I conjured a lightweight, white cloth for Gwendolyn and tried to hand it to her.
“Here. Throw this over your head and shoulders. It will deflect some of the sunlight.”
She shook her head.
“I don’t want it,” she said in a low voice. “I don’t want anything from you.”
“Fine.” I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, though my heart was sore at her refusal. “Burn then, for all I care.”
She flinched but rallied enough to shake her head.
“I have kind of a natural tan—or didn’t you notice?”
“Your skin is flawless as I have seen for myself firsthand,” I said, taking Kurex’s bridle and beginning to lead him across the sand. “But despite your lovely creamy brown tone, you will burn in Minauros without protection. Everything burns here.”
“Stop saying that—stop talking about burning.” She leaned down from the horse and snatched the wrap from me. Throwing it over her head and shoulders, she looked straight ahead. Well, at least she was protected from the sun. The wrap was one I’d had made for her especially to withstand the Desert of Death as Minauros is often called.
We walked in silence for a long time, Gwendolyn occasionally sipping from her water bottle and Kurex plodding patiently under the blazing sun. There was a hand-shaped mark—a white spot on his black haunch that showed the clear outline of a palm and fingers where I had slapped him. I was sorry for that—though he was a dumb beast he had more than proven his worth. Gwendolyn could not have ridden safely on my back as she could on his, as we ran through the maze beneath the Hotel Infernal to the barrier. My skin is much too hot when I am a dragon—or a wyrm as the ancient texts call it.
At last, after an hour of the plodding pace, she spoke.
“You didn’t tell me you were a fire demon.” Her voice was soft but filled with tension though she still looked straight ahead into the shifting sands and not at me as she spoke. “You said you were a demon of lust.”
“And so I am,” I answered, wondering again why this distinction was important to her. “I am a demon of fire by nature—I can bend it to my will and it is a part of me—will always be a part of me.”
That was because when I was first cast down and out of the heavenly realm I had landed in the Lake of Fire and it had infused me with its power. But I saw no need to tell her the details.
“My skill is lust—my area of expertise, you may say,” I continued. “So you see, I am both.”
“You didn’t tell me that when I first called you.” She looked back at me briefly. “You should have told me.”
“Why?” I frowned at her, wondering at the pain and fear in her eyes. Of course, the things I’d had to do to get us out of the Hotel Infernal and into the third circle were not pleasant but they had been necessary and for her benefit. But she was evasive.
“You just…should have told me. I would have sent you back.”
“You lost that ability the moment I first laid eyes on you, mon ange,” I murmured. “I could not have turned away from you for any reason from the first sight I had of you.”
“Don’t call me that.” She looked away again. “No more nicknames—no more anything. Let’s just…just go. Just get there and close the door. I just want to get home.”
“I am deeply sorry that my other form frightened you so much,” I said, tugging on Kurex’s bridle to move him past a sand pit—they were everywhere in the shifting dunes of Minauros. Some led to pits lined with stakes and damned souls being slowly impaled for all eternity—others to tributaries of the River of Fire which fed the Lake where I had had my second baptism and emerged forever changed. “But I could not help what I became. It was instinct to take the most threatening form I possessed when I felt you were threatened.”
“But he couldn’t have really sucked out my soul, could he?” she asked, casting a sidelong glance at me. “I mean…you wouldn’t have let him. You could have beaten him in your regular form—didn’t you say you could flay people alive with a word?”
“I did and I can.” I nodded.
“So why turn into that…that beast?” she demanded. “Why start spraying fire and brimstone everywhere? And…and burning everything and everyone?”
“I was enraged at Druaga’s suggestion that he be allowed to sample your soul. In my rage, I lost control and became what you saw,” I admitted.
“You lost control?” She raised an eyebrow, clearly skeptical. “But you never lose control. You’re always calm and collected. In fact, the only time I’ve ever seen you really upset before this was when you came over and told me off for opening that doorway into the Abyss in the first place.”
“I was upset then because I perceived you were in danger. I became upset this morning for the same reason. And…” I hesitated. “I was also incensed at the insult Druaga offered you.”
“Insult?” She frowned.
“The taking of a soul or part of a soul is a very…intimate thing,” I said. “Even sexual.”
“Ugh!” She shivered. “And I thought that hook thing he was waving at me was bad! But now you’re saying Druaga asking to, uh, sample my soul was like asking me for a handjob right in front of you?”
“Essentially,” I said tightly. “Although your example perhaps does not go far enough.”
“But what would make him bold enough to even ask that?” Gwendolyn mused. “I mean, aren’t you way above him in the hierarchy or caste system or whatever it is you have going on here? Wouldn’t it be like the office manager asking to sleep with the CEO’s wife? Not that I’m your wife or anything,” she added hurriedly.
“I understand your meaning.” I nodded. “And to answer, I believe that his greed for the sweet taste of innocence is what overcame his better judgment. Druaga has always lusted for it—I have even heard him brag that he managed to snare one of the lesser angels out of Heaven and bind it to him somehow—although I’m certain that was just a lie on his part.”
