protruded through his skin, and boils and pitted scars of long dried-out pustules littered his body
from the base of his neck to the backs of his knees. As the Demon began to jerk and tremble, she
ran her eyes down his body, noting every sore, the knotted, swollen joints of his limbs, and the
withered, browned genitals shrunken up against his pubic bone.
StarLaughter had once considered Raspu a potential lover, but the sight of his naked body
dissuaded her completely. Even Drago, as boring as he had been, at least had a body worth
caressing.
If Raspu was aware of StarLaughter‘s caustic scrutiny, he gave no indication of it. His
attention was completely on the waters of the Lake of Life before him. He stepped towards it,
rocking violently on his feet as his muscles continued to spasm. His arms and hands jerked in a
violent dance by his side, seeming completely beyond his control, and his mouth had dropped
open to allow his swollen, reddened tongue to loll down almost as far as the bony bulge of his
chin.
As a foot touched the waters, Raspu jerked even more violently, and tipped back his
head, screaming and wailing. StarLaughter‘s eyes widened, and she glanced at the other
Demons. They watched with beatific expressions on their faces, as if it were the greatest wonder
they had ever beheld.
StarLaughter looked back at Raspu. The Demon had walked into the Lake far enough that
the waters lapped at his thighs. He still jerked and spasmed, so uncontrollably StarLaughter
wondered how he kept upright, and a thin shriek now came from his mouth. Dribble streamed
down to connect chin to chest. StarLaughter‘s mouth twisted in repulsion…
And the waters of the Lake began to churn.
She stared. It was as if Raspu had infected the waters with some foul pestilence. The
water bubbled, not as if it had been heated to a boil, but as if its surface was erupting in great
pustules, sending spurts of fetid steam into the warm air.
―Look,‖ Sheol said, and she pointed to a spot some twenty paces before Raspu.
Here the water had formed into a gigantic pustule some five paces across that, having
burst, had then solidified as its effluence drained from it. In the centre, a scarred and
pock-marked walkway sloped downwards.
―Bring your child, Queen of Heaven,‖ Sheol said, and she dismounted from her horse and
walked past Raspu, still standing jerking and keening, and waded through the water towards the
horrific opening.
StarLaughter found the journey downwards somewhat loathsome. It reinforced her
growing belief that she must really find some more suitable companions. Perhaps when her son
was fully grown…
She followed Sheol towards the opening, and was followed in turn by Mot, Barzula and
Rox. As Rox passed Raspu, the Demon of Pestilence abruptly halted both jerking and wailing,
and fell into quiet step behind Rox.
The walkway sloped down at a gentle gradient, but StarLaughter found the going
difficult.
The entire surface was slicked with something thick and fetid, and StarLaughter did not
want to dwell on what it might be.
―Sheol?‖ StarLaughter called to the Questor several paces before her. As she spoke,
StarLaughter had to fight to repress a gag caused by a sudden mouthful of the putrid air. It
smelled ( tasted) as if a herd of diseased cattle had chosen to die in this place…several weeks previously.
―Yes, Queen of Heaven?‖
―Will…‖ StarLaughter fought her stomach again, and barely managed to suppress her
nausea. Now they had descended well below the level of the water, they were surrounded by
close, suppurating walls of sickly pink. It was almost as if they walked through a tunnel of
corrupted flesh. ―Will the Enemy attempt to trap us here as they did at Cauldron Lake?‖
―Undoubtedly, StarLaughter. But I do not think they will have much success at—‖
Something lunged out of the floor of the walkway and sunk sharp teeth into Sheol‘s
ankle. She shrieked, and stumbled back into StarLaughter and her son.
A bright blue fish clung to her flesh.
Sheol lifted her foot and tried to shake the fish free, but it clung tenaciously.
―StarLaughter!‖ she shrieked, fury more evident in her voice than fear.
But encumbered as she was by her heavy son, StarLaughter could do nothing. She shook
her head, stumbling out apologies, her eyes fixed on the rivulets of blood running from Sheol‘s
ankle, and eventually Mot was forced to push past her and lean down to Sheol‘s aid.
