Give the Devil His Due (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Three) (29 page)

However, in this case, she used it like a sonic blast. It wasn’t designed to hurt, but merely disrupt. It didn’t affect the troops around her, but launched right to the area where she thought her attacker was hiding. She aimed up, knowing that whatever was on the offensive must somehow be flying.

The ploy worked. As soon as she screamed, she saw something fall from the sky and heard a smacking sound. It landed in a gold blur.

Kate ran toward it, but her attacker was on its feet before she could get halfway there.

She watched in surprise as a woman stood up and calmly dusted herself off. Kate could feel the eyes of her army on them.

The woman was dressed in gold-colored robes, with gold bands on her wrists. She carried a shield and a spear that looked like they came from ancient Greece.

She laughed and the sound was like tinkling bells.

“Excellent,” she said. “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to be much of a challenge.”

Kate looked her up and down, noticing a small gold crown on her head.

“Are you supposed to be Wonder Woman or something?” Kate asked.

A brief look of confusion passed over the woman’s face.

“I have no idea who that is,” she said. “As for who I am, that should be obvious. I’m the one who’s going to destroy you.”

Kate sniffed, and even heard a smattering of laughter from the troops around her.

“I’ve heard that before,” she replied.

“Not from me,” the woman said.

“We haven’t been properly introduced,” Kate said. “I’m Kate Tassel. And you are?”

“Carman,” the woman replied with haughty confidence. If she was nervous about being outnumbered roughly ten thousand to one, it didn’t show.

“And you attacked me because…?” Kate asked when no further information was forthcoming.

The woman laughed again.

“Lord Sanheim asked me to,” she replied. “But I think you probably knew that already. You don’t look completely stupid.”

Kate’s eyes narrowed, but she let the insult pass.

Instead, she calmly said the word that had been on her lips since Carman started talking.

“Fire,” she said.

A slew of gunshots rang out, but Kate saw a shimmer in the air around Carman. The bullets connected, but seemed to be absorbed into some sort of energy field she had around her.

“Well, that was rude,” Carman said in a tone of disapproval. “I thought we were talking.”

“Really? You said you were going to destroy me,” Kate said. “As far as conversations go, I’ve had better.”

Carman arched an eyebrow at her.

“I don’t like you,” she said. “You don’t know your superior when you see it. When I said my name, you should have trembled in terror.”

“Well, somebody sure is impressed with herself,” Kate said.

“Oh, I have nothing to fear from you, young one,” she said. “You might be a banshee, but you barely understand your powers. What do you think I’ve been doing here? I’ve been testing you. Your army’s numbers are impressive, but they’re slow, as are you. You think you’re a threat? You’re nothing.”

“Then why don’t you come over here and kill me?” Kate asked flatly. “Since you’re such a badass and everything. Or maybe you want to stand there and talk about all the cool things you can do first?”

“We’ll get to that,” Carman replied. “But first I’d like to make a little wager. My people are fond of games and I’ve not been in the mortal world for a long time. My Lord Sanheim gave me two orders. One was to kill you. Would you like to guess what the other was?”

“Twenty questions? That’s your game? You have been out of the mortal world for a while. We have much better games now.”

Carman gave Kate a mirthless smile.

“He asked me to kill someone else, a friend of yours I believe. Kieran Collins?”

“He’s no friend of mine,” Kate responded.

“Then this bet won’t be as interesting as I hoped,” Carman replied. “It’s simple — I know where he is. I’ve been watching you for days. What do you want to bet that by the time you get back to him, I’ll have cut him into pieces?”

Kate froze. She had no love for Kieran, but she needed him if her plan was going to work — and apparently Carman knew that.

“Not so smug now, are you?” Carman asked. “So maybe this will be fun after all. It’s been lovely chatting with you, Kate. I’m sure I’ll see you back home.”

Before Kate could take a step, Carman leapt into the air and shot off into the sky. All Kate saw was a flash of golden light.

