Sealed by Fire: The Nature Hunters Academy Series, Book 2 Read online

  Ra kept his face blank. “It’s hell. When is there not unrest?”

  The ferryman made a noise in his throat that might have been mistaken for a chuckle. With a slow thrust of his pole, he shoved the tiny craft back out into the river. The water swirled and gurgled and changed direction again, moving back to its original course. Now, the boat was back in the tunnel, gliding slowly toward the fiery orange passage to the underworld.

  Ra quieted his mind and calmed the emotions that had been building in him since he’d first laid eyes on the human girl named Shelly. He pictured her and tried to recall every detail his eyes had been able to soak in during the brief moments he’d seen her before she was tossed into the underworld. He envisioned her golden locks, the fierce burning in her green eyes, her rose lips pursed in determination, and her delicate chin tilted up in defiance. Her body was long and lean, and the swing she had taken at Tucker showed she had a natural grace.

  Ra needed to hold on to the image of the girl in hopes that he would be able to see her aura once he was in the underworld. He didn’t allow himself to even consider the possibility she was already gone. He rarely let his emotions rule him, and he wasn’t about to start now.

  Ra’s jaw clenched as he said, “Hold on, fierce one.”

  Ra wasn’t sure how long he was on the boat. Time didn’t pass the same in the underworld as it did in the topworld. He was restless, but he refused to allow any outward appearance of vulnerability. Any sign of weakness down here could prove fatal. Instead, he forced himself to project an air of confidence. Evil lurked in the shadows of the underworld, and he knew they were watching. The demon inhabitants here wouldn’t hesitate to use any weakness against him.

  As his eyes roamed over the landscape around him, he couldn’t help but wonder if his ancestors regretted worshiping the god of the underworld above the others. Their faithfulness to Osiris had earned them their place in the afterlife. It was here, in the inferno, that they now spent their eternity. Is this what they had hoped for?

  As dry and as hot as a desert at high noon, Osiris’s domain was not what anyone would consider a paradise. Even for a fire elementalist, it wasn’t a comfortable place to be. Though Ra didn’t burn the way others would, he wasn’t impervious to the heat. His skin was saturated with sweat, and he felt trickles roll down his back.

  Ra heard a noise to his left and glanced out of the corner of his eye. A demon scuttled along the bank. It had been a quiet trip down the River Styx so far though, but Ra held no illusions he’d make the entire trip without confrontation. He breathed easier. The demon wasn’t terribly brave or powerful. He was simply curious as to whether Ra might make easy prey.

  The demon hissed as it crawled forward keeping pace with the slow-moving craft. “Why does one of the living tread here amongst the lost?”

  Ra didn’t acknowledge the creature’s words. Engaging the being in any form of discussion would be futile. Demons were known for their dishonesty and hatred of humans. They were terribly jealous humans were free to live in the upworld while they were stuck in the heat of the Underworld.

  “You think you are too good to speak to me, child?” The demon growled. “You are nothing. Whatever reason you have for being here, I hope you packed a bag because you won’t be leaving.”

  “S-s-shame on you, Bealious,” another demon said as it stepped out from behind a tall dead tree. “Don’t be so disrespectful to our guest. He is one of royal blood, after all.”

  It didn’t surprise Ra that a demon knew who he was. Osiris certainly knew the moment Ra crossed into his domain. And the underworld didn’t receive many visitors, at least not by choice. Word of his presence was sure to have traveled fast.

  “What brings you to our lovely city, Ra, descendant of Ramses?” The second demon asked.

  Ra kept his eyes on the river straight ahead and his mind focused on his purpose. The demons simply wanted a reaction of any kind. In a lot of ways, demons were like three-year-olds. Just a tad more bloodthirsty.

  “How much farther?” Ra asked the guide on the boat.

  “The river decides,” he said. “It might take you all the way to the requested destination, or it might require you to prove yourself worthy.”

  “Worthy of what?” Ra asked.

  “Of Osiris’s permission to be in his realm.”

