Sounds a little too easy, but I don’t tell him that.
I’m distracted anyway. We’ve come to Death’s Passage, a narrow chasm that cuts through the Mountains of Vipunen, heading straight to the City of Death. The chasm is about thirty feet wide and thousands of feet high. I stare up at the top as we ride through until I feel immense vertigo. Along the top I see tiny dots, which Sarvi informs me are our soldiers. Vipunen has his wards up to give Death and crew safe passage, but it’s a failsafe.
I can see why, too. If attackers had overtaken the soldiers at the top and broken through the wards, it would be easy to swoop in and get us. I also understand now why I’m on Sarvi with Death. Sarvi isn’t just a mode of transportation that can fly, unlike the horses and carriage. Sarvi is also a weapon in itself. Even though it didn’t serve Alku all that well, the unicorn was able to fight with its horn.
It feels like it takes forever through the passage. The wind howls through it, making it sound like crying and wailing. Death says that it’s probably coming up from the souls trapped in Inmost, which makes me feel really good considering that’s where we’re going.
When we’re finally through the passage—breathing out a huge sigh of relief that nothing happened—the City of Death looms above us. One moment it seems far away and in the next it’s stretching up into the sky, disappearing into the cloud cover. Miles wide, the tower reflects the weather, making it look sometimes like it’s not there at all. It reminds me of Ilmatar and how she seems to disappear from view.
We ride along an iron path that leads us to the giant gates that glint with silver. I expected it to be a little more gothic, then I remember that every dead person passes through these gates. They’ll be pearly to some, flaming to others.
There is a man standing in front of the gate holding a deck of cards.
The Magician.
He is the only one here. The rest of the tower continues along, like a wall that goes on forever, completely devoid of sound or people. For some reason I expected to see a bunch of Bone Stragglers around, causing a ruckus, but there is only desert sand.
The man is covered by a cloak, doesn’t say a word.
He steps to the side and the gates open.
I look back at him as we ride past.
His face is the night sky. I see universes in it.
I stare in a mix of awe and horror.
Then he takes the deck of cards he’s holding and flashes me the one from the top.
It’s the Death card from a Tarot deck.
I hear him laugh, then toss the card behind him. He picks up another card, it’s the Death card again. He does this until I can’t see him anymore.
We continue inside the gates.
“Uh, that was the Magician, right?” I ask warily.
Death nods. “Yes.”
“He flashed me the Death card.”
Silence.
“Impossible. He only doles out three cards: Amaranthus, The Golden Mean, and Inmost. And we’re going to Inmost.”
I go inside my head. Did you see that, Sarvi? He flashed me the Death card.
I’m afraid I didn’t, Sarvi says. But Magicians are known for their tricks, aren’t they?
And I am the Goddess of Death. Maybe that was just a way of honoring us.
I try to shake the creepy feeling away. Unfortunately, it only gets worse. Once we’re through the gates, we’re in a dark, narrow tunnel. There are torches lit along the walls, walls that are made of stone and look scorched, like a fire once raged through here, burning everything.
Well, I am going to Hell. Literally.
And down we go. The tunnel continues to slope, curving slightly until I realize we’ve been spiraling downwards. My ears pop, something they haven’t done since I got to Tuonela, and the smell of garbage and burning hair fills my nose. It’s all sorts of awful and I’m glad I ate beforehand because I have zero appetite now.
Finally, Sarvi slows and the tunnel opens up until it looks like we’re standing on the top of a huge coliseum, the kind where gladiators fight. And, like those coliseums, the stands are absolutely packed with the world’s most wretched human beings. They’re all gathered in their seats, the sounds of their excited and depraved voices filling the air.
“Here it is in all its glory,” Death says as he gets off Sarvi. He hoists me down, my feet landing in soft goo. I don’t even want to know what I stepped in. Save for the torches, this whole place is smelly, dark, slimy, and…ew. Ew. I swear I see someone’s entrails a couple of feet ahead.
“You’ll be fine,” Death says to me, putting his arm around my waist to steady me. Yeah. Totally gonna faint, totally don’t want to faceplant in guts. “It’s a lot to get used to, I’m sure.”