Prospero Regained (61 page)

Behind me, Theo stirred, but he restrained himself and did not unlimber his weapon.

“I can offer you your freedom,” I whispered very low.

“Freedom?” Seir spread his hands airily. “From what?”

I put the hat back upon my head. It was no good. Astreus was truly gone, and Mephisto—bless his dear soul—was lost to us, too.

Seir leaned toward me and reached out his hand. “You want me to risk my life, my position here in Hell, to rescue your brother? I will do it … if you come with me.”

His eyes were red, and his sable features had not changed, but gone was the lust and longing. In its place was something both wild and calculating. It was an expression I had seen once before, as I fell from the back of a giant black swan toward a balcony of the palace of Hyperborea.

Mortal Maid, I have but to release you now, and you will fall and break apart upon the spires, speeding your way to Heaven. Is this your desire?

No! It was a trick! Remember Ferdinand … and Osae!

I took a step back. “I don’t think so. You bring Mephisto to me.”

He shook his sable head. “Only if you come with me. Otherwise, why should I risk Lilith’s wrath?”

“What assurance do I have that you will not turn me over to Lilith, as you just said you would?” I asked, my voice rising.

“None at all, Miranda Prospero.” His red eyes were strangely intent. Seir extended his hand again and chanted. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve: the deceits of the world, or the truth you can see only with your heart.”

I pressed my hand against my chest as if to keep my hammering heart from breaking out of my rib cage. My breath had fled; I wondered if I would ever draw it again. The terror that grabbed ahold of me was so black, that I was surprised when my eyes could still see. I could not trust him. Only a fool would …

What was I afraid of? Betrayal? Losing myself? Humiliation? Erasmus had trusted me. He had done it when all the wisdom of the world would have counseled against it. Should I not be willing to do as much?

But I was Erasmus’s sister, and this was a demon. The two cases were not the same.

I thought of Eurynome and of the glimpse my mother had shown me of Hell through the Gate of True Dreaming. If even the demons could be saved, what of elves?

I looked into his face once more, at the wild, laughing, living dare that stood before me. Then, for the first time in my life, instead of waiting for someone to prompt me, I followed my heart.

“Nooo!” Theo’s voice followed us as, hand in hand, Seir and I disappeared.

*   *   *

INKY
darkness embraced us, swirling about us like living shadows. Then, we stood in a dark alcove behind a rack, which blocked our view of the large chamber beyond. The floor, walls, and ceiling were made of gold. The scent of incense and rotting corpses filled the air, and screams and moans came from the main chamber.

On the other side of the rack, a large black demon with bat wings and many intertwining horns was bound to it with chains made of some black metal I did not recognize.

“Quick!” hissed the incubus. “Free him!”

“How?” I stared blankly at the heavy chains. The incubus merely stared at me as if I were an idiot. When I still did not respond, he pointed at my forehead.

“Oh!”

I slipped forward and knelt before the first lock. Pushing back Mab’s hat, I touched the ivory mark upon my forehead to the latch.

The lock sprang open!

Mephistopheles’s bonds were fastened in four places. Moving quickly from one to another, I opened the next two locks with ease. The last one, however, was above my head. I grasped one of the bars and put my foot on the lowest rung of the rack, intending to climb.

Pain! Fiery, scorching pain shot through my arm and foot.

I screamed.

An instant later, we were surrounded by demons. Seir met my eyes and shrugged. Then, he took my arm and dragged me from behind the rack out into the main chamber, displaying me for Lilith and her minions to see.

“Great Queen.” He gave a courtly bow. “I have brought you a prize.”

The throne room of the Queen of Air and Darkness looked just as Mephisto had portrayed it upon the wall mural in his Canadian mansion. It was a place of luxury and horror. All about the enormous chamber, demons, incubi, succubi, and
lilim
lounged on huge silken pillows. Some nibbled on dead corpses, as if upon delicacies; others engaged in vast orgies. The moans and screams came from this last group.

Mosaics set into the wall celebrated the reign of Lilith and her consort Cain who sat enthroned, flanked by the many monsters they had begotten together. Beneath these murals, stone statues ringed the chamber, portraying women with their heads dragged back as if by their hair; their stomachs ripped open; their faces masks of horror and shock. On some statues, a half-formed fetus climbed the woman’s leg. Others reached imploringly toward stone images of squalling infants impaled upon pikes, their little mouths opened wide in agony.

