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Looking down into the crevasse, Sebastian saw nothing but a black void with a few fire lights twinkling way down at the bottom of it. He drew back from the edge as a wave of vertigo overcame him. It was so strange to be simultaneously repelled by and attracted to the depths.
“I can’t go down there,” he said.
“It’s frightening the first time,” Kinsey said. “But it’s right cozy once you go down.”
“I won’t go down. I might not ever be able to come up again. I might be trapped forever in the dark.”
“You do not have to go down,” Lucan said.
“Ah, but he does,” Kinsey said.
“He does not.”
“He does, otherwise he’ll be exposed to the other brigands and outriders of the new king. You think they won’t comb these forests? You think they’re just charging about in packs? After all the stealth the DK has demonstrated thus far, sending spies and agents into the very heart of the royal house of Force, you think they won’t comb all potential escape routes? They’ve probably already spoken to the man who sold you that outfit. They know what way you went. Maybe they covered your tracks when they rode by earlier. Or maybe they already had your scent and aren’t worried.”
“If they are following us, then they will follow us here too. And then they’ll find the horses, and this hole, and they’ll climb down and…”
Kinsey snapped his fingers. In an instant, the ravine and the horses alike disappeared. In their place was a still glade of beautiful grasses and trees with birds flitting about. The last vestiges of night had turned instantly to day. There was no sign of the perpetual twilight crevasse.
Sebastian gasped and clapped his hands in an instinctive, intrinsic reaction to a display of incredible power. “An illusion! I’ve never seen an illusion before!”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ve seen plenty, boy. You’ve just not known what you were looking at. You’ll learn much underground.”
Sebastian turned to look at Lucan for direction.
Lucan’s expression was hard to read, closed and stony because of the presence of brigands. He caught Sebastian’s eye and nodded slightly. That was all Seb was going to get, apparently.
He remained hesitant, the depths creating a horror inside him. He had the feeling that if he agreed to go down there something terrible would happen to him and he would never be the same.
“I’m not going down there. I’ll stay here with the horses.”
“You’re going down, son,” Kinsey insisted.
“He’s not.” Lucan stepped forward to back Sebastian up. “He doesn’t want to go. He’s not your prisoner, nor your possession. You have his jewels, and we thank you for your intervention. You have saved our lives, but the prince has chosen not to descend today.”
“Then let us drop all pretense at illusion.”
Kinsey snapped his fingers again. In an instant he was no longer a dark-eyed bandit. Standing before Sebastian was a dark-eyed devil, surrounded by demons. The forest glade was not green and verdant, it was burned and reeked of sulphur. Trees were blackened and twisted, and red-hot lava pooled in the ravine below.
“Whoa!” Sebastian clapped his hands again, once more applauding what he regarded as a magic trick. “Very good! What other landscapes can you manage?”
“Oh, you are a sweet, stupid thing,” Kinsey said, his dark eyes flashing red with demonic flame. His hair flowed with fire, his skin bright red and his features chiseled. He was certainly a handsome devil. Sebastian was both impressed and afraid, not to mention offended.
“These are not tricks, sire,” Lucan said, taking hold of Sebastian’s hand. Seb felt Lucan’s fingers wrap around his, holding him tight.
“What do you mean, not tricks? First, it looked like a ravine, then a glade, now we are surrounded by demons…”
“We’ve been surrounded by demons this entire time, Sebastian.” Lucan’s fingers tightened on Sebastian’s even further, as if the knight were afraid Sebastian might somehow slip from his grasp. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”
“But you don’t got him,” Kinsey said. “I’ve come to claim what’s mine, I have, and I intend to claim it.”
Sebastian felt Lucan grip him even tighter still, and wondered if perhaps the knight felt he couldn’t protect him from this. Knights were very good with battles, but when it came to devils… Sebastian did not know if there was anything Lucan could do.
Sebastian now understood very well why he had felt trepidation. He was at the verge of Hell itself. He had been tricked, just as he had suspected he would be. He had been misled and fooled and now he was going to be consumed in some terrible way. It was all quite frightening and very annoying.
He looked the devil in his eyes and responded calmly. “If you want to claim a soul, claim my mother’s. I believe it is going spare at the moment,” he said.
