by August Arrea
“And if she’s not an angel?” Max countered.
Despite his resistance, Jacob couldn’t deny he held as much curiosity about the woman as Max, so much so that it almost was worth whatever punishment they faced for breaking Anahel’s strict order where the Silent Forest was concerned. So it was against his better judgment, not just for the trouble he could be walking into but the unsettling feeling he had, both about the pool and the woman lurking strangely in it which stirred noticeably in the pit of his stomach, that he slowly rose to follow his friend.
~~~
“You should know I don’t much care for unannounced visits,” the woman was suddenly heard to casually remark.
Max and Jacob quickly ducked again out of sight again behind the cover of the felled tree. For what seemed a long while, the boys made not one sound. Not even so much as an exhale of breath.
“She talking to us?” whispered Max, finally.
“Who else?” answered Jacob.
“Why don’t you go see?”
“You were the one so keen on meeting her. Why don’t you?” argued Jacob.
Both, however, held firm to their crouched positions. After a long pause of quiet, they both snuck another glance over the top of the tree trunk.
“Well?” the woman called out. “Are you just going to stay there hidden in the shadows?”
Both Jacob and Max traded a hesitant look with one another while feeling the urgent tribal beats beginning to play inside their chests. They each motioned to the other to step out from behind their hiding place and speak to the lady, now that she knew they were there. Since it was Max’s idea to go snooping inside the Forest in the first place, he finally acquiesced. Just as he began to rise to his feet, the two boys saw to their surprise it wasn’t them to which the woman was speaking, but another strange, unknown figure. It emerged stealthy from the darkness congregating amongst the trees, cloaked in a long, dark gray cape with a hood draped over its head to conceal whoever, or whatever, it was. Max quickly ducked back out of sight.
“Who’s that, now?” asked Jacob.
“Did you see me go over and exchange introductions?” answered Max.
Then in unison, their heads slowly rose from behind the trunk so they could peer out at the lady and the newly arrived cloaked figure.
“I was beginning to think that maybe I had managed to somehow take leave of your mind,” the lady commented coyly as the figure approached the water’s edge.
“Take leave? Yours is a presence not readily forgotten since the day you came to lend the single solitary heartbeat heard inside the folds of this mute woodland.” The voice was instantly familiar, even before the figure reached up to draw back the hood from its head.
“It’s Thaniel,” Jacob gasped with surprise at the unexpected sight when both boys finally saw who it was hidden within the cloak’s velvety folds..
“What’s he doing here?”
For a moment both boys worried the angel had caught sight of the two of them stealing into the night from Havenhid and decided to take after them. It quickly became apparent, much to their relief, that Thaniel was unaware of their presence and had come to the Silent Forest for other reasons.
“Now that you’ve decided to compliment me with your presence the question that remains is whether your visit will serve to please or displease me.” The lady’s eyes left the shimmering mane that was her hair which she continued to groom and fixed themselves keenly on the figure. “Judging by the sight of your empty hands I fear the probability lies in the latter.”
“I can’t help but detect a distinct note of perturbation in your voice, even more so than usual” said Thaniel as he shrugged the cape he wore from his shoulders and let it fall to the ground at his feet.
“Did you come expecting, instead, that I would fill your ears with a lilting song of gratitude?” replied the woman in a most wilting manner.
“Gratitude, if I may be so candid with my words, has never been your strong suit.” Thaniel’s thin lips took the shape of a condescending smile as he spoke. “Neither has the virtue of patience. But I think you would find it would benefit you at this time.”
“Patience.” The woman seemed to ponder the sound of the word as if it was the first time it had come to meet her ears. “Then you have answered my question. This visit will not end pleasantly.”
If Thaniel was at all troubled by the ominous way with which the lady spoke, he did not show it. Still, he bowed his head as though hesitant to reveal whatever it was that had brought him to this mysterious place.
“Gothamel has gone,” he finally blurted.
“Gone? You mean, he’s left Eden?” gasped the lady with horrified surprise. “When?”
“Several weeks now.”
A flash of anger passed across the lady’s face at the same time a wounded look of sadness came to settle upon Jacob’s. He had done his best to try and put Gotham out of his thoughts since learning about his abrupt departure from Anahel. Yet the feeling of dejection the news left him proved a difficult thing to shake. After all, he had come to form a strong bond with the angel—something he hadn’t expected. And he had begun to think Gotham had come to feel at least somewhat the same toward him. Why would he suddenly up and leave? And more importantly, how could he do so without so much as saying goodbye?
“Weeks? And you’ve waited until just this moment to tell me this news?” bellowed the lady. “More importantly, how could you allow such a thing, after all these years waiting for his return?”
Her anguish at the news echoed in the emptiness of all other sound blanketing the Forest.
“He had already long taken leave for the Gate when I learned of his departure. Not that I could have stopped him had I the chance,” answered Thaniel.
The more he spoke the further agitated the lady seemed to become. Rising to her feet, she paced about angrily along the rocks though her movements appeared somewhat stilted, as if she were corralled within some invisible pen that kept her from straying too far towards the water’s edge.
“Then the purpose in your coming here this night is to inform me you have utterly failed in your promise,” the lady hissed.
The cool assertion brought an arrogant smile to Thaniel’s face. “When have you known me to fail in anything I’ve set out to do?”
“If not failure, then what?”
“I told you in the beginning this would be no easy task,” said Thaniel in an attempt to sooth the lady. “Truth be told, I do not believe Gothamel even had Destiny in his possession when he surprised us all with his return to Eden.
