by S J Doran
“He introduces himself with his lesser title? Inanna will be much displeased by this.”
Charon then turned his gaze from Amara to address Cassius directly.
“Apologies sire, but even the mightiest of kings does not cross my waters for free. I will accept charge of the soul, seeing his passage has been paid in full.”
The ferryman’s pale hand reached out for the two golden obols, the coins levitating from Basileus's eyes to rest in Charon’s opened palm, where they vanished.
Cass jolted when a sudden breath escaped from the lifeless body of the demon prince, his grip on the hilt of his sword.
“Easy Cass, he’s claiming the final breath from his lungs, it carries the soul. He’s harvesting Basileus for the journey.”
The body of the Prince of Pleasures sank into the dark, murky waters, disappearing slowly into its bottomless depths. No final ceremony or honors, already he’d received more than he deserved. At least there was comfort in the knowledge that nothing would be left of his once great beauty.
The tension eased from Cassius's shoulders as he watched that final breath float upwards towards the light of the lantern, finding shelter within its flame. And she knew he was feeling relief that something of Basileus remained.
She pulled away from his side, betrayal settling in her gut like a stone. She promised herself to have patience with him, but that didn’t mean she had to like nor even appreciate it.
“I have payment for three more voyagers, will you take us Charon?”
Again the Ferryman eyed her pocket. “Four passengers.”
Cassius and Levistus remained silent, but they too were now eyeing her pockets with suspicion.
Avoiding their gazes she pulled two additional coins from her satchel, holding eight obols up in offering to him. “Passage for four.”
“Are we taking Namtar for a joy ride?”
Shit. As she’d suspected, the demon didn’t appear pleased at having the death god back in play. Which is why she’d thought it prudent to not tell. She’d forgotten how loose-tongued gods tended to be.
“A contingency plan, demon. In case we need to bargain.” And she did plan to bargain. For her sisters.
Charon’s smile widened as eight obols disappeared in his palm, extending out his hand to Amara in invitation. “Welcome aboard.”
The river
The river was silent, in an eerie way, the rickety skiff floating along. No lapping of water, no swish of the paddles; almost like it was thicker than water. Or didn’t exist at all.
It soothed and called to something within. Like sirens luring from the deep. He leaned a little closer, and closer still, until he was snagged back.
“Don’t touch it,” Mara said in a hushed whisper. “Eyes up, Cass.”
Her expression was tight, her hand gripping the sleeve of his shirt, her knuckles white. She was looking straight ahead, eyes drilling into the back of Levistus’s head as though she was doing all she could not to look anywhere else.
He looked closer at the stream, the silence like a void, the water turning into writhing shapes the more he focused. Eyes opened. One of the masses pulled together into a body and stared at him with blank, dark pits for eyes.
‘They’ll forget you, eventually’ a hissing whisper slithered up from the void, the hairs on his neck standing on end at the sound.
‘Join us,' more whispers joined in. ‘Remember us’
‘Your fight is futile. Time will win in the end.’
‘Give in to us.’
‘Feed us.’
‘Forget and join us.’
His hand reached out... down... closer…
With a sharp tug, he fell against Mara’s side, her hands grasped his hair and pulled his face down to hers, her lips open and waiting. And he was warm again. Her tongue swiped up his bottom lip, teasing until he met it with his own. He pulled back, sucking lightly on her bottom lip, his hands searching for skin.
She was covered head to toe in leather, so he made do with digging his fingers into her hips and dragging her onto his lap, devouring her mouth as he maneuvered her legs around his waist until she was straddling him.
The boat rocked precariously; the hisses coming up from the water joining to create a cacophonous droning, building up pressure in his head till it was on the verge of explosion. His chest felt heavy, lights flashed beneath the lids of his eyes. Mara pressed closer, yanking his hair harder.
“The hell are the two of you thinking?” Levistus shouted, ripping Mara back.
Cass’s breaths panted out, his hands going lax as dizziness spun through his head.
smack
He blinked his eyes open to Mara staring into them, her hands cupping his cheeks.
“Back off, old man.” Mara turned and hissed at Levistus. “Of course he’s going to be more affected…”
The droning swamped his thoughts again.
‘Belong with us…’
‘Won’t be long now’
‘You already don’t exist, you just have to accept…’
smack
Mara shook his shoulders. “Block them out, demon. Whatever they are saying to you. Stay here.”
He grunted, scooping his hands around her waist to cup her ass and drag her closer.
“I’m terribly weak, amata.” He grinned, lowering his eyelids and focusing on her mouth. “Sure could use someone to feed me…”
“Enough,” Levistus growled. “We’re nearly across. Smarten up your shit.”
Mara rocked her hips, grinding against his growing erection. “Take what you need, Cass,” she whispered in his ear and he laughed softly.
‘You owe us’
‘…feed us and not her’
‘Ours!’
The voices grew louder, the ringing in his head worse.
A sharp crack rang out as his head bounced against the rough wooden edge of their boat, and for a moment the noise in his head stopped and he saw stars as lights flashed across his vision.
“Leave him.” He heard Levistus say through the fog of his mind. “Better knocked out than jumping overboard.”