“How awful for the poor thing if that was true!” Gwendolyn shivered. “To go from living in light and beauty to having to be with him.”
“Yes, moving from Heaven to Hell can be quite a shock,” I murmured. “And with it the loss of innocence and purity.” I sighed. “Doubtless it was your purity and his greed for it that made Druaga bold enough to try and get a taste of your soul.”
“My purity? Could he sense that I was…you know, that I’ve never had sex?” Her cheeks flushed.
“I think not,” I said shortly. “When I say purity I am referring to the state of your soul—the fact that it is not stained with sin. Any demon will be able to sense that—they will smell it if they get close enough to scent you.”
“He was certainly close enough after he chased off the devilkins.” She shivered. “He kept trying to put his big hairy hands on me and saying I needed to get undressed so he could examine me. Disgusting!”
I felt a low growl rise in my throat and Gwendolyn looked at me, clearly alarmed.
“Hey—are you all right? Your eyes look like they’re on fire.” Her voice was frightened and her eyes were wide.
I made an effort to calm myself.
“Forgive me. I had no idea when I interrupted the scene exactly what he was doing. If I had, I might have been angry enough to lose my human form sooner rather than later.”
“Because you want to protect your property.” She gave me a sharp look. “As if I belonged to you or something.”
“One might as well say I belong to you,” I remarked lightly. “I am, after all, your own personal demon whom you called to do your bidding. And here I am, still doing it.”
“Whatever.” She looked away. “I wasn’t trying to call a fire demon.”
I spread my hands. “I cannot help my nature. And why is it so important to you what sort of demon I am, anyway?”
“Never mind, it doesn’t matter.” She looked down at her hands resting lightly on Kurex’s saddle.
“But I do mind, mon ange. Do you now blame me for show
ing you what I am? Or part of what I am even though we were in danger?”
“We wouldn’t have been in danger if you hadn’t lost your temper,” she reminded me tightly. “But I guess I should’ve known better than to expect anything else from a demon.”
“I am not just a demon,” I said, frowning.
“No—you’re also a huge-ass dragon-snake thing, apparently.” She rounded on me. “Is that what you were talking about? What you didn’t want to show me—your true form?”
“It is not,” I said coldly, letting a little of the irritation I was feeling creep into my voice. “It is simply one of my many guises but it is not the truth of me—the heart of my nature.”
She shivered. “If your true form is worse than that one, I don’t know that I want to see it.”
“Don’t worry, Gwendolyn,” I said softly. “After seeing how you reacted to my dragon form, I would not presume to reveal my true self to you. I do not wish to make you fear or hate me anymore than you already do.”
She looked suddenly stricken.
“It’s not that I hate you—”
“I know. You just don’t like me very much,” I finished, throwing her own words back at her.
It was clear she didn’t know what to say. Her cheeks flushed and she shook her head, looking away.
“I’m sorry,” she said in a low voice. “Sorry I can’t help my reaction to what I saw—what you became.”
“I am sorry too.” I sighed wearily, rubbing my hand over my face. All the hard work of earning her trust had been wasted—shattered in an instant the moment she saw me change. But why? I had told her I had other forms. Was the sight of me in that particular one so horrible? And how would she ever be able to face any of my other forms—especially my true one? I could not answer the question—I was beginning to think there was no answer, that my quest to win her affections was utterly hopeless.
But why should I care? She was only a mortal, I told myself. Only a little human with a life as brief as the butterfly I had compared her with. Why should I wish so desperately for her to care for me? I wished I knew and that I could rip that part out of me but somehow I could not. Even now, I could not.
“Tell me something—why wasn’t Kurex scared of you in that…that form?” Gwendolyn asked, pulling me out of my miserable thoughts. “I mean, I don’t know a lot about horses but I bet it would have scared most of them to death. Is it because he’s from here—because he’s a Hell horse or a Demon-steed or whatever?”
“Kurex was not spooked by my form because he had seen it often during the Celestial wars,” I explained. “I used it when I went into battle—the better to destroy and despoil the enemy.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “But weren’t you the general? I thought they were supposed to stay on the sidelines and just give the orders.”
“I was not that kind of general,” I said. “I always took part in the battle.”
“I see.” Gwendolyn looked away.
“So now you know why Kurex didn’t fear me—tell me why you did. Aside from the obvious,” I said. “Yes, I know it is a terrible and frightening form but there is something else—something you’re not telling me. What is it?”
“I…” She looked away evasively. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s private.”
“Very well,” I said, leading Kurex around another sand pit. “I will let you keep your secret for now. But sooner or later I expect to be told the reason for your extreme distress.” I reached up and took her hand. “Until you tell me what I’ve done wrong, I cannot make it right, Gwendolyn.”
She slipped her hand away from mine quickly.
“Let’s talk about something else. Tell me about this desert. How big is it? And how long are we going to be in it—it’s freaking hot out here.”
