Breathing more normally, I squeezed past the thanaton. I climbed up the sewer pipe to the storage cellar of another inn on the river’s south side. I looked about before I emerged, but darkness reigned. I came up and lowered the grate back in place, but just before it lay flat, one rusty hinge squealed like a murdered cat.

“Don’t worry, Master, there is no one about to hear.”

Crouched, with one sword already drawn, I faced the shadows from which the voice had originated. “Ciras? How?”

“Master Gryst told me about the thanaton ’s task.” He unshuttered a small lantern, revealing himself in dark robes with the flame pattern as his crest. He picked the lantern up with his right hand, and enough light reflected from it to reveal its true nature. “And I came over early to guarantee there would be no surprises waiting.”

“And because you knew I’d not let you come with me?”

The young man smiled. “It is better to ask forgiveness than permission.”

I laughed lightly and began to shuck my oilskins. “Then I beg your forgiveness for having kept you waiting. Let me get dressed, then we shall do something Prince Nelesquin will never forgive.”

Four Hells prevented Jorim and his companions from reaching the plane of Zhangjian-literally, the place between the Heavens and Hells. The Fourth Hell, Landao, almost proved their undoing.

It was the Hell given over to the punishment of the slothful and greedy. Their dreams would hang in front of them like fruit on low branches, but no step taken in that direction would bring them any closer. Then, when frustration boiled over and they really exerted themselves, they would shoot past their goal in the blink of an eye. They’d turn around and try again, repeating the whole process.

Talrisaal figured out how to beat Landao. He made his goal the desire to get as far away from something as he could. That brought it into reach, and he plucked it. His action frustrated many of those trapped there. However, the more they wanted to come close and bash his brains out, the further from him they were sent.

Pyrust immediately made it his goal to lead everyone as far away from the gateway to the next Hell as possible. The army passed through into the icy plains of Shanchu. The whole of the Hell seemed to be made of floating ice islands on slushy seas. Wayward souls bobbed shrieking in the water and got ground between colliding islands.

The army moved pretty quickly along a chain of islands and into Ji-bing. Disease ravaged the people trapped there. They seemed mostly to be people involved in heretical and fundamentalist cults. They seemed to spend a lot of time gathering together groups to worship. A disease would spring up, covering them in boils. The entire congregation would catch it and literally fall apart. In fact, leprosy would have been kind in comparison to what they suffered.

When they finally expired, pus puddles would boil. The rising steam created ghosts, which solidified into people. They’d wander about until they heard someone preaching a message and join that group. Then the boils would rise, mucus would run, and things would get ugly from there.

Maintaining discipline in the second and third Hells had not been difficult. This was just as well because the last Hell, Chong-to, was the realm of warfare. From the moment they began to assemble, pulling themselves from a shallow river in the center of a verdant valley, warrior bands began attacking them.

The ferocity of some combatants surprised Jorim. Chong-to was not meant for warriors, but for the warlike. Those politicians and bureaucrats who had been content to create wars without ever shedding their own blood ended up in Chong-to. Cowards also landed there, as well as men who had greatly exaggerated their exploits or warriors who’d only carried hate in their hearts. It was a place where men who thought of war as a game were trapped for eternity, seeing that it was not.

Jorim pointed. “Some of the bands are joining together over there.”

Pyrust nodded. “I’ve heard it said that if you die with honor in battles here, you win your way to Kianmang.”

The Viruk shook his head. “But since they are fighting to serve themselves, they cannot die in honor.”

“Which is why they will be here forever.” Pyrust snarled as one of the winged apes fell from the sky, shot through with an arrow. The moment the beast hit the ground, he vanished. “Our troops, on the other hand, will be flooding Kianmang.”

Pyrust formed his army up with the lizards on the wings, and the hart-cavalry in the center. The winged apes hung back, waiting to flank the bands and harass them. The formation moved ahead in good order and blew through the small gathering of bands. Potbellied men wheezing into battle ran as the lizards swarmed. Skeletal spearmen fled before cavalry charges and the apes kept opportunist bands from hit-and-run raids.

When Chong-to’s denizens died, the earth swallowed them, leaving old, rotten armor and helmets on the ground. The lizards sniffed at the relics and shied from them. Pyrust had the apes gather the weaponry into piles and the army marched on.

As they came out of the valley, the landscape changed into one lit with purple balefire. The blue river that had brought them flowed into a dark swamp tangled with broken trees and marsh grasses deep in black mud. Big bubbles appeared across the swamp’s surface like giant frogs’ eggs.

The eggs popped and warriors emerged. They dug through the mud, salvaging old armor with slimy, half-rotted leather harnesses and weapons that were composed more of rust than metal. They waded from the swamps and ran off along hidden pathways.

Jorim watched them go. “They’re not stupid. They’ve seen us fight. They’ll pick a place they can do the most damage.”

“There are only narrow paths through the swamp. They’ll ambush us there.”

The Viruk turned to the Prince. “Can your lizards swim?”

“They can, but I wouldn’t want to swim in that mess.”

Jorim smiled. “Using the lizards to flush the ambushers is a good idea. I have another one. Just get everyone back over the ridge.”

Nirati glanced at her brother. “Whenever you get that look on your face, you do something dangerous. Please, don’t.”

“You worry too much.” He stood on the crest of the ridge above the swamp and set himself. “You, too, Talrisaal, get behind the ridge.”

“If you’re going to do what I think you are going to do…”

“It will be fine.” Jorim frowned. “I’m a god, remember? I probably helped design this place.”

Nirati was too far away for him to hear her clearly, but he thought she said something like, “I don’t find that particularly reassuring.”

He grinned and closed his eyes, beginning to manipulate the magic. When the Amentzutl first taught him magic, he had learned to find the truth of things. As he reached out, he sought the truth of the swamp gas that gathered and burned. Using the mai, he gathered it together, squeezing it into a sphere, then used magic to shift its elements. He unbalanced them and injected a lot of heat.

A brilliant sun dawned over the swamp.

Then the fireball exploded. The shock wave blasted him off the ridge. He tumbled back through the air, his robe smoking. He hit hard and bounced, but a winged ape caught him.

Nirati hurried over, but already the light in the sky had begun to dim. “Jorim, are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” He slapped at a smoldering bit of cloth on his thigh. His ears were ringing, but he scrambled up the hill. A couple of the winged apes charged after him, but they hung back well shy of the crest.

Talrisaal helped him to his feet. “It was a good idea, in theory.”

“Yeah.” Jorim turned around. “Get ready. They’re coming!”

The blast and fire had destroyed the swamp, baking the ground black and cracking it as if it had been dry for nine hundred years. Reborn warriors dug their way out of shallow graves and ran off in the other direction, joining a horde of easily nine thousand or more.