Submerged the labyrinth.., p.19
Submerged: The Labyrinth, Book 2, page 19
Tony wiped water from his eyes. “The fuck is happening?”
“If I didn’t know better,” Teddy replied, “I’d say they were—”
The worms exploded, showering them all in steaming gore.
Sputtering, Tony dropped his weapon and clawed at his face. “Oh shit! What the fuck? LeHorn, did you do this?”
Instead of answering, the magus closed his eyes and whispered again in that strange, inhuman language. The walls of the Labyrinth seemed to grow more solid as he did. A door appeared again beneath Behemoth’s corpse. Slowly, it swung open, and Behemoth, a ton of mud, and the exploded chunks of dozens of smaller worms all tumbled inside. As LeHorn breathed out slowly and opened his eyes again, the door slammed shut and the Labyrinth flickered from view once more.
“There,” he panted, shoulders slumping. “All done. And I managed to close his portal, as well.”
Tony frowned. “You mean we did it? We beat the fucker?”
LeHorn nodded, clearly too exhausted to speak.
“Are you sure?” Teddy asked. “I mean, I thought I’d beat him before, but obviously, it didn’t take. I reckon this seemed too easy.”
“I’m sure.” Smiling, LeHorn put a trembling hand on the old man’s shoulder. “We did it. I wasn’t able to close the portal to R’lyeh, but Behemoth and his ilk won’t bother anyone ever again. We won. Although I’d like to know who helped us there at the end.”
“That wasn’t you?” Tony asked. “Making all the worms explode like that?”
LeHorn shook his head. “No. It wasn’t me. To be honest, I’m not even sure what kind of magic that was.”
“It was a spell first developed by Tergax, priest of the Black Lodge in Philomontia. It was translated later, first in Cyriot.”
Tony, LeHorn, Frankie and Teddy stared at each other in surprise. The voice—which had come from beyond the edge of the pit—was one they recognized. It was strained, as if the speaker were suffering from a sore throat, but they knew it right away. They glanced up and gasped. Bloom and Sarah stood staring down at them, waving.
“Bloom,” Tony yelled. “Good to see you kid!”
“Sarah,” Teddy called. “You okay?”
She nodded, but when she tried to speak, her voice cracked.
LeHorn gestured at the slaughtered worms. “This was you?”
Bloom nodded. “It looked like you guys could use a hand.”
“Nice going kid,” Tony said.
“But how?” LeHorn asked.
“You forget,” Bloom explained. “I wasn’t just a soldier. I was a combat magician. I know this stuff, too. A few years back I came across some scrolls from Cyriot. This spell was one of them.”
“Well, good job,” Frankie said. “Now how about helping us out of this hole?”
“Hang on,” Bloom called. “I’ll see if I can find a rope or something.”
Sarah cleared her throat. “Teddy? Where’s Henry?”
Teddy stared up at her for a moment. Then he glanced at Tony and then back up to them again.
“Instead of finding a rope,” he said, “I reckon it might be better if you two better just slide on down here. We’re only halfway done.”
“What do you mean? Where’s Henry?”
Teddy sighed. “He and the Exit are in R’lyeh. The Great Deep. And that’s where we need to go next.”
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Tony quipped, “and a short time to get there. We’re eastbound. Just watch the Seven run.”
Teddy turned to him and arched an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t have taken you for a Jerry Reed fan.”
Tony grinned. “My old man wasn’t around a lot, but one thing I’ll give him credit for—he turned me on to the Smokey and the Bandit movies. That led me down the rabbit hole to the rest of his music. Amos Moses. The Bird. I love them all.”
Chuckling, Teddy clapped him on the back. “Well, if that don’t beat all.”
Tony’s grin grew broader. “I’m full of surprises.”
“Yeah.” Frankie nodded at Bloom as he clambered down the side of the pit. “You ain’t the only one.”
They stood facing one another in the aftermath.
Tony squinted up at the sky. “Fuck this weather.”
“We’ve only beaten one threat,” LeHorn said. “Behemoth and his worms were the source of all kinds of unpleasantness, including a nasty fungus from their home planet of Yuggoth, but they weren’t the source of the rain. For that, we still have to defeat Leviathan, and stop this level from being sucked into the Great Deep. Is everyone ready? If so, I’ll open a doorway.”
