Give the Devil His Due (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Three) (37 page)

“The Horseman,” he said. “You’re the Horseman. She said you would come.”

“Who?” Quinn asked.

“Lilith.”

“Your wife?” Quinn asked. “Is she here too?”

The man shook his head.

“Gone,” he said plaintively. “I loved her so much. But she is long gone. She told me you would come. I’ve been waiting.”

“Janus!” Quinn yelled. “I found Crowley. Get over here and let him out.”

“I wondered when you would come,” the man said. “My last duty, she said.”

Quinn heard Janus running to him. He didn’t have time to think about why Crowley looked the way he did. In this world, he shouldn’t have aged. But perhaps his frailty reflected his mental state. At that moment another large tremor shook the room. Bits of stone fell from the ceiling.

“We’ve got to get you out of here,” Quinn said. “You have to tell me where the portal opens.”

The old man looked at him in confusion.

“I loved her so much,” he said. “And then he took her from me.”

Janus arrived at the cell door, put his hand on the latch, and gently pulled. It swung open immediately.

“It's not the last time he pulled that trick, Robert,” Quinn said. “He took me away from the woman I loved. But she’s coming for me. I need to know where she is before Sanheim can stop her. Where did you arrive when you came here? Where did Sanheim defeat you?”

Quinn locked eyes with Crowley and could see a look of incomprehension, as well as something else. A part of Quinn’s brain was shouting a warning at him — something was very wrong — but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“’Fifty men went up a hill, none of them came down,’” the man muttered. “My last duty, yes. I remember now. I was to spread the word. I was to tell you the secret.”

Carol and Buzz had joined them by now, and all four of them gathered close, waiting in anticipation. Quinn didn’t see the shadow peel itself off the back wall until it was too late.

“No!” he shouted and took a step forward. The old man looked at them.

“The Lord Sanheim rules...”

His voice was cut off by a gargling cry as the shadowman grabbed Crowley by the throat and lifted him in the air. He snapped the old man’s neck in one casual motion and flung him aside. He hit the wall with a thud and crumpled to the floor in a heap.

“No!” Quinn screamed again. A wave of despair flooded over him so completely he nearly dropped to the ground himself.

After everything he had been through — killing Kyle, escaping Dub and Dother, and breaking into Sanheim’s prison — he had failed. The entire purpose of his trip, to find where the portal would open, was undone. Even if they escaped this fort, they were no closer to knowing where to go. Kate would open the portal, come through — and die.

His head was so filled with frustration and despair that he almost didn’t see the black hand about to smash into him. Suddenly Janus grabbed him and yanked him out of the way. A giant shadowy fist crashed into the spot where he had been standing.

Quinn looked at the monster in front of him, with its glowing red eyes and a mouth that gaped from ear to ear as it yelled in anger. He looked like Dub and Dother, only he was much larger. Where they had towered over Quinn at seven or eight feet tall, this one stood at least ten feet.

“You killed my brothers,” he said. “You will pay.”

The shadowman swung again and Quinn leapt out of the way as another blow smashed into the rock behind him. Carol, Buzz and Janus began backing away up the stone hallway. Quinn scrambled to follow. He remembered the creature Dub and Dother had mentioned: Dian.

As he retreated, he pulled out his sword, knowing it was all but useless. He couldn’t defeat this thing with a sword any more than he could outrun it. And some part of him didn’t want to try anymore. He was exhausted from fighting so hard. Part of him just wanted to give up.

Before the shadowman could attack him again, he felt the ground shake and more stones fell to the floor. Even Dian reached out to catch his balance and looked at the floor in obvious annoyance. Whatever was causing the earthquakes wasn’t Dian — it was something worse.

Quinn heard it before he saw it. He watched as a hole seemed to crack open in the wall several yards in front of him. A second later, a white creature with four mouths and rows of teeth appeared as its top half slithered into the hallway. Dian turned to watch it. Quinn watched as the white Wyrm screamed, its many mouths opening at once.

“Not this thing again!” Janus exclaimed.

The Wyrm turned and dove back into the wall, apparently not inclined to chase Quinn after all. The tremor underneath Quinn’s feet increased.

“It’s going to bring the whole place down,” Janus shouted.

Quinn watched as the white body slithered out and then disappeared into the wall again.

Quinn realized that this entire sojourn had been a trap, designed to draw them there and then swallow them up. But as Quinn looked at the gaping hole in the wall, he realized it wasn’t just a trap for him. Even though he faced a giant shadow monster who now turned his attention back to him, Quinn shouted in excitement.

“What the hell are you so happy about?” Janus asked, looking from him back to Dian.

“Because I know where the portal is!”

Dian jumped forward, swinging at Quinn, but he rolled backward.

“Crowley died,” Janus said. “He didn’t say anything.”

“He didn’t have to,” Quinn said. “There’s a reason this place is a prison — and why Sanheim is now destroying it.”

He saw Carol and Buzz flee further up the hallway. He looked again at Janus.

“It’s here,” Quinn said. “The portal opens here.”

Chapter 29

Kieran kept peering out the window to get some sense of where they were, but all he could see was darkness and the occasional glimpse of white caps on the ocean.

He tried to sleep, but the still, silent figure of the banshee beside him unnerved him. Every so often, he found her hollow eyes looking in his direction. She never said anything, but he knew what she was thinking.

What was to be done with him, if this worked? What was Kieran’s fate if it didn’t? It was possible that their attempt would fail. It was still several days from Halloween and he had initially estimated that day was their best bet.

