foot on the blunt section. The ground fell away from under the other foot as we passed over the cliff edge.
Ixsess fell with the extra weight. My stomach flipped. Then he leveled off and flew close to the cliff, away from the battle, and Sanctuary.
Climb up, Getter, the voice in my head told me. Dangerous there.
Anything to do with Skyhook hooks was dangerous. I boosted Brittany up and she climbed the harness to Ixsess's back. Both my hands were white-knuckle gripped around the hook shaft. My rational mind told me there was less than two hundred feet between me and the lake surface. My panicked mind didn't care. It knew only that if I released my grip I would fall. A fall of any distance was not to be allowed.
Quick, the voice in my head told me.
I hesitated.
If young soul can climb. Getter can climb.
What else could I do but climb.
“The others?” I asked Ixsess once I opened my eyes and started breathing again. We sat astride Ixsess's back, Brittany in front of me, both holding on to the harness. I tucked my feet under the harness, too.
They are safe. We join them.
I told Brittany that Sneaker was safe.
“Then you'll take me to Heaven?”
“Of course.”
“Then will you be safe, too?”
“Once we're there,” I said, not mentioning that until we got there we were definitely not safe. She knew anyway.
“But you're in danger going there aren't you?”
“Hell's a dangerous place,” I said with a shrug and a smile. Danger, no big thing.
“Well, you don't have to take me now,” she said. “We could hide some place. I probably did something bad, anyway. So I should stay and—”
“No,” I said with more force than I intended. “You did not do anything bad. You do not deserve to be here. We went over that. You're going to Heaven, the sooner the better.”
“You want to get rid of me. I'm just some money to you.”
“That's not true and you know it.” Okay, truth time. “The truth is, as long as you're here, in Hell, I'll do anything, even make a deal with Mephisto to keep you safe. And that's not a good way to operate.”
She twisted around to look at me. I touched a finger to her lips. There was nothing more to say on the subject.
Ixsess flew close to the cliff wall, below the edge, to escape being seen. The valley where Sanctuary was, or had been, constricted into a narrow, deep Gorge that led to Satan didn't know where. Apparently, Ixsess did. We had a quiet, almost pleasant, ride for about ten minutes.
Then I got a bulls eye feeling on my back.
Chapter Thirty-four
I glanced behind us. They were easy to spot. Two of them, closer than they should have been before being spotted.
“Ixsess, two Pragons with riders close behind.”
I didn't hear any confirmation, but suddenly cruise mode turned into run mode. We entered the canyon less than a hundred feet in front of the Pragons.
The slick, black rock walls closed in on us, at times barely wider than Ixsess's wingspan. The rock oozed splochy ocher, puke green, neon purple that dripped and flowed, covering the canyon in a fascinating, ugly cacophony of color like a drunk's hallucination before passing out under the toilet bowl. Scraggly vegetation sprouted from cracks like angry bone claws. The stench of rot and decay was stifling.
The Pragons with their shorter wingspan soon closed the gap. The rider fired his flamegun. Just in the nick, Ixsess did a ninety degree roll that almost threw me off. I beat my panic down by ignoring the ground so very, very far below.
The Pragon flew fifty feet behind and twenty feet above us. The hard skin of the beast shielded the rider. The rider fired again. I fired my gun at the flame ball. It exploded like fireworks. The rider had more flame balls than I had bullets. Something had to be done.
“Swoop up,” I yelled/thought at Ixsess.
Suddenly we were vertical, and I didn't have time to worry about falling off. I twisted left, swung my gun around and nailed the demon rider as he passed under us. A fancy bit of shooting if I do say so. This pissed off the Pragon. It swooped up after us, jaws wide, spitting flame. As Ixsess looped backward, I sent a Hellshot round down the Pragon's gullet. It exploded in a ball of fire and fell away to the scavengers at the canyon bottom.
Ixsess completed the loop and sped on through the canyon. I looked for the other Pragon. Oh shit. It flew above and right of us, twenty feet away. With Captain Boam on board. That demon always showed up at the wrong time.
“Getter!” Boam yelled as always. “Mephisto wants you and the soul. He wants you alive, but I prefer dead.”
Before I could make a snappy reply he fired his flamegun.
I fired, too.
The flame ball burst, singeing my hair and Ixsess's tail feathers. The surprised Pragon swerved to avoid the blast. It hit the wall, lost speed, and tumbled down before regaining control. Unfortunately with Captain Boam still attached.
“They're coming,” I said. “Fast.”
Ixsess put on a burst of speed.
Skyhooks with their long wings are basically built to soar and glide for hours, then dive and impale souls, not sustain high speed with a live rider. Pragons were quick and manuverable and tough.
Ixsess slowed and put his power into gaining altitude. Just below the canyon rim he leveled out then turned into a convoluted side canyon. Boam followed.
Hold. Will try this.
I held the harness and Brittany tight. With no warning, we soared around a sharp fold. Then headed straight toward the wall. At the last second he flared his wings and grasped the rock with his talons. We stuck, with a mile's worth of empty to the bottom.
Do not move.
No kidding.
We hung like a huge moth on the canyon wall. With any luck invisible to passing not so bright demons.
Boam zipped around the corner and continued past at full speed. As soon as he was out of sight, we pushed off, nosedived a couple hundred feet, and glided back down the canyon.
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