He was.
Even in the eerie glow, she could see that his flesh was like yellowish leather and was reptilian in texture. Ridges ran in parallels across his skull, and his face was cracked and lined.
Dark robes covered this being's frame, but the hands which rested on the arms of the obsidian throne were like claws, their thick yellow nails protruding three inches.
These aspects of its appearance, though strange and alien to her, were not what made the thing so frightening, however. It was its eyes, or the mysterious absences of them in the sockets. These were not empty like the cavernous eyes of a skull. They were like voids which swallowed light and substance, and looking into them was chilling. It was like peering into eternity, and somehow Gabrielle knew she would never come any closer to eternity than this point.
As the creature's head turned toward her, she tried to look away, afraid of meeting its gaze. Then she realized it could not see her. It seemed to sense her presence, however, and its forehead tilted forward almost imperceptibly in a greeting.
The magician got to his feet now, one of his gaunt hands extended in her direction. “You see, Master?" he called to the figure on the throne. "I've delivered them to you. All of them. The mother and daughter, their love intact."
He turned toward Danube. “And him. The one who has walked the earth for so long, the wanderer, the vagabond. He has tortured your children. He has hampered the efforts of many adepts, and he is the son of him who brought sorrow to your land, the man who delivered the One to his enemies and changed the course of destiny for all of us."
"I know who he is as well as I sense the offerings you have brought," the figure said, the voice deep and unearthly. “Why have you disturbed me, magician?”
“To bring you these gifts."
Slowly the being's hand rose, gesturing toward a shadow-covered wall. With that movement, the stones seemed to glow brighter, chasing back the darkness.
On the walls, figures were chained into place, pale, emaciated beings barely clinging to existence. When they realized they were in the light, they began to wail and beg for release. A couple of them even began to dance as much as their chains would allow, a futile effort to capture pleasure or at least escape the retribution of the creature on the throne.
"I already have gifts," the being said.
"But oh, great Samael, none has delivered you gifts such as these. The child is a gift so pure, and she is not a being plumbed from the depths. She and her mother alike are yet alive."
"I sense the aura of their living," Samael said. "I sensed it as they entered the negative. It sent ripples.”
“They could serve you,” the magician said. "I have worked my entire life to find the doorway to you, to draw back the veils in Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur.”
“So you opened them with sacrifice and prayers?"
"I found the symbols that were the keys, and those symbols were planted in the mind of this child. They were in the storybooks, and they sank into her mind so that she became a bridge for me to reach you. I had sought for so long. I had learned to open the doors, but only she made it possible for me to pass the veils. I worked my magic on her, but her own purity and her absorption of the forbidden markings served so well."
"You summoned up my little ones and gave them form in your world?"
The Gnelfs began to bounce about at the mention of their existence.
"I needed them." Simon pulled the helm from the folds of his cloak and held it high. "I bought this to control concentration, to protect my thoughts as I summoned them."
"I let them come," Samael said. "I always let them go when they are called."
"They served me well," Simon whispered. Desperation was quivering through his voice, along with the excitement that tempered every word. He was realizing a dream and savoring it.
"They find joy in the life a summoning avails them," Samael said.
The Gnelfs laughed and jeered to show their appreciation of his remark.
"I have no such release," the demon king continued. "I live here, sitting in this nothingness. It is a pleasure when they bring someone to amuse me."
"I want to please you," the magician said.
The leathery hand at Samael's side lifted, and he gestured toward the wall. "Those sought to please me as well."
"They failed you?" Simon asked.
"All fail me."
"But I brought these people."
"For what? Sacrifice? I live in the city of the dead. Do you think more dead men will please me?"
Simon got to his feet, his growing concern becoming evident. "What can I do?"
"Let me out of here. Help me stop sitting here amid tortures, hearing the screams. That is my lot, because I was devoid of love for any living thing. Satan rebelled, but I was cast down because I cared for no one and showed no kindness."
Simon's voice wavered. "You must be very powerful if you control all of the demons."
"I watch over them, listen to their stories of their dances in your world and their games in the nether regions. My existence is filled only with nothingness."
Simon began to tremble. He was uncertain as to how to react to the revelation that this monster could not offer him what he had worked all his life to find.
"You thought you would please me and reign here beside me? Be the king of nothingness if you like. It will help fill up eternity."
"No," Simon shouted. "You are the king here. You should be able to grant all desires."
"This realm is different from yours, magician. You cannot expect to find things here as they are in some other existence. This is the absence of a place. Here light does not fall, the Creator does not walk. It is the brink of damnation, and its rewards are the great nothing."
Simon's head jerked from side to side as he tried to express his denial. Tears filled his eyes, and he clenched his fists at his sides.
"You can't say this to me. I've worked so hard to find you."
"You have found me. Now please me."
Simon's voice brightened. "How can I do that?"
Samael stood, his form shaking as he stepped down from the throne. His hand reached toward Simon, and the magician reached up to grasp it. Before he could accept the demon's touch, however, the hand shot past his offered palm.
