The Bone Triangle (32 page)

I agreed. We didn’t like it, but we decided to follow its wishes and advance farther into the tunnels. It was either that or face the guardian together.

“Do you think this guardian thing is the Beast?” I asked.

“No, not big enough.”

I had to agree. The guardian was perhaps the size of a pickup truck, but nowhere near as big as an office building.

As we pressed onward, the walls of the tunnel became slicker and seemed to angle downward slightly. I briefly revealed my bottle, which seemed to light up whenever I was in a tense mood. I used it like a flashlight so we could have a look around. We’d reached a point where we found dry, crispy spots on the floor of the tunnel. The air had changed, too, becoming acrid with a smoky taint in the mix.

“What is that stink?” McKesson asked. “Smells like burned meat.”

I could think of a dozen sources, but none were savory, so I didn’t answer. After turning a sharp corner, we saw light playing on the walls ahead of us. We cautiously moved closer and saw a dark lump moving. The walls around it were singed and hazy with vapor.

A moment later, the lump turned slightly, and I saw familiar eyes like jewels on stalks and recognized the snail-like profile.

“Ezzie?” I hissed in the dark.

She turned around and regarded us. She paused for a moment, taking us in. She wasn’t what I’d call a fast thinker.

“Are you two lost?” she asked at last.

“Yeah, you could say that,” McKesson said. “What are you doing down here?”

“Goading the Beast.”

I felt a shock when I heard her words. Could it be true?

“This is all
your
fault?” I demanded. “What are you doing, burning these tunnels to make the Beast mad?”

“Mad. Yes, mad with pain.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“I want it to find Rostok. I thought if the Beast brought him, he might be my pet in this place. But I’m not sure now. I don’t like it very much. The Beast is too powerful.”

“Ezzie, you must stop goading the Beast.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s killing people. Even now, as we speak.”

“What people?” she asked in surprise.

“The people in the Lucky Seven.”

“Oh no! The Beast was only supposed to catch my Rostok and bring him here to me.”

“Well, unfortunately, it’s taking the Lucky Seven down in the process and eating everyone inside.”

“That’s terrible. We must speak with the Beast about this.”

McKesson jumped into the conversation at this point. “Be a good slug and lead us to the Beast’s heart, will you Ezzie?”

“I will,” she said, and she glided away.

Behind her, the path sizzled and steamed. It was an easy trail to follow. While we walked in her stinking, hot exhaust, I had time to ponder what I had learned. Could this entire place be the Beast? Was the Beast not a being—but a place? I was uncertain. I was unable to get any coherent answers out of Ezzie on the subject, so we pressed onward.

“How did you get here, craziest of lava-slugs?” McKesson asked her.

“I traveled here. At first, when I began to cross worlds, I couldn’t control my destination. But after doing it for a while, I became able to direct the flow. Now, I go where I like.”

“But how?” asked McKesson. “Do you carry an artifact?”

“Not exactly…” she said, moving her stalks far apart. “I ate one.”

I laughed aloud. “Of course you did. What did it taste like?”

“I don’t know. It won’t come out.”

I tried not to think about her odd choice of words. Probably, her command of English was imperfect. “It’s stuck inside you?” I asked.

“Yes. And I want to keep it now; it’s been useful.”

“So, let me get this straight. You ate one of Rostok’s artifacts, and you used it to travel the worlds until you found your home. Why didn’t you stay there? Why did you come here?”

“I was lonely. I missed Rostok. He mistreats me, but…I still want my Rostok.”

“Uh-huh. But why here?”

“Why? Because Rostok used to live here.”

It took a while to get the full story out of Ezzie, and even afterward, I wasn’t sure I understood everything. But as far as I could tell, Rostok wasn’t entirely human anymore. One of his objects, one I’d never seen, gave him his greatest power. Like many of the artifacts, it had a serious side effect, and it had changed him. He’d become attached to this place, the home of the Beast, and he’d become like the creatures here. He liked the dark now. He was swollen of form and alien to look upon. From her vague descriptions, I visualized a hulking figure that felt at home only in darkness. It certainly sounded like the Rostok I knew.

