No, that's not quite right.

They really p.i.s.sed her off.

A snarl of irritation rumbled from her chest, and she shook me violently. It was then that I realized that she was holding me completely off the ground. I'm a big man. Two twenty, six two, all muscle. Maybe-maybe-someone like Shaq or Hulk Hogan in his prime might have been able to do something like this, but I didn't think so. But she stood there, so small and sickly, one hand wrapped around me, her arm raised straight above her so that I hung there by my G.o.dd.a.m.ned head, toes inches off the ground. It was impossible. Even if everything else that was happening was some kind of trick or illusion, this was actually impossible.

And it hurt like a motherf.u.c.ker.

She shook me again, and I could feel something slip in my back.

Then, without warning, she dropped me to the ground so that my feet hit hard, my knees buckling.

"The bargain needs to be completed. He is holding on to you and to false hopes," whispered the woman's harsh voice, "but he has already made his promise."

"Wh-what . . . ?" It was all I could manage. Pain was exploding up and down my spine, and my head felt like it was half pulled off.

Burned and mangled lips leaned close to my ear.As she spoke, those lips brushed my ear in a way that was the most appalling parody of sensuality I could imagine.

When I said nothing, she grabbed me again and added, "You can have them back. All three.You can have their flesh and bone and breath."

"What the f.u.c.k are you talking about?" I growled as I fought to break free.

"He asked to come back and confess his failure. He wanted you to know that it was his mistake that led to his men being taken. I do not care, but it was part of the bargain. Confessions belong to the infant son of a false G.o.d."

I kept struggling.

"But it is time for the deal to be closed. If you stand in the way, you will be consumed. The only grace you have is what your friend bought for you. Break his deal, and you are mine ."

She growled that last word, loading it with a pernicious delight more avaricious than anything I have ever heard. Her grip was so strong that it was getting hard to breathe. I fumbled at my pocket for the rapid-release folding knife that was clipped there. It sprang into my hand, and with a flick of my wrist, the three-and-a-half-inch blade snapped into place.

"f.u.c.k you!" I yelled, and rammed the knife into the fire of her eye.

And the red world turned black.

As I plunged down into the pit, I wanted to hear her screams. I wanted to hear a howl of agony.

All I heard was the mad laughter of an old woman.

And something else.

The screams of men in terrible, unbearable, unending pain.

16.

echo teAm It was Top who found me.

He later said that I was standing alone in the center of the

ancient town square. Just standing there.

He tried calling my name.Tried shaking me.

In the end, he had to slap me.That apparently had pulled me back from the edge of wherever I was. But only halfway, so he

belted me again.

I came all the way back and very nearly kicked the s.h.i.t out

of him, purely by reflex.Top knows me, though, and as soon as

I began to react, he danced out of the way, hands up in a no-problems gesture, staying well out of range of my hands and feet. "Cap'n . . . Cap!" he yelled.

That part I heard.

My eyes then cleared, and I saw that it was just the two of us