Page 22 of A Serpent in the Garden

Without the sun, it was difficult to judge the hour, but it had to be just after midday when I realized we’d not passed a stand of trees in some time. They still grew here; monstrous, half-dead looking figs that looked like they’d been struck by lightning, though they stood much further apart, wide open oceans of grass between them.

This section has fewer trees because the creatures here are vulnerable to wood, It said. Succubi and incubi need both their eyes to hypnotize. Blinding them with a stake can buy you a few minutes.

All seemed darker here, oppressive. The air pulsed with electricity, the way it did before a storm.

Watch your step. It trained my eyes on heaps of disturbed dirt scattered across the ground. You don’t want to wake anything.

The mounds had the look of unmarked, hastily dug graves. Graves excavated with fingernails, not spades.

You’ll find little cover for a while, It said. There are very few places to hide in the plains.

I never thought I’d miss the foggy labyrinth of the wood.

The upside was that Serich and I were able to move faster than before, unencumbered by trees. The downside was the stark lack of useful cover. We could be seen at a distance by anything that might happen by. If diurnal creatures dwelled here, we would be in trouble.

Nearly as troubling was that the landscape never seemed to change. I felt we’d passed the same plains of dirt and grass, the same twisted, diseased-looking fig trees, over and over and over again. Every gasp of wind sounded like wicked snickering. The shadows and the hungry teeth of the wood may have been well behind, but still it felt like eyes watched us.

Is this Hell? I wondered dully, after hours of the same scenery. Have I already died?

If this were Hell, you’d know it.

Then this had to be the In Between, where you wound up if neither Hell nor Heaven wanted you. We don’t even seem to be getting anywhere, I thought desperately. It’s as if we’ve stood still all this time.

I’m sure that’s part of the design. It shifted uncomfortably in my head and said, almost to himself, It’s like it’s changed, gotten bigger since the last time I was here. It shouldn’t have taken so long to cross it. Maybe it stretches when it senses humans, maybe it’s grown since I left—

But where will we spend the night? When I’d suggested to Serich that we might have to strap ourselves into trees, it had been a last resort. Now it seemed it would be our only option. Will we happen upon some cover eventually?

I don’t know.

That there was something It didn’t know about this place frightened me more than I could articulate. I said nothing in response, but I couldn’t hide my anguish from him.

Send him back, It said impulsively, dashing my eyes toward Serich, who moved beside me red-faced and stiff-legged. Send him back to the cave. He can make it if he runs. Tell him to spend the night there and go back to your village at first light. I can give strength to your legs; you’ll run faster on your own. We could make it out of this place in half the time.

He came to help me, I argued. He was there for me when you couldn’t be bothered.

I know. But now he’s a hindrance. He can’t outrun a succubus. He won’t last the night, and by extension you won’t either. You’ll be too concerned with helping him than listening to what I tell you. Don’t you want him to live? He’ll never make it, but you might. You can’t fight a succubus with steel. All you can do is run.

“Its saying you ought to head back to the cave,” I told Serich, my breathing ragged around the words. “That you could save yourself, and It and I can run faster, maybe make it through this place in half the time.”

“And you believe It?” Serich asked, his voice delicately inflected.

“He’s lent strength to my legs before—”

“No,” Serich huffed shortly, staring straight ahead, eyes on the unchanging horizon. “Can’t you read between Its lines? Do you believe you’ve no use for me? That I’m slowing you down? It is a demon, Desideria. Demons lie. It wants me gone for some ulterior motive. I’m not leaving you.”

“He says you’ll die if you don’t go,” I said helplessly. “I don’t want that, I don’t want you to die on my account.”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t put a whole lot of stock in the dire warnings of a demon.”

Tell this sack of meat that he’ll be— It started before I cut him off.

I will tell him no such thing.

It choked out a disgusted laugh. Then you’re as stupid as he is.

We started running flat-out eventually, running with a sort of desperate stamina, bogged down by our satchels as the sky brewed darkly above us. My sides were full of screaming stitches, my throat in flames. We didn’t stop until it seemed as though we’d passed no graves for miles, and eventually we veered left and collapsed at the knotty, contorted roots of a fig tree.

Serich’s face was red as the setting sun when he tipped his head back toward the sky. “It’s no use going any farther,” he panted. “It’ll be dusk soon.”