“Minauros—the Great Desert or the Desert of Death as some call it, stretches for a thousand leagues in every direction,” I said.
Her eyes widened. “A thousand leagues? How long is a league?”
“A league is three of your miles or four kilometers,” I said.
“What? How are we ever going to get to the other side of it going at this rate?” she demanded motioning down at Kurex who was still clopping slowly along through the sands.
“Easily. We did not appear in at the middle of Minauros when we crossed into this circle. The barrier between it and Baator is only about a day’s journey from the barrier to Stygia, the fourth circle of Hell.”
“Oh…well, then.” Gwendolyn looked vastly relieved. “What’s that like then? More dessert?”
“Hardly. It is the complete opposite of Minauros. Stygia is a frozen waste—as cold as Minauros is hot. The two regions were once ruled over jointly by a pair of Great Demons who loved each other—or what passes for love with our kind. They are Magda, She of the Bloody Hands and Moloch the Inimitable. That’s a tribute to Moloch there.” I nodded at the vast obsidian pyramid that still rose in the distance on our left.
We were a little closer to it now and the workers that toiled on it could be seen—a vast bastion of lost souls presided over by a small army of Minotaurs wielding whips.
“Are they still building it?” asked Gwendolyn, squinting to make out the scene in the blinding sunlight. “In this heat?”
“They must,” I said. “For every night the minions of Magda come to tear it down again…and tear out the hearts of any workers caught too close to it.”
“So I take it they broke up? Magda and Moloch?” Gwendolyn said dryly.
“They did, many millennia ago,” I said. “And their hatred now burns as fiercely as their love once did. They continuously send raiding parties to attack each other through the Jealous Heart.”
“I’m sorry—the what?”
“The Jealous Heart,” I repeated. “It is the passageway between Minauros and Stygia—and it also contains the barrier between the two. The demons of both circles are able to pass back and forth through it because the two realms used to be one.”
“And what kinds of people are punished here?” Gwendolyn sounded interested despite herself.
“Minauros is for rapists and Stygia is for murderers—specifically those who killed in cold blood,” I told her. “They are punished in many ways which I will not go into now…unless you wish me to?”
“No. No, please don’t.” She shook her head quickly. “I don’t want to know any more.”
“Oh? I thought you might like to know the eventual fate of the one you were plotting revenge upon.” I could see by her wide eyes that she’d forgotten I knew about the vengeance spell she planned to cast. “Tell me Gwendolyn,” I said. “Who was he and what did he do to you?”
She frowned. “It wasn’t what he did to me. It was what he did to—” She stopped abruptly. “Never mind.”
“I’ll find out eventually, you know,” I remarked. “And when I do, your tormentor will be relegated to the proper section of Hell—perhaps sooner rather than later.”
“No!” She glared at me. “Stay out of it, Laish! I want to take care of this on my own.”
I shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
But I swore silently to myself that whoever had hurt her would pay. I might not be able to win back her trust but I could protect her while we were in my realm and I could avenge whatever wrongs had been visited upon her.
That much I could do, even if I was never destined to see my little witch again after this quest was over.
* * * * *
Gwendolyn
The trip across the desert seemed to take forever. I supposed it could have been worse though. If we’d been plunked down in the middle of Minauros we would have had a minimum of three thousand miles to get through—compared to that a single day didn’t sound so bad.
It might not have sounded bad but it felt bad and not just because of the relentless heat, and the bright, piercing light stabbing down out of the sky. It also felt bad because Laish and I were fighting—though I didn’t want to admit it, even to myself.
&
nbsp; I knew I was being unfair to him—he’d only been protecting me and defending my honor when he turned into that giant beast. But I couldn’t forgive him for what he was—for being a fire demon. How had I never noticed anything that might have hinted of what he was before? Well, maybe because I’d never seen him turn into a huge-ass dragon before. That was entirely possible.
Of course he did have those glowing, ruby red eyes—that should have been a clue. But I had been too busy drowning in those eyes to wonder about the reason for their color. I saw that now—saw that I had been falling for Laish while pretending to myself that I wasn’t. And for the first time I acknowledged how very close to the edge I’d allowed myself to get.
I thought about the way I’d acted the night before. Letting him kiss me and touch me…letting him make me come. What was wrong with me acting like that? Somehow he’d gotten under my radar. I’d been prepared for him to demand sexual favors as payment for his help in this quest. What I hadn’t been prepared for was a slow, gentle seduction. And I also hadn’t expected to start having feelings for him.
Well that stops now, I told myself firmly. It was true that we still had to pay the Sin Tax as we went through the different circles of Hell but that was just too bad. I would have to find another way to pay the tax—how, I didn’t know but I wasn’t getting close to Laish again. It was too damn dangerous.
We stopped in the shadow of a vast, spreading tree after a few hours to rest. Laish probably could have kept going forever—the heat didn’t bother him a bit, not surprising considering his nature. But it wasn’t fair to Kurex to ask him to keep going on and on with no rest. I was drooping too, even though I was riding instead of walking.