Page 67 of Heart and Soul
“I know; we’re going. Russo.” He stands transfixed, staring down a blank hallway, nothing but stone. I jerk on his arm. “We’re going.”
He follows me in a daze. I drag him down more steps, now toward a red glow. Instead of trickling water, this time the stones are wet from dark, sticky blood.
“What’s the next circle of Hell?”
“Hard to say. The interpretation varies. What do you see?”
“Blood. Lots of blood.”
“Violence and murder. Don’t stay there.”
We get to another landing, where horrifying screams of pain jolt our nerves. Russo wants to look down the hall, but I slap his face away and muscle him forward. “How many more are there?”
“Should be one,” she says. “Leopard, lion, wolf. Three animals, three sins.”
“What’s the third sin?”
“I told you, it’s hard to know.”
“Take a guess!”
“Just tell me what you see.”
“Green. There’s green light down here. I don’t understand. How could there be anything worse than lust and violence? What else is there?”
“Are you serious? How about greed. Gluttony. Wrath. Blasphemy. Use your imagination.”
There’s no landing this time. The steps end in a circular room bathed in a pale green glow. There aren’t any torches. The ghostly light comes from underneath the floor, which is clear, as if it’s made entirely of…
“Ice,” I announce. “The floor. It’s like a lake that froze over. I can see down into it—” I jump back with a startled shout. At my feet, just a few inches below the surface, a man’s face is frozen in the ice, twisted in agony, his mouth and eyes gaping.
“What is it? Did you say ice?”
I turn in circles, losing count of the faces, the bodies trapped in ice, their hands reaching for the surface. “Ice,” I repeat between rapid breaths. “The floor is ice. There’s people in it. Frozen.” Hillerman gives no response, which scares me. “Say something. Which sin is this? What does it mean?”
“There’s nothing else there? What else?”
“Tell me what sin this is.”
She dodges the question again. “Where’s Russo? Why’s he not saying anything?”
“He’s out of it. Russo?” I wave my hand in front of his glassy eyes. “I don’t know. He’s checked out.”
“Not good. The timer—”
Jay’s voice interrupts. “Shayne, get out of there. You’ve got a couple minutes, tops. Turn back.”
“Okay, wait, here’s something.” At the center of the frozen lake, a deep cavity is carved into the ice in the shape of a coffin. I approach cautiously, scared to see who or what is inside. To my relief, it’s empty. “Like, a tomb or something. It’s empty.”
“Don’t get in it,” Jay blurts.
My patience runs out. “Holy shit, babe, it’s a good thing you said that, because I was just about to climb down in there and take a nap!”
“Just get back up here!” he grumbles.
Hillerman tries to reach Russo. “Danny? Talk to us. What do you see?”
I watch him closely. He seems to be thinking hard—too hard. He drops to a knee at the edge of the ice coffin.
