Mercy for the Fallen (12 page)

“How are you feeling?  Do you need a few minutes?”

“I’m good,” I nodded.  “And we’re on a time crunch, right?”

“We’re fine now that we’re down here.  It’s probably still going a touch faster in Githa, but not too bad, not like up there.”  He pointed to the hole where the rushing water came in.

That was comforting, at least.  “I’m okay to push on, I just have a bit of a headache from last night.  I’ve never been able to zap away my own headaches, you know?”

“Come here a sec.”  Adam laid a hand on the back of my head and I felt the warm pulse of his Grace as the pain receded. 

“Thanks,” I smiled, my head feeling clearer than it had since I’d been awakened in the middle of the night. 

“That’s a good look on you,” Adam smirked, and I looked down to see my blue t-shirt plastered to my chest.  I would’ve been tempted to smack him one if I wasn’t half sure he was trying to keep my spirits up. 

“Yeah, the drowned rat look is all the rage this season,” I smirked back.  “Where do we go now?  Into there?”  I eyed the pool with distaste.  Holding my breath was not my strong suit, and I wasn’t looking forward to going into the water again. 

“No, we stick to the path,” he said, pointing to the river.  His hand began to glow brighter and I could see that the cavern extended above the river, with plenty of clearance around it for us to either walk beside it, or even fly above it.

“Oh, that doesn’t seem so bad.”

“We have to go over a few ground rules before we get started.”

“Okay…”  Why did that fill me with all kinds of dread?  

“As long as we stay on the path, we should be alright.”

“What happens if we stray off the path?” I asked.

“We could be trapped in any number of pockets of Hell and they’re not so easy to escape once you’re stuck there.  Human beings are incredibly creative in their punishments, far worse than the Keepers could dole out.” 

“What does that mean?”

“It means be careful what you think about down here because it could very easily become your reality.  You know – it’s the Stay-Puft Marshmallow defense system.  Whatever you do, don’t imagine the giant Stay-Puft Marshmallow man or that’s what will appear and destroy us?” 

I shook my head, dumbfounded.  “You totally lost me.  We’re going to be attacked by marshmallows?”

Frustration lent a pucker between his brows.  “No… Just keep a tight reign on your fear.  Whatever we come up against, the more fear you show toward it, the stronger it becomes.”

“Oh, swell.” 
Because that’s not scary at all.

“Stay out of the water, hold tight to me, and we should be fine.”

“What happens if I touch the water?  Will it burn me?”  I remembered something vaguely from my Sunday school days about the lake that burned with fire and sulfur. 

“No, but the Keepers are in the water and they’re attracted to souls.  This is part of why I told you it wasn’t safe for you to be down here.  Trust me, you definitely don’t want them to get a hold of you.  Me, they should ignore.” 

“Got it.  Stay out of the water.  Which bank is safer, the left or the right?”

“No, we’re flying above the water, the shore is too dangerous.  And it’s better if you don’t look.” 

“What do you mean don’t look?  How will I know where I’m going?”

“I’ll make sure you get through safely.”

“Why can’t I look?”

Adam hesitated for a moment, choosing his words carefully.  “There are some things you can’t unsee, and I wouldn’t put you through that.”  He wrapped an arm around me, prepared to take to the air, but I held him in place.

“Wait… how bad is it?  When you came back from Hell before…”  He’d been all singed and beat up.  I’d had to heal him before we could get more than three words out of him.  Who would heal us if we were in that rough of shape?  And could Evie survive it?  How were we going to make it back in one piece?

Adam felt the tension in my body and his hold shifted, cradling me, his hands spreading comfort and warmth.  “No, shhh, it won’t be that bad.  We won’t have to go as far as I did to see Lucifer.  Githa isn’t nearly as deep.”

“And you’ve been there before?  You know exactly where we’re going, right?”

“Yes, I’ve been there before.”

I had to trust him to lead us through it.  “Okay, let’s do this.” 

“Are you sure about this?”  His head canted to one side as he studied me carefully.  “You don’t have to come all the way with me.  You can stay here and wait, or even fly back up through the falls to wait up in the world again.” 

“No, I can do it.”  My chin came up with determination.  “Somewhere in there Lucifer’s got our little girl.  I’ll be damned if I let my fear get in the way of being there for her when she needs me the most.”

