Adventures Of Myhr Part 41

"Lord Anton?" Cadmus called. "I'm terribly sorry about that business after dinner, but-ow!"

Filima had given him a light swat on the arm. "Later!"

"Yes," Anton agreed. "Later. Do come over and lend Myhr a hand, there's a good fellow."

Cadmus lurched toward us, as though wading. "It's gotten rather thick. Very odd."

It didn't feel thick to me. Must have been a magic thing. They all had Talent and were floundering; I was immune. "Where's Terrin?"

"Underneath. Refused to come out. Helikes it."

Botello suddenly shook free. He was a big guy and pretty determined. "What?" He rounded on me.

"You'renot the wizard?"

"Only because there's no money in it."

Boy, did he look p.i.s.sed. "Where is he? Takingmy power?"

"Heads up, Cadmus, megalomaniacal episode coming through."

"Grab him!" Anton yelled.

We grabbed him. Cadmus was full of muscles, and I had a feline edge that made me strong for my size.

We each had an arm, but it was even money how long we could hang on. "Now what?"

"Push him under!"

We did that too. Botello didn't fight us, which was alarming. He didn't fight us for the longest time, like maybe a minute, then began thras.h.i.+ng.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Anton had moved off to one side. "The magic's too much for him to absorb."

"We're feeding him magic?" That seemed a remarkably bad idea. So bad that Cadmus and I let Botello struggle to the surface. He wheezed and choked just like it had been water.

"You're drowning him in it," said Anton. "Put him back under."

"But won't that kill your body?" "It will kill Botello. That's more important than anything else."

"You . . . can't!" Botello objected.

"I must. You're the one who's upset the balance. Better you die than those poor people back on the Reality plane."

"You'll die, too! What you're in is all that's left of me! You'll remain here!"

Anton shrugged. "I'm willing to make that sacrifice to save them. Part and parcel of being an overduke, you know. Kill him."

"But Lord Anton . . ." Cadmus was horrified.

"Just do it, Cadmus. Be quick. I don't want my body to needlessly suffer."

This I didn't like, but I went along with Cadmus and shoved Botello under. Responsibility can be a b.i.t.c.h.

He fought us, a last-ditch madman's effort, but was losing momentum.

Terrin surfaced. Literally. He bobbed up from the fog like a submarine, one with a big grin painted on the bow. He looked better. His hair had gone back to its normal red, and the ruddiness had returned to his skin, which had lost a good century or so of wrinkling.

"Hey," I said. "How you doing?"

"I'm cool. Lot of great stuff floating around here. You should try it."

"No, thanks."

"Check this out." He pointed to his forehead. He had horns. "Ain't they cool? I may keep 'em!"

"Terrin, I'm a little busy here. . . ." The sight of me and Cadmus trying to drown a man in magic fog didn't seem worthy of comment from him.

"No prob."

"And there's a bunch of demons about to do a tsunami on our a.s.s." I'd noticed the roar of my tornado had ceased, replaced by other roars. And I thought they'd been annoyed earlier.

"No prob."

"Anton said if you visualize-"

"Oh, hush, I can fix it."

Since he was back to being his old confident-to-the-point-of-being-snotty self, it was safe to a.s.sume he could fix things and put my whole attention on Botello. It was really way past awful holding a man down, waiting for him to die. I'd seen something like it in a Hitchc.o.c.k movie that had made me squirm. This was real, though, and I was an active partic.i.p.ant. Cadmus looked the way I felt, but his gaze was on Anton, not the horror at hand. Anton swiped blood from his eyes and watched, his face solemn, sad, and so weary it hurt to see. I felt terrible for him, and hoped he could slip back under the Gate when it was over. He shouldn't have to stay in h.e.l.l, not after this.

Botello had pretty much spent himself. His desperate bucking subsided to an infrequent, reflexive twitch.

Not long now.

Wading over, Anton gave a nod. "That should do it."

We lifted Botello clear of the fog. He drooped like a dead man, and seemed heavier than he should be.

We dragged him to the riverbank and laid him out.

Anton came forward and took Botello by one hand. Nothing happened for a moment, then I glimpsed a faint rippling between them.

"What was that?"

No answer. Anton's eyes rolled up, and he keeled over like he'd been shot. Cadmus caught him and hauled him over next to Botello. Filima cautiously approached, not eager to get close to either of them, but staring hard.

"I think he's done it," she said. "The auras have changed. Can you tell?"

Cadmus and I both tried. I wasn't sure what was there, but some kind of swap had taken place between them. He shook Botello. "My Lord Anton? Are you there?"

He got a groan in response. The man's blue eyes fluttered open, and he looked around, puzzled. He raised one arm, studied it, than let it drop. "Blind as a bat again. Thank gawds."

"Lord Anton?"

"Yes, I'm here. I managed to get back. I think." With a small spurt of energy, he sat up, undid his trousers, and looked inside. He gave a great sigh of relief. "Thanks gawds," he said, with much more fervor, then noticed Filima gaping at him. "Please pretend you didn't see that, thank you." He did himself up again, and with Cadmus helping, found his feet.

"Are you all right, Lord Anton?" Cadmus sure liked saying that name.

"As well as can be expected. Would you mind very much removing him completely from the river?

There's a good fellow." He slogged up the bank himself while Cadmus and I hauled what was left of Botello clear.

