“Gurdan, wake up.” I shook the ogre’s shoulder but he didn’t respond.
I grabbed my bow and aimed an arrow at one of the ridges, waiting. I had no idea what might be lurking down there. They were like big worms crawling around underground.
Tricu let out a howl that resounded though Hell, even waking up Gurdan. The underground creatures froze. I gripped my weapon, ready to strike. Around the fire, an eerie silence shrouded the twilight. Had Tricu’s cry scared them off? At that instant, something burst from the ground and flew toward me. I shot an arrow at the little creature, pinning it to a tree. Was it a ferret? Before I could even figure out what it was, another one emerged from the ground and sank its teeth into my calf. I bellowed in pain and yanked it off me.
Another of the ferrets launched itself at me but I clutched it in midair before it could bite my face. The little beast convulsively chomped its teeth in midair, its eyes crazed with hunger.
“Sorry, we can’t stay for dinner.” I crushed it in my fist and it squealed before going limp in my hand. Gurdan began to crush them before they could even emerge from the dirt, but there seemed to be an endless stream of them. “What are they?!” I shouted to the ogre.
“Leech furies!” he said. He pounded his massive fist on the ground and crushed one of their heads. The small creature’s body stopped moving, its black blood pooling around it. I shot arrows nonstop and when I ran out I moved on to the daggers. A fury clamped its jaws onto the back of my neck and another attached itself to my side. There were too many of them and they were ravenous. Not even Gurdan would be enough to curb their combined hunger. I slammed my back into a tree and cried out when the fury’s teeth dug even deeper as it died, then tore the other one off my side and flung it into the fire. The little beast let out a final squeal.
Tricu rammed into the creatures headfirst, sending them flying every which way. A group of furies shot toward me. To dodge them, I dove to the ground in a somersault. I grabbed one that hadn’t fully emerged and smashed it into another one. The two furies gnawed on each other in a bath of black blood.
I pulled a stick out of the fire and tried to ward them off with it. It worked, but not enough to keep them entirely at bay. Gurdan searched our cache of weapons. He put something in his mouth and tossed another one to me. They were Stella’s strange white stones. It wasn’t the time to ask whether they were breath mints. “What do I do with it?”
The ogre picked up another flaming stick and stood behind me, back to back. “Chew and blow.” Without hesitating I popped the mint into my mouth. It burst open with a sweet flavor.
A group of at least ten furies leapt toward me all at once. “Blow!” Gurdan shouted. I did, and the flame from the stick burst into a cloud of fire, incinerating the creatures in midair. Behind me, Gurdan did the same. Within seconds we had exterminated them all. He had become a flame-spewing ogre.
I chucked the stick to the ground, studying the demoniacal carbonized bodies all around me. Stella must be an excellent apothecary to have created such a powerful weapon. I tasted the flavor of poison, but evidently she had transformed it into a substance that wasn’t lethal for her. I gripped one of the mints in my fist. I had to find her, fast.
Something moved underground, but Gurdan crushed it before it could come out. The last fury.
“Come on. Time to get moving,” I said. If that had been our wake-up call, I didn’t dare imagine what lay ahead.
We crossed the stony expanse, which was covered with rocks as far as the eye could see. Some were twisted into spectacular shapes and emitted dazzling silvery reflections.
Tricu seemed comfortable, unlike us. We had to protect ourselves from the shower of gravel whenever he decided to change size or have a snack. I couldn’t have had a weirder traveling companion. I felt like I was trapped in a Ubisoft video game: a soldier wandering through Hell in search of the castle to which his princess had been abducted. Even the bare tree trunks were buried in rock, as though lime had been poured from the sky to cover them. Their branches stretched upward in an endless cry for help.
Of the Castle, there was still no trace. From time to time I thought I glimpsed it through the spectral mist, but then it vanished. I became convinced it was only a mirage caused by my longing to save Stella. I hadn’t saved her from the bullets when she’d been killed on Earth. I hadn’t saved her soul when the Witch had come to claim her and take her to Hell. All because I hadn’t been there to protect her. But this time I was, and no devil from Hell would keep me from saving her.
