Page 56 of The Malevolent Seven

‘That’s the problem with relying on Hazidan’s old tricks,’ I said, waiting for Alice to recover and push her nose back into place a second time. ‘I know them, too,demon.’

She took two steps back, getting out of range so she could draw the sword. I didn’t interfere this time. She gave a shake of the foot-long bone hilt and the silvery ribbon slid out once more, hissing in the air like a snake as it snapped back and forth between being flexible as rope and rigid as a steel blade. If you’ve ever tried fencing against a weapon that changes shape when it thrusts, you’ll understand why parrying it with a regular sword is almost impossible. Not that I had a regular sword to parry with.

‘Call me a demon again,human,’ she snarled, ‘diminish me with that word once more and see whatthatbuys you.’

Yeah, yeah: I spotted the hypocrisy, too. There’s a lot of it going around. What did surprise me, however, was the sincerity of her indignity.

‘Hazidan really did a number on you, didn’t she?’ I asked. ‘You think just because she dressed you up in a justiciar’s mantle and made you memorise a bunch of philosophical nonsense that you’re no longer an Infernal bound to the schemes of the Lords Devilish?’

‘What I am,fallen one, is what Ichooseto be. I am Alice, and you will address me so or face the consequences.’

Stupid name for a demon, by the way, but I didn’t say that out loud.

An unexpected sympathy came over me for the young demoniac. Hazidan has always had this talent for convincing people to see themselves as individuals, as unique, even when she was convincing them to join an army as militantly disciplined as the justiciars. That appeal to one’s sense of individuality was also how she’d convinced me to betray them.

‘Fair enough, Alice,’ I said, not bothering to extend my hand so as to avoid having it cut off by a hissing blade. ‘My name is Cade Ombra. Not “human”, not “fallen one”. Cade.’

You’d think what I’d just said would have been the end of it, but the demon girl just tilted her head and looked at me like I was an idiot. ‘But youhavefallen, Cade Ombra. My calling you otherwise won’t change that fact. And I do not use the term as an insult, for no man nor woman can rise again, lest first they—’

‘If you’re going to start spouting the old woman’s nonsense about redemption back at me, at least get the quote right. “The measure of a man is not how high he rises, but in how gracefully he falls.”’

Alice’s features scrunched up in confusion. ‘That is. . . not how she told it to me.’

‘Well, she’s old,’ I said, feeling a certain smug satisfaction as I set out on the nearly invisible path before the others got tired of waiting and left me here. ‘She’s probably senile.’

I heard the rush of air as Alice flew up ahead of me. ‘Or perhaps with age she has gained the enlightenment to see that the dignity of women is as worthy of discussion as that of men.’

I do so enjoy getting lessons on bigotry from entities whose inborn disposition is focused on the torture and destruction of all other beings. ‘And apparently she thinks a demon can shed their Infernal nature by pretending to be an Auroral justiciar!’ I shouted back.

She made a slight, almost insignificant turn in the air to the right; I followed, and there was Corrigan, barely ten feet ahead, with the others gathered around him. First thing Alice did when she landed– the veryfirstthing? She started sneering at Galass, Shame, Corrigan and Aradeus like they were all morally beneath her. I swear, she even shot the damn jackal a dirty look.

I took Corrigan aside, hoping to explain the odd choice of this last-minute addition to our crew, but he cut me off before I could try. ‘A flying demoniac with a whip-sword, dressed as a justiciar apprentice and looking down at the rest of us like we’re all pieces of shit staining her impeccable boot heels? What’s to explain, Cade? That is the mostyoufucking choice of recruit imaginable.’

Tenebris dug a nail into the vein at his wrist again, but this time he used the blood to trace a six-foot-wide circle in the air before us that shook and shuddered like the space around the portal was trying to collapse it. ‘Closing time, people,’ the diabolic said, ushering us all through. ‘You don’t have to go home, but you sure as shit can’t stay here.’

Aradeus stood to one side and graciously gestured for Galass, Corrigan and Shame to go ahead of him. Corrigan grunted something about Hell being overrated, but the angelic paused before she stepped through, turning to take one last look at the Infernal plane. I wondered if she was contemplating what would happen to her the next time she returned. Galass just held tightly to the whining Mister Bones, but as she stepped through the portal, the drops of blood forming the circle that held it open wavered, as if trying to stop being pulled towards her. I shoved Aradeus after her.

‘Get a move on, Cade,’ Tenebris warned. I was about to do so, but then the diabolic did something strange. He turned and hugged me. ‘Safe travels, buddy. I love you.’

I was so stunned that after he let go of me, I just stood there like a tree stump. Alice shoved past me, pausing with one foot already through the portal to give me a grin so smug you’d think she’d just been handed a map of the universe and found a picture of herself right at the centre. ‘You were right, fallen one. If Hazidan believes you and this deranged troop of broken souls you’ve assembled can unwind the corruption that infests the Lords Celestines, shemustbe senile.’

Chapter 28

A Deal’s a Deal

We stepped out of Hell and into midnight. Our travels through the Infernal demesne had accustomed our eyes to its glassy, almost shimmering darkness, so it took a moment to reacquaint ourselves to the sight of a full moon overhead and the chill of cold air on our skin rather than the bitterness of spiritual unease.

‘Where are we?’ Galass asked, shivering. The jackal leaped down from her arms, sniffed the dry reddish ground at our feet and growled.

When Corrigan bent down and pried out a chunk of the cracked crimson clay, the cloying stench slithering inside our nostrils set us all to coughing wetly. A pinkish fog rising up from the toxic soil permeated the air. When I gazed skywards, I would have sworn it rose all the way up where the stars fought a losing battle trying to peek through the haze.

‘Breach dross,’ Aradeus said, batting the red clay from Corrigan’s hand. ‘I’ve never seen so much of it before.’

Shocked, I turned to Tenebris. ‘You’ve brought us to the Blastlands?The deal was for safe passage through the Infernal plane to our own demesne, a few miles up the Jalbraith Canal—’

The diabolic was standing on the other side of his portal, which had settled down now that Galass was through and his blood wasn’t trying to follow her. ‘Yeah, that’s me: Mister Soft Heart. I just shaved nearly two hundred miles off your journey. Don’t all thank me at once.’

‘I don’t understand.’ Galass was still staring at the devastation all around us. ‘What is this substance? Why is there so much of it here?’

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