Kassallandra raised an uncaring eyebrow. "For a human it would be rather treacherous. For us, it should be nothing more than a long inconvenience."
"Let's get this over with," Elyssa said.
I squeezed her tight. "Be careful, hot stuff."
She patted my rump. "You too."
Kassallandra sighed.
"I guess you find our involvement disgusting," I said to her, thinking about the way she'd reacted when speaking of Mom and Dad's marriage, not to mention calling me an abomination.
"I find it very unsettling any time a Daemos enters a relationship with a human, no matter the type. However, since you are half-human, it may not be quite so repulsive."
"Why thank you very much for your approval," I said with a mocking half-bow. "I'm glad you don't care if humans date abominations."
Her eyes crystallized into a pale blue. "You asked my opinion, boy, and I gave it." She stepped into the water. "Now, shall we get on with it?"
I took a deep breath and made sure to follow our flame-haired guide much closer this time. As we took the chain bolted to the bottom of the cavern, something black flashed past in my peripheral vision. A quick glance revealed nothing but a dark expanse of water just outside the range of my blue-tinged night vision. Elyssa and Kassallandra had pulled ahead of me by a few feet during my look around so I hurried to catch up.
Something I couldn't quite make out hovered in the murk a few feet from the chain. I stopped and peered closer but the darkness hid its identity. It was probably a fish, I figured. Of course, I had flashbacks to every scary movie I'd seen with giant man-eating fish in them. I renewed my effort to catch up with the girls again as fear colder than the water around me twined around my bowels. A glint of yellow in my night vision drew my attention yet again to the side. Despite my unease, I pushed off the chain and swam a few feet forward. A black shape rotated slowly in the water, strands of something cloudy trailing from it. I pressed forward another foot and bit back a sudden gasp that would've sucked water into my lungs. I knew what the black shape was.
The head of a hellhound.
Chapter 7
I jetted for the chain, legs kicking furiously to get away from the gruesome sight and to warn the others that something was down here with us. The chain shuddered and jerked. I flew down the length of it, desperate to catch sight of the women again.
I spotted them near the bottom, surrounded by three giant-looking fish. I realized with relief that the fish were, in fact, the hellhounds, or maybe they were hellfish now even though their front halves definitely appeared canine, paws, muzzle and all.
Kassallandra reached the tunnel at the base of the chain and gripped the largest of the hellhounds, the one she'd called Malkesh. He jetted into the tunnel, pulling his mistress along for the ride. Elyssa looked back up the chain at me, her eyes glowing like violet fire in the darkness.
Something brushed my leg. Something infinitely colder than the water around me. I bottled up the shout threatening to burst from my lungs. At this point, I felt a slight burn in my chest as my body devoured the oxygen thanks, in no small part, to the terror hammering in my chest.
Elyssa's eyes widened. She jabbed her finger over and over at something to my right. I looked that way in time to see a black blob twisting and churning straight at me. One of the hellhounds, its flipper-like appendage leaving a trail of fine bubbles in the water, opened its jaws wide and bit the thing. The oily-looking glob vanished into the hound's maw. I stopped staring and frantically pulled myself hand-over-hand down the chain.
A gurgling yelp sounded behind me. I turned to see the black substance oozing from the hellhound's nose, mouth, and eyes, popping the orbs from the sockets to dangle gruesomely by slender threads of nerves. The hound's body twisted and turned, front paws churning at the water until, with a loud crunch, it seemed to twist itself in half, tearing flesh and leaving a bloody cloud in the water. A tentacle of the black cloud speared toward me, coiling around my leg and drawing tight like a noose.
It was all I could do not to scream as the intense cold of its grip bit into my leg. Elyssa was swimming for me but another hellhound pinned her between its forelegs. The creature jerked at my foot again until I thought it might entirely wrench off the appendage. The chain shuddered with each pull. The lower mooring bolt snapped loose from the bedrock and suddenly I was flying backward away from Elyssa and into the dark as my hands glided down the slippery length of the metal chain.
I tightened my grip. The chain snapped taut for a brief instant before breaking free of the other bolt back at the air pocket. My heart pounded mercilessly against my ribs and the ache in my lungs turned into an intense burn as terror depleted my remaining oxygen supply. I had nothing to grab hold of as the flowing black thing pulled me toward what would likely be a horrific death.
The walls of a narrow tunnel surrounded me. I tried to grip them, but mold and slime coated the surface, mocking my feeble attempts to save myself. I broke free of the water with a loud splash. The achingly cold clamp around my ankle vanished. I tumbled along a rocky passage, each jolt sending a wave of agony into my naked skin as I slid along it until the upward slope of the passage arrested my momentum. Gasping each breath of air like the treasure it was, I pushed myself up and examined the surrounding passage.
