She continued. “Aini’s clothes were torn off her body by the king’s guards, and she was shoved into a hole they had dug. The princess screamed and cried out, pleading her innocence, but the king did not believe her. They buried her alive! I can still hear Aini’s screams. It seems Artemisia’s hold on the king was more powerful than the love he had for his daughter.”
My heart was a fist pounding the inside of my chest. I needed to run, to yell, but my body had become petrified stone. My eyelids fluttered shut. I had never experienced such pain. Not even when I recalled my father’s death or when my memories revealed my mother tried to kill me. I fell to the ground and beat my head against the hard earth. I howled and wailed, digging my fingers into the ground until they bled. Then an idea occurred to me.
“Perhaps I can still save her,” I said, scrambling to my knees. “Where is she?”
The servant girl looked horrified. “She is buried in the desert just outside the city. Why do you—”
“I may still be able to save her.” I rushed to my feet. My face was covered in dirt, my hands bloodied. I must have looked like a madman.
Aurora, who had been weeping until now, stood next to the girl. “She is dead. There is nothing we can do for her now.”
I stared at the servant girl, ignoring what Aurora had said. “Show me! Show me where she is buried.”
The girl shook her head, still sobbing.
“Take me to her! I must see her!” I yelled, shaking her hard.
“Stop! Leave her be,” Aurora said, yanking at my garments.
“I must know,” I said. “I need to see her for myself. I implore you, do this thing.”
“I will take you to her grave,” the servant girl said, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.
The girl led Aurora and me outside the city gates to a nearby desert. We hiked a short way, and between two boulders stood the unmarked grave where Princess Aini had been buried alive. I fell to my knees before it and began to push the sand away. I continued digging while the servant and Aurora embraced each other, weeping and watching with horror outlined on their faces.
I unearthed her. Upon seeing her, the indescribable pain gripped my chest and lit my heart in flames. I howled at the heavens, unable to understand how such a thing was possible. “How could God allow this to come to pass? Aini was a being without malice, a pure soul—a sweet, innocent creature. Yet she was killed in this grotesque manner. How could this be so?” My face contorted with grief. My hands covered my head as I tried to comprehend this reality.
Her body was crushed by the weight of the sand. Holes filled with sand remained where her eyes once were. Her face was covered with blood and grit and her mouth stretched open beyond its limits, overflowing with bloodied sand. She died a painful, horrifying death, and my heart could not bear it.
I climbed out of the hole I had dug and looked at the servant girl and Aurora who stood weeping in each other’s arms. “Aurora, leave this place. You are not safe here. Go to Egypt or wherever you might want to go, but as far away from here as possible. There are things I must do, things I do not care for you to witness.”
Aurora let go of the girl and came to me. She placed her hands on my shoulders. “Come with me. The king’s guards and Artemisia will be looking for you,” she whispered.
I looked at her, and hot blood pooled in my eyes. “What can they do to me, worse than what they have already done?”
“Poor soul, you have suffered much.” She closed her eyes and let her forehead rest on my chest. “Please, leave this place with me. You shall gain nothing by staying here.”
“I must stay,” I said in a gruff voice.
Aurora stepped back from me. “What of Lilith? Have you forgotten her and her evil deeds?”
“I have not forgotten. She is the reason evil exists in this world and the reason my precious Aini lies, bones crushed, in a desert grave. The day will come for me to destroy her, but there is something I must do here first. Now leave! Both of you—go!”
Aurora’s diaphanous wings materialized before our eyes. She placed her hands over my temples and whispered something I did not understand. A slight warmth shot into my head from her fingers. I gasped and she removed them.
“We are connected now. If you ever need me, all you have to do is say my name. I shall hear you and come to your side as soon as I can.”
I bowed my head. “Thank you.”
Aurora carried the servant girl in her arms and flew toward the west. My eyes followed them until they disappeared in the distance. My shoulders slumped with a sigh of relief. I tumbled to the ground and sat holding my head with both hands, feeling bruised inside. “Aini—my love.”
