“Exactly,” Desh said. “You got no idea what’s normal these days. I didn’t either since I was stuck in the Lowest Hell for all of my previous incarceration, but I’ve done my time scraping shit out of water. I know how bleak that life is, how it gets so hopeless that licking warlock boots on Earth starts to look rosy by comparison. Hells work used to be the most kicked-down a demon could get, real curl-up-and-wait-to-die shit. When they chained me to the line this time, though, it wasdifferent. People were talking. They were buzzing, aboutyou.”
He pointed a bony finger at Bex, who scowled. “What do you mean they were talking? I haven’t heard any demon but us say a word since we got here.”
“Just ’cause we ain’t blabbing in the open doesn’t mean we don’t talk,” Desh insisted as his face lit up with a grin that wasn’t smarmy or mocking for once. It was real, the only genuine smile Bex had ever seen from him.
“Word of your war on Heaven’s gotten around,” he explained. “The attack on the Anchor was still going when I got tossed down here, but by the time they finished my processing and stuck me on a chain, the whole collection floor was going mad ’bout the rebel queen who’d beaten Gilgamesh’s army and stolen his Anchor Market. To hear folks down here tell it, you’d killed five princes and taken over the entire state of Washington as a new homeland for demonkind. It was obvious crazy talk, and it never would’ve gone anywhere if Gilgamesh hadn’t locked down all the Anchors.”
Desh’s grin got even wider. “That was the smoking gun. The longer Gilgamesh kept his doors locked, the more folks down here started saying the Eternal King was afraid of you.They said you were Ishtar’s vengeance come at last. The unkillable Queen of Wrath who’d arrive any day to destroy the Hells and set us all free! It’s been all anyone could talk about for weeks, and then, like a miracle, here you are.”
“But I’m not here,” Bex argued, pointing at her hornless head. “I lost, and I’mnothere to free the Hells. I’m only on this side to get my powers back.”
That had been the plan from the start, but saying as much in front of Desh felt like a shameful confession. Bex was already holding her breath for the moment the hopeful smile fell off his face, but the fear demon just gave her a stubborn glare.
“You think some oversized head ornaments are the only thing that makes you a queen?” he demanded. “They’re just the signposts, luv. There ain’t no shame in getting shot down when you’re taking on the Holy City like a one-woman army. We felt you shaking the place all the way down here! Damn warlocks were pissing themselves in fear.”
He paused to savor the happy memory then turned back to Bex with his orange eyes shining brighter than ever. “Look at it like that, and the biggest shame’s on Gilgamesh. He sets himself to be this infallible king, but even after he stole your horns, you’re still here. You’rein his Hellsgiving his warlocks the slip!That’sthe Bex I signed up to follow. That’s why I scrambled to grab you just now even though I knew Lys would slit my throat for it. Because crown or no crown, you’ve never stopped fighting the good fight, and this time, I intend to do my part.”
Bex was horrified by the time he finished, because Desh was looking at her now the way Lys did, like he actually believed. Bex didn’t know how to respond to that, because shewasn’twhat he said. She’d sneaked into the Hells as a thief, not a savior, but Desh was grinning at her like she was about to strike a match and burn this whole place to the ground. Bex was stillscrambling for a way to explain how impossible that was when Lys burst out laughing.
“Well, well, well,” they said, rising up on the tips of their clawed feet so they could loom over Desh’s smaller human form with the smuggest expression Bex had ever seen. “Looks like someone owes me an apology. I was right, wasn’t I?”
The Desh Bex remembered would’ve had a rude remark for that, but this Desh just nodded.
“Yes, you were,” he admitted humbly. “And I owe you a lot more than an apology, but I hope you’ll take one anyway.”
Lys looked like they were getting ready to hold this over him forever, but then Desh bent forward in a bow, dropping his wickedly curved black horns so close to the ground that Bex was amazed he didn’t fall over.
“I’m sorry, Lysanae,” he said in a solemn voice. “I thought I was doing the right thing when I tried to end Bex’s cycle of reincarnation, but I was a damn idiot. I thank Ishtar every day that you and that witch boy stopped me. I nearly committed the worst crime of my life, and I am so, so grateful to you for staying my hand. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I hope you’ll accept me back at your side in the fight to come.”
By the time he finished, Lys was in shock. They stood there, speechless, for almost thirty seconds, before their lips curved back into a smile.
“Grovel accepted,” they said, reaching down to pat Desh’s lowered head. “But you’re begging forgiveness from the wrong demon. Bex is the one you tried to backstab, so get down on your knees this time and apologize properly to your queen.”
“There’s no need for that,” Bex said quickly. “I wasn’t even there when he tried to kill me.”
Lys harrumphed, but Bex had already put her hand on Desh’s shoulder to pull him back up. “Your apology is accepted,” she told him. “And thanks again for getting us out of that mess.”
“Least I could do for the Savior Queen,” he replied with a grin.
Bex winced. “Is that what they’re calling me?”
“They’re calling you all sorts of things,” Desh told her excitedly, counting off on his black-nailed fingers. “We’ve got Savior Queen, Vengeance of Ishtar, Gilgamesh’s Executioner, Hope of the Hells, and those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. I tried telling ’em not to get their hopes up, but when the order came down to send all the constructs upstairs ’cause you were melting the cannons off the Holy City’s walls, even I had nothing to say.”
Lys snorted. “You? Speechless? That I’d like to see.”
“There’s only so many times a man can be proven wrong before he’s forced to change his tune,” Desh admitted with a shrug. “I wasn’t the only one, either. By the time we heard the all-mighty voice of Gilgamesh announce that he was sparing the Queen of Wrath’s life as a favor to his new prince, every demon down here was already convinced it was a cover-up. Even the war demons were whispering that you must’ve given him the slip, and now here you are with a strike force in the very heart of the Hells! What else is there to say after that except ‘All hail the conquering queen’?”
“That’s too far in the other direction,” Bex argued, holding up the severed stump of her right hand. “I did get away, but as you can see, I’m not going to be conquering anything any time soon.”
“You’re still here, though,” Desh argued stubbornly. “That means the rumors can’t be all wrong. I mean, just look at where we’re standing!”
It looked like a dusty, forgotten maintenance tunnel to Bex, but Lys’s amber eyes lit up like Desh had just pointed out a miracle.
“You’reright!” they said, whirling around. “These are the Founders’ Tunnels!”
“The what?” asked Iggs.
“The Founders’ Tunnels,” Desh repeated. “Buncha cracks and crawlspaces dug eons ago by the first generation of demon slaves. The stories say it happened right after the war, before Gilgamesh perfected the art of keeping us down. They were trying to dig their way to freedom. Never made it, of course, but their old tunnels still make a handy hiding place for slaves who slip the chain. That’s why they’re normally packed with golden constructs who kill on sight, but—”
