twenty-eight.
I looked in the mirror and once again I was Indra: all tall and lithe and with a well-muscled body and a regal face and an extremely large . . . Hmm, I wondered if I"d get a chance to give the package a test-drive this time? But then I blinked, and sadly, I I was the only person staring back at me in the mirror"s reflection. was the only person staring back at me in the mirror"s reflection.
It was getting dark in Vritra"s realm. And that meant all the bad things would be coming out to play soon.
Daniel stood behind me, his hand holding on to the bottom of my tank top, dangerously close to my, ahem, derriere. Clio, Runt"s leash looped in her belt, was holding on to my shoulder.
"Did you just have a p.e.n.i.s?" she said, her eyes flaring. "Like maybe Indra"s p.e.n.i.s?"
I ignored her.
"Where"s Kali?"
Daniel shook his head, his eyes taking in the glorious profusion of tent that surrounded us.
"I don"t think she could come with us. I felt her trying to cross over, but it wasn"t happening," Daniel said. "I think she was more than a map, Callie. I think she was the only conduit by which we could cross over into this realm."
"That"s so cool," Clio said, and Runt barked.
"I wish she was here," I said, shivering. Daniel caught my eye, his own eyes full of worry.
"Me, too."
There was a familiar chanting sound just outside the tent, and we all ran to the side just in time to see the Gopi as they marched, en ma.s.se, across the desert toward Vritra"s castle. They looked better here, more alive, but it was kind of hard to tell really because they were so far away.
"Well, I never thought I"d say this, but seeing a whole army of living-dead Indian milkmaids crossing the desert floor to slay a sea serpent is is kinda comforting," I said. kinda comforting," I said.
Daniel snorted.
I turned to Clio, who was admiring herself in the mirror. She caught my eye, and gave me a rea.s.suring smile.
"Look, Clio, I think you"re aces, and that"s why if anything happened to you, I"d shoot myself-" I began.
"I know," she said, cutting me off. "You want me to stay here. here." She indicated the tent, and I nodded happily. I couldn"t believe my luck. My headstrong little sister was actually actually gonna do what I told her to! gonna do what I told her to!
"Bite me, Callie."
I knew it was too good to be true.
"c.r.a.p, okay, just do what Daniel or I tell you to and keep your mouth shut. I"ve been here before and you haven"t so-"
"Whatever," she said dismissively.
"I mean it," I said firmly.
"Fine."
"Okay, then let"s get out of here," I said, and headed for the sand. I was still holding the cup in my hand when I noticed that for the first time ever it was freezing cold to the touch. I didn"t know what it meant, but I didn"t think it was a good thing.
"The cup"s like a block of ice," I whispered to Daniel as the three of us and Runt clomped through the sand, following the trail of footsteps the Gopi left behind. I hadn"t had to use my memory once since we"d gotten here-thank G.o.d for small miracles-because I couldn"t have found the pavilion pavilion again, let alone the corpse castle. again, let alone the corpse castle.
"What"s it mean?" he asked, and I shrugged. I have no idea; that"s why I"m asking you, I have no idea; that"s why I"m asking you, I thought to myself. I thought to myself.
Out of nowhere Runt started barking like Cujo, and Clio had to throw all her body weight into yanking Runt back by the halter or the puppy would"ve run off into the darkening twilight.
"What is it?" I called up to her, but Clio didn"t answer. It took Daniel and me a minute to catch up to her, but when we did, I saw why she was being so quiet.
We"d reached Vritra"s castle. And we were late. The battle had already begun.
The castle stood in all its villainous horror just like I remembered it. There were still too many eyes to count, too many blackened tongues protruding from lacerated mouths, eviscerated entrails plastered together, cracked bones rammed in place. It made me sick to look at it.
I looked over at Clio again, and I could see the enormity of the evilness of the place filling her imagination with a hundred thousand nightmares.
"It"s built out of people, Callie. You said it was a castle . . . but it"s really a mausoleum." She stumbled over her words as she spoke, and right then I would"ve given up shopping for the rest of my life if I could"ve only peeled away this image from my sister"s brain forever.
But I couldn"t.
"I think you"re right, Clio," I said, squeezing her arm. "It"s anything but but a castle." a castle."
I looked over at Daniel, but he was too busy surveying the fighting to pay much attention to what the castle was made of.
