Ruby Shadows (48 page)

I couldn’t help screaming this
time—especially when I saw that it had teeth every bit as sharp and
deadly as the Mosasaur.

Laish’s arm tightened around my waist. “No
fear, my darling—it cannot harm you,” he murmured in my ear.

Sure enough, the huge creature bounced off
the invisible barrier without coming close to breaching it. It
shook its head a little, as though it had hit something hard and
then swam away quickly, shooting out of sight so fast it was soon
just a silvery gray shape gliding away in the gloom.

“
Some of the stupider
creatures do not understand the barrier and charge it more than
once,” Laish said. “This one, thankfully, learned its lesson the
first time.”

“
So how far does this sea
go?” I asked as Kurex continued his steady pace along the dry,
sandy sea bed.

“
It is far vaster than any
in the Mortal Realm,” he remarked. “Hundreds of thousands of
leagues in every direction. And it is filled with leviathans and
monsters of the past.”

“
Fascinating,” I murmured,
watching as a giant, glowing creature that looked like an immense
squid floated quietly past.

“
It is,” he agreed.
“Luckily this tunnel was built to connect the fifth and seventh
circles of Hell or the way would be completely impassible and we
would never reach the Abyss.”

I could see his point. Even in a well
equipped boat, how could you possibly hope to sail hundreds of
thousands of miles through waters filled with prehistoric monsters,
all of them eager to take a bite out of you?

We traveled for hours through the half light
that filtered down through the sea above. It was a strange, watery
bluish-green and our journey was completely silent except for the
clop-clop of Kurex’s hooves. Above us and around us, strange
creatures swam. Some of them were horrible to look at, with jagged
teeth and the flat, dead eyes of predators that made me shiver. But
many of them were strangely beautiful. They seemed to fly through
the water, glowing pink and purple and electric blue, adding neon
stripes to the plain white sand and a magical, unreal feeling to
our journey.

Years later when I remembered my time in
Hell, this was the part of our trip that I went back to in my mind
with longing. It was so quiet, so peaceful. And aside from the Lock
Ness Monster thing charging us, it was certainly the most
uneventful.

I thought of about a thousand things I
wanted to say to Laish—questions I wanted answers to, mostly—but
something stopped me from talking. He was so quiet, seeming content
just to hold me against him as we traveled. And I felt content to
be held by him. I didn’t want to disturb him or break the dreamy,
magical mood that had somehow fallen over the two of us with
questions or possibly arguments. So I simply let myself relax back
against him as I looked up, watching the strange creatures that
swam overhead and trying not to think about how soon the end of our
journey was coming.

We stopped for a very late lunch under a
glowing octopus looking creature that was about twenty times bigger
than any octopus I had ever heard of. It seemed to be resting on
the top of the invisible tunnel and it shed a soft pink light on
the sand below that was strange but beautiful.

Laish made me a sandwich with a single drop
of blood—I didn’t let him make anything more elaborate—and got out
a few provisions for himself. We spread a blanket from Kurex’s
newly restocked saddle bags and ate. I didn’t know why but I felt
sad—as if this was the last meal we would share together. I told
myself I was being silly—surely we would have dinner as well as
breakfast the next morning, but I couldn’t shake the feeling
somehow.

As we were packing up, Laish took out the
long, black box he’d gotten from the Minotaur and opened it.

“
What’s that?” I asked,
coming to stand beside him.

“
It’s for you—but you must
only use it in the last extremity.”

“
The last extremity—what
do you mean by that?”

“
If you have no other hope
and we have been separated, or you see me die,” he said
quietly.

“
What? Why would you die?
Nobody’s dying here!” I could hear the panic in my voice but
couldn’t control it. I didn’t like the idea of Laish leaving me or
dying—not one bit.

“
Calm yourself,
mon ange,
it is a
precaution only.”

He drew from the box a long knife with a
silver handle and a black blade. Which seemed strange—I’d never
seen black metal before. In fact, it almost looked like the exact
opposite of the little knife he used to cut himself when he made me
food.