He didn’t hear Mara’s response.
He came to when his war helm was being shoved onto his head and his arm was being tugged up.
“Let’s go, sleepyhead,” Levistus said, pulling Cass up to a sitting position as Mara lovingly straightened the helmet on his head. There was a manic energy to Levistus that Cass had never before seen, the demon was all but pacing in place.
With a groan, he pulled himself out of the skiff and stumbled onto the shore, falling to his knees.
“The fuck was that?” He asked Mara, his body lacking the necessary energy to stand.
She sat down hard beside him, her breathing just as labored.
“How come I’m the only one who passed out?” He peeked over from the corners of his eyes. He was weak. Outside his source of power, he’d never learned to stand on his own.
“They called to you specifically,” Mara said, leaning against his shoulder. “Your mother’s blood, actually. The forgotten gods, hungry to be restored.”
Cass stared at the river, trying to make out the shapes he’d thought he’d seen.
“Not saying it didn’t siphon off a hell of a lot of energy from Levistus and myself as well,” Mara said on a sigh.
He trailed his fingers down her jaw, tilting up her chin. “You’re okay?”
“We’ve got something they want.” She smiled, her eyes glinting dangerously. “What’s better than being more powerful than what once were gods?”
Cass chuffed, laughing softly. “Your pride is a beautiful thing.”
“Now, children,” Levistus said, stepping up behind them. “The longer we’re here, the more this realm siphons out of us.”
Cass groaned internally. He was going to get weaker?
Mara shifted, climbing onto his lap and wrapping her legs around his waist. She pressed her cheek against his, whispering into his ear. “Do you need something, demon?”
“Always. Yes.” He shifted, pressing into her. Her soft moan came with a sharp hit of lust. Power surged through him. Hells he could—would—devour her.
“Now,” Levistus growled, grabbing up the collar of Cass’s jacket.
Cass turned and snarled at him. “Enough. We’re feeding.”
“No, you’re attracting attention. Our very life force is going to draw them all out.” Levistus paced in front of them, then back.
Mara pressed her smiling lips to his briefly before drawing back. “He’s right. We better keep moving.”
His hands tensed, fingers digging into the leather stretched taut over her ass.
“Let’s get this over with then.” He gathered himself together as Mara climbed off his lap and walked back to Charon. Discussing terms of their return trip, he supposed. Hoped.
He stood, adjusting the sword on his belt and the helmet on his head. Levistus shifted from foot to foot, his eyes taking in their surroundings.
He looked around at the endless blackness. A low-lying fog covered the ground, blocking out anything beyond the five-foot radius in which they stood. And they said his Hells were undesirable? At least they had character; this place was just desolate. Maybe they could just stand here and Mara could summon forth his mother… he hadn’t thought to fill his pockets with breadcrumbs to lead them back to the banks of this river. He had too many plans for this to become a one-way trip.
Mara finished speaking to the ferryman, making her way back to where he and Levistus had wandered, pulling an amulet out of her pocket, tapping it and turning around.
“South. That way,” she said, pointing ahead and putting the hunk of metal back in her pocket.
“What kind of magic is that?” Cass asked, bumping his shoulder to hers.
She rolled her eyes and smirked. “Compass. Magic is uncertain here, nothing to draw on but the occasional power flares.”
Well now, that wasn’t entirely accurate. Cass could feel magic, like a dull throb, and not from any outside source — it bloomed, filling his chest — from Mara? She was keeping her secrets, then. Why? He eyed Levistus carefully. She was hiding it from him?
He picked up her hand and their eyes met; hers narrowing with suspicion. As though it were him keeping something from her, not the other way around.
“You’re good?” He leaned down to whisper, she gave a tight nod in response.
They were surrounded by jagged mountains reminiscent of the crevasse pits in the Nessus. The ground beneath the feet crunched to dust with every step, Cass belatedly realizing they were walking over bones. All of them were silent, Levistus in an anxious sort of way, Mara tense, and Cass was just contemplating.
Would this be the Hells millennia from now when mortal belief moved on from their perception of heaven and hell? Without worship, Heaven would perhaps fall, but not Hell, for it had the support of the warlocks.
They all went to Kur and ate dust
They all stood silent, watching their only escape from the underworld glide back into the dark river. Mortals long ago bestowed magic upon these waters and given them names; Hubur, an bahnna, Nile, Styx. Each of them a tributary, joining together to become an endless river which flowed through the realms of the underlands into the domain of the gods.
With the compass to guide it took little effort to locate the entrance to Kur, the underworld of the Sumerian pantheon. Within, trapped spirits restlessly wandered the wastelands in search of judgment. Then there were the Galla demons who dwelled within. Their hunger for flesh marking their kind best avoided at all cost.
Coming to a stop before the imposing gates, she let the strap of the heavy bag slide from her shoulder, a plume of bone-dust wafting up and filling her nose when it thudded onto the ground. She grimaced. Kur possessed all the charm of a dilapidated catacomb.