Yet the number of
moidin
that Kate had gathered was unlike anything he had ever heard of. Last year, he told her she was different from other Princes, and that was a dramatic understatement. Only a few Princes had ever tried to open the portal to the afterworld and dared assault Sanheim to claim his mantle. Of those, they had all done so with two functioning parts of the Prince.

Kate was the first to try to open the portal as only one half of the Prince of Sanheim, as well as the only one to draw her power from the dead. Everyone else relied on living followers, a laborious process that usually resulted in just a few dozen
moidin.

Kieran knew that Sanheim would be prepared. He had re-read Lilith’s last missive and knew that Crowley had been destroyed within a few hours. Sanheim would be waiting for Kate. But Kieran doubted that even he was ready for such a vast number.

This had to work, didn’t it?
Kieran thought.

He hated doubt, but it was a feeling he was accustomed to. It had consumed him all last year as he worried constantly that Elyssa and Sawyer would uncover and kill him. Now it crept in again. What if the legend of the last was a lie? What if there was no way to do what they were attempting?

And worse, what if it did work? Kieran had another plan, one he would not share with anyone else. He knew what the cost would be if he failed. But he also knew something else — the immense cost if he succeeded. He told himself he had no choice, but he knew that was a lie. He could always do what he did best — skulk off in the heat of battle and try to hide in some far corner of the world.

He was determined not to do that. He would finally make the right choice, a choice Grace would be proud of.

He casually patted the bag at his feet, knowing the knife it contained within. His plan was insane, impossible. Yet he would try to see it through. And if he succeeded...

He broke off the thought and looked at the banshee to find her watching him. She seemed to be looking through him. She couldn’t read his thoughts — he knew that — but it disturbed him anyway.

“Can I ask you a question?” Kieran asked.

The banshee merely nodded her head slowly. He was careful how he phrased his next inquiry.

“When you find Quinn, are you going to come back through the portal? Or will you try to kill Sanheim?”

The banshee was silent for a long time. Kieran looked out the carriage window again, wondering if she would respond. When he looked again, Kate appeared as a human being beside him, looking pensive.

“I don’t know,” she said finally. “I am inclined to take Quinn and leave, but I know that’s a risk. We may never have a better shot at defeating Sanheim. And will he ever leave us alone? He’s already sent Carman.”

“He shouldn’t have been able to do that,” Kieran said. “There are rules and he’s broken them. I still don’t know what the consequence of that will be.”

“Exactly,” Kate responded. “If he’s gone that far, he’ll never leave me and Quinn in peace.”

“So you’ll attack?” Kieran asked.

He struggled to sound neutral. There was a right answer to this question, but he didn’t want to tell her what it was. She didn’t trust him — and she was right not to — so he feared pushing in any direction would only convince her to make the opposite choice.

“I didn’t say that,” Kate responded. “I read through the books again. No Prince has ever unseated Sanheim and from what I can understand, we’ll be at a distinct disadvantage. Since Quinn is dead, he won’t be able to help. We will be relying solely on my powers.”

“Yes,” Kieran nodded. “A dead Prince loses his powers, even in the afterlife.”

“And what about you?” Kate asked. “What powers will you have?”

Kieran gave her a puzzled look.

“What do you mean?”

“You are a Prince of Sanheim — a living Prince of Sanheim,” she said.

“I surrendered my power to Sawyer and then to you,” Kieran said. “I have no powers left.”

“Not in this world,” Kate said. “But in the next? I wonder.”

So there’s the rub
, Kieran thought. He had wondered if that thought would occur to her and what she would do when it did.

“I don’t know,” Kieran said finally. “It’s possible all my powers will stay with you. Or they might...”

“Revert back to you,” she said. “And then the rules change. And what will you do if that happens?”

Kieran looked back out the window.

“Follow your lead,” he said.

He didn’t want to look her in the eye, but when he finally did glance in her direction, she was the banshee again. And she was staring at him.

*****

When Kieran looked out the window again, he could see they were over land. He watched as the bright lights of a city appeared and then faded away into the background. They seemed to whip by in a flash, and Kieran realized they must be moving at an incredible speed.

He watched as the ground gradually got bigger and more distinct. Even in the dark, he started to see homes, roads and buildings below them. He wondered if any of the inhabitants were awake and what they would see if they looked up in the sky. Kieran thought it was probably best if there weren’t many witnesses for many reasons. Seeing a battalion of ghosts pass by overhead led by phantom horses and a mourning carriage probably wouldn’t brighten anyone’s day.

They were rapidly approaching Oweynagat. Kieran could feel it in his bones, that same sense of power he noticed the last time he was there. But now it was infinitely more intense, like a beacon in the night. He didn’t wonder how Kate had guided her army there. She must have sensed it too.

The carriage dropped down again just above the ground and Kieran had a moment to feel nauseated before it dipped once again. The carriage landed on the ground at full speed, the entire frame shaking and wheels bumping. It bounced several times, making Kieran wish for an air sickness bag. When the carriage finally came to a halt, he took several deep breaths and looked at the banshee.

“You did that for my benefit, didn’t you?” he asked.

The banshee didn’t respond, but smiled. It was a ghastly sight and Kieran looked away. He wished he hadn’t said anything.

The carriage suddenly lurched forward and continued along a winding road for a few minutes until it slammed to a stop, practically throwing Kieran out of his seat in the process. He fumbled with the latch before opening the door and throwing himself onto the ground. He threw up in the grass, but felt grateful to finally be on solid ground again.

He heard Kate and step out of the carriage. Kieran stood up again and looked at her.

“Welcome to Ireland,” he said.

A moment later, a flash of green light appeared and the carriage exploded.