The Black Tattoo (18 page)

"
This place is known as the Needle
," said the Scourge conversationally.
 
"
It's the highest point of the palace and, therefore, the whole of the realm
."

It was like standing on the summit of a mountain, he decided.
 
Only instead of being made out of rock, the crags and peaks below him were actually buildings.
 
Keeps, turrets, and towers of all shapes and sizes, from slender spires to things like giant cathedrals, all seemed to be jutting nonchalantly from the palace's gargantuan tapering sides.
 
From the foot of it, miles below him, five vast and arrow-straight white-lit lines struck out into the landscape as far as his eyes could see.
 
These lines were linked by smaller curved paths that split the land into a series of roughly concentric rings, broken up into sections by the five great roads.
 
Charlie's attention was immediately caught by a country-size chunk that was the only bit of Hell so far that was anything like what he'd been expecting:
 
the whole section appeared to be made out of flames.
 
The flames were a beautiful rushing red and orange and yellow, and they slid up the wall of the pit that contained them and slipped back down again, heaving and subsiding like coastal sea on a stormy day.
 
At every seventh great convulsion the waves of fire leaped even higher, sending a great gout of flame bursting up into the night sky before it crashed back into itself, leaving blossoming purple flashes on Charlie's retinas as he stood watching, spellbound.

"
It could all be yours
," said the Scourge quietly.

"What could?"

"
All this
," said the Scourge, gesturing again.
 
"
All Hell
."

Charlie stopped looking at the sea of fire and turned to look at the demon.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"
Here
," said the Scourge.
 
"
I'll show you
."
 
Without further warning, it grabbed Charlie's hand — and they stepped off the edge.

Charlie's heart rose in his chest and his breath caught in his lungs as, for a full ten seconds, they plummeted straight down.
 
Past his feet, the sheer black stone blocks of the tower they'd been standing on blurred past with sickening speed.
 
His eyes were streaming, but when he looked ahead he could see the spiked roof of the next-tallest turret rushing up to meet him and — apparently — impale him.
 
A scream pushed its way out of his throat.
 
But it wasn't fear.

It was joy.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed Charlie, or something like it, as, with a pressure that made his insides feel like they were being squeezed flat, he and the demon suddenly leveled out and swooped round the turret.
 
For a wonderful fraction of a second, Charlie actually felt his foot brush the edge of the roof — then they were diving, swimming through the air.
 
The Scourge swung him out to their left, taking him in a wide circle, as the spectacularly fanged and spiked and crenellated and twisted towers of the palace rose to meet them, and pass beneath their feet.

"
These are the High Reaches
," said the demon, and Charlie heard its voice perfectly clearly even over the din of the rushing air.
 
"
From here all Hell's affairs are managed and directed
."

They were now level with the highest windows of the palace.
 
What Charlie saw didn't make a lot of sense to him.
 
Up where he was, the turrets all seemed very small — individual structures separated from each other by the yawning spaces below — and they were all different from each other.
 
He glimpsed windows of all shapes and sizes, and all were brightly lit, but he and the Scourge were flying too fast for him to be able to make out any more than a blur.

"
This actually isn't the best way to see the palace
," said the demon.
 
"
To appreciate it fully, one really needs to get away from it a little
."

And with that, the roofs dropped away beneath them, and he and the Scourge swung out over the clear skies of Hell.

The night sky was a deep and tender purple-blue, warm and clear apart from occasional tiny wisps of strange cotton wool-like clouds that tickled past them as they continued their strange descent.
 
Charlie gave himself up, letting the demon take him where it would, until the rushing air on his face slowed to a breeze — then, suddenly, they stopped.

Perfectly still, floating in the air, they turned round to face back the way they'd come.

"
There
," said the Scourge.
 
"
Impressive, don't you think
?"

And Charlie had to admit, the Scourge was right.

The palace was unquestionably the biggest thing in the whole landscape.
 
It was so big that if he hadn't been told what it was, Charlie wouldn't have been sure it really qualified as a single building.
 
From where he was, hanging suspended high in the air, still holding the demon's hand, Charlie saw his earlier impression confirmed:
 
the palace
was
more like a mountain than a building, with hundreds, maybe thousands of individual structures seeming growing out of it in an astonishing profusion, a bewildering and chaotic array.
 
The harder Charlie looked, the more detail there was to find.

So he stopped himself.

A small, thin stream of cloud drifted past:
 
Charlie felt the moisture of it on his face and stuck out his tongue to taste it on his lips.
 
It was salty, like tears.

"So this is Hell," he said, as casually as he could.

The Scourge didn't answer.

"Listen," said Charlie, his voice sounding high and strange in his ears.
 
"Before we go any further, you're going to have to clear a few things up for me."

He took a deep breath.

"First of all, and I'm sorry if this comes out sounding a bit stupid, but — are we dead?"

"
No
," said the Scourge.
 
"
Not dead.
 
On the contrary:
 
for the first time, I think, you are truly
alive
."

"Sure, whatever," said Charlie, "but... well, you know, isn't Hell supposed to be where you go
after
you're dead?
 
I mean, normally?"

The demon thought about this for a moment.

