“What the fuck we waitin’ for?” he said, “What’s a matter, lady? Don’t got the key? You get a conscious all of a sudden? Decide breaking and entering is bad?”
The Sapphire Witch raised a finger to her lips. “Listen,” she said, “Let it come to you. Don’t seek.”
Hilario knew instantly what she meant. He shot a look at Rachel. Did she?
Rachel stood still as cold stone. Her head bowed. Her hands held down at her sides. Palms out. Fingers slightly curled.
Apparently she did. If she was unknown, how was she aware of the techniques?
“Listen…” the Sapphire Witch said.
She was talking to him. A jolt went through him. He straightened up. Pulled his white gloves off and stuffed them under his arm. Put his hands at his sides as Rachel did. He didn’t close his eyes, though.
But he listened. Opened his senses. Senses of the unseen world. Senses that could feel the currents of power and magic the coursed through such places.
And he heard.
It was faint, at first. Just a murmur at the edges of his senses. But as he stilled, the clearer it became.
A moan of loss.
Of sorrow.
And despair.
As it sunk into him, as it saturated his inner senses, he closed his eyes. Tried to shield his core self from the keening.
“No, clown,” the Sapphire Witch said, “Let it in. It will not hurt you.”
To which he would have replied with something concerning the product of a steer’s behind. But he couldn’t manage the words. The keening soaked through his layers of defenses. A whimper escaped his lips. Or was it from Rachel?
He couldn’t spare the attention for her. He should check to make sure she wasn’t in trouble. But the keening locked him in place.
“Don’t fight it,” the Sapphire Witch said, “Let it take you through.”
Through.
The Eye of Malachi Point?
And that’s when it appeared.
Not in front of him. Not anywhere outside of him.
Inside his mind’s eye.
A tower, as tall as eternity. A massive spiraling edifice of pearly stone. It luminesced from within. A soft white glow against a velvet black backdrop. And on that velvety black, stars. So many stars it almost hurt to look at them.
He mind would not comprehend that he was actually seeing this place. He should not have been allowed to be here.
He was unworthy.
All are unworthy, clown, the Sapphire Witch said. Her words were in his mind again, And all can be worthy. If they choose.
Why are we here, dear lady? he projected to her.
We are not, she said.
And suddenly cold, salty air bit against his cupped hands. The keening was gone. Leaving a hollowness in his chest. He blinked back the tears that tried to leak from his eyes.
Had he really seen it?
Rachel spoke, her voice a horse, whisper, “What was that?”
Tears streamed down her cheeks. Her entire body trembled.
He wished he could have comforted her. Told her things would be okay.
But he was trying not to tell fibs any more.
“What you felt was the Spiral of Yev,” the Sapphire Witch said, “It is the axis upon which our universe turns. It connects all worlds.”
It did more than that, if the legends were true.
It was the source of all life and energy.
It was the destroyer. It consumed as it created.
And when time came to an end, as all things did, it would collect the universe unto itself. After that, well…the legend disagreed. Some said there would only be darkness. Other said the universe would be born anew, rising phoenix like from its own ashes.
“It was so beautiful,” Rachel said.
Beautiful and terrible.
“My lady, why did you show this to us?” Hilario said.
The Sapphire Witch raised an eyebrow. “I did not show it to you, clown,” she said.
“But…”
“We were allowed to turn,” she said, “It was the only way to get here without using the Eye of Malachi.”
“But…I thought that was the Eye of Malachi,” he said.
“There are paths known only to a few,” the Sapphire Witch said.
“What the fuck are you idiots talking about?” Detective Marco said.
Hilario started. He had completely forgotten about the Detective and his shoulder load of Rodney-the-traitor.
Marco pointed.
“That fucking this is still locked tighter than my aunt Cecilia’s knees,” he said.
He was right. They still stood in front of the gate. Which was chained and padlocked.
He looked to the Sapphire Witch. Who gave him a thin smile.
“Look to the south, clown,” she said.
Ice went through him. He knew what he would see when he turned. And he didn’t want to see it.
There was another scent on the wind now. An undertone to the briny taste of ocean air.
Sulfur.
And decay.
“Look. All of you,” the Sapphire Witch said.
His heart slammed against his fat-cushioned ribs. He turned.
Far to the south, where the lights of the city should have been were tiny orange lights. Flickering fires. And out at sea, well beyond the city, an angry red glow.
The distinctive shape of Urdu Mountain. The volcano prison of the warlock, Barr.
They were in the unseen world.
20
Hilario’s knees trembled. Threatened to quit and find employment elsewhere. He firmly told them that no one else would hire them in the shape they were in. So suck it up and be quiet.
A gust of icy wind whipped sulfur tinged air across his face. Sulfur and dead, decaying things.
Here, in this bleak layer of the unseen world, the ocean was rotten. Filled with the corpses of every manner of beast. Horrific creatures plied those fetid waters. Things with too many eyes. And too many slimy, grasping limbs.
In yet another one of his endless jobs in the unseen world, he had
