Ruby Shadows (38 page)

But soon I had other things to listen to
besides the horse’s hooves. There was a wind in the tunnel—it
swooped and swirled and blew my hair around my face. And in the
wind were the voices…

“
Gwendolyn, child, what
are you doing with your life?
whispered a
familiar voice in my ear.
Why have you
been giving yourself to that demon when you know you have to stay
pure? Stay pure to stay strong…stay pure to stay
protected…”

“
I’m trying, Grams,” I
whispered, feeling hot and uncomfortable in the fur coat. “I swear
I’m trying.”

Then the wind changed.

“
Gwendy,”
whispered a voice I hadn’t heard in ages.
Gwendy, he’s got me and he won’t let me go! I
don’t want to be with those men—the ones he sends to me. But he
says if I don’t, he’ll cut me off. I can’t help it, Gwendy, I’m so
sorry…

“
Keisha!” I knew it was a
trick of the tunnel but I couldn’t help looking around for the
source of the soft, sighing voice. Was she here? Had my baby sister
somehow been transported to Hell?

“
The voices are not real,”
Laish murmured in my ear. “Nothing you hear is real,
Gwendolyn.”

“
Okay, right.” I nodded
and tried to keep the tears that had gathered in my eyes from
falling. Goddess, I missed my little sister so
much
. Even hearing what I knew was a
fake of her voice made me long to take her in my arms and hold her
close—to save her and comfort her.

The wind changed again and this time it
spoke in a deep, masculine voice.

“
Laish,”
it murmured.
“Laish, my
brother, you are sorely missed in the celestial circles. Why did
you forsake the Heavens? Why did you give up everything for the
sake of pride?”

I turned my head to glance at Laish and see
what he thought about this but his face was a stony, impenetrable
mask. It was impossible to say if the voice was bothering him or
not.

“
Ignore it, Gwendolyn,” he
said, staring straight ahead. “We will be through the tunnel
soon.”

I supposed he must hear the same thing every
time he had to come to the City of Dis this way. Maybe he had
gotten used to it over all the millennia since he’d ended up in
Hell. I was beginning to have an idea of what must have happened to
him but I didn’t want to ask outright since he’d gotten so
defensive the night before. Maybe soon we could talk about it
though.

“
Gwendolyn, listen to me.
Please listen, my friend!”

I frowned. The new voice sounded different
somehow—less hollow and windy. In fact it almost sounded real, like
someone was whispering right in my ear. Still, I tried to ignore it
as Laish had said. It would do no good to get myself all worked up
for nothing. But the soft little voice persisted.

“
It’s so hard to get you
to hear me, but here in the tunnel it’s possible if you’ll only
listen,”
it went on.
“I’m trapped here—he stole me away and he’s kept me here in
this awful place for so long. Please help me! Please!”

Who could it be? It didn’t
sound like any voice from my past—at least, not anyone I could
remember. Although it
did
seem strangely familiar. Almost like something
I’d heard in a dream.

“
If you could make a
spell…find a way to set me free…just let me leave this terrible
place. I’m so afraid he’ll catch me and bring me back and I can’t
stay like this forever. Please!”

I couldn’t ignore it any longer.

“
Who
are
you?” I asked.

“
I’m—”
the little voice began. But just then we finally reached the
end of the tunnel. Kurex cantered out of it and onto a road that
seemed to be made of cobblestones. His hooves clattered loudly
against the new pavement and the little voice was lost.

“
Who were you speaking
to?” Laish asked me. “I told you the voices are only
imaginary.”

“
Yes, but that last one
was different,” I said. “I almost felt like I’d heard it before but
it wasn’t anyone from my past that I recognized. It
was…strange.”

“
I heard no one after the
last voice that was meant for me.” He sounded like he was
frowning.

“
You didn’t hear it?
That’s weird.”

