Hellfire (34 page)

Immortal they might be, but
what kind of future awaited them? She kissed him again, almost desperately, but
she knew he understood. His eyes hinted at the same desperation she felt as
they slowly broke the kiss.

Together they got out of the
SUV and hiked up the canyon to the vortex.
One more to check.
Then they had to hope they’d found all of them.

But how many demons were left?
How many had already made it through from Abyss to Earth? There were other
vortexes around the country. Did they contain portals between Earth and Abyss?
As the two of them hiked the trail to the energy vortex, Ginny kept glancing at
the sky. The last time they were here, they’d been attacked by possessed birds,
but no birds circled them now.

Who knew what the afternoon
would bring.

Hopefully it would bring Taron
with some good news for a change.
But what about Alton’s
father?
There were just too many things that could go wrong, too many
variables out of their control.

Alton reached for her hand and
wrapped her fingers in his. “C’mon. Let’s check this place out so we can get
back to the casita.”

She was going to ask him what
for, but then she glanced up and caught the glint in his sparkling green eyes
and knew exactly what was on Alton’s mind. Warmth flowed through her at the
promise she saw. She didn’t hesitate when he tugged her toward the portal.

This time, the air inside the
cavern was free of demon stench, musty and dry as caverns should be. There was
no lingering scent of sulfur and the melted stone where the portal had once led
to Abyss hadn’t been tampered with.

Alton ran his fingers over the
glassy rock. “No sign of demons here. Unless there are other vortexes we’re not
aware of, I think we’ve got them stopped, at least for now.”

“So it’s a matter of finding
the ones that are already here?” Ginny ran her fingers over the melted portal.
“Where do demons go in the daytime? I wonder how many are
left?
”

“I wish I knew. The demon king
knows where we are, though. I have a feeling he’s going to come to us. I
imagine he’ll bring his army with him.”

Ginny folded the last of the
laundry she’d done while they waited to meet Taron. She poured a couple of
glasses of iced tea and took one to Alton.

“Thank you.” He took a long
swallow and then set it aside to go back to his project.

“What are you doing?” Ginny
curled her legs and sat on the floor beside him.

Both HellFire and DarkFire lay
side by side on the couch. Alton sat on the floor and leaned against the couch
with Ginny’s scabbard in his lap.
“Oiling the leather.
It keeps it supple, so it won’t crack.”

“Where do you get leather in
Lemuria if you don’t have animals? In fact, where do you get your food without
farms to raise stuff?”

“Everything we need is brought
in from other dimensions. Lemurian tradesmen handle the commerce.”

“But what do you trade? What
kind of product can you offer?” Ginny ran her hand over the supple leather and
wondered what kind of animal it had once covered.

Alton laughed. “Remember those
diamonds? We have an endless supply of precious gems and metals. We spend them
carefully so the markets aren’t flooded in any one world, but that’s the basis
of our economy. They’re so prevalent in our world that they’re worthless to us,
but valuable in every other dimension.”

“But who does all the work? I
was there such a brief time, but all I saw were security guards in blue robes
and the rest of the people wearing white and sort of hanging around. Who cleans
and cooks and teaches school?” She laughed and leaned her head against his shoulder.
“I guess I want to know where the people like me are.”

Alton leaned close and kissed
her. “Ginny—there’s no one like you anywhere. You’re unique.”

“That’s no answer. I have this
image of dark little drones working in the bowels of the earth. Do you have a
working class?”

Alton shrugged. “Yes and no.
Our technology is so advanced that there’s very little we have to do to make
things work. We learn by absorbing information while we sleep and then we test
our knowledge in discourse and debate. We pick up our meals at food centers,
and those who are interested in the economy and other worlds take positions
where they deal with those things.”

“What about you, Alton?” She
cupped the side of his face in her palm. “What have you prepared for?”

He turned away and shook his
head. “I’ve been groomed to take my father’s place, but when one is the son of
an immortal ruler, there’s not much hope for job advancement.”

“How’d your father get his
title?”