"The Gopi are winning," he said, pointing to where one of the Gopi was slaughtering a brigade of scarlet and black armored soldiers.
These were the very soldiers that Indra had defeated so deftly with his double-headed scepter the last time I was here. It made me remember that they were just the first-and easiest-defense that Vritra had protecting his castle of bodies.
"There"s more where they came from," I said. "Just wait."
It didn"t take the Gopi long to destroy the first wave of soldiers. Once all the infantrymen had been killed, the Gopi stood around poking at the dead bodies, waiting for whatever was going to happen next.
From where we stood-which was as far away as I could convince Clio and Daniel to stand from the action-we could still here the faint chant of the word "Vritra" as it was carried through the air toward us.
"This is creepy," Clio said, rubbing Runt"s head more for her own comfort than for giving Runt the scratchies.
"Just wait," I repeated. It was going to be very very interesting to see what Clio and Daniel did once the goop monsters reared their ugly heads. interesting to see what Clio and Daniel did once the goop monsters reared their ugly heads.
We didn"t have to wait long.
The earth began to shake, knocking some of the less-well-put-together Gopi onto the ground. The others who were able to retain their balance looked up at the sky, their eyes locked on something that we couldn"t see-but that I I could remember. could remember.
"What"s going on?!" Clio shrieked as she grabbed my hand, terrified. She shrieked again as a loud belching sound filled the air and the stench of p.o.o.p and burning hair a.s.sailed our nostrils.
"Ew!" Clio wailed, covering her nose. I looked over and saw that Daniel was doing the same thing. Clio wailed, covering her nose. I looked over and saw that Daniel was doing the same thing.
The smell is even worse than I remember.
"Just wait," I said-it was fast becoming my mantra. Suddenly, the sky was lit up with fire as the giant ma.s.ses of black goop sailed through the air like cannon b.a.l.l.s and splatted thick and gooey onto the ground, taking out chunks of earth-and any Gopi not quick enough to get out of the way.
Runt started barking again, but this time Clio was so focused on the goop b.a.l.l.s flying through the air that she wasn"t quick enough to stop the puppy from yanking her leash free and running helter-skelter right into all the action.
"Runt!" Clio screamed as she instinctively took off after the h.e.l.lhound, completely forgetting the insanity that was going on all around her.
"Clio! Come back!" I yelled, but I was too far behind for them to hear me.
All I could do was watch in horror as Clio, her eyes pinned to Runt"s retreating back, tripped on a fallen piece of armor . . . and sailed headfirst into one of the glistening blobs of black goop. and sailed headfirst into one of the glistening blobs of black goop.
"Clio!" I screamed as the goop ball swallowed her whole. I took off again, dodging fallen soldiers, attack Gopi, and black goop b.a.l.l.s, until I reached Clio"s side. The only part of her body that was still visible was her left arm, which stuck out from the goop at a weird angle.
"d.a.m.n it," I cried, plunging my hands into the viscous, gluelike stuff and pulling at my baby sister"s arm. The more I pulled, the less she budged-but the more I got myself entangled in the goop. It seemed like hours that I fought for my sister, but it could have been only seconds because when I looked back to where I"d left Daniel, he was still quite a distance away from us and running pretty d.a.m.n fast. I cried, plunging my hands into the viscous, gluelike stuff and pulling at my baby sister"s arm. The more I pulled, the less she budged-but the more I got myself entangled in the goop. It seemed like hours that I fought for my sister, but it could have been only seconds because when I looked back to where I"d left Daniel, he was still quite a distance away from us and running pretty d.a.m.n fast.
"Daniel!" I shouted, willing him to reach me before I was subsumed, but there wasn"t enough time. Too soon, I felt the goop overwhelm me, and then I was sucked down into a black, hazy world-one from which I was afraid that I would never escape.
The last thing I remembered as I was sucked down into unconsciousness was clutching the Cup of Jamshid so tightly in my hand that it felt like my fingers were going to freeze off.
"callie ? "
It was Clio"s voice, sounding small and scared. I opened one eye and didn"t see anything but darkness, so I shut it again.
"Callie," she said again, shaking me. The girl was persistent-I"d give her that. I cracked both eyes open this time, and that was when I saw Clio, her whole person covered in black glop, sitting next to me, holding the severely tarnished Cup of Jamshid in her lap.
"The cup," I said, my voice a whisper.
