Tear Down Heaven: Urban Fantasy Action with Witches and Demons, page 30
His voice trailed off as he looked over his head, and then his face split into a smile. He ran over to Leander next. Bex thought he was just checking on his downed brother, but when Adrian returned, both of his hands were covered in princely white blood.
“I know, I know,” he said at Bex’s horrified look. “But it doesn’t make sense that Gilgamesh’s final chamber wouldn’t be sealed with sorcery, and this is the only quintessence I’ve got at the moment.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to use it!” Boston hissed, arching his back. “You told me we were done with this!”
“Almost,” Adrian said, pressing his bloody palms onto the carving, which was how Bex noticed that the golden edges of the buildings in that spot were slightly rounded, almost as if someone laid their hands in that exact position often.
“Here we go,” Adrian whispered, focusing on the point between his thumbs where a large bearded man, the only human Bex had seen in the entire carving, was depicted walking through the square. “Open.”
That didn’t sound like any sorcery Bex had ever heard. The word wasn’t even in ancient Sumerian, but it still worked like a charm. The moment Adrian spoke the command, the wall he’d pressed his hands against vanished, revealing a hallway lined with old brown stone leading farther in.
“There,” Adrian said, shaking his hands, which were now perfectly clean. Every bit of blood had been consumed by the spell, leaving his palms soft and scrubbed when he reached for Bex.
“Shall we go have a look?”
She took his offered hand in her shaking one, leaving the gleaming throne room behind as she, Boston, and Nemini followed Adrian into what Bex desperately hoped was the final room of Gilgamesh’s palace.
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Adrian’s heart was thumping beneath his tree as he led Bex down the stone tunnel, which was so old and worn that it looked like it belonged beneath a pyramid. The blocks that formed the walls were huge and covered in cuneiform markings, but not the clean, fancy kind found on Gilgamesh’s modern infrastructure. This was cuneiform like you saw in museums, true ancient writing.
“Do you know what it says?” he asked over his shoulder.
Bex shook her head. Fortunately, Nemini was old enough to read anything.
“It’s a poem,” she reported, her yellow eyes moving in circles as she read the writing carved into the walls, floor, and ceiling. “The first section recounts Gilgamesh’s life and heroic deeds. The second is a record of the war, though it’s mostly a recounting of the crimes of the gods that led to their defeat.”
“Gotta give him points for consistency,” Bex muttered. “How far do you think this tunnel goes?”
She moved closer to Adrian as she spoke, walking with her arms pulled in to keep them as far from the walls as possible, though she could also have been avoiding touching the new sword she wore on her hip. Adrian had seen her pick it up because he watched her more than he was comfortable admitting, but while scoring the Sword of Ishtar seemed like it should be the victory of a lifetime, Bex acted like she was carrying a cursed object.
Considering how strained her relationship with her mother was at the moment, Adrian supposed that made sense. He was dying to ask Bex about it, but he didn’t want to poke a sore spot, so he answered her question instead.
“There’s no way to know how long it is except to walk down it,” he said, picking up the pace. “We’re in the most Gilgamesh-y of all Gilgamesh’s private spaces now. Whatever’s in here, it was built for his purposes alone, so I guess we’ll arrive when he wants us to.”
“Or we’ll be trapped forever,” Bex muttered.
“He won’t do that,” Adrian told her confidently. “He’ll come down to gloat, if nothing else, and then you can hit him. I’m much more interested in why Gilgamesh chose a tunnel. He’s always been more of a grand-decorative-spaces sort of…”
His voice trailed off as the ancient hallway they’d been following suddenly ended in a large stone chamber exactly like the one he’d just said was Gilgamesh’s style. There was no gold, but the arched walls were covered in beautiful carvings of lions, trees, and fountains. It looked like a naturally occurring cathedral, if such a thing existed, and sitting at the far end was a beautiful waist-high stone basin filled with glowing blue water and lined with eight pairs of horns, plus an empty spot for one more.
