36. Chapter 36
Finn’s feet met the ground on a hill overlooking a brilliant white city, stained bloody by the dawn, and how many years had it been since I’d seen a sunrise like this?
When it shone over Monde’s End these days it did so almost grudgingly, peeking out from behind clouds and fogs for no more than a few minutes at a time.
The endless glare of the sea as the sun crested the horizon.
Black water glittered around three sides of the city, brining the air.
Waves slapped at the ports, ships with pale sails blossoming in the breeze.
Rosy scudding clouds rimmed with gold hovered above clean streets speckled with white-roofed buildings.
It had to be far from Hell, somewhere hours behind if the sun hadn’t fully risen.
Finn seemed unwilling to put me down, studying my ankle. “It looks better. How does it feel?”
“I think I’m fine.”
Valic strode past us to the edge of the hilltop as Finn set me on the dew-beaded grass, his hands already at work on yanking off my topmost cloak.
“When I pictured undressing you for the first time,” he said, fingers lingering at the back of my neck, twining around a strand of hair, sly tell-me-to-stop smile— “you weren’t wearing quite so many layers. ”
I’m going to smack him, Remy said. Somebody needs to.
I ignored the two of them, squinting over Finn’s shoulder at what I could see of the landscape beyond us. Manses and storehouses sprawling across the coastline, wide cobbled roads between buildings inside the city proper. “I’ve never seen a place like this before.”
“The Crossing.” Finn was very difficult to look at, burning pale gold beneath the pink drench of dawn, so close I could count every gilded eyelash if I’d had a wish to.
“It’s a small but wealthy city. Well, it would have to be.
They have to have coin to build altars to Luceric, to beg his blessings, to pay for festivals like these.
We suspect the people who live here had angelic help in building up the city.
” With one finger, he turned my chin in the direction of a spiraling tower so tall it was crowned in cloud.
“Remy blinked all the way up to the top to deface the scrolls inside the sacred little chamber. The volunteers who tend to the tower are the ones he threatened to kill. Not that I would have minded much, but it’s really not allowed. ”
“Why?”
He unfastened another row of buttons on one of my extra shirts. Deft fingers, like he’d had a lot of practice stripping clothes off. “Hmm?”
“Why is it not allowed?” I flapped his hands away and dealt with the buttons myself, sinking down to the grass, where he followed.
Finn sat back on his heels, watching me fumble over the fastenings.
“Not our place to harm the living. The punishment for doing so is steep.” From his bag, he pulled out a white bundle that turned out to be a pair of cloaks.
He pulled one on and tossed the other to Valic.
“Banished and contained to the wood, only able to walk in darkness?” He stood, the cloak snapping behind him, swirling in the wind.
“That’ll put most of us off from killing humans.
It’s mostly succubi and incubi in there, the oldest demons who weren’t willing to follow the rule when the council came to power. ”
“I don’t see any wings,” Valic called, visoring his eyes with a hand, his own white robe eddying about his feet.
“It’s early yet,” Finn called back, his shimmering gold profile limned in strengthening sunlight.
“How can you even hurt him?” I asked. “Aren’t they immortal?”
“They’re not immortal.” His gaze was back on me and he wore yet another condescending smile, dark hair wild in the breeze.
“They’re just hard to kill. I’d love to do it in front of a crowd.
Let him watch them watching him, burning to a crisp.
It would be a terrible blow to his ego. Imagine the misery of his final thoughts, all those people watching, gasping, learning he’s not nearly as invincible as he pretends. ” His eyes shone with wicked amusement.
I looked away, fumbling with yet more buttons. “And you’ll be able to find him, even if he’s invisible amongst the humans?”
“There’s a rumor he actually might show himself and speak,” Finn said, though he sounded skeptical. “They’re all aflutter, apparently. He’s said to speak with the voice of God. You can understand their excitement.”
“You think it’s just a rumor?”
“I think it would be terribly idiotic for him to show himself to a crowd of humans, but never have I known one to be as narcissistic as Luceric. There’s nobody who could punish him for stupidity these days, no God to keep his angels in line; He’s probably off designing new universes and to hell with the one he left behind. ”
I struggled out of my last extra layer as I got to my feet, the better to take in The Crossing.
It looked hewn by God himself, every building wrought of stones that shone opalescent beneath the dawn: blushing pink, pearly white, scarlet and gold and orange.
“Does he give blessings so freely to many cities?” If he did, I’d never visited one of them.
“When God was at the reins, none of them were ever quite so generous with their blessings.” Finn stood beside me, looking down at the city rambling out beneath us.
“Say what you like about God; when he was here there was at least a proper order, a balance. Now you’ve got jumped-up little pricks like Luceric swooping about, mucking everything up. ”
“Are they all like him?”
A flash of gold as he glanced down at me.
“No. There are enough good, reasonable ones in the bunch but it hardly matters when they won’t leave their precious city to deal with the bad apples.
Still up there waiting on their father to return.
” Finn tugged me by the elbow, turning me to face him.
