Jackson John Paul

The 9th Fortress

John Paul Jackson

The 9th Fortress

The 9th Fortress

Copyright © 2010 by John Paul Jackson

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1. Her Daniel

And that's how I died.

I've heard people say — the living anyway — that dying is a serene experience as natural as falling asleep. They speak of a tunnel of light that pulls you toward awaiting loved ones on the other side. In all these stories you will come across words like comfort, contentment, peace, but the overall message is always the same: There is nothing to fear from death. I'd love to say that's true. I'd like to ease your mind, but then I was never a good liar.

Missy was my life support; that was her official title. However, with my quantum leap from the old world to the new still finalizing, I was too busy screaming to notice her, too busy fighting the excruciating current of electricity arcing inside my skull.

"Don't think!" she urged, her young voice giving direction. "Don't fight it! It'll be worse if you fight it. Just relax and it'll all come back to you."

My jaw snapped shut and my gnashing teeth seemed to shatter inside my mouth. I must have bitten off a piece of my tongue because I could feel a chunk of meat go down my throat. On top of this, a brilliant ray of sunlight blinded me. Great sprays of blood erupted from my mouth, and the more I fought against this internal inferno, the more my body convulsed, as if pissed at me for putting up a fight.

It went against the grain to give up, of course it did, but the very moment I surrendered, I felt the agony diminish. Like the air being released from a balloon, the pain receded. Extinguishers hit those flames, a firing squad of headaches dropped their arms, and an enormous sense of peace overwhelmed me.

"I've been so looking forward to meeting you!" she proclaimed. "So looking forward!"

Her Southern drawl warmed my ear. This was a voice I recognized. It was as familiar as my mother’s, yet oddly, I was certain she was a stranger to me. I lay flat on my back on a cold, altar-like stone. Clean fresh air sprang up my nostrils and filled my lungs; every giddy breath of it sent vitality coursing through my bloodstream, bestowed strength to my muscles, brought focus to my sight, and clarity to my thoughts. I was conscious, safe, and alive. Alive!

I opened my stinging eyes without fear, and saw a prepubescent black girl smiling over me. Startled, my limbs froze as she flattened her button nose fully against mine. "You're really here!" she cried. "Here! Here! Here!"

Maybe it was her elation, but her face seemed like an exaggerated caricature to me. Her huge brown eyes sparkled like diamonds, her teeth were like pearls between her lips, and her glowing cheeks were as if two apples stuffed the corners of her mouth. Fortunately, she retreated a few feet — all the better to see her, and my remarkable situation.

"This is not the end." she said, in a serious tone.

"What is this?" I asked groggily, squinting up at her. The question left my mouth as a mumbling slur and a release of bloody drool, and the girl chuckled through five little fingers. I licked the roof of my mouth to be certain I still had a tongue — I did — and sitting up with a groan, I suddenly gasped at the wings growing out from this little girl's back; each was as tall and as wide as her own body, with every pristine feather gracefully combing the air beneath her.

"This is no dream," she said, answering my thought. "This…is an awakening!"

I wasn't entirely sure if she had just read my mind, the flying girl not confirming nor denying. After rubbing my eyes in an attempt to remove her image from my sight, and failing, I decided to find some composure, to take another breath and a minute to examine this vivid state of consciousness. I stretched, scratched, and readied my lips to ask my next question. "Who — "

"Name's Missy!" she interrupted. "Life support." Courtly, she bowed, as if in the presence of someone greater than myself. "Hello, Daniel. It's an honor."

"Daniel?" I grumbled. "That's my name, Danny Fox."

"Daniel Franklin Fox, actually! But Danny is fine too."

My name leaving her lips seemed to give the girl such a thrill that I wondered if there had been some kind of mix-up, a clerical error or case of mistaken identity. Just who on Earth was she expecting?

"You!" she cried. "Always you! Only you!"

"Missy?" I asked a moment later, my mind wrestling with an irritating sense of déjà vu. "Why is this? Why are you…so familiar?"

"So you do remember me?!" she exclaimed, excitedly.

I begged the girl to settle down as she circled around me. Thankfully, she came to a halt in front of me, and curling a length of her lustrous dark hair around her index finger, she studied my frown. Seemingly fascinated by the face in front of her, she sucked her finger into her mouth, and then chewed on her hair as if it was licorice.

"Oh, don't look!" she said, bashfully pulling the soggy strand from between her lips. "I'm just so nervous!"

I nodded empty-headedly, and then suddenly became aware of the impossibly obvious: For a man who was supposed to be dead, I was more alive than ever. I could feel a feverish adrenaline coursing through me, a luminous lifeblood making me feel like an invincible teenager all over again. Maybe I am invincible.

"You're not!" she said, immediately. "But I am glad you're feeling better. Sit up. Take a look-see!"

I did, still wearing that same ten-year-old jacket, wrinkled white collared shirt, and raggedy jeans. If this were the afterlife, then I would have preferred to meet it in something more appropriate, a suit and tie perhaps, with polished shoes and a haircut. The one thing I could say for these old clothes is that they were, at least, familiar, and familiarity brought comfort in this most unfamiliar of environments.

"The shirt really could use an iron," said Missy, her lips closed, "but it's not that bad. I've heard of grown men who wake here in diapers! Like big babies in diapers! How embarrassing for everyone involved. One man, I was told, even woke here dressed as a banana! A great big yellow banana! Can you believe that?"

"You didn't move your lips!" I said, pointing an accusatory finger at her face. "I was watching closely! I was! You spoke, but your lips…your lips, they didn't move!"

She waved her hand flippantly, as if telepathy was hardly worth discussing. Fortunately, she could not dismiss the world around me, this nowhere place I had never been to, dreamt of, nor imagined before; it was beyond anything I had ever experienced. Surrounding me was a panorama of immaculate, unblemished white, not a shadow, shade, bump nor hill anywhere to be seen. My ears were filled with a low but incessant drone, too, like the constant whine that fills a jet's cabin miles above terra firma. This was a space devoid of heart and soul — a spiritual vacuum.

"I must be dreaming! I must be!"

"That's what most people think at first," she said. "Reckon I did, too."

"You did?"

"Oh, I've been through this process, Daniel, and I've been waiting forty-one years to help you through yours. Have to say the time has absolutely flown by! Cannot begin to describe what this means to me. Even now, as I see you and speak to you, it doesn't feel real."

"You're telling me," I said, rubbing my forehead. "Did you say forty-one years?"

"Uh-huh! My only regret is that you only had that short time. They do say the good die young, but it would have been nice to see you with a mane of distinguished grey hair and a crooked old walking stick. You would've aged well!"

Making flying look completely effortless, Missy perched herself on the edge of my stone, her birdlike wings ceasing their constant fluttering. As I stood, I realized that the top of her curly head barely reached my shoulders.

Keeping my distance from her, I removed my shabby jacket, leaving me in a rumpled shirt, torn jeans, and worn-out sneakers. I searched my back pocket for my wallet and phone, but couldn't find either.

"Some belongings arrive with you here." she said. "Sentimental items, mostly, but you're a long way from home, and most get lost in transit."

My keys were missing, too, and I was briefly upset at the hassle ahead of me — cancelling credit cards, getting new locks fitted, and so on. Then I remembered where I was, and looked at the angel before me as if for the first time. Could this truly be happening to me? What actually is happening to me?

"Is this a coma?" I asked the girl. "Am I on drugs? Did some bastard slip something in my drink? Tell me!"

"It would have to be a very deep sleep," she remarked, pinching my arm.

"Hey!"

"The pinch is softer than the slap, but just as effective!" she giggled. "No, this is not a coma, Daniel, or drug and alcohol induced delirium. Your pupils are not dilated, and you don't reek of alcohol. This is the situation, this is the reality."

"Impossible!" I said, agitated. "Angels don't exist. That's the reality I come from! You're a bullshit cliché found in fairytales, shit TV shows and psychedelic drug trips like this one. Listen, I'm truly sorry my mind dragged you into this mess. I don't know what the hell I was thinking, but if you let me wake up I promise to have a good word with myself and the nearest affordable shrink. Deal?"

I waited for her to agree, to nod, to laugh even. She didn't. Instead, she lectured me on my language, and then held my large hands in her little ones. "Daniel," she began, "I am as real and as hackneyed as you see. All myths have some basis in fact. Truth is, some folks have to see the cliché at first; like an old pair of slippers, it makes them feel right at home! Today you see an angel before you, not the decades of development it took me to get here. Progress, that's all I am."

Suspicious still, I reclaimed my hands from her.

"I'm what's called a life support," she added, exhaling. "I had one myself. Everyone does, all the races, on all the planets, in all the galaxies, in all the dimensions, in all of the universes. We share a link, you and I, a profound bond. Since the moment of your conception, your life has been my responsibility."

Her sincere manner made this all seem so simple and straightforward. I didn't dare believe, but her honest face and earnest demeanor were damn convincing.

"You," I scoffed, "have been looking after me? From where? Your comfy cloud in the sky? You're just a little kid, for Christ's sake! What do you know about me, what do you know about anything?"

"Don't you dare condescend to me!” she hit back. "Just last week was my birthday, my one hundred eighty-ninth, making you the little kid here!"

Just the memory of that birthday sent this angel/girl pirouetting off excitedly several times. "Everyone came," she said. "All but my Daniel, of course. I told my me-maw all about you, and how determined you are, and how you've always been so serious! Even as a boy, you wouldn't play hunt the leprechaun because you thought it was silly."

"Well, it is!" I protested. "I mean, there's no such thing as leprechauns! Is there? And how do you always know what I'm thinking…?" I trailed off.

"I hear your every thought, Daniel," she said, "and you can hear mine if I choose. Though now that you're here, the signal will start to fade from both our heads. I am no longer necessary; you see, my job is over. And I admit that it's difficult for me to accept. I've gotten so used to you."

Her anguished sigh almost broke my heart; she really did appear to care deeply for me.

"I suppose we'll both have to get used to new roles," she continued. "I'll find a way to cope and so will you, for although rare, there are cases of souls losing their sanity here. The shock can cause the mind to collapse in upon itself, you know. When that happens…There is no hope for recovery. Any time you feel overwhelmed by this place just try to concentrate on something other than those feelings."

"Such as?" I asked, worried.

"Well, let's see," she considered. "Do you like my dress? Made it specially! Took me nine months and four days of sowing! I'm getting quite good."

My ham-fisted and unimpressed reply did not satisfy the little angel. I couldn't help it, to me, the gown looked like everything else here, as monotonously boring as a white bread with mayo sandwich. However, just to please her, I re-examined the gown more closely and was startled to see my own face reflected in the material. I was impressed, and Missy was satisfied.

"Ah-ha!" I exclaimed, stirred by a sudden point. "Why ask my opinion about the dress, if you already know what I'm thinking? Ha! I knew this was a dream!"

She paused, smiling at my triumphant pose. "I asked, Daniel, 'cause after all of my effort, I wanted to hear you say you liked it! That's all!"

"Of course you did," I said, smirking. "Tell me then, what am I thinking now, angel girl?"

This time, she did not hesitate. "You're thinking a thousand thoughts. Your mind is a runaway train packed full of puzzled passengers. How did I know her name? Where and when will I wake up? Do leprechauns exist? And does she really know what I'm thinking?"

Missy didn't need to read my mind for confirmation that she was right; my defeated expression told her everything she needed to know. Something she'd said earlier was beginning to make a whole lot of sense now: Being dead was going to take some getting used to.

2. Waiting for God

Missy watched me inquisitively for the longest time. I didn't say much, but when I did, I asked her a question I wasn't ready for. "Is there…a God?"

Excited to be asked anything at all, the little angel was very enthusiastic in her reply. "Of course there's a God! But not the bearded old man you expect. In fact, the God we trust has no physical form whatsoever. No one true identity."

"So, what is he?" I inquired.

"He or she…is mystery! The question is bigger than all of us, Daniel, and probably incomprehensible to your mushy brain right now! That'll improve over time."

"Please," I insisted. "I'd prefer to know everything, even if I can't get a handle on it."

After a conceding nod, she began to ponder the ultimate question, and then gave me her simplest explanation. "How can I describe it? Imagine a cloud, Daniel, a great, crackling storm cloud. Can you see?"

I closed my eyes to concentrate. "I think so. Yeah, sure."

"Now, imagine that cloud has every planet, every star, every galaxy, every dimension, and every atom of every possible universe within it. Everything! God is physics, Daniel; God is that cloud!"

"A living cloud?" I muttered. "Honestly?"

"More a cosmic consciousness," she explained. "The spark of creation, I suppose. We cannot grasp the will of this mind, we cannot explain why it wants certain things to happen a certain way, or how it shapes destinies and why; but we do not stop trying. The secrets of the universe and the ultimate truth are there to be uncovered, and we all are discovering them together."

With a hasty duck, I only just avoided her wings. "So…" I said, "you're in the dark here, too?"

"We are in the light." she corrected. "God is the science, and our greatest minds collectively study it. We are all angels essentially, each with our different rank and ranks with different jobs to do, but all of us sharing one common goal, to understand God and his meaning for life. It's a very fulfilling existence!"

Light as a fairy, Missy fluttered and danced. Her supreme agility was a sight to see, and I could not help but reach a hand to my shoulders, hoping to find my own personal pair of wings.

"One day," she grinned, as I rubbed the spine of my back.

"So," I shrugged, "what's your job then? Your rank?"

"Life support! Yours. The job required me to keep you on the straight and narrow, advising, warning, supporting you through existence. Life support is the most frustrating task for any angel, but without a doubt the most rewarding. We are the inspirer, Daniel, feeding the subconscious with an urge to write classic works of fiction, to compose an opera of epic beauty, sculpt a David, or paint the Mona Lisa. Course, I could not inspire you to that level of artistry, some do not have it in them, but I gave you my very best shot! I secretly hoped you would remember some fragment of my influence when you awoke here. Some folks do recall their life support and share that special bond right away. Unusual, but it happens."

"I remembered your name, didn't I?"

Missy sighed, and I could only shrink at her disappointment.

"Must have been a pretty dull job," I said. "Like talking to a brick wall. My life wasn't that exciting, either. I did nothing extraordinary; no great achievements there, that's for sure."

"Every life is an epic," she returned, casually. "Some climb mountains, others raise good children, both are great achievements. Will you test me? Oh, do test me!"

She asked the question with an infectious enthusiasm, and took my amused nod as approval to proceed.

"Deep breaths, Missy!" she said, sucking in that crisp air. "From your birth on February 22nd 1971, 8:45 a.m. Ontario, Canada, to your death in that same province, Nov 9th 2012, 20:09 pm…twenty-four minutes ago!" She briefly stalled to enjoy my mystified expression.

"I was there for your first tooth! First day of school! Was watching when they removed your tonsils and then later that afternoon when you lay in bed, thick chocolate ice cream streaming down your front; you were the cutest! I was over the kitchen table when, at six years old, you shaved the hair off the dog's back and reapplied it with jam. My oh my, what a mess!”

"I still have that picture," I mumbled, overwhelmed by this floodgate of forgotten memories.

Missy lowered herself to my right ear, but finding nothing there but wax, she ploughed on. "Ugh, your obstinate mind still hopes you'll wake from this any second! Luckily, I've trained for the fight, and this should convince you otherwise!" She huffed and puffed and…"Your Aunt Audrey? I am the one who urged you to check on her that morning. You got the ambulance just in time, too. I was the one who warned you about wearing a seatbelt an hour before your car hit that tree in Colorado."

I nursed the lump in my hair from that particular accident, whilst Missy parted my fringe to the side she preferred. "An only child, Daniel, your father was a hardworking Scot from Glasgow; your mother came from Bordeaux, and you speak French fluently. Together they made quite a team, and didn't they pour so much love into little ole you!"

She carried on with her facts, but I was lost for the moment in the memory of my parents. Fortunate to have them, I was their, and clearly Missy’s, most treasured possession.

"At thirty-six," she said, almost finished, "you made it to detective sergeant for the Ontario Provincial Police. They were the happiest days of your life. Today is the happiest day of mine, Daniel. Been such a rich experience, and an absolute pleasure to be…"

"Stop!" I demanded, stunned by her battering ram of information. "All of this…It's not possible, is it?"

"Why not?" she returned, softly. "Do tell me why not?"

I ransacked my thoughts for an explanation, and drawing a blank, I replied just as softly. "How can there be an invisible angel bleating about me all the days and nights? How can there be an irrational place like this with no walls, windows, or doors? How can that be?"

Disheartened, Missy tried again. "What makes a heart beat? How can the sun nourish the Earth and the moon attract the seas? The human race is surrounded by miracles: the bees and butterflies, the roses and rainbows, not to mention the profound power of the brain. The universe is strung together by thousands of tiny little miracles Daniel, scattered everywhere. One day soon this new world will seem so old and rational to you, and like all miracles, it will be taken for granted. Trust your eyes and your instincts at a time like this; and trust me, trust that I have always been there and with your best interests at heart, an absolute rollercoaster of emotions, and we rode it together."

The girl fell silent now, allowing me some time to take it all in. No, I wasn't going to wake from some drunken binge on a stranger's sofa. I wasn't going anywhere. Missy had finally pierced her skeptic's shield.

"Dead," I whispered, retracing the steps in my mind. How did I actually die?

The memory returned quicker than I expected; more than a memory, it was a recording fixed in crystal clarity, followed by an injection of pure adrenaline. Everything began to spin now. My lips quivered, my teeth chattered, and all of a sudden, I found myself transported atop that fairground Ferris wheel, with death staring back at me. Before I could relive the experience all over again, however, my mind shut like a book and returned me to the world of white. I vomited down one side of the stone, and Missy came swiftly to prop up my head.

"There is no more pain!" she hissed. "It's over! Open your eyes and breathe! In and out, breathe…"

I now knew how one could lose his mind in a place like this, and where it could be lost. Steadying myself, I wiped my mouth clean with a sleeve, the swirling nausea and vision of death gone, for now. Only the refrigerator drone could be heard for the next few minutes. Tears glittered in my eyes, and when I cleared them, I was struck by an unconditional love written over this young girl's face.

"Is this Heaven, Missy? This place?"

"Heavens no!" she declared, insulted. "Does this look like divine architecture to you?"

"I guess not. How does this usually work then?" I asked, dreading the answer. "You know I never gave money to charity; or any of my time to religion. Does that…put me in trouble?"

"Only religion starts trouble," she returned, further confusing me. "There are no churches here, Daniel, no mosques or synagogues. Religion is a divisive invention, filling voids in some and making the darkness less frightening for others. You will learn that wisdom is the highest of all virtues, not devotion to ancient superstition. Believe in God, Daniel, not religion. Come with me." With elegant haste, Missy pushed forward and pulled me along by the wrist, her wings wafting cold air into my face.

"Where are we going?" I asked, struggling to make my legs work.

"We have an appointment," she answered, over her shoulder. "This minute, an angel of the highest order will be combing through your ledger. Cannot figure who it might be, though. The secrecy is most unusual; the life support is made aware of all things concerning their individual. It's compulsory!"

"A ledger?" I panted. "You mean, like an account?"

"Catching on, Daniel! Your ledger has precisely forty-one pages, each documenting a year of information. Pages show life through your eyes; details you've looked at during your time, no matter how trivial, will be recorded in the ledger."

"What if I was blind?" I asked, and she chuckled like the child she was.

"The ledger doesn't just show images Daniel, it allows the reader to experience you! To wear your shoes, feel your thoughts, and hear your words! It's a conclusive biography!"

Mulling over this daunting information, I felt extremely exposed, stripped naked. My life, my inner most personal thoughts and feelings always open for strangers to read in some supernatural exposé?

"It is completely natural!" she stated, rifling through my head. "And although revealing, the ledger is the only way to the truth. It is the way of things. Rest assured, Daniel, the angel reading your ledger is under oath to keep their findings sacrosanct. So, try and relax. Every person who has ever lived, every pharaoh and president, king and queen have gone through this process. If it still embarrasses you, then think of this: You also have an afterlife ledger, a fresh start for nobler pursuits, and today is page one. "

For all her words, the idea would never sit comfortably with me, or anyone else, I imagine. However, I guess there are some things in life — and death — that are unavoidable.

***

Missy kept her wings flapping at a steady pace in front. By this time, I was adjusted to my rejuvenation, and to the plain white world, which thoroughly disappointed. This certainly was not Heaven, but it wasn't really any place. It lacked life, care, and color, the ingredients that made the planet I left special.

"I'm to be judged here?" I asked, the pace and nerves causing my heart to race. "This dull space?"

"This dull space," Missy informed, again over her shoulder, "is called the Waiting Plain, the other side of space, actually. There is nothing to fear. Hurry now."

"I'm not afraid. It's just the weirdness of it all. The Waiting Plain?"

"Here one first meets his life support, as you have. One also waits for his case to be heard, as you will."

Confounded by the idea of a celestial law and order, I was nonetheless intrigued as I avoided the draft her wings produced.

"This is a waiting room?" I asked. "Where are the magazines?"

"We do a different sort of reading here,” she said, happy to satisfy my curiosity. "Souls take time to be heard. The life ledger contains all the facts, though, and every one must be taken into account. For example, a child may be brainwashed into a belief system by small-minded parents, but with education can grow out of that ignorance. A man may commit a petty crime one year and cancel it out with charitable penance the next. You see, Daniel, qualification for Heaven does not come through solemn prayer or blind devotion, but through moral fiber, the makeup of heart and soul in all living things. Once all that has been taken into consideration, a verdict is returned and justice carried out. Death truly is the great equalizer."

"And how long am I to wait, Missy?"

"You are to be heard immediately! As I said, it is most unusual. Faster now… Tardiness is unacceptable!"

On the move a while, Missy rambled on and on about her favorite subject — me. Her passion made the girl impossible to dislike, but I quickly discovered that hearing only about oneself gets extremely tedious. Her knowledge seemed bottomless; the most intimate and banal details of my life were hers to sift through — good habits and bad, long standing friends and brief acquaintances. She knew what I preferred to eat and what made me wretch; she knew the ideal hours of sleep my body required — seven, apparently — and was weirdly jealous of the women who kept me from them. She was privy to how much I earned and the junk I spent it on, and how many years I worked to become a police officer and the pride I felt wearing the badge. My dreams and nightmares were hers, too; there was absolutely no hiding place from this angel's eye.

Does she know when to shut up? I thought at one point. The phosphorescent glow of this blank world brought about a migraine, and I began to question if we had actually moved at all. The smooth surface seemed to flow backwards whilst my feet continued forwards, as if trapped on one, vast, go-nowhere conveyor belt.

"Just your imagination," she answered back. "Headaches are common, too. It'll pass."

Remembering Missy's remarkable ability to hear my thoughts, I focused them on the question at the forefront of my thinking, and awaited her telepathic reply. I concentrated hard, but Missy floated on without reaction or comment. Frustrated, I shouted the question several times over in my head, but still nothing. Finally, I clutched her elbow and braked with my heels.

"What?" she complained, jolting back. "Why do you stop us?"

"Don't you know?" I said, unapologetic. "Or are you just avoiding the issue?”I have someone I'd like to see Missy, and you know it."

Wearing that expectant expression, sadness descended over her bright face.

"Let's keep moving Daniel. Let's?"

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Tell me."

"Nothing. Now we're almost there, so…" she tugged at my wrist, but I rooted my feet put.

"There is someone I'd like to see," I insisted. "Don't ignore me. You've told me everything about my life, but nothing of hers. Didn't even mention her name, did you? Where is she? I won't take another step until you…"

"No!" the girl interrupted, shunting her palm at the end of my nose. "Do you think I haven't heard you? Do you think I cannot feel your pain? Shame you can't feel mine or you wouldn't have drunk your life away over it!" This was the serious adult speaking now, the ripe wisdom she hid so well behind a youthful face. "How can I put this?" she said, caressing my shoulders. "How can I?"

Her difficult expression gave me cause for concern. What could be so hard to say?

"Your daughter," she stuttered, "is in Heaven. You are not."

A gunshot went off in my head, striking my brain and all it controlled dumb. The mention of my twelve year old tended to do that, but the idea that she was somewhere close by, somehow, tangibly alive, hit me harder than usual this time.

"Kathy," I said, feeling the life drain out of me.

Postponing our rush, Missy gave me a much-needed minute on my backside.

"The living do not realize the grief the dead go through," she said. "Your daughter lost a father, but she had a strong life support, and loving grandparents to see her through the worst."

Astonished, I could only shake my head. "This is fucked! Totally fucked!"

I sensed Missy's disapproval at the language, but I didn't care. Gazing up at a ceiling of white nothings, I tried to imagine Kathy's life in Heaven. Had she grown out of her glasses? Would her eyes even need them? I pondered the possible changes to her personality, how her new home had shaped a mind so young, and what influence my parents could have over her life there. Who were her friends? Where did she live? How did she live? I thought over these and more mind-bending questions as Missy assisted me to my feet.

"My girl is in Heaven," I said, proudly.

"That she is," said Missy, smearing a tear from my cheek. "That she is."

I felt the distant presence of my daughter inspiring so much energy back into me. I could move mountains with this power, sweep the seas and ravage all the armies in the world. I would do whatever it took.

Facing my life support, I asked my last question — the only question: "How do I get into Heaven?"

"That is what we are going to find out…”

3. The Elder Statesman

Hard on Missy’s heels, I assumed more than an hour had past when I encountered the first thing in the afterlife that truly frightened me. It was desperation.

"Wait! Please stop! I beg you to stop!"

Glancing right, I noticed a lanky man stagger drunkenly toward me, arms trailing as if they could not keep up with his torso. Feeling the loss of Missy's grip, I smirked over this person's moustache, too big for his face. Dressed in a craggy tuxedo with flapping tails, his bushy brows hid the eyes underneath. Seeing no harm in the vagabond, in fact, relieved to find another sharing my limbo, I gestured him closer. Upon reaching me, the man threw his hands around my neck.

"Help me!" he cried. "Oh, please help me!"

Drool dripped from his salivating lips; he was hollow-cheeked and wore scratches down each of them. I took an immediate step back, but he followed, snaring me in his hold.

"Are you God?" he begged. "Are you God? Answer me! Answer!"

I called for my life support, searching to my left and right. A cold trickle then ran down my spine; Missy was gone, and I was alone with a lunatic.

"You are God!" he announced, showing all his teeth. "You must be! Oh, almighty…What have I done?! I have suffered long over my actions! Why have you forsaken me?! I was due a place on that raft! I was bloody entitled! Why am I here? Explain yourself!" He throttled me, insanity pumping adrenaline through his muscles. "Why do you keep me waiting?!" he panted. "Lord have mercy! Lord hear my prayer!"

I cried out as his unkempt fingernails sank into my throat, and feeling the blood trickle down my chest, I pressed my hand to his face and gouged at the holes there.

"You think I can’t kill a God?" he grimaced back. "Do you think I won't murder a God?!"

"I am not…! Get your damn hands off!"

His blunt teeth tore at my palm, then fought as he inched his face closer to mine. His breath stank of scotch, and cigars stained every fibre of his clothing.

"No!" I scowled. "Get…away!"

The eyes seemed to glaze over as he resorted to snapping at me with random bites here and there. He barked an inch from my cheek, and then took a snap off my eyebrow and a pinch from my chin.

"I will become one with you!” he seethed. “Take this body and eat from it! Take this cup and drink from it! Oh, Lord God!"

"Leave him be!" a brilliant voice commanded, and with that, a sudden punch of air violently parted us.

Dazed and on my back, the hungry man was over ten feet away. His face was in awe as he gawked past me to a lavishly dressed man dangling a black, three quarter hat in his hand. Advanced in years, this new arrival had a soft face with few lines, kind lips, and a mop of white hair falling in curls to the collar. He wore a linen shirt with fancy cuffs, and a tightly fitting black waistcoat matching his breeches. His ridiculous scarlet stockings caught the eye, wrapping down the shins to a pair of gleaming shoes with golden buckles. He was a walking museum piece, a character that did not belong in my time, but seemed perfectly at ease in this one.

Wiping the taste of my blood from his mouth, the slovenly man clasped his hands in prayer and then fell humbly before the elderly gent’s polished shoes. "Why?" he sniveled like a child. "Why do you have me wait still? Have mercy, Lord! Will you end this pitiful injustice? Will you end it today?"

The old man looked over the tramp with contempt, an expression that seemed all the worse on that friendly face. "I am gob-smacked you made it this far, Mr. Ismay," said he, with a refined English accent. "Your tenacity, however, is to be admired."

"Oh, it is to be admired! It is, my Lord!"

"I am not your Lord," he returned, “and your efforts have been in vain. Your scurrilous need to survive is of no virtue here, and Heaven will never have room for the likes of you. Be gone from my sight at once."

The stranger then vanished with a similar punch of air. Where? I could not say. "Magic," I muttered, incredulous.

"Not magic," replied the old man, “simply a potent combination of Faraday and Maxwell. Force and waves, Mr. Fox — science."

The extravagantly dressed figure paused with a hint of regret before settling that cocked hat on top of his white hair. "I can only apologize," he sighed. "What you have just witnessed is an unfortunately frequent occurrence. Those who do not deserve Heaven can still find themselves on its doorstep. Come forward, Mr. Fox. As your life support said, there is nothing to fear."

Despite his assurances and pleasant demeanor, I could not help but be afraid. My arms and legs went to jelly, and as I approached, a familiar face appeared from behind his scrawny legs.

"You wanted me to shut up," said Missy, hurt.

"I didn't say that."

"Not out loud, but you thought it!"

"I’m sorry," I said, stooping down, "but then you already know it. I called for your help back there. Thought you were supposed to be my guardian, protector, thingamajig?"

"Life support," she said, gliding upward, "and you weren't in any danger!"

Missy changed her mind after inspecting the various teeth marks impressing my body. I accepted her apology repeatedly before she calmed down. Then, no matter how inappropriate, I felt it only good manners to offer this man my handshake. "Won't you call me Danny?"

His eyes were warm as he took hold, and after a vigorous shake, he reached into his waistcoat to remove a silver flask.

“Drink," he said, passing it to me. Holding no more than two swallows, Missy persuaded me to down the contents. The liquid had no scent, and was thick and flavorless over my tongue.

"What is it?" I asked, experiencing a tickle come over my skin, followed by the weaving of new flesh over my wounds.

"A strict compound of chemicals," said the man, enjoying my wonder. "And better for you than all the vegetables in the world."

"Who are you?" I hissed, dropping the flask and recoiling. There were no bite marks left on my hands or face, and no scars either.

"He is Sir Isaac Newton," said Missy, pushing me back to him. "This is the honor of my life, sir!"

"And what an honor it is to meet you!" he replied. “The both of you!”

My life support hid her blushing behind my leg, and although I appreciated this man's fine appearance and help, my still-scattered brain did not yet recognize the name.

"Daniel this man is a genius!" proclaimed Missy. "He forged the laws of gravity in his lifetime, and today continues to push the boundaries of physics. Sir Isaac, tell Daniel what happened before the big bang!”

“I don’t think he’s interested, Missy.”

I wasn’t. The only thing that interested me was what this apparently prestigious scientist wanted with me. Moreover, what did I do to deserve his notice?

The Englishman bent forward to search into my head, as if looking directly at a small piece of personal information. He frowned at his findings. "I am sorry you had to suffer so much. Your passing was unpleasant."

"Didn't feel a thing," I lied, the mere mention making me uncomfortable.

Sir Isaac Newton could not have failed to notice my distress, but thankfully, he never drew attention to it.

"That feeling won’t ever leave you," Missy added, squeezing my fingers a little bit firmer. "You will never forget. It is the way…of things."

"It’s okay." I said. "I think…it can be controlled. Maybe"

Getting a grip of my emotions, I gazed back at the elderly scientist. "Missy tells me you've been reading my ledger of life? Is that true?"

"Correct. I assigned myself to read your ledger, and it makes for interesting reading. Yes," he considered, rubbing his chin, "yours is a tale of two lives, Danny. One good and decent and promising — very promising — everything one would want in a friend, husband, or father."

"And the other?" I asked, wary.

"A mixed bag, I’m afraid. A very mixed bag indeed, and you will be judged by all of it."

Missy was fidgety at my knee, keen to interrupt on my behalf.

"Under normal circumstances,” Newton added, “there would be only one course of action for such an uneven life, such a disproportional path."

I broadened out my shoulders and felt brave for a nanosecond. "So…What are you waiting for? Get it over with."

Missy swallowed so hard that I could hear her gulp. Scared for me, she still trusted that Newton had read my ledger and knew of all my qualities, the ones I couldn't remember.

"Danny," he started slowly, as if mine was his most important appointment; "things are never as simple as up or down, black and white. There are grey areas in all walks of life. Here too."

Missy raised an eager hand. "I filled him in there, sir! My Daniel is well informed on our judicial system."

"I’m not entirely convinced," he replied, amused.

"She has told me a little," I said. "To be honest, it came at me pretty fast."

"Then let me fully explain. Pray, get off your feet."

He guided my eye toward two large blocks of marble that appeared out of nothing and nowhere.

"Are you going to fly around me like a bumblebee, too?" I asked, taking his seat.

"No wings," he snickered. "They give me allergies anyhow, puffy eyes, runny nose, the lot. Besides, I prefer using my legs. Walking is the very best way to clear the mind, and mine has a lot of clutter these days."

He shuffled toward the marble and sat. "My that's better! Pray, give me a nudge if I prattle on or nod off. Colleagues often point out this habit I have of dozing through lectures, meetings, and so on, but I argue I'd hardly be asleep if they were of any great consequence, or any colleagues worth impressing."

"And am I…an important meeting?" I asked. "Worth impressing?"

"I don’t waste my time on just anyone, Danny. Take a breath!" he added, taking his own. "It may appear so at first, but this afterlife is not a complicated place. Daunting certainly, but not complicated. The Waiting Plain around you is the first stop on a continuing journey, an epic course of evolution, as Darwin would say. That sweet soul,” he smiled, “never have I met a man so precious about his pigeons, or so obsessed with backgammon! He once challenged me to a race of birds, you know…"

"Sir Isaac?" said Missy, beckoning him to stay on subject. "If you please?"

"Right," he agreed, with a dithering nod. "Good souls, Daniel, like your child Kathy, progress directly to the realm above us. Some call it Heaven, Elysium, Valhalla, or Olympus; I call it home. Others meanwhile, more questionable others, go below to the Distinct Earth, whilst the wicked rest are dragged…deeper still."

"The distinct what?"

"It is the grey," he answered me, wearing a pitiful expression. "Once a realm of freedom and choice, but no longer, for evil has taken what liberty they had away."

"Evil?" I pried, creeping closer.

“For another time,” said a hesitant scientist. "Right now, I want to talk about the Distinct Earth itself, a diverse dominion full of human and alien kind. You have just come from the natural world, Danny. The Distinct Earth is an unnatural one."

"A sort of purgatory," Missy remarked. "For souls to see out their times. It can be as good or as bad as you make it."

"And is that where I’m going? To this Distinct Earth?"

Blank faced, Sir Isaac Newton nodded. "You will see the Distinct Earth. That I am certain of."

"What?!” gasped Missy, in utter disbelief. “Didn't you read his ledger? Didn't you see his noble heart?"

"I read it," he returned, "and I saw a noble heart gone astray! Your opinion Missy, although important, is a biased one, having no bearing on this judgment, so pray, let me finish it. Daniel will see the Distinct Earth, but he will not be sentenced there."

Missy jerked back as if electrocuted. “If not Heaven,” she said, trembling. "If not the Distinct Earth…You can't mean?"

"Not me," he returned, gesticulating for calm, “but our Lord. That will, for all its profound mystery, has something special to ask of your Daniel, a task. I am here because I've an invested interest in that task’s success."

Missy’s fear disturbed me. Shouldn't my custodian, my life support, know everything?

"Go on," I urged. "What sort of task? Tell me, please?"

Missy clutched my arm, hanging most of her weight on the elbow while Sir Isaac Newton's weary voice took on a sharper, keener edge. "There is one soul," he husked, "a soul trapped and tortured and lost to us. God requests that you liberate it. You, Danny." He then left a final, lingering pause for Missy and me to register his crazy information.

"Liberate?" I asked. "How? Where on Earth?"

"Not Earth," he said, with a creased forehead. "There is one notorious realm under the Distinct Earth, a vast and perilous place."

"Hell," gulped Missy again, looking ill. Newton's subtle blink confirmed it.

"One word for it,” he said. “Hell is not a mythical place simply found in Dante or the Bible; it is very real. Whereas Heaven is a cultural realm of learning, creativity, and forward thinking, Hell is a thoughtless abyss, a twisted, everlasting pit of stagnation. Only the worst go there, and they do so to rot. Your journey will be to its primary prison, the 9th Fortress. There, this individual is held captive, and that deep and savage road you must travel. Recover that soul from the Fortress and return to the Waiting Plain. That is your task…"

Missy quivered beside me, and wings coming to a halt, she touched heavily on the floor.

"The 9th Fortress," she whimpered. "You can’t send him there. Such a thing has never been attempted. Not once! Not ever! It will shatter him! Shatter him to pieces!"

Sir Isaac Newton stood at once from his marble resting place. "Our Lord has asked it of him,” he said, diplomatically. “He has a stain on his soul that cannot be glossed over, Missy. It brands your Daniel, and he will never be embraced past our gates wearing it."

"You never did read his ledger, did you?” she wept. "How could you? I know everything about this man, and I tell you he is righteous, humble, and more than worthy! What did he do that was so awful? So unforgivable?"

"Did he not go there to commit murder?" Newton inquired. "Danny purchased the gun and took his time loading each bullet. To kill was certainly his intention! Do you find such an act so forgivable, angel?"

His argument struck my life support dumb. She could not deny it, and I could not defend it, but right now, I preferred not to think of the stains on my character, but of the only good I ever created, Kathy. With her strength still coursing through me, I leapt from the stone, facing Sir Isaac Newton and covering Missy with my back. "I'll do it. Anything you want!"

The feelings of my life support penetrated me suddenly, and I experienced our special connection for the very first time. Although well over a century old, that little angel girl was as prone to the emotions of love as anyone. Her pain sat heavily in my chest, and I could almost hear her heartbreak at the next thought in my mind, and the question now leaving my lips: "Tell me more about the 9th Fortress?"

4. A Man of Experience

Sir Isaac Newton’s words were meaningless. Granted, I understood the gravity of the situation, but the scale of the task and its consequences would not hit me until much, much later.

My eagerness did not please my life support, and whenever I expected Missy to unleash her temper, the stoic scientist raised a considerate hand, and the little girl resisted her urges. After acknowledging my courage for daring to inquire, the elderly man asked Missy to seat herself next to me.

"Hear me," he began, with a strict stare. "The 9th Fortress…is a crooked tooth growing rotten from the gums of Hell. You will see the structure from a hundred miles away, and you will hear its lamenting prisoners from a thousand."

He continued down this vein until my mind’s eye could see the facility in all its hostile glory. Lightning could not crack its rock, and thunder forever trembled the earth below, almost as if the structure could not bear the weight of sin it bore. I watched crows peck the eyes from prisoners seeking a rare glimpse of light; I witnessed bodies leap from its tallest spire and mince down the rugged sides; I heard the screaming sinners burning in private ovens and the drowning dozens in the boiling moat. Newton spared no gruesome detail.

"Each cell delivers a unique form of punishment to its prisoner," he added, "and the greater one’s crime, the more intolerable one’s existence. Then, there is the warden, a man of some malevolence; notorious in his time and untouchable in ours, he has a swordsman made of solid bronze that protects him round the clock. You will first proceed… "

As expected, Missy's fury could not be contained. "That’s if he even makes it to the prison! The Distinct Earth has its own dangers, as does the journey through Hell! Oceans of fire, deserts of plague, alien life forms, and agents of evil everywhere! It cannot be done!"

"Please!" I begged, holding my pounding forehead. "You’re not helping!"

"This prisoner must be important!" she bellowed back. "Tell me, who is it?"

Newton remained unflappable. "Your emotion is quite understandable, Missy dear. After all, your love for this man is unconditional. You are deeply afraid for him, as well you should be."

Stuttering and teary, my life support turned from us, concealing those emotions behind her hands.

"I can only share the cell number," said Newton, hoping to see the cherub's face again. "Cell number 2020, and his or her identity must remain a mystery for the time being. It would be hazardous for Daniel to know more at this juncture. Yes, extremely."

That incessant drone made conversation for the time being as I attempted to grasp at madness. The Waiting Plain was colder now, and the hairs on my arms prickled up like solders in attention. Was it really the cold? I strolled around the Plain between Sir Isaac Newton and Missy, slapping my cheeks and thinking things over. Distinct Earth…Hell…9th Fortress…bronze swordsman, and agents of evil?

"It's not the cold," said Missy, sighing. "That's fear, Daniel. Finally, some sense from you."

"Something confuses me,” I said, ignoring that churn in my stomach. "If I’m dead now, how can I die again?"

The mellow-faced Englishman appeared relieved to be taking the subject away from the 9th Fortress, if only to avoid further upset to Missy. "A soul cannot die, Daniel, but the body can. Perish in the realms of the afterlife, and your light vacates the body, snatching the shelter of any form near it, be that a grain of dirt or a scuttling rat. This is known as the second death, and what a random and unenviable process it is. My best advice would be to take care of the body you have; it is the only one you have left. Do you understand me?

I nodded. "Understood, and I appreciate your concern Missy, but this is something I have to do.”

“Sir Isaac," I announced, facing him, "I will do what God has asked of me."

Missy swooped to my face now, absolutely beside herself. "You naïve fool! Think you can take on the whole wide world, do you? You are so blind! So silly and ignorant! The logic you spoke of earlier is turned on its head the second you leave me! You know nothing of the peril that awaits, absolutely nothing at all. Do you understand me?!"

"Calm yourself!" Newton pleaded. "This will do no good, angel, no good at all. Missy, this is a decision for Daniel to make, he needs advice from his support, not a lecture."

The girl’s fury frittered away as soon as it had arrived, and she sobbed against my chest. Shocked to see so much passion for me, I stroked the fluffy feathers connected to her back.

"Missy is correct," said Newton, "there is a great deal you have yet to learn. However the task is not an impossible one. True, you may never make it back here, so it is not a decision to be made lightly. Pray, consider your options. If you accept and bring prisoner 2020 to me, then you will rest with your daughter in peace. If not, then your case will go through the usual channels."

Mouth dry, I choked for a moment. "Why me?" I asked, rather, I begged

"Why do I get the honor of meeting you and having this chance? I'm a normal guy; there's nothing special here. I didn't save anyone's life or even do much with my own! I am greedy, selfish, and weak like everybody else! Why me?"

Missy separated herself from my chest and dried her eyes. It was obvious to her what was so special about this soul, but she expected everyone else to see it.

Sir Isaac Newton came closer to the both of us, wearing a confident grin.

"Why not you?" he said. "If at first the idea does not sound absurd, then there is no hope for it. Whatever you think, Danny, no matter how insane this opportunity may seem today, tomorrow clear light will shine upon God's apparent madness. We are, all of us, standing on the shoulders of a giant. I sense a decision has been reached?"

He was right. This was not a choice; it was my ticket. I could wait here in the plain, and be judged in full and proper time, but would that eventual verdict go my way? I couldn't risk it, and I definitely couldn't wait for it.

"I talked to Kathy," said Newton suddenly, "shortly before arriving here. You have a bright girl there. Very bright indeed." His wise blue eyes became a cinema, flickering back wonderful images of Kathy’s mousy hair and shy smile, filling me up with equal measure of sadness and joy. "She hopes," he added with care, "that you have forgiven him. Do you know what this means?"

My head became heavy all of a sudden, my brain disturbed by a deceased daughter's unexpected wish. "I know what that means," I mumbled back. "She wants me to forgive the man who killed her."

"And do you?" he asked, intrigued.

Like lingering vomit at the back of my mouth, my face contorted at the thought.

"It's too soon," Missy answered for me.

It was too soon, and the elderly man seemed to accept that. "She asked me to tell you one more thing." he said, and hungrily I gazed at him. "That she loves you very much."

This was my fuel, confidence and determination in one sentence. Once again, I felt my life support's heartache, for she had lost me to the 9th Fortress.

"When do I leave?" I asked. "Now? Right now? I’m ready."

"First and foremost," said Newton, "you will need a guide. This is no journey one can take alone. You will need a man of experience!"

"That’s right," said Missy, properly. "If he’s going, then I’ll be damned if he’s going alone. I doubt you will find a more suitable guide than you, Sir Isaac. This would ease my mind."

His black hat bobbled as he chuckled. "I am a physicist, Missy, and a very old physicist! No, no, I have a far more suitable candidate in mind, a man extremely qualified for the job. A most exceptional human being." Sir Isaac Newton directed his long finger toward: "The samurai…"

Slouched on another block of stone was a bulky Japanese man. Somewhere in his fifties, his hair was oily black with lightning streaks of grey, and a top knot held it all at the back. His face was scar-ridden and sour, with a pair of brows shrouding his eyes in perpetual shade, occasionally revealing the odd bead of twinkling white amongst pools of darkness. He brooded still in his position, resting a stubbly chin on his clenched fist. He was dressed in a heavy-looking red armor with solid vertical plates around the torso, and was armed with two deadly-looking swords: a long katana by his left leg, and a shorter, what I later discovered to be a wakizashi, thrust down the front of his waist belts. Missy and I examined this smoldering beast in wonderment, his presence eclipsing Newton’s. He was Caesar, he was Alexander, he was Samson and Hercules combined. The samurai knew he was being watched but remained placid on his rock; he was a granite statue, not acknowledging our presence, nor caring for it.

"My goodness!" said Missy, star-struck. "My goodness gracious!"

"Danny!" said Newton, enthusiastically. "It is my great pleasure to introduce to you to Kat." On hearing his name, Kat still did not respond. "A samurai warrior from sixteenth century Japan," continued the scientist. "You are arguably looking at one of the most dangerous men in the whole of Earth’s troubled history."

Finally now, this Kat gave our trio the honor of his troubled gaze and husky sound. "Arguably?" he sneered.

The hairs on the back of my neck instantly stood on end as I floundered in that man's scowl, his eyes inspiring a rotting sickness in the core of my guts. Passing us a last look of inadequacy, Kat turned his head to one side, muttering profanities under his breath. This man of experience was not impressed, not by me, not by Newton, not by anyone.

"Kat will guide you to Hell, the 9th Fortress, and back again." said Newton. "A grandmaster swordsman and mightier than Achilles, Kat is the only soul qualified for such a venture. Daniel, this man will devote everything to your cause. He will perish for it, and for you."

This wild thing continued cursing to himself, as if a bomb primed to explode. Missy soared to my ear and brushed my hair aside. "Kat has been here in the plain for over two hundred years. Another two hundred…elsewhere."

"He's been sitting here for two hundred years?" I rasped back. "What's he waiting for?"

"An audience with God," she whispered, "and that attention requires patience. But Kat has it, and here he waits and waits for his word. No one talks to him, and no one dares approach, for his name is known and feared everywhere."

"I am pleased by your optimism," said Newton.

"Not at all!" she returned. "I still think it’s an outrage, but if one man can protect my Daniel, then it’s this hulk. What do you think of him?"

I shrugged. "If you say so…"

"Do not write him off so speedily," said the scientist. "Believe it or not, Danny, you have a lot in common with this warrior. You are trees sharing the same root; during your lifetime, you may already have seen his image in dreams or reflected back in the mirror. Kat will be as important to you as anyone you have ever met. He will be at your side, your eyes and ears, your guide and shadow until mission’s end. He is your shield, your sword, your North Star, and deliverer from evil. You will obey him, you will trust him, and in return he will keep you alive."

Newton then took a step back and I felt his nudge prod me closer to Kat. I glanced over my shoulder to see the angel and scientist urging me on. I was eight years old again, with my mother forcing me to shake the neighbor’s hand because he was new, and we had age and freckles in common. "This is Marcel Winterbottom. Shake his hand, Danny, he’ll be your new best friend!"

Reluctantly, I took those delicate steps toward my guide, whose burdened breaths sniffed heavily at my advancing proximity, the bull before it skewers you with horns. Kat remained stiff when I faced him, substantial, emotionless, and immovable.

"My name…is Fox." With no reply, I searched anxiously back at my angels.

"To your feet, Kat," ordered the scientist, with respect.

Kat reacted, squinting two tar pits of insolence squarely at Sir Isaac Newton, who would not be intimidated. Kat then redirected his contemptuous glare to someone who would. I shuddered, wet my parched lips, and repeated, "My name is…"

Suddenly, the samurai lurched up from his seat, armor and bones creaking like some un-oiled, infernal machine. The warrior eyed me over with a grim curiosity on his slashed face, as if I were a tiny frog to be stamped on. Too intense for me, I could not hold this venomous sight, a weakness the man noted with disgust. Focusing my attention instead on my perspiring palm, I extended it for his handshake. Kat scoffed at that insulting lump of flesh, and then turned on his heels and away.

Embarrassed, I felt like bawling my own brand of profanities at his back. Who was he, this short, angry man, and why did I need him?

Keen to express these emotions, Newton suddenly placed his gentle hand on my arm. "Do not take it personally," he whispered. "Kat is not the social sort. Few great men are."

"Are you sure this is such a good idea? Does this Kat person even speak English?"

"Not a word," he tittered. "The barriers of language do not exist here. Kat speaks Japanese, you will hear English, and vice versa. Only, expect conversation with this man to be limited; his swords do the talking, after all. But for good or bad, your and Kat's destinies have collided, and you will have to persevere. His arrogance will require a great deal of patience, but have faith in him, as we have faith in you."

I nodded, watching the warrior continue in his random course without ever looking back. "He won’t even wait for me!"

"Kat only waits for God." said Missy. "You’d best get a move on."

With no time for this to sink in, I prepared myself to move when Newton placed a leather belt in my hand. Connected to the belt was a pouch and dagger. Curious, I removed the blade. It was sharp, but plain and uninspiring. "Thanks," I said, half-heartedly toying with it. On my way to Hell and given a butter knife to defend myself. I was not impressed.

"Me neither," said Missy. "It is a butter knife…"

"Could you stop that?" I said. “It’s weird.”

Innocently slanting her head, Missy wrapped the hair around her finger.

"This is no ordinary dagger," explained Newton. “It requires enormous responsibility from its wielder. Listen carefully, Daniel: A man cannot extinguish a soul, but this dagger can. The baffling science confounds most in the Heavens, myself included, but makes no mistake, the power of God is now in your hand."

Immediately I held the weapon more gingerly, as if it were nitroglycerine in my grip. Missy rubbernecked over my shoulder, hoping to see that magical sheen of light and hint of Godly power. Unfortunately, there was only the wood of the hilt and the dull grey of the blade.

"How does it work?" I asked, awkwardly. "I mean…"

"Like any other dagger," Newton answered. "It is God’s gift to you, but I solemnly stress it can only be used once. Prick any soul with this blade and that individual will vanish, never to return!"

Missy and I shared intrigued faces while Newton concluded, "This blade is one of a kind. Use it when you have absolutely no choice. That is all I have to say. Godspeed." And that was that, Sir Isaac Newton was gone, with the help of his Faraday forces and warping waves of Maxwell.

Eager to catch up to Kat, I returned the dagger prudently to its pouch and secured the belt around my waist. I then took a brief deep breath and bent to say goodbye to my life support. "Happy one hundred eighty-ninth birthday."

Her tears were never far away. "My birthday was last week. What if you don’t come back? What will I do with myself then?"

"This is not the end,” I whispered. “Remember?"

"I tell you to go!" she exclaimed, pushing herself on my chest. "I can't stand this and I’ll never forgive you for putting me through it! Go now! Hurry!"

She drew away and I watched her float like a vanishing dream, her mournful face getting smaller and smaller.

"You’ll see me again!" I cried. "I’ll be coming back, Missy! I’ll make it! I'll come back! You just wait and see!"

Becoming part of the Waiting Plain, Missy also was gone, and I was alone again in limbo. Quickly, I set after the samurai warrior, who was some way away…

5. Savage Road

It was called the Distinct Earth, and the more steps I took toward it, the more this new world revealed itself. I could see the forming of clouds in the sky, and watched contorting shadows steadily transform into trunks and trees. Hearing the chirping birds and the rustling grass excited me. I wanted to run for more, if only to get that constant droning out of my ears, but I did not dare pass this man, this samurai warrior called Kat.

I hadn't seen his face since cowering from his earlier glare. I didn't care to see it again. It felt right to do something about our awkward silence though, but I had no idea what to say to a character like this, and I doubted the samurai would want or care to melt the gathering ice.

A weary spell soon sucked away any enthusiasm I had, and staring mindlessly at my steps, Kat's abrupt halt in front sent my face crashing between his shoulder blades.

"What?" I complained. "Why do you stop?"

Smudging my sore nose, I discovered every trace of the mundane white plain to be gone; we were now in the Distinct Earth proper. The first thing I noticed was how normal it all appeared, and that maybe, just maybe it was old Earth all along? The sky was a familiar bright blue with a ball of burning sun. The surrounding landscape was lush with long grasses and rolling hills, and apart from the two of us, there was not another angel, creature, or soul in sight.

Under our feet was a narrow path wandering down the hill, then bobbling over others to a far off horizon of green. The samurai paused, eyes squinting, his hand moving toward the katana at his belt. "What's wrong?" I asked, but Kat remained motionless to my words and to this world. There was no apparent danger, but the man would not be rushed, and I would take time to learn that fact.

The samurai removed his fingertips from the sword hilt, and grunting, lowered himself to one knee. Collecting a handful of stones that made up our path, he analyzed them in his cupped palm. His black eye peered like a scientist down a microscope, and I only could fold my arms and wait. Was this his routine? Was he always so cautious?

A few uneventful minutes later, the Distinct Earth's illusion of normality was shattered forever. A rotten taste hit the back of my throat, like a mouthful of wet dog. I dabbed two fingers over my tongue and felt nothing out of the ordinary, but upon removing them, I baulked at the tips, which were caked in soot. It was the sort of filth you find behind old cupboards or underneath car seats, and repulsed, I coughed a puddle of it into my hand. "My God, I'm sick! Look at that!"

"It is in the air," he said simply. "Harmless."

I peered again at the clear blue sky, thinking it impossible that this rancid pollution could linger there. I inhaled another breath and knew it was, mold shot up my nostrils and stuck like a clogging flu. "Ugh!" I gagged. "I have to get used to…breathing this shit?"

Robot-like, Kat patted the dirt from his hands, stood, and said, "You will."

I wiped the hand clean against my jeans and retched. Just one more thing to get used to, Danny. If anything, it was a timely reminder that this Distinct Earth was simply a reflection of a planet with which I was familiar. Sadly, my days on that realm were over.

***

Without rest, I followed Kat up and down the hills and mounds, and the more I watched his back, the stronger my urge grew to thank the man. This warrior was only here for my well-being, leading a complete stranger into the worst place imaginable, and when trouble called, he would be the one to answer it. My shield and sword, my North Star and deliverer from evil — who in their right mind would be happy bearing that responsibility? What sin had Kat committed to deserve this almighty task?

In the end, I stuck to keeping my mouth shut. The samurai was a simple man from a different time, and I feared my gratitude would be seen as a sign of weakness.

It was a long while before woodland came into view. It was a clutched and crackled barb shimmering black over the green, with every possible route inside protected by a thorny outgrowth of branches. The sky above seemed to die before and above these woods. Bright blues were whisked to damp greys and boggy browns, almost as if the sun's rays were prohibited from shining upon it. "Wait!" I said, trying to disguise trepidation as Kat turned around. "Just…hold on a sec."

"What?" he asked, irked by my interruption.

"I ain't going in there," I replied, resolutely shaking my head. "Those woods are a maze; any idiot can see that. It's stupid, it's nuts, and I ain't going, you hear me?"

"It is the way," he returned, obviously.

"You're sure? And what about all this pretty grassland growing in every other direction? Go through the big scary woods if you want, but I'm going around them!" I set my foot on the grass, and firmer than I would have liked, Kat yanked me back to the path.

"Never stray!" he growled, his eyes tense and penetrating. "This is a cursed land; inhabitants are treacherous devils. The woods are our road, our way. Stay very close."

I shook off his grip and gave him my best sulk. "And if something should happen to you, samurai?"

"I will not fall," he replied, as if an absolute certainty.

My granite-faced leader then lowered eyes to a procession of ants crossing the tip of his boots. I waited for the warrior to press his sole down on top the helpless colony, but there was no satisfying crush of insects. Instead, the warrior took an unusually large step over them, and I did the same.

***

The dead wood loomed. It was a beached ship left to rot, a building abandoned to natures mercy or vehicles left to scrap. The trunks were rooted thick and unmovable, with crisping, parched bark. Branches resembled spindly spider legs, and the wind whistled us a most haunting tune through the cracks.

Kat remained still, and searching for my nerve, I found something else, a figure on the field to my right. This object struck out from the grasses: a black scarecrow-like form with arms strung out in a crucified manner. "What is that?" I said, squinting hard. It was no scarecrow, but a man. Living or dead, there was only one way to find out. I stepped into the grass, which reached my thighs and coiled around my legs.

My shuffling movements alerted my protector samurai, who turned, absolutely outraged. "You! Come here! Never leave me!"

Taking no notice, I waved a casual hand back at him. "Just wanna check it out! You stay here, I won't be long!"

Wading through the pretty field, I reached the body in no time. It was a man barely out of his teens, strapped high to a post and held in place with ropes around his chest and wrists. He was wasting away here, with slashes down his clothing and clotted blood seeping out the tares. Flesh flaked from his muscles, and bloated bruises covered what was left of his face and arms. I gawked at the bloody spittle oozing from his bottom lip, his feet like draping curtains before me.

"Do not touch!" ordered Kat, his voice closer now. "Do not!"

I kept my hands to myself and averted my eyes from the wet, red mess. "Kat!" I cried. "You need to come see this!"

However, the samurai warrior was already behind me, pressing an excruciating squeeze on neck and turning me on the spot to meet his reeling glare.

"Never leave my back!' he bawled. “Never!"

"Get your fucking hand off!" I grimaced and shrieked. "Who do you think you…What's wrong with you? Let go of me! This man needs help! I'm cutting him down! I'm cut-" I yelped as Kat dug his nails deeper, so deep that I dropped like a sack of spuds.

"Settle," he said. "The man is done for."

I strived to contain the agony glowing red on my face. I would not give this brute the satisfaction of seeing it. I could stand it — I had been through worse — I would show this Kat how strong I was. Forcing against his hold, I rediscovered the strength in my legs and attempted to stand, but the more I fought, the harder Kat turned his vice.

"Settle."

Reluctantly, I surrendered. A futile exercise, I stopped the fight and Kat relinquished. However, our meager quarrel was forgotten immediately when, to our surprise, the young man spoke from his lofty position, popping blood bubbles from the mouth. "I…I…"

"What!" I gasped, scurrying to his feet. "What are you saying? Stay with us!" I searched for help, but there was only a callous-looking samurai scratching his own neck

"He," the boy grunted, "is…n-"

"What?" I whispered. "Who?"

"Sca…" His head slunk, and the life in him was gone. Thick foam dribbled from his nose and both eyes rolled to leave a pair of dull ghosts behind. The gruesome sight did not upset me; the holes in my memory had yet to be completely filled in, and I could not recall if I had seen similar horrors in the past.

"Sca?" I pondered. "What do you think it means?"

"Stand back," said Kat.

I did so without question, moving to Kat's side as he scrutinized the dead boy. The samurai seemed to be waiting, expecting. I didn't know what and he wouldn't tell me, but in no hurry to enter the woods, the samurai could daydream as long as he wished.

An abrupt wind gave me a fright. It arrived from nowhere to stick up our hair and whip the grass, but oddly, was only located around the bloodied post. "What's going on?!" I yelled, over a rapidly growing gale.

The samurai nudged at the boy, who was now emitting a dreamy blue light from his insides, escaping his eyes, nostrils, and every cut over his young body. This force was neither hot nor cold on my skin, in fact, it had no psychical effect at all.

Kat remained calm throughout, giving the impression that this phenomenon was hardly a phenomenon at all. He took a composed step backward, prompting me with him as the boy's skin began to wither and fall. This person was being erased by nature, and in less than a minute, the only thing left hanging was his skeleton, and those magnificent streams of light blasting out from the ribs. That sturdy bone cage soon bubbled to a milky liquid, splashing to a puddle in the grass.

Lastly, all the light compacted into one single, fist-sized orb over the post. This singularity did not flake away like the flesh or liquidize with the bone, but remained uniform, effortlessly lingering like a blotch of bedroom dust. The wind went, and a dead calm returned the status quo.

Stunned, I recovered with both hands on my knees, observing that mysterious ball of swirling light. "What is it?"

"All he has left," replied the samurai. "Do not touch. Do not ever touch. He may never let go…"

As if trapped in slow motion, the orb began its descent, and I heard an impatient voice inside my head tempting me closer. "Go on Danny, take it for yourself! See what he saw! Know what he knows! Take! Take it now!"

Scared, I resisted this foreign voice and took a larger step back. That orb then touched down on the grass and was gone in a blink. I bent to search but found nothing but disordered greenery.

"Where the…" I muttered, my hands parting grass. "Did you see? Kat?" An instant later, I recoiled slightly at a healthy shimmer of blue light painting itself over one blade of grass.

"His second death," said Kat, "and his new home. Follow orders Fox, or share this fate."

With new eyes, I noticed the hundred thousand blades of grass around me. They couldn't all be souls. Not all of them. Could they? Guilt now possessed my own upon calculating how many blades I had trampled on route to the post.

"Let's get back on the path," I said, regretfully.

The samurai nodded and we returned, retracing every step.

***

"Don’t like it Kat. Something’s not right." I felt my ignorance amongst the twisted vines and distorted foliage. I had spent many Octobers hunting moose with my father in British Columbia, and actually considered myself an adept woodsman; but only Kat appeared adept in this bleak place.

With the stale air came a sense of the sinister, the lurking thing between trunks, and unseen predators waiting to pounce. We were not wanted on the tall grass, and we were not wanted in these dying woods.

My guts contracted at every snapping twig and the wind continued after us like an angry phantom. With solid footing on a path of soiled leaves and deadwood, our trail ran to distant portals of melting blacks and swirling greys. Surrounding trees had only inches to spare between them, and their festering trunks grew high on each side of the path until their branches collected and clasped, forming a confused roof overhead. Skylight came down in beams through cracks, but barely enough to light our way.

I followed three feet behind the warrior, who was as delicate as any ballerina with his steps. Like the best chess player in the world, Kat considered every detail, his grip unrelenting on the hilt of that katana.

"Why do the trees grow this way?" I asked, feeling a biting cold under my skin.

"When man is freezing," he answered, "he may embrace another for warmth."

Shocked, my imagination began to reveal those petrified faces. I tried closing my eyes and thoughts to them, but it was useless. Desperate men and women spread like butter over the trunks of rotting trees; this wood was a drowning man's last second above water, it was a body buried alive and scratching nails at the coffin lid.

Only practicalities would take my mind from imagination, so I searched for a suitable stick to construct a spear; unfortunately, decay ate the strength from everything here. The only object that appeared half-useful was the samurai warrior himself, and the two silver swords in his belt.

"You have two swords," I said. "Can I borrow one? You know, in case?" I extended my hand, expecting Kat’s shorter sword, the wakizashi, to be placed there. Instead, the samurai turned to me with a mortified expression over his scarred face, as if I had just asked a parent to loan me one of their kids because they happened to have one extra. I did not fully understand it, but those weapons were part of my defender's soul; man and steel in co-existence. No, Kat would not be giving up a sword. He simply scratched another itch from his stubble, then uttered, "I am your weapon."

I laughed. Never have I heard something so ridiculous said so earnestly. My companion clearly was reviling in our situation; one of the most dangerous warriors in Earth’s history was back in his element. A supreme confidence in his own ability impressed me, and I was keen to see the man in action, preferably from a distance and with a bag of popcorn. I was also eager to discover why Kat had waited so patiently in the white limbo above. What wish did he request from God? What would a killer born with no possible chance of entering Heaven ever demand at its gates?

We two trudged a further hour without incident. The last of the sun perished through the branches, and with frost starting to bite and no hotels in sight, a terrible thought now dawned on me: Kat and I would be spending the night here. When our narrow path came to an eventual bend, we discovered two heavily packed horses with reins conveniently knotted to the nearest branch.

"For us?" I asked, surprised.

"For us."

The sight of horses, these friendly living animals, pleased me. Perhaps this place was not as distinct as they say. It also came as a relief to find our helpless transportation untouched and unworried in such a menacing location.

Kat heaved a heavy-looking bag from one horse’s back and threw it in my arms. "Water and suitable clothing,” he said. “You will need both."

I untied the bag on a bed of leaves and parted the folds to reveal a generous flask inside, also a collection of thick animal skins — practical rather than stylish — and a pair of worn boots. I opened the flask and took a sip from the lid. It was water, clear and plain water. I drank and it quenched my thirst, but the muck lining my throat gave the liquid a bitter aftertaste. Next, I grabbed the hairy skins from the bag and held them up to scrutiny. It was a weighty woolly coat, a not-so magical fleece. "I’m to be caught dead in this?" I joked. "How can they know my size?"

"They know everything…"

***

I wore the fleece over my old shirt and laced up the boots. I connected the flask to a length of strong vine and carried it over my shoulder. Now, looking something nearer the part, we set off side by side on horses through the colorless scenery, which I much preferred to follow the leader.

The advancing darkness did not appear to concern Kat, so I presumed he knew what he was doing. Although the samurai showed no interest in me, I certainly was interested in him. I heard snippets of his legend before we set off, but nothing on the man himself. I decided then to work it out of him a piece at a time. I was used to that. I would assemble clues and build a profile, passing the hours and easing curiosity. If the samurai were not up to talking, he would have to listen. "I've heard a lot about the samurai," I said, my head bobbling along with the horse. "I once read a comic book about one warrior protecting a village from bandits. He fought forty single-handed, even deflected bullets with his sword. It was really…cool." I squirmed at the sound of my own idiocy; meanwhile, Kat held his strict face forward. "Why do they call you Kat? Is that your real name or…not?"

No response, zero. This business of day to day, getting to know you small talk was going to be harder than I thought. "I once knew a woman called Stephanie Dogface," I rambled. "Swear to God. She didn't have an actual dog for a face, but she was pretty ug-"

Kat tugged on his reins and shushed me suddenly. His index finger pressed over his lips and his nostrils sniffed great whiffs of suspicion. Did Kat not care for my talking, or did the man of experience smell, see, or hear something I could not?

The horses were far from disturbed, sedately snorting and kicking up leaves with their shoes. After too long of this, I decided Kat was being overly cautious, and prepared to break our silence when something toe-curling did it for me, a distant, indiscriminate screech. "I hear it, Kat…"

He shushed me once more as the moan increased. Inhuman, it was approaching overhead, beyond our shelter of clung together branches. We strained our eyes through the cracks for a glimpse, when all of a sudden, the scream exploded down on us, rattling the tangled roof to bombard our faces with debris. Immediately, my horse reared, and I snatched at the reins to stay in the saddle. With a jerk, Kat also remained upright; his horse was circling a spot and he was kicking his heels in its hind to calm it.

My ears were ringing as the chaos subsided. However, the peace was temporary, and when that ferocious sound and wind struck again, we both clung to our deranged animals and struggled for control. This thing was a bird, a large bird, and Kat, ever alert, already had his katana drawn. "Up there!" he roared. “Through those—”

Our embracing roof shield unclasped in one single, snapping motion. Previously dead trees sprang into life, the branches like flailing arms in fire, causing a frenzied downpour of earth and leaves and wood. The stark purple skylight was disorientating, so it was Kat who first caught sight of the bird monster, spooking trees, animals, and men.

Growing in the dusk sky was the condor. Its wings cast an astonishing shadow of night some thirty feet across; brown plumage covered its chest and creased tart skin folded over its neck and head. The predator, spotting us, opened its gaping beak and screeched.

I covered my ears, cleared my eyes, peered upward, and saw the bird’s opening talons closing in on my head. Seconds before my skull was caught in those claws, Kat booted me off my horse. The condor missed its man but sunk its nails deep into my horse. The poor animal let out a chilling cry when it was snagged and carried skyward.

I scurried on all fours like a beast now, wind, kick, and fall knocking me senseless. Kat, meanwhile, dismounted his horse and set his legs like roots in front of me. "Get low!" he moaned. "Lower!"

I flattened my face fully into the muck and lay like the dead. I could hear Kat’s bullish snarl as the condor abandoned my expired horse over far-off treetops.

"What does it want?” I yelled, terrified. “What does it want with us?!"

"Flesh!" Kat exclaimed, twirling his swords. “Keep your mouth shut!”

The bird tipped its wings to one side, directing its beak toward space and then soared for it. In a feathery blur of speed, it climbed until a silhouette against advancing twilight.

"Is it gone?" I asked, my heart pumping painfully against my ribs. "Tell me it's gone!"

Groaning, Kat gave me a thump in the head with the hilt of his katana.

"Shush!"

Cursing, I rubbed my scalp as the condor started its descent. Falling like a missile, it would strike down on us in less than five seconds.

Four.

The incoming monster wings whistled like dropping bombs during the blitz.

Three.

"We’re dead!" I cried, shutting my eyes tight.

Two.

Preparing to eat, it stretched out those killing talons, opened its yellow beak, and screeched, starving.

One.

Steadfast, the samurai bent his knees and lowered his head. Then, with ferocious force, he kicked himself upward and ravaged the air with his steel.

Zero.

Both bird and man collided. I heard the thudding, ugly break of bone and bodies, and then I opened my eyes to see the feathers trickling down like winter snow.

Unfortunately, the condor wasn't dead, but wounded, unsatisfied, and pissed off. It tucked its wings back and prepared for another dive. With fear surging through me, and with no sign of Kat, I lurched to my feet and started a jog down the path. It squawked and I stumbled, picking myself up only to trip over my own feet. "Christ!"

I ran, my fists clenched, teeth grinding, and lungs wheezing polluted air in and out. An excruciating cry burst at my ears, causing blood to run down my lobes. It was close now, so close.

Turning my head back, I saw its grips ready to spear my spine. I clenched tight, hoping to preemptively shut out the pain. Instead, and quite inexplicably, the condor exploded into a thousand feathers, throwing me forward through the air and firmly onto my face. Somehow, it was over.

I rose minutes later, nothing broken, but covered head to foot in thick plumage. Staggering, I searched for the lost samurai. "Kat?…Kat?!" The sky was clear of birds, thank God, and the night was with us. "Samurai?"

At last, I spotted Kat slunk against trunks like a beaten old car tire. His eyes opened when I arrived, exhaling with selfish relief over him. He had taken one hell of a knock but was alive, and I would not be left alone here. When his pupils sharpened, he appeared stunned, but not by the bash he just received. He was the samurai, after all, the protector, the legend, and yet here he was, drooped against a trunk with the feathered novice offering him assistance.

"Close call, eh?" I said, shaking. "What the fuck was that thing?"

Kat sprang up without any help and before he was ready. "An illusion," he said, concealing both his pain and embarrassment. "Someone is playing with us…”

***

We spent a surprisingly comfortable night in the woods. I was dead to that world the minute my eyes shut, dreaming over the Earth I had lost. Kat, meanwhile, set his back against a trunk, his eyes never leaving me.

We proceeded at first light, sharing the last and very nervous horse. Kat took the reins and I crammed in behind. We hadn't exchanged words since the condor incident, and by now, I had given up any plan to uncover the pieces of his past. The only important piece was for us to remain one, and to get out of these malignant woods as quickly as possible.

Our horse occasionally would trot over lumpy mounds of moss, and the old Kat would grumble in pain. It must have been a long time since he had asked his body for such a sustained level of physical and mental strength, and on this particular mission, he would need all he ever had.

Dampness lingered over early afternoon, and the path seemed never-ending. It would lead to a left turn, direct us to a right, and then another straight through the same stagnant sights. At times I would drift off, forehead bobbling between Kat’s shoulder blades, my mind in a pleasant place. All the nonsense about angel and samurai, woods and monsters might be forgotten in the stupor.

It didn't last. My weariness was wiped clear when Kat pulled up the horse. I gripped my fingers into his sides, expecting another condor attack or worse, but scrutinizing the coiled branches above, I neither saw nor heard the bird of prey.

"In front," said the samurai, out of the corner of his mouth.

I leaned past him to see nothing but the tedious landscape I'd been trying to forget.

"Your flask," said Kat, showing me his open palm. "Give it to me."

"That’s the big deal? You're thirsty? You woke me for that?"

"The flask!" he snapped.

I huffed petulantly, removed the flask from my shoulder, and placed it in his ready hand. The samurai bobbled the watery weight in the bottle before lobbing it onto the path ahead of us. It landed comfortably on a bed of soggy leaves, and there it remained.

"I’m not picking that up," I said, annoyed, but then, I wouldn’t have to. The flask sank, leaving a solitary black hole in the earth. The land around this gap soon fell like dominoes inward, revealing a pit with a bed of spikes.

"Holy shit!" I gasped, unsure whether to admire Kat’s foresight, or to worry over who wanted us in that deadfall.

Pleased with himself, a thin smile curled on the samurai’s lips. That smile was promptly removed, for while the crumbling dirt and leaves settled in the trap, we found ourselves caught in another. At our flanks, the swarthy air between trunks, those shadowy nothings, suddenly sprang into life, leaping outward and at us with a hundred oily hands; it was an ambush.

I went stiff with fright, but Kat remained typically calm to it. The tops of these tar-colored monsters bobbled around my knees, and they were monsters, ghouls with gaping mouths hanging foul over their chests and gills squirting juice at the neck. All of them had hooked blades in their grips, but their yellow teeth looked sharper. They were piggish around the face, simple behind the eye, greedy with their fingers, and we were surrounded. "What do you want!?" I cried from my horse. "What are you?!"

A guttural cheer went round the group, and their jagged nails began smearing and groping. One creature pressed its bloated black lips against our horse’s coat and proceeded to lick it up and down like a living lollipop. "What do we do Kat? Talk to me!"

Kat’s mind was busy now; he was a mathematician, calculating numbers and odds of survival. Usually odds did not matter — the numbers were irrelevant. If Kat had his sword and concentration, then nothing could stop him. Unfortunately, this was not about himself, but about protecting me, and judging by Kat’s grim body language, our odds were not favorable.

The slurry-mouthed thing that ran its lips over the horse stopped suddenly at the stallion’s supple neck. I witnessed this monster turn a sly glint back at his fellows before tearing its teeth into our horse’s throat. The horse squealed and cried until its vocal chords were torn out, until it could moan no more. The dead animal remained in a stupefied stance as the others joined to gorge on its warm gushing blood, all of them fighting for a space to drink. Their hands reached into the horse's wound and yanked out innards, then threw the slimy strands back to eager claws. The horse wobbled from side to side, and as its legs were ready to buckle, I discovered why my companion was called Kat.

The samurai first leapt to his feet, balancing like a tightrope walker on the saddle. Then — too swift for any eye here — he back-flipped over both the collapsing horse and me. I swear I heard the distinct ring of steel in my ear seconds before he landed on the path behind us, gripping his katana in a crouched and smoldering stance. Eighty or more beady-eyed monsters were focused only on the athletic samurai warrior. They watched him stand, raising the katana overhead with a daring, action-hungry smile; that sword was dripping with a congealed, dark blood — their blood.

Towering over me stood four of these mutants, waxwork-like with caught, constipated expressions. There followed an astonished hiss all around as, one by one, each of the four heads dropped from their shoulders, and their decapitated bodies collapsed soon after. I opened my mouth but only a petrified wheeze came out as I caught one deformed head in my lap.

Creatures roared and spat but did not attack. Instead, they parted to reveal another of their kind: a beefy giant, wide and powerful. In his muscle-bound arms, he held a muddy battleaxe, and he chewed a piece of horseflesh like bubble gum between his teeth. The surrounding lot respectfully lowered their heads for this giant, who wasted no time singling out members of his mob. Determined to please, a selected eight of these monsters charged toward my companion.

Coming at Kat four at a time, they died four at a time. The samurai was simply a smudge of armor and steel, and when his human whirlwind was over, those chosen eight lay in bits by his feet.

The substantial creature raised his axe and screamed at the insult. The rest joined the choir, and when the giant's thundering war cry ended, his beady yellow eye slits settled again on the samurai. Unperturbed, Kat armed his second sword and slashed at the air like spinning propellers.

The creatures were not impressed by the display, and without order, every one charged for Kat’s blood. I grimaced away, expecting to hear his gut-wrenching last scream. Hectic grunts and clangs of battering metal followed, but there was no scream from Kat.

I opened my eyes and saw him alive still, face in deep concentration as he fought them off, deflecting curved blades and removing limbs within reach. He was awe-inspiring, but the numbers were too great, and it was only a matter of time before he was overwhelmed. When that moment arrived, a brilliant flash of heat separated man from monsters. It burned a rich red, holding that wall of evil at bay and forming a protective shield before Kat. It was a paranormal light that no blade or body could penetrate, and with it, a high-pitched sound came from inside, an itch at all our brains. The monsters covered their ears and wailed like hysterical monkeys in zoo cages. I, meanwhile, made myself small against the dead horse while Kat refilled his lungs. An older man’s voice soon replaced the uncomfortable sound, booming out from that force field and giving order to the creatures. That order was to back away from Kat, and they did so with a cowardly, childlike fear.

The claret-colored light flickered its last, the wind settled, and the owner of the voice now appeared between Kat and the horde. Old and rake thin, his crooked body was wrapped in a stained, patchy cloak. The eyes seemed to be sucked into his head, and around them, the skin stretched like a rubber mask. Hair fell greasily to the shoulders and his beard was long and straggly, separating into two hairy points at the chin. Theatrical in his stance, but at the same time disturbing, there was no warmth about this man. He was a living frost, a winter with no sign of spring, and he had everyone’s complete attention.

The monsters remained in a spineless, worshipping manner toward this unknown. He reminded me briefly of Sir Isaac Newton, in that he lingered, as if he had all the time in the world for us. "Lost your way?” he asked now, voice dull and drawn out as he surveyed Kat. "Come," he said to me, "join your friend, young one."

Looking to the samurai for guidance, what I got was a disagreeable shake of the head. "He is a wizard," said Kat.

"And you," replied the old man, wielding no obvious weapon, "are a samurai."

The wizard’s grin was like the Grinch who once stole Christmas. He lovingly combed a hand down his beard, and then was gone again in a wicked flash of red. No one had time to be startled, for the wizard reappeared in a blink of time, two paces before Kat.

"Scarfell is the name," he said, "and these are my bogs, sliced and diced by your feet."

The wizard resumed stroking his beard, enjoying the curl through his spindly fingers. Kat meanwhile remained on a knife’s edge; stone-faced and irritated. He was not a man for stalemates, and thus informed the wizard and his animals how things were going to be. "Those who attack," he grunted, "will fall."

Scarfell reflected respect back to Kat, but the hog-faced creature gripping that battleaxe was not one to be threatened. He left the meek crowd with glowering intent, grinding his teeth for the samurai. "Now now, Grutas!" said Scarfell, raising a composed hand. "What did you expect, my large friend? After all, this is the Kat we are dealing with here."

Grutas spat then tossed his axe petulantly to the mud.

"Pick up that weapon," said Scarfell, thinly. "Pick it up…now."

Testing the wizard's patience no further, the giant retrieved his axe and concealed himself from Scarfell's sight.

"What do you want?" asked Kat. “What would a wizard want with me?”

"Enough of the pleasantries, then,” he replied. “You and that man are trespassing on my property. These woods belong to me. And there will be a penalty for this lack of respect."

"We don't mean any harm," I interrupted. "How do you know us?"

"I know all that goes on here," he answered. "I know all about you, samurai. The only man to ever fight his way out of hellfire. The only one to escape the flames. Your name is synonymous with slaughter. I thought it would take a hundred of my bogs to surround you."

Amused, the wizard inspected the butchered pieces underneath him. "Should have brought two hundred."

Fought his way out of hellfire, I heard, adding newer pieces to my sketchy profile. At this point, I decided to stand, and as I did, I caught sight of something suspicious in the trees. There, loitering in a slim gap between trunks, was a stag or pony. This animal was not shuffling aimlessly, but watching us with considering eyes and an intelligent brain behind them. "What the…"

The stag was forgotten as my attention returned to Kat, who in an outburst of hot-blooded frustration, swung his swords into Scarfell. The frail wizard was somehow too fast for even Kat's steel. He disappeared in that haze of brilliant red, then reappeared quite unexpectedly behind me, pressing a knife against my swallowing Adam’s apple. Strength left me, and for the first time, Kat expressed genuine surprise on his face. "Drop him, sorcerer!" he exclaimed, furious. "Drop him now!"

Scarfell cackled through a mouth of broken teeth and fetid breath. "How well you can defend yourself, samurai," he said, "but not this pathetic man!"

The scene pleased Grutas immensely; the beast hooted along with the rest of the bogs.

"Now," Scarfell added, with some calm, "you will drop your swords, Kat.”

“If I don’t?”

“If you don’t,” he tittered, “then I rip this boy’s voice out!"

I squawked from the piercing blade and Kat grudgingly, hatefully, threw down his swords, appearing equally disappointed in me as he was with himself. Scarfell then removed the knife from my throat and forced my face to the dirt, clogging my airways with filth.

"Enough!" yelled Kat, and thankfully, the wizard relinquished. Weaponless, Kat stood at the mercy of this old man, but was unafraid. "The bird was your doing," he growled. “Your…magic.”

"It was, samurai, of course it was. Observing your progress through my woodland, I decided to have my little fun with you. I wanted to see the Kat in action. And may I say what a magnificent specimen you are still; your reputation is thoroughly deserved."

Leaving me spitting out dollops of muck, Scarfell stood, master of all he surveyed and said, "You are travelling to the Macros, and to that king, are you not?"

"King?" I blurted out, and quickly paid the price for talking out of turn. With his bony heel, Scarfell kicked me in the cheek. Dazed, my sight blurred and my head plopped unconscious to the mud.

6. Who Killed Madam A?

It was a long time before I opened my eyes. When I did, I was laying on a hard mattress with a drilling ache on the bridge on my nose. I slouched up in heavy clothes and that throat full of sickly mucus. "Ugh…"

Vaguely aware of my surroundings, this was a wonky shack, a cold and putrid pigsty. The stench of manure seemed encased in the walls as if an ingredient in the wood; it was gag inducing, and it covered the floor like a greasy carpet. I rose from the bed, and setting my boots in it, moved toward a window smeared over with the same shit. I wiped it clean with a sleeve and beams of fresh sunlight came through the glass, revealing Kat crouched in the corner. "Where are we?" I asked, too sore to be surprised.

He joined me at the window, smudged another circle clean, and then gazed outside, the sun revealing his troubled face. "We are in a village at the foot of Macro Mountains," he said. "A modest place whose residents will bring us no harm. They have agreed to have us here, and you will be grateful for their hospitality."

"Course," I muttered, hardly grateful for this kind of filthy generosity; however, I was eager to explore more of this modest village in the Distinct Earth.

"How long are we staying?" I asked, scratching the sleep from my eyes. With no response, I left the window and a powerful spell sent me staggering back to bed. “Think the last few days have…caught up with me."

Feeling Kat's eyes on the side of my face, I whispered the word wizard as I lay back down. We had both survived that old man and his swine army. I figured Kat must have done something very special with that katana to get us out alive. How many more bog men did he slay? Tiny little miracles, Daniel, scattered everywhere.

"Your swordsmanship was impressive, Kat. Amazing, actually. I've never seen anything like that. How did you get so…good?"

There was a deep melancholy about the samurai, and an elderly man's frailness. Right now he did not seem capable of the feats I'd seen. Perhaps the last few days had caught up with him, too? He stroked fat fingers over the thin swords, those inanimate objects the only friends he’d ever had.

"The sword is a brush," he said, soberly. "After four hundred years, the art of killing is more than mastered."

I decided not to pry further on our escape. Details were best left to the imagination. It was difficult to remove all the thoughts from my mind though, especially of the wizard. Scarfell was the name. I could almost see his craggy face smeared on the shitty walls here. The more he prayed on my mind, the more Scarfell and Kat seemed to melt together. Two men so dead in the eyes, yet so full of fire.

"The wizard," I said, sitting up again. "Before he hit me, he mentioned something about a king? Do you remember?"

"King Bludgeon," said Kat. "Lives high in the Macros. He is to train you."

"Train? For what?"

"Everything!" he complained. "You must be skilled in various forms of combat before you see any Fortress. I have my instructions."

Would this afterlife ever stop throwing up surprises? Combat training with a king inside a mountain? What next, I wondered, for wonder was all I could do. "King Blugdan," I said dreamily to myself.

"Bludgeon!" corrected Kat, with a ready temper. "A great honor!"

