The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump

The Thunderer not powerful enough?" Tony was a man of direct action. I was afraid he'd take some now: pitching Cholmondeley through a wall, for instance. But he didn't; he just said, "Listen, once upon a time not so long ago a fanner invited the Devil to his daughter's wedding. He didn't really want him there, so he said the Christian God, the Virgin, and a bunch of saints were coming, too. The Devil didn't care.

Then the fanner told him he'd invited Perkunas, and the Devil stayed away - he remembered how the Thunderer had beaten the tar out of him the last time they met. If he can do that, you think he can't handle something like the One Called Night?"

Madame Ruth and Cholmondeley looked at each other.

I'm no psychic, but I could read their minds anyhow: Perkunas had to be one tough, smart Power to have survived so long in the predominantly Christian thecosystem of Europe.

I wouldn't have wanted to run him up against Huitzilopochtii or Huehueteoti, but the One Called Night wasn't a Power on their order of magnitude himself.

The other variable in the equation was that Perkunas hadn't gone down to hell to beat the tar out of the Devil.

Could he do it in the Nine Beyonds, even with the advantage I'd outlined to the virtuous reality practitioners?

I had no idea. I did know I wasn't going to bring it up if the medium and the channeler didn't. I was willing to take any chance at all to go after Judy again; I wanted to persuade them to try again, too, because I couldn't reach the Nine Beyonds without 'em.

"Gentlemen, do please excuse us," Nigel Cholmondeley said. "We shall have to consult with each other on the proper course of action to take."

They went over into the next office, which was Cholmondeleys. Last time they'd done that, I hadn't heard a thing.

Now, Madame Ruth's screeches came right through the wall.

A moment later, so did Cholmondeley's shouts. I was glad they'd identified what they were doing as a consultation. If they hadn't, I'd have called it a brawl.

But everything was sweetness and light when they came back into Madame Ruth's office. Madame Ruth glared at me, scowled at Sudakis, glared at me again. Then she said,

"Let's go."

I gaped. "Just like that?" 'Just like that," she said. "We've got nothing calendared till late this afternoon, and either we'll be able to bring this off by then or else we'll end up stuck in the Nine Beyonds and we won't gotta worry about it. So come on."

On we came. Tony and I flew to the West Hills Temple of Healing each on his own carpet. That sort of thing adds to Angels City's traffic nightmares, but it was more convenient for both of us because we'd be going home in opposite directions. Besides, I didn't want to endanger anybody but me if I fell asleep at the fringe.

We got into the West Hills parking lot within a couple of minutes of each other, then stood around waiting for Cholmondeley and Madame Ruth. I figured they'd be a little while; they had to pack up their gear before they flew over.

Tony smoked a cigarillo while we waited. He'd just ground it out under his heel when their carpet settled itself a couple of spaces over from mine.

"We can go straight up," Cholmondeley said as he hauled the case toward the doorway. "I called ahead to make sure Mistress Ather isn't undergoing any other spiritual therapy at the moment." He - was more efficient than I'd given him credit for.

"Good," I said, from the bottom of my heart, for it also meant they hadn't had to transfer Judy to the IPU or anything like that. They were supposed to call and let you know when they did that, but I'd been away from home all moming. She hadn't got worse, then. Where she was struck me as bad enough.

We went up to the fifth floor together. Waiting for us in Judy's room, along with the constable, was Hr. Murad. He and Madame Ruth exchanged unfriendly looks. I felt like reminding them they were on the same side, but they remembered by themselves. Murad arranged the chairs for the virtuous reality circle before anyone asked him to, and he remembered that circle would have an extra member today.

This time I shifted Judy to the foot of the bed. However much I'd hoped it would, it didn't feel as if I were touching the woman I loved. Her flesh might have been there on the bed, but her essence wasn't.

Nigel Cholmondeley slid the virtuous reality helmet onto her head; As before, he and Madame Ruth took the seats to either side of her. I sat on the other side of Madame Ruth, with Tony between me and Cholmondeley.

From his case, Cholmondeley passed us virtuous reality helmets. The room went black as I slipped mine on. Again as before, a few seconds' undignified fumbling followed, with all of us trying to find our neighbors' hands.

And then we were back in the Nine Beyonds: blacker than black, hot, wet, fetid. Somehow I got the idea the One Called Night knew we were there faster than he had before.