“The rest needs to come off, too.” He fingered the hem of my borrowed shirt.
Ice in my right arm. Of its own accord, my hand swung up in a graceful, practiced arc and smacked him across the face. My palm exploded in pain at the moment of impact, a sputtering succession of half-finished curses flying from my mouth.
Finn did not budge. The only thing that changed was his slight smile, which grew into a grin as he caught me by the elbow.
“Remy, she can’t wear black in the city.
She’ll stick out like a monk in a brothel.
” He pulled from his bag something white and airy and handed it over, still smiling as he turned his back on me to gaze out over the hilltop.
God. I cringed as I flexed my fingers. Don’t you ever do that again. I’m surprised my hand didn’t break.
It was a reflex. He was practically begging for it.
The dress was long enough to scrape the grass. It covered me completely but looked as though it would easily turn transparent if the light was right, hazy and vaporous, more of a suggestion of a dress than anything substantial.
“Does it fit?” Finn called back to me, the wind nearly whipping away his voice. “We don’t have many options in Hell. I got that off one of our cousins in Fang. Their damned have no need of clothing.”
“It’s fine.” I was struggling with the sash at my waist when Finn turned to face me.
“Do you need help?” he asked.
“Finn,” Remy said sharply.
A lifted brow. “Yes?”
“She knows how to dress herself,” Remy said, even as he took over my hands and clumsily tied the sash, closing the distance between me and his brother.
“Do you have any sort of plan for this or are you just going to improvise? You’d better separate him from the crowds somehow and hit him the first chance you get before the seraphim catch wind.
You have to take him quickly or you’ll have hordes of them swamping you, and even you probably can’t fight off dozens of them at once—”
In the glow of the new sun, Finn’s eyes shone hard and unblinking. “Yes, thank you. I’m familiar with the seraphim.”
“Your fire might not do a fucking thing to them—”
“Valic’s blades will. Hell-forged and sharp enough to shave with. I’d imagine my fire burns hotter than theirs; mine is demonic. And your ice might make them vulnerable.”
“I don’t know anything about that power. It comes when it wants. It’s not reliable in a fight.”
“Yes, well,” Finn said testily, “Whose fault is that? You should have let your mother train you. I saw what you did to Marcic’s face. You can do it again.”
“I don’t want her getting close enough to seraphim to try it. I had to touch Marcic to make that happen. I can’t touch a seraph without burning her.”
Finn made an exasperated noise. “I don’t plan on letting anything harm her.”
“Finn, you may be able to work from a distance but not all of us have that luxury.”
“Shut up,” Valic yelled back over a gust of screaming wind.
“The two of you give me fucking heartburn.” He pointed to the far edge of the city and what looked like a sea of rippling grass, rendered supernaturally green beneath the nearly-risen sun, which was bordered by a line of trees.
“We can try to get him there. It’s not set up for anything.
If begging more blessings is what they’re after they’ll be doing it at the church, right?
They’ve got a load of pews outside of it and a little stage.
If he shows, he’ll be over there, wouldn’t he?
How else would he hear their thanks? How long until they start their services, do you think? ”
I thought seraphim were fat little winged babies, I said, Finn’s answer fading into the background. That all they did was fly around God’s throne and sing about his holiness.
You’re thinking of cherubim, and human artists took a lot of liberties with them, too. Seraphim are hideous. Six flaming wings, forked tongues. Their bodies are scaled like snakes. They’re bald and nasty and their entire point as lesser celestials is to guard and protect divinity.
Swarms of seraphim seemed a good deal more than a sixteen-year-old demon could contend with. You weren’t afraid of them when you were out here trying to lure Luceric to you?
I didn’t care if I died, so long as I took Luceric with me.
I could think of little with which to respond to that, and when I stopped staring off into space and looked back over at Remy’s brothers, it was to find them both watching me expectantly.
“We’re heading down now,” Finn said, with the air of having repeated it many times.
“I don’t know whether it’s better to keep you with me or with Valic.
You and he blend in better than I do, but he fights best in close quarters.
Though you’d need close quarters too if you’re going to do any lulling. ”
“I might not be able to,” Remy said, frustrated. “I’m not that great at it even when I’m in my own goddamned body.”
Finn jerked a thumb between himself and Valic. “You’re better than the two of us.”
“I’ve never tried channeling it through her before. It might not work.”
“Lulling humans is a great deal easier than lulling demons or celestials.” Finn’s voice was eloquent with condescension, lashes a gold-and-black flicker as he blinked.
“It would simplify things if you could ask the priests or people in the street to confirm he’ll show or whether they’ve seen him without having to observe the niceties.
I thought this is what you wanted. Now you’re too hesitant to even try? ”
Remy opened my mouth to argue but Valic cut him off. “She’s with me.” Catching me by my long white sleeve, he towed me down the gentle grassy slope which fed into a white staircase set into the side of the hill.
“Find out what you can. Meet me by the field in two hours,” Finn called, but when I turned to look back at him, he’d disappeared. The earth where he’d stood was smoking.