My grip tightened on Amaya, and yet – oddly – she didn’t react. Whatever – whoever – this being was, my sword had no sense of immediate threat.
Which didn’t mean there wasn’t.
Meaning that light is the gates? If a mind voice could come out croaky with fear, then mine undoubtedly did just that.
Yes. It is what you would call the gates to heaven and hell.
Surprise rippled through me but it was quickly pushed aside by frustration as a small sphere came out of nowhere and charged toward me. I leapt over the top of it, but it flung white goo at me, forcing me to twist in midair to miss it. I landed awkwardly, and felt pain ripple up my leg. But was that even possible when I was energy rather than flesh?
The mass began a long looping turn. I kept an eye on it, and said, Wait, what do you mean gates? Are they both here? Together?
Why should they not be? There was an odd sense of amusement in the reply, and it filtered across the gray world in much the same manner as his words did.
Because… My reply faded. In all honesty, I couldn’t actually think of a reason why the gates to heaven and hell wouldn’t be together. I guess I’d just imagined the two would always be separate. Instead I asked, Who are you?
Who am I? He seemed to ponder the question for a second, then said, I am of this place. I am all that remains of what we once were.>So you can’t tell from the energy itself?
No. He hesitated. It has not the feel of anything I’ve come across before.
If our theory was right, and both the sorceress and Lucian had been using dark magic to transform their beings into energy so that they could get onto the fields, then it was logical that he wouldn’t be able to recognize whoever or whatever waited inside that door. Azriel placed a hand on the odd-shaped door. It reacted to his touch, emitting a warm, nonthreatening light. I briefly wondered how it would have reacted had we not been wearing my father’s bracelets. He glanced at me. Are you ready?
I nodded and tightened my grip on Amaya. Her humming became a hiss of expectant fury, the noise jarring against the silence that surrounded us.
He pushed the door open and stepped through. I quickly followed, Amaya raised and my gaze scanning the surrounds. The room was large and circular in shape, with ghostly honeycombed walls defining its area. There was no furniture or adornments – or nothing that I recognized as such – nor did there appear to be anyone here.
But there was something here.
I may not have been able to see it, but I could damn well feel it. It was an uneasiness, a shadow, in a place that was bright and light.
Then that shadow moved, became two, and then three, and I realized what they were.
Dušan.
But these weren’t like our Dušan. These were dark and twisted, their beings radiating a wrongness that sickened me to the core.
And they weren’t alone.
Chapter 13
The Dušan attacked as one, all teeth, claws, and fury. And behind them rolled a writhing mass of sinuous, sluglike forms that had stalks for eyes and that seemed to bleed a white substance from all over their bodies.
I’d battled them on the fields once before. That time, the Raziq had set them on me. This time the source had be our sorceress, but where the hell was she?
Running. Azriel raised Valdis, his voice grim. There’s a door to our right. Go after her. I will deal with these abominations.
And with that, he dived into the midst of the Dušan, Valdis ablaze and spinning fire through the ether. I did as he ordered and ran to the right of the room. The door was easy enough to find – it was a larger honeycomb shape in a sea of them. I paused long enough to punch it open, and found myself in another long corridor. Ahead, disappearing into the grayness, was a long, thin shadow. Our sorceress. It had to be.
I bolted after her. I had no idea if I was running in the sense that I knew, and I guess it didn’t matter as long as I caught the bitch ahead. But it was a weird sensation, being surrounded by honeycombed walls through which other structures were visible, but everywhere was silence. There was no sense of life in this place and no sounds, not even from the battle raging behind me. I hoped like hell that Azriel was okay, that he could cope with three Dušan as well as the slug ball…
The thought froze as air hit from behind. I staggered a little, caught my balance, and swung around. The slug mass hadn’t remained in that room. It was here, chasing me. Fuck!
I sidestepped at the last moment and swung Amaya with all my might. Her blade hit the slugs and stuck hard, just about yanking me off my feet as the mass rolled on, forcing me to run beside it or lose Amaya. She screamed in fury, spitting fire that sizzled and flamed out the minute it struck the oozing sides of the writhing mass. Then I remembered the white muck was glue. I swore again and dug my heels in, pulling back with all my might. She came free with an abruptness that sent me tumbling ass over backward. This world might seem ethereal, but it had the same power to wind if you hit it hard enough. Air stirred around me again, a warning I didn’t dare ignore. I scrambled to my feet just as a second, smaller mass of slugs swept into the corridor. I swung to face it, but it arced away, avoiding the sweep of the blade. As it rolled past, white mucus exploded from its sides, forming a weblike structure as it spun toward me. I twisted away from it, and it splattered against a section of honeycomb wall, immediately sizzling and smoking. Within seconds, there was little left of either the net or the wall.
Obviously, the sorceress had added her own special touches to these slug balls, because the ones the Raziq had sent after me certainly hadn’t had that effect on the gray fields themselves. And if it could affect the fields like that, what the hell was it going to do to me?
There was no fighting these things; not before, and certainly not now that the sorceress had apparently upped their firepower. Not with just Amaya, anyway. But, unlike last time, I simply couldn’t retreat. There was a sorceress to catch and a key to retrieve.
Which left me with running.