"And I lost everything. I should be in Hell, but instead I am here, between all the worlds that are."
Zhu Irzh remembered a crack, opening between the worlds, and a crimson eye, watching. Memory made him shiver and Zhu Irzh, a demon after all, did not like this added humiliation. He crouched beside the beast and said, "What is happening, to this world and Hell? Can you tell me? Why should you be in Hell? What is this risk that you took?"
The beast gave its long lipless smile.
"Someone is gambling for high stakes. As high as Heaven itself. I was told that my help would buy that prize for Hellkind, the greatest prize of all. So that all the worlds would become one world, beneath the thrall of Hell. I was told that my power would be limitless. Instead, they killed me once my role was over."
"Someone. Who?"
The beast said, "The goddess Senditreya. She who is the patron of dowsers. She has fallen, in Heaven. She is no longer one of the great ones. She wants her rightful place back again, even if it involves the betrayal of her world to Hell. And she has human help."
"Who?" the demon said again, pressing.
"Myself, when I lived. Jhai Tserai, who lives now, but for how much longer? Tserai lied to me. She told me I was at her own right hand, that I would rule Earth alongside the demon and herself. She told me that together we would open a gate between the worlds and so we did, but the price was my life and my soul. Now she and Senditreya plot while I walk the waste between life and death. This was not," the beast added pathetically, shaking its brindled coat, "what I had planned." It glanced uneasily over its shoulder, as if something might be listening. "You can save the city, if you choose, demon. You who have less allegiance to it than any human." It grinned, beginning to dissolve and coil into the air.
Zhu Irzh stepped hastily back and as he did so, he woke up. He was once more confined in the cell. His head beat like a giant, unnatural drum and his mouth tasted of ancient socks. He had been given answers, but were they even real, or simply the product of a monumental hangover? Well, Zhu Irzh thought grimly, there was only one way to find out.
The cell was dim and translucent, almost ghostly. He raised a hand, and summoned his strength in order to cast a spell. He was by no means sure that he would succeed, but he was damned if he was going to be confined here indefinitely. He'd had enough of being at the mercy of involuntary whims; it was time to take control. Taking a deep breath, he pressed the plexiglass wall and released the spell. The spells that had warded him gave way and then the wall itself shattered, soundless and slow. The demon stepped through. Time slowed in the spell's wake. There was a man at Zhu Irzh's shoulder, his mouth opening and closing in underwater languor, and as the black muzzle of the gun came up the demon swatted the man casually aside and strode through into the hallway. Voices whispered through the air. He could detect the familiar iron smell of blood, and it pulled him toward it, faster and faster until he was running down the corridor. Shadows streamed past him. Two carved double doors stood before him; he flicked them open and stepped through. Abruptly, the voices stopped.
As the demon stepped through the door, the guns came up to greet him. Time glided to its normal speed as the spell faded. Zhu Irzh did not raise his hands but stood watching the security detail as they looked nervously to their employer for guidance. Jhai Tserai was standing behind by a desk, mouth open. It was the first time, the demon thought, that he had seen her genuinely surprised. An interesting combination of expressions crossed her face: momentary fear, supplanted by confusion, and, unless he was greatly mistaken, a trace of guilt.
"How did you get out?" Jhai said.
Zhu Irzh shrugged. "I walked through the window."
"The—? Oh, the plexiglass. You're not supposed to be able to break that," she said. She bit her lip in consternation. She suddenly looked about ten years old. "We'll have to get that mended," she added.
"In time for the next incumbent?" the demon suggested blandly.
"I'm not going to waste a perfectly good