Chapter 18
THE SEARCH FOR EMOTIONS
I removed my garments and shifted into the red fiend form. I dove into the pit, wrapped Aini’s broken body with the cloth of my garment, and took flight with her securely in my arms. Her body was no more than a bag of crushed bones, tissue, and blood. I headed to the king’s palace.
I broke through the palace roof and landed in the throne room, where the king and Artemisia awaited. I placed Aini’s body on the floor before them and slowly got to my feet.
Many guards tried to deter me, but I stopped them with my tail and wings, knocking some unconscious and crushing others to death. When there was no one left to defend the king, I climbed the steps toward him.
The old throne creaked when the king sprang to his feet and scurried to hide behind it. “Wait!” He held out his arms. “I implore you. Do not hurt me.”
I stopped and glared at him. “Did your daughter, whose broken body lies before you, plead for her life as you do now?”
The king peeked from behind the throne. “She begged for mercy,” he said in a low, brittle voice.
“Yet you showed her no mercy, your own flesh and blood. Why then should I grant you clemency?”
“No! Please!” he cried, his pale, panicked face twitching. “I am your king!” I watched as his eyes darted about the bare throne room. I knew he was looking for a way out.
When he made a mad dash to escape, I caught him with my tail and coiled it around his entire body, leaving only his neck and head free. “You are no king of mine.” I squeezed my tail tighter around him. “You are a coward and a murderer of the innocent.”
He writhed and struggled against the grip of my tail. “It was her doing!” He gestured to Artemisia with his eyes and head. “She bewitched me. She made me slay my gentle, caring girl.” He began to blubber.
I glowered at Artemisia, who stood motionless by the king’s throne.
“I will demonstrate how death came to your daughter.” I coiled my tail tighter and tighter around the king’s legs and hips until the bones fractured and his pelvis shattered.
He screamed and wailed as he heard the sickening crunch of his bones breaking and pulverizing under the weight of my tail. He howled and begged for mercy as his spleen ruptured and his ribs snapped one by one, puncturing and slashing his lungs. His eyeballs burst out of their sockets from the immense pressure. He wheezed as his lungs collapsed, and a geyser of blood and gore ejected out of his mouth when his heart imploded. When he drew his last breath, I uncoiled my tail and released him. He collapsed to the floor like an empty sack.
Then I turned my sights to Artemisia. She stood with her back against the wall, trembling, the bronze drained from her cheeks. I headed for her. She pressed her body into the wall, as if to become one with it.
I stood before her. “Do you know who I am?”
“Ahriman—the evil one. The Prince of Darkness.” Her voice trembled and she sniveled as she lowered her sight.
“Look at me!” I yelled.
She raised her head in a snap, staring at me, eyes wide.
“I am your lover—Prometheus.” I shot her a furious glance. “Your deeds have transformed me into the fiend you see before you. You robbed me of everything good in me. You made me this! I have no love left inside.”
&n
bsp; She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head vigorously, screaming, and pulling her tight, dark curls out of her head.
I narrowed my eyes, sensing a difference in her. She was not the same woman who sent me on the journey to fetch the oracle. “I am what you made me!” I told her. “Do you still desire me? I lost my happiness, love, and passion. They remain in the desert never to be found again. I will be this monstrosity evermore—because of you!”
She banged the back of her head against the wall over and over, groaning and clenching her teeth. She sobbed and seemed to be giving way to madness. “No! I will find your happiness, love, and passion, so you may feel once more and return to the beautiful man you were. I will return them to you, and then you will be mine again.”
My face crumpled again. She made my head spin with confusion. “What are you saying?”
She ran out of the palace and toward the city gates. I groaned, rolling my eyes skyward. I allowed her to escape knowing it would be easy to catch her. I took flight and followed her from the air. I did not care who saw me at this point. She proceeded outside the city and continued running until she reached the desert. Once there, she fell on her hands and knees and began to dig a hole in the sand.