Tony shrugged. “Fuck it. I’m already wet. Let’s go.”
“Hold up, pretty boy,” Frankie said. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could use five minutes to catch my breath before we go traipsing off to R’lyeh.”
“I reckon I could, too,” Teddy agreed. “And Bloom, judging by the looks of you, I’d say you’ll need more than five minutes. Are you okay? You’re paler than a polar bear in a blizzard.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“No, you won’t.” Sarah turned to the others. “He’s been shot.”
“What?” Tony stepped over a worm carcass and rushed toward the younger man. “What the hell happened?”
“The tsunami swept us out to sea,” Sarah explained. “We were attacked by a group of men on a boat. One of them shot him.”
“Shit,” Tony muttered. “Okay, let’s see how bad it is.”
Bloom held up a hand, and backed away from him. “I’m telling you, I’m fine.”
“I’ve been shot before,” Tony said, “so I’m pretty goddamned sure you’re not fine. Let me fucking see it.”
With an exasperated sigh, Bloom slowly pulled his shirt up. “There. See? The bullet didn’t hit any organs. And the bleeding has stopped.”
Tony frowned. “Big caliber round, judging by the size of that hole. How the fuck are you still conscious?”
“Because we’ve got a job to do,” Bloom said. “Be glad that I am conscious, since it was me who saved your ass from becoming worm food.”
“That was impressive,” LeHorn said. “Scrolls from Cyriot, you said?”
Bloom nodded.
“How in the world did you learn to read that language? It hasn’t been spoken on Earth in millennia.”
“Never mind that,” Tony snapped. “We’ve got to get the kid some help. LeHorn, you got any healing spells in your bag of tricks?”
“I do, but I don’t have any of the ingredients I’d need.”
Tony frowned. “Okay, then we’ve got to get him to a hospital.”
“Tony’s right,” Teddy agreed. “But not on this world. Hospitals here will be overrun. Nelson, can you open a door to another Earth? One that isn’t under attack by one of the Thirteen?”
LeHorn nodded. “Of course.”
“Good.” Teddy turned to Bloom. “We’re getting you some help. I don’t want any arguments. There’s no time for that nonsense. Understood?”
“You guys are going to need my help. Storming R’lyeh and taking on Leviathan isn’t going to be as easy as fighting Kandara and Behemoth were.”
“We’ll manage.”
“Teddy—”
“Enough!” The old man raised his voice. “Right now the last living person from my hometown—one of the last living people from me and Sarah’s world—is in R’lyeh with a serial killer as a tour guide. Look up. See the rain? Feel it? That’s this world, merging with the Great Deep. One dimension swallowing another. We don’t have time for arguments. You’re going to the hospital, or so help me God, I’ll knock you unconscious right here in the mud, and that gunshot wound will be the least of your problems. Do I make myself clear?”
Bloom hesitated, eyeing the old man. An expression passed over his face, and for a moment, Tony thought for sure the younger man was going to attack Teddy. Then it passed. Bloom sighed again and held up his hands in surrender.
“Okay, Mr. Garnett. Whatever you say.”
Teddy turned to Sarah. “I want you to go with him.”
“The hell I will! Henry is my responsibility. If you guys are going after him, then so am I.”
“I’ll go with Bloom,” Frankie said, stepping forward. “If that’s okay? I mean, unless you think you’ll need me.”
“I don’t know.” Tony grinned. “You’re pretty good with that IV-stand.”
Frankie winked. “You better keep that in mind, Genova.”
“Yeah,” Teddy said, “I reckon that’s a good idea. You’re hurt, too, Frankie. Might be a good idea to get checked out. Make sure those doctors at the refugee camp didn’t miss anything.”
Tony noticed that Bloom was glaring at Frankie. As she stepped over a dead worm, he tugged the sleeve of her medical gown and pulled her close.
“You sure about this? Something don’t seem right here.”
She nodded, and then touched his arm. “And here I thought you were going to kiss me.”
“Want me to?”