"I'm sure. And how long will training with this Bludgeon last?"

Kat's profound sigh at the window was like a tired spirit leaving his body. "As long as it takes…" he grumbled.

"One last thing, Kat, one last thing. Scarfell, he said something about you — the only man ever to fight his way out of Hell. Is that true?"

"No more of wizards!" he yelled, driving his fist through the window. Light immediately filled the shack, illuminating a swarthy floor and new blood over Kat's knuckles. He stormed off into the village, nearly pulling the door from its hinges on his way.

Stunned, I did not follow. No stranger to losing my temper, I didn't take it personally. I was grateful to have Kat now, that was an honor too, and I should not pick at the man's brain for niggling details. Despite my layers of clothing, the frost still bit. I crept out of bed to warm myself with exercise when one of the villagers, without knocking, entered the shack and fixed the door behind her.

"Oh, be seated sir!" she said, escorting me back to bed. "You've overtired yourself. It's expected. Yes, that's what's happened." Dressed in a frumpy frock, her age was hard to tell. The engraved lines of her face suggested a hard worker, and far from an attractive one. "Can't be up and about, sir! Here…" she passed me a clear glass of what appeared to be water. "A sip and sleep will make you right. Drink."

My mother taught me never to accept anything from strangers, but thirst taught me differently. I drank her water, parched my crusty lips, and washed down some of the scum lining my throat. "Thank you very much. I'm Danny, Daniel Fox."

"Pleased to meet you, conscious Mr. Fox. The samurai had you over his shoulder when he arrived last night. Caused quite a stir with the women, let me tell you. My name is Madam B."

I smirked. "Madam B? The letter B?"

"Correct."

"Unusual," I said, and she smiled thinly.

"Sorry you're put up in this run down shack. This is all we had to spare."

"I'm not feeling that bad. I'd rather not be here too long."

"Good," she said, unintentionally pleased. "We," she stuttered, remembering herself, "are not used to visitors here, Mr. Fox. Never here. Normally we would say no, but the request came from a great man. We could not say no…We would not. Not to him."

Newton, I presumed. Like the horses before and added extras of kings and mountains, the scientist had overseen every element of this task. I was in good hands.

"He is a great man," I agreed, returning her glass. "How long have you been in this village, Madam B?"

"A long time," she answered plainly. "I am the longest now. We are safe at least, perhaps the safest in all the Distinct Earth." Her eyes suddenly crossed upon noticing the broken window, the shards of bloody glass distracting her from the conversation.

"My companion," I said, apologetically. "He has a short fuse."

Lost in her daydream, Madam B picked up a piece of glass and examined Kat's blood dribbling along its edge. I studied her trance until enough time passed to make things uncomfortable. Coughing for attention, her tired eyes very sharply met my own. "Madam B?" I whispered. "Are…you alright?"

"Of course," she replied, robotically dropping the shard. "Everything is fine here."

I tipped my forehead and cautiously approached her. "Tell me, Madam B, how many people are there in your village? Do you know?"

"There are twenty-five of us, and although your surly friend wanders the grounds now, I would advise you not to do the same, Mr. Fox. Some are still anxious about your presence here. Best wait until dinnertime. A hearty meal will see you both full, happy, and on your way. Yes, no need to stay after your meal. No need at all."

"No," I replied, repressing my own feelings, feelings about this stinking icebox, this strange village, and her stranger behavior.

Madam B opened the door, and the protruding lump at her belly immediately appalled me. A trick of the light, I hoped, but a second glance left me with no doubt: She was heavily pregnant. I wavered back to the bed, unsure what to make of it.

"Don't be startled," she said kindly, caressing her stomach. "Be with us next month…my little miracle."

I briefly nursed a dry mouth before regaining some composure. "I, I never realized you could make babies in the afterlife. New life in death? How can such a thing be…possible?"

She forced a grin. "Get some rest, Mr. Fox. I will see you at dinner. I'll see you then."

Madam B left me alone, and I lay down. I was not tired any more. Here in the day and the dark, the frosty walls and rough mattress, roundabout thoughts bounced like countless sheep over the picket fence. Tiny little miracles Daniel, scattered everywhere.

***

It was the headmaster, Margaret McKinney, who told me the news. I could tell she was crying when I picked up the phone, or trying not too, for my sake. It's funny how you're life can change so completely in a matter of minutes, how the earth can so easily open up and swallow you.

"Are you okay, Mrs. McKinney? What's-"

"Their bus went off the road," she sniffed, apologizing before and after. "Six dead, Mr. Fox. Two teachers, and four…children."

The rest was a blur. Margaret didn't have to tell me; I already knew it.

Losing a child is an indescribable feeling. There's no feelings left when the heart has been ripped out of you.

***

I woke with a start, the early light now was replaced by a strong orange musk seeping in though the shed cracks. A young woman nursed me at my bedside, dabbing a soggy cloth over my forehead. No more than eighteen years old, she hid a pretty face behind a fringe of dirty blonde hair, and her body looked as delicate as any I had seen.

"You were crying, mister," she said, her voice soft and pleasant. "Never seen a fella cry before."

The drying tears on my cheeks confused me. I slouched up, then cleared them with both palms.

"A nightmare?" she asked.

I shook my head — not a nightmare, but a memory.

"Stinks awful bad in here," she said. "Awful, awful bad. You will need a cleanup before dinner. Just sit still now."

"What's your name?" I said, sitting back while she attended to me.

"Name's-" she paused, expressing brief confusion. "They…call me Madam L, you can call me L."

"L? That's weird, already met a B today."

"You spoke to Madam B?" she asked, unmistakably anxious. "Did she mention me at all?"

"Well, no." I said, puzzled. "Why would she?"

The girl turned from me, soaking the cloth in a bowlful of dirty water. I took her slender wrist and she allowed the cloth to sink into that murky bowl. "Why would Madam B mention you?" I asked again.

"Just thought she would've told you, that's all. After all, our purpose was her idea. Solution, she calls it."

"Our purpose?" I said, releasing her wrist. "Which is?"

She lowered her forehead to hide her blushing. She was a beauty with peachy skin, plump cheekbones, and two soft lips like streaks of red paint. Times like these I had to forget I was still a man of flesh and blood. "You take orders from Madam B?" I asked, regaining some composure. "Is she in charge here?"

"Madam B guides us from evil," she said. "She protects us all."

The girl's voice was sincere enough; there was no hint of a lie, as far as I could tell. I even sensed a fondness for her labored-looking leader. Intrigued, I continued with diligence down this line of questioning: "How does Madam B, a pregnant woman, protect you?"

The girl kept her face and her answers from me.

"Am I upsetting you?" I asked. "I'm sorry if I am, it's…"

She kept quiet, and attempting to meet her eye, I caught sight of the scratches scoring her arms and shoulders. Disturbed, I combed back her fringe to discover a lash across her forehead, the blood barely dry. "Who did this?!"

Her chin trembled with her bottom lip, and falling tears gave a polish to her emerald eyes, but if the girl wanted to tell me, her mouth kept the secret under lock and key.

"I can help you," I said, sure of myself. "I can! Madam B? Did she do this? Did she hurt you?"

"Everyone must have a use," she murmured. "A…purpose."

I took the drenched cloth from the bowl and cleared the grime from her face. "Please, don't cry. Whatever the problem, there is no excuse for marks like that. See there, really-"

Taking me by surprise, L smudged my lips with a rough and unfussy kiss, ending with the sound of popping lips. I was completely gob-smacked, lip-smacked rather, as she removed her raggedy top to expose her pear shaped breasts. I opened my mouth to protest, but before any words left my tongue, she flung herself on top of me and then smeared her tits through my hands.

"Our purpose!" she said, kissing my mouth and locking her legs around my hips. "Give me a child! Give me!"

"Wh, What?!" I choked, as the girl fought herself down on top. She wasn't strong, just extremely determined.

"Madam B knows!" she groaned, rubbing at my groin. "No talking now, mister! I'll enjoy it more it you don't talk!"

I too groaned, as this alluring creature's busy fingers unbuckled my belt. I wanted to let this happen, to go with it, but the more I let appetite take over, the louder the sense inside me screamed, "Get a hold of yourself, asshole!"

I turned the sprite over, sat on her flat stomach and pressed her wrists against the mattress. "I'm very flattered," I said, red-faced. "I really am, and I'd love to, but-"

"You gotta fuck me!" she begged. "You gotta!"

"I don't gotta do anything!"

Again, and with wild eyes, she wrestled against my weight, all the time pleading for a baby. "Anything mister! Anything you want!"

My strength won out in the end, and when the girl finally surrendered, her tears resumed, pitiful, hopeless sobbing. "You don't understand, mister! You can't!"

"Make me." I said, stepping back. "Talk to me, please?"

At that instant, the shack door was thumped open, giving me the fright of a lifetime. Kat filled the doorway, body glowing against the evening orange. His face tensed with repulsion as he examined the sight of this older man and half-naked woman distressed on the bed. Before I could explain or hear L's story, the girl scurried over the bed and raced past Kat, who pompously tried not to notice her bouncing breasts.

"It's not what you think…" I said, feeling his glare.

***

Dusk was replaced by the rapid tide of darkness. Atmospheric lanterns lit various locations around the village, and the escalating sound of goings on lured me out of the shack. I was pleased to be away from the shit, but still very aware of it drying over my boots now.

The community was tightly knit, the sort of place were privacy is non-existent, where your business is everybody else's. The homes only were moderately better than the shack, built from disjointed stones using mud for insulation. There were around twenty of these depressing hovels built over sludge. This was a tough existence, hard work and heartache, and no matter how safe they might be, I did not envy any soul residing here.

Only one of these homes appeared fit to live in, fit for a king, in fact. Georgian in style, it was an immaculate white, had a welcoming wooden porch, two floors, clean windows, and a pleasing glow coming from red curtains inside. I wanted to point out the peculiarity of that spotless home in this dilapidated village. I needed to share this nonsense with someone, anyone, but it appeared that the only peculiarity here was my presence. Faces watched, fingers pointed, and doors closed at my back.

Arriving at a long dining table, three women assembled plates and cutlery for the evening meal. I watched their work and they sensed me watching. None smiled or gave me the pleasure of their face. Kat would be at home here. "Excuse me," I said, moving closer. "Can I have a minute?"

One of them, a redhead with face full of freckles suddenly accosted me. "What is it?" she cried, somehow insulted. "What have I done? What do you want?"

“Sorry. It's nothing…” My mind was suddenly scrambled, not by her attitude, but by the swollen belly under her cardigan, and the baby growing inside it.

"You're…pregnant?"

She placed a motherly hand over her stomach and smiled, as Madam B had done. "Due any day."

The other two women placed the last of the knives and forks, and I noticed that they too were pregnant. I had to rub my face, needed to get off my feet. "How can we help you?" one asked, but I was too mystified to respond. The young woman repeated her question, and words eventually found me.

"Where…are the men? I have seen none. Are they hiding or something? Lost?"

The redhead laughed, directing her hand behind me. "Why, there is one man!"

I turned, hopes dashed to see Kat strolling toward me. "Kat!" I said, hurrying to him. "Man, we have to talk!"

Looking more irritable than ever, Kat was not interested in anything I had to say.

"You were told to remain in the shack!" he bawled, both cheeks fat with air. "You were told!"

"Oh," I protested, "so it's fine for you to go on walkabouts, huh? I couldn't stay in that fucking pit a second longer! There is something wrong here, okay? We're not safe!" I clutched his arm but he slapped it down.

"You do as I say!" he said, suddenly pinching my chin with his thumb and finger. "I will not tell you again!"

With a push of his palm, he jerked back my stunned face. My heels came away and I slipped foolishly to the mud, the samurai already returning in the direction he had come.

***

The table was surrounded by people and food that evening; it was a feast of chicken, pork, fish, bread, water, and wine. All the stops were pulled out. The colorful sights and tantalizing smells made bellies growl and dry mouths water.

Kat and I were not on speaking terms since our earlier episode; hence, we dined at opposite ends of the fire-lit dinner table. Twenty-five villagers, all of them female, sat to eat, waiting for Madam B to speak from her privileged position at the head of the table. When that rough woman eventually rose, she cast her eyes and smiles over all present. "As you know, ladies, we have two guests with us tonight. Daniel Fox, and his samurai, who needs no introduction. We have all been enthralled by your story at one time or another, Kat."

The women graciously glanced, and I returned a smile. Kat did not.

"We hope you enjoy the meal," B concluded, "and our company, gentlemen." The beaten up old woman then gave a consenting wave, permission to tuck in.

I was pleasantly surprised that we were not left waiting for prayer or some other ritual beforehand. I snapped a leg of chicken from that tray, scooped a generous helping of potatoes from another one, and ate.

After moments of ravenous chewing, I became aware of something very unusual. A delicious feast for the eyes this food was, but not for the palate. The same taste filled my mouth with every bite — it was a mash of sandy wood, poisoning everything from the bread to the soup. I coughed out that gunk coating the back of my mouth and heard further giggles from women around me.

"I'm not getting used to it Kat," I said, from across the table. "I'm really not!"

Kat didn't pay me any mind, and eventually the hunger pains in my stomach cancelled out the bitter taste on my tongue. I ate all I could, and although it was foul, it at least gave me energy and that satisfying feeling of having a full stomach. The pretty blonde-haired woman, Madam L, did not look at me once during the meal, and whenever I caught her eye, she would shy it to a table or plate, anywhere but me.

Kat's manners or lack of kept me amused throughout dinner. With no class or etiquette whatsoever, the man snatched large handfuls of food and scarfed; grunting snorts and lingering burps, he chewed with his mouth open and then swilled back goblets of wine to see it all down, and the unfortunate woman seated next to him clearly wished she wasn't.

When most were through eating, I drank wine whilst women chatted amongst themselves about the weather, the harvest, and other things that didn't interest me. What I cared about was my curiosity, and now that my hunger was satisfied, I might as well see to the other. "I saw the white house earlier," I began, scratching at my chin. "I was wondering who lived there? Anyone?"

"A newly built home, Mr. Fox," answered Madam B. "In time, we hope to have one for each of the women here. They deserve it."

I returned a nod, aware that she did not answer my question: Who lived there?

"Tell me," I added, without care; "are you all named with letters? A little strange, don't you think? I mean there's only so many letters in the alphabet." I saw agreeing expressions from some, but anxiety from most. "Is there a Madam A?" I continued, the question causing one girl to go into a sudden fit of choking. The woman seated next to her promptly patted several times on this girl's back. Not a moment later, she spat out a piece of doe from her throat, and we all breathed again.

"The bread is a little tough tonight," said Madam B, wearing a cool demeanor toward my inquisitiveness. "Madam A is gone, Mr. Fox. The second death, I'm sure you're aware of that.”

“What happened?”

“Poor thing,” B replied. “She became too old to protect the women, and too weak to protect herself."

"Too old to protect the women, eh?” I said, trying to be clever. “Or maybe too old to have children?"

My comment caused even Kat to stop chewing, and the entire table peered at me with expressions of surprise and horror. In a matter of seconds, a moderately pleasant atmosphere had now disintegrated into tetchy and uncomfortable silence. Madam B's smile was gone, her pretence and patience were slipping. "When will you be leaving, gentlemen?" she asked.

I waited for Kat to answer, for only he knew it. "In the morning," he grunted. "For the Macros."

"So soon?" one girl added. "Shame."

That synthetic tone agitated me. It was worse when I saw every face wearing that same mask.

"It will be a daunting climb," said Madam B. "Not many travel up the slope of the Macros, and those who do…never come back."

The danger welcomed, Kat grinned behind handfuls of stale bread.

"What's your business up there?" asked L, resulting in the immediate glares from her fellow villagers. The question was innocent, but L hastily withdrew it, and I cringed, watching her feel the lashes under her clothing.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. "Everything okay?"

She parted the tangled hair away from her eyes and dimly smiled back. "Good, mister. Fine, mister."

"She's healthy, Mr. Fox," added Madam B. "Now, you have inquired about us, you've accepted our hospitality, and eaten your fill. Tell us about yourself. We women would like to hear more. Have you ever climbed before? There's a good start!"

"I've never climbed," I answered, thinking it wise not to press more attention onto L. "In my day, I'd use a car for the steeper hills."

"Car?" pried a puzzled-looking brunette.

"Like a horseless wagon,” I explained, forgetting that some if not all of these women passed long before the invention of the automobile. “It's got four wheels and an engine to power it."

"Sounds complicated!" said Madam B, to further snickering.

"There are harder things in life, I guess. A friend once told me that the world is made up of tiny miracles. Now, you take a whole village, and all the women pregnant, that's a lot of miracles to go around. Wouldn't you say?"

"We are blessed!" said Madam B. "Mysterious fate has brought us women together to bear our children. Here we are, safe and happy in that endeavor. Do you have children of your own, Mr. Fox?"

All of a sudden, I was mentally pulled out of this murky village and myself. No dizzy spell from a returning migraine, this was something deeper, like a blood illness. I was dumbstruck by a question I could not remember, and as these women awaited my answer, I could only stare at the empty dinner plate under my nose.

"Are you well, Mr. Fox? Mr. Fox?"

I held a blink and the image of Kathy for several seconds before hauling my mind back out from its unmarked well. "Fine," I returned, hollow-faced. "I'm fine. Thank you for the meal." I dropped my fork with a clang; dinner was over. Two women removed my plate, and as they waited for Kat to finish, I attempted to regain my mental place before an odd moment washed me over with amnesia.

The head instantly returned to my shoulders upon witnessing Madam B bend and whisper into L's ear. Something short and to the point was said, something that delicate silly girl did not ever want to hear.

"Madam B?" I grumbled. "This village is the safest place in the Distinct Earth, why is that? I see no men to ward off trouble. Or am I…being sexist?"

"You're being something!" blurted one.

"Your attitude is prehistoric," said Madam B, composed. "We women are quite capable of handling trouble, whatever form trouble takes. Men allow emotions to rule them; their presence here would only disrupt the balance. It's my job to keep the continuity, and we don't need men to maintain that."

"So?" I asked, suppressing a laugh. "How the hell do you get pregnant?"

Like a game of tennis, all eyes followed the ball back to Madam B, but I spoke before she could return it. "Pardon me, ladies, please. I do appreciate your hospitality, and I am not saying you need men, it's just that I see vulnerable, pregnant women here with no obvious fence or defenses around their village. Surely, in a realm like this one it would be wise to be prepared for danger? Alert at least, for your babies’ sake?"

Still indifferent, Kat continued shoveling food into his mouth. Perhaps he already knew these answers.

"No one would dare hurt us!" stirred the passionate redhead. "They wouldn't dare it!"

"Why not?" I pressed her. "What's so special about you?"

Madam B's mask was gone, leaving an ugly frown for a face. "You may not see our defenses," she cried, "but they do exist! We are a peaceful community, Mr. Fox; we do not cause trouble and we do not seek it. Most wander the Distinct Earth with no purpose, but here everyone has a purpose, and everybody is safe!"

"Safe?" I mocked. "You lash the shit out of these women and call that safe? What if a wizard were to enter your village, bog pigs, flying birds, or Christ knows fucking what else!"

"You've said enough!" exclaimed Madam B, seething. "We no longer wish to spend time in your company! The sensible thing would be to return to your bed and lock yourself there till morning…that would be the sensible thing."

Insolently, I knocked any nearby goblets or plates aside. "I've been threatened before lady, and candy coated or not, they all sound the same to me! Just what the fuck is going on here? Stop the charade, cause it's making me sick, or is that the meal I just forced into my stomach?"

Consenting disgust filled the air, and all of the women, L included, left the table in a hurry. "How about some honesty?" I yelled at their backs. "What are you crazy people hiding?"

Approaching Kat, a hot-faced Madam B was the last of them left at a table of dirty plates. "A length of rope seems to have gone missing from the supply shed, samurai. Sometime today, in fact. Have you come across it on your wanderings at all?"

Kat shook his head at her question or accusation, and Madam B wished him a pleasant night, but only him. Finally finished with his food, the samurai slid an empty plate to one side and scowled my way.

"What?" I shrugged. "Can't I get a straight answer?"

"Can't you shut your mouth?”

7. Hell In The Barn

With the early hours came a fog swooning down from the mountain. His stomach full, a snoring Kat crouched in the corner of our shack, his right hand hanging like a dead weight over his katana.

Madam B said the sensible thing would be to lock myself here until the morning. I thought about it, and I knew I could walk away from this village, and forget their pregnant bellies and peculiar behavior; it wasn't my problem. Unfortunately, inquisitiveness flows through every detective's blood. The white house intrigued me most, and that is where I would start the investigation.

Getting up from the mattress, I pondered waking Kat, but the idea passed as soon as it arrived. The man cared only for himself, and I already could imagine what he would say: "Remain where you are! Do not disobey me!" or something along those lines. Thus, with care and time taken over each step, I left the shack and a slumbering samurai behind.

Outside, a crystallized frost over everything reminded me of winter in Ontario.

Torches long burnt out, I moved fast, rubbing my arms and shrinking past shadowy hovels, unknowing if anyone was watching from those dark windows. Mud sank and molded around my footsteps as I arrived at the now-empty dinner table, cleared of goblets, cutlery, and plates, with morsels left to the rats. I had to erase the memory of that meal, the food, and company. Why did I have to open my damn mouth?

Creeping toward the white house, I could not stop my teeth from chattering, and felt for the expecting women over my trail. Safe, sure, but happy?

Shrouded in fog, I set my back against a wall of the house, watching the village twinkling in that ghostly vapor. A window blurred bright orange from over my shoulder, so I shuffled nervously toward it. I wanted to heat my hands over the hot glass, but voices beyond those hanging red curtains snapped me from the lure. There were long, distressing moans and desperate panting breaths followed by a terrible, high-pitched wailing.

"Push! Push!"

On tiptoes, I stretched to the windowsill for a look inside, and squinting past curtains, I witnessed the back of a wide woman bent over a bedside. "Push!" she cried again. "Time to push, dearie!"

My guts, or humanity maybe, told me to forget the spy game, to haul ass inside and offer what help I could. I listened to my instinct, ran up the white porch, and pulled back the main door with not a squeak from the hinges. It was an open living space lit beautifully with candles, and that wave of heat caused me to tingle. My presence went unseen at the door as the chill thawed from my face. I saw simple but comfortable furniture before a modest fireplace, and the back of Madam B and another over a bedside, aiding a screeching redhead in labor.

My creak on a floorboard alerted Madam B, who turned, flustered, her two hands hanging like dog paws in front of her. "Is there anything I can do?" I asked, sincerely.

She watched me there for a long second, as if wondering what to do with me. A pale and congealed liquid oozed like fat from her fingertips, and the other women passed her a towel to dry them. "I asked you to stay in the shack!" said Madam B finally, more desperate than angry. "Go back now, Mr. Fox. Before it's too late!"

The redhead’s moaning intensified to guttural, as if a shank was twisting in her lower belly.

"Here it comes!" cried Madam B, positioning herself between the girl's bare legs. "One more push, J! One more! Almost…over!"

Madam J was the redhead who earlier had set up the dinner table, who giggled when Kat shoved me to the shit. She let out a final, excruciating groan before her head rolled back in absolute exhaustion. The wailing of a newborn baby came next, and utterly drained, Madam B exhaled and sobbed. The three women had a union of tears and laughter; and during this overwhelming miracle, I was forgotten at the door.

A weary smile grew on my face too, and keen to see the new arrival, I wiped the damp from my brow and approached the back of Madam B, who passed the newly wrapped baby into its mother's arms. I peered over B's shoulder for an eyeful of the boy or girl and saw a thing so unnatural, so abhorrently alien that it caused me to jolt back as if punched full in the face.

"Mr. Fox!" hissed B. "You'll frighten the child!"

Covered in spunky slime, the baby's bald head was crisscrossed with a network of purple veins. It had jelly drooling out of snouty nostrils, beady yellow eyes turning over, gills squirting juice from the neck, and a mouthful of dribbling gores. Madam B left the mother's side and came at me with a temper and an unbecoming hunch over her shoulder. "I told you!” she yelled. “Warned you, didn't I?"

The redhead wiped the ghoulish face of her baby, its moan revealing one serrated tooth between its black lips.

"Leave this village, Mr. Fox!" demanded Madam B. "Forget everything you've seen here! Run, run, and never look back!"

"This is how you buy your protection?" I said, stumbling back. "This is sick, a sick fucking nightmare!"

Suddenly, a heavy stamp came from the floor above. "He's awake!" whispered the redhead, her face pale and voice terrified. "Oh my God, he's awake!"

The women’s brief delight turned to dread, and the purest kind of fear made up their sweat. "He's coming!" panted B, pretending to wipe down surfaces. "This is your last chance, Mr. Fox! Your last! I won't be held responsible! Stay and die!"

I paused, perplexed in my spot, the baby’s bawl increasing, and the thudding footsteps, too. THUD, THUD, THUD

"Go!" B urged, returning to the bedside and waving me, begging me out the door.

Scared out of my wits, I positioned myself halfway between the main door and outside wall, watching the staircase to the upper floor. I wanted to haul ass, but had too, needed to see it! The staircase creaked from some huge load whilst the women busied themselves, fixing bed covers and their own appearances in the mirror.

THUD! A mighty weight put its strain on the first descending step. THUD! Thick black feet and fat yellow toenails. THUD! Taking the final steps, the giant stood before the anxious women and newborn thing.

"Grutas!" said Madam B, swallowing. "Your son…is born."

***

Haphazardly, I stumbled, splashed, and not once looked over my shoulder. The fog threatened to lose me, but I did not care or stop until, POUF!

Head spinning, I removed Sir Isaac Newton's dagger from its pouch and slashed at whoever knocked me down, at whoever pressed on top of me now. She cried out, and I opened my eyes to discover the blonde-haired Madam L recoiling from my cuts. "You alright?" I gasped and wheezed. "Fuck! Tell me I didn't cut you? Shit! Tell me I didn't?"

She scrutinized the slashed cloth at her arm and found no blood or scratch. She was okay. Searching behind me for the first time, there was only the sitting mist, its churns concealing the white house.

"I am so sorry!" I said, assisting her. "I thought you were…"

"They call him Grutas!" she said, in a hurried whisper. "Madam B said he plans to feed me to his bogs in the morning. Had enough of my excuses. Will you help me, mister? I've no one else to turn to…."

Without another thought, I snatched her wrist and sprinted for the shack.

There was a hefty collision when I barged through the door, breaking it into flimsy bits and pieces. Covered in splinters, I grimaced and crawled to wake Kat, but the samurai was alert already. He pressed his weight down onto my back and held a blade across my throat.

"Don't kill me!" I yelled.

Kat bent for a better look of my face, then grumbled, somewhat disappointed. Relinquishing the sword from my throat and his grip on my hair, I recovered against the bed. Wearing a sour grimace, Kat looked over the breathless and beautiful L, loitering at the door-less doorway. "What is this?" he said.

"She needs our help, Kat. We're in danger!"

The samurai complained under his breath as L carefully passed him to sit on the bed.

"Your harlot stays here," he spat, clearing nasal mucus. "The burden will jeopardize our mission."

"Then the burden is mine," I said. "Grutas will murder her if she stays."

"No purpose…" the girl droned.

"Where is the giant?" asked Kat, preparing his fists for a fight.

"The white house," I answered. "Saw him there myself just now. I figure the wizard uses these women like some kind of assembly line. They are not human beings, but machinery categorized in his fucking alphabet. It's Scarfell who protects this village, Scarfell!"

"It's true," L said. "We are prisoners, brought here by the wizard for our purpose. All women must produce for him."

"You see, samurai?" I said, moving to comfort her on the bed. "I don't know why we're even allowed to stay here, but we're dead if we hang around much longer!"

"Calm her," he said, squinting through the shed cracks. Holding L's frail form, I doubted she or I would be strong enough for a trek up the mountainside.

"Something stirs outside," whispered Kat. "We move now!"

"And the women?" asked L, sniffling. "We collect them, too?"

Kat shook an ill-tempered head, his answer an unsympathetic and unquestionable no.

"We can't leave them to be raped!" I argued, facing him. "That's the reality!"

"Shut up!" he moaned, callously moving for the door.

I took him by the arm, and Kat's response was ferocious. He turned, and picking me up by the legs, he threw my body back to the wall.

"I told you to shut up!" he growled as he tightened a hold around my jugular. "When I tell you to do something, you will do it!"

Petrified, L could not stop Kat or do anything for me, and with a face draining of color, eyes bloodshot, and bulging, crushing windpipe blocking air, I reached for the dagger by my waist; I was left absolutely no choice!

"Do not touch that blade!" Kat said, watching my hand squirm toward the hilt. "I am giving you an order, Fox. What should you do?"

My fingertips grazed the dagger. I could remain conscious just long enough to pull it and kill Kat.

"What should you do?" he asked again, breath hot against my cheek.

Darkness descending, I raised a conceding hand and Kat released me. I dropped like a bag of shit whilst he glowered at Madam L's critical expression near the door.

"Take this." he said, throwing a long length of rope at me. "Keep it over your shoulder. Do not lose it."

"Where," I spluttered, recovering, "did you get it?"

"On your feet!" he demanded. "We leave through the south side. Keep low, move fast. Do not stop!"

Before I could breathe, Kat raced out of the shack and into the fog.

***

We joined the samurai in the nippy night, our breath clear in the cold. Slouching at one hovel, it was not the women, bogs, or Grutas we were avoiding, but Scarfell. Kat would never admit it, but he feared wizards. They commanded a power that made his with the blade redundant.

Low and fast like Kat expected, sparse candlelight glossed like fireflies from various locations, and I heard the rumor-mongering conversation of women near them. The daunting mountain loomed ahead with its precipitous edges glittering silver and rising like a mystical finger to the sky.

"There!" said Kat, pointing to a vague spot ahead. "Come!"

Fixing the rope over my shoulder, I turned to inform Madam L, but the girl was nowhere to be seen.

"Kat! She's gone! We have to go back!"

"Move!" he cried, snatching the scruff of my shirt and dragging me ragged.

I carried on, struggling with the rope, and constantly looking back with the hope of seeing L bringing up the rear.

Progressing past the remaining hovels, we reached an area of flattened grass and continued south toward a tall barn remote from the village. Presumably storing supplies, hay or cattle, it was a practically straightforward construction seen on any farm. Kat pressed his back to its main wall and I wedged in, stiff from the cold beside him.

"Where is she?" I wheezed. "Christ, she was right there! You see her?"

Calmly, Kat watched the oppressed village in the gloomy gas and gave no comment regarding the girl's fate. Suddenly, a rustling coming from inside the barn disturbed us.

"Could be L?" I whispered in Kat's ear, the sound like scuffing feet on floorboards.

SCUFF — SCUFF

"Could be the wizard," he replied.

“My call!” I said, and without pause, I hurried to open those large doors. “Madam…” I covered my mouth to hold a scream. It was not the smell of feces that disgusted me, but the wooden pen encasing the barn. Inside, under the warmth of a lantern were over thirty pig-like creatures — bogs. Some of these oily infants slept, some clashed heads with others, while the rest dug their snouts into stacks of yellow hay. Kat failed to conceal his own repulsion when he joined me at the doors.

"An army," he said, palming his stubble.

A trough lined one side of the pen, filled with a blend of bones, hair, and rotting pieces. "They have to be destroyed," I said, emotionless. "All of these things. They can't live, Kat, and we can't leave till it's done."

Kat took hold of my elbow. "You want to protect the women? Destroy these creatures, and the wizard will show them no mercy."

I remembered the lashes on L's back, and the price she was going to pay, but Kat was wrong.

"He needs the women," I said. "They're his bog makers, after all. No, Scarfell will come for us, Kat, and if we can make it to this King Bludgeon, maybe he'll give us an idea how to kill him, and how to set this village free."

Eager to leave, Kat moved outside the barn and demanded that I follow. I thought seriously about running then, to follow him and be done with it, but after one more look over these gooey abominations, I could not tear myself away.

Snatching the hanging lantern from the barn wall, and swallowing all that was left of hesitation, I flung the lighter into the pen of half-breeds, and shielded my face from an explosion of glass and flames over belly and backs.

"No!" shrieked Madam B, appearing breathless at the barn doors, and she quickly was joined by her alphabet of women stock, each with unborn swine growing in their stomachs and rippling torches in their hands.

Kat returned to me inside the barn, his sword protecting us from the grieving mob as the flames set high hay stacks alight behind us.

"Get away!" moaned Madam B, at the top of her voice. "Get away from our children! Away!"

Penned monstrosities wailed their alien sounds. It seemed their slippery skins were extremely flammable, and it did not take long for the blaze to spread. One set fire to another, then another; it was a procession of moving lights around the pen, sun yellows and whites, with that intolerable screeching underneath.

Black smoke began to build in this confined space, and the stench of cooking flesh became sickeningly apparent.

"How could you?" exclaimed one hysterical woman on her knees. "Not our children! Someone get water! Help!"

I was stunned. "How can you love these creatures?" I hollered, watching at least ten running in search of water buckets. "These fucking things? Are you crazy?"

Still, they ran to save their offspring, as if their lives depended on it.

"This ends tonight!" I bawled, over cackling firewood. "You hear me?"

"The wizard can't be stopped!" squealed Madam B, overseeing the dousing of flames. "We have watched Grutas feed our husbands and friends to bogs! To our own children! Stronger women than us have been ripped apart for disobe-"

A distant cry interrupted her. Looking at something beyond Kat’s and my sight, something outside the barn, a goggle-eyed Madam B staggered and dropped her torch to the hay.

"What is it?" I asked, fires blazing. "What?!"

Presently, I heard the thudding of approaching steps, and watched frantic women flee in tears as the giant Grutas came to block the barn doorway, holding the tangled hair and decapitated head of Madam L in his hand. A constipated look sat on her pretty face, the blood dripping like clotted cream from her serrated neck.

"No…" I mumbled.

Behind us, the fire caught something it liked to erupt in a ball of frazzling heat and falling cinders everywhere. Grutas flung L's head far into the pen of roasting children, and then stamped his authority with a prolonged roar.

"You dirty pig!" I roared back. "Dirty fucking pig!"

With no way out of the barn but through Grutas, I felt Kat's sudden squeeze on my wrist. "Do not move." he said, as composed as any man ever has been.

Placing me in his protective shadow, Kat squared off with the beast, which showed us the clump of hair and blood glued to his hand. Grutas then made a fist, and Madam L's blood seeped from the gaps of his fingers like soapy lava from a sponge.

"Kill him." I said. "Kill that son of a bitch!"

Kat flicked the katana tip to the straw at his feet, the heat causing the sweat to bubble from his arm and grease down the blade. "I will not fall…" he told the giant.

Grutas smiled, showing all of his stained teeth and murky tonsils. However, with the smoke thickening and the air cooking our lungs, there was no time for posing. Kat charged full-bloodedly at the monster, only to be caught by a wrenching kick to his guts, sucking all of the oxygen from Kat's body and hurtling him backward through the barn enclosure. Splinters burst every which way as Kat touched down at the hellish end of the barn; meanwhile, I dived to avoid a falling stack of burning hay.

On my stomach, I glanced at my protector, who in writhing agony stubbornly picked himself up only to crunch back to his knees, the scattering babies bashing into his arms and torso. Collecting his sword, Kat sucked in a great breath and began slicing. In the meantime, Grutas stamped toward me, but the barn appeared too hot for the bog, he battered frustratingly at the flames with his arms, and I was saved by a rush of remaining bog babies, who were fleeing on fire from the breached pen and clattering into the giant's legs.

Hobbling, I joined Kat deep in that incinerator, the roof collapsing above us.

"Are you okay?" I yelled. "Can you stand, man?"

The katana was dripping blood in his hand, and still heavily winded, he could not speak, so I wrapped his arm over my neck and saw us both to the furthest end of the barn.

At the rear wall, a towering inferno greeted us. I heard Grutas scream bloody vengeance in the background and turned to see him beat and throw miniature bogs from his path. With haste, I secured the rope over my shoulder again, stepped back six paces, and shared a plucky glance with Kat before we charged in unison toward the incandescent wall.

We crashed out the other side in a wind of shattering wood and jagged flame. Immediately, Kat flapped out the fire in my hair, and we clambered without rest toward the misty route of the Macros, leaving the village of pregnant prisoners and factory of wizard armies behind forever.

8. The Mouth of The Mountain

Early morning found us recovering in a rocky inlet at the foot of the Macros. The rope coiled around my heels, I sat on a boulder as a bitter breeze blew snow over my face. A steep curl wound up the jagged mountainside, a route we would trek in a few minutes time.

Kat was unfussy in the removal of his splinters. He yanked one lodged from his thigh and I winced at its width. I had minor cuts over my face and hands, but Kat certainly came off worse from the barn collision. He had earlier yanked a splinter eight inches long from the side of his neck, and several shorter ones from his wrist and knuckles. He either did not acknowledge this pain, or didn't care to.

"I can help you with that," I offered. "If you need — "

"What can you do that I cannot?" he griped, pulling the final splinter from his brow with trails of squirting blood.

The atmosphere between us was distant to say the least. I was still smarting from his earlier choke-hold, whilst the samurai was just being the samurai. Nevertheless I felt I should put personal complaints to one side; after all, getting on Kat's good side was the only way to gather information, and knowledge was always worth more than petty squabbling.

"I haven't thanked you…" I began, carefully.

Kat contemptuously threw that splinter over his shoulder then showed me his back.

"The only reason you're here is to protect me," I continued. "You got the dirty end of the stick for sure. Your motives… are your business, I respect that, and I'll try not to let you down in future."

That came out better than I expected, and judging by Kat's subtle nod, he approved.

"It is not me you have to impress," he then said, eyeing the build up of cloud overhead.

"Can you tell me more about him?” I asked. “Bludgeon, the king?"

The samurai studied the empty road we had run the previous night. There was no pursuing wizard or bogs there yet.

"Bludgeon is illusive," he whispered "is a master of all things."

"You've met him?"

"Never. I doubt his existence."

"But… you know he lives up there, right? How?"

"Fox," he exhaled, irritated. "If Bludgeon is there then you will not have met a man like it. He will ask more than you could possibly give. Disappoint him, and you disappoint the scientist, the angel… and yourself."

Kat then moved toward the twisting route up the mountain and I followed, considering those I'd so far let down on my mission to the 9th Fortress, Madam L in particular. I tried to put her last expression out of my mind, but that frozen face was there every time I closed my eyes.

"I've no climbing experience," I said, arriving at the side of him. "I used to walk up Ishpatina Ridge on weekends back home, but that's about it, and even then I'd hardly call it a mountain."

"Instinct," replied Kat, rubbing a chill from his palms. "The weather will not help our climb — if we survive it."

Those darkening clouds aptly grumbled, promising difficult times ahead.

***

As expected, the route grew steadily steeper; oxygen thinner and snow thicker. I was connected to Kat via the rope knotting around our waists, leaving a gap of around six feet between us. Eyes constantly facing my feet, there wasn't much of a view, only a crooked black slate and the blustery conditions we arduously fought with.

Ahead, the samurai battled on until our rope became taut, coercing me like a wet dog on a leash. Onward! Onward! Onward! There would be no stopping here or anywhere.

We carried on in this infuriating manner for the longest time; Kat pushing and me pulling on — push and pull — push and pull! Already I detested this rope and that man's insatiable demands on it. I detested it more than the plummeting temperature, the numbing of my extremities and everything else I've ever hated in my entire fucking life.

Land became temporarily level, but the view was now a disorientating white-out. Blinding snowflakes blanketed the way above and below; there was no escaping this slow death.

Kat scratched the ice from his stubble and the frost from his hair. I expected orders to rest during the blizzard, but it never came. Instead, he paused before me, bending to his knees.

"What are…you doing?" I asked, stuffing hands into my armpits.

The side of Kat's face was like a block of solid ice, and removing his sword with a click from its sheath, he lowered himself further.

"Kat?" I said, bemused. "Is everything all — "

Suddenly, with an angry grunt and flash of steel, Kat sliced his katana at the blustery air.

THUNK!

Something substantial, like a chunk of flying butcher meat knocked me flat on my back and near unconscious. Stunned, I lay still for the first minute, hearing the growls of Kat mixed in with the snarling of some starving animal.

Tentatively raising my head, I witnessed a raging bag of white hair and black spots beyond my toes. Clearing my eyes, I gasped — it was a mountain lion of some kind, larger than a Volvo, and wrestling and cutting into something underneath it. I heard the snap of its teeth and the grind of its jowls; then all of a sudden, a gruesome crackle came from inside its ribcage, followed by the animal's guttural howling at the falling snow. Terrified, I shuffled back as the beast flopped lifeless.

Exhausted, Kat pushed his way out from underneath the beast, deep teeth marks embedding his forehead, and a ghoulish river of blood leaking from it. Emotionless, Kat pressed a handful of snow to his wound and smeared aside any blood blocking his vision.

“Shit man!” I yelled. “You're a mess!"

“I will heal.”

“What is it?” I asked, standing to jab my foot into that bulbous bag of hair and teeth.

"Snow leopard," he said, removing his katana from its ribs. "I've killed larger…"

Finally, as the last of the breath exhaled from the animal's lungs, we took our rest against the warm, dead thing.

***

The sky was like a storm at sea, a fury pelting snow and rain the like I'd never seen before. Sleet flowed down the ascending stone like a garden water feature, making slush of the road and every step treacherous. We slipped continuously as the upward scale increased, until eventually; we climbed on our hands and knees, grasping fingernails into wobbly rocks to advance us, footholds and handholds of equal importance.

Kat kept up the gruelling pace — impossible for me to live with. Still I dug deep, finding enough to keep going, if not keep up. Onward — onward — onward! Push and pull — push and pull!

"How much longer?!" I screamed at his back, my sound suppressed by the almighty gale. "How much… longer?"

Degrees grew steeper still, and I realised why rest here was so perilous. Mere feet to our left, a rolling boulder the size of a two-story house passed us by. A sure and silent killer, and if we had been in its path we would've been pulverized underneath it. Hence getting up this slope as fast as possible was our maxim — there would be no lack of attention, and no more rest.

The breath of God attempted to blow us down this mountain, and with our rope constantly strained taut now, Kat was almost dragging me up the side of it; his tugs squeezing the knot unbearably around my gut. It was only when my clothes were drenched through, when my face, my ears, my neck and my hands were pelted raw by pills of ice, did I snap. Give up. At the end of my tether. The end of this fucking rope.

"No more!" I screamed and screamed. "That's it! I am done! Done!"

Kat pressed on regardless, and with my body at a standstill, the abrupt yank at my waist pulled me forward to smash my face on a rock. Knocked out of his resolute world, Kat looked back, but expressed no concern for me. He simply pulled on our rope, cursed my limp body and demanded that I follow orders — to be more careful — to be on my feet.

I strained a look at him through the lashing rain, blood dribbling down my cheek. "I can't! It's too much! No more!"

Kat’s eyebrows crossed like attracting magnets. He threw down his rope then marched, puffy cheeked and livid toward me. Temporarily shielding me from the hail, he grappled me by the skin of the neck.

"Up!"

Maddeningly, I beat my arms against his clenched hand.

"Don't! Fucking! Touch me! Don't ever lay a hand on me again you cock sucker! I'm going back! I'm going back right fucking now! If you don't come with me, I'll go alone! I don't need you! I don't care!"

The wind howled like that dying snow leopard, and Kat's palm rubbed over the katana hilt like a magic lamp.

"Say another word," he suddenly bawled; "and I will cut your head off!"

Lightning smashed the mountain slope and a boom of thunder shook the sky. I was not angry any-more, but flabbergasted. In the soulless stare of the samurai warrior, I saw that my defender, my sword and shield was a hundred percent serious: he would cut my head off. Maybe he wanted to.

"Just — another — word!" he repeated, teasing the hilt and himself, waiting and wanting…

I did not speak. Not a mutter. Instead, I rose to my feet, and tasting a combination of water and blood on my lips, I stared into the soaking hard face of Kat, our private storm lasting a full sixty seconds.

"I can't believe they sent you to help me!" I cried. "Why you?! Who the fuck are you?!"

"I have seen Hell!" he roared back. "Lived it for two hundred years! Two hundred! If you cannot go on now — you may as well lose your head! You may as well!"

I slunk beaten, while Kat readied himself for his kill. I did not have the strength or belief for this mission, but urgently needed to find it. I searched inside for inspiration — it had to be there, deep in the dusty attic of my heart — and it was. Kathy, my wonderfully bright star was expecting her Father, and I've kept her waiting long enough.

"Get up, Danny!" begged Missy, her young voice so clear in my head. "Get up that mountain right this minute! Don't make me come down there!"

I placed pressure on my cheek with a sleeve, and with resolve, determination and the will to survive, I passed Kat and carried on up the slope; until it was his turn to feel that wretched tug of rope.

***

Morning.

We recuperated on a ledge some miles up the mountain. Jaded and sore all over, I could hardly imagine the distance left to the summit; a feat far beyond my forty-one year old body. Fortunately, there was no more climbing left to be done — we had reached our destination.

I got a slight lift now, a proud sense of achievement when I glanced over our ledge. We were hundreds of feet from the ground. Curvy cloud formed a sheet of whisked cream over the landscape, hiding everything but the pointed tops of other mountains.

"Heaven," I said, dabbing the new scab at my cheek. "Must be what Heaven looks like, eh?"

"I wouldn't know."

Not the view sort, Kat didn't stop to enjoy it. No, the samurai was a problem solver, and facing him was one needing to be solved. He crouched, rubbing at his mouth and surveying the dilemma. Cut into this mountain was a curious rectangle entranceway, with a gloomy corridor inside it. The surrounding mountain stone was a rugged sandy brown, but the corridor was of marble white, perfectly smooth with foreign symbols painted on the walls. I felt like an explorer now, discovering an ancient tomb, this grand hallway surely leading to the king himself.

"Come on Kat!" I complained. "It's been an hour already!"

He swat a hand at my voice like a mosquito in his ear, so I bent to collect a handful of stones. One by one, I threw them off the cliff edge, making many dimples into the multicoloured cloud below.

Inside the marble corridor — positioned in the centre of the floor — was a circular seal of gold. A substantial image, it depicted a half man, half horse: A Centaur riding the back of a fire-breathing dragon. Beyond that seal was something even stranger — a rippling wall of gas, as if a bubbling cloak draped over a door we could not see. It was difficult to make out or understand the symbols on the walls from this position; and judging by Kat's puzzled frown, he couldn't decipher them either.

After attentive deliberation, the samurai creaked to his feet with his own hand full of earth. His activity spurred me to join his side, and silently, I watched Kat select one stone from his hand, then skip it into the hallway. His tiny rock trickled over the seal and through the wall of sitting vapour, and there we heard it skip no more.

My companion frowned again, and then threw another stone with similar results — the sound immediately snuffed upon entering the paranormal smoke.

"What does it mean?" I asked, intrigued.

"A trap," he said. "We go back. There is nothing we can do."

I laughed. This simple surrender made no sense in my mind. None at all. We could never set back down the mountain, not after last night's efforts, and definitely not with a wizard on our tail. No — This was the way, I was certain of it.

"Listen Kat, if Sir Isaac Newton, of all people, wanted me here, then this is no trap! Ask yourself — why have a trap all the way up here? That climb is all the security you need!"

"There are assassins," he replied, tired. "And no hill would keep an assassin from reaching his target."

"Okay. It is a trap. To catch assassins? We're not assassins though, are we? Trust me for once. There's nothing to fear."

With no ready reply from Kat, and my mind made up, I strode to the murky entrance.

"I've got a good feeling," I said, shaking the fear from the ends of my fingertips. "Nothing will happen. Nothing…will happen."

My guide still unconvinced, I raised a foot, but before any trace of sole touched the marble, Kat harshly jerked me backward.

"What?" I complained.

The cantankerous samurai was not watching me, but the morning sky over our shoulder. Perhaps he was the view sort after all.

He raised his hand and my eye followed it to a chirping bird, resembling a robin and no larger. I sighed with relief, pleased to see something small for a change. The pair of us then watched as this innocent, singing thing came at us, over our heads and into the mysterious hallway. It swooped past the seal, but before disappearing into standing vapours, the two walls of marble smashed together like stone symbols, crushing the bird into powdery dust and blasting us off our feet.

Like a pair of exhaling lungs, the walls retracted to their original positions as rapidly as they had collided, and we lay dumbstruck on our backs.

"How is your good feeling now?" Kat asked me, flipping impressively to his feet.

I stood the old-fashioned way, beating the dirt from my clothes. Strangely, instinct told me to disregard the incident — This was the way!

"There's an angel urging me in," I said, sure of myself. "And in is where I'm going!"

Again, I lined both feet and ten toes before the marble, and an intrigued Kat watched me take the first steps inside. The crunch of my foot seemed to vibrate the whole corridor, and the confidence suddenly corroded inside me. I held my stance for over a minute in one position; trying not to breathe, not to let these walls smell my fear or feel my weight. Moving inch by meticulous inch, I heard every beat of my racing heart. The air frolicked with particles, irritating the eyes and sitting like an itch at the end of my nose; but still I moved forward, pausing now as I reached the circular seal of gold.

"Why do you stop?" Kat whispered, his vigilant question echoing into the corridor. "Tell me why Fox?"

I was too absorbed in the seal to answer. It was a work of art, a masterpiece like those by the old masters. I almost couldn't bear to tread my dirty boots over it.

"Go on…" pressed Kat, engrossed. "Almost."

I did go on. I stepped on the seal and there was an instant reaction to my intimately placed foot. A gust came from the layer of fumes ahead, blowing back my hair and removing all the sitting dust on my nose. I froze like a plank, feeling wet beads glisten down my chin and any other place sweat could drip. Thoroughly shaken, I exhaled a moment later; and with Kat's badgering in the background, I painstakingly progressed over the seal.

My head ballooned with confidence when I passed, and did not leave me when I ventured through the bubbling folds.

"Fox?" hissed Kat, seeing nothing of me. "Are you there?"

Suddenly, a torch burst into life, illuminating orange light all over the corridor. I stood at the far end of the hallway, facing Kat with the lamp burning on a wall behind.

"I didn't light it!" I said. "It wasn't me!"

Turning to face that torch, this mountain puzzle now revealed one of her secrets. At the end of my toes was an abyss; like a starless space. It was impossible to guess how deep, but there was a possible route down.

"I see steps Kat! Hundreds and hundreds of steps!"

Old but sturdy looking, these steps twirled downward into the mouth of that dark grave.

"Come on Kat! It's safe!"

The suspicious samurai grumbled, but moved in all the same. Like mine, his movement over the seal had no effect on the walls. I reached my hand out for him when, for no apparent reason, Kat stopped dead on the balls of his feet. "What's wrong?" I asked, confused.

Statuesque, Kat was listening. He could hear it and I could too — a familiar sound building, incoming — the chirp, chirp, chirping of another curious mountain bird. Eyes bulging, I pointed out the incoming bird behind Kat, lowering and buzzing wings into the hallway. My lips parted, but before my tongue could utter a warning, the marble walls trapped shut.

SMASH!

The energy of smashing rock blew out the lamp light and flung me backward down the spiralling steps. I plummeted, down and around in the dark forever, feeling my body become a peace of limp, battered meat until…

CRACK!

All was still. I had reached the bottom of this trench, and my world slowly stopped revolving.

Crumpled and half conscious; an excruciating ache burned all over and my vision was filled with a formless yellow light. When surrendering myself to unconsciousness, I experienced a sharp pain at my throat to keep me alert — a cold and prodding pressure. I had stabbed myself with my own dagger, I presumed, or broken my damn neck.

Placing a nervous hand to my throat, I found no dagger blade or protruding bone; there was however, the blunt tip of a spear. My eyes focused enough to see a towering man aiming the weapon at me. He had the craggy face of old age and a fuzzy brown beard with pieces of food caught inside it.

"Hells bells and buckets of blood!" he bellowed, like a mad man. "Who dares enter my home? Answer before I stick you good!"

Food fell from his beard and onto my face, and my prolonged silence provoked the man into poking me further with the spear. "Answer boy! Answer before you lose your heart and anything else that pleases me!"

"Newton…" I murmured. "He sent…"

"Blast!" stormed the stranger, slapping a clenched fist into his palm "That senile, bed pissing scientist! Who the hell does he think he is?"

His spear was removed from my neck leaving a sore indent. I tried to sit up but my mulched body flopped back to the stone.

"Dare you bleed on my floor?" the man cried, theatrically. "How absolutely, bloody dare you lose your fluids on my flooring!"

This person then bent for a better look at me, and I him. He was shabby and unkempt, a dirty bear of a man.

"Look at you," he tittered, "all broken up. Well? What's your bloody name then? Tell me! I'll try and look interested."

"Fo…Fox."

"Fox?" he said, face screwing up. "Vermin! I hate it!"

Groggily, I mumbled something back and the stout man sighed. "My name is Bludgeon… and I don't give a monkeys if you hate my name. Got it? Do — " He paused, catching a whiff of something he did not like.

"Is that… shit drying on your boots? Is this how you grace my kingdom? With shit caked over your legs? Is this how your kind show respect?”

I was lost for words, but the tall man, scratching the nits from his greasy beard, was not. "By the look of you it appears you're staying… for now at least. Just don't you touch any bloody thing… Come along!"

Vision growing misty, I could still make out the man trotting away on four legs — horse legs. He was the half man, half horse from the seal upstairs: Bludgeon — a Centaur — a King — the one I had come to see.

9. The Trials of King Bludgeon

Those first days in the mountain I never once saw the centaur. I did pass out at the foot of those spiralling stairs, waking here — a cramped room with no natural light. What light there was came from a torch dancing color off the walls. My bed was a thin cloth over stone, and my only exit was a locked, and sturdy wooden door with not a peep or creep heard behind it. This was my cave — my cell.

I watched that bronze doorknob for what felt like an age. Waiting and waiting for it to turn — to open — but it never did. Somehow, I had the craziest idea, a profound sense that I was not to open the door, but to wait for it to be opened. All would be lost if I turned that door handle, a rule so vague in its creation, yet so clear in my mind. Do not open the door! Do not open the door!

At one point, I shivered on that meagre bed for twenty straight hours, weak from blood-loss, hunger and thirst; assaulted by violent visions and screams dipping in and out of the room and my imagination. At times these visions became all too real, living apparitions sharing space with me. I heard Kathy calling for her dad, saw her hand reach down from a realm far from mine. Missy also came and went, her cartoon face unwholesomely smirking whilst reminding me of some of the more pathetic details of my life — the people I'd lied to and hurt; how many porno magazines I'd jerked off too.

At one stage, I fought back the old wizard Scarfell as he pressed his foot into my chest. It may have been a hallucination — it was — but the illusion was still real enough to make me pass out. Kat was here too, his decimated body crumbling to pieces in the corner. There, he would meditate for hours under a pool of his own curdled blood, face skinless, exposed brain and two bulbous, unblinking eyes.

"Get out of here!" I cried. "Get the fuck out! Get out!"

I couldn't tell you how many days I endured this torture, but with my strip of cloth soaked in sweat and tears, piss and shit, and a head drowning in delirium, enough was enough. That rule sent alarm bells ringing in my skull as I crawled toward the door — Do not open the door! Do not! Do not!

My legs could barely support my weight when I stood. Reaching a trembling hand for the bronze handle, I did not have the strength to turn it, but I didn't have to — the door was flung open like a shuttle hatch blown out to space, and there, filling the frame, the centaur stood.

"Ninety seven hours, forty three minutes and twenty six seconds!" he exclaimed, cheerfully. "Tell me, have you been incarcerated before boy? Spent time in a cage have you then? I suspect as much. Bloody scientist sends a prisoner to my home! A convict and rapist knowing my bloody luck!"

His haggard face, reasonably satisfied, lowered level with my own. "You're not going to rape me in my sleep? Are you boy? Well?"

"What, what is this?" I asked, voice shrivelled.

"Training of course! First and foremost, discipline is what I demand, pisser — discipline! If I tell you to stay in that room, then you bloody well stay in that room! Discipline is the key! You are off to a sufficient start, I will say that. Anything under fifty hours and I would have thrown your legs down the Mountainside and sent your torso down to collect them. I've done it before."

"You've been here the — entire time?" I asked, overwhelmed.

"Yes."

"But I could have died!"

"Drooping balls!" he tittered. "You're already dead pisser! Now you are a speck! Discipline, understand? Well, answer me speck!"

"I…I understand."

"Good. Come along then!"

The centaur moved from the door and down a suffocating corridor to the right. I followed, but found it impossible to keep up as Bludgeon smoked off into distant darkness. I attempted to run but my body wouldn't allow it; even at a snails pace my arms snagged off the jagged walls. This was a dismal place, aptly stinking of wet stable and built up piles of horse manure.

The smells and bleakness didn't matter though, the most important thing was that I was out and free of that room. My mind continued to play tricks however, trying to convince me that I was imagining this; another delusion, and how the truth would see me still wasting away on that bed cloth.

"Speck!" yelled the impatient centaur. "Come along, come along I say!"

I picked up a hobbling pace and groaned toward a growing shine. I felt a mincing in my left foot and figured I had broken bones and others elsewhere when falling down those stairs; thankfully, an eye opening change of scenery took the pain from my mind. The cave seemed to explode in height and width, stubbing out all feelings of claustrophobia. Magnificent geode crystals, many thousands of years old, hung like sculpted fingers down from the ceiling, and their reflecting light was accompanied by numerous torches around the walls, causing the entire room to twinkle and glisten like fireflies. A dozen other corridors and passageways were dotted between those torches, a maze of burrows inside the Macros.

"Wow," I said, gawking.

The crystals above directed their glassy fingers to a luxurious dinner table, varnished and proud at the centre of the room with a lonely chair at one end.

"Sit," said Bludgeon, appearing from a corridor, his woolly body bulging with biceps and shaggy hanging hair. He was an impressive and intimidating figure.

I took the seat whilst Bludgeon, grasping two steaming bowls, remained at the furthest end of the table, kicking back his hoofs and twitching his wary eyeball. Then, with a flick of the wrist and scraping of wood, he slid one bowl from his end of the table to mine; and like the best barman in the world, the bowl came to a perfect stop under my chin.

"Eat speck! Eat!"

It was some kind of broth, and boiling hot when going down my throat. Although mouth watering, the taste was stomach churning, leaving my tongue with a coat of cigarette butts that I knew would sit there for days. I didn't care. I drank the liquid and gorged the cuts of flesh and vegetables left at the bottom. I recalled now how ravenously Kat stuffed himself at Madam B's table, and how amusing I found his lack of manners. No longer.

Once finished, I heard another slide of wood and watched as Bludgeon's bowl of uneaten broth come to a halt before my empty one. I glanced up to find him no longer at the table, or even in the room.

***

Two weeks gone, I still had only glimpses of Bludgeon, and discovered most of his cave to be restricted by locked doors or cramped dead ends. I would hear him call and curse my name from the dinner table, but when I arrived in his glittering hall he would be gone, and my meal for the day would be waiting to be eaten. Tasteless meat and dirty water for the most part, but I was at least getting my strength back.

The sound of flowing streams inside the rock was a constant irritation, like an endless static. Worse was that feeling of being observed all of the time; and despite seeing nothing in the dark, I always felt the eternal eye of King Bludgeon. I was the yo-yo, and his finger was wrapped tightly around my string.

During my explorations, I came across one cleanly carved, wider than usual corridor, and then remembered I had been here before. That corridor ended at a set of spiralling steps, twisting upward in the hundreds to a tiny torch blowing in the breeze. How could I have forgotten so soon? The seal — the birds — the trap — the samurai.

"Kat?" I yelled up, with an echo. "Can you hear me Kat? It's Fox!"

No response. I grabbed the railing of the staircase when — "Going somewhere boy?"

Bludgeon stood where I first saw him, with a starry light blaring over his hunched shoulder.

"Where is he?" I asked.

The king trotted toward me and stopped at the first step, his hands clamping hold of the railings and his chest intimidating me backward up the staircase. "Who?" he drowsily said. "Who?"

"Kat! The samurai warrior!"

"Oh!" he said. "The yellow man! His body no longer desired him. Had to mop up the remains myself — like the floor in an arbitrary, all grizzled guts and shit everywhere… Gory business, speck. A gory business."

I was not surprised to learn that Kat was gone; nobody could have survived that pulverizing smash of rock. What did surprise me was Bludgeon's flippant attitude toward the warrior. I did not understand it, and was further dismayed by my own feelings toward the news, or lack thereof — there was none inside me.

"He was supposed to be my guide," I muttered. "My north star."

"Things are never that simple, speck!" Bludgeon said, rubbing a crick from his neck. "You cannot be led by the hand! If you want to get sentimental, I could fetch you his hand? I have it in a bucket somewhere."

I caught a troubling whiff of his rich old breath. "You're drunk!"

"And you're a shit stirrer!" he barked, thumping his fist on the railings. "I am far from pissed you little pisser! I am a centaur! Do you know what it means to be a centaur?"

"No. I don't."

"It means that I can drink your weight in blood and still lead an army into battle! And bloody win too! Win good!"

He rolled his head back and wobbled, reminding me of my Glaswegian Uncle Tam at every family get together. "Talk out of turn again speck," he added, "and I'll be moping up your remains, yes? Mind me now, boy pisser! Mind me!"

"I didn't say a thing! Hey, I didn't ask to come here! I didn't want to come here!"

"And I don't bloody want you neither! Why do I get these mud monkeys forever calling at my door? I swear to murder that scientist one of these days! To squash his face with the fat end of a cricket bat — a second death good and proper and to hell with all of them!"

He placed his hoof on a step and I recoiled further. Disturbingly, the hairs of his arms were infested with millipedes, making their way toward his shoulder.

"There are rules!" he exhaled. "The doors that I open are the rooms your eyes are permitted to see. What I say bloody goes — I am the one and only law here, and if you ever, ever break my law… I'll take a break to your puny little neck!"

His eye wandered hungrily over that neck of mine, and the gulp of my Adam's apple.

"Now," he added; "you've already seen the dinner hall and your own quarters…Quite enough for the time being. This minute I am starving hungry speck. Starving hungry! I will show you the kitchen. You'll be making my meals from now on, but scrub your hands before you cook — I won't eat anything prepared by your contaminated arse picking fingers!"

"I'm not your fucking maid!" I blurted out.

"Did the speck just speak out of turn? he asked, a cockroach crawling out of his curly beard. "Do you want to see yourself strewn to pieces? Shall I fetch my mop?"

He rubbed his fist and five chubby knuckles, and I submissively lowered my head.

"I'm… sorry."

Bludgeon swayed again before taking that cockroach whole into his mouth; there was the crunch of the insect against his teeth, followed by him wiping the sides of his mouth with the beard.

"Another rule speck!" he added, slurring words. "You will be a quiet little mouse from now on. Zero cursing. Also, try not to breathe, the sound of your inhaling and exhaling cuts through me like a knife. Yes, a quiet little mouse is what I expect from you. What have you to be?"

"…"

"Well?" he demanded, stamping his hoof on the staircase.

"A… quiet little mouse," I grumbled.

"A what? What?"

"A quiet little mouse."

"Correct mouse! Now toddle off to that kitchen and fix me some dinner, and if you spit in my food I'll know, I'll know and I'll kill you for it!"

I couldn't believe my ears. With Kat and Scarfell, I thought I had met all the tyrants the Distinct Earth had to offer. I bit my tongue while he kept his serious stare fixed on mine. Finally, the centaur backed down the stairs and I followed to his kitchen, clenching my fists and cursing the stinking beast under my breath.

***

No chair required for his strong horse form, Bludgeon was at the dinner table, starting a meal I prepared in his gross kitchen. Not a kitchen per say, more a cold storage facility taking advantage of the outside temperature to preserve the food in random buckets and barrels. In that freezer, I opportunistically eyed a solid wooden block I might use to lock my cell door, that's if my relationship with the king continued to deteriorate.

The food itself consisted of various living things found in this wet cave — bats, shrimps, mushrooms, snapping crabs, slinky spiders and slippery salamanders. Then there was the grog, which I presumed he made himself — endless casks stacked against the glacial walls.

A week later, I sat facing Bludgeon at the end of the table, holding a mug of water and a bowl of clay colored stew. An upset stomach wouldn't let me eat, but Bludgeon slurped and dribbled the lot into his beard. No use for utensils, his insect riddled fingers were more than satisfactory; I'd puke if I had the energy.

I didn't get it. Why was he so precious about me washing my hands only to eat the way he did? Why had he gone to all the trouble of a beautiful golden seal and grand marble entrance, only to live in squalor underneath it? This revolting creature was far removed from the gallant centaur riding the back of a fire-breathing dragon. Was marble and seal, and this grandiose geode hall just pomp and circumstance? The pretentious façade of a fallen king?

He always ate with a spear tucked safely by his side, a weapon seen previously piercing my neck.

Momentarily removing focus from his belly, Bludgeon looked up to watch me poke at my rations.

"Do not play with your food pisser! Shall I fetch you a skipping rope, child? You can play with that instead? Food is for eating! Mind me!"

"The food would be fine," I droned, "except — why does it taste the same? Everything in this world, it's all bark!"

"Why don't you eat bark then pisser?" he cried. "Why don't you? I would surely like to see that! I surely would!"

I slunk in my chair as Bludgeon protested, a crust of bread falling from the tangled net of his beard.

"Where does the scientist get his gall?" he boomed. "Sending this insolent thug from a retarded generation of halfwits to my home? To live with me?"

His temper was explosive, and once off its leash there was no controlling it. "I give the speck free room and board from the good kindness of my heart! He doesn't open his mouth to converse and when he does it's only to squirt his shit on my cuisine!" he peered at me now from the opposite end of the table. "Would you like my spear in your belly, mouse? That would certainly be more interesting than your personality, or the so called bark you jab at!"

"Apologies," I said, timidly. "It was just an observation."

My apology wasn't nearly enough to settle the king's complaints. "You may not enjoy the taste, but eating is a necessity — one you will get used to."

Sounds familiar, I thought, as Bludgeon cast his resentful expression to the geode sky, cursing the angels beyond it with his fist clenched. His theatrical moan was like an old Thespian in complete command of his craft; and after this award winning moment, he let out a lingering sigh. "Only in Heaven shall one sample the tasty delights of food and drink. Does this look like Heaven to you pisser? Does it? Answer me mouse!"

"No!" I snapped. "No it does not!"

Sneering, Bludgeon leaned proud over the table, "It is Heaven to me weed! Tell me then, man preferred by righteous above — what is wrong with my home?"

"Nothing!" I said, dousing his new fire. "Nothing at all!"

"Damn straight nothing at all! The bloody impertinence of some people…"

From now on, I thought it best to speak only when spoken to, and not be drawn into further argument.

As this meal continued, Bludgeon fussed through small bones on his plate, I heard his complaints at the lack of meat on them, then the distant roar of thunder and strikes of far off lightning. High above our heads, past geode crystals and thousands of tons of rock, two marble walls were colliding.

"Blasted mountain birds!" bellowed the king. "Carve your own home out of your own bloody mountain! Winged pests…"

I pushed my water and stale stew aside — the trap bringing my mind back to Kat, "He didn't want to be here either."

"Oh, will you ever shut your lips?" Bludgeon moaned. "Whatever his reputation promised, the yellow man was a murderer — certainly less but nothing more!" He grinned, filling his already bloated mouth with more. "Gifted swordsman is he? Escaped Hell did he? Overrated rot! And for my traps it's a job well done."

It is true that I disliked Kat, but in a few short days and hours, the centaur had well surpassed him. "Fucking Bastard…" I mumbled.

Suddenly, Bludgeon's mouth stopped the motions of chewing, leaving a single cheek-full of mulched food. Something was said, something he did not fully understand. The dullness in his eyes washed clear, as if awoken from a long hibernation. His forehead creased and the millipedes began to crawl from his arms and down the table leg like some vast retreating army. The centaur's lips now parted and his tongue spat out a ball of compacted food, which rolled like a snowball down his beard. "Say again mouse? Say…again?"

I kept my mouth shut and my eyes glued to the wooden table. Bludgeon's lips meanwhile curved upward to a half smile. "I imagine the yellow man felt a lot of pain," he said. "A horrendous amount actually. Those traps may look spectacular when crushing tiny birds and the like, but it takes a great deal to flatten a man. No doubt the last thing your Kat ever felt was the squash of his own skeleton, like meat in a sandwich. I wonder how long he remained conscious. Nine lives my eye. Not hungry speck?"

"Bastard is what I said! Fucking bastard!"

I smashed my plate to one side and stood with fists shaking. "Enough! Enough of your stink, and your darkness and your moods! I've fucking had it! I know why you live alone in this shit-hole, I know why, because there is not another living soul who could stand you! You are a pissy, stinking, alcoholic mess! The most repulsive old bastard I have ever fucking met! How can you train me for anything? You can't even hold your liquor; you can't even eat with your mouth shut! If I can't — "

CRASH!

The centaur's spear interrupted my rant, flying the length of the long dinner table and ending in the head of my chair, a mere inch from my ear.

"I see a spine in you after all!" Bludgeon announced, striding forward.

Reaching me, he tugged his spear free from the chair. "Next time… I aim for your bloody mouth!"

With a thick wrist, he pushed the chair back and I was sent to the floor with it. He then loomed over my defenceless body and slapped me across the face. "Discipline speck! Discipline! That temper will not get you anywhere but on my nerves! And only a damn bloody fool would linger there…" He slapped again. Harder. "Commanding emotions will help you think clearly in a crisis, master weapons you never dreamt of wielding and make the tough decisions that keep you alive."

SLAP!

"Discipline speck! Yes?"

I fluttered a nod, utterly swept away by the centaur's primal power. "Full training begins tomorrow morning," he added; "no more games! Fifteen hours a day, everyday until your final exercise. Between training, you will be cooking and cleaning — if there is time you may sleep. You will work harder than you've ever worked speck — you'll be a walking, talking callus before I'm through!"

SLAP!

My eyes filled with water and my cheeks burned hot. I was struggling to take it in as Bludgeon bent closer, so close that I felt his frizzy beard and embedded pieces of food brushing against my face, the putrid egg falling to ooze down my chin.

"You are an emotional boy," he said, "that you are. By the end of training, you will be a man! Yes… a very dangerous man."

The king finally moved back, leaving me to contemplate a ridiculous schedule and whirlwind last few seconds.

"Oh." he added, calmly; "raise your voice or swear at me again… and that newly discovered spine of yours… will be broken. Then eaten."

He turned his back and was gone, becoming just another shadow in his secret network of tunnels.

10. Blood & Sweat

A watery droplet hitting my forehead woke me from sleep. My leg slid out from the covering bed sheet and I was immediately disturbed. I was naked. Covering myself, I searched for my jeans and fleece, but there was only that flickering torch, the glistening walls around it and the chilling thought of Bludgeon undressing me.

My body was tense and sore, nose running with flu. Goosebumps covered my flesh and my teeth chattered behind my lips as Bludgeon opened the door, his spear in one hand and a gift in the other: a baggy tarpaulin sheet, filthy wet and tear ridden. "Wear it always." he said, throwing it at me. "It's highly uncomfortable and perfectly inadequate for keeping out the cold."

"Where are my own clothes?"

"Belt too," he added, passing me a length of string. "If things get too grave you can always hang yourself with that. Just under the apple will do the job nicely."

Wasting no time, I threw the tarpaulin over my head, batted off the sitting water then made a belt with the string. "Ca — can I at least have my boots, Bludgeon?"

An amused smirk came over the beast, his beard free of food for a change.

"Addressing me by name?" he said. "The strangest notions do occupy your nut! You are my pupil — I, your master… Mind me now!"

"Can I at least have my boots back… master? My jeans?"

"Unnecessary. You walk barefoot from now on, and those jeans only attract flies. I hate flies. Come along cave dweller. Move it pisser!"

"Wait!" I objected, missing a personal item more important than clothing. "The dagger?" I said. "It's for my own protection. Where is it?"

I held out my arm as straight as his spear, and Bludgeon's stonewashed expression gave nothing away.

"It's mine!" I exclaimed, frustrated. "I want it back! Give it to me dam it!"

"For your own protection? Ha! Protect you little mouse?"

His laughter died an instant death when he bumped chests against mine, his stubby finger poking me back to the wall. "Nothing, nothing, nothing could protect you boy pisser! Not a scientist, not a samurai, and certainly not a puny blunt dagger!"

"But it's mine!"

"Wrong!" he snapped, voice as deep as a voice can get. "It's mine! You are mine! And the child will get his toy back when he is old enough to play with it!"

And that was all the beast had to say on the matter.

"Come along!"

Stones stabbed into my soles as I chased down another clammy tunnel. Already I had lost sight of Bludgeon, but heard and followed the CLAP, CLAP, CLAP of his distancing hoofs.

He waited for me before a door not far from my cell, with hypnotic torches burning bright at each end. Bludgeon smiled under that wiry beard, a crooked and foreboding sign that should never see the light of day, and usually never did.

I examined the unpleasant slashes over my arms and feet, particularly the heels, scabbed over with blood and dirt. Bludgeon showed no sympathy as he opened the door. It swung inward with a prolonged creak. A stale breeze blew the sleep from my eyes and I could see nothing there but a starless vacuum. Bludgeon stepped inside this void, giving orders to follow. I stalled, unable to conquer a paralysing anxiety eating at me. I called for the master but there came no reply. The wind was like a singing spirit beckoning me in, so I shook off trepidation and took on the darkness.

The very second my body was immersed, the door trapped shut at my back, sealing me inside this pitch-black world. "Bludgeon?" I cried, my sound echoing everywhere.

"Bludgeon! Are you here? Where are you?"

"Remain where you are!" he answered. "Remain!"

His voice was far-off, and when a torch sprung into life, Bludgeon came into view underneath it. Near forty feet away, he waved the spear above his head like a victorious war flag. "Come along!" he yelled, chewing on an unlucky spider which happened to crawl up his coat. "Move your dirty arse over here!"

Obeying, my first two steps where on rock, but I fell with the third. Solid earth was whipped like a carpet from underneath me. Gasping, the air rushed at my face and my arms flapped at the night, frantically attempting to snatch at anything.

After that stomach in the mouth moment, my hand found a wire; thin and taught, it was the sort of metal used to cut cheese or string a guitar. This line was all that separated me from a fall, so I held on with all my strength while my legs dangled over nothing. I sweated and my eyes blurred, mixing torch light and bottomless darkness. "Help me!" I pleaded, the pain increasing as the wire cut through my palms. "Bludgeon! Help me!"

"You're going to fall speck!" he exclaimed. "Wrap your feet around the wire pork brain — oblivion awaits! Believe it!"

"Help me! Help!"

"The fall will not kill you, speck! No, no! You will lie in thirty-four broken pieces at the bottom. Precisely thirty-four! Unless! Unless you shift your sorry legs up and around that wire! Secure yourself mouse! Secure yourself pisser!"

"I…can't!"

"Then hurry up and die! You're giving me a bloody earache!"

The only way to find my feet around the line was by placing more weight and torment onto my hands — the blood already seeping from my grips and dabbing onto my forehead.

"Help me!" I begged; but Bludgeon remained unmoved, rubbing his chest and singing aloud.

"There was a man who hung from a wire! Lost his grip and fell to the fire! There he goes you won't believe your eyes! Come quick or you'll miss his cries!"

No help was coming, and I did not want to die this invisible death. Therefore, with considerable difficulty, I raised my lower half — pain indescribable — impossible to distinguish between the tears and blood on my face. Somehow, miraculously, I hooked one heel over the wire. One then two. My legs shuffled until locking securely around the other, and with enormous relief, I let go of the line and hung like a wounded monkey.

"Balance is essential!" Bludgeon hollered, applauding in a bored manner at the other side. "I cannot stress how important… discipline — then balance! You will learn balance speck, learn it well and learn it early! One learns by becoming familiar — thus this will be your route every morning and night, every night and morning! Balance will be thumped into your head mouse! Each lesson learned you will scrutinize until they are no longer lessons, but day to day, easily accomplished routines! Now… I'll be waiting for my breakfast when you've managed to cross…"

***

Months passed, and having crossed over the pit countless times, my body was covered in welts from the wire's impression, but I was at last finding my balance. Speed followed soon after. My slowest crossing was over an hour, with Bludgeon complaining the entire time of his hunger. Eventually that time shrunk to forty minutes, then twenty five. After more bleeding palms and near fatal falls, I had the art down to five minutes — then three. Finally, and at the end, I could cross that perilous filament in under fifteen seconds, much to my master's concealed delight.

The minutes, the hours, the days, weeks and months passed with solid routines of eating, sleeping, cleaning, discipline and balance — stringent discipline and steady balance.

I was given dozens of books and a limited time in which to read them. Each was a work of non-fiction written by people or creatures who once lived in the Distinct Earth; souls who found themselves banished here, with nothing but time on their hands and a tale to tell. Although I did not have much (or no) spare time, I did have my own tale now, and hoped I would survive to tell it.

The books never bored me, sure, I was never much of a reader, but these books were not the usual airport fare — they were stories of alien afterlives, encounters with Gods, monsters, and general survival in the Distinct Earth. Plus, having my nose in a book meant I would spend less time being cursed at or spat on by my tetchy master. At the end of every day, Bludgeon would test my knowledge on new books read; there would be one less meal or hours sleep for an incorrect answer, and no reward for correct ones.

"Knowledge is your reward!" he said, many times over, and, "With every question asked, the answer could one day save your useless life!"

One day however… was a very long way away.

Dawn arrived and I followed the master — as usual — expecting to cross the wire. I had the magic ten seconds in mind. I'd be satisfied crossing in ten. I couldn't top that and Bludgeon himself couldn't beat it. What an achievement that would be for a useless speck!

I would not be reaching the magic ten this morning unfortunately, for I was led another route to breakfast, a new route to a new door, and I had to wrestle with a belly full of sick nerves on the way.

The route was like every other — bleak, confined walls leading to an ugly wooden door with burning torches at each side. Bludgeon said no more than necessary, but his boozy breath and reliance on his spear for support revealed all too much. He opened the door and I cautiously followed; naivety gone, those alarm bells going off in my head; even if this room held a marvellous and wonderful secret, I'd expect the unexpected until my eyes and guts told me otherwise.

Light assaulted me. Fantastic light. Not the shine of geode crystals in the dinner hall or that droning refrigerator light of the Waiting Plain, but healthy rays of real sunshine, invigorating me inside and out. This good, great, splendid place had the same gleaming marble found in the traps upstairs; was lavishly laid over with thick scarlet rugs, detailed paintings, golden candelabras, silver platters and many other ancient looking treasures. For all of this splendour, that magic number ten could wait.

"This room," Bludgeon said, "is now open to you…"

Speechless, my eyes enjoyed the feast. I wandered over the rug and crumpled my toes in the shag-pile. Above my head was a gaping window of circular glass with a vista of blue skies and fluttering birds. A view like this would have taken a thousand years to carve out of the mountainside. Each pain of glass was larger than my entire body, and there must have been over fifty pains making up the window. It was, without question, the most spectacular sight I had yet seen in the afterlife.

One busy wall caught and fed my hungry eye. Hanging there was no exquisite painting, lush drape or beautiful mirror… but weaponry, every sort imaginable and unimaginable; from blades to bows, metal and wood, not to mention alien; loved with care and polish. Bludgeon joined my side to admire his unique collection. "I've trained many in here," he said, closing his eyes and inhaling a deep breath. "Their sweat still lingers in the air. Do you smell it? That's hard work!"

"Is that a weapon?" I asked, directing my finger to a piece of long wood broken in half, yet taking pride of place in the centre of the wall.

"It is a broomstick," he answered. "Belonged to… a friend." Bludgeon considered that broken broom with a tinge of sadness in his eye and heart; I even heard him mumble the word eternal under his boozy breath.

"Bugger it!" he added, with a pithy wave. "Well, what do you make of it, speck? What do you say pisser?"

"This is all very impressive master. Very impressive."

"Of course it is!" he barked moving to the centre of the room, expecting me to join him on the scarlet rug. When I did, he placed a short, rusty looking sword in my hand. The weapon felt foreign, clumsy, and unfamiliar in my grip.

"You hold that sword like a bloody pansy boy pisser!" he giggled. "That weapon has taken forty-seven lives! Show it some damn respect!"

Taking it in both hands, I remembered how Kat held off bogs in the wood — that is how I wanted to fight — a blur of man and steel. With training from Bludgeon, I wondered if it was possible.

"Can I really learn to sword fight?" I asked him, excited. "Hardly Zorro, am I?"

"I don't know who that is," he said. "Don't care to find out neither!"

"Well, can I have another sword master? If this weapon has taken forty-seven lives then it shows. It's rusty, see?"

Bludgeon grinned, inspecting the rust caked over my blade. He left me now to choose another sword from the wall. Once he made his choice, Bludgeon left his spear leaning against a wall then re-joined me on the carpet. "Rusty, eh?" he said, picking his nose. "What a coincidence… so am I."

With a swiping flash, Bludgeon swung his new sword through my old one, cutting the steel in two. Flabbergasted, I held the hilt of the broken thing whilst Bludgeon thoughtfully ate whatever he found up his nose. "Too advanced for the speck, me thinks. Yes. Too advanced!"

He threw his sword lazily to the floor. I did the same and waited for the next lesson — a lesson I would never forget.

"Now!" he exclaimed. "There is a good way of punching a man… and there is a bad way."

CRUNCH!

Bludgeon's fist unrepentantly smashed across my face, those beefing shoulders and chunky biceps powering a locomotive blow. There followed a queasy crack as I dropped to the rug.

"That is a good way," he added, pleased with himself. "Done incorrectly, you’re likely to break your wrist, your fingers, knuckles. Bloody excruciating let me tell you!"

My eyes filled with tears and a hot liquid dripped and grew under my nose, becoming one with the shaggy red of the rug. I made a confused cup with my palms and a pool of blood collected inside.

"You, you broke my mose!"

"I know!" he laughed. "Haven't you been paying attention?! Oh dear, there's some bone protruding from your face. That is disgusting speck! How can I eat with that in mind?"

Locking hands behind his back, Bludgeon strolled around my messy heap. "Clean yourself up! Time to get sharper! Faster! Fitter! I want twenty miles around this area some time today. Twice a day, everyday — respectable pace you hear?! Endurance speck — endurance! Test tonight — have those books memorized. I will expect my bath in seventeen minutes time. Seventeen!"

The master then retrieved his spear and left me holding my bloated face. I wanted to cry… and did.

11. Godsend

I sat at the dining table, engrossed in this latest book. Despite Bludgeon's assurances that maggots were a good source of energy and protein, my breakfast bowl of those creamy worms remained uneaten. There was a permanent scar cross the bridge of my nose and both my eyes were now as black as Kat's, at least, as I last remembered them.

I hadn't seen the master today but wasn't worried. I didn't care; it was nice not to be smothered for a change, ushered on or poked at. I'd a fair idea of his whereabouts anyway — lost in a stash of his own moonshine, the old horse could drown in it as far as I was concerned.

This book, entitled: Predators of the Under Realms, was full of information regarding monsters found in the Distinct Earth, and the Hell below it. Written in charcoal, there was no apparent author and many missing pages, but of the hundred books I had read here, this was my favourite. There were around fifty chapters, each describing a creature from the darkest reaches of ones imagination, plus the Achilles-heel for vanquishing it. For instance, did you know that if you whistle to a Sparry Barrack (or hairy green fish to me), it will turn to an instant pool of phantasmal slime? Did you also know that if you clapped your hands five times, no more and no less, to the killer Karakas Beetle it will shrink to the size of an edible peanut?

The black angels of chapter five intrigued me; ghostly couriers who drag sentenced souls from the Waiting Plain to their intended dooms. These transit angels did not discriminate, they simply delivered.

Arriving at chapter seventeen, it described a dinosaur race called the Dreadknot. A sketch of the creature was included — weird shapes and scribbles mostly, similar to those cards psychologists hold up to ask what prays on your mind. Below that vague image however was a chilling, and perfectly discernible quote — "Part dark, part day — the inescapable nightmare…"

The immortal chapter sucked me in like none before. The under realms contained a rare handful of these indestructible beings — the invincible predators. Amongst them was a flesh eater called the Scurge, and a pack of flying mammals who could manipulate the weather itself; most interestingly, the immortal chapter did not include Bludgeon, or even the wizard Scarfell. They were not invincible, just very old and tired.

This was the first time I felt safe in the Distinct Earth; not at ease, simply… safe. None of the horrors described in this book could ever reach me down here; the sound of occasionally colliding walls upstairs reassured me of that. There was only one horror I had to worry about now — the one I called master.

Kat was right about Bludgeon, the king demanded too much from my mind and body; there was no satisfying him and his moods were growing worse by the day. It was as if he never got used to my face, the sight of it was always a nasty surprise to him.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

My stomach leapt and I was annoyed by that reaction; after all, Bludgeon was always watching. I peeked up from the book while he strode out of the darkness. "I am reading, sir. Number six today."

