“There should be a dark forest right through there.” Altman patted his hand against a doorway blocked up with blank gray stone. “Did Sanford have these doors walled up, or something?”

  “He severed the portals to other worlds,” Gloria said. “Or else he barricaded them by magic. That’s a trifle annoying, but it’s of no great consequence. Mr Tillinghast has his own ways of traveling.”

  “But I don’t,” Altman said. “I’d like to have my magic doors back, thanks, when the Lodge is mine.”

  “I’m sure once you’re head of the Lodge, you’ll have the resources to restore them,” Gloria said, clearly indifferent to his plight. “Now, what’s down this way?” She strode forward, toward a set of double doors that led to a sunken Greek amphitheater where disquieting plays were sometimes staged by a troupe of Seekers.

  “Oh no,” Ruby said. “Do you all smell that?”

  The warden snapped her head up and actually growled, in tandem with her hound, whose hackles were up. Gloria cocked her head, merely curious. Altman sniffed. There was a sort of chemical reek, like too many cleaning supplies mixed together.

  And then a bubbling blob of slime the size of a car appeared from a side corridor and jammed itself into the hallway. Its bulk divided their party. Gloria was on the far side, nearer the amphitheater, while Altman, the warden, and Ruby were on the other.

  Gloria was shouting something incomprehensible, hidden from view beyond the creature, and Altman and the warden froze, staring at the hideous bulk and its writhing pseudopods.

  Ruby just ran, instantly, sprinting away from the others without so much as a look back.

  Altman gaped after her for a moment, and then lifted his shotgun. “What is that thing?” The monster roiled, eyes floating in its body like beans floating in a stew, and horrible sucking mouths opened and closed at random across its form. The thing made a terrible high-pitched sound from those mouths: “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!”

  “It’s a shoggoth!” the warden cried.

  “What?” Altman cried. “I thought Sanford’s shoggoth was smaller – just a baby!”

  “It was just a baby. But it’s grown!” The warden turned and ran, too, her hound at her heels, and Altman hesitated for only a moment before following. It was hard to imagine firing on that monster with a shotgun would achieve anything other than drawing its attention. As for Gloria… she could run away, too, and they could find each other elsewhere–

  But then behind him, he heard a sound that must have been Gloria’s final scream, and all he could think was: Better her than me.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ruin

  Sanford pushed through the frigid whiteness, stumbling on the uneven ground, the cold sapping his strength, his will, his everything. His ring could find nothing from which to draw sustenance in this place, and he could feel every month of hard travel, as if he’d only deferred the pain, not avoided it. His muscles ached, and the numbing cold seeped all the way into his bones. Knowing there was a way home somewhere nearby made his suffering worse. He might easily perish here, within strides of a portal, and there would be no marker, no record, no sign that the great Carl Sanford, erstwhile leader of the Silver Twilight Lodge, had breathed his last moments.

  “Except for ‘Here lies an unremarkable heap of snow,’” he said out loud, grimly.

  He staggered another step, kicking through ice-crusted snow, his teeth gritted against the wind. He’d never given up. He wouldn’t give up now until his body gave him no choice.

  The bracelet on his wrist rattled of its own accord, the profusion of tiny wired-together keys clattering.

  He stopped, and turned in a slow circle, arm extended into the wind, until he felt the bracelet tug, and then he walked in that direction, like a dowser following his rod to deep water.

  The wanderer walked with purpose through the blowing flakes, following the pull of the bracelet, until he found a boulder the size of a cottage. Yes! That was familiar, a rare landmark in the wastes.

  He felt around the boulder until he came to a crack, barely big enough to wedge himself into sideways, but he knew that crevice, and he shoved himself into it hard, even as the stone scraped against his back and chest.

  The keys on his wrists jangled, playing the music of his passage, and then…

  Sanford stumbled out of the Cold Wastes, and into the deepest basement of the Silver Twilight Lodge. He sank to his knees on the worn wooden floorboards. It wasn’t warm down there – the basements were a constant cool temperature, like a cavern – but it was so much warmer than the wastes that it felt like he was beside a roaring fire.

