Forest Kingdom Trilogy 3 - Down Among the Dead Men

bait … I don’t know. It’s very close to waking now. Its dreams have shape and power in the real world. And when the creature wakes … the world as we know it will come to an end.”
    She stopped and looked at MacNeil. “You have to kill it, Duncan. Now, before it wakes and comes into its full power. Go down into the dark and kill the Beast. If you can.”
    MacNeil stared back at her, and the silence lengthened. He didn’t want to believe her, but he had to. There was something in her face and in her eyes, something fey and knowing, that left no room for doubt.
    “If it’s that old and that powerful,” he said finally, “how the hell am I supposed to kill it? I’d need something really powerful, like the Infernal Devices, and those damned hellswords are lost and gone.”
    “No,” said Constance evenly. “One still remains. It’s here in the fort with us, carried by a man called Jonathon Hammer.”
    “Hammer?” said the Dancer. “He’s here?”
    MacNeil looked at him. “You know this man?”
    “Of him,” said Flint. “He’s a mercenary and proud of it. Sells his sword to the highest bidder and never asks questions. He’d kill his own mother if the money was right.”
    “He thinks he’s good with a sword,” said the Dancer. “Is he?” said MacNeil.
    The Dancer shrugged. “He’s good. But I’m better.”
    MacNeil turned back to Constance. “How did a man like that end up with one of the Infernal Devices?”
    “I don’t know,” said Constance. “The power in the sword shields it from my Sight. But it’s somewhere in the fort, and Hammer will bring it here. And then you and he will go down into the dark and slay the Beast. Or we will all die, horribly.”
    She turned away and stared fixedly at the heavy barrels covering the trapdoor, still buried in their cocoon of ice. The fey gleam in her eyes was very strong now. MacNeil looked at her unyielding back and moved away, nodding for Flint and the Dancer to join him. They did so, and the three Rangers stood together by the far wall, murmuring in hushed voices.
    “Just how much can we depend on her Sight?” asked Flint.
    “Hard to say,” said MacNeil. “She hasn’t Salamander’s experience, but there’s no doubting the strength of her magic. If she says there’s a creature buried in the earth, I’m inclined to believe her.”
    “But all that nonsense about dreams coming true,” said the Dancer. “Do you believe that?”
    “It would explain a lot of what’s been happening,” said MacNeil.
    “I don’t believe her,” said Flint. “I saw some pretty nasty things come up out of the earth in the Demon War. I was there when Prince Harald and the Princess Julia took on one of those creatures with two of the Infernal Devices, and even those hellswords were barely enough to kill it.”
    “There’s another thing,” said MacNeil, frowning. “I can’t believe this mercenary Hammer has actually got hold of one of the Infernal Devices. I mean, Flarebright and Wolfsbane were both lost in the Demon War. Weren’t they?”
    “Definitely,” said Flint. “I saw it happen. They fell into a great crack in the earth and were lost.”
    “And Rockbreaker was supposed to have been destroyed by the Dark Prince,” said the Dancer.
    “There were six Devices originally,” said MacNeil. “According to all the legends. Maybe one of the three missing blades has finally turned up.”
    “If it has, Hammer could well have it,” said Flint.
    “From what I’ve heard, he’s always had more than his fair share of luck. But if half the things I’ve heard about the Infernal Devices are true, I don’t envy him. Those swords were supposed to be utterly evil and corrupt.”
    “Yeah,” said the Dancer. “Just like Hammer.”
    “Ah, hell,” said MacNeil. “We’ll worry about that when he gets here. If he gets here. In the meantime, we’re still no nearer finding the gold. If it’s down in the tunnels with the creature …”
    “If,” said Flint. “The witch never said she Saw the gold. And there’s always the chance the creature’s using the possibility of gold as bait.”
    “That sounds a bit too deliberate for me,” said the Dancer. “The creature’s supposed to still be asleep, remember?”
    “Believe me, I hadn’t forgotten,” said MacNeil dryly. He looked at the huge mass of ice squatting over the trapdoor, the barrels inside it only visible as shadows, and frowned unhappily. “If Hammer is on his way down here,