“Stop,” I ordered. Gurdan and Tricu halted immediately. Before us, a thick network of trees blocked our way.
“Black forest,” Gurdan told me.
That wasn’t what worried me. I held a finger to my lips and gestured to them with my head. “Down there,” I whispered. Two figures could be seen among the trees. They looked small and human, but by now I had learned that they weren’t to be trusted, no matter what they were.
We crept closer but the figures didn’t move. Their backs were turned to us and at first I thought they were two Souls kneeling down, but the half-light had tricked me. They were two children.
I walked around them to see their faces and cringed. Their bodies were carbonized, their eyes wide open and pitch-black, their pointy teeth frozen in expressions of terror. “Unholy Souls,” I murmured.
I knew the only children in Hell weren’t really children. The Unholy were those who in life had lost all their faith, choosing to live in evil. Their curse was to age in reverse, that is, grow younger and younger until they disappeared. That was why children were the most feared Souls of all. The younger they were, the more skilled and dangerous they became. Unlike Eden, where Souls had eternal life, it was a constant battle to survive for Souls in Hell, and sooner or later they all died. Though the two Souls in front of us weren’t really children, it was still a spine-chilling sight.
I looked around in search of the creature who had reduced them to that state. Whatever it was, it was lethal and it was still out there somewhere. “Let’s get out of here.”
Before we could move, the ground trembled beneath our feet. Tricu whimpered nervously and instantly rolled away, urging us to follow him. I peered around, but saw nothing. Then, all at once, I saw a massive black cloud rushing in our direction, bursts of flame glimmering ominously inside it.
“Gurdan, run! What the fuck is that thing?”
“Cinder blizzard. Burn,” the ogre said. His footsteps shook the ground as we raced away from the moving bonfire. “You no breathe,” he warned me. He was right. The two Unholy Souls had probably been hit by it and been burned to a crisp by its glowing embers.
The blizzard was too close. It scorched my arms and singed my back with millions of tiny flames. We were about to end up trapped in a whirlwind of fire.
The stone teddy bear stopped rolling and whimpered.
“Tricu, don’t stop!” He was waiting for us, but unless he kept going the blizzard would catch up to him too. Once I got closer, I realized I was wrong. The ground dead-ended in a sheer cliff and there was nowhere to go. Unless . . .
“This way, quick!” A rope was suspended from one side of the chasm to the other. It was all that remained of an old bridge. “Come on, hurry!” I wasn’t sure the rope was strong enough to support all three of us, but we had no choice. The cloud was getting closer and closer.
I tugged on the rope to make sure it was intact. Looking down, I grabbed it with my hands and feet. So high up the bottom couldn’t be seen, I was literally hanging by a thread. One hand after the other, I quickly shinned over to the other side, pulling with my arms and dragging my feet behind me.
“Shit!” Gurdan was behind me, but Tricu had remained at the edge of the chasm. “Come on, boy! Find a way to cross—” His squeal of pain made the words catch in my throat as the blizzard swept over him with its incandescent fury. The dust and debris from the fire reached the center of the chasm, lost their impetus, and fell toward the bottom.
When the air cleared, Tricu had vanished.
STELLA
15
To the Last She-Warrior
My head shot up when my cell door opened. By now I felt like I’d been there for an eternity. I had always hated the Witches, but during my imprisonment I had learned to hate the Mizhyas even more. One of them in particular: Khetra. She treated me worse than the others did. It was as if she had something against me. Or maybe she was just a bitch.
Luckily she wasn’t among the three Mizhyas who burst into the cell. I remembered the names of two of them. The blond one with the tattoo between her breasts was Lenora. Dalitza, on the other hand, had orange hair. It was gathered to one side and braided, accentuating the spotted tattoo on her arm. Not all the Mizhyas were nasty, but the ones who served Kreeshna—and a few of the other Sisters—were the worst.
I held their gaze, my chin held high. I had never, even for one second, allowed them to believe I was subjugated to them. It would never happen.
