Needless to say it was a lot harder to fall off a dragon that was kitted out for riding. I’d done some research and knew that most dragons weren’t actually kinds of demons.

This one was, and it sniffed at us suspiciously, but seemed fooled as easily as the imps and the war demons were.

I was starting to get confident. No, I was starting to get cocky, a disease I was rather prone to. At least I was willing to admit it.

I wasn’t as bad as Thor, anyway. But the point is that I was sure we were going to get to our destination without getting caught.

And from the dragon’s back, Hell was oddly beautiful. I didn’t see people being tormented by being thrust into pits. But I did see damned souls. I saw them shuffling across the landscape as if held by invisible chains.

As if what really held them wasn’t pits of fire or demons with whips – although there were a couple of those.
As if what really held them here was within them, inside them. Maybe it was guilt. Maybe it was just knowing they were damned.

And I knew there was nothing I could do for them. Nothing except protect Kanesha, who seemed to be shining with an odd light in this place.

Hopefully the demons couldn’t see that. Hans had it too, in a slightly different way.

The dragon banked and we saw ahead of us a city in Hell. And it too was beautiful in a twisted, dark way. I could see that beauty and I could sense the seduction of power over those souls.

Even the power to free them. “Kanesha. Do not let me go with him.”

I couldn’t explain the temptation to her. I only knew I was supposed to have power, could feel the edges of it.

I knew that Tyz’vel might offer me something that would be hard to resist without help.

The city was huge, it was a sort of twisted New York, or no, it had bits of every city in it. Every city that was and had ever been. I saw an upside down Eiffel Tower, I saw a Big Ben with the numbers drawn in blood.

This was the capital of Hell. And then, when we reached it, there was fighting in the streets.

Demons and damned souls alike fighting. Civil war in Hell. “Was this what you expected to find?” I asked Coyote.

“Yes,” the trickster said shortly.

Well. At least it should be easy to sneak through the chaos. And I closed my eyes. I couldn’t affect anything here, but with my eyes closed all I could see was the light from those with me.

I was looking for more light; but then, had Loki not been damned in his own way?

Maybe I couldn’t find him that way.

Maybe that was how Tyz’vel had been able to take him.