Dark Days

CHAPTER 8

Belial led him deeper into the palace than Jack had ever wanted to go. The whole place was like slices of different centuries stacked as high as the low black and red clouds that constantly roiled above the City. One floor was as opulent as an art deco hotel, one floor was the dirty lino and buzzing light tubes of a dole office, one floor was the sterile white of a laboratory. Belial brought him to one of the white floors, through a door that recoiled soundlessly into the floor.

Inside a narrow room, Jack saw a variety of objects on glass pedestals. Weapons, chunks of stone carved in demonic languages, books, an eyeball that blinked at him from its nest of flesh and severed optic nerve.

Belial stopped next to one of the cases and pressed his thumb against the pad. Within lay a flat black disc that looked like lava rock, with a hole in the center for a strap or chain.

“You’re one of the only living men ever to see this place,” Belial said. “The Princes’ vaults are secret, even from the Named.”

Jack shivered. He could feel the black energy creeping off most of the things under those glass domes, and he didn’t want to get any closer than he had to. “The armory is only a small part of the vaults,” Belial said. “But this is all you’ll need.”

He handed Jack the disc. It was oddly light and sat flat in his palm, not giving off any particular sting of magic, demon-spawned or otherwise.

“This is cute and all,” Jack said, “but are you sure I couldn’t have a knife or a gun or something? Even that eyeball would be better for shock value.”

“If you touched the Allfather’s Eye, your tiny little dish sponge of a brain would come straight out your nose,” Belial said. “That’s not for you, boyo. This will ensure that once you’ve found our little self-proclaimed Messiah, you can bring him straight home for a spanking.”

Belial folded Jack’s fingers around the disc, and Jack fought not to pull away. Belial’s skin was cold and dry like a snake’s, none of the warmth Jack associated with a living thing. “The first demons carved the gates of Hell from living rock,” Belial said. “And they bound the rock with spells to make it indestructible. Any man who possesses a piece of those gates may pass in and out of Hell freely.”

The demon let go of him, and Jack sucked in a deep breath, ordering himself not to throw up on the spotless white floor. Belial swiped his thumb over the dome again and gave Jack one of those grins that would have made the shark from Jaws weep. “You’ve got the keys to the kingdom now, Jackie. Don’t make me regret giving them to you.”