Alton raised his head and
frowned. “I don’t know. He’s been the head of the Council of Nine as long as I
can remember, and his father before him. I honestly have no idea what became of
my grandfather or how my father took over the position.”

Ginny nodded. Then she gazed
directly into those beautiful emerald-green eyes of his and made a suggestion
she hoped she wouldn’t regret.

“Maybe you need to find out.”

Alton drove out to Bell Rock
just before sunset. Ginny’d just handed over the keys as if she expected him to
take the wheel, and he sure wasn’t going to disagree. Lemuria was such a small
world and there were so few citizens that there was no need for mechanized
travel.

That was definitely a huge
mark against his home. Driving was wonderful. No wonder Ginny had hesitated
over letting him handle the Yukon.

The parking lot was empty.
Dark clouds billowed high in the western sky and hid the last rays of the
setting sun. A cold wind raised dust devils across the asphalt lot. Ginny
zipped her hoodie sweatshirt and tucked her hands in the pockets. Alton zipped
up his windbreaker and wrapped an arm around Ginny’s shoulders.

The weather here could change
from hot to cold in a heartbeat. With the sun already gone behind the red
rocks, it was definitely chilly ahead of what appeared to be an incoming storm.

“Do you think Taron will be
there?” Ginny slipped out of Alton’s embrace and headed up the trail.

“If he’s not already there, I
expect him within the hour. Our time seems to coincide with Lemuria’s, though
sunset in a world without sunlight is a fairly abstract concept.”

Ginny flashed him a big grin.
“So how do you tell time?”

He stopped and frowned at her.
“We have clocks.” Then he laughed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound insulted. Our
light works on a twenty-four-hour clock, just as it does in Earth’s dimension.
It’s a carryover from when we were part of this world. We have our sunlight
during day and darkness at night. The artificial light illuminating our world
covers the full spectrum of the sun so that we get the necessary nutrients our
bodies need. It’s all very scientific.”

Ginny waved her hand across
the wide horizon. “What about storms and clouds? Do you have rainbows and
seasons? How can you stand it, not having the surprises that nature gives us on
a daily basis?”

“We don’t have earthquakes or
tornadoes. Our people don’t live in fear of hurricanes or typhoons, of freezing
to death or dying from the heat. I think it works both ways.”

Ginny stopped and turned
around. She stood above him on a smooth red slab of sandstone with the towering
form of Bell Rock behind her, and when she planted her hands on her hips she
practically screamed her exasperation. “But when are you tested, Alton? How do
you know if you can meet a challenge if you’re never faced with one? When life
is perfect, there’s no need to be brave, no reason to stand up for anything.
What keeps you sharp and alert? I think I’d go nuts.”

He reached out and grabbed her
hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed her fingers. “You’re right. And I was
going nuts, which is why I chose to leave it all and join Dax and Eddy in their
fight against demons. Our perfect world isn’t enough. It’s not healthy for
people to live without challenges. We need to be tested if we’re to survive.
The demon threat is testing us now. I hope I can take that message back to my
people. I’m going to have to if Taron doesn’t bring us good news. Somehow we
need to convince them that they’re going to have to fight if they want to
continue. We can only hope they pass the test.”

Ginny nodded. She wrapped her
fingers around his and tugged him up on the rock with her. They hiked the rest
of the trail in silence.

Alton spotted the portal first
and pressed his hand against the smooth rock. When it passed through, he
tightened his grip on Ginny and the two of them walked through the portal into
the vortex. Taron waited just inside.

“Taron.
It’s good to see you, my friend.”

Taron reached for Alton and
the two of them embraced. He nodded in greeting to Ginny, but his expression
was somber.

Too somber
for good news.
Alton sighed. “I guess there’s no need for me to ask if
you’ve been successful.”

Taron shook his head. “There’s
no arguing with fools, but even more discouraging is the news I’m hearing from
Roland and other members of the Guard.”

“They have their swords. What
does the council want to—
”

“The members of the Council of
Nine, led by your father, wanted to take the crystal swords away from Roland
and his men.”

