Company of Angels 02 - The Demoness of Waking Dreams

quiet.
    “I have always hated this factory just as much as I hate the gallery,” she said, shuddering as she tugged Jude through the storefront. She led him to a pair of large iron doors, framed by an archway of colorful mosaic tile. She knocked, and a burly Gatekeeper hauled one of the doors open just an inch.
    “Yes?” he growled, peering through the crack.
    “I need to speak to the maestro,” she announced. “Tell him Luciana Rossetti is here.”
    The master glassblower appeared in the doorway a moment later. He was a ruddy-faced man dressed in a heavy apron with spatters of red. He frowned slightly, but bowed and said, “ Baronessa, what a surprise to see you here. We never thought you would grace us with a visit.”
    We never thought you would stoop to enter this place, was his unspoken message.
    Every demon in Venice knew that Luciana Rossetti disliked the heat and the noise of the fornace. That she avoided it because of its association with the glass gallery, and with Carlotta. But also, in Luciana’s eyes, the killings that went on here lacked sophistication.
    It had nothing to do with the art of glassblowing.
    But with the maestro and how his Gatekeepers operated.
    I have no choice, she knew. I have to finish this task. For Brandon.
    “I have a very special guest with me,” she said, ignoring the maestro’s frown and its subtext. “He deserves to have a unique experience of Venice. One I know only you can give him.”
    “In that case, please enter,” said the maestro.
    “You’ll want to be fully conscious for this,” she said to Jude. Snapping her fingers in front of the human’s face, she brought him out of his mental haze.
    He blinked several times, trying to process his surroundings. The maestro towered over them, grinning in anticipation. The Gatekeeper hauled open the iron doors with a great screech, and a sweltering gust of hot air blew through them. Jude wobbled backward a step, knocked off balance by the heat.
    And by what he saw inside.
    The demoness pushed him through the doorway, into the factory. The raised metal platform on which they stood overlooked the factory floor. Hundreds of Gatekeepers stopped to look up at them. A hive of activity at the ovens froze momentarily as the demons stopped to see who had just come in. Some of them nodded to Luciana, acknowledging her entrance.
    Then, as abruptly as the workers had stopped, they returned to their activities.
    Some of the Gatekeepers were blowing glass. They stood at the burning ovens with their glowing-hot blowpipes, rods and tongs. Many stood shaping and twisting bubbles of glass into ornate sculptures, vases and stemware.
    Others were forging weapons. Making various kinds of swords and knives, they heated the metal in the ovens and pounded it with massive hammers. The ring of the blows echoed in the large space of the factory.
    Still other demons were busy burning things. A bloody mass of severed limbs—some animal, some human—stood heaped in the middle of the factory floor in a great pool of blood. A charred smell, the scent of seared flesh, hung in the air.
    “In the traditional fornaci of Murano, in the ordinary glass factories, the ovens burn twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,” the maestro explained. “Human glass masters begin work at six in the morning and stop at four in the afternoon. However, we demon artisans work all hours. Here, the fires are kept burning for many different purposes, as you can see.”
    Jude’s eyes went so wide Luciana wondered whether they might pop out of his head.
    “Normally, the openings of the ovens are relatively small, only a few feet in circumference. We have modified these ovens somewhat, you’ll notice,” said the maestro.
    Large enough to fit a human body. Or several, if need be, Luciana noted.
    “Much of our operations are still in experimental stages,” the maestro said. “We are preparing for what is to come. There is so much yet to accomplish. When it is finished, our humble fornace will be one more step toward reconstructing hell on earth.”
    Luciana leaned in close to Jude and whispered, “And guess what? You’re going to be a part of it.”
    The human screamed. A very bad idea.
    Hundreds of eyes swiveled back toward the platform. The demons had been relatively disinterested in the pair’s arrival. But a screaming, terrified human was entirely different. Entirely more interesting.
    “Well, now, Jude, it seems you have caught the attention of our