  As the river moved along, the bank on each side became populated with grey, decaying trees. Soon, more demons began emerging from the dead forest. Some followed. Others simply observed the boat as it passed by. A few more tried to hale the elementalist, but Ra continued to ignore them. The air hung heavy with a red haze. Ra was uneasy, but he wasn’t terribly afraid, at least not of dying. Death was just another part of the journey that was his existence. He was at peace with that, but he would much prefer to take the next leg of the journey later rather than sooner, especially now that he knew Shelly existed.

  Finally, the boat began to slow until it drifted to a stop against the muddy bank. There was a rustling and a whispering amongst the trees. Ra glanced up to see the demons that had been tracking his progress seemed to have disappeared. Ra pulled the short sword from his back and the blade from his thigh and then leaped from the boat onto the bank of the river.

  “Do you know how far I am from the resting place of my ancestors?” he asked the guide.

  “You are on level seven. They are on level three.”

  Looks like Osiris is going to make me prove myself. Ra forced his face to remain neutral though he was growling inside. The guide had brought him to the deepest level of the underworld, the bowels of hell itself. Fantastic.

  “You’ve come at a volatile time, young pharaoh.” Ra turned back to the man in the boat and saw he was no longer a man. At some point along the journey, the figure had quietly returned to his skeletal form. “Osiris is angry with the upworld. He isn’t going to make this easy on you. Good luck, young pharaoh.”

  The guide pushed away from the bank, and the craft began to float away. “Thanks a lot,” muttered Ra.

  He tilted his head back and looked up. It was difficult to see because of all of the smoke, but Ra could make out tall mountains surrounding a deep crag in the earth. He knew that there was a trail that climbed up the steep cliffs, but no doubt it would be fraught with peril.

  Ra took a few steps toward the path in the cliffs before he was stopped in his tracks by a demon that appeared to materialize out of nowhere. It stood a few feet away and stared at him with black, soulless eyes set in sunken sockets. The demon’s skin was black and leathery, and its arms ended in thick appendages that were more claw than hand. It stood upright on hind legs bent like those of a hooved animal. The thing’s neck undulated, and it reminded Ra of a serpent as it shifted from side to side. The motion was matched by a long, spiny tail trailing behind the demon’s body. Sharp, pointy teeth filled its gaping mouth, and a serpent’s forked tongue flicked out every few seconds.

  “You sssshouldn’t have come here, young king,” the demon hissed. Ra was sure if a snake could talk, it would sound very much like the creature in front of him. He thought he recognized the creature from past visits, but he couldn’t place it.

  “I have no quarrel with you. What’s your name again? You do look familiar.”

  The demon spat. “Do you think me such a fool, mortal? You shan’t have my name.”

  Ra shrugged. “Worth a try anyway. Regardless, I have no quarrel with you. I simply want to speak with my ancestors.” He tried to appear non-threatening to the creature but remained on the balls of his feet and kept his muscles coiled like springs, ready to take evasive action if the thing attacked. At the same time, he allowed his senses to try and detect the other demons around him. He knew they were there, even if he couldn’t see them at the moment. What was this one’s name? Ra wracked his brain trying to come up with the information he needed.

  “I care not with who you quarrel,” the demon said. “I only care who passes through my domain and whether they’ve paid the appropr
iate price.”

  “And what is the price?” Ra asked. He was pretty sure he knew the answer, but it was always good to be clear when dealing with beings that were, by nature, full of deceit.

  “We only have one commodity down here, king. You know that.” The demon chuckled.

  Ra shook his head. “My soul is not up for grabs.” He continued to search his memory. Xogorth? No, Xogrenth? No. He was sure it was Xo-something or other.

  “It’s a small price to pay,” said the demon. “I presume you aren’t using it.”

  A picture of Shelly’s face flashed through Ra’s mind. There is only one person with whom I want to share my soul. “What I do with my soul is my business. Now, step aside.”

  “I don’t think so, mortal. Pay the price or turn around and march back to the river. If you think you could make it out alive.”

  “I could pay”—Ra drew his sword from his scabbard—“or I could remove your head from its shoulders”.

