the size you would expect on container ships when dropping their anchor. Each chain was then connected to the drawbridge, and I knew that, had those praying hands been up towards the sky, then the drawbridge would have been up, denying us entrance.
As good luck would have it the drawbridge was down. It was also large enough for one of those dead giants to walk across and I had no doubt that from above, Dariush and I looked like ants as we walked down the centre.
We passed another statue, this time one that was kneeling in the river of Phlegethon that surrounded the castle like a flaming moat. Its demonic head hung down in what looked like eternal prayer, and out from its eyes two lava waterfalls flowed. A pair of endless streams of molten liquid glowing bright as it poured from its remains, feeding the river below. The heat was incredible and scorched our throats as we walked past.
As for the colossal crimson doors ahead, these, like the drawbridge, were already open, as if waiting for us.
“Looks like a welcome to me,” I commented, looking up at the living gargoyles that clung to the arched entrance and snarled down at us as we stepped over the threshold.
“Yes, it’s almost like the old man is expecting us,” my brother replied, as we granted each other a knowing look. One that was both cautious and telling the other to be at the ready. Because this was the case with the King of Hell, he liked to keep his favourite sons on their toes.
Speaking of which, the moment we entered the bailey, I rolled my eyes and groaned,
“Fucking great… just what I fucking need.”
“Well, it looks like we found Dad’s army,” Dariush said, pointing out the obvious as we had walked straight into an ambush. Which was why I looked down at my hand and summoned my sword before swinging it around and into position.
Then, I corrected my stance, getting ready for the first wave and motioning them forward, telling Dariush,
“Best not keep our bastard father, waiting then.”
9
Welcome Home
The inside of the bailey was as it always was, a Hellish reminder of who owned this castle and a clear warning to those who wanted to enter it and survive. Because the rules were simple, kneel and cower to the overlord of Hell.
Well, that was unless he was your father and demonic maker, as I would never bow down to that fucker again! No, not now I was his equal in power, and the bastard knew it! Hence why we faced what we did now and why he had been ready for us.
So, I glanced my knowing gaze around the space, one as big as a football field. It was sectioned off into some warped version of a courtly garden, with the entrance-way being lined either side with a ten-foot-high arched wall. This pale grey stone framed a wide walkway that was currently filled with our father’s men. Some of these arches were open and entwined with thick deadly vines of soul weed, and others were filled in and held a wall of spikes the length of my forearm. Spikes which currently held the broken remains of bodies, both human in nature and demon. Half rotted corpses held there like displayed insects, limp and unmoving. But then, just because something wasn’t moving, it didn’t necessarily make it dead… this was my father’s realm after all.
A glance at the opposite side and I could even see a pair of wings impaled there, which had obviously been torn off one our father’s unfortunate victims. Just beyond these ‘decorated’ arches, enormous, pale, dead trees could be seen, and their only purpose seemed to be that they offered a place to hang large cages from. Cages made of twisted, thorny iron which held tortured bodies within their grasp, some barely recognisable as being once a whole body.
“So, was this the welcome home you were expecting, brother?” Dariush asked with a smirk.
“Yes, although I thought there'd be more of them,” I replied with my own grin in sight of the guards all now stood in their square formation. Our father had lots of different regiments in his army, and each with its own purpose. For example, the one in front of us now told me only one thing, Lucifer was clearly getting more paranoid as the years went by. But, considering what I now knew about one of his recently discovered sons, then I couldn't say I was