Defiantly, I jerked on the chains. Lenora undid the straps around my wrists and I thudded to the floor, my ankles still bound. They were careful not to free me completely. The first time they had freed my legs, leaving me hanging by my wrists. They thought they would have some fun, but I had wrapped my legs around the neck of one of them and smashed her against the wall.
“Come on, Little Miss Insane, time for recess,” Dalitza told me.
I struggled as they dragged me out. “I wish I were Insane. If I were I would bite your head off in chunks.” I had always feared the idea of losing my humanity, and lately I’d come pretty close. And yet just then I really wished I was. When the Mizhya laughed I bit down on her hair and jerked my head back. “Who knows, maybe I’m going insane right now.”
She turned around to confront me, her face an inch from my own. “Save your energy for the field, sweetheart.”
“The field? Where are you taking me?” The Mizhya turned around with a sneer, dragging me behind her.
Swarms of black butterflies fluttered through the rooms. They were the Souls of the Damned that arrived at the Castle after they died. I knew that well enough, because I had been one of them before being spat out into the Dark Copse.
We crossed through much of the Castle, finally reaching the large courtyard where a massive group of Mizhyas was training. It was the same place they held the Opalion, though during the Games the Arena transformed. At the moment it was nothing but an earthen battlefield.
“Free her,” Dalitza ordered Lenora.
I looked around, confused. All the she-warriors had stopped what they were doing and were gathering in a circle around me. “What’s going on?” I asked warily.
Dalitza smiled. “I told you, it’s recess.” I looked at them one by one. They seemed to be preparing to attack me. “You need to choose which side you’re on, sweetheart. Or we’ll find a way to convince you. You see, we want you to be one of us.”
Before Lenora finished freeing my ankles, I wrapped the chain around her neck with a swift movement of my foot and jerked her to the ground. “I’ll never be one of you.”
Dalitza put herself on guard. “Let’s find out why Kreeshna is so interested in you.” She attacked me with a high kick but I ducked it and grabbed her foot, then shot to my feet to make her fall, but the Mizhya spun around and freed herself.
“Now I get it! You’re jealous because your mistress thinks more of me than she does of you,” I said with a sneer, counterattacking.
She laughed, then spat out, “This isn’t about you. We hold our own little tournaments, sweetheart.”
“What’s the prize if I win?”
“Your life.”
I snatched the dagger from one of the Mizhyas surrounding us and jammed it into her neck. I had gotten good at the art of stealing, especially when it came to weapons.
“I’m afraid only my own won’t be enough,” I shot back mockingly. The Mizhya exploded in a cloud of ash and I backflipped away to avoid breathing in the toxic fumes. I would kill them all, down to the very last she-warrior. I would be as deadly as the plague. There would no longer be an army for me to join.
Before I could get the dagger back the Mizhyas attacked me all at once. A fierce battle ensued. I gave it my best, leaping and spinning like I never had before, battling more ferociously than ever, pushing myself to the limit. Hell had taken everything from me, but it had taught me a lot too, especially how to survive.
Black blood splattered my face as I killed the Mizhyas one by one. What for them had begun as a game had turned into a massacre. Now they really wanted to annihilate me. If I had to succumb, I would take down as many of them as possible with me. They were the Witches’ she-warriors, and for that reason alone they deserved to die.
A blade wounded me, sending a searing pain through my thigh. I turned to see who had done it and found her right in back of me. “Khetra. I was wondering where you were hiding. Joining the party?”
She must have been some sort of general among the she-warriors, because all the others stopped to make way for her. “You mean do I want to teach you a lesson? I can’t wait.” She smiled as she slashed her sword through the air toward me.
I dodged her attack and got my hands on a staff. It was just the two of us in the center of the Arena, caught up in a deadly dance as the remaining Mizhyas enjoyed the show. It didn’t take me long to disarm her. She was good, but I had battled even more ferocious opponents. “What are you, their commander?”