“Save it for next time you see me.” Smiling, she gently pulled away, and turned back to the others. “So, what’s the plan, Teddy?”
“LeHorn will send the two of you to a safe level. Then he’ll close the door behind you, and we’ll go on to confront Leviathan, and find the Exit and Henry. When we’re finished, we’ll come find you. We can do that, right, Nelson?”
LeHorn nodded. “I can open the door in the same spot again. As long as Frankie and Bloom go to the nearest hospital from there, we should be able to find them easily enough. If not, we can still find them. It will just take some searching through the Labyrinth.”
“And if Leviathan defeats you?” Bloom asked. “What then?”
Teddy rubbed his chin. “Well, then I reckon the two of you are gonna have your hands full fighting the rest of the Thirteen yourselves.”
“Stand back,” LeHorn warned. He closed his eyes and concentrated. After a moment, a closed door appeared in the middle of the pit. “It should be okay, but open it and make sure.”
“Make sure of what?” Frankie asked.
“That it’s safe to go through. That the portal isn’t floating a mile above the surface, or the planet isn’t overrun by giant crab monsters.”
“Giant crab monsters are no joke,” Tony muttered.
Nodding, Frankie gripped the knob and turned. The door opened on a cityscape. Tony heard horns honking, and smelled exhaust fumes. Bass thudded from car stereos and cell phones trilled. He suddenly felt a deep pang of homesickness and thought of Vince.
“I’m telling you,” Bloom said, “this is a bad idea.”
“Go.” Teddy nodded at the door.
After another moment of hesitation, Bloom stepped through. Frankie turned back to all of them.
“Y’all be careful,” she said. “Even you, Genova.”
“I keep my promises,” he replied. “And I’m holding you to yours.”
“You be careful, too,” Teddy said.
Waving, Frankie followed Bloom into the other world. She shut the door behind her, and the sounds of the city ceased. All Tony heard now was rain, and the only thing he smelled was the stench wafting off the dead worms.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he said.
LeHorn shrugged. “I can’t argue with that.”
PART IV
THE BLACK ABYSS
21
I n the first few seconds, Sarah didn’t notice much difference in their surroundings. When they stepped through the Labyrinth and emerged in R’lyeh, it was still raining, and the roar of the ocean still filled her ears. It was noticeably darker here, however, and a quick glance around confirmed that they were no longer on Earth. The sky above them was unlike any she had ever seen, with purple, red, and black clouds crawling sluggishly across it like massive protoplasmic blobs. In the spaces between them, she glimpsed stars. They burned brighter and with much more clarity than any she had ever seen before, and their patterns were different. Rather than sinking in mud amidst a pile of dead worms, the surface beneath her feet was made out of what looked to be bronzed metal of some kind. A tower, she realized. LeHorn had brought them out atop a tall spire, so broad that they stood on its pinnacle without danger of falling. There was a door in the center of the platform, presumably leading down inside the structure.
“Don’t anybody move,” LeHorn cautioned. “Just stay where you are.”
She stared out over the sides and her head swooned. A massive city composed of similar towers, spires, and obelisks spread out in all directions, surrounded on all sides by a black, roiling sea.
“This is it?” Teddy raised his voice above the howling wind.
LeHorn nodded. “We need to go over a few things before we proceed any further. The physical properties of time and space work…”
“Nelson,” Teddy prodded. “You okay?”
“Yes. Sorry. I just…I still can’t get over how different my overall vocabulary is, since Amun merged us with our other selves. Sometimes it catches me off guard. Anyway, time and space work differently in this dimension, meaning that its geometry is unlike anything you’re used to. You can’t trust your eyes. What looks like a turn or a curve in a passageway might not be there. What looks like a straight angle isn’t. You might think you are stepping out onto a flat surface, like a floor or a platform, only to find that it is a pit. We will have to proceed very slowly and watch every step.”
Tony gestured at their feet. “We seem to be doing fine right now.”
“Yes,” LeHorn agreed, “but that’s why I told all of you to stay where you were. The top of this tower looks flat, but one or two steps in any direction, and that might change suddenly, even though our eyes don’t detect it.”
“Well that’s just fucking wonderful,” Tony said. “I should have gone with Bloom and Frankie.”
