“We can’t,” Adron said. “The Trench is how we navigate the Black Valley. The biggest part is mostly in the center, with four branches that run to each edge, with connecting veins like the one we’re following. Romakus will keep the trench in view and follow it as best he can.”
“Where’s the spire?”
“Closer to the inner edge. We should be able to avoid it, as long as we, you know, don’t get caught crossing the Trench.”
She frowned. “Let me guess. There are other trenches, ones we could follow that lead nowhere and could get us all turned around.”
“Yeap.”
“So… if we lose sight of the trench… Trench’s trench… we can get lost? We can’t see anything out here! Can the tregeera even smell anything?”
“Doubtful,” Kas said. “Too wet. So, let’s not get lost.”
“Don’t get lost… Right, okay. Sure. We can do that, right? How’d you get through this place when you came through, Vin?”
“I followed the trench.” And from the calm, deep way he said it, the ‘and killed everyone in my way’ was implied.
Groaning, Mia rested her forehead against Vin’s shoulder, squeezed one of his back spikes, and stroked her egg with her other hand. It shifted gently in her grip, and she smiled down at it in the gentle flashes of blue firelight. It was still alive and well, and she stroked it like she would a dog’s back. Maybe if she treated the egg nicely, the cannam it’d hatch would be a nice puppers? Probably not, but still, she wasn’t going to abandon the egg just because all other cannam were mean. Hell had birthed it specifically for her, or it’d seemed like it, and that was reason enough to keep it.
Hell. Was it Hell that’d listened to her, danced for her, mirrored her song, and played it a thousand times louder than she could have? Was it Hell who still played the song Mia had started, and maintained that firestorm she’d left behind? Was it Hell who… who made Mia feel like she’d come home when she reached out to it?
Mia looked down at the black gore underneath Vin’s feet, and reached out with her mind. What the fuck ‘reaching out with her mind’ even meant, she didn’t know, but she could, like someone had given her a new sense she just spontaneously knew how to use. She had special hidden fingers inside her that could play invisible strings, so a new sixth sense seemed pretty reasonable.
She could feel the Black Valley, feel its churning bones and millions of remnants, feel its… its… something. Death’s Grip had felt barren and dead by comparison. Or maybe she was just getting better at using her special abilities, whatever the fuck they were. Whatever the reason, the Black Valley felt more alive, and not in a good way. The deeper they moved into it, the more the creepy image of maggots festering in a wound filled her mind, as if that was what the Black Valley actually was. A maggot-infested wound, filled with rotting flesh and pus.
“Any other places I should know about?” she asked.
Vin said nothing. Asshole. At least Adron was willing to talk.
“There’s also the Mound and the Maze,” Adron said. “The Mound is… like this.” He gestured to one of the thirty-foot mounds sticking out of the swamp, yet another mass covered in remnants, with white spiky bones sticking out of twisting, rotating layers underneath that churned through the damned like making hamburger. She would have puked for the mental image, if she could. “Except much bigger, and demons frequent it constantly since the portal drops souls off their all the time.”
“And the Maze?”
“A maze,” Kas said.
Mia almost laughed. Was that a joke? She scanned Kas’s face, but found no smile.
“Think hedge maze,” Adron said, “except the walls are made of more of this.” He again gestured to the mound as they walked past.
“This place sucks.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The demons took off and disappeared into the black fog, leaving Mia behind with Vin, Kas, Adron, and Julisa; she’d insisted, taking Livian’s place. Some blue fire had shown movement in the distance, probably humans, and the demons were hungry. Time to hunt, but they didn’t trust Mia’s group yet. Getting people to trust strangers was hard enough, but demons? There was a reason you didn’t throw house cats together quickly. It’d be awhile before the Damall gave Mia, Vin, Kas, or Adron any trust.
“Where are we gonna sleep?” Mia asked.
“Trench,” Vinicius said.
“But the trench is full of… guts.”
“We’ll find a hole,” Adron said. “There are gaps in the mess. You just have to know where to look.”
“And… you know?”
“Nope. I’ve only been through the Black Valley once, and every night was a giant pain. I spent a lot of nights with no sleep, or sleeping in the swamp. I only found a sleeping hole once.”
“There are holes in the trench,” Vin said. “We’ll find one.”
Julisa chuckled as she came up to Vin, and gently poked his side with her tail.
“Of course the child of Belial knows every province well.”
“I don’t.”
“Oh don’t be so humble, ragarin. You’ve been around all of Hell several times in your long life, haven’t you?”
Vin snorted, but didn’t push Julisa away. With a slow rumble, he took some steps toward one of the mounds, folded his four arms across his chest, and just… watched the turning blades rip apart remnants. His way of passing the time.
Mia took a single peek, and that was more than she should have. From this close, she got to see how the remnants were half torn apart, half cut apart, and their guts literally fell from their soft bodies. More than a few remnants didn’t die instantly.
“Vin,” Mia said, “can you not–”
Her big, bad, dumb bodyguard snorted, and did not move. Something had officially crawled up his ass and died.
Gagging, Mia hopped off Vin’s back and moved over to Kas.
“For the love of god, let me up let me up let me up!”
Kas snorted at her, the same sort of big, demony noise Vin made, but he lowered his head enough she climbed up onto his back. Kas may not have been a twelve-foot child of the Old Ones, but he was still a giant nine-foot demon, easily big enough to carry her. And even better, he liked walking on all fours, or super slouched forward when he went on two. Riding him was like riding a big horse or something, covered in big spikes.
She kicked out her feet, and outright squealed as a bit of something juicy got stuck between her toes. She kicked harder.
“You’ll get used to it,” Julisa said.
“You’ve been across the Black Valley, too?”
“Not across it, but in it. I’ve helped Alessio in the past, when we both wanted Zel dead.” Before Mia could ask, she shrugged and gestured back the way they came. “I fought Vin in the Grave Valley, where I’m from.” And again, before Mia could ask, Julisa grinned down at Kas and Adron. “It was centuries ago, little soul. I do not remember the details, just the feel of your bodyguard’s delicious hands wrapped around my throat.”
Adron raised a brow as he looked between the two huge demons. But with infinite wisdom, he didn’t ask.
“I don’t know you two,” Julisa said, upper arms still on her armored chest, two lower pointing out at Kas and Adron. “Explain yourselves to me.”
“Really?” Mia asked. “We’ve all sat down and introduced ourselves already.”