Chapter 20

Ancient Mai paced in front of Morgan while he just stood waiting. She was upset and so was Morgan. How dare Dresden imprison him. How dare he! Finally she went to sit down and got a drink on wine.

"Where is he," she asked the warden.

"I don't know," Morgan replied. "I've looked everywhere for him and he's just disappeared.

"He's around somewhere," she said. "Find him, and bring him to me." Morgan nodded his head and left. Finally after all these years, Harry Dresden would finally get what was coming to him. He couldn't way for that day to come. He had been waiting and watching and now the time had come.

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The narrow rode they were on started on an upward slope, edging toward the right side of a massive rock. They were now too close for Harry to see the whole city. Most of it was too high up to see it from this steep of an angle.

They walked own starting the spiral that wound around the massive rock. They then entered the gates of the city and Harry just stopped and stared. This was like nothing he had ever seen before. The whole city was made out of stone and the ground was dirt and gravel. Harry's new escort slapped him hard across the face again to keep him moving on toward the city.

"Cut it out!" He yelled angrily. "What the hell is the matter with you?"

The guard just glared and then tugged hard on Harry's rope. He stumbled, almost falling and started walking again. There were all kinds of creatures here and none of them looked human or even remotely resembled them. Harry shook his head and kept on walking when his guard tugged at his rope once again. "Holy shit," Harry whispered. He stopped and stood frozen again, staring, until his escort backhanded him again. He stumbled on not seeing much of anything anymore. He could no longer put this place anywhere on the Earth he knew. None of the creatures were human and Harry wondered where the humans were. If he was in hell, like the first creature, the one that brought him here in the first place had said, then where were the humans who had came down here when they died.

Even if Harry could ignore the elongated skulls with their fixed expressions, the oversized joints, their purplish skin...he couldn't ignore the fact that their arms and fingers had extraneous joints.

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Bob stared up into Aiden's eyes and suddenly everything that Aiden made him forget, came back again. Bob grinned slightly. He was a wizard. A mighty wizard, and there would be hell to pay.

"Get up," Aiden ordered as he removed his foot from the middle of Bob's chest. Slowly, very slowly, Bob rose to his feet. He kept his head down until he got completely up and then, without warning, he lifted up his head and glared at the dark wizard, making him take a step back. This wasn't supposed to happen, thought Aiden. He wasn't supposed to remember. Without another word, Bob threw his mind at the wizard and threw him back across the room to crash into the stone wall and crumple to the ground in a heap.

"I'm up," said Bob as he approached Aiden. "Want to fight?" Aiden got to his feet and grinned evilly at Bob. Bob grinned back at him. "So be it," he said and prepared himself. He hoped to God he was strong enough and remembered enough. If he wasn't or didn't, he would die today. He glanced toward the looking glass and watched as Harry entered the city of Hell, then he looked back at Aiden. "Let's fight." They faced off and Bob said a silently prayer and then waited to see what Aiden's first move was going to be.