A Long Spoon Read Free Page A

go?”
    *   *   *
    The tunnel reverberated to the sound of one gentleman walking in the company of four ladies wearing heels. This was, coincidentally, the sound created by one necromancer walking in the company of a spider devil. The latter paused and sniffed the air.
    â€œWhere exactly are we heading, Johannes?” asked Zarenyia, using his forename (calling it his “Christian name” was never going to be accurate, nor wise) lightly and without permission. “I smell…” She inhaled again. “Is that chaos ?”
    Cabal stopped further down the tunnel and looked back at her. “It is. You have acute senses.”
    â€œWell, I am a devil. Certain things…” She regarded him pensively and a little apprehensively. “I am beginning to get the impression that I should have asked a few more questions before agreeing to this expedition. Questions like, why exactly do you want me along, and where are we going?”
    Cabal nodded. “Those would have been wise questions to ask.”
    â€œI’m a little impetuous at times. I shall ask them now.”
    â€œI need you as guide and protection, simply that.”
    â€œThat’s sensible, given that we’re entering Hell. Not that I’m so very familiar with the Abyss. That is where we’re going, isn’t it? Nowhere else smells like that.”
    â€œWe are,” said Johannes Cabal, and no more.
    â€œHell,” said Zarenyia, “is an orderly place. Rules and regulations. Hierarchies and so forth. The Abyss is a pit of chaos. We don’t like it very much because of that. Terrible place for a picnic. My point is, your Luan Da simply can’t be in there. The chaos would have destroyed him long since.”
    â€œVery true, madam…”
    â€œPlease, call me Zarenyia.”
    â€œâ€¦if he was exposed to pure chaos for any length of time, his soul would have become attenuated and eventually dispersed. There is, however, one place…”
    â€œNo!” Seeing a devil distressed is a rare occurrence. “We can’t go there! If Lucifer finds out…”
    â€œI thought you were a free spirit, Madam Zarenyia? The infernal embodiment of footloose and fancy free?”
    â€œThat does not give me carte blanche to go running around in Lucifer’s grandest mistake! It is absolutely forbidden!”
    â€œIs it?” Cabal said it lightly.
    â€œYes! Well, no, not exactly forbidden, he didn’t actually say that, but he dumped it in the Abyss, and his displeasure was very…”
    â€œHell is an orderly place,” said Cabal. “Rules and regulations. Do any such rules exist to forbid entrance to the Abyss?”
    â€œNo! But nobody would be insane enough…”
    â€œDo any regulations declare Pandæmonium off-limits?”
    â€œNo. No, they don’t.” She smiled suddenly. “Can’t really complain then, can he?”
    â€œAssuming he even finds out. I certainly shan’t be telling him.”
    They strolled along the tunnel a little further in a companionable silence. Then Zarenyia said, “I’ve never actually been in Pandæmonium, darling. You realise that, don’t you? It was dropped into the Abyss before I was even born.”
    Cabal frowned. “I shall admit some familiarity would have been useful, but that is a small matter. I am more perplexed at the idea of a devil being born. I had it in my mind that you and your kin are essentially eternal.”
    â€œOh, no. For the originals, the fallen angels, yes, and there are a lot of them. But the rest of us were spawned from the sins of the world, manifested first as scraps of corrupt souls…”
    â€œLemures?”
    â€œYou can call them that, but it always makes me think of those sweet things with big eyes that live in Madagascar. Lemures, then. And, slowly, we gain form and personality.”
    â€œThen, once, you were