Devil's Punch

when a yawning hole opened up in the earth. An enormous thing rose before me; it had a lizard’s body and a worm’s head, and no eyes, but instead, its mouth ran all the way across its face. It turned its blind head toward me and a white forked tongue licked out. I froze, staring at the creature I’d called.

“The Gorder awaits your orders,” Greydusk said softly.

In some ways, it reminded me of ancient renderings of Chinese dragons, only with a more reptilian body. I had no idea if I had any control over this beast. By reversing the charm, I’d called it, but my mother hadn’t written command spells. Therefore, I could only guess how to proceed. Magick had drawn it to me, and something was keeping it from attacking.

I summoned just enough power to lend my words weight, pushing it out as I spoke. “Lead us to safety.”

Its head tilted this way and that, and I feared it had decided to eat us, but then its gigantic body twisted in the tunnel, and it scrambled out of sight. Shocked out of my stillness, I charged after it. Greydusk followed me. Chance paused to grab his backpack and my Butch-filled purse; afterward, he slid down into the burrow. It looked like the Gorder had chewed its way to us, and if it lived on rock and dirt, maybe it didn’t crave flesh after all. That would be a nice surprise. I ran along the rocky channel; it was more than large enough for us to move upright, but the least movement caused dirt to crumble down, giving me some fear that we’d end up buried alive. But that might be better than waiting for whoever had trapped us. I felt sure they didn’t have friendly intentions.

Every now and then, the Gorder angled its neck to ensure that I was still with it. We ran I don’t know how long, until the space widened into what I’d call a lair. Interesting things lay scattered around the ground—shiny objects, old weapons, gemstones, gold, and sadly…bones. So it didn’t eat rocks. Bummer.

The Gorder trilled. Shit. Yeah. This qualified as one of those out of the frying pan moments. For the time being, the demons hunting us wouldn’t be able to find us and if they did, I suspected my new pet lizard-worm would eat them. But this wasn’t what I had in mind as a final destination.

“What now?” Chance asked.

God, I wished I knew.

While I watched in alarm, it curled into a ball on top of its treasure pile. This was how I imagined a dragon would behave, but this thing wasn’t exactly a dragon. They always wanted virgins in the stories, but the Gorder didn’t appear to hold my experience against me.

“There are other tunnels,” Greydusk said. “Perhaps one of them leads to the surface?”

“I’m willing to try, provided Scary doesn’t object to us leaving. Chance, can you find a way out?”

“Already on it.”

The air around him gained a subtle charge, as if each particle had a little lightning in it. It raised the hair on the nape of my neck, and the Gorder cocked its sightless head as if it sensed the change in the atmosphere. It trilled deep in its throat, followed by a growl. It showed teeth, aiming its head at Chance, and I motioned for him to stop.

“I guess it wants to keep us,” I said tiredly.

“When they arrive, your would-be captors will be able to follow the tunnels,” Greydusk said. “Therefore, time is of the essence.”

I frowned at him. “Yeah, but Dragonface doesn’t want us to go!”

“Talk about a rock and a hard place,” Chance muttered.

Since we were surrounded by tons of the stuff, I wondered if that was supposed to be funny. I moved closer to the Gorder. “Could you seal the tunnel behind us? Bad demons might come and try to steal your stuff.”

The monster perked up with a disapproving roar and I scrambled backward. “Hey, not me. I’m a good guy. See? This is me, not stealing your hoard. I won’t touch anything, I swear, but if you go block the tunnel, that should keep them away from your gold.”

The Gorder snuffled as if considering. Eventually, it slid off the pile and scrambled the way we’d come. It left long enough for Chance to locate the path, but before we could dash for the exit, the underground warren trembled. Impact was strong enough to throw me to the ground, and chunks of rock broke away from the ceiling, bombarding us. I dove clear, but a good-size stone clipped Greydusk on the shoulder.

As the dust settled, I crawled toward it. “How badly are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” the demon said, as if surprised that I’d even ask.

I offered a hand to pull Greydusk to its feet, and that was when the Gorder returned. It trumpeted a celebratory sound, obviously expecting praise for a job well done. So I said, “Great work. Now they can’t steal your treasure.”

It growled.

At that moment, Butch came out of his stupor at last. He popped his head out of the bag; I expected him to disappear again with a whimper, but instead, the crazy dog came out and took a couple of tiny steps toward the dragon-beast. Ordinarily, Butch would be barking, trying to assert his dominance when he had no hope in hell of doing so, but this time his stance was almost playful; he pranced one step closer, two steps back, while he held his tail high, wagging like mad.

“It’s going to eat you,” I whispered to the dog.

The Gorder reared, its blind face turning to follow Butch’s movements. Its tongue licked out to taste the air.

“That’s how they see,” Greydusk said quietly.

I watched, astonished, as Butch went all the way over to the Gorder’s tail and then hopped up. The little dog ran along the curve of the creature’s spine and found a place to snuggle in. The beast let out a trill. Though I didn’t speak dragon-thing, I suspected trills were good; growls were bad. The Gorder coiled its body, showing every sign of going to sleep, though it was kind of hard to tell without eyes.

“Huh,” Chance said. “It likes dogs.”

“Let’s see if it will let us leave,” I murmured.

If it was asleep, we could slip past and call Butch once we were safe. Making no sudden movements, I edged in the direction Chance had specified earlier, but as I drew closer to the hoard, the Gorder growled at me. I backed away. Unfortunately, there was no way to reach the tunnel without passing the treasure pile.

“Thoughts?” I said, retreating to a safe distance.

“It doesn’t mind our company,” Chance mused, “but it doesn’t trust us yet.”

“How do we gain its confidence?” I asked Greydusk.

The demon lifted a shoulder. “I’ve no idea. If you’d asked, I wouldn’t have imagined we could escape the magus trap.”

“But you’re our guide.”

“To the city. I can’t be expected to know the solution to every obstacle.”

“Fair enough. Then would you check how thoroughly it blocked the path?” I asked the demon.

“Certainly.”

The Gorder didn’t object when Greydusk left the lair, going back the way we’d come. So it definitely was a hoard issue. Somehow, we had to befriend it. While I thought about that, Chance sank down against the opposite rock wall.

At my inquiring look, he shrugged. “What? I’m tired.”

“Yeah, it’s been a hell of a day.”

When the demon came back, it reported, “The collapse closed the passage completely. It would take magickal intervention to clear it.”

“Is that a possibility?” I asked.

Greydusk nodded. “But not all demons would be able to cast such a spell.”

“Who could?”

“The Saremon.”

“Could they also create a magus trap?”

“Yes, but that spell can also be bound in a trigger object and released.”

“So any demon could have bought one.” I tapped my fingers on my knee, thoughtful.

“Basically,” Greydusk confirmed.

Chance sighed. “That doesn’t help us figure out who’s after us.”

“That’s not the immediate problem anyway. We have to get out of here.” I tried the approach again, but the