Over to one side of the chamber was a hollowed-out section of soft earth no deeper than a very shallow bathtub, about seven feet long. I recognized it, even without seeing the withered vines that lay strewn forgotten all around the area. It was my sickbed, where my body had lain for months while Mab and Demonreach exerted themselves to keep the pumps working while my mind and spirit were doing a Casper impersonation.
My chest panged again and I looked away. Waking up from that particular nap had been one of the top two or three most painful moments of my life. Something inside me had changed. Not because of the pain of the experience-though that had been profound. Staring at that place, I felt as if the pain had been a side effect of a deeper and more significant shift in the way I thought of myself, saw myself, and how I should interact with my world.
Fire isn't always an element of destruction. Classical alchemical doctrine teaches that it also has dominion over another province: change. The fire of my tribulations had not simply been pain to be endured. It had been an agent of transformation. After all that I'd been through, I'd changed.
Not for the worse, I was pretty sure-at least, not yet. But only a moron or a freaking lunatic could have faced the things I had and remained unfazed by them.
I blinked myself out of my reverie to find Demonreach watching me. There was something intense about its eyes.
"MEMORY," it said, "REFLECTION."
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
"THIS PLACE."
I pondered that one for a minute. "Are you saying that I just went into an internal monologue because I came in here?"
Demonreach did not seem to feel a need to clarify. "MEMORY. REFLECTION."
I sighed. "Well, if I ever need to mull things over, I know just where to go, I guess." It was chilly in the cavern, and damp, and the air was thick with musty, earthy smells. I turned a slow circle, surveying the entire chamber. "What do you call this place?"
Demonreach said nothing and did not move.
"Right," I said. "You don't call it anything at all, I guess." I scrunched up my nose, thinking. "What is this chamber's purpose?"
"CONTAINMENT."
I frowned. "Uh. Of what?"
"THE LEAST."
"The least what?" I asked, feeling exasperated.
Demonreach just watched me.
"Uh, Harry," Bob said in a small voice. "Maybe you should look at the crystals?"
I glanced down at the skull, shrugged, and walked over to the nearest formation. I stood over it for a moment. It was a large clump, maybe twelve feet long and four or five across. And . . . and the shadows passing through the translucent crystals seemed to indicate that the floor beneath it had been hollowed out, much the same as my own recovery bed. In fact . . .
I frowned, leaning closer. There was a form beneath the crystals, an outline. The image of whatever it was got to me only after being refracted through multiple crystals, so it was awfully blurry, but I peered at it, trying to unfocus my eyes and look past it, the way you do those magic paintings at themall.
The image suddenly snapped into disjointed clarity. The form beneath the crystal was a lean creature of basically human shape, maybe nine or ten feet tall and lithe, covered in shaggy hair of golden brown. Its arms were too long for its body. Its hands were too big for its arms. Its fingers were too long for its hands, and were tipped with vicious claws.
And its yellow-gold eyes were open, aware, staring at me in naked, undisguised hatred.
"Fuck me!" I shouted, staggering back in pure, panicked reflex. "That's a naagloshii! That's a f**king naagloshii!"
Naagloshii were bad news. Serious bad news. Originally divine messengers of the Dine's Holy People, they had turned their backs on their origins and become the legendary skinwalkers of the American Southwest. I went up against one of them once. It killed one of my friends, tortured my brother half-crazy, and left me with permanent psychic scars before beating the ever-loving snot out of me. The only reason I had survived was that the wizard who was the greatest shape-shifter I'd ever seen had intervened. Listens-to-Wind had taken on the naagloshii head-to-head. Even then, it had been close, and the naagloshii had escaped to fight another day.
I've run into cruel and dangerous beings before. But the naagloshii were quite simply among the most evil creatures it had ever been my displeasure to encounter. And one of the damned things was staring at me from beneath a fragile layer of quartz I could have smashed with a wrench, its eyes burning like it was going to eat me whole.
I got a sudden sinking feeling.
And I turned to the next mound of quartz. And the next.
I'm a lucky guy. I didn't have one of the most nightmarish fiends in circulation lying on the floor within pouncing distance.
I had six of them.
There were more shapes beneath more crystal mounds. I didn't recognize them. I'm pretty sure I was extremely happy that I didn't.
"The least," I said, my voice shaking. "You're telling me that a naagloshii is one of the least." I felt like sitting down, so I did, sort of abruptly, onto the floor. "What . . . what else is in here?"
Demonreach turned to a wall. It lifted an arm and the stone of the wall faded into nonexistence, revealing a hallway maybe fifty feet across. I got back up onto my shaky legs again to take a look. The tunnel sloped down gently, and was lit by the wan glow of the crystals.
Lots of crystals.
Lots and lots and lots of crystals.
The tunnel stretched into the distance. Maybe it was a mile long. Maybe two. Maybe it ran all the way down to Hell. Mounds of crystals dotted the tunnel at regular intervals. Some of them were the size of buildings. Some of the individual crystals had to be the size of freaking trees. I had barely gotten my gawk on when a flood of energy smashed into me, as though opening the door had released liquid held back under pressure. The energy had no physical presence-but I felt a nauseating wave of greasy cold flooding through me, the dark power of the ley lines that converged upon the island breathing across me like a cloud of invisible smog.