“He’s been turned into some kind of troll,” McKesson said suddenly, interrupting our conversation. “There have been rumors like that for years. A belly like a bouncer, warts, so ugly he could make a blind kid cry. I get it. Now, how do we stop this Beast from destroying my town?”

“Follow me,” she said, and began slithering away deeper into the tunnels.

We followed, but I was frowning in thought.

“Ezzie,” I said, “I want to know something else. Did you start this whole thing? Did you goad the Beast into action against Las Vegas? Why did it come to our world and begin eating people in the first place? As I recall, it started around the time you left Rostok.”

Ezzie’s eyestalks drifted apart again. I gathered this was a gesture for her, as I’d seen it before. She did that when she was thinking or hesitating before answering a question. Maybe it was like a human shrug.

“I came here after I met you at my home pools. I came because Rostok and I know this place. I hoped to make a home here for both of us—hot enough for me and familiar to him. I didn’t mean to upset the Beast, but I always make it angry when I come here. It can’t digest me, you see.”

“Yeah, and I bet you give it a tummy ache, too.” McKesson chuckled.

“I’m afraid so,” she said.

“So the Beast is looking for Rostok?” I asked. “It’s attacking the Lucky Seven to get him? Where did it get that idea?”

“I told it where to find him. I will stop traveling these tunnels when I have my Rostok.”

As we walked down the crispy, burned tunnels, I wondered about Rostok and the Beast. Exactly what was the nature of their relationship? Was Rostok an escaped imp from this particular slice of hell? The Beast certainly did qualify as a devil, if anything I’d ever met up with did. If that were the case, then I found it interesting that Rostok had given me a weapon and instructions on how to kill his own dark god.

That was what I planned to do, if I could. When I found the heart of this Beast, I would press the liver against it and pump in venom. I only prayed it would work, that it would
be powerful enough to kill the monster that ruled in this foul place.

I wondered, too, how the Beast had been awakened. If it hadn’t been Ezzie who had started it all, who had?

The tunnels were like a sewer—but worse. The walls weren’t solid concrete. They were more like mud. When I touched them, it felt as if I was in contact with the bottom of a river—a river with a lot of slimy moss floating in it. At times, it was hard to keep my shoes on when the floor became mushy. In other areas, it was more solid, like stone. As we went deeper, winding down, following random twists and turns, the walls and floor became softer again. I found myself walking in Ezzie’s burned wake. The smoldering region she passed over was uncomfortably hot, but at least it was firm and provided good footing.

When we reached the bottom of the tunnel complex, we met a guardian. I wasn’t sure if it was the same one we’d seen before, but it was close enough.

First, a feeling of dread overcame me. I don’t know how else to explain it. I thought it was the oppressively thick air when the sensation began, but it quickly grew in my mind
until I felt fearful to take another step. I knew McKesson felt it as well. He faltered and slowed. I glanced back, and in the darkness I could make out his form several paces behind.

Ezzie, for her part, seemed immune. She glided forward, humming tunelessly. I would have laughed if I hadn’t been so close to panic.

“Do you feel it?” I whispered to McKesson.

“Feel what?”

“You know…scared. I think it’s somewhere close.”

McKesson heaved a breath and coughed quietly. “Yeah,” he said at last. “I feel it.”

I knew from experience that mental effects were possible. Meng commanded people around her with her artifact. I’d seen it with my own eyes. It only made sense that other beings might have the power to alter human minds, or at least to alter our emotions. I wasn’t immune to such a natural power, as it didn’t come from an artifact.

We forced ourselves to continue following Ezzie. It helped somewhat that her dull reddish glow provided a stable light source in this dismal world.

