For the Birds Read online

  “I better get back upstairs.”

  Bub nodded and closed his eyes. “Thanks, love.”

  “Sweet dreams.” I was afraid that if knelt down for a kiss that I would end up on top of him, so I gave his leg a quick pat before heading back up to the main deck.

  Josie was at the helm on the quarterdeck when I resurfaced. She was talking with Ammit, but she paused and gave me a little wink. Apparently, she was feeling better after her and Kevin’s little rendezvous. It made me wish that I had stayed down in the hold with Bub, but there would be time for that after we rescued Jenni and reclaimed Hades’ helm and Ammit’s headdress.

  There wasn’t much to do besides wait. Thinking about what might lay ahead for us was taking up too much space in my head. Bub’s request for a place to nap redirected my busy mind away from the harder thoughts and onto more simple things, like the sorry state of the ship. Josie and I only really used the captain’s quarters and the navigation room, but there were lots of other rooms, all outdated and in need of serious renovation. We had been planning on fixing up the cabin behind ours, now that Kevin was onboard with us too, but we had all been too busy lately to get started on the project. There was also a nice sized room under the forecastle deck, and stacked under the navigation room there was a kitchen, dining hall, and an infirmary, complete with antique surgical instruments like bone saws and cauterizing irons.

  I ambled around the dusty, abandoned spaces of the ship, wondering what they might have looked like in their prime, and wondering what they might look like if we ever got around to fixing them up. There didn’t seem to be much need for it most days, but there really wasn’t much need for a lot of things other people did either. It seemed like it might be a nice hobby to have, and Kevin could help, now that he was the carpenter on hand.

  When I wandered back to the main deck, the sky above us was a bright, clear blue. Noon had come and gone, and we were still floating around without a clue. The rocky ridges of Tartarus were coming to an end along the coast. If we made it all the way to Naraka, the Hindu hell, we would have to turn back. If Caim had somehow found sanctuary there, there was no telling how long it might take us to track him down. We’d need more people and more supplies.

  I had just dragged out one of the target dummies to give my throwing stars a test run, when Saul’s bellows sounded like a trumpet over the deck. He leapt away from the railing and ran excited little circles around Maalik, who hadn’t moved from his spot since our unfriendly run-in.

  Kevin stepped out of the captain’s cabin at the same time Bub came up from the hold. Their hair was tousled, but they both looked rested. Ammit and Josie came down to join us on the main deck. Josie had grabbed my axe from the navigation room. She tossed it to me.

  With the monstrous weapon in hand, I felt more like the leader of a gang of Vikings getting ready to go pillaging. “Looks like we’ve found the trail. Josie, best get a tender ready. Kevin, steer us in a bit closer and then drop anchor.”

  Ammit’s eyes had gone reptilian again, and her hands looked strange. They were larger, but her fingers were shorter and the nails were black and pointy. Golden fur spiraled up her arms. Caim might have stolen her headdress, but she still had the power to invoke other fearsome creatures. “I’ll meet you on shore,” she said, disappearing over the railing.

  She broke through the surface of the sea without a sound, and when she didn’t come up for air, I almost panicked, until I noticed the small trail of bubbles leading away from us. She reached the shore before we had even finished lowering the tender. She clawed her way through the soggy sand with her new hands, and when her lower half became visible, I realized it had shifted into the bottom of a hippopotamus. Now I was really curious about her part in the war.

  Bub stayed behind with our group, but Maalik flew ahead to join Ammit on the coast. The hounds perched themselves at the front of the small motorboat, letting the wind whip their slobber back on the rest of us, in a mist of sticky dog breath.

  There were several downed trees along the beach, stretching out into the water. We pulled the boat in between some of the thicker roots, hoping to disguise it from spying eyes. The ship was a good distance out. In fact, it was so far out that it was hard to tell if it was moving or not. I couldn’t even see the target dummy I had left on deck. I was hoping it would be a good deterrent for any other ships that happened to cruise by.