Ginny’s eyes flashed. “They
can’t do that!”

Taron chuckled. “They figured
that one out very quickly, when the soldiers refused to give up their swords
and the entire guard backed the men. The people are standing behind the
soldiers, and the men of Lemuria are digging their own crystal swords out of
storage and carrying them proudly.”

Alton clapped Taron on the
back. “This is a good thing. Maybe the members of the council will get their
heads out of their butts and—”

Taron interrupted. “Don’t
count on it. Alton, there is more going on here than merely your father’s
stubbornness. Rumors are flying ever since the Crone made her appearance.
Rumors of the women warriors who fought during the
DemonWars,
and what happened to those women.”

Alton glanced at Ginny, and
then again at his friend. “What are you hearing?”

“That they were purged from Lemurian
society. Enslaved and sent to work below in the mines. Rumor has it their
daughters toil there still, guilty of nothing more than their birthright, as
the children of good and loyal warriors.”

It felt as if a shaft of ice
had replaced his spine. Alton couldn’t even look at Ginny when he asked the
question he knew must be burning in her mind as well. “Who was responsible for
that purge?
For such horrible treatment of brave citizens.”

Taron’s sigh and the shift of
his always steady gaze to a point beyond Alton’s shoulder was all the answer he
needed.
“My father?”

Taron nodded. “It appears so.”

Ginny interrupted. “Does the
Lemurian Guard know of these women warriors?”

“It seems they do, now.” Taron
shrugged. “Roland said he’s heard rumors for years, but had no way of following
up on anything without going through proper channels. His paperwork never went
anywhere. He finally made a search for himself, breaching the lower levels in
order to see where the prisoners were kept, how they fared.”

Alton folded his arms across
his chest, as much to still the sudden trembling in his limbs as to give
himself a moment to calm his racing heart. “And what did he find?”

“Women.
Young women working the mines as slaves.
Their
mothers, those brave women warriors, are all gone, but their daughters live
on.”

“Alton?” Ginny’s fingers
tightened around his forearm. “We have to do something. We can’t leave them
like that.”

He nodded, covering her
fingers with his. “The Lemurian Guard is sworn to protect the citizens of
Lemuria, and that includes the Council of Nine. The only way we can
successfully bring about change in a peaceful manner is with a coup at the
top.”

Taron coughed and cleared his
throat. “That’s not going to be easy with your father in command.”

Alton nodded. “I agree. Easy
or not, my father has to be stopped and a vote taken to choose a new
council—one that includes women.
Taron?
This fight I’m
in now consumes me. What does the council say about joining our war against
demonkind?”

Taron shook his head. “They
want no part of it. They’ve lifted the charges against you and Ginny, much to
your father’s dismay, but as far as helping with this fight? Their decision is
to bury their heads beneath their blankets and hope the demon threat goes
away.”

“That’s probably because all
their warriors are working as slaves.” Ginny glared at Alton. “You want
soldiers? I imagine the women you’re talking about are the ones you need, which
means you’re going to have to deal with your father first.” She folded her arms
across her chest. “I didn’t like him from the moment I saw him.”

Alton wrapped his arm around
Ginny’s waist and laughed. Taron looked at him as if he was absolutely nuts.
Maybe he was, but only a nut would consider organizing a rebellion of women
slaves on one world in order to fight demonkind on another.

And wasn’t that exactly what
he was planning? “Well, Taron if you have a plan, I need to hear it now. We
have
work
to do.” He glanced at Ginny and caught her
smiling, but she was still in his mind and knew exactly what he was thinking.
“That includes you, Ginny. Where do we start?”

She’d never been more proud of
anyone than she was of Alton at this moment. He didn’t hesitate, even when
faced with overthrowing his own father.
Even though none of
them had any idea where to begin.

Ginny reached over her
shoulder and withdrew DarkFire. Alton’s eyes lit up and he reached for
HellFire. They lay their crystal swords side by side on the rock outcropping.
“DarkFire, are you aware of the women who toil in Lemuria’s caverns, the
daughters of your fellow warriors?”