A Mizhya tossed her a staff and the battle resumed. “There are no commanders among us. We’re all blood sisters.”
“So they follow you just because you’re a bitch.”
Khetra let out a war cry, attacking me again and again. She struck my staff so hard it snapped in two, then charged me in a rage and pounced on me, pressing my own weapon against my throat. A sneer spread over her face.
“I bet you miss Drake.”
My eyes went wide with surprise. What could that Mizhya know about Drake and me?
Khetra neared her lips to my ear. “I miss him too,” she whispered. “Especially his hot, sweaty body after a battle. Guess who used to treat his wounds.”
Black rage flooded through me. I planted my feet on her chest and hurled her away, then jumped to my feet. Sliding across the dusty ground, I snatched four daggers from the thigh sheaths of two Mizhyas. Khetra seemed surprised by my agility, but she hadn’t seen anything yet. She didn’t even see it coming. She gasped when I aimed two daggers at her throat and two at the nape of her neck, ready to cut her head off. It would only take a flick of my wrist. I would gladly kill her just because she was a Mizhya, but with her insinuation she had signed her death sentence.
She looked me in the eye. I was astonished to find not a trace of fear on her face. She was prepared to die in the service of her sovereign. I simply couldn’t understand why.
“You call yourselves she-warriors, but you’re nothing more than slaves. Why are you so hell-bent on serving the Witches?”
“Because this fortress is a good place to live. It’s Hell out there.”
I smiled. I wasn’t afraid of Hell. Not any more. “You’re right. Out there it’s pure hell. And I am its queen.” I tightened my grip on the daggers and prepared to deliver the final blow.
“Enough!” a stern voice boomed, interrupting the battle. All the Mizhyas bowed. Kreeshna walked up to me and smiled. “Let the Mizhya go so she may bow before me.”
I didn’t deign to look at her. Instead I pressed one of the blades against Khetra’s neck. It became tinged with black as blood trickled over it.
Seeing that I wasn’t obeying her, the Witch unleashed her power and the blades disintegrated in my hand. I dropped the scorching-hot remains of the daggers.
Free, Khetra bowed to Kreeshna. I, on the other hand, turned to face her.
“Don’t you want to pay tribute to me as well?” the Witch asked me tauntingly. Behind her invitation lurked a clear threat. I spat a mouthful of saliva mixed with b
lack blood at her feet. The color of my blood was the same as Khetra’s, but I would never subjugate myself to Kreeshna.
To my surprise, the Witch laughed. “I heard what you said. What you think. A cockroach who thinks she’s a queen? A little too ambitious, but we can work on that. You would be an excellent addition to my team.”
“Kill me if you have to, because I’ll never bow before you.”
The Witch stared at me intently and suddenly a force raged through my body, filling my head and expanding until it felt as if it would explode. Blood dripped from my nose, black as the darkest magic. My knees buckled and Kreeshna smiled with satisfaction. “Very good. That wasn’t so hard, now, was it? If I had wanted to kill you, I would’ve done it already.”
I ran the back of my hand under my nose, wiping away the blood. “Using your tricks is the only way you’ll ever force my knee to bend—but you’ll never bend my will.”
“Don’t be so sure about that.”
“You tricked me once, when you stole my soul and damned me to Hell. Now I know who you are. I’ll never follow you of my own free will. I’ll never join you.”
“Not even if Drake’s life hangs in the balance?” The look of dismay on my face gave her the answer. “Just as I thought.” She nodded to her Mizhyas, who picked me up from the ground. I wrenched myself free and they let me go.
“Follow me. There’s something I want to show you.”
16
The Heart of Hell Pumps Black Blood
A round table occupied the entire room, which was otherwise bare. The black carbonado walls glimmered in the light of a multitude of small luminous spots in the ceiling. Ironically, they looked like stars. I stopped in my tracks and studied them. I’d forgotten what it felt like to stare up at the sky.
It was weird how the Castle had some rooms that were medieval and others that were futuristic. At least to me they seemed futuristic. I didn’t know how Earth had changed since I’d left it.
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