Bludgeon continued forward, scratching his nails over the wooden table. "Reading at the dinner table?" he asked. "I have a library for reading and a dinner hall for eating. This is the dinner hall!"

Clearly drunk, he was also nursing a bleeding lump on his forehead. "What happened master? You're bleeding!"

"What of it?" he complained. "Well?"

I shook my head, squeezed the pages of the book and hoped he would go away. In his right hand, Bludgeon held a golden goblet of wine, which soaked his beard through. "Who are you to read my work?" he hissed. "Did I say you could touch that book with your greasy fingers? That book?"

"It was on the schedule, master. Did you write this? It's…amazing!"

I wasn't kidding, but Bludgeon couldn't give a shit. He opened his mouth and a lingering burp left it. The master was cruising for a fight, so I became extremely cautious. My every word and expression would be considered; I would not rise to any bait or stoke his fire. Discipline Danny! Discipline!

"You asked me to read," I said, sheepishly; "that the library was open to me… With cooking, cleaning and laps, this is the only chance I get to do so in the day."

An unusual thing suddenly caught my eye — the master no longer held his spear. His stalwart support was gone. "Master…where is your weapon?"

This simple question provoked a violent reaction. Bludgeon threw his golden goblet at me, and I watched it turn in flight before thumping off my head. Disorientated, I dabbed fingers at the new gash pumping hot above my left eyebrow.

"You spilled my wine!" Bludgeon exclaimed. "Do think it amusing to spill someone's drink! Does this bring pleasure to you boy? Well, answer me!"

I wiped my face with the tarpaulin coat, and weeks and months of patience, discipline, and restraint were found wanting. Hurtling at pace, I returned the goblet, and it smacked my master full in the jaw.

Briefly, Bludgeon leant dizzily to one side but remained on all fours. Seemingly ready to burp again, he spat out three of his teeth to the table… He examined these crooked objects with great confusion, and when his brain eventually told him what they were, he roared like the animal he was, sending a snow of crystal down onto our heads. Then, like a great ape, he bashed his fists against his chest and charged for me. Ignoring the stones piercing my bare feet and arms shredding off the walls, I moved fast, fast, fast — purest survival driving me from that pursuing monster.

"Get back here!" he howled, too livid to think of a swear word.

I reached my cell and slammed the door shut. The gust blew out the never-ending torch light, so working in darkness I sealed the door with a block of wood stolen from the master's kitchen. Then, I waited for the wolf to knock at my door.

BANG!BANG!BANG!

His fists or hoofs were like sledgehammers.

"Open this door! Open it! Open it! Open it!"

BANG!BANG!BANG!

I crouched to a shaking ball as Bludgeon beat harder and harder, sending a cloud of rock over my bleeding face.

***

Hardened muscle replaced the fat on my bones, but the journey to that muscle had taken its toll, ageing my face perhaps a decade and carving up my soul a piece at a time. I felt like a walking corpse, and the sight of my reflection in puddles would cause me to wince.

I trailed Bludgeon's hoofs, a new route this morning, but I didn't care for the possible wonder that awaited; there was only routine now, exerted routines practised and perfected.

The centaur took a twisted enjoyment from waking me with his buckets of freezing water. At times, I wished the light would not come to my eyes. "On your feet speck! No slouching! No yawning! Upright! Ready to scrap at a moments notice!"

Like the good pupil I rose every time, but it was difficult to imagine defending a life I no longer cared for.

There was clamminess about this new corridor that made me light-headed. I took a start by a burst of steam ahead, and then ducked for cover as explosion after explosion filled this confined space, like fifty grenades going off at once.

"Get up!" ordered Bludgeon, wrapping my head with his knuckles. A wall of malevolent cloud blocked our route.

"What's through there?" I asked, sensing a smiling devil inside the flashing gas. "Is this a test?"

The centaur watched me without comment; was I supposed to do be doing something?

"Follow me!" he yelled over the sound of sparks, before abruptly galloping unperturbed into the cloud. Electric vapour hugged the king's body, and he was gone.

"Hello?" I cried, squinting. "Master?!"

No reply, and through this sauna I saw several strikes of lightning. "Bludgeon?!"

The cloud seemed to growl back. "Come along!" came the master's irritated voice behind it. "And don't you dare address me as Bludgeon again! The damn effrontery! Don't think I can't hear you boy!"

What was this new form of training? This was certainly more than smoke before me, that I knew. Bludgeon's voice, safe and sound on the other side did nothing to relieve my mind, only turning back would do that.

The king's impatience was harsher than the steam, so I stepped into the mysterious vale, which was quick to smother me. I decided to keep both arms outstretched — to feel my way out of this ghost. Unfortunately I didn't count for the pain, pain the like I have never experienced. Cold at first, it grew to freezing teeth eating away at my feet, before feasting slowly up my legs. Heat followed, white heat, and I was all of a sudden drowning in a pool of agony, an acid bath with no way out. I kept my limbs moving — shuffling — never stop — do not let it in!

Frantic, I battered my face into solid rock, and on the ground, the whole left side of my body caught fire. Wearing flames like a coat, I writhed as the flesh frizzled from my frame, boiling my blood and removing all but muscle and bone. Like a rabid dog, I stammered, catching my skin off the jagged walls like an old sweater on new barb. Screaming and screaming, I fought through this volcano, feeling my rotten left arm snap off at the elbow. My right leg was next, breaking off, barbecued from the kneecap. I discarded them both and crawled on my belly until I was free at last. I lay stupefied and smoking as the master bent over me. "What took you so bloody long?"

I covered my face with my remaining right hand. I didn't want to see what was left of me.

"Poor show speck!" he added. "Poor, poor show!"

Feeling nothing now, no fire or smoke, I opened my eyes and gasped. Not one cut, bruise or burn marked me; I was intact.

"This will be your new route to breakfast!" he said. "Mind and body are separate entities. You will learn that pain is nothing but a warning to your simple machine… warnings can be ignored by the mind, switched off when need be. Control speck, control is what is required! It is time to educate you in ignorance — you should excel in your lesson!"

He then left me there to sob, scream and punch at the dissolving steam, "I'm not a machine you hear me! I am not a machine!"

***

Over the course of a year, my schedule never once let up. I cooked two meals per day, was never thanked for the trouble and never praised when I showed improvement in a particular skill. I ran through Bludgeon's smoke trap, over his wire and around his track — I became competent with the sword and efficient in self-defence using a style of underhanded kick-boxing, which Bludgeon preferred. I can't imagine another soul promoting the kick to the groin as much as Bludgeon did. "Kick 'em in the bollocks!" he would cry. "Then in for the kill as the nuts shrink in their shorts!"

I detested the centaur with a passion, a loathing I wrestled daily to contain. Frequently now, my thoughts turned to murder. I would observe the master passed out at the dinner table, dead to the world with the millipedes having a party in his hair. My imagination would then indulge in the many scenarios, how I would stab a butter knife in his throat or beat his skull in with a boulder; how I would pound and crush his face until there was nothing but a glue of blood and bone between my fingers.

In the struggle to control discipline, patience and sanity, I was no longer alone. I had a companion in the fight.

One night in my frozen cave cell and with a head hiding under my arms, I heard a tiny voice. It couldn't be Bludgeon, for he stopped banging on the door thirty minutes ago. My own insanity perhaps, but instinct told me otherwise. No, this was something else, a voice I had to concentrate to hear, and the more my mind focused on it, the clearer she became.

"You've been strong Daniel," said Missy. "You've always been strong."

With patience and practise, I could keep this channel open as long as I wanted. My life support, my brilliant angel and soul mate was with me, and here in his deplorable cell is where I would get to know and love her. My Godsend, I discovered all about Missy's past, of her childhood toiling in the cotton fields of Virginia, where she died of influenza at the age of nine. I heard of her first moment's confusion upon waking in the Plain, then of her disbelief at meeting her own life support — an older woman who did not love Missy nearly as much as she loved me. I heard of her early years in Heaven, about the rules and structure of the place, a realm of creativity and thinking, where wisdom is the highest of all virtues, and wings but badges of honor on a long course of learning, ‘til one is no longer human or alien, but the very fabric of the everlasting universe.

Our longest conversation came after I took my hardest beating. I lay in a bloodied ball with my sobbing life support over me. "I told Newton not to do this! He does not even see me Daniel! Seems he's too busy recruiting these days."

"Why?" I asked, shivering, sick.

"I wasn't going to say anything, but not all is well here Daniel, and it has something to do with your mission to the 9th Fortress. These are changing times-troubling times. You have attention on you, important people are awaiting the outcome of your quest and I don't know why!"

Missy was as lost, as frustrated, and as helpless as I was. "I'm glad you're with me," I said. "Don't know what I'd do without you."

"I can't stand this much longer Daniel, and neither can you by the look of things! What a state you're in! What a mess!"

"What can I do? How do I get out of here? Tell me how and I'll do it?!"

"You do what Bludgeon wants!" she stressed. "You bite your bitter tongue and please that brute! If a test then you pass it, my love. Pass with every ounce of character you have! In the meantime, I will try, try, and try to see Sir Isaac Newton. I will beg for an end to this!"

"Do you think… he'll see you?"

"I hope so," she said. "Please stay strong. You must…"

I was strong and remained strong. Missy would always be there when I needed her — my rock — and although she would still talk my ear off about any old nonsense, she would never let me forget about the mission: the 9thFortress, prisoner 2020, and of course, the ultimate goal of being reunited with Kathy, whose face was so far away in my memory now.

***

It was twenty-two months, five days and three hours into my stay when Bludgeon did something remarkably out of the ordinary. Instead of scoffing his food at the dinner table, spitting out his grog and pushing for a fight — he chewed his food carefully, using a fork and napkin. He drank his wine with delicate sips, and to my astonishment, even offered to share. There were no ravenous swallows and burps, no crawling bugs or hanging insects. He was the thoroughly well mannered and courteous dinner guest throughout. I wasn't fooled though, not for a second. Another trick, another trap, another something. No, I was not fooled.

All through dinner I waited for the punch line to this sick joke. Anything out of the ordinary always meant something terrible followed, and I could not eat expecting it. It would come and I would be ready: another spear thrown, another punch to dodge, another lesson to learn… but still, still there was only the polite chewing of two men at dinner.

Bludgeon picked up his napkin and dabbed the corner of his lips. He then broke the silence, which rattled me even more; for the centaur spoke; he did not shout, he did not scream, but conversed in a normal and calm tone of voice, "Why am I training you, Fox?"

I took my time with the answer, and time was given. "Don't you know, Sir?" I asked, lowering my head. So unsure I was of the situation that my legs shook uncontrollably under the table. Bludgeon took a heavy breath, finally wearing that impatient expression I knew so well. His attack was coming…

"I want…" he replied, exhaling that breath, "you to tell me."

"I will tell you what I know, Master. If that will please you?"

"It would…" he nodded. "Very much so."

Bludgeon engaging me in conversation? Was this today's challenge? To politely converse with a man I despise? Whatever surreptitious test this was — I was going to pass it.

My belly ordered me to eat so I did, taking advantage of Bludgeon's earlier offer of wine. If this conversation was coming to an abrupt end, then at least I got a drink out of it. I sipped back the wine and it was delicious; home-made, tangy and sweet at the same time.

"Well?" said Bludgeon, interested. "Tell me what you know lad. Tell me all of it."

I took another drink. I would be frank, he might be playing games but I'd give it to him straight.

"I have to go to Hell. There is a prison called the 9thFortress…"

"And what," he inquired, without pause; "is your purpose at such a horrific place?"

The words "horrific place" weren't lost on me. "I'm to rescue one of its inmates: prisoner 2020. I have no idea who this person is, but the mission is to bring him back to the Waiting Plain. That's all I know… Master."

"A rescue mission?" he replied, combing the fingers through his fuzzy beard. "Hmm. To meet the scientist Newton, then all the way to me… to me! All for an elemental rescue mission?"

"That's what I was told."

"How curious." he whispered. "How very curious indeed."

"Could you tell me something master? Why do you share a drink with me?"

"I like you," he answered, straight faced and sincere. "I tell you that."

I waited for his plate to fly across the table, or the cutlery, or the table itself. I waited…

"You are strong now," he added, "in body and mind you are strong. Are you ready for the 9th Fortress? That I cannot say, but you are ready for my final exercise."

Stunned, my shaking legs went to jelly and I was grateful now to be sitting. Bludgeon meanwhile continued down this vein still with no sign of that infamous temper. "Of all I have trained you are unique in two ways. One, you have not once tried to murder me."

I hid my eyes behind a hand. The many nights I wanted to, only fear held me back.

"And the second?" I asked, changing the subject.

"The second is that you are magnanimous. All warriors are selfish beings; the goal of glory is a drug in their blood — to be the best of the best whoever lived, at any cost! It's what makes these individuals great, and damned. It is what made that samurai Kat a legend! Can one be both a great warrior whilst making the safety of others a priority? I didn't think so — until I met you boy."

"What are you saying, Master?"

Bludgeon guzzled the last of his wine with an unmistakably proud gleam in his eye. "I am saying that you are no longer a child… and I believe this belongs to you."

My dagger and belt slid along the table and into my hand. I removed the dull knife from its pouch, I could use it now; the weapon was comfortable in my palm. I now felt capable of commanding such power, of doing it justice even.

Thoroughly overwhelmed, I couldn't believe the end was here. I'd taken all the centaur had to thrown at me and made it to the other side; the worse for wear maybe, but alive.

We finished our meal in peace. A meal reminding me of one I had with my Dad a long time ago; a bitter-sweet night of passage, a real drink and respectful puff on the old man's pipe — the boy now a man in his father's eyes.

"Did you say…" I asked later; "my final exercise?"

Bludgeon smiled, it was the first genuinely warm smile I'd seen on that face. It still did not sit well on his features, but it was honest enough.

"Leave the dagger belt on the table lad, you won't need it. Come along…"

12. The Red Door

The walk was long and conversation, as always, short. We arrived at a door with obligatory torches burning at each side. I would pass this particular door dozens of times a day, and was always curious why it was the only one in the cave with a lick of paint — red paint. By now, I had seen most of the rooms this mountain had to offer, all but this one. Unusually, Bludgeon was not so aloof about this door, wearing an anxious expression bordering on worry. I knew without any doubt now that there was something special behind this red wood, and I could not wait to see it.

With a screeching hinge, Bludgeon opened the door to reveal no wire crossing, steaming vapour cloud or splendid training room, but a wonky looking spiral staircase and a freezing cold draft.

This staircase was a narrow, iron construction, twirling downward. Bludgeon led the way, and as I descended, I gazed at another window cut out of the rock; a circular cavity. No pains of glass held the weather at bay, and sure enough, it blew in as a mix of snow and sleet.

Nearing the foot of the staircase, I stopped to allow the sleet to drop and melt over my tongue.

"You could fly a jet out of here!" I yelled, over blustery winds. "I bet you could!"

"Jet?" bawled Bludgeon, over the elements.

"Never-mind."

The view out of this window was picturesque; stunning Alp like mountains with white peaks swelling over the horizon and sheets of snow smearing the valleys between.

"Winter approaches!" the master announced, taking the last few steps off the corkscrew staircase.

Following, my attention was drawn to a waft of hot air from over my shoulder. Turning, I gasped in horror and awe. Bludgeon was stroking the head of a dragon. Curled up like a pet, the creature was the size of four London buses stacked together, and just as red. Its lizard like skin was covered in a pattern of scales with sharp edges; its tail went several times around it's body, ending in a deadly serrated tip; it's hot breath gave off an uncomfortable heat, and I was thankful that the thing was asleep.

"Holy-shit!" I cried. "It's a dragon!"

"It is. Come closer. Come!"

I wobbled closer and my foot suddenly plunged into thick ooze — a clear mucus running like a tap from this dragon's nostrils, spilling over my ankles and covering the surface of this mountain viewpoint.

"She has a cold," Bludgeon said. "Poor thing needs a warm drink."

"She?"

"Her name is Seppuku; her wings wither during winter so she lives with me until spring. She sleeps mostly, but when she wakes we have a bloody grand time smoking and playing cards — she's a hopeless gambler."

"It… speaks to you?" I stuttered, gawking at the immense claws curving at the end of its fingers; "you talk to a dragon?"

"She does the talking," he grinned back. "Dragons are the wisest of creatures boy, and have a say on every subject!"

The wind raced up my back and I had to shout for my next question to be heard — "Do I have to fight this dragon? Is that your final exercise?"

"Fight Seppuku?" he laughed. "Don't be stupid bloody daft! Dragon's are the ultimate predator — her farts could put you in a coma! Unfortunately, their skill makes them a trophy, and they are now an endangered lot. You ever want to become a saint boy, just you murder a dragon!"

"I don't understand…"

"George, Matthew, Martha, Leonard of Noblac — all of them made saints for slaying a dragon! Heaven's superstitious hierarchy loathe serpents of every kind! Hate them! But I'll die before they get their dirty hypocrite hands on this one!"

"Why are you showing me this?" I said, nervous. "What you want me to do here?"

"When you leave Hell," he said, still caressing the dozing lizard head; "Seppuku here will be the first to greet you in the Distinct Earth. I will arrange for her to fly you and whatever baggage you collect to the Waiting Plain. She already has the scent from your old clothes."

"You have a lot of faith. Expect me to do all that?"

"Course!" he said, insulted. "I trained you, didn't I?! Now… to the matter of your final exercise."

Bludgeon stopped stroking Seppuku to wade his hoofs through the sludge. Passing me, he moved toward a wall of hefty looking boulders, where a slim chain dangled down from the ceiling.

"That chain," he said, aiming his thumb at it. "I want you to give it a good old tug!"

"My final exercise?" I asked.

"Pull the chain!" he replied, tetchy. "All will become clear boy. Come."

Hesitant, I trudged through the mucus, passing Bludgeon to arrive at the chain. It blew against the wind, tempting anyone to have a pull on it.

"Yank speck! Yank it hard!"

My shoulders were strung up to my ears. I had screaming doubts, but no choice; so, wrapping my hand around the chain, I closed my eyes and concentrated on my life support. She would advise me best.

"Go on!" Bludgeon barked, breaking any hope I had of making a link with Missy. "Go on! Pull!"

Opening myself to the worst, embracing it even, I took one last taste of the sleet then pulled hard on the chain.

Seppuku did not wake to wash me in a hose of flames; instead, the rocky wall began to rise in one piece, like an old James Bond movie. Bludgeon wore a crooked grin as that slab rose with trails of dropping rubble. It stopped suddenly after six feet, revealing another secret behind it.

"What the…" I muttered, squinting into a dismal inlet to something remarkable, someone I never expected to see again — a prisoner — a man. “Who is he?" I asked, leering in.

"Look closer speck! Go on! Closer!"

Thick chains stretched out this man's arms; his eyes were closed but his grunts told me he was alive.

"Can't be," I whispered, looking past his bruises and dripping blood. "Not… Kat?!"

Also dressed in a sheet of tarpaulin, this was not the same samurai warrior I last laid eyes on nearly two years ago. He hung here like a circus sideshow, stripped of his strength, dignity, sword, soul and honor.

"What have you done to him Bludgeon? What have you done? He was a giant. You've broken a giant."

My master could no longer control his good behaviour. "Giant you say?!" he yelled, voice echoing. "Giant?! I caught this giant sneaking into my chambers not long after your sorry arse landed at the bottom of my stairs… he shattered my spear and damn near broke my bloody neck!"

I recalled Bludgeon's horribly gashed forehead one evening, and could hardly imagine the ferocity of their scrap.

"Tried to assassinate me!" he roared. "In my own home!"

My pity for Kat quickly turned to hostility toward the centaur, "Bullshit!" I argued. "You’ve got this all wrong!"

"He's a cold blooded killer, on the order of a jealous wizard for my head! Scarfell! The most wretched piece of filth to ever claim the Distinct Earth! Your giant here naively thought the wizard could grant him a wish God could not! The desperate yellow fool!"

"How could you possibly know all that?" I asked, unconvinced. "How could you?!"

"I was there!" he stated. "Saw me yourself speck, stared directly at me!"

I took my mind back to that day in the woods. As I lay on the mud, a dead horse by my side and Scarfell's pig army surrounding me, I saw what I thought to be a stag or pony watching events unfolding between the trunks.

"Why didn't you help us? We needed your help!"

"I came to greet you boy — not kill a wizard for you. I was actually curious to see whom I would be training, and it was amusing to see petulance earn you a kick in the teeth! I had to snort back my bloody laughter."

Bludgeon stomped through the dragon snot to join me in the inlet.

"Wake up yellow man!" he yelled, punching Kat several times in the stomach. "Wake up! Wake up!"

I grappled Bludgeon's hairy forearm and he ceased. "Afraid of my fists," he said, "you'd lock yourself in your room so the Kat would get that honour." He shrugged off my hand then pushed me out of the inlet. "A very strong man is Kat — a highly proficient killer, no doubt about it. You could only dream of reaching his level! Yes, I admit that I've enjoyed beating this assassin to bits; when Seppuku wakes… she will enjoy chewing him to bits."

Coming round, Kat slunk up and I saw his bloated face covered with fresh cuts and older bruises. He did not seem to register the goings on, not recognizing me or the new me before him. A cold and clear intuition told me what to do next.

"Let him go Bludgeon," I said, plainly. "Remove those chains and let him go."

The masters' brow curved upward, and his beady eye squinted down at me. "Did you just give me an order speck? Did I hear right? Because if you did… I may as well piss myself!"

I met his stare, determined, serious, and unafraid. "Kat is leaving this place. We both are, and you won't stop us."

Bludgeon burst into a hysterical fit of laughter, spraying mouth spittle, but not quite pissing himself. I had heard this hearty howl a hundred times before, a theatrical bawl to an invisible crowd — an unnatural reaction forced from the guts.

"I give the orders speck!" he said, suddenly serious. "Now… get up those stairs and start on those dishes before I really, really lose my temper!"

"No!" I exclaimed, standing my ground. "I will not do another God dammed thing for you! Release this man! Or else…"

Bludgeon examined my face, his own on pause for some time.

"Did you hear me?" I said. "Release him!"

Bludgeon bent forward now, touching noses against mine. "Over-my-dead-body!" he hissed, his halitosis turning my stomach, but still I held his gaze. The both of us had drawn our lines and made our positions clear — there was only one thing left to do.

Never removing my eye from Bludgeon, I stepped backward into the inlet — and one lock at a time — removed Kat from his bonds. Despite him losing an obvious amount of weight here, I struggled to hold him up when he flopped over me. Thankfully though, Kat responded to my encouraging words with a smearing palm over my chest. Then, as if by a press of a button, the weight came back to his legs and he stood on his own two feet.

"Still stubborn as hell?" I said. "Come on! We're getting out of here…"

I guided us delicately out of his cold space as an amused Bludgeon witnessed it all with crossed arms and hoofs kicking the gore from his iron shoes. Relieved to see the centaur not advancing, I continued for the spiral staircase when Kat alerted me with a sudden squeeze of my shoulder. "What is it samurai?"

He nudged toward master Bludgeon, who now aimed a sword at my head. "Over my dead body," he said. "Over my dead body."

On my gooey location, I considered all the options when suddenly, Kat left me. An intrigued Bludgeon and I surveyed his hobbling walk, expecting the old samurai to collapse at any moment. He did not. Kat settled himself gingerly at a sword rack in the corner of the room, a rack containing a dozen blades. Then, with a sheen of steel, he removed two swords from the rack and returned, grimacing, back to my side.

"He's too good Kat," I whispered as he passed me a sword. "We can't defeat him — especially with you in this shape."

Kat heard my words and, as if unaware of his condition, he examined his ruined body with a repulsed expression. Nevertheless, no matter what shape he was in, he was still Kat, and the legend wrapped his fingers around the sword hilt, swirled the blade twice in the air and said, "I will not fall."

"I'm going to enjoy this," said Bludgeon, grinning as he ran a finger down his own steel. "Oh, how I am going to enjoy this!"

"Avoid the hind legs," Kat warned me. "And try… keep up."

I was now being given the chance to kill Bludgeon, to fulfil my most coveted fantasy; but the thought of living it out left me utterly cold. I just wanted to see the back of this dreadful place, to feel the air and be moving again. The wind, the sleet, and snow came savagely through the huge hole, echoing how this war would play out.

"The Kat and the mouse," sneered Bludgeon, passing his sword back and forth to each hand. "Are you ready for your final exercise, speck?"

Kat and I crouched low, taking steps from one another. We moved to Bludgeon’s flanks, but our tactics didn't appear to concern the centaur. “Which one will I kill first?” he said.

A problem we three fighters would have to deal with was the vat of mucus we fought in. It was a quagmire making swift movements impossible. I assumed this was already an advantage for Kat and me, since Bludgeon had more hoofs and weight holding him in it. It would, hopefully, equal the playing field. We sized each other up with twitching eyes, wet faces and flexing muscles, before all hell broke loose.

Bludgeon attacked — lunging at me with a meaty shoulder charge that put me onto my ass; and immediately, his sword came down to cut me in half.

CLANG!

His blow interrupted by Kat’s protecting sword. I sucked back my sense and cut my weapon upward, successfully slashing Bludgeon's hairy chest. The centaur cried out and darted back.

"Cut me?" he said, examining the bleeding tear close to his heart. "The weasel cut me?"

The thrill of striking Bludgeon "the master of all things", empowered me with a crazy, overzealous confidence. "More where that came from!" I yelled. "Pain is a warning master — warnings can be ignored!"

Bludgeon sprang at us with a vengeful roar. Kat and I blocked and countered, countered and blocked, but our opponent frugally slapped our attempts away as if mere child's play.

Already the pace was too fast for me, the gale making it seem somehow faster, and even more dangerous. I realized now that theory was one thing… and practice quite another. My lack of experience told as I received a slash down the left side of my arm, causing the sword to twirl out of my grip and across the room. I fell wounded, whilst the samurai continued to protect me from a ruthless Bludgeon.

"Pay attention!" stormed Kat as I crawled through slime for my weapon; all the time hearing the TING-TING-TING of their clashing swords.

As far as I could tell, Kat had the upper hand in every exchange. Despite the bruises and blood-loss, he was superior in all areas, and so forced the centaur back and back again. The longer the fight lasted, the stronger in stature Kat seemed to become. The sword his medicine, the legendary killer in him was returning, a giant growing before Bludgeon. The centaur knew it too, and an expression of concern swept over his face for the first time: did he finally consider defeat?

I collected my sword, stood from the sludge, and watching the blur of Kat and Bludgeon, I rejoined the tangle. Breaking away from the fight, Bludgeon found the sword rack, filled his free hand with another blade then returned with a primal scream, forcing us toward the gaping hole in his mountain.

The closer our heels approached that massive window, the more the peaks seemed to suck at our bodies like a vacuum. Bludgeon cheered, and then yelled some inaudible curse before throwing one of his swords at my head; I swerved to avoid it but the blade took a piece from my ear. Blood squirted from the side of my head and I cried in agony. Stumbling, the sucking hole suddenly picked me up by the legs. Kat reached back immediately and snatched me with one arm, fending Bludgeon off with the other.

I hung onto Kat's wrist for dear life while my legs dangled toward a vortex of white peaks and valleys. Hoping to send us both to oblivion, the centaur tensed his face and attempted to force Kat back; but characteristically obstinate, the samurai remained stretched apart on his spot, defending me and protecting himself.

Kat too, then growled monstrously, and with a dislocating pop of his shoulder, he threw me like old clothes at Bludgeon. The master swat me like a bug into the pools of dragon mucus, then giggled at Kat's insane ingenuity, “You mad bastard, Kat!”

Once safe from the sucking wind and Bludgeon's sword, Kat popped his shoulder back into place with a profound shriek. Not allowing him another moment to recover, Bludgeon galloped back into swordplay.

Meanwhile, I snatched a fresh sword from the rack and felt a rush of adrenaline consume me. Completely disregarding Kat's warning, I positioned myself behind the centaur; but before I could raise my weapon for any strike at the horse's coat, I received the full blow of two hind hoofs into my chest, booting all oxygen from my lungs and the sword, yet again, out of my hand.

I lay stupefied against the sleeping dragon's tail as a magnificent Kat continued his highly skilled battle with Bludgeon. Sparks of steel followed each intense sword smash. Kat like a phoenix, pressing, compelling the king backward and up the wonky spiral staircase. There they swung and swiped from higher and lower positions, never once landing a telling blow.

Kat could concentrate on his foe's blade and arms, but not his hoofs; and so Bludgeon sat back on his hind legs and began wildly kicking his front shoes, eventually striking Kat and sending him backward over the railing.

Hearing the samurai land in the gunk, Bludgeon chortled his way down the twirling steps to finish him off. Upon reaching the bottom, Kat was not flat on his face as expected — he was not there at all — there was only me and my amateur attack, an attack Bludgeon blocked with ease. I now faced Bludgeon's might alone. Mind only on defence, defence, and defence!

"Too advanced for the speck!" he exclaimed, laughing. "Too advanced!"

Bludgeon was enjoying his personal moment; the teacher playing with student, nicking small cuts to my cheek, neck, wherever he fancied. I simply could not keep up. I was actually doing well to remain alive at this point. Bludgeon even had the audacity to yawn during our skirmish; and when ready to conclude this final exercise, Kat appeared to save me yet again.

Balancing like his namesake on the spiral staircase, Kat leapt off the railing and landed with a grunt on Bludgeon's back. The centaur stumbled forward and coughed as the samurai secured both his arms around the king's throat. Chocking now but still on all fours, Bludgeon lashed out, finding it extremely difficult to bounce this nimble fighter from his back and fend me off at the same time.

The centaur became enraged, a crazy desperate horse, stamping, bouncing and roaring almighty; but he was only expending more air and energy — his face glowing purple now, his muscles burning weaker and weaker…

Kat locked his arms tighter still, further sealing Bludgeon's windpipe. The fight was not over however so I concentrated — I kept up swordplay and scored another strike down Bludgeon's inner thigh. He cried out and fell to one knee, and Kat continued throttling until the master at last relinquished his sword, and then toppled like a great beanstalk to the floor.

I kicked the blade from Bludgeon's reach as Kat climbed off the panting mammoth's back. Both of us then stood, side by side, exhausted in victory and united in hatred for the defeated king.

"There's your head Kat," I wheezed. "Take it. Just… take it."

Kat examined my disgraced master with contempt as he raised his sword overhead, but instead of bringing it down through Bludgeon's neck, Kat flung the weapon out of the hole.

"That won't get me what I want," he said, stepping away. "His fate is in your hands Fox."

Kat's words sent a chill down my spine. There was, after all, only one way to deal with a wild animal. I searched Bludgeon's pigheaded face for a shred of remorse, or hint of conscience for his treatment of prisoner and pupil. There was none. How could I allow a creature like this to live? I could because I wasn't Bludgeon and I was not Kat.

I threw down my sword, clenched a fist and slammed it across that un-remorseful face — breaking the master's nose with a sickening crack. Bludgeon slumped away, nose-dripping blood into the clear pools of dragon snot. He crawled until pulling himself up on the first stair, and there the blood ran profusely, turning his beard red. Surprisingly, he didn't appear embarrassed or shameful — he was in-fact, content in defeat.

"You have completed the last exercise," he said, panting and smiling proudly. "You are now… a very dangerous man."

13. The Black Angels

Two days later the three of us stood on the golden seal upstairs, facing a blizzard outside. Kat was restored in red armor, katana and wakizashi swords. That dress gave him more than warmth and protection — it returned pride, what honour he had and a strange aura of indestructibility. I was dressed in my jeans and fleece, boots, dagger with belt around the waist. These old clothes were too big for the slimmer man I had become, but they were better than any tarpaulin sheet.

"Kat," said Bludgeon, looking down on the short samurai. "You will cross the western ocean… and you will need this." He placed an elementary looking flute in Kat's palm. "Set east over the Macro tops," he added. "Six days time you will come across Atlas."

"The Weather-Maker," I said, keenly recalling my readings at the dinner table. The Distinct Earth was a Godless realm — nature, control of the winds and seas were at the hands of the Weather-Makers; mammals, immortal and illusive.

"How do I catch the creature?" asked Kat.

"You do not catch Atlas!" Bludgeon tittered. "You tame her by playing that instrument. Play well samurai and her wings will see you safely across the sea."

Kat tucked the flute inside his armor then — "Samurai!" Bludgeon stressed, snatching hold of his wrist. "Atlas is only to be used for the purpose of crossing the ocean — she does not belong to you, understand?"

Kat did not appreciate the hand on him, his steely-eyed squint made that clear enough.

"We understand!" I interrupted, breaking any tension. "We will only use the Weather-Maker for that single purpose."

Content, Bludgeon removed his grip from Kat and finished what else he had to say.

"After crossing the ocean you will arrive at the white beach; there you will meet Harmony Valour. Harmony will be your guide to Hell's entrance, preferably one close to the 9thFortress."

"How will I know her?" said Kat.

"Couldn't miss her!" he chuckled back; "there is not a soul in the Distinct Earth like Miss Valour. She is very special indeed."

Kat didn't pry, and didn't waste time crossing the seal and out to the snow, leaving Bludgeon and me to our farewells. I was torn. These last forty-eight hours I had seen much kindness from the master. The centaur was an altogether different beast, showing compassion and going to any lengths to make the remainder of our stay comfortable. He cooked a very delicious meal then washed every dirty dish; he amused us with anecdotes at dinner before sending us off to sleep in warm beds. He was spic and span in appearance, with not one beastie seen crawling through his coat. Constant light filled his cave and removed any sense of claustrophobia; and in that light I saw grand portraits of Bludgeon's ancestors — Bettersbay, who fought for centaur rights; Chiron, the noblest of all centaur's whose disciples included Hercules, Achilles and Jason, Captain of the Argonauts. These faces hung proud on walls I previously could not see for the dark. It was as if Bludgeon manipulated light and personality for the spell of training only.

I enjoyed these two days immensely and got the impression Bludgeon did too. I didn't despise him anymore, but I was glad to be leaving him.

"My methods," he said, placing his hand on my neck, "were harsh this time. I assure you methods are not the man; I adapt according to the pupil. I am not proud of myself, but this time, with this pupil, methods needed severity for him to survive where he is going. This is only one test you have passed Daniel — there will be more. But you now have strong foundations to withstand such trials."

I wanted Bludgeon to repeat everything he had said, a foreign language that sounded like remorse, an apology, and my first name.

"You will need these." he continued, passing me a shield that lay against the marble walls. It was a mirror of gleaming silver with the centaur's seal embossed on the front — Bludgeon riding the back of a fire breathing Seppuku. "As the seal defends my home," he said, "so this shield will protect you from danger."

I gazed into the beautiful shield at my ugly reflection. Bludgeon then disturbed my thoughts with another gift — a short sword with a wide and sharp blade. "This one isn't rusty," he grinned, passing it over. "This sword, Daniel… will bring light to the dark; and you can use the blade more than once."

He gave a sly nod to the dagger at my side. Taken aback, I assumed only Sir Isaac Newton and Missy knew of the power my plain dagger possessed — the only weapon that can destroy the soul.

"You knew everything about me, right?" I said. "It was all in the plan, wasn't it?"

Bludgeon shook my hand with a painful grip; the centaur never did know his own strength, ”One last thing," he said, leaning closer. "You have read my book — Predators of the Under Realms?"

"Not all, Sir, you threw it on the fire before I could finish, but what I did read was very interesting. Your books taught me a lot."

"There was information in that book Daniel, a torn out section detailing one monster in particular."

"What monster?"

"Well, did you know… that the eyes of a wizard will reveal his secret?"

I stared blankly back, and with no idea of what he meant, I nodded as if I did. A brief moment later, enough to put the shield on my back and the sword in its sheath, Bludgeon disappeared down the many hundreds of steps, the torch on the wall puffing out behind him.

"Mast — Bludgeon?!"

He was gone. I whispered him a goodbye then ran to join Kat. The samurai leant against rock, watching me leave the corridor then drop to embrace the snow.

"Fox!" he exclaimed, embarrassed.

I raised my face, smiling as I collected two balls of puffy snow in each hand.

"Hard stone for two years Kat! Two long years! Come feel! I need to kiss it."

Kat glanced at the virgin snow by his feet. If he wanted to get on his knees and smother it in kisses, then he kept it to himself.

"East!" he grunted, once again leading the way over white peaks — six days to the Weather-Maker.

***

Three gruelling days were spent trekking over the mountains — another three would see us reach our goal. We stuck to the tried and tested routine of rope — the samurai leading with me harnessed and harassed five feet behind. This was actually a compliment. The rope method demanded that the strongest go behind to prevent a slip from becoming a fall, and if a gaunt Kat was unexpectedly sucked into some crevice then my grip and my strength would be the thing to save us. He may have confidence in my physical abilities, but the samurai was still the one in charge; the man of experience, me far from equal in Japanese eyes.

One thing that had certainly changed between us was a hint of respect I felt come my way; a subtle improvement, which for me, for now, was enough.

We scaled head-spinning heights during the day, the altitude attacking my body with aches and migraines, lethargic to the point of collapse. Kat meanwhile was stalwartly consistent. Before sunset, we descended to recover and escape the colder air. Perpetual snow smeared over our clothes, hair and skin — and higher or lower — there was no avoiding it.

Although tough going, neither I nor Kat seemed to mind the elements; anything was an improvement over our last digs, and the harshest weather could not dampen our spirits. We were free men again, with the air in our face and destiny in our own hands.

We spent the first evening in a tent made from our sown together tarpaulin sheets; and too exhausted and frozen to converse, we warmed ourselves as best we could, ate a bite prepared by Bludgeon then fell to a chattering nights sleep.

Progress over the Macro tops was painstaking — every step deadly. Kat used his Katana as a sort of blind man's stick, prodding and tapping blanket snow before setting foot on it. Every time his weight sunk further than expected, there would be only hope left in our hearts; hope that he would sink no further, hope that the snow wouldn't collapse to reveal the abyss our imaginations knew to be there.

The second day we found ourselves too high up the mountain for the tent, so racing against dying daylight, Kat rampantly carved out a snow cave. We talked that evening in our rough, yet warm shell. Kat would never reveal anything personal, nothing of his past in feudal Japan, or of his attempt to assassinate Bludgeon and their resulting fight — nothing of his foolish deal with Scarfell, nothing of his imprisonment in the cave or his two hundred years in Hell itself; and definitely nothing on the biggest question of all: What wish did he want God to grant him? No, Kat would only answer questions on one topic: The 9thFortress.

"Have you ever seen it? The 9th Fortress?"

"It is the tallest structure in Hell," he answered. "I have seen, but never approached its wall."

"What's… Hell like?"

"Warm."

"And you escaped it?" I shivered. "It seems to impress everyone we've met."

"I escaped," he huffed, shuffling inside a pathetic blanket. "Rest, Fox."

I let out a frosty, frustrated exhale. That was all I would extract from the samurai tonight. Still, this was quite a contrast. Master Bludgeon would demand that I read, study, and knew everything about everything, "Leave no stone unturned speck! No stone, you hear?! Mind me!"

Kat on the other hand wanted me to know as little as possible, preferably nothing. Although his methods were irritating, ours was a stable existence. There was no fear of early morning wake up calls, hours of meditation or barbaric training regimes. Now I could sleep and dream. These first three days in the bitterest of worlds were my happiest in two years…

***

The forth day we trudged thirteen hours east against unrelenting, and merciless snowfall. I could no longer feel my limbs when the night rolled in, when it was time to stop killing ourselves.

Utterly beat on my knees and watching Kat cut a cave out of snow, I thought if I closed my eyes they would never reopen, and how that was a good thing. I would gently surrender; embrace the softest slumber tempting my soul toward a simpler existence.

"Fox!"

Kat must have dragged my ass into the snow hole, for the next thing I knew I was on my back with a flickering candle — provided by Bludgeon — dripping wax onto my chin.

Kat placed melting ice to my lips and I supped at it. His worried face scared me.

"What is it?" I asked, but his crackled lips remained sealed. "Kat? What happened out there?"

"We walked too long," he said, setting rags alight. "I pushed your body far. It is my fault. Your feet."

"What are you talking about?" I said, with a laugh. "My feet are fine!"

My feet were fine, I couldn't even feel the cold on them; in-fact I couldn't feel a thing. I lifted my head to see a black stump where my right foot should be. I winced. Was that frost bitten lump of dead flesh really a part of my body?

"I will have to cut," Kat said. "You will perish if I do not cut."

The skin was rubbery and black, as if I was still wearing boots; the toes appearing to be painted in an oily resin.

"Your foot will be rescued," he said, nurturing a fire in the middle of our hideout, "only toes will be lost."

"Only? How many toes?"

"All," he answered, rotating his katana over the young flames. "Ask your questions, Fox," he added. "Ask and take your mind elsewhere."

"Can't think of a thing!" I shivered, cold and afraid. "My mind is blank. I'm — freezing!"

"You will be colder tomorrow."

He was right, and miraculously my mind did go elsewhere — what next? Will I still be able to walk? What will the Weather-Maker look like? Crossing an Ocean?

"Why-" I started; "why do we need this Harmony person? What's so special about her?"

"Her name is Harmony Valour."

"You've met her?"

"No."

"You know of her?"

"No."

I shook my head, irritated again, before contemplating how long this procedure would take, and the agony I'd have to endure. Thankfully, another question distracted me.

"Bludgeon… he said Harmony Valour would show us the entrance to Hell? Can't you do it? Can't you?"

"There are many entrances to the Under-realm, traps to collect the unsuspecting. Valour will take us the safest route."

"And out? How do we get out?"

"For the patient and skilled there is one way out of Hell… only one."

"And you found it?" I said.

"Yes.

Kat's blade glowed orange inside the fire. I remembered once reading about injured solders biting down on a piece of wood whilst surgeons cut off their dead limbs with a saw. I didn't want to suffer like that.

"Knock me out Kat!" I demanded. "Fucking hit me in the jaw! Do it!"

"No," he said, and then all of a sudden, his katana struck the snow.

Five of my toes bounced like baby sausages from the ends of my right foot, and I fell unconscious without any help.

***

I woke as our fire was flickering out. Kat had watched over me for god knows how long, slashing his own sleeping blanket into ribbons to wrap around my foot. The bottom of my leg, that lumpy red cloth and boot did not hurt. At first, I thought this was my mind separating itself from pain, that Bludgeon's lessons were now bearing fruit. Kat informed me however, that wounds heal faster here — a bizarre process of preserving the body to withstand, and experience as much suffering as possible.

The wind was a whistle outside our hideaway and as I drifted back to sleep, I dreamt of Kat that night…

***

A long time ago… the samurai was fighting for his soul in mid-air. A jelly like creature, an apparent blob known as a black angel, wrapped itself around his arms and legs, delivering Kat to his new home in Hell. Life ledger read, his verdict in the Waiting Plain was unanimous — there was only one destination for murderers.

Kat fought against the decision and the angel, using all his might to free himself from this living ooze. The tussle was hectic, the two collected in one turbulent comet racing across the night sky, land whizzing past in a sickening array of shapes underneath them.

Kat's face was a deep purple, his cheeks full with breath as he summoned all of the strength from his muscles. The angel's grip eventually loosened, and Kat fell, flapping in darkness, no idea if he was right side up or upside down. The answer came quicker than expected when he crash-landed in a field of tall grass. Wounded, Kat kicked himself upright, removed his katana and directed it at the luminous moonlight. He bent and crept in the shushing grasses, watching that demon coiling against the clouds before returning for its human package.

The slick creature came like a bolt of greased lightning, its oncoming face but two unblinking yellow eyes. Kat swung upward and struck the angel in its centre, but the blade remained jammed in its gluttonous body. Kat tugged back the katana but the weapon was firmly wedged inside the form, a form slowly folding itself over Kat's upper body, engulfing his head, his shoulders, and further down to his chest.

Once completely devoured in its black glue, the thing from Hell clamped a hold and lifted Kat off his feet.

Doggedly, the samurai would not give in, struggling harder than before, biting, prying and ripping at this devilish messenger. He fought so hard that — yet again — the impossible hold was beaten off for a second time.

His landing was softer, and instantly he sprang up to defend himself. The angel above was joined by another identical creature hovering over the tall grass — eyes soulless and keen. Sweat poured down Kat's face, resigned now to his fate. He could fight off one… but not two, and certainly not three. When a forth black angel appeared, Kat returned the katana to its sheath, and waited for them to engulf him. His chance would come again — it would come.

That was four hundred years ago…

14. One Will Perish

Apart from my starting on one and a half feet, the fifth day began like all the others. Kat did not examine my foot on first light, or ask how I felt; that was a problem solved as far as he was concerned. When I set my weight on the ball of my heel there was enough of a foot left to keep upright. There was no pain when walking either, only an awkward equilibrium to get used too. Unfortunately for us, eventful moments of the past were soon and always surpassed.

Our connecting rope was our only harness along a ledge, teetering out from a wall of solid ice; and biting at our heels was a misty cloud called certain death. Kat did not claim this was the only route available, but that it was our route, and so we moved delicately over the threadbare shelf, thirty or more steps from safety. One careless slip was all it needed, so I pinned my chest against the glacial wall, smearing my face against the ice. The samurai — in customary do or die fashion — showed no fear, but still respected the Macros enough by keeping a cautious pace. A strong wind blew up our backs and I sunk my nails into the wall like a cat on a scratching post. Frequently, the other Kat would halt in-front of me. I figured he was either in some kind of meditation, catching his breath, or perhaps just as scared stiff as I was. Unlikely.

The longer we spent on this ledge the more it resembled polished glass, and the wall a mirror, reflecting our watery appearance back at us. Our soundtrack along the ledge was the unsettling cracking of this icy mountain.

Almost safe, and in deep consideration over my next handhold, a hairline crack suddenly appeared under my boot. My eyebrows shot to the top of my forehead as that break grew like a healthy plant. "Oh no!" I whimpered. "No…"

Dozens upon dozens formed immediately, as if I were an elephant on a plate of crystal. Kat experienced similar breakages under his feet, but bit his bottom lip and soldiered on for safer ground.

"Almost there!" he yelled back, but his steady pace and calm disposition was suddenly interrupted. Giving no explanation, Kat ignored the shattering ledge to stop again. "Don't come any further!" he ordered. "Not another step!"

"What? What do you see?"

Kat studied the ice in front of his nose, and raising his right hand, he placed the palm flat on the wet wall.

"Kat!" I cried, desperate. "The ledge! It won't hold us!"

There was another cracking of ice and the ledge began its disintegration.

"We have to move!" I screamed. "Go! Go! Go!"

I scurried to Kat's side, then shrieked as a pair of decayed arms punched free from the icy wall and squeezed around his throat. I fell screaming as the ledge shattered; and plummeting, I was brought to sudden stop by the rope yanking around my waist. I moaned in agony like Kat above, he experiencing the full brunt of my weight and the decomposed fingers crushing his windpipe. Those alien hands were the only thing preventing us from falling to our deaths. Choking, the samurai kicked and kicked and my face received the trickling snow from his boots. Terrified, I then watched as Kat, in one brisk motion, was sucked into the ice.

"Kat!"

No answer — no body — no sign — only a jagged hole and the rope hanging taught from its centre.

"Who's there?" I yelled up, feeling a tug on my rope. "What the fuck!"

That tug became a pull, one great heave after another, raising me upward and into the smoking gap.

***

"Kat? Where are you? Kat?"

I could see nothing, but heard the dripping of melting ice. I expected Kat's weight to be on the end of my rope, but when I pulled on it, only the slack collected over my lap.

"What's going on?"

I felt the cold against my hands and shins, and sensed a chilly breath escape my mouth. The wait felt like forever, a wait that ended with a fantastic ray of sunshine blasting through me and out of the hole. I covered my face from this painful life force, a force that took time to settle. When it did, and when my eyes finally adjusted, I noticed a small blue orb floating before me. I had seen an orb like this one before. It was the soul stripped of its skin, still in time and no larger than a pea.

"Have no fear, Daniel," said a strong, feminine voice emanating from the orb.

"How do you know my name? What is this place? Where is my friend?"

"He is not your friend," she replied, her straightforward manner like an old headmistress. "Your relationship with the samurai warrior is one of convenience — not friendship — so let's not pretend otherwise."

The star remained flickering in its place with a swirling vortex in the centre, razor sharp icicles making up its edges. "What do you want?" I said, trying to compose myself. "What have you done with him?"

"The samurai is safe," she answered. "His mind and body have been placed in suspended animation for the time being."

"Suspended what?" I exclaimed. "Let me go!"

"Settle down Daniel. You have come a long way, I simply wanted to make your acquaintance."

"And this is how you go about it? Why?"

"I see things," she answered, floating eerily close to my face. "I see who you were in the past. I see where you are going in the future."

"And why," I stammered, "would you be interested?"

"I am naked before you Daniel, a witch cast here by a wizard."

"Scarfell!" I hissed, and her blue light blazed. I shielded my eyes as that light discharged a furious red heat.

"As my fire burns at your flesh!" she wailed, like a banshee. "So his name scorches my soul!"

"Sorry!" I cried, the sensation now excruciating. "I won't say it again!"

Immediately, the intense heat was replaced by the returning cold, and the sad voice inside it.

"You're the witch!" I said, shocked. "I saw your broken broom in Bludgeon's cave, hung on his wall. It's dear to him…"

Her light shun a pleasing orange for the centaur. "My name is Eternal," she said. "There are not many left who remember me. The poor beast Bludgeon, only Suppuku for company. If he knew of my dire situation he would surely come for me."

"I could… tell him?"

"You will not," she replied, curtly. "You will continue on with your journey. Bludgeon believes me dead, for his protection, it shall remain that way. Risk to him is great indeed."

"What happened to you? Why did Scar — I mean — the wizard cast you here? Why does a man like Bludgeon need protecting?"

"Because he is endangered. A very long time ago Daniel, this Distinct Earth was for everyone to see out their purgatory in peace. Bludgeon and I protected those individuals from the many alien creatures and monsters who wished them harm. King and Queen some called us." I could hear a faint laugh inside the orb, then her longing sigh before continuing. "One day, one grave day, there came a wizard — and everything changed."

Still she would not utter his name, but her light flashed briefly black at the thought. "It is said Daniel, that the wizard wandered all the circles of Hellfire as Kat seeks an audience with God, the wizard sought the attention of his fallen son — Mephistopheles. They found each other in the bowels of that under-realm, and there the demon taught the wizard his blackest magic."

"In return for?" I asked, intrigued.

"That the wizard would expand the demon's kingdom throughout our Distinct Earth, wreak his havoc and bring about the darkness. In Hell, the wizard was a mere apostle — in the Distinct Earth, he is a God."

"The wizard escaped Hell?" I muttered, assuming Kat was the only man to do so.

"The samurai escaped the fire with endurance and timing," she returned; "the wizard did so with magic tricks, and he can return at will — to and fro whenever it pleases him. He is smart Daniel, a cunning trickster like his master. What the wizard cannot kill, he deals or disposes with some other way — like he did me…"

"How?"

"I am one of the few immortals," she answered.

Eternal was not mentioned in any book I had read in Bludgeon's mountain, perhaps it was too difficult a subject for the centaur to put on paper.

"The wizard," she added, "could only curse me here and spread untimely rumours of my end. Unfortunately these rumours exaggerated his legend, causing more to fear him."

"That's why Bludgeon hides," I said. "Why the wizard wants him dead. Bludgeon's the fly in the ointment, the last thorn to absolute power."

Eternal paused. Her light did not flicker, but remained serene and still, as if lost in profound thought.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

"I am fine," she said, liveliness resuming. "There are many thorns in the wizard's side Daniel, yours I predict, will dig deepest."

More than surprised by that remark, I was nothing but a blotch on Scarfell's boot the last time we met. Why would the old wizard fear me?

"He underestimates you," she said. "It is the only reason you are still alive. I brought you here to hear my warning, and to heed it. The wizard has eyes everywhere, and can find you anywhere. You cannot trust anyone on your quest… not a single soul."

Gut feeling told me she was holding something back, and pressing her, Eternal gave up more than I wanted to hear. "I brought you here Daniel to inform you of your true goal. You must kill the wizard. You must destroy him."

Gob-smacked, I tittered. "I… can't do that! Not even Kat, a master samurai would go against him. What chance would I have?"

"The samurai is a dinosaur!” she said. “That thug is not remotely interested in your quest — or you. His soul is in the sword… not the heart. He may indeed lead you to the 9thFortress Daniel, but only until a better option is put under his nose. Trust him at your peril."

"Sir Isaac Newton has faith in him," I argued. "Kat will be there when I need him. I know it!"

We both fell silent a few moments, and I could swear I felt her disapproving head shaking in the aqua light. "For your own sake," she said eventually; "I hope you're right; for it is only you who can bring an end to wizard rule and return peace to this realm. You have the training, the tool, and the spirit to do so."

"I'm not going to kill anyone!" I snapped. "Newton asked me to do one thing: rescue prisoner 2020 of the 9thFortress. Do that and I get what was promised! I'm sorry you're trapped here, I really am, but I have a baby girl to stay alive for, and what you are asking is too much. Way too fucking much!"

"And what of the women who remain in that village?" she returned coldly. "The hopeless you turned your back on so speedily? An alphabet growing his army and not the only ones under his thumb I assure you… open your eyes, Daniel! No one trains with Bludgeon for a rescue mission! There are larger things at work here, something you are not seeing. You went to Bludgeon to learn how to kill a wizard, and now you must do it!"

Bludgeon expressed similar feelings, and as I considered my time with him, the pieces fell into place. Sir Isaac Newton did mean me to do more than the 9thFortress. I did have the training, the spirit and the tool: a dull dagger pressing against my thigh.

"You see things?" I asked her, trying to lower my heart rate. "What do you see… for me?"

Her light stalled again, lingering liquid blue.

"Well?" I repeated, agitated. "What do you see?"

"I foresee… loss, Daniel. I am sorry. One of your friends will not reach the Waiting Plain alive. One will perish — the second death in hellfire."

"I've had enough loss!" I spat, nostrils flaring. "And I don't have any friends, remember?"

"Friends will come when the battle is fought," she replied, "and there will be loss."

I slouched, exhausted by her sobering words. What was the point in pretending I had a choice when other people had already decided my path? "I will do…" I muttered; "what I have to do."

Turning from Eternal's light, I made my way for the exit with a mind only on ending this encounter.

"Beware!" she exclaimed, behind me. "Beware Daniel!"

“Leave me alone!”

I carried on for the crack until the woman screamed painfully loud, causing ice and snow to rain down on top of me. I stopped before the jagged exit, feeling the witch’s fleshy hand rub down my back. Startled, I flashed around to see no hand near me, but the unmoved star where I last left it.

"What is it?" I asked her. "What do you want?"

"Beware!” she said. “The wizard has come across Mephistopheles, on the journey you will too! Be ready for him Daniel, be prepared — do not believe his lies!"

"Fox!!"

That explosive sound almost burst my eardrums, and I opened my eyes to find I was standing on a frozen mountain ledge.

"Wake up!" stormed Kat, pulling at our rope. "Do you intend to kill us both?"

"A dream?" I said, confused. There was no crack in the wall before Kat, no alien arms around his neck, and no trace of the Eternal witch.

Barely upright and floundering in my thoughts, Kat gave a final yank on the rope.

"You! Concentrate!"

***

The wind was barely noticeable and the sky was clear on this, the sixth and final day. Kat and I lay side by side on our bellies, eyes fixed ahead. In patient silence, we held this position for over an hour, observing a hollowed out shelter of grey stone some twenty feet away — a picturesque inlet free from snow. There I squinted for Atlas, the Weather-Maker, but there was only the bare insides and untouched snow before it.

My body felt like a block of meat, and as I drifted in and out of sleep, Kat's elbow would nudge my head sideways whenever he caught me dozing. I was later aggravated when, without cause, he again clattered my temple with that bone of his.

"I wasn't sleeping! What's wrong with you?"

Kat's lips stretched into a smirk. "There," he said, glinting ahead.

"I don't see a thing. What you looking at?"

"Shush!" he hissed. Then, with diligence, he took my hand and guided it. My eye followed his finger, and I smiled when I saw the thing for myself. Indents were being formed over that perfect snow, tiny little dimple dots. The more I stared at these footprints, the more the Weather-Maker became clear.

Camouflaged, its skin reflected the scenery and it moved like a smudge of snow. As soon as Atlas settled into the inlet however, the several seconds it took for her coat to adjust to the rocky backdrop, was just enough to reveal its appearance. It was a horse with two substantial wings tucked in at its sides, and a compact satchel around her neck.

"Amazing." I said, watching its body camouflaging into the grey stone. "A flying horse."

"A Weather-Maker," said Kat, sharing awe as the mammal lowered its head to sleep.

"Take this," he said, suddenly pressing the flute to my face.

"I can't play that thing," I whispered, manoeuvring it away. "Besides, Bludgeon gave it to you. He wanted you to play it."

"You do not play this instrument," he informed; "you blow — the flute does the rest."

Still hesitant, I passed Kat the "why not you?" expression. The samurai replied immediately, and most sincerely. "I play only instruments of death."

Snow blew like a sneeze from my mouth as I giggled. I couldn't help it. The comment was so ridiculous, so silly, and yet so like Kat. Relinquishing, I snatched the flute from his hand and held it like a cheap bread-stick. I'd never played an instrument before, not even the tambourine, but if it was only a matter of blowing down the end then there shouldn't be a problem. I put it to my lips but stalled as the grin returned to my face.

"What?" asked Kat, vexed.

I shook my head, "Instruments of death? Who says that?"

I did not think Kat's frown could melt any lower. I was wrong. "Blow!" he ordered. "Do not waste time."

Rolling my eyes, I wet my lips and placed the flute to my mouth. My expression lightened as sound escaped the end with my first exhale — a pleasant whistle that soon became something remarkable. The flute came alive, playing an idyllic poem, a soulful song that swooned out from this simple piece of wood. The music appeared to hit Atlas like a hunter's spear, waking her with a starting grunt. This tune didn't just touch the animal's heart, but Kat's too. Throughout his long life his ears had never heard the like, and laying on his side, he permitted the sound of peace to flow into his warrior system; he even removed his focus from Atlas to watch me play. Somehow, it was important for his spirit to hear this choir over the mountaintops, the cosmic chemistry of God curving the very air before us.

Aching from a position held too long, I crouched up on wobbly knees then blew harder down the flute. Gesticulating, I attempted to catch Kat's attention, but the man appeared to be lost in hypnosis. I stumbled forward, and when the instrument left my lips, that mystical sound was stubbed out like the screech of an old record player.

"Play!" Kat demanded, angrily. "Play!"

"Can't." I mumbled. "Don't you see?"

Frowning again, Kat regained himself, only to realize he had lost the Weather-Maker's position. "Kat," I whispered, stiff as a board. "It's… in… front… of… my…"

There came a deep snort, followed by a long tongue smearing up my face. Kat recoiled and I shut my eyes tight, allowing the horse to slurp over me as long as it wanted. "What… do… I… do?" I squirmed.

"Seize her!" Kat bellowed, startling me and the shy horse. The Weather-Maker, bashing the powder from her hoofs, ducked her snout between my legs then threw me onto her back. Kat lunged for the horse but not fast enough. The animal kicked off from the surface with her passenger on top, out of reach and into the sky.

"Fox!" cried Kat, as the horse stretched out her wings. Atlas soared, and my voice broke as I screamed and flapped my arms for grip. Then, without any warning, the horse returned in a dive toward Kat, before swooping up then darting in and out of clouds. The flute felt frozen in the skin of my palm, but still I managed to wrap my arms and legs around the horse’s ribs.

"Kaaaaaaaaat!"

The samurai fell to his back and discovered something else inside him: long dormant laugher, and once his chuckle was out, there was no holding back — a giggle turned to a howl, and a howl to an uncontrollable fit of hysterics.

"Do something Kaaaaaaat!"

My cries for help only tickled his funny bone further. His hand pointed and mocked me, and his scarred face turned a ripe red. Swirling land below bought the vomit to my throat. Atlas seemed to have the wind locked in her immense wings, and her skin changed pigment from sky blue to cloudy grey, to sky blue again at the flick of a background switch.

It was not until Atlas came to a steady halt in-flight when I could at last get my bearings. I fixed my position on her back and grabbed two steady clumps of her hair.

"Whoa girl, steady! Steady now!" Not scared of heights, I was simply amazed to see how high I was — the last six days and nights were spread underneath me. "I think I've got control!" I yelled to a samurai I could no longer see. "I think I — WHOA!"

Atlas kicked herself into top-gear and took me for another white-knuckled whirlwind over the Macros. Faster than before, she was a galloping soar up, followed by a butterfly-inducing drop down. She made a hair-raising loop and I held on tighter as she returned horizontal. My heels dug in however, stomach churning, but I would not budge. I got the impression that the horse didn't want me tossed from her back, but that maybe she was testing me. Was I worthy of such a gift?

Atlas' ear twitched and I gave it a good scratch. The horse grunted satisfied and the flight took on a sudden change. I was no longer being flown — but flying. Atlas put me behind her wheel, and this Weather-Maker was all mine. I aimed her head up and she hurriedly galloped like a star toward the sun. I aimed down again and she obeyed. I let out jubilant cries, childlike wows and watch me Kat, watch me!

Unfortunately — things in the Distinct Earth are never this good for long, and that happy time came to a shattering end. A surge of heat hit me full in the chest, like a boiling heart attack. Spasms followed — body shutting down — darkness.

I woke… face down on one of the Macro peaks, a floppy arm hanging off a sheer edge to nowhere. On my other side was a descending slope littered with green Christmas trees. Kat was at the bottom of this frosty slope, barely a silhouette, but I could still make out his two swords catching the sunlight.

Dazed, I squeezed the bridge of my nose to clear the headache. I then groaned in pain as a hand pulled on my hair, forcing me to my knees. The Wizard looked no different from that day in the woods — old face with the flesh stretched over skeleton, his two grey beards growing out from the chin. "Where is my head?" he asked, his craggy voice somehow amplified over the peaks. "Where is my head samurai? I have waited… and waited… and waited!"

I shrieked as Scarfell tore out a clump of my hair. Staunchly on his spot and hip deep in snow, Kat showed the wizard, not the head of a centaur as instructed, as agreed — but the blades of his swords.

"Is that all you have for me?" said Scarfell. "Is that all?"

Kat started after us while I dabbed at the bald patch in my hair. "He's no head for you wizard," I said, bravely or stupidly. "He's not an assassin!"

Scarfell lowered his wrinkled face to meet mine. "Are you still here?" he said, suddenly placing his open palm full over my face. No magical ray of light came from his hand, only that same burning sensation I experienced on the back of Atlas, this time located entirely inside my skull. My body convulsed against it, my sight blackened but I did not pass out — I was fully aware of my surroundings, and of this slow and excruciating death.

"Not long for you," he said. "Now, to fix this samurai. Two simple ingredients: a slope… and its snow."

Scarfell lowered a free hand to the snow near his foot; then pressed his palm flat over it. The snow there began to rumble, trembling the peak I lay on. It shook like my own convulsing body, snapping cracks over the slope and sending great layers sliding from the peak. These snow slabs overlapped and rolled, triggering a gathering mass that collected in no time to form the white breath of a dragon: An avalanche.

In less than ten seconds, this became a runaway force, a thirty-foot tsunami of air and ice stretching half a mile in width and accelerating up to 150mph. As it bore down on Kat, I held a frazzling eye on this powdery monster, my mouth foaming at the corners. Burial imminent, death inevitable, the samurai stopped. This was not an illusion like the condor or some see through magic trick — this was a real and overwhelming killer like none he had faced before, one he had no hope of defeating.

Moments from being flattened, the stubborn problem solver came up with a solution. With swords swinging, Kat waded for the nearest tall tree. There, he removed his belt and threw that length of leather around the trunk. Breathlessly working, he wrapped the ends of the tree-hugging belt several times around his wrists, drove both swords into the bark, then held his breath as the bomb hit.

Throughout this scene, Scarfell's hand inadvertently moved from my face as he watched his avalanche with pride. The fire in my head ceased slightly, and temporarily released from my coma, I showed the wizard why I was never to be underestimated. Not ever. I switched off the warning pains in my head — to be ignored — I stood, spun-kick and hooked the wizard's heel, sending the old man to his back.

Scarfell lay baffled on the peak. "I…" he gasped; "I've… never been struck before!"

Before the wizard could stand, I drove my foot deep into his ribcage. "Get used to it!"

There was a crack of bone and Scarfell rolled to one side. I smashed another foot across his mouth, cutting his lip and spraying his beard with blood. I swung for the hardest blow yet, but completely missed the mark as Scarfell disappeared in a vaporous red puff, leaving me kicking thin air and dropping to my backside.

Instantaneously, Scarfell reappeared on top of me with all his spindly fingers coiled around my neck. And with livid spits of fire and blood, he stormed, "Dare you! Dare you!"

Heat scorched the outside and insides of my throat. I was being drowned by fire. I reached for the dagger or short sword at my belt, anything, but Scarfell's pressing weight prevented me from grasping them.

"Dare you!"

My clinging fingers searched the snow for a stone to pummel him with.

"Dare you boy!"

My lungs were out of oxygen now, and if one feels the soul ever leave them, this was that moment — my second death. However, before I could transform into a blob of light, my hand found a piece of wood — the flute. I snatched at it and without hesitation, stabbed the wizard's left eyeball. A spurt of jelly burst from the broken socket, and Scarfell was gone in a wail of scarlet spirit; a force that blew me back like a sled on snow, washing me completely off the mountain side.

In free fall, the wind was so strong that it extinguished the fire in my lungs, and even now, in this most perilous situation, I had an option. I would aim to land on my head; break my skull open on a boulder. An instant and hopefully painless way to go. My ears popped from the pressure, and as my doom rapidly increased in detail, I saw the perfect boulder to finish me off. I aimed my head for its edge, and closed my eyes tight.

The moment of impact came and went, yet strangely, I could still feel the winds press against my body. Opening my eyes again, I was still falling, but on the back of a Weather-Maker. My cheek was forced to the horse's neck as Atlas pulled out of an incredible dive. She snorted and I cheered, aiming her nose for the clouds.

***

Only the scattered treetops appeared left on the snowy slope. The avalanche had set like concrete and a breeze danced like ghosts with something to celebrate. Suddenly, four inches of katana steel broke free from the surface to catch the sun's glare. The blade and the hand holding it fought its way out. Desperate and exhausted fingers then dropped that sword. Kat couldn't climb, fight, or reach any higher. This buried man needed help, deliverance, and he got it.

On the back of a wing flapping horse, I pulled the puffy faced samurai, near dead from his grave…

15. Sir Godwin Eddinray

Atlas scuffed her shoes at the bright yellow sand whilst Kat and I pondered the wide and deep blue sea before us. The Leviathan was said to be an angry spirit made of liquid alone, destroying for destruction sake, and hiding somewhere in this stretch of ocean. Bludgeon wrote a tantalising scribble in his book, Predators of the Under Realms. Leviathan: A tempest to blot out the sun. Details remained sketchy, for Bludgeon never witnessed the monster personally; he wrote only of rumours and hearsay; a collection of horror stories good enough to convince him, and me, that this thing was out there.

Forcing the worry to the back of my mind, I laced up my boots after peeling off the blood sticky bandages from my right foot. The healing process was remarkably fast, and although it wasn't a pleasant stump to look at, I could walk a long way on it.

"You ready girl?" I asked Atlas. The horse briskly snorted so I patted her neck. "She's ready Kat. I'm ready. You?"

The samurai fixed me with that scowl of his, perhaps warning me never to hurry him again. I didn't care; I was in jubilant mood for having overcome so much. I had killed Scarfell with the thrust of a flute; the consequences of that action would free the alphabet women from their village, remove Eternal's curse and reunite her with Bludgeon. The future of the Distinct Earth was brighter thanks to me.

Needless to say, my man of experience was not so sure…

***

Since I was the one who played the flute that tamed the Weather-Maker, I was the only hand Atlas would allow at her reins. Kat pressed his forehead against the shield on my back, either catching a nap or shutting out the thrill. The horse almost tore holes in the sky with her pace, skin endlessly swapping colour with the sea's blue, the sun's afternoon oranges, and making lightning time over the water.

"Are you enjoying it Kat?" I yelled back, embracing the ride of a lifetime on the back of an immortal. "You've been real quiet!"

He said nothing, but I wouldn't allow his personality to spoil this for me. Hooting, I lowered the horse’s nose for a vertical sprint toward the choppy blue surface. We fell and fell, wind wailing in my ears. I felt Kat's fingers clutch deep into the sides of my ribs — he sure wasn't napping. With a grin, I pulled Atlas out of the dive in time to catch the spray on her hoofs.

"Wahoo!" I cried, smearing the salt water from my eyes. "It's a shame we can't keep her Kat, don't you think? We could fly directly to the 9th Fortress on this baby!"

"Hello!" A distant voice cried out. "See me!"

"Hear that?" I asked Kat, but the samurai was already on the lookout.

"Hello!” the male voice repeated. “See me! I am here! Look here!"

"There!" exclaimed Kat, pointing below.

From our great vantage point, we could make out a flashing mirror or twinkling star at one particular point over the ocean. There came another flash at that same location, and I duly aimed Atlas toward the anomaly. Reflections soon became a man, frenziedly waving and jumping on a minuscule piece of land: a raft of some kind. We swooped down and Atlas hovered over the raft for more detail.

"Is that… a knight?" I asked.

It was. A man dressed from head to foot in medieval armour, with jangling beads of mail. Kat was sceptical about approaching the stranger — who waved his long sword like a victory flag — but then Kat wasn't the one in charge of Atlas.

"Ahoy there!" cried the knight, removing his helmet and lowering the long sword. "Goodness gracious me!" he stumbled. "What sort of supernatural beasty are you men riding there? Come down here, join me!"

The lanky man had a gaunt face sucked of all fat, thinning hair, a curled moustache under a long nose and a welcoming smile that brought no colour to his cheeks. His body armour was covered in dimples all over, but still a sun attracting silver. Unfortunately, this man's raft was not as striking, made simply from a dozen or so logs poorly strung together with vines. Oddly, the tops of these logs were missing layers of bark, exposing a lighter under-wood.

"Hello!" he said again, catching his breath. "You have nothing to fear gentlemen! Nothing to fear at all! Pray land, my craft is sea worthy!"

Despite Kat's vigilance, I took pity and set Atlas carefully down on the edge of the raft. The logs bobbled recklessly under the new weight, but the thing remained afloat.

"Hurrah!" the knight declared — his relief unmistakable. "My, what a beautiful animal! I see it uses stealth to ward off those undesirables. Mightily Impressive! Mightily impressive indeed!"

"Who are you?" I asked, eyeing him over.

"My name is Sir Godwin Eddinray," he cordially replied, his polite accent similar to Newton's. "Friend to you, and servant to my queen!"

"Godwin?" I inquired. "Did you happen to — "

"Eddinray,” he interrupted, “if you please! Only my mother called me Godwin. She survived the black plague, didn't you know. Survival is in my family's blood, and it surges through mine this very day!"

"And who is your queen, Eddinray?"

The knight appeared flummoxed by my simple question, as if a wife had just asked a forgetful husband the date of their wedding anniversary.

"Eh?" he stuttered. "My queen is? Well the damnedest thing is I cannot remember!" he giggled, nervously. "What does it matter anyhow? Memories I feel are like clumps of manure thrown at a wall. Some stick whilst others slide, don't you agree?"

I glanced back to an un-amused samurai.

"What do you do now, knight?" Kat asked him.

Suddenly, Eddinray brandished his long sword straight in the air, before proudly announcing. "I seek chivalrous adventure and daring do in the Distinct Earth! This… is what I do now!"

"Okay," I muttered with an unsure smile. "My name is Daniel. The man behind is Kat."

"Meow!" the knight shrieked, his hand making a paw. "Delighted to meet you both, and charmed, utterly charmed by this timely arrival!"

Sir Godwin Eddinray then held out an offering. "Would you gents care for some bark?" he asked us, forcing some into his mouth. "It is vile to be sure, and sticks to your teeth like all bark should, but it is also strangely addictive. I find myself hopelessly snagged by its lure."

Politely, I refused.

"Hysteria," Kat whispered in my ear. "Sunstroke madness. A foolhardy castaway."

"You think?" I hissed back. "He looks normal to me. Well… normal for this place anyway."

"Hello!" cried the Knight, waving generously in our direction. "My ears are perfectly functional gentlemen! I am standing right here after all! Do the eyes in your head not see me?"

I shrugged apologetically as Eddinray picked the bark from his mouth then shamefully sniffed at the saliva-dripping clump. "Ordinary people do not eat bark, do they?” he asked. “This is unusual behaviour, is it not?"

My sympathetic nod confirmed the Englishman's suspicions. "Sadly," he added; "I ran out of food many moons ago and I'm afraid the situation has taken a rather grim turn. My own hand looked appealing at one stage, all deliciously pink with five succulent fingers; that is ‘til I happened to glance upon my fingernails. The dirt put me right off!"

"Grim or not," grizzled Kat, "we will not rescue a mad person!"

"Rescue?" argued the knight; "is a strong accusation, Sir. Strong indeed! I am in a pickle — of that there can be no doubt — but nothing I cannot muscle myself out of! Moreover, I am certainly not a mad person! I tell you I am the sanest dead man alive!"

Eddinray’s armor screeched like a rusty hinge whenever he made the slightest movement, and he appeared faint under the weight of it all.

"Hot in that mail, knight?" Kat teased.

"Like a pig on a revolving spit I am roasting ninja, but also bear naked under this mail and metal. There are many horrors in this realm — my nakedness would only attract them of course."

"Of course!" I agreed, amused. "And how did you get, in your pickle, Eddinray?"

Sir Godwin Eddinray smeared a hand across his burdened brow. "Fought off wretched marmoset men on an island not far from here… the persistent buggers barely left me time to launch this floating ramshackle. There is surely no honor amongst there kind!"

"Marmoset men?" I said.

"Or baboon boys!" he answered. "Of their origin I am not entirely certain, but their primate strength was formidable, though fortunately not a match for my sly cunning." He exhaled a weary breath now, as if he had just re-fought the incident over in his mind. "I will say this to you men — those heathen swine do not eat bananas!"

I blurted out a laugh, but held my mouth shut when witnessing Eddinray's sincerity. He was visually shaken by the memory of that mysterious marmoset island. "For all my dexterity,” he concluded, “I have been drifting lost and forgotten. If you gentlemen would provide me safe passage across this ocean on the back of your beast, I shall be forever grateful."

"No!" barked Kat. "I do not like him, Fox. I do not like you knight!"

"Don't you ninja? Why, I'm a lovely chap, and most especially trustworthy! Oh yes!"

"I am no ninja!"

"My samurai companion may be right," I said, diplomatically. "The three of us could be asking too much of this horse’s back."

"I see," said Eddinray, glum faced. "Then I shall take my chances with the bottomless sea and burning sun. With no food, no water and no chance. Godspeed on your way men. Good luck to you!"

"Ya!" exclaimed Kat, kicking the hind of Atlas. The horse ignored him, and I did too. For all the risk involved, I liked this knight, and couldn't leave him to die.

"He comes with," I said. "You're not evil, are you knight?"

"Certainly not!" he protested. "I vanquish evil, Sir! With one thrust of my sword or butt of the head, whatever is necessary and to hand. Yes, I smile in the face of wickedness and call it ugly!"

"He is mad!" said Kat. "A crazy fool Fox, and on your head be it!"

I bent into Atlas' pointy ear and whispered. "Can you take the three of us girl?" She responded with a single snort and bobble of the head — Eddinray could come along.

"Excellent!" he cried, armour squeaking. "Excellent!"

"Stretch your feet for now," I yawned, getting off the horse. "Sun's setting. We'll beat it at dawn. Can you catch us some food, Kat? Anything?"

The bad tempered samurai spat during his climb off Atlas.

"What a grumpy little so and so you are!" said Eddinray. "Are you and I going to have trouble on our flight?"

Kat cleared the snot from his nose then shoved passed Eddinray. With his back to us, he sat at the edge of the raft, immersing legs in the water.

"Catch us food?" the knight considered as Kat swished out his katana. "Gentlemen, I have exhausted all hunting methods known to man, and there is no food to be found in these waters! It is the definition of barren I say!"

"Silence his mouth!" Kat complained. "Or you both go in the water!"

I placed a finger over my lips to urge the knight quiet. Together and in silence, we then watched Kat lose himself in meditation, raise the katana over his head and hold the breath in his lungs. More than a minute passed when he stabbed the blade into the water and pulled a fish from the sea, a gasping green thing skewered on the sword. Kat flicked the flapping food over his shoulder and into my arms — then repeated the process.

***

We filled our bellies with raw fish that evening, the moon rippling a spotlight over an oily ocean. I found Eddinray to be warm and charming in an eccentric, mad scientist sort of way. He also shared something in common with Kat that I couldn't fail to notice: both men believed that they were the single greatest warrior who ever lived. But while Kat was quietly secure in his skill, Eddinray wanted the whole realm to hear how many times he'd risked his neck saving it. Over the course of our meal, the knight boasted of brilliant battles fought and won, of duels with the deadliest of adversaries — the heroic recounts of a man willing to climb the tallest towers for the fairest maidens. His eagerness to talk was a refreshing change, but one only I appreciated. The samurai showed us his shoulder the entire night, which disappointed me. I knew Kat didn't enjoy company, but also thought I had gotten through some of his barriers and that he would be open for conversation whenever engaged. I still had a lot to learn.

The Weather-Maker curled like a devoted pet beside me, her coat reflecting the stars and warming me like a sleeping bag. As I stroked her thick hair, I felt something unusual wrapped around her neck. It was a satchel, perfectly positioned for her teeth to get at its contents. Every time I tried to feel inside the bag, Atlas would nudge my hand away, so I took the hint to mind my own business.

"That's when the fire lizards of the Altmerrion zone set upon me!" continued Eddinray, his fists thrashing the air. "Their breath burnt off my eyebrows and their claws threw their dung, but I got the best of them. I chopped and hacked them into little tiny pieces, and there was no guilt on my part. It is one thing to throw an axe at a man's head, but quite another to throw ones faeces!"

"That was a fascinating story," I said, genuinely entertained. "You've seen so much. Tell me Eddinray, have you ever laid eyes on the Leviathan? Are the stories about it true?"

Eddinray's food became briefly caught in his throat. "The Leviathan," he coughed and swallowed; "is very real, Danny boy. I have seen it swarming like bees in the distance, a gathering haze. Now other eyes may claim this to be a bad spot of weather, a brooding storm on the horizon perhaps, but I say it is the Leviathan! It is the sole reason I travel by raft, a craft larger would create the waves to attract the creature. The abomination is drawn to motion, you see, motion of any sort."

"So you move slowly?"

"I am the snail," he returned. "Unfortunately this ocean was wider than anticipated, and my supplies…"

I stopped the knight in his tracks, glancing understandably at the strips of bark he once tore from his raft.

"Are you married, Eddinray? Have you ever been in love?"

On asking, I witnessed a suspicious twitch at Kat's ear.

"I have never been married," replied Eddinnray. "And have only ever loved my queen."

"Who you can't remember?"

"Regrettably…"

"But have you ever loved a real woman?" I said, frustrated. "I mean, a normal girl?"

Condescendingly, Eddinray shook his head. "My dear, dear fellow — how can a real woman, a normal girl ever compete with the natural beauty and glorious grace of a queen?"

I continued eating, feeling somewhat sorry for Eddinray. The man had never experienced real love in his lifetime, never lost himself in its wild highs and dreadful lows. I fell in love once, not with a queen I couldn't remember, but with a flesh and blood woman who became my wife. The marriage was short lived — three years tops — but I was undoubtedly wiser for the experience.

When Eddinray quizzed Kat on the subject of love and marriage, I could almost hear the samurai's system slam shut — no-one home — so I answered for him. "That katana, Eddinray, she's all the woman Kat needs."

The knight nodded respectfully. "As a warrior I can understand the ninjas devotion. I salute you Kat! I do I salute you!" Eddinray swallowed down more fish then burped. "One thing — one thing intrigues me gents. That is, how did you ever come together? Fox and Kat — hardly a likely friendship is it?"

Eddinray looked to me for an answer, and I was happy to give an honest one. "I was told by a timeless witch that Kat and I are a union of convenience, not friendship. Who am I to argue?"

"Timeless witch?" the knight frowned. "Union? By God for what purpose man?"

"Kat is escorting me to Hell, Eddinray. He's been there before."

"Love it!" Eddinray tittered. "Love a man with a sense of humor! Any-more fish?”

***

A sticky morning. We'd been flying high and straight for well over an hour. Strong winds did little to repel the heat, and I grew concerned to notice that Atlas was already worn out. Her wings flapped laboriously under the weight of three armed men, and her body subsequently lost altitude at an increasing rate. There was hope on the horizon however, a thin crust of land, and I whispered encouraging words into the Weather-Maker's ear, hoping she had enough in the tank to get us there.

Kat remained tucked behind my shield with the knight pressed like a sardine behind him. Eddinray kept the flight interesting with more hot-aired tales of chivalrous quests for God, queen and country.

"Over there Danny boy!" he yelled, pointing to my left side. "Do you see it man?"

I was surprised how this escaped my notice for so long. Eddinray directed his finger to a distant blotch where the water appeared to become two distinct kinds of ocean — one bubbling black and tar like, the other blue and calm as ever. "That's the boiling sea!" he told me. "The fires of Hell cook the water from below! Legend has it a giant snake swims from those depths to feed on forsaken sailors here! It swallows them whole then returns to the underworld with a digesting bellyful of ships and men!"

"Have you ever seen this snake?" I yelled over the wind.

"If there is such a thing Danny boy, then I haven't seen it! Perhaps it was afraid of me?"

Kat's dislike for Eddinray seemed to be escalating, the samurai growling with contempt whenever the obnoxious knight addressed him. "Have you ever jousted before ninja? Have you ever stared another man and his stallion down before charging with all your might for a fair maiden's favour? Have you ever had your head locked in the jaws of a tiger? I call your attention to the dimples in my helmet!"

"I am samurai!" Kat screamed over his shoulder. "And you are spitting on my neck!"

"Good for you!" he replied. "Much prefer samurai to ninja. I fought one ninja in the Mucklanton vulch pits, hand-to-hand combat, fight to the fiercest death! And a nasty, cheating rogue he was too! However, I would sooner fight a ninja than a dinosaur! Take a previous adventure of mine for example; I encountered an odd sort of Dino-woman, flesh eater of course! Have you ever killed a man, Kat? I must say you do not look the sort. Son of a farmer are you? Steal a dead man's armor did you? Shameful behaviour, truly shameful!"

As Eddinray rambled on, I received a sudden chill. I had blinked and missed an alarming drop in the horse's height, continuing at a steady decline until Atlas' hoofs unnervingly ran over water, leaving a trail of spray a mile back. Daylight was dying too, and the temperature inexplicably plummeted. At Atlas' galloping hoofs, shimmering blues were being devoured by an overwhelming darkness from behind, an object growing and gaining on us.

Noticing that consuming shade now, Eddinray peered back, and his jolly prattle came to an abrupt end.

"Danny?" he whimpered. "It might be a wise idea if you asked your pet to Giddy bloody up!"

I stole a look back and sight of the thing near knocked me from the saddle. I gripped the reins, kicked my heels and roared Atlas into action. She responded instantly — galloping, flying from the mammoth wave, a living tsunami: The Leviathan. Reptilian in outline, it grew out of the water — itself of the water — opened a cavernous mouth and flapped two gargantuan arms back and forth to catch our swift horse. "Ya!" I exclaimed. "Ya! Ya!"

"Faster!" cried Eddinray. "Faster man! Faster!"

The knight squinted over his shoulder to see the same sort of fish he ate for supper skittering inside this creature's washy stomach. Desperately panting, Atlas flapped her wings and powered her hoofs, but her pace was gone. "Up girl!" I begged, as her legs submerged in the salt water. "Up!"

The monster spewed a great hose at us, soaking our backs and the horse's already sopping wings.

"She's sinking!" I bellowed, out of ideas. "Come on girl! Please!"

Closest to the Leviathan, a bold Eddinray removed his long sword and began lashing at the indestructible thing. "Back Devil! Back I say!"

He beat and slashed at the wet throat and face, but his blade passed through, causing no damage whatsoever. Kat meanwhile, grimaced to a suction of sea below, contemplating a sacrificing leap to ease the horse's burden. "Don't even think about it!" I screamed over the crashing spray. "I need you!"

Kat shook a doubtful face, and I stretched further into Atlas' ear. "Give us more girl! Nose up! All you can! More! More!"

