The Lie Spinners (The Deception Dance) (10 page)

I’m
amazed that I’m just sitting here, and not running around
screaming.

Either
Madeline dosed me with magic Xanax or maybe, it’s that Cassidy
and Jones seem like we’re taking a leisurely drive through
town. To distract myself from the thought path I really don’t
want to take, I say, “I hope we at least get to eat some Thai
food.”

Cassidy
smiles and says, “That’s the first thing we’ll do;
as these
people
will more than likely find us, the least they could do is wait for us
to indulge in some local cuisine. But don’t drink the water.
Or, get anything with ice.”

“
The
first thing we’ll do…” Jones corrects, “…is
go over protocol.”

“
I
don’t think you appreciate how lucky you are that he won’t
speak to you,” Cassidy says to me. Loudly, to Jones, she says,
“
I
no longer follow your orders
.
And I am having a craving for Phat Thai with chicken.”

“
Panang
curry,” I say, “Over rice.”

The
driver turns off the main street onto a much quieter one lane street,
though it’s still brimming with scooters.

“
Please
stick to the busier roads,” Jones tells the driver.

“
Sorry
sir. The woman who paid me had a very direct route she told me to
take you on,” The driver says with a thick accent that
accentuates the ‘e’ sounds.

“
I’ll
pay you double to stay on the main roads,” Jones says. “I
want to delay this as long as possible.”

“
I
need to call my dad,” I whisper, remembering that I haven’t
checked-in (for the first time in almost a year now), “I need
to tell him that I’m alive.”

“
You
might want to hold off on that one,” Cassidy says, calmly, just
as one of the scooters that had been in front of us in the alley
spins and stops perpendicular to us, blocking our road.

Cassidy
grabs my head and shoves me forward, her body covers mine, giving my
neck an immediate cramp. I hear her press down on the lock of my
door.

“
Duck,”
Jones says, a little late.

“
Hold
onto me even if you think your arm will be ripped off by doing so,
understand?” Cassidy says grabbing my hand.

My
response, “Yeah,” is barely understandable as my mouth is
smashed into my leg.

There’s
a deafening creaking sound, then someone yelling in another language.

Jones
says, “Get down! The damages will be paid by…”

Then
a whispery, yet loud voice says, “Ah, daughter of Barbas, well
met. We are here for the one you are hiding under your body. Release
her and we will do you no harm.”

“
I
am not his daughter!” Cassidy says, for the first time sounding
something other than calm. I try to look over at the scene, but all I
see is the back of Cassidy’s shirt that says, ‘not
working yet’ written across it. My cheek rams into my knee,
making me smell my own dirty jeans. When I push up, Cassidy just
pushes me back down.

“
Wife,
then,” says the whispery voice, “It makes no matter,
singto
.”
This word sound as if it’s spoken in an Asian language (perhaps
Thai?), she says it ‘sing-toe’.

Another
screeching ripping sound, and then another deeper, yet still
whispery, voice says, “I like this one, what a pretty little
khattakon
.
I think Räum will despise him
…so
dignified, look at his pride.”

“
What
are you asuras doing serving a demon?” Jones voice sounds calm,
“You owe him no allegiance. And we can pay you better.”

“
Oh,
listen to the way he sweet talks me; so proper. Don’t you know?
No one owes
Räum
anything,
”
says the asura, demon or whatever it is.

“
Come
singto
,”
says the one closest to us, “bring your
thim
;
the party waits and she’s the guest of honor.”

Cassidy
reaches back, grabbing my wrist, “You stick with me like we’re
glued, get it?”

“
Yes,”
I say when Cassidy gets off me and I stretch my aching neck to look
over at the holes that used to be the left side of our car. Jones
stands awkwardly outside, clutched by the ugliest woman-like-thing
I’ve ever seen. If I had to guess what religion it jumped out
of, it wouldn’t be Christian, closer to Hindu or Buddhism.
Three faces protrude from the woman-ish things’ heads; their
faces look more Thai than Indian, with delicately sloping eyes; but
their mouths are like no ethnicity’s I’ve ever seen, just
gaping holes bearing sharp teeth. Though they only have one torso and
two legs like a normal human, they have six arms each. But it only
takes the restraining power of one arm to subdue Jones, and one arm
each from the other asura for Cassidy and me when we exit the car.

“
We
go where she goes, Asura,” Cassidy says.

Jones’
asura’s middle face says, “Oh, yes, yes, you do
singto
.
You will be good sport; perhaps we will make you kill each other…?”

“
No
competition.
Singto
would win!” Says our asura’s middle face, then all six
faces start to bicker in what sounds like Thai as they drag us into a
side passage in the small alley.

“
What
are asuras? Are they demons? Why haven’t I heard about them?”
I whisper to Cassidy as we are dragged by the side arms of our asura.
The alley we’re dragged into smells like raw sewage and cramps
tightly around us.

