"But I don't belong in Hell!" she exclaimed.
"I think we'd better wait here until the demons give up the search," Mym said. "That could be some time. Why don't you tell me how you came to be here? I came here to help you and I still hope to do so."
"You can't help me," she retorted. "I can only hurt you. You should get away from me right now."
"Why? You seem like a nice young woman, apart from your obvious virtue as a princess."
"I am a nice young woman, apart from that virtue. You'd probably like me if you knew me, especially since you seem to be immune to my scream. That's why you need to get away."
"Maybe I'm being dense. I don't follow the logic."
"Because that's what Satan wants!" she exclaimed. "He wants you to—to—"
"To treat you as the demons would? I wouldn't do that, Ligeia."
"To fall in love with me," she blurted.
Mym smiled. "I have been in love before and I can't say that that is a fate worse than death. They were good women, very good women. If you are a good woman—"
"Because you're an Incarnation, Satan can not hold you any longer than he can fool you, which shouldn't be long. But I'm a damned soul, and he can hold me; if you fall in love with me, then you won't leave without me and so you won't be able to leave at all and you'll be trapped forever in Hell and Satan'll have his way with the mortal realm!" she exploded.
So that was Satan's plot! No wonder Lila had told him of the imprisoned Princess! And was it Lila that the demons had taken to this same cave? An interesting coincidence that they should happen to mention it just when he was here to hear.
Coincidence? Deception, more likely! Wasn't it possible that Satan knew exactly where he was—and had instructed the demons to leave him here, because he was doing what Satan wanted—being with Ligeia? And Ligeia, by all the signals, was a genuinely loveable woman, no part of this plot. Had she been in on it, she should not have warned him of its nature.
Yes, this was very interesting. The demons had gotten Ligeia away from Mym and could have removed her to some far reach of Hell so that he could never have found her. But they had paused, seemingly foolishly, and threatened to rape her. That had triggered her devastating scream, so that Mym had had a renewed chance to rescue her. It was possible that the demons had been stupid and had given away to their lusts prematurely—but Satan had merely stood and watched. Satan had not started organizing the pursuit until it was too late. Satan was no fool; therefore his lack of initiative must have been deliberate. He had wanted Ligeia to scream, so as to enable Mym to rejoin her.
That scream—that was a most remarkable thing. Others might consider it an ugly thing. But Mym, who had a problem with his own voice, was in a position to understand a liability like that. He felt some empathy. He wasn't stuttering now, but he was in Hell, where Satan's power eliminated it; his consciousness of it remained. Ligeia was a fellow sufferer—and Satan had wanted him to see that. Naturally a man who had suffered because of a problem with his voice would be attracted to a woman with another type of voice problem. A cunning trap indeed!
"You are silent," Ligeia said. "Now you understand. I thank you for being the man you are and now I shall do what I must do and leave you." She started to move toward the cave entrance.
Mym held her back. "I am not leaving without you," he said.
"But I told you why that can't be! You have a responsibility on Earth!"
"I came to Hell to rescue you—and rescue you I shall," Mym said. "This has nothing to do with love, but with what is right. If I should fall in love with you in the process, perhaps you will agree to be with me after you have had your hearing and are free of Hell. If not—I still mean to do what I know to be right."
"You're a fool!" she said.
"I'm a man."
"A prince," she said, more gently.
"An Incarnation."
"I could—get very pleased with that kind of a fool," she confessed: "But I can't let you do it. I am only one soul; your work affects millions. So—" She got up again.
He hauled her back, held her down, and kissed her.
She sighed. "You know you really aren't being fair about this," she said. Then she kissed him back.
"Let's get to know each other," he said.
"You already know my curse. When I get excited—"
"I know about curses. I'm a stutterer."
She laughed. "Not that I've noticed!"
"In life. Here in Hell I am spared it. I think it's Satan's way of subverting me. He offered me a demon concubine and free speech, but I prefer to make my own way."
"But if your curse is gone in Hell, why does mine remain?" she asked plaintively.
"Perhaps because Satan isn't trying to subvert you. He's trying to degrade you. He probably would not bother to abate my stuttering if I weren't an Incarnation."
"The Incarnation of War," she agreed. "You rate special treatment."
"So if stuttering bothers you, you will not want to associate with me, once we get out of Hell."
"When I saw you, there in the Palace of Ice, you looked so bold and handsome, really like a prince coming to rescue me," she said. "I knew it was a trap and I tried to warn you away. But you wouldn't go, and now the trap is sprung, and maybe the second one too, because you still won't go. I suppose it's academic, because I'll never get out of Hell, but if I were out, and you got me out, I'd always know that it was the stutterer who did it and I wouldn't care what you looked like or sounded like; I'd want to be with you. But you really didn't come to the Palace of Ice just to pick up a woman, did you? Not when you had a demoness at your beck?"
So Mym told her about Orb, about Rapture, and his desire for a woman of that level, rather than a protean demoness whose ultimate loyalty was to Satan. "Though Lila did shed a tear," he said at the end. "I don't know why a demoness would do that."