  Once we had all made it ashore, Saul put his nose to the ground and took off, heading inland through the tall weeds and brush with Coreen on his heels.

  Beelzebub took the lead after them, being the most familiar with the realm. A handful of flies buzzed around his head and shoulders. They seemed to be constantly coming and going, like they were reporting back to him. I caught him nodding to them every now and then, like he understood their buzzy monotone hum. It made me giggle to think that flies might actually have a legitimate language. Would it be called Buzzish or Buzzinese?

  Josie, Kevin, and I followed Bub. Kevin pushed through first, clearing away brush and grass with his scythe. Bub didn’t even seem to notice. He wove through and around the foliage and roots like he had been the one to plant them there in the first place. He was fun to watch, skipping up and kicking off trunks to leap over smaller shrubs. He made it look easy. We didn’t have such a fun time trying to follow his footsteps.

  Maalik flew low above us, keeping a lookout for any surprises that might lie ahead and doing his best to avoid making eye contact. He was determined to keep his distance. I was starting to realize that he wouldn’t be letting go of his grudge anytime soon. I was done being angry at him for the past, but it takes two people to bury a hatchet.

  Ammit brought up the rear of our merry party, tucking me, Josie, and Kevin in neatly between her and Bub. Her hands were still more lion than lady, but she had shed the hippo bottom for her more human looking legs again.

  I wasn’t very familiar with the outskirts of Tartarus. Mostly, I’d only caught little glimpses along the Styx when I was out with Bub on his houseboat. The wilderness we hiked through was a far cry from the landscape that surrounded the desert mountains near his manor. Thorny shrubs and trees were packed in thick. The mountains we were migrating towards looked like broken piles of charcoal and ash, and the sky was a deep orange, tinged by the dusty purple horizon where evening would be creeping up on us soon.

  After an hour of hiking, my axe grew heavy. I wanted to roll a coin and jump ahead, but the footing was too uncertain, and it was hard telling exactly where the hounds were leading us. Saul stopped periodically and sniffed a long, careful circle before picking the trail back up. I think it was more for Coreen’s benefit. She would use the small break to loop back around, encouraging us to hurry along. Trails always seemed so urgent with hounds, and I guess they were. Time, rain, or even a good wind could disperse a scent.

  We trudged through swampy grasslands, infested with screeching locusts and invisible critters that rattled and chirped a haunting warning that we were all far too nervous and on edge to acknowledge. When our line of sight opened again, we passed several steaming tar pits, carefully navigating over scattered rocks and boulders that hissed when we stepped on them. At one point, Kevin slipped and nearly lost a boot. Maalik dipped down and seized him under the arms, yanking him free of the tar. He growled an annoyed sigh and tore off again before Kevin even had a chance to thank him.

  I wasn’t really sure where the trail was going to end. I had visions of a dilapidated shack or a medieval fortress, maybe something along the lines of Snake Mountain. What I hadn’t expected was for Saul to lead us through a gap in the crumbling mountains and to the mouth of a cave.

  We had maybe another hour of daylight left, but it was fading fast, and a smoky fog was beginning to rise up from the earth. Something told me that if we took too long, we weren’t going to be able to find our way back to the coast. Saul whimpered softly near the entrance, refusing to go any further without us. I couldn’t blame him. It didn’t look promising. Ke
vin stepped inside the cave, timidly toeing the line where the light sharply faded into darkness.

  Maalik finally swooped down to join us. “Move aside,” he said, pushing past Kevin as he ignited hellfire in his palm again. He held it above his head, casting a shallow light into the cave.

  The walls were dripping with moisture. They gleamed with a rainbow of undertones and sparkled where sharp chunks of crystal crusted rocks reached out from the walls, ready to maim uninvited guests. The path was narrow, so we followed Maalik in single file.

  As we ventured deeper, the scrambled hum of some distant noise echoed down the passage to us. It sounded like an out of tune radio, with different languages overlapping each other and random grating static filling any silences. It grew louder with each slippery step we took, until the racket drilled through my skull like an icepick.