Gabrielle screamed and rushed to Heaven, grabbing her and covering her eyes. Heaven buried her face in her mother's shoulder as they heard Simon's screams.
The terror was drowned out by Samael's laughter as he plucked the eyes from Simon's sockets. They pulled free in a quick sound of suction, and as Gabrielle peered over Heaven's shoulder, she watched the demon fill his own empty sockets. Blood dripped down his cheeks like crimson tears as the pupils adjusted. The look of them set in his face was unnatural, a parody somehow, and a cloudy glaze covered the orbs.
He stood near his throne, turning his head slowly from one side of the room to the other, taking everything in.
"An eternity I wait, just to see what surrounds me in his room which is my prison," the demon said. "My greatest pleasure is to look at the corners and the shadows." He bowed his head. "What a thrill you have brought me."
He looked down at Simon who had fallen into a heap on the stone floor. Blood sprayed through his gaping eye sockets, and he fumbled about.
A moment later, however, his hands steadied on the stone, and he tilted his head backward. The cry that came from his lips was in a language Gab had never heard.
In the next heartbeat, electricity shot away from the glowing stones, and the bolts slammed into Samael's form, sparks dancing around his body. He was consumed for a moment in the interlocking fingers of energy, but as they subsided he was unharmed.
“You try now to oppose me. Using the power that you generated through calling on me? You have almost entertained me."
He reached down and took Simon's hair, then, dragging him across the room, flung him into the midst of the souls against the wall.
As Simon struck the wall he gasped loudly, a
nd before he could orient himself with touch, Samael wrapped him in chains.
"This will be your home. Yes, reign with me. Rule this room with your amusements. You've earned your place here, magician."
Samael spun around and moved back to the center of the room where Gabrielle and Heaven crouched together. Danube moved toward them now, but the demon held up his hand, stopping the holy man's movement.
Then, reaching down, he cupped Gabrielle's chin. "You are very beautiful," he said. His hideous hand reached over and stroked her hair.
She jerked Heaven away before he could touch her child's hair as well. That made Samael laugh.
"You seek to deny me? You will not deny me anything, woman. You and your child were my gifts." Gabrielle looked around at Danube, her eyes pleading for help. He hesitated, watching the demon.
"You would try to help her? You are a gift as well," said Samael. "You followed through the veil. What did you expect to gain?"
"I came only to help the woman and the child.”
“You cannot help them. This is my palace. You have no magic and no power here."
Danube moved forward despite the admonishment. "Take me and let them go free.”
"I have all three of you. You came here willingly.”
“The child did not come willingly. We followed only because we had to."
"Because of love? I am afraid you will find no sympathy in me. I have no feelings."
"Let us leave here," Gabrielle said. "We didn't come here by choice. We never wanted any part of you. We were dragged into this by sickness and hatred. And those things," she said pointing at the Gnelfs.
The demon's fingers closed on her hair and yanked her to her feet. Looking into her eyes with the bloodshot orbs he had stolen, he glared down into her soul.
"You could be my bride," he said. "And she could be my child. You could be my family. You could tell me stories, so that I would not have to wait for those who come before me to confess their sins and face my pronouncement of judgment to the abyss. I hear their wicked deeds and that is all I have, but you could talk to me of many things."
"I don't have anything to say to you," Gabrielle stated firmly. "You want nothingness? That's what you'll receive from me. And Heaven too."
The demon's head tilted back slightly, and his expression registered his assessment of her defiance. He was surprised but not amused.
He let go of her hair as if it had grown hot in his grasp, or as if it were dirty and he no longer wanted to touch it. "Leave here then, if you think you can escape. But your daughter remains. She pleases me. I will watch her grow. I will nurture her, and it will be as if she were my own."
Gabrielle met his gaze now. "She's been through enough. Everybody wants to attack the child, but it's time for that to stop. It's time for her to be allowed to grow without interference, without everyone trying to use her or control her."
"You would attempt to take her back to some pristine chapel? She will be better off here than shaped by what would be offered in your world."
"She'll grow up with whatever protection I can provide, without the influences destroying her."
"A noble attempt. Yet is it enough?"
"It's all I can do, and it's better than you can offer.”
“Perhaps."
"Then let us walk out of here."
"That would be entirely too easy."
She realized he was playing with her. Her presence was a diversion, and he would keep her for as long as she amused him.
She turned back to Danube, searching his eyes, looking for some indication of what should be done. She could find no answer in them, and she realized he had done what he could. He had brought her here. But the final battle for her daughter and for their freedom had to be hers.
But what was there to do? They had stumbled and struggled through the attacks by the spirits Simon had summoned. How could she now defeat the demons' leader?
Physical confrontation could not bring victory. This was his domain, and to oppose him was to wind up in chains as Simon had.
Samael had tired of Simon quickly. Simon had groveled. Gab realized it was because her defiance amused him that Samael had not quickly relegated her and Heaven to the wall.
She had opposed Samael, had stood up to him instead of groveling. What must she now do? Further defy him, show him the ultimate in defiance.