"Because it was her business to corrupt you or to send you to Hell; either way, she knew you would be doomed. Demons do have some little emotion, otherwise they couldn't enjoy the base desires. They can't animate the human form without picking up a bit of human nature, so as to act well enough to fool real people. She probably liked you a trifle, or maybe liked her assignment in Purgatory, which is a better place than Hell, so was sorry when she knew it was over. Her will is subservient to Satan, but, when it doesn't conflict with her assignment, she can afford some emotion. Especially if showing it might cause you to react in a manner helpful to her mission."
"You seem to know a lot about demons," Mym said ruefully.
"I have had recent experience." Then she told him how she had come to Hell.
Ligeia had been a European princess. When she came of age and was versed in the things needful for her role, her father the King had begun shopping about for a suitable match for her. "These things are seldom left to individual choice, you know," she said.
"I know," Mym agreed.
Part of that shopping entailed showing the wares. Contemporary monarchs had become canny, as their sons acquired modernistic notions of independence, and facilitated cooperation by seeking brides who were not only advantageously connected, but who were personally attractive. In fact, it was often possible to use a young prince's idealistic notions to keep him in line, because, once he was smitten by the beauty of the prospective bride, he paid little heed to anything else until it was too late. He was trapped by love.
"I know," Mym repeated, remembering how well that ploy had worked with Rapture.
"Well, you don't have to agree so readily!" she said.
"I am already blinded by your beauty," he said. He intended it as humor, but realized as he spoke that it was not. Ligeia evidently had a similar realization, for she blushed. It was dark in the cave, but he knew she was blushing because her whole body seemed to radiate heat. The embarrassment of royalty was a more potent thing than that of ordinary folk.
So, she continued after a delicate pause, she was to be shipped to a Mid-East kingdom for a visit, nominally a routi
ne courtesy, actually a demonstration of exactly what her kingdom had to offer. Her father knew there was no princess currently on the market to match her appearance. She was, of course, under strict orders to prevent her liability from being exposed.
But international terrorists had seen their chance to strike. They managed to skyjack the airplane she was on. They demanded a phenomenal ransom for her, even while the plane was still in flight—one billion Eurodollars, release of all political prisoners, a public apology for misgovernment, that sort of thing. If the King paid, they would land the plane in a neutral country and let her go; if not—
The King refused to acknowledge their demands. The money was easy, the release of prisoners problematical, and the apology impossible, of course.
"Of course," Mym agreed, understanding perfectly.
The King approached the matter forthrightly. He put out notice that a reward would be given for the severed heads of the conspirators.
They arranged to show their determination by putting her image on a magic mirror. They set up the mirror, but Ligeia refused to perform; she would not demean herself by begging her father to buy her freedom.
Balked for the moment and running low on fuel, the hijackers decided on a more direct demonstration. They stripped her naked, and one of them prepared to rape her—on camera, as it were. It was evident that they had had some such notion in mind ever since seeing her, for they were men.
"Not all men are like that," Mym protested.
"You don't desire my body?" she inquired challengingly.
Mym sighed. There was no respectable answer he could give to that.
Seeing that practically all was lost, and with the fell pirate almost upon her, Ligeia had screamed. After all, submission to public rape was no more possible for a princess than a public apology was for a king. In private, a different standard obtained. After a princess got married, both rape and apology were likely, perhaps even necessary.
But not desirable, Mym remarked.
Every other person aboard the plane had lost consciousness. Ligeia, of course, did not know how to pilot it. So the plane crashed, and all aboard were killed, including her.
"And so I found myself in Hell," she concluded.
"But you did nothing worthy of damnation!" Mym protested.
"That is my claim," she agreed. "Technically I did commit suicide—but it was to protect my virtue. And I was responsible for many deaths—but it was self-defense, and they were evil men. I feel that if I could only get a fair hearing, the powers who be should agree that I should go to Heaven. But it seems that my scroll was charged with both murder and suicide, and so I was damned. Of course I would have been damned had I submitted, too."
"Damned if you do and damned if you don't," Mym agreed.
"And then Satan had the temerity to force me to—I tried to warn you away, but—"
"The thing to do," Mym said firmly, "is to turn Satan's trap against him. To get out of Hell. That would serve him right."
"But I keep telling you, that can't be done!" she protested. "Only you alone can win free, if you know how. I can only do it if I get my hearing, and Satan will never allow that."
"How can he prevent it?" Mym asked, nettled. "Doesn't God have anything to say about it?"
"God doesn't interfere in the affairs of mortals or with the Incarnations," she said despairingly.
"Well, I am under no such restriction," Mym said. "I shall get you out."
"That is exactly what Satan wants you to try," she reminded him.
"I am disinclined to disappoint him." Mym considered. "Do you think Satan is listening to us now?"
"Well, we're hiding from him—"
"It is in my mind that Satan permitted us to reach this place," he said. "He surely can tune in on us. This is, after all, his domain."
"I hadn't thought of that," she confessed. "But Hell is a very big region. I'm sure he can't devote his attention to every little detail all the time. Once he knew we were together, he probably went on to other business."
"Probably," Mym agreed. "So we can consider our conversation private."