"He's not dead," I told them.

Anton wasn't surprised. "There's no death in h.e.l.l. I rather hoped he might not know that. However, it's time we left. None if us belong here, even your friend."

Terrin was farther up the bank. He turned toward us once, flas.h.i.+ng one of his s.h.i.+t-eating grins.

Uh-oh. What's going on? I joined him. So did the others.

"Wha'd'ya think?" He gestured proudly at the expanse of h.e.l.l within our view. Gone was my high wall, sandstorm, tornado, the works. In place of the dark red dust and rock was a vast, unbroken plain of white, right out of Antarctica. It was dim and dreary, but unmistakable. Silent, sober, and still. Every single one of the demons was frozen solid in place, in mid-move. Ice and snow covered them completely, their growls caught solid in their throats.

"Cooo-oool," I said, meaning its every sense. My breath hung in the s.h.i.+very air.

Terrin smirked and snickered. "I've alwayswanted to do that!"

"I say," said Cadmus, "that's rippingly original. Who would have thought it?"

He was serious, too.

"It won't last." I pointed to one of the bigger demons, who was beginning to crack free of his subzero prison. "Anton, If you've got a way outta here I suggest we take it."

He smiled. It came off better with him looking out behind his face instead of Botello. "Might be a bit tricky but I think we can manage with your help."

My help? What was I supposed to do?

"Just hold still. Everyone form a circle around Myhr, one hand on the shoulder next to you, the other on him."

What was this, a square dance or a really kinky variation of my time with the succubae? They did as Anton instructed.

"Now everyone visualize being back on the Reality plane again. Four went out, four will return."

What about me? Had I turned into chopped liver and not noticed?

Nothing happened while the four of them focused, which was worry-making. A few more of the demons struggled free of their ice and were lumbering our way. I made more ice appear under their feet. They slipped and fell on their a.s.ses, but recovered quick. Still seated, they started sliding toward us: screaming, out-of-control, toothy bobsleds.

Oh, s.h.i.+t.

"You guys think harder, okay?" I said. "And snap it up."

"Chill, Myhr," said Terrin. He sounded tense.

I glimpsed a last vision of the demons on a juggernaut path straight toward us and braced for a killing impact . . . then something happened. It wasn't too much different from Terrin's travel spell; maybe he even put a chunk of that energy into Anton's mojo. The ground seemed to drop away, sending me plummeting, yet not feeling the gravity. It was like fallingup . Their faces whisked around me in a top-speed blur, made me dizzy, so I shut my eyes. The next bad thing was my sudden weight-gain. I felt like I'd put on tons of lead. It turned the falling up into a real fall, switching too fast for me to work into a real panic. Before I got even halfway through the process I landed-whump.

My breath was knocked so far out I thought I'd never get it back. This wasn't a struggle, but a major war to get air inside. It didn't help that there was something heavy on my face. I wrestled it off, my eyes bulging, mouth open.

Standing over me, their faces stricken, were Shankey, Debreban, and Velma. They held hands as though playing an overgrown ring-around-the-rosie game.

Shankey spoke first, looking at Velma. "Is that supposed to happen?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. I've never done a seance before." She peered hard at me. "Are you dead or what?"

"Uhhh," I gasped. Then wheezed. Then coughed. Then lay flat, resting until my lungs got used to the idea of going back to work again. The leaden feeling gradually pa.s.sed; I was able to sort myself out. I was in the blue room, on the floor, swathed in black velvet. This was considerably better than the last place.

"Where are the others?" asked Velma. "Are they alive?"

"Uhhh." I tried to make it sound positive.

But her answer came whirling in on its own. They all ducked and s.h.i.+elded against a prolonged gust of wind tearing through the room from nowhere. The velvet whipped from me, and made a complete circuit before wrapping around a pillar like a flag, its ends snapping.

Then the bound-from-h.e.l.l express dumped them, one-by-one, in various undignified heaps: Filima, Cadmus, Anton. Terrin, more used to that kind of travel, landed on his feet.

It looked like everyone would be awhile sorting themselves out and playing catch-up. Velma, once she ascertained that Anton was back to himself again, got real happy and affectionate. Cadmus swept Filima up in a really good face-hugger kiss-when didthat happen?-and she didn't fight him on it. I chose to avoid the whole Q and A session, trudging to the windows for more air. Man, I was tired. Terrin came over and plopped down next to me.

"Check it out," he said, gesturing at the view. "The fog's gone."

"It better be," I muttered, not bothering to turn around. "I'mnot going throughthat again."

He felt his forehead. The horns were still there.

"Rad souvenir," I said. "Keeping them?"

"Of course."

"Be hard wearing a hat."

He blew that off with a snort. "How much you think we'll get for this one?" "For saving the world? A lot. A couple of really big diamonds, at least."

"Rubies are better."

"Whatever, so long as it gets us home or to a place with an astral map, indoor plumbing and decent toilet paper. I a.s.sume we helped save the world. Is the astral plane back to normal? Magic energy restored?"

"Yeah, sure. No probs there. The balances are recovering themselves."

"What about all those magicians and the rest who vanished?"

He closed his eyes, humming to himself, but without making any noise. "They've all returned where they belong. Metaphysically, this world's the way it should be. Even Botello."