Read Online To Reign in Hell: A Novel by Steven Brust - Free Book Online

you know,” he said. “I didn’t recognize you at first.”
    “I know. I lost a bit off the top, and I don’t weigh so much now. But that don’t matter. That much I could fix myself, if I wanted to.”
    Michael said, “Some of the injured ones from the Second Wave were actually healed in the Third. Do you think. . . .” His voice trailed off.
    “The Fourth Wave? Maybe. I’m not expecting anything. I’m not anxious for it.”
    “None of us are,” said Lilith. “As you know.”
    “Yeah, I know. I’ve heard some folks aren’t happy about the Big plan.”
    Asmodai stared. “How did you hear of that?”
    Harut shrugged. “I guess it isn’t as big a secret as some would like. For me, I’ll just wait. When it happens, I’ll live, or I won’t.”
    “I wish I had your attitude, Harut,” said Lilith.
    He shook his head.
    “What have you heard about it?” asked Asmodai.
    “Lots of stuff. I don’t listen a whole lot, since I don’t think much of that kind of talk. But I know that
somethin’
is up, and it has to do with starting the Fourth Wave. And I know that some don’t like it much.”
    “I see,” said Asmodai. He looked around at the others. None of them said anything. Michael seemed lost in thought, Lucifer met As-modai’s look, but his face was blank. Lilith seemed amused.
    After the silence had stretched across the road and back a few times, Harut said, “You don’t have to tell me nothin’ if you don’t want.”
    “No,” said Asmodai, “it isn’t that. It’s just that I had thought it a better-kept secret than it is.”
    “I’m not uncomfortable with you knowing,” said Lilith.
    “Nor am I,” said Lucifer. “In fact, I’ll tell you that the Lord Satan has doubts, and we’re going to see him now to try to resolve them.”
    Harut nodded, but didn’t say anything.
    “Are you curious, Harut?” asked Lilith.
    “Some,” he said.
    “Lord Satan isn’t sure it’s right to coerce the hosts into helping, if they don’t want to.”
    “Why wouldn’t they want to?” asked Harut.
    “I expect,” said Asmodai, “that they will. We want to build a place that will be safe from the flux—forever. Where we won’t have to worry about Waves—ever. Why wouldn’t everyone be in favor of that?”
    “I don’t know,” said Harut. “How many will die doing it?”
    Lucifer licked his lips, but didn’t answer.
    “Abdiel was studying that,” said Asmodai. “I never heard his results.”
    “That may be an answer,” said Harut.
    “Certainly, it could be a lot,” said Asmodai. “And it might be any of us—we’re not asking anyone to do something we aren’t doing ourselves. We take risks every Wave. But this time, it would be the last.”
    “Is Satan the only one who thinks this way? How did he think of it?”
    “His task,” said Lucifer, “is to make sure everyone does what he must. So he had to think about it.”
    “Why?”
    “Because,” Asmodai explained, “they
might
object, and we have to be ready.”
    Harut nodded. “Maybe, if the only way to handle those who don’t like it is to force them, something’s wrong from the beginning.”
    Asmodai looked at him and started to say something, then stopped. He remained silent until the four rose to continue their journey. Then he said a brief farewell to Harut and resumed his silence.
     
    “You’ve got something on your tail.”
    “Thou mayst bite it off, Lord Mephistopheles.”
    “I may, at that.”
    “And kiss what doth lie beneath.”
    Mephistopheles chuckled. “It’s nice to find you in a good mood, Beelzebub.”
    “ ’Tis thy pleasure, Mephistopheles.”
    “So, how are the plans?”
    “Perchance thou should’st ask nearer the center, where such are made.”
    “No, no, not those plans. I mean the ones for the rebellion.”
    “What?”
    “It’s all over Heaven, Beelzebub. How you and Satan—”
    “Lord Satan!”
    “Lord Satan, then. How you and Lord Satan are planning to raise the entire region in