"But that's the rule. That's how it works in the pits."
"Cateran did not die in the pits." Skellum sounded hurt, almost offended. "Some say that Kuberr rewarded him, and he now sits by our god's side on a pile of gold and silver markers. Others say Kuberr rewarded Cateran with an entire world to infiltrate and colonize on behalf of the Cabal. And some among us dementists think he became too good, that he got so comfortable in his own dementia space that he simply forgot to come back."
"What do you think, Master?" Chainer took a deep breath. "I'm also ready, by the way."
"Excellent." Skellum's voice now came from the floor to Chainer's right, but he hadn't heard his mentor move. Chainer wondered if the old man had been spinning his hat as he spoke. It was possible that Skellum was speaking from inside Chainer's head again.
"I think," Skellum's voice said from directly in front of Chainer, "that Cabalists never get to lie around on big piles of money, even in paradise. And I think if you gave a dementist his own world, he would forget why you gave it to him and spend all of his time playing with it."
Chainer kept spinning the censer and scanning the smoke for Skellum. "And what if he's lost in the place that you go to find monsters?"
"That I don't know, Chainer. But together, maybe we can find out." Skellum's hand clamped over Chainer's eyes from behind and Chainer could feel whispered words hissing in his ear. "Let's go look."
Chainer heard a deafening boom, and he fell forward onto his knee. He struggled to keep the censer spinning and away from Skellum, but the old man seemed weightless as he kept his hand pressed tightly over Chainer's eyes. Angled as it was, the swinging censer should have been slamming into the stone floor by now, but it continued to spin freely.
"Keep your eyes closed. Stand up straight. Keep the censer spinning."
Chainer straightened his back and got the censer realigned. "I'm trying, damn it."
"Don't talk back. And keep your eyes shut." Skellum's hand came away from Chainer's face, and the young pupil did as he was told.
"What do you hear?" Skellum asked.
Chainer listened. "It sounds like we're outside or in a really big room. An empty one. Are we in the pits?"
"What do you smell?"
Chainer sniffed. "Dragon's Blood. And… dead trees? Mulch. Lamp oil. I don't know, a lot of things."
"What do you see? Keep your eyes closed."
"How can I-"
"Shut up, and tell me what you see. Now."
"We're on the salt flats," Chainer said instantly. "It's the dry season, so the ground is hard. There's been a fire recently, and all the vegetation is burned and black."
"What about the sky?"
"It's about to storm. It's midday, but there's no sun. The clouds are thick and heavy and dark. They want to rain. They're bursting with it, but they can't. All they can do is flash and rumble."
"Anyone here but us?"
Chainer focused all of his available senses on the space around him. "No one," he said.
"Keep the censer spinning. Open your eyes."
The sky was just as Chainer imagined it, but the landscape was all gray and jagged stone instead of black and ruined marsh. Skellum sat cross-legged on the ground to his left. His hat was in motion, but slowing. The spinning censer created a ten-foot ring of scented smoke with Chainer and Skellum safe in its center.
Outside the ring were a thousand slavering horrors. They crowded and jostled each other for the chance to peer directly into the protected circle. They produced an unholy chorus of snarls, growls, and shrieks as they jockeyed for position. Occasionally, one would lash out at its neighbor, and a vicious skirmish would break out, but there were too many of them to get a good melee going. Besides, they were far too busy drooling and leering at Chainer. They ignored Skellum.
"Welcome. These are my nightmares." Skellum said.
Chainer cleared his throat. An insectoid whose head was all compound eye and razor mandible was eyeing him hungrily.
"I've seen worse," he said.
"But not all at once," Skellum said. "And not all waiting here, just for you."
Chainer cleared his throat. "Okay. You've got me there." He spun the censer, and for the first time wondered how much longer he could keep it spinning.
"Master Skellum?"
"Yes, Chainer?"
"Forgive me, but… what in the Nine Hells is this place?"
Skellum smiled. "I just told you."
"But how did we get here?"
"I come here all the time."
"Okay. How did I get here?"
"I brought you. This is why I am Master Skellum. My path to this place is slow, but sure. I'm not very good in the pits without a partner, because I take too long to get going. But the creatures I produce are exceptionally stable and strong. And detailed, if I do say so myself. Look, there's my grendelkin." Skellum waved playfully at the elephantine beast prowling the perimeter of the censer's circle. "Also," his voice went serious, "I can take others with me when I come here."
"Other pupils."
"On occasion. And sometimes, people I just don't like."
Chainer was scanning the crush of monsters, picking out the ones he would most want beside him in the pits and least want to fight against.
"Will I be able to produce such creatures?"
Skellum laughed. "I expect so. But these are mine, created from my memories and my mind. Your dementia space is currently empty. Starting tomorrow, we begin to populate it."
"Now," Chainer said. "Take me there now."
Skellum scowled. "No. Tomorrow. It's dangerous enough in here, and I'm standing right next to you. If that chain stopped spinning, they'd attack us en masse without hesitation. I think I could make it out, but you'd be trapped here. Fighting forever in the darkest parts of my brain until I called you forth. And even then, you wouldn't be you. You'd be a shadow of the Chainer I knew and trained, real form without real substance. A puppet to my will."
"Then take me out of your space and into mine. If it's empty, it can't be-"
"Chainer," Skellum said sternly, "no. Trust your mentor, boy." He stood up, crouching to avoid the chain overhead, and moved behind his pupil. He covered the boy's eyes again.
"Close your eyes," he instructed, "and when I say so, start slowing the censer down and drawing it in. Ready?"
"Ready."
"Now."
The boom and the internal wrench were softer on Chainer this time. The horror's noises suddenly stopped, and Chainer felt the pressure around him change. He knew he was back in the pit facsimile inside Skellum's academy.
Skellum pulled his hand away. "Open your eyes and catch the censer." Chainer did, noting that the pewter cage was still cool to the touch, and that the smoke had tapered off to a few final wisps.
"Tomorrow," Skellum promised, and he threw his arm up and over Chainer's shoulder. Chainer took one step forward, and his legs buckled. He felt cold, dizzy, and on the verge of vomiting. He fell heavily against Skellum, who laughed as he propped his student up.
"It takes more out of you than you realize," Skellum said. "Especially at first." Skellum was physically stronger than he looked, Chainer thought, as his mentor half-dragged and half-carried him toward the door.
Before they reached it, someone knocked loudly and forcefully. "Master Skellum," a voice called. Skellum stood Chainer up and held him there with one hand while he opened the door with the other.
"Yes?"
One of the First's skull attendants was in the hallway, with the woman warrior who had admitted Chainer and Azza to the manor four months ago.