She tried and tried, but in vain. Her snout collapsed from exhaustion, leaving me no choice but to prop up her neck. "Come on!" Both my hands reached lower to fumble inside her compact satchel; and as our wet world closed in, something found my hand in that bag. I saw it and others glowing gold inside the satchel, and turned aghast back to Kat.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Weather-Makers, Kat! Weather-Makers!"

The Leviathan descended until only its heady outline bobbled out from the sea. It opened its lips and took us all inside its mouth now. The thickest rain showered down on top of us, and the Leviathan's water-based tongue tasted the bottom of Atlas, savouring this unique snack. The monster then closed its lips, taking the last of the light and us with it. "Hold your breaths!" I cried. "Get ready for it!"

I removed the astonishing form from the satchel. In my grip was a single bolt of buzzing lightning, which did not scorch my eyes or burn the flesh from my bare hand. It lit the Leviathan's mouth up with a yellow heat so fierce that Kat and Eddinray covered their faces. Drenched, I raised the blazing bolt over my head and horse, and squinted further down the monster's throat at all the fish, the weeds and the sands of the sea. "Don't forget your appetiser!" I roared, throwing the jagged bolt straight and true toward those tonsils.

The resulting implosion was immediate. Foam rushed up noses and mouths, filled lungs and twisted bodies back and forth; gargling, drowning, hopeless.

16. The Eyes of Harmony Valour

Kat sat up as my saturated body stopped beside his on the shore. Heaving and spluttering, I stood to spew a gutful of salt water over my thighs. "Where — where are we?"

A stream seemed to pour from Kat's armor when he got to his feet, and shaking his oily hair like a wet dog, he secured it again in a topknot. The sea was as calm as the shore we left a day ago, a pacific vista with no clouds in the sky or monsters underneath it. The beach stretched along a tropical shore, and at our back was a steaming Forest fat with trees.

"We made it," I said, checking my belongings to find the short-sword, dagger and shield in their proper place. Nausea leaving me, Atlas brushed her long nose against my arm. My face was distorted in her reflective coat, and temporarily forgetting she was an immortal, I was delighted to discover the horse alive. I embraced her, and then remembered something else. "Eddinray!"

Examining the beach and water, the knight was nowhere to be seen. "Eddinray! Can you hear me?" I listened, hearing only the hiss of forest and the rustling break of waves. "Kat?"

"He has drowned Fox.”

My head knew that was possible, but my heart didn't believe it. I jogged further down the shore, feeling the intense heat already drying my clothes

"He was heavily armored!" Kat yelled. "Sank like a stone!"

"You're wearing armor too! I'm wearing a shield for Christ-sake!"

"Then the fool was swallowed down the Goliath's throat!"

His callous attitude sickened me. I turned to confront him when my eye caught a glint of silver. It was a glove washed over the sand. I raced to pick it up then scanned the shore for the rest, but there was no piece of him left. “Poor bastard…” I said, lowering my head in respect, while Kat picked the sand out of his ears.

***

We had been on the beach an hour. I sat with legs crossed and Atlas crouched beside me. Eddinray did not appear in all that time, and I accepted Kat's theory of him disappearing with the Leviathan.

On one knee, the samurai was studying the forest, like he had done Bludgeon's assassin-proof entranceway. There was no obvious route in, and no Harmony Valour to escort us. "We can't wait all day," I complained. "Maybe we're too early?"

"Or too late," he murmured.

The forest was sticky, jam packed with the hustle and bustle of unseen things. Wise trunks rose hundreds of feet and fought for space at the roots. Smog smothered around the trees and random geysers blew chutes into the air. The soil at my feet resembled wet liquorice, while multicolored mushrooms grew in abundance; around those jinxed spiders big and small.

"We go on," said Kat, swallowing something he didn't like. "Get rid of the horse."

The short samurai ventured into the forest without another seconds pause, leaving me to say farewell to Atlas. "You're a brave girl," I whispered. "Thank you so much." Atlas smeared her tongue up my face one last time before trotting off down the beach, reflecting all the gleaming skylight and pearly grains of sand.

***

Our footing through the forest was a lumpy moss, which sank under foot. Fearing another ambush, Kat kept his katana poised at all times, meanwhile I pondered over Harmony Valour, and why she hadn't kept her arrangement to meet us at the beach.

The air thickened as we advanced. Sweat sat permanently over our skins, bringing on a light-headedness that sapped our spirits. Weighed down by armor and the burden of leadership, the punishing climate seemed to affect Kat most.

"How about a break?" I asked. "Five minutes, eh?"

"This is no place to linger," he replied, face greasy.

"For a minute?" I begged, wiping my drenched brow with a damper sleeve. "Do you know what trench foot is, Kat? We keep walking in this mire you'll find out."

I sat on the moss with my back against a trunk. Preferring to remaining standing, Kat's narrow eyes focused between abundant logs, a cloak of fog disguising whatever he may be searching for.

"See anything?" I asked, pleased to be sitting.

He shook an assiduous face, and any chance of rest was suddenly shattered by a prolonged howl, forcing the heart into my mouth. It was the harrowing bay of a wolf or dog close by, silencing the forest snakes, the shrieking bats and incessant creepy crawlies. Again it howled, louder this time, followed by the sound of panting breaths approaching. "Run!" roared Kat, starting a sprint through the dreary mist.

Kat moved like an expert of the terrain, and it didn't take long for me to lose him. Thankfully the howl was fading fast. I cast a reassuring peek behind — there was nothing on my ass. Glancing forward again, my face crashed between Kat's sturdy shoulder blades, and we rolled forward in a collection of samurai red and fleece brown.

"Why did you stop?" I yelled, searching for myself in this mix of moss and men. Kat meanwhile stared at the reason, and pushing me aside, he rose to greet a woman. Straddling a strong brown horse, she directed her hand at two grey horses in tow. "For you," she said with a raspy, foreign voice. I wiped dizziness from my face and stood to be staggered by her beauty.

"Who are you?" asked Kat, concealing the katana behind him.

"Harmony Valour," she returned; "you are expected."

She looked down at me with strawberry coloured cheeks and a perfect smile. Her jet-black hair fell like wet rope to her waist; her slender body was covered in a satin gown which revealed too much of her fleshy legs, plunging neckline and teasing hint of cleavage. Her most startling feature was those bewitching emerald eyes, casting its spell over the pair of us.

"Did the wolf frighten you?" she asked, emotionless.

"So it was a wolf then?" I said.

"It was. The beast will now be supper for a larger predator. There are many here in the forest."

The thought of a carnivorous wolf being supper for something larger made me anxious, and extremely aware of the fact that we had stopped moving.

"Our guide?" asked Kat.

"To the mouth of Hell," she replied. "That is my duty. Mount your horses and follow. I ride fast and hard to a Fort not far from here."

"Fort?" I said, prudently on my guard. "Why should we go there?"

"It has been long abandoned and will provide suitable shelter for the evening. I have my instructions. Come." She clicked her heels, turned her horse on a dime and charged over a new forest path.

"Do we trust her?" I asked my companion, who settled a foothold into his new horse's stirrup.

"We have no choice…"

***

We rode fast and hard as Harmony demanded. The pace was unrelenting and, as usual, I found the going tougher than the rest — my grey horse not a patch on the swift Weather-Maker. Our widening road eventually brought us to a wooden door, a dominating fifteen feet tall and flanked on each side by soaring tree trunks. Harmony and Kat waited on horseback as I brought up the rear. Foliage around this entrance was sad and overgrown, and the wood of the door was old with rotting hinges. Harmony was right. No one had been here for some time. "Miss Valour?" I asked, trying not to look at the provocative bend of her back; "what was this Fort used for? Do you know?"

"It was used to keep bogs out," she answered, "the armies of the wizard."

That was a relief. If this Fort could hold back bogs then I wanted in. Our three horses shuffled restlessly while Harmony kept us waiting. Before we could question her reasons why, there came a knock on the other side of the door. Harmony leant forward to return two knocks on the wood. She then sat back on her animal and waited for the entrance to creak open. It did, cutting down the middle to form two, inwardly grinding doors. "Who opens these doors?" asked Kat, cheek twitching.

"I have a friend inside," Harmony answered, plainly. "He is known to you. There is nothing to fear men."

"Known to us?" I said, baffled. "Who is he?"

The doors parted enough for Harmony to click her horse into the Fort. Kat passed me an indifferent expression before following her in. His casual attitude was reassuring, so I set my horse toward his.

Past the doors, I was relieved again to discover an ancient and barren place inside. Surrounded by a fence of wooden poles with the suffocating trunks beyond, the fort contained many dilapidated shanty homes constructed over a surface of flat clay. There was an elementary looking stone temple in the centre of this enclosure, a place of worship presumably with numerous tents dotted around it. I searched for the man supposedly known to us, hoping to see Sir Isaac Newton or even master Bludgeon. Unfortunately, a thunderous strike of two slamming doors woke me from naivety, and looking back over my shoulder, I watched five bogs fixing the entrance shut.

"You said it was to keep them out!" I cried at Harmony Valour — her watery lips grinning back: "Twas not successful…"

Time seemed to slow as bogs hunched from those dank corners and crevices — a hundred — two hundred. Kat, our horses and I shuffled side-by-side — looking into each other's eyes — no thoughts in our heads — no ideas. Bogs hedged us in with their curved blades, sharp spears and mouths snarling zeal. This was a stockade — and we were its prisoners.

The minute Harmony Valour stepped off her horse two dozen bogs left us to feed on that poor steed. Happily, she passed over the reins and watched with perverse delight as they devoured the animal with hands stripping flesh, stuffing hair, meat and entrails into their gobs.

"What do we do Kat?" I gasped, freaked out. "What do we do?"

"Remain on your horse," he replied through gritted teeth. "I will get us out of this!"

Then, cool as you like, Kat climbed off his horse; one leg after another. Once bogs caught the whiff of his movement they moved in, encompassing us in a circle of black bodies.

Kat eyed up the bogs, but eyes couldn't see anything else. His removal of the katana inspired a growl around the rabble, then a hiss as Kat pointed the sword at the mutated legions. "Attack!" he yelled, fury turning the end of his nose red. "Attack now!"

I was gob-smacked by his bravery.

"Attack me!"

The monsters moved to allow one particular bog to enter the angry ring — the giant Grutas, who rested his battleaxe on a strong shoulder. The hissing became deafening as Kat and Grutas took tantalising steps toward each other. They had business to settle, and it could not wait. Both appeared confident, Kat twirling the katana and Grutas tensing his muscle-bound arms in preparation.

‘Stop!' a voice abruptly bawled. "At once!"

Fever for blood broke immediately, and the bog ring frittered away to reveal Harmony Valour and the smirking wizard at the foot of the temple. Scarfell wore a patch over the left eye I'd removed with a flute. Kat lowered the katana to his shin — business with Grutas would have to wait.

"Welcome to my home!" said Scarfell, delighted. "Grutas — remove Fox from his horse!"

Obeying that order, Grutas strolled past Kat with a twinkle in his eye. "You don't have to," I stuttered back at the giant, "I'll get off mys — "

The flat end of his axe battered me off the horse. I lay blurry headed on the clay as our animals fled around the Fort. They were quickly seized and eaten by the insatiable.

"I want Fox unconscious!" demanded Scarfell, over squealing horses and bloody butchery. "Put mud in his lungs!"

Grutas pressed his foot on top of on my head until my nose snuffed in the grey muck. Scarfell cackled as the giant held my face in place.

"You!" Kat roared at Grutas.

The bog leader's eyebrow perked up on seeing the katana, aimed between his eyes.

"Come here…" growled Kat. "Come now."

Grutas removed his foot from the back of my head and I barfed out mud. There was something more in Kat's anger, compassion maybe, I don't know.

"Back away Grutas!" ordered Scarfell, his hand motioning the giant away. "The samurai will be only too happy to kill you."

Grutas' features seemed to melt, and when his brain eventually understood the order, the undermined strongman was enraged — his erratic axe severing one bog in half, before kicking and hacking the unfortunate thing to a smudge.

"Do as I say!" cried the wizard, playfully sparking fire like flint off his knuckles. "Your adolescent behaviour grows increasingly on my nerves, Grutas! Out of my sight with you!"

Covered in bog blood, Grutas stormed toward one dilapidated tent, releasing his fury on any pig solider within range — biting his teeth into one head and smashing his fist through the chest of another. The loss of three bogs simply amused Scarfell, who now walked to Kat. "Drop the sword samurai," he said calmly. "This time, you are well and truly surrounded."

Scarfell respected Kat's talents by remaining far from his sword, whilst I paused ever so still on my stomach, tasting the muck between my teeth, reality seeping in. Although I knew Kat was only one man, I somehow believed, no matter how ridiculous, that the legend would get us out of anything.

"What do you want wizard?" asked Kat.

"I have plans for you both," he said. "Throw down your sword is the first… and prey I do not destroy you where you stand."

Kat surveyed his surroundings with that poker face. I was probably now the closest person in his life, but I couldn't tell you what he was thinking at that moment in time. Would he attempt to kill every bog and Grutas into the bargain? Or was the added factor of wizard magic too much for him? He arrived quickly at his decision. "I will drop my sword wizard, but you pray — pray I never hold it again."

And with that, Kat relinquished his katana — and an army overwhelmed us.

17. Eye for An Eye

Kat was inside a compact cage, complete with iron bars and a sturdy lock. So constricted was he that he could not stand or stretch; so there he sat and waited, with a bad tempered expression, crossed legs and a mind hell-bent on escape.

There was little light in this dense hold, and when Kat finally acclimatized to the murky conditions, he saw ten cells — five down each side with only a narrow corridor separating them. At the far right of that corridor was a closed door, and at the opposing left was a window covered with a block of wood. The vague shadows of fellow prisoners shuffled in confinement, followed by the occasional clang of body parts hitting the bars. There were constant mutterings of discontent here, and a pitiful sobbing coming from the cage directly in front of Kat's.

"Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want."

This prayer came from a female, incarcerated in Kat's adjoining cell. "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures," she continued, a hint of French about her accent;" he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his names sake. Yea though I walk through the valley of death I — "

"Enough!" Kat barked. "That won't help you escape woman!"

"It won't help me escape," she said, "but it does help. You are new here."

Kat did not answer his neighbour, but he did respond to her hand, reaching through their shared bars to pat on his leg. Like an agitated gorilla, Kat snatched her wrist and yanked the arm toward him.

The woman shrieked as her face smacked the rigid bars. "I only wanted to be certain!" she cried. "I wasn't convinced! I needed to know if…"

"Well?"

"If… you were monstrous?"

"I am no monster," Kat growled, with another pull of her arm. "Are you?"

"No, no!" she yelped. "You're hurting! Please! Release me!"

Kat let go and she scurried back in her cell, making the most of any space between them.

"I was only curious," she then said, rubbing the pain from her arm. "May I ask what kind you are? What kind?"

"I am human. I am samurai!"

"Sam…" she stuttered, surprised. "Is your name Kendo Katamuro? Are you the warrior, Kat? "

Instantly, Kat honed in on her box of shade, eyes straining for a better look. "Who are you?" he asked, seeing nothing of the woman.

"Are you… the Kat?" she softly repeated.

"I am! And you?"

The woman exhaled with relief as if she knew him. "My name is Harmony Valour. It was my duty to collect you and Daniel Fox from the beach not far from here."

"Valour?"” Kat returned, puzzled. “How did you get here?"

She held a guilty silence next door until Kat rattled her bars, "Answer!"

"The wizard captured me!" she blurted out. "Demanded information concerning you and your companion, particularly when and where I would be expecting you both. It is my fault you were captured. I am to blame, samurai."

"You stupid fool!"

"He tortured me!" she exclaimed. "Pressed his palm onto my forehead — the burning was…"

Her story and sorrow seemed genuine enough. “Scarfell was keen to acquire your friend," she added, clearing her eyes; "I expect he won't last long."

"We will all perish from our bodies woman! All of us!"

"Not you Kat. If we had the light to see you would realize that those confined here are unique to the Distinct Earth. We are the wizard's zoo, his exhibit for all eternity. You are the second caged today. A naked man was locked in the corner cell shortly before your arrival in the fort. I am afraid he has not moved since."

"What else?" asked Kat, whiffing in a putrid combination of straw and shit.

"There is a sphinx and serpent in this menagerie, and various kinds of alien; Scarfell also had a unicorn which I managed to free before my own imprisonment. The wizard was very cross, although having the only man to escape Hell has cheered him somewhat."

"And you? What are you?"

"I am… an outcast," she replied, gulping down some past hurt. And revealing nothing more, Harmony changed the subject. "I suggest we get used to our incarceration samurai — ever since I freed the unicorn security has been increased. Bogs inspect cell locks on the hour and patrols of the Fort are round the clock. The bog men are not the brightest, but there is strength in numbers."

"I will not be caged!" he yelled, making a futile attempt to pry his bars apart.

"The keys are hanging near the door," she informed him. "Nothing else will open these locks."

The keys could not be seen in the dark, so Kat resigned himself to patience for the time being.

Minutes later, a rattling came at the end of the corridor, and the cellblock door duly opened. Kat and Harmony cricked their necks for a better view, but the squeaking door only let in more darkness from outside, concealing the identities of these people now moving along the corridor.

"This will be quite spectacular," said the old man. "Fresh in this afternoon. It took nine weeks to track him."

"I have been looking forward to it," replied a robotic sounding woman. "If only my sisters could be here to see it."

A trio of silhouettes passed Harmony's cage, then Kat's on their way to the farthest end of the cell-block.

"Time approaches," said the old man. "Let there be light!"

The block of wood covering the window was removed, and rays of translucent moonlight illuminated the cellblock. Under that window stood Scarfell with Grutas, and that green-eyed siren who earlier claimed to be Harmony Valour. "Wizard!" exclaimed Kat, furious.

"Joy!" said Scarfell; "the Kat is awake! My latest acquisition, there are curious far and wide who will come to view you samurai. They will not be disappointed."

"Hell could not hold me!” he roared. “Bars will not hold me!"

Grutas sneered at Kat's arrogance, whilst Scarfell merely waved a pithy hand at it. "You are a legend, Kat," he returned, "but one of flesh and blood. Now if your strength can indeed pry iron aside, then be my guest. Beautiful moon tonight Miss Valour, don't you think?"

"What are you up to wizard?" the French woman asked him.

"You will see, mischievous one… you will see."

Kat peered into Harmony's cell, the diamond light revealing a small portion of her heart shaped face. She was young, no more than twenty years old, with long yellow hair to her shoulders. Harmony felt Kat watching her, and met his hard face with a polite smile. "Pleased to see you… cell-mate."

Clicking his spindly fingers, Scarfell brought all attention back to him, and especially the cell underneath the full moon's gaze — a cage belonging to a naked man. "Wake up!" moaned Scarfell, repeating the order until the forlorn stranger stirred. This person's body was scab ridden, hair a haven for lice; his legs curled up into his belly and he hid his head inside tightly folded arms. Eyes still closed, the man shook, trembles at first which grew to severest chills in no time at all.

Mutually disturbed, but too intrigued to look away, Harmony and Kat watched the scrawny man cough, and like his shivering, this clearing of the throat increased. "Reveal your true form!" whispered Scarfell, leering through his bars. "Show me your soul…"

Dollops of black gravy began dripping from the man's mouth, and he scraped his fists repeatedly on the stone floor — the flesh coming away like grated cheese from his knuckles.

"Seal the window!" yelled Harmony, disgusted. "Stop this circus!"

Gagging, the naked stranger opened his mouth to expel large quantities of slurry from his stomach, and the more of this sick he discarded, the thicker in consistency it became; a gluey spew oozing from every orifice. Surprisingly, even with a system clogged full of bile and no possible room for oxygen, the prisoner did not pass out.

"Help him!" cried Harmony. "Enough!"

Scarfell was engrossed, and with deaf ears to Harmony's pleas, he leant ever closer as the man squawked, his bloated face the colour purple and his forehead pulsing with a fat boil. That boil burst and the white puss dribbled down his nose. The stranger then winced to his back and there had a raging fit — flapping his arms like a bird as jellied tears ran from his tortured eyes. "Ahhrrr!" he groaned and gurgled.

His skin became black now with growing patches of wiry hair; his jawbone abruptly shut with vice like force, shattering the teeth inside his mouth. That mouth presently barfed out all the teeth and a tongue to the tarry pools under his face.

"Wonderful!" exclaimed Scarfell, clapping a hand on one knee. "Wonderful!"

"Indeed," added the hypnotic looking siren.

"Kill him!" Kat yelled. "End this misery!"

"Oh no!" said Scarfell, playfully. "And miss the best part?"

The man's convulsing grew to intolerable levels, until his bones bent crooked and began contorting inside his frame, the cracking grotesquely audible. Suddenly, the spinal cord, with all its connecting tissue and veins, sprung out from his back, followed by all ten finger and toenails launching like missiles from their ends, with longer and sharper nails now replacing them. The ribcage seemed to pump from inside his skin, breathing in and out until eventually breaking free with a ghoulish burst, revealing a cavity of organs cooking in putrid slime. The stranger's neck stretched out with a crunch, and a pair of sludgy eyes popped from their sockets and dangled like conkers from the bloody holes.

He was still alive — still — even as leather like skin seemed to knit itself over a new skeleton. Throughout this transformation was the man's constant writhing, the grinding of parts and the generous lashings of red blood and black yuck. "Uh!" he spat. "Grauwhl…"

The man's guttural sounds eventually cleared to screams, screams replaced by a huskier growl until at last, the ear-bursting bane of the wolf.

"Magnificent!" the wizard cheered.

The furious monster attacked its cage with teeth and claws, causing even the giant, Grutas, to retreat.

"Do not concern yourself, Grutas!" said Scarfell, laughing. "He cannot escape his nightmare."

The sick show finally over, a delighted Scarfell led the way out of the cellblock. "’til the next full moon!" he added, closing the door behind him.

Crossing his legs together again, a solemn faced Kat attempted to meditate his mind from the ravings of the wolf, and from the sorry state in which he found himself.

***

Bruised and bloodied, I was strapped to a lone post in the centre of the fort, arms numb and raised above my head. Dry rope cut into my wrists and my back burned as it pressed straight against a post. The wolf's cries came from somewhere deep inside the temple, and I pitied the cursed soul inside it.

Bogs would occasionally pass me here, leaving harsh mementos. I ignored the pain of their punches and kicks, and tried using my time here to gather any intelligence I could. A pack of three bogs always patrolled the fort, conversing in an elemental language of grunts and snorts. These three security guards would briefly patrol the perimeter; sit for an hour or so before being replaced by another disinterested few. They were a lazy species, forever hungry and like erratic teenagers in behaviour. Never once did they patrol the fort completely, only those areas that took their fancy at the time. After a meal of squeaking, cat sized creatures, most of the two hundred plus pig army disappeared into shabby huts and remained there all night long; only the three guards enjoyed the sound of the wolf outside the temple door, with frenzied leaps and primal butting of heads

***

Some time later, dreams and sleep were slapped from my face.

"Open your eyes Fox," he whispered. "Let me see you."

Dusk shone through my waking eyelids before another slap sent my face to the other side of the post. Red drool ran from my bottom lip as Scarfell raised my chin to meet his wrinkled face and lone, bloodshot eye. He looked confused. There was nothing about me that held any unique quality, no mythical Kat like status or magical prowess — there was just a man. "I want to kill you," he said, his breath hot at my neck. "Nothing would please me more."

He removed his hand from my chin, allowing my face to fall. He then caressed an index finger over his mouth — to the sore I gave him on the Macro peaks. That finger circled his lips, and then his whole hand went over the patch covering his left eye.

"I'm waiting," I mumbled, stretched tight. "Are you ready to kill me?"

"Unfortunately," he replied, his hand trembling, "someone else has reserved that pleasure. A necessary compromise, even the most powerful have to make accommodations."

"You're no God," I smirked, summoning all of my stupid courage. "You’re not immortal either… I know, and one day your withered old body will disappear, with no compromises or magic to save your ass. You'll end up a maggot in your own bogs breakfast!" I chuckled, while Scarfell snatched another hold of my chin.

"And you will die on this post, never to see the 9th Fortress! Can you even fathom how impossible a notion that was? What arrogance to attempt it! What ego!"

He let my head drop again then moved around the post, going over my front and back with a fingernail scratching my flesh. "Not even half way there, and already in some decay."

"What do you want?" I asked; "if not to kill me?"

"You took my eye — my eye!" he exclaimed, inhaling and exhaling a cauldron of frustration. "And if I can't kill a pathetic nothing like you… then I am taking what's owed!"

With a flick of his wrist, Scarfell removed a knife from his belt — a dirty object that would struggle to cut rough paper. He pressed himself and the blade to my cheek, and I gasped, shutting my eyes to its blunt tip. "Help me Missy! Newton! Bludgeon! Kat! Help me!"

Scarfell smiled, teasing his blade over my perspiring face. "It's fine," he whispered. "I do not want your eye. No. Not today at least."

Sceptically, I peeked a look and was relieved to see the blade at his thigh. "You know what?" he abruptly added; "I've changed my mind!"

Static filled my vision as my skull was invaded — connections permanently cut from my brain. His vigorous carving sent the juice of my eye slipping down my face, and my high-pitched scream was as horrific as any wolf's.

***

Apart from the sobbing creature across from Kat's cell, there was peace inside the block. The small window let in the early morning to reveal enough of Harmony's unusual form. Finally now, Kat could see what made her so special, so unique to deserve a place in Scarfell's zoo. The bulk of Harmony's cage was taken up by a pair of white wings attached to her back, but pressed together with a clumsy bronze clasp biting them down the middle. "Can't use them," she shrugged with an empty smile.

"Did the wizard do this?" Kat asked.

"No. I did. I was banished from Heaven," she started, hiding her face; "an exile here until my return to the blessed is permitted. It is a… long story samurai, and something I'd rather not discuss."

Kat left the subject alone to inspect other cages here. There was a grumpy ape creature covered in blue needle like hair; there was also a confusing looking sphinx with a rams head, the body of a lion and a tiny pair of wings that couldn't possibly lift its weight. There was a gargoyle, three feet tall, the colour of mud and picking fingers into its crotch. There was a coiled up snake with eyes the size of golf balls, and an unknown meal still struggling inside its belly; there was the naked man restored in bodily flesh and unconscious under the window; and lastly, the sobbing creature — another woman with wings, but a bag covered her head and her hands where shackled behind her back.

"Why do you cry?" Kat asked her, only to be ignored. "Woman! Why do you cry?"

"She is a Gorgon," said Harmony. "One glance into her eyes will set you to stone. They are extremely rare creatures; she may even be the last of her kind."

Hearing their comments, the Gorgon lowered her bagged head further. "Let her cry," said Harmony. "Let her be."

The exiled angel fussed her wings comfortable whilst Kat squinted at her sullen face. "What have you to gain for leading us to Hells mouth?" he asked. "What did the scientist offer you?"

"My wings," she returned, clanging her clasp off the bars. "I have a mark on my soul too, Kat. The scientist came to me, promised that if I do this one thing for him then I would be redeemed in the eyes of my Lord. Sin forgiven, my rightful place in the Heavens restored. How could I refuse?"

Her voice coursed with regret. Heaven was a long way away, and shameful tears fell like wet glass from her bluest eyes.

"I do not fault you for our capture," said Kat, as sincere as a killer could.

18. Ceremony

Blood clotted like a mask over the upper section of my face, leaving me little idea if it were night or day behind it. An excruciating jolt of electricity hit me between the eyes every few seconds, and the rest of my body reacted with spasms against the post. What I wanted, what I desperately needed were assurances that Scarfell had only removed the one eye.

"Missy?" I mumbled, but my hazy mind couldn't concentrate enough to contact her. The cold started to bite too, and remaining senses becoming sharper, I heard a careful crunching of approaching footsteps. "Who's there?"

Was it Grutas, bogs, or maybe Scarfell after another piece of me? The steps came closer until I felt this person's hand on my chest. "You're alright," he said, in a hurried manner. "What a bloody mess!"

"Kat? Is that you? Look what he did to me…"

"I'll get you out," he said, shocking my face with a sponge of some kind to clear the clotted blood. His voice was reassuring and kind, and the more I heard of it, the less of Kat I recognised. "Tell me who you are?"

Suddenly, without a parting word, this man's steps crunched out of earshot and I was relieved finally to see the pale moonlight in my right eye. "Hello?" I hissed. "Are you there?"

"About time!" came Scarfell's abrupt and impatient bellow. "They were expected five hours ago!"

I froze, fighting spasms, and through the opening slit of one eye, I saw flaming torches in the night and an anxious looking Scarfell hurrying down the temple steps, flanked by his constant giant and that lying bitch who led me here. "Travelling has been difficult," she explained to Scarfell, moving directly for the tall doors and the bogs before it. "Your removal of his eye will not please them. Not one bit, wizard."

"That was personal," replied Scarfell, without regret.

Arriving at the tall doors, Grutas saw to the heavy wooden block used to fix them shut. The doors opened inwardly, and Scarfell threw up his arms to two new arrivals.

"Welcome ladies! Come! Rest yourselves!"

Two females entered the fort. Identical to the green-eyed woman, they were also dressed in similar dark and all too revealing gowns. These alluring triplets embraced one another with stiff hugs, whilst obedient bogs sealed the doors once more.

"Oh, you're for it now!" said a minuscule voice in my head.

"Who's there?" I whispered, as the women followed Grutas and Scarfell into the unassuming temple. At that time, I had no idea that a worm had just popped out of a crack in my post and propped itself inside my ear. It was an uncomfortable sensation, as if being tickled by the blunt end of a pencil. I shook my head to free it but the thing wouldn't budge.

"Relax mate," it said. "Promise I won't go any deeper than this. Say, this wax here would make for great insulation! Mind if I take some with?"

"Yes! No! What are you? What you want?"

"I'm a worm. And I can't lay eggs if that's what you're thinking? Was just like you mister… but now I'm a worm."

Perhaps I'd flipped sometime during unconsciousness, on the wrong side of sanity? That seemed likely, until I remembered where I was, and how anything here was possible.

"Mind if I sleep here the night?" the worm asked. "It's dead cosy, you know."

"No!" I squirmed. "What do you want worm? You can't stay there!"

"Come for the company mostly! Ain't had a yap in donkeys years, and she ain't eaten in as long a while! Starving she is!"

"She? Which one?"

"The three are one! And if you're tied up here you're sure enough on the menu! That wizard brings food here for her, like he did me. Promised me a wish he did!"

I listened intently now to the creepy crawly. "Sometimes she hunts the food herself," he added, enjoying my attention; "but most scatter before she can get to changing."

"Changing?"

"She a monster, mate!" it squealed, as if common knowledge. "Wizard wants the whole Distinct Earth for himself, doesn’t he? Well that monster has lived in this forest for a thousand years — it's hers! They have an arrangement now though."

"The Scurge!" I gasped, after another hot sting and cold spasm.

"So that's what they call it!” The worm said. “Better hope she bites the brain first, mate. That should send you out nice and quiet…"

Predators of the Under Realms — Scurge: female monstrosity that feeds on the marrow of men. She was a honey trap, luring victims with lusty promises before transforming and devouring those poor devils, a creature with an insatiable appetite and no known weakness: an immortal. The woman I met in the forest, the two who just entered this fort, together making the Scurge.

"Wizard provides her with a regular feeding," said the worm, now dangling from my earlobe, "and he can have the whole realm so long as her hunger is satisfied. She chewed on my guts a good while, let me tell you!"

"I need to get out of this!" I grimaced, tugging at my bonded wrists. "Can you help me? Cut me out of these ropes!"

"Sorry mate — no teeth. Don't worry though, if you turn into a worm then there is plenty space in the post for both of us. But if you turn into a bird then forget we ever had this conversation! Name's Gus by the way!"

Gus returned to his hidey-hole in the post while I continued to struggle; but no amount of effort could set me free from this sacrificial post.

***

Dampness and melancholy had set throughout the cellblock. The Gorgon kept Harmony and Kat awake with her incessant sobbing; ignoring her was the only thing to be done. No others stirred, and the naked man hadn't woken since his last episode.

With his cheek pressed against bars, Kat scrutinized and smirked at the many freaks here, but his gaze always found its way back to a glum faced Harmony Valour. "Can I ask a question?" he said, rousing her from boredom.

"Anything samurai, anything at all."

Kat shuffled nearer her bars, and Harmony was open faced with curiosity. She waited intrigued, and Kat waited too, composing himself before asking this most important question: "What," he started, softly, "is Heaven like?"

Harmony sighed, seemingly unsurprised. "Have you someone waiting for you there?” she said. “A loved one?"

"That was not my question."

Wearing a troubled expression, Harmony rubbed the skin at her elbow.

"Well?" Kat insisted. "What is Heaven like?"

"The subject is not permitted to be discussed outside your own life support," she replied. "It is a question I have been asked countless times since my exile, from countless lost souls, and my answer is always the same — Heaven holds something for everyone, it will warm the coldest heart, and the view of the universe would humble the greatest man." The angel then set her forehead against her knees. "I wish to return so very much."

Kat slunk, satisfied with the answer.

***

I was awake to see in the morning, and it seemed the whole fort was too. My left eye-socket had scabbed over again, and as I searched the crowd for the possible identity of last night's Samaritan, I saw only the unpleasant faces of Scarfell, Grutas, and numerous smears of bogs in preparation.

Suddenly, a great tribal symbol clashed from inside the temple, stirring the army into a practised drill. Starting at the bottom step of the temple, the bogs formed a circle stretching behind my post and to encompass most of the fort. This was rehearsed, precise, and I could only surmise how many times the Scurge had dined inside this black ring. Grutas loitered at the smoking temple door beside an impatient looking Scarfell. Once the wizard received word from inside that temple, he eventually turned to address his restless admirers. "They are ready!" he announced to adoring snorts. "May you all enjoy it! May you all survive it!"

Scarfell stepped aside to reveal the seductive triplets at the door, their chins held high and their barely covered bosoms causing bogs to rub their groins. As far as I could tell, the only apparent difference between these sisters was their eye colour: hypnotic green, sky blue, and startling scarlet.

***

A pensive Harmony watched the bright window at the far end of the cellblock, the light giving a gleam to her constricted wings. Kat's patience meanwhile was being tested by the crying Gorgon, still sobbing under her bagged head. "Shut up!" he snapped. "Shut your mouth or my sword will open your stomach!"

"Kat!" yelled Harmony, appalled. "Not everyone is as strong as you!"

"Where does her body find all those tears?"

The Gorgon carried on regardless of Kat's temper, so he thumped his face like a thug against the cell bars.

"Now it can't be all that bad!" said a new voice, a man free from the confines of any cage.

"Who is there?" asked Harmony, peering as far as possible through her bars. "Who is that?"

Presently, Sir Godwin Eddinray left the shadows and stepped into a ray of sunlight.

"You?!" choked Kat, agog. "Can't be!"

"Can be!" the knight declared, with a royal wave and a deep indent marking his helmet.

"And who are you?" asked the French girl.

Eddinray's eyebrows immediately sprung to the top of his head as he beheld the fallen angel. "Divine," he mumbled, losing track of himself.

"Pardon me?" she said. "Are you an ally to us?"

With a rattle of the head, the knight seemed to recover from his spell. "My name is Godwin Eddinray, your ally and knight in impressed armor. I have come to your rescue, madam! Come to save the day!"

"How?" asked Kat, still flummoxed by the gaunt Englishman's appearance here.

"Thrown from the flying horse," he said, "I woke with concussion under a bloody tree some time later. Followed the path here and waited for my opportunity to elude security, which by the way, leaves a lot to be desired."

"What have you there?" pried Harmony, pointing to a bulging bag in Eddinray's hand.

"My dear," he said, smiling; "I have used my skills to recover… what was taken."

Eddinray parted the bag to reveal all the weapons stripped away by bogs — Kat's swords, katana and wakizashi — not to mention my short sword, special dagger, and shield with a centaur's embossed seal.

"We will need all hands to get out of here," he added. "Our friend Danny boy is strapped to a post outside."

"Is he okay?" asked Harmony. "Alive?"

"The wizard removed one of his eyes, madam. I cleaned the wound myself last night and can assure you that he is still with us."

"One of his eyes?" she considered with horror; Kat also appeared disturbed.

"The cell keys are hanging near the door, Godwin," Harmony said. "Bring them to my hand at once."

"My good woman!" he tittered. "It is simply not safe out there for a lady. Yes I admire your courage and orientation, but I strongly suggest-" Harmony stretched through the bars, snatched a chink in Eddinray's armor then yanked the lanky man at her. "I strongly suggest… that you fetch the keys this instant!"

Kat grinned as the knight scurried off for the keys, pausing suddenly down the corridor — recalling something. "Kat?" he said, holding up one bare pink hand. "Have you seen my other glove?"

***

The three black beauties paraded before me at the post, licking a shine over their lips. The immortal Scurge would arrive shortly, and there was nothing on this realm to stop it. Fear of being devoured took my mind from the agony in my eye — even the gentlest breeze was like a searing iron prodding the vacant socket — nevertheless I much preferred living with it than joining Gus in the post.

The fort fell silent all of a sudden, an eerie, ghostly hush. Scarfell and Grutas watched the scene amidst the bog formation, anticipation growing as the women came side by side, linking their little hands. Their eyes were hungry as they ogled me over, and like the wolf before, a bizarre transformation now got under-way. The fingertips began to fuse, a sensation that appeared to tickle the women with a chill; the green, the blue and the scarlet eyes rolling back in orgasmic sync until hands were nothing but lumps of connected flesh.

With a clanging of keys, Eddinray released the angel and samurai from their cages. Immediately, Kat grappled the katana from the bag and rushed to the cellblock door. There, he waited with a cross face and a mind to slaughter any prying bog. None came, so he signalled the others to join him. "Go on ahead!" he ordered once they reached the door.

"But why?" frowned Harmony.

"Wait upstairs!" he insisted. "Do not take a foot from the temple without me. Now go!"

Eddinray ushered Harmony out of the cellblock; and the minute Kat was alone, he returned, twirling his sword down the narrow corridor. He removed the keys from his cage lock and continued toward the bright window, and the putrid cell underneath it. There, a naked man slept in a pool of his own bile and hair. Kat unlocked that cage, and with a single, downward thrust of his katana, he put the wolf out of its misery.

19. The Lion's Den

A tentative Harmony and Eddinray watched events unfold at the temple door. "The Scurge!" she whispered. "Your friend has no chance. Unless…"

"Unless," added Eddinray, sucking his teeth, "unless we charge these brigands.

Do not let the armor fool you madam, for I am greased lightning under this mail."

"I will be back!" she said, a brainstorm hastening her return to the bowels of the temple.

"Where is she going?" growled Kat, watching the angel run past him.

"I count at least two hundred," mumbled Eddinray as Kat joined his side. "Two hundred, including a monster and a sorcerer. I'll have my work cut out, that's for sure."

The triplets continued to churn in metamorphosis, a confusion of arms here and legs there. She, or it, resembled a super-sized slug of bursting bubbles and popping puss. This blob seemed to cook from the inside, sending a vomit inducing fume around the fort until at last, a ravenous moan cried out from inside the sticky mass, and a fist broke free from the jellied coat. Transformation was complete, and the grotesque immortal emerged. There was one head with three faces smeared around it, each wearing a skewed and melted expression. The thing had only one gaping mouth, full of vampire teeth, and gooey suction cups covering her lips. The body, easily ten feet tall, was beetle like, with a shield of hardened shell over its belly. Six arms hung from her torso, and razor sharp points grew from the ends of thirty fingers. Another six lanky legs scuttled for space underneath the gut, and a tail stretched and curled to a tip behind her.

"Bravo!" cheered Scarfell, as the Scruge skewered four of his bogs like barbecue meat on her tail.

She tore at them, and then sucked the face clean off another before turning her attention to the main course: The marrow in my bones. Her dribbling mouth roared and I saw her stomach vibrate from desire — sucker lips twitching.

"Help!" I yelled, straining my wrists raw at the ropes.

With Harmony still downstairs, Kat slapped Eddinray on the arm and passed him a look the knight knew all too well; this was a message between killers, a code only another warrior could understand. Everybody in this fort now turned to a new disturbance, to the knight and samurai's full-blooded charge from the temple door. Lunacy poisoned my friends’ eyes, and inspired their cries.

"Eddinray!" I shrieked. "Kat! Get me out! Cut me loose!"

Bog after bog ran unprepared for the determined men, who slashed their way through the first batch. Almost immediately, the army disintegrated into a rabble — some killed by Kat's sword, the rest snagged by the Scurge.

"Get me out of this!" I begged.

An incensed Scarfell observed the disarray with an eye glowing red and a thick vain ready to burst across his forehead. "Grutas!" he fumed; "there is your samurai! Kill him!"

Despite the disorder, a wash of black surrounded Kat and Eddinray. Bogs did not attack them one at a time, but six, seven, eight, nine and ten; and the one thing saving them from inhalation was the Scurge, who mutilated at will. Rejoicing in his own slaughter, Kat bounced and somersaulted through the hordes with unadulterated confidence and a younger man's athleticism. The frustration of the sobbing Gorgon, the two years locked in Bludgeon's cave and over two hundred more in the Waiting Plain seemed to explode from the tip of his swords.

Eddinray meanwhile beat off bogs with careless smashing of his long-sword, unscrupulous eye pokes to some and groin kicks to unfortunate others. "Cut you down scum!" he spat. "One after the other I will cut — you — down!"

Standing like a tense spider, Scarfell saw the Scurge suck what little brain it could from a bog, and then took his opportunity to rob the immortal of her marrow. The wizard came at me but Kat was nearest. He ran to me, and with a downward slice, cut me free from my bonds. "Fight or die Fox!" he roared, as I ducked to miss a bog blade splintering into the worm's post.

***

Keys in hand, Harmony was back in the gritty cellblock under the temple, talking at length to the caged Gorgon. "Do you promise?" asked the angel. "Do you swear it to me?"

"I swear it," replied the Gorgon, her voice muffled under the bag. "You have my word — I will not set sight on your friends."

And with that, Harmony unlocked her cage, removed the bag from the Gorgon's head and the ropes binding her wrists. Apart from the reptilian skin and scaly wings, the Gorgon was an alluring creature with a caring face and soft lips. Her eyes however were a frosty white, reflecting the form of whoever dared look. Harmony kept her eyes completely shut as the Gorgon rubbed an old crick from her neck. Then, an inch from Harmony's face, the Gorgon whispered a grateful thank you into the angel's ear.

***

I pulled my shield, short sword and dagger from the bag whilst knight and samurai protected me from the onslaught. Bog bodies were strewn everywhere — and reminding me of the horses they had earlier butchered — the bulk of them ran terrified around the enclosure, some even opening the gates to flee from the compound.

Once armed, I fought alongside my friends and precariously close to the Scurge. All of us ducked and dived from her swooping tail, and rolling, I slashed at any limbs within range of my sword. Parts successfully dismembered however, would regenerate in no time flat — she was immortal after all.

Near us, Grutas was tightening a grip on his axe and pointing out Kat. The samurai smiled back at him, then left us to face the giant.

"I will be your eye!" said Eddinray, covering my blind side as we fell back from the Scurge. "Back you villain! Back!"

I dispatched a bog to my right then jabbed again at the Scurge, before being abruptly knocked to a sick heap by a ferocious fire inside my head. I heard Eddinray cry out my name, then watched through a blurry eye as the knight took the Scurge's tail full in the chest, flinging him backward and crashing down on a derelict bog hut.

Kat strolled around Grutas, and Grutas around Kat. This mouth watering clash did not last long however, for when Grutas raised that heavy battleaxe, Kat lunged forward with a lightning cut across the giant's guts, then several more to separate the arms from his body.

Kat was extremely efficient, and glaring over his numb faced opponent, he amputated the giant's legs below the knees. Unlike the Scurge, Grutas would not regenerate, and Kat would not spare his life like he had Bludgeon's. With one slash of the sword, he removed that gargling head from its shoulders, then booted the upright torso to the deck.

Recovering from the fire in my head, I rolled onto my back to find Scarfell stood over me, arms raised and summoning another fireball between his hands. It hovered there like a new sun whilst he concentrated on cooking it. Digging my fingernails into the clay, I attempted to slump away, but my fried brain — in these vital seconds — had forgotten how to crawl or cry out; and without words or mercy, Scarfell threw the soaring comet at me.

Instinctively, I showed him my back, and Scarfell's star shot directly onto my shield centre. Searing temperatures roasted the armor white to completely melt the centaur's seal. Fortunately the image had its own charm, repelling that ungodly force back to sender, and consuming the wizard in a blaze of his own wicked magic. The shield incinerated, Scarfell screamed in a shroud of flames before bursting into a million sooty ashes over me.

Eddinray picked himself up from the broken shack, and then snuffed out the bog forking a blade at his chest plate. "Amateur," he huffed, wearily brushing off debris before joining Kat and me in the centre of the fort, Scurge and bogs moving in.

"I can rip them all," growled Kat.

"And the immortal?" I asked, wheezing.

A solution to that problem came with an attention-seeking shout from the temple. "Close your eyes boys!" announced Harmony, racing down the steps. "Close your eyes!"

She stumbled to scrape her knees as the Gorgon swooped out from the temple, a screaming torrent of vengeance. Gorgon flew low, her green arms swimming through the air and dodging the Scurge's tail with ease. Her cry was high spirited and her rage focused only on those creatures who imprisoned her. She dove upward and examined the compound with those pulsating, glacial eyeballs, then returned to transform five bogs to a harsh grey rock, and furthermore catching the Scurge in one of its three faces and six eyes. The Gorgon laughed manically, turned seven others to granite then flew a free woman over the tall trees.

Without wait, Harmony, Eddinray, Kat and myself bunched together to observe the Scurge's last transformation. Her arms stopped lunging, her tail stopped whipping, and that beetle body began a slow and painful looking crackle into stone — her immortal self buried alive inside it.

Harmony knew the way out of the fort so after her we followed, straying from the path and venturing through deeper jungle. She caught her cumbersome wings against branches which snapped back into our faces. We heard snorting bogs in pursuit, always in pursuit.

"Haste!" Harmony yelled at us. "Almost there!"

"Where?" asked Eddinray, struggling to keep up. "Why do we flee from these pigs?"

The dense forest was suffocating, and the surface slippery from lumpy boulders and moss. Puddles of tree sap snared our feet while hanging vines attempted to clutch back our wrists, as if to steal our souls for themselves. We batted free with weapons and fists ‘til the roots and vines got the message.

Without warning, Harmony randomly changed direction, leading us over a river of frozen ice. All but Kat spilled to backsides the moment our heels touched the glistening surface. Coming to my aid first, Kat took my forearm and heaved me upright.

"Mustn't linger," said Harmony, assisting Eddinray. "The ice is not as thick as it-"

Then, like the sound of a breaking egg, Eddinray's foot gave way and the ice sucked in his leg.

"Be still knight!" ordered Harmony. "Do not struggle!"

She snatched hold of Eddinray's hand and warned Kat and I not to come any closer. Further cracks escalated around Eddinray's leg and he shrieked at the alien thing swimming against it under the ice.

"I feel it!" he cried. "What's in here?"

"Dare you find out!" said Harmony, reaching her free arm back for Kat. "Pull me samurai! Pull us!"

Promptly, all of us made a human chain to haul Eddinray from the water. Behind, a dozen or more bogs spilled out from the forest, each spinning on the ice as we had done.

"Don't stop!" I said, watching the bogs make new holes over the ice-sheet. In my slippery stride, I turned to witness a spotty tentacle rise from a crack in the ice, coil then drag one terrified bog under the surface.

"Move on!" exclaimed Harmony. "Haste! Haste!"

We followed the flow of the river to its unfathomable end; a drop of petrified water. Ice poured over the edge like a chute; a crystal fall more than five hundred vertical feet down. The height was head spinning, nauseating, impossible — all the ice leading to an open mouth — the head of a colossal stone demon with the features of a deformed cherub.

Cracks intensified over the lake and the world rocked underneath us as eight prodding tentacles burst free for more meat. "What now?" I yelled, cold water spouting up between my legs.

"We jump!" returned Harmony. "We simply… jump!"

"Easy for you to say," said Eddinray, "you have wings my dear! I cannot do this! What exactly is this, and why am I a part of this fiction!"

"Take," she said, extending her hand. "We shall all leap together!"

Eddinray took the thin fingers on offer, and Harmony subsequently took my hand with her other. I then gripped Kat's palm and instantly felt his tug away. "Together," I stressed, and grudgingly he accepted.

We approached the edge of the glassy precipice now, a fall beyond words. "I've a nose bleed!" spluttered Eddinray. "Dear me, tell me… tell me what awaits this knight yonder?"

"Hell-fire" answered Kat. "On three!"

Harmony and I agreed with nods and gulps. Unfortunately the bogs where closer than expected, and the choice of a countdown was removed by a flying hook, clattering into the back of Eddinray's head — knocking the screaming knight forward, and dragging us all head-first into a new nightmare…

20. Four More

I moved with purpose through vulgar lights and sounds. It was a minute before 8pm on a frosty November evening, but the fairground amusements caused those around me to forget the cold. I followed John Curtis to that dominating Ferris wheel; took my place in the cue behind him then set my gaze to the grass. The bastard hadn't seen me yet, perhaps he wouldn't remember my face.

The Ferris wheel was the star of the show here, standing nearly three-hundred feet with sixteen revolving gondolas around a blinking neon wheel, and peppered with smiling faces and hands waving from the heights. A young girl got on the first available ride with her boyfriend, John Curtis was due a spot next. When his gondola came round, I nudged past the stoned attendant and joined Curtis in our own private cage. The door shut behind with a satisfying lock, and the gondola rocked as we began to ascend the circle. Curtis sat opposite me taking in views of the night harbor. "Mr. Fox," he said, unsurprised. "Have you come to kill me?"

I swallowed hard but kept my cool. His face hadn't changed; it was everything I remembered from the trial; disappointingly average. Ordinarily balding for a man in his late forties, ordinarily carrying a little more around the waist, and ordinarily unlike any murderer you can imagine. The only unusual thing about John Curtis tonight was his smart corduroy suit, a three piece. This was an educated, well to do man who didn't belong amongst the high school kids below us. A man who, at the start of the evening, never intended to find himself in this grubby fairground."I've felt you on my back for the last hour," he said, unhurried; "and yesterday through the market, and the day before as I waved down a cab. Then there was Thursday, loitering outside my office, and there again Friday and the following Monday morning. A child could find better hiding places. You're my own little fan club."

"Why then," I asked, feeling the hand tremble inside my jacket pocket; "didn't you say anything?"

"It was harmless enough for the first month,” he shrugged. "To be honest I was flattered, amused. I mean all that fuss for little old me. Made me feel…important somehow. Notorious even."

"And now?"

"Now it's past harassment, and people are beginning to talk. Look around you Fox, hardly up-scale this place but you are the only one who looks like a bum. How many nights have you slept in those clothes? Do you think about anything other than me nowadays? Shaving? A shower? No?"

I did look shabby in my jeans, scruffy shirt and jacket, but this recent hobby of mine made all that junk seem so worthless.

"Gone on long enough," said Curtis, exasperated. "Tonight I wanted to have it out — so I walked — you followed, and here we are."

The wheel continued to creak on its revolution, and between the bars of our gondola, I could see the tacky merry go round, the young stuffing vending machines with coins and the bumper cars leaving trails of electric light.

John Curtis watched me watch him; he crossed his legs, lit a cigarette, and then offered me one from the pack. "Suit yourself," he said, on my refusal. "But we will talk Fox, or you will. After all that's what all this boils down to, me listening to you, isn't that right? So go on, get it off your chest. Say what you have to say then we can both move on with our lives. You've got my attention."

"There are two things I want from you," I mumbled, feeling the hand sweat in my jacket pocket.

"The first?" he asked, while I hesitated. "Well? Tell me!"

"Are…you sorry?"

Blowing smoke out his nose in a bored fashion, Curtis shook his head and smiled. "I might have known. You were always hell-bent on the status of my remorse. Didn't you visit me in prison once to ask that same question? Am I sorry?"

"You didn't answer me in prison."

"You weren't ready for the answer, Fox. You never will. Yes I am sorry," he said, leaning forward. "Sorry for you. Sorry you wasted your time. This sad obsession is taking over your life. It is your life!"

"Stop talking," I said, through clenched teeth. "Shut your fucking mouth."

"It's funny," he continued, unconcerned; "the former detective who sees so much of people. You observe men but cannot understand them. Should I be sorry? I am certainly not proud of what I did, but neither am I sorry. I was careless yes, but I cannot be sorry for the lessons I learned, and paid for with years! My debt to society has been paid."

"Not in full!" I growled, standing. "You killed six people you son of a bitch, four of them children, yet you sit here wearing that shit kicker grin and call it carelessness? Don't you have a fucking soul inside you?"

He laughed again, a condescending titter. "The soul is an invention to keep sheep in place, Fox. When I die there won't be any angel over me; just my rotting corpse with the worms and my mind enjoying everlasting peace from your footsteps."

The wheel creaked to its very top, — 300 feet above anything else. I could only make out a smudge below and twinkle of stars above. "What else?" he asked, taking a long drag from his cigarette. "You said there were two things you wanted from me? The second? Ride's nearly over and I want this finished."

I didn't keep him waiting. I removed the revolver from my jacket pocket, and still he didn't seem surprised. My hand quaked, but I wasn't afraid or morally torn in anyway. No, I was putting right a terrible wrong done to me and five other families; this was justice, a fate chosen for me a very long time ago, an action I was destined to take.

"My kid was 12 years old," I said, numbly. "She was shy and bright. Together we would swim, wash the dog or eat pizza, meaningless things that meant the world to me. You laugh through your smoke at me, but I haven't smiled once since the day I first heard your name. You took away everything I loved, and now that they've given you you're liberty back, I've got no choice but to take away the one thing you care about."

I aimed the gun straight between his eyes, and cocked back the hammer. “That…is all I want from you," I finished, squeezing the trigger.

***

This was the express chute to something more than an underground realm: it was a systematic examination of heart and soul; a prying, malevolent energy informing whoever it may concern that these particular individuals where now in Hell with the rest of them. Kat and Harmony received the most attention from this thorough investigation, a force glowing warm to have an exiled angel in its company, and a samurai's long awaited return.

Once this surveilling spirit had finished with us, it left us sliding down into a cold cave. We recovered on our backs from the fall, only for our noses to be assaulted by the stench of enduring excrement. "Wasn't me,” said Eddinray, blowing a frosty breath.

Harsh winter blues illuminated this tight cave, like a beat from inside the very rock. Eddinray stood but black ice returned him to his backside. The rest of us took care with our footing. I assisted the delicate looking angel upright, and then introduced myself. "Harmony,” she replied, smiling, but the unpleasant sight of my scabby eye turned her head.

Ashamed, I concealed that bloodied side of my face; but after composing herself, Harmony took my chin and examined the wound. "It'll need a tight wrapping," she said. "Such a thing should kill a man, Daniel. Be glad you're still with us."

Harmony proceeded to tare various lengths of material from the bottom of her gown and wrap them around my eye. "The wound will heal sooner than you expect, but I'm afraid the eye itself will never return…"

Her pressing cloth was an uncomfortable sensation, but I was grateful as she secured it around my head with firm knots. "Was not my intention to follow you down here,” she added, squinting back up at the butterfly inducing ice chute. "Alas…"

"That makes the two of us dear," added Eddinray, appearing gaunter than usual in this chilly glow. "Are you positive your wings do not work angel? Let me just prod that clasp with my sword."

"Fool," muttered Kat, taking charge through a burrow of pulsating rocks.

"Wait!" I exclaimed. "Just a minute, Kat. One minute. I've something…important to say."

Kat stopped to hear but did not face me; the English knight and French angel meanwhile listened with open hearts and intrigued faces. Before we took another step in this under-realm, I felt a duty to make these newer companions aware of what they had let themselves in for. And so I told our story up to that point, the alphabet village, the Macro Mountain, the trials of Bludgeon, Scarfell, and the mission to the 9th Fortress. "The further we go the more terrible things we see," I concluded; "and it's beyond me to imagine or predict what's coming next. I don't know. Now, I cannot speak for Kat, but I promise to do everything in my power to see you both safely out of here. I'm willing to put my body, or what's left of it on the line for all of you."

Harmony and Eddinray were surprisingly calm, and unified in smiles.

"Wonderful!" Eddinray declared. "This is truly the adventure I have been made for! Homer and Dante will weep at the stories we shall tell!"

Whispers soon killed his cheer however, the hiding voices of a thousand ghosts echoing everywhere, yet coming from nowhere. "Four more!" they said. "Four more! Four more! Look at that one, his armor reflects the light! And her, an exile from the Heavens! Four more! Four more! The man covets the tiny dagger! Tell! Tell! Four more! Four more! The one with the scarred face, no stranger is he! Four more! Four more!"

The cave tightened the deeper we explored it, those whispers replaced by leaking water and muffled sobs in the distance. Cautious yet curious, we paused over slippery rocks to listen.

"Help me!” it cried. “I want my mommy! Where's…my mommy?"

"A child!" exclaimed Harmony, jostling passed Kat and running ahead.

"Harmony!" I yelled. "It could be any…"

"Never fear!" interrupted Eddinray; "I shall fetch her!"

Scurrying for the lead, the knight slid backward for a second time, yanking Kat and me with him.

***

Harmony was alone when she came upon a child slouched against icy stone: a boy no more than four years old, hugging both arms over his head. "Do not cower, child," she said, softly. "Help has arrived."

The boy did not respond, so Harmony crouched to him and caressed his thin hair. "There, there. You are safe. No need for tears now."

The child grazed his tiny hand over Harmony's, and then faced her with tear-drops drying over his innocent cheeks.

"Harmony?" we hollered in the background. "Harmony?"

"I'm fine!" she replied, returning the boy's smile. "We both are!"

The child had no teeth in his mouth, and wore an odd smirk for an unusually long length of time. Harmony shrunk slightly as the boy tipped his head to one side, a protruding vain now bulging across his forehead. The angel glanced over her shoulder, and then all of a sudden was forced onto her wings as the boy throttled her neck, his strength far greater than that of an infant.

Once Harmony was flat on the rocks, the boy prodded each of his chubby hands inside her mouth, fidgeting them to fit. Harmony attempted to cry out, but his forcing flesh snuffed her sound. Terrified tears flowed from the angel's eyes; her fists hit out, her knees kicked and her wings flapped like trapped pigeons in their clasp, but the ghoul was too powerful.

What did have an affect on this evil was the long sword of Eddinray, lunging at last from the darkness. Violently he slashed, and the inhuman thing burst into a cloud of bats, a hundred flailing, squeaking, and biting rabid over the pair of them. They embraced, screaming until Kat's ravaging katana sent this fluttering plague out of the cave.

It was over, and with Harmony heaving and sobbing still, the tense eyed samurai scolded her. "Choke you stupid woman! Choke! Another lesson! Another fool!"

Furious, Eddinray stood from the traumatised young woman to poke his finger into Kat's chest.

"That is quite enough from you!" he yelled. "You sir, are a man of no honor and I shall see you in combat! Prepare yourself swine!"

Bumping his armored chest against Kat's, the samurai responded by simply pushing Eddinray to the rocks. "If you wish to die," he sneered, pointing his sword at Eddinray's neck; "it will be my pleasure."

Before a gaping mouthed Eddinray could respond, Harmony squeezed his palm. "Do not fight, Godwin,” she whispered. "You have already saved my life twice. Pray show the samurai mercy…"

Kat snorted, more amused than insulted.

"If that is your wish madam!" Eddinray huffed, unable to contain the pink appearing on his cheeks. "I shall spare the samurai's soul."

I was relieved to see Kat return the katana to his belt. "I also have something important to say!" he suddenly growled at us, blocking the way forward. "No-one disobeys me from this point onward! No one! No more! Peril waits beyond this cave — visible — invisible — and the safest place for all of you is behind my back. There is no good here, there is no compassion, there is no hope…and we will all have our chance to die."

As the haunting whispers returned in the rocks, we four stood as one. "The short samurai leads them. Four more! Spread the word! Four more!"

"One last thing," said Harmony, lowering her head and closing her eyes. "Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom his will commits us here. Ever this day be at our side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen."

Eddinray and I returned the Amen; the General Kat however, preferred silence before marching his troops off to battle.

21. The Dishonorable Many

The cave brought us to the muddy banks of a lake, and source of the foul stink. The placid water was congealed like week old gravy, and over it, I noticed over fifty arms reaching out of the murky sauce.

The semi-solid lake stretched as far as the eye could see to a lingering blanket of red fog. The sky overhead was a weird, rippling mirror of jelly, reflecting all us sinners underneath it. "Truly another world,” gawked Harmony.

Stepping foot on a muddy shore, we soon arrived at the marching men, a parade of soldiers as long as the lake itself. Millions, perhaps billions, and not one without a uniform or weapon. Harmony informed us that the diversity of this cue spanned the entire history of the Earth and other Planets. British redcoats soldiered behind modern day marines, whose khaki outfits could easily camouflage them in the woods or forests of the Distinct Earth. Scattered Roman legions followed those hollow faces and dull coloured uniforms of the Great War. The American, Russian and Chinese civil wars were represented, the French and American Revolutions too. Those of alien kind were varied in appearance, immeasurable in number, and spread indiscriminately amongst humans. There were loathsome looking creepy crawlies; a brutish race of walking tall Rhino; what can only be described as a bear having a conversation with a cricket half his size, and others with as many eyes as teeth. Those souls not soldiers sat a picture of melancholy, their spirits vanquished by a lingering bitterness in the air and heart.

We moved diligently passed and ever present along the shore was the chattering teeth and waggling tongues — strangers getting acquainted with neighbours, alien conversing with human, whilst others remained in solemn, regretful reflection.

"Called me out a cheat!" one complained to another. "Nobody calls me a cheat!"

"How do you think I feel mate," came the reply; "my missus fell down the stairs but they claim I pushed her!"

Through and around them we wandered. "How can they stand this wretched filth?" asked a disgusted Eddinray, pegging two fingers over his nostrils.

"More to the point," I said, "what are they waiting for?"

"Some wait to cross the lake,” answered Kat, always ahead. "Others, the soldiers, remain in step without motive, and without question."

"Do they eat?" I pried, careful not to touch them. "What can they eat?"

"Plenty to go around…” said Kat, with a straightforward kick at the glob by his boot.

Bombarded by the constant gripes of these damned, it was hard not to sympathize. None that we passed could possibly conceive why they deserved such torture; every one had justification why they should not be suffering here, how they did not deserve it.

"Think harder,” Kat said to one lamenting old man. Our leader then reminded us to have no pity, and that every soul who marched or lay hopeless in mud was here for a very good reason, the guilty secrets best kept to themselves.

There was a sudden outcry when two men broke free from their march. One wore a swastika armband over his dirty uniform; the other was dressed in an R.A.F officer's suit with all the stripes. Rolling on the mud, they swapped insults and punches, and Kat held his arm across us to prevent any intervention.

"Their business," he hissed, “is none of ours."

Their feud came to a savage conclusion. The Nazi sat atop the squiggling officer, grasped the nearest boulder and pummelled his fellow pugilists skull to squash; and as the victorious man recovered over his victim's disappearing chest, a tiny orb of light arose from that body. The Nazi and crowd paid no attention to this delicate star of plasma slipping into the mire; they had seen it too many times before.

***

A middle-aged woman stood solitary in the lake, up to her knees in the gravy. With a constipated expression and great panting breaths, she bent over then waft the water between her thighs.

"My baby!" she cried, hysterical. "Push! Push!"

Passing, we shunned her sight at the shore, but this only increased her howls for attention.

"Some towels young man!" she begged me. "I'm having a baby! A child, you hear!"

Harmony noticed a flat stomach on the confused woman and returned a queasy smile.

"Angel girl!" she continued. "Help deliver my baby! I cannot do this alone!"

"Do not stop,” Kat urged. "Move."

"Wait! Wait!" the woman pleaded. "Please don't leave me!"

She let out a final, agonizing screech, before parting the sludge between her legs.

"Oh my God! Someone, someone has stolen my baby! My baby boy!"

Manic, she plunged herself into the sticky waters…and was never seen again.

Fights spilled more frequently out of the cue — commonplace and best ignored.

The mundane memories of my previous life were fading, but amongst the forsaken faces here, I saw one that I recognized from the old days. His name was Willie Castle, a down and out I'd pass on the streets, holding out his begging cup for loose change — he was a thief and convicted sex offender, and alive when I last laid eyes on him.

I hoped to avoid him now, but an exiled angel, a legend samurai and a glimmering knight tends to attract the eye. "Well, well, well!" he heckled. "Look who it is — Detective Fox! It is! Remember me, Fox? Over here! Oh, I see you! Don't think I don't!"

I stared ahead, purposely upping up the pace.

"You know that fellow?" asked Eddinray. "Seems to know you, doesn't he? Who is he?"

"Don't know him,” I answered, plain faced. "He's got it wrong."

We could walk fast but Castle could shout louder, and shout he did.

"Thought you were above the law, didn't you Fox? I read all about it! That's right, ignore me you murdering bastard! You're no better than me! I always knew it! Suffer in the shit you prick!"

"Don't know him,” I repeated, until his abuse was out of earshot.

Kat, Harmony and Eddinray did not pry into my past, but they were now suspicious.

***

The terrain sucked in our legs and there was no escaping the congestion of bodies. We four grouped close through this dire market of pushing and squabbling. Harmony politely excused herself to every soul she happened to graze, and Eddinray and I followed her angelic example. Kat, however, bulldozed the throng out of his way, thumping any mug he didn't like. At one low point, he tackled a dainty man to the dirt, and an agitated crowd responded. "What you playing at?" bellowed one, irate character. "Want trouble? I've got what you want right here you pussy!"

Despite the heightening threats of the crowd, Kat maintained his bull in a china shop approach. Harmony called for him to relax, but her appeals went in one ear and out the other.

"Hey you!" an angry voice suddenly announced. "I'm talking to you shit head!"

Kat stopped — not on the man's request — but for us to catch him up. As Kat waited, the owner of the voice stepped out from the layers of bunched stink. He was a gangly 8ft tall, with a hairy face smeared with shit, and fatty gut wobbling down from his bare chest.

"Let's go little man!" he jeered. "Try me on for size fucko!"

Harmony, Eddinray and I came behind this towering man, but his thick arms prevented our progress.

"Don't,” I warned him, but paying me no mind, the man continued to taunt Kat, and on matters like these, he is always happy to oblige.

The samurai approached with a sunken frown, and we companions closed our eyes to the bloody inevitable. The man threw the first punch, and our burly Kat made his second death look like the most elementary thing in the world. He ducked the swinging fist and struck the katana deep into this man's bowels. The sword was then removed with a length of curdled intestines tangled around the steel. Harmony held the vomit in her mouth as the impressed multitudes whispered news of a man with a talent for murder. From this point on, the crowd separated in droves from the short man with the shorter temper.

***

The fuss concluded at a pier, and ambivalent souls at the head of the cue stood still; none keen to stay, nor see more of Hell.

Docked at the end of this narrow wooden pier was our transportation across the lake: a raft slightly smaller than Eddinray's, which the knight was delighted to point out. A figure, covered from head to foot in a raggedy black cloth bent decrepitly on the bobbling craft, leaning all his weight on a trusty oar of solid oak.

"Who'sss next?" he asked, slithering.

Kat took clanking steps on old wood, and reaching the ferryman, he was not repulsed by this creature's appearance underneath that cloak. There was no skin on his face, no hair or a single blotch of blood, simply skeleton. Skeleton with joints connected by wrapping snakes like many elastic bands.

"Look who it isss!" the ferryman hissed, with relish. "The Kat. The Kat himssself!"

We others joined our friend and I was the one to ask. "Kat, have you met this thing before?"

"No,” replied the ferryman for him, a slim snake popping out of his eyeless socket and returning back through the mouth; "I misssed the Kat first time around. The Black Angelsss immediately cassst him to the deepessst dungeonsss of hell-fire. They dragged him there kicking and ssscreaming…"

"No more of me ferryman!" Kat returned. "You will push us across the lake!"

The ferryman cordially reached out a skeletal palm, expecting his fee,”If you cannot pay Kat, then it'sss the long way around, or freeze with the rest on the ssshore."

Kat did not pass payment; instead, he pressed his katana to the ferryman's snake and bone-ridden wrist.

"You will take us across," he said, simply, "no bones about it."

The ferryman's face receded like a tortoise into its shadowy shell, and when it emerged from the cloak, dozens of snake were stretched over the skull, forming muscles and a strange pair of leathery looking eyeballs. We recoiled, but Kat remained unmoved, and unimpressed.

"There mussst be payment,” insisted the ferryman. "No one has ever crossed thisss lake free of charge."

With a flick of his sword, Kat cut three snakes loose from the skeleton's wrist, then three more until there was but a lonely strand of serpent connecting the wrist to the hand. "Take us across ferryman," he warned; "or you'll never take another."

The ferryman's expressionless skull seemed bitterer than the air freezing those around us.

"Let'sss go…" he hissed, and after Kat's forceful prodding, we three gathered on-board the rickety raft.

"I do not like this!" said Eddinray. "On the record let that be known!"

The watching lot at the harbour looked afraid for us as the ferryman lowered his oar into the soup, and pushed us into a dead calm.

22. The Death of Kendo Katamuro

The ferryman, it seemed, had all eternity to spare, and he would take it pushing his raft through this mist, steaming like broth over the lake. Unsurprisingly, Eddinray was most talkative, his tales enthralling Harmony most of all. Who could forget his duel with three great knights who — to their cost — were not so great after all; or who hasn't read about his infamous rescue of the nun from the burning church? The gallant Eddinray saving both nun and church from the fire.

"I wish I was as fearless as you Godwin,” said Harmony. "But why aren't you in Heaven for such lofty deeds?"

Sitting back at the stern, the knight paused in pompous reflection. "I have long accepted that damnation is the price we heroes must pay. And as for being fearless, I will be candid with you madam, some men are born into the world with certain parts missing, be it manners, compassion, an arm or a leg and so on. Well I was born…with no fear."

"Oh my…" said Harmony.

"Indeed,” he continued. "And it will be my duty and pleasure to shield you from everything this hell has to offer. Witness the dent in my helmet,” he pointed it out, and the angel brightly bobbled her head. "Flung off the back of a flying horse whilst escaping the Leviathan itself! A mere spit of my adventures! A mere spit!"

"How then did you come to perish?” she asked. “Oh, do forgive my curiosity, that was most forward. Besides, you don't have to tell, I'll wager it was something terribly courageous!"

Eddinray took her hand and with a grin said, "The fashion of my premature death is one of considerable chivalry, which I cannot deny. Alas, I will spare you the particulars, for to hear those gruesome details would only strike terror into your soul. I shall say only this,” he whispered, leaning forward, “one knight's sword against fifty…is a nasty, futile business." Eddinray then took a self-congratulatory breath of stinky air. "Are those wings a burden to you?" he asked. "They do appear exceedingly heavy, I must say."

"Light as a feather,” she replied, smiling. "Would you…care to have one?"

"One of your feathers?" he gulped, flustered, shy even. "Wouldn't that…harm you?"

"Not at all, and I only ask because angel feathers bring good fortune, can even be used to create certain spells, hence the wizard's interest in me. So I ask again, would you care for one?"

Eddinray sat upright and shuffled his backside toward her. "I would love one of your feathers, Harmony Valour."

Harmony Valour was therefore only too pleased to pinch one from her back and pass the lucky charm to Eddinray. He grazed it under his nose, closed his eyes then inhaled the flowery scent of a far off Heaven.

"Peaches,” he said, placing it inside his chest plate and over his own heart. "I am nude," he suddenly added, with a slant smirk; "under this armor. I am nude."

Unsure of the remark, Harmony turned unfavourably from him, and scrunching up his face, an embarrassed Eddinray bit down on his tongue.

During this, I gazed at our contemplative leader at the bow of the raft. Refusing to rest his legs or eyes, Kat was our watchman, de-constructing a fat layer of cloud we would soon enter. The ferryman also studied Kat like a crouching lion in the thicket, drooling over a wildebeest. "There wasss an inquiry about you Kat,” he said, lurking over his oar. "Many hundredsss of years ago I ferried across one…A man very keen to meet you."

We rest perked up our ears, but Kat remained unmoved. "He was alssso a sssamurai,” added the ferryman. "Jussst like you."

Kat was listening, but few could tell. "That'sss right," the ferryman tittered; "the black sssamurai! He isss looking for you Kat, and he will find you…"

Kat held a stoic squint ahead, recalling a memory — his last.

***

1568.

A cyclone uprooted trees, upended homes and destroyed the livelihood and lives of the people. Here, in this poverty stricken feudal village is where eighty warriors, distinguishable only by armors red and black, clashed.

Kendo Katamuro appeared to float over mud and all else as he cut through the black clan, turning grey puddles a shade bloody. Wild yet still in control, Kat decapitated one young man, and then cut a horse at the shins to throw the rider onto his neck. No enemy caught him with a graze, my north star was all consuming, a force even more destructive than the cyclone.

Wisely then, most of the opposition avoided Kat to settle their swords on more feasible opponents; but not the black samurai, not him. He stopped his own murderous rampage to spy Kat through the falling bodies and drizzle. Kat sensed the burn of his enemy's eye, and faced him down with the blood of other men soaking his beard through. These killers had a past, a great rivalry that intensified with every passing year. Both clans pondered a possible fight and argued repeatedly over the victor, but they could only speculate, for the interests of these two men never came into direct conflict, their paths never once crossed — until now.

Kat armed the smaller wakizashi in his free hand, and the black samurai duplicated the action. Then the two warriors, leaders of men defending their Lords, charged through the fury of fighters to smash their blades together. Four swords blurred in a spray of energy and water. Steel appeared to glow after each impact and in their hearts; both knew they had met their match this day.

The pace stunned samurai onlookers, who called a temporary truce to watch the duel. For all their awe-inspiring skill however, these Gods of the sword were still human, and the end, one of them weakened first.

Kat spewed out hot blood as his opponent's wakizashi pierced through his stomach. The shocked audience gasped, but an exhale later, the black samurai took Kat's katana deep into the ribcage. Blood streamed down their mouths and noses, and Kat howled in agony as his opponent turned the steel around in his guts.

Refusing to go alone into darkness, a grimacing Kat stabbed his short sword several times into his foe's neck, lavishing his own face in spurting blood. Together, these two dinosaurs then clunked to their knees, and light fading from the eyes, they slunk their foreheads to touch, then toppled to a splash…

***

All tightly sprung, we drifted through a red shroud, catching sight of what appeared to be an upturned whale floating dead over the water. The ferryman kept his distance from the object, which with closer observation revealed, not a whale, but a U-boat with still propellers, beached and rotting here on the shallow tar. Submariners waited at the prominent periscope, frantically waving their caps and coats at us.

"I cannot hear what they're saying?" said Eddinray.

"I don't want to know,” replied Harmony, as our ferry sailed on.

***

Floating trouble free for at least an hour, an abrupt thud made all but our navigator stumble forward. The raft bobbled against greasy boulders and beyond that was a horizon of flat, blindingly orange sand.

"This is not the stop," said Kat, with a bad taste in his mouth. He snatched the ferryman's cloak and yanked the bony man at him. "You have led us astray! This is not the way!"

"You wanted to cross the lake,” the skeleton replied. "Hell changes with the seasonsss. No sssoul can map thisss land — not even the Kat'sss."

Our samurai glared daggers into that face, but seeing only ambiguous bone, Kat relinquished the ferryman's robe then moved cautiously off the raft. We followed, and once free of us, the ferryman pushed his oar off boulders and hissed on his way backwards. "The Kat,” he said, vanishing little by little into a scarlet dream. "I eagerly await newsss of your downfall. I await…good newsss."

Kat flipped him the middle finger as the morbid ferryman disappeared, off to spread the word.

"Can't see a thing,” I said, feeling my feet on daunting new ground. "Kat? You think we're okay?"

Already crouched to one knee, the samurai collected a handful of sand. I expected to be waiting at this makeshift shore for some time, but was pleasantly surprised by Kat's decisiveness. "Follow me,” he said, discarding the handful and taking charge over a desolate and Martian terrain.

***

The desert was flat, dry and tough, and the many cracks over it soon ground our progress. They first appeared like scars on the landscape, but all were gaping trenches, some spanning thousands of feet wide, others a foot apart. Our path over this shattered quagmire was sporadic and speculative, and with a pulverising set of seven suns above us, there was no shade to recover.

Kat's preferred course between the cavities was a path of earth so threadbare that we had no choice but to keep in single file throughout. Obscurity waited at each side of us, blanketed by a sinister churning of red clouds and orange sand. Occasional geysers blew skyward from these depths, and we four were minuscule in their supernatural scale.

Disturbingly, our route of rock became thinner and thinner until there was simply nowhere left to go. We faced a crevasse, with nothing but sandy air and fall before us. "We cannot venture back!" exclaimed Harmony, resting hands on her knees.

Kat ordered us quiet while he surveyed the smoking plunge at his toes. "No going back,” he uttered.

Then, without word or warning, he leapt a five footed trench toward another route left of us — the only option left. "Come!" he exclaimed, landing safely on the other side and making it look so typically straightforward.

Eddinray wasn't convinced. He stared with a sickly expression at the smouldering gap between himself and Kat. "I'll drop through that hole like a boulder, a boulder I say!” Perhaps," he proposed, "perhaps we should go back?"

"Back to what?" I yelled, hot and frustrated. "This is it Eddinray! This is all we got!"

Kat yelled at us again, and delaying no further, I collected my feet over the ledge, bent my knees and dived toward the samurai. Landing safely on the other side, my heels had nothing to spare behind me.

"You won't fall!" I cried, turning to hold my arms out for Eddinray. "We won't let you!"

"Lady's first, Harmony,” offered the knight, attempting to shake the butterflies from his system.

Made of tougher stuff, Harmony moved into position, and the blue steel in her eyes told me she was ready for the leap; but as she bent her legs, an explosion of gas erupting from the gap smashed her backward. Cradling one another, Harmony and Eddinray squawked for dear life as that gas went on to shroud all the suns in the sky.

I felt Kat's hardy grip on my shoulder, and he arose my attention to the rock at our feet, breaking away like wet biscuits. We backed off two steps and when the eruption and dust eventually discharged, we saw our petrified friends smeared in a wash of red clay.

I sighed, relieved upon hearing Harmony's gentle sobbing.

"This time angel," said Eddinray, standing; "I shall go first."

"Together knight,” she insisted.

"Impossible dear! My mail is simply too heavy — together we fall!"

"Then we fall!"

Her tears smudged the muck under her eyes as they took their position at the crag, and faced us opposite.

"Now!" Kat moaned, fearing another surge of gas or the surface to give way.

Thankfully, they waited no longer, and simultaneously hopped for our outstretched hands and rigid fingers. We snatched them in a lock of grips but their combined weights threatened to pull us all to our dooms. "Back Fox!" snarled Kat. "Baaack!"

Grimacing, Kat and I leaned fully backward, heaving Harmony and Eddinray with us and away from danger

***

The cavity-covered landscape had long filled in. The seven differential suns sucked all the moisture from our bodies and roasted our skin. "Mother always said pale boys look ill,” mumbled Eddinray, delirious. "I'm not ill, mother. I won't drink my tears, please do not make me!"

Severely sunstroke, I steadied his arm over my shoulder. "Almost there Eddinray! Almost there…Somewhere!"

Kat's lips resembled two stretched over raisins and his face was peeling like a paper mask. When the end of this desert finally arrived, it was one soul defeating sight too many — a cliff edge and an immense drop of a thousand feet. I collapsed with a pitiful groan. Eddinray withered like a weed to his backside whilst Harmony slunk over his legs. Kat remained standing of course, his cemented features eyeing what lay ahead, and what lay below. To the right of our depression was a steep stairway down to another hellish test, a glowing maze of yellow light, a labyrinth seemingly covering all corners of this realm with countless straights and corners; knot after complicated knot forming no distinct pattern. Judging by Kat's blank expression, not even he knew what waited in that network of limitless passages.

I broke the silence, but my encouraging words could not disguise the heartless tone underneath them.

"We carry on. One step at a time,” And raising my hand, I pointed far, far away. "Look there, that must be the centre,” The labyrinth's centre was an intense light of stars beaming an awe-inspiring spotlight up to the sky. It was divine radiation, the sort one would expect to find in Heaven, not Hell.

What was the purpose of this light? Was it transportation to some water abundant realm? Perhaps a free ticket to the gates of the 9th Fortress? I thought only of the good, as the rest of the labyrinth would almost certainly accommodate the bad.

"It's a dare,” said Kat, bitterly. "The prize of this puzzle."

"Well the prize stays put,” I said, wearily glancing at Harmony and Eddinray.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine,” they answered, simultaneously dull.

"Where's the water, Missy?" I thought aloud. "Where?"

I listened for her reply in my head, tried to remove myself from this life sucking place; but for all my concentration I came up short, my life-support was gone.

"There must be something Kat?" I yelled. "What have we missed? We'll be lost years in that labyrinth!"

Busying himself with meditation, any tranquillity Kat found was disrupted by a new and unfamiliar voice.

"Assist you?" he asked us.

Rapidly, we turned to meet a blurry vision, the ghostly mirage of a man no more than forty years old with a handsome face, blonde hair curling to his shoulders and a turquoise gown draping over his slender body.

"Assist you?" he repeated, his smile kind and voice soft.

"Does everyone else see this?" I stuttered, gobsmacked. Thankfully all their heads nodded, and a careful Harmony was first to approached the glowing stranger. "Who are you?” she asked, her voice painfully dry. What… do you want here?"

"I am the poet,” he replied, an Italian flavour to his accent. "I assist souls in the under-realm. Virgil, here on behalf of an individual most anxious to see you arrive safely, and promptly at your destination."

"Individual?" I said, bewildered. "Who? And what do you know of our destination?"

"Your destination is the 9thFortress," he answered, "and the individual I represent prefers to remain anonymous. It is his wish."

"His?" pressed Kat, drawing the dusty katana from his belt. "Talk!"

Unconcerned, Virgil parted his arms to reveal two defenceless palms. "I am here to help you samurai Kat. Take it or leave it." He then drifted like the ghost he was through Eddinray, giving the knight a ticklish chill.

"How can you help?" I inquired. "What are you offering?"

"I offer water and advice to reach the 9th Fortress. That is all. For now."

Reluctant to accept, Harmony interrogated. "This is Hell, Virgil, is it not? What ploy is this? The assistance you offer sorely comes free here. What price for your water and advice?"

"The price," he returned, with a grin, "is your trust."

Having given that away cheaply before, I darted a vigilant eye to Kat. "You ever experienced this?"

He shook his cruel face, and his inexperience did nothing for my nerves.

"I am an honorable man,” said the vaporous Virgil, now presenting a heavy barrel of clear water with a single wave of his arm. Too weary to be impressed, the barrel was the length and width of a man, and our lips ached for the sweet, wetness of it.

"Fill,” he added, presenting four flasks underneath the barrel. "Fill till you can carry no more in your bellies or flasks."

"Poisoned?" pried a suspicious Eddinray. “You dare poison a knight of the realm!”

"It is untarnished," Virgil replied, "a token of gratitude to Harmony Valour."

"Me?" she asked, surprised. "A token from whom? I do not understand."

"The man responsible for this gift expressed great concern for your welfare. He would not see you perish under these suns."

Harmony scratched at her elbow and appeared nonplussed, but her eyes portrayed a different story: a secret.

"Who could it be?" I asked her. "Any ideas?"

She shrugged. Then all of a sudden, her cautious attitude toward the ghost took a swift change of course.

"If this man," she said, "whoever he is is so concerned about me, then I shan't disappoint him!"

She sampled the barrel's water, then raised a satisfied face and dripping wet lips a moment later. "It's good. So good."

Kat remained steadfast in his thirst while we went to clench ours. "Fools!" he barked. "Fools!"

"It is a fool who willingly dies of thirst!" argued Harmony, soaking her ropey hair. "It is perfectly safe."

"The ferryman set you at an inhospitable port,” said Virgil, moving to Kat.

"You must have upset the skeleton a great deal."

"That maggot!" Kat exclaimed, bitterly punching thin air.

Boldly, I devoured the water at the barrel, moistening every parched part. Virgil gestured the obstinate Kat toward it, and reluctantly the warrior approached, sipping a cupful from his palm. Not as much as he wanted, certainly not as much as he needed. "This…individual you represent?" I asked Virgil, better for the drink. "Can you tell us how he's connected to Harmony?"

Virgil moved like the breeze to show me a clear view of his fine face. Harmony listened, her body looking stiff at the barrel.

"I only have my instructions,” he said. "Below is the labyrinth. Many have gone mad in its maze or perished pursuing its treasure…Pray stay left of that labyrinth — left at all times will ensure your escape."

