I regarded it with suspicion. "What's that? Something to infect my phone so you can spy on me?"
The golem smiled. "I have no desire to spy on your text messaging, Mr. Slade. Consider looking into this a favor to me."
I stared at the card. No question the golem was manipulating me. But if it meant I could save my mother, I had no choice. "Find me useful information and I'll look into this." No sense doing it for free.
"What you find on this card will change everything," he said.
"You sound like a used car salesman." I took the card. "I'm not looking at anything until you find out where my mother is."
Lornicus shrugged. "Very well, though I think you'll only be depriving yourself. Safe travels, Mr. Slade."
I jogged to the arch, peering through once more to make sure my destination looked like Queens Gate, and stepped through. The scene stretched as if looking through a warped lens, snapped back into place, and I was there. I peered at the doors leading into the pocket dimension and recognized the guards with the big puffy hats like they wore at Buckingham Palace in London above. At least the golem hadn't been lying about this.
On the way back to the mansion, I noticed my invitations weren't lying on the ground where I'd left them. I opened the mailbox to find them neatly stacked inside. I guessed Lornicus must have had his golems clean up the mess. Thoughtful, or just creepy? I shuddered. No telling with that guy.
I waited until I was securely inside the mansion before looking at the memory card he'd given me, wondering if I should open it or not. Nobody else was home. I didn't want to risk frying my phone, Nookli, so I dug up a spare arcphone Shelton kept around for experiments.
The card fit into the slot on the side. I directed the spare phone to project a three-dimensional hologram of the contents, which turned out to be a single file. I opened it. Instructions for activating one of the small arches in an Obsidian Arch control room appeared, complete with the Cyrinthian symbol to press on the world map for the destination. Up until a few months ago, arches like this one hadn't worked properly. Daelissa and the Conroys had employed an Arcane company called Darkwater along with arch operators to make them functional.
I flicked the image and a map appeared, entitled El Dorado Subterranean Map.
"El Dorado?" I muttered in disbelief. That fool expected me to step foot in the dead city where I'd almost died a hundred times?
I located the huge cavern where my crew and I had fought Vadaemos, been chased by hundreds of light-sucking cherubs, and was nearly devoured by giant leyworms. I remembered watching as the leyworms inadvertently sucked dozens of cherubs into their mouths while trundling after me and Elyssa, apparently drawn to the portable arch she'd held. If I went back now, I wondered if I'd find husked leyworms, drained of all light by the ravenous cherubs.
A numbered legend on the side of the map indicated points of interest, one of which was in the center of the cavern. It claimed the room was supposed to house an Obsidian Arch. If I scrolled to the control room on the three-dimensional map, I could touch each arch and see a description of the destination, though most of them listed "Unknown." A large arch in the middle of the control room caught my eye, and caused my breath to hitch in my throat.
It was an Alabaster Arch.
From what I knew, there were at least five Alabaster Arches in the world, one of which was the prime arch the Seraphim called the Grand Nexus. As far as I knew, the Alabaster Arches connected only to the angel realm, though each supposedly also connected to the Grand Nexus. I had no idea if the white-striped design of these particular arches held any significance. Maybe the creators wanted a little pizzazz. Maybe they really like zebras. Most likely, the material made opening a gateway between two realms easier. The Obsidian Arches—black and shiny as their namesake—only connected to other Obsidian Arches, but didn't seem to have the ability to connect to other realms. Not unless someone counted the accidental fractures in reality, which could suck someone into a dreary dimension called the Gloom.
Rebel Darklings, Arcanes, Daemos, and humans had banded together to drive the angels from this world by destroying the Grand Nexus. They hadn't destroyed the nexus, but instead removed the Cyrinthian Rune, a vital component. But removing it had caused a massive shockwave which reverberated through every Alabaster Arch in the network, and drained the light from any nearby entity.
The husked remains of angels, humans, and even shape-shifting Flarks now haunted places like Thunder Rock and El Dorado. So far as I knew, the Grand Nexus remained inoperable. I had to hope Mr. Gray wasn't lying when he said Daelissa didn't have the rune.
All the same, any Alabaster Arch would supposedly take someone dumb enough to use it back to the Grand Nexus, wherever it was.
In other words, Lornicus had just given me a map which might lead me to the portal Daelissa would have to repair if she hoped to bring across an army. Maybe there was a way to destroy that arch once and for all. I'd seen the broken remains of the smaller black arches. If the Obsidian Arch in El Dorado had been destroyed, why couldn't we do the same to an Alabaster Arch? Even if it caused another backlash, everything within range of them was already husked.