Kate looked quickly at Hatcher.

“Round up the troops and bring them to the gathering place,” Kate said. “I have a witch to catch.”

Kate changed from the banshee into the Headless Horseman and began galloping across the Virginia landscape.

Chapter 24

The two shadowmen closed in around Quinn. His eyes darted around the cave looking for anything that could help him. Aside from a few small rocks, there was nothing.

The first shadowman leapt in Quinn’s direction. Quinn dodged the first blow, but the second caught him in the chest. He flew back several feet into the cave wall and hit his head against the rock.

Quinn slumped to the ground and lay there looking up at the two creatures towering over him. They looked like a black mist, but Quinn felt like he’d been hit with a brick. Their massive bulk stood at least seven feet tall, with huge arms and legs. They were completely black except for their eyes, which glowed a deep red.

“Such a shame, brother,” the second shadowman said. “I expected him to be a challenge.”

“Life is full of disappointments, Dub,” the first one said.

When they spoke, their mouths stretched unnaturally wide, showing a gaping black hole.

Quinn noticed they weren’t the only two things moving in the cavern. Above them on the ceiling, the spider-creature was slowly crawling toward his position. Quinn didn’t know what he meant to do until he noticed one of its appendages gesturing to him. He was pointing toward the tunnel on the right.

In a flash, Quinn understood its plan; he just didn’t know if he could pull off his part of it. The two shadowmen slowly walked forward, but Quinn didn’t try to get up. Instead he tried to look harmless and dazed, which was dangerously close to the truth.

“No fight at all, Dother,” Dub said. “How boring.”

When the two were almost on top of him, Dub reached down to grab Quinn, but Quinn surprised him by evading his misty black hand and rolling forward between the two figures. He stood up quickly and ran toward the tunnel on the right.

“Still bored, Dub?” he heard Dother ask.

Quinn didn’t wait to hear more, but sprinted through a maze of tunnels. He paid little attention to what direction he was heading, knowing full well it would be a problem when he wanted to get out again. But he also knew if he paused for a moment, Dub and Dother would be on him. He could hear them racing through the cave, right on his heels.

Quinn felt like he had been running most of the time since his death and rebirth in this strange world. He tried not to think about all the monsters that had been chasing him lately.

He stumbled into another cavern, this one much larger than the last. It too had torches along its walls. But when Quinn ran to the center and looked around the room, he saw no exit. He was trapped.

He turned just as the two shadowmen entered. They didn’t run in so much as leap out from the shadows on the wall. Quinn realized they hadn’t been running after him at all, but traveling through the dark places along the wall. They weren’t just made of shadow — they moved in it.

Dother looked above Quinn.

“It found its lair, Dub,” it said. “We thought this place lost.”

Quinn couldn’t help but follow the thing’s gaze. What he saw took his breath away. There was no true ceiling to the cavern. Instead, there was a gigantic spider web. The web glittered in the torch-light, showing off intricate and complicated patterns that seemed to stretch upwards forever. Until that moment, Quinn had no idea how deep into the mountain he must have run.

As he looked above him, Quinn waited for the large spider that must have made the webbing to arrive. He both dreaded and fiercely wished for its arrival, hopeful that it might at least distract his two shadowy pursuers.

But no creature appeared. The web was empty.

He looked back down at the shadowmen, expecting them to be in striking distance. But they were still on the other side of the cavern, gazing up in awe.

“Lovely,” Dother said. “It must have taken it years.”

“Centuries,” Dub responded.

“Once we finish the pretender, we must return here,” Dother said.

“Yes,” Dub said. “And we must bring Dian as well. He would dearly love to see this place burn.”

“Lord Sanheim mustn’t know,” Dother said.

“We are not stupid, brother,” Dub said. “We told him this place was destroyed. It would be unwise if he learned the truth.”