"
Mm
," it said finally.
 
"
You are referring, perhaps, to some sort of belief system in the place where you come from
."

"Sorry?"

"
What do your people believe
?" asked the Scourge patiently.
 
"
What do your people think happens after death
?"

"Oh," said Charlie, surprised.
 
He had to think for a moment.

"Well, some of them," he began.
 
"Not
me
, obviously, but some of them believe that, you know, when you die, there's a couple of possible things that could happen.
 
If you've been good, if you've led a good life, then you go to, er... Heaven."

He broke off and looked at the demon, to see if he was getting this across properly.
 
It was impossible to tell.

"It's supposed to be a nice place," said Charlie, doing his best.
 
"You know, eternal happiness.
 
That sort of thing."

"
I see
," said the Scourge.

"And if you've been
bad
," said Charlie, "then you go to this other place.
 
A
bad
place, where bad things happen to you.
 
Fire.
 
Brimstone.
 
Eternal torment or whatever.
 
And that's Hell."

"
That is what you believe
?" asked the Scourge, with a smile in its voice.

"Not me," said Charlie quickly.
 
"Just, you know — some people."

Slowly at first, but with gathering speed, something strange was happening to the demon:
 
it was trembling.
 
In another moment, it was quaking all over, big shudders running all over its liquid black body.

"What?" asked Charlie.
 
"What is it?"

But then he realized what it was.
 
The Scourge was laughing.

"
I'm sorry, Charlie
," it said, once it had managed to get itself back under control a little.
 
"
But that's very funny
."

"Why?" asked Charlie, annoyed.

"
I knew your people were primitive, but really
," it said, "
that's
—"

"What?" said Charlie.

"
In backward, unenlightened societies
," it said slowly, "
it is possible to control people by means of what they believe.
 
This belief system of yours:
 
it's a perfect example
."

"Oh yeah?
 
And why's that?"

"
Think about how it works
," said the Scourge.
 
"
If you're
good
, if you do what you're told, then when you die you'll go to... where was it
?"

"Heaven," said Charlie.

"
Yes
," said the demon.
 
"
But if you're
bad
, if you don't do exactly what everyone says is the right thing to do, or behave as you're told to behave, then
—"

"You'll go to Hell," finished Charlie.

"
Exactly.
 
Charlie
," said the Scourge, "
You must understand that beliefs like those you've described are for the
weak
.
 
They make you easy to control, and they can be comforting too:
 
it's so much simpler to make decisions about how to live your life when all the guidelines are set out in front of you.
 
Look at me
."

Obediently, Charlie turned to look at the Scourge's face.
 
In the blank shiny blackness that he found there, his own reflection stared back at him.

"
The only way to make a decision is of your own free will.
 
You yourself must weigh up the consequences for and against and make your choice accordingly, without anyone else telling you what is right and what is wrong.
 
That is what free will is all about
."

Charlie didn't answer; he just stared at himself, reflected in the demon's face.

"
There is something
," the Scourge began, "
that I need you to help me to do.
 
It will not be easy, but the rewards will be great
."

"What is it?" asked Charlie.

"
I will tell you
," said the demon, "
but not just yet.
 
I have something else to ask of you first
."

"And what's that?"

"
Charlie
," said the Scourge, "
I want you to trust me
."

Charlie stared.

"Trust you?" he echoed.
 
"
Trust
you?
 
Well, let me think about that for a second.
 
No
."

"
No
?" said the Scourge, surprised.

"Come on!" said Charlie.
 
"What do you think I am — stupid?
 
It's all very well, you coming on like 'the Snowman' and giving me the guided tour
now
.
 
A little late, though, don't you think?"

"
Charlie
—"

"You tricked me!
 
You made me think I had superpowers, when all the time you were possessing me!
 
Taking me over!
 
Using
me so you could get what you want!
 
And
then
you..."
 
He remembered the moment he'd realized what the demon had done through him.
 
He remembered Esme's face as she'd vowed her revenge.
 
He shuddered.

"Give me one good reason," he said.

"
Because I'm offering you the choice
," the Scourge replied.

Charlie stared again.
 
"What?"

"
You know what I can do, Charlie
," said the demon simply.
 
"
You know the power I can wield over you.
 
And yet you see that I do not use it
."

"So?"

"
I think that by the time you have seen what I plan to do
," the Scourge explained, "
you will want to do it every bit as much as I do.
 
And we can work so much better, I think
," it added, "
as a team
."

It paused.

"
Let me be your guide
," it said.
 
"
Let me show you what I'm planning.
 
Trust me that much at least
."

"And if I decide I don't want to help you with whatever you're doing, then what?" asked Charlie.
 
"You'll let me go home?"

"
Back to your world
?" asked the Scourge, surprised again.
 
"
Back to your family, or what's left of it
?"

"Hey!" said Charlie.

"
I'm sorry
," said the demon, "
but it seems hard to believe that you'd want to return, with things as they are right now
."

"That's not the point!" said Charlie — loudly, because the Scourge had reminded him of something he didn't want to think about.

"
Of course
," said the Scourge soothingly, "
you are free to choose.
 
You have my word
."
 
It looked at him, waiting.