“I don’t believe it,” Adrian breathed. “Is that—?”
He didn’t get to finish, because Bex had already run past him. She sprinted down the middle of the beautifully carved cavern and grabbed the closest set of horns, which also happened to be the most familiar.
“That bastard,” she snarled, clutching the pair of two-foot-long, spear-sharp, black-ridged horns to her chest. “These are mine!”
“They’re all here,” Nemini said, appearing next to her sister between one blink and the next. “Those are Sorrow’s. Those are Greed’s. Even War’s horns are here.”
“This must be where Gilgamesh has been hiding them,” Adrian said as he ran over. “But why did he leave them unguarded like this?”
“They weren’t unguarded,” Bex argued. “Did you not see the fight I was just in?”
“I know, I know,” Adrian said, looking around nervously. “But I still expected a trap of some sort. Gilgamesh is famous for being suspicious.”
“He’s also famous for discarding things he no longer needs,” Nemini said quietly, looking up at the pale light that shone down through the holes in the elegantly carved ceiling above them.
“I agree,” Bex said, handing Adrian her old horns so he could tuck them into his coat, since she had no pockets. “Gilgamesh didn’t leave our horns unguarded. He left them behind. He doesn’t need the queens’ crowns anymore now that he’s flushed his demon population.”
She looked up at the wall behind the basin where the crowns were displayed, which was covered in the smallest, most elegant-looking cuneiform yet. “What’s that? More god cursing?”
“No,” said Nemini, squinting at the tiny lines. “It’s still poetry, but it’s not about the gods or the war. It looks like the stuff sorcerers say when they cast spells.”
“What sorcerers say,” Adrian repeated, his eyes flying wide as he stared at the cuneiform-covered wall. “Of course!” he cried, running over to touch the carvings Nemini had been struggling to read. “These must be the original verses.”
“The original verses of what?” Bex asked.
“Sorcery,” Adrian replied excitedly, running his fingers over the ancient markings he still wasn’t good enough to read reliably. “Malik—that is to say, Gilgamesh—told me that he created sorcerous poetry so that normal people could use quintessence without getting cooked. All the verses are written down in books so that sorcerers on Earth can learn them, but those books are just copies of the originals, which are famously in Heaven. I thought they’d be carved on golden tablets and kept in a treasury, but now I see. It’s all here!”
“Should we destroy it?” Bex asked, walking up to the wall. “If this is the poetry all the sorcerers on Earth are pulling from, then wrecking this wall should mean they’re no longer able to use spells, right?”
“I don’t know,” Adrian said. “I’m not sure if simply knowing the verses is enough or…” His voice trailed off as he thought about it, and then he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Even if breaking that would destroy all modern sorcery, we don’t have time. If Gilgamesh has already abandoned the queens’ crowns, he must be very close to his goal. I’d love to wreck this place, but those verses are carved into stone. Breaking them will take too much effort for something we don’t even know will work, so let’s just leave it for now. Once Gilgamesh is dead, we can come back.”
“That’s the sort of optimism I count on you for,” Bex said, flashing Adrian a beaming smile before turning to Nemini. “I need to ask a favor.”
“Anything,” Nemini replied with the speed that proved she meant it. Bex must’ve picked up on that as well, because her smile softened, though her voice did not.
“I want you to grab our sisters’ crowns and take them downstairs,” she said, pointing at the ring of royal horns that still lined the edge of the water-filled basin. “Pick up Leander and Mara, too, while you’re at it. Take it all and carry them down through Adrian’s tree to the Blackwood.”
“I can’t do that,” Nemini said, her voice shaking as she stared at her sister. “If I leave, you’ll face Gilgamesh alone.”
“That’s the idea,” Bex told her. “You’re my backup. If Adrian and I fail, I’m counting on you to restore our sisters and take up the fight. I don’t know if there’ll still be a world worth saving by that point, but if there is, I’m entrusting it to you. You’ve fought beside me since the very beginning. Do this for me as well. Be my hope so that I can face this last fight with everything I have.”