“
What
is
that?” I asked, drawing back a
little. I could feel the power pulsing off it—dark energy coming in
wave after wave from the strange, black blade.

“
A
thrak.”
He pronounced the word as a
thick, guttural sound in the back of his throat. “It will kill any
creature of Hell you stab it into—no matter how ancient or
relentless.”

“
Like the HellSpawn?” I
asked in a low voice. I didn’t want to say it too loudly, almost as
if naming the thing that was tracking me would bring it to
me.

Laish nodded. “Exactly. But you must be very
careful using it. Each time you plunge it into your enemy, it costs
a piece of your soul.”

“
What?” I drew even
further back from the blade. “I don’t want to lose my soul—not even
a little piece of it.”

“
It may be unavoidable,”
Laish said grimly. “I cannot wield the
thrak
myself as I have no soul to
use as ammunition. But you can—only, however, if you are threatened
and there is no other way.”

“
But…you’re going to be
with me right up until the end, right? I mean, you’re not leaving
me at the edge of the next barrier or anything?” I tried to keep my
voice calm but I could hear the anxiety creeping into my
tone.

Laish cupped my cheek with the hand not
holding the dagger.

“
Mon ange,
I will be with you for as long as I possibly can.
I wish to see you safely back to the Mortal Realm, as I promised
your grandmother I would.” He stroked my face gently. “I care for
you—and as much as I can, I love you. Remember that, no matter what
happens.”

“
I…” I didn’t know what to
say. Should I tell him I loved him back? Did I?

But then the moment
passed. Laish put the
thrak
into a black sheath and strung it on a belt which
he made me wear. I didn’t want an object with so much dark power
close to me but he insisted.

“
It is to keep you safe,”
he said sternly. “Keep it with you, Gwendolyn, but only draw it in
the direst need.”

“
You don’t need to tell me
twice,” I said as we remounted Kurex. “I don’t want my soul to look
like a piece of Swiss cheese.”

“
As to that, your soul
would regenerate in time,” he said, kicking the horse’s sides to
get him moving again. “In this way it is much like your human
organ, the liver. You can donate a lobe of it to someone else and
eventually your own will regrow. But it takes time.”

I hadn’t known that about the liver—or the
soul for that matter. Duraga had said something like it when he had
showed me the soul hook, but I had assumed he was just lying in an
attempt to make me give him the “taste” he’d been craving. Knowing
it was truly possible to lose and regrow part of my soul was food
for thought as we continued our journey.

I just hoped I’d never have to put my new
knowledge into practice.

* * * * *

Laish

Much sooner than I would have liked, we
reached the barrier between the Sunless Sea and the Abyss. It was
invisible of course but I could feel it thrumming in the air ahead
of us. Also, though Gwendolyn could not, I could see through it to
the vast pit. There lived creatures so terrible even I could not
name them—if you could call what they did living.

My little witch was still looking up at the
dark sea and its inhabitants, swimming overhead, and hadn’t noticed
that we were coming to the end of our long road. I took the
opportunity to scan the way ahead, looking for the headless bulk of
the HellSpawn, wondering if it might be waiting for us in some dark
corner—eager to pounce once the barrier came down.

To my surprise, I neither saw it nor felt
it—for some reason the HellSpawn was nowhere near. I couldn’t help
the feeling of unease that stole over me. Where was it? It had
proved itself exceptionally intelligent for its kind, using the
Mirror of the Eye to track Gwendolyn. It had almost led her into a
trap the night before so I expected another attempt at any time.
The fact that it wasn’t around didn’t put me at ease—rather, it
increased my trepidation.

I had been hoping to spend one more night
with Gwendolyn before we brought the barrier down and moved into
the area surrounding the Abyss. One more night of holding her in my
arms, one more night of feeling that she cared—at least a
little—for me.

One more night before she hated me.

Yet my gut instinct told me that this would
be a grave mistake. We needed to pay the Sin Tax and bring down the
barrier sooner rather than later. To that end, I had come
prepared.

