Blackthorne (The Brotherhood of the Gate Book 1) (36 page)

“Ladies first,” Manius said with a flourish of his free hand.

Pam and Rhi hesitated for a moment as Pearl passed them with Ellie Mae at her side to begin the descent. She paused on the stairway. Even the eerie glow of the tunnel beautifully lit her features.

“Coming, girls?”

»»•««

Outside the tomb, the snow felt like bee stings when it hit bare skin. Bobby Wayne and the sheriff took turns with the night vision goggles, watching the motionless man on the hill. It seemed in the growing darkness that the figure of Blackthorne on the hill above was made of stone, surrounded by a creeping darkness. The crowd of demons that crept closer and closer to where the knight stood began to make Bobby Wayne nervous. There was no sign of Blackthorne’s brother knights or Bobby Wayne’s men.

He turned to Nick. “How long do we have to wait?”

“When they get close enough to bite him on the ass or when Rhi gives the signal to attack, I suppose,” the sheriff replied with a shrug.

“She never said what the signal would be…but, her being a woman, it will be something fairly obvious.”

The dragon took to the air in that moment. The beast spit a great stream of fire from its jaws, setting the hill ablaze before swirling into the night storm, toward the dimly lit little town below. There was a collective gasp and the gathering of demons surged forward to fall upon the knight. His great sword blazed blue and the figures of his brothers rose from the earth itself and darted out of the sky to stand beside him. Their swords threw crackles of blue sparks into the storm.

Bobby’s Wayne’s truck roared to life. He tried to mash the pedal through the floor as he tore through a field to reach the fence of the graveyard.

At the same moment, several four-wheel drives full of locals, armed to the teeth, burst through the garage doors of the few little homes that were close by. Several of the newcomers were in the beds of the pickups equipped with a variety of armaments, cocked and ready. The trucks lined up beside Bobby Wayne in a spoke pattern behind the fence that separated Cripple Creek from the cemetery. Several spotlights were powered up by the defenders for better accuracy and hopefully to make the demon hordes uncomfortable. Then they waited.

In the cab of the truck, Bobby Wayne reached for his switchboard as the sheriff threw open the door.

“Looks like it’s time to party, see you at Little Round Top,” the sheriff yelled over his shoulder as he pulled a sword out of the bed of the truck and gave it a rather competent looking swish before slamming the door behind him. He climbed into the bed of the truck, popped open the toolbox and picked up one of the M-16s hidden inside. He banged on the roof of the cab.

“Don’t you know about any other guns, old man?”

“Wonder who taught him how to do that with a sword?” Bobby Wayne mused, ignoring the question as he fiddled with his control board. He patiently waited until the largest of demons he could spot, one roughly the size and shape of a rhinoceros, thundered down the hill. Flipping a switch, Bobby Wayne let loose the wrath of God in the form of blessed and holy explosives.

He watched the being as it disintegrated in the light thrown up by the explosion. “Amen.” Then he began flipping switches in earnest.

The parts of the demonic herd that had been turned from the hill by the explosions and awesome power of the knights ran full tilt toward the iron fence surrounding the cemetery toward the town.

A barrage of automatic weapons fire cut down the first few that made it to the fence. The volunteers fired at will from the dubious protection of their vehicles and the smoking bodies began to pile up. The blessed ammunition had a drawback, however. It only killed the smaller demons instantly. The larger, more human appearing demons were only wounded and were still able to advance. Like a burst dam, the crowd surged around them and began to slip through their positions.

Bobby Wayne picked up his radio as he continued to destroy a significant part of the graveyard.

“They’re coming, Betty. Get to work,” he said calmly.

»»•««

It seemed to Rhi that the descent went on forever. The wide stairs twisted and turned downward into the guts of the mountains. Her mind could feel the shafts of the mines that ran alongside of the pit, never encroaching upon the barriers set by the Brotherhood so long ago.

The temperature went up quickly, as she knew it would. The three women dropped their coats on the stairs, carefully out of the way of Manius, who followed them with Katie in his arms. His face was flushed with concentration and beads of sweat on his forehead glistened in the unnatural glow of the tunnel. Rhi could not help but wonder what kind of orders he was directing to his critters on the surface.

