"Where are they?" Was he telepathic?
"d.a.m.n, but they have put a wedge in the works. Unless it was meant to happen. There"s so many variables, and they"re all open to interpretation . . . or misinterpretation."
"Hah?"
Eyes open. "Not to worry. What"s your name, sir?"
"Myhr. Rhymes withpurr -"
He chuckled. "How fitting. Well, Myhr, would you mind very much lending me a hand before the world ends? There"s a good fellow."
He walked off. Eyes shut again.
Hehad cracked. And I was catching it. I went after him.
* * *Darmo House Debreban looked down at Myhr"s body, mourning with vast regret. What a rotten waste. What a rotten situation. If he"d only been able to stop Botello or even delayed him for a few seconds, it would have made a world of difference.
Literally.
Shankey, who had taken the catastrophic news rather well, shook his head. "Wonder why he didn"t get dragged in with the others?"
Velma shrugged, looking very miserable. "Maybe because his astral self was already there? I dunno. But the rest went in, whoosh. If Drebbie here hadn"t grabbed me I"d have gone too."
Debreban winced at the inaccurate diminutive, but kept quiet. It was better than being called "Debbrie."
"Metaphysical things," she continued. "Who can understand that kind of stuff? Poor Anton"s got some company at least. Maybe they can all hook up together on the Otherside and figure something out."
"If Lord Botello doesn"t kill them," Debreban added cheerlessly.Or if they"re not all dead from the storm. "What do we do now?"
Shankey went over to the discarded pavilion and pulled a length of black velvet from the pile. They caught onto his intent and helped him straighten the fabric, then solemnly draped it over the body.
"We say a prayer for the dead," he announced. "Then we find Lord Perdle and tell him what"s going on."
"Maybe . . ." said Velma, "maybe we could try a seance ourselves. Just to see if anyone"s there."
"Won"t that be dangerous?" Debreban didn"t care to further involve himself with such dark doings.
Shankey nodded, but seemed thoughtful. "Yeah. But if the world"s gonna end soon like Terrin told me, what have we got to lose?"
"No, I don"t think we should. We need to go to Lord Perdle, and then help with the fire." Debreban went to one of the narrow windows. The glow in the distance hadn"t grown, but neither had it shrunk.
Perhaps they"d gotten it under control and confined. Few places in Rumpock were far from the river, and if the Watch had the pumps going in time . . . and, "What the h.e.l.l isthat? "
"What"s wrong?" Shankey came up.
Debreban pointed. "Do you see anything?"
Velma joined them. "Uh-oh. That"s bad, right?"
The city appeared to be flooded with an undulating black fog through all her streets and ways. It b.u.mped and washed against the gates of Darmo House like an impatient tide.
"Oh, yeah, that"s bad," said Shankey. "That"s what all the Talents have been in a twist over. We don"t have Talent, so we shouldnot be able to see it. I think something really awful has happened on theOtherside."
"Seance anyone?" suggested Velma.
Chapter Nineteen.
In h.e.l.l "Shouldn"t we be seeing some demons about now?" Filima asked.
"Let"s be glad that we haven"t." Cadmus had quite enough on his plate; he didn"t care to be dealing with demons just yet, thank you very much.
"But they should be all over the place. If they"re not, then where did they go?"
Cadmus was reluctant to voice the idea that Botello had rounded them up and would soon descend in a surprise attack. And for that matter wherehad Botello taken himself? There wasn"t a surfeit of cover around here; a few scraggly, th.o.r.n.y growths that might loosely be described as trees was the limit of the scenery, along with some rocks.
"Party," mumbled Terrin behind him.
"What"s that?" asked Velma.
"They gonna party."
"What do you mean?"
"Wha"dya think? Get me to th" dam" river. An" tell G.o.dzilla boy t" stop b.u.mpin" me so much!"
"Cadmus, we have to hurry!"
"Right-oh!" he said, and began to trot.
In Limbo "Hey!" I said. "Check it out! My sword and the crystal!" I darted to one side and snagged them from where they lay on the flat blue ground, none the worse for wear, not even scratched.
Anton kept walking. "I"d wondered whose those were," he said. His eyes were still shut. "They skittered toward me in some strong wind that came through. Stopped right at my feet just a few minutes ago."
Minutes? So all that action with the succubae and my long nap had been a time-compressed dream? No way, no way. I had to have been in a s.p.a.ce opera-style time warp or pocket or whatever they called those things. It hadhappened, and I was walking funny to prove it. "Why didn"t you pick them up?" "They weren"t mine. Besides, I sensed the sword had some cold iron in it and might not be good for me to handle. Disrupts one"s Talent, you know. I"m out of magic now as it is. Crystals are even trickier.
Never know what energies are stored in the pesky things. Best to leave them lay until one"s been properly introduced."
"Is it going to be a problem for you if I hang on to them?"
"Don"t think so; just avoid whacking me with either one and we should get along fine."
I looked over the crystal for any sign of light. It had a normal weight now. "Myhr toEnterprise , come in. Time to beam me up. Terrin? You out there, dude? h.e.l.lo?" No answering voice popped into my head.
"Wants to be charged up again," said Anton.