"And after?" I asked him, the others also intrigued. "What then for us?"

"At the labyrinth's end you will come across five doors. The second will lead you the quickest and safest route to the 9thFortress…That is my message. Farewell."

And he was gone in a shower of sprites, leaving us to share puzzled expressions. A disturbing gargle then interrupted the interweaving thoughts. "Pull him out!" cried Harmony, noticing Eddinray's head bubbling deep in the barrel. Kat heaved back the knight's shoulders and the Englishman's drip happy face emerged, his armor filling up.

"Lovely!” he rejoiced. “Anyone fancy joining me in a bath?"

Harmony gave a disapproving flick of her hair, and then set to filling the four flasks left by Virgil. I meanwhile moved Kat aside for a surreptitious word in his ear.

"Harmony…" I whispered; "she's not telling us everything."

"Do you tell her everything Fox?"

"No, but I've got a feeling. Someone down here has an eye on her, and I think she knows who…"

"What to do men?" she interrupted us, passing me an overflowing flask.

I mustered a smirk back, as Kat went to wash his face. "Stop here tonight," he said. "Tomorrow…we enter the labyrinth."

23. Kindred Spirits

The evening sky was ablaze — clouds on fire — and all of us rested near or next to each other to take it all in. Eddinray slouched with Harmony beside him. Kat looked suitably itchy against the barrel whilst I paced, pressing the bloodied cloth against my eye-socket and going over that monumental brainteaser below.

"Are you well, Daniel?" Harmony asked. "The eye?"

"It hurts,” I said, sorely. “That fucking wizard.”

"It is in the past,” Kat groaned. "The future promises worse."

I cursed him under my breath, sat myself on the cliff edge and dangled my feet to those yellow labyrinth lines a thousand feet south of me. Wondering what made it glow so hypnotically, Eddinray startled me by appearing at my right side, and then Harmony to my left.

"Do not feel grim,” she said, putting her arm around me. "If you hadn't come to that stockade then I'd still be caged today. I thank you for that, Daniel."

"Exactly!" beamed Eddinray. "And I insist that you cheer up, for I already have one grumpy guts in my gang,” He glanced back to our surly sentinel against the barrel.

"Your gang?" Harmony chuckled. "What hogwash you speak, Englishman!"

Their warmth inspired a grin from me, then a smile at their resulting squabble.

"Kat is leader in name only,” Eddinray argued. "His title is superficial and totally inappropriate considering the credentials of others here."

"You mean you?" she said, before planting a soft, and unwarranted kiss on my cheek.

"Where's my kiss?" the knight unashamedly asked. "Are my continued heroics not enough to deserve one?”

"It is not a question of deserve Godwin, but of formality. I would not dare kiss the leader! What would his subjects think? Not to mention the nobility who frown at favourites!"

"Fine!" he huffed back. "Danny boy, will give me a kiss, won't you Danny?"

"No!" I answered, through a snicker.

"Kiss the Kat," added Harmony; "it may cheer him up!"

Again, Eddinray peered back to the samurai warrior, only to meet a pair of black eyes wishing him a slow and excruciating death. With that then, and in much better spirits, we rested ourselves for the labyrinth

***

Kat's forehead slunk until chin touched his chest, and as his heavy eyelids closed to sleep, a spattering of water roused him. Irritable, he peered up at the barrel, and there saw a thirsty man taking his fill. When that new arrival removed his sopping face from the water, he experienced the sharp tip of a katana pressing against his swallowing Adam's apple.

Dark skinned and ripened by age and sun, the man's exposed torso was chiselled and decorated with elaborate tattoos. A red bandanna held a mop of straw hair at bay, and his dusty pants blew tassels down each leg. This barefooted Indian was armed with a useful looking longbow, and the quiver over his shoulder contained a dozen or more arrows. "Savage!" spat Kat. "Back away! Or I make a ghost of you!"

All of us light sleepers in Hell, we woke. Despite the threat of Kat's sword, the Indian aimed his fingertips toward the longbow, causing Kat to press his blade further into that throat.

"I never need a reason…" he hissed.

"Who are you?" asked Harmony, repulsed by the many dried scalps dangling from the Indian's belt.

Still holding eyes with Kat, the Indian moved his hand clear away from the bow. "Can a man clench his thirst?" he asked, voice low and respectful.

"Help yourself,” I answered, sitting up. "As much as you want."

"He already has!" complained Kat, lowering his sword. “Thief!”

"If you have one," pried Harmony, "pray tell us your name?"

The Indian dunked his leather flask into the barrel, then said. "I was once Goyathlay, then Geronimo. Now I am merely a nameless Apache who no longer wishes harm onto anyone."

"Where did you come from?" I said; while he took a satisfied guzzle from his bottle.

"I have come from the desert,” he returned, wiping the water from his lips. "The longest…desert."

He sat without invitation, seemingly untroubled by the peculiarity of our group. Then, crossing his legs over, he removed a crooked pipe and small pouch of leaves from his belt.

In silence and patience, we watched him part the leaves of the pouch, revealing a small tuft of purple moss. The Apache, who preferred to remain nameless, graciously smiled before stuffing the fat end of the pipe with his unusual stash. A match seemed unnecessary, for as soon as he took a drag from the pipe, a thick purple gas exhaled from his nostrils.

Enjoying his smoke, this individual seemed to know the workings of every cog around him.

Harmony appeared over Kat's shoulder now, whispering. "This man is okay."

Kat fixed her with a rapid scowl, and Harmony recoiled like a child to the always-willing side of Eddinray. I gave the Indian our names now, and apart from the uncompromising samurai, the others pleasantly nodded.

"Kat?" the Apache pondered, with a scratch at his chin. "Your story is common in all corners."

Unamused, Kat approached him and for a moment, I thought he was going to slap the pipe from our guest's lips. "What do you know of me savage?" he asked.

The Apache did not appear offended, or afraid of any confrontation. He was in fact, positively serene when he took another suck from his pipe. "I have been long in the fire,” he said. "They say Kat, that you are the only bird to ever fly from our nest. Yet here you are with us in the flesh."

"He did escape!" I said, feeling a strange urge to defend Kat's legend. To this, the Apache expressed a melting grin over his weathered face. "Fine company…is a rare blessing,” he said, mellow eyes investigating. "The labyrinth…is your destination?"

"None of your business,” the samurai snipped.

"Ah, yes!" Harmony exclaimed, embarrassed by Kat's rudeness. "We start tomorrow. Then onto the 9thFortress."

Outraged by her free flapping tongue, Kat kicked the barrel like he would Harmony's head. "What's the harm?" she shrugged back. "Seems everyone already knows where we're going!"

The Indian refilled his lungs and held the smoke in his system while he spoke.

"I have seen the angels of death dragging souls to the 9thFortress. I have heard the gruesome stories of what goes on there. Yet you seek it out? Why is this?"

"We have our reasons,” I said. "And what of you, friend? Do you have a destination?"

The thick-skinned man did not mind the question. "My spirit has no wish to leave Hell,” he returned, expelling the smoke from his nostrils. "Here is where I wander. In the pit is where I search for my Heaven."

"Heaven?" scoffed Eddinray. "Surely not here man!"

"Heaven," he beamed back, "is more than a kingdom in the clouds. It is wish — it is desire."

"And what do you desire?" asked Harmony, profoundly intrigued by him.

The Apache roamed an eye over his rough palms, and then whispered, "I no longer follow the warpath, and never will again. I seek something more than the blood of the Mexican or white man. I seek the rebirth and inner peace of a righteous heart. This is my wish. This is my desire."

We looked amongst ourselves, quietly impressed with this lost soul. "What is your wish?" he asked Kat, tapping his heel with an offering — his pipe and a puff from it. Kat expressed contempt that suggested refusal, but to our astonishment, he accepted the pipe and took it to his lips.

"To be heard,” he growled, filling his lungs with smoke. "Only that."

The drug's sensation lasted mere seconds on Kat's face, but long enough to show the softer side of it. Promptly regaining himself, he passed the pipe over to me.

Unconcerned, I placed it between my lips then shared my own wish — "To see her face again."

And sucking in smoke like a pro, I snorted it back out again like an adolescent. Embarrassed, I gave the pipe to Eddinray, who caressed it nervously.

"What's wrong?" I asked him, feeling ill myself.

"I can't,” he mumbled, after a gulp. "They make me…dizzy."

Kat blurted out an unmistakeable chuckle but instantly covered his mouth, as if clearing his throat of a nasty bug called humanity.

"Pass it here!" Harmony demanded, snatching it from the permanently pale knight.

"My dear!" he gawked. "You, you smoke?"

"Of course not!" she exclaimed. "But I will be part of this ceremony!"

Inhaling, Harmony revealed her wish for divine forgiveness then returned the pipe to the Apache, who enjoyed its last few whiffs of tranquillity. Fine company was indeed a rare blessing.

"Will you come with us?" I asked. "There's room for another. Who knows, you may even find your peace along the way."

"Adventure!" promised Eddinray. "Pearl too! Marvellous pearl!"

"And a way out of Hell,” I finished. "Kat will lead us."

"Yes!" Urged Harmony. "You will travel with us! It's settled then."

Packing away his pipe and pouch, the Apache stood creakily from his crossed legs, securing the longbow over his shoulder. "Is this true?" he asked Kat, genuinely interested. "You truly found a way out?"

The idea of escape was something I assumed Kat would take care of, that it was all in his good hands — until he dropped this bombshell. "That route is now impossible. I know of no other way out of Hell."

Staggered, and with no further explanations from Kat, I could not contain my anger and frustration. "That was the task Newton set you!" I yelled at his cold face. "To escort me to Hell and back, Harmony and Eddinray now included! I don't understand you Kat, how can there be no way out? Tell us your route? Go on! How did you escape this shit hole in the first place?"

All of us doubting his legend now, Kat didn't care about our opinions, or our questions.

"My way," he said, agitated; "was one way. I will not discuss the matter."

"Then…we are stuck here?" whimpered Harmony. "There must be a way. Why, there must!"

"There is,” spoke the Indian, our fear and desperation somehow dissipating before his calm aura. I hoped his joining us would add this much-needed virtue to our group. "The Gauntlet,” he said, stretching a finger far beyond the labyrinth. "Every soul who ever attempted the run has found their flesh ground against its teeth. I have never come across this trial of trials myself, but if you do, remember that your body is precious — it is all we have left now."

"Then the Gauntlet is our way,” I said, resolved. "How do we find it?"

"The Kat found his way," the Indian returned; "if it is God's wish, you will find yours." He then approached the labyrinth steps.

"Come with us!" I called to him.

"Thank you for the water,” he stopped to say, his smile followed by a final, courteous nod.

Kat and the Apache had two prominent things in common: both were leaders of men, and both were lost in Hell. We watched the mysterious Indian continue barefoot down the steps and toward the labyrinth, his potent smoke lingering long after.

***

No trace of skylight penetrated the labyrinth floor. It was narrow down here with damp walls easily beating thirty feet. We started through a corridor of considerable length, occasionally passing robust iron grates a body in length, and wafting up a volcanic heat. These grates held our weight over them, and looking down through the pattern of iron bars, one could see the mixing cauldron at this realm's very core.

"Ghastly,” said Harmony, rubbing the burn from her bare arms.

Surprisingly, the labyrinth did not keep us long before offering a choice in direction. We had reached a fork, with stone curving right and an identical corridor curving left. Customarily, Kat made the decisions, and going against the advice of Virgil, he settled for a right turn.

"We've passed twenty seven grates now,” said a weary Eddinray, some time later. "Am I the only one expecting some awful beastie to leap hungrily out from each?"

"This is nothing more than a garden maze,” returned Harmony, face perspiring. "Imagine Godwin that you are attending a grand tea party held by Louis the 14th. The palace of Versace awaits us!"

"Better the awful beastie!" he remarked. "That pompous king of yours would stretch my English neck on site!"

The journey continued through this complicated meander, and there would be no arguing with Kat over direction. Randomly he chose now — left or right corridors, whatever took his fancy. The labyrinth was all the more difficult to navigate as there was not a single distinctive feature to guide us. Nothing but Kat's fickle instinct.

"I spy with my little eye," said Eddinray, drowning out the eerie click of our footsteps over the grates, "something that begins with?" (Thinking) Nope. My mind is barren!"

"Oh, can I have a go?" asked Harmony, enthusiastically. "I spy with my little eye, something that begins with R. R for rabbit!"

"Is it a rabbit?" said Eddinray.

"Nope,” she grinned back.

"A relic?" he guessed, waggling a thumb to Kat's back.

"Nope."

"Is it a rock? A rapscallion perhaps? I'm right, aren't I?"

"Nope!"

"A radish then?" he said, frustrated. "It must be a radish!"

Harmony rolled the eyes in her head. "Godwin, I can scarcely imagine a radish in Hell! I won't play with a silly person!"

"Rigmarole?" he quipped. "Certainly feels like it."

"Shush!" yelled Kat, turning to stop the pair on their toes. "Enough of this…jabber! Enough of it!"

Eddinray and Harmony sheepishly shrunk to appease the infuriated samurai, who after an alignment of the topknot, resumed his quiet lead

***

We had been long in the labyrinth, like zombies through the monotony. I attempted to keep spirits up during this march by recounting the various cases I had worked on as a detective in 21st century Earth. The memories came to mind with a crisp freshness, but hardly one worth remembering — crime prevention was a dirty business after all. One particular story however seemed to spark their interest — the adulterous case of a husband who butchered his wife. "What drives one to kill?" Harmony pondered.

"Such violence boggles the mind."

After an awkward silence from us men, I felt obliged to answer. "In my experience Harmony, two things drive people to murder: love and money. Or in most cases, the love of money."

"Defending ones life!" added Eddinray. "Sometimes my dear, one is left no choice."

Harmony had little time to consider the subject, for Kat jogged ahead to a smudge of something new. With volts of excitement, we rest upped the pace, hoping to see the end of this tiresome conundrum.

"Well done Kat!" Harmony exclaimed, delighted. "Your instincts are second to none! How did you know?"

He didn't. All hope was lost as we arrived at the foot of many steps, the very same we had descended several hours ago. "Knew it!" I moaned, holding an accusing eye at Kat. "We should have stuck to the left! Like we were damn told! Shit!"

I stepped back to control my temper, as a deflated Eddinray slumped to one knee. It was now Harmony's turn to raise group moral. She tried, but didn't have the words or the heart for it

***

His grating voice spirited us from our bleak dejection. An alien voice.

"Lost your way?"

A humped figure was hobbling down those steps behind us. His entire form was concealed under a damp hanging cloak, and his left arm supported all his weight on a staunch looking spear. I thought it was the Ferryman at first, but only at first; there was no coiling snake around this man's hand, and no rattling bones as he walked.

"Who are you?" demanded Kat, standing to arm himself.

The twisted form remained silent as he took a fragile step and limp down the last remaining steps.

"Move no closer!" Kat warned him, the katana blocking his path. "Who are you?"

The creature's fingers curled and clung for life around the spear, his flesh of his hand a grassy green and prickly with hair. "I seek a favour." he said, drained and ancient underneath his cloth. "My name is Wisp — merchant in Hell-fire. I trade blades and bows, the rarest and latest weapons. I see the man there has a very unusual blade by his thigh. May I have a closer inspection?"

I put a protective palm over my soul-destroying dagger. "It ain't for sale."

"Show me your weapons!" Kat ordered the merchant, with no intention of buying or selling. "Do it now!"

"Alas," the thing returned, "I have none but this spear to support me." He coughed what appeared to be more hair into his already furry palm. "I was robbed crossing the deserts — my horses, my stock, all taken by the sand dwellers. I killed twelve before I was overcome, but nevertheless escaped with my soul intact."

Confused by his predicament, Wisp leant rather pitifully against the wall for air.

"What favor do you seek from us?" I asked, feeling sorry for him.

"I am in search of resurgence,” he wheezed, painfully. "My body…is frail, you see. Only the labyrinth holds the key to my renewal. With the dangers that lay ahead and my current condition, I cannot achieve this feat alone. If you will see me safely to the centre of this web, each of you will be handsomely rewarded. Very handsomely indeed."

We were intrigued, but far from interested…Yet.

"Why our help?" pressed Harmony. "You don't know us. Why, we could be out to rob you ourselves!"

Wisp gargled. Under that cloak, he sounded more animal than anything else. "A samurai, a knight, angel and man; such unions are made in Heaven not Hell. I have seen most Hell has to offer, and I see in all but one, that hearts are good here."

It wasn't difficult to deduce who the bad heart in our group belonged too. Kat did not appear insulted. Although he had killed for less, there was something about Wisp that Kat clearly warmed too.

"Tell me," I pried; "what lies at the centre of the labyrinth? We saw its light from above. What is it?"

The odd creature stepped and limped forward, and with a face of vacuous shade, he bent to share his secret. "The well,” he grumbled. "The light…and the well."

Kat's gasp shocked me, and Wisp responded with the merest dip of his cloaked head. Harmony and Eddinray were as open faced and nosey as I was, and Wisp didn't keep us waiting.

"Every sentenced soul in Hell,” he began, “has at one point, knowingly or unknowingly, drank the wells water. It is dispensed from the labyrinth centre in various forms: showered through droplets in the air itself, or distributed by the black angels alongside their death and despair. The well water is circulated to reach all who deserve incarceration, and here it contains them."

"What does it do?" whispered Eddinray. "What can it do?"

Wisp coughed again and stumbled sickly against his spear. "It gives the suffering…a threshold. One sip and the body can withstand the most unimaginable torture. The mind will feel, but the body survives. Perpetual suffering is the way of things here, and the well and its light make eternal torment possible. Drink enough of the water, knight, and it is said to replenish ones youth and vitality — the Holy Grail itself. All this awaits a mere few walls away…"

I knew now why the decayed Wisp desired such a gift, but I was still indifferent to this crazy side quest.

"That's not why we're here,” I said. "We don't seek any treasure, especially one found in Hell. I'm sorry Wisp, but we can't help you…"

Wisp gave me a respectful wave. "To find the greatest treasures," he said, "one must endure the worst hardships. I see by your eye that you know exactly what I am talking about."

I turned the left side off my face from his sight. I didn't need reminding of the worm's post or the bluntness of Scarfell's knife.

"I too have been through much hardship,” Wisp added. "The body has been ravaged by various forms of fire and brimstone. My health will be restored by the well…as will your eye to you. Alternatively, do you humans seek something greater? The way out perhaps? I can, if you so desire, lead you there."

With a gasp similar to Kat's a moment ago, I looked greedily back to Wisp. I wanted my eye back, course I did, but I coveted the Gauntlet even more. "You know where to find the Gauntlet? You know where it is?"

"I do," he answered, "but I dare not run it."

"We go to the well,” interrupted Kat, still making our decisions for us. "You have a deal with us creature. Do not break it!"

I did not like nor understand Kat's sudden hunger for this well, the man seemed drunk on the preposterous power of it. "Why do you want this Kat?" I asked, taking him aside. "Why…would we want it?"

His expression scrunched queerly, as if I was insane for not understanding his motives. "Your task is the 9th Fortress," he grizzled back; "mine is to get you there in one piece. The well guarantees both."

His brief argument sounded reasonable enough — insurance you could say. Fill the flasks with this miracle water and insure the bodies I dragged down here, whilst gaining the vital location of the Gauntlet.

"What do you think?" I asked Harmony and Eddinray, who shrugged unhelpfully.

"The well…for the Gauntlet,” I said, agreeing terms with Wisp by shaking his hairy hand. And so we five set off along the confined corridors of the labyrinth, eyes ever sharper — for the jewel of invincibility will not come cheap…or unguarded.

24. War

Apprehensively, Kat was led by Wisp, and following that beaten old tire took time. I stuck to the lagging group with Eddinray and Harmony, and it seemed only I was confused by Kat's sudden shine to the merchant. Ahead, those warriors passed words with occasional nods of agreement and unheard of smiles from the samurai.

"You believe that?" I whispered. "I've been with Kat forever. We've climbed mountains together for God-sake, fought a Centaur king; he even cut my toes off at one point! Yet there he is…having more conversation with a stranger than he ever has with me!"

The Angel and Knight shared wiry grins. "No need to be jealous,” Harmony said. "Besides, I'm sure Kat likes you the best."

"How many toes?" asked Eddinray. "Have a falling out then?"

"It's a long story. And I'm not jealous of Wisp, okay?"

"We know Daniel,” added a condescending Harmony, causing me to stop them both.

"I am not jealous! Guys this is not about being popular, I just don't understand it, that's all. The Apache was the same ilk as Kat, why not show him the respect he's giving Wisp now?"

"Perhaps our Indian friend was too similar to the samurai?" Harmony considered. "A threat to Kat's leadership?"

"Leadership," Eddinray pointed out; "requires a commanding of communication my dear, which the Kat is clearly lacking."

"Wisp on the other hand," continued Harmony, "is an older warrior, an alien thing with no territory to mark, a merchant making a trade and keen to share his wisdom. Why wouldn't Kat embrace this?"

"He's still a stranger,” I said, expecting them to agree; but all I got was another joke-like grin between the pair. "It is not jealousy!"

"Sometimes it's best to talk to a stranger,” said Eddinray. "They do not judge a man…Not out loud at least."

"Yes,” added the angel. "They share experience those two, surviving danger and death at every turn. The Kat and Wisp are kindred spirits."

"I also share their experience!" insisted Eddinray. "But they are not as gallant as I. They are blood thirsty killers clearly, having nothing of the moral dilemma that tortures the gentleman warrior, who kills because he has too, not because he wants too."

It was now Harmony and my turn to share smiles. "Thanks,” I said. "Don't know where I'd be without you two."

"I do,” answered Eddinray, with complete confidence. "Danny you'd be in the belly of the Scurge, and Harmony you'd be locked away in a wizard's cage — if it weren't for me that is."

"And we thank you very much indeed!" cried Harmony, exasperated. "Godwin, there are times when you need a good kick up the backside!"

My laugh was cut short by the sight of maggots, slithering up a crack of labyrinth stone. Rodents came next, scurrying every so often along rails with their chubby bodies and wiggling tails.

"Filthy things!" complained Eddinray, attempting a swipe at them.

"You fear them?" inquired Harmony.

Her innocent question caused the knight's body to seize up, his ego badly bruised by her assumption. "A man of my abilities fearing a little rat?" he choked. "The suggestion is comical!"

"It is far from a comical matter,” she replied. "I detest worms, and they are even smaller than rats!"

"You fear worms?" he chortled back. "My dear darling angel, what a precious little sprite you are!"

Eddinray then let out a brief, feminine shriek as one rat squiggled between his legs. Amused, we three hurried on Kat's order to join him and Wisp at another fork in the labyrinth — the hunched over Wisp taking the right route with a step and limp, a step and limp.

We took the following left and were left speechless by the new corridor of horror on display. Walls were no longer made of stone, but of living bodies — men, woman, and children lashing their bare arms and legs. This was the Hell we'd all been waiting for, the Hell one cannot prepare for.

"The wall of tears,” said Wisp, grimly. "Be careful on your way."

Aghast, Harmony and Eddinray covered their mouths at this vision of screwed up skin and jammed together faces. Although I could not see Wisp's expression, I assumed it was similar to Kat's — emotionless, like the dull doctor examining his hundredth patient that day.

"Save us!" one yelled. "Save us! The flood!"

"Single file,” advised Kat, starting through the narrow gap between their outstretched fingertips.

"Help me!" begged a young woman.

"She can't be more than sixteen years old!" said Harmony, mortified. "And the children, these poor children! What could they have done to warrant such a sentence?"

"There are no children here,” said Wisp, over his shoulder. "Look closer angel…do not let them trick you into their forlorn hands. This is what they want."

These words in mind, I surveyed the face of what I thought was a child, and repellently, that young expression instantly wrinkled old and toothless before me.

"How did they get here?" asked Eddinray, bringing up the rear.

"We wander insignificantly in the labyrinth," answered Wisp, "as these souls did in life. Aimlessly frittering ones time away with no cares, no hopes or dreams. They are waste. All of it waste."

"The flood!" they moaned. "Coming! Do not leave us to it! Pull me from this! No more!"

"Eternity they spend in the wall of tears," concluded Wisp; "and the hands of time move slow here."

The merchant ignored them, as did his new disciple, Kat. Unfortunately, Harmony, Eddinray and I were not as thick skinned.

"Do not leave us!"

"It's coming!"

"The flood!"

"God help us!"

"You help us!"

Caught off guard, Harmony was suddenly snatched by the wrist and pulled into a frenzy of tugging arms and skewed faces. A stubbly man with a hairy chest held onto her, and lustfully he gorged over her unblemished skin.

"Alright my darling'" he said, his lips dotted with sores. "How about a rub?"

"Help!" she grimaced, fighting him. "Godwin!"

Already on the case, the knight was in amongst them. The monster clutching Harmony meanwhile lovingly slobbered his tongue over her mouth. "Been a long time since I've tasted a woman!" he groaned. "A long time!"

Incensed, Eddinray whaled, slicing the groper's arms from the wall. He then yanked Harmony by the wings and safely from the walls clutches. Gasping, the pair watched as those decapitated limbs rejoined the wall of tears with a slithering will of their own. The large creep then laughed, trying to tempt Harmony back with his tongue.

"Fiend!" roared Eddinray, preparing to stab that face.

"No Godwin!" Harmony cried, taking hold of him. "He's not worth it. None of them are."

"She's right,” I said, looking back. "Be more careful! Come on!"

And so we continued in stricter formation. Word quickly passed around the wall that we travellers were not here to help, thus their begging ended, and a vile barrage of cursing and spitting began.

"You scum! You dirty, filthy scum!"

"Better than us? You're no better than us you rotten knight! You stupid, prick ugly samurai!"

"Hells high and fucking mighty coming through!"

"There's a boy over there! You'd leave a child to face the flood? A child?"

"They'd leave their own mothers this lot!"

"Keep walking you selfish bastards! That's right, and don't look back!"

Thankfully, we found their cursing easier to ignore.

The lamenting tapestry stretched onto exhaustion, and we five endured it without rest or conversation. Relief came when Wisp led us a curving right turn and finally away from the morbid sights, if not sounds — we would be hearing their pathetic whining in the background for some time yet.

This fresh section of the labyrinth had no wall of tears, but those numerous iron grates at our feet, and the remains of recent travellers bunched in mounds against the walls. Across our path lay one ravaged corpse. There was a longbow over the bile and guts, a quiver full of arrows and a red bandanna. There was also the blood, spattered liberally.

"It's him!" yelled Harmony, running to the pieces.

"A friend of yours?" asked Wisp, recovering his old breath.

"We knew him,” I said, gathering round. "Christ, there's nothing left…"

Apart from weapons, there was no identifying trace of the Apache in this collection of organs and bones, but we all knew it was him. "The perils of the labyrinth,” said Wisp. "Experience is not nearly enough."

The green-skinned merchant crouched to wander his hand over the bloodied chunks.

"The soul has moved onto something very small,” he said. "A fly perhaps. There is nothing we can do for him now."

Sombre faced, Harmony bent to retrieve the bandanna "We never should have let him go,” she said, folding it through her fingers.

"Take his weapon,” Kat ordered, prodding her clasp. "You have none."

"I can't do that!" she exclaimed. "It is disrespectful! Besides, I cannot use a longbow."

"Neither could he,” was Kat's cold-hearted reply, flippancy that made my blood boil.

"Where is your respect?" I asked, thumping my fist against his red chest plate.

Kat warned me with his squint, slapped away my fist then strode for the next bend, with Wisp hobbling after him.

"Take the longbow Harmony,” I said, scowling at Kat's back. "It's not right to use it, but it wouldn't be right to leave it."

"Go on dear,” added Eddinray. "You do need to arm yourself here."

Reluctantly, Harmony picked up the longbow from the pieces and secured the quiver over her shoulder. "I will see part of you out of here,” she said, wrapping the red bandanna around her forehead, holding back her golden fringe and hardening an otherwise wholesome appearance.

"Suits you,” said Eddinray, with a hollow smile.

Walking to Kat, I searched his face for the warmth I had seen before, but there was none of it now. "You don't care about a thing do you?" I asked, watching spittle drool down the prickly hairs of his chin. He didn't wipe it, but brushed me off to take the turn with Wisp.

"Your friends are a high spirited lot,” I heard Wisp say.

"They," he snarled back, "are not my friends."

***

Blood mired our way past corpses old and new. Greedy rodents scavenged through theses remains and left with what they could between their front teeth. "Appalling,” gawked Eddinray. "What villainous abomination could cause such gruesome destruction?"

"Perhaps that?" Harmony suddenly croaked, recoiling at the snivelling creature stood not ten feet away.

I thought it was a man at first, because some of it was. Holding two curved blades, its human body was as greasy and burly as any wrestlers, but at the neck grew the oversized head of a rat. Two fur-less ears pointed to the sky, it had a protruding snout with sprouting whiskers and a snarling mouth full of razors and disease. Kat removed his sword then rushed back to defend us. With a hurried step and limp, Wisp came too whilst Harmony screamed at another half man/half rat, arriving behind.

"What are they?" I yelled, arming my short sword.

"Our home!" hissed one. "Our home!"

"Just passing through!" stuttered Eddinray. "And may I say what a pretty home you have!"

"Our home!" both freaks repeated, moving in on us.

Kat swivelled his katana and the spear of Wisp threatened the air, but the rodent man facing them showed no fear, and presently sprang for the old merchant's unseen face. A match for the mutant, Wisp thrust the spear forward to stick his enemy's throat. The mousy man dropped with a gargle, and Wisp finished it off with a skewer through hair and guts. Impressed by Wisp's swift strength, Kat and I faced the last of them.

"Our home!" he said, retreating. "Our home…”

Back and back this cowardly rat went until disappearing behind a corner.

"There will be more,” Wisp panted. "Too many."

"Then let's get a move on,” I said, with shifty eyes. So faster Kat lead us down hopeful corridors to heart sinking dead ends, encountering no well, no super-sized rodents or anything else. It was only when our quest for the centre seemed futile, when we questioned the point most in our minds, that we turned a right corner, and were startled by pure starlight. At last, we had reached the heart of the labyrinth…

"Beautiful,” gasped Wisp, stumbling. "It is beautiful."

And certainly it was. A healing aroma of syrupy light and tickling pixie dust, the well was a sumptuous garden feature in the middle of a circular stoned enclosure. Like the hedonistic bath of a Roman Emperor, its glazed water were filled to the brim and a rainbow arose from it, shooting beads of health off to the further reaches of Hell, and the souls needing them most. In awe, we stood before its majesty, that resurgent life force.

"Made it old man,” said Kat, patting Wisp's hunched over back.

The craggy merchant drooped both shoulders under that tortured cloak — long had he searched for this treasure, and we had found it for him. He limped alone from our group with the spear flopping in his withered hand. I found myself escorting him with a lone eyeball fixed on the enchanted water — could it really repair my sight?

"You first,” said Wisp, placing a palm of green hair on my back. "Please…"

A hungry grin curved at the corner of my mouth, but I refused. "This was your quest Wisp. You'll be first."

The others shared my opinion — my eye could wait a few minutes for this creature to regain his former glory. Taking a grateful bow, Wisp lumbered forth to the pool of diamonds. The spirit of the well seemed to know whenever a soul approached, for it reacted with popping bubbles to this weary presence.

Three wide steps led up to the water, and Wisp took his time with each; we heard his brutal heaving under the weight of the cloak before at last, he conquered the last step. The water was far from welcoming and ready to open my mouth with encouragement, I need not have bothered — Wisp audaciously leapt into the bath, and was instantly consumed. Hurrying to the stony edge, we searched through the churning bubbles to see nothing of Wisp.

Two minutes past, and worry set in.

"He must be drowning!" cried Harmony. "It is water after all!"

Ten seconds later, I decided to take action with a run up the three steps. "I'm going in!" I yelled, the water reacting ferociously now.

"Behind you!" blared Eddinray, causing my insides to spasm. I turned to see one dishevelled rat man stuck like a spider to the wall. All of me froze as that vermin kicked itself off from the stone with a mouth closing in for my face. Shutting my eye to the inevitable, I suddenly felt a spray of hot liquid drench me.

Trembling, I glanced an alarming peek to discover my clothes now covered in the blood of the rat, and Kat standing over its corpse with a dripping katana.

"There!" announced Harmony, petrified. "And there!"

More came sniffing around the corner, dozens upon dozens into the centre of the labyrinth.

"Our home!"

We were surrounded, the filthy filling the grounds and sticking to every available plot of stone.

"I feel we're done for!" Eddinray wheezed. "Absolutely!"

Hastily, Harmony removed an arrow from the quiver, pulled it back on the longbow and fired. "Cumbersome thing!" she moaned, as the arrow hit granite.

"Our home!"

Without warning, a violent scream — the raw sound of a being born again — erupted from the well water. Godly light exploded over the circular enclosure, startling all the rats away. We four covered our eyes until the blast had settled, and with the rats gone, the regenerated body of Wisp was free from its cloak, and revealed to us.

From that point, everything moved in frame-by-frame slow motion. The most disturbing scene played out before me now as I witnessed the spear of Wisp bore like a drill through the centre of Kat's face. "For Grutas!" said Scarfell, tugging his lance free from the wound then examining Kat's brains on the blade.

The samurai dropped dead. Blood flowed from his open skull as a triumphant Scarfell stepped away from the wells shimmering illumination. "No!" I chocked. "It can't be…"

No longer was the wizard's flesh burnt to a crisp, no longer was he old and fragile — but younger, virile, and all our doing.

"Kat!" shrieked Harmony, rushing to his twitching body and falling to her knees. Blood soaked her gown through as she shook him, but nothing could be done. The samurai was beyond hope.

"He's gone Harmony!" screamed Eddinray, pulling at her shoulders. "Gone!"

I slithered in a shambles down the steps and away from the wizard, ripping out my sword and taking a chunk from my own chin in the melee. I cried out, pressing my hand over the wound.

"No one to save you!" Scarfell announced. "No-one at all boy!"

He reached out for me, so upward I swung my blade, snapping the spear in pieces from Scarfell's hand. I then lunged at the wizard, but he kicked up his feet and flew — flew — over my head, magically levitating above the labyrinth walls to observe the chaos he created.

"Come back here!" I roared. "You fucking coward!"

"I will be waiting for you Fox!" he replied, laughing. "At the end…I'll be waiting!"

Promptly, Scarfell disappeared in a puff of scarlet mist, and spinning sick, my mind sped through thoughts and consequences — Scarfell alive — Kat dead. Numb, I glanced at Harmony, watching her emotional wreck attempt to drag Kat's dead bulk up the three well steps.

"Of course!" I exclaimed and springing from my heap I snatched Kat's cold wrist whilst Harmony pulled on the other. Together, we grunted and hauled him up those remaining steps as Eddinray held out his sword to the returning rats. "Come!" he dared. "Taste my fury!"

"No!" panted Harmony, grief stricken as Kat's body began to break down and sift through our fingers. We could no longer grip him, his whole now melting to the faint ball of blue plasma. Quickly and without another thought, I snatched this speck of life in my hand and leapt with a splash into the well water.

Shell-shocked, Harmony turned to witness the hairy masses swarming a lonely Eddinray.

"Our home!"

Mincing her teeth, Harmony joined Eddinray's side, and steadying an arrow on the longbow, she fired at the nearest. "Together!" said Eddinray, fending off one as the well blustered with activity, a gassy outrage of bubbles shooting me out as fast as I dove in.

I thumped stone hard and drenched, and to my astonishment, could already feel the blinking lid in my left eye. I vigorously tore the wrappings from my face and was staggered by the perfect vision in both my eyes. I could even feel all the wiggling toes returned to my foot. This was black magic, an unholy miracle; but I didn't mind.

"Help us Danny!" yelled a perturbed Eddinray, deflecting a rat's blunt hook. Dripping wet, I scuttled to their side, shielding off rodents with slash after slash. "Get back!" I screamed, chipping them away.

I hacked and hacked with more power than I've ever had in my arm, my sword hand pulsating, unadulterated adrenaline pumping through my system, urging me to kill more and more and more! My companions, although far from pulsating, kept up their ends. Harmony gave up on the longbow and simply held her arrows like knives, stabbing any close. The knight meanwhile struggled to deal with one of the larger rats taking an unwelcome fancy to him.

"Off!" he moaned. "I'll run you all through!"

More came, and more over them, too many to see off. For all their overwhelming numbers, my sword did not stop. My wrist seared from overuse, and already I could feel this brief talent drain from me as human bodies with rat heads began to shroud the light. They were everywhere.

The second scream from the well caused every living thing to stand rigid — the wrenching ululation of something wicked. Kat burst from the water in a tremendous explosion of light and sound — and removing both swords in flight, he landed with a crunch of stone under his feet. There, the man smouldered — recovered in body, but pathological in mind.

The samurai raised a queer brow to the odious mob, wearing a fresh and disfiguring scar down one whole side of his face. He saw their claws, smelt their breath, and thus began the slaughter. Kat destroyed every rat near and not near him, a steel tornado leaving destruction in his wake. Death cries were high pitched and excruciating, and it didn't take a minute for Kat to eviscerate, behead, and vanquish every one of them. He was superlative, superhuman, the devil incarnate. Once finished, he slunk famished, then observed his massacre with a still, insane satisfaction.

After a moment, we three came over our friend in deadened disbelief, the flesh and hairy parts piled around us like a mass grave. The blood of the rats smeared gooey greens over the labyrinth floor, and there Kat sat and soaked in it, those trench eyes of his trapped open, not blinking nor flinching. He held this glacial expression for too long, and remarkably, just one bead of sweat dribbled down his temple.

With open arms, I diligently bent to him. "Kat?" I whispered. "Kat?"

"Your body was gone,” said Harmony, keeping her distance. "Daniel saved you…"

I shook my head. "Not me Harmony. The well."

Eddinray was highly strung, restlessly jerking and winking. "Well?" he yelled. "Are you alive, man? Say something!"

Bending down to the petrified warrior, Kat's predator eyes made contact with mine to once again inspire a curdling in my stomach. I placed a gentle hand on his knee, and spoke as softly as my voice would allow.

"You're okay Kat. Do you understand?"

At last, he blinked, and then stood like David to his feet.

"Fill flasks,” I said, quickly. "We get the hell out of here now."

We guzzled down the remaining barrel water from our flasks, and all but Harmony refilled them with the miraculous well water. We would need every drop.

25. The Flood

Grazing my hand on the left wall, I took the lead and Virgil's advice, while the youthful face of Scarfell played in and out of my mind. The witch told me he had the power to come and go between realms whenever he pleased, but it never once occurred to me that it could be his face under that disguise. He had us all fooled.

From time to time, I would peer at Kat, concerned. He appeared half-alive at my side, caught in some mental paralysis between the living and dead. There was no obvious problems with his physique, but there was something wrong with his presence, a part broken.

"Must be close,” I said, pushing them hard. "How long has it been?"

"We should rest Daniel," suggested Harmony, the sweat sapping her bandanna "This exertion is intolerable."

They were ready to drop, but we couldn't stop. Not here. I now felt the weight of leadership bare down on my shoulders. It was a heavy burden, and with Kat giving no hint, order or opinion — it was definitely mine.

"There!" bawled Eddinray, pointing out a rodent, crawling at speed toward us.

Grunting, I cut a slash up the creature's chest, leaving its bloody graffiti on the wall. This incident appeared to shunt Kat out of his mind; a lively focus came back to his eyes, and they honed in on those now swarming over the labyrinth rims.

"Our home! Our home!"

"Arm yourselves!" cried a primal Kat. "Run!"

"Run!" I repeated, setting off in a frenzied charge, blocking claw, teeth and hook with my sword. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

"Cover my back!" Kat ordered Harmony and Eddinray. "Hear me?"

Troubled by their silence, I searched back to see Eddinray rolling on the deck with a rat snapping down on top of him. Harmony stood over their tussle, kicking the rat's ribs.

"Use your arrows!" I screamed, returning to them. "Harmony! Your arrows!"

Eddinray manoeuvred his panting face to the left and to the right — all the time avoiding the malignant mouth over him. Unaware that I had left his side, Kat fought like a powerhouse ahead, parting heads from bodies on his way forward.

Endeavouring to remove an arrow from her quiver, Harmony failed to see a scavenging rat at her blind side. Seeing it for her, I flung my short sword spinning through the air, hurtling past the angel's ear and finishing in the rat's heart, if it had one.

"Up!" I exclaimed, forcing the knight to his feet before recovering my sword from the dead body. Glancing high, the blood froze in my veins when I witnessed a vast number of rodents filling the labyrinth.

"Don't stop swinging!" I said; and full of resilience, Eddinray and I began to carve a path through rats whilst Harmony shot her arrows. We couldn't see Kat any-more, so arriving at the next fork, we continued following Virgil's advice.

"A cave ahead!" shrieked Harmony, after the left turn. "There! There!"

It was a serrated scar cut into a dead-end, like someone attempting to make an exit when there was none. With the pack fast on our heels and no other options, we three dashed desperately into that dark crack.

***

The surface was not sturdy, but a spongy, pliable soil. Rats bunched behind at a careful pace, almost ushering us in. I detested the smiles on their dribbling gobs, as if they knew they'd be eating well tonight.

"I'm scared,” mumbled Harmony, her voice bouncing off the jagged stone here.

"We all are,” I said. "Kat! You in here?"

Observing nothing but the rats, we stumbled over the strewn organ pieces, juice-less eyeballs and stinking bowels left uneaten at our feet.

"Our home!" they hissed, and Harmony screamed upon noticing the six creatures, appearing out of nowhere to block any progress through the cave. Six behind, hundreds in-front — we where emphatically surrounded.

"Back cannibal!" demanded the knight, his sword flailing. "Get! Scram!"

Harmony pulled arrows back on the bow and killed anything slithering, Eddinray and I meanwhile struggled to hold the distance between us and them.

"Our home!"

"Get out of it!" I growled, but on their turf, they closed the net. "We take out the back group!" I panted. "They're only six!"

"Five!" exclaimed Harmony, firing into that half dozen to strike one in the neck. We then cut through that lot in unison, and into deeper, darker territory.

***

In the labyrinth corridors, and with longer and shorter swords bloody, Kat was clustered by starving killers. He took a second to centre himself, then, in concentrated and precise fashion, he dismantled them a piece at a time. His whole seemed encompassed in the sharp tips of those swords — the steel his eyes and ears, the hilt his heart and soul, and he made light work of all comers.

Hairy rats receding, Kat lowered his weapons to refill his overworked lungs. Caked head to foot in blood and mucus, he stepped from the mangled and tangled he'd just annihilated, then huffed — “Who…will…die…next?"

The hissing hungry reinforced for a final, mammoth attack. Unyielding, Kat pressed a finger against his nose, blew out the snot blocking the nostril — then repeated his question: "Who will die next?"

The further we ventured into this grotto of glassy rock and dripping glob, the more cadavers we past, and fouler the stench became. Everything changed when we splashed head first into a wide puddle of ooze — constricting walls ballooned to ceilings of transparent slime, and strangely, the salivating pack behind us strayed no further than the puddle, it acting like a barrier separating us from them.

There was only one lurking rat in this exposed area, and instinctively, I cut a wound across its belly. The creature screeched like a human would, and standing over it now, I hesitated in the kill. Spread under me was the writhing face of an older female, all wrinkly skin and weary eyes. Her body however was that of the rat — overly large, hair wet with gunk and heaving grotesquely at the gut.

"What is it?" asked Harmony, terrified.

"What was it?" I returned, raising my sword to finish it off.

"Stop!" the thing gargled at me, caressing her prickly belly with a grimace and falling tear down her cheek. "Asss! Do not kill! My babies…"

As if obeying some earlier restraining order, the army of rats remained, absolutely seething before the puddle. "You nurture these things?" asked Harmony, crouching closer to the woman.

"Asss!" she nodded, with a painfully warped expression.

"Good!" I cried; "then they've something to lose!"

Seizing a chunk of her hair, I pressed my blade to her throat and dragged the ratty woman to her feet.

"Steady on, Danny!" said Eddinray, appalled by my behaviour "She is a woman after all!"

"Did you count the bodies on the way in?" I asked him, annoyed. "Don't be fooled thinking there's humanity here Eddinray, and I've been through too much shit to be eaten alive in this fucking mouse trap! Got it?"

With no way out but the way we came in, I scrutinized those incensed rats at the puddle, pulled back on the hybrid's hair, then slowly manoeuvred her forward.

"Stay close!" I advised my jumpy friends. "Be ready for anything!"

Harmony shot an arrow into the face of a rat too close for comfort, and the rest duly backed off when the angel aimed her next at the bulging belly of the woman — their mother and queen who said — "What want you…hu — man? Asss!"

"Call off your children!" I demanded. "We are leaving your home…"

***

Wearisomely Kat cut them down, but with tenacity decreasing and guard faltering, his demise looked inevitable. Suddenly however, before Kat's force field could be penetrated, the rats halted their assault and without explanation, ran down corridors like scared children. Kat stood rightly bewildered, bloody, depleted, and for the very first time…realized he was alone.

***

I reached the serrated exit with my sword in one hand and the hybrid's hair tangled through the other. Rats followed the instruction of their mother, keeping a reasonable distance without another swipe at us. Harmony and Eddinray were extremely anxious at my arms, expecting any underhand surprise.

"Daniel?" whispered Harmony, trembling. "The moment you release her, this army will — "

"I know it!"

"So what do we do?"

Exiting the cave, we were greeted by a vision of wiry whiskers and teeth — thousands. At this desperate point, I considered slitting this woman's throat and making a suicidal run through the vermin. I also thought of dragging her as cover to the very exit of this labyrinth, to the 9th Fortress if need be. However, all the mad deliberations were scrubbed as the iron grate nearest us dropped open with a frightful clang. This elementary action caused rats to shriek nonsensically then scatter like cockroaches from the light. The mother too, struggled in my arms to cut her neck on my blade. She squirmed so violently that she tore the hair from my hand and her own scalp. I was utterly lost as that half rat, half woman, returned to her diseased children in their pit, their home, without a single look back. We three couldn't possibly contemplate the meaning of this, for we were rattled by the domino effect of other grates, falling open all across the labyrinth. SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!

"You just know this is bad!" said Eddinray. "Extremely!"

We agreed and ran for it, subsequently taking left turns at a breathless sprint, leaping over opened grates and through their venting steam.

"Jump!" yelled Harmony, successfully vaulting over an open grate.

Preparing to spring over the next grave, the suffocating high walls suddenly shook, knocking us three to the bone dashed ground. This promptly became a shattering earthquake like none ever recorded, a force to sack cities and crack a planet's core — the power of god in Hell. Our screams were throttled by these brutal tremors, the very rip and tare of this realm; but oddly, despite the battering, the labyrinth endured, the high walls showed no crack or clue of collapse. We took to our feet again when all of a sudden, over the sound of shaking stone came the sustained groans of a monster, as if the sky itself were bawling.

"We have to move!" I howled, cowering. "We have to…"

"What?" cried Harmony, staggering like a drunk. "Can't! Hear! You!"

I steadied myself against one vibrating wall, and pale faced with shock, I raised a hand to the sky and screamed. "Look out!"

Gargantuan shadows steadily grew over the labyrinth now, and over the sound of thunder, two trolls appeared to amaze and terrify us. Unfathomable in size, they carried heavily loaded buckets of granite in their arms. Their bodies taller than any mountain, the trolls were a combination of fatty rolls and defined muscle, with reptilian flesh with purple spots.

Another quake hit, shaking the entire structure and spilling us backwards. This hefty rollicking was the result of one troll's bucket being set atop the labyrinth wall, hundreds of feet from us. Some of the buckets contents spilled over one side, and I noticed its yellow liquid drip like hot syrup. I recognized this lethal mixture for what it was, and how we had only one pathetic option left:

"Run!"

We set off at once from the overlooking, impossible trolls, who tipped their bucket loads into the backward corridors of the winding labyrinth. The lava — the flood — funnelled down routes too fast for any living thing to outrun.

We ran against the thunder and the quakes, arriving at a fork and taking the left turn. We leapt vents one after the other, then another before venturing left yet again. Still and still the thunder, still the ear bursting moans above and the catching chase behind. Harmony glanced back at a bearing down wave of yellow, and screamed. The incinerating tsunami had already caught us. We turned a final left, leapt the last vent for our lives and saw Kat at the foot of an upward slope, frantically motioning us onward.

"Move! Move! Move!" he bawled.

Kat started up the slope and we reached his back before the flood reached ours. We climbed and climbed, grunting and panting, the flood gaining at our footsteps, scorching licks at our heels. Eddinray's mail fizzed on its touch and the animal skin of my boots disintegrated. But up we charged; ascending this scale till our bodies were sucked of all energy, till we collapsed one by one on the stone slope; the consuming flow of lava stopping mere inches behind us. At last…we where out of the accursed labyrinth. We were alive.

This life saving incline continued skyward, the flow itself however would travel no higher than the labyrinth walls — filling its narrow corridors and patterns with a luminous, mesmerizing glow. It remained briefly at this high tide, before sinking through the many open vents — stripping all life from the surface and leaving but steaming puddles over the labyrinth floor.

26. Parts Broken

Our life-saving slope did not soar as high as the opposite steps, and after resting a while, the scale to the top was easily achieved. There we faced a flat wall covered in soot, with five indistinguishable slate doors lining up side by side. "The second door will lead you the quickest and safest route to the 9thFortress,” I said. "That's what Virgil told us. What do you think, Harmony?"

"Me?" she asked, innocently.

"You're the reason for his advice. What door do you suggest?"

She shrugged shyly then recoiled behind Eddinray's arm, keeping that good opinion to herself.

"But should it really be that easy?" the knight pondered. "That bloody ghost did not mention a thing about killer rats, nor flow of incinerating lava! I suspect he didn't think we would make it this far. Underestimated us he did!"

"We wait,” Kat muttered, causing me to sigh. That would be that. Kat would crouch now, caress his handfuls of earth and consider the options. Nightfall now upon us, here we would wait it out.

***

As the seven suns set, Kat shivered. Sitting on his backside with legs crossed, he daydreamed for a solid hour over the five slabs, while an oblivious angel and knight overlooked the various contours of the labyrinth puzzle, most of it concealed in darkness.

Before sleep, I decided to check our status with the samurai, and looking him over, I recognized his withdrawn expression — it was that same hollowed-out human I had seen in the centre of the labyrinth.

"My gown is all bloody,” complained Harmony, in the background.

"Completely ruined!"

"Kat?" I whispered. "Are you there?"

His teeth chattered, and a growing saliva bubble burst from his lip. I bent and roused him with a delicate touch, and after his long held blink, his spirit seemed to return. "Fox?" he said, confused to find me near him.

"Yes, it's me…How are you?"

"Beat it,” he snarled, wiping his face of any fever.

Glancing back, Harmony implored me to continue, thus I shrugged off Kat's objections and did just that. "I want to talk,” I started, hearing his growl as I took my seat next to him. "We're all concerned about you."

Agitated, Kat searched over his shoulder to witness Harmony's caring smile and Eddinray's thoughtful nod; he then returned his sight to the slabs.

"You're our friend,” I said.

Appearing slightly embarrassed, Kat deflected his face from my mine.

"Are you in pain?" I asked, pointlessly, for if Kat were in excruciating agony, he would hardly express it, let alone share. I prepared myself for a night of this, but the man surprised me by asking a question — an easy question with a difficult answer.

"What happened?"

"What," I stuttered, "do you mean?"

Words teetered on the edge of Kat's lips, his mind searching for precious moments and misplaced memories. Like a child with learning difficulties, he was profoundly frustrated, and I became careful.

"What don't you remember Kat?"

"Fox," he hissed, leaning closer. "I do not remember that labyrinth. Not a thing."

His armor coated in a dry blood, the disturbed samurai had no idea how it got there, no notion either why his body was so thoroughly exhausted, why his sword wielding palm was raw from overuse; and no possible explanation for the hideous new scar covering a large portion of his face.

"We…ran into some trouble,” I said. "Rodents, hundreds and hundreds."

He did not respond, so I continued to refresh his memory. "It was insane. Mad. Swords flung threw the air and blood everywhere. We made it to the centre of the labyrinth when you were stabbed by…" I found myself stalling.

"By?" he pressed me.

"By…one of the rodents. It came out of nowhere and got lucky. There was just too many — even for you."

Kat dabbed three fingertips over the rough red scar. "Then?" he asked.

"Then we put you into the well; the two of us went under the water. It was unbelievable Kat. I could breathe under the bubbles; hands scrubbing me clean surrounded my body. Somehow, it rejuvenated your body and restored my sight. The rest…was a fucking fight."

Adequately content by this fact, he grunted. There was a reason I didn't inform him of the Wisp and wizard running him through with a spear. If aware of the facts, Kat would no doubt seek his vengeance, and in doing so would rob me of mine. I had unfinished business with Scarfell, and I alone would settle it.

Allowing my boiling emotions to cool at one side, I wandered a frown over the lonely and haunted samurai warrior. "Maybe it's a good thing you don't remember Kat. I'm sure you've plenty memories of…slaughter."

"I do,” he replied, barely audible.

"Will you sit with us?"

"Why?"

Again, I struggled for the words. "It is not nice being alone — you'll have plenty memories of that too. We all care about you…That is all I have to say."

Kat suddenly delighted me with a novel expression for his rugged face — the hard edges of his lips softened slightly, and his black eyes were no longer hostile, but grateful. He may well have been appreciative of my words, company or friendship, but his mouth wasn't ready to express it.

"Leave me be,” he said. I slapped my dusty thigh in submission then joined a more talkative pair.

"Is he okay?" asked Harmony, hopeful.

"He is…himself,” I said, sitting.

"Did you see him with those swords?" whispered Eddinray. "Never seen anything like that, and I've seen it all!"

"Kat has a gift,” Harmony added. "God help anyone who wants to see it."

"Thirty?" mused Eddinray. "Forty? How many did he slay?"

"Enough,” I snipped. "The man doesn't need reminding."

Eddinray slunk apologetically, then silently and for some time, we three watched the broad back of our vanguard.

***

"The second door will lead you the quickest and safest route to the 9thFortress."

"Have to choose one?" said Eddinray, watching the rising suns this morning. "Sooner or later."

"Can't go back the ways," added a bored looking Harmony. "Certainly can't split up."

"We take the second,” said Kat, at last. "Yes. The second."

"You trust the ghost's advice now?" I asked him; and failing to disguise his anxiety, Kat bit his bottom lip then grimly replied — "I do not trust my own."

Advancing to the second slab reaching near ten feet tall, Kat placed both of his palms flat on the slate and beckoned me to help push. The slate screeched inward like an ancient hinge as we shoved it, and the escaping air reminded me of Bludgeon's many doors and dangerous surprises.

Rejoining Harmony and Eddinray, we surveyed the ominous entrance. Thankfully no bogeymen leapt from the dark and smoking gap, but we did expect one.

"What will come of it?" Harmony sighed.

"There's a way to find out,” I returned, finding my nerve and venturing first through the portal.

It was cramped inside. Badly. The suns orange revealed walls of soil rubbing against my arms, the shimmer of a ledge by my feet. Beyond that ledge was a hair-raising slope to a deep and swarthy void.

"Surely not?" said Eddinray, cramping in behind. "Erk! Where is the broom in this cupboard? Dash! It is simply one wretched trial after another!"

The rising suns uncovered more of this sticky chute — it was almost vertical, with fat boulders strewn over a surface that appeared to be moving at an upward slither toward us. It was in-fact an incline of squirming worms, now wiggling over our feet and out through the slate door.

"Get them off!" cried Harmony, kicking. "Can't stand it!"

"Calm her,” said Kat, bending for a better look at the slope. "We mustn't allow weight to settle here."

"Or else?" I asked, and Kat duly demonstrated. He sat perched on the ledge, set one of his boots down onto this clambering hill then watched that foot sink without trace into the worms. "Or else Fox," he said, pulling his boot free, "you will be suffocated."

As he flicked off the many worms already climbing his shins, I shuddered at a brief image of them clogging every orifice.

"Hold tight to your weapons,” he ordered, calmly. "Roll quickly. Do not stand. Do not stop."

"I can't!" said Harmony, hyperventilating. "Not in the dark! Not down there! There's too many! I refuse! I'll find another path."

"We've seen worse,” I said. "Harmony you can do this! You can!"

"She's shaking!" said Eddinray, concerned. "Kat I suggest we find another course!"

Kat's response was straightforward. Irascible and unscrupulous, he stood to push Harmony, sending her tumbling down the slope, alone, and screaming.

"Harmony!" yelled Eddinray, grasping at thin air as she slid out of sight. Without hesitation, the knight dived ungracefully after her — his mail skimming atop worms like butter over porcelain.

"You pushed her!" I bawled in Kat's face. "You complete bas — "

His sturdy push on my chest knocked the wind out of me, and before I knew it, I was over the ledge and sliding like garbage down the chute. My descent was lucky, avoiding the rocks whilst the rest of me was lost in a dizzying larva of gunk and squiggles. Speed increasing, my ears heard the cries of my friends below but nothing from Kat above. I could not prepare my body for what came next — spat like used chewing gum out from a tiny mouth on the side of a black loaf mountain.

I soared through a scarlet sky screaming — arms and feet flailing. Suddenly, my face smashed dull sand, and I rolled head over heels down a steep ridge. My skin grated on this surface as I fought to stay on my back; and eventually coming to a halt, I lay in an accumulating dust cloud, hearing the groans of Eddinray somewhere beside me.

"Worms in my pants,” he moaned. "The worms! The worms everywhere!"

Tender all over, my entire being was smeared over in a colorless muck. Sitting up, I instantly caught sight of something peculiar racing toward me — a rocketing sled descending the same ridge I just did. Clearing the specks from my eyes, I noticed that this accelerating object was none other than a samurai warrior, whose battering ram of a body readily knocked me out like a prize-fighter.

Some time later, surrounded by a swarm of dirt, I placed my head between my legs and searched for the brains inside it.

"No!" Eddinray wailed, his shattering tone waking me from concussion. The knight nursed over Harmony, who lay coiled and broken on the sand. Head pounding, I gagged when I noticed the crooked condition of her right arm — the bone mush and the skin black.

"Thank goodness!" cried Eddinray suddenly, as the angel spluttered back to us. "Thank goodness!"

"Give me your canteen,” Kat said to me, ordinarily composed.

I passed him my well water without question, and he crouched to Harmony's parched lips. She took a tiny sip of the light in the bottle, but baulked upon realizing what liquid she was drinking.

"It is…black magic,” she muttered, turning her mouth away. "I won't ever drink it."

"Suffer then,” replied Kat. "Your fleece, Fox. Give it to me."

"My fleece?"

"Now!"

I took it off and passed it over, leaving me in a creaky old shirt. Methodically fast, Kat took an arrow from Harmony's quiver as a disturbed Eddinray observed.

"Samurai this is beyond barbaric!" he gasped. "There's a sickness inside you man!"

Kat grunted back, fit the arrow sideways into the angel's mouth then took hold of her damaged arm. "Bite down,” he said. "Hard."

Harmony's eyes glistened over as she focused herself into a trance. Unusually benevolent, Kat waited for her mind to reach that tranquil state, before placing his foot fully on her armpit, and jerking her wrist back with a sickening crunch.

Howling like a wounded animal, Harmony's front teeth snapped the arrow in her mouth and she fell unconscious. That revolting click of connecting bone made me stagger, but I remained standing. Despite her spiritual objections, Kat doused Harmony's wound with the water flask, cut my fleece into ribbons then wrapped her arm securely in a sling. Once the primitive procedure was complete, he stepped back to breathe, then felt the poke of Eddinray's finger into his back. "This is your fault samurai! Time to learn you some manners!"

With a grouchy skull still splitting, Kat provoked the knight with his own push. "Teach me knight…Teach me good."

"Enough!" I cried, positioning myself between them. "What's done is done! Harmony needs rest…not our stupid bickering!"

"No rest!" said Kat. "The knight can carry her!"

And dispassionately he walked on ahead, clearing his ears of gunk and leaving Eddinray and me to mirror resentful expressions.

"I'll carry her Eddinray. Your mail is enough of a burden."

"I will be responsible for Harmony,” he returned, as if a duty. "You've carried us long enough already Danny."

With respect, I nodded, bearing weapons instead of the angel. Touchingly, I noticed that Sir Godwin Eddinray had, for the first time, lost his carefree shield. No longer was he the intermediary with no emotional investment — now he had something very precious to lose. With great struggle then, he picked up that sleeping beauty, and carried her on his way.

27. Breakneck

A storm was coming. The wisest option would be to wait this torrent out, but Kat had other ideas.

"In Hell!" he yelled back, "the storms wait you out! We will barter the canteens!"

"Barter?" I cried; "to a storm?"

"That town!" he stressed, pointing ahead.

A staggering clash of dark clouds concealed any sign of the town, but Kat was adamant. "All realms have their civilisation,” he remarked. "Their damned civilization…"

***

The dry landscape reminded me of a John Wayne movie, the vast plains of the old west with oddly shaped boulders and standing columns of rock.

“Can we stop?" begged Eddinray. "Just a little while?"

Harmony heavier in his arms, her limp feathers coiled around his feet and dragged behind him.

"We should stop,” I agreed, taking pity.

Kat spared a moment to look over the fatigued knight, and unmoved, he not only resumed his pace, but increased it…

Not ten minutes later, Eddinray's legs expectantly gave way, and he buckled to the dust with Harmony. I went to him and he drank from my canteen, clenching his thirst and returned some colour to his cheeks.

"You're fine,” I told him, glaring at Kat, who pigheadedly upped his gears toward a town growing clearer. "Hey!" I yelled, furious. "Get your ass back here! You hear me?"

That second, the red mist came over me. I picked up the nearest rock and threw. It struck its target, impressively bursting over the back of the samurai's head. Eddinray's eyebrows sprung up in surprise, as did mine to observe Kat stumble, but not completely fall over. He rubbed the back of his skull, dabbing his fingers at the blood accumulating there, and when he eventually turned, his livid face demanded the one responsible. "Who…?"

"Right here!" I announced, unafraid. "It was me! So what! I've had it with your mood you tetchy son of a bitch!"

Kat returned — not walking, but striding.

"What?" I moaned, my heart racing. "Come on you bastard!"

I grappled another rock and threw, but it was batted away like a baseball by Kat's katana. Aware that I would lose any sword fight, I threw down mine and readied my fists. "I fight like a man! Let's go! I'm going to knock you the fuck out!"

Kat placed his swords on the ground then charged like a bull. We dove into each other with a thud, trading high punches and low blows on the dirt. Eddinray paced like an old woman over our scuffle, biting his nails as I rolled over my protector, pummelling him with my clenched fists.

Kat yelped like a puppy when I planted my knee deep into his groin. He came back stronger however, and with his teeth, he tore a chunk of skin from my neck. I yelped too, pulled my hand free from our ball then punched Kat's face, feeling my knuckles break against his jaw.

"Okay men!" said Eddinray, deciding now was the time to break it up. "Point is made! I will not referee such rambunctious behaviour!"

We didn't stop — we couldn't. I placed my hands around Kat's neck and throttled him stupid. He meanwhile gouged his thumb into my eyeball.

"God's blood!" announced Eddinray. "This is your final warning men! Dare you provoke me to intervene!"

With his cheeks full of hot air, Eddinray leapt between us with prying arms. Unfortunately, his well-meaning interference only fed Kat's fire. He punched the knight full in the teeth before resuming his wrestle with me.

"Stop! Stop!" exclaimed Harmony, at the top of her voice. "What…is the meaning of this?"

The three of us paused now, inter-weaved, bleeding and breathless under the angel. She looked weak on her feet, but her anger toward us seemed to give her strength.

"They started it!" Eddinray complained, cradling a cut lip.

"You are all accountable!" she yelled back. "How dare you have me wake to this! I am absolutely appalled! Ashamed!"

We bruised men began to separate while she berated us further. "Godwin, Daniel — disgraceful! And Kat I expected more from you — a man of your wisdom scrapping like a schoolchild!"

Showing us the harshness of her clamped wings, we each took a good look at ourselves. How could I have allowed myself to get so frustrated? Especially after Newton's plea to have patience with Kat, not to mention my trials with Bludgeon. Like Harmony, the scientist and centaur would be ashamed.

"I'm sorry Eddinray,” I said, assisting him up. "I'm sorry…Kat."

Patting the dust from his armor, Kat looked at me; then, without reluctance, he apologized. The humble word sorry left those thin lips of his, and I was gob-smacked.

"And me?" jabbered Eddinray. "Do you apologize for smacking my lip, samurai? Well? Let me hear it…"

The knight did not get his apology. "Charming!" he scoffed. "Are you well Harmony, dear?"

"Still pains in my arm,” she answered, with an amiable nod. "I'll be fine, I'm sure. Who is responsible for the sling on my arm?"

“That was Kat's work,” I said, and Harmony thanked him.

Preparing to move again, we suddenly caught sight of two black angels in the sky overhead, carrying three struggling strangers toward the advancing storm and town.

***

We pushed against the wind, using every bit of energy to stay on our feet. Sharp specks of hellishly blowing sand ate into any flesh exposed, and in our battle against the gale and glass, we could hardly gather intelligence on this town — a town called Breakneck.

The thoroughfare was deserted during the blizzard, but we could hear the rowdy cheers and a tuneless piano coming from the most popular building in town. There, a tempting yellow light blurred from smeared over windows. We fought our way toward it, passing a hitching post with no horses, and a wagon with no wheels.

Kat squeaked open those classic saloon doors to a generously spaced room, packed to the rafters. I expected a great hush and turning of heads to greet us newcomers, but our arrival did not stir more than idle curiosity. My hands and face were scored with cuts, as if someone went mad with a razor. My friends also wore the unsightly marks of the storm. I took my canteen and prepared to drink these cuts away, when Kat pressed his palm over the lid. "Not here,” he said, carefully. "Superficial wounds will heal before morning."

With that, I sealed the canteen and observed our surroundings. The saloon needed a new word for rotten — the staircase, the banisters, the tables and chairs looked a moment from collapse. Floorboards were covered in two or more inches of grime, and the weird and wonderful customers were no cleaner. There was a large pile of sugar on the bar counter, and a fly the size of my head snorted greedily into it. Causing offence, a lonely figure made of compacted manure sat on a stool, swatting at the smaller flies around him. One drunkard slouched on the floor, and at his shoulders grew the leathery head of a shark, biting any legs within range of its teeth. "What complete and utter riff raff,” gawked Eddinray. "Be on your guard, angel."

Kat thumped toward the bar like a walking beer keg, and I fully expected his legs to break through the weak floorboards. Miraculously they held his weight and ours; but on route, I near fell onto a table of card players when an eel, resembling a wet sock with golf ball eyes, bungled under my feet and slithered out the flapping doors. "What the?" I muttered, aghast.

The bald bartender was the oddest of them all. Made entirely of a gassy blue flame, he was a man like any other, but for that all-encompassing heat shield. "What can I get ya?" he asked us, passing a shot glass to one customer, who wisely left it to cool before drinking.

"A minute,” replied Kat.

At the piano, an oversized thing played the incoherent nonsense we heard from outside. This creature was a shag of purple hair all over, with a slurping mouth as wide as the instrument it played. What can only be described as a fat bumblebee flapped its wings in one corner of the ceiling, around and around in brooding circles he went. Finally, stretched on a bench lay the crinkly cream body of a maggot larger than any other here. Disgusting.

"Heee better not show today!" buzzed the bee. "I ain't scared! He won't run meee out! Just you wait!"

"Let it go!" the maggot said to the bee. "There's nothing you can do, Charlie! Nothing at all."

"That'sss what you all think! You think I'm a coward! Well you're wrong! All wrong!"

Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, these were souls scared to venture forward, and scared to turn back. But for what it was worth — with their drink, music and friends — each seemed to have found a tiny peace of paradise here in Breakneck.

I noticed those customers seated at tables did not play cards for money, chips or matchsticks, but for the only currency worth a damn here: the rejuvenating well light. Players kept their stash piled beside them in cups or preciously balanced saucers. Some carried flasks containing dregs of the stuff while others had droplets swirling in dirty ashtrays. Clearly, the light was in limited supply — none had the amount our company carried, none had seen the centre of the labyrinth.

"Ready to order?" asked the winter blue barman.

Ignoring him, Kat sauntered to the table nearest and to the three skinny men blowing froth from their pints. "Beat it,” he snarled.

The grey faced drinkers froze, and after hasty contemplation, one swallowed his pint whole, scooped up his belongings then left the saloon with fellow drinkers in his wake. Taking a seat at the now vacant table, Kat signalled us to do the same.

"What do we do now?" I asked, feeling weirdly at ease as I sat on a wonky chair.

Anxious, Harmony gazed past the flapping doors to the jet streams of glass outside. "Stuck here,” she mumbled, resting the longbow on her lap and fiddling its string.

"In that case," huffed Eddinray, still standing; "drinks! Long have I desired one!"

Harmony urged him to sit, but Eddinray paid no attention to her on his way to the bar. There, four creatures ordered drinks, and following Kat's example, Eddinray barged through the pack like a school bully — shoving both a salmon faced woman and inebriated peacock to one side.

"What can I do you for?" asked the barman.

"Drink,” Eddinray answered, purposely lowering his voice. "I'm thirsty. Real thirsty."

A tense looking barman flicked Eddinray a shot of black liquid, which he keenly knocked back.

"Blugh!" he suddenly exclaimed, spitting over the counter. "This is the most offensive thing to ever grace my lips! And I've ate bark for goodness sake! Bark!"

"Thank you!" said a delighted barman. "That'll be one dreg if you please?"

"One what? What are you raving about man?"

"Dreg of light,” stuttered the barman, reaching his hand under the bar counter.

"The price for the drink."

"What are you hiding there?" uttered Eddinray, pointing. "What skulduggery is this?"

"It's nothing sir!" declared the barman, his flames rippling nervously. "Nothing at all!"

"Liar! Show me — show me this instant you…blue person!"

Reluctantly, the barman pulled back his hand back to reveal a club gripped in his burning fingers. Eddinray considered, then with a queer smile said. "Dreg of light you say? You mean…this stuff?"

With a boastful grin, Eddinray raised his canteen and twisted off the lid. Immediately, starlight swooned out from the bottleneck, and hungry hands came to snatch before they could vanish. Nonchalantly, the knight resealed the canteen and every living thing hushed respectfully for this man of fortune — even the carpet playing piano halted play to enviously peek at the wealthy stranger, the knight who came from the desert.

"You've been to the labyrinth!" cried the peacock. "To the very centre! It's true, isn't it true?"

"He has!" declared the salmon faced woman. "No man carries that much dreg without seeing the labyrinth! Everyone look! Gather round!"

Wild fire whispers spread, and we at the table watched with concern.

"I have been to the labyrinth!" confirmed Eddinray, loud and proud. "What of it?"

The mob cheered and crowded him, with the hovering bee proclaiming over the pandemonium.

"Heeee is God's chosen one! Heeee is!"

"The chosen one!" they repeated, with sycophantic screams. "The chosen one! The chosen one!"

All drunks roused the saloon with the same eager chorus. "The chosen one! The chosen one! Here! Hurrah!"

Eddinray was suddenly a superstar, he was Elvis and the Beatles combined, and he was loving it.

"Tell us chosen one," asked an enthusiastic barman — "how did you survive the rat men? How did you evade their mother queen?"

"YES! TELL US! TELL!""

Eddinray beckoned a hand for silence, and his ego was overjoyed to get it.

"The labyrinth rat men," he started slowly; "I turned to mince. The mushy kind, you know! I turned them all to mince! Born to face evil — raised in the jungle — I fear no man or thing…"

Harmony blurted a laugh through her fingers, while I could only shake a flummoxed face at Eddinray's confidence. "People, I am Sir Godwin Eddinray! And those seated fools are my squires!"

An insulted Kat squinted back — maybe it was being called a fool by the fool of fools, or a squire to that fool. "Out of his wits,” he muttered to me. "I told you he was mad, Fox."

"Oh, no!" said Harmony, seemingly unaware of any potential danger. "He's just enjoying himself. Godwin is a natural entertainer!"

"Entertainer or not," I said, "this is no place to attract attention."

"Would the chosen one care for another drink?" asked the barman, eager to please. "My pleasure of course! Anything for the chosen one!"

"I should think so too!" he returned. "Pray tell sir, what do you know of the chosen one? Who dare speak of me?"

It was as if Eddinray asked the entire saloon this question, for every mouth shot answers at him.

"The chosen one sent to Hell for a great task! The greatest task!"

"A heavenly quesssst!" buzzed the bee in flight. "To lead the great and good in the second battle! The chosen one!"

"Here in Breakneck!"

"A knight!"

"Eddinray! Touched by God himself!"

Part amused, part disturbed, I badgered an agitated-looking Kat for more information.

"A myth!" Harmony interrupted. "The afterlife has its legends too, Daniel."

She was right — one of them was leading me to the 9th Fortress.

"I am the chosen one!" announced Eddinray, pounding a fist on the bar top to shake the pints of lesser men. "And I want everything what's coming to me! A bath for starters…with genuine soap!"

All of a sudden, the two saloon doors were flung open, and a substantial silhouette stood before the blazing glass-storm. Enthusiasm for Eddinray died an instant death for this new arrival, this authority awaiting all to acknowledge his attendance here. Once the man had absolute attention, he let doors swing shut and moseyed toward the bar.

He was a man, and hefty, the blubber begging to burst his belt and shirt buttons; he wore old leather from hat to boots and caressed a belt full of miniature knives. His face was crushed by overstuffed cheeks giving him a babyish and horribly unhealthy appearance. He strut with great wheezing breaths and rippling rolls of fat, but still the floorboards held. Surreptitious eyes watched his walk, and the distinctive musk of fear accompanied that of buttery sweat. "Usual!" the obese stranger cragged at the barman, who was already hurrying for the order.

Only now did Eddinray appear dismayed by the loss of his crowd, the nervous barman meanwhile burned red as he poured a pint for his new customer. "No trouble,” the barman whispered. "Not today…Deadeye."

"No trouble,” the greasy nosed man agreed. "Just the drink."

"And will you be paying today? I mean, you don't have to, but if you want to then…"

"I will pay,” answered Deadeye, revealing a watery pouch by his belt.

"Collected it this morning. Should cover the tab too."

"Deadeye you ssstink!" hummed the bee in the ceiling. "You won't run meee out! Deadeye ssstinks! Deadeye ssstinks!"

Oxygen in the saloon seemed to be sucked out of some unseen hole in space, and I watched many attempt to lurch unnoticed from Deadeye's radar, some even preferring to face the storm outside than the one brewing in here. Remaining expressionless to the bees insults, the stout man never once removed his eyes from his grimy pint glass. It was only when drinkers assumed a lenient Deadeye would ignore the bumblebees abuse that the fat man unleashed his darts, striking three knives with machine gun speed and pinpoint accuracy into the bees heart. Stunned customers held the drink in their gobs, and like a dying spitfire, the bee stuttered to crash land on a table.

"Charlie!" grieved the maggot. "What did I tell you? What did I say?"

Deadeye gave a hint to one drinker, who promptly scurried to the still twitching bee, recovered all three knives from its body before returning them to Deadeye's belt. The bee then receded to that common speck of plasma, leaving a pair of weightless wings and a handful of prickly yellow hair.

"No trouble!" urged the barman. "Hell this may be, but I run a joint free from the chaos outside! Free!"

Deadeye returned an accommodating squint, and another pint soon filled his chubby palm.

"Where was I?" pondered the knight. "Oh yes — what's coming to me! Let's see!"

"Shut up Godwin!" whispered Harmony, from our table. “Shush!”

"Deadeye?" said Eddinray, clearing his throat. "Never in my days have I heard such a preposterous name! If you are not the most ridiculous man here I will eat my own helmet!"

The tubby man wearily exhaled to this fresh threat beside him. "What do you want?" he asked Eddinray. "This better be damned good."

"I want you to apologize to this bar, mister fat man! Your outrageous kill was an act of cowardice. When I am satisfied, if I am satisfied, I shall allow you leave with tail between your legs. Got it?"

"Eddinray?" I begged. "Sit down! Do something Kat…"

Unfortunately, Kat was more than happy to watch events unfold; finally, the entertainer was entertaining him. Eddinray repeated his terms to Deadeye as that mammoth man gobbled down his latest drink. The entire saloon was now in restrained commotion, deformed mouths salivating at the possible face-off: Deadeye versus the chosen one — it was going to happen.

"If you wanna keep your body, English;" said Deadeye, burping and pushing his cup aside, "you'll shut your mouth."

"And you'll show me some respect you…, you…behemoth!"

Excited murmurings followed this exchange, all awaiting Deadeye's response.

"I'll give you a choice," he then said to Eddinray, rubbing fingers over his little knives. "Should I kill you with three knives…or one? You choose?"

Eddinray's eyes ballooned in his head. "Everyone!" he announced, mortified. "This blubbered whale has left me no choice but to act, and act I shall! It will not be a pleasant sight, thus I advise those with delicate dispositions to avert their pupils, or the nightmare I unleash will torment you forever!"

With my nagging finally grating Kat's ear, the samurai rolled his eyes and sighed. With great reluctance, with great, great reluctance, he then squeaked back his chair and went to the knight's rescue. Once at the bar, Kat forced himself between both fat and thin men, and was considerably shorter than both.

"Sit,” he ordered Eddinray, thinly.

"But samurai, this gargantuan garbage-man has off — "

"Sit!" Kat repeated, like a furious father at the end of his tether. "Now…"

Deadeye wore a clever smirk as the barman slid a fresh pint under one of his chins.

"Come now Godwin.,” pleaded Harmony. "No more of this!"

Glum faced, Eddinray listened then returned in a sulk to our table.

"Who are you?" Deadeye asked Kat, genuinely curious.

"I am Kat,” he answered back. "Leave your drink fat-man, and get out of here."

Deadeye's features had changed all of a sudden — eyes watering, his well-fed skin turning pale. He had no doubt heard of our small warrior, and with that knowledge in mind, he left his drink and the saloon as fast as his weight would allow. It was then Kat's turn to be surrounded by the stunned and sycophantic freaks of Breakneck.

"You make beer?" Kat asked the grateful barman, tasting a lick of Deadeye's abandoned pint.

"A version of it,” he replied. "The boys pay me dreg that I use to trade souls who find what I need. Dreg gives relief from pain, and the drink relief from fear. Both are temporary here. So what can I get you…Kat?"

The samurai observed the storm outside, the doors upstairs, and our scored faces at the wonky table. "Rooms,” he said. "Get me rooms."

28. Duel at Dawn

Eddinray closed the door as lightly as possible, the healing air already mending the cuts pervading his face. Basking in a lantern's warm glow Harmony Valour was already waiting for him, and she could not be any more beautiful.

"Daniel and Kat are sharing,” she said, placing her quiver, longbow and bandanna in the corner.

Their room was the bare minimum: four walls, one window and a bed covered in a scabby sheet. Outside that window a peaceful nights gloom hid the gruesome goings on, and for a little while at least, they could forget their time and place in it.

"Poor Danny," huffed Eddinray, "trapped in a room with the samurai. Better to be outside. How do you feel? The arm I mean?"

Vaguely nodding, Harmony sat on the edge of the bed. "Better. I'll remove the sling in a day or so."

"Nowhere to change,” Eddinray remarked, holding his forehead in a befuddled state.

"Change?" she asked, lost. "Into?"

Eddinray rubbed his chain mail like an apple, then plopped himself opposite Harmony on the bedside. "Best keep my armor on then,” he muttered to himself. "Yes — prepared for danger."

He sat back against the headboard and froze the moment Harmony took his hand. "You carried me a long way today, Godwin. How could I ever express my appreciation?"

His ears turned red, and an aching dryness attacked his lips and trickled to the back of his throat. "It was nothing…my dear! Any man worth his salt would have done the same."

His lips were briefly parched by her tender kiss, but somehow he managed to hold his composure.

"Truth of the matter is," he said, recovering; "I was the only fellow capable of supporting you. Daniel had succumbed emotionally and the samurai? Well, need I say more? Are we sharing a bed tonight, or shall I get acquainted with the floor?"

"The bed is fine,” she replied, shyly. "We will have to sleep on our sides, facing one another; I cannot rest on my wings you see, and will not have them plugging your nostrils through the night.”

Eddinray smiled. This evening he would undoubtedly be the happiest man in all hell-fire.

***

I sat atop the bed, the mattress like stone and the sheets too filthy to sleep under. At the foot of the door, Kat sat with a ready katana perched across his lap.

"Don't forget to wake me,” I said, head fidgeting against a pathetic pillow. "Change over in two hours. Did you tell Eddinray?"

Kat didn't have to remind our friends of sleep shifts or to keep them on guard; they were more than aware of the risks in a dive like this. Besides, our room was next to theirs, and anyone planning a sneak attack would first have to ascend the squeaky staircase, then past our door and Kat's ears before reaching Harmony and Eddinray. Yeah, we were safe in this saloon for the night, with the warhorse Kat, and self proclaimed chosen one next door. "What about that large guy?" I asked, watching our lantern oil burn out. "Deadeye they called him. You humiliated him downstairs."

"And he considers himself lucky. Sleep Fox."

Obeying, I attempted to settle myself by counting cracks on the ceiling like many bouncing sheep, but infuriatingly awake, I decided to scratch another itch. This was my first night alone with Kat since our horrendous time on the Macros, sharing snow caves and a frail tarpaulin tent during our search for the Weather-Maker. We communicated then — I wanted to try again now.

"Your real name?" I diligently asked. "It can't be Kat, can it? Will you tell me?" Of course, Kat said nothing. "Come on samurai! Aren't you interested? Don't you have curiosity and questions like the rest of us? You must do!"

"Sleep,” he muttered from his corner.

"You are allowed, you know!” I continued. “You can ask me anything you want! Whatever is on your mind! Don't you want to learn more of the man you're risking your soul protecting?"

Exasperated, I went back to counting cracks, when suddenly and without any conscious effort, my mind numbed and the mouth ran free from thought.

"My name is Daniel Franklin Fox.” 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

“Divorced. Father of Kathy.” 6. 7. 8.

“41 years old when I passed on.” 9. 10. 11.

“I killed a man…I killed one man." 12. 13.

Finishing my count, Kat's head creaked to observe my distant dreaming. "There are twenty five steps on the landing," I added, "leading to four rooms. The barman has a limp under that coat of fire, a machete down his pants and three missing buttons on his shirt. There were twenty-four glasses stacked near the register — none of them clean. There are nine stools along the counter, six tables and eighteen chairs around the bar. Oh, and there are thirteen cracks on the ceiling above us. Unlucky for some."

"Why?" he rasped back.

"It's what I do,” I exhaled. "I was a police detective, if you know what that means. The job is solving crime, observation, seeing the details. Could've made a good career if…" I forced myself to stop, to again close that painful door in my head.

"Detectives," I resumed after a moment, "rely mostly on scientific evidence and teamwork, but old fashioned observation and instinct should still be strong in all of them. Now it's just my bad habit, I could tell you for example that Harmony scratches her elbow when she's nervous, always the same spot and with the same two fingers — although not so much since she broke her arm. Eddinray bites his thumb raw when he's lying — I'm surprised he has any left to chew on. Subconscious actions are easy to spot Kat, but they are the beginnings of unravelling a person's nature."

Kat looked intrigued by my rambling, and I was happy to share my view on his nature. "You samurai? You Kat? You have no nerves as far as I can see, your blood runs cold. Sometimes I have seen you do things that contradict the murderer legend, but that human being doesn't hang around for too long. To be honest, you're a complete and utter mystery."

The samurai's spirit seemed heavy against the door, and there followed a short absence of sound before his own mind ran loose from the mouth.

"My name is Kendo Katamuro.

Married.

No children.

Fifty-four years old when I passed.

I killed men…I killed many men."

***

There was rest for some and not for others that evening. For my own pleasant night's sleep, I settled our account with the barman by giving up a quarter canteen of well water, his dreg light that he was delighted to receive. The saloon was less crowded, the storm had passed, and outside is where most lingered this morning.

Beyond the swinging doors awaited a stuffy atmosphere and strong sunlight; the grey road was beset by the mixed droves, minding their business over the thoroughfare. Before we joined them on the dust, a brisk voice called at us from the bar counter. "Away?"

An unusual concoction leant against the bar counter. His body was lanky in denim, but at the neck grew the large head of a grunting pony, with wide nostrils and protruding teeth. It was Mr. Ed with legs, a thought I kept to myself.

"Only here for the night,” I answered, disguising a grin. "Good-day."

We didn't walk far before he called again, this time leaving his drink to join us at the exit. "Didn't figure you'd stay long. Nah, I didn't figure. You don't look like the staying' sort."

"Not the talking sort either,” said Kat.

