“The hounds have already accepted them andgranted them entrance. You’ll let them pass or I’ll unleash thehounds,” Kobal warned.
As one, all of the skelleins rose around theroom. Whatever smiles there had been vanished in an instant and awave of menace washed from them. They may look as flimsy as askeleton, but I sensed the power emanating from them. If thosebones decided to charge us, I had a feeling their sharp littlefingers could tear the flesh from our body in seconds.
Kobal braced his legs further apart when hestepped protectively in front of me. His lips pulled back in asneer to reveal all four of his fangs as they lengthened inpreparation for a fight.
“Easy, Kobal,” Corson counseled. “They’re onour side in this.”
“What must be done to enter?” I blurted. “Ican do it!”
“No,” Kobal said.
“She’s willing,” one of them saideagerly.
“I will do it for her,” Kobal said.
“Not allowed!” a bunch of them chorused.
“You already have entry. They must pass thetest on their own!” others cried.
I felt like a bouncing ball as I tried tofollow the voices erupting from everywhere at once.
“Wait!” I yelled to be heard over the growingcacophony filling the room. “Tell me what I have to do first!”
“You’re not doing it,” Kobal stated.
“What is it?”
“You must answer a simple riddle,” a skelleinwith a cane replied as he twirled it in the air before bouncing itstip off the ground.
“Yes, yes a riddle,” others said eagerly andfinished off their drinks. The empty mugs were quickly refilled bythe skellein with the daisy hat.
“Just a simple riddle or four if the otherscare to join you,” the one who had been speaking with Kobal saidwith a smile.
I had an extremely bad feeling about this.“I’m not very good at riddles,” I admitted.
“Oh no!” some of them yelled.
“You must be!”
“Would be a pity to fail.”
“It’s the only way you’ll pass.”
I could barely keep up with the livelyconversations, so I kept my gaze focused on the skellein with thecane who stood before me. “What happens if I get it wrong?”
“We take a pound of your flesh.”
My stomach churned sickeningly. “I’d neversurvive that!”
“That’s the point, for a human,” another onesaid. “For a demon, we take the pound and when they’ve regenerated,we ask another riddle. If they get it right, they pass. If they getit wrong, we take another pound.Noone leaves until they get a riddle right once they have agreed toit. Some have stayed for years and others have been denied passageby the hounds after.”
Erin’s hand flew to her mouth, Vargas kissedhis cross again, and I’m pretty sure I probably looked about asgreen as Hawk did following that statement.Yearsof torture at the hand of the beer-swilling,piano-playing skeletons would be Hell on Earth.
“She’snevergoing to do it,” Kobal declared.
“Then she won’t pass. If you attack, we willfight and someone’s flesh will be taken,” the skellein replied.“But we are allies, Kobal. We do not wish to fight with our kingand fellow guardian. We have no choice in this matter. These lawswere established hundreds of thousands of years ago byyourancestors and you are the onewho left us here to protect this gate. Anyone looking to passthrough must complete the steps and this is one of them.”
“Sheis yourqueen,” Kobal said. “She will rule beside me.”