But as his hands wrapped themselves about the fish, ten more wriggled out of the
suppurating floor of the walkway, and snatched at Mot‘s hands.
He lurched back, shouting, but several managed to sink their teeth into his hands, and he
waved them about, hitting StarLaughter in the face with both his and the fishes‘ loathsome flesh.
Something dropped down from the close ceiling above them, and snagged in
StarLaughter‘s hair. She screamed, her arms at first loosening, then tightening about her son just
before he dropped from her grasp. He was too heavy for her to hold in only one arm, so she
could do nothing as she felt… something… chew amongst her hair, trying to find her scalp.
Raspu grabbed at the thing for her, and flung it far down the walkway. It was an eel, as
bright blue as the fish that yet clung to both Sheol and Mot.
He grabbed at the fish clinging to Mot, tore them off—causing Mot to shriek in pain as he
did so—and flung them likewise. Then he bent to the remaining fish still chewing grimly on
Sheol‘s ankle.
―There!‖ he said, as that, too, went slithering down the walkway. As they watched, all the
fish and the eel wriggled back into the floor and disappeared. ―I don‘t think that we will be—‖
He halted, transfixed with horror. Slithering up the tunnel of rotting flesh towards them
was a massive fish-creature, its girth almost filling the entire tunnel. Its mouth yawned open,
revealing row after row of razored triangular teeth, disappearing into a dark red gullet that
eventually shaded into black in its considerable depth.
It roared, and every one of the Demons shrieked and clambered backwards.
Only StarLaughter remained still and silent, staring at the creature as if transfixed with
horror.
Something grabbed at her, and she jumped.
It was Sheol, who had overcome her own fear to fetch StarLaughter.
No, not StarLaughter, but the child. Sheol tried to jerk it out of StarLaughter‘s arms, but
StarLaughter‘s grip tightened automatically.
―No!‖ she cried, suddenly finding her voice.
―Give him to me!‖ Sheol screamed, tugging with all her might. ―Die if you want, fool,
but give him to me!‖
The huge fish-creature was now only fifteen paces away, slithering closer with every
lurch of its body.
― Give him to me! ‖
―No!‖ StarLaughter cried desperately, and the two females rocked back and forth, arms
and hands locked tight about the child, pulling him to and fro.
The child paid no attention, its blank eyes fixed unsighted on a spot in the ceiling above.
―I am his mother!‖ StarLaughter shouted and gave a final, desperate heave.
She was far, far too successful.
Sheol‘s grip suddenly gave way, and StarLaughter fell backwards, completely losing her
footing. She fell straight into the yawning chasm of the fish-creature‘s mouth.
All StarLaughter saw was Sheol‘s horrified eyes, and the other Demons rushing up
behind her, and then she felt the clamminess of the creature‘s tongue, and felt the first rows of
teeth slice open the skin of her back and buttocks.
Agony swept through her body, and StarLaughter screamed once, and then again, and
then a third time.
The creature‘s jaws snapped closed about her.
There was blackness, and more pain, and then a period of unknowingness, and when
StarLaughter opened her eyes again she saw the Demons standing over her, Sheol cradling the
child in her arms.
StarLaughter scrambled to her feet, wiping her hands free of slime on her gown, where
new and more putrid stains had added themselves to the rust brown blood that already streaked
the once fine, pale-blue gown.
―Give him to me,‖ she cried, and snatched the child from Sheol‘s arms.
Sheol shrugged. ―You tripped and fell,‖ she said, ―and I saved the child.‖
StarLaughter glanced behind her. The fish-creature had disappeared. ―Where is it?‖
―The Enemy‘s attack was a delusion only,‖ Raspu said. His naked body was streaked
with filth. ―Hardly worthy even of the term ‗trap‘. What remains of their power fades fast, and I
doubt we shall be overly troubled by them again.‖
StarLaughter stared at him. His words were bravado only, and StarLaughter had the
horrible feeling the Enemy—or whatever remained of them—was toying with them only.
―Shall we go?‖ Sheol said, raising an eyebrow at StarLaughter. ―Your son‘s breath
awaits.‖
They descended in silence, StarLaughter now at the back of the line, her arms
possessively tight about her son. Her misadventure had made her realise the Demons cared only