"I had to pry it out of your hand," Clio said, wiping her nose with the back of her hand but just smearing more goop onto her face.
"Where are we?" I said, sitting up, my back cracking as I lifted myself from the cold stone floor.
I could see that we were in some kind of ma.s.sive feasting hall-there was a long wooden table in the center of the room, bits of meat and sauce drying to its top from the last meal, and this was facing a huge stone hearth that Clio and I and about twenty roast pigs could"ve fit into easily. All along the sides of the table were rough-hewn wooden chairs and candelabra with thick, dripping tallow candles that gave the room its only light except for the raging fire in the hearth.
The place reeked of sweat, unwashed bodies, and death. It seemed that the castle was just as unsettling on the inside inside as it was on the as it was on the outside outside.
"Give me the cup," I said, holding out my hands. Clio deposited the poor blackened thing in my hands, and I held it up to the light so that I could see inside it.
"What do you see?" Clio asked.
I couldn"t see a b.l.o.o.d.y thing. Stupid cup, Stupid cup, I thought to myself as I threw it into the wall. It made a hollow I thought to myself as I threw it into the wall. It made a hollow pinging pinging sound when it hit the stone, then clattered to the floor and lay still. Clio crawled over to the cup and gently picked it up. sound when it hit the stone, then clattered to the floor and lay still. Clio crawled over to the cup and gently picked it up.
"It"s not the cup"s fault, Callie."
I nodded. She handed it back to me, and I put it down, opting instead to stare at my goop-covered hands.
"I didn"t see anything."
"You didn"t?" Clio asked tentatively.
"Nothing."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly through her nose.
"Okay," she tried. "What did you see before? Where in this place did you see Dad?"
I closed my eyes, trying desperately to remember, but all I could see was my father"s ashen face and the way his eyelids fluttered once, then didn"t move again.
"I don"t know," I wailed.
"Well, we can"t just sit here waiting to get eaten," Clio said finally as she took the cup and stood. "Let"s go exploring."
"I don"t want to," I said, pouting like a small child. Clio grabbed my arm and yanked on it, trying to force me to stand.
"Stop it," I said through gritted teeth.
"Not until you get up and stop feeling sorry for yourself," she said, pulling on my arm again.
"I said to stop it!" I slapped her hand away from me, and too late I realized that I"d hit her a lot harder than I"d meant to. She gasped at the sting of flesh on flesh, and then her eyes filled with tears. She dropped my arm and scuttled away from me.
"I really hate you sometimes, Calliope," she whispered, and then she took off. At first, I just watched her go, her long legs carrying her through one of the myriad of doorways that led in and out of the hall.
"Clio, wait!" I called, but my voice only seemed to get sucked up in the roar of the fire and the steady drip of tallow onto the floor.
d.a.m.n it, I thought as I stood up and marched over to the doorway Clio had gone through. But when I got there, I saw the door was padlocked shut. I thought as I stood up and marched over to the doorway Clio had gone through. But when I got there, I saw the door was padlocked shut.
That"s weird, I thought. I thought. I must"ve been mistaken. I must"ve been mistaken.
I tried every single door in the whole place-and every one of them was locked up tight as a drum. I had no idea what to do now. I"d lost my sister, and I was nowhere near finding my father.
I walked over to the hearth and sat down in front of it, letting the warmth penetrate my skin and sink into my bones. I closed my eyes and sat there, trying to collect my thoughts and calm my brain.
"s.h.i.t, s.h.i.t, s.h.i.t . . ." I moaned under my breath.
"Mistress Calliope?"
My eyes popped open, and I looked around frantically, trying to locate the sound of Jarvis"s voice. Jarvis"s voice.
"Jarvis?" I hissed. "Is that you?"
I looked up and saw the stairway hidden inside the heart of the hearth. and saw the stairway hidden inside the heart of the hearth.
"How do I get in there?" I said, but Jarvis didn"t seem to have any ideas for me.
"I couldn"t tell you, Miss Calliope. I"ve only ever seen this this side of the hearth." side of the hearth."
There were no buckets of water to put out the flames, no blanket to suffocate them with, so I sucked it up and made a running leap for the bottom step.
I was really really hoping it would turn out to be magical fire-specifically a magical fire that didn"t burn. hoping it would turn out to be magical fire-specifically a magical fire that didn"t burn.