She reached up to touch Nemini’s face as she finished, but her sister smacked her hand away.
“No,” Nemini snarled, her whole body shaking in fury. “I know you, Bexa. You’re telling me to be your hope so you can die without guilt, but I’m not falling for it. I did all of this for you. Left the void for you. If you’re gone, how am I supposed to endure?”
“The same way everything endures,” Bex replied as she pulled her sister into a hug. “You’re the one who told me we all become the same dust in the end. If we’re destined to crumble no matter what, then I want to go out fighting the fight I’ve lived all my lives for. That’s my choice, but you never cared about the war or Gilgamesh. My end has always been inevitable, but I promised you’d be free, and free demons don’t die fighting battles they have no stake in.”
“I’d fight for you,” Nemini whispered, clutching her hard. “I’ll always fight for you.”
“I don’t need you to fight,” Bex whispered back. “I need to you to live. That’s why I’m asking you to do this, because I can’t beat Gilgamesh if I’m weighed down by worries and regrets.” She hugged her sister tighter. “That’s the help I need from you, Nemini. Give me the security of knowing my family got out safe, and I swear I’ll tear Heaven down.”
Nemini was shaking by the time Bex finished. It was more emotion than Adrian had ever seen her show. He was sure she was going to refuse, but then, to his shock, Nemini nodded.
“I’m only doing this because you asked,” she said as she grudgingly started to collect the horns of the seven remaining demon queens from the basin. “For the record, I hate this plan, and I hate your decision, but if it will make you happy, I’ll do it.”
“Thank you,” Bex said, hugging her one last time before turning to Adrian. “Do you want to send Boston with her?”
“Absolutely not!” Boston cried, galloping over from where he’d been busily exploring the hidden chamber. “A witch going into battle without his familiar? He might as well be naked.”
“That would be a no,” Adrian agreed, reaching down to pet his loyal cat. “We’re in this together.”
Bex didn’t look like she liked that answer, but she didn’t push the issue, which proved she understood more about witchcraft than any other non-witch Adrian had ever met. Just thinking about that made his heart feel too big for his chest, which was nice because everything else was feeling pretty scary.
“This is it, then?” he asked nervously as Nemini finished gathering the queens’ horns and turned to leave the temple.
“It’d better be,” Bex said, washing her face and bloody hands with water from the basin, which shone with the same glittering blue light as the vials of deathly water she used to hoard. “We’ve beaten every prince and been all over this damn tower. If we haven’t made it to Gilgamesh yet, I’m calling foul.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s here,” Boston said as he scaled the back of Adrian’s coat with his claws to perch on his witch’s shoulder. “I don’t know what’s above us, but the magic coming down through the ceiling is incredible.”
It did feel pretty thick now that his familiar mentioned it. Ironically, the size of Adrian’s new forest made it harder for him to sense other magics. If he pushed past the deep pulse of his root-bound heart, though, he could feel hard, hot power beating down on them like the desert sun, even inside the cool dark of the cave.
He was also glad he could still feel his forest so strongly even in this other place. Ironically, that was probably because of the chains. Thanks to their need for an uninterrupted path, this place was the closest to the living world that Heaven got outside of his new tree’s roots. That was good news for Adrian since witches drew their power from the Great Cycles of life. Whether it’d be enough to actually beat Gilgamesh was another matter, but at least he wasn’t alone this time. Boston was right there on his shoulder, and Bex was by his side, shaking the sparkling blue water out of her hair before she held out her hand.
“Ready to end this?”
“Ready to start something new with you,” Adrian replied, leaning down to press a kiss against the back of her fingers as he took her hand. “Shall we go kick out the tyrant and win ourselves a better world?”
