The Book of Doom - By Barry Hutchison Page 0,48
course I do! I wasn’t created yesterday. Has he calmed down yet?”
“Mercifully, yes.”
“Well, that’s something, although I don’t see why you had to send the boy in the first place.”
“He volunteered, sir.”
“Yes. So I’m led to believe. Where are they now?”
“Hades, sir.”
“Hades?”
“Yes, sir. Hades.”
“Why are they in blasted Hades? What’s in Hades?”
“Argus, sir. We believe they’ve asked for his assistance.”
“Hrmph.”
“We thought that was rather resourceful, sir.”
“Hrmph.”
“Rest assured, everything is continuing as planned, despite their unorthodox strategy.”
“Really? You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?”
“Oh, no, sir. Everything is unfolding as we anticipated. They’ll be inside Hell within the hour. Whether they’ll make it back out, of course... Well, that remains to be seen.”
AC AND ARGUS stood by a wide window, looking down through gaps in the cloud. The ground was a dizzyingly long way away, and it was impossible to make out many details. Even the River Styx was little more than a squiggly black pencil line on a vast black page.
“And that’s it?” said Zac, when Argus had finished telling him how to get to Hell. “That’s all there is to it?”
“This is all there is,” Argus said. “This is all you need to do. It is only a few miles downriver.”
“It seems too easy.”
The hollows of Argus’s eye sockets widened in surprise. “You would prefer difficult?”
Zac scratched his chin. “No, of course not.” He shook his head. “It’s just... nothing’s ever that easy.”
Argus clapped Zac on the back. “You worry too much, Zac Corgan,” he laughed. “What you must remember is that no one has tried breaking into Hell before. No one has ever been so – what is the word?”
“Insane?” suggested Herya, who was standing by the child-skin statue, looking up at it.
“Foolish,” said Argus. “Only a fool would try to break into Hell, so they do not worry too much about building defences, I think.”
“Oh, well, thanks for that,” Zac said. He had to admit, though, it did make sense. Only a fool would try to break into Hell.
“Steropes will take you to the Styx. I have a boat there you can borrow. Borrow, yes? I would like it back. It is not too big, but it can float very good. All you must do is follow the Styx and soon you will find the Hell you are looking for.”
“That’s all, eh?” Zac mumbled. He turned from the window to look for Angelo and found the boy standing right behind him. Angelo smiled eagerly. “You sure you still want to come?” Zac asked.
“I Scooby-dooby-do!” Angelo yelled. He caught Zac’s expression. “That was a yes, by the way.”
Zac nodded. “Fine.” He looked over to Herya. “You ready?” he called to her. “We’re leaving.”
“You’re leaving,” said the Valkyrie.
“What?”
“I never said I was coming with you. I said I’d take you to Argus.” She pointed to the bare-chested demon. “There’s Argus. Job done. You’re on your own from here on in.”
“But I thought—”
“Well, you thought wrong.”
Zac glanced at the others, then back to Herya. He strode over to her. “Can I talk to you in private for a minute?” he asked, ushering her towards the far corner of the room.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” she said. “I’m not coming. I never said I was.”
“Maybe not,” Zac admitted, “but you never said you weren’t, either. I thought you were into this stuff – adventure and excitement and all that.”
Herya folded her arms. “Yeah, well I thought you didn’t want me coming along. You work better alone, you said.”
“I did. I do,” said Zac. “But, well, you’ve got experience of these places. You’re our expert. You know your way around. You said so yourself.”
“Ooh, liar, liar pants on fire!” called Argus from across the room. He slapped himself on the hand. “Sorry. I lip-read. It is a terrible habit.”
“She wasn’t lying. She does know her way around. She led us here.”
“Oh, really?” said Argus. “You ask her yourself.”
Zac turned back to the Valkyrie. “You do. Don’t you?”
Herya sighed softly. She shook her head. “He’s right. I don’t know anything.”
“What? Yes, you do. You knew about the Nether Lands, about Hades and Eyedol. You’d been to them all before, you—”
“I haven’t been anywhere.”
Zac blinked. “What? But...”
“I haven’t been anywhere, OK?” The Valkyrie looked down at the floor. “I’ve never even left Asgard before today. I’ve barely set foot outside Valhalla.”
“But... all those things you knew.”
“People talk,” she said. She shrugged, sending a stab of pain through her injured wing. “Especially when they’re drunk. They talk. I listen. I hear them