DarkFire
pulsed
a deep violet. “It is the shame of our people, that our women warriors were
treated as criminals. Their daughters are the innocent victims of one man’s
hubris.”

Ginny glanced at Taron first
and then Alton. There was no doubt what man DarkFire spoke of.

Alton didn’t flinch. He
touched HellFire’s blade. “What happened to the crystal swords the women once
carried? Do they still exist?”

HellFire glowed with a soft
blue light. “They were confiscated and destroyed by members of the Lemurian
Guard loyal to the new council. Their sentient spirits were cast out.”

Taron stared at HellFire’s
blade. “Do those spirits still exist? Could they inhabit other swords?”

HellFire pulsed blue.
DarkFire’s violet glow flickered and sparked, and it was DarkFire who answered
Taron’s question. “We believe they could. There are one hundred daughters
laboring in the caverns.
One hundred daughters of brave women
warriors.
The spirits who once inhabited the mother’s swords would
welcome the daughters.”

Alton sat back on the
outcropping beside the swords. He glanced from Taron to Ginny. “Where in nine
hells are we going to get a hundred crystal swords?”

HellFire shimmered blue.
“DarkFire and I are needed to battle demons on Earth. Taron, take your sword
into the deepest caverns, those forged of crystal far beneath the mines where
the women labor. Carry food and water for one week. Remain beside your weapon.
Be prepared to do as it asks.”

DarkFire glowed violet and her
voice sent shivers along Ginny’s spine. “Taron, your blade awaits you now. At
the end of one week, you will carry the newly replicated crystal swords to the
women. The blades will know their mates. When all are armed with crystal, your
course of action will be clear.”

Alton rested his hand on
Taron’s shoulder. “Can you do that? Spend a week in the crystal caverns by
yourself?”

Taron smiled at Alton. “I’ve
heard of them, but I’ve never been that deep before. If I can find them, I’ll
do whatever it takes. HellFire said to be prepared to do what my sword asks.
That means it’s going to speak to me.” He shook his head slowly, adding softly,
“Finally, after all these years.”

Ginny shook her head, but she
couldn’t quit grinning. “If we know we have an army of a hundred brave warriors
coming to join us, I imagine we can hang on for another week. Eddy and Dax will
be back in a day or two.”

She stood up and sheathed
DarkFire.

Alton slipped HellFire back
into the scabbard. Then he reached for Taron and the two men clasped hands.
“This wasn’t the meeting I expected. It was so much more. I’m not sure how I’m
going to get my father out of his council seat, but trust me when I say that
I’ll do everything I can.”

“What of the Lemurian Guard?”
Taron glanced from Alton to Ginny. “They’ve sworn a loyalty oath.”

“Exactly,” Ginny said.
“An oath to Lemuria.
I have no doubt they’ll realize, just
as Roland and his men did, that Lemuria and the council are two separate
things. I think the current council is headed for a change.”

Alton looked toward Taron.
“We’ve learned that when Lemuria was relocated to Sedona during the last
explosion of Mount Shasta, it was a totally unnecessary move. The members of
the council were continuing to travel by a secret portal back and forth between
Sedona and Lemuria. We have no idea why, but now that we know there were women
laboring below all that time, women who remained behind unharmed by the
eruption, it’s hard to trust any of our council members for anything.”

Taron shook his head in
disgust. “They have a lot to answer for. Why would your father turn against his
own people?”

“I have my suspicions,” Alton
said. “When I know more, I’ll share everything with you.”

A scrape of feet on rock had
everyone spinning toward the Lemurian portal. Roland of Kronus, the sergeant of
the Lemurian Guard, stepped into the cavern. He saluted Taron and bowed his
head to the others. “You must return now, before the watch changes. It’s easier
to move you through when I’m sure of the men under my command.”

“Thank you, Roland.”