While they were talking, still staring at the web above them, Quinn backed silently toward the far wall. There was no chance of hiding from them or of darting into the tunnel where they came from. Quinn suspected that fading into the shadows would only make it easier for them to catch him.

Instead, he looked at the torches. He wondered how they were lit. He knew that Dub and Dother weren’t behind it, since they had apparently never been here before. Perhaps some influence of whatever creature lived above them must remain. With a start, Quinn realized he knew who it was. Crowley’s book had made a list of the important Princes of Sanheim that came before him. There was one whose real name he didn’t know. But his
cennad
had been the Spider.

It had disappeared from the mortal world when it opened a portal to the world of the dead and attacked Sanheim. Quinn knew it had failed — the book had made that part clear — but it must have managed to survive in this cavern.

Quinn didn’t have time to think more about it at the moment. Instead, he focused on the torch beside him. It was affixed to a long staff and held with an iron clasp to the wall. Quinn reached over to pull the torch out.

He turned to look at the shadowmen, but they were no longer gaping above them. Instead, they had vanished entirely.

Quinn held the torch in front of him and looked around the cavern in a panic. They were nowhere to be seen.

“So much better this way,” a voice said, echoing throughout the cavern.

“Yes,” another voice said. “Dian never appreciates this part.”

The voices seemed to come from everywhere at once. They bounced off the walls. Quinn looked carefully around the cavern, watching for any sign of movement. He didn’t bother to try to hide, but instead started walking back toward the tunnel where he’d come from. He was careful to stay close to the torches, moving from one ring of light to the next. It was just a gut feeling, but he felt sure that if he drifted too far into the darkness, the shadow brothers would grab him.

He walked along the outer edge, periodically stopping to listen for any noise. But the acoustics of the cavern were misleading. The way the sounds echoed, Quinn couldn’t be sure if they were coming from right next to him or across the room.

He heard a rock fall to his left and jumped. But just as he prepared for an attack, nothing happened. He heard another sound behind him and whirled around to find nothing again. The shadowmen were toying with him. He heard laughter echo throughout the cavern.

Fine,
he thought.
They aren’t the only ones who can play games.

He approached another torch on the wall and unclasped it. He now carried a torch in each hand. He quickened his pace, moving closer to the tunnel’s entrance. Every fiber in his being wanted to run, but he knew that was a mistake. For starters, the flames on the torches could go out. For another, the shadowmen were clearly counting on Quinn’s fear to get the better of him. Quinn felt sure they were waiting for him to start running — and then they would strike.

Quinn held the torches out on either side of him and walked toward the tunnel. He heard another sound behind him and turned around. But once again, there was nothing there.

He turned back toward the tunnel and almost didn’t see it in time. One of the shadowmen came surging forward out of the darkness in front of him, swinging a meaty fist at Quinn’s head. Quinn jumped back and thrust one of his torches toward it. The shadowman moved effortlessly to the side and struck again. Quinn dodged again and thrust his torch forward.

Quinn heard another sound behind him and turned around in time to see the other shadowman leaping off the dark wall.

“It can’t escape, Dub,” Dother said. “It must know this.”

“I don’t know, Dother,” the other replied, its red eyes looking at its brother. “It seems stupid and weak. I wonder why Lord Sanheim bothered to have us kill it.”

“Perhaps we have displeased him in some way,” Dother said. “It wouldn’t let us go with Mother.”

Quinn decided he had enough of being on defense. Focusing on both at the same time was also clearly not going to work. He concentrated on the one on his left, the one called Dub. He came at him with both torches at once, thrusting forward with one, while swinging the other with his left arm. Dub moved, but not quite fast enough. He’d been looking at his brother, not concentrating on Quinn, and the assault clearly caught him unprepared. Dub stepped aside from the first jab and tried to jump away from Quinn’s second swing. But the tip of the torch caught the shadow creature just as he pulled back. There was a small spark of orange fire and he screamed so loudly that Quinn nearly dropped his torch.