wind was blowing harder, and Mihn had to force himself to continue in the face of what was turning into a full-on gale. Ehla’s light was fading too, and increasingly Mihn was traversing tunnels with only his ears to protect him and his hands to guide him. Then the red tint would return and the coils around his heart would relax again, but he was reminded that the witch’s magic was no guard against the daemons of Ghenna. If they detected his presence, he would be there for eternity - there would be no last judgment for him, no Mercies to absolve him of his sins, only the unending horrors of the torture pits.
He slipped around another corner - and this time he felt an immediate change as the immense presence of rock all around him unexpectedly opened out, altering even the small sounds his hands and feet made.
The going was harder now, as Mihn found himself almost slipping down the rockface. A dull ache permeated his body, and the thought of the return journey started to sap his will, until he found himself at an entrance conspicuously edged in Ehla’s dull red light, glowing like a fire’s embers. Mihn touched the rock gingerly, but it felt quite normal. He checked around carefully - this was not the time to be surprised - and went through . . .
His hand closed on instinct, as if reaching for the staff he’d left behind. The chamber itself was small, anonymous, lacking the immensity he expected of Aryn Bwr’s prison. it was no more than fifteen yards long and only a few arm-widths across, no fitting prison for a soul that called storms and left its mark on Gods and nations - even though most of the floor was open to dizzying emptiness.
Mihn peered down the length of the cave and felt his breath catch. At the far end a figure was hanging. He was chained to the wall, his broken, inward-bent toes barely brushing the floor. He was naked save for the tattered remains of a cape he’d favoured in life. Though he was slick with filth and gore, still Mihn could see the terrible network of scars that covered most of the skin, testament to the horrors that had been inflicted upon him, and open wounds, some with implements of torture still protruding from the gashes, that dripped black blood. Even the left arm was patterned with shadowy scars, all the more obvious for the unnatural pallor of the skin, which had been burned white by the storm in Narkang. Isak’s face was hidden by hair grown long and matted, as though he had been here years.
Mihn looked around. There were a few thin paths snaking across the room, but he realised the daemon possessing Isak’s soul had little need of them, for there it was, clinging to the roof near its prize. Each of the six limbs ended in a splayed foot. Most were hooked into crevices; one was raised, covering its eyes from Ehla’s light. It had a sinuous, scaled body, and a frill of spines protruded from its neck. Other than a mass of raised, pointed scales and a pair of very pointed lower canines, Mihn couldn’t make out much of the face.
‘Jailer,’ Mihn called softly.
The daemon whipped around with frightening speed, but Mihn had not moved and it couldn’t get a fix on him.
‘I smell a soul,’ it said, its voice an oily, bubbling sound. It used Mihn’s own dialect fluently.
‘But no inmate of this place,’ Mihn said firmly.
The daemon moved a step towards him, one leg still up to protect its eyes. ‘That matters not. Soon your soul will be mine. This light will not hide you.’
‘I have other light to employ,’ Mihn warned it.
As he spoke the rune on his chest lit up, a sudden white shaft that stabbed at the shadows. The daemon stopped its advance. It faced him as best it could, but made no further movement forward.
After a moment Mihn looked down. The rune no longer shone so brightly, but even through his tunic he could see its outline. ‘I seek the release of the soul you have imprisoned here,’ he said boldly.
‘No! It is mine, my prize!’
‘Release it to me,’ Mihn ordered, ‘or there will be more light than all of Ghenna has ever seen. Release the soul, or I will blind you, and when others come, drawn by your cries, you will be helpless against them and you will lose