“Thank you, Taron. And good
luck.” Ginny held Alton’s hand while the two Lemurians slipped through the
portal. Then she glanced at the tall Lemurian standing by her side. “Wow,” she
said. “Definitely not the meeting I expected.”

Alton slipped his arm around
her waist. “Ginny, I had no idea. None at all, but the story of the enslaved
women explains so much. Why we have no history of women warriors. Why there’s
no obvious reason for our women to be so terribly subjugated in what should be
a free society.” He bowed his head. “DarkFire blames it on one man’s hubris.
She had to have been speaking of my father.”

“Probably.”
She sighed. “I don’t know. We have as many questions as answers, at this
point.” Ginny tugged him toward the portal leading out of the vortex. “Like
what happened to your
grandfather,
and why your father
would want to be rid of the women who were such brave warriors. And why he
orchestrated the move to Sedona. That’s one I don’t get.”

“I know.” Alton paused at the
gateway and took a deep breath. Then he let it out and sighed. “Ginny, there’s
another question you asked me this morning, one that I wasn’t able to answer.”

Ginny glanced up at Alton,
expecting a smile.

He was frowning. “What’s that?”
she asked.

“Where
demons go during daylight.”
He shook his head. “I’m not certain, but I
think I have an idea.”

Ginny was frowning as well
when she followed him out of the vortex, into the Arizona night.

Alton used the light from
HellFire to guide them down the trail skirting the flank of Bell Rock. Within
fifteen minutes they’d made it back to the Yukon. Ginny held on to his hand the
entire way, but neither of them spoke during their brief hike.

Alton opened the passenger
door and Ginny climbed in without question. As he pulled out of the parking
lot, Alton glanced her way. She stared straight ahead, frowning. Softly he
asked her, “What are you thinking?”

She shook her head. “I don’t
know what to think. I’ve been so focused on the demon threat that it’s hard to
switch gears and realize we have an issue that’s almost as big and every bit as
important, waiting for us in Lemuria.”

He couldn’t help smiling.
“We?
It sounds as if you’re taking on the women’s fight as
your own.”

“Well, of course I am.” She
tilted her head and stared at him. Her eyes glinted in the darkness, reflecting
the lights from the Yukon’s dash. “I’m Lemurian, I carry crystal, and I’m a
woman. Why wouldn’t I feel it’s my fight?”

Her words, spoken with such
frank conviction, settled warmly against his heart. “Thank you, Ginny.” He
glanced at the dark road ahead,
then
looked her way
once more. “I mean that. Thank you very much.”

“I don’t get it.” She leaned
back against the seat with her arms folded across her chest. “Why are you
thanking me?
What for?”
She was still frowning and she
was absolutely beautiful.

Alton turned his attention to
the road when he spoke. “For embracing your Lemurian heritage, even though it
appears it’s not one you have any reason to be all that proud of. For seeing
the women warriors’ fight as your own.” He
glanced
her
way again.
“For being exactly who you are.
I love you.
Never more than at this very moment.”
He turned his
eyes back to the road. “I’m very proud of you. Proud to know you stand beside
me.”

“Always,
Alton.”
Her soft laughter sent shivers along his spine. “It may have
taken me awhile to figure it out, but there are no doubts in my mind. Not
anymore.”

Ginny unlocked the door to the
casita and walked in ahead of Alton. She went straight to the refrigerator and
grabbed two cold beers, popped the tops on both, and flopped down in a chair at
the kitchen table. Her mind wouldn’t stop spinning—where should they begin? How
in the hell were they going to get rid of the demon king and manage a coup in
Lemuria on their own?

Who in the hell was she trying
to fool? Ginny grabbed her cell phone and handed it and one of the beers to
Alton as he walked into the kitchen.
“Call Dax.
Tell
him what’s going on.”

Alton took the beer and the
phone. “Good idea.” He took a big swallow of beer, hit the speed dial for Dax,
turned on the speakerphone, and set the phone on the table between them.

Eddy answered. “What’s up?”

Alton sighed. “More than you
want to know.” Then he explained all that they’d learned from Taron.
“So…any suggestions?”

