The Bog (40 page)

David felt both painfully empty and comforted. “Now I have a question for you,” Ur-Zababa went on. David regarded him curiously.

“In all of your experiences with the demon Julia did she ever give you any reason to suspect that she was uncomfortable with her body temperature, that, like a person coming down with something, she was unable tc decide whether she was too warm or too cold?”

“Well, now that you mention it, she did seem tc alternate between sitting before unusually large fires and then suddenly preferring the damp chill of of the bog.”

“Fires that were too uncomfortably warm for you to sit very close to?”

“Yes,” David returned, startled.

“And when she assumed her secondary forms, forms in which she no longer looked like normal matter, but glowed, did her flesh have a pitted look as if it were in an advanced state of decay?”

David nodded again. “Yes, but how did you know?”

“Because it only stands to reason. Properly speaking Julia should have perished at the end of the first Great Month of her sojourn upon this earth. It is a credit to Malakil’s power that he was somehow able to extend her survival for a second. But she will not live beyond this one. From what you have told me it appears that even now she is in the process of dying. That means it is even more imperative that Malakil usher her successor into this world. For him it is very literally a matter of life and death.”

Ur-Zababa’s expression became more troubled. “I now have a most difficult question to ask you, one that you are perhaps not going to take kindly to my asking. Will you please try to understand that it is the seriousness of the situation facing us that forces me to even ponder such a possibility?”

Falteringly, David nodded.

“We will do everything that we can do to stop Malakil, but if by some chance we should fail, and if it comes within the realm of opportunity for you to end your wife’s life by your own hand, would you be willing to consider that as a final option, to save future generations from untold centuries of Malakil’s madness?”

A cold and existential hush fell over David’s soul. “No! Please, you cannot ask that of me.”

Ur-Zababa raised his hand. “Before you decide, there is something else that I have not told you.”

David looked at him with increasing dread.

“A young demon is far more powerful than an old one. The power that Julia now provides to Malakil may seem prodigious, but it is only a shadow of what it once was. In her youth, during the first several centuries of Malakil’s covenant with her, untold thousands went down before his might. You must believe me when I tell you that the only reason he has confined his reign of terror, lo these many centuries, to just this tiny valley, is he has not had the resources to extend them beyond. But power is a game to Malakil, and he is a destroyer of worlds. You would be astonished if I told you how many of the wars of the ancient world were fought at his inspiration, how many civilizations fell as a result of his machination and wrath. It was he who ordered the sacking of Lagash. It was even his treachery that brought about the fall of Ebla.”

David allowed these words to settle in for several moments before he spoke. “And you think that if Malakil’s power were restored to its fullest he would no longer confine himself to just this valley?”

“I don’t
think
where Malakil is involved. I
know.
If he were to have such power again, it would be tantamount to unleashing such a floodgate of darkness upon this world that even all of the wisdom and artifice of your current civilization could not stop it. The earth would become a playground of evil.”

David was about to say something else when Ur-Zababa stopped him. “It is not a decision that you have to make now. Hopefully, if all goes well, it is not a decision that you will ever be faced with making. But if all else fails I want you at least to know the full extent of what is at stake.”

David nodded slowly and after several minutes of quiet rumination he spoke again. “I have another question. The first time I saw Julia in her true form the word
hallelujah
seemed to have an adverse affect upon her. However, another religious symbol, the sign of the cross, doesn’t seem to do anything to her. In fact, she even strangled the little girl Amanda with a cord on which I had suspended such a cross. Why does one religious symbol affect her and the other not?”

“Because
hallelujah
comes from the language in which Malakil’s pact with Julia was written, and the belief system in which the demon was originally conjured up always holds dominion over it. That is why if and when we come into possession of the ruby pendant, any commands we then give to Julia must still be in Eblaite, otherwise they will have no effect over her.”

“Does that mean that I can protect myself from Julia simply by saying ‘hallelujah’?”