This is so tempting.
That golem really knew how to push my buttons.
A glowing line on the map led past the Alabaster Arch and into the main cavern where the Obsidian Arch would be. There, the line terminated in an "X". I suspected it didn't indicate pirate booty.
I touched the "X", but no description rewarded me for the effort. What waited in that dread cavern?Curiosity joined arms with irritation, urging me to investigate. I just had to know despite the obvious fact that Lornicus was manipulating me.
Resist!
Why don't I just take a quick peek?
"Off," I said, flicking my hand at the arcphone. The image vanished. I wouldn't go. No way, no how. The only thing waiting in that cavern is death. I thought back to my expedition through the caverns beneath El Dorado. Our first encounter had been with shadow people, the husked remains of humans. Shadows drifted off them like ultraviolet smoke, and they used those wisps to snare people and drain them. Their weakness was light of any kind. One of them had been overexposed and crumbled to dust.
The cherubs, on the other hand, didn't seem to care about light. I'd kicked them, batted them around, and abused them mercilessly, but nothing seemed to harm them. Hardly surprising since they'd once been angels. Their only weaknesses were lack of speed, and ungainly infantile bodies.
The most dangerous husk of all, however, might be the one I'd encountered at Thunder Rock—a Flark. Bigglesworth was the only Flark I'd ever seen. He'd been immune to direct magic attacks, and virtually impossible to kill with physical attacks, especially since his skin burned like acid when it touched a victim. When Kassallandra, Elyssa, and I had been swimming the depths of the quarry lake at Thunder Rock in a bid to escape the interdiction spell around the area, an oily tentacle had grabbed me and flung me into the caverns beneath the lake. I suspected it had been a husked Flark. I'd witnessed the thing kill several hellhounds before it had taken me. Why it hadn't killed me outright, I didn't know.
I knew how to kill shadow people, and I knew how to avoid cherubs unless they swarmed in overwhelming numbers like the last time. I had no idea how to avoid or contain a husked Flark. We hadn't seen one in El Dorado, but that meant nothing.
If I took another expedition for a quick look at whatever Lornicus evidently wanted me to see, we could probably get in and out without much trouble unless something like that made an appearance.
The front door opened, and Elyssa walked in, a black dog the size of a toy poodle scampering after her, and panting with excitement. The dog was, in fact, a hellhound—the very first one I'd ever summoned. Though he wasn't much to look at, he was pretty popular with the women.
I blurred across the room and kissed my girlfriend before she had a chance to speak. When I pulled away, her eyes were bright with amusement.
"Missed me, huh?"
"Not a bit," I said, leaning down to pat the hellhound. "How did your parents like Cutsauce?"
"I'm pretty sure Dad hated him, but Mom finally gave in to his cute factor." She laughed. "He's irresistible."
Cutsauce made a growl of agreement. Sometimes, I'd catch glimpses of images or words from him, something completely normal according to my Aunt Vallaena. The longer a hellhound stayed with a Daemos, the better the communication became, though some souls in the demon plane were more mature and easier to understand right away.
Elyssa's gaze narrowed as she looked at me. "Where did you get those clothes?"
The new slacks and button-up shirt Lornicus had put me in were a far notch above the cargo shorts and t-shirts I usually wore. I realized I should have phoned Elyssa the minute I had a chance to tell her about my encounter, but I'd let the map distract me.
"You look hot," she said, running a finger along my shirt collar. "Did I forget a date we're supposed to have tonight?" she said, her dark eyebrow arching with concern.
"I had a bit of a run-in with some gray men this morning," I said, trying to figure out the best way to start the story.
Elyssa's forehead pinched with confusion. "And they dressed you up like a doll?"
"That came a little later," I said, motioning her to the red leather couch. "Want some popcorn?"
"Stop kidding around, and tell me what happened," she said, squeezing my hands tight.
I winced at the pressure of her grip and gave her the details. When I finished, I showed her the map.
"You're right," she said. "Either Mr. Gray is manipulating you, or Lornicus is doing it on his own."
"Exactly," I said. "I'm not even gonna try to keep up with people like them or Underborn. Every time I tried, I came out on the losing end."
"Like Michael," Elyssa said, referring to her big brother who'd worked for Underborn in the hopes of keeping Elyssa out of the master assassin's games, only to end up manipulated into a position where his sister thought he was a traitor. Thankfully, they'd worked through their issues.