I landed beside her. “What are you doing?”
She gazed up at me with a frenzied look on her face. “I am searching for your happiness, love, and passion. I will find them and return them to you. Then you can return to your former self, and we can be together once more.” She continued scattering the sand aside. “I know they are hidden beneath the sand. I will search until I find them.”
“What?” I asked, scratching my head. “Have you abandoned reason?” Insane or not, she revolted me.
I abandoned her in the desert and returned to the palace where I had left Aini’s remains. I carried her body to the rose garden and buried her there among the fragrant blossoms she loved. I lingered only a short while, for I did not want to taint the area with my foul form.
When the deed was done, I returned to the desert and followed Artemisia on her senseless pursuit to unearth my happiness, love, and passion. She dug deep pits only to be covered again by the shifting sands. Her suffering would have ended had I killed her or shifted to my former self, but I remained the hideous red fiend to torture her. Day after day and night after night she dug holes, weeping, moaning, and sometimes screaming in frustration at being unable to find my lost emotions.
Dark spots formed on her smooth, red-brown skin, and it began to singe as the sun beamed down on her day after day. Her lips cracked like the desert floor, and huge, dark blisters formed on her palms and feet; yet she continued to dig.
Lack of water and food made her weak. She dragged herself like a serpent, creating trenches in the sand. Her skin hung from her bones. None of it stopped her from breaking and turning over the sand.
As she lay depleted in one of the pits she had dug, weak from starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion, I picked up a handful of sand and drizzled it over her face. She cringed, blinked, shook her head, and spit sand out of her mouth. I threw more sand at her face and body. Then she began to writhe and groan, reaching toward the edge to try to climb out. Her emaciated body and damaged mind failed her. I watched her suffer—and derived much pleasure from it. I poured sand into the hole with my tail. Heaps fell over her this time. She floundered about and flailed her arms and legs like a drowning victim, coughing and wheezing as sand poured into her mouth and nose. There was sheer panic in her eyes as the sand covered her face until she too, like the princess, was buried alive. I stood by the mound recalling the way Aini looked after being crushed beneath fifty tons of sand. I fell to my knees and wept into my hands. Artemisia got what she deserved.
Not too long after Artemisia’s death, the ground shook. The sand and rocks over the burial spot trembled and popped. Suddenly an eruption from underneath the grave knocked me on my back. I gasped as something blasted through the ground. Panting, I stared at the creature hovering over the grave. Lilith! It was my mother in her serpent form. I swallowed again and again, trying to keep my throat from clenching as despair gnawed at my guts. How was this possible? Where did she come from?
Her eyes were squinted slits. She turned toward me but seemed to look right through me, as if I were invisible. Then she zoomed straight up and disappeared from my sight.
Am I losing my mind? I plopped back onto the sand, gripping my stomach as nausea clawed at my throat. Turning on my side, chunks of partially digested food spewed from my mouth. The pungent stench invaded my nostrils, making me heave again until there was nothing left inside me.
Chapter 19
PURPOSE
I remained in the form of the red fiend as I lay on the sand, trying to make sense of what had happened. It had not been Artemisia who brought out my rage—it was Lilith. Lilith had possessed Artemisia’s body and controlled her mind. Aini’s death was her doing.
My heartache occupied every fiber of my being. At times it was quiet and allowed me to think of fond moments with Aini; at other times a great force pulled down on me, and, like a boulder, sorrow sat on my chest. I died many deaths crushed under its weight. Then other times rage would burst from my chest in a vicious shout of anguish.
Lilith slew me twice, and she will soon answer for it.
I hid the pain of losing Princess Aini and the life we would have had, buried it deep beneath a mound of fury and hatred. Months passed in the blink of an eye. I remained in my fiend form in the desert and kept myself alive and strong drinking the blood of camels, nocturnal animals, and any human who had the misfortune of crossing my path.