"Just wanted to thank ye is all,” he replied, following us outside to that harsh daylight. "Name's Mothershud, and today I am grateful. Extremely grateful!"

"Grateful?" pried Harmony. "Whatever for?"

"For Deadeye, O' course! That cursed bastard made me what ye see! Every soul in the bar had a beef with Deadeye- nay, every soul in Breakneck! Used to have genuine human features, proper eyes and handsome too — till he struck his knifes in ma throat! Five days bed bound I woke to this face…Can still see the scars if you look close."

Ashamed of his appearance, Mothershud lowered his long face and stammered before concluding. "This saloon is the only place I feel content. More so now with him gone so thank ye! Gather y'all headed to the fields? Guess it's the only way ye can go."

"Is that the way?" asked Kat, eyeing a flat land out of town. The pony confirmed with a wink, and Kat nodded him a rare thanks.

"Goodbye Mothershud,” said Harmony.

"Y'all take care in those fields!" he yelled returning to his ale. "Dangerous, dangerous place is them!"

Walking a while, the cosmopolitan road was an attack of the senses. To my left was the blacksmith, with an imp beating iron inside it. A little ways further was a barbershop with waiting cue; then the bathhouse, promising costumers a wash with genuine water.

A disgusted Harmony covered her mouth as we passed the local, and extremely seedy whorehouse, where the sign "no discrimination" was planted outside its very busy door.

"Wait!" wailed one woman. "Wait for me! Stop you folks! Please stop!"

This female came darting through the marching and deformed. "Stop! Wait! Wait!"

Despite Kat's reluctance, I waited for her to catch us up. The woman was middle-aged with a very normal and extremely tired face. Her eyes were reddened by a lack of sleep, and the broken lines across her forehead ran deep. Reaching us, she set a heavy hand on my shoulder. "I overheard…your discussion," she gasped, recovering. "You're headed to the fields?"

"Piss off!" scowled Kat.

"Hear me!" she begged. "You are my only hope!"

"Hope for?" queried Harmony, happy to hear her out. "Slow down and tell us your story madam?"

"My husband," she began, "my poor husband is lost in the fields; in one of those pits of fire and ash!"

"Why is he there?" asked Eddinray. "And why should his soul be of any consequence to us?"

"He is an important man," she said, desperate; "a man with much wisdom and wealth! I promise he is!"

"But why is he in the pit?" I said, unconvinced. "No one is there by accident, right?”

"He is there," she returned, "because he strangled me. He strangled me dead on the kitchen floor."

"And you still…love him?" pried a very confused Harmony. "Whatever for?"

"We belong together! He is mine and I am his! He still loves me, my dreams tell me so! Will you return him to my arms? Will you please?"

"Fuck off!" growled Kat, dispassionately manoeuvring us away.

"Please!" she urged, scampering after. "My heart longs for my husband! I can't go on without him! Can't breathe without him!"

"You couldn't breathe with him!" added Eddinray. "Away with you! Shoe!"

She did not leave us, and with her volume and desperation increasing, Kat threw his fist back into her face, and I winced upon hearing the teeth break in her mouth.

"Kat? " cried Harmony, appalled. "That was absolutely unca — "

"We cannot find any missing persons!" he roared over the woman, who could barely cry for the pain.

Kat left her there, dirty and broken, then glared at any faces who judged him. Guiltily we searched amongst ourselves, knowing our temperamental leader was right — not in his actions, but in his thinking. We could not offer this woman our time or our promises, and so quickly caught up with Kat.

"Samurai!" a furious voice declared over the crowd. "Samurai!"

Shocked, we four turned to scrutinize strangers for any threat. We had no reason to search however, for the colorful crowd immediately parted to reveal a man lurking over a hitching post: the whale sized, self-appointed lawmaker of Breakneck, with a silver colt revolver in his grip and a belt full of silver knives.

"Oh dear,” sighed Harmony. "Always trouble."

"Where you think you're going? " bawled Deadeye, his voice loud, clear, and spitting.

"We're leaving!" I yelled back. "We don't want any more trouble!"

"This is none o' your concern mister! My business is with the chink and the chink alone! Now…step aside!"

Kat did not express a jot of concern — he simply cracked his knuckles and prepared himself.

"He's drunk!" exclaimed Harmony, insulted. "Our friend is Japanese, you ignoramus!"

Bored by all this attention, Kat was keen to set on his challenger, but my clasping hand on his wrist held him at bay. "Leave it Kat, please. Let's just get out of here, eh? What do you say?"

"He won't leave it,” he whispered back. "He cannot."

"Yellow bastard!" cursed Deadeye, loading only one bullet into the colt's chamber. "Face me Kat, or I'll gun down any near you!"

"Contemptible!" hissed Harmony. "Outrageous!"

"Step aside!" Deadeye reiterated, aiming his gun at Harmony's head. "Or I blow pretties brains out!"

"Do what he wants,” Kat said, stoney faced. "Get away from me. All of you."

Obstinately, we stood with our defender as an audience appeared from every nook and cranny — the prostitutes, the bootblacks and butchers — all of them coming for a peek at any bloodshed.

"We won't move!" I yelled to Deadeye. "Our friend doesn't have a gun! It's not a fight you're after, but an execution!"

"Get away from me,” Kat repeated, grinding his teeth.

"Are you faster than a bullet, samurai?" asked Eddinray. "Are you?"

"Take them away, Fox,” he replied. "Do as I say."

Reluctantly I escorted Harmony and Eddinray from the range of Deadeye's pistol and knives. Kat stood alone now, just as he wanted, just as he prefers.

"The infamous Kat!" proclaimed the fat man, crowd reacting with appropriate awe. "We all heard o' him! Take a good last gander people!"

They did. This was Kat in there nowhere, nothing town — a legend still in flesh, whose name sent more fighting for a better look at him.

"I call his sword!" someone cried. "Boots too!"

"His boots are mine!" argued another. "Saw 'em first!"

Worrisomely, Harmony, Eddinray and I where fast surrounded by these vultures, but held together by our link of hands.

"Ladies and gents!" cried Deadeye, gripping all spectators. "Y'all know me, y'all know my name! When I came here, Breakneck was wilder than all the west — a cesspool of dirty Indians and bad men!" His colt caught the morning light and Kat grimaced down the far away barrel. "I tamed the lot with five slugs!" he continued.

"Two of ‘em spent running out the James brothers — two more burning down Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill! Light work people! Light work! Small men with big names — men like the Kat over there — and this last bullet is for you…little man!"

He left the hitching post wobbling as he lumbered toward the town's centre. "I made Breakneck what it is!" he added. "It's mine! And nobody, no outlaws, no lawmen, and no chink gone disrespect that!"

Unconcerned, Kat also moved to the center of the road, the grey smoke twirling at his heels.

"We must intervene,” whispered Harmony. "We must do something here."

"There's no changing Kat's mind,” I answered, our samurai stopping to face the baby faced giant twenty feet away. With a twitching cheek, Kat settled both arms to the side of his hips, while Deadeye holstered his revolver. The excited crowd hushed, and the only thing moving in Breakneck now was the hairy balls of occasional tumble-weed.

"Draw!" ordered an empty-handed samurai. "Now!"

Teasing onlookers, Deadeye would not draw on Kat's command. Instead, the bulging man took time to tickle the butt of his pistol, time to enjoy his spectacle and time to wise up the grim eyes of Kat. Beads of grease glistened down and over Deadeye's generous neck flesh, and when the moment could be held no longer, when instinct told him too, Deadeye pulled his silver shooter from the holster, aimed straight and flicked back the hammer. SHTUEW!

The shot echoed around town, the gasps followed. It was over now, yet crouched and panting, Kat was still alive. Gripping the katana before his face, there was a glob of spent bullet steaming by his foot.

No one could believe what they had seen, or thought they had seen: Kat had deflected a bullet with his blade, and all mouths hung open for a revered passage of time.

The wronged drinker with a pony for a head let out a hearty chortle at the saloon doors. The flabby cheeks of Deadeye jiggled as he tried making sense of it; and when he did recover his wits, he tossed his revolver at a thrilled Mothershud. "Shut…"

The saloon window shattered when the gun hurtled threw it, and as bar room bums came to peer out from the lacerated space, Deadeye reached his fast fingers to his belt, and threw every available knife there at Kat.

Those reflectors glittered toward the samurai, and his sword deflected each like troublesome mosquitoes. Embarrassed, deflated and defenceless, Deadeye stumbled back to his post, further perplexed when Kat returned the katana to his sheath. Empty handed now, the samurai strode to the amazed mob and specifically to Harmony. The angel stood stiff whilst Kat removed one arrow from her quiver, and then casually returned to the town centre.

Once there, Kat examined the strewn knives and blob of bullet on the sand, Deadeye meanwhile questioned his gifted hands in disbelief — they had never once let him down. With Harmony's sturdy arrow in his paw, Kat aimed up Deadeye with the point — and with strength and co-ordination alone — he threw it swiftly toward his chosen target.

Timid faces winced as that Indian arrow struck deep in Deadeye's plump neck — the lawmaker gargled his last curse through constricting larynges and gushing blood, and then dropped to his back with a burst of sizeable road powder. No body had ever fallen harder, and the greedy townsfolk of Breakneck quickly plundered it before the soul dispersed to imperceptible atoms.

29. The Killing Fields

The sky was pink like candy-floss and clear of cloud. We meandered over a substantial path of dirt cutting through acres and acres of tall purple grass. An old wooden fence with a stainless coat of white paint followed our flanks, a barrier to anyone fancying a stroll through the grass.

A parched Eddinray frequently halted our progress, but his flamboyant bragging made up for the inconvenience; and after witnessing Kat deflecting a bullet with his sword, his boasting only increased.

"Once wrestled a crocodile,” he said, his hands throttling thin air. "The young child was inside its belly, you see, leaving me no choice but to dive into the reptile's mouth. The scene I can barely describe to you — women folk screaming and fainting — weaker men simply applauding the bravery on display. Goes without saying that I retrieved the child alive and well, then made a coat of the crocodile…"

From time to time, my thoughts wavered to the 9thFortress, somehow expecting it to sprout over the next horizon, or the one after that. I had the general description from Sir Isaac Newton, but what did it really look like? What feelings would the immoral tower inspire? What would be waiting for us at its gates? And what of prisoner 2020? Why did this soul deserve saving? With no answers, the questions would remain a vicious circle inside my head.

We were not alone on our path. Far from it, hundreds trudged in front and behind, and like the long departed cue on the stinking shore, each man, woman and thing was unique in dress, but wearing similar expressions of demoralization. They were zombies, an endless parade of the living dead.

"Do not wake these sleepwalkers,” Kat warned. "They will not…like it."

Several black angels blotted the peachy sky, their jelly-like bodies swooping past a small airplane. My father told me stories of my Grandpa, Sgt. Archie Fox, who died a hero for the allies in the battle of Britain. This aircraft was unmistakeably a hurricane, the likes he would have fought in. Its engine dying, flames ate her wings, and there followed that horrible sound of a blaring horn as she fell to the grass.

I grimaced away as that metal bird obliterated over land. Unfortunately, the sky was filled with similar disastrous images: burning blimps and 747s; exploding Concorde and even a space shuttle breaking up on re-entry. Weirder was the alien craft — the saucers and blobs of varying color floating like un-popped balloons. I couldn't say what the point of it all was, if these objects were real or ghosts of real events, but it was certainly the most bizarre display I've ever seen.

We continued our walk with the dead; but needing more clarity than Kat was giving, I decided to question the closest traveller on the road. "Excuse me,” I said, blocking one creature with my arm. "Do you know where this road leads?"

He was taller than all of us, with raisin like skin. His face was freakishly pressed into the centre of his chest, and a hairless hump grew emplace of a head. He moved to pass but I blocked again, and the creature responded by pushing me back to bash my head against the white fence. Surprisingly, my lights remained on as he loomed like an enormous desert date, his gummy mouth drooling as I cowered.

Suddenly, Harmony touched the man's thin wrist, and looking over her angelic form, the dribbling hulk did not pursue his attack on me. "Forgive our disruption monsieur." she said, calmly. "But do you know where our road leads?"

I expected the thing to move on, but instead he answered the question from a pitiful mouth where his heart should be. "All roads…lead to Hell."

"Please,” I said, cautiously standing with a rub at my head. "We have a destination, and this road is taking us no closer to the horizon. Can you help us?"

"Who are you sir?" pried Eddinray. "Haven't I seen you before? Yes, I never forget a mug, and yours is very familiar!"

"My name is Clay," he growled, with foul halitosis. "I passed you three hours ago on this road. I will pass you again in three hours time."

"A loop!" exclaimed Harmony, clicking her fingers. "How dull of me not to notice!"

"How do we escape?" Kat asked the raisin, wearily exhaling.

Clay directed his finger toward the wooden fence, this boundary before the breezing grass. "You will not find better,” his chest replied. "There are no monsters on this road — there is only the road, there is only the walk, and you will not find better."

"Thank you for your time,” said Harmony. "Godspeed kind creature."

Clay smiled at her, then returned to his loop and thoughts.

"The fence it is then!" announced Eddinray, slapping a fist into his palm and striding for the white wood.

Taking pleasure in our standoffish attitude, the knight casually ascended the barrier, and the second he reached the top, his sun catching self disappeared.

"Godwin!" cried Harmony, hurrying to the fence. "Where are you?"

Not visible on either side of the white wood, Sir Godwin Eddinray was somewhere else…

***

Last to climb the fence, the samurai broke my fall on the other side. Dusting myself off, I immediately experienced grains of sand burning through the soles of my boots. Eddinray hopped restlessly while we others got our bearings over this hot stove, this scarlet beach with assembled woe displayed over it.

Above, black angels discarded their damned cargo to the sands; and the longer we paused on it, the more the heat stung. "Move!" growled Kat. "Do not talk — do not stop!"

Feet feeling the fire, we advanced through the writhing and contorted abominations here. Harmony shrieked at the hand attempting to snatch her ankle. This individual had no ankles or legs himself, but pulled his weight forward with fingers alone, while a noose around his neck tugged on a cart of overflowing treasure — jewels of gold and silver, sceptres, plates and coins; not even an opportunistic Eddinray dared touch a doubloon of that tainted fortune.

A decrepit woman gagged on all fours, her hands and knees fastened to the sand, her face twisting as she brought up a perpetual supply of vomit from her stomach. A young man, in more agony than any here, had no trace of skin on his bones. He was inside out — and without the protective coat of flesh — a grainy gust scalded like vinegar on an open sore, his horrible screaming alerting us to the intricate inner workings of his vocal chords.

"Over there!" I said, pointing through the chaos to another far away white fence. "Common!"

Alongside the many black angels, three giggling cherubs made playful circles in the fierce sky. These cheery children, no more than six years old, passed rocks back and forth before throwing them at their chosen marks — smashing one man's mouth and cracking the skull of a grovelling female, who failed to hold in her dripping brains. "Remain calm,” muttered Harmony to herself. "You do not see it. You do not!"

The black angels were here for a purpose — to dispose of their garbage — but the winged children appeared to do nothing but idle in evil, dispensing pain to whomever they pleased. I felt sick watching them tear the hair from an older man before removing his testicles with a piece of flint. Giggling, they opened the stomach of one suffering creature, and then pulled the ropey red intestines as far as they could stretch. This was their playground, and these bullies picked on the weakest, those with "target" etched on their foreheads. But with strong personalities in our group, we ignored their carnage and their rocks ignored us.

***

Over the second fence brought relief from the burning sand, but no respite from the incessant grief. The land was burnt black, and over it was a startling yellow sky. Littering that crusted surface was a congestion of pikes standing twenty feet tall; each with an individual impaled and wincing down it.

"Abominable!" gasped Harmony, feverish. "No more of this!"

Eddinray mirrored his angel's repulsion while Kat and I shared hopeless expressions. Couching through the spears and the skewered, we criss-crossed toward the next white fence. Bloodied hands reached down for my hair causing me to bend even lower. Spears were stained red and those impaled were so ravaged that they could only choke at our passing them by. There was no order or obvious pattern here, but there was plenty of land, and many unoccupied spears left to fill.

"I shall never murder again,” uttered Eddinray. "Unless provoked of course."

Black angels threw young and old onto fresh pikes, followed by excruciating gargles as lances drilled through spine or neck or bellies. "Down!" exclaimed Kat, suddenly.

We three dropped terrified from a beast now jinxing its way through the vertical poles — a podgy, four-legged dog. "What now?" whispered Harmony.

This animal came to chew on the flesh of a man who had slid completely through his spear to touch the ground. Rottweilers like it joined in the feed and we peacefully passed as they gnawed on dead meat; no match for our weapons, dogs no match for a Kat.

The harrowing pits of erotic fire came next — thousands of open graves. Our threadbare route trailed between the pits, and we would have to pass over hundreds before the next white fence roughly three miles away. Already exhausted, I passed the remnants of my canteen for all but Harmony to drink — the angel content with her ordinary barrel water. "Watch steps here,” said Kat, taking the lead over this tightrope.

Arriving at the first pit, I gazed down and volcanic temperatures assaulted my eyes. Moaning and near blinded, I placed my hands on Kat's shoulders in front to keep me upright. That hole below squashed at least fifty souls standing, all ablaze from the chest down. Pit walls were also ensnared with climbing ripples of fire, making escape or rescue impossible.

To hold those miserable bodies intact, invincible starlight rained aplenty over this staggered torture field, but it could not disguise the vile stench of constantly cooking flesh. "If I fall," gasped Harmony, balancing before Eddinray; "then I want you to leave me knight. Do you understand?"

"I do not," he replied, perspiring; "and I will not!"

"It is my decision!” she said. “I am determined! I would leave you without a seconds thought! Do you hear? I would leave you Godwin! Do not sacrifice yourself here — it is worthless to lose two for one. That is my final — "

Suddenly, a fountain of flame flared up from one pit, drowning those below in a screaming vat.

"I pledge my soul to you angel," stuttered Eddinray, holding onto her wing clasp; "it is not whole without yours."

She reached back to thoughtfully squeeze his hand, then continued their uneasy course at my heels. To make things more difficult, those suffering watched us pass from their pits, and like the wall of tears, they pleaded and pleaded for our assistance.

"How can you ignore us? How can you?"

"Have pity!"

"Raise me! Raise me from this Hell!"

We could do nothing for them, so moved forever between pits with the screams, smells and heat getting under all our skins.

"You there! Help us! Lower me your hand!"

"God Almighty, save us!"

30. The Crown Wearing Cadaver

Dropping over the final fence, we landed a world away from those gruesome vistas.

This was a mine of charcoal rock, its glassy edges glittering like diamonds. Frosty breath left our lungs and an eerie echo of unseen axes could be heard chipping away at stone. Shivering, we stood before a long and teetering bridge of stone, extending over a chasm. "Delve further?" a dull voice asked.

With the portal closed at our backs, the keeper of this bridge prevented our passage. Waiting, he was a scrawny figure at the bridge's halfway point, with gangly arms gesturing us closer…and closer to him.

"What is this?" I said, overwhelmed.

"Mindful,” warned Kat.

We fell behind our leader, and I couldn't help but glance over the bridge's side to a cavernous carian pit, a great mouthful of wind and darkness. In the walls around this hole, the toiling souls broke rocks with old tools, digging private tunnels presumably, and their own way out of Hell.

"That's no man.,” sneered Kat, scrutinizing the bridge keeper.

"Goodness gracious,” whimpered Eddinray. "It's…disgusting!"

His insect infested appearance brought us friends into a huddle — the beetles, the flies, and the maggots filling up insides like blood. Gelatinous eyeballs gazed down on us from a height of twelve feet; most of his skin was gone and I could see through his chest to an un-beating heart; his nose was a meagre flake of cartilage and his greedy looking mouth revealed a set of rotten teeth. Kat was right: he was no man at all, not anything any-more. Harmony shuddered understandably, and a drained Eddinray found some strength before he might stumble and fall over the side.

The skeleton wore a crown of gold over his puss-leaking skull — a dazzling coronet of unreachable wealth, but its opulence was tainted by the maggots spilling over top like an overflowing bowl of cornflakes

"Who are you?" I asked him, his decomposing stench matching the odious sight.

The crown wearing cadaver swat at flies then raised his hand for us to wait. As we did, a person appeared from behind us. Nearing his fifties, this man was completely naked, morbidly obese, and utterly unsurprised to be in this predicament. I grimaced at the unsightly scars criss-crossing this person’s portly back and buttocks — not an inch of him was free from these blemishes. He was an ordinary looking man like any other granddad, but when he turned his face back at me, his perverted smile made me wince.

Although he had jumped ahead of the cue, we kept our mouths shut while the naked man bent to his knees before the bridge keeper. Promptly, a golden parchment unravelled out of thin air; the keeper then offered him a quill and beckoned for a signature. The elderly man eagerly scribbled his John Doe, and the parchment rolled up with the sound of crisp satisfaction before vanishing. Strangely, the naked man was ecstatic, clapping his hands and hurrying across the bridge with a manic spring in his overweight step.

"Masochist," the creepy corpse hissed at us. "His soul seeks deeper pain and ecstasy with it. He will not be disappointed, or have long to wait."

Even more repellent up close, the bridge keeper chuckled slightly then eyed us over with relish. "And what of you?" he asked, a yellow larva dripping from his nostrils. "The bowels of Hell await — tell me what you seek?"

"The 9th Fortress,” I answered, before Kat could. The corpse bobbled his head unsurprised, and a creamy shower of maggots trickled from crown to toes.

"And where are your black angels?" he asked us, intrigued. "Why aren't they dragging you there by the hair?"

"We are not inmates!" Kat said. "Get out the way!"

"Do not encourage trouble,” Harmony told him. "There are other ways to the bottom of this Kat."

Eddinray added to the samurai's vexation with his own warning, before taking it upon himself to question the corpse. "Pray, how does one go about crossing your bridge? What payment is required? I tell you I won't be taken advantage of!"

The foul thing approached on stick legs and we recoiled. Suddenly, four parchments of golden paper appeared in his emaciated hand then stretched out to each of ours.

"What is it?" I said, perusing its ancient paper and foreign text.

"It is your passage," he returned, "and my payment. It allows you entry to the furthest reaches."

"Including the 9th Fortress?" I asked, interested.

"Including that most notorious destination,” he confirmed, with another sprinkling of maggots. "There is exclusivity beyond the bridge. The Great Alexander and Vlad the Impaler are just two found suffering there, where Lucifer himself dwells in his castle, and signature is required before passage maybe granted."

"Latin,” muttered Harmony, her blue eyes examining the parchment. "I…need time."

"Crap!" I scoffed at the corpse. "You expect us to sign something we can't read? Bullshit!"

"Hell has rules!" he said, sounding strained. "Identity is necessary. Records must be kept!"

"Lies!" exclaimed Kat, caressing his sword hilt. "Why haven't I heard of you?"

"And what keeper wears a crown?" I added, noticing an unmistakeable malevolence on that abhorrent face; the real fire behind the layers of barbecued bone.

With Kat like impatience, the keeper shunted his quill firmly to my chest and urged me to sign his parchment. "Refusal will see consequences,” he said, thinly. "Terrible consequences. You will all join the drowning in the sea of nevermore, where your skin will be supper for sharks! Reject me, and the slow dissection of your bodies will begin this very minute!"

I took his quill with a fearful haste, but still reading and with a furrowed brow; Harmony prevented my hand from signing. "We cannot sign that parchment Daniel!" she said, scared. "This is no register, but a contract binding our light to this charlatan!

She read — "That you wholeheartedly agree to terms stated above — that you're will, your spirit and your soul be taken into his custody, and never be granted liberty!

Exposed, the fraudulent form remained calm, even as Eddinray tore and threw his parchment pieces off the narrow bridge. "I'm not signing a damned thing!" he announced. "What do you say to that, stinky creature?"

As the golden fragments flickered down the chasm, Eddinray received an answer. His transformation was immediate — his body shrinking to become a frog the size of my hand. Amazed, all of us gawked over this spotty amphibian as it croaked and hopped, and a distressed Harmony dropped to cradle it. "What have you done?" she moaned. "Bring him back! Bring him back!"

"Treacherous dog!" growled Kat, removing his sword without grace and aiming the tip at the corpse's neck. "Who are you?"

"Mephistopheles!" Harmony sobbed. "It says as much in the parchment! He is the Devil! The darkest light!"

Those words sent images of the formless ice witch into my head, her chilling voice repeating a prediction. "The wizard has come across Mephistopheles. On this journey you will too!"

If this cadaver were evil incarnate then Eternal's other prediction would likely come true: "One of your friends will not reach the Waiting Plain alive! One will perish in Hell!"

Superstition overruling instinct, Kat lowered his katana from the corpse, the maggots forming a pile underneath its scraped shins whilst caterpillars slugged through the ribcage.

"I did not expect you to sign," the corpse said, resignedly. "I have gained numerous souls using that elementary deception, you would not believe how many! But such tricks would not wash with the wily Fox and his headstrong companions."

"Save your flattery," I said; "and bring our friend back!"

Harmony held frog Eddinray as he attempted to leap from her cupped hands. "Restore him to me!" she begged. "Restore him, please!"

"I will do as you ask angel,” he replied, leering at her with watery eyeballs. "On one condition — one little prerequisite…"

"You'll get no payment from us!" I protested, pulling my sword and slashing at the free air between us. "Nothing at all!"

Unperturbed, the corpse stepped from his maggoty pile, slid his leg under Harmony's face then revealed his simple condition. "A kiss, angel exile from Heaven. You will bow to your knees, and you will kiss my foot."

An outraged Kat cursed him, but still had the good sense to keep his distance.

"You can't make her do that!" I yelled. "It's against everything she believes in!"

"That is the cost!" he returned, sharply. "And your only way across this bridge. Now kiss…"

Harmony let go of her frog to smear the tears from her cheeks.

"You don't have to do this,” I said to her. "I don't want you to!"

"I have to,” she said, examining the croaking Eddinray. Already, it was clear she would do anything for him; thus swallowing back centuries of pride, she crouched to her knees and bent to the decayed foot of Mephistopheles. However, as she pursed her lips an inch from the kiss, Kat sprang toward the crumbling, Mephistopheles and was supernaturally reduced to a ginger cat, caught in the corpse's own grip.

"No!" shrieked Harmony, falling back.

Mephistopheles held the cat outstretched as it scratched, pawed, and wailed.

"Fool." the corpse said, rattling this animal by the scruff. "The brave have very few brains in their heads."

Glaring now at the bouncing frog, he kicked the amphibian over the bridge's edge. "You bastard!" I roared. "You fucking bastard!"

He laughed hard, resulting in several teeth dropping from his mouth. He next threw the ginger cat after the frog and into the chasm, and it meowed all the way out of earshot.

"Careful!" he barked at me. "You have already lost two companions — and look there goes another!"

All of a sudden, in a blink of time, another enchantment transformed Harmony into a minuscule white butterfly with a clasp around the wings. Snickering like a child, the wearer of the crown bent, picked up this beautiful insect, then flicked it over his shoulder to join Kat and Eddinray in the pit. "Harmony!" I cried, watching her disappear.

Friends gone, I was alone. Absolutely alone. "What do you want from me? What do you want?"

"An explanation,” he curtly demanded, the bridge now disintegrating with the entire location around me, a vortex of ash stirring in the background. "Why has the scientist sent you?" he demanded. "Answer immediately!"

"The 9th Fortress!" I cried.

"Do not dare patronize me!" he screamed, clutching my cheeks and lifting me off my feet. "What is your true mission? Tell me your objective or I carve my names over your chest!"

I could only think of one idea in this vacuum of swirling doom, one single thing left to do. I slid my dagger free from its pouch, and as I drew the weapon, the corpse instantly released me and staggered back. It was my dagger — he was petrified by it. "You…you keep that away from me! " he baulked, gasping as if out breath.

"You keep it away!"

His fear genuine, a stupid confidence consumed me. "The power of God!" I roared. "In my fucking hand!"

"Keep it away!" he screeched, covering his face with stick arms. "Be gone from here! Be Gone!"

Was this my true mission? To destroy the blackest soul? I lunged for that prized kill with all my energy and hate, then suddenly found myself falling…and falling.

***

I thrashed in the darkness as a ferocious wind pulled me one way then another. Sound came to my ears before Terra firma, a rousing clash below, as if the two largest creatures in the jungle were fighting for supremacy. Light followed — whites dashing here and there, topped with spurts of random foam. It was water, it was ocean, and I hit it hard. Spluttering to the surface, the ocean was bold black, and a thunderous sky struck that sea with white bolts

"Help!" I yelled, gulping salt water. "Anyone!"

"Fox?" a faint voice returned. "Are you there?"

"Here!" I bellowed back. "Is that you Kat? I'm over here!"

I searched the rising and falling ocean for any sign, and saw the black angels first. This was the most I had seen gathered in one location — over fifty — tossing soul after soul into the sea; each person with a stone block attached to the soles of their feet. I submerged in a hurry as one of those human anchors bared down on top of me. Both stone and man broke through the water, and before I could return for air, I witnessed this figure's drowning descent not an inch from my face. Gargling desperate, he snagged his arms around my legs then dragged me with him to the weeds.

Struggling, I witnessed many others sink alongside us, all to experience the full and crushing weight of the sea. Breath rapidly depleting, I challenged this man's grip with every ounce of energy, tugging, pulling and prying; but his bulk was too heavy and his arms too powerful. Suffocating now, I begged his own anguished expression to show mercy and let me live. Like mine, his was a normal face craving air and another chance; but searching deeper, I saw something in this man that profoundly touched my heart — the pitiful remorse, the recalling years of regret playing like a movie over his drowning eyes — but too little for redemption, and all too late for rescue.

I expressed sorrow with the last of me, sorrow for the both of us; then abruptly and amazingly, I found myself free of him. Only he could explain, but the man willingly released me from his arms, and sunk alone to his fate.

Breaking the surface, I wretched the salt water from my lungs. Kat's call was clearer now, but with scant energy to swim, I expected my end sooner rather than later.

"Men overboard!" a new voice howled over the waves. "Men overboard!"

There was a long whistle too, followed by a tall ship battering the water aside. Three massed and fully rigged, it was a sight of sails fat with wind and rope tails blowing in the gale. Her sailors were thin silhouettes over the deck, but each scurrying to our aid. Fierce lightning cracked the masthead and its electric light revealed the name of this glorious ship, stretched golden across the stern — Bounty.

31. We Buccaneers

Seven men hauled us onboard using muscle, mitts, ropes and rings. Restored to our mortal bodies, we lay on a sopping deck before hardy sailors, their faces aged by salt and time.

"Merci!" said Harmony, breathlessly ringing the water from her gown.

"Thank-you all so much!"

"We're lost!" I chattered. "Where are we?"

The sea pounded this ship from all sides, as if angry for losing us.

"Pretty girl!" sneered one of the men, curling Harmony's hair through his hands. "She'll wish she was back in the water when we're through! Am I right lads?"

This grubby sailor laughed with the rest, only to be interrupted by a younger man, the runt of this litter.

"Back!" he exclaimed, separating them from us.

"Name's Hallet," he said to me, "John Hallet. You are safe now mister! You and your people. For the time being at least!"

Filling his naval jacket with pride, there was a kindness on Hallet's boyish face, and honesty in the eyes. It was his voice I heard bawl over the ocean and his whistle too — John Hallet was our saviour.

"Take what they have!" yelled one, built like a barrel. We were suddenly manhandled by these sailors, confiscating our weapons and flasks. We fought to prevent this but the water made us weak, even Kat slumped a temporary shadow of his former self.

The sailor who ordered this callous toss of our weapons into sacks had a face peppered with acne and scabs; and his body was as worn as this ship.

"I ordered these people be treated with respect!" cried Hallet, the spray lashing his face. "They are no threat to us Williams! Now fetch some blankets and see them all to berths below!"

"Clamp ‘em in irons!" returned Williams, to agreeing grunts from his fellows.

"You'll carry out my orders!" roared Hallet. "Never again will I repeat myself to a wretched, black-hearted curr like you Williams! Long have you undermined me man, and no longer will I stand for it!"

Surprised, Williams mocked Hallet's exuberance, his youth and class before rallying the men to his own cause. "And what would the captain say, Mr. Hallet, sir? Pickin' up strays on these seas? Aye it may have been your notion to collect these floaters but it is mine to keep 'em where eyes can see 'em! What do we say lads?"

"We don't need more strangers!" concurred one, with a gaping hole where his eye should be. "Not this sort anyhow! That scarred bugger there has seen many a battle, and the woman has wings!"

"They're cursed!" declared another. "A curse from the Devil! Toss em back to the locker I say!"

"Aye!" the dishevelled lot agreed.

"But after," added Williams; "after we get our share of the woman!"

His words inspired a salivating groan from these men, and their greedy hands began to molest Harmony, pulling the sling from her arm and groping her curves. Eddinray found the fight to beat them off, but Williams quickly slashed a warning cutlass across his chest. "Take nay action against us, ye olé knight! Or my next score will cross yer bloody throat!"

Their calloused palms snuffed Harmony's moans, but before the clothes could be torn from her body, Hallet again pushed the men back and bawled over a storm.

"Williams you're a bloody disgrace! A bloody disgrace, you hear? You others curse your damned filthy hands to the devil! The captain will see to the matter! The captain alone! For now you follow out orders Williams, my orders, or tonight I'll see you keeping an eye on all of us — from the masthead!"

Williams set his withered eye to that high and hellish spot through torn canvas and rigging, then resentfully nodded at his younger superior. It was then, whilst examining the ship that I noticed — despite having enough seamen here — there was no hand at the helm of this ship. At the quarterdeck, thick rope held the wheel in place and on course, whatever diabolical course that may be.

Without warning, two heavyset men handled Kat by the armpits, and he immediately shoved the pair aside.

"He doesn't need assistance!" I yelled. "Leave him alone!"

Kat's ungrateful attitude did not please the ugly Williams, who wasted no time smashing his boot heel into the samurai's face.

"We've done nothing!" Harmony sobbed, watching Kat collapse. "Let us be!"

The rest advanced. Harmony was thrown over one man's shoulder; two dragged my limp body over the deck whilst the last of them tugged Eddinray along by the wrist. "I can walk!" he complained. "My legs are functioning perfectly!"

On his back, blood oozed from Kat's nose, and when it touched his tongue, his old self returned with a vengeance. His head butt staved one's cheek in and his punch blew the teeth out another's mouth. Quickly set on, all six crew dropped us to swing their fists and boots into our bullish friend.

"Leave him!" I moaned. "Kat!"

My sound could never penetrate the storm, and although Kat was typically tough in defending himself, he took brutal hits enough to kill a lesser man. "Don't fight Kat!" I cried. "They won't stop if you keep fighting!"

Through walloping arms and legs, I noticed Williams brandish a blunt shank. Kat saw it too, and without mercy, he grabbed the Seaman's wrist, broke it with a downward snap then forced the shank through William's ribcage. The pit faced sailor spat red over the samurai, before thumping dead to the ever-washing deck.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed the bulging sack containing our weapons and the flasks to save this soul — but there they would remain. Expectantly, the subsequent dispersion of William's body only encouraged his fellow sailors to finish Kat off.

"Look out!" yelled Harmony suddenly, as Kat was knocked out cold.

"Get us all murdered!" exhaled Eddinray, the culprit holding the club. "Bloody madman!"

Hallet snatched the wood from Eddinray's hand then ordered his remaining men to escort us below, as the soul of seaman Williams became a shrimp in his own bloodied pool.

***

We idled in a shell of old wood and creepy crawlies. A burning oil lantern smearing yellows and oranges hung near five steps ascending to a locked door. That door was the only way in or out of this hold, and we weren't going anywhere near it. On our asses side by side, all our hands where uncomfortably held above our heads by bronze cuffs at the wrists; similar locks also snared our heels. We shared our cell with dozens of barrels, many feet of rolled up hemp and a grainy black powder draining out of fat sacks. The curved walls of this ship cracked like knuckles from the pressure outside; accompanied by clunking footsteps on decks above.

"Should we wake him?" asked Harmony, chained next to the dozing Kat.

"Let him sleep,” I said, frustrated. "The man never sleeps."

Her gloomy expression agreed.

"Killed one of their crew," I muttered. "They won't allow us to leave this ship."

Eddinray was unusually quiet between me and Harmony, the knight daydreaming the time away with nothing clever to say.

"Anything the matter?" Harmony asked him. "You don't seem yourself Godwin?"

"Dandy,” he replied, after a dry swallow. Just I…suffer from the most appalling seasickness, my dear. I'm afraid I feel a spell coming on."

A lingering groan left his stomach, and Harmony and I slid as far as possible from any oral projectiles.

"That was very clever of you to knock out the samurai,” said Harmony to Eddinray. "The sailors would've killed him otherwise. Yes, the correct decision Godwin. Well done. Still, let's not inform Kat of your actions. His temper will only cloud his better judgement."

It was now my turn to give a lazy nod of agreement. "Perhaps I should have drunk from the canteens after all?" she added, examining the discoloured skin at her elbow.

Suddenly, a rattling of keys sprang us from our stupor. The narrow door at the steps screeched open and the young seaman, John Hallet, now entered the hold. He was obvious in his discretion, and grimaced at every creak his descending footsteps made.

"Rainwater,” he whispered, stooping to place a heavy looking bucket by our feet. Hallet left our hands in irons and took it upon himself to wash us, splashing handfuls of chilly water over our flesh to scrub the salt from our skin. "Salt eats at you like nothing else," he said. "It'll have you raisins before you knew it."

"Your men don't have much respect for authority,” I said, he rubbing my hair with trembling fingers.

"They do respect authority, just not that of their midshipman. They are men after all, and no man takes orders from a boy."

"But you are one of them," queried Harmony; "are you not?"

John Hallet cupped a watery handful from the bucket and smeared away a pain in his neck. Understandably, centuries of riding the devil's back had taken its toll on the lad's body, and his sanity.

"Am I one of them?" he asked himself. "Together on this ship we have watched senior officers drop like flies and the chain of command reduced to just two: Captain Christian…and the youth before you now. Some may not agree with the situation, but it is the situation, and here I will always be one of them."

"How did your crew get here?" Harmony asked. "Of all the loathsome places? Will you share your story John Hallet?"

After a long pause and short soak, the Midshipman amiably nodded. "The year…" he began, wiping his brow, "was 1787. Seems like a thousand years ago now and perhaps it was. Perhaps it was. The Bounty left Portsmouth bound for the West Indies and the ends of the earth. To this day I can still hear the crowds royally cheering us out of the harbour, can still see the women waving handkerchiefs and holding up sons to see off fathers. How naive I was then, how proud, how adventurous!" He groaned after another ache. "Forty six officers and men under the hand of Lieutenant William Bligh. Never a greater navigator lived, but gifted men have wretched flaws. Drunks pressed ganged into service and able seamen alike suffered ten months under his torture — floggings to the bone, desperate starvation and worse thirst! More than a hard taskmaster, Bligh was a tyrant plain and simple, and we men suffered till we could take no more of it!"

"You mutinied?" said Harmony, captivated.

"Led by the master's mate, Fletcher Christian, we cast Bligh and eighteen loyalists on open-boats and seized the Bounty for ourselves!" His dripping, enthusiastic face told us that even now, he did not regret that decision. "We settled on Pitcairn and burned the Bounty on its rocks. This was our hideaway island, wrongly charted on British maps; the Admiralty never did find us…"

"Pray," pondered Eddinray; "but if you burnt your ship, why is it here now? In one piece?"

"Why is anyone here?" he returned. "I died on my island an old man with two wives, eleven children and sixteen grand-children. It was God who cast me here, reunited with my younger self, with Bounty…and every last mutineer."

"And the captain?" I asked him, "Fletcher Christian? Are you aware of his plans? For his ship? For us?"

"Only Christian could say. Those men upstairs may mock me…but we dearly love our captain, sir. He sails us through Hell keeping hope in hearts; hope that we'll reach land, hope that the Devil will one day spit us out!"

He sucked the draining water from his cupped palm, then carefully added,

"Only Christian and I know the truth, the awful truth of it."

"What's that?" I whispered back.

Hallet crept closer, eyes becoming strained slits. "There is no way out,” he rasped. "This ocean is for the damned sailors of Earth and elsewhere, for scoundrel pirates and mutineer scum like us. We broke the sacred code of the sea, and for that folly we pay with our souls, forever."

"God forgives,” said Harmony. "There are pardons for those who earn redemption. Your time will come John Hallet."

The midshipman sarcastically chuckled, then leant so close to Harmony that she could feel his stubble brush against her cheek. "God…has forsaken us!"

Stretching upright with his near empty bucket, Hallet peered admirably at the rotten beams and centipedes overhead. "If it weren't for the captain…That man has seen us victorious through many a battle. He is everything — our Father, our Commander, and our God now."

"Nonsense!" scoffed Harmony. "Talk like that it's no wonder you're in such deplorable condition!"

Hallet's subsequent scowl seemed to age him fifty years before us. "Captain works his own miracles, angel!” he sniped. “He has given us more than your invisible God ever has!"

Not the time or place for the argument, I interrupted Harmony's inevitably pious reply. "You've fought here?" I asked him. "On these seas? With other ships?"

"Ships like us,” he answered "Navies from all nations, of all times. Come across one every year or so, and every year or so we plunder the lot. Us against them, and we leave only bloody decks behind us."

"Is that why so few remain?" Eddinray asked. "Lost in…battle?"

A petrified pallor came over Hallet now, fear throttling its unseen hand around his neck.

"Good God!" exclaimed Harmony, startled. "What's wrong with you?"

Shaking his mind clear of the past, Hallet's following sentence was as lifeless as his expression.

"The samurai…will be executed tomorrow. Captain's orders."

John Hallet then returned up the steps with his bucket…to join a scant crew of privateers above.

***

Later, Kat opened his eyes to Harmony's bright smile. "How are you?" she asked.

Ignoring her, Kat thrust his arms forward and was given a jolt by the chains keeping him to the wall.

"We've already tried!" I said, exasperated. "Believe me!"

Kat slumped back to feel the pain of a migraine. "Who…struck me?" he hissed, keen to return the favour. "Tell me who?"

Harmony and I fumbled our eyes past a guilt ridden Eddinray, who spoke up before we could lie for him,”One of the cowardly sailors clonked you from behind! A tall fellow and brutally ugly! Rest assured Kat, I gave the blaggard what for! No need to thank me of course, I know gratitude is not your way, however some form of appreciation would be welcomed."

Kat turned his sour face from our sight, examining the lantern, the many open casks of black powder, cannon balls, cables and canvas. "We could start a fire,” he said, his mind enjoying the delightfully dangerous idea. "Take them and their ship out!"

"Shit,” I said, amused. "There's enough explosives in here to blow us all to kingdom come. None would escape the blast."

Kat appeared indifferent to the loss of us all, so sullenly, we rested in silence for many minutes. I knew Harmony was considering how to inform Kat of his approaching execution, could see the subject itch her lips. But for all her grace and well-meaning words, she would tactfully beat around the point, so I saved her the trouble. "They're going to kill you Kat. You'll be executed first thing for murdering that sailor. If I can have a word with the captain before then, I'll try to explain."

"It was self defense!" added Harmony. "That's what to do Daniel. The captain cannot be an unreasonable man."

Still looking away, we thought it best to leave Kat to his mood.

"A game then?" suggested Eddinray.

"Another?" Harmony sighed. "Suppose it will pass the time. What game shall we play Godwin?"

"How about guess the sea shanty?" he exclaimed. "I'm terribly excellent at that! There…once was a lad named Jack! Who was lost at sea in a hold with three, and now he doesn't know where he's at!"

"No, no, no!" squawked Harmony. "Dreadful! Perhaps a blinking competition? Yes! The French are renowned holders of the blink you know, and I can confidently boast to be the best in my class!"

"Nonsensical notion!" jeered Eddinray. "Now arm wrestling my dear, there is your game! Who dare face me first?"

Harmony rolled her eyes back. "Can hardly arm wrestle in this state Godwin. Besides, your arms appear extremely stringy under that armor; they would likely snap if put against Kat's formidable strength."

I smirked as she carried on. "But the stare, hardly a mere game knight; it improves focus and concentration; a true commanding of the senses. First to blink loses. Godwin, you and I first."

Enthusiastically the pair faced, preparing in all seriousness to out stare the other. "Daniel," she said, "you are to judge."

Eddinray rattled the blinks out of his system before meeting Harmony's bluest eyes; and after a three-second countdown, their duel began.

One minute passed with both unflinching. I leant closer to fairly referee the contest and suddenly found myself engrossed in this foolishness. Eddinray's eyes watered as Harmony continued to beam them down. In this game, she was merciless. Inevitably then, Eddinray wobbled as if a strained scaffold, and his blink conceded the contest. "I win!" cheered Harmony. "Hurrah!"

"You cheated!" he protested. "Blew into my eyeballs you conniving French frog!"

"How dare you!" she returned. "I am no cheat, and to suggest it of an angel is a ludicrous contradiction! What say you referee?"

In chains, I shrugged as best as I could. "Didn't see any blowing Eddinray, sorry."

Harmony wore a wide grin, and as Eddinray opened his mouth to further protest the result, the blood froze through our veins at a horrific scream coming from decks above — it was the very last sound a man could possibly make.

Silence followed, and in the gloomy light of a lantern, we surveyed the stern expressions of each other. There was stillness upstairs too — no scuffing heels on wood, no outraged cries or frantic scramble for aid. There was absolutely nothing.

32. The Captain's Table

Harmony and Eddinray discussed the scream and came to wild conclusions — an octopus attack, another mutiny, or perhaps a gigantic wave washing men overboard. I had an inkling too, but kept it to myself for the time being.

We where fast asleep when a wash of freezing water woke us. Bludgeon roused me several times this way, and although unlikely, I somehow expected to find him here now. It wasn't Bludgeon in the hold of Bounty, but a seedy old man showing the unsightly effects of scurvy. "Name's McCoy,” he said, his Glaswegian accent similar to my father's. "Captain requests the company of two at his table. Only two so decide amongst yerselves!"

"We heard a scream?" I said.

"And ye'll hear mare if ye don't get a move on! Hasty now, the meat's gettin' cold!"

"Meat?" said Eddinray, perking up. "Real food?"

All of my friends could do with a meal inside them, but I felt my presence at this gathering was essential. They agreed. "Kat,” I added. "I'd like you to come with me."

"Oh no!" growled McCoy, jabbing a finger into my chest. "The killer stays where he is! Captain's orders!"

"I'll go Daniel,” offered Harmony. "If that's alright with Godwin?"

Eddinray slunk. "You're going to leave me alone? With Kat?"

"Angel goes!" snapped McCoy, unlocking our chains then kicking us upright with his scrawny legs.

"Bring me some chicken!" begged Eddinray. "Rabbit! Orangutan! Anything!"

We had no time to respond, for McCoy ushered us up the steps at the end of a dirty cutlass, locking the door behind to leave an awkward air between Kat and Eddinray.

"My belly aches so!" the knight complained. "I could eat a skunk, an honest to goodness skunk! And not the clean end! Are you not hungry samurai?"

"Not even a tad famished? A teeny part peckish?"

"Quite right Kat! I agree with you on that score! Why daydream of steaming steaks and lovely foaming beers? The subject is simply too torturous to bear! At least we have some quality time together, there is your silver lining; indeed, this is a capital opportunity to iron out the creases in our differences!"

"No talking,” Kat said, with a wiry mouth and wrinkly eyes. "Ever."

Eddinray huffed, dismissing Kat's objections. "Believe it or not samurai, but I'm actually delighted not to be attending the captain's party. Danny has to plea for your pardon whilst Harmony, despite jesting about my arms, has the weakest I've yet seen on a woman thus badly needs the sustenance. They will learn much for us; yes; but alas, the banquet will be the lesser for my absence…"

Kat frowned, feeling the return of a migraine added with the constant buzzing of Eddinray in his ear, whose eyebrow curved as an idea came to him. "I've been keen to ask a question of you samurai; just the one then I'll hush."

"What?" roared Kat. "What? What?"

Shocked, Eddinray's head seemed to recoil like a turtle into his armor. "Now, there's no need for hostility! I certainly wouldn't ask if it weren't important!"

Resignation melted over Kat's features — he could not ignore or kill this insect, so he would have to indulge it. "What," he sighed, "is your question?"

"The question is this: Did you see that cheating angel whiff into my eyes? Any blowing at all?"

With nothing good to say, the sore Kat appeared to wilt in his chains.

***

The deteriorated Scotsman guided us both through a cramped and bleakly lit corridor, the smell of potent piss coming from this sailor's motheaten garments.

Holding onto walls to counter the seas motion, we passed ladders to the upper deck and a ghostly room full of empty hammocks. A rat scuttled past our heels, and McCoy cursed his luck for failing to snatch it. Finally, we reached a plain door at the end of the corridor, and followed the unpleasant Scot in.

The blaring light of candles hit me first, about a dozen positioned in the centre of a dinner table; the wax of these candles was dark in color, comprised of compacted animal fat, which gave the room a pungent fragrance and sickly pink vapour. The table displayed two silver platters of what looked like old chicken, dimpled with sweat and surrounded by goblets of grog. Seated around the dinner table were the remaining sailors of Bounty, including John Hallet. However, most of the chairs here lay vacant.

Hallet acknowledged my presence directly and I his. I then observed McCoy take his place between the two seamen who'd assaulted Kat above deck; overall there were five sailors in this boxed room, the most prominent of them took his place at the far end of the dinner table. A moping presence away from candle light, I could make out his broad shoulders and the outline of a three quarter hat on his head. This was Bounty's Commander and God: Captain Fletcher Christian. "Ship's company!" that man hoarsely announced. "On feet!"

All duly rose then waited for us guests to take our seats. Harmony and I sat opposite each other with Midshipman Hallet next to me. Seated beside the piss stinking McCoy, the angel's body language screamed anxiety from across the table. All made themselves comfortable in their chairs, but Captain Christian remained standing at the far end, aiming his index finger at Harmony as she prepared to give thanks. "There'll be no grace before or after this meal,” he said, his voice like scraping nails down a blackboard. "We men are grateful to no English King or Heavenly God, but only to the mouths that feed us — ourselves!"

He now sat, and hungry men speared their knives and forks into platters. Clearly insulted, Harmony said nothing but could not disguise her offence to the food — this yellow meat lined with fat and swimming in its own juices.

"It's nice to meet you Captain Christian,” I said, over the sound of tingling cutlery.

"And you lad!" he replied, heartily. "And you. Eat then. Eat."

"It is a pleasure to be dining with a captain,” added Harmony, refusing to touch the delicacy under her nose. "What…an honor it is."

She watched a fork full of meat disappear into Christian's unseen mouth. Slowly he chewed, and politely he spoke. "Names? Tell me your names?"

"My name is Daniel Fox."

"Harmony," she gulped, nauseous. "Valour."

"Sure enough Mr. Hallet!" Christian chortled. "Sure enough! Never have I seen an odder cast of characters."

"And what," I asked him, manoeuvring my plate aside; "are your plans for this cast?"

"Only the samurai's fate has been decided lad,” he said. “I have one less hand aboard my ship; a strong worker was Williams, despite his nature, and your man is responsible for his passing. He's accountable and will be hung first light — what light there be."

"He was defending himself!" argued Harmony. "Harshly perhaps but that is his way. We need him!"

"You need him?" pried the shadowy Christian, "As I needed Williams? We may be pirates here lass, but we still maintain law and order. There's a murderer in my hold, and it's life for a life aboard this ship."

Stuffed cheeked sailors concurred with their captain, who concluded — "His neck stretches tomorrow. I will hear no more on the matter."

Hallet apologetically glanced at me. "Captain?" he said, diplomatically; "a man with the samurai's talent for…destruction, could come in handy, most especially in our current predicament. And besides, haven't we seen enough bloodshed on this voyage, sir?"

"I'll hear no more Hallet,” replied the captain, thinly;" not another word."

The contemptuous rest glared at the young man for daring to defend us.

"Ah, pardon me?" said Harmony, politely raising her hand. "How many men does it take to sail a vessel like this? I'd imagine a lot, yet see no more than a handful here."

All the sailors promptly stopped eating or drinking to hear their God's reply. "The handful here can do the work of a hundred, lass. Take your fill men! Eat up now! Get it down ye!"

His disciples returned to meals, but from their plates, they listened to every word said. "When seas are calm and winds favourable," continued Christian, "Bounty steers herself. A haphazard method I grant you, but we have no other choice. The upper deck is no longer sound."

"It attracts…" uttered Hallet, rattling his fork and unable to finish the sentence.

"What?" asked Harmony. "What haunts you John Hallet?"

The boy lowered his head with nothing more to say, so I answered for all of them; quoting from a book I read a very long time ago. "Part dark, part sea — the inescapable nightmare. The Dreadknot."

My suspicions were proved right as grown men turned to scared children in their seats.

"You say that so casually,” Christian said, "as if it a knob of butter or yard of rope — some mild benign thing. Is there no fear in you lad?"

"I have fear, sir. Of course I do. I fear the unknown like any other — but your creature is known to me."

The captain stretched back in his chair and the ravenous sailors eating dulled to mere nibbling.

"What do you know of it?" whispered Hallet, his appetite gone completely.

"The scream earlier?" I asked him.

"The Dreadknot's work,” he confirmed. "Burkett — worse luck befell him. We only hear the screams, the dire screams before we've lost another shipmate."

"It has butchered thirteen of my men!" exclaimed Christian, his painful voice feeling every loss. "Seated here are all that's left of HMS Bounty. However those brave, unfortunate thirteen do provide the meal on your plates."

"What do you mean?" I said, face screwing up.

"The Dreadknot leaves us its scraps,” said McCoy, gorging. "We burn the fats for light, we eat the meats for energy — we feed!"

Seamen continued to cut with knives and stab with forks. I had yet to eat a morsel of their yellow meat, and it would stay that way. I shared vacant expressions with Harmony from across the table. Words unnecessary.

"More hands are imperative," said Christian, untroubled. "After the samurai is disciplined the rest of you stowaways will join our crew. Part of the family now."

"We can't stay here!" cried Harmony. "We have a higher purpose! We do not belong to you!"

"Hear that lads?" Christian declared, amused. "The frog and her chums are too good for our ship and her company. What do ye say to that mates?"

"Toss em overboard!" heckled one. "Better yet — carve 'em up!"

"AYE!"

Christian restrained his boisterous men with a wave, and then directed his meat-skewered fork at Harmony. "There are no higher purposes,” he growled. "We are all dregs in Hell, lass. And you'd do well to learn your place in it. As I see things, without Bounty your only chance is with the sea, and those wings will soon see ye at the bottom of it." He then scarfed down his flapping piece of food from the fork.

"What do you expect from us?" she asked him, glassy eyed. "We are not sailors! We are not cannibals either!"

"Learn,” returned the captain, over further giggles. "Toil is what I expect lad! Pump out the leaks, tend to canvas and put your backs into every order! You can be on your merry way when we reach port — till then you're crew on my vessel, regarded no higher or lower. Follow orders, do your duty, and sea legs will sure find ye."

"But there is no land!" I bawled, standing. "No port! You're all doomed to sail this sea forever! That is your fate Captain Christian — not ours!"

"What do they mean no land?" sneered McCoy, fear forcing him to his feet.

"They'll say anything to save themselves.,” added Christian, coolly. "Anything at all! As your captain I promise ye lads, with all my heart, no sea will keep us from kissing soil. Now since you are standing McCoy…please escort our new shipmates back to the hold. Seems the food doesn't quite agree with them tonight."

"Aye aye captain!" said McCoy, agreeably.

"How long do you intend to imprison us?" asked Harmony, before the Scotsman could lay a hand on her.

"Till yer minds are free from mischief,” he returned. “Now off with ye! Psst!"

I held Harmony's hand and McCoy's sword showed us to the door.

"Better get going,” advised Hallet, looking helpless from his seat.

Harmony moved but I remained, overlooking the glimmering table and the flesh eaters at it. "Stay where you are Harmony. We're not going anywhere."

The angel appeared in two minds while I glared at the cryptic captain. McCoy suddenly snatched my wrist but I slapped him away with one hand and near struck him with the other. "Release my two friends captain," I said, controlling my temper, "and return our weapons immediately. Right now."

Suddenly, all the sailors burst into fits of laughter, causing some to choke on food and even the sympathising John Hallet to snicker bubbles back into his goblet. I felt Harmony worry her eyes into the side of my face as I waited for the eventual end of this toothless cackle, arriving the very moment Christian screeched back his chair, and lurched himself upright. He took weighty steps toward me now, and the burning candlelight revealing his face first to Harmony, who screamed the room down before fainting to the floor.

"Leave her be!" thundered Christian. "Let her alone there!"

The clear view of Christian's face wrung the guts in my stomach. His three quarter hat was black and proud, and his uniform perfectly preserved with spit polished gold buttons and a gleaming cutlass at his left side — he was very much the dignified Naval officer. His face however was far from admirable: wrapped entirely in bloodied bandage, he was mummy like, with only a horizontal slit at the eyes and the mouth free from cloth. "I give the orders lad,” he said, his frame ballooning before me. "Who are ye?" he yelled, then repeated with spittle flying and his fist pulverising a plate. "Who are ye? I have sailed this ship round the seven seas, and here betwixt death and darkness I lead by example! With two working cannon and steadily decreasing crew, I have engaged and destroyed twelve Spanish and French man o’ war, beaten tempest after tempest and taken a scour to this ocean like no man before! All with no compass, no clock, no stars or charts to guide me! I am the only soul to survive an attack by the creature that pesters us at every turn — have the nightmares and face to prove it! So I say again lad — I ask again lad — who are ye, and what makes ye think to give Captain Fletcher Christian orders on his own ship? "

Any clear patches of bandaged white over Christian's face soaked red from the ravages underneath. My feet remained firm however, and my expression held its composed veneer; for I had something this crew desperately needed — I had hope, and leverage. "Captain Christian," I began, "I am the only man who can save your damned fucking ship and the miserable sons a bitches in it. So you'll do two things for me and I'll do one for you. For me, tonight, you will spare the samurai's life and return our weapons — and for you, tomorrow, I will kill the Dreadknot!"

***

In the stagnant hold, Eddinray and Kat stared intently into the other. They were locked in deadly combat, a most serious battle of wills. Kat did not show any hint of weakness during their contest — there would be no blinking from him, no sign of life whatsoever. Eddinray however was not so focused, his eyes twitched once, then twice — teetering on the brink of failure. Bravely he held his stare another ten seconds before conceding the match, and Kat raised a very self-satisfied brow.

"All this haze!" protested Eddinray, blowing. "Bloody immature game if you ask me!"

Interrupted, both looked at the opening door and John Hallet's appearance there. Without comment, the Midshipman hurried down the steps to free their hands and heels.

***

The captain's cabin was bursting with plunder. Portraits of glossy aristocrats decorated the walls; an oversized rug covered the floor, and another three where stacked against the corner. Golden goblets trickled around the bed and a hundred pieces of eight spread like Cleopatra over the sheets. Leaning against a grandiose oak cabinet, the tired captain had long lost his love for it. He poured himself a drink from the decanter, and assuming this red water was not wine, Harmony and I turned down his offer of a drink, even if it was from the finest crystal I'd ever seen. Not offended, Christian placed his goblet between the bandages at his mouth, and then drank.

"Are you in pain?" asked Harmony, soft and sincere.

"Constant,” he replied, after a satisfied swallow.

This sorrowful seaman intrigued me, an honourable man driven to mutiny, now sailing his mutilated self from something terrible.

"Have you ever seen the second death?" he grimaced, stretching his back with a creak. "I have. I have seen souls leave their bodies and turn to maggots in oatmeal, shells at the bottom of the sea. That is what it means to die here, and I do not want that for my men…nor me. For all my endeavours this fate chases us still, it gains hard upon our heels and takes us one by one from the night. More and more I wonder, I sit in my cabin and ask myself — can God deliver us from this evil?"

"I could hear your confession?" offered Harmony. "God will hear your prayers."

The weary captain bent to peer out of his cabin window, the line between black sky and sea unclear. "Confessions are for the guilty,” he said, breathing heavily. "Every action I have taken, every choice made and order given has been for the unconditional welfare of my crew. For that angel, I am far removed from guilt."

"But your methods have been questionable," she stressed, "and the path is now confused. You sail from evil captain, but you must recognise God before he can deliver you from it."

Christian groaned and I could see, even through the layers of soiled bandages, that Harmony was testing the man's patience. "Tell us more of the Dreadknot?" I asked him. "When did it start its attack on your ship?"

Christian opened the window a crack and sucked in a salty breeze, as if needing courage before discussing the thing. "It came from the waters," he started; "no more than six months ago. I was first to be seized by its talons. The lads came quick to my aid but could see nothing but strips of flesh being peeled from my face. It could have torn my head off if it wanted, could have put me out of my misery. Instead it took its taste then left me to heal — a meal to be savoured for another time." His eye slits wandered over our stimulated features.

"Ever since that moment," he continued, "the Dreadknot has snatched any piece of man swabbing decks or watching the horizon. Its hunger grows insatiable — no longer satisfying its thirst with blood but taking its bread for all crust and bone, and ever bolder in the doing of it."

Harmony frightfully jumped side me as a knock arrived on the cabin door. John Hallet opened it and showed in a confused looking Kat and Eddinray.

"All okay?" asked the knight, his greedy eye drawn to the loot. "My moons and my stars! Did you get me some meat Harmony?"

"You don't want what they're eating Godwin."

"That will be all Mr. Hallet,” said Christian, so obediently, the young Midshipman closed the door and left us to it.

The captain's macabre appearance startled our friends. Kat refused his peace offering drink, but Eddinray helped himself. "About time too!" he said, snatching a goblet and filling it to the brim. "I say, have you any peanuts?"

"Never have I seen the like,” muttered Christian, shaking his head as he slumbered to his cabinet for another pour, the decanter trembling in his grip as he filled the cup.

Eddinray joined Harmony and I on a lush sofa whilst Kat remained standing; the samurai was tetchy, missing a part of him he could not live without. "Where are our weapons?" he asked the captain. "My sword? Give it to me!"

Christian observed Kat, lacking the will to argue or even stand up straight. "Your weapons will," he exhaled, "if I am impressed, be in your possession directly. Mr. Fox is it? You talk of killing my creature — tell me how ye free a captain of his burden?"

Kat and Eddinray looked suitably bemused, so my explanation would be to their benefit; but a revolted knight interrupted the mood by spitting his liquor to the rug. "What vile fluid is this?" he baulked. "My tongue rejects it!"

Harmony prudently shushed him, and I stood to address my unusual audience in this rocking pirate ship.

"The Dreadknot…are a race of reptiles found in the waters here and the Distinct Earth. Alien in origin, they are stalkers who snatch their prey from the shadows; they are smart, determined, and needless to say, extremely dangerous. You don't see these things coming, in-fact you don't see them at all. Dreadknots are, by all accounts, the perfect predator. They are killing machines and one appears to be using your ship as its feeding ground captain. It's got a taste of something it likes."

Christian caressed a palm over his bleeding bandages as I concluded. "It's no doubt watching the Bounty as we speak. Behind us, in front — who knows."

The captain returned his eye to the window, scrutinizing the void of nothingness beyond. "If ye can't see it," he hissed, "how do we kill it? How? Tell me how!"

"Fire!" I answered. "Fire, pure and simple…I have a plan."

33. Enter The Dreadknot

Alone I stood, drenched on a deck dimpled by the downpour, wearing nothing but jeans. This was a hellish night; a ferocious wind howled through torn sails, and at the helm, thick rope knotted around the wheel to hold us on an unstable blaze over the ocean.

Fire would kill a Dreadknot. "Predators of the Under Realms" told me as much; but this creature needed a drink to entice it, so I would be its vendor. Holding arms outward, I slashed cuts down my forearms to release the flow of blood — time would tell if I was to the creatures liking. "Where are you?" I said, squinting at Bounty's stern and feeling the rain pelt on my head.

At my flanks would appear to be plain wooded casks, but examining the left side closer you would spot a crouched knight and the clamped wings of an angel, doing her best to keep out of sight. Huddling tight, Eddinray used his body to conceal the heat and light of a lantern, whilst Harmony, still nursing a pain in her arm, held the longbow with a ready arrow — its tip wrapped in an oily rag and aimed at my back. Concerned, Eddinray pestered Harmony with worry, and she repeatedly reassured him. Hunched against a stout cask to my right was my second surprise for the Dreadknot — Kat, reunited with his swords.

Here I stood and here I would wait, the blood congealing over the cuts I had made, mind not on the wet or the cold — but on the ridiculous task of slaying a carnivorous, and invisible dinosaur.

Out of the weather below, Christian and his crew loitered at steps leading to the upper deck. All of them armed with antique muskets, they were a jammed group of steaming sweat and paranoia.

"We will hear him scream an' beg,” whispered McCoy. "Scream and beg I tell ye. Any minute now."

"He is not afraid," replied Hallet, "and he is no fool."

"Pipe down!" Christian hissed. "The devil is out there…"

***

Three hours later, and with no change in my aching stance or the diabolical weather, my head drooped to my chest and my arms felt like saturated tree trucks. Although my short sword and dagger hung ready from my belt, I couldn't draw either if I tried. Yet I focused for my friend's sake, observing rain swept canvas, the black night and shimmering wood for any sign, hint of the hunter killer. I didn't have to wonder if Kat was still alert and fresh at his barrel, with him that was guaranteed; Harmony and Eddinray on the other hand, would be struggling alongside me.

Throughout this patient torture, certain sounds became all too familiar: rain droplets tapping the deck like falling pennies, the creaking joints of old wood and the shattering crash of the bow as it ploughed a route through the sea. I listened then for the unfamiliar, and when one distinctive sound came to my ears, my senses honed in. It was a thumping on Oak ten feet in front of me — something substantial had just dropped onto Bounty's deck. The wait was over, the Dreadknot was with us, and the smell of my blood and fear immediately caught its attention. Its steps were clumsy, not attempting to conceal its sound under the cloak of invisibility.

Thunk — Thunk.

Its kills had come too easy. Far too easy. The creature was careless now, expecting its meat with little or no effort.

Thunk — Thunk.

"Not yet!" I whispered, flapping two fingers to Eddinray at the corner of my eye. And at his barrel, I could sense the eagerness of Kat and his katana. Although there was no denying the Dreadknot's presence, I could see nothing on the deck but the showery stray and the Thunk — Thunk of advancing footsteps. I inhaled in a breath and the smell of fresh fish shot up my nostrils. Gingerly, Eddinray elevated the golden lantern nearer Harmony's arrow then waited for my signal.

Thunk — Thunk…

The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight when I noticed its husky breath now a visible gas coming closer, till finally, the lashing rain revealed hints of its muscle-bound outline. Standing over fourteen feet tall, its face was difficult to distinguish, but the protruding snout was unmistakable. It came to stop at my face, and I expected my exhausted heart to burst from my chest as that large nose began to smear over my hair, its breath like rotten eggs. This greedy thing did not feast on me right away, but examined me, perhaps wondering why its dinner wasn't fleeing or screaming like the rest. My signal confounded it even further. Leaping back, I clapped as hard as I could, prompting Eddinray to light Harmony's arrowhead with the lantern. The pair worked fast, but not before the Dreadknot came forward to sink its incisors into my neck. I roared spasmodic as the angel loomed brightly over the cask, directing her flaming arrow at me.

"Fire!" I screamed, pushing and ripping my flesh free of it.

On my ass, I watched the blood leak from my neck, and forcing myself to remain conscious; I suddenly heard the savage cry of the Dreadknot as Kat sliced its arm off at the elbow, causing a fountain of curdled green gush to spout from the wound.

"Fire!" I bawled again, forcing pressure onto my neck. "Kill it Harmony! Kill it!"

Harmony drew back the burning arrow and experienced an immediate and excruciating twist of bone in her arm. The bowstring snapped from her fingers and the arrow left the longbow at speed, swooping over Kat's head and piercing Bounty's main sail, engulfing the canvas in sunshine.

Inspired, Captain Christian and his crew ran up the steps. The captain ordered his men in search of water buckets; meanwhile Kat pulled me from the Dreadknot's proximity as it bit off the head off McCoy, spat it overboard then drank the blood from his lacerated neck. With lantern still alight in his hand, a hasty Eddinray sprinted for the monsters back while it punched the lungs out of another seaman.

"All hands! Ordered Christian, incensed. "Muskets!"

Christian prepared a line of guns with John Hallet and two others. Aiming rifles, they held fire for Eddinray, whose lantern burst glass and flames over the Dreadknot's shoulder. The beast moaned furiously, then swivelled around to pulverize its forearm under Eddinray's chin, launching the knight skyward and gone.

"Fire at will!" cried Christian, and mates and Midshipmen blasted the Dreadknot's flaming body with bullets; it's flesh frittering away like tissue paper and its alien screech like nothing I've ever heard before.

Kat, Harmony and I scurried from danger as mutineers reloaded their muskets — but the Dreadknot retreated into waves before they could finish it off. "Coward!" bellowed Christian, with an insane chuckle. "Look at him run from us! It will be back lads! No mistake it will be back! Get these fires out! Get them all out! Hallet?"

Seeing the corrosive flames eat away at Bounty, Midshipman Hallet leant defeated against the side rail, smeared his white face clean with water as Christian arrived to pull on his collar.

"Wake up your head! Snap out of it man!"

"Not enough men, captain!" the boy replied, taking his own handful of the captain's coat. "Our ship is lost! We are doomed! Look at those flames! Don't you see now? Don't you understand it? This is our doing captain and God's redress! We cast his word adrift and he will see us under sea for it! Launch the boat! Abandon ship! Abandon — "

"No!" Christian roared, his eyes gone mad. "This is my ship boy! Mine! I will not let her go now or ever! Follow out my orders Hallet! Follow or — "

The bow hit a wall of immovable water, throwing us all to our backs and fronts. Harmony spilled her wings into me; Christian caught Kat, and one unfortunate soul joined the Dreadknot in the water.

"Where's Godwin?" cried Harmony in my ear. "I can't see him Daniel!"

I directed my finger up the imposing centre mast to a rippling confusion of burning ropes and sails, and the crow’s nest Eddinray dangled from. "I'll get him Harmony! Get yourself to the boat! Go! Go!"

Gales fed the fire which devoured the ship. The masts were ready to snap when I began my ascent up the rope ladders, with sails gloriously lighting my way aloft.

"There!" yelled Christian, witnessing the Dreadknot's splashing return to Bounty's deck. "There! Over there!"

The creatures' camouflage was gone now; the lantern scorched its body a burnt crisp color it could not disguise. Unaware of the danger, John Hallet assisted Harmony and another in launching the open boat, but on loosening knots, the young man's face was drained of all color and sense, as the Dreadknot pilfered through his spine. Blood spattered generously over Harmony, who shrieked and scuttled toward the security of Kat's sword arm.

"Have mercy!" exclaimed Christian, his musket refusing to fire. "Forgive us!" he announced, throwing the rifle aside and falling to his knees. "Forgive me!"

The Dreadknot dug its snout deep into the guts of the still-twitching Hallet, then sucked out intestines like spaghetti bolognaise.

"Assist me!" Kat yelled at anyone within earshot. The captain and last of his crew came to joined Kat at the launch, and after righting the tangled ropes, they lowered the little vessel to touch down on the churning waves.

"All of you in!" ordered Christian, face never leaving the predator. "All but me!"

"You cannot destroy that monster!" cried Kat, snatching his wrist. "There is only death for you here!"

"And I am tired of running from it!" he bawled back, slapping off Kat's hold and charging for the creature. The Dreadknot saw Christian coming, so dropped its food and opened its arms to the arriving captain. The pair thumped chests in a bear hug, and under raining fire and water they wrestled over the deck, man and monster embracing until the wood underneath surrendered to their weight; and gravity dragged both to the incinerating depths of the Bounty

***

Like the stuffed guy atop a bonfire, I reached the nest to discover Eddinray sitting dazed at this frail lookout post — the height nauseating and heat too intense to bare.

Harmony yelled for us a long way down, and worryingly, the fire had now singed away the ladders I'd ascended; the canvas under me was also a searing sheet of white heat.

"Eddinray!" I chocked. "Up!"

The knight murmured back, and weak from blood-loss myself, I slumped over his face and nearly toppled from our perilous periscope. Flames were like an axe chopping into all three masts, and ours suddenly tipped to one side, bringing us closer to the sea and snapping me out of my mental slur. I ignored the increasing pain and smoke tempting me to sleep — I focused the strength back into my muscles, then regained that all important balance.

"Eddinray!"

***

Captain Christian and the Dreadknot crept eye on eye in a roasting vat of yellows, whites and oranges. Clutching a hand over his heart, a repentant Christian spoke from it. "Our Father — who art in heaven — hallowed be thy name."

The crisping creature thud toward his toes, the insane captain luring the thing deeper into the inferno.

"Thy Kingdom come — thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven!"

Further he retreated, and closer the Dreadknot followed. Christian's blood came like stress through his facial bandages — he wanted the predator and the predator wanted its prey. Clumsily, the captain stumbled backward and fell down the hold steps, snatching a hanging lantern on his way

***

I slapped Eddinray's cheeks raw until he opened his eyes and came to his wits.

"What," he asked, blurry, "where's the fire?"

"We're in it! Get up!"

The mast keen to break off into the sea, I heard our friends calling from the drifting boat, encouraging and inspiring bravery. "Eddinray…we have to jump! Can you do that?"

"Do what?"

"That's right,” I grunted, wrapping his arm over my shoulder. "Just a nice dive to a warm pool. Harmony's waiting to towel you down."

Eddinray's flustered face looked happy to be coaxed, so I guided us to the edge of the breaking nest and examined the dive to choppy waters. It was a daunting drop to swirling seas, but with the fire toasting my legs, it was now or never.

***

Christian backed off as far as possible into the hold, our vacant chains dangling on a wall near the scattered casks of black powder and white canvas. He squashed a rat under his boot then teased the lantern in-front of the Dreadknot‘s snout; the wailing, ash ridden beast still thirsty. "Forgive us our trespasses — as we forgive those who trespass against us! Lead us not into temptation — but deliver us from evil!"

The Dreadknot sprang forward and picked up the flailing captain, but before Christian could be eaten or broken, he tossed the hot lantern over a punctured sack of black powder. "For thine is the Kingdom — the power and the glory — for ever and ever!"

Bounty exploded…into a hundred thousand smithereens.

34. Reflection

Kat laid me flat on that open boat to recover myself. An ashy fire came down with the rain and the last traces of Bounty burned like a Viking funeral over the choppy water.

"Godwin?!" wailed Harmony, over the sides. "Godwin?! I can't see him Kat! The smoke…it's too thick!"

Drifting between the bobbing shrapnel, she and Kat searched for Eddinray. Nauseous, I sat up to gasp at the dead mutineer beside me, his face riddled with splinters. Without warning, our lifeboat tipped to one side, and Eddinray climbed on-board. "Can't hear a thing!" he yelled, spluttering. The knight fell over me like a wet fish, and Harmony embraced his sopping shambles, while our open boat sailed free from the wreckage…

***

The last of the well water was gone, some used on the bite at my neck, the rest used to heal burns and burst eardrums. Those disappearing drops of precious gold unnerved us all — our security blanket was gone.

Most of my clothes had gone up with Bounty, I claimed the dead man's moth-eaten blazer before Kat threw his corpse overboard. Drying out was impossible in this permanently wet environment, and floating aimlessly in the dead of night, it was hard to be optimistic about our chances.

"A watchful eye on stirring waters people!" said Eddinray, taking prominent position at the bow to observe one of many developing whirlpools. "I will guide us through this minefield!"

With no moon to light the way, Kat sat in the centre of the boat and pulled on two oars; meanwhile Harmony, focused her eyes over the horizon. "How to get out of this one?" she pondered.

"We don't." I answered, body wasted.

"Resignation?" she said, surprised. "Doors do not appear as such here, Daniel. Open your mind. There will be a way!"

Kat's grunt seemed to agree, but he gave no opinion as to what this magical door may look like.

"My hearing is improving!" announced Eddinray, louder than necessary. "Yes it is! And I couldn't possibly assist you with the rowing samurai; alas my strength is weak still."

Kat expressed only contempt for Eddinray, to which the knight remained oblivious.

"During his time here," said Harmony, thinking aloud, "Captain Christian said he came across no land whatsoever, therefore our door must be in the sky, or on the water itself."

"But where?" cried Eddirnay, slapping a fist into his palm, "Perhaps underwater?"

"Of course!" Harmony exclaimed, suddenly. "There! Look there!"

Bright faced, the angel pointed out a whirlpool growing dangerously close to our little boat. "That is our door!” she announced. “There is our portal!"

We all creaked our necks to this guzzling vortex. It sure didn't look like a door, but Harmony insisted, and her angelic intuition somehow gave the notion credibility; after all, no sensible mariner would run his ship into a whirlpool, and that logic would ultimately contain men and ships alike here forever. "Row boys!" urged Harmony. "Row!"

Backs facing the swirl, all of us grabbed the ends of unused oars and rowed toward the churn. Several heaves later the oars became unnecessary, for we had reached this black hole's event horizon, and there could be no turning back. "Don't be scared!" yelled Harmony, so certain as our boat began to turn and descend.

"I'm going to be sick!" announced Eddinray, throwing his mouth over the speeding sides.

We four collected in the centre of the boat, whilst the water grew like walls on all sides. The sea like a closing hand, it then began crushing our boat into leaks and splinters. "Hold your breath!" I howled. "Hold your — "

The boat imploded, and the instant our bodies touched water, the hammer of the sea fell hard upon our heads.

***

My forehead thumped against ice — trapped underwater — the lungs were like lead weights in my chest. Darkness all around me, I punched at a glassy ceiling, but it would not crack. The water was thick like oil, sapping all the energy from my beating fists and kicking legs. I could no longer hold my breath, and when the last of it burst from my mouth and nose, a miraculous hand reached down from some unseen hole to save my second life.

Harmony and Eddinray dragged my sopping body from a broken pocket over the ice, and on my hands and knees, I puked out a litre of slurry over my stomach.

"Kat!" yelled Eddinray, returning to the hole and reaching in as far as he could.

"Find him Godwin!" shivered Harmony, her hair and clothes glistening wet. "He must be there!"

"I have him!" he cried. "Got him!"

I screwed up my eyes to witness Eddinray hauling an unconscious samurai from that same watery grave, then settle him over a sheet of mirrored ice. "That's not Kat." I said, coughing.

This person was frozen stiff and grotesquely bloated. I looked again at this man's armor, at his swords, and at his scars, till my head could no longer doubt what my eyes were seeing.

"I watched him!" Harmony sobbed. "He cut the ice with his sword then pushed me up through the hole."

"Why didn't you come up for air?" I yelled down at the petrified warrior. "Why didn't you?"

"He returned for you Daniel." she added. "Only you!"

Thinking back, I had no recollection how long Kat or I were trapped underwater. This moment now, however, was horribly vivid. "He doesn't have long." said Eddinray, and bending to the samurai's lifeless body, he cleared Kat's mouth with his fingers then listened down his throat. "He's not breathing." he added, methodically tilting Kat's head back, elevating the chin and blowing several deep breaths into his mouth.

The world moving too fast for thought, a concerned Eddinray pressed two fingers over the samurai's neck.

"Nothing…" he said."Not a bloody thing!" Growing desperate, Eddinray began to compress Kat's chest using hands on that old armor. Push. Push. Push.

"What are you doing?" asked Harmony, scared. "Get off Godwin! Get off!"

"He's trying to save his life!" I cried, pulling her back.

Eddinray vigorously pumped on Kat's chest for sixty more seconds, and with no response, madness suddenly came over the Englishman. He beat at Kat's heart with his wet fists, he bashed and he pounded, grunting and panting, spitting and screaming.

"Godwin!" shrieked Harmony. "Stop! Stop!"

Kat's ribcage ghoulishly cracked inward, and seeing no further point, I attempted to put a stop to it, but utterly hypnotized, Eddinray fought me off, and then lashed a final strike on our friend's chest.

Kat returned that instant, vomiting oil and blood. Harmony and I sighed so deep with relief; Eddinray on the other hand, expressed nothing. Still on my hands and knees, I viewed the gaunt face of Eddinray with admiration. Strangely, he didn't look pleased. "He's okay Eddinray." I said. “Where…did you learn that?"

Eddinray smeared at his bloodshot eyes then turned away. Almost immediately, a belligerent Kat attempted to sit up, but a stabbing pain in his chest put him down.

"Rest silly man." Harmony, snivelled and cried. "We won't be moving an inch 'till I'm satisfied!"

Resting his head on her lap, Kat allowed the angel to tend to him, and looking at me through her caressing hands, the samurai's bear husky voice asked — "Who revived me, Fox?"

"Eddinray." I whispered. "It was Eddinray…"

***

Despite the black rings now permanently marking Kat's eyes, his strength soon recovered, and his pigheadedness too, as he ignored his broken ribs. We trailed him over a barren dark plain; a flat and frosty mirror was our surface, and it reflected all the twinkling stars and space above us. Unusually, Kat did not keep his sight ahead, but on his own shimmering image on the glass. "Hurry!" he badgered. "Keep up!"

"To what?" asked Harmony, frustrated; but like an energetic Labrador, curious by a scent, Kat kept his focus to the floor. Our reflections were as clear as the faces next to us, and with nothing but walking to do, we examined them.

Harmony was disturbed by the blood and dirt staining her wings and once spotless gown, before attempting to untangle the knots in her ropey yellow hair. Eddinray's features were sunken and his figure looked emaciated under mail, but his mind was clearly elsewhere right now.

I was far from pleased with my own face, generously wrinkled with patches of grey in the hair. I wonder what Missy would make of her Daniel now, and if Kathy would still recognise this beat up old man as her father.

Kat did not care for his grim looks of course, something much more imperative concerned him. Faster than I've ever seen, he drew out his katana and began slashing and growling at thin air behind us.

All of us startled, we could only wait for him to stop swinging, and when he did, there sat a fragility over Kat's face, a fright he could not control nor conceal; and that fearful expression on the fearless sent shivers running down my spine. "There's nothing Kat." Harmony said, coming to caress his shoulder.

Shaking off her hand and his own paranoia, Kat returned his sword to its sheath and gave no explanation for his actions. A question appeared ready on Eddinray's lips, but he held it in when Kat dropped to his ass and frenziedly began dusting at the mirror under his nose. His predator eyes hungry, the samurai was smiling now. Mystified, we others gathered round, and smiled too at what Kat had discovered. There where two steel rails and many sleepers under our feet, under the ice; train tracks running in an easterly direction.

A content Kat now rose from his crouched position, patted the cold from his palms then said -

"The Fortress is close."

35. The Express

That rail track went uninterrupted under the icy mirror, and we followed it. The cold stung like bee-stings all over, but numbness soon replaced the pain of Jack Frost's bite. Harmony and Eddinray seemed glued together in their stride, whilst Kat and I pathetically blew what heat we could into our hands.

"Rub at your chests." chattered Eddinray. "Your extremities will…take care of themselves!"

"And where did you hear this?" asked Harmony, wiping a runny nose.

"A witch doctor my dear, right before I impaled her on the leg of a table. The wretch had it coming, of course, and fine English Oak did the job too!"

I couldn't tell if Eddinray was rambling good advice or just plain rambling, but whatever the answer, the thought of rubbing frozen hands over my bare chest did not appeal. The journey over the mirrored terrain did its best to take our minds off the cold. The flat surface glittered like diamonds in the darkness and was littered with interesting things to look at; mostly the remains of previous explorers, now preserved as ice sculptures for all time. I paused to observe the features of one ordinary looking man, no older than myself. It seemed as if he was reaching one hand toward the stars when the freeze snatched him. "Move it!" ordered Kat. "Move it or join him!"

"The cost of sin." muttered Harmony, over my shoulder.

Soon after, a unique sight astonished us. It was a gargantuan work of modern art — thirty chilled, and translucent tentacles came down from the sky to stab into the mirror. I touched one of those enormous legs on passing, and green mucus dribbled over my fingers. Squinting skyward, I saw nothing of this creature’s body, it was far beyond my sight. There were, however, plenty more exhibits to catch the eye.

Paused in motion were a dozen Yeti like creatures, each more than twenty feet tall; and walking between their oversized woolly legs, Harmony pointed out one great white shark a little ways off, its curved snout clearly petrified the instant it broke from the ice. It took time to get my head around the idea that the bulk of these souls originated from distant planets in undiscovered galaxies, that they too had brains and personalities behind the hair, tentacles and teeth. We were all children of other worlds.

Snot hung like an icicle from Kat's nose, and his eyebrows and beard were white from frost. Yet onward he persisted, onward until at last his determination paid off. Our leader held up his katana like a barrier, then broke off the dangling ice from his nostrils.

"What have you found?" I asked chittered.