My chest panged again and I looked away. Waking up from that particular nap had been one of the top two or three most painful moments of my life. Something inside me had changed. Not because of the pain of the experience-though that had been profound. Staring at that place, I felt as if the pain had been a side effect of a deeper and more significant shift in the way I thought of myself, saw myself, and how I should interact with my world.
Fire isn't always an element of destruction. Classical alchemical doctrine teaches that it also has dominion over another province: change. The fire of my tribulations had not simply been pain to be endured. It had been an agent of transformation. After all that I'd been through, I'd changed.
Not for the worse, I was pretty sure-at least, not yet. But only a moron or a freaking lunatic could have faced the things I had and remained unfazed by them.
I blinked myself out of my reverie to find Demonreach watching me. There was something intense about its eyes.
"MEMORY," it said, "REFLECTION."
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
"THIS PLACE."
I pondered that one for a minute. "Are you saying that I just went into an internal monologue because I came in here?"
Demonreach did not seem to feel a need to clarify. "MEMORY. REFLECTION."
I sighed. "Well, if I ever need to mull things over, I know just where to go, I guess." It was chilly in the cavern, and damp, and the air was thick with musty, earthy smells. I turned a slow circle, surveying the entire chamber. "What do you call this place?"
Demonreach said nothing and did not move.
"Right," I said. "You don't call it anything at all, I guess." I scrunched up my nose, thinking. "What is this chamber's purpose?"
"CONTAINMENT."
I frowned. "Uh. Of what?"
"THE LEAST."
"The least what?" I asked, feeling exasperated.
Demonreach just watched me.
"Uh, Harry," Bob said in a small voice. "Maybe you should look at the crystals?"
I glanced down at the skull, shrugged, and walked over to the nearest formation. I stood over it for a moment. It was a large clump, maybe twelve feet long and four or five across. And . . . and the shadows passing through the translucent crystals seemed to indicate that the floor beneath it had been hollowed out, much the same as my own recovery bed. In fact . . .
I frowned, leaning closer. There was a form beneath the crystals, an outline. The image of whatever it was got to me only after being refracted through multiple crystals, so it was awfully blurry, but I peered at it, trying to unfocus my eyes and look past it, the way you do those magic paintings at themall.
The image suddenly snapped into disjointed clarity. The form beneath the crystal was a lean creature of basically human shape, maybe nine or ten feet tall and lithe, covered in shaggy hair of golden brown. Its arms were too long for its body. Its hands were too big for its arms. Its fingers were too long for its hands, and were tipped with vicious claws.
And its yellow-gold eyes were open, aware, staring at me in naked, undisguised hatred.
"Fuck me!" I shouted, staggering back in pure, panicked reflex. "That's a naagloshii! That's a f**king naagloshii!"
Naagloshii were bad news. Serious bad news. Originally divine messengers of the Dine's Holy People, they had turned their backs on their origins and become the legendary skinwalkers of the American Southwest. I went up against one of them once. It killed one of my friends, tortured my brother half-crazy, and left me with permanent psychic scars before beating the ever-loving snot out of me. The only reason I had survived was that the wizard who was the greatest shape-shifter I'd ever seen had intervened. Listens-to-Wind had taken on the naagloshii head-to-head. Even then, it had been close, and the naagloshii had escaped to fight another day.
I've run into cruel and dangerous beings before. But the naagloshii were quite simply among the most evil creatures it had ever been my displeasure to encounter. And one of the damned things was staring at me from beneath a fragile layer of quartz I could have smashed with a wrench, its eyes burning like it was going to eat me whole.
I got a sudden sinking feeling.
And I turned to the next mound of quartz. And the next.
I'm a lucky guy. I didn't have one of the most nightmarish fiends in circulation lying on the floor within pouncing distance.
I had six of them.
There were more shapes beneath more crystal mounds. I didn't recognize them. I'm pretty sure I was extremely happy that I didn't.
"The least," I said, my voice shaking. "You're telling me that a naagloshii is one of the least." I felt like sitting down, so I did, sort of abruptly, onto the floor. "What . . . what else is in here?"
Demonreach turned to a wall. It lifted an arm and the stone of the wall faded into nonexistence, revealing a hallway maybe fifty feet across. I got back up onto my shaky legs again to take a look. The tunnel sloped down gently, and was lit by the wan glow of the crystals.
Lots of crystals.
Lots and lots and lots of crystals.
The tunnel stretched into the distance. Maybe it was a mile long. Maybe two. Maybe it ran all the way down to Hell. Mounds of crystals dotted the tunnel at regular intervals. Some of them were the size of buildings. Some of the individual crystals had to be the size of freaking trees. I had barely gotten my gawk on when a flood of energy smashed into me, as though opening the door had released liquid held back under pressure. The energy had no physical presence-but I felt a nauseating wave of greasy cold flooding through me, the dark power of the ley lines that converged upon the island breathing across me like a cloud of invisible smog.