DEESSSSSSTINYYYYYY…
The mention of the name was the only thing to break through the mournful fog that had suddenly settled itself upon Jacob.
“You sound as if what you say is welcoming news,” said the woman. “For all we know he could have destroyed it.”
“Destroy?” Thaniel echoed with a lilting laugh. “No…a fool Gothamel is not, even if such a thing were possible, which of course it is not.
“No, if I know Gothamel—and, indeed, I do, probably better so than he knows his own self—I assure you he has it safe and secure, but hidden away out of sight; his sight to be more precise.”
The lady seemed to grow somewhat calmer as curiosity slowly took over in place of her anger. “What do you mean his sight?”
“Destiny serves as a bitter, painful memory of the fate it brought to his son, the blade of which continues to stab at his guilt,” explained Thaniel. “If I were to make an educated guess, I would say he has buried it somewhere deep and remote in the bowels of the earth to help rid himself of that memory which holds both his failure and his loss, yet close enough should he ever find himself in dire need to retrieve it. If not to extol his vengeance against the Darkness, then to brandish it on himself.”
“Brandish it on himself?” the lady remarked with a tilt of her head. “What absurd nonsense is it that you’re attempting to feed my ears?”
“I speak metaphorically,” said
Thaniel. “You do know what a metaphor is, do you not?”
Beautiful as the lady was, it could not camouflage the ugly look of loathing which momentarily spoiled her loveliness and sent daggers across the water straight toward Thaniel, who could not help but grin in return.
“Naturally, I don’t mean he would literally turn the blade on himself. But, nonetheless, I do speak of a sort of self-mutilation,” continued Thaniel. “Guilt is a curious thing, especially when it wounds one so deeply as it has Gothamel. Sometimes it gains such a strong hold that one doesn’t feel worthy enough to be granted relief from its pain. If anything, it’s the wallowing in pain that allows the sufferer to survive the burden of such guilt. A sort of self-flagellation, if you will. What better instrument to keep alive and fresh such a painful and dark memory imprisoning him than the physical presence of the very thing that led to the demise of his son…in this case the sword?”
“Sounds like an affliction suffered by mortals,” remarked the woman with a dismissive sneer, though it was difficult to determine whether the affliction itself or the mention of mortals had left the bad taste in her mouth.
“For the most part, it is,” said Thaniel. “But it is not one angels are immune to, Fallen or not.”
Jacob and Max kept themselves hidden behind the shield of the felled tree with just the tops of their heads and unblinking eyes visible as they peered over the top of the trunk, eavesdropping on the conversation of which proved difficult to make any sense.
“Do you know what they are talking about?” whispered Max.
Jacob was too caught up in his own thoughts to answer at first.
“Something about Gotham’s son.”
Max continued to think out loud. “Whose destiny do they keep referring to?”
“I don’t think they mean destiny as in fate, but rather a name,” answered Jacob.
“Name for what?”
“A sword,” Jacob replied quietly as he thought back to the last time he saw Gotham at the foot of the Tree of Life and the mirage of the Sword of Destiny the angel had unveiled from a scrawling in the dirt. And he found himself growing more and more befuddled as he and Max listened in on the curious conversation taking place between Thaniel and the even curiouser woman in the water.
~~~
The lady continued in her pacing about the rocks while mulling over what Thaniel had shared with her.
“Buried. Somewhere. Anywhere!” she muttered to herself before turning her attention back to the angel. “Your words offer anything but encouragement. Am I now to somehow hold out hope that you will uncover this elusive hiding place?” she asked with great suspect.
“Gothamel had not gotten too far a head start when I learned of his leaving that I was able to send Betryel to follow after him,” said Thaniel.
“And what makes you so certain he will lead the way to the sword so easily?”
“One thing you can always count on with a dog when it buries its prize bone,” said Thaniel, “it always digs it up now and then to make sure it’s still where it has left it.”
“The dog being Gothamel?”
“Both are equally loyal and just as predictable.”
“I hope for your sake, Thaniel, you are able to deliver on your promise in short order,” said the lady coolly. “There is only so much patience one can wring from the well. When it runs dry, as I assure you it slowly is, all that remains is an unquenchable anger. Of course you know it’s not mine of which I speak; neither the patience, nor anger. And with each day that passes, the more difficult it becomes for me to quiet his grumbling. I trust I need not remind you the unpleasantness held in the coils of his rage.”
“Who is she talking about? Whose rage?” Max whispered to Jacob as the two listened intently.
Thaniel, who showed no pause to what could only be construed as a menacing warning, said simply, “I ask you again, when have you known me to fail in anything I’ve set out to do?”
Yet the smile fixed with such assuredness on Thaniel’s face gradually began to fade, as though he suddenly sensed something not right in the air.
For a while the lady stared out across the dark still water to where Thaniel stood on the opposite side of the pool. Her beauty was as frozen as sculpted marble but one could see a frenzy of thoughts swirled about behind her mask or porcelain flesh.
“It’s a funny thing about this Forest,” the lady began again. “The piercing quiet which surrounds it sometimes allows for the faintest whispers from even the furthest corners of Eden to tickle the ears.”
“Is that a fact? Thaniel murmured in response as he continued to search suspiciously the surrounding woods as though his own lobes had been grazed by such a whisper.
“I understand Gothamel was not alone upon his unexpected return to Eden,” the woman with her dark eyes firmly fixed on the angel said.
“And who exactly would Gothamel have trailing after him to Havenhid?” questioned Thaniel though somewhat preoccupied.