“So,” Sarah asked, “most of this dimension is water?”
“Correct,” LeHorn replied. “And it gets bigger all the time, growing with each reality that it absorbs. The city gets bigger, too.”
She frowned. “So, if it’s constantly growing, then how do we find Henry and your friend?”
“I wouldn’t call the Exit our friend,” Teddy said, “but I’m wondering the same thing. This place is huge. How in the world do we find them?”
“I brought us as close to the Exit’s current location as I could, so that should be some help. But if he’s on the move, that could change. And the physics of this place will only increase that difficulty. But there’s one thing we know.”
“What’s that?” Teddy asked.
“The Exit is here to destroy Leviathan. So, it stands to reason that if we find one, we’ll find the other.”
“And Henry?” Sarah asked.
“Hopefully.” LeHorn smiled at her, but his expression was unconvincing.
“So...” Tony pointed at the hatch door. “Most of these monsters live in the water. Is the city flooded down below?”
“I don’t know,” LeHorn said. “In everything I’ve read about this place, the information is mixed, and sometimes contradictory. My guess is that there are both submerged areas and dry areas.”
Tony knelt by the door. “Then I vote we get out of the fucking rain and find a dry spot. I’m sick of being wet.”
He looked up at Teddy. LeHorn turned to the old man as well. After a moment, Teddy nodded.
“Give it a try,” he said. “See if it’s locked. But be careful, Tony.”
“Hey, ain’t I always careful?”
“Nope,” Teddy replied. “I reckon not.”
As they watched, Tony got his fingers under a metal ring, and pulled. Nothing happened. He gripped the handle with both hands and yanked again, grunting. The tendons in his neck stood out with the effort. The door creaked and groaned and then rose, revealing a dark shaft. Rain fell into the opening. Tony raised it the rest of the way and let the door fall to the platform. It made a muffled booming sound.
“Careful,” Teddy cautioned. “We don’t need to let squid-head know that we’re here.”
“I’m sure he already knows,” LeHorn said. “Leviathan is the master of this place. I doubt there’s much that happens here without him noticing.”
“Well, that’s fucking comforting.” Tony leaned forward and peered down inside the hatch. “It’s dark, but I see a stairway.”
He slid his feet through the opening and started down the stairs.
“Tony,” LeHorn called, “wait!”
A second later, Tony’s head dropped from sight. His startled yelp echoed up out of the shaft. Sarah, Teddy and LeHorn rushed to the hatch and peered inside. Sarah saw a spiral staircase, carved of stone, leading down into the darkness. Tony lay sprawled about ten feet down, seemingly levitating. There was no visible surface beneath him to support his weight.
“Fuck,” he groaned, sitting up in mid-air. “That hurt.”
“Are you okay?” Teddy called.
“Yeah. I think so. Just got the wind knocked out of me.”
“I told you to be careful.”
“I was being fucking careful, Teddy. You guys watch yourselves on those steps. They disappear after the first one.”
“Tony,” Sarah said, “what are you sitting on?”
He glanced down and yelped again. When he looked back up at them, his eyes were wide with panic.
“The fuck is this shit? You levitating me, LeHorn?”
“No.”
“Then how the hell am I floating in the air?”
“I don’t think you are,” LeHorn said. “Feel around you.”
Frowning, Tony patted the empty air. Sarah noticed that his palms seemed to be meeting resistance.
“Huh.” Tony frowned. “That’s weird. It feels like I’m on the stairs. But that can’t be right, because the stairs are over there.”
“No,” LeHorn replied, “they’re not. Remember what I said about the geometry of this place? The stairs aren’t where you see them. They’re where you’re sitting.”
“Oh, fuck me,” Tony said. “I’m too sober for this shit.”
Sarah stepped to the edge of the opening and put her foot on the first visible stair. Then she reached for Teddy’s hand. While he supported her, she stretched her leg out, feeling for the second stair. She could see it, but when her toes touched it, they went right through. She pulled her shoe back, and then sat it down again in the seemingly empty space next to the stairs. Instead of slipping through the air, she felt the hard surface beneath her foot. Gasping, she yanked herself backward.
