There was only one major flaw in the execution of my plan.
“Sarah . . .”
I whispered.
My arm hurt as the dragon laughed again.
“Damn it! I lost my daughter!” I spat at the gigantic creature that dragged itself through the air.
“You believe I do not honor my agreements?”
Hephaestus rose above the Cleveland skyline, dodging downtown skyscrapers and the federal building as he aimed toward the Erie shoreline west of the river.
“What are you doing?”
Hephaestus laughed again, as the ground below whipped by faster than I could make sense of it. The dragon aimed like an arrow right at a spit of land that stuck out paralleling the shore.
As we shot by it, I saw a cluster of dwarves by the roadside look up toward us. Ahead and below, on the icy surface of the lake, something appeared, a sphere unfolding from the same nameless dimension the tower had been sucked into.
“Wait, I can’t go—-”
We hit the sphere, and the wind ceased. Our motion had stopped, and we were no longer flying over the lake. We were in a cavern, a familiar one . . .
A vast floodlit chamber, a vast space of unfinished walls leading toward a carved building formed into incredible pillars, vaults, and arches. I could study the statues this time, and I could see dwarven bodies twisted into all forms of obscene agony.
“This was his cathedral.”
Unlike my vision, the space wasn’t empty. Dwarves crowded around the front stairs of the facade, facing us. They all stared at Hephaestus as he set me on the ground.
I looked at the dwarven faces, and saw fear.
I limped forward.
One of the dwarves stepped forward. I recognized Samanish Thégharin, my cab driver. “You cannot be here.”
“My escort says otherwise.”
“A human cannot live in these halls,” Samanish grabbed my jacket. “Leave for your own sake, and before his wrath comes down on us all.”
I pulled away. “
He
is gone.”
“What?”
Samanish’s eyes widened.
“The one you will not name. The one whose existence poisoned the mana in these halls. The one who dedicated this hall to himself.”
“I am here for my daughter.” I started walking toward the great Gothic arch ahead of me. After a moment the dwarves parted in front of me. As I closed, I could see the facade crumbing. The statues seemed to dissolve into powder, the stained glass fading and flaking into gray dust.
Hephaestus must be enjoying himself.
I could feel the mana around me, subliminal, at the corner of my awareness, like at the Magetech complex. This time, there was no foreboding to it, no evil weight . . .
Perhaps that was as good a sign as any that Old Scratch was gone.
I stumbled forward through the vast Gothic doorway. Before me was the great hall, its benches filled with hundreds of dwarves watching me. Obscene decorations crumbled around us as I limped up the aisle toward the high chair next to the altar.
As I reached the chair and reached for my daughter, the altar crumbled.
“Sarah!”
She yawned and stretched, blinking. “Oh, shit, Dad?”
“Are you all right?”
She looked me up and down, eyes wide. “All right? Dad? What happened to you?”
“Let’s get you home.” I led her out of the cathedral with my good left hand.
Not one of the dwarves moved as I took her out of the cathedral, which was in the midst of becoming little more than another unfinished cavern. “What’s happening, where am I?”
“You might not remember it, but you were kidnapped.”
“What?”
she gasped as we walked through the doorway. Ahead of us, past a semicircle of dwarves facing the remnants of Old Scratch’s cathedral, the massive form of Hephaestus sat on his haunches, arms folded. His great Escalade-sized head nodded down toward us on the serpentine neck.
“Do I not keep my word, Mr. Maxwell?”
Sarah shook her head. “Oh. My. God.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I owe you.”
Hephaestus snorted.
“Nonsense. You provided defeat for my adversary of an aeon. The books are balanced.”
“It’s talking to you,” Sarah whispered.
“And it is a pleasure to meet you as well, Miss Maxwell.”
Sarah gasped and grabbed me. It was all I could do to keep from wincing when my injured arm moved. “It’s okay,” I said through clenched teeth. “He’s a friend.”
“Shall I take you from this place, or do you prefer to walk?”
I looked at the dwarves surrounding us and swallowed. “Perhaps we should go.”
