The thing was now close enough for Chainer to see its general shape. It was humanoid but much broader and taller. It had a long, triangular head with wide jaws. It opened its mouth and roared. It was an ugly, grating sound, but Chainer welcomed it. At least now he knew how far away the thing was.
"Master, we don't have much time. Ten or twenty seconds. I don't think I can fight this thing, and I don't know how to get back to the pits if I can't stop the censer. Help me."
Skellum rose smoothly to his feet. "I thought you'd never ask." At his full height, he was well below the arc of the chain, even with the hat. He glided up alongside Chainer and held his hand in front of his pupil's mouth, just below his eyes.
"When I say," Skellum kept his eyes on the approaching monster, "stop spinning."
Chainer didn't know if it was a trick of perspective or if the thing was picking up speed as it got closer, but it seemed to be coming at them much faster than before. It charged along the ground like an ape, bent forward on all fours. It was taller than Chainer, and it had a head like a snake. Its lower jaw was distended and open wide, exposing rows and rows of short, sharp teeth. It continued to roar as it charged. When it was ten yards away, Skellum said, "Stop spinning," and covered Chainer's eyes. Chainer brought the censer to rest in the sand. He heard the implosive sound of Skellum producing a monster and felt another shift in his gut that told him they were now somewhere else. The creature's roar had vanished.
"This is where you should have gone," Skellum said. "This is where you would have gone if you'd waited for me." He pulled his hand away, and Chainer blinked his eyes clear.
They were surrounded by mist. Chainer sniffed it to make sure it wasn't just more Dragon's Blood, but the mist was odorless and felt the same as air in his lungs. He breathed in deeply and looked around, struggling to see anything through the thick fog.
"Where you were just now," Skellum explained, "you just shouldn't have been able to get there without help. You're a gifted student, Chainer, but not that gifted."
"But I was there, Master. You saw it. And I had no help."
"Of course you did. Do you think it was a coincidence that you achieved this advanced state of dementia trance within a stone's throw of that artifact you found? The First said it was powerful. You had contact with it. Obviously you tapped into its power somehow, and that power catapulted you deeper into dementia space than you could have gone on your own."
Chainer paused. "That would make sense."
"And now, thanks to the First's meddling, the Mirari's power, and your willfulness, I have to do something I don't want to do." He looked meaningfully at Chainer, who waited for him to continue.
"Do I want you to do it?"
"Of course not," Skellum snapped. "It's unpleasant and painful, and you're going to think me heartless. But if I don't do it, you'll never make it back here."
"Never?" "Never."
Chainer hung the censer from a loop on his vest. "Then do it." Skellum smiled sadly at his pupil. "I already have." He whispered a few words and waved. A strong wind whipped up and carried most of the fog away with it. The bare landscape left behind was as dull and gray as an unpolished stone. In the distance several figures walked, their feet still partially obscured by wisps of fog.
Chainer watched them walk. He pointed. "Who are they?"
"They are the reason I didn't want you killing things before your training was complete. I have a confession to make, Chainer. The First only dressed you down for killing that Order war bird because I asked him to. I didn't want you to kill because every one and every thing you kill winds up here. This is the first level of dementia. The creatures here are the creatures you've seen, fought against, and bested. The memory of them remains here, in your mind. If you want to get deeper, if you want to go beyond your physical experiences, you must go through here."
Chainer brushed his dagger. "So I have to fight them." He recognized the crusat bird Callda flying over the other figures. Its silhouette was bent and ragged, and it didn't seem possible that it could fly. "In a manner of speaking. You have to control them. They are not as they actually were, they are as you remember them to be. If you recall them as stronger than they were when you defeated them, they will be. If you believe they are still hostile to you, they will be."
"Oh." Chainer's voice was tight.
"It gets worse. You skipped this level and went right to one of the deepest reaches of your own dementia space. And when we went back there, something was waiting for us. Something that you've never actually faced but only imagined. There's no way that should have been possible, but there it is. You'll have to control that thing, too, along with these others."
Chainer nodded. The distant figures were starting to notice him.
The Callda shade set up a hideous squawking, as if trying to rally the others to an attack.
"What happens if I can't?"
"Let's not worry about that. You have to prepare-"
"What happens, Skellum?"
Skellum looked miserable. "If they don't tear you to pieces, you'll be trapped here forever, and they'll never stop hunting you. These things-" He waved- "aren't real to anyone but you Chainer, and they're not real anywhere but here. If you want to bring things out of this world, you need to be its master. You need to be the gateway they pass through, as well as the gatekeeper who lets them in or keeps them out." He gave his hat a discreet spin.
"I am ready, Master."
"That," Skellum said, "is what we are here to prove or disprove." The wind kicked up again, bringing a stream of mist with it. The mist swirled around Skellum until it enveloped him from the ground to his chin. Before it covered him completely, an implosion sounded, and he sent a smoking comet shooting toward the milling creatures. Halfway between Chainer and the inhabitants of his mind, it crashed and exploded into the shape of the snake-thing that had been charging at them under the mustard sky. It roared, angrily pounded the ground, and then turned on Chainer.
Skellum's body was fading away. His voice was distant. "Good luck, Chainer. Kuberr does not offer protection, but he does offer rewards. You must now earn yours." He looked quickly around, then added, "I'll be watching." Then he was gone.
Chainer watched the approaching monsters. There were more of them than he first realized. He tried to remember how many people and beasts he had defeated in the pits, and how many of those he had claimed for the Cabal.
They were following the aggressive lead of the snake-thing. He knew exactly where that had come from. Snakes were a constant danger in the flats, and he'd had bad dreams about them when he was a small boy, before he met Minat.
Well, he thought, he had beaten them all at least once before. Skellum said it wasn't about beating them, though, it was about controlling them. Chainer didn't even know if they could be killed again. He wondered if they remembered how he defeated them the first time, and if he could rely on the same moves twice. In the last few moments he had, Chainer reviewed his assets. He had never been able to create fighting chains so easily and so quickly before, but he still doubted his ability to subdue the creatures one at a time or in small groups before the larger mass overwhelmed him. He wasn't even sure if his dagger or the sharpened weight would penetrate the snake- thing's hide. He would just have to find out the hard way.
The snake-thing tried to barrel straight into Chainer without slowing. Chainer sprang over it and stabbed with his dagger. He had been right, the beast's hide was too thick.
Callda the crusat bird came next. It was even uglier and more misshapen than Chainer remembered. He would have to ask Skellum about that when he got back-if he got back. Happily, Callda's skin was no tougher than it had been in the street outside Roup's, and Chainer punctured one of its wings with his chain and guided it to the ground like a failing kite.