“
I
assume there was too much to learn, there’s thousands of
creatures…” She whispers, “and, no, not demons
exactly, similar but completely separate. They were human once, but
their selfish single-minded pursuit of the baser aspects of life has
transformed them into,” she motions with her head to the thing
dragging us, “
that
.
But what is bad and much more important is that asuras do not follow
the command not to harm you, and neither does the demon
Räum…
this is bad; very, very bad. How is your Ars Goetia? Mine is terribly
rusty. I remember that Räum is the fortieth soul of Solomon,
Räum… Ryam… help me here…”

“
Räum?
You mean they’re taking us to a
Soul
of Solomon
?”
My legs lose their solidity, and the only thing keeping me up and
moving forward are Cassidy and the asura, both pulling me on. “How
is that possible? Are you saying… are you saying that The
Gates of Hell are open?” I choke on the now-flavorless piece of
gum I’ve almost forgotten is still in my mouth.

Cassidy
yanks me up and toward her, and lets go of me for a second to smack
my back until I hack up the gum.

I
can see Jones glaring at me from the corner of my eye, but I ignore
him.

“
You
okay?” Cassidy asks. When I nod she answers, “No, the
gates are closed, we would
know
if they were not. And as far as we know of all the souls of Solomon,
only Andras’ seal has been broken as there are only his legions
of demons on earth. But any of the demon nobility, the souls of
Solomon, can be summoned by a magician or witch. And, I suppose that
any of the lower nobility has the ability to steal and possess a
magician’s or a soul-less body if they escape their protective
circle. Only the lesser nobility: knights, presidents, earls, counts,
dukes, at highest a marquis can possess a human body, even a
demonically enhanced body, without burning straight through it. But I
have never heard of anyone of them beside Andras doing this. The
demons, no matter their rank usually try to kill their conjurer—
but, so far as I know, what Räum is doing is unheard of…”

“
Why
?”
It seems to me that if any of them could, they’d steal any type
of body to remain on earth.

“
Because
the other Seals of Solomon are not broken, all of the other demon’s
legions are stuck in Hell; and Andras has thirty legions on earth.
It’s like Räum is a lone-alpha-wolf hunting in another
large and extremely territorial pack’s territory; he
should
be
hunted down before he can catch a meal… though that doesn’t
seem to be the case this time. This could mean several things; and
none of the ideas coming to my mind are good for us. It seems that
Räum allied himself with creatures outside of the demonic
structure; either his operation has been too small to be detected by
Andras, or Andras and his legions are too busy to deal with Räum.
The other souls of Solomon are making ambitious moves…”
She shakes her head, “Any way about it, the important matter is
that Räum can do whatever he pleases to you, and face no
repercussions. First order of business, we need to figure out what he
wants… think, what do you know about him?”

I
try to recall what I remember about Räum from the Ars Goetia,
the book about the demonic nobility’s hierarchy that I studied
in a theoretical sense early this year. Since no one bothered to
inform me that I could ever come into contact with the other Souls of
Solomon without The Gates of Hell opening; my study of them had been
in a ‘these are all the demons that would come at you if you
fail’ mind-frame. I sort of lumped them all together in massive
post-apocalyptic horde rather than thinking of them on an individual
basis. Räum… Räum…

I
whisper, uncertainly, “He’s a earl, I think. He can turn
into a crow…?” This detail had stood out to me, as it
was similar to Andras’ raven’s head transformation, but
I’m not sure if it was Räum or not.

“
Yes
I think you’re right.” She inhales sharply and says,
“Shit!”

“
Where?”
the asura holding Jones says, stopping abruptly, and looks around the
alley on the ground. A stray dog crosses our path yipping at us. The
asura smiles, and says, “That is not shit, that is sport.”

“
Don’t
you touch it,” Jones says, moving between the Asura and the
stray. From the expression on his face, Jones looks ready to fight
his monster-woman over the little dog. This brings him up a notch on
my book. Maybe I’ll graduate him from Stupid Jerk Face, to just
Jerk-Face…

“
No
time for fun,” our asura hisses as the skinny dog hastens out
of our path. “Move, we’re almost there.”

We’re,
it seems, fifteen feet from ‘
there’
and
there
is a closed door on the side of the alley. The asuras are completely
silent as the asura holding Jones knocks on the door, simultaneously,
with three of her hands.

Cassidy
stares at me, probably not wanting to risk speaking in the silence
but the intensity of her look screams that she has something she
needs to say. She squeezes my hand painfully tight.

“
What
?”
I mouth.

Cassidy
whispers through gritted teeth, “He has the power to…”

The
asura shakes us both so violently my aching neck snaps back. “Stop
that
singto
,”
the asura yells, “You will not talk!”