“Wow. That’s some story. And
you’re right. There could be a connection between what’s happened in Lemuria
and the demon threat on Earth. Dax actually has an interesting theory.”

Dax’s deep voice rumbled out
of the speaker. “Hello, Alton. Eddy and I have talked about your father, how he
came to power around the time the demon wars ended. Isn’t that when he took
over?”

“Yeah.
It was during that period when the wars were ending and we were evacuating to Mount
Shasta. Why?”

“Why did you have to leave
Lemuria?”

Alton flashed a quick “save me
now” glance at Ginny. She had a feeling he was tired of explaining his father
to everyone, especially himself.

“Your story,” she said,
shaking her head. “You tell it.”

He sighed and began, but she
realized how painful it must be for him. He was, after all, condemning his own
father with each retelling.

“There was a series of
devastating earthquakes,” he said. “Our scientists concluded the continent was
sinking into the sea. The war was just ending, our civilization was foundering
and everything was chaos. The move was made very quickly.”

“Could Abyss have been behind
the earthquakes? Was there any hint these were not natural phenomena?” Dax’s
question hung in the air between Ginny and Alton.

“Not that I know of,” Alton
said. “But I was just a kid. I wasn’t aware of a lot of what was going on.”

“Wait a minute.” Dax’s and
Eddy’s voices filtered through the phone, but they were obviously speaking to
each other. Ginny thought she heard Eddy’s father make a comment. Then Eddy
came on the line.

“Alton, this might sound way
out there, but what if Abyss was behind the destruction of Lemuria? What if
somehow the demons were able to infiltrate the council, maybe even affect your
father’s
decisions.
Dax says there are all kinds of
demons. If it’s a lesser demon, it might not exert full control, but it could
influence the way decisions are made. It sounds as if there were a lot of
drastic changes in Lemurian society, especially in respect to the treatment of
the women warriors and the status of women. They were all made relatively
quickly. This doesn’t sound like a natural progression.”

Alton took another swallow of
his beer. “My mother said my father changed very quickly, from someone
idealistic and loving to the man he is today.”

Ginny frowned, remembering
Gaia’s comments. “Actually, she said he lost his soul. I remember thinking that
was a strange way to describe her husband, but a wife would recognize a change
like that before anyone else. She wouldn’t have had a reason to associate it
with demon possession, but if that’s the case, how do we tell? Wouldn’t our
swords have sensed the presence of demonkind in Artigos?”

“Not necessarily.” Dax sounded
thoughtful, as if he pondered all the different aspects of demonkind. “Over
time, if a demon remains within a corporeal host, it melds almost entirely with
what is essentially its permanent avatar. The relationship becomes
symbiotic—one can no longer exist without the other.”

“Which means that if we try
and remove the demon, the host dies?” Alton’s question hung in the space
between Evergreen and Sedona.

There was a jumble of
conversation from the Evergreen group. Then Eddy answered.
“Possibly
true.
If your father has been possessed long enough, it might require
his death to destroy the demon.”

Dax interrupted. “But if you
kill a man to free the demon inside, you’ve just given the demon a powerful
life force to take with him when he possesses another. You could create an even
stronger and unknown enemy by destroying the one you know. I would encourage
attempting to remove it, or at the very least, imprisoning your father so he
can do no more harm.”

“I will not kill my father.”
Alton’s comment left no room for argument. “I’ll help remove him from his
position of authority, but I won’t kill him.”

“That’s good.” Dax left little
doubt either. “We’ll think of something, Alton. For now, concentrate on finding
the demon king. Eddy and I will be back tomorrow around noon.”

Tomorrow?
Ginny shot a quick look at Alton. “Dax,
are you sure you’ll be okay by then?”

Eddy answered for him. “He’ll
be fine. Dad’s been stuffing food down him since we got here and he’s beginning
to fidget. Plus, he can’t keep his hands off me. I think he’s healed. We’ll see
you around lunchtime.” She laughed.