Her new outfit consisted of off-white trousers paired with a snug, embellished vest that had to be modified to accommodate Valeska's wings. Both the top and the pants had seen better days, with fraying and loose strings everywhere.
My outfit was only a little better, made of a gold fabric that had long since lost its sheen. The top was cropped, revealing my midriff, and the long skirt hung low on my hips.
"I feel like we're wasting time," Valeska lamented. "And these don't even look that good." Then she gave Lyra an apologetic smile as she quickly amended, "No offense. We appreciate the effort, but is all of this even going to matter?"
"I can polish us up once we're just outside Zianna," Oona reminded her. "We have to wait until we're closer, because the effects won't last that long."
Oona was bent over the table, peering into a warped mirror as she applied a swab of gold dust across her eyelids. While the dress she wore was rather ill-fitting, with mounds of fabric draping over her petite frame, the burgundy color looked wonderful against her skin.
"I know this isn't the best, but I hope it's enough to get you through the door." Lyra tied off my hair and stepped back, pursing her lips as she looked over the three of us. "It may not work, but it certainly has a better chance than the filthy rags you came in."
Those rags had all been tucked away safely into our bags, which sat packed by the door, ready to go.
"But you're right," Lyra said, resting her eyes on Valeska, who stood by the door with her arms folded over her chest. "We shouldn't waste time. Let's be on our way."
"How long will it take to get to Zianna?" I asked as we gathered up our things.
"Too long," Valeska snorted.
"It is long, but I have ways to make it quicker," Lyra assured us, and held the door open for us. "I know a shortcut, and we won't be going on foot."
"How will we get there, then?" Oona asked, exchanging a look with me, as Lyra closed the door to her home.
Instead of answering us, Lyra turned and walked ahead on the narrow path. Once again, Valeska decided to forgo the whole walking thing and flew up ahead, waiting for us at the end. I clung to the side of the wall, moving slowly, with Oona constantly glancing back at me.
"Do you want me to come and get you?" Valeska called to me when I'd almost reached the end.
"No, I got it," I insisted, and it took all my willpower not to look down at the black abyss of the canyon and the wailing death it contained.
Finally I made it off the path, but instead of crossing the bridge back the way we had come, Lyra headed into the city of Tartarus. I scampered to catch up to her, but it wasn't exactly easy.
Oona's cloaking spell was still in full effect, which meant the other immortals around kept bumping into me, since they didn't notice me. Even in the overpopulated city back home I wasn't used to seeing this many immortals cramped together like this.
Many of them were quite large and powerful, while some were almost tiny, like the hobgoblin who ran into my shins as he tried to dash ahead. While a few were humanoid in appearance, the majority of them appeared more monstrous, like demons with red scaly flesh or the werewolf-like Lobishomen.
But no matter how they appeared, all of them had the same expression--blank, almost lifeless, with eyes that stared right through me. I wondered how many times they had made their commute across the bridge, leaving Tartarus to do whatever it was that filled their existence here in Kurnugia.
A wendigo was walking straight toward me, its dead black eyes staring out from beneath its large antlers. The ashy gray skin hung off its bones, exposing throbbing red organs underneath. I tried to move out of the way as much as I could, but the wendigo slammed into my shoulder anyway, knocking me back.
"Easy, there," Valeska said, catching me before I fell to the ground. For a second I leaned back in her arms, my head resting against her chest, and she grinned down at me before pushing me back up onto my feet again.
"Thanks," I mumbled, preparing to hurry to catch up to Oona and Lyra, only to see that they had somehow disappeared into the crowd. I'd only looked away for a second, but now, as I scanned around me with a growing sense of panic, I couldn't see them.
A few yards away, lined up in front of awnings attached to the wall that ran around the city, was a row of massive Kting Voar bulls. They were built like yaks, with large humps behind their big heads, and smooth brown fur mottled with white spots. A pair of two-foot-long horns protruded on either side of their heads, the thick bones twirling and twisting asymmetrically like a serpent, which was ironic given the creatures' reputation for eating snakes.