  Sanford was home. His face ached as he smiled, and he clenched his fists and raised them overhead. Yes. Yes! He would gather his weapons, and muster his allies, and take the fight to–

  Ruby Standish came hurtling around a corner into the passageway, holding a sword – his sword! – in one hand. She was clearly panicked and didn’t see him as she spun and slammed closed a set of double doors at the end of the hall, then shot home the bolts at top and bottom to secure it. How peculiar. The basement should have become a nigh-impassable labyrinth as soon as he left the vicinity of Earth, but then, Ruby always was resourceful.

  She turned to resume her sprint, sword held before her like a jungle trailblazer’s machete, but after two steps she stopped and stared at him, wide-eyed, for a long moment. “Sanford?” she cried. “Where did you come from?”

  “Elsewhere.” He rose to his feet, trying to present his usual unflappable, dignified self… which was difficult in a filthy suit jacket he’d been wearing for months, under a tattered fur cloak, with snow melting in his eyebrows. “Tell me, dear Ruby. How long have I been away, and what have I missed?”

  •••

  When she saw the shoggoth, Ruby lost all reason. She sprinted down corridors at random, slamming doors shut when she passed them, hoping to put distance and barriers between herself and the newly immense monstrosity. She’d spared barely a thought for Gloria, or Altman, or the warden, but under the circumstances, it was everyone for themselves. She trusted they’d had the good sense to flee, too, and make their own way through the labyrinthine basements… at least, Altman and the warden might have. Gloria had been cut off from easy escape routes. She was resourceful, but Ruby feared no amount of resourcefulness could have overcome that situation.

  Ruby never doubted the shoggoth was chasing after her, though. It knew her. It remembered her. And so she’d run, and run, and run.

  She almost ran right into Sanford. Ruby didn’t even recognize him at first. He was dressed like some sort of barbarian chieftain in a pulp magazine, and she thought he was another monster from the menagerie, so brandished her sword at him.

  When she recognized him, she almost struck him down anyway, knowing Tillinghast would richly reward such a decisive act… but she couldn’t do it. Killing frozen monsters was one thing, but this was Sanford, and whatever else he might be, he was a person. She’d saved his life before, and he’d saved hers. Betraying him in the abstract had been a strategic decision… but striking him now, face-to-face? No. She wouldn’t allow Tillinghast to turn her into a murderer. She wouldn’t let him. She lowered the sword and let it hang by her side.

  That was even assuming the sword could kill him, which was no sure thing. The magus was good at staying alive. Clearly. He’d returned from whatever horrible exile Tillinghast had sent him into. But even though that spoke to Sanford’s resilience, and even though it was kind of nice to see him and alive, she really didn’t think he could beat Tillinghast… and she had to ally herself with the winning side.

  Fortunately, there were other ways to deal with Sanford than violence. He still thought Ruby and Altman were his allies, after all. Ruby was much better at deception than she was at stabbing.

  She answered him with an array of half-truths. “After you disappeared, earlier today, Tillinghast sent in Gloria and some thugs to take over the Lodge. The warden is helping them. I don’t know why, maybe they’re controlling her mind. Altman and I have been trying to stop them. We followed them down hundreds of steps, through a void, and then… Sanford, there are all these monsters down here!”

  He actually smiled. “Lovely specimens, aren’t they? They’re normally locked up in special cages for study, but I made arrangements for their release if I should depart the earthly realm. I don’t suppose the Dyer woman got eaten?”

  Ruby thought of the shoggoth and shuddered. She hadn’t even consciously decided to flee from the thing. Just seeing it again, hideous as ever and so much larger than last time, had short-circuited her mind and activated her legs. “She might have been. I haven’t seen her since we started fighting off your pets. It’s been chaotic down here.”

  “That was the idea, yes,” he said. “What about Tillinghast? Is he here?”

  She shook her head. “I haven’t seen him.” He’s up in Arkham, stealing your life.

  “He’s probably making arrangements to have me declared dead, and himself my heir,” Sanford said.

  That was shockingly accurate. “Why do you say that?”

  Sanford sighed. “Because it’s the same thing I once did, to a man named Alexander Peterman, when I stole his secret society from him. Tillinghast is fond of nasty taunts, I’ve learned, and doing to me what I once did to another would please him, I think. I may not be the nicest person, Miss Standish – I have no illusions on that score – but I am seldom cruel for cruelty’s sake, unlike Tillinghast.”