  Josie stopped in front of me and put a hand carefully to the cave wall, steadying herself as she shook her head. Kevin stopped with her. He squeezed her arm and slipped her a pair of earplugs he had tucked away in his pocket. After having his eardrums blown by the siren, he wasn’t taking any chances. He put a pair of plugs in his own ears and turned to offer me a set too. I took them with a nod of thanks, but I stashed them away in my pocket for safekeeping. There was still a chance that I might be able to decipher some of the demon static, and I didn’t want to hinder that by muting everything just yet.

  Bub, Ammit, and the hounds didn’t seem bothered by the noise at all, and Maalik only seemed mildly annoyed. Of course, it could have just been residual annoyance from having to be so close to me. I was beginning to find his attitude annoying. It wasn’t like I had insisted that he come along. I hadn’t made out with Bub in front of him. I wasn’t being unkind or rude. He really needed to get over himself. We had bigger problems, and they were right around the corner.

  Chapter 23

  “No one can confidently say

  that he will still be living tomorrow.”

  -Euripides

  Saying that we were outnumbered would have been a gross understatement. There were too many demons to count. The tunnel had led us to an upper ledge that circled and overlooked a pit, and it was overflowing. There was a party in full swing below. The rebels were celebrating. I wondered whose birthday it was.

  The crowd consisted primarily of the generic, low grade demons of the Christian Hell. Some of them resembled humans, and they even wore clothing, but most of them were naked, with scorched, scaly flesh. Their rib cages pressed tightly against thin, scabby skin, and spaded tails darted around dangerously, striking out like they had a mind of their own. Tusks and talons gleamed from heaving orgy piles scattered around the room. Their moans and inhuman howling echoed and bounced off the cave walls. I tried to avert my eyes, appalled at the demonic peep show.

  Bub squirmed behind me. His hand came up to rest on my hip, and it occurred to me that this might actually look like a good time to him. The thought made me a little queasy.

  When my stomach had settled, I stole another glance around the pit. A few smaller circles of Egyptian rebels were sitting off to themselves, looking about as unnerved by the demon activities as I was. They were a broody, cocky bunch, eyeing their new brethren with enough contempt that I was almost certain they were reconsidering their alliance.

  A random selection of Pagan beings and deities peppered the crowd. A few winged sirens were entangled in one of the orgy piles, adding their hypnotic shrills to the tortured moaning. I noticed Kevin from the corner of my eye as he pushed his earplugs in tighter. A satyr was charming a circle of succubi with eerie music from his panpipes. The sounds of evil at play were mashed together in a migraine inducing song that was more than fitting for torture chambers.

  Ammit was panting beside us. Her eyes were doing weird things again, and she looked hungry. Maalik had extinguished his torchy hellfire hand, and we all retreated back into the passage a little ways.

  “What’s the plan, boss lady?” Kevin asked, popping out one of his earplugs.

  Maalik snorted, like the very thought of me being in charge was comical at best.

  I ignored him and slung the leather strap of my axe over my shoulder, letting the heavy blade rest against my back. “I say we watch awhile from the ledge. Keep an eye out for Caim or anyone else of importance like—”

  “Seth?” Maalik injected.

  “Yes,” I hissed back at him, rolling my eyes. “Like Seth or Tisiphone.”

  Maalik’s eyes widened.

  “Didn’t you know she was with them now too?”

  He folded his arms with a scowl, but he managed to keep his mouth shut as I continued.

  “When a good opening presents itself, I’ll take Saul down to finish tracking Jenni’s scent, though it could be difficult with so many sweaty bodies down there.”

  Bub tensed again beside me.

  I swallowed and tried to focus, wrapping my mind around all of our options. “If an opening doesn’t present itself, we’ll have to make one. I think you five and Coreen could manage a big enough distraction for me and Saul to finish tracking down Jenni.”

  “What about the helm?” Bub asked.

  Ammit stepped up closer. “And my headdress.”

  I thought it over a minute. “Bub, you didn’t have any trouble with Caim the last time he had the helm on. Do you think you could locate him if he’s wearing it again?”