He was trying to make her smile, but Bex’s expression was something else entirely when he glanced up again. She didn’t look happy or sad or even worried. She looked absolutely determined, like she was ready to claw Gilgamesh to atoms with her fingernails.
“We’ll do it,” she promised, squeezing his fingers tight. “We’ll beat him and make a better life for everyone. One where no one has to be a slave and where I’m free to be with you.”
Those final words made Adrian’s heart skip half a dozen beats. Other than a few wild brunch plans made in the heat of battle, Bex had never said anything about their future before. Now, though, she was smiling at Adrian with that same beautifully shy hopefulness he’d treasured on their one and only date.
It was the look that had made him want to kiss her every second they were sitting next to each other during the stakeout. He had the same reaction now, only this time, there was nothing in his way. Adrian only hesitated long enough for Boston to jump off his shoulder before he picked Bex bodily up off the ground and kissed her, squeezing her against him until every doubt was buried under the glorious mountain that was their future together.
“Right,” he said breathlessly when he finally let her go. “Let’s go ruin a king’s day.”
Bex grinned back and grabbed his hand, pulling Adrian across the shady, quiet cavern toward the staircase drenched in harsh white light on the other side.
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From her shadow in the corner, Nemini watched her beloved sister run up the stairs with the witch who’d earned her affection. The kiss had been a good one, especially for the current Bexa, who was the shy type. Nemini still wasn’t sure what made one reincarnation more bashful than others, but her little sister was clearly very happy. If she hadn’t been running off to die, Nemini would’ve had nothing to complain about, but even for someone who’d built her life around the fact that nothing mattered, that was a hard pill to swallow.
She still wanted to go after them. The only reason she didn’t was because she knew it wouldn’t help. Even now that her horns were back, Nemini had never been one of the combat queens. Her strength and speed were both mediocre at best, and her regeneration was abysmal. She used to win by bringing her enemies to their knees before they could swing, but that power was gone now, along with her sword, which meant she was more likely to be a liability than an asset.
Nemini knew that was the real reason Bexa had sent her away. Fortunately, she no longer had an ego to be bruised by such an honest assessment. Gilgamesh might have enough pride to sink him like a battleship if she ever got her hands on him, but he might also be so convinced of his power that not even the void could suck him down. Either way, Nemini would have to get within touching range to try, which would most likely end with her getting hurt and distracting Bex, defeating the entire plan. Her heart still dragged at the thought of leaving, but not as much as it did at the thought of getting Bex killed.
That was the one thing she’d never do, so Nemini clutched her sisters’ horns against her chest and did as her chosen queen had said, walking down the cuneiform-covered hallway toward the magical door that was still open at the end. She’d just stepped back into the throne room when she noticed something was different.
It was hard to make out through the glare of all that gold, but Nemini’s eyes were sharp, and she’d seen this phenomenon before. Neither of the downed princes had moved since the fight ended, but there was a familiar shimmer in the air above Leander. Sure enough, a man’s scarred hand reached through the distortion a second later to wrench Mara’s severed hand from Leander’s unconscious grasp. He’d almost gotten it loose when Nemini dropped her armful of horns and leaped forward.
She’d never make it in time with her slow speed, so she dove for the places where no one was looking only to discover she couldn’t. He’d put just a single hand into the room, but when Nemini tried to find a place where Gilgamesh’s eyes didn’t touch, she found nothing. Nemini swore she could feel his eyes peering inside her when a second hand appeared in the air in front of her and smacked her away.
She flew straight back like a shot, streaking across the bloody throne room to crash into the golden artwork on the other side. She was still sliding down the carved wall when the hand Gilgamesh hadn’t just used to swat her finished prying the Queen of Sorrow’s severed hand from her prince’s grasp. All three hands vanished after that, as did the door Adrian had opened in the wall, leaving Nemini sitting in what was now truly a golden dead end with the scattered horns of Ishtar’s queens, two unconscious princes, and no way to go back and warn her sister.
CHAPTER 17