Still fascinated by his reflection, the warm smirk on Kat's face seemed to thaw the frost from his beard. Next to the long track underneath us, our reflections stood around an upright post with a golden bell on top; below that bell hung a delicate silver chain. "Wondrous illusion." said Harmony, puzzled. "How do we reach it?"

"Is that what you've been looking for, Kat?" I asked him, while he tensed his right hand. "What are you up too?"

"I cannot feel it." he replied, and making a fist, Kat lowered himself to the mirror before punching through the ice. I winced at the sound of cracking glass and knuckles, but unconcerned, Kat immersed his arm whole into that murky water.

After thirty seconds of scouring, an agitated expression told us Kat was having difficultly finding what he was after. "Your arm will freeze off!" gasped Eddinray. "Freeze off then break off! Don't say I didn't war — "

Harmony shushed the knight for stating the obvious, and thirty seconds later, Kat's face beamed brightly.

“What have you got?” I asked, excited. My answer came the very moment Kat pulled his arm from the water. A tremendous school bell rang out underneath us, rippling the water, vibrating the mirror and all her statues in the distance.

"Back!" Kat moaned, as that golden bell and standing post suddenly appeared beside him. Thick train tracks with sleepers ran between our feet too. All but Kat were amazed, and proceeding without pause, the samurai rang the bell again. Its shattering alarm brought our group into a huddle. Kat then manoeuvred us away from the tracks, then pointed his bleeding fingers to a steam locomotive chug-chug-chugging toward us. The glare of its approaching light was uncomfortable, but nevertheless we cheered and waved this machine closer. No matter what cargo the train transported, we wanted inside it; anything to get out of the cold. The oncoming whistle was like teakettles exploding over the working gears and steam, and this transportation, as I could see, stretched its boxy tail back to infinity.

"Room for everybody!" I declared, dusting the ice from my hair. "Amazing! Kat, you're amazing!"

"Thank goodness!" cried Harmony, her lips blue. "Thank goodness!"

The industrious locomotive was a cold-hearted design with the look of labor about it. I could easily imagine it carrying coal from a bleak Welsh mineshaft, or taking tourists to some grey Scottish loch. It swept past us with a ferocious wind, grinding wheels and sparks of screeching steel. At the windows, I noticed her many passengers.

"Workers," yelled Kat, over the mechanical storm; "taken to toil over the greatest structures!"

"The 9th Fortress?" I asked.

Kat's nod confirmed this a second time, before the rolls of ghostly steam smothered him. The locomotive slowly came to a hissing standstill, and when its smog had cleared, a set of steel steps on-board became apparent.

***

Kat slid a wooden door to one side and moved into the passenger car. Everything here seemed straightforward — basic seats stretching down each side; some full, some empty. We ignored the ogling and demoralized eyes of the few scattered passengers in here. It was deliciously warm after all.

We sat in pairs at vacant seats to the right — Kat and I together, the angel and knight behind. The train did not wait long at this stop. It sounded another mighty whistle outside then started a stagger and shunt over the tracks. "Nice to get warm!" said Harmony, rubbing the heat into her arms.

"Absolutely toasty!" replied Eddinray.

However before we could relax, the door we entered slid open, and filling the frame was a repulsively fat man with no eyeballs in his sockets. He was dressed in a formal green uniform, complete with matching hat and tie. Much like Deadeye in the saloon, his sudden and substantial appearance spread anxiety amongst the passengers sharing our car. The tension increased when he snatched the wrist of the passenger nearest to him — Kat's. The eyeless man's grip looked firm, and unusually, Kat did not struggle or attempt to remove it.

"What do you want?" I asked, scared.

"I am the conductor!" he wheezed back, blood now falling like tears from his exposed ocular cavities. "Four new passengers on my train! Destination?!"

We hesitated at first, and he impatiently repeated.

"Destination?"

"9th Fortress." returned Kat, calmly. "All four…"

Instantly, the expression on the officious conductor's face mellowed, the blood stopped running from his tear ducts, and he removed his hold of Kat. "Choose wisely who you sit with." he advised us, using a handkerchief to smear the blood from his cheeks.

"What on Earth do you mean?" asked Harmony, but with deaf ears, the conductor continued his work through the rollicking locomotive.

"A queer one." said Eddinray, looking back. "Our wits will certainly need to be about us here!"

"You've been on this train before?" I asked Kat, watching the scenery race past outside.

"No." he said. "But I have heard of its power."

He crossed his arms and said no more, and while I took a moment to contemplate the power of a train, an unwinding Harmony and Eddinray caught each other's eyes.

"It's fine to be alone." said Harmony, tapping his palm. "Don't you think?"

"Indeed," replied the knight, peering at his fellow passengers; "but we are hardly alone my dear."

"This is good enough."

"Good enough for what?" he asked, clueless.

"To share.” she said, scratching her elbow. “You were right Godwin, about me firing that arrow on the Bounty. I should have listened, I should not have been so stubborn. I destroyed that ship, and almost lost you in the process."

Eddinray set his blushing face to a blur of land beyond the glass. "Do not let Kat hear you talk that way," he said; "I'm sure the samurai would claim credit for the destruction of that pirate ship. And as for the firing of that arrow? Well, if it weren't for the rain distracting you, the excruciating pain in your arm and the three hour wait for the invisible flesh eating dinosaur…you would have surely made that shot!"

Her smile was subtle, as was the weight of her bandanna wrapped forehead resting against his shoulder.

"It was incredible what you did for Kat on the ice." she whispered.

Instantly uncomfortable, Eddinray was quick to divert the subject. "Faces here…they seem terribly afraid of you, don't they?"

Harmony hadn't noticed Eddinray's observations, and turning her head back, she was bewildered to witness the few dotted passengers cowering from her sight, as if each were staring down a very personal nightmare. "What's wrong with you people?" she asked, disturbed.

Like frightened animals, their response was a collective whimpering. "Well?" she demanded. "Speak up!"

Some lowered their heads, whilst others were reduced to tears now. "I bring no harm to you!" Harmony pleaded. "None at all!"

"Save your breath." Kat muttered back. "They think you're a black angel."

"Me?" she gasped, her heart shaped face contorting. "One of those…demons?"

"You are an angel." Kat returned. "Black — white — all the same to them."

"Outrageous!" she hissed, huffing back to her seat with a frown. "Ignorant lot!"

"I'd be delighted to trade costumes?" offered Eddinray, but unfortunately for him, Harmony was left cold by the remark.

***

The locomotive was recovering at the next stop, a concoction of chilly wind and hot steam blew in through opening doors as passengers stepped on and off the train. Harmony and Eddinray were asleep, strewn together like lazy dogs on a Sunday afternoon. Kat and I remained awake, and in silence, in our seats.

I stood to stretch and was suddenly overcome with weakness, as if all my energy was draining out a hole in my boot. Recent events had caught up for sure, and although I felt the need to sit down again, the thought of more silence with Kat sent me wandering down the car.

I was taken aback by how comfortable Harmony and Eddinray appeared together, and how they could sleep so deeply. I envied their connection, and their burden free minds. The train shunted suddenly and, as I recovered my balance, I felt a pair of eyes examining the side of my face. This passenger, very different from the rest, sat alone. No more than forty years old, this man had flowing black hair to the shoulders, and a healthy pink glowing on his cheeks. Tall with perfect posture in his seat, he was immaculately dressed in a grey three-piece suit with white shirt, red handkerchief and black tie.

"It is quite absurd for you not to sit down." he said, with an appropriately eloquent voice. "I have only seen one man look as weary as you do now — the man who last stood where you are standing, and I assure you, he felt moderately better for the seat."

I took up his offer without a seconds thought, then he offered me his hand. "Name is Wilde." he said, with a good grip. "Pray tell your name, or at least, the name you care to invent?"

"Fox." I answered, tired. "Pleased to meet you."

The man sighed deeply. "Alas," he uttered; "as no-one recognises the French, it is only the French who recognise me."

"You're famous then?" I presumed.

"I am Oscar Wilde," he returned, flicking back his hair then announcing to all the passengers. "I am not famous — I am notorious!"

Mr Wilde scoffed at his indifferent audience before reclaiming his well-moulded seat.

"I don't quite recall your name." I said, apologetically. "Are you an actor then?"

"Dear boy I am a creator! And it is very curious that you do not recall my name, for art is the one thing which even death cannot defeat. The artist unfortunately, withers amongst this beautiful realm of sordid sins and her splendid sinners."

I glanced out of his glazed window to find no beauty there, only a built up grime and blotch. The man then patted my thigh like an older uncle and pre-emptively answered my question. "Beauty has as many meanings as a man has moods. In my view no object is so ugly that, under certain conditions of light and shade, or proximity to other things, it will not look beautiful; no object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. I believe that in every twenty-four hours what is beautiful looks ugly, and what is ugly looks beautiful, once. There I go quoting myself again, but if any man is worth hearing twice it is this one."

This man's intelligence and intoxicating passion for himself urged me to pry. "Mr Wilde, what is a creator, an artist like you doing — "

"In a lost world?" he replied, roused. "I am here due to a simple difference of opinion. The authorities complain that I wasted my talents — I disagree. For quantity Mr Fox, is the ransacking of quality, and my masterpieces, although few in number are masterpieces nevertheless. I am here, brave passenger, because I dared to live rather than exist. Here, only the greatest artists, the sublime masters of their craft: Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Tolstoy, myself included, idle in this pitiful place. It is and will forever be the way of things. You'll find no greater crime in all the Heavens than the sculptured becoming the sculptor, the imperfect creating perfection; for if a mortal man can himself creative divinity…what use is there for an immortal God?"

Despite my hollow head, this character fascinated me; although I never had any time for art in my life, this man clearly had the time of his life with art.

"I'm afraid our conversation will be brief," he added, "but then all good things are. The conductor will soon arrive to escort you back to your previous seat."

"Why does it matter where I sit?"

"It is the only thing that matters," he whispered, keenly. "It makes the experience either pleasurable or tedious. Already has a fingerprint of your soul been captured; the seat that you currently vacate has yours, and the conductor will shortly insist on your return to it. And how he will insist!"

"A seat?" I asked, confounded.

"Not the seat," Wilde corrected,"but the train. Rather a snake slithering through consciousness, if you covet some tragic secret, the passenger sat next to you will see every guilty detail, as you will see his. A seat and secret shared is the method…and there is much to learn in the madness."

I understood now — something of Kat's soul would be revealed to me, and something of mine to him. Rummaging through Kat's head was something I long desired, but what would the samurai see? What demon of mine would he scrutinize? No matter how privileged the information I would receive, perhaps the price was too high.

"Tell me Mr Fox," said Wilde, gently clearing his throat; "how long have you been wandering this underworld? I do hope I've stumbled across a hero of some kind; it is the romantic in me, for whatever my own life may have been ethically, it has always been romantic!"

I shrugged. "I'm no hero Mr Wilde. I am just a man. Plain and simple."

"And that simplicity of character makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to me. You are a humble sinner sir, but a sinner nonetheless."

Already, Mr Wilde appeared to tire of my presence, and beside him, I felt ashamed of my own mediocrity. Again, he anticipated my thought process and fired his intellectual bullets. "You are not dull Mr Fox, nor mediocre, in-fact I have been most entertained. Pray, you haven't been listening to a word I have said — to listen is a sign of indifference to ones hearers;" he rolled back his eyes and pinched the fat under his chin; "and I do live in terror of not being misunderstood."

I dared to think now, and so looked over this artist's situation, his eternal place on this locomotive.

"Are you happy Mr Wilde?” I asked. “Can a man be content here?"

"The man perhaps," he answered, sharply; "but the creator is never content, for he sees every crack in the work. I will say that one is certainly impressed with Hell, but not favourably impressed by the inordinate size of everything. The realm attempts to bully one into a belief in its power with impressive bigness. Besides that vulgarity I have found a certain level of contentment here, yes; however, one could always use a cigarette."

"And you enjoy witnessing the sins of…other men?"

He smiled. "I do not witness sins Mr Fox, but shameful crimes of the soul — indeed, the soul itself is a mystery; it broods in the darkness, and only God, and this locomotive can tell us of its workings."

"And what would your soul tell me?" I asked him.

"Not sins dear boy, only truths."

Wilde then considered out his smudged view a moment, a profound melancholy upon his face. "My children," he delicately said; "I do miss my boys…"

Quickly, he flickered out of this personal thought and reset his grand guise."Thou knowest all, I cannot see, I trust I shall not live in vain. I know that we shall meet again, in some divine eternity. I am sure you feel better for your seat Mr Fox. Forgive me, but I have shared quite enough with you this evening."

I vaguely nodded, then stood to feel the conductor's belly ushering me from Mr Wilde, toward my seat and Kat's side.

"Belts!" announced the conductor, squeezing past me and moving off to the next car. "Belts! Belts! Belts!"

Confused, I watched Kat hastily take the ends of his belt and fasten himself to our seat.

"What's going on Daniel?" asked Harmony, scratching her eyes.

"Hold on…" I whispered, strapping myself in. "Wake up Eddinray, and hold on tight."

The locomotive shunted forward. Passengers lamented as our car began to vibrate. Those vibrations soon became a shake so violent that I expected the nuts and bolts of this locomotive to come winding out of place. A befuddled Eddinray was the last to fasten his seatbelt, and the very instant he did, the train was catapulted over the ice and contorted our forms with it.

I cannot describe the sensation of unadulterated speed inside the car. Screams turned to inaudible muffles and vision became a blur of melting motion. This locomotive was rocketing toward something greater than a destination, it was smashing through barriers of space and time, sieving through every available ingredient of its passengers, then serving up a soul's secrets to those seated beside.

***

Sometime during the early hours, Eddinray danced over darkly cobbled streets and embraced the buzzing orange lampposts like a soused Gene Kelly. Singing at the top of his voice, he would only stop to gargle more vodka from his half empty bottle.

Making his way toward a steel bridge stretching over a lake, a black taxicab sped past, and Eddinray threw down his bottle to salute the perplexed driver. The taxi turned the corner near a closed fish and chip shop, and Harmony Valour appeared there not a minute later. She paused, utterly bemused by the pedestrian crossings, the flashing lights, and shop windows offering the latest deals on phones and computers.

"Finally!" she exclaimed, relieved upon hearing Eddinray's boisterous vocals further down the street.

"Wake up Godwin!" she repeated, scampering after him. "Open your eyes man!"

Catching up to Eddnray, Harmony gasped, mortified to discover him carelessly balancing on the narrow rail of the bridge without a care in the world. "Come down from there!" she yelled. "What's gotten into you? Where are we?"

His back to her, Eddinray appeared to be lost in his own drunken karaoke. "Goes the bang-bang-bang till my feet do the same! Somethin's buggin' me, somethin' ain't right, my best friend told me what you did last night! You left me sleepin‘, in ma bed, I was dreamin' but shoulda been with you instead!"

He continued his clownish prancing over the ledge, darkness concealing a long way down to buoys and tugs.

"Come down this instant!" Harmony begged. "You hear me? Godwin Eddinray!"

"Godwin?" he stuttered, pausing. "Eddinary?"

Turning toward her now, Eddinray's heel suddenly slipped. Harmony reached out and screamed, but her knight was already over the ledge, and falling to his death.

***

"Kat?" I cried, choking in scarlet smog.

Transported to some tangled gut in Hell, the locomotive was gone, as were the familiar faces of my friends. A burrow of rock forced me to my knees, and the only way out of this tunnel was to scrape forward.

The temperature seared sweat and my lungs felt like two burning baguettes inside my chest. Grimacing, I worked my way through this stifling passage, avoiding the glowing cracks in the rock, which seeped out a syrupy magma. Ahead, an extraordinary light pained my eyes: it was a stunning fall of gushing lava.

Squeezing out the tunnel, I stood only to be knocked backward by a roasting wind. Cowering, I suddenly noticed the back of Kat, perched like a bird on the edge of a rocky runway. His statuesque posture told me that he was transfixed, lost in the furthest reaches of concentration. I did not interrupt, but simply observed his daydreaming to a pool of volcanic soup one hundred feet below him. What hidden secret was this?

I crept out of sight when Kat suddenly stood, pulled out his katana, then dove off the crust like a swimmer leaving the diving board. I ran to the edge and watched, shell-shocked, as my North Star fell toward a curdled lake of incineration; but before any piece of him touched the lava, the head of a serpent burst forth from that lake; opened its humongous mouth and swallowed Kat into its stomach.

"Kat!" I screamed, before light overwhelmed my senses. With the mental erase of a blackboard, I found myself inside a new memory.

I lay perplexed on my back, feeling the smudge of sand between my fingers and listening to the crashing of waves. With no time to drink in this insanity, I sat up to observe a wide blue sky, and an ocean of boiling water.

Events soon took another turn for the unusual — the same serpent that gulped Kat down in Hell, now appeared from the blistering waters, rising hundreds of vertical feet for the sun. Once its body was completely stretched out, the snake wailed its last then collapsed dead over the water, and over the sand, erupting debris in every direction.

A minute later, covered in dirt and seaweed, my attention was abruptly drawn to the vicious cuts now appearing over the snake's skin — a vigorous slashing coming from inside that serpent belly. Doused in ropey entrails and stomach slime, a moaning Kat appeared to part the flesh like curtains on his way out of the monster.

"Yuki!" he bawled to the Heavens. "Yuki!"

Defying insurmountable odds to win the longest fight of his life, Kat is the only soul have ever escaped Hell — and that is how.

***

Eddinray wandered aimlessly in the stark and empty Waiting Plain. "Hello? Anyone?"

His worried voice echoed over the waiting room, and with no reply, he ran and ran until finally catching sight of two people. The first was Harmony Valour, her wings not yet clasped, but free flowing and beautiful at her back. The second was Sir Isaac Newton, holding a consoling palm on the girl's shoulder.

Newton raised his head to watch Eddinray arrive behind her. The elderly scientist did not appear in the least bit surprised by his appearance in the Plain, and so left him there to conclude his business with Harmony.

"You have let yourself down young lady." he said, combing back her hair.

"I know!" she wept, "I know! I couldn't get through Sir Isaac, it was hopeless!"

"The tide was always against you angel. That man was destined to become what he has, and you are destined to pay for it. I am sorry."

Her distress upset Eddinray. He attempted to comfort her but found himself locked under the influence of some advanced spell, paralysing limbs and vocal chords keeping him a silent witness to all of this.

"You are to be banished to the Distinct Earth." said the scientist to the angel. "A harsh punishment I grant you, but I promise to see, personally, to your appeal."

Harmony painfully shrieked as her wings were clasped together with that cumbersome looking lock, appearing out of nothing. "Focus your thoughts on survival," added Newton. "Find the Eternal witch, she will watch over you. She will keep you safe."

"Can I…ever return?" she sniffed. "Ever?"

"In time Harmony. When the clasp breaks free from your wings, the time has come to fly home."

Nodding, an emotional Harmony cleared her tears then faced the Distinct Earth…painting itself on the empty canvas.

***

Kat scowled through a young crowd — happy families buying candyfloss and throwing hoops over plastic ducks. The samurai had never seen a gathering like it; he did not understand the clothing, the languages or gelled hairstyles. Tightly sprung, he stifled both hands over his sword hilts and sneered at these faces; his 16th century appearance was the sore thumb amidst the modern sounds and electric lights: a fairground, circa 21st century.

"Look at this guy!" mocked a man in torn jeans, and further titters followed Kat's steps over forgotten popcorn bags and hot-dog wrappers with runny ketchup.

"Is that a real sword?" asked one teen, spilling his beer cup over Kat's leg. "Hey, can I get my picture with you man? One for the blog?"

Kat pushed this boy into a multitude of other drinkers. The teenager laughed, kicked Kat in the ass then ran off into the crowd.

"Bob, check this freak out! Look at his stupid ponytail! How tragic is that? And the phoney scar on his face!"

Suddenly, a young woman cried out. Faces gawked as she pointed out the Ferris Wheel, where inside its highest car, two men fought for a gun.

"Oh my God!" someone shouted. "Call the cops!"

Spectators ran as the gun spilled out from the creaking car, followed by both men — their feud continuing through the rickety door and headfirst toward the trash covered terrain. The crowd scattered in a wave of slow motion. Kat however, did not run. He watched this plummeting pair with interest. After all, the gory splat of their bodies would hardly sicken him. His jet black eye squinted up and ballooned white when he recognised — "Fox!"

36. The 9th Fortress

I waved to Mr Wilde on my way off the locomotive — he did not return the gesture.

Not yet ourselves, we sat in a smoggy tunnel, pale faced and dizzy near the train. I thought over the two significant facts I'd discovered about Kat — how he’d escaped Hell, and his reasons for doing so — a person, or thing called Yuki. I did not dare to ask what he learned about me, better not to know. Eddinray however, did not share this opinion.

"What did you see, my dear? On the train? Did you dream like I did?"

"I did dream," Harmony replied, "but the thing made no sense to me."

The train did not linger at this obscure stop, and starting a chug, it blackened the four of us in soot, then was gone.

"Where are we?" I asked, waving and spluttering.

"Our destination." Kat answered, nudging ahead. "The 9th Fortress lies beyond this tunnel."

I peered at a red light flickering at the end of this tube, my whole body shaking as I tried to comprehend Kat's words. The samurai, meanwhile, was a picture of concern, his senses pestered by the presence of something else — a persistent bloodhound in the shadows and smoke, a malignant spirit he could feel, but not yet see. "Let's go." he said, and, with a hand permanently fixed to the hilt of his sword, he led the way out of the tunnel — toward burning light and the 9th Fortress.

***

The sight of the structure begged my legs to buckle from underneath me. Something so unfathomably tall could hardly be described or imagined. The color of crude oil, her rock, at times, revealed a glimmer of life, a ripple here and a pulse there. It was plant like in growth and feel, alive even, and sprouting far beyond the highest clouds.

The silence was unsettling; this apparently infamous place was like an abandoned bus shelter with no comings or goings; only fluttering bats above and the side winds made any contribution. I almost needed something to happen just to break the tension; I wanted to hear a sample of the suffering behind these walls and windows, those forever held on the brink of second death. "Show me." I grunted. "Come on…"

Pressing ourselves against the substantial outer wall, we crouched toward a set of iron gates suspiciously swinging open.

"If this is a prison," whispered Harmony, at my heels; "why is security so lax?"

"If this is a prison," returned Eddinray, at hers; "why am I here at all?"

In the past, Kat and I had learned the hard way that we would likely be walking into a trap here, and before stopping at the gates, we armed ourselves for an ambush. I removed my sword, Eddinray scraped the wall with his and Harmony placed a sturdy arrow into her longbow.

"Never have I been this close." said Kat, at the gates.

Bending cautiously, he searched through the bars to come face to face with the 9th Fortress. A straightforward stone path ran directly to its mouth, and at each side of that path, a moat of lava popped and stewed. The lava's heat wafting through the bars was immense. The moat's depth was anyone's guess, but we did know that the narrow passage between was our only route into that prison.

"Be ready for anything." I warned them, as the screeching gates fully opened.

"My heart is racing!" said Harmony, following.

Despite myself, I was in awe before this grand jewel in Mephistopheles crown. His 9th Fortress, contaminated home to the worst of the worst; and what a malevolent, and magnificent sight it was.

Past the gates and onto the path, that fiery air caused the sweat to soil my hair and neck, and, already fatigued, the idea of entering this rock and rescuing one of its prisoners was more than a little overwhelming. Where would we even start?

Allowing answers to come to him, Kat's only notion was to walk, and that elementary action triggered the expected, but still highly unusual welcoming committee. From a far off opening, an army marched to meet, or greet, us. Seconds later, and with no apparent help, the iron gates sealed shut with a great clash.

"Oh no!" Harmony panicked, running back to pull on the bars.

"Prepare!" declared Kat, aiming his sword at the incoming horde. They numbered in the hundreds, and we could not distinguish one from another. They were, in fact, identical — wearing rough sacks over their heads, with gaping holes where their mouths should be. Also armed with sabres, this parade now formed into two groups, with each lining the edges of the path a mere step from the moat.

Finally, five feet in front of us, and in one rehearsed motion, the two formation lines stamped their feet then faced each other, leaving a condensed path for us in-between.

"Security." I said, disturbed by the calm in me. "The Fortress was expecting us."

Again, the figures stamped their feet — the sound like cannon fire — then in unison, the formations turned their bagged heads to look at us.

"What now?" whimpered Eddinray.

His answer arrived immediately, as the masked many started a bizarre chant.

"Ow-Ow-Ow! Ow-Ow-Ow!"

Like a vibrating drum, the chant alerted prisoners, who appeared as specks of pink at windows dotted over the rock-face.

"Ow-Ow-Ow! Ow-Ow-Ow!"

"Madness!" cried Eddinray, his sword shielding Harmony. "What does it mean?"

The drum grew to tremendous levels, and grinding his teeth harder than usual, Kat raised his proud face to the colossal 9th Fortress.

"Follow me!" he yelled, guiding us now between the chanting army, whose bagged heads followed our footsteps.

"Are they human?" asked Harmony, rattled. "Alien? What?"

"Ow-Ow-Ow!" Ow-Ow-Ow!"

"They are instinct!" Kat answered. "Machines!"

The sky seemed to blacken with the arrival of thunder, and I could sense a curious Devil watching over this spectacle, a gleeful puppet master pulling on strings.

"I hate this." Harmony whispered, shirking from the ghoulish masks and at ease sabres.

Those prisoners at misshaped windows waved their hands at our approach, either tempting us closer or warning us away. None could hear for the drums.

"Ow-Ow-Ow!" Ow-Ow-Ow!"

The path ended at a prominent wooden door with no handle, or obvious way in. Another abrupt stamping of feet came from the formation, and their monotonous chant now ceased. They remained however, in organised position, and the quiet allowed us to hear the prisoners, their whines like a collection of static.

"2020!" I exclaimed. "We find him… and get the hell out!"

Without warning, the wooden door began to drop — the sound of sliding chains coming from the other side.

"What monster awaits?" cried the knight.

Chains ticked like an ominous countdown, and soon the door was brought down with a hefty slam, covering us over in ancient dust.

When our eyes and throats were clear of it, there was no booby trap or monster, but an arched doorway on the face of the tower, with steps inside, leading upward.

Expecting a fight, we gripped weapons and each other. The tumultuous prisoners suddenly calmed above us, as an important figure now appeared at the doorway. Teased by inner darkness, he was watching us there. Just…watching.

"Who are you?" I yelled, wet with nerves. "Show yourself!"

As instructed, and immediately, a portly man stepped out from the dark and into our sight. He was shorter than average, with boyish features spread over a chubby, middle-aged face. He had a wavy curl of bold black hair on his forehead, and his eyelashes appeared to be scored with the same colour. A grey overcoat fell to his heels, and underneath that, I could make out a white uniform of some kind.

"I am the warden of this facility," he said, a hint of French about his accent. "I bid you all a warm welcome."

"Very warm." said Eddinray, face flushed. "By God sir, what sort of reception do you call this?"

The man was un-phased by our odd-looking ensemble; if anything, he looked pleased by our presence.

"The reception awaits upstairs." he said, tossing a cigarette into the moat. "Your journey is the worst kept secret in Hell. You certainly took your time about it."

Carefully, I offered him my short sword as a show of co-operation, but he refused the gesture with a pithy wave. "Please. I have no use for your little weapons, nor do I need to confiscate them. Unless…you give me reason to?"

"No reason." I said, putting my sword away. "None at all."

I was relieved not to have give up my dagger again; Kat was also content to have his katana with him at all times.

Eddinray was the only one who did not lower his sword. He was too distracted by Harmony, and the pear-shaped tear shimmering down her face. "My dear?" he stuttered. "Do not be afraid of this man!"

The angel spilled more tears without explanation, then masked her face with her hands.

"It's been a long time Harmony." the warden said. "A very…long time."

37. The Little Emperor

Arms strung around her stomach, Harmony remained tight lipped as we trailed the warden into his Fortress. "Put your friends out of their misery." the warden insisted, his palm grazing a scantly lit wall. "Put their minds at ease Harmony."

She said nothing, and neither did the rest of us as we ascended a gloomy staircase. I sympathized with Kat, who scraped his fingers off stone like an agitated gorilla. In a matter of minutes we had lost all control. An unknown factor called fate was in charge now, and our friend Harmony Valour, played some part in its plan.

After twenty or so steps, we reached the damp first floor of the 9th Fortress. I was pleased with the lack of light, it prevented me from seeing the bodies of those I heard scurry about, not far from us.

"Do not be alarmed." said the short warden. "The night creatures feast only on prisoners of my choosing."

I shuddered at the thought as we arrived at an open elevator of some kind. One sabre-wielding hood stood on guard beside it — his body perfectly rigid, but his breathing sounding heavy under the mask.

A bleak corridor curved away from the elevator, and spread along that wall was steel door after steel door — all of them closed, but none were fitted with handles or even locks. I moved with the warden into the cold elevator, so was first to be held back by his hand. "Do not open any door without authorization." he said, seriously. "I sense curiosity here. Never satisfy it. The cost will be your own sanity."

Malevolence was an easy to thing to spot after spending time with likes of Kat, and it was written all over the wardens' podgy face now. I gave an understanding nod, and then I entered the elevator with him. Kat pressed himself in beside me, with hawkish eyes searching for exits, or the possibility of making his own.

Once we where all inside, the doors slammed shut, then a dazzling weld instantly melted a seal down the centre of the doors. "Is that natural?" I asked the warden, averting my face from the uncomfortable light.

"Take the stairs if you wish?" he returned, amused.

"Where are we going?" asked Kat.

"Express." he answered, ogling Harmony's neckline. "To the very top."

Then, without pressing a button, the sturdy elevator began to vibrate, causing a tickling sensation to run up the legs. Energy was gathering underneath us, and before I could ask, the elevator exploded off the ground floor, like a shuttle leaving the launch pad.

Speed was not as fast as the locomotive, but there was an uncomplicated rawness to this machine. Every floor we raced past, we heard the smashing of metal. I counted thirty-three strikes before losing count, until it was simply a battering ram of sound beyond the centre weld.

The warden appeared calm throughout, bored even and hardly flinched when gas shot out from vents in the corners. I was reminded of one of those rickety old horror houses, with recorded screams playing loops in the background. It was all too strange to understand, and all too real to be fun.

A sudden jolt bounced us two inches from the floor and our stomachs even higher. The ride was over, but before butterflies had a chance to settle, the doors sprang open, and the smell of burning firewood replaced that of burning brakes.

"My quarters." said the warden, stepping into his room and flapping away all the accumulated gas.

Carefully, I wandered in. This was the top of the world — an elaborate office with a Gothic interior, slick black floors and a polished oak desk as its centrepiece. The burning smell came from the homely looking fireplace, cut into one entire wall, its crackling fire blades taller than anyone here. Near this hung a framed map of old earth, with France painted over in rich gold leaf. A window dominated most of the penthouse, providing a gob-smacking view of a realm so skewed, and so beyond comprehension. The late dusk sky was severely toasted, and I saw no birds flutter there tonight, only the black angels delivering their payloads. My attention was brought back to the penthouse by the jangling beads of a crystal chandelier above the desk. Lastly, opposite the window, was a hefty dinner table displaying platters of colurful food fit for any appetite. "Help yourself." the warden said, throwing his heavy looking overcoat over a velvet sofa. "Come in. Come! Come!"

I got a good look at his uniform now and snickered. I still wasn't used to seeing someone looking so old fashioned; like Sir Isaac Newton, the warden appeared quite comfortable in black boots to the knees, figure hugging white cotton pants and a waistcoat holding in his barrel of a belly.

All free from the steaming elevator, its doors shut, and we heard it clatter back down the shaft. I recoiled upon noticing a guard beside the welded doors. Not another masked hood, but a man of bronze from top to bottom, his face polished on the outside and seemingly hollow on the inside; a fifteen foot titan endowed with brutal strength, boulder brown shoulders, bulging copper arms and a thick sword in his hard hands.

"Impressive statue." said Kat.

"No statue." tittered the warden, and sure enough, Kat recoiled the instant he felt the heat of that statues exhaling breath.

"For my protection." the warden added, combing back his fringe. "My position here requires the most effective security. Hardly the Grande Armée, but you will find none more persuasive than my man of bronze. Please, the food on the table is delicious and perfectly safe to eat."

"How long have you been expecting us?" I asked him, on edge.

The warden pushed back the chair to sit at his desk. He then crossed his little legs and lit a smoke from a silver cigarette case. "The very moment you descended into the depths." he answered, lingering on the puff. "Souls who enter Hell are thoroughly scanned and their presence made known to those who have an interest, be it past enemies or old acquaintances. Your intention was to come to my Fortress, I was therefore informed."

Intrigued, Harmony selected an orange from the table, and then shyly observed the warden at his desk.

"You've lost weight." she said. "Some, I suppose."

I shared disappointed glances with Kat. Had our whiter than white friend betrayed us? I couldn't believe it. With the cigarette stick hanging between his lips, the warden left the desk and approached Harmony — his small eyes squinting at her blotched right arm.

"Did I not send you the poet?" he hissed, standing from his seat to direct his anger at me. "Well?"

Confused, I recalled the ghost above the labyrinth, the slight young-man who gave us a barrel of overflowing water for our thirst, advice to escape the maze, and the door to take at the end of it.

"You sent him for us?" I asked.

"Of course!" he exclaimed, furious. "Virgil's role is to support the warden of the 9th Fortress, and that support was at your disposal!"

Presently, as if by some unheard command, the transparent blonde-haired poet joined us in the penthouse.

"How are you?" he asked me, sincerely.

I looked at him with an empty mind. It had been a very long time since the twists and turns of the labyrinth, with its treacherous Wisp and starving rats.

"Virgil's guidance was there whenever you required it." the warden explained. "If you had only called his name he would have come to your aid at any-time — at any time! There was no need to wander through fields, to meander with mutineers; and certainly no need for this angel's arm to be in such condition!"

"Excuse me!" Harmony interrupted him; "I refused take the healing liquid offered to me. If anything, you should be thanking my friends for bringing me to you."

"How do you know each other?" cried Eddinray, unable to contain his jealousy. "Why Harmony? What does this mean?"

The angel lowered a shameful face.

"Sit down!" snipped the warden. "Stupid Englishman! Can't you see you're upsetting her? The past has clearly overwhelmed my angel. The shock was inevitable of course, but deep down I'm sure she knew all along that it was I beckoning her here."

"I suspected." she mumbled back. "Nothing more than that."

"Why did you want us here so urgently?" I asked him, patting a supporting hand on Eddinray's shoulder.

"I wanted you here for one reason alone," he snootily replied, stubbing out his cigarette on the chest of his bronze swordsman. "I needed to see the face of Harmony Valour. The rest of you were tools to that end."

"Who are you?" I said, totally confused.

"In my time," he started, "I have fought over sixty battles and learnt nothing which I did not know at the beginning. Immune to warfare, killer of kings and conqueror of continents, the continuous fight was my destiny. My name is Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor and master of France."

I gawked back, his chubby face now so obvious. This was not some vague portrait from a history book, but the very man sharing the same air as us. The idea, like the food, was hard to swallow.

"Now proud warden of the 9th Fortress," he added, "no other deserves, or fulfils the duties of this office more than I."

"You service the devil." said Harmony, her expression hard and voice bitter.

"I service myself!" he corrected. "But…" he suddenly giggled, "What woman could understand an Emperor's burden? They are merely a charming decoration, and none more decorative than you Harmony."

He came to part the hair from Harmony's eyes, causing Eddinray to grasp his chest in pain. Meanwhile, a melancholic Virgil floated harmlessly amongst us, and I regarded him as an ally for the time being.

Still commanding attention, Napoleon picked a banana from a fruit-bowl and took great care in peeling it.

"How do you know Harmony?" I asked him, losing patience. "What are you two involved in?"

"She was my life support." he answered, taking a greedy bite of his banana. "My angel soul-mate. That is the extent of our involvement."

His bombshell sent a thick and silent stink through the penthouse. Harmony was his life-support, and immediately I understood the unbreakable bond between them.

"My great earthly crime apparently," he added, aggrieved, "was to relish the strategy of the battlefield and take pleasure in victory."

"It was more than pleasure!" exclaimed Harmony, bitterly. "Yours was an obsession for power Napoleon ¬— to win at any cost! You were a cold hearted monster, a despot who dragged thousands to oblivion with you."

She spasmed with fear when Napoleon erupted, tipping the food table over in a rage. "Do not dare judge me!" he roared. "Wasn't it you, angel, who whispered encouragement into my ear? Your words inspired my desire for that glory, and your hand guided me to every battlefield."

"I hadn't an ounce of control or influence over your actions!" she cried and moaned."Your life was yours and you are to blame for it!"

"Your God disagrees!” he returned, mocking her. "Your influence expelled me from France and you from Heaven. They knew, as I do, that you were in awe of me life support, and that awe is the very reason for the clamp binding your wings, and why you grace my Fortress tonight. You are responsible for my decent, as I am responsible for yours."

"Let her be!" yelled Eddinray, rushing to her. Quickly, Napoleon intervened, pushing Eddinray to the ground and daring him to retaliate. "Don't ever touch her Englishman! Don't you ever! Your pathetic little island was the death of me, and my memory has not for —"

A katana pressing against Napoleon's larynges immediately stifled voice.

"Emotional…" Napoleon chocked, and raising his fingers, he clicked them to stir the bronze man into motion. Joints grinding, it stamped toward me, then held its barbaric sword over my skull.

Kat grimaced, as if tasting sick on his tongue. "Samurai," said Napoleon, grinning; "my friend will remove his head without thought or effort; and no matter what indifferent façade you may show on the outside, your insides definitely do not want that."

"Put down the sword Kat." I said, feeling a chill from that bronze man. "We can't fight everything."

Resigned, Kat lowered his weapon, and the warden smiled. "I am in charge of this situation." he stated, ordering his man away from me. "You do not come to one’s home and spit on their floor. I invited you people to the hospitality of my penthouse, not the cells below it. Previous wardens would not have been so charitable. Enjoy it! Why not take in the splendid sight of my domain? Come feast your eyes!"

"We've seen plenty." I said, as he went to look over this kingdom.

"It is magnificent." he rasped, releasing a satisfied exhale. "This view never fails to stir me. The glory. The power. My God."

"I am sorry." whispered Harmony, walking to her far fallen individual. "How could I have failed you so terribly?"

"Fail me angel? Can't you see that I am above everything? I am in Heaven."

"You are the regret of my life," she said, wobbly on her feet. "The regret of my life."

"And you are mine.” he whispered back. “I am sorry you were banished to the Distinct Earth, sorry you lost the use of your wings and were shamed so badly. Do you see now how unfair your God is? To inflict such shame upon a creature so proud?"

Gloom stricken, Harmony caressed a hand down Napoleon's back. "You are unwell. This awful place…it's eating you from the inside."

Her comment seemed to hurt Napoleon physically — he gripped his guts, turned on a penny and had to restrain his shaking fist from striking her. Harmony raised her chin high and unafraid, but nothing came of it, for Kat had distracted Napoleon. The samurai's instinct to protect us caused him to step forward, as if making to lunge for Napoleon's blood. He too restrained himself, but the emperor had grown weary of the samurai's volatile instincts. "Bronze-man!" he commanded. "Teach the samurai warrior a lesson!"

"Is that necessary, sir?" asked Virgil, diplomatically.

"Very! A lesson he will never forget!"

The bronze man obeyed the order and stampeded toward Kat, who paced to the centre of the penthouse. Harmony came to block herself between the pair, but Napoleon snatched her back like elastic.

"Attack!" he screamed. "Attack now!"

The swordsman held out his weapon, making its massive weight seem light as a feather. David to Goliath, Kat introduced his opponent's sword to his, then cut down the bronze-man's neck. Unfortunately, the katana clanged feebly off his foe leaving no damage or scratch, nor fragment of shrapnel. Kat struck again, harder this time down the tanned, expressionless face, but nothing.

"That's right," said Napoleon, thrilled; "my man is impervious to your sword Kat. Guard! Bring me the samurai's head!"

On that command, the bronze soldier threw himself at Kat. The samurai swerved athletically from the mass and its hefty blade broke through the warden's desk to cut it clean down the middle.

"Come on Kat!" I cried.

The crystal chandelier jingled overhead when both warriors’ blades collided, fusing brilliant sparks over the broken desk. They held this lock of steel, but the guard was too strong, too invincible for Kat to out-brute. They separated swords and the bronze-man scored a point down Kat's wrist, causing him to drop the katana. His wakizashi useless in this match-up, Kat was defenceless, so backed away from the bronze-man as a warm glint appeared in those copper eyes.

"That's enough Napoleon!" pleaded Harmony. "Call off your guard!"

"Never!" he returned, bloodthirsty. "Kill him swordsman! Kill the Kat! Do not disappoint me!"

Kat retreated until his back was smeared against the wide windowpane. The bronze-man appeared to almost grow in front of Kat. It raised its sword for the killing strike, but the samurai moved faster than eyes. He leapt under those thick heavy legs then sprang up to snatch hold of the hanging chandelier. Crystal beads fell from the ornament as Kat swung backwards, then all his weight was forced forwards and into the bronze-man's back, sending that living statue headfirst through the glass.

Blustery winds whistled in through the newly shattered window while Kat dropped from the chandelier, wiping any crystallized specks from his shoulders. "Lesson over." he grunted, collecting his faithful katana.

"Ha!" declared Eddinray, smiling. "You have no more protection Frenchman! The upper hand is ours, sir!"

Napoleon clapped, thoroughly impressed with Kat. Eddinray however, did not impress him. Not in the slightest. "You are a fool Englishman," he started, sliding his fingers up Harmony's bare arms; "a fool to think I have or will ever lose the upper hand here. Take nothing for granted, for everything that you see…there are the lurking surprises that you do not!"

Kat aimed his sword at the warden's heart. "We are taking all that we need. Try stopping us."

Napoleon did not argue, but watched disappointingly as Harmony edged away from his touch.

"Prisoner 2020." he said, tone harsher as he examined his broken desk. "That is who you seek Mr Fox? Correct?"

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"Unfortunately," he added, rubbing the grease from his forehead; "unfortunately no soul casually walks into my Fortress and removes an inmate — this is a prison facility after all, and such precedents are dangerous things to set. I allow you entry, but escape is impossible. Quite."

"We are taking the prisoner." Kat insisted. "No negotiation."

"But haven't you come here for two prisoners?" returned Napoleon, with clever certainty. "Surely two? Yes?"

We searched amongst ourselves, Napoleon taking a moment to savour our confusion. "I know about all of you." he said now. "What each of you desires most. For instance, I know how you escaped Hell, samurai; why, you waited in limbo for two hundred years; and what you seek from God…"

"Don't!" Kat exclaimed; but unconcerned, a confident warden continued. "A cosmic conscience cannot give you what you want Kat, neither can the hollow wish of an old wizard. They cannot because your wife is not in Heaven. No, she is with us…in Hell."

Napoleon's little lips stretched to his ears, but that smile was smacked off his face when — with no grace at all — Kat snatched the scruff of his neck and dangled him out of the window. "My wife is not in Hell!" he bawled, spittle flying. "She is not!"

The rest of us watched flabbergasted. I had never seen Kat so angry, so mad, and so wildly unstable.

"Release him samurai!" cried the ghost Virgil. "There will be consequences otherwise!"

"Yuki!" chocked Napoleon, over the swirling realm he adores. "She can…be saved!"

A puzzle was being put together in my head upon hearing the name. A seat and secret shared — "Yuki, I am coming!"

After a long and pitiful shriek, Kat threw Napoleon spinning back into the penthouse, and then wilted to his knees. There, on the cold black tiles, he sobbed, crushing the window's broken glass between his fingers.

Moved by his despair, Harmony approached. She sat to stroke Kat's arm. Napoleon meanwhile recovered in the corner with Virgil's eye giving him the once over. Agitated, Napoleon ordered his servant poet from the penthouse, and he disappeared to some unknown region in Hell.

Returning to a demoralised Kat, Napoleon manoeuvred Harmony aside then bent to slither words into his ear. "In the year 1568," he begun, "a Warlord sent his best warrior to win his latest battle. Despite being a natural leader of men and grandmaster of the sword, the samurai's time on that earthly plain was over. He never returned home…"

Kat looked lost in the past, his mind transported to a stormy night and rain-swept village, where a hundred swords clashed, and men and horses fell by the dozen; himself included.

"When Yuki received word of her loving husband's death," Napoleon whispered, "she was overcome with grief."

"No." slurred Kat, crumpled in a ball.

"Yes," he continued. "Your woman stuck a dagger into her chest then bled to death on the floor. In a position similar to your own now. Perhaps you thought she passed peacefully? An old widow in her nineties?"

"Stop it!" Harmony cried.

"Suicide is an appalling act," he pressed, making light of Kat's grief; "a mortal sin. Life is a gift you see, and God gets very cross when you return it unwanted."

Defences obliterated, Kat slobbered like a baby into his bleeding palms. It was deeply disturbing to see him this way, emotion so human from a man so robotic.

"Do not believe it Kat." urged Harmony. "He is a liar and the very best of them!"

"Spare me!" griped Napoleon, guiding our eyes to his oversized fireplace. "Have a look life support! See her for yourself!"

Inside the jagged flames of that fire appeared the image of a woman Kat knew to be his wife. Yuki was in her early fifties, delicate and emaciated. Strung up by a wired noose around the neck, her hands where bound behind her back as her legs kicked at thin air. Her choked expression revealed the horror she endured, her flesh was purple and airless, and the eyeballs protruded like boiled eggs from their sockets.

"Yuki!" Kat writhed, reaching out to her pathetic image. Napoleon childishly moved to block Kat's view of the fire, and his wife. "She can't hear you." he said, full of deranged pleasure. "Prisoner 1692 hangs and suffers every second of her days and nights, for all time. Now, I ask again: Have you come to my Fortress for one prisoner…or two?"

"Let her go!" begged Harmony. "It is too cruel! Let her go, please?"

"For you Harmony?” he asked. “Is that what you want from me?"

"Yes!" she answered, without hesitation. "Do this for me Napoleon."

Interested, and clearly keen to satisfy Harmony, Napoleon sauntered to his blustery window to mull things over. There, he kicked a shard of glass to the puffy red clouds and watched it flip and fall like his bronze-man. I thought of sneaking to his back now and kicking his fat ass out the window, but how would that see the release of our two prisoners? Not forgetting those lurking surprises he mentioned.

"I will release her!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Yes! You can have the old woman. A token of…goodwill."

Presently, and on his word, the wire cut from around Yuki's neck and she dropped to soiled ground. Engrossed in the flames, we then watched her remarkable realisation that she could breathe again. The purple on her face settled a bit at a time, and the eyes receded back into her head. Her suffering seemingly over, her image was gone in a woof of smoke, and the fireplace flickered back to normal.

"Thank you Napoleon!" exhaled Harmony. "Thank-you!"

Carefully now, I approached Kat, placing my soft hand on his hard shoulder. "Your wife will be safe, my friend. We will see her out of here. I promise you."

Kat smeared the salty tears away and gripped my forearm. I pulled to his feet and here, at the top of the 9th Fortress, we brothers stood.

"You will be reunited with her." said Napoleon. "In the meantime there is important business yet to discuss."

Although happy to grant the wishes of Harmony Valour, Napoleon Bonaparte was not in the least bit amused to see her arm clung around Eddinray's. An ugly malice appeared on his face, a poisonous desire to see the Englishman put in his place. "Listen here!" he declared. "I will release the wife of the samurai! I will also release prisoner 2020 and see you leave the Fortress with my blessing…All be done!"

"If?" I asked, sceptical and hopeful at the same time. "Whatever I can do!"

"Not you Fox!" he exclaimed. "You have already sacrificed plenty in getting here — your sanity lost in the cave of a centaur — the eye carved out of your head. But what of the Englishman? What has he lost through this endeavour?"

"What about me?" pried Eddinray, standing straight.

"I am an enthusiast." Napoleon replied, nonchalantly. "A competitor and proud Frenchman! My wise and noble Father nurtured all of his children, often regaling this impressionable boy with bedtime tails of Joan of Ark and Turenne. He sent his son dreaming of the greatest battles and glory over impossible odds; the following morning I would wake with a bellyful of inspiration."

Napoleon was briefly that boy again, his eyes enjoying the memories. "When my Father died," he added, sadly, "dreams became ambitions, so I set out to realise them."

Lingering near the velvet sofa, Eddinray appeared fidgety under Napoleon's spotlight. "My life was one of supreme highs," he continued, "and one loathsome low at Waterloo. Sent to my island prison by the British, my body was slowly poisoned by those dogs then thrown to rot in an unmarked grave. A disgraceful end to a wonderful life."

"Why tell us?" I asked him. "What's the point?"

"I am offering your English friend that which I did not get — an honourable last bow. For Sir Godwin Eddinray to compete with the competitor."

Harmony let out a sharp gasp, and swiftly, Napoleon finished his proposal before further interruption. "Participate in a contest, joust with me Englishman, and your party can leave here with prisoners mentioned."

Sickly faced and weak at the knees, Eddinray sat. Harmony however, was not so feckless.

"Napoleon you are too arrogant!" she chuckled. "You always were! You cannot defeat Godwin; he is a knight who understands horses and lances better than any here. You won't stand a chance!"

Napoleon snorted into his fist. "What say you knight?" he asked, pompously dabbing his lips with a handkerchief from his pocket. "What say you to her claims?"

Eddinray now regained something of his old self. He left the sofa and approached Napoleon with broadening shoulders. "I agree…with Harmony."

"And do you love her?" he asked him; "or are you lying about that too?"

Harmony and Eddinray froze, the pair so obviously terrified of hearing the other's answer. Fortunately, one of them had an answer to Napoleon's question, thus shattered any tension with it. "I am no liar!" declared Eddinray, boldly. "And yes, sir! I do love this woman! There you have it!"

Harmony visibly quivered at his announcement, then leant against the nearest piece of furniture for support. "You do?" she asked him.

Defeating the nerves in his belly, Eddinray faced her. "From the very moment I saw you I was smitten. In awe. In love, my dear."

They exhaled simultaneous relief, and smiling, they stumbled, almost inebriated to embrace before the fireplace. Kat and I shared delighted grins from across the penthouse, but a sore looking Napoleon chewed his bottom lip bloody. "Excuse me," he interrupted, lowering his voice to a snarl. "I am not…finished."

Infant-like in his jealousy, he pried the lovers apart and had his say between them. "Tell us when you passed Englishman? Tell us that — then have the temerity to claim you are no liar!"

To this, Eddinray's body language spontaneously transformed, from an invigorated man who had received the best possible news, to a shrinking violet from his love.

"What's the matter?" asked Harmony, as his hands left her.

"Tell us!" added Napoleon, leering. "Tell us…you fool of a man!"

Weakened and withdrawn, Eddinray planted himself back on the sofa. Harmony attentively approached to sit beside him. "It's fine Godwin.” she said. “I know the truth. I saw it for myself. Watched everything on the locomotive."

"What," he said, fear obvious in his voice; "did you see?"

Harmony scrunched up her eyes to recall. "The time and landscape were unfamiliar, but it was clear you did not die a hero's death. Far from it, you lost your footing and fell drunkenly from a bridge."

Napoleon laughed aloud, his belly bouncing up and down.

"You may be ashamed Godwin!" Harmony hastened, "but an unspectacular end is the main for the majority. Nothing to be proud of, but nothing to be upset over either!"

"She must love you," Napoleon scoffed; "for despite seeing the truth with her own eyes, my life-support still refuses to accept it. Inform the rest of us, Englishman — when did you take your pratfall? The date precisely?"

"I cannot remember it…"

"Come now!" he badgered, hurrying to them at the sofa. "The 15th Century? No? The 16th perhaps? No? Surely then…the 17th?"

"Stop!" Eddinray pleaded, but Napoleon pressed on for victory. "Let us race past the 18th and 19th centuries, and further still to the 20th! Yes, now that's much more accurate!"

Frustrated annoyance spread over the Penthouse. Harmony could not wait for Eddinray to take his time now — she demanded the truth be told.

"So be it." Eddinray said, and with a huge sigh of surrender, a wet eyed and humiliated knight, confessed. "I died in the year 19 hundred and 89. The 20th century."

Harmony stood, taking slow steps away from the sofa, her plain expression revealing nothing.

"My name was Gerald," Eddinray explained, "Gerald Price. I worked as a nurse at my local elderly care home in Blackburn, England. A common nurse, that's all. I cleaned mouths, changed sheets, fluffed pillows and wiped backsides for a living. An admirable profession you might say, but hardly a heroic one."

Napoleon leapt on the opportunity to mock him. "You see? A nurse! Can you imagine him in his woman uniform, honouring the sick with incompetence!"

He laughed and laughed until his sides hurt.

"Shut up!" Kat yelled at him. "Shut your fat mouth!"

Napoleon gradually caught his breath, if only to hear Eddinray conclude his story. "It was New Year's Eve." he stuttered. "I was due to attend a fancy dress party so rented this very…costume…for the occasion. The most expensive in the shop. After the party — sloshed of course — I slipped and fell from a bridge. In the Waiting Plain, I accepted the consequences of my wasted years and drunken folly, and was therefore sentenced to face the many trials and tribulations of the Distinct Earth. "

"Where the stupid and meek assumed he was an English knight from times long past." finished Napoleon, dusting the matter off his palms. "There is your story Harmony, and that is your knight!"

Harmony looked senseless, like a doll to the news. I meanwhile uttered the only thought to enter my head.

"The name? Of all the names to choose, why Godwin Eddinray?"

"Strangest thing Danny," he replied, "a moment before I fell headlong into the water, that name was the last thing I ever heard. It seemed to fit the costume. It all made sense somehow…"

Standing again, Eddinray outstretched his hand toward Harmony. "Forgive me?"

Stony faced, she turned her back to his hand and pleas.

"Priceless." muttered Napoleon. "The nobody playing a somebody — all very dull and pathetic."

"I wasn't naive," said Harmony, gently; "I knew you embellished the truth Godwin, but I believed your stories came from an honest place in your heart. Tell me…was nothing real? Was it all nonsense?"

Shrinking back to the sofa, Eddinray's unanswerable mouth sent Napoleon into another spell of laughter. Harmony wavered to the window to hide her broken heart, and in the centre of this melodrama, Kat and I where stuck to uncertain feet.

"Oh, I need a cigarette." said Napoleon, chortling over the breeze and cackling fire. "This has been a good night!"

Then, and with a biting grimace, Eddinray sprang from the sofa and announced -

"I will joust! I will joust with you Emperor!"

Kat and I peered, somewhat embarrassed at each other; Harmony remained unmoved at the window. Seizing the chance to see off his love rival, Napoleon pounced. "Will you joust…nurse? Are you serious? Can you ever be serious?"

"When and where?" he answered. "I will joust!"

I went to calm him down, but Eddinray's mind was made up. "If I win?" he asked Napoleon. "What then?"

"You leave my Fortress in fine health," he replied, "with prisoners 1692 and 2020 in tow."

"And if he loses?" I said, intrigued.

Napoleon had to clear his throat before sharing that vital condition. "When the nurse loses, Harmony will remain here with me. The rest of you will march willingly to vacant cells below. No negation." he quipped in Kat's direction.

A faint looking Harmony turned now from the window, with wildly gusting hair and feathers. "I cannot abandon my friends, Napoleon!"

The warden briefly gagged. "You…consider this deceiving lot to be your friends? I have seen inside their hearts Harmony, and none of them are worthy of your company, let alone your friendship! If you love me then you will trust my instincts and accept my decision. You do love me, don't you?"

Lowering her eyes to the tiles, the angel hesitated before mumbling — "I love you."

Uncertain, exactly, to who she was addressing, Napoleon was the one who looked pleased.

"I will succeed Harmony!" exclaimed Eddinray, trying not to cry. "I will so!"

I examined his gaunt, moustached face, concealing my doubt behind optimistic eyes.

"The duel will be held as soon as possible!" Napoleon interrupted. "Tomorrow you become prisoners, tonight you are guests — and as guests your needs will be suitably seen to."

"My wife?" asked Kat, instantly.

"You can have time with the old woman." he consented. "She can even witness the joust by your side. Mr Fox?!"

My forehead shot up to my name.

"Step into the elevator." he said. "It's already on route."

At the very end of Napoleon's sentence, I heard that distant machinery rocketing toward the penthouse.

"Go and meet prisoner 2020." he concluded. "You will have much to talk about…”

38. A Soul Worth Saving

Doors sealed me in with that fusing weld down the centre, my stomach then attempted to escape from my mouth when the elevator dropped like a cinder block down the shaft. I ducked for cover as gas-exploded overhead, then was thrown sideways to smash my cheek off the wall.

This chaos did nothing to remove me from the coming moment. Somehow, I always expected this meeting with prisoner 2020 to take care of itself; that it would all work out with little or no effort from me. Bludgeon, Newton, Missy, Kat, none of them prepared me for the actual encounter. Did I even expect it to arrive?

Palms wet and an uncomfortable constriction in my throat, I waited on the vibrating floor for this elevator to take me where I needed to go. I wasn't waiting long. Brakes screeched outside and I was shocked by the sturdiness of the halt, and the immediacy of the opening doors. Already here, I could hardly believe it. Steam wafted out of the elevator and into this new room. I took my time standing, and was frightened by a horse voice coming from inside the cell. "2020!" it announced.

Growing fog obscured all edges, leaving the dark centre of the cell to hover like a vague dream. With caution I entered, widening my eyes and covering my nostrils from the old air. The voice belonged to the hooded guard beside the door, the lean thing at ease with ridiculous piles of unmoved dust balancing neatly on its head and shoulders. Its calculating mask looked me over, before its nod gave me consent to proceed.

My delicate footsteps disturbed the smoky floor, hands throttling the weapons at my belt — sword in my left, dagger in my right — prepared for absolutely anything. A substantial silhouette became clearer in this gloom. It was a standing slate, a rugged monolith from murky ceiling to misty floor; and there, strapped to it by ropes like a conveniently wrapped up gift, was a naked man — prisoner 2020.

It was a man. Of course it was. Saliva dribbled from his bottom lip, but everything above his nose was still concealed by darkness. Moving closer, his condition was dirty and dishevelled, nothing a few hot meals and a shower couldn't take care of. I dabbed at a feverish sweat on my forehead as I crept closer; and blowing the collected clouds away, I examined his slouched face, now lifting to meet mine.

Something happened. A passage of time was stolen from me — a minute, maybe more. I woke on the stone floor, overcome with a scatterbrained faintness and the worst kind of sickness. "This is a mistake." I mumbled, the brain like mush in my skull.

It must be a mistake — an illusion of the mind — a trick of imagination — some perverted joke on me. How could this person be here in the 9th Fortress? How could I, of all men, have been sent to rescue him? Not him! Not possible!

Again, I cleared the grime from my face and inspected his features once more — going carefully over the cheekbones, meticulously over his long nose and thoroughly over that unremarkable mouth and bald-head until there could be no mistake. No doubt. This was a man I knew, despised, and died with.

"Daniel Fox," he said. "Have you come to kill me?"

***

Napoleon Bonaparte and my helpless friends observed through that burning fireplace.

"Who is he?" asked Harmony, puzzled. "Whom have we travelled so long for?"

Napoleon approached her back, and she shuddered the instant he took her shoulders.

"That person," he whispered in her ear, "is named John Curtis. Not a famous man of his time; no great leader or mastermind criminal, but an ordinary individual capable of extraordinary acts, a selfish banker who caused the death of two teachers and four children — one being your friend's daughter."

"Poor Daniel." mumbled Harmony. "What happened, Napoleon?"

"Under the influence of alcohol that man drove a school bus off the road. Manslaughter is common in Mr Fox's time, in any time; and for taking the lives of six, Curtis served a miserly four years in prison for his crime." Napoleon went to warm his palms against the fiery scene. "The bureaucracy of old Earth prevents justice," he added, "and as you can well imagine, Mr Fox brought down his own. Bitter until the end of his days, he could not forget, and he would never forgive. He pointed a gun at his enemy's head, but in the end could not bring himself to kill. So together the men fought and together –

"They fell." Kat finished, transfixed. "They fell…"

Nodding back, Napoleon concluded — "Sent to rescue the soul he put here. I will say this for your God, Harmony, he does have a wonderful sense of humor. Yes, the scientist Newton may want John Curtis, but make no mistake about it, he rightly deserves his place in my Fortress. You see, Curtis is the worst kind of man — despicable. There was no remorse felt for his crime, no care for his victims or sorrow for their grieving families — I assure you there still isn't. His act was a trifle to him, nothing more, a burden postponing his life not devastating it to pieces. Physical pain cannot reach such vacuous individuals, so here they experience something far greater — the systematic destruction of their mind. And once sanity is shattered, there is no hiding place from pain."

"I don't feel comfortable watching this." said Harmony, turning away. "It's not…right."

An amused Napoleon watched her walk to the window. A stern faced Kat meanwhile, crept closer to the fire.

***

Embraced in mist, Curtis and I stared into the mirrored bewildered of each other. When the confusion had passed, I felt the first groan of a monster, the kind I'd seen rampant in Bludgeon and Kat — the beast inside us all. Curtis was not suffering clearly, or loudly enough for me; there was no wired noose around his throat, no blade painstakingly peeling the flesh from his chest, no nails hammered daily into his toes or cherubs to break his skull in with rocks. How could his be suitable punishment after all the shit we had seen? The wall of tears and oncoming flood, souls in vats of fire, the impaled on spikes, the drowning under sea, the devoured mutineers and petrified statues of ice! Yet here, this bastard was held by rope to a rock? This wasn't enough. Not nearly enough.

I pulled the dagger from its pouch, tugged back his slippery head and pressed the blade to his swallowing Adam's apple. "Hurt me Fox!" he giggled, smiling his leathered wrinkles at me. "I don't feel a thing!"

I pressed the dagger into his neck, the apple bobbling up and down with his chuckle.

"Make the cuts slow!" he begged me. "Oh, hurt me good!"

"Enough!"

I moved to slice open his throat, to spill his innards over my boots, when suddenly, his expression poured cold water over my fire, and somehow tamed my monster. It was a very subtle and serene closing of his eyes that did it, as if he wanted me to kill him, expected it, and even desired it. I lowered the dagger from his neck and took a step back, feeling my boiling blood come to a simmer.

John Curtis squinted an eye open, surprise imprinting his face as he watched my blade return to my belt.

"Well?" he asked, hurriedly. "What the fuck are you waiting for? You're…supposed to kill me."

"Supposed to? Says who?"

"The nightmares!" he snapped like a lunatic. "They end when you stick me! They do! I have seen it! Promised it! Don't hesitate Fox! I wouldn't — I'd kill you and your fucking kid all over again if given the chance! Your prize is here Fox! Take it you coward! Stick me you shit! Kill me! What are you waiting for? Do it now!"

I had — in my life and afterlife — killed one human being as he had killed me, all of it leading to a devastating chain reaction. I decided to remember the mission at this tempting time, to focus on that and not the reasons for it. I'd made it to the 9th Fortress, my friends were upstairs, alive, and I had come face to face with my own demon — the job, however, would not be complete until I had this individual back in the limbo of the Waiting Plain. "The scientist wants you alive." I said, over his mad ravings. "I don't know why — can't imagine a single reason. You're going back Curtis — and I'll drag you kicking and screaming if I have to. So help me God…"

***

It was evening in the 9th Fortress, and the liquorish sky could not have cast a more foreboding spell over tomorrow. The penthouse danced with candlelight, an atmosphere to make any eye sparkle. The broken window was already repaired, and overlooking that spectacular view, Harmony and Napoleon sat at opposite ends of a table, with wine and a meaty main-course under their noses. "How do you find the food?" he asked her, chewing politely.

"It's…lovely." she said, shallowly poking potatoes with her fork.

"Will you share your thoughts? You have not said a thing so far."

Harmony shook her head. "I feel overwhelmed." she answered. "The meaning of it all and this place? I sometimes question the thinking going on up there. I can't help it. What does it mean?"

"Their ways are unworthy of your thoughts or worship." he happily replied. "Vague nonsense insulting ones intelligence! There is no baffling mystery about my Lord and his realm, his glory is here for all to see, smell and touch, not locked behind an overwhelming cloud of maths. Perhaps this is what you need, angel? To be far from the frustrating ways of your God and his intellectual devotees?"

Harmony scrutinized the well-fed Emperor at the other end of the table. "Why are you so devoted Napoleon? What inspires you? Where is the good in the soul I love?"

"You are the good in me," he returned, piercing a sausage with his fork, "you were all of it Harmony, and it was devotion to my Lord that secured this lofty position in the 9th Fortress." He took the whole sausage into his mouth. "Devotion," he continued, mincing pork between his teeth; "is the only virtue. Under our feet are the nastiest creatures to ever grace any surface — I have Blackbeard the Pirate and Rasputin on one floor alone, and overseeing their suffering is a unique privilege. Mephistopheles gave this post, not to Genghis Khan or Charlemagne, but to Napoleon Bonaparte, and it is his confidence which inspires the soul you love."

Harmony sighed, shrivelling in her chair. "You are lost." she said. "Hopelessly so."

"Life support…" he corrected, swallowing, "I am found."

***

I explored, happily alone through a labyrinth of mysterious halls, closed doors and randomly freakish screams. I'd been on my feet for hours, going over past and current events — John Curtis — John Curtis — his face wouldn't leave me. My brain seemed to swell from overuse, and it was an intensely frustrating feeling, to know I would have to wait, or never get the answers.

The levels and hallways of the 9th Fortress were extremely diverse: some chilled me to shivers whilst others sent the sweat sliding down my legs. Worse was the sewage, popping over floors or hanging like icicles down from ceilings. It was revolting, and everywhere.

Passing unlocked cells over my route, how many immortal names had I passed tonight I wondered? Hitler? Cromwell? Whoever they were, I was no better equipped for coping with the suffering; for although Bludgeon taught me through excruciating repetition to ignore the warnings and pain — this is a skill I believe no creature can master. We all have a breaking point.

Not wanting my meandering through evil to stop, an appearance of a friend interrupted me. Eddinray searched out of a crooked window, and noticing me now, he expressed the "do not disturb" sign over his cross features. I made to pass, to leave him to his thoughts and return to mine, but something heavy hung in the air, and I couldn't walk away from it.

"Eddinray?"

"That's not my name." he dimly replied. A limelight from outside illuminated his face, and looking through his window, I gasped at the astonishing night sky — a vortex the size of a moon hovered above the realm; it had a deep blackness at its core that appeared to suck in all the birds and light and the Hell around it.

"What is it?" I asked, not expecting any answer.

"I think it's the way out," he said. "Or perhaps another way in. Do you…forgive me Danny?" he then whispered. "All those lies I told?"

"There's nothing to forgive Eddinray. Nothing at all. Your stories — true or false, fact or fiction — kept spirits up and took our minds away from the worst…Some of the time."

A gratefully smile appeared on his lips, but that dismal expression returned when he asked about Harmony. "Have you seen her?"

"She's having dinner with the warden." I said, refusing to protect him from the truth. "She's safe at least."

"Not with that man, Danny. Not with him. The way he looks at her…"

His hand clenched rock at the window.

"You're the one she loves!" I hissed. "We all know it! Harmony just needs time, that's all. She'll come round if she hasn't already."

"I lied to her. To all of you."

Frustrated, I exhaled. Determined to feel sorry for him, I was ready to leave Eddinray to sulk when an idea came to me. Peering down the vacant corridor, I called out the name of Virgil, immediately, and as see through as ever, the good-looking poet appeared before us. I first apologised for the lateness of the hour, then asked my questions — "I need information Virgil: can you tell me how many times Napoleon has fought here in the past? Specifically duels with other inmates?"

"During his rein," Virgil returned, "Bonaparte has fought twenty seven duels in the courtyard: twenty-one hand to hand, three with blade and one with joust."

"And has he ever lost?"

"The warden has never been defeated." he said, candidly. "He could not live with the shame, yet his addiction to victory demands that he toy with that possibility."

This news did not ease mine, or Eddinray's mind. "Can you tell me anything Virgil," I asked, desperate; "anything that might advantage us tomorrow morning?"

Courteously, the ghost smiled, but this time said nothing. He couldn't, and I understood.

"One last thing." I added. "If we win, will we be allowed to walk free from this place? Can Napoleon's word be…trusted?"

Grimly, the poet shook his head, and the heart sank in my chest.

"No-one leaves the 9th Fortress," he said; "if you happen to succeed tomorrow, there are measures in place to prevent any escape."

"These measures?" Eddinray asked; but Virgil would reveal no more to us, and promptly vanished to whoever needed him most.

Subdued, I leant against the crooked window, searching the side of Eddinray's demoralised face.

"Defeat Napoleon." I said, simply. "Take him down and let me worry about the rest."

"How can I win against that man? I am not brave, Danny! I may wear the mask of a hero but it's not in my blood. I am not Kat!"

Angry, I took him by the arms and shook. I wanted him to see the confidence in my face now, to inspire some belief. "I remember hanging from a post in the wizard's stockade, so scared and alone. One night a man came to me with compassionate words and a sponge to clear the blood from my face. That was you Eddinray! Moments from being torn apart by the Scurge, and with no hope left, I watched you charge from that temple door, your sword held high toward two hundred bogs, a monster and a wizard. We fought a horde of rats side by side in the Labyrinth; you carried Harmony in your arms and saved Kat's life on the ice. Eddinray is in your blood now, and that guy is a hero!"

Suddenly and harshly, the knight embraced me in a constricting bear hug, and I heard the sniffles bubble from the end of his wet nose.

***

Napoleon finished his meal while Harmony waited for permission to leave the table.

"I see you have taken to the longbow?" he said, making her wait. "What made you decide upon such an…uncouth weapon?"

Geronimo's bow and quiver sat within Harmony's reach at the leg of the table, and she lowered her eyes to dream over them. "It belonged to a wise man.” she said. “I hoped my use of it might honor him; unfortunately it's as cumbersome as the clamp on my wings. It will take a very long time to master. But why ask Napoleon? Don't you already know everything?"

"Making conversation." he smiled. "That clamp…hurts me too, you know. That is one consequence I could not foresee, and will never forgive myself."

His tone was insincere, but Harmony appeared not to notice.

"You were right about me," she said, "earlier tonight. I was in awe of you back then. The early days especially, watching you fight for human rights during the revolution — you were inspiring, and I was captivated. Look at us now." she added, remorsefully.

"Marvellous, isn't it?" he said, oblivious to her feelings. "I have a good home here Harmony, but it is missing something vital, something I have wanted the moment I woke in the Waiting Plain those centuries ago."

"Don't say it. Please don't…"

"During my lifetime," he continued, "I had a taste but never fully appreciated the concepts of love and affection. I had to be struck by a divine beauty before my thoughts turned to it. Thoughts consumed by it. I want you Harmony Valour; I want you to be my wife."

"You cannot —" she gasped.

"Be serious?" he interrupted. "What can be more appropriate, nay, more natural than two soul-mates becoming one? The first union of its kind I'd wager, and no better place to celebrate it."

Gob-smacked, Harmony could barely express herself; but when she could, she did not hold back. "Napoleon you're asking me to throw away everything I know, to willingly embrace evil, to forsake my God and friends for this life of wickedness! Unthinkable! Impossible!"

Directly, a tactful Napoleon changed his game plan. "Of course." he huffed. "What am I thinking? You've been through so much my love. How can I expect you to consider my proposal at a time like this? Why, only this evening your trust was cruelly shattered by the nurse. How can you believe the words of another man? Indeed, how can your mind think clearly at all? What was I thinking?"

"Can we not mention Godwin?" she said, wincing. "I'm not sure yet…how I feel about that."

"Let us never discuss the Englishman." he replied, failing to conceal his relish. "I have many like him in my Fortress, liars who hoodwink others to feed their own egos, never an honest word leaves such conniving tongues."

Napoleon stood from his chair and crept toward her. Harmony watched his approach at the corner of her eye, heard the tapping of his shoes over tiles and felt his eventual breath warm the back of her neck.

"I promise you angel," he husked, caressing her face; "when we are married I will see that your companions are looked after; including the nurse. I see your fondness for him, I do, and it is completely understandable, given the yarns he spun you. They will all be made as comfortable as possible in their cells. You can even visit…on occasion."

"Why are you talking like this?" she mumbled, hiding under her hair. "I am sorry to hurt you Napoleon, so sorry, but I do not feel the same. I do love you but not that way. I…cannot."

"You will." he added; his arrogance and conviction incensing Harmony up from her chair.

"I won't!" she cried, shaking. "I will not! Furthermore I refuse your sick and blasphemous proposal! To think of you touching my skin…I despise the lunacy you stand for and will never betray my beliefs for it!"

Harmony was red faced, chest heaving, but a placid Napoleon seemed not to register it on his features. He did with his actions though, knocking the angel to the tiles with two slaps across her eye and lip.

Crumpled, Harmony held a rattling hand over her raw face. "We have made an arrangement." said Napoleon, examining new marks over his knuckles. "It would have been pleasant to pretend you had a choice in the matter…but alas. Tomorrow morning I will defeat the Englishman, and tomorrow night will be your first of many in my bedchamber. The first…of many. If that thought still repulses you then remember this fact, my beautiful life-support — the happier you make me, the easier I make eternity for your friends."

Lovingly, he sucked in the air as if inhaling another wonderful hit of tobacco. "And do take off that ridiculous bandanna," he added. "It really does not become you."

The Emperor then collected his glass of wine and left Harmony for the evening. Once alone, she crawled to the darkest spot under the dinner table, and there, she had her breakdown.

***

Kat cradled his wife in a cell, swimming in sewage. Rats ran over her bare feet and the maggots stuck like damp on the walls. Yuki Katamuro was a shell, her withered face blank as her dedicated husband clutched at her, mumbling encouragement, whispering memories and combing her hair through his fingers, anything to bring her back to him.

Kat was a picture of contentment. The man had achieved all his heart had ached for: he was reunited with his beloved, and nothing alive or dead, would dare take her away.

39. Duel

The courtyard was an area of flat sand with the four fortress walls enclosing. Napoleon's robotic hoods pressed their backs to those walls in side-by-side formation, and from the thousand windows above and around us, prisoners cheered in support for their warden.

"Bonaparte! Bonaparte! Bonaparte!"

Keeping close to each other in this cauldron, none of us asked Harmony to explain the bruise under her eye, or the disappearance of her bandanna No explanation was necessary.

"Bonaparte! Bonaparte! Bonaparte!"

"Why are they all for him?" I yelled. "I don't get it."

"They cheer for the hand that feeds them!" replied Napoleon, straddling a huffing black horse. "I promise you, spectators of my next tournament, will soon be doing the same!"

The Emperor was immaculately suited in medieval armor. His voice was strained under the burden of jangling mail and plates, but he didn't seem to mind. Smiling, Napoleon tangled the reins of his toothy charger around one arm, and with the other he held a long wooden lance — the tip as sharp as any spear.

"Solid oak." he said, raising the lance like a trophy.

"Viva l' emperor!" his crowd responded. "Viva l' emperor!"

Their sound was deafening, and magnificent. A wooden rail stretched directly down the courtyard centre. Its purpose to separate the soon to be charging horses into lanes. "My prisoners are in for a treat!" said Napoleon, his cheeks like roses. "All their pains postponed for the spectacle. Ah!" he exclaimed, looking behind us. "Mr Fox, here is your catch!"

Napoleon pointed to an arched doorway, where a humpbacked John Curtis — twitching and cowering — shielded his face from the burning suns. A thick rope was wrapped around his waist — a request I made — and a masked soldier now tugged him along by it. "I'm a man of my word," Napoleon said. "Prisoner 2020 is yours for the meantime."

The hood brought Curtis to my side and I greedily snatched his leash and wrapped it several times too many around my arm. He looked weak, but intelligence was still strong in his eyes.

"Do not get attached!" added Napoleon. "I will soon be taking my property back."

The Emperor then, with supreme confidence, looked down upon a grey-faced Eddinray. "Are you ready nurse? The time is now!"

"I am ready." he answered, convincing none of us. The tournament was clearly not on Eddinray's mind, nor was the fear of failure and eternal suffering in the 9th Fortress. Harmony Valour was all that occupied his thoughts, yet she ignored him.

Presently, a hooded soldier passed Eddinray the reins of an unhealthy looking brown charger, and a similar oak lance with sharpened tip.

"No shields?" asked Kat, keeping Yuki glued to his side.

"And why are the lance-heads sharp?" I added.

"This is a duel to the death!" said Napoleon, obviously. "Shields and blunt lances defeat that purpose."

"You never mentioned this!" Harmony protested. "This wasn't the arrangement!"

"The arrangement is whatever I want it to be." he uttered, circling his horse. "I am already giving you and these…people…much leeway Harmony. Do be grateful, and do pray it is the only change of plan! To the death then!" he announced. "We charge to kill nurse, do you accept the terms?"

Eddinray slunk as if already beaten, and moving to his horse, he struggled to get a foot inside the stirrup as the animal nudged him aside.

"It's called a horse!" giggled Napoleon, clicking down his visor. "Do not dawdle to your station nurse. The crowd are a thirsty lot! They expect blood to be spilled and spilled soon!"

Napoleon turned his pristine animal around to make a cloud of rising sand, before prancing over the courtyard. His prisoners now, through honesty or force, sycophantically applauded.

"Bonaparte! Bonaparte! Bonaparte!"

Pompously waving back, Napoleon revelled in their adulation; much like Eddinray, this was a man playing a knight, and he too was smitten with the façade. Fearing the worst for our knight, Kat surprisingly attempted to inspire confidence in him. He left Yuki's side for the first time, took authority over Eddinray's fussy horse then passed him the reins. "Be solid." he growled, pressing the lance firmly under Eddinray's arm. "Be one with the beast. Focus your aim."

"You can do this!" I added, while he mounted his horse. "Believe it!"

"I need to do this!" he replied, steadying himself over the saddle. "For Harmony, for all of us, I will do this!"

Poorly pretending not to hear him, Harmony kept her eyes toward her feet.

"I see failure all over him, Fox." whispered Curtis in my ear. "Almost pissing himself. It's pathetic."

I tugged the prisoner closer, aiming my sword at his groin. "That's enough from you."

Before Eddinray set for his mark at the start of the rail, Harmony approached his horse. The crowd’s volume increasing, the angel glanced up to Eddinray's hopeful eyes. "I have one question." she said, leaning against the horse. "Did you ever…love me? Was that a lie too?"

"I'll love you!" jeered Curtis, grinning. That smirk was quickly wiped from his face when I kicked the back of his knee and watched him fold in on himself like a deck chair. "I'll murder you for that!" he cried on the sand. "I'll murder — "

"I have always loved you Harmony!" interrupted Eddinray, his courage returning. "And if such a thing is possible my love, and if such a man be worthy — will you consent to be my wife?"

Eddinray appeared to be stunned by his own audacity. We all were. All eyes turned sharply to Harmony, who did not accept or refuse him, in-fact she did not say or express any emotion; she simply released Eddinray's horse and shrunk back into our group.

"Right!" huffed Eddinray, his voice breaking. "That answers that then!"

"Eddinray!" I begged, catching his eye. "Good-luck man!"

Without comment, he slid the pot-marked visor down over his face, glanced over Harmony one last time then galloped for his station. The baying crowd kept their applause exclusively for the warden, and did their master proud with pantomime boos for Eddinray.

"He'll be okay." I said. "He will."

Napoleon pulled up his horse at the furthest end of the courtyard, and forty feet away, his challenger fought to control his stubborn animal. Between them, at the centre of the wooden rail, one hood raised a flapping tissue in the air like some high-school drag race.

"Bonaparte! Bonaparte! Bonaparte!"

The Warden aimed his sharp lance over his horse's head and the crowd reacted with delight, causing the living walls of the 9th Fortress to shimmer and pulse.

"Bonaparte! Bonaparte! Bonaparte!"

"Do it Eddinray!" I cried at his back.

"He can't hear you!" Curtis complained. "Christ, I can barely hear you!"

"Bonaparte! Bonaparte! Bonaparte!"

Inwardly suffering, Harmony appeared to be caught in two minds.

"Bonaparte! Bonaparte! Bonaparte!"

The angel reached into her gown pocket and removed an Indian's red bandanna. She sifted it slowly through her fingers, before fixing it tight around her head.

"Where are you going?!" exclaimed Kat, as Harmony suddenly sprinted toward Eddinray.

"I will Godwin!" she announced, over amplifying adulation. "I will!"

She shouted, she screamed and she begged him to turn, to see her; but the noise was too great. The hooded soldier now dropped his white tissue, and horse, lance, and men set off for each other, leaving Harmony eating dust. She cleared her eyes and moaned for Eddinray to return; but he would not stop his charge.

"Let him go." I muttered.

Harmony looked back at us with dirty tears streaming down her face. I called for her, but she did not. Instead, the dust-covered angel started her own charge over Eddinray's fresh tracks. "Godwin!"

Kat and I yelled for her, but she and we were drowned out by the dammed.

"Bonaparte! Bonaparte! Bonaparte!"

Both horses galloped, all eight feet trouncing toward a fatal collision. Eddinray gripped the reins tight and hugged his body against the horse's wide neck. The visor impairing his vision, his French opponent was merely a blur of horse and lance coming at him.

"Bonaparte! Bonaparte! Bonaparte!"

I could barely watch, and although Yuki remained wordless, her clenching hand around Kat's wrist spoke volumes.

"Godwin!" cried Harmony, frantically, breathlessly chasing and never catching. "Godwin! Godwin! Godwin!"

"Bonaparte! Bonaparte! Bonaparte!"

Both knights lowered their lances, Napoleon beating his horse ragged until his charger was at a bolt, until the two solid projectiles of Sir Godwin Eddinray and Napoleon Bonaparte came to a grizzly, and shattering head.

CRUNCH!

Lances clashed, splinters burst, horse's squealed, dust exploded, and the duel was over in a brutal blink of time. Silence followed, then a collective holding of breath as every soul in the courtyard waited to see the victor, hidden somewhere in a fog of sand and smoke…

"Godwin!" spluttered Harmony, arriving breathless in that rising cloud. "Where? Are you?"

She coughed through the orange gas toward the only body she could see, the one not moving. The horse dead underneath this man, the helmet was knocked clear off to reveal Eddinray's slim face, dishevelled hair, and uncouth moustache. No energy or oxygen left inside her, the weight of the angel fell over the knight. Harmony folded her arms around Eddinray like a duvet, and her gasping on his neck finally stirred his eyes open. The first thing he noticed was a football shaped object bobbling between his thighs. Squinting at it, Eddinray's focus revealed a human head, decapitated from the neck.

"Oh no!" he panicked. "Oh no! Harmony, my dear! Harmony! I have no head on my shoulders! No head I say!"

Harmony winced at the petrified face of Napoleon Bonaparte staring back at her. Disgusted, she kicked the head aside then passionately embraced her champion. "I will marry you!" she cried. "Of course I will!"

The cloud of sand settling, the rest of us saw their fused lips and all but John Curtis rejoiced, utterly astonished at the last man standing. "He did it?!" yelled Kat, uncharacteristically leaping. "How could he?"

Prisoners of the 9th Fortress were in similar awe at their windows. Unsure what to make of it, unsure what this would mean for them. It was only when one timidly clapped, when this tense wall began to topple. A second man applauded, followed by another — stronger this time — then another and another until the sound of wonderful ovation dominated the courtyard, a wave of hysteria, praise and wholehearted thanks to one individual, one hero.

The angel and knight returned hand in hand under this overwhelming music, and Eddinray unashamedly milked it for every drop, punching the air with his fists and taking theatrical bows.

I embraced the pair on their arrival, whilst Kat's subtle nod showed his appreciation for Eddinray's efforts. Yuki meanwhile, wearing a brief smile, appeared to be coming alive with every passing second.

"What happens now?" asked Eddinray, casting a satisfied eye over the courtyard. "I enjoy an adoring audience as much as the next fellow, but would it be wise to dwell here?"

"We're not staying." I agreed, tightening the rope around my forearm.

The arched door over my shoulder was our way out, but before I could order a sprint toward it, an abrupt jolt knocked us all to the ground. It was a jarring and unnatural displacement of the earth, some brooding beast pounding from underneath.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The crowd of watching thousands and masked hoods scampered from windows and formations — the quake causing our bodies to vibrate as if sat atop an out of control washing machine. This was the warden's furious retribution, and I expected the entire 9th Fortress to fall in on itself at any moment.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Our bodies were scattered like marbles over the sand, and clinging to one another, Curtis arose my attention to the 9th Fortress, its squirming towers and squiggling spires like the arms of a raving octopus.

"What's it doing?!" he bawled.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

An almighty crack now opened the centre of the courtyard, followed by an explosion and eruption of billowing gas.