When the guardian attacked us, it took us by surprise. I think it knew who we were and that we could be dangerous. Rather than taking a direct approach, it chose to lie in ambush. It waited until Ezzie and I had passed. Just as McKesson brought up the rear, it lunged out of what I had assumed was a solid wall. The wall turned out to be a ridge of muck, which went down in a gush. A huge limb shot out.

I whirled, and McKesson’s gun sparked and boomed. In that flash of light and fire, I saw the thing that had him as I’d never been able to before. It was terrifying and thoroughly alien. I glimpsed multiple eyes, a writhing cluster of tentacles at the throat, and a wet dark skin of mottled brown.

McKesson’s gun flared again. The creature’s muscles rippled in response. It lifted McKesson into the air and squeezed him. I heard a ghastly snapping sound and a gargling human scream. It was killing him.

Although fear gripped me as at no other moment in my life, I stumbled forward into action. I felt numb and my hands shook. I didn’t dare use my bottle to burn the monster, as I felt sure I’d somehow burn McKesson by accident. Instead, I formed a fist around the liver, squeezing it in my hand as I punched forward.

I touched the artifact to the guardian. The contact almost broke my mind. I’ve never felt such a wave of despair and panic. I cannot describe it, other than to say I’d rather have all my limbs broken rather than feel it again.

I willed the thing in my hand to release its poison. That part wasn’t difficult, as I was already in a state of terror, and self-defense comes easily to me in such situations. I could not see the monster’s face, but I could sense it stiffening. Another popping sound came from McKesson. I suspected the guardian’s hand had squeezed him convulsively. I heard no response from McKesson, despite the fact he had to be in agony. I figured he was either dead or unconscious.

Heat flared behind me a moment later. It was Ezzie. She’d reversed course and come close.

“Out of the way, Quentin,” she said.

I threw myself against the wall of the passage. Ezzie flared, generating more internal heat temporarily, something her kind could manage in these situations. She wasn’t fast, but the guardian feared her. It dropped McKesson, who flopped onto the tunnel floor and slid away bonelessly downhill. Ezzie advanced upon the guardian, which tried to flee but seemed unable to do so.

Staggering, then falling in a heap, it flailed on the tunnel floor. I could see it only as an outline, a shape like that of a huge man under a blanket of mud. That muddy blanket was its alien skin, I knew, and it was dying due to my dose of poison. Ezzie caught up with it and a steaming hiss erupted. The monster could not avoid its fate, but long before Ezzie had burned it to death, I think the poison mercifully stilled its heart.

“It’s dead,” Ezzie said.

“Thank you, Ezzie.”

“I think you killed it. It tastes funny.”

I shuddered and knelt over McKesson. He was out cold, and his right shoulder was two inches lower than his left. He had a broken collarbone, but he still had a pulse. I was surprised how concerned I felt about the bastard.

“I think I need to take him out of here, or he’s going to die,” I told Ezzie.

“What about the Beast?”

I hesitated. “What’s the Beast like, Ezzie? Have you met this creature?”

“Yes. The Beast is quite unpleasant. It controls this place. The guardians are its servants.”

“I gathered that,” I said. I tried to think. It was difficult, as my emotions were running high. The greatest of them was an abject fear of this place. It had been growing in me since I’d arrived, I realized now. I wondered if I would be able to press on if things became worse.

I had killed this guardian, and if the master of this domain was simply a larger, more powerful version I might win. But then again, it might reach out of another wall and crush me to death before I could strike.

“I don’t think I can beat the Beast right now,” I said. “Can you open a path? Can you take me home, Ezzie?”

“All right,” she said mildly.

She opened a rip in space that twirled with pulsing orange light.

“Are you coming with us?” I asked.

“No. I’m going home. I don’t like it here, and I don’t think Rostok and I would be happy here, living with the Beast.”

I wished her luck and dragged McKesson into the rip after me. It was just big enough for us to squeeze through.