  The demon chuckled harder now. “I could have my minions tear you apart limb from limb with the mere snap of my talons.” He held up a clawed hand and made a quick motion. Immediately, light sprang up all around them to reveal a host of demons of all shapes and sizes surrounding them. Ra didn’t take his eyes from the being in front of him. He shifted the sword to his free hand and pointed at the demon.

  “Xozalgan, that’s it. I knew it would come to me.” Ra looked at the horde surrounding him and shook his head with a smug expression. “Well, I guess what they said about you is true. I didn’t believe it personally.”

  The demon made an expression that Ra could only interpret as a frown. “What who says about me?” It growled.

  Ra could barely stifle his grin. Whoever said, “pride cometh before a fall” wasn’t talking about humans.

  “Oh, just … the wizards in the overworld, a few necromancers, no one important, really. It’s nothing … forget I said anything.”

  “What do they say?”

  “I mean, I did hear some rumblings on a couple of the other levels, but as I said, I refused to believe it. Juzran, up on level three, he really said some nasty things about you. I told him he was nuts. He is a demon of envy, after all. You can never believe what they say.”

  “What did he say?” roared Xozalgan.

  “Oh, well, I don’t think I should repeat it,” said Ra. “Not here, you know, in front of your minions.” He made a quick nod to the beings gathered around them.

  “Tell me now, human!”

  “Well, Juzran said, and so did some of the necromancers up top, that Xozalgan was a coward who couldn’t win a fight without his underlings. And he said that you had no business running the seventh level of the underworld when you could barely keep control of a legion of imps.”

  There was an eruption of sound from the gathered demons. Ra couldn’t identify the cacophony of noises, though he might say they sounded a bit like the chatter of a pack of coyotes when they’re on the hunt. Loudest of all was the noise that came from Xozalgan, which sounded something like a feral hog being crushed by a steamroller. Ra winced, and it took all of his willpower not to throw his hands over his ears.

  “And that’s not even the worst thing he said,” continued Ra.

  “What?” Xozalgan hissed.

  “He also said you couldn’t even beat a human in a one-on-one fight to the death.”

  The demon began speaking loudly and quickly in a language even Ra didn’t know, though he heard the word Juzran several times, and Ra got the gist of what Xozalgan was saying. All of a sudden the creature stopped chattering and stared at Ra. “I guess I can prove that idiot wrong right now, can’t I, human.” With another flash of light, a flaming sword appeared in one of the demon’s clawed hands.

  “Wait just a second,” said Ra. “You were going to have me torn limb from limb, remember? Now, you want to fight me one-on-one? Are you sure you can beat me? Maybe Juzran was right about you after all.”

  “I’ll kill you.”

  Ra held up his hands. “Okay, no problem, I’ll fight you,” said Ra. “On one condition, if I win—”

  “You won’t,” said the demon.

  “Of course not. But if I do, you promise me your minions won’t attack me the second I defeat you.”

  “Fine. If you win, they won’t attack you.” More noise came from the assembled horde, and Ra could have sworn this time it sounded like a collective groan of disappointment. “But what do I get when I win?” asked Xozalgan.

  “What you wanted all along: my soul, of course,” replied Ra.

  “Deal!” Xozalgan leaped at Ra as he said the word, bringing his flaming sword down in a wide arc. Ra just had time to bring his own blade up to deflect the blow.

  “That’s not very fair,” said the human.

  The creature shrugged his rounded, leathery shoulders.

  Ra grinned. What did I expect? He began channeling his innate ability to control the element of fire. He sent a bolt of flame down his own sword until it blazed white-hot.

  “Neat trick,” the demon seethed. The chattering and hissing surrounding them increased in intensity as the spectators began to get excited over the possibility of spilled blood. Ra imagined they didn’t really care whose blood it was. Demons were loyal to none but themselves, but they respected power, and Ra hoped they would honor Xozalgan’s command to allow him to pass unarmed … if he won the fight.

  Despite the noise around him, Ra didn’t take his eyes off his opponent. He couldn’t risk allowing the demon to get a single slice on him.