To assist with their reptilian appetites, they had rows of sharp teeth that looked like they belonged more in a wolf than a bovine animal. They also had two large saber-like fangs extending down a good six inches.
The one in front let out a braying grunt, then shook his massive head. Because of his horns, the immortals around him moved out of the way, giving a brief opening in the crowd, and in that moment I caught a glimpse of Oona and her burgundy dress.
"This way!" I shouted and grabbed Valeska's hand to pull her along after me.
As I rushed through, narrowly dodging all sorts of creatures and ducking underneath a bull's horns, I saw that Oona didn't appear to even notice we weren't with her. She was smiling as she petted a bull, while he ate large pellets out of her hand, carefully as to be mindful of his massive incisors.
The yoke around the bull's neck was attached to a large covered buggy, and Lyra stood beside it, haggling with an ogre in Sumerian.
"Thanks for waiting for us," I said to Oona breathlessly as I reached her.
"I knew you'd catch up. You always do," she said with a knowing smile, then motioned to the bull. "Meet Kalbi. He's going to take us on the rest of our journey."
"We're riding with this?" I asked, staring up at the monstrosity that nuzzled my best friend.
My experience with Kting Voars on earth had been rather limited, as their large size and fiery temperament made them dangerous, despite their big doe eyes. Besides that, I didn't know how much I wanted to put my life in the hands of a giant beast confined to the underworld.
"Greedy ogre," Lyra muttered as she walked back to us. "I booked the Voar Cabriolet."
"Is this the best way?" I asked skeptically, but then, when I glanced down the line of bulls, I realized exactly what this was--it was a line for taxis.
Electricity didn't work here, so for all intents and purposes Kurnugia had become a medieval society populated only by immortals. It was the supernatural Dark Ages.
"Of course," Lyra replied. "Kting Voars are the quickest and safest way to travel around here. They're big and fast, and trained to protect the carriage at all costs."
"He'll take good care of us," Oona said, patting him one last time.
Lyra climbed into the buggy, then turned back to face me. "Come on. Let's go."
TWENTY
Lyra was right. Kalbi had lumbered through the crowded city and over the bridge, but once he got out into the open land, he took off like a bullet. When we began running at full-spring, I clung to the seat of the bouncing carriage, more than a little afraid that the whole thing might fall apart in a dramatic explosion of wood and wheels.
Lyra sat up front in the footman's seat holding the reins, since she'd paid extra to drive the cabriolet herself. It would be best if no outsiders went along with us.
Valeska, Oona, and I sat in the back, under the black fabric hood that covered the four-wheeled carriage. The exterior of the carriage had been stained black, but inside, the floorboards were bare and warped. There were two benches, one in the front and one in the back, each covered with a burlap-like material and the thinnest of padding.
Above each bench was a window. The back one was covered in a murky glass, but the front was just a dark curtain that could be pulled back to talk to the driver. On either side of the carriage were half doors, with the top left open, letting the wind and air rush in from the outside.
Once I felt comfortable that the cart was stable enough to handle our speed, I settled back in beside Oona. She sat with her legs crossed underneath her, a stack of notes on her lap. Her spell book was far too large and important to sneak down here, so she'd copied important spells down and bound the pages together with weighted string so they couldn't easily blow away.
Valeska had spread out on the other bench. Her legs stretched the length of the bench, and her wings propped her up slightly, so her head rested against the side of the carriage.
I leaned back, futilely attempting to relax myself, when I noticed how strangely the cover over the carriage had been sewn together. The pieces of the cover were haphazard and patchwork, with thick thread binding them. It reminded me of the cover of a Necronomicon I had seen back at the Ravenswood Academy, where the cover had been made with human flesh.
"Is this real leather?" I asked, running my fingers along the thick jagged seams of the cover.
Valeska looked up at it, then shrugged. "Probably."
"But where would they get it from?"
"Same place they get it on earth," she replied disinterestedly. "Kting Voars are basically cattle, so I'm sure they can get some leather from them."