I shook my head, my hair brushing against
the collar of my fur coat. The movement must have startled Eryn, my
little moth, because she fluttered up from my shoulder and hovered
in front of my face for a moment, her little wings beating in wild
agitation.

“
Oh, sorry little girl,” I
told her, trying to make my voice soothing. “I didn’t mean to upset
you. Just settle back down on my shoulder. We’re safe
here.”

“
As safe as you are likely
to be anywhere in the Infernal Realm, anyway,” Laish said as the
moth settled reluctantly back on my shoulder. “This is, after all,
my dominion. Yet that which seeks you is relentless. We must still
exercise caution, even here.”

I knew he was talking about the HellSpawn
and it made me shiver.

“
All right,” I said whole
heartedly. “I’ll do whatever you say to stay safe.” I’d had more
than enough near misses lately—I swore to myself I’d listen to
Laish’s advice and do as he said.

“
It’s good to know you’re
finally willing to be attentive,” he said dryly.

“
I just don’t want to get
killed or have my soul sucked out before I can close that damn door
and get back home,” I told him.

We paused for a moment to climb off Kurex
and change since the winter things Laish had given me that morning
were now much too hot. There was no one in sight in either
direction but I still changed quickly, taking off the warm clothing
he’d given me and putting on a much lighter garment that reminded
me of a sundress with short sleeves. It was deep purple and looked
good against my skin.

Laish changed as well with a wave of his
hand, putting himself back into an immaculate black suit that
wouldn’t have looked out of place on Wall Street. I noticed that
instead of making my old winter clothes vanish he tucked them
carefully into one of Kurex’s saddle bags. Except for the coat,
that was.

“
I believe you wished to
keep this?” he asked, handing it to me after he’d helped me up into
the saddle again.

“
Thank you.” I stroked the
soft fur gratefully. It might be silly but I had decided I did want
to keep it—even if I would never have a chance to wear it at home.
It was simply too pretty to leave behind.

“
You’re very welcome,
Gwendolyn.” Laish swung up behind me and we resumed our
journey.

The road was leading into a city now—or was
it a town? The cobbled streets were crowded but not with the
horrible looking creatures I’d seen in the crowds at Baator. Oh,
some of them were clearly demons but many were just people and they
were almost all dressed in long, scholarly robes. Also, none of
them was doing anything obviously horrible or illegal. I didn’t see
any prostitutes or anyone selling body parts (I had seen both those
things and worse in Baator.) Instead, everyone seemed to be going
about their business with serious looks on their faces. The traffic
in the streets was brisk but remarkably quiet.

“
What’s the deal with this
place?” I asked, looking around. “How come nobody’s being horrible
to anyone else or trying to kill or rob or rape anyone?”

“
The fifth circle is for
narcissists, self-centered individuals, and intellectuals,” Laish
answered. “Those who were either too wrapped up in their own
pursuits and vanity to seek the Creator, or those who willfully
denied his existence and his role in the universe.”

“
What—like atheists?” I
asked, frowning.

“
Among others. ‘The fool
has said in his heart, there is no God.’ Psalms 14, verse 1,” Laish
quoted, surprising me.

I looked back at him. “That’s from the
Bible, right? How do you know that?”

“
No one knows the
scriptures so well as we demons do,” Laish said seriously. “We
study them well to know our enemy.”

“
So everyone in this
circle has either ignored God or denied him?” I asked. “Your circle
must be crowded! I believe in God and Heaven and obviously Hell—I
mean here we are. But there are so many people who don’t. People
who believe everything—the Earth, the solar system—the whole
universe just happened by accident.”

“
Of course—it is one of
the more convincing lies we tell,” Laish said, shrugging. “Though I
often wonder why humanity is so willing to swallow it. After all,
one only need look at the stars and planets, so perfectly aligned
in their courses, or the cellular structure of any organism to know
that there has to be a Creator.”

“
I guess everyone just
believes everything evolved the way it is,” I said.