She shrugged. "I suppose so. But it doesn't matter. I can't get out and, as long as I prevent you from getting out, I am serving his purpose. I don't like that, though I do like being with you."
She was probably correct, Mym thought. She had served as the lure to bring him in, and now served as the chain to keep him here. Satan had no need to watch them.
Yet it was hardly unpleasant, being here with Ligeia. She was a nice girl, with compatible values, and extraordinarily pretty, and he had always been fascinated by that type.
He changed his position, as the stone was not really comfortable. His eye fell on the snake.
The snake was watching him.
Mym completed his adjustment as if he had not noticed, but his mind was suddenly awhirl. Surely it was true that Satan had worse things to do than watch two people get acquainted. But Mym was an Incarnation, and, though Satan could penetrate the veil of invisibility Mym had invoked, he probably couldn't do it from any distance. One Incarnation could not interfere with another from a distance. So Satan probably wasn't tuning in on them directly.
But Satan would not want to let an Incarnation move about Hell unsupervised. He would have to have some way to keep track. And what better way would there be than to assign a lesser minion?
The snake was that minion. It would report on Mym's location at all times and on any important activity Mym indulged in. That would certainly be a convenient way to keep track.
He could touch the snake, phase in with it, and learn for sure. But that might alert Satan that he, Mym, had caught on. Better to seem not to have caught on.
But how could he tell Ligeia, without the snake hearing? And how could he get away from the snake, without alerting it and Satan?
Well, he could phase in to Ligeia and plant a thought in her mind. But at this point he preferred not to do that, because it would be an invasion of what little privacy she might have, and because she was, indeed, a young woman he was quite ready to like and perhaps love. Too great an intimacy could spoil such a relationship.
Or was he afraid that if he phased in to Ligeia he would discover that she was merely another agent of Satan's? It was a possibility he had to consider. If she was, not only would he be disappointed, but his verification of her could betray his suspicion to Satan himself. That would leave him with nothing.
He considered some more and decided that he would have to keep whatever escape plan he might have to himself.
For, abruptly, he realized that he did have a plan—a bold, wild one that only he had any chance of implementing. If he could implement it successfully, not only would he rescue Ligeia, he would be able to rescue many other unfairly damned souls. In addition, it would amply repay Satan for his audacity in trying to trap another Incarnation in Hell and force him to do Satan's will.
It wasn't the nice way and certainly it wasn't the easy way. But Mym was Mars and he felt that the honor of his office was at stake. He wanted to teach Satan a lesson about interfering with Mars.
Chapter 15 - RIVER
When night fell in Hell, they were satisfied that the pursuit had ended. They had talked and slept and now were eager to get out of the cramped cave.
"I believe there is some way out of Hell," Mym said. "I intend to find it. Do you have any idea where it might be?"
Ligeia considered. "For you, many ways. For me—"
"For us both. Maybe you could not use the exit by yourself, but I could enable you to use it."
She brightened. "Maybe—oh, dare I hope?"
"It is better to hope than to have no hope."
"I have hoped many times and always had my hope dashed."
"There's always hope that this time your hope won't be dashed."
She smiled. "For you, I will entertain that hope. But I really don't know where an exit would be. The River Styx circles all of Hell, and only the ferryman Charon can take a soul acros
s. That he will not do, except by the order of Satan."
"But Hell is three dimensional!" Mym protested. "How can one river surround it all?"
"I don't know," she said, surprised.
"And we came down from above, so there must be a route there," he persisted.
"Yes, there must be," she agreed. "Funny that I never thought of that. But I still don't know how to use such an exit."
It occurred to Mym that if Hell were like Purgatory, its apparent three dimensionality could be an actual two dimensions, so that one river could indeed enclose it all. The descending capsule could have carried them right through the River Styx, charmed by Satan's order. But he saw no point in bring up such morbid speculation. "What we need to do is inquire," he said. "There is sure to be someone who knows and will tell us. But we can't question the damned souls openly, or Satan will shut off any exit that we find."
"We could use the back route," she said. "The demons don't go there, because—"
"Back route?"
"There are roads and things for the front route, but the demons use those, so anyone who doesn't belong would be challenged and caught very soon. Of course, if we were invisible, it might work—but we'd have to become visible to talk with anyone, and then the demons might see. But the back route is through the wilderness—the marshes around the rivers, mainly. But though there aren't demons, there are other things, like monsters and natural hazards. I don't know whether—"
"What happens to a person caught by a monster or a natural hazard?"
"A lot of discomfort or pain, mainly," she said. "We really can't die here, but it would hurt a lot to be chomped up and eaten by a monster, and then you'd be in its belly. I really wouldn't enjoy that."
That was something to think about. Could a monster consume Mars? Probably not. But it could consume Ligeia. Could he protect her from such threats? Perhaps he could, by keeping her in contact with him.
"I think I can guard you from that. Are you willing to risk it?"
"At this point it can be no worse than what Satan would do to me, if—" She didn't finish, and Mym knew why. If she failed her assignment of trapping him in Hell, for all that she had never agreed to do it, she would be punished in Hell's worst fashion. There were indeed fates worse than death, and Hell was the place where these were suffered.