Ur-Zababa shook his head. “No. The first time you frightened her off probably only because you surprised her. She wasn’t expecting anyone to say anything to her in Eblaite, and when you did you must have given her quite a start. She might have even jumped to the conclusion that you were a rival magician such as myself. But now that Malakil has most assuredly enlightened her on the matter, saying hallelujah will only have a slightly jarring effect upon her, like a brisk slap. Unless, of course, you are in possession of the ruby pendant. Then the word would cause her searing pain, and at least keep her at bay if I were not yet present to tell you what else to say. That is something it may be useful for you to remember.”

David accepted the words thoughtfully.

“I have one more question.”

Ur-Zababa looked at him.

“When I have visited Malakil’s home on several occasions I have sensed a strange presence in the house, an almost whispering energy. Do you know what it might be?”

Ur-Zababa smiled. “You are very sensitive. It is evil that you have sensed. The demonic world is always very close to Malakil, and it is its presence that you have sensed. It is that same ability to sense things beyond the borders of the physical senses that will ultimately alert Malakil to my presence here. For the moment my power is too weak to have aroused any suspicion in him. He may have sensed my coming when I first entered Tuck’s body, but only as a small pinprick in the fabric of space and time, a faint disturbance that the excitement of the moment most assuredly made him forget. But we must work quickly because as I grow stronger he will begin to sense that something is amiss.”

Ur-Zababa’s eyelids fluttered as if he were about to fall asleep. “And now,” he ended, “I must rest if I am to have the strength necessary to begin awakening my own power. Otherwise we will have no hope of ever overcoming Malakil.”

For the next several days Ur-Zababa did little that appeared very remarkable to David except sleep in incredibly brief stints, eat only raw vegetables, and spend endless hours on folded knees in the middle of Tuck’s room, meditating. David looked in on him often, hoping to see something that would rekindle his faith that they had any chance against Grenville, but by the end of a week he was once again in the throes of depression over their plight.

As Ur-Zababa seemed to eat less and less, David started to eat and drink more, and when the following Monday rolled around, in a fit of soothing gluttony he got a pot roast out of the freezer and cooked the entire thing for himself. It was while he was gorging down a healthy portion of it that he heard a low sort of rumbling tremor pass through the house. He paused, listening carefully, and at first dismissed it as nerves. But then he heard the sound again. This time it lasted longer than before, and as he sat there wondering if he was actually perceiving it, he noticed that some salt he had spilled beside his plate had begun to vibrate, each tiny crystal moving about like an individual in a milling crowd.

Wiping his hands, David stood up from the table. By the time he had reached the kitchen doorway the tremor had passed, but it was only a few seconds before it came again, like a glacier moving in its slumber, or a train passing somewhere in the night. He ran up the stairs.

As he moved down the hall he realized, as he had suspected, that the mysterious vibration was coming from Tuck’s room, and nervously he crept forward and pushed the door open. Instantly, the hall was filled with a soft but strangely brilliant light. In amazement, David looked in and saw that Ur-Zababa was still sitting in a trance on the floor, and that the same strange light was now moving in patches over his body as it swirled off and filled the room with a turbulent, but eerily silent, cyclone of luminescence. At first it was the noiselessness of the glowing whirlwind that attracted his attention, for it moved with such force and turbidity that it seemed it should be roaring, only it was not. However, as he continued to stare into the storm of light that was like a phosphorescent liquid in a blender, in some distant part of his mind he slowly became aware of a sensation of voices, not one, but thousands, lifted in a chorus of celestial singing. He also perceived that the maelstrom now surrounding Ur-Zababa was slowly pulsating, and that its rhythm coincided exactly with the low rumble that filled the house.

As he stood transfixed by the spectacle before him, he got an inexplicable but distinct feeling that the light was aware of his presence. No sooner had he gotten this impression when the light suddenly spoke to him, not in words, or even sounds, but in feelings. It told him that everything was all right, and to be patient for a while longer. And then, out of the swirling vortex of energy, a vapory tendril reached out and gently pushed him back into the hall. As soon as it had done this the door abruptly swung shut with a hush and a puff of glistening mist.