“
As to that, perhaps if
they would do some reading they might see that it isn’t so simple.
There is a book in my own private library called The Case for a
Creator. It’s quite thought provoking—I think if more mortals would
read it, there would be fewer of them in my dominion,” Laish
remarked.

“
Well, maybe people
don’t
want
to
believe in Heaven or Hell,” I pointed out. “I mean, it can be a
pretty heavy concept.”

“
That is likely. For if
there is no Heaven and no Hell, there is also no accountability
after death.” Laish sighed. “As you can see, that is not
true.”

“
So how are the people
here being punished?” I asked, looking around. “Nobody seems like
they’re being whipped or beaten or tortured in any way. Or do you
have some of those horrible pits like they had in Minauros and
Stygia?”

“
No—none of the people
here did anything reprehensible or particularly evil—they simply
denied God,” Laish said. “So their Hell is never to be in his
presence—never to know his light and majesty and joy. Say what you
will of the Almighty but He is a gentleman. If you wish nothing to
do with him then He will not force you. If you turn your back on
him, He will turn his back on you…for all eternity.”

I didn’t know why but his words made me sad.
There was a deep longing in them…a wistfulness that made me want to
ask him questions. But once again I bit my tongue.

“
Tell me about the
buildings,” I said instead. “What are they made of?” Every building
we’d passed by was made of the same ivory-white material and some
of the supports seemed to curve in strangely organic
ways.

“
As to that, I believe I
will allow Belial to tell you the history of Dis.”

“
Belial? Who’s he? Or
she?” I added as an afterthought.

Laish smiled. “Belial is
an elder statesman—the demon I trust to run Dis during my long
absences. Oh don’t worry,
mon
ange,”
he said quickly, correctly
interpreting the reluctance on my face. “He is nothing like Druaga
or the others of my kind you’ve been unfortunate enough to
encounter. Belial is an intellectual—a historian. He loves to tell
the story of Dis and how it came to be. And since we will be
staying with him in the Citadel of Knowledge, I don’t wish to
deprive him of the pleasure of being first to enlighten
you.”

“
The Citadel of
Knowledge?” I asked. “Is that some kind of hotel?”

“
Not quite—the bottom half
of it is the House of Parliament, where the Council of Elder Demons
rule on cases throughout Hell. The top half has been converted into
a very cozy living quarters. It is where I stay every time I come
to Dis.”

“
Okay, so we’re going to
your penthouse,” I said. “Sounds good to me, especially after
sleeping on the floor last night. Where is it?”

“
Just there.” Laish raised
an arm and pointed.

I’d had my head turned around, talking to
him but now I looked up, following his finger. There, standing
before us at the end of the cobbled road was an immense structure
that had to be at least five stories high.

And it was shaped like a gigantic skull.

* * * * *

Laish

“
We’re staying there? In
a
skull?”
Gwendolyn sounded fascinated and also a bit disgusted. I was
amused at her reaction and her wonder at the Citadel. It truly is
an awe inspiring structure—very surprising if one has never seen it
before.

“
That is the Citadel of
Knowledge,” I said, nudging Kurex with my knees to get him
trotting. It had been years since I’d visited Dis and I found
myself eager to see my old mentor, Belial, again.

“
Okay, there
has
to be a good story
behind this. Is it a real skull?” she asked.

“
Of course.” I was about
to say more but as we rode into the courtyard of the Citadel a
small imp, no higher than my knee, came scampering out of the
cavernous hole in the lower jaw which served as a door.

“
Master, Master—they are
here at last! Lord Laish is here! I told you so,” he squeaked
excitedly.

“
Yes, yes, so you did.”
Belial came out behind the little imp, leaning on a cane. He was an
ancient knowledge demon—the kind called on by astrologers and
alchemists—and his back was crooked and humped from bending over
his books for untold years. His skin was the bluish-gray of his
kind and quite wrinkled. The curly ram’s horns on the sides of his
head were pure, glossy black in contrast to his long gray beard. He
was a welcome sight.