Perhaps, there were still worse things, but I could no longer look. I lowered my gaze and stared at the golden floor, only then noticing that it crawled with maggots. My stomach churned. It must have shown on my face, for Lilith laughed, a pretty tinkling sound, like a young girl enjoying the antics of her friends.

From my position, I could see out the door. We were high in the air. A sloping ramp of silver led from the door to the ground far below, descending along the side of a golden many-tiered structure that resembled the Ziggurat of Ur in Sumeria, where Lilith had first been worshiped by mankind. Lilith had placed her royal seat at the top of the ziggurat, in the room known as the “bedchamber of the god,” where, if tradition was to be believed, a different maiden had been sent each night to serve as “the god’s companion.” A fitting throne room for the patroness of temple prostitution.

Lilith gave a screech of delight and sat forward on her throne, which was woven from black bones, clapping her slender hands. She sat garbed in a gown of scarlet owl feathers with dark crimson tips. A belt of pale white leather—probably human skin—circled her waist, clasped by a huge ruby.

Another ruby, carved into a spiral flower, dangled in the midst of her forehead, suspended by a golden chain—so that she seemed to have a Unicorn mark the color of blood.

She looked so young and delicate; it was hard to believe that something so lovely could be wicked.

“Look, the servant of the One-Horned Slut. Not so high and mighty now, are you? What a treat for us!” She laughed gaily. Turning to one of the long-haired and buxom
lilim,
her dark daughters who held an enmity with my Lady’s Handmaidens, she instructed, “Meurex, call the Torturers. Tell them that the repair of their Tower can wait; they aren’t getting anywhere anyway with those flowers everywhere. I have a prisoner for them.”

Fissions of terror zipped through me as the
lilim
ran eagerly to complete her charge. I struggled, but Seir was no longer the only demon holding me. Another incubus, also extraordinarily handsome, restrained my arm with one hand while he stroked my side and hip with his other, dodging my attempts to elbow him. A big, burly cacodemon held my shoulder in his clawed grasp, threatening to sink his sharp talons into my flesh should I attempt to flee.

I had been betrayed. I supposed it was only what I deserved for trusting a demon.

“Incubus, you have pleased me,” Lilith purred. “Name your reward.”

“Great Queen.” Seir bowed. “I would like this maiden to do with as I like.”

I glanced at Seir curiously, trying to discern whether this was some stratagem intended to rescue me or merely an attempt to carry me off. If he meant me well, he did not give any indication.

From the midst of the servants who gnawed upon the corpse, a familiar voice shouted mockingly, “That one is a maiden no longer!”

I caught sight of Osae’s spiky red hair amidst the crowd and shivered with revulsion. The imps and incubi laughed and hooted.

“Nonetheless,” Seir replied mildly.

“Then, it shall be so,” Lilith replied graciously. “When the Torturers are done with her, you may have what is left.”

My legs were trembling now, and my throat felt dry. My hands and foot smarted where I had touched the rack, and my pride smarted as well: first because I had screamed and revealed our presence and second because I was displayed thus before Osae.

My face burned like a second inferno.

Worst of all, I had failed to free my brother. Had I succeeded in opening the last lock, Mephisto might have gotten free. Dear, charming Mephisto who acted so foolishly and yet, all that time, had been looking out for the rest of us.

Had I managed to set my brother free, there would have been a chance that—even with me lost to him—Seir might have returned him to our family, once Lilith’s attention was distracted. Instead, Mephisto and I were both prisoners.

I had gambled one too many times in this infernal place and lost.

“Surely, Great Queen, you would not mar such beauty?” Seir objected. Other incubi in the chamber added their voice to his.

“Very well, Sweet Incubus, I will tell them only to break her mind and not to mar her pleasing body.”

Seir opened his mouth, as if to object, but Lilith cut him off with a graceful gesture of her hand. “Enough. I grow weary of your petitions. Go now, or I will reconsider my gracious gift to you. There are many others who would be happy to enjoy even a damaged ex-Handmaiden.”