For another two hours David sat out in the hall, mesmerized, as the walls and the floors of the house rattled and the room beyond continued to seethe with unknown energies. Occasionally the forces rumbling within became so intense that brilliant shafts of light would stream out from the cracks around the door, and once or twice David even thought that the door itself was going to blow out of its frame. Then finally, as suddenly as the activity had manifested itself, it ceased, and everything was quiet. After several minutes David heard someone walking around in the room, and a moment later the door opened and Ur-Zababa looked up at him calmly.

The energy disturbance that had enshrouded his body was now gone, and he seemed changed not at all, save that he appeared a little more rested.

But his gaze was frighteningly determined. “The time has come,” he said.

“Tonight?” David questioned.

“Tonight.”

He looked at his watch. “But it’s already past seven.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ur-Zababa went on. “My power has now returned, or at least a portion of it has, and Malakil will have most assuredly sensed its coming. It is only a matter of time before he or Julia pays you a visit to see if you have had anything to do with it.”

“What do you mean a
portion
of your power?” David asked worriedly.

Ur-Zababa looked at him somberly. “I told you that I was too newly incarcerated in this body to tap the full of my power.”

David’s consternation increased. “Do you have a plan?”

“Of sorts, but it is not going to be easy. Let’s go downstairs and I will tell it to you.”

David turned and went down the stairs, Ur-Zababa following. In the living room he sat down on the sofa while his diminutive companion remained standing. Ur-Zababa flexed his fingers in front of him and started to pace.

“Exactly how much power do you have?” David asked, his agitation increasing.

“Please,” Ur-Zababa said, “that will become obvious as I explain to you the plan I have in mind. Now, will you please trust me and allow me to continue?” Begrudgingly David listened.

Ur-Zababa once again lapsed into thoughtful pacing. “To begin, do you recall about what time it was when you first saw Julia assume her true form and visit the feeding grounds in the bog?”

“Just about midnight, I guess.”

“And what time was it when she left the manor house the evening that you had your conversation with Malakil?”

“Much earlier. Maybe nine or nine thirty.”

Ur-Zababa grimaced. “That is unfortunate. I was hoping there would be more regularity in the times that she went on her nightly prowl.” He considered this for a moment. “We are just going to have to proceed on the assumption that midnight is closer to her usual feeding time, and the fact that she left the house earlier the night of your visit was due to the unusualness of the circumstances.”

“Why? Is there some reason that your plan requires that Julia be in the bog?”

“Not in the bog. Just out of the house.” Ur-Zababa looked at David almost apologetically. “You see, when I told you that a portion of my power had returned, what I meant is that I have enough power to perhaps catch Malakil off guard. But the modicum of power that I now possess would certainly be no match for Julia, unless of course we gain possession of the jewel.”

“How do you propose to catch Malakil off guard?” Ur-Zababa smiled faintly. “I intend to put him to sleep.”

“You have enough power to do that?”

Ur-Zababa nodded. “Unless Malakil has figured out that I am here, and has had the foresight to cast a spell specifically designed to counter it, I have the power to put him and his entire household into a deep sleep for at least ten minutes, perhaps a little longer.”

David looked only slightly encouraged. “What happens during those ten minutes?”

“You go in and get the jewel.”

“What about Katy and Melanie?”

Ur-Zababa sighed. “I suppose you are going to insist on bringing them out as well?”

“Of course I’m going to bring them out. It’s my wife and daughter that we’re talking about here.”

“But they will be safe once we have the jewel. And besides, your wife is the last person Malakil is going to want to harm.”

“And Katy? Didn’t you say that Malakil would retain some of his powers even after we take the jewel? Isn’t there a chance he will be so outraged that he will seek revenge against Katy?”

Ur-Zababa looked suddenly sheepish, as if he had anticipated this but considered getting the jewel so important that he had not wanted to mention it. “Yes,” he conceded. “That would certainly be a logical move for him to make.”