Beranabus squints. "Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Either you're getting sharper or my eyes are getting worse," Beranabus mutters, then raises a hand and sends a ball of energy shooting at the pillar. There's a gentle glowing. A sound somewhere between a sigh and a moan. Then the pillar moves and an angular demon steps out of a crack.
Fear grabs hold and magic flares within me. I bring up my hands defensively, but Beranabus stops me with a high-spirited, "Rein in those horses, boy!" He faces the demon and smiles. "How do you feel about dying today?"
The demon makes a series of choking noises. The sounds don't make sense to me, but Beranabus can decipher them. "No," he says. "We're not going to leave you alone. You know who we are and what we want. Now, do you have something to tell us or do we make life wickedly uncomfortable for you?"
The demon glares at Beranabus through a series of triangular eyes, but it looks more miserable than angry. It's an odd creature, not really frightening in manner or appearance. It mutters something. Beranabus and Kernel share a glance. "You're sure?" Kernel asks and the demon nods stiffly.
"Excellent," Beranabus beams and cocks his head at Kernel. The bald teenager shuffles away a couple of metres, then starts moving his hands about in the air. It's as if he's sliding invisible blocks around.
"What's happening?" I ask Beranabus quietly, not wanting to disturb Kernel.
"I'm opening a window," Kernel answers before Beranabus can, an edge to his voice. "This is my speciality. I can see panels of light which are invisible to all others. When I slide certain panels together, windows form. I can get to anywhere in this universe-or ours-through them."
"Where will this one lead?" I ask.
"You'll find out soon," Kernel says. "We're going in search of prey. You want to kill demons, don't you?"
"No. But let's say I did. What about that one?" I point to the blue demon, which is edging back into the crack, becoming one with the landscape again.
"Not worth killing," Beranabus says dismissively. "There are untold billions of demons. They're all evil, but most can't hurt us or cross to our world. That cretin doesn't even dare leave this valley. It waits, hiding and surviving, doing precious little else."
"What does it feed on?" I ask.
"Who knows," Beranabus sniffs. "Maybe nothing. Most demons don't need to eat and drink. Many do, but out of choice, not necessity."
"Then why did we come here, if not to kill it?" I frown.
"Information," Kernel says, looking around. "We're like detectives with a team of snitches. We know where to find soft demons. We often come to places like this, rough up the locals, find out if anything foul is afoot-something usually is. Demons like that one might not do much, but they know things. Secrets are hard to keep in this universe. Word spreads quickly."
"What's the word now?" I ask, caught off guard. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't something like this.
"There's a demon trying to possess a woman on Earth," Beranabus says. "That happens all the time. It's not a problem for us, though it's bad for those involved. Some demons who can't cross universes can establish a hold on the minds of humans. They manipulate them, send them mad, use them to create as much chaos as possible. We normally wouldn't bother with small-scale melodramatics like this, but I want to break you in gently."
Kernel grunts. "On my first mission we fought a pair of demons who had almost broken through to the centre of Moscow. They were two of the toughest I've ever faced. It was bloody and tight. That's when I lost the tips of my fingers." He stares at his left hand, the fingers flinching inwards as he relives the memory.
"Why couldn't you replace them?" I ask. "You can do that with magic, right?"
"Normally. But the loss made little difference. I decided to leave them as they were. They remind me of the dangers we face, the fact that success isn't a guarantee, that we can and will perish in this hell-hole eventually."
"Here we go," Beranabus says briskly. A purplish window has formed in front of Kernel. Beranabus walks up to it and steps through, not bothering to breathe on this one. Kernel curls his fingers into a fist, then relaxes his fingers and follows.
I look back in the direction of the blue demon, but I can't see it now, even though I know the exact spot where it's hiding. Shaking my head, I think, "This isn't so bad. I can handle this." But I know it's a false start, that worse-much worse-is to come.
There's a sound far overhead, from the meteor-sized demons in the sky. Fearful of being attacked while I'm alone, I rush to the window and push through after the others.
Fire! It's all around me, fierce, intense, out of control. I feel the hair on my arms singe and know I have only seconds before I burst into flames. Total panic. I want to look for Beranabus and Kernel or scream for help, but my eyes and mouth shut automatically against the heat. "Oh, for the love of..." Kernel tuts, taking hold of my arm and shaking it roughly. "This is ridiculous. He's not fit for this. Send him back."
"He'll learn," Beranabus says and then his lips are by my left ear. "Use magic to guide yourself."
"It's hell!" I moan, speaking out of the side of my mouth, keeping my eyes shut.
"One of many thousands of hells," Beranabus grunts. "For every imaginative demon who constructs a terrifyingly original realm, there are scores who draw upon tired old human myths. Stop acting like a fool. You can already feel your magic responding to this, protecting you from the flames. You'd be burning to a crisp right now if not."
I open one eye, then the other. Nothing to see but flames. Beranabus and Kernel are hard to spot among the flickering licks of yellow and red. Still hot, hotter than I should be able to bear. But magic's humming away in the background, cooling me down, guarding my freckled flesh. Beranabus is right-it kicked in as soon as I set foot here, even as the hairs on my arms began to shrivel. I knew that-I could feel it-but fear made me panic.
"Where's the demon?" I ask, trying to peer through the walls of fire. I look down and realise we're truly in the middle of the flames-no floor. Nothing below, above or to the sides except fire.