“. . . saeculi aeternitatis. ” Ginny had kept going till she could pause without danger to the spell. She was that kind of girl. But now she came to kneel by me. “Oh, darling,” she wept, “we almost won through!”
I fumbled at my flash. The giant wove his head from side to side as if he still had vision. The faceless visage came to a stop, pointed our way. I shoved the switch and underwent the Skin-turning back to human. The giant raised a foot. He who operated him was trying to minimize damage to the castle. Slowly, carefully, he set it down inside the fortifications.
I held my girl to me. My other girl laughed and romped with the cat. Why trouble them? “We’ve no chance?”
“I . . . no time . . . first-stage field ready, b-b—but flesh can’t cross before I . . . complete—I love you, I love you.”
I reached for Decatur’s sword where it gleamed in the Handlight. We’ve come to the end of creation, I thought, and we’ll die here. Let’s go out fighting. Maybe our souls can escape.
Souls!
I grabbed Ginny by the shoulder and thrust her back to look at. “We can send for help,” burst from me. “Not mortals, and angels’re forbidden, but, but you do have contact established and . . . the energy state of this universe—it doesn’t take a lot to—There’s bound to be many c-creatures, not of Heaven but still no friends of hell—”
Her eyes kindled. She sprang erect, seized wand and sword, swung them aloft and shouted.
The giant stepped into our courtyard. The crippled devils gibbered their terror, those he did not crush underfoot. His fingers closed around the tower.
I couldn’t tell what language Ginny’s formula was in, but she ended her cry in English: “Ye who knew man and were enemies of Chaos, by the mana of the signs we bear I call on you and tell you that the way from earth stands open!”
The chapel rocked. Stones fell, inside and outside. The tower came off. It broke apart in the giant’s clutch, a torrent that buried the last of hell’s wounded. We looked into lightless constellations. The giant groped to scoop us out.
Our rescuers arrived.
I don’t know who or what they were. Perhaps their looks were illusion. I’ll admit that the quarters of the compass were from which they came, because these are nonsense in hell. Perhaps what answered Ginny’s call was simply a group of beings, from our universe or yet another, who were glad of a chance to raid the realm of the Adversary that is theirs too. She had built a bridge that was, as yet, too frail to bear mortal bodies. However, as I’d guessed, the entropy of the Low Continuum made paranatural forces able to accomplish what was impossible elsewhere.
Explain it as you like. This is what I saw—
From the west, the figure of a woman, queenly in blue-bordered white robe. Her eyes were gray, her features of icicle beauty. The dark tresses bore a crested helmet. Her right hand carried a spear whose head shimmered midnight azure with glitters as of earthly stars; and upon that shoulder sat an owl. On her left arm was a long shield, which for boss had the agonized face of another woman whose locks were serpents.
From the south, the greatest serpent of them all. His orbs were like suns, his teeth like white knives. Plumes of rainbow color grew on his head, nodding in the wind he brought with him, shining with droplets of the rain that walked beneath. More feathers made a glory down his back. His scales were coral, the scutes upon his belly shone golden. The coils of him lashed about as does the lightning.
From the north, a man in a chariot drawn by two goats. He stood burly, red-bearded, clad in helmet and ringmail, iron gloves and an iron belt. Driving with his left hand, he gripped a short-handled hammer in his right. The cloak blew behind him on mighty gales. The rumble of his car wheels went down and down the sky. He laughed, swung the hammer and threw it. Where it struck, fire blasted and the air roared; it returned to him.
Each of these loomed so tall that the firmament would hardly contain them. Hell trembled at their passage. The devils fled in a cloud. When his master left, the giant’s animation ceased. He fell with an impact that knocked me off my feet. It demolished a large part of the castle. The newcomers didn’t stop to level the rest right away, but took off after the fiends. I don’t imagine that many escaped.
We didn’t watch. Ginny completed the transfer spell and seized Valeria in both her arms. I tucked Decatur’s sword under one of mine—damn if it’d be left here!—and offered Svartalf the crook of that elbow. From the floor I plucked up the kidnaper demon. It had a broken leg. “Boss, don’t hurt me, I’ll be good, I’ll talk, I’ll tell ya ever’t’ing ya want,” it kept whining. Evil has no honor.
Ginny spoke the final word, made the final pass. We crossed.
XXXIV
That was nothing like the outbound trip. We were headed back where we belonged. The cosmic forces didn’t buck us, they worked for us. We knew a moment of whirling, and were there.
Barney’s gang waited in the lab. They sprang back with a cry, a sob, a prayer of thanks as we whoofed into sight under the bell jar. It turned out that we’d only been absent a couple of hours from this continuum. And maybe no more in hell? We couldn’t be sure, our watches having stopped during the first transition. It felt like centuries. I looked upon Valeria and Ginny, and it felt like no time.
The child was blinking those big heaven-colored eyes around in astonishment. It struck me that the terrible things she’d witnessed might have scarred her for life. Shakily, I bent over her. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
“Ooh, Daddy,” she beamed. “ ‘At was fun. Do it again?”
Ginny set her down. I bent and swept the little one to me. She was restless. “I’m hungry,” she complained.
I’d let the prisoner go. After the bell jar was raised, it tried to creep off. But it couldn’t leave the pentacle, and Barney had laid the spell I asked for that prevented it from returning to the Low Continuum without our leave. Shining Knife had gotten his warrant. He waited too, with a number of his men. He strode in among us and lifted the demon by its sound leg. The grotesque figure sprattled in his grasp. “Boss, gimme a break, boss,” it begged. “I’ll squeal.”
We found out later that the diabolic mass exchanged for us was a heap of rocks, dirt, and similar material. It happened to include a considerable amount of elemental sulfur, pitch, and light hydrocarbons. Hardy and Griswold had passed some time rearranging this into an explosive-incendiary configuration. Following my request, they mixed in some earthly stuff as well. It had to be safe for us, in case little or none of it got swapped (and in fact, as you see, only a few pounds did). The team scurried around collecting bottles of strong acid, shotgun shells, razor blades, and whatnot. Barney then rigged a photocell-controlled gizmo that would ignite the whole mess the exact instant that it left our universe. I don’t suppose that whatever part of hell it materialized in was done any good.
The changeling, of course, vanished from the juvenile home when Valeria was restored. Poor flesh, I hope it was allowed to die.
I didn’t think of these matters immediately. Being sure our daughter was well, Ginny and I sought each other. What broke our kiss was a Joy greater yet, a happiness whose echo will never stop chiming in us: “Free! O Father!” And when we could look at this world again, Svartalf was only Svartalf.
The gracious presence within me said: Yes, for this deed Janos Bolyai is made a saint and admitted to the nearness of God. How glad I am. And how glad you won your cause, dear friends, and Valeria Stevenovna is safe and the enemies of the Highest confounded!