  Something slammed into the double doors on the other side, rattling the doors, and Sanford frowned. “One of my beasts, I suppose?”

  “The shoggoth, probably,” Ruby said. “I don’t think it likes me, since I escaped it last time.”

  “Mmm. I’m not sure they hold grudges, exactly, but they’re strange beings, so who knows? I’ve been feeding it, you know. It’s growing nicely. Perhaps it ate those thugs of Tillinghast you mentioned. They don’t seem to excrete waste; they just get bigger with every meal.” He stroked his long and ragged beard. “Now that I’m home, Ruby, we really must find a way to dispose of Tillinghast once and for all.”

  Inspiration struck Ruby like lightning out of a clear sky. There might be a way to stay on Tillinghast’s good side without resorting to violence. She was much more adept at deception, anyway. “Sanford. I know how to beat him.” She put her hand on his arm, moving close to him, and concentrated all her efforts into appearing sincere. She had to sell it to make her plan work. “You have to take me to wherever you’ve hidden your relics.” She glanced back at the closed door. “Assuming we can get there without backtracking.”

  Sanford raised an eyebrow. “I can go anywhere I please down here. But you think I possess something that can defeat Tillinghast?”

  “You do. You’ve had it all along.” Her voice rose with excitement. “It’s the Ruby of R’lyeh, Sanford! I pretended to work for Tillinghast, like you told me, and gained his confidence. After you disappeared, he let slip why he wants the gem so desperately – his soul is trapped inside it!” She was wildly confabulating, but if she could find out where Sanford had hidden his treasures, she could steal the relic and make Tillinghast happy. Maybe he’d even forgive her for not killing Sanford when she had the chance.

  The doors rattled with another impact, making Ruby flinch. She really wanted to start running away again, but it would be good if she could also be running toward something.

  The magus took no note of the commotion, so fixed was his attention on Ruby. “What?” Sanford’s eyes widened. “All this time I’ve held Tillinghast’s life in my hands? I have the Ruby of R’lyeh with me!”

  “Wait, you do?” That wasn’t ideal. Tillinghast would be pleased to get the gem, sure, but he wanted everything, and how could she trick Sanford into revealing the location of his new vault now?

  Sanford scoffed. “Of course I do. As soon as Tillinghast made it clear he wanted the stone, I resolved to keep it on my person, lest he send someone to retrieve it. I’m ashamed to say I even doubted your loyalty, Ruby, until you brought me the grail.” He sighed. “Not that the grail worked out as I’d hoped, either. I’ll have to tell you about my adventures sometime. For now…” He patted his filthy suit on the breast. “His soul, eh? That’s an old sorcerer’s trick. If you keep your soul safely locked away, your body becomes immortal. I had the gem with me when I was exiled, and I’ve held on to it through travails you can’t imagine. I would have thrown the thing into a volcano if I’d known it contained Tillinghast’s essence. I’m going to smash the blasted thing now.”

  Ruby chewed her lip. “I think it’s pretty sturdy. You’ll need a hammer or something–”

  The doors buckled as the shoggoth hurled itself against them in its rage, and Ruby took advantage of the commotion to flinch, pressing herself against Sanford. She was a better cat burglar than a pickpocket, but she was one of the best cat burglars in the world, and she was a very good pickpocket. She reached into Sanford’s inner pocket, plucked out the Ruby of R’lyeh, and had it tucked away in an instant.

  “Sorry.” She steadied herself and moved away from him. “We should go and find, I don’t know, an anvil and a big hammer or something; surely you’ve got a horrible armory down here someplace.”

  “There’s no need for all that.” She spun and saw Tillinghast leaning against the wall, examining his fingernails.

  Ruby gaped at him. Tillinghast was here? Had he trailed along after them, waiting for them to clear out the spatial puzzles and the monsters, and following once it was safe? That certainly seemed like Tillinghast’s way. Why risk himself when he had retainers to clear the way?