Seir bowed.

He did not depart, but he did not continue to stand and defend me, either. He released my arm and stepped away, abandoning me to the whims of the Queen of Air and Darkness.

Immediately, two other incubi took his place; one caressed me while the other kissed my neck. When I squirmed, the cacodemon sunk his claws further into my shoulder, though I noticed he carefully avoided my wings.

The indignity of it was almost too great to bear.

I could resist, even fight. With the help of my wings, perhaps, I could get away from my current captors. But then what? Unless Seir came to my aid to whisk me away from here, I was trapped in the depths of Hell. Hardly a place I could fight my way out of single-handedly.

The incubus to my left—a handsome creature of living ivory—froze and began sniffing, as if scenting the air. He sniffed at my neck, my ear, the side of my head, and then knocked Mab’s hat upward.

A collected gasp rose from the chamber.

“What is this?” the Queen of Air and Darkness cried aghast. “A Sibyl?”

Lilith curled up in her great throne and covered her face, her body shaking. After a moment, it became clear that she was giggling. Leaping lightly to her girlish feet, she addressed her people: “What fools these mortals be! Here I am, upon the eve of victory, great victory such as Hell has not seen since the days before Solomon! Within a hundred years, the Prospero Family will fall, their covenants will be undone, their plans fail, and all mankind will fall into a state of chaos and havoc.

“Only one thing could stand in my way, and that was if Miranda Prospero became a Sibyl. Only that could ruin my perfect work.” She turned to me. “And you, with that unaccursed mark upon your forehead, come waltzing, of your own volition, up to one of my incubi, delivering yourself into my hand.” She giggled, jumping up and down in her delight. “You have brought your own doom upon yourself!”

To my right, the great black demon stirred where he hung upon the rack of pain. Lifting his head, Prince Mephistopheles mocked Seir softly, “So much for your boast of being able to stand up to Lilith.”

Lilith overheard him and giggled some more. “Stand up to me? Who, Seir?” She addressed Seir. “You can no more defy me, Little Incubus, than the tides can defy the moon.”

“As you say, Great Queen,” Seir bowed humbly.

Beyond the door, I could see the Torturers beginning their ascent of the long silver walkway, their brown robes blowing about them. Even from here, the mist gray blades of their sickles stung my eyes. They would take me to their broken tower and submit me to tortures worse than those I dreamt of when Astreus touched me. My legs began to tremble uncontrollably.

“As I know. And you shall prove it!” Lilith drew a cruel-looking bronze knife from her boot. “Gather round, my children, and we shall see such sport as we have not seen in many a day. Such entertainment as will more than make up for not getting to see that broken fool Antonio kill his own brother.” She threw the bronze knife to Seir. “Incubus, slit Miranda Prospero’s throat.”

I did not wait for Seir’s reaction.

Twisting my shoulders, I swept my emerald wings over the cacodemon and the incubi who had been pawing me. All three demons fell backward, screaming and clutching their burns. I drew my fan and sprang toward the Demon Queen.

“Malifaux! Pin her!” Lilith commanded, leaping atop her throne, the feathers of her gown fluttering about her.

One of the demons near her, a hulking ugly creature with twisted horns that poked out to either side, pointed a warty, taloned finger at me. Immediately, I was thrown across the chamber and slammed into the wall, my body pressed so hard against the gold, that I could neither move nor speak.

“Lower her, so the incubus can reach her lovely throat. Or shall we have him disembowel her?” inquired the Queen of Air and Darkness.

No one answered, but I slid down the wall until my feet were just above the floor.

How ironic.

I had failed to slit Astreus’s throat, and now he would slit mine.

Seir stood in the midst of the chamber, a slender figure of sable in his black opera cloak. His red eyes gleaming, he held the jagged bronze knife in his hand, turning it this way and that, as if examining a novelty.

Lilith purred, “Now, Seir, we are all waiting.”

“I apologize, Great Queen, but I must decline your kind offer,” Seir replied with a bow, and he tossed the knife to the ground.

A murmur spread through the crowd, and a spark of something, some distant thing akin to hope began fluttering in my chest. To my left, my brother stirred and began watching Seir with great interest.