chapter XVI
Arabia, 1232 B.C.
IT WAS DARK. PERFECT.
Uriel sat on her bed and concentrated on the lesson uncle Yamanu had taught her the previous day. It had been incredible when he showed her how to use the gift of the Shadowers. Perhaps it is not the only gift I possess. But it is the most fun I have had in a long time, Uriel thought to herself.
Slowly as she focused her mind, the dense fog of the art descended upon her physical features. Unlike her uncle’s signature manifestation though, no mist, no cloud, no vapor attended it. No. As for Uriel, she simply disappeared from physical sight, even from spiritual sight. She was simply not there.
In time she would learn how to make other things disappear. Soon she would be able, with practice, to be able to render physical objects immaterial; she would be able to walk through drawn shades, closed doors, even walls.
But not tonight. Tonight was just a beginning.
Tonight she was not visible to the naked eye, whether that eye illuminated the face of man or angel or beast. Therefore, she crept as quietly as she was able to do from her uncle’s house, down the deserted city streets of Ke’elei, past the guards, up the inside of the main gate tower steps, across the city wall, and down the outside of it. The skidding scrambling noise she made as she slid down the face of the stones did attract some attention, but when the guards were unable to see anything, they continued on their rounds.
Overjoyed and elated with her new freedom, she set off in search of her beau. She didn’t know where to start other than right outside her doorstep. She had faith that the road would carry her there. Somehow. That was more than enough for her.
Though the tall redwood forest concealed her in its deep shadows, allowing her to rest her gift easy, conserving energy—for it did take a great deal of concentration for her to use the gift of shadowing—still, the deepness of the forest was threatening. In the back of her mind she was unsettled.
She talked a good game, especially to her dear father Kreios. If the truth be known though, she was still a scared little girl inside and she missed him terribly.
But what was done was done; what could she do now? There was no going home. She was a woman now and was restless to make her own decisions. Her father had to let her go eventually in any case. Perhaps she was like the tulips that pushed the late snows aside in early spring, sending their tender green shoots up to bloom audaciously before the season was quite yet ripe. It was not her fault that Kreios was not ready for her to depart. To bloom.
He would certainly not be ready for her to marry, either.
Ah, Subedei! She longed for him more than she could begin to say. As she reflected on her fantasy lover, her mind drifted and she became unguarded. She forgot that the great city of Ke’elei had walls for a reason. She failed to remember that, especially at night, there were things without the walls that were darker than the night itself. And more powerfully frightful.
The awakening she received was rude.
They swung in from the trees. They jumped up from under mats made of massive fern fronds that they had laid on the floor of the forest. They wielded spears, swords, the knives were out. She didn’t have time to do anything but scream and cower like a child. Instantly she was full of regret, wishing to undo a great deal of her life up to this moment. But such a thing was not possible. She tried to remember her training, to shadow, but it was all still very new. And she was very scared. Too scared, in fact, to focus properly.
Then, from the recesses of the dark hollows that lay on the path before her, a figure emerged. It was Subedei.
Ascension Island, present day
Michael tried to hold on to Airel as best he could, but the V8 powered beast was bucking and snorting relentlessly as it climbed and clawed its way toward the summit, bouncing them all over the place.
Finally, after more than an hour, the ride ended and Ellie pulled up, stopping on an overlook. She hit the kill switch and then the engine was still. The whole mass of the truck sizzled with energy and dust and bits of dirt, the radiator ticking madly.
“We’re close,” Ellie said as she opened the door and got out.
“So what are we gonna do, sneak up on her now that we’ve arrived at five thousand decibels in a cloud of dust?” Airel said as she opened the door and then practically fell out. “Ugh, I feel sick.” She crouched down in the tall grass and held her head in her hands.
Michael went to her and put a hand on her shoulder. He turned back. “Ellie, where are you going?”
“I’ve gotta find her before she leaves.”
“Leaves?” Airel was suddenly back up and running; the change was dramatic and instantaneous.
“Airel, are you okay?” Michael asked, concerned and chasing after her. They both ignored him.
“Yeah,” Ellie said to her, “The Bloodstone has found the next demon prince in the line of succession. It has conjoined with it and only needs one more thing: it’s up here looking for sign. It’s like it’s tracking Kreios. It’s looking for clues as to his whereabouts. Once it’s on his trail and knows which way to go… ” She stood halfway up the next rise, one foot uphill and one down, her body twisted back toward them. “After that I’m afraid all that’ll be left for Kim is the fat lady.”