"But they can't die..." I trailed off as a horrific realization hit me. They were skinned, they were eaten, they were tortured while they were alive, and eventually their skin and their meat would grow back, so it could happen all over again.
"That only means the Voars are an endless supply of leather." Valeska closed her eyes again and settled back on the bench.
"What are you guys talking about?" Oona asked, looking up from her notes.
"Nothing," I answered quickly, since finding out about Kalbi's life would devastate her.
I stared out above the half door on my side, with the musty wind blowing in my face. I tried not to think about the horrors of the realm we were in, or what fresh new hell might await us all up ahead.
It was hard to say how long we had been traveling, bouncing around in the back of the cabriolet, because time didn't feel the same here. There was no sun, no sky, not even a clock. No time, really. Just moving forward, for what felt like hours.
But it had to have been quite a while before the jostling lessened and Kalbi began to slow. From where I sat I couldn't see much outside the opening above the door, but it definitely seemed darker outside. Generally, Kurnugia seemed to be lit like earth on a cloudy day--I couldn't see the sun, but it was still light enough to see.
But now it had darkened, like a heavy storm was moving in.
Valeska sat up and pulled back the curtain so she could ask Lyra, "Why are we stopping?"
"We're not stopping," Lyra assured her. "We're slowing down. It's safer that way. We'll draw less attention."
"Less attention from what?" I asked, but Valeska had already leaned out the window for a better look.
"She'ol," she said with a heavy sigh, then settled back into the seat.
Both Oona and I scrambled to look out at the bleak landscape around us. The grassy plains had shifted to waves of hardened black magma and jagged rock formations that protruded from the ground.
In the center of this, surrounded by a moat of flowing red magma, was a giant castle that appeared to have been carved out of a volcano. A few of the crude windows had smoldering red lava pouring out of them, making the castle look like it was bleeding.
Many smaller buildings dotted the immediate landscape around it. But from this distance it was difficult to get a good look.
The place reminded me of the Aizsaule District back on earth--the area of the city that was under demon control. Somehow it was always darker than the rest of the city, as if that small part sucked the light out of everything.
"She'ol?" Oona asked, sitting back in the seat. Even though we were moving slower, it wasn't exactly stable back here.
"It's a city ruled by Abaddon, the self-proclaimed Lord of Destruction," Valeska explained as she stared down at the floor with a bitter twist of a smile. "The good news is that we're getting close to Zianna."
I sat up and asked, "What's the bad news?"
"That we're this close to Abaddon and She'ol," Valeska replied. "Abaddon is powerful, cruel, and somehow deceptively charming. And like most demons he's power-hungry, and he's always looking for ways to take over Zianna, break out of Kurnugia, and ultimately destroy the world.
"He's not that original, I know," Valeska said, sounding exhausted by the whole conversation. "But like I said, he's charming, so he has tons of minions lurking around, always ready to take on anyone that will further their master's cause."
"Good thing we're not going there," Oona commented. Then, more tensely: "We're not going there, are we?"
"I don't know why we'd need to," I said, swallowing back my own fear, and I pulled my gaze away from the darkness out the window and back to Valeska. "How do you know so much about Abaddon and She'ol?"
"Because," she answered with downcast eyes, "that's where my mother is."
Oona gasped. "What? Why? Isn't your mother an Alkonost? I thought they were divine, or at least neutral. Why would she have to live there?"
"She doesn't have to stay in She'ol," Valeska said. "But Zianna is full, with all kinds of divine beings on a waiting list to move in, but there are rarely any openings, since the divine don't slip up enough to get kicked out.
"Most of the cities in Kurnugia are demon-owned and -operated, and while She'ol may be one of the worst, most of them aren't that great." She looked outside with a pensive expression. "Abaddon has a way of getting his tendrils into everyone, including my mom."
"I'm sorry about your mom," Oona said gently.
"Don't be." Valeska settled back on the bench and closed her eyes. "Everybody makes their own choices. My mom made hers, and I'll make mine."
