The Lost Book of the White (The Eldest Curses #2) - Cassandra Clare Page 0,129
Fade was the High Warlock of Los Angeles. Catarina was still in New York, for now.
One thing at a time. “Ragnor,” he said, “can you get us to the Hell of the Pit of Fire, where the other Shadowhunters are? We need to try to save them.”
Ragnor shook his head. “I’m sure it’s too late,” he said. “But I’ll open the Portal and we’ll see. At least we can take whatever’s left of them back to Earth.”
Alec looked stricken. Magnus patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t take it too seriously,” he said. “Ragnor’s just like that.”
Ragnor twiddled his fingers, the extra joint on each of them making his movements intricate and alien even to Magnus. Within a moment a door opened in the nothingness of Avici, through which orange flames leaped against black rock. It seemed to be quaking in the same way Avici was.
Magnus looked to Alec. “Are you ready to fight again?”
“Not really,” Alec said, drawing his seraph blade from his belt. “But here we go.”
“Right.” Magnus charged through, and Alec followed close behind.
They emerged onto a rocky platform suspended high above the lava pools below. A stone staircase led down to more platforms and the rest of the labyrinthine landscape. Magnus was not happy to note that nothing was visibly keeping their platform in the air, and the earthquake that was rumbling through Diyu was even stronger here.
“Okay,” said Alec. “Let’s save our friends.”
“Or what’s left of your friends,” Ragnor muttered. “Wait. Where are your friends?”
They seemed to be scattered. Far below them, on a fairly broad plain, Simon, Clary, and Tian were fighting some of Diyu’s various demons. Separated from them and somewhat elevated was Isabelle, and even higher, on a separate platform, was Jace.
Alec looked puzzled. “What’s going on?”
“Well, Jace’s foot was broken, so I guess they found a safe place for him,” offered Magnus.
“And why is Isabelle by herself?” Exhausted by magic he might have been, but Alec still jogged down the staircase ahead of them, weapon at the ready.
Ragnor gave Magnus a look. “You’re not going to jog, are you?”
Magnus raised one eyebrow. “In these shoes?”
They descended the staircase, and the one after that, with the decorum appropriate to warlocks who had defeated a Prince of Hell that day. Or at least, they had been in the same place as a Prince of Hell, and they had made him leave first.
By the time they reached Jace, Alec had clearly already exchanged some words with him and looked much less concerned.
“So you haven’t all been devoured yet, I see,” said Ragnor.
“No, they’ve got it all under control,” Alec said, excited. He gestured at Jace. “Tell them!”
Jace looked at him sideways. “I was about to. We’ve got it all under control,” he went on. “I can’t really fight right now, so Clary helped me up here so we could see as much of the battlefield as possible, since the paths are so irregular and confusing. But then we noticed that the demons had the same problem we did. They could really only get to us on a set number of paths, and three people could cover two paths each.”
Magnus raised his eyebrows.
“So Simon, Tian, and Clary went down there to do that. We put Isabelle on the middle platform because she’s the only one whose weapon has any reach, so she can handle the occasional flying dude.”
Alec seemed near tears. “I’m very proud of you,” he said to Jace. “You actually made a plan.”
“I’m good at plans!” Jace said.
“You are, actually, good at plans,” Magnus said. “It’s just usually you’re yelling them behind you as you sprint toward danger.”
“But you used your sumptuous brain and you’re all okay!” Alec said, thumping Jace on the shoulder. He looked over at Ragnor. “Take that, pessimism guy!”
Ragnor furrowed his brow. “Well, obviously I’m glad everyone is still alive.”
“I should mention,” said Jace, “the ground started shaking a little while ago.”
“That would be Shinyun,” said Magnus. “It’s a long story. Also, luckily for you I brought the world’s leading expert in dimensional magic, and he’s going to Portal us right on out of here.”
Ragnor gave Magnus a sour look. “I suppose I am, but I’m going to need your help.”
“Great news,” said Magnus, and he jumped off the platform. He floated slowly down to the plain, waving at Isabelle as he passed.
“Magnus!” said Clary, lopping the head off one of the Baigujing skeletons. “Good to see you!”
“I’m going to say something,” Simon said in Clary’s direction, “and I don’t