  “I can try. It was easier at the factory. There weren’t so many other… distractions.”

  “Okay.” I swallowed again and pressed my lips together. “I imagine Caim’s keeping the headdress somewhere safe. If Bub manages to subdue him, maybe we can beat the location out of him?”

  “I’ll eat his face off if he refuses,” Ammit said in a low growl.

  “Okay then. Looks like we have a plan. Sort of.” I made way back to the ledge, glancing down at the crowd from the shadow of a low boulder.

  Maalik followed me, his wings tucked in tight against his back and out of sight from the demons below. “That’s a really weak plan, you realize,” he whispered.

  “Yeah? You have a better one?”

  He sighed. “Look around the base of the cave. What do you see?”

  Past the party of heathens, the floor dipped off, sinking into a lower wall. There were a handful of openings roughly carved into the rock. I could see barred gates a short distance inside some of them, secured with heavy chains and padlocks. It wasn’t the cleverest of hiding places, but it was a safe bet that we’d find Jenni and maybe the headdress somewhere beyond one of them.

  Maalik leaned in closer to me. “If we managed to get ahold of Caim or Seth or whoever, our best chance at interrogating them would be in one of those rooms. The fighting, if we have to resort to that, should be saved for very last. We are vastly outnumbered. If we don’t use the element of surprise against them wisely, we won’t make it out of here, let alone back to the ship.” He had a point, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to do us much good.

  “We need a distraction that isn’t us,” I said, just as Caim emerged from one of the gated openings, carrying Ammit’s headdress by the snout. He circled around the pit and perched himself on a lower platform that jutted out into the crowd.

  Soft growling trickled out of the passage behind me. Ammit was losing her mind. Her eyes glowed and rolled around furiously in her skull like they were looking for a way out. I wanted to reach out to calm her, but something told me that I would probably lose an arm if I tried.

  The time for careful planning had passed. I grabbed Maalik by the sleeve and pulled him out of Ammit’s path.

  Below, Caim commanded the crowd’s attention. He shook the headdress like a trophy above them, drawing thunderous cheering and laughter.

  “Tonight, we commemorate our first victory against the tyrants of Eternity! We lay claim to the souls they have hoarded away from us. Soon we will wield the power to suck them from the very sea, and we will use this to funnel them into the new world we will create in our own image,
a world where we will not be denied and suppressed by a government built on human politics, a brave new world, where power will not be distributed by popular vote but by the strength and will of those who should have rightfully ruled from the beginning!”

  The crowd roared to life, which is probably the only reason they didn’t hear Ammit coming. Her lower half had shifted into that of a hippo again, and her torso and arms were fully lion. Her face was still her own, aside from the slatted, reptilian eyes. She barreled down the passage and leapt from the edge, soaring over the crowd and landing on the ledge just behind Caim.

  I wanted to wait and see his face. I wanted to watch him piss himself, but time was precious and our task was great. Instead, I looked back to the others waiting in the cave and pointed out over the crowd. “Give her five minutes, and then have at it,” I said, feeling my breath tighten in my chest. “I’ll find Jenni.”

  I slipped off around the other side of the ledge, looking for a way down to the lower floor. It was dark and slippery. I had to feel my way along the rock wall with both hands, but every so often I would catch a sliver of light, peeking in through gaps between the boulders. I could still hear everything going on in the pit below.

  Miraculously, Ammit was still in control of herself, enough to address Caim anyway. “Thief!” she hissed. “Coward! You speak of strength and will like you have any, hiding behind Hades’ helm. You sneak in at night and steal what is mine, and you call that bravery?”

  Caim’s reply didn’t quaver nearly as much as I had hoped it would. I guess being surrounded by a few thousand demons gave his confidence all the boost it needed. “I call that a necessary evil. I call being it wise. I do not presume to be all powerful, and I wouldn’t dream of taking on the mighty Devourer of Souls on my own.” The bastard was actually trying to flatter her.