“
We’re here,” I said in
Gwendolyn’s ear. She had been looking up at a school of tiny,
bioluminescent fish darting back and forth above us. But the dreamy
expression on her lovely face faded when she heard my
words.

“
We are? Where’s the
barrier?”

“
Directly in front of us,”
I told her. “We must stop here until we break it.”

“
Okay.” She took a deep
breath and let it out slowly before turning to face me. “Laish,”
she began. “I don’t know what to say. This entire journey I’ve been
thinking of what I would do when we came to this point.
And…”

“
And?” I raised an eyebrow
at her.

She blew out a breath. “And I still don’t
know. I guess…” She bit her lip. “I guess it’s going to take a
pretty big sin to break this last barrier.”

“
It will,” I acknowledged
quietly.

“
So we’re going to have
to…to…”

“
Make love?” I finished
for her. “Possibly. But there may be another way.”

“
What?” She frowned at me.
“What other way?”

“
You’ll see.” I drew Kurex
to a halt and began unloading the special saddle bags I had
packed.

“
What’s all that?”
Gwendolyn’s face looked uncertain in the greenish-blue
light.

“
It’s everything you need,
my little witch,” I told her. “Come help me—we are going to do a
summoning.”

* * * * *

Gwendolyn

“
A what?” I frowned as I
saw the things he was unloading. A small folding table… a rich
burgundy cloth with golden designs embroidered into it…one large
white pillar candle and four smaller colored ones… “And why did you
bring all this stuff with us instead of just conjuring
it?”

“
I wish to keep all my
power intact in case of a confrontation,” he said obliquely as he
helped me down from Kurex’s back. “I trust you understand my
meaning, Gwendolyn.”

“
Of course.”

I felt a chill go through me as I remembered
the HellSpawn that was tracking me. I wanted Laish at full strength
too. But why had he brought all the necessary equipment for a
summoning spell? As I watched he withdrew a golden chalice and a
silver athame—a ceremonial knife used in many witchcraft
rituals.

“
Who are we summoning?” I
asked as he led Kurex to the edge of the magical tunnel and told
him to stay. The big horse stood quietly, not even flicking an ear
when a prehistoric beast that could have swallowed him in two bites
glided by not three inches from him.

“
Never mind that yet,”
Laish beckoned to me. He had already set up the small folding table
and draped it with the burgundy and gold cloth, creating a
makeshift altar. Upon it he placed the chalice, the candles, and
the athame. “Call the circle, Gwendolyn,” he told me.

Feeling strange, I did as he said. I drew a
circle in the sand, wide enough to encompass both Laish and myself
and the small altar. Then, taking the first colored candle, I
lifted it. Laish hadn’t provided me with a lighter so I gave it to
him with a raised eyebrow. Smiling a little, he blew on the wick
and it lit, the small flame blooming in response to his power.

I took the lit candle a little way away and
stood it upright carefully in the sand. As I did, I spoke the words
of the ritual, calling the circle.

“
Hail to the guardians of
the watchtowers of the East. Spirits of Air, powers of Thought. I
call upon you to lend your essence to this rite.”

I took the next candle and Laish lit it.
This one I buried in the sand a little way back in the direction we
had come.

“
Hail to the guardians of
the watchtowers of the South. Spirits of Fire, powers of Will. I
call upon you to lend your essence to this rite.”

And then the next candle. “Hail to the
guardians of the watchtowers of the West. Spirits of Water, powers
of Emotion…”

It was the same spell I had used to summon
Laish himself, so many months ago when I’d thought he was just a
minor demon who couldn’t hurt me. Now I knew better—much better and
I wasn’t afraid of him anymore. At least, I wasn’t afraid he would
hurt me physically. But all his talk of dying and his insistence
that I wear the cursed dagger at my hip made me extremely nervous.
I had to admit that it would hurt to lose him—a pain worse than any
physical torture he might have inflicted if he was a different kind
of demon.