In one moment the ground shook slightly and a small dart of dirt dislodged from the roof of the tunnel, exploding in a cloud of red dust. She shot back a look at Manius, who smirked at her. He had already betrayed them and didn’t care if she knew it. Bobby Wayne was blowing up the surface of the graveyard above because of an attack of the demons. She nervously reached out a hand to run it along the wall as she made her way down the steps. The enchantment that had kept gold miners from tunneling into the cavern would hopefully hold it up against the charges going off above.

Ellie Mae stayed at her side. The dog’s long tongue almost touched the steps as she panted heavily in the heat. Rhi reached out to touch the golden fur and felt a moment of comfort. If God could give her a dog like this one, then maybe He was a little bit on her side in this mess.

The end of the staircase appeared suddenly. The group found themselves in a large cavern, roughly in the size and shape of an amphitheater. On one end stood a larger version of the golden gates Rhi had opened in the tomb. Twenty-four feet tall and again as wide, the incredible beauty and artifice of the precious metals and jewels the portal had been formed out of dazzled from across the wide room.

“My God,” Pam breathed.

“Pretty gaudy, don’t you think?” Rhi asked her conversationally.

“I’m not talking about the gates, Rhi. Look down at the floor.” The woman pointed at the dusty shapes on the ground that had escaped Rhi’s attention. The bones of at least a hundred men lay scattered across the floor of the cavern, their hands still clutching their swords and the jewels they had thought to steal. Some wore the armor of the Spanish conquistadors. The other skeletons were clothed in everything from the rotted hides worn by the Ute Indians to a six-shooter and spurs worn by an unlucky intruder from the gold rush days. It seemed that many had been lured to the gates only to die before them. By the hand of the gate’s guardian.

“He killed all of them?” she asked Pearl hesitantly, her trembling hand once again wrapped in the fur on Ellie Mae’s back. The madam returned her look steadily. The perfection of her features radiated a cold calm.

“Of course he killed them all, princess,” Manius answered for the madam, who had begun to pick her way through the carnage toward the gate. “My brother is a killer. Like me. Now go.”

»»•««

On the roof of the Palace Hotel, Earl and Clay had set up two lawn chairs and anchored a large beach pavilion with ropes to keep the worst of the snow off their heads. Protected by plastic sheeting, a pile of weapons lay between the two chairs that the men had hauled up to the roof earlier in the day.

“I can’t hear shit in this snow except the damned wind howling,” Earl complained as he kept watch on the roads into town with his night vision goggles.

Clay arose from his chair to lean on the brick pediment of the roof, his shotgun in hand. “What did you expect? I knew that asshole Bedford would hog all of the glory over in the graveyard while we sit on our butts down here. Man, it’s cold tonight. I think I’m gonna go home, crank up the heat and forget about this crap. We’ve got our trophy demon,” he said, indicating a bag that lay ominously motionless nearby, “but I think you might have cracked it on the head a bit hard, Earl…Earl?”

The other man had lowered his goggles and was staring into the black, snow-filled sky in amazement.

“Clay, you might not have to wait for that heat,” he said softly. “Now hand me that elephant gun over there. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion and I think a special occasion just flew in. And then call the taxidermist. I’m getting this thing’s head stuffed for sure.”

The sky was suddenly on fire from a giant glob of liquid flame belched out by the dragon. It flew past the Palace and into the upper story of the Brass Ass Casino. Flames shot into the sky as bewildered casino employees and patrons ran into the street. The satin running suits of the gamblers shone in the street lamps through the falling snow. They were like fat, shiny sausages on display for the dragon to easily see.

“Screw the gun, Clay. Grab me that rocket launcher over there before that thing eats those idiots out wandering down the street,” Earl said, grumbling as he turned to take the launcher. “This had better not ruin my trophy.”

»»•««

“Damn it, you would think he would come down here and clean them out once in a while,” Pearl muttered as she began to pick her way through the crumpled piles of death. Impatiently, she finally started to kick aside bones to clear a path for those behind her. “We haven’t got all night.”

After gingerly following Pearl’s cleared path through the minefield of bones, Rhi stood before the gate with the Bible in her hand. Manius crowded up behind her, Katie still snug in his arms. The little girl’s tiny arms were wrapped around his neck trustingly.