A warm yellow glow illuminated the tunnel. It reminded me of the small square room and I wondered what purpose it served. But even more immediate on my mind was the location of my insidious-looking kidnapper, the black tentacle, or whatever the hell it was. Had it gone back after Elyssa now?
"Dah nah?" croaked a tiny voice from the direction of the water where it lapped against the downward-sloping sides of the tunnel that, presumably, led back to the cavern.
Cold, awful dread snaked into my abdomen, and I backed away as a small black creature with the body of a chubby toddler dragged itself from the water and stood. Its arms reached out as it gained footing and limped toward me. A huge head tottered on a thin, elongated neck while its body wobbled on unsure, knobby, and malformed feet. The tiny body shimmered with an ultraviolet halo. The aura flickered and danced, occasionally giving the creature the appearance of having insubstantial wings, misty shadows that spread behind it and vanished. I wondered if my eyes were playing tricks or if this creature was a demonic cherub, crawling from the depths of hell to scare my pants off. A black orifice opened in the smooth, featureless surface of the head.
"Dah nah," it said in a whimpering moan.
I screamed like a little girl and backed away. The dark cherub wobbled toward me, little nubby arms grasping.
"What the hell are you?" I shouted.
Cupid's evil little brother made a high-pitched screech and kept coming.
I turned and raced down the tunnel, my bare feet slapping painfully against uneven rock, until I came to a branch where the tunnel floor smoothed out from the rough-hewn passage behind me. I could go forward, left, or right, but if any way was better, I had no clue. Maybe one of the passages was a way out. Maybe none were. My chances of guessing correctly didn't seem too great, though. I went left. If my sense of direction wasn't totally messed up, I should be moving away from the granite quarry and maybe, just maybe, toward an exit. I could always believe in miracles, right? My brain presented the cold, hard math, reminding me a thirty-three point three percent chance of guessing the correct passage likely meant a sixty-six point six percent chance a horrible, gruesome death awaited me in a dead end down this winding corridor.
I told my brain to kindly shut up and leave me alone.
The tunnel curved around a long bend and ended in a rectangular room the size of the school gymnasium. Bands of silver metal set in perfect rows encircled sections of the room, each one set apart from the other by about five feet or so. At the center of some circles stood black arches. Some lay shattered or in crumbled ruins, others were completely missing. Only a handful looked whole. To my left stood a lone arch, a large one easily three times the size of the others. Where they measured ten feet tall by the same distance wide, this arch towered over them, the silver circle around it claiming far more real estate. Not only was it larger, but the coloring was bizarre—snow white veined with shiny obsidian.
"Please be a way out," I said, not caring if the thing was orange with purple polka dots.
"Dah nah!" echoed a tortured scream from the tunnel.
I rushed into the room.
Each of the intact arches looked shiny and black, just as I remembered the Obsidian Arch. It was like a huge terminal of the things, maybe a transport hub. Perhaps I could use one and close the silver circle around it like Shelton had taught me. Somehow, make it take me where I wanted to go.
A tiny whimpering sound echoed from the tunnel mouth. I turned to see my little stalker had found me. It staggered along on its ghastly legs, the yellowish light around it shimmering with darkness. I could probably lure it to the back of the room and circle around it. Maybe make it back to the water, but then what? If it was the same black ooze that had brought me here, I wouldn't get far before it caught me and dragged me back. I didn't have a clue where the tunnel to the river was, having lost all sense of bearing during my capture.
The arches were my only chance. I mentally flipped a coin and chose the undamaged arch farthest from the tunnel and the little horror chasing me. During my mad dash to the back of the room, I spotted a map of the world centered above a raised platform and set inside the granite wall. I looked behind me. The toddler from hell remained well behind, its tiny legs not meant for fast travel. The map might be important. It might tell me where to go. I detoured between the arches and raced to what looked like the front of the huge space.
When I reached the map, it turned out to be much larger up close, bordering on ten feet tall and twice as wide. Tiny silver stars dotted the surface. The outlines I would usually associate with the borders of countries bore no similarities to the ones I knew. In fact, the landmasses looked different, though they were close enough in shape to be familiar.
Symbols, resembling something like an ancient alphabet, lined the wall to the left of the map. I recognized some of them. I'd seen them in one of Shelton's spells—one he'd written in Cyrinthian. If Nightliss spoke the language, did that mean her people built this place? A gurgling wail echoed from nearby. My butt cheeks clenched. I had no time to waste before nightmare baby, slow as he was, caught up with me.