“The fat lady, the fat lady,” Airel said quietly, climbing after her. “It’s not over till the fat lady sings.”
“I’m coming with you,” Michael shouted after them.
“Try to keep up,” Ellie said. “Just follow our dust trail.”
She wasn’t kidding. The two girls were rockets. Michael was left to pant along alone as he climbed the remainder of the mountain.
That was the trouble with summits, he knew. Just when you think you’re there, you look up and there’s a whole new mountain in front of you. He dragged his battered and tired body upward, though. The sleep hadn’t done him much good. Not that sleep on a plane ever made anyone anything but more tired. Travel by air, like anything, had its drawbacks.
The girls were long gone, but he could see the line in the grass they had left behind. A cluster of shrubs lay just off the path ahead. Beyond that, there wasn’t much up here. He looked down to be sure of his footing.
When he looked back up, the path was blocked. It was Kim. Or what was left of her. She was posed suggestively, holding the Bloodstone out to him like temptation itself. “You know you want this.”
Arabia, 1232 B.C.
“SUBEDEI?” URIEL SAID. “IS that you?”
He came closer and extended his hand to her, helping her to her feet. With the other hand, he unsheathed a dagger and held its point at her throat. “So pleased you are here, Uriel.” He gestured to those around him, his entourage, his band of warriors, his collection of thieves. “Honestly, you caught us by surprise; we weren’t quite ready for you. Not this soon.”
She swallowed, but the movement of her throat against his blade drew blood. A drop of it flowed slowly downward toward its hilt. “Subedei, what is happening?” She began to cry.
He blinked, a momentary enigma. This was not the face of a lover. It was the face of a hardened warrior. But something passed over his countenance. What was it? Indecision? But then it was gone.
Uriel was confused and lost. She thought she was going to begin a new chapter in her life, strike out on her own, make something of herself, prove the whole world wrong with the strength of her love. But when she had drawn the curtain aside, instead of revealing her wildest dreams, she beheld dawning horror. Subedei was nothing like she had imagined he would be. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She had let her mind get away with her.
She felt it coming, too: the sickness. She had been feeling the same way now for the past few weeks, but it was strange, it came and went. It seemed it was connected to something, but what? I usually only feel sick…when I think of…Subedei…
“Oh, no,” she said, and promptly vomited.
She closed her eyes in shame. Now she knew: she was surrounded by the Brotherhood. And she had been activated. Her father had been right about everything.
The sky caught fire. She was plucked up by something swift and bright, it swooped down and lifted her up into the air. When she opened her eyes she knew she was in trouble: Kreios had rescued her. Now there would be real trouble—for everyone, but mostly her.
Ascension Island, present day
Michael knew he wasn’t looking at Kim, though his eyes and his memory conspired against reality to manufacture the lie. And when she had said what she said, there was something bestial about it that repelled him.
His first instinct was to stall for time. “Hey…uh, Kim. What are you doing here?” But he knew very well.
“Shut up, pawn. Kim knows that you shroud your thoughts in deception; she does not believe a word you say. Kim is no fool. She cannot be tricked.” She licked her lips, coating her tongue with the sticky black tar that encrusted them.
Michael quickly analyzed his position. He stood downhill from her. The base of a little sheer cliff was to his left, a steep rolling drop-off to his right. He knew further that he was facing down one of the original manifestations of evil. No one knew for sure if the Bloodstone was Lucifer himself or merely a connection to him. There was a possibility that the Bloodstone wasn’t either of those; that it masqueraded as such to cause tremors of fear, upon which it fed like a ravenous beast.
Whatever the case, Michael knew his situation had become very serious. “All right then,” he said. “We won’t kid ourselves.”
“That’s right, seed of Alexander. We won’t.” She tucked the Bloodstone away inside the palm of her hand and held it stiffly at her side.
“You obviously know who I am.”
“Yes!” The one called Kim padded lithely back and forth, sizing up her prey. “You tried to kill me the last time I saw you.” She licked her lips again, her voice a razor’s edge.