His lips curved into a smile that changed into a wince about halfway through my bravado.  “You probably shouldn’t keep using his name like that.  Even if you’re not calling him, he might hear you coming.”

“I’m not afraid of him.”

“But he might move Bunny before we can get there.”

“Fine, I’ll call him Luce.  I still think it’s cute when you call her Bunny, by the way.”

“And I still say she’s going to hate you for that nickname one day,” he grinned.

“Maybe so, but she’s still my baby Bunny for now.”

“Enjoy it while you can.  Love can be fleeting.” 

I didn’t say anything to that.  My love for Adam wasn’t fleeting, there were other reasons why we couldn’t be together. 

“Are you ready?” he asked, when I didn’t respond.

I tucked my head against his shoulder, my eyes closed tight.  “Yep, let’s go.”

* * *

I could only keep my eyes closed for so long before I snuck a peek.  I know, I know, how stupid do I have to be, right?  Still, I couldn’t help it, I had to have some idea what we were passing through.  Instead of smelling fire and brimstone or anything I associated with Hell, I only caught the faint smell of trees and moss, like we were hiking in the woods instead of following a river through the levels of Hell. 

I caught sight of squat, misshapen trees, their branches intertwined to form a dense thicket on either side of the river.  Moss choked out all other undergrowth, covering the lumpy, exposed roots as well, and pale splotches of lichen crept up the sides like a scabby disease.  I didn’t exactly want to pitch a tent there, but it didn’t look so bad.  

There was no sign of life until I surreptitiously snuck a look down and spotted people in the water below, bobbing and drifting.  They weren’t corpses, or ghosts, but solid and whole, like real, live people in the water.  The first thing I noticed was that those who bobbed along with the current sailed by, unmolested.  Those who thrashed and tried to reach the shore were the ones who ran into trouble. 

Tentacles, slick and blacker that the deepest sea, formed to drag them down.  A woman’s torso, nakedly beautiful but no less deadly, surged up and dragged one man beneath the surface.  Arms, hands, claws… even sudden whirlpools formed to suck them under.   Those were the ones whose screams punctuated the stillness, sending me to bury my face against Adam’s shoulder again.

“Told you so,” I heard him sigh into my hair. 

I didn’t peek again until I felt him set us down on solid ground again.  It looked like we were inside the Matterhorn at Disneyland, with the river flowing downhill instead of the rollercoaster.  Ice formed crystals against the rocky cavern walls, making them sparkle like glitter.  Cold as fuck, pretty glitter.  I missed Adam’s body heat the instant he pulled away, shoving my hands into the hem of my shirt. 

“Jesus, it’s freezing in here,” I muttered, worried my shoes might actually freeze if we stopped there for too long.  Personally, I preferred the place with the weird trees. 

“That’s Githa for you.”

“Is that what this is?  Where’s all the fire and brimstone?”  Who ever heard of a Hell dimension without a warm, fiery furnace?

“There are all kinds of Hell,” he shrugged.  “This one’s just as bad as some of the others, trust me.”

“If you knew it was going to be this cold, why didn’t you tell me to bring a sweater or something?”

“I forgot.”

“You forgot.”  I stared at him, but he was more interested in peering through a break in the frozen stone wall to the world outside.  “What else are you forgetting to tell me?”

“Nothing, now will you pipe down?  I’m trying to figure out the best way to go about this.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, suitably subdued.  “Where are we headed?” I asked after a few minutes of stamping my feet around.  Outside a frozen wasteland waited below with snowy peaks as far as the eye could see. 

“Do you see that light out there?”

I craned my head and spotted a tiny flicker far below.  “Yes, what is it?”

“That’s where we’re headed.  Now listen, you’re going to have to make yourself hidden from sight from here on.  I’m not sure it’ll work, but it’s our best bet.”

“Why?  What about you?”

“I told you, the Keepers are attracted to souls.  We might be able to sneak past them if you’re hidden, but be ready for anything.  And for God’s sake, try to keep a reign on your imagination, you got me?”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Think about something good.  Think about hoppity bunnies.  Or think about me, that should do the trick.”  His lips curved into a lopsided smile.