“No room for mercy, demon. No compassion. There are countless lost souls in there, all with tragic tales who will stop at nothing to lure you from your task. They will beg and barter for you to help finish the tasks they neglected in life, and you will be tempted. Don’t listen, we only have six hours until we are due back on this embankment. Any longer, and we will forget who we are, and why we came here…”
“Delay, and we become wanderers ourselves.” Cass nodded in understanding.
With quick movements she opened her bag, flipping it upside down until a collection of scarves and worn cloaks fell free from its depths, tossing the drab and dirty attire to the two armored demons. Shiny metal and clean clothing simply wouldn’t do here.
“Put that on over your gear, otherwise we risk drawing the attention of the wanderers. Whatever happens, in there, avoid drawing attention to yourself.” She glared at Levistus until he nodded in agreement.
Calloused fingers moved to adjust the linen scarf around her nape. “Easy on assat shi. I can sense anxiety flow through you as if it were my own. We go in, see if my mother bothers to show her face, find Benzosia, and we leave.”
“Easy enough...” She grinned up at him from behind the protection of her scarf
“Couldn’t be bothered with some clean cloaks, priestess?” Levistus’s tone was one of unbridled agitation, the dust and muck covered cloak clearly not fitting the impression he had wanted to make upon his long lost lady love.
She didn’t bother looking at the advisor, too comfortable in her demon’s arms, unwilling to let his advisor destroy this small slice of happiness.
“It would serve you not to stand out, but if you wish to make yourself an easy target by abandoning the disguise I offered, then please be my guest.”
“Wear the damned cloak Levistus, armor will only make us stand out more.”
She turned in his arms with a smile, her fingers reaching for the hood attached to the cloak, pulling the fabric over his head until only the protruding horns of his war helm were visible, making him resemble one of the Galla demons who roamed the lands of Kur.
“You brushed up for the journey. Did you discover anything new about your family?”
“I didn’t study Sumerian mythology for their sake Mara, I did it to better understand you.”
She secured his hood to his helmet with a clip, the disguise and the ward ensuring he would not easily be discovered. “You can’t say stuff like that Cass.”
His head lowered, his lips brushing over hers in a whisper of a kiss. “Why not?”
His warm breath filled her lungs as she placed a chaste kiss upon those sinful lips. “Because I end up falling deeper in love with you each time you do.”
“If you two are quite finished.”
Cassius groaned, Amara snarled yet both released each other, and she took a step back. Being distracted was not an option.
“Right, leave your weapons at the shore, we will collect them later. Bringing them inside the domain of the gods will be considered a declaration of war.”
With a high degree of hesitation, she pulled her own athame free from the kamarband around her hips, placing it beside their swords.
“And the wine?” Levistus gestured at the five full jugs he’d been made to carry.
“Take it, use it for bribery should you come across the Galla demons.”
When Cassius moved to pick up the two jugs, Amara’s fingers dug into the satchel attached to her side, and quickly collected four obols from its depth and slipped them into the pocket of his cloak. Should she not make it back to the embankment within the six hours, the demon would at least have payment for the ferryman, Charon would know what to do.
“Should we be rushed by a mob of wanderers, run for the embankment and don’t look back.”
“We are not leaving until I have spoken with my Benzosia.”
Slinging her bag over her shoulder once more she turned for the demon prince. “We may have to. There are millions of spirits wandering the wastelands, and to them, you represent their only hope for salvation. If we are mobbed, we’re done for. Tell me you understand Levistus or this journey ends here for you.”
&nb
sp; Whatever Levistus saw in her eyes had the stubbornness leech from his. “I understand, if we are discovered, you two run. I have to find her.”
“Can’t we just ask Ereshkigal to meet us at her gates?” Cass grabbed her hand back up, caressing her palm with his thumb.
“Of all the times I’ve been here, I’ve never once laid eyes upon the queen of Kur. I have no assurance she will appear this time. Not even your mother sounded sure of her willingness to cooperate. The realm of the gods is filled with animosity and strife, your grandmother has made many enemies over the millennia, including her own sister.”
“I didn’t realize you traveled the underworlds by yourself Mara. I don’t like it. Why didn’t your Dominae stop you?”
“As if they could. I was searching for my sisters. It’s my fault they’re here.”
With a scowl, she secured her hood over her braids and moved for the ominous gates, staring at the dark and dreary landscape of stone, bone, and dust that lay ahead. It looked abandoned, but would not remain, the lands would change the moment they crossed into Kur.
“Whatever happens, stay close and don’t get separated.”
Amara slipped the compass back into her pocket then twined her fingers through Cassius’s, her other hand gripping the fabric of Levistus’s cloak as together they stepped through the gates. Both instantly vanishing from her grip.
“CASSIUS!”
Underworld visitations
“Mara?” The ground crunched beneath his feet, echoing. “Levistus?”
When had they become separated? They’d all been walking down the same damned path, he had no recollection of deviating. If he kept heading south, surely they’d meet up again… he frowned, disoriented. If he was even heading south still?
The blackness was so encompassing, the differing density of the shadows the only way he could orient himself. He should be used to it, the darkness heeded him in his own realm, but the strangeness of being plunged into an eerie dark not of his own making had his senses edging to high alert. Adrenaline pounded through his veins making rational thought impossible to grasp onto.