A heavy silence fell over us, and none of us seemed eager to disturb it. I took a cue from Valeska, leaning back and closing my eyes, since I didn't know when I'd be able to rest again.
My thoughts went back to Asher--the way they seemed to every time I closed my eyes since he'd been taken from me. But, being here in Kurnugia, the pain felt even more raw. The remnants of the dream I'd had still lingered, and I could feel him slipping away from my hand.
I squeezed my eyes more tightly shut, as if that would somehow stop the pain and the wave of sadness that rolled over me.
Eventually the sound of Kalbi's hooves pounding against the ground picked up as we moved away from She'ol.
"We're almost there," Lyra announced sometime later.
The instant I opened my eyes, the bright white light hit me, and I realized the air even smelled fresher. Less musty, more clean and floral. I got up and looked, careful to hold on to the sides of the carriage so I didn't tumble out.
And there it was, in the valley below us. It was surrounded by seven tall, glittering walls, and from our vantage I could see over them. A bright grassy field, with flowers and animals flourishing, and sparkling streams rolling through.
In the very center was a tall castle, but from our distance it looked more like a diamond shard--all sparkly and clear, with rough raw edges. It was from that palace that the light shone, bathing everything around it in its bright warmth.
"There it is," Lyra said, sounding as awed as I felt. "Zianna."
TWENTY-ONE
We waited in the long line of hopefuls who wanted to visit Zianna. It was one of the nicest cities in the underworld--with nice shops, delicious food, and a strict policy of no violence. Everyone wanted to get in. But there was also a definite limit on how many beings Zianna could comfortably hold, so the city had adopted a rigid entrance process.
The ones enforcing it were two hulking cherubim. They each stood with a fiery staff and four sets of wings sprouting from their backs. Their bronze skin glowed subtly, and despite their youthful, handsome features, their expressions were hard.
Before coming to Kurnugia, cherubim served the gods, and their number-one skill was spotting sin. Their
vision was vastly different than that of humans. They could see auras so clearly that any stains left by evil actions or darkness in your heart would be visible to them.
All they had to do was look at us, and they would know whether or not our auras were pure enough for us to enter Zianna. Even for a visit.
"Why do you still look like that?" Lyra asked, joining us in line after returning Kalbi to a cabriolet waiting area along the wall.
"Like what?" I asked.
"I thought you had a way to brighten yourself up more." Lyra motioned toward us, but she was already eyeing up the beings that stood ahead of us in line--angels, a fertility goddess, even a cuddly rainbow-colored bear of some sort. "It's busy here today, and we're going against some steep competition."
"I have it," Oona assured her. "I wanted to wait until the last possible second, because I'm not sure how long the effects will last."
"We're at that moment now," Lyra told her.
Oona dug in the front pocket of her bag and pulled out three small tablets. They were heart-shaped and barely thicker than a piece of paper. Carefully, she handed one to me and one to Valeska.
"So, you put them on your tongue, and then we take each other's hands and close our eyes while we wait for them to dissolve," Oona instructed.
Valeska raised up her tablet in a faux-cheer and muttered, "Bottoms up," before dropping it on her tongue.
I did the same, closing my eyes as Oona had instructed, and then I felt their hands taking mine. Already the tab fizzed on my tongue, tingling as a sugary sour taste spread through my mouth. A warm breeze swirled around me, lightly ruffling my hair.
Quickly, it was gone, and the only thing that remained was a slight bitter taste.
"That's it?" I opened my eyes, preparing to ask if it hadn't worked, but I instantly saw the answer. "Wow."
Valeska and Oona looked like themselves, and even their clothes were basically the same, but there was this dramatic refinement and luxuriousness added, like they had been styled and dressed for a couture runway. Their clothes--which had been somewhat ill-fitting--now were impeccably tailored to their physiques.
The deep merlot of Oona's dress had a sheen to it, and the embellishments glittered with diamonds. Her hair had an extra luster, and the stain on her lips matched perfectly with her ensemble.