“I failed.” Michael tucked his chin and spread his stance, readying himself. “Tell me, demon. What is your name this time?”
Kim roared violently, ejecting bits of black slime from her enlarged mandible-like mouth, spewing forth like a volcano. Bits of it sizzled wherever they landed. “The Alexander asks our name, does he? No! No, we shall not be tricked!” Kim’s skin was turning green, blending in with the tall grass in which she stood.
“Fine,” Michael said, and promptly drew his pistol and fired. The shot had been aimed squarely at the Bloodstone in her hand, but as the bullet neared its target its trajectory became twisted and bent, pulling it into compact orbit around the stone. It slowed and then fell to the earth harmless.
The demon laughed, a wretched constrained sound. She began to prattle on in an incoherent stream of meaningless words. Michael pretended to pay attention to her, wore a false look of dread on his face. But he knew what effect the unsilenced gunshot would have. He needed only to wait now for Ellie and Airel. Then it would be three to two. Unless Kim’s weird third-person monologue included more than one demon.
Arabia, 1232 B.C.
Kreios sat Eriel on one of the topmost branches of one of the tall redwoods outside the city walls of Ke’elei. He did not have the time to scold her or even to confirm if she was all right, nor could he take the time to tell her what surely she already knew: that she must hold on tightly or fall to her death. But she wasn’t a little girl anymore. She knew these things now. It was clear to Kreios, just as clear as the fact that she had stubbornly chosen her path; she had been activated. Now nothing would ever be the same.
He then descended upon the demon horde below with ultimate wrath, sword first. A father’s love for his daughter manifest as a tower of rage if she ever faced harm from the hand of another.
Demon and weird beast alike fell under his blade. Horses, bizarre apes with smashed-looking faces, unchained jungle cats that had been saddled for combat, even one enormous lizard-like monster from the early days, when men lived to be a thousand years old, before the flood, before creatures like this had been mostly exterminated, evolving into dragon myths. The entourage of Subedei was decadent indeed for him to possess one.
But it made no tactical sense for such creatures to be here, which made Kreios despise his foe all the more as a fool. There were shouts as the single-handed slaughter continued apace. Subedei was rallying them into formation. But it was too little and too late. The guards upon the city wall, less than a league off, sounded the alarm and angel sorties had already organized into the air. Subedei’s little detachment of troops was doomed. It was now his turn to rue the recklessness of a foray into the woods so near the great city.
Kreios looped into the air with his kind and sized up the final blow, looking for the captain of this force. Sword to the fore, Kreios searched for Subedei. But he was not to be found.
Kreios shouted in rage. He had missed too many opportunities of late.
Ascension Island, present day
The Sword of Light made one heck of an entrance, especially when it came out of nowhere like it did when I wielded it. I leaped from the cliff top above Michael and Kim with a primal scream, sounding like a Valkyrie or something; it scared even me. I landed in between them Sword first, plunging the blade deep into the grassy earth, ejecting bits of geological shrapnel in every direction. Light spiraled around the Sword and up my arm, swirling with great energy.
Ellie took a different tack, deciding to come at Kim from the uphill side along the path, from behind her.
Michael crouched down in the blast radius of my landing, shielding himself just in time. Kim was forcibly knocked down. She never saw Ellie coming.
Kim, if you’re in there I hope you know I’m sorry for this…it’s not how I wanted you to go.
In an obscene movement, as if her body was a marionette on strings, she sat bolt upright in the dirt. Her head twitched a little as she looked at me, like her thoughts were a skipping record or like she was having trouble rebooting.
I approached her, Sword at the ready. “Kim—”
A beastly voice answered, “Kim is not…Kim is not…Kim is no more. It is only the Nri…” The tent of Kim’s body hiked itself to its feet in a crouch and looked up at me, baring its blackened teeth, twisting to acknowledge Ellie’s presence behind.
“You have to end this,” She said within, in a very clear tone. I charged, but it was too late. I was too late.
Kim—it—leapt up to the top of the cliff above, inhumanly, a jump of thirty feet or more. Its ungodly wings unfurled in a huge sweeping motion, drooping down from the cliff to where we stood. The face of Kim smiled the wickedest smile I had ever seen and then looked to the sky. The wings were slowly raised.
Then the thing, the housing for the Bloodstone, bolted into the sky and was gone.