Ruby Shadows (Born to Darkness #3)(90)

“That’s awful,” I said. “But why didn’t Beelzebub just shed the giant form and use another form instead? Like Laish did when he left his dragon form behind after fighting the Skitterlings?”

We had been strolling through the dark, rounded space created by the lower jaw of the skull which reminded me a little of a screened in porch—or a Florida room as they call it where I come from. But now Belial stopped short and looked at me, his cloudy yellow eyes going wide.

“Did you say that Lord Laish abandoned his wyrm form? That he was forced to leave it behind after the battle?”


“Well…yes.” I shrugged uncomfortably. “He told me there were just too many Skitterlings. They were everywhere.” I couldn’t repress a shudder at the memory. “I was just glad he got out alive at all! I thought he was dead for a while—it was awful.”

“He was dead—or a good part of him at least.” Belial sounded grim. “That was one of his forms of power. I cannot count the victories he won in that form, charging in front of his regiments of demons as a great wyrm, spraying fire and spreading death and destruction in his wake.”

“I’m really sorry,” I said feeling awkward. “I feel like it’s all my fault. I never meant—”

“No, no, my dear.” Belial patted my hand comfortingly. “It’s quite all right. Lord Laish is one of the Great Demons—a Prince of Night and Shadow. Believe me, he has more than one form of power. His true form for instance, now that is something to behold. He has not…eh, shown you that one, has he?”

“No,” I said candidly. “I, uh, think he’s afraid of what I’ll think of him if I see it. Although I don’t see how anything can be more terrible than his dragon form.”

Belial looked slightly relieved.

“Ah, the Lord Laish’s true form is both terrible and beautiful—that is what makes it so difficult to see,” he murmured. “It is a perversion of what he once was, you know.”

“Which is what?” I asked, burning with curiosity. “What was he? How did he get here? And what does his true form actually look like?”

“I am afraid if Lord Laish has not seen fit to tell you, I cannot either,” the ancient demon said mysteriously. “All that I can say is if you once see him as he truly is, you will not soon forget it.”

Thanks for nothing, I thought but my manners were too good to say it out loud. Instead I said, “Tell me more about Dis. And please show me the rest of the Citadel—I’ve never been inside a giant skull before.”

Belial was happy to do just that. We walked and talked as he showed me through the skull, which looked like a plush office building with a board room where the Council of Elder Demons met on the bottom, and a luxury penthouse on the top. There was a long spiral staircase that connected the two with steps and a banister all made of polished ivory which I now knew was bone.

“And here are Lord Laish’s apartments,” Belial said as we reached the top of the stairs and found a long hallway that branched off in either direction. To the right was a long stretch of highly polished hardwood floor with a single door at the very end. To the left was thick royal blue carpet that looked like you could sink into it over your ankles. It also ended in a door.

Belial led me to the left and opened the massive wooden door—at least not everything was made of bone. “This is his private library.” He made a sweeping motion with one wrinkled hand, bowing me into the room.

“Oh, a library?” I said eagerly. Then I stepped past him into the room and gasped.

I had estimated when we first rode up to the Citadel of Knowledge that the huge skull was about five stories high. Yet the floor below, with the boardroom set up, had seemed like a normal sized space. I had wondered, as we climbed the stairs, why the second story would need to take up so much height. Now I understood.

Bookshelves lined the walls of the entire room—bookshelves as tall as office buildings—and every one of them was absolutely full. I had to crane my neck as I looked up…and up…and up. The ceiling, four stories above me, was rounded, polished ivory—the top of the skull.

“This is amazing!” I exclaimed, walking over to a shelf and running my fingers along the leather bound spines. “Has Laish read all of these?” I wouldn’t have asked it if he’d been human with a human life span. A person could start when they first learned to read and continue without stopping until they died and still never even get through a quarter of the books in this room, I was sure. But I knew how long Laish had been around—he talked in terms of centuries and millennia—he would have time to get through these if he wanted to.

“These are just his favorites,” Belial said, smiling a little. “We have another facility built of Beelzebub’s ribcage at the other end of Dis which houses the rest of Lord Laish’s collection.”

“Wow…” I walked around, looking at some of the titles. The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, Out of the Silent Planet… “These are all by C.S. Lewis,” I said, turning to Belial.

He nodded. “One of Lord Laish’s favorite authors.”


“But, wasn’t he a Christian author?” I asked. “I mean isn’t The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe an allegory about Christ?”

“It is.” Belial nodded again.