Rhi suppressed a shudder and Ellie Mae softly growled. Pam and Pearl stood nearby, the madam in a leisurely stance, as if she were examining a sale display at Saks Fifth Avenue. As Rhi leaned over the book, a movement caught her eye. She looked up at the silent gate and realized that the red glow between the bars was opaque, like crystal. She leaned forward to examine it at close range only to step back in horror as an agonized face appeared on the other side, screaming and burning in silence.

The terrible truth hit her.

“You can see through to the other side from here,” she gasped in disbelief, running a hand down the obscenely warm crystal window. A red, scorched hand appeared on the other side to scratch at the pane. The entire surface of gate was a window of crystal with the shrieking masses of the damned looking in from the other side. For a moment, Rhi fancied that she could hear their screams.

Pam spoke up. “Before you do shit, you give me my baby and let me out of here.”

Manius replied through gritted teeth, his concentration on whatever battle that he had begun above absolute. “When I have the skull in hand.” He carefully handed Katie and the dagger off to Troy, who had limped down the stairs quietly behind them, his sullen rage tangible.

Rhi gave Pam a warning glance and then stared down at the worn book in her hands. She opened it to the front cover and stared down, careful to keep the picture out of Manius’ sight.

“
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock,”
she spoke softly and reached with her mind into the book, calling both the skull and her chosen guardian forth. A brilliant blue flash blinded them and then the skull was in her hand, the Bible gone. The same size as an actual human skull, the relic had been formed of quartz crystal of a strange green shade, mottled with red streaks, giving the skull the appearance that it was crying tears of blood.

Manius immediately drew his sword. The steely hiss of the metal rattled down Rhi’s backbone. “Give it to me,” he said, grabbing at it awkwardly.

Why on earth is he being that clumsy?
As suspicion began to form in her mind, she managed to scuttle out of the way. Ellie Mae leaped between them, viciously barking. He drew back his sword to strike but was knocked halfway across the room by another powerful blue flash as the guardian of the skull arrived.

The heavens only knew what the tiny dragon Raven had summoned so many years before had been eating, trapped in the other plane with the skull, so long ago. It was presently the size of a tractor-trailer. Released from the service of evil, the dragon was colored in waves of deep green, its eyes jeweled orbs that stared coldly down upon the man who lay sprawled on the floor.

“Kill the child if the dragon moves,” Manius screamed at Troy, who stood, terrified and clutching a now fully awake Katie in his arms. But Pam and Pearl were already in motion. Pearl snatched a sword from the hand of one of the dead in mid sprint.

“Give me Mommy!” the little girl screamed. She began to kick and wriggle violently. Pam was there, snatching her child from the man’s arms and hiding her little face against her chest. Pearl, close behind, smoothly ran her ancient sword through Troy’s ribcage.

Startled, he stared at the protruding sword for a moment before falling backward into a large pile of bones, joining the other dead before the gate.

“Pam, get on the dragon,” Rhi screamed as she ran for the gate. “Do it now. Get her out of here and bring me what I need.”

Pam scrambled up onto the dragon’s neck with Katie under one arm while Pearl joined Rhi and Ellie Mae at the gate, another dead man’s sword in her hand.

“
That
was your plan?”

“Go!” Rhi shrieked at the beast. It looked down at Manius longingly and took to the air. A giant fireball worked its way up the throat of the dragon and exploded against the ceiling of the cavern. A glob of fire fell toward where Manius lay stunned, but the treacherous knight managed to shield himself at the last moment in glowing red light.

“Shit. That would have saved us some trouble,” remarked Pearl.

The dragon flew up through the falling stone and earth, shouldering aside boulders the size of houses and pickup trucks. Its passengers were protected by a glowing nimbus projected over them by the small witch in front of the gate. The guardian of the skull burst free of the earth and opened the pit to the falling snow. In a trick of space and time, the rim of the pit was now only fifty feet above them, the steep steps a part of the enchantment to hide the gate. Rhi could hear the battle above but had no time to think about it as Manius rose to his feet, sword in hand, the fury on his face pulsating.