The Lost Book of the White (The Eldest Curses #2) - Cassandra Clare Page 0,79
vanished from the painting and left them in silence. Tian, looking lost and uncomfortable, stood with his hands folded. Clary was crying quietly against Jace’s chest. He stroked her hair, his worried gaze seeking and finding Alec, who was pacing back and forth across the room, clenching and unclenching his fists.
Magnus wasn’t sure if Alec wanted to be comforted or not, but he finally couldn’t stand it: going to Alec, he pulled his boyfriend into his arms. For a split second, Alec hung on to Magnus tightly, his hands fisting in Magnus’s coat, his forehead pressed to Magnus’s shoulder.
Magnus murmured words he hadn’t realized he even remembered: soft words in Malay, of comfort and reassurance.
Alec let himself shake in Magnus’s arms for a only moment, though. He drew away, chin held high, and said, “All right. Now we have two people to rescue.”
“Three,” said Jace, “counting Ragnor.”
“I hope you would have rescued me,” Tian said mildly.
“We didn’t know you were here,” said Clary, “and anyway, you’ve rescued yourself.” She smiled at him in a wobbly sort of way, stepping away from Jace. Her face showed the streaks of tears, but like Alec, she had mastered her emotions.
Shadowhunters were good at that.
“We need a plan,” Jace said. “We can’t just wander around Diyu and hope we find them.”
Magnus cleared his throat. “I hate to bring this up, but we also can’t just leave Diyu in the hands of Sammael.”
“And Shinyun,” growled Alec.
“And Shinyun,” agreed Magnus.
“It just bothers me that we don’t know what Sammael wants,” said Clary in frustration.
“To come to Earth and wreak havoc there,” offered Alec.
“Yes, but to what end? Why open a Portal to Earth? What’s so great about Earth? If he only wanted to rule over Diyu, I think we would just let him.”
“Well, the food’s better on Earth,” Jace said.
Tian was shaking his head. “Sammael does not need a reason. The chaos and destruction he wreaks is for its own sake; who knows why his eye turns in one direction or another?”
“Sammael was slain by the Archangel Michael to prevent him from unleashing Hell on Earth,” said Magnus slowly. “He’ll want to do what he was prevented from doing so long ago, because it’s part of the war.”
“The war between angels and demons,” said Jace in a rare serious tone. “In which we are soldiers.”
“Right,” said Magnus. “One thing to remember about Princes of Hell, and archangels, too: they’re always playing nine-dimensional chess with worlds as their toys. Just assume the worst.”
“True enough,” said Tian. “The attack in the Market was a distraction, designed to keep the Shanghai Shadow World focused in one place so Sammael could act elsewhere. But we don’t know where.”
“We don’t know where in Shanghai,” said Alec. “But maybe we could figure out where in Diyu. He would pick some central location for his work, right? Not just some random torture chamber. And Shinyun and Ragnor would likely be with him.”
“You think we should confront them?” Jace asked. His eyes glittered. Only Jace would be looking forward to confronting two powerful warlocks and a Prince of Hell, thought Magnus.
“I think we’ll have better luck figuring out what’s going on closer to where they’re all acting—Sammael, Shinyun, and Ragnor—than we will out here in a bunch of abandoned courts,” said Alec.
“The geography of Diyu is complicated,” Tian said after a moment’s thought. “Though we are in an underworld, these courts we’re passing through actually reside far above the center of Diyu. There, a kind of shadow of the city of Shanghai can be found.”
“Like, it’s upside down?” said Clary.
“In part,” said Tian. “The usual rules of physical worlds don’t apply here. What is a mountain in Shanghai might be a deep trench in Diyu, but other places may be reversed in other ways, in color or orientation or even purpose. I was thinking…”
“That when I Tracked Ragnor, it led us to a spot in Shanghai where Ragnor wasn’t,” said Alec. “But maybe he’s in the mirror spot in Diyu? And maybe we can find that?”
“That’s very clever,” said Magnus. “My boyfriend is very clever,” he added, to no one in particular.
“Except we don’t really have a map that will show such correspondences,” said Tian. “We probably are best off heading for the heart of Diyu.” He grimaced. “As unpleasant as that will be.”
“What does heading for the heart of Diyu involve?” said Jace.
“The Final Court, but that won’t be a pleasant trip,” Tian said. “It’s at the center of Diyu’s labyrinth—the former throne