"There's something horrible down there!" cried Harmony; she and Eddinray arriving at my side as the words "lurking surprise" flashed into my mind. Napoleon said escape was impossible, and we were about to discover exactly what security measures he had put in place here.

The dust and sediment creating an obscure orange cloud, the courtyard surface resembled shattered treacle as we six ran like mad for the walls. A final crack, like the breaking spine of a Diplodocus, came from that courtyard centre. There was a sudden and huge collapse of earth, and there, from a smoking new crater, the thing climbed free from its cage.

"We should vacate the premises!" gulped Eddinray. "It's…it's…huge!"

I saw it only as a collection of rising skin and bone through the cloud, a body growing like a beanstalk.

"Look at that!" cried Curtis, spotting a hand with fingers longer than all of us combined. That hand made a fist of flesh, and then hammered it down onto the courtyard.

SMASH!

Shock waves hit like an atomic blast, blowing us off our feet in a gale of dust. The Fortress wall put a thumping halt to both my prisoner’s flight and me. We lay dazed but conscious on the broken surface as the monster opened its salivating mouth -

"ME…WANT…BODIES!"

"Alright?" yelled Kat, arriving with wife beside me like a powdered orange ghost. I nodded back then followed them along the wall to the rest of our companions.

"Look!" bawled a boggle-eyed Eddinray. "There!"

The monster stood, free from the crater and clear of any smoke. Easily reaching two hundred feet tall and dressed in shabby rags, it yawned with a jowly face and a mouthful of crooked yellow pincers. Head bald and egg shaped; it had two baggy arms and legs, and a single, all Seeing Eye in the centre of its forehead.

"A Cyclops!" declared Harmony, petrified. "It is!"

The one eyed monster now reached into the crater and removed a pit headed stone club, resembling a miniature moon.

"WHERE'S…ME…BODIES?!" he demanded, its spit coming down like rain.

Worryingly, Kat shunned his katana at the reappearing masked soldiers, a dozen or more coming at us. Kat cut down the four closest, then, with weapons armed and soldiers pursuing, we moved along the edge of the devastated courtyard while the creature's eye adjusted to the new light.

John Curtis stuck like a rucksack between my shoulder blades, screaming as I swung my sword at enemies on route. Ahead, more robots swarmed over our door and exit, leaving us no option but to fight through the lot. Harmony fired several arrows and frustratingly missed all her chosen targets.

"Hateful thing!" she exclaimed at her bow.

"Give me a weapon Fox!" Curtis begged. "Anything!"

"BODIES! WHERE?"

"You hear me Fox? A weapon! Any weapon!"

"I am your weapon!" I howled back, slicing my sword cross the mouth of one foot-soldier.

"He sees us!" yelled Eddinray. "He bloody sees us!"

Adjusted now to his environment, a delighted Cyclops witnessed his many bodies rushing along the courtyard edges; and making no distinction between friend or foe, he demolished his club through a collection of hoods, bursting them to blots of blood and cloth.

"SMASH BODIES!" he boomed. "SMASH! SMASH! SMASH YOU!"

The freckle-cheeked giant was in ecstasy, like a child let loose on the parents ornaments, his club collided into the 9th Fortress to send chunks flying out of the structure. The eternal prison wobbled like a tower of jelly but remained steadfast under his barrage.

Killing the last remaining soldiers, we reached our arched door under a shower of falling rocks. Kicking and cursing, Kat pulled and pushed at the locked door handle. "Over there!" cried Harmony, pointing beyond Cyclops to another arched doorway at the far end of the courtyard — this door open for all to see.

Bringing us to a huddle of faces, Curtis included, I yelled at the top of my voice, "We stick tog — "

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHRRR!!"

The monster's scream caused all living things in proximity to seal their ears shut, and I could well imagine prisoners in cells ducking for cover.

"ME WANT…BODIES!" bellowed the insane, attention starved wild animal.

Glancing again at the open door, to the returning multitude of sabre wielding soldiers and a stomping Cyclops, I took command. "Stick together!" I exclaimed. "Move fast! Faster than your legs can carry you!"

"Where?!" asked Eddinray.

"Through those legs!" I roared, pointing under the Cyclops.

Before any answered back, I started running over the unstable courtyard toward the super-sized legs of the monster; Kat at my rear, Curtis beside, and others trailing.

Seeing his fodder, the giant enthusiastically bashed his club several times into the dust, decimating soldiers and throwing us to scraping knees and palms.

"GOT YOU BODIES! GOT YOU!"

"Up!" Kat yelled, pulling Yuki closer. "Move!"

We stumbled to run and run for those lofty legs.

"Can't see where I'm going!" wailed Harmony. "Not a thing!" Immediately, Eddinray collected her wrist and guided her clear of the crater and directly under the giant.

"MORE!" It demanded. "MORE BODIES!"

The dust settled while we went like mice between those two blubbery skyscrapers. He was awesome, stink potent, and the power of his eye substantial.

"SMASH YOU BODIES!"

His club came down and struck a foot from Harmony's wings, throwing her and Eddinray ragged. They hit the dirt rolling, and a layer of thick sand covered their stunned bodies.

The soldiers ran mindlessly and the moon like club obliterated them, batting out more great chunks of fortress in the process.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHRRR!!"

Harmony and Eddinray now stood from under the things legs, and blurry eyed, they scurried for the open door, leaving trails of dust behind them.

Curtis and I were first to reach the doorway and the set of ascending steps inside it. Turning, I stretched my arm out for the incoming Kat and Yuki, only to witness them disappear behind a piece of fortress rock the size of a house, crashing and spewing debris everywhere. A mixture of smoke and stone consumed the doorway, and feeling my lungs filling up with dirt, I was surprised and delighted to see Kat and Yuki stumbling alive toward me, caked in soot and more than a little disorientated.

"You made it!" I gasped, coughing violently. "Where…where's Harmony? Eddinray?"

"MORE BODIES!"

Yuki pointed through broken boulder pieces to the couple racing our way, and the darkness of Cyclops foot bearing down to crush them. The knight — seeing it coming — pushed his beloved angel aside then dived to safety a moment before being flattened underfoot.

"CRUNCH BODIES!"

Harmony, quick to her feet, pulled Eddinray up by the neck, only to shriek at the monster's hand, reaching down to collect Eddinray's foot between its thumb and index finger.

"Urk!" baulked Eddinray, rising into the air "Heeeelp!"

"Godwin!" cried Harmony, loading and firing an arrow at it. Her projectile swerved off to strike the 9th Fortress. She fired another, this time clanging off the armoured back of Eddinray.

"Oh my!" she gasped. The giant put the sword-flailing knight under his nose for a cautious sniff, but the scent of Eddinray seemed to repulse the monster.

"Too good for you, eh?" said Eddinray, the blood rushing to his head. "How dare you refuse me!"

The ogre placed the Englishman into the middle of its immense palm, and squirming at the door, we expected our friend to be squished as those trunk-like fingers proceeded to close.

"Fox!" growled Kat, suddenly pressing his wife's hand onto my chest. "Look after her!"

"What you going to do?" I asked, but Kat was too busy doing it. He sprinted toward the giant, decapitating a straggling soldier on the way. He continued passed Harmony while she loaded yet another arrow into the longbow; and arriving at the monster's fat heel, Kat sliced through its Achilles tendon, causing congealed blood to burst from the wound and washed over him. The Cyclops instantly dropped Eddinray and wailed like a newborn baby.

"Catch meeee!" the knight shrieked, clattering on top of Kat, whilst the Cyclops stumbled to head-butt another dent into the 9th Fortress. A blood painted samurai angrily threw Eddinray off his stomach as Harmony appeared over the two of them.

"Time to go boys!" she said, returning the long sword to Eddinray.

The three now hauled ass for me at the door; the Cyclops, meanwhile, pulled its face from the fortress, and then searched for those bodies responsible.

"WHERE? WHERE?"

Spotted by that pulsating eyeball, the monster smiled at the samurai, knight and angel rushing to my desperate arms.

"Come on now!" I screamed. "It's coming!"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHRRR!!"

I pulled them into the doorway while a hobbling Cyclops drew back his bat.

SMASH!

The pitted club annihilated the arched door, and we six ran for our lives from a cave in behind us.

***

The steps led us to the elevator doors on the ground floor, and Kat cold-bloodedly lacerated the guard there in half. I retraced our way down spiralling steps to arrive back at the popping moat of lava, and that thin path to the surrounding outer wall and iron gates. Almost home free, our hopes were dashed when we noticed more masked men gathering at those gates. "There must be fifty!" I said, exhausted. "Where are they coming from?"

"Worry about the moat." growled Kat. "I'll take care of the masks!"

Then, with his wife in one hand and his sword in the other, Kat charged and we followed over the narrow path. Eddinray and Harmony covered the rear with sword and arrows, whilst I joined Kat to take the army head on.

"This is mad!" cried Curtis, continually.

The army watched us coming, some falling into the moat as they fought for space on the path.

"Chop them up!" Kat roared.

"Kill them all!" I spat back.

The CLANG of meeting steel followed as the battle begun, a blurry array of arms and blades and moans. Kat received a slash down his katana arm, but the warrior was too immersed in protecting Yuki to care, so swiftly dismembered the mask responsible. I cut down three then kicked one to frazzle in the moat; even Curtis got in on the act, kicking one and punching another. Eddinray fought well too, with Harmony beside him, using her very last arrow as a makeshift sword, jabbing holes in any killer close by. Suddenly, as our minds were lost in the fury of battle, another tremendous earthquake hit us.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Like an old episode of Star Trek, all standing bodies on the path shuddered sideways, left then right.

THUD!

The boiling moat made waves and the path jolted, sending dozens spilling into the lava and causing Harmony to briefly immerse her wings in it. She howled in agony.

"You're okay!" Eddinray cried, bashing out the flames licking her back.

"The Cyclops!" moaned Kat, stretching his hand toward the trembling 9th Fortress. And there, crackled lines appeared randomly over the structures immense belly.

THUD!

THUD!

CRACK!

A gigantic piece of the 9th Fortress blew out, and the egg shaped head of the Cyclops peered out from its smouldering hole.

"BODIES!!"

Fortress boulders splashed into the moat, spitting up the great dollops of bright yellow lava. Kat and I cowered from landing magma, before focusing our energies back to the slaughter of foot soldiers.

This new hole in the face of the Fortress spanned thirty feet, but was still minute compared to the prison itself, and the Cyclops made that gap wider when forcing its body through.

Their overriding priority to protect the 9th Fortress, the masked few thankfully passed us and started toward giant. They slashed at its fat toes — and no more than a nuisance — the robotic lot were swept into the moat.

"BURN…BODIES!" he chuckled.

"Come on!" I yelled back at a dawdling Harmony and Eddinray. "Move your asses over here!"

Cyclops reached its hand back into the hole, searched a moment then pulled its pitted moon from the debris. Its eye hungrily scanning the path for more miniatures, for more bodies — ours!

Kat, Yuki, Curtis and I made it to the iron gates, and gasping, we looked back to the broken 9th Fortress, the scatterings of foot-soldier parts, the towering Cyclops and our tiny friends: Harmony and Eddinray before him. We yelled and screamed, but Harmony stood strangely still, even while a scared Eddinray tugged on her hand. "My dear!" he begged. "My love we must move! We must!"

"What is she doing?!" I cried, forcing against Kat's arm, restraining me against the gate.

"You cannot save everyone!" he said. "You understand?"

In no time, the Cyclops caught the metallic glint of Eddinray's armor, and his resulting smile formed creased crowfeet at the sides of its un-blinking eye.

"Godwin?" announced Harmony, composed. "Tear off a piece off my gown."

"My darling," he said, swallowing; "this is hardly the time nor the place — "

"TWO BODIES! MY BODIES!"

"Now!" she complained. "Be quick about it!"

Eddinray bungled to his knees and briskly tore a strip from the bottom of Harmony's gown. He placed the cloth into her hand and watched her wrap it tightly around her last arrowhead.

Searching back at us, I knew Eddinray wanted to scramble as far as possible from the giant, but also knew he would never leave Harmony alone with it. Itchy and frustrated at the gates, we left them to their fates as Harmony placed the arrow into her bow.

"Stand back Godwin!" she grimaced, dousing the cloth covered arrowhead into the moat. "This will take someone's eye out."

The arrow burst into flames when she removed it, scorching the fine hairs of her fingers. The Cyclops roared a final time before raising his club to smash their skulls. Quickly and precisely, Harmony crouched to one knee and drew back the arrow with a scrunching ache on her face. Then, and with no time to spare, she released the bowstring with a snap, and watched the arrow fly…

"BYE BOD — "

Squish!

We gawked at the gates as that fiery arrow pierced like glass through the centre of the monster's eyeball, bursting pupil puss everywhere.

"Yes!" exclaimed Harmony, leaping. "Yes!"

Cyclops bounced backward in abject misery, crushing more of its fat onto the fractured 9th Fortress.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHRRR!!"

Harmony threw down her longbow and quiver, and then ran with her love over the cracked path and body-parts. More Fortress rock fell as the blinded beast manically battered and smashed anything in range of its fists. He punched out Fortress windows and prisoners in their hundreds blew out of their cells. During its pain, its mad disorientation and attempts to dislodge an arrow from its eye, the thing set one clumsy foot into the moat, and that was the end of it. The substantial pink flesh of that leg fried from the bone in an instant, and the rest of him sank — splashing, wailing, and melting to a squeamish liquid on the molten moat. Watching, I felt sorry for that childlike beast as it turned to soup. Gone without a trace.

A flushed Harmony and Eddinray finally arrived at the gates, so we hastily moved outside and away from this godforsaken place. Before taking another step however, a white-faced Yuki jerked in fear at a presence to her right: the benevolent Italian poet. Coursing full of adrenaline again, I approached him.

If Virgil's heart was broken by the loss of Napoleon Bonaparte, his eloquent demeanour and placid expression did not suggest it. "Are you…in charge now?" I asked. "Of the 9th Fortress?"

He shook his vaporous head. "I offer my endorsement to the successor." he returned. "I take no charge. Another — Gaius Octavius — will shortly take up the position."

"But you also assist souls in Hell," inquired Harmony. "True?"

"Those who seek my help."

"Then we seek it." I said. "Virgil we want the Gauntlet. Where is it?"

Without hesitation, Virgil bowed then replied. "The Gauntlet awaits you west of the 9th Fortress. There, souls face their toughest challenge. Mental and physical endurance will be tested to their limits. Be warned, only the virtuous can see the road, and none have ever passed the test."

Grave expressions went round our party at the mention of another challenge, the toughest test, and the great poet did not alleviate our concerns. "Say your goodbyes now, for not all, if any here will survive the Gauntlet."

"Your advice?" I asked him, failing to mask my desperation.

"No advice." he answered, simply. "I have none to give."

Virgil then passed through the iron gates and floated serenely toward the 9th Fortress, awaiting the arrival of its new warden…

40. The Way Home

Westward we trekked, Kat scrutinizing the miles over shifting plates of crust with magma rivers in-between. This volcanic landscape felt like the beginnings of everything, or the end — an apocalyptic cooking pot where all ingredients converge, melt, mix and evolve into one thing or another.

Far above, a glowing globe, blue and homely, turned on its axis. The Distinct Earth or old Earth itself? We had no idea. We only knew how far it floated out of reach.

John Curtis swore every time my rope tugged. I pulled on him hard, just as Kat pulled me up the Macros. I wanted to feel his hate burn through the back of my skull; I wanted to break him that little bit more. Typically trailing, Harmony appeared to be deep inside herself; meanwhile Eddinray jabbered on as if his earlier fraud had never been exposed. He told of the horrid sights he had witnessed in the bowels of the 9th Fortress and boasted of his victorious joust against Napoleon Bonaparte. Kat, like Harmony, remained quiet, wearing familiar concentration as he stressed over Yuki's care. He would not hurry, and we would not ask him too.

During this hike, I attempted to untie the knots of my story. I stuck to the conclusion that there was a reason for it all, more than meets the eye, complex answers beyond my feeble thinking. I grasped tightly onto that one thought, and then hopped over a stream of congealed incineration.

***

The scorched land led us six to the edge of a head-spinning cliff. Here, all the flaming streams cascaded to a far off ocean of fire, a blurry vista of magma crashing against the cliff face.

"No way down," said Harmony, weary. "No route across."

The red sea wafted up a burnt stench. It was no sea at all, but a compact bed of living men, women, and indiscernible beings writhing on their backs or fronts, all of them radiating in the fury. The smell of burning flesh is difficult to describe — it is the summer barbecue with overcooked meat on the grill, the meat no tongue should water for. Thankfully, we couldn't hear their woe from this height, only a collective mantra like distant sirens. I looked again at that familiar planet overhead, asking her to lower us a ladder. Unfortunately, she remained obliviously beautiful in a red haze.

Deeply frustrated, Kat childishly stamped his foot on ash. Then, like flicking some invisible switch, Yuki's hand on his back calmed him at once.

"Wait!" announced Eddinray, pointing out an object ahead. "What…is that?"

We examined a far away smudge of nothing in particular — a growing spot, approaching, transforming.

"Our way!" cried Harmony, overjoyed. That object was a bridge, extending out of nowhere to meet us.

"I see nothing!" said Kat, straining his eyes. "Where?"

"It's there!" insisted Harmony. "Right there!"

An elementary bridge of stone, no more than five feet in width connected with a crack to our cliff face — yet still — a flummoxed Kat claimed to see nothing.

"Do you see it?" Eddinray asked me.

Smiling, I nodded back. Yuki saw it too, the bridge floating like a magic carpet over the unique ocean.

"I don't see it!" exclaimed Curtis. "You're all mad!"

Harmony positioned herself before the magical crossway, and Kat stammered as she stepped — through his eyes — off the cliff edge and onto thin air. She hovered there like a spirit, and Kat scrubbed his face harder when I, Eddinray and Yuki joined her over nothingness. I pulled my reluctant prisoner along. He screamed at first but did not fall; and as soon as his unworthy foot of his touched the bridge, the entire structure became apparent to his astonished eyes.

"Remarkable!" he gasped.

"Only the virtuous can see the road!" said Harmony, pleased with herself. "No wonder Kat could never find the gauntlet."

Yuki extended her arm out for her confounded husband, for only she could tempt him.

***

No need to create a fire that evening, the sea of sin underneath burned more energy than we could ever produce or need. We rested in pairs, and not particularly tired, I'd ask some personal questions for my prisoner, who lay with his back against mine.

"What do you see in your nightmares?" I said, sensing his busy mind ticking over.

I had to repeat myself before he exhaled, then replied with bloodshot eyes. "I see the sins I am supposed to be sorry for. I see your daughter Fox, and all the others on that school bus. They smile at me you know, then share their memories and favourite things over and over, and over again. Those demons forgive me, and pity me. How dare they."

"Guilt." I said, feeling the butterflies pressing against the walls of my stomach. "If you ever want a good-nights sleep again Curtis, you should accept their forgiveness."

"You think I can't shut them out?" he said, stubborn and determined. "My mind is stronger than their demands on it. They forgive me? How…dare they." he hissed, before tittering.

"What you laughing at?" I asked, annoyed. "What's so funny?"

"Strange thing, Fox…Just strange."

"What is?"

"Well," he grinned; "the more steps I take from the 9th Fortress, the further I race from their reach. Thank-you for your advice, and thank-you for your intervention."

Surprising me, he stood now, brazenly clapping his hands to alert the rest. "I've got something to say! Hey! You all hear me?"

He received a tired and disgruntled audience, but continued with anew-found vigour. "What do you people know of Daniel Fox?"

"Sit your ass down!" I said, standing to pull on his rope. But with a temper, Curtis pushed me down then repeated. "Well? What do you know of him?"

"Enough!" exclaimed Kat. "Now sit!"

"Yes!" added Harmony. "Enough to trust Daniel with our lives! The rest is none of our concern!"

"Course it is!" he yelled at her. "It's our fault you're all here! Fox is rescuing me from the Hell I apparently deserve! Why is that?" he asked, raising his arms alongside the swarthy odours coming from below. "Why do the angels want me on their pedestal? And why do they drag you people into our business?"

"God works in mysterious ways." offered Harmony. "One couldn't possibly comprehend such thinking."

"So one shouldn't try?" he argued. "Has your faith brainwashed you so much angel, that you no longer think for yourself? Oh yes, and how that faith has repaid you!"

"Leave her alone!" I barked. "No-one here knows why God wants this or that! But whatever your importance to those above Curtis, whatever the reason, I promise you one thing — you'll live long enough to find out."

He scoffed then searched over the bridge's edge, his eyes coolly observing the millions and millions emitting a charge.

"Let me get this straight," he said, with a sanctimonious air about him; "if Fox gets me to the white Limbo then he swims with all the angels in Heaven? But what if you don't, Fox? What if you can't? What if I jump over this bridge right now?"

My hand wrapped around the rope slack.

"Why don't you be quiet!" cried Eddinray. "You silly, pointless man!"

"Yes," added Kat, glaring, "why don't you?"

He shrugged back at them. "I suppose a part of me wants to see this out, to discover the curious why. Yet another wants to spoil the party. I think I'll sleep on it…Yes, think I will."

We kept opinions to ourselves as prisoner 2020 crouched and turned over. Despite the smile on his face, I knew he was deeply afraid, and that unknown reason hung heaviest over his soul. I expected he would sleep at some point tonight, once more to battle his fading nightmares.

Kat laid himself to rest over Yuki's lap, whilst I meditated for the advice of my life support. Harmony settled her head over Eddinray's beaten breastplate, the pair waiting for that softly drifting raft to sleep.

"His head just popped off from the neck." he whispered to her. "Did you see?"

"I saw Godwin," she yawned, "we all saw."

"Yes." he beamed. "Positively victorious. I caught the fear in his eyes. Practically bulging out of his nog —"

"Godwin!" she interrupted. "You were extremely fortunate to survive the joust. I will hear no more of your trumpeting. No more of it."

The foolhardy Eddinray only now seemed to realise how inappropriate his bragging was. He had beheaded his fiancée's very own soul mate, and no matter how much the Emperor deserved that second death, Harmony's wound would never heal. "I am sorry." he said, sincerely. "No more from my mouth, and no more lies."

She smiled with a pair of sagging eyelids. "Lunacy," he added. "It must be. I'm having a better time in Hell than I ever did on Earth. Has anyone ever said that before I wonder?"

Disturbed, Harmony took a side-glance at him.

"It is true!" he declared back. "Indeed it is."

"If so," she returned, exhaling, "then I find that rather sad."

"It was my life that was sad, my dear. I have more here on this vile crossing than I've ever had, and I am far from sad about that fact. Can you tell me Harmony, I am curious — were you always an angel? A white butterfly in Heaven?"

"No, no." she said, shuffling her clasp comfortable. "I had my time on Earth too. A brief and…privileged time. "

Harmony took a few minutes, thoughts of the past erasing sleep from her head. "I…" she stuttered, "that life is all but a dream to me now. Can't even recall how old I was when I passed."

"I'd wager no more than twenty." guessed Eddinray. "Twenty five at the most."

"You flatter me knight. I would expect my age to be younger than yours, but my years older than Kat's. Dare you reveal yours?"

"I dare," he said, "and I have a very old face for a twenty one year old."

She giggled. "You are not twenty one! No, judging by the harsh lines under your eyes and the thoughts marking your forehead, I'd say you are at least thirty five Godwin."

Exposed, he held his hands up to yet another white lie. "Irrelevant," he said, "after all, memory seems only to store the significant details of ones earthly life. Will you share," he began, carefully; "what happened to you? Your…passing?"

"Oh, that was a very long time ago Godwin. I was a very prissy and proper French thing whose love for horses brought about my untimely end."

The angel cast her mind back, her bluest eyes recalling and soft voice recounting a sadder time. "Death came for me whilst grooming Benoit, my handsome black stallion. He was a magnificent creature Godwin, with a strong physique and a personality rivalling Kat for stubbornness. He was my best friend, my only confidante in the whole world. Evenings, with hindsight foolishly, I would open the barn doors and ride his energy off through the pasture, clinging to his coat for dear life as he leapt over the mire!"

Her smile was wide and her cheeks warm. Then, quite suddenly, that enthusiastic color died, replaced by a grief-stricken grey. "One night," she swallowed, "Benoit snagged his rear leg around the thorn bush. Alone, I attempted to remove it. Poor thing was in more pain than I realized. His leg kicked out when I removed the bush, and his…shoe thumped me in the head."

Eddinray also swallowed. "My dear, did you pass…right away?"

"No." she sniffed. "I lay on the grass until morning, feeling the blood drain out from my ears. I couldn't move nor call out. I didn't want to die there Godwin."

She closed her eyes and bit her lips, as if forcing this painful memory back to its vault.

"I woke on a slab in the Waiting Plain," she added, "later to ride Benoit into Heaven. My father took the sabre to him not an hour after discovering my body."

Eddinray appeared to choke. "By God! You…you rode the horse that killed you into Heaven?"

"I do not hold grudges," she replied; "especially over an innocent animal. Youthful naivety was to blame for my death. I love Benoit very much, and he waits for my return now, just as I waited for him."

Eddinray kissed his angel's forehead, and then the pair settled themselves to sleep — dreaming of Heaven, of horses, and of each other…

41. The Gauntlet

It took at least seven hours to cross that hypnotic sea, seven hours to an apparent dead end. Facing us was a wall of orange rock, perfectly smooth, perfectly flat, and glistening like wet ice as far as the eye could see. "Our toughest challenge yet." I said, lost for ideas. "Are we supposed to climb? Kat?"

"No-one could." he answered, rubbing the blisters on his feet.

The unnatural, and impossible wall glowed with an alluring, radioactive light.

"It is over." said Harmony, daunted.

Nearing the end of the bridge, a crack became visible on the unblemished rock. A hairline at first, the crack soon widened to a crude entrance with space enough to squeeze through.

"A way in!" declared Eddinray. "And surely our way out!"

Floating bodies smashed off the dense wall below us, and the sound of their cracking bones was sickeningly similar to normal waves breaking against boulders.

"Who first?" asked Harmony, moving to observe the pulsating crack.

"Volunteering?" asked Eddinray, gloomily examining the rough edges inside.

"I am no leader Godwin. I'd just prefer to be out of this nightmare as soon as possible."

"I'll go first." I said, forging to the crack and feeling the wall buzz a glow over my face. It was hot. Extremely hot. "No-one touches it." I added, unwrapping the connecting rope from my forearm.

"Are you trusting me Fox?" asked Curtis, smiling. "Is that what this is?"

"Our umbilical chord." I said, securing the rope around my waist. "Now there's at least six feet connecting us; that's all the trust you're going to get." Then, and without his permission, I proceeded through the crack. Shimmying sideways through the crude opening, I heard my prisoner complain at the searing stone at the end of his nose.

"Keep moving." I uttered, the heat provocatively sizzling.

Struggling to fit inside this jagged kiln, this was a game of don't touch the edges. Unfortunately, the walk across the bridge had left us weary, and mistakes would be inevitable.

The others followed further back, and Harmony's cries came uninterrupted as her prominent wings brushed continuously against the fizzing stone. Eddinray's armor came into contact too, causing it to steam like a copper kettle. For all our care, we were soon left with no choice but to touch, to climb to an open hole some forty feet above.

"Typical!" I groaned, feeling Curtis bungle into my back. "It leads out!" I called to Kat. "I see the way!"

"You sure?" Curtis whispered. "That stone will eat the flesh from our hands in seconds."

"Better move fast then." I said. Curtis was right. My palms burned immediately on touching the rock. Foot and handholds were firm on the way up, but the pain was unbearable. Curtis let his agony be well known, while I focused on haste rather than pain, grunting, spitting, and forcing my body toward the hole despite it all. Bludgeon trained me for this trial with his cloudy walk through fire, but what of my friends? Kat, come rain or shine, would see Yuki up here on his back; but how would the angel and knight cope?

At one loathsome point, my prisoner's weight became so heavy on the rope that I was convinced he had blacked out underneath me. Carrying on regardless, I eventually clambered out of this constricting burn, through the hole and dragging John Curtis with me. "Get off!" I moaned, his hot body pressing over me.

He rolled off my chest and we lay with burnt hair and crisping skin, hearing the harrowing sounds of companions still climbing.

"What…is…that?" asked Curtis, his recovering voice distinctly horrified. I sat up, stunned by the horizontal tunnel before us — a vortex of stitched bodies, a quilt of bobbling bald heads, snoring mouths and hanging hands.

"What else?" I whimpered. All was still throughout this burrow of interweaving black, white and yellow flesh. All eyes here were closed, and their collective breathing gave the area a stale, sauna like air.

"They're alive." I said. "Every last one."

I returned to the steaming crack to see Kat climbing with Yuki locking her arms around his neck.

"Not a sound up here." I whispered, extending my hand for him. He grimaced back and I assisted them both out of the hole. All of us made it out with blistered burns or singed hair, and before Harmony spotted the gruesome pattern of sewn bodies, I cupped my palm over her mouth to snuff her scream.

"A trap." said Kat, smearing sweat from his brow. "Another."

A thousand arms hung down like vines, or grew up as a confused bed of seaweed; there was also no step free from the fat heads — wherever we would set our feet, these things would instantly be aware of it.

"Well, well," said a smug faced Curtis; "can't escape without waking them, and they won't be too pleased about that. See the teeth?"

Closer observation revealed the shark like teeth inside these mouths, and the fingernails like many knives and forks. Sensing my friends awaiting some kind of concise, confident advice, I gave the best I had to give. "This is it. We carry on. No matter what. Keep moving your hands and feet. Climb, run, race, and don't stop for anything."

"Are they going to eat us?" asked Harmony, shivering.

"Would that surprise you?" returned Eddinray, thoroughly exhausted.

"Just don't stop!" I stated. "We're done if we do, understand?"

Worried, I glanced at a labored looking Kat and his slight wife.

"Is she up to this?" I asked him.

"I am." she abruptly answered, her voice so delicate that I almost could've imagined it.

Eyes welling up, Kat proudly pressed his cheek against Yuki's. All of our smiles seemed to surprise the woman, and she was further embarrassed by Harmony's warm embrace. "Welcome back!"

Curmudgeonly, I hushed the angel quiet. I wanted to show Yuki my support, but right now I was more concerned with the Gauntlet. I shuffled to the beginning of this rising tunnel and its sitting musk, disquietly examining the sleeping faces, those hairless, frowning things. When would their eyes open? When would their nails scratch? When would their teeth bite?

After triple checking the rope's knot around my waist, I turned to whisper at my prisoner. "Ready to run?"

He nodded. "Don't plan to be eaten alive to spite you Fox. I will run. Don't you worry about that."

Searching for the nerve, Eddinray and Harmony held hands. Kat and Yuki also prepared themselves. We were all…ready to run.

"On three." I said, feeling a much-needed kick of adrenaline. "One…Two…Three!"

Leaping, I landed a sturdy foot on one face, and sure enough, the thing woke from its ancient sleep. Its mouth opened wide and screeched, disturbing the rest from their slumber.

"Move!" I bellowed, starting my scramble over feet, necks, faces and chest parts.

"FOOD!" announced one grizzly mouth. "FOOOOOOD!"

Thrashing fingers attempted to snatch us, their starving sound like an overpowering dong of a church bell, reverberating off the walls of this fleshy tube.

"Let go!" Harmony cried out, when one hand dug its dirty nails into her ankle. She forced it from her but fingers reaching down from above caught her yellow hair. "Help! Help me!"

Directly behind her, Eddinray was flat on his back having stumbled, and numerous hands and nails ravenously scrubbed and scratched his armor and face.

"Harmony!" he moaned. "Danny! Kat! Help her!"

Teeth closed around Harmony's shin and she howled as the blood streamed down her foot. The tongue inside that gob hadn't a second to enjoy her taste however, for Kat returned, dancing back over faces and boring his katana through its hairless head.

Crying, Harmony pried the mutant jaw from her shin as Kat set Eddinray upright. Then, typically bold, the samurai returned bouncing up the tunnel for Yuki, throwing her over his shoulder as every orifice snapped at his feet.

Ahead, my scale up the wicked woven was thus far trouble-free. I didn't stumble — Curtis didn't fall, and when one of those hands did take a hold, one or the other would kick it off.

"FOOOOOOD!" they endlessly screamed, mouths deprived of food and water for a millennium. "THEY CANNOT ESCAPE US! THEY CANNOT!"

This was the Gauntlet, seen by the virtuous, those no longer deserving their eternal place in Hell. Faces here did not eat to satisfy hunger, they had no bellies to fill or bodies in need of sustenance; they ate for the simple and vindictive reason of preventing souls from achieving what they cannot — freedom.

The ascending tunnel became gradually steeper and extremely difficult to avoid any bites or tares. Like cats on a hot tin roof, Curtis and I went on all fours up a route of clinging nails and snarling expressions. Suddenly, my prisoner squealed, and I turned to see his left hand trapped inside of one mouth, the teeth grinding away at the bones. Surprisingly, Curtis did not yell for my assistance; instead, he screwed up his face and personally tugged his hand free, moaning as the skin was peeled away like a rubber glove.

Our exit lay feet away, another glimmering light amongst foaming mouths and greedy hands. Curtis held his ravaged hand to his chest and hastily followed me up and out. Thankfully Eddinray, Harmony, Kat and Yuki, were not far behind.

***

The steps were our next implausible challenge: red steps to a savage sky with violent forks of lightning. The steps were thick and substantial, with vertical drops at each side.

"Another shadow over hope." said Harmony, completely sapped. "It will take us forever."

"Then let it be forever!" returned Kat, his grit spurring us on over the first giant play block.

The absence of demons here concerned me. Perhaps the real demon was the gruelling staircase itself or the drops on each side? Nevertheless we continued over them without complaint, without rest, and without incident.

Hours passed. Two, maybe more. The winds picked up as we approached what looked like burning clouds, clashing like a hundred Hindenburg’s. “Does anyone see the top?" panted Curtis, recovering against me.

"The top?" chuckled Eddinray, sarcastically. "Who can see the bottom?"

Curtis squirmed back to an obscure fall of blacks and oranges, rolling in a glowing churn. I held a calm demeanour throughout; for every step conquered brought me closer to the end, and the more we ascended the more assured I became.

To avoid falling, Curtis was scrupulous at my side, and our umbilical chord did not once strain taut. It was the pair of us who led this gruelling ascent, and the pair of us who discovered the first corpse.

There was a horned helmet left over ravished rags, furry boots and an emerald necklace between twelve worn arrowheads.

"Not the first to make it this far." I said, crouching to survey the morsels. "What could have done this all the way up here?"

"It's beautiful." said Harmony, gazing at the sparkling necklace. She bent to collect it, and giving no reason for doing so, she discarded this precious stone over the edge of the steps. It plummeted to the puffy fires and we watched it fall like spittle all the way.

"There!" announced Eddinray, pointing two steps above to similar arrows with trails of flesh clinging over the tips.

"Appears we are the latest in a long line of attempted escapees." he muttered, picking through the remains."

"Keep an eye out." I said, with a considering squint. Kat too, appeared more than usually troubled.

"Been quiet." I said to him. "You think we're in danger?"

"We're always in danger. I do not know what killed these people Fox, but we are being followed. I sensed it before the locomotive," he added, hoarsely; "and I sense it here now. This feeling won't leave me."

"Before the train?" I said, bewildered. "Why did you keep it to yourself?"

Lightning struck near to startle us, but still I demanded an answer from Kat.

"Does it matter?" complained Harmony. "I mean, really boys, if we keep going at this rate then what's to catch us?"

I peered behind to see nothing on our tail, and meagrely content, we continued our reach for the sky.

We climbed and occasionally rested, every so often coming across more arrows and scattered entrails. I counted thirty-seven skulls sprinkled over the next sixty steps. The rotting virtuous.

"I can't go on!" begged Curtis, red faced and setting himself against a step. "No more! No…more!"

We were all thinking it, but his refusal to move gave us all the excuse to stop. I placed my drained head between my legs. Eddinray and Harmony flopped like worn out slippers whilst Kat and Yuki slunk on a step below us, the samurai wearing a brave face over exhaustion.

"We stay here." I said, rubbing the burn from my joints. "Enough for tonight, eh?"

Agreeing heads bobbled and relieved mouths sighed. "The cloud above is breaking." said Harmony, heaving. "A good sign. Perhaps, perhaps we are close to the top?"

"I hope so." huffed Eddinray. "I dearly do. Can see some birds over there. Is that a good sign too, Harmony?"

"Birds?" asked Kat, suspicious. "Where?"

The knight directed his finger to the fluttering of three busy winged silhouettes.

"Not birds!" exclaimed Kat, getting fast to his feet. "Move!"

His order terrified tiredness to the back of our minds, and we did as we were told. "They were waiting!" he growled, guiding Yuki up the steps. "Waiting!"

"What are they?" I asked, feeling the rope pull at my guts as Curtis scampered ahead. Suddenly, a female cry cut through the sky like nails down a blackboard, and curiosity getting the better of Harmony, she delayed her climb for a look back. "Harpies!" she announced, her eyes bulging. "We're done for!"

Armed with chunky bows and arrows, the three women like creatures had winged backs, crackled blue skin and baldheads, tattooed over with an indecipherable design.

"Go Godwin!" Harmony yelled, feeling a forceful gust from their passing wings.

Starved in the stomachs and deranged in the eyes, the Harpy women attempted to separate us with swooping dives cutting into our group. Twice they spliced us down the middle, but our swinging swords caused them to rethink that strategy. They returned to a safe distance — and there — before a brewing storm they armed their bows, placing three arrows in each to make nine projectiles.

"Huddle!" roared Kat, stopping suddenly. "Now!"

All collected on the same step without question as Kat positioned himself before us, his shadow like a bomb shelter over our bodies. Kat's bravery seemed to amuse the ugly women, who wasted no time firing their arrows. With a whistle, nine sharp sticks came toward our man.

The samurai closed his eyes, honed his focus, then became a blur of cuts, volleying and deflecting all the arrows with spasms of strength and steel, with only a splinter making it through his brilliant shield to score bloody across his forehead.

"Up!" he bawled, immediately. "Up! Up!"

Our huddle broke and we clambered over the next step, and the one after that, hoping to see Hell part above and the exit reveal itself.

"Down" thundered Kat, and we five came together as he single-handedly faced another onslaught of harpies and arrows. He searched, found his mental centre and -

STUT-STUT-CLANG-CLANG!

The attack was over before we could brace ourselves for it, and yet again, we were ordered to our feet and up the steps.

"Up! Up! Up!" he yelled, snatching Yuki by the wrist and pushing her backside ahead.

The moment she was clear on higher steps, Kat received a blow from behind, knocking the swords from his hands and his head near clean from his shoulders.

Bamboozled, Kat opened his eyes to dizzying disorientation as a hysterical Harpy grasped him by the ankle and hung him over a boundless whisk.

"Put him down!" all but Curtis yelled at her. "Drop him! Drop him!"

The fritter faced woman held Kat as if he were weightless in her hand, and carelessly she trailed him upside down until streams of vomit spewed from his mouth.

"Pass the warrior man here!" rasped one Harpy. "I must have him in my hands, sister!"

Presently, we gawked as Kat was flung clear across the clouds. Violently he spun, only to be snatched by the delighted Harpy who demanded him.

Harmony joined Yuki on the higher step, as wife bent and prayed.

"To me sister!" cried the third Harpy. "Pass me the man!"

Kat was again thrown through the sky to be caught by the hair. "Return him at once!" exclaimed Harmony, furious. "You hear me witches?"

All three women collected high above to discuss our group. The sight of the angelic Harmony Valour seemed to spark their interest, and their joy for Kat went on the wane.

"They're going to drop him." I muttered. "Shit, they are…"

The three laughed then started an upward race. They soared until simply dots in the stratosphere, and there, as high as possible, they released our friend to infinity.

"No!" screamed Yuki.

Arms and legs flapping, Kat plummeted, the Harpies not going to save him this time. Without thinking, I collected all the rope slack connecting my waist to Curtis. "What are you doing?!" he asked, dumbfounded, as I snapped my fingers for the wavering eye of -

"Eddinray!" I yelled. "Get behind Curtis! You hold on to his back and don't let go!"

The knight obeyed without question, scurrying behind a sitting Curtis and locking his arms around my prisoner's stomach. "Now what?" bellowed the Englishman.

"Dig in your heels!" I answered, observing Kat's speedy decent, specifically how his body would pass only feet from where I now stood; and seconds before he did, I clenched my fists, sucked in my lips, and took a running leap off the step…

The samurai saw, reached out for my arms and — "Got you!" I cried, our hands clasping in mid-air.

Dropping now, our connecting bodies smashed against the sidewall of those steps, and the rope connecting me to Curtis instantly strung taut, dragging himself and Eddinray toward the sheer face.

Curtis screamed, and so did I as that rope throttled at our guts, but despite this, I held steadfast onto Kat's wrist, as he dangled over emptiness.

Thinking fast, Harmony came behind Eddinray to add her weight to this anchor. "Pull back!" cried the knight, desperately clinging to Curtis. "Back!"

Yuki came also, tugging Harmony's wings as the angel pulled at Eddinray, who pulled at Curtis, who lifted Kat and me from peril.

"Get this fucking rope off!" wailed Curtis, collapsing. "I can't breathe!"

Kat and I slumped to the safety of flat stone, and there lay in a panting, stupefied mess. "You're crazy Fox!" Curtis bawled. "Fucking insane!"

"Where are they?" I asked, eyes searching the sky. "Where?"

The Harpies were nowhere to be seen, but relaxing was out of the question. Forgetting the crunching pain in my stomach, we set again up the steps, but not before Kat could gather up his swords to face a third wave of arrows. Refusing to hide in the huddle, I removed my own sword and stood beside. "Together Kat." I grunted. "Together."

He nodded back, then urged the others to pack themselves tighter.

The whistling arrows struck, two successfully beating our shield. I was hit in the thigh and Kat took one in his shoulder. I fell backward and he forward, the fires coursing through our nervous system. Yuki cried, then draped herself over her stricken husband. "Climb!" he demanded, pushing her away. "Please!"

In her mania, Yuki did as she was told, climbing the remaining steps as Harmony came under my arm, and Eddinray propped up the other.

"Give me your sword, knight!" begged Curtis, over the chortling creatures swooning around us. "I must be free of this rope! I'll be killed otherwise!"

"I will not!" he returned, ducking. However, Curtis, with no one to stop him, bashed our group aside and threw himself on top of Eddinray, wrestling for possession of his long sword.

"Leave him alone!" yelled Harmony, kicking Curtis in the back as Kat sat weak on the step.

"Ger off!" cried Eddinray, finding a free hand to wallop Curtis on the chin.

"Look out!" exclaimed Harmony, spotting a forth wave of incoming arrows.

Eddinray covered himself over the reluctant angel as best he could, and before the arrows smashed us, Kat smiled contently to see Yuki out of harms way above, the blood oozing from his nostrils as he struggled to his legs to see off this fresh batch. Faint, I joined him.

"Together." he gargled.

"This is not the end." I mumbled back, before feeling a hot arrow penetrate my waist, then another through my wrist. I slouched half-conscious over Kat as remaining projectiles bounced from the path of friends and prisoner.

No fight or sense was left in me; the samurai, however, suddenly got a remarkable second wind. I heard him growl underneath me, as if angered by some extraordinary insult. The bones in his ribcage seemed to rumble, shaking all the melancholy from his system. He placed me delicately onto my back then snapped the arrow from his shoulder, throwing the end away like a used cigarette butt. He then smeared the blood away from his nose, returned the katana to its sheath then stroked the smaller Wakizashi through his fingers. As Harpies reloaded, he aimed up the three with one hand — pulled back the sword with the other — then threw with all his might.

His makeshift javelin was like a shooting star through the furious sky, piercing the black heart of one stuttering sister Harpy.

"Amazing!" gasped Eddinray, while Kat redrew his katana. The injured creature's wings wilted, and she duly dived to her second death, with stunned sisters watching.

"Here!" yelled Yuki, from the highest point in this world. "Come! Come!"

She had reached the top step and exit as two inconsolable Harpies came to avenge their sister. Kat assisted me over one-step, then the next. Still Curtis fought with the rope knot as we bundled as fast as possible toward Yuki, who abruptly bellowed — "Behind you!"

A fifth bombardment glided toward our backs. Two arrows battered off Eddinray's armor to leave deep dimples, three more struck the surrounding steps whilst the last sank deep into my calf. I jolted backward with a spray of blood leaving my mouth. Kat ordered Curtis to help me, but refusing outright, he instead used every inch of available rope slack to ascend from all of us. Although the samurai warrior was badly wounded himself, he still had the temerity to haul my body over his good shoulder, and then heave us inch by inch up these last remaining steps.

His humongous effort took us to Yuki and the others before another attack could see us off. Slunk at the very summit of Hell-fire, the steps rose over a swirling storm, sucking the burning air into a fiery Armageddon in the eye. This was a portal containing the evil we were running from, and poking out of this searing hole was the tallest structure in all of Hell — the tip of the 9th Fortress.

A gale blew like God's own breath, while Harpies aimed their arrows. Before us was a wall of stone with a crack wide enough to squeeze through. A wooden notice was perched above this entrance — inscribed in flame, in Latin it read and Harmony translated:

"No light. No chance."

42. Cold Dead Hands

"I have stopped the bleeding," said Kat; "but you'll need rest Fox."

Sincerity is a thing I would never get used to hearing from Kat's lips. With precise work, he had earlier removed four arrows from my body, sealing the wounds with fire before wrapping them over with cloth.

We where transported to some dripping cave, lit by perpetually burning torches on the rock, and whose descending trail was smothered by night. We would face that darkness later; in the meantime we would heal.

Harmony busied herself by counting the indents over her dozing Eddinray's armor. Curtis kept his concentration to that black burrow we would soon venture. "No light, no chance." he mumbled, in a raving manner.

Yuki appeared to be enjoying a deep sleep near Kat, who lovingly stroked her hair and happily engaged me in conversation.

"Do you remember what Virgil said?" I asked him. "How…we should all say our goodbyes?"

His pensive face nodded, and I continued. "A witch told me something similar. At first, I thought it was a dream but she was real Kat, and right about many things. I gave up back there on those stairs. I wanted it to be me. I wanted to die.

After a long pause, a serious samurai replied. "Many times in my life…I too have considered surrender. Many times. We cannot have victory without defeat — cannot have strength without weakness. Savour your victories Fox — learn from your defeats. We are men, and only monsters belong in this Hell."

His focus then returned to his stirring wife, while I proudly examined my battle weary friends under the firelight.

"Kat?" I whispered. "Do you still feel…a presence following us?"

"I do." he growled. "What I sense is no man, but an ancient cold. We will not escape this demon. It will follow us everywhere."

Harmony glanced up at me, having just finished counting the dimples marking Eddinray.

"Sixty four in total." she said.

I smiled, then dropped off to sleep…

***

"Can't see the hand before my face!" exclaimed, Harmony. "Not a thing!"

We had long passed the comforting light of torches, and here in cramped pitch-black darkness, I led the way. The floor bobbled like bunched together boulders, and the smell was a concoction of bile and vomit. Blind, I sensed the walls crunching and then expanding out again — inhaling, exhaling, and elastic to the touch. The footing incredibly unstable, I stumbled forward to splash into a pool of some kind, taking Curtis with me on the rope.

My stomach muscles contracted and I wretched. This pool was the source of the stench, and I was hip deep in it. The others joined us and complained at the unknown objects, body parts presumably, floating amongst them. Worryingly, I then heard the numerous popping, as if water was slowly coming to the boil.

Harmony screamed, Yuki too. Both women experiencing a very sudden and excruciating pain. The water was gargling, bubbling and roasting hot. I reached back for my prisoner's hand then guided us through this corrosive toward the vague outline of a boulder. I pressed my back against that rock and forced Curtis on top of it. Then, feeling acid eat at my legs, I waited to lift out my arriving friends one by one.

Once out, their hands reached down for me.

"Intolerable heat or intolerable cold!" wheezed Eddinray. "Is nothing lukewarm?"

"All here?" I asked, and all replied dismally. I took slight comfort now, however, a fragile hope in my heart to see a faintly shining star ahead. "Please be the way.' I said.

Already feeling that burning sensation die, all of us climbed with grimaces and spills up a dark tunnel, gripping strands of growing hair hanging from above.

"Who has their hands on my throat?" gasped Harmony, suddenly. "Oh, it's cold! Is that you, Godwin?"

"My dear," he said, behind her; "why would I ever wrap my hands around your throat? And in the dark too! Hold on…" he stuttered; "I fee — "

The knight squawked like a parrot, followed by a guttural sound, which spread like a virus to Harmony — to my prisoner — to Yuki — to.. "What's wrong?!" I bawled, waving blindly. "Someone? What's happening?"

Similar choking came from Kat also, and I could hear their bodies writhing over the lumpy boulders.

"Kat?" I begged. "What the fuck's going on?"

Why would my eyes not acclimatize to this darkness? I tripped again to land over a convulsing Curtis, who in full spasm grasped his unkempt nails into my arms. I forced him off, and standing, I suddenly sensed a curious pressure begin to tingle at my own throat. "Oh no…"

There was no stranger's hand at my neck, only invisible, harmless air. The disturbing sensation continued nonetheless — increased, intensified — five fingertips unmistakably grazing the stubble under my chin before constricting a hold around my neck. A knot was tied around my breath, and I collapsed to choke beside my friends.

Kat's katana scraped against bulky boulders and rubber like walls. I too reached for my short-sword, and slashed as consciousness shrunk. I needed light — I needed guidance — I needed fire! Then, at the very end of that thought, the blade in my hand abruptly sparked into a rippling, jagged, and brilliant fire.

"This sword will bring light to the dark." Bludgeon once said, and instantaneously, the throttling hands withdrew, and we sucked in the air.

Heaving, I saw darkness itself as thin and tall figures over each of us; spindly fingers, faces without eyes and bodies growing giant and minute at the same time. I roared and cut at these shadows, which danced petrified from my steel torch. The more I swung the more these creatures fled, and the more the light illuminated this cave. "Is…everyone…alright?!" I yelled, swinging.

Their grunts reassured me, and I continued at it until the killer shades retreated. I wanted to recover, but this burrow revealed an exit. We where inside some kind of mouth complete with foul halitosis, where further upward, over a gooey tongue and opening lips, beautiful daylight awaited.

"There!" I pointed, yanking Curtis close. "Follow me!"

The shadows gathered to prevent our escape as we climbed for the light — Bludgeon's blazing sword the only thing holding them back.

The surface boulders were the taste buds of this tongue, and it was these we gripped, pulling and battling past puddles of saliva, and all the way to its slimy tip. The murderous lot attacked then recoiled, screeching back to their secret hideouts when we leapt free and out. Eternal damnation was now, finally and at last, behind us…

43. Final Fight

Her smile like the sun, Harmony bounced up and down on the sand, and then shocked Eddinray with a smothering hug. “We did it Godwin! We did it!"

Light-headed, I saw the reality but could not believe. We had run the gauntlet — we had beaten Hell itself. How could I believe it?

"Never seen the Distinct Earth." murmured Curtis, likewise disorientated. "Almost like the real thing."

Before us was a boiling ocean. Condensation rose thick and gale force winds carried a hot mist over the beach.

"Will you remove this?" asked Curtis, showing me our rope. "I won't run. I tell you I won't run."

"The boiling sea!" declared Eddinray, over great sprays of it. "Our names are for all time! For all time I say!"

A well-packed ball of sand suddenly burst over his face. "Got you!" giggled Harmony.

Kat mustered a snicker at the startled knight, who ducked Harmony's second ball before scooping up his own.

"Amazing." I said to no one in particular, feeling the synthetic air of the Distinct Earth form musk at the back of my throat. I coughed into my palm and noticed more blood than mucus.

"You're a mess." said Curtis, lingering over my shoulder. "You won't last the night."

I wiped my lips clear of blood while Curtis felt the sudden brunt of Kat's fist across his cheek. The punch put Curtis to the sand, and there he cursed us from the side of a swelling mouth.

Unperturbed, Kat smeared the pain from his knuckles then lumbered back to Yuki, who sat watching the burping waters.

***

We took shelter that evening in a large burrow of earth, created by a creature long gone. It provided reasonable shelter from the elements and a spectacular view of the ocean and receding sunlight. Tomorrow, first light, Bludgeon's dragon Seppuku would arrive to carry us all to the Waiting Plain as planned — she had my scent, and my mind's eye could already see her flying over cloud and continent to get here; but with the whole night to wait out, and trouble forever brooding in darkness, the dragon couldn't come soon enough.

Before settling himself to sleep, Kat again attended to my wounds, cleaning them thoroughly whilst ignoring his own. Recovery of the body was certainly fast here, but the passing of time could never heal the mind's injuries, and we were all suffering from those, in one way or another.

Eddinray volunteered to take first watch outside the burrow while we others enjoyed some much-needed rest. "You will be home soon." Eddinray whispered to Harmony, who snuggled against his back. "Do you think a man of my — heck hem — moral ambiguity may be granted passage into your Heaven? Is there a place for the likes of me?"

"You're a hero Godwin," she yawned back; "and if Heaven's not for you then it is not for me."

"What do you mean?" he asked, rather lost.

"Well, Godwin, if the powers that be decide Heaven is too good for you then we will settle in the Distinct Earth. Together. Surely there is peace to be found here."

"And what of your stallion?" he asked, overwhelmed. "And of those friends and family watching over you? Haven't they missed you long enough?"

Harmony thought of her Mother and Father, and all those cherished things. That old life was now a distant dream she prayed would one day come true — but something had changed inside her. Here in this hollowed out shelter in the Distinct Earth, Harmony Valour had a new dream.

"I would miss those things Godwin." she said. "But I would miss you more. Alas, it is all wishful thinking. I am still burdened by this contraption around my wings. God has yet to pardon my sin, so I fear it will always be the Distinct Earth for us."

She sighed with blurry blue eyes as tears quietly dripped from Eddinray's. "I cannot imagine a Heaven without you in it." he stammered. "No, I cannot."

He took a long pause to recover himself, and then sent his angel to sleep with his story.

"I wasn't scared. Not a jot! The Emperor and king of the 9th Fortress. I aimed the lance purposely for his neck don't you know, and my strike to his jugular could not have been more precise! Yes, those prisoners will forever chant my name. I can almost hear them now from their dismal tower.

Harmony?

Are you awake?

My dear?"

***

I woke to hysteria unlike anything I've ever heard — a grieving, pitiful, and primal ache.

Snatching my sword in terror, I expected to slay the harpy, wolf, or son of a bitch this sound belonged too. I stood to wipe my eyes clear of sleep and there at the gassy morning entrance of our burrow, I saw the surreal scene. Harmony, on her knees, was yowling like a dog to a single, bloodied feather in her hand.

The world was in slow motion again as I approached her. Kat and Yuki appeared from behind, equally confounded, as I bent to Harmony, her pear shaped face wet with tears and running flam.

"Harmony?" I whispered. Her eyes were lost through me, her body jerked with shock, and her moan continued like one excruciating bleed from the heart. I repeated her name over and over — Harmony! Harmony! Harmony! Anything to get her attention — to penetrate her mania.

Kat yelled something I couldn't hear when I snatched the angel by the arms and shook her like a rag-doll. Frustrated and scared, I slapped her face hard, causing her moaning to die instantly, as if a vocal wire had been severed in her throat, leaving only stupefied breath past still moving lips.

"You're scaring us!" I exclaimed. "You hear me? You're scaring us!"

Suddenly, she gave me her hand and the bloodied feather in it. "His heart was here." she whimpered.

"I don't…understand."

Empty headed, my eyes began searching around this burrow, and it didn't take long for the penny to drop. The reality was horribly obvious. So much blood — litres collected in a curdled pool at my knees, with a dull knife submerged in its centre. My insides contorted and goose bumps covered my outsides. The soul-destroying dagger was gone from the pouch at my belt, and the connecting rope hung loose from my waist.

"No!" I hissed, falling back. "He's not…"

Harmony's sobs resumed as Yuki came to hold her. Like those statues over the mirror, a petrified Kat simply watched me there, soaking in Eddinray's blood.

"Gone." said Harmony.

I should have comforted her, said something, done something; but a part of my soul had snapped, releasing that inner monster from its cage. I reached into the red paste to retrieve the dagger, and then allowed that thoughtless force to take possession of me.

Moving out of the burrow, I noticed Curtis' murderous footprints stagger toward the growing smokes, and dawn's new light.

***

Shortly after, the samurai searched the seething seashore, but found no sign of my prisoner or me. He stamped his foot frustrated again as murkier clouds rolled over him.

"Fox?" he cried. "Answer me!"

Hearing only the crashing waves and steam, he raced further up the beach to arrive at the foot of a hill. This mound was steep and appeared to be made of harsh slate, with its top hiding under settled cloud cover. Kat's instincts, his biting sixth sense told him he would find something up there — thus he listened.

***

I flailed my arms and weapons at the puff to see. I roared in a wheezing delirium, thinking I had lost Curtis; but hope soon returned. Under my nose was a fresh trail of footprints in the sand.

"Curtis!"

I don't know how long or far I ran, but the more ground I covered, the quicker sand was replaced underfoot by a concoction of sludge, beetles and worms; a congealed mud with buzzing flies over bursting pockets and visible fumes swirling dank air.

In no time at all, I was shin deep in this mire shit, steadily sinking with every advancing step. Losing my footing suddenly, I splashed headfirst into that revolting glue; and pulling my face from it, I spewed out a gob-full.

Panting, I used my short-sword as a makeshift crutch, snorted an insect from my nostril and continued after my prisoner.

***

Swiftly Kat jogged up the slate, growing gradually steeper and unstable. Occasionally slipping, and with vision impaired by the smog, he was soon left no choice but to clamber on all fours to the summit.

"Fox?" he yelled, red faced and sweaty. "Where are you?"

Underfoot, solid slate suddenly turned to sticky liquorice, and hot geezers randomly blew close to further disorientate him. "Fox!"

***

Weak in body and spirit, I waded through deeper quagmire in search of a murderer. Falling down only to pick myself up again, I battled through the swamp attempting to solidify my limbs. These sloppy waters had long filled in Curtis' trail, and with nothing to follow, I screamed and collapsed in exhausted despair; allowing myself to sink, to sleep, to join the mud and beetles for all time.

***

Sensing another, Kat crouched low, scrutinizing the dreamy hilltop. Perfectly still, he inhaled the sulphuric air like an old dog foreseeing danger, and his heart skipped a beat when he heard the crunch of approaching footsteps. Removing his sword, he searched through breaking cloud, where a sinister presence now made itself known.

"You!" gasped Kat, his eyes ballooning and skin turning white. For the first time in centuries, the legendary warrior was reunited with fear. Pursuer and ghost of belated retribution — the black samurai, had finally caught up with him.

"What…" uttered Kat; "do you want?"

The figure wore a black mask with an expression painted in gold — a face of sharp eyes and a sunken, bitter mouth. The guttural voice behind that mask wasted no time in speaking.

"I am here…to conclude our business."

He pulled his own katana from its sheath and raised it high. Wearily, Kat slunk with an air of acceptance. This day was always coming, this shadow would never leave his back; and so it was with regret that Kat gave himself to inevitability, and its uncertain outcome.

"I will fight you." he said, preparing himself one last time. "I will not fall."

Geysers shot boiling air skyward. Kat felt their heat prick at his wounds, and could only wonder how much they would slow him down…

"Are you ready to die?" the black samurai asked.

"I am ready to live!" he answered, swivelling his steel into a fight.

***

"Stand up." said a calm voice near me, stirring enough interest to remove my mind from the kiss of a loathsome death.

"Stand up." he said. "Rise Fox."

I needed to see this face, and voice so familiar.

"Rise." he said again, softer this time.

To my left, I noticed a parched stretch of land out of the mud, and there this man reached out for me.

"Newton?" I muttered, smiling.

Staggering up straight, I cleared the dizziness from my head and the shit from my sight. It was not the kind, elderly face of Sir Isaac Newton looking back at me here, but the fresh faced wizard Scarfell, as I last remembered it ascending from the labyrinth centre. Surrounding him was his bog army of forty plus, and by his knee was my cowering prisoner, John Curtis…"Come a long way, Fox." said the wizard, wearing a self-satisfied grin. "Bravo boy. Bravo."

"Help me." snivelled Curtis, crouched by his leg. "Help me Fox…please. Help me."

"Yes!" jeered Scarfell, slapping Curtis several times over the head. "Help him Fox! Let's see you try it!"

Shooting pains in all my joints, I raised my sword from the sludge and aimed it at the wizard.

"He…" I growled; "belongs to me. Let him go!"

"Or else?" dared Scarfell, pulling Curtis by the hair. "Have you seen the state you're in? You can barely stand let alone tell me what to do in my own realm."

"He's mine!" I moaned. "Mine!"

"And didn't I once tell you that everything in this realm belonged to me?! That includes the man grovelling at my knee, and his sword wielding savour."

"What…" I then slumped, feeling the insects making home around my legs, "do you want from me?"

The wizard rubbed at his chest and giggled like Father Christmas; his bogs bouncing up and down like hooting chimps. "What do I want from you?" he pondered, savouring something sweet. "That blade in your hand Fox — fall on it. Fall on that sword and I will grant your prisoner's freedom. Are you willing to do that?"

"If you let him go." I answered. "Yes. I will fall on my sword."

Scarfell smirked, considering the idea with strokes of his beard. I meanwhile demonstrated my honesty by turning the sword to my chest. I was prepared to kill myself, not for the soul of John Curtis, but for the mission's success. Too much had gone on for it to fail — its outcome, right now, meant everything.

"Will you release him?" I asked, and surprising me, Scarfell nodded. "I will Fox. I will."

Scarfell then slapped his open palm fully over Curtis' face.

"No!" I bawled. "Let him go!"

Curtis punched at thin air, then cried out as the increasing fire surrounding his face sent foam dribbling out of his mouth.

"Stop!" I begged. "I need him alive!"

Scrafell laughed, the veins appearing at his temples as he focused his power into the head of Curtis. My prisoner's body was in a violent spasm, and before I could a take a step to prevent his second death, his skull cracked open like an egg, and the gelatinous brain was made grotesquely visible. Shell-shocked and empty, I fell to the muck as a satisfied wizard pried my prisoner's skull apart, scooped out the steaming jelly then threw it back to his devouring bogs.

The mission a catastrophic failure, I sobbed into my filthy palms while the remains of John Curtis disappeared. "There will be no more bargains." said Scarfell, his army advancing. "Today you are mine."

At this lowest ebb, I suddenly felt a presence to my right. I peered up at it, expecting a bog hook to embed itself into my forehead, or the wizard's palm to clamp on my own face. What I got however was something wonderful, someone worth fighting for.

Harmony's eyes were red raw, her expression glazed cold and unafraid. "Harmony? Is it really you?"

She said nothing, but her stolid sight gave me everything — the will to fight. Heart pumping stronger, I wiped my face with a sleeve and stood beside my friend. Her longbow gone, I passed the angel my now powerless dagger, then swivelled the sitting muck from my short sword.

***

The sound over the hidden hilltop was like a shaking drawer full of cutlery as two swords collided. The black samurai — that masked angel of death — was clearly the sharper of the two men — disappearing into smoke before darting out for his next assault.

Expectantly then, Kat received the first blow down his left shoulder, then a slash across his bottom lip, which sent him grimacing to one knee. Although down, the legendary warrior summoned up all of his strength and experience, then returned snarling, clawing, and clanging his way to supremacy. Kat's future would not be taken from him — he would not fall. He scored his first cut across his opponent's chest plate, then a second down the thy. "Come on!" he cried.

The ghost staggered only a moment, then sprang forward to sever Kat's arm off at the elbow. That limb dropped like a lump of butcher meat — but extraordinarily — Kat did not acknowledge the loss; even as blood spurted from the wound. Instead, he gripped his katana firmer, and with bullet like speed and mathematic precision, he pirouetted to break his opponent's own sword in half. Then, going nose to nose with his stunned adversary, Kat smashed his forehead deep into that masked mouth.

The black samurai moaned and slunk, then jerked forward as Kat drove the sword into his stomach. The fight was now over, and drained of everything, black and red warriors tumbled to their deaths down the hilltop.

***

Harmony and I huddled close, pressing my back against her damp wings as the bogs encircled us.

"I need you Harmony." I whispered. "Are you up to this?"

"I'll kill as many as possible." she said, her voice as frosty as her presence.

"Keep the angel alive!" ordered Scarfell. "But bring me the man's skin!"

The monsters closed their net and I slashed. Their cries followed, but a mere squib compared to the tremendous roar from high above us. All eyes searched the overcast cloud, expecting to see another uninvited Cyclops stamping into the fray. What we saw, however, was no one eyed security measure, but a bona-fide wonder of this afterlife — Bludgeon's dragon. Seppuku swooped her blurry scarlet form into action, her wings casting a jagged shadow over the marsh. Her yellow eyes shortly surveyed us; she tipped a wing to one side then descended. Reacting immediately, I dragged Harmony with me to the sludge while bogs scattered hither and thither from Seppuku's opening mouth, and brilliant hose of flames. Shrieks and explosions followed, and threw a wild blaze, I watched the bodies trying to douse themselves in mud.

"Harmony?!" I screamed. "Come back here!"

No longer side me, Harmony was ferociously stabbing a bog on all fours with my dagger. Blood drunk, she commandeered that beast's own blade then went in a frenzy for more.

"Look out!" I howled, as Seppuku soared behind her, mouth primed to explode over anything moving. Taking to my feet, I sprinted toward Harmony and dived, knocking my friend sideways as the dragon's flame succeeding over our heads.

"Where?" I chocked, clutching a protective arm over the angel's head. "Where's the wizard?"

Once the bog army was thoroughly dispatched, Seppuku returned skyward, giving Scarfell plenty of time to nurture his own flame. Livid, he came for me, mustering a growing fireball between his palms.

"Up, Harmony!" I cried, but the wizard would not prolong this moment. The second his sun was cooked, he hurtled it at both of us.

Half standing, Harmony faced down that ball of advancing heat, and I watched, horrified, as she willingly received every fiery volt. Consumed, she was blown in flames to the sky, her little body spinning dead through the clouds.

"Harmony!"

Laughing, Scarfell dusted the matter off his hands, and with no time to grow another, he turned his attention to the now descending dragon. The wizard bent to collect a forgotten bog blade — then — to my complete astonishment, he began to provoke the oncoming serpent. "Come to me…Centaur pet! Rain down your fire! Come to me!"

Scarfell's face smouldered, as did the back of Seppuku's throat. I ducked for cover when the dragon made her mouth as large as possible, when she sent her inferno crashing down over Scarfell.

The dragon lifted its nose and aimed for the sky again, leaving a black crater behind, but no body or ashes of the wizard, for Scarfell was also bound for the sky, gripping the dragon's rugged back and cheering with insane delight.

Seppuku roared with frustration, flipping upside down like a bull to offload her uninvited passenger. The wind generated by her wings whipped up great walls of muddy waters, and her wild trajectory soon sent the dragon careening my way. I saw her coming; I bent my knees; I timed my move; then leapt for her passing tail.

***

With only slate rock to halt their fall, a broken Kat lay in pools of mixed blood at the foot of the hill — the black samurai slumped beside with a red fountain spurting from his stomach. Awake and aware, open eyed and groaning, Kat had lost fatal amounts of blood from his arm; he was too weak to fight, to stand, to defend himself. His katana lay inches from his grasp but hopelessly out of reach, and catching its gleam in his eye, the black samurai had enough energy in him to sit up, enough to pull his bulk toward the weapon.

"You will not defeat me." gurgled Kat. "I will not — "

The black samurai smeared a bloody trail over slate and Kat, his fingertips begging out for the sword hilt. However, before he could claim the blade and Kat's soul, the sword was snatched from his reach.

Quaking over the pair of them, Yuki Katamuro held the steel in her tiny hands. The black samurai slunk in resignation now as Yuki, who once took her own life, now and without mercy, took another. She brought the chipped katana down to the slate with a grizzly thunk, removing the black samurai's head from his shoulders. The corpse dispersed almost immediately; numerous flickers away with the breeze, leaving no clue of his ever existing.

Sobbing, Yuki threw the old sword off distant rocks; then dropped to her husband's side. Attending to his wounds appeared futile, but still she pressed her hands over the cuts and slapped at his scarred face. Kat would have to remain conscious — he could not close his eyes.

As fast as she could, Yuki took hold of her husband's armor and dragged him toward the boiling seashore. Her anguished moans focused Kat's wits enough for him to scrape his heels over the sand. And once at the water, Yuki immersed Kat's decapitated limb fully inside the roasting wet vat, and he howled and screamed as the heat-sealed his wound shut.

Finally, Yuki pulled her unconscious spouse to the relative safety of the beach, and there she lay — to live or to die with her husband. "Kendo!" she wept. "Kendo!"

***

I fought the wizard in a spirited mixture of all the techniques Bludgeon had taught me — every lesson came into play on the rugged back of Seppuku.

I attempted to outpace Scarfell at first, but his recovery in the well gave his body a virile speed and a gymnast's flexibility. Balance was never lost on this unstable surface — the pair of us, countering position and weight against the constant movement and turbulence of the dragon. Our swords connected over the serpent's shoulders as her wings banked right. I snatched a desperate hold of Seppuku's leathered skin when she made a turn upside down; the wizard meanwhile disappeared in a haze of red magic, reappearing the moment Seppuku returned horizontal, his blade swinging for my face. I cried out after taking a cut across my chest, then another down my back. Scarfell exclaimed, victoriously, as I tried to ignore the pain, the warning — shut it out and concentrate. I also ignored the dizzying miles Seppuku sped us — that sickening smear of land.

At the top of the world, Scarfell and I continued testing defences, searching for weakness, any morsel of an edge. It was only when the wizard momentarily glanced at my heels when Scarfell unwittingly revealed his secret, his weakness and my morsel.

"The eyes of a wizard will reveal his secret." Bludgeon once said — and they did. For when Scarfell examined those heels of mine, his beady eyes burned in bright red thought. He had used this trick many times — in his fort, above the labyrinth, and here on the spine of Seppuku. He would teleport before me, and where his gaze was last cast is where he would first reappear…

As expected, Scarfell was gone in a red flicker and I reacted immediately, thrusting the short-sword behind me. Immediately and as planned, the wizard appeared at my heels, accompanied by the crunching of his bones, and warm breath deflating against my neck.

I turned to meet his grotesque face — my blade enveloping his chest. I observed his expression, as old age returned under his eyes and around the mouth; but any thoughts of triumph were quashed when I noticed that, despite the blood at his mouth, Scarfell did not appear weak, or display the slightest sign of fatigue from this fatal wound.

"Your cold blade cannot scorch this heart!" he squawked and cackled.

Suddenly, and with a will of its own, the sword of the centaur sparked into life. I could not see the penetrating fire growing over the blade, but I felt it rage through Scarfell's body. He screamed as any dying animal would — cursing me, cursing and burning from the inside out. I hoped to take some satisfaction from this moment, but I got none; there was only emptiness, as I watched his skin fry and his hair snap like blowing fuses.

I held onto his electric skeleton for longer than I should have; and with one final ex-pulse of energy, the wizard’s bones exploded, sending me backward over the dragon's spine and rolling off her tail. Seppuku continued for the stratosphere, while I fell to the Distinct Earth.

Accelerating to terminal velocity, I experienced an overwhelming sense of freedom. It was over — the quest and the responsibility — all of it was behind me. I would crash, I would embrace the simpler existence of a frog or spider, a leaf or leech.

Before my second death, I took a moment to picture each of my brave friends: Harmony, Eddinray, Kat; and finally, I lingered on my daughter. I wanted Kathy to know how far her spirit had carried me, how desperately I fought and how much I loved her. I prayed that my life-support would pass on those final thoughts of mine; but as I closed my eyes to die, one beautiful angel did hear my prayers, and arrived in spectacular fashion to answer them. A French phoenix called Harmony Valour burst through cloud to catch me in her arms.

"Hold on Daniel!" she cried. "I got you!"

No longer burdened with any clasp, Harmony's radiant wings flapped wide, white and sacred. She flew — she flew.

44. The End of The Beginning

I lay between friends as Seppuku flew us gracefully through the bluest sky. I remember a most vivid and lurid dream, not of a failed mission in the past, but of a gloriously bright future. I dreamt of the Distinct Earth sweeping below, and of a peace growing stronger with every new year. I dreamt of my life-support, Missy, somersaulting as she waited for my arrival. I dreamt of a muddy village of women reclaiming their names and freedom, celebrating with a party of carefree laughter lasting seven whole days and nights. Outside his Mountain traps, I dreamt of a groomed centaur King, toasting a passing speck overhead with a glass of his own moonshine. I dreamt of an ancient spell broken, and a lonely witch crawling free from her prison of ice. Her face was young and noble, and smiling as she walked down the road toward a long lost friend. Also in this dream was a petrified wood sighing away its fears, and the creatures of all colors running free from wizard cages. Finally, I dreamt of ribbons coming loose from Kathy's hair, as she hurried to a very important meeting.

I now woke at the beginning of my story — that boring drone in my ears, the startling limbo white, and my life-support wrapping her restless self around my legs. "Knew you'd make it!" she declared. "I just knew! It's been so long! So, so long!"

I bent to embrace her, feeling a lump grow in my throat upon seeing Missy's tears and grin, and the appearance of Harmony, Yuki, and Kat beside her.

"How are you feeling?" asked Kat, his decapitated arm shocking me.

"Confused." I said. "And tired."

All of us were — congealed blood dangled from Kat's lost limb, Yuki had no tears left to spill and Harmony looked grey faced and worn out, the return of her wings hardly replacing the loss of her knight.

"You were brilliant!" said Missy. "You were all brilliant!"

"Were we?" I asked, unconvinced. The child recoiled suddenly. It was the unannounced presence of Sir Isaac Newton that startled her, the scientist looking proud as he removed his hat and then admirably tipped his head at each of us.

Awestruck, Harmony and Missy bowed before his polished shoes; and although I felt I should do the same, a cramp in my thighs forbid it. Kat on the other hand, would not be bowing to anybody.

"Stand up angels." said Newton. Harmony and Missy cordially rose and then waited for the old man. Our weariness obvious, he didn't make us wait for explanations.

"You are the talk of all the Realms." he said. "A remarkable achievement."

"We didn't achieve anything." I replied. "Your prisoner is gone. Killed by Scarfell. The mission in ruins and —"

"The object of your mission was never important." he interrupted. "John Curtis is no more wanted here than he is anywhere, and if you had brought that worthless piece of flesh and bone before me I would have immediately cast him back to the 9th Fortress."

"What?" I stuttered. "I don't.."

He came closer, his lanky arms taking me firmly by the shoulders.

"The journey, Daniel," he stressed; "the experience and the test! That was the vital component here. You and Kat left the Waiting Plain, not for prisoner 2020, but to redeem your souls and to deliver others — a marooned knight from his raft, an exiled angel from a wizard's cage and a tortured wife from perpetual suffering. You ended the rein of Scarfell and restored peace to the Distinct Earth. You achieved all that and more, yet you still search for a reason why…"

"Bludgeon," I whispered, weak on my feet; "he said there was more to this."

"There is more," he added, "and you are now ready to hear it. Your time with the Centaur King had to be especially gruelling — you had to be guided by heroes like Bludgeon and Kat to become one. You had to be tested Daniel, we had to know more than ledgers could tell."

"Tell you what?" asked Missy; and intrigued, the rest of us gathered to hear the elderly man's reply.

"That given the opportunity and the means, Daniel Fox would not kill John Curtis. Would he save a soul who caused him so much pain? Would he do the right thing when every impulse told him otherwise? What would he do?"

My hands trembled as I examined the dried bog blood over my fingers. "I wanted to kill him." I said, honestly. "You have no idea how badly."

Newton nodded understandingly. "Thoughts do not condemn a person Daniel, his actions do; and yours proved that you are the individual we are looking for." He took a weighty breath before carrying on. "These last few years you have been inadvertently training for a task, one which leaves that of the 9th Fortress in shade."

"Another?" I asked, with a light-headed chuckle as an appalled Missy clutched at my elbow.

His brow lowering, Sir Isaac Newton scrutinized us. "What I say now, none of you can share. This knowledge can never be made public, and you five, along with a trustworthy group of twelve individuals will be the only souls made aware of it."

Scared and excited at the same time, we searched the bewildered expressions of each other. "I must have your word." he earnestly added. "Do I have it?"

He came to us individually, and one by one we gave him our solemn word of honor — we would keep his secret. Content, Sir Isaac Newton seated himself on an appearing block of marble, then shared his great burden. "God is dying. Our God…is dying."

His words seemed to take a lot out of the old man — he was visibly weakened.

"What does it mean?" asked Missy, shocked.

"His light is going out." Newton replied, his voice breaking. "The twelve greatest minds in the universe are working day and night on the problem, but there is, as yet, no solution. We cannot explain it, and we cannot prevent it. The death of our Lord is now but a matter of time, and when that day arrives everything we know will change — the walls separating realms are already collapsing, soon darkness will infiltrate light, and the greatest of all battles will begin."

Sir Isaac Newton then stood from his marble block with a growing hardness in his eye. "We will fight for ourselves,” he concluded, “and we will die for the good we believe in."

"When is this battle?" asked Kat, his keenness to kill still apparent.

"The prophecy." added Missy, in disbelief. "No-one really knows when."

"The time will come," said Newton, "one year or one hundred years, it is coming Kat; the decisive conflict between good and evil, the absolute annihilation of one side for all time…and that side cannot be ours. One will lead the army of God at this finale. We have searched a very long time for our general, and he has been found in you Daniel. He has been found."

Too overwhelmed to react, so typically, Missy did it for me. "My Daniel!" she gasped. "I knew he was special! Didn't I tell you that?"

"I heard rumours of a prophecy." I eventually said, trembling harder. "In a saloon. They talked about it, those weird people."

"Godwin claimed he was the chosen one." added Harmony, with a smile. "That silly man."

"That prophecy only tells of the soul's moral attributes," continued Sir Isaac Newton, seriously, "a guideline of character not appearance. There have been many missions before yours Daniel, candidates from all across the universe, and all of them ending in abject failure. You have been a difficult soul to find, but you are the one."

Stunned, I seated myself on Newton's block of marble. How could I lead this finale, I could barely stand.

Missy came to rub a hand down my back. Her tiny touch was comforting, and Newton's confidence gave me some strength. "Have faith in yourself," he said. "You will pass every new test Daniel, and vanquish every foe. But that is for the future — the present sees me with unfinished business. Harmony Valour?"

The angel obediently raised her head, but her blue eyes appeared disinterested. "You have suffered more than most." he told her. "For that I am truly sorry."

Harmony attempted to conceal her painful expression. "Over there." said Newton, pointing now to a twinkling star of gold a little ways off. "You have served your penance angel. Go reclaim what is yours."

This yellow star floated over the horizon like a beckoning old friend, it was a doorway only one invited could enter. I stood for a better look, feeling Missy wrap her arm around my neck like a scarf. Harmony knew exactly what lay beyond this phenomenon, but still her heart longed elsewhere.

"There is nothing in the Heavens for me." she said. "Nothing at all."

At first the scientist appeared sympathetic, but his following question was meant to shock. "Angel if you are not in Heaven," he said, "then who will keep poor Eddinray company?"

"Godwin?" she said, instantly alive again. "You can't…"

Our eyes again followed Sir Isaac Newton's hand to his sparkling star, and a knight, striding out on horseback to greet us. "There is something in Heaven for everybody!" he said, with a beaming smile. "Even a wedding."

Harmony's chin dropped; Yuki had to prop her upright as the knight and horse gallantly approached.

"It is him!" she said, heaving. "Look everyone! It's Godwin!"

The black stallion snorted and Harmony rejoiced. "Benoit! It's my horse! My beautiful horse! The two of them coming!" Cheeks burning, her face was covered in tears. We were all laughing when Harmony spirited off the ground and swooned in mid-air. "Hurry!" she yelled at them.

The proud black horse and knight trotted into clear view, Eddinray wearing a newly polished coat of silver mail. "Ahoy!" he announced, pulling on the reins. "Your leader has returned!"

Before he could utter another word, Harmony swamped him with unfussy hugs and kisses; and overzealous in her affections, she yanked the man from his saddle and their bodies fumbled to the floor.

"Compose yourself my dear!" said Eddinray, blushing. "You'll cause yourself a mischief!"

Also embarrassed by this show, Sir Isaac Newton cleared his throat for their attention; and Harmony, hair everywhere, promptly rose with her hand in Godwin's.

"If you are both ready?" he asked them. "It is time to go home."

The angel gleefully bobbled her head whilst an alarmed looking Eddinray could not help but scrutinize Kat's bloody form. "You are missing an arm, samurai." he said, as if Kat had perhaps failed to notice. "I say, that's quite revolting!"

Kat's growl warned the knight not to pursue the issue, and the Englishman got the message.

Moving toward her horse now, Harmony combed Benoit's coat, set a foot inside the stirrup, and then pulled herself over the saddle.

"I've missed you boy!" she exhaled, patting the animal's neck. Eddinray bundled up and onto the saddle behind her, locking both his lanky arms around her waist. "Shpt!" he chocked. "Angel, your wings are smudging my face!"

Harmony's formidable extras settled to rest at the sides of Benoit, then, she vigorously clicked her heels against the horse. "Onward!" she cried. "Ya! Ya!"

Benoit briefly stood on hind legs before galloping fast for that open star.

"Never said goodbye." I said, waving at their backs as Heaven slowly consumed them.

"Why?" Missy blared back. "You're all headed in the same direction." She then peered anxiously to Sir Isaac Newton. "Aren't they?"

"They are." he confirmed.

"All of us?" asked Kat, nervously.

His concern was legitimate. After all — why would a born killer, a tool perfectly crafted for the purpose of murder be permitted or wanted in Heaven? Thankfully, Sir Isaac Newton was of a different opinion, and he did not leave that tool on tenterhooks.

"Harmony earned back her wings.” he said, “and you have more than earned your peace, Kat. No longer will you wait to be heard; no longer will you fight for redemption. No longer…old man."

Overcome, Kat slumped on the verge of a breakdown, the lines of his face like shattered toffee. "I do not believe." he grumbled. "I do not."

"Believe." Newton said, fixing a respectful palm on Kat's chest plate. "Have you ever heard the phrase, better the devil you know? Some in Heaven will resent your presence there, but one day these pious souls will need a devil to defend them. On my endorsement, you are now an agent of God. But for now, go and take your reward…Kendo."

Kat appeared utterly exhausted, but remained stubbornly statuesque. An emotional Yuki set her head against his lumpy shoulder, and together they watched the welcoming glow that awaited.

Before they set off, I came face to face with my weary samurai warrior. We did not exchange words, we simply embraced, and I felt his remaining hand pat firmly on my back. We parted then I watched, as hand in hand with his wife, Kendo Katamuro walked in glassy eyed mystery toward eternity…

Only Sir Isaac Newton, Missy and I remained in the stark, passionless panorama now. So much had changed since we three last stood here. A constant then, and now, was my endless questions, questions that would have to wait for answers. Right now, the scientist had one remaining loose end to tie.

"Kathy," he whispered. "I promised you would be with her in Heaven, Daniel, and I also promise you time to enjoy it."

I glanced again at the portal of gold, where a bright young girl glowed like desert mirage. Speechless, I saw none of her face there, nor heard her voice, but she was so recognisably my only child.

"Go get her Daniel." said Missy, sobbing. "Go get her."

Cramp in my legs gone, my dreamy walk became a feverish sprint toward the brilliant haze and her thinly outstretched arms; and at very long last, two dearly departed souls reunited in celestial starlight.

Content

Jackson John Paul The 9th Fortress

John Paul Jackson The 9th Fortress

1. Her Daniel

2. Waiting for God

3. The Elder Statesman

4. A Man of Experience

5. Savage Road

6. Who Killed Madam A?

7. Hell In The Barn

8. The Mouth of The Mountain

9. The Trials of King Bludgeon

10. Blood & Sweat

11. Godsend

12. The Red Door

13. The Black Angels

14. One Will Perish

15. Sir Godwin Eddinray

16. The Eyes of Harmony Valour

17. Eye for An Eye

18. Ceremony

19. The Lion's Den

20. Four More

21. The Dishonorable Many

22. The Death of Kendo Katamuro

23. Kindred Spirits

24. War

25. The Flood

26. Parts Broken

27. Breakneck

28. Duel at Dawn

29. The Killing Fields

30. The Crown Wearing Cadaver

31. We Buccaneers

32. The Captain's Table

33. Enter The Dreadknot

34. Reflection

35. The Express

36. The 9th Fortress

37. The Little Emperor

38. A Soul Worth Saving

39. Duel

40. The Way Home

41. The Gauntlet

42. Cold Dead Hands

43. Final Fight

44. The End of The Beginning