A challenge.
She looked over to the wall where Simon's battered form dangled in chains. His head seemed about to fall from his neck, and his sockets still dripped blood and other fluids.
"You brag, Samael, that you feel nothing," she said.
He nodded, and she noticed the pupils of his borrowed eyes were beginning to cloud even more. A film was creeping across their surface. They would meet his needs only for a short time.
“You have no touch of loving-kindness," she stated calmly.
"None."
"I have none for Simon," she said. He tortured my daughter, and he brought us here. But I challenge you. If I can show him compassion, if I can go over to him and treat his wounds and support him, then I challenge you to find the same capacity within you."
"What could I, Samael the Wicked, offer in confirmation?" he asked, his hand rising to his chin. Gently, one finger touched his lips in consideration of her proposal. She had intrigued him.
"Samael the Wicked could show his compassion by thinking not of himself but of my daughter. Let us leave this place. Let us walk from the doors and cross the gulf without harm."
"This is but a trick to gain your freedom."
"No. You can sense my anger and my hatred of the magician."
"So if you, a lowly human, can overcome them, I should be able to as well? Is that a challenge or a request or a magnanimous gesture on my part?”
"Take it as you will. It should at least be a diversion for you. That's what you're looking for, isn't it? That's why you have your Gnelfs, or whatever they are. Their deeds give you a vicarious thrill. When people come here for your pronouncements, you listen to their sins for the same reason."
He laughed. "You attempt to apply human rules of psychology to me. I am because I am. I seek not thrills as much as knowledge."
"Then expand your existence."
He continued to stroke his chin. "Let us see what happens," he said. He gestured toward the wall. "Go to him."
Slipping her hands from around Heaven, Gabrielle took a couple of steps toward the wall. Even upon seeing Simon's pitiful state, a part of her wanted to hurt the magician further for the harm he had caused.
But she took control of her anger before moving on, combating the revulsion she felt for the ravaged figures chained around him. They grunted as she neared them, tongues fluttering through tattered lips as they uttered lewd remarks in hissing voices. Their torment had not curtailed the lusts and desires which had won them eternity here.
Kneeling beside Simon, she grasped the shackles on his wrists. They were difficult to open, but she managed to pry them apart, freeing first his left hand then his right.
He slumped against her then, and she held his weight until she could ease him back to the wall. As his head rolled back, she found herself looking into the caverns where his eyes had been.
Stringy bloody matter still clung to his cheeks, like tentacles stretched across his drawn, white flesh. He groaned as she cradled his head and ran a hand across his forehead.
"Easy now," she whispered.
He mumbled something. Apparently pain and loss of blood had put him into a delirious state.
"Simon, can you hear me?"
He didn't respond, but his head shifted slightly as if he might have heard. Evidently he was somewhat disoriented.
"Simon, I'm going to help you," she said. "I know it hurts. I'm going to do something for your eyes."
She tugged the scarf from her throat and wrapped it around his face. She wasn't sure if it would do any good, but she hoped it would slow the flow of blood or at least absorb some of it.
&nbs
p; He sat up on his own then, supporting his weight. She took his arm, and helped him to his feet.
She turned to Samael. "Let me take him out of here too, he needs help."
The demon's eyes seemed even more clouded then before. He took a step toward her before he spoke. “You would take him home?"
"For my daughter mostly, but yes. Even with what he's done, I will help him."
"A good deed wins no grace from me, even though I find it interesting."
"What do I have to do to get out of here?" she asked.
The demon grinned. "There are possibilities."
He was about to reach out for her again, when Simon pushed her aside and dropped to his knees. His hands shot forward, aimed in the direction of Samael's voice.
At the top of his voice he screamed something, a word then to Gabrielle's ears. He followed it with a string of other words from some odd language.
From the tips of his fingers a light began to tingle, and then in an instant the light turned into a blaze. In a cloud of orange and blue the light exploded forward toward the demon.
Gabrielle shielded her eyes against the heat that was produced, but she continued to watch as the cloud billowed through the air, reminding her of a nuclear explosion.
Samael did not move as the cloud enveloped him. He stood still, the orange billow surrounding him before he could resist. He screamed, not in pain but in anger as the flame wrapped around him.
"Die, you bastard," Simon called as the flame continued to chew at the air. The portion of his face not covered by the cloth was twisted in anger.
"Bastard," he shouted again.
In the next instant, the flame was gone, and the demon stood there unharmed, wisps of white smoke dancing off his flesh. He lowered his head, and his jaw seemed to drop open.
His shout was in the same language Simon had used, just as coarse and guttural. Gabrielle jumped away from the magician just as swirling clouds of flame burst onto him.
He screamed in agony as his flesh burned away from his body, and as the flame continued, he began to writhe about inside the cloud.
Through the flame, Gabrielle could see him crumbling, flesh dropping away, then bone. She didn't bother to watch any longer. Rushing forward, she snatched Heaven into her arms and ran past the cluster of Gnelfs.
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