Chapter 25

The dirt tunnel hadn’t extended far, only about thirty feet or so. That was good. The only way we’d managed to squeeze through was hunched over and scrunched up; wide shoulders need not apply. Vegard had gotten stuck twice. It had taken a lot of grunting and quick shoving, but Phaelan had gotten the big Guardian moving again. We were certainly motivated to keep moving; there were demons in front of us and possibly Carnades’s guards behind us.

We wiggled out of the demon-dug hole in the wall and into tunnels that I was more familiar with; I didn’t like them, but at least they were familiar. I shone my small lightglobe around. Nothing but a lot of dark and cold air in both directions. But on the upside, there were no demons waiting to eat us. Vegard’s lightglobe joined mine, crackling with what looked like lightning inside. Light and an incendiary device for demons. I liked it. I beefed up my own to match.

I sent my globe down the tunnel a few feet in each direction and swore silently. No demons waiting to bite our faces off, but the black blood and green ooze extended in both directions.

Phaelan saw what I saw and nodded in grudging approval. “You can’t fault the bastards’ tactics,” he whispered. “When you steal something, split up now, meet up later.”

Demons were strategic thinkers. Wonderful.

“But isn’t Hell supposed to be down?” Phaelan asked.

“We’re headed for a gate to Hell,” I reminded him, “not the actual place.” I looked at Piaras. “Which way?”

Piaras was standing quietly, unmoving, unblinking. Then he turned his head toward me, his dark eyes glittering like twin onyx orbs.

Oh no. Not now.

My hand dropped to the blackjack I had tucked in my belt; Phaelan shifted slightly behind me. His blackjack was the twin to mine. Vegard had silently moved to cover Piaras’s right side-his sword arm. I didn’t want to hurt Piaras; but I would knock out Sarad Nukpana. Piaras the virgin would lead us to the Scythe of Nen. Sarad the psycho might have other ideas first.

“Piaras?” My voice was calm, and I never took my eyes from his. Phaelan and Vegard would deal with Piaras’s hands if need be. I’d heard that the eyes were the windows to the soul; I needed to be sure Piaras’s soul was home alone.

Piaras blinked and shook his head, as if waking up from a brief nap. Then he saw me and froze, his now brown eyes wide. “What?”

“You tell us, little brother,” Vegard rumbled.

“Did you just get a visit?” I asked quietly. “You looked like you left us there for a second.”

“We just came out of the hole, didn’t we?” Piaras stopped and swallowed. “What did I do?”

“Nothing,” I assured him. I lightened my voice. “It’s okay; just a trick of the light. My mistake.”

Piaras wasn’t buying it. “Are you sure?”

I looked up into his obviously brown and definitely scared eyes, and gave him a reassuring smile. “Positive. There’s no one in there but you, sweetie. Which way do we go?”

Piaras stood still as if listening. I couldn’t hear anything, but neither could he. The kid was concentrating; I was still shaking. Sarad Nukpana had come and gone, literally in the blink of an eye. It was a message for me, subtle and damned effective. The goblin had found a way around Justinius Valerian’s wards, or else he’d just muscled his way through. Either way, those wards weren’t keeping him out. Nukpana was watching, keeping an eye on his investment. If I didn’t get the Scythe for him, he’d instantly make Piaras pay-and probably have the kid try to take one of us down with him.

“Down there,” Piaras said, indicating the tunnel to the left. He looked over my shoulder at Phaelan. “And yes, I’m sure.”

“I didn’t say a thing,” my cousin protested. “Far be it from me to question a man’s purity.”

I didn’t want to say anything out loud, at least not yet, but I was more than confused by our direction. I was concerned. Not that I doubted Piaras’s ability to track the Scythe. Piaras said this was the direction, and the trail of black goo and green slime confirmed that something demonic or undead had been this way recently. But that didn’t mean I had to feel all warm and fuzzy about it. There were a lot of things wrong right now, and our direction was just the most recent.

There were no signs, sounds, or sensations of pursuit from behind us. That was good. Maybe. I didn’t know what had happened to Herrick, but true to his promise, he’d kept Carnades’s guards off of us. That brought up problem number two-there were no sounds or sensations of anything in front of us. But it was as if the demon queen had ordered her minions to bleed and/or ooze to give us a trail that no one could possibly miss. And last, but definitely not least, Sarad Nukpana could now come and go as he pleased. Like I said, no warm and fuzzies for me, but I was jumpy and twitchy in spades.

My experience with demons had all been of the bad kind. I didn’t know of anyone who’d had a happy demon encounter. The only happy camper was usually the demon because it got a meal out of it. The mortal they grabbed ended up dead and eaten, and sometimes not in that order. I decided it was better to be jumpy than some demon’s lunch.

The tunnel was definitely sloping upward. Up conceivably meant out of the tunnel. Vegard put his hand on my shoulder, and I damned near jumped out of my skin.

“Ma’am, I think I know where we’re going.” Vegard’s voice was so quiet that I could barely hear him and he was standing right next to me.

Vegard never whispered without a reason. A soft voice usually equaled a bad place or bad guys. I responded with a single nod; movement might not be a good idea, either. I shot a quick glance at Piaras. Brown eyes; check.

“The Assembly.” The sound barely made it past Vegard’s lips.

“Which is?” I mouthed.

“Where the Conclave met before the citadel was built.”

“That’s bad?”

“It ain’t easy. Crumbling ruins, five floors of offices under the main Assembly chamber.”

Phaelan spoke. “Let me guess: we’re under the bottom floor.”

Vegard gestured up ahead with his eyes. “We’re coming up on it now.”

“And those five floors are probably a bureaucratic maze of halls and tiny offices,” I said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

With potentially a demon around any or every corner.

“Still straight ahead?” I asked Piaras.

He nodded, looking as nervous as the rest of us. That was good; it meant he was still himself. Sarad Nukpana would have been having the time of his life sending us on a stroll amongst demons.

“We’ll know for sure when we get closer,” Vegard told us, “but the Hellgate’s probably in the Assembly chamber. Huge room, vaulted ceiling.”

And plenty of space to stage demon hordes for an invasion.

I didn’t want to take Piaras anywhere near a Hellgate. If the demons from Carnades’s town house had gone to the Assembly-and it was looking like they had-Piaras’s work was done; it was time for him to leave.

“Any quick way to the surface from here?” I asked Vegard. I flicked my eyes toward Piaras. The Guardian saw, but gave no indication. He knew what I wanted-a way to get Piaras out of here. Now.

Vegard’s lips narrowed into a thin line.

Not the answer I wanted. “No way out but up,” I said.

He nodded. “Or back the way we came.”

“Do you know where the other end of this tunnel comes out?”

“No clue, ma’am.”

So, no choice but to take Piaras with us. If the demons had taken the Scythe of Nen to the Assembly, then that’s where we had to go.

“Well, I’ve never stormed the gates of Hell before,” Phaelan muttered sarcastically. “If we don’t die horrible deaths, who knows, it might be fun.”

In a matter of minutes, the tunnel turned into a deserted corridor. Stone. Hand-hewn. Man-made. And other than our muted lightglobes, pitch-dark.