"I told Terrin it needed new batteries." I shoved it in a pocket and got a solid grip on the sword. Didn"t know what good it"d do me at the moment, but I felt better having it along.
"Terrin"s your wizard friend?"
"Yeah. He was anchoring my astral body. The line snapped, and I don"t know why. I think Botello might have interrupted the circle."
"Yes, that would explain some of the things I"ve seen and sensed. Is Terrin a short fellow with white hair?"
Jeez, I was walking with Anton-Wan Ken.o.bi. "Last time I saw. This magic drain did stuff to him, messed him up. You can see him?"
"I"ve caught a glimpse or two. He"s on this Side. Over in the h.e.l.l plane."
I snorted. "That"s practically his home turf. Probably having a party."
"Don"t think so. Cadmus is carrying him."
My guts made a swoop. "He"s not dead, is he?"
"No, Filima"s talking to him, but he doesn"t look at all well."
"She"s here, too? Who else?"
Anton shook his head. "Sorry. Just brief pictures of them. But we must move more quickly."
So we picked up the pace. "How is it you can see like that?"
"It"s my Gift. Been rather a bother, but turning out to be useful here. In the Reality plane the visions come through clear, but are not always specific in their meanings. The Powers That Be have to limit our Otherside knowledge or it throws off the balance. They sent me some warnings, but no explanations.
Best they could do, I fear." He was sounding like Terrin, but more refined in his language. "You don"t go running around the Reality plane like that, do you? With your eyes shut?"
"Oh, certainly not. The rules are a tad different on this side. I"ve been shown and told some interesting things, not all of them good."
"Like what?"
"Hard to explain."
"Can you tell me about the h.e.l.l-river?"
"It started with Botello."
"He invented it?"
"Goodness, no, but his magical experiments caused something of a metaphysical earthquake, which brought it flowing into the Reality plane when the veils are thinnest, at night. The Overlords in the h.e.l.l plane were naturally upset at first, then saw it as a means to escape."
"Into the Reality plane?"
"Into any plane. You"ve seen their place-would you want to spend eternity there?"
Good point. "Can"t these Powers keep them in?"
"That"s what the h.e.l.l-river"s for, serves as a boundary between the planes. It holds a store of magical energy, which is what confines the demons. They can"t use magic themselves, but are very familiar with it, like a horse with a bridle. They"re always eager to manipulate people like Botello into serving their ends while pretending themselves to serve. He has ambition, a weakness they exploited, but he has always been a trifle short on imagination. Tends to dismiss the obvious."
"Which was?"
"That he just wasn"t up to the task. Thought himself special. Stupid b.u.g.g.e.r. What he"s managed to do is botch up the balance. One living being thrown into h.e.l.l the wrong way-which is what happened with Botello-is what upset things. It made quite a stir, I can tell you. Brought him no end of attention. The Powers are very specific about protocol. Theonly way you are supposed to get into h.e.l.l is through the proper channels. You have to die, go through a bit of processing with the Powers, and if you"re really deserving punishment, off you fly through the Gate."
Who would have thought line-breaking could be taken so seriously? On the other hand, who was that eager to break into h.e.l.l? "Why didn"t the Powers just get him out?"
"They didn"t know he was there. The Inner Overlords were hiding him, hoping he could do something to help them escape using the river. Normally it flows in a circle. Any being who tries to cross it is brought right back again. But suddenly the h.e.l.l-river vanished from h.e.l.l, an unthinkable disaster, and any unshielded Talents in the Reality plane unfortunate enough to be in its path were sucked in. It has quite a store of magical energy from them. That"s upset things, too."
"They all died?" "Not as such."
"Bodily displaced?"
"Close enough. Only there were no bodies left behind. The holes made when they vanished just knitted up, memories were adjusted. The Powers had a hand in that, an emergency measure to keep people from a panic. The missing Talents are imprisoned in the h.e.l.l-river, and it wants correcting."
"Would that leave the astral plane empty, too?"
"Look for yourself," he said, gesturing at the blue limbo around us. "b.l.o.o.d.y boring, isn"t it? The Powers shut everything down so they could better spot any demons who might get through."
No wonder those succubae had been so lonely.
"Now the river flows nightly in the Reality plane. So far, beings in the river when it vanishes from h.e.l.l are left behind when it shifts course, but that"s about to change. Several more living souls have been pulled into h.e.l.l-with their bodies-andthat has created a link to the Reality plane. Very shortly the h.e.l.l-river is going to shift course and be flowing in both directions at once. Then the demons will be able to escape.
Well, it"s just not the done thing."
"No, of course not," I said faintly.
"So we"re going to find Botello, get me back into my proper body, and try to put things right again."
"What about the overlords?" Who and whateverthey were. "What about the demons?"
"I"m sure you can take care of them."
It was news to me. "Huh?"
"Your sword-"
"Is borrowed! I"m a lover, not a fighter. I didn"t do too well on that side of the Gate. One of those demons nearly got me."
"But you fought it off."
"I gave it a paper cut, but nothing that would stop it. That thing washuge ." I antic.i.p.ated that overlords were even bigger and meaner.
"How huge?"