I took a few steps forward, and Samanish Thégharin stepped between us and Hephaestus. I stared down into his wrinkled face and felt my good hand ball into a fist. “This isn’t a good idea,” I told him. “I’m taking my daughter.”
“Please,” he said. “Forgive us.”
“Just let me go-—”
He rested a wrinkled leathery hand on my arm. “We saw what happened to our greatest benefactor. Mazurich’s death is the shame of all our clans. We did not want you to follow him. Ossian, Teaghue, they tried to push you off the path He was driving you down. It cost us, and we found it cost your daughter as well.” He looked at Sarah. “This wasn’t our intention, but when He saw we tried to influence your father, He made us take you.”
I removed his hand. “It’s over now. I just want to take my daughter home.”
“You’ve broken the chains binding our clans,” he said. “Honor demands we repay you.”
I looked across at the dwarves. All I could think was, what a damn mess. Even if I didn’t break the story, it was probably too far gone for anyone to stop. Samanish Thégharin thought I delivered them from bondage, but I doubted that anyone beyond the people in this cavern would accept what they had done under that bondage. I looked around and thought of the trials, the scandals, and the innuendo that would decimate these clans.
Will you thank me then?
Fact was, I don’t always love my job . . .
“Is there anything we can do?”
“Yes, actually, there is . . .”
EPILOGUE
O
N top of everything else, dwarves make good medics. I had a decent cast on my arm as I dove Sarah back to our hotel. She started apologizing profusely when we passed the remains of my Volkswagen. I told her, honestly, that all that mattered to me was the fact I got her back.
I called Margaret and had the pleasure of handing my cell phone over to Sarah. I didn’t even wince when Sarah started going on about how her dad was friends with a dragon.
I called St. Vincent Charity Hospital, and was relieved to find out that Nina had come out of her coma. I had hoped that with Old Scratch’s influence gone from the local ether, she might wake up, but I hadn’t been sure.
The snow had stopped, and the roads were clear, so we got back to the hotel by 8:40. I wasn’t that surprised when I opened up the door, and saw Blackstone and Special Agents Levi and Francis.
“Well,” Blackstone said, “if it isn’t the prodigal fucking journalist.”
“You’re early,” I said.
“Yeah, and I’m having some doubts,” Blackstone said. “I see you found your daughter.”
“Who the hell are you?” Sarah snapped at him. “What are you doing in our hotel room?”
“Mr. Blackstone here,” I said to her, “is our local federal pain in the ass.” I nodded at the two others. “His friends are Special Agents Levi and Francis. FBI.”
“Assigned to your kidnapping, Miss Maxwell,” said Agent Levi. From his expression, I think he took my little walk out of the hospital personally.
“Oh,” Sarah said.
“Francis?” Blackstone said. “Will you and Levi take her in the other room and get a statement. And for God’s sake, keep an eye on her.”
“Dad?” Sarah looked at me.
“It’s okay, they’re cops. And I need to talk to Mr. Blackstone.”
“Damn right you do,” Blackstone said.
I watched Francis and Levi lead Sarah out of the room. When the door closed, Blackstone looked at me. “Okay, I’m not heartless. I know you scammed me so you could get your daughter. If it was me, I’d probably pay anything to get her back. But now she’s back, and you better come clean with me. What did you pay, and to whom, to ransom her?”
I limped over to one of the chairs and eased myself down into it. I sighed.
“Christ, what happened to you?”
“Blackstone? I told you, you’re early.”
“Don’t start playing games now, I could—”
There was a knock on the door. Blackstone stared at me.
“You gave me until nine AM.”
The door knock sounded again.
I smiled at Blackstone, “Maybe you should get that. It’s nine o’clock.”
Blackstone looked at me, shaking his head. “I don’t believe this,” he muttered as he walked over to the door.
He opened it, and a line of solemn-looking dwarves walked into the room. “What?” Blackstone said.
The first dwarf stepped forward and nodded his head in a short bow. “I am Gwentarian of the clan Parthalán. I bring the board of directors of Magetech, Inc. We wish to offer the federal government a deal.”
Blackstone turned toward me and said, “You bastard, how long have you been sitting on this?”
“You better get negotiating,” I told him. “These guys are used to making deals with the Devil.”