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“The Room of Thirteen Doors? The Angra want it?”
“The book implies that it was the Angra who built it. It’s their crossroads. They lost control of the key when God, your friend Muninn and his ilk, banished them. In the long aeons since, the key ended up in Hell.”
“And then it ended up in me.”
The Shonin wipes his cup on his torn robes.
“I wonder if Azazel knew what the key really was.”
Things are falling into place. My whole past.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. Hell, he might have started the whole Angra cult in Hell. He put the key in me to keep it from his enemies. Used to me to kill off all the Hellions who fought him on his plan to commit mass suicide.”
The Shonin looks at me with his big empty eye sockets.
“He invented you. He invented Sandman Slim to destroy the universe.”
I feel a little queasy inside, like when I was looking at Mason’s game board.
“It would probably have worked if Mason hadn’t killed Alice.”
“Now Mason has brought down the Angra to destroy us all. And he used you to do it. Quite a revenge.”
“Mason was right all along. He was the better magician.”
“That’s all you have to say, fatty? No bluster? Nothing clever?”
“How do I stop it?”
He sets the teacup on the desk. There’s a fine crack running from the lip to the base.
“Lock yourself in the Room and blow your brains out so no one else can use it. You can’t stop the Angra from coming, but you can stop them from spreading across the universe.”
“As long as I can burn all of creation with the Mithras, I’m not offing myself.”
I look up at the rain coming down through the ceiling. The clouds open to reveal the stars beyond. The twinkly bastards look kind of ominous to me right now.
“On the other hand, your stupid idea gives me a good one.”
“Tell me,” says the Shonin.
“Later. If you eat all your vegetables. Right now I need all the protective wards and sealing charms you have.”
The Shonin waves a bony hand at me.
“Idiot. You can’t seal the Room. You need it to fight the Angra. Or are you going to barricade yourself in and let the rest of us die?”
“Crawl back in your tomb, Imhotep. As long as Candy is alive, you assholes get to live. But I need something else now that Mason is dead.”
“What?”
“I stopped the 8 Ball from letting all the Angra in. That was a mistake. The only way to beat them is to get them here. How do I do it?”
“I won’t help you do something that insane.”
I reach across him to the vials sitting on his desk.
“Fine. I’ll drink the rest of your damned book. I hope it doesn’t kill me before I find what I need.”
