Bab 101: Come at Last

DESI

Both dead and demon cowered as we passed, scrambling to get out of our way. But their fingers reached and grabbed, always wanting, conflicting with their need to hide.

Down and down, running along the curving paths on the outside of the palace, down where I had never gone before.

We passed the lowest tier of Hell, that place reserved for the truly depraved. The ones who murdered their mothers. The ones who raped and killed their daughters. The ones who relished evil, who sought it, lived it, died for it.

These did not reach for me - these were perhaps the only ones in all of Hell who enjoyed their eternal damnation.

We descended beneath them all.

I felt my father watching, felt his eye upon us. Felt his growing anger, masked by a thin layer of amusement.

He allowed me to continue, though I suspected he knew what I was after more than I.

The oppressive cold clung to my Shadow, coalesced before my eyes like shards of ice hanging in the air. And still the Hounds ran on.