  The shoggoth rattled the doors, the wood splintering at the top, but Tillinghast appeared entirely unconcerned, and Sanford only had eyes for his enemy. He plucked the sword from Ruby’s unresisting hand and then put himself between her and Tillinghast – an act of casual protectiveness that made Ruby’s guts twist. Was it too late to change her mind, and switch sides?

  But the pragmatic part of her decided to wait and watch instead.

  “I’ve got your life in my hands, Randall,” Sanford crowed, reaching into his suit jacket. The look of puzzlement on his face was brief but heartbreaking, and in less than a second had hardened into a blank hostility. He turned around, his gaze landing on Ruby.

  She stepped past him, and around him, and went to stand beside Tillinghast. She took the Ruby of R’lyeh from her bra and handed it to the shopkeeper, who held it up to the light of the bulb overhead and smiled before pocketing the gem.

  “I’m sorry, Sanford.” She bowed her head for a moment, an uncharacteristic wash of shame flowing through her. She’d really believed she could juggle her relationship with these two sorcerers and keep their competing needs in balance, but down here, in the dark with the monsters, she had to make a final choice. She chose the bigger monster. “I really am. But if I didn’t do what Tillinghast wanted… he was going to do horrible things to me.”

  “And you think I won’t?” Sanford’s voice was steel and ice.

  She bowed her head. “I think you probably won’t be able to.”

  Tillinghast watched their exchange with open amusement.

  “Does the Ruby even hold his soul?” Sanford asked.

  The shopkeeper threw his head back and laughed. “My soul? How droll. My soul. Like some wizard in a fairy story? No, no. That’s not why I want the Ruby of R’lyeh at all.”

  “Then why?” Sanford demanded.

  “You don’t get to know that,” Tillinghast said. “The magus is now the ignoramus, and you will die that way. I’ve enjoyed toying with you, Sanford – a bit like tearing the wings off flies, I suppose, but one must take diversions where one can. Ruby, why don’t you leave us? If you follow the corridor behind me and take the first two lefts and then a right, you should reach a familiar passage. I’m sure you’ll find your way out. The warden and Altman escaped the shoggoth, so I imagine you’ll find them heading for the exit, too.” He smirked. “Yes, Altman betrayed you, too, Sanford.”

  “But… what about Gloria?” Ruby said.

  “I don’t think you’ll be seeing her again,” Tillinghast said with complete indifference.

  Ruby shuddered. She cast one last look at Sanford, but his eyes were fixed on the shopkeeper, and she hurried away.

  •••

  “It’s all come down to this, then.” Tillinghast stood with his hands clasped casually before him. “Two great foes, facing off for control of the Silver Twilight Lodge, and for the soul of Arkham itself, in a clash of occult mastery–”

  “Oh, do shut up,” Sanford said, and threw the tiepin he had clutched in his hand at Tillinghast’s feet.

  The pin flashed with a burst of green light as it fell, and the hideous jungle beast Sanford had faced in the Dreamlands appeared, enraged. That rage fell squarely on Tillinghast. The thing was bigger than an elephant, so immense it cracked the walls with its bulk, and it lashed its limbs and gnashed its maw at the interloper. “Oh, who’s this now?” Tillinghast shouted, voice full of mirth.

  Laugh while you can, old man. Sanford backed away toward the double doors – the enchantment that had bound the Dreamland creature meant it couldn’t harm him intentionally, but it could easily injure him by accident if he wasn’t careful. Now the beast would devour Tillinghast… and then Tillinghast would be trapped in the pin, the binding enchantments passing to him, and he would be in Sanford’s power forever. I’ll drop the pin in a volcano, he thought. Unlike the false claims about the ruby, the pin really would hold Tillinghast’s fetid soul.

  Sanford turned to the double doors, splintered by the shoggoth’s exertions, and spoke to the thing pressing on the other side. “It is I,” he said. “Your master. Kindly back away.”

  There was a sloshing, slithering noise, and then the shoggoth moved away. He’d trained it to obey him when it was small, and even now that it was so much larger, the residue of that training remained. Sanford wrenched open the bolts, with effort – the door was twisted in its frame – and hauled one of the double doors open. The shoggoth waited patiently beyond, a wall of eyes and mouths and putrid flesh, but Sanford looked upon it with great fondness.