“How about I think about getting Evie back?”

“Suit yourself,” he sighed, hopping up to the outcropping of rock to squeeze through the opening. 

“Wait… don’t I have to keep my eyes closed?”

“No, you should be alright here.  The big thing to remember is to keep a lid on your fear.  Whatever it is we come up against, you’re only making it stronger if you feed it.” 

“Okay sure, no sweat,” I nodded with more confidence than I felt.  The fear simmered deep inside and I did my best to lock it away.  Instead I focused on what I could control – making myself dim and aiming for the light in the distance.  I couldn’t extend my wings and still fit through the crevice in the wall, so I had to follow Adam’s example.  Climb through first and then unfurl them as I jumped into the air. 

Now
that
, I could do without apprehension.  I didn’t suffer from the slightest fear of heights any more, not with my wings to carry me.  If it wasn’t for the biting cold it would’ve been a beautiful vista below, with dark stone jutting up into the sky, liberally dusted with snow.  It reminded me of the New Zealand landscape, ala the road to Mordor.  Only there were no hobbits or dwarves on the barren mountains below.  

As we flew closer to the light, it became apparent that it wasn’t a single light, but a crap-ton of them, all winking from torches surrounding a huge, stone keep.  Almost a castle, with crenellated towers at each corner, rising high into the sky.  Expecting a prison of sorts, it shocked the hell out of me when we got close enough to see children dressed in little more than rags playing dodgeball in the open court. 

Kids.  He’d brought Eve to a Hell dimension for kids.   

There were no ‘jailers’ visible, and Adam led us to a corner of the battlements, sheltered from the wind by the corner of one of the huge towers. 

“What’s the matter?” he asked when I froze in place, watching the children play below, their auras a riot of colors.  It was a brutal game, the black ball far less forgiving than the red, rubber ones I remembered from junior high. 

“Those are children down there!” I hissed.  “Why would there be children in Hell?”

“You don’t think kids can be miserable, violent, little monsters?” Adam pointed out.

“I guess…  But not on a level that deserves Hell.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Stop saying that!  This whole thing is a surprise.  I can’t believe God would let kids be stuck down here.”

“Who do you think created this place?  All of it?  The sweet little cherubs who die before their time don’t wind up
here
, it’s the nasty rotten ones who deserve a few decades of reflection before they move on.”

Decades…
  I closed my eyes against the horror of it. 

“Come on, she’s close by, I can feel it.”

“You can?”  My eyes popped open in wonderment. 

“Sure, can’t you?  I can feel her Grace now that we’re this close.”

I concentrated on the connection between us, something I hadn’t had much need for in the past, Eve was always just
there
before.  Adam was right, I could feel something, coming from up high.  “There…” I pointed to the tower across the square. 

“Yep, she’s definitely in there.”  Adam’s grin stretched from ear to ear.  “Come on, let’s go get our girl.” 

Chapter Thirteen

It was easy to get into the tower, none of the doors were locked.  There still wasn’t any sign of guards or caretakers in the complex, and no sign of the ‘Keepers’, though I had no idea what to expect for how they’d look.  For all I knew they took the form of other kids and kept the peace from their level.  We kept both ourselves imperceptible as we ascended the stairs, concentrating on homing in on Eve’s Grace. 

Finally, very near the top of the tower, we came to an arched wooden door, bound by iron.  I could practically feel Evie’s Grace humming inside and I could tell from the look on Adam’s face, he knew it was the right door as well.  Holding a finger up to his lips, he slowly tried the latch, surprised to find it unlocked. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Maybe to find her chained to the wall or even locked in a cage, shivering against the cold, but the room was more toyshop than torture chamber.  The chill of the room was defeated by a metal brazier glowing with hot coals in the center of the room.  The harsh stone walls were covered by thick tapestries depicting fanciful scenes of castles with knights on horseback and meadows with prancing unicorns. 

There were toys tucked into every conceivable surface and scattered about the floor.  Old fashioned wooden puzzles competed for space beside a pink plastic dollhouse and an overflowing bookcase held enough books to keep her entertained for a year of bedtime stories.  A low bed stood in one corner of the room, liberally draped with pink gauzy fabric that billowed from a ring set into the thick, wooden beam high overhead.