  Despite his hooves, this one is more snake than goat. Ra heard the familiar voice in his mind. His father. The connection to his ancestors was strong here, especially in the lowest level of the underworld. “Thanks,” he muttered. What am I supposed to do with that information? Ra conjured a fireball and hurled it directly at the demon. The projectile hit the being square in the chest and exploded into a shower of sparks. The demon simply laughed and lunged again. It took every ounce of Ra’s effort to fight the thing off, but he parried the demon’s blows one after another.

  “You think your puny little fire spellssss will hurt me, young one?” The demon sneered.

  Mind the tail. The voice spoke again in his head.

  Just then, a spiked whip flailed around from behind the demon. Ra fell flat on his face and felt the wind from the demon’s swinging tail feather his hair. “You could have said something a bit sooner.” Ra growled to himself as he rolled away, narrowly missing the demon’s sharpened descending hooves as it jumped and landed in the spot where Ra had thrown himself down.

  Ra rose to his feet and faced the creature, slowly circling it. Xozalgan spun slowly to match Ra’s pace, careful to keep the human in front of him. Ra feinted forward. The demon recoiled. Then it lunged forward, its sword a flash of lightning. Ra gasped and leaped back, bringing his own sword up to parry as he did so. The point of Xozalgan’s sword missed Ra’s chest by a mere eyelash’s width.

  You never were a good listener. “Not helping,” hissed Ra.

  Not listening, came the voice’s reply. Snake! It practically yelled at him.

  Ra almost smacked his forehead in frustration. Oh, yeah. Snake. And how do you beat a snake? Stay out of striking range, of course.

  Ra took a step back and held his sword ready. Xozalgan lunged again, but Ra was already moving backward.

  “Sssscared to face me, boy?” asked the demon.

  Ra’s face remained passive. He simply held his sword at the ready. The creature struck again and again. Each time, Ra backed away, carefully staying out of range of Xozalgan’s sword and his lashing tail. It wasn’t long before Ra could see the demon visibly begin to slow. Snakes were built for ambushes, not prolonged fights. A fact which Ra was about to exploit. He took another step back, putting the most distance between the two since the fight began.

  “Coward!” roared the demon. “Are all humansss so weak?”

  Ra merely shrugged. He pulled his dagger from its sheath
, took careful aim, and flung it at Xozalgan. The demon lurched to the side, evading the throw. Its tail wasn’t so lucky. Ra’s blade hit the appendage and sliced right through it as the dagger continued its flight, eventually landing on the ground next to the severed piece of tail.

  The demon bellowed it’s steamroller-pig-squeal once more and charged straight at Ra. Many things found in nature are dangerous charging right toward a person. A wild boar, a grizzly bear, even a feral dog. These things can charge, leap, and rend, all in the blink of an eye. Snakes? Not so much. They must remain coiled.

  Xozalgan thrust his sword at Ra, but his strike was slow and clumsy, overextended. Ra simply waited until the last second, spun, pirouetted on his heel, dodged the demon’s blade, and brought down his own in a wide arc on the back of the thing’s neck.

  Xozalgan’s head landed with a thud at Ra’s feet. A noxious cloud exploded from the thing’s neck, which was flailing wildly about as the demon’s body ran around, headless, thrashing in a circle. The horde of demons began screaming, pointing, and hissing. Ra gave Xozalgan’s head a swift kick that flew the head into the crowd.

  He spread his arms out wide and bellowed a primal scream full of rage. “Who else will challenge me?”

  None of the demons volunteered. Xozalgan’s body ran out of steam and crumpled to the ground. Ra wiped the green ichor from the demon’s neck off the blade of his sword and resheathed it. He walked over and retrieved his dagger from where it rested by Xozalgan’s tail. He eyed the crowd of hellish beings before turning and marching off again upon the path toward the next level of the underworld.

  That was expertly done, said the voice in his head.

  “Thank you … I guess,” replied Ra. “But how about being a little quicker and a little more specific with the advice from here on out, huh?”

  The voice chuckled in his mind. You don’t need my help, Ra. You’re more of a warrior than I ever was. And you’ll be even stronger when you have the girl by your side.

  That statement almost brought Ra to a standstill. But he knew it was foolish to hesitate down here, so he kept moving, even while his mind began to race. Where is she?