The desert was my home for three months. I wore the hides of beasts and burrowed under the sand to escape the midday sun. With plenty of time to think, I lived mostly in my head. I thought about the life I’d had, the places I had seen, and people I had met. My life had been, more often than not, filled with tragedy, grief, and regret. Perhaps I deserved this life for being born a demon.
Lilith—her very name poisons my soul. Do demons have souls? I grew up in solitude and remained so for so long, and after all these years I am alone still. Perhaps it is my fate to never find love or companionship, for whenever I think I have found it, it is seized from me. It is conceivable to think fiends do not deserve to love or be loved. Was I meant to be alone? If so, why then do I feel so much? How much longer will I live? I have already lived many human lifetimes. I cannot bear to go on alone and without a purpose.
A true mother would have given her son the answers he seeks. A rightful mother would have taught her son to be a proper devil. What am I? A confused monster slithering over the dunes of this arid land is what I have become. Doing evil does not please me, but I am a fiend and it is what fiends do. Is it not?
Every bad experience in my wretched life could be traced back to Lilith. Perhaps I have known my purpose all along. I was born to rid this planet of her—to destroy my own mother.
I questioned whether she was yet in Egypt. I had doubts, since she did not seem to remain in one place for too long, but Egypt was as good a place as any to resume my search for her. The time had finally come; I was ready, and this time I would not get distracted. Determined to go on until I found and destroyed her, I was willing to do everything Gadreel had instructed me. After all, I was a devil and Lilith was mother to no one. She bore me only to suffer, and she will die by my hand.
Chronicles of Lilith – 9
Possessing Artemisia was far different than occupying any other creature. It was as if every fiber of her being rejected my presence and fought against me. There had never been pain when inhabiting other creatures’ bodies, but with Artemisia the process was unusual.
Her body forced me to share some of the pain I inflicted on her. I did not see well through her eyes. People were blurry images during the brightest time of the day and dark silhouettes at night. Listening through her ears was muffled, like trying to listen to a conversation in the next room through a thick wooden door with cotton w
edged in your ears. There were times when I only heard the screams and wails she produced due to my possession of her. These were not favorable conditions, but I did the best I could under the circumstances.
Artemisia was a fetching woman. Yes, she was beautiful, but when I possessed a woman she became irresistible. Prometheus would not be able to deny her, and much could be found out about a man behind the closed door of a bedchamber.
I lured Prometheus into Artemisia’s arms, despite my poor vision and hearing. He was a powerful, passionate lover. I enjoyed his company and learned much about him. I knew he was the one the Seers had prophesied about. I wanted to reveal myself and tell him of the prophecy and take him away to my home on the cliffs in Egypt. Then his eyes fell upon Princess Aini. His attraction to her was immediate. Now she stood between me and my destiny, and this I would not tolerate. Of course, this never would have happened had I been me instead of being in possession of Artemisia’s body.
After meeting the princess, he refused Artemisia and only wanted to spend time with Aini. My first instinct was to destroy the princess at once, but then I grew wiser. I decided to let him get acquainted with love. After all, it was not me he rejected. I allowed them their walks in the rose gardens and their caresses—for the time being.
Some time went by and Prometheus’s relationship with the princess grew stronger. It no longer amused me. I desired to put an end to it, and there was only one way to accomplish this—I had to destroy her. But how? He would surely try to save her, and I had no wish to harm him. I had to send him away somehow. Once the princess was alone, her life would be mine to undo.
I thought about the king and how he had arranged for his daughter, Princess Aini, to marry a prince. Of course, he would never allow Prometheus and the princess to remain together. Prometheus would have to be wealthy and of royal lineage in order for the king to accept this union. I merely had to whisper in the king’s ear and he would put an end to it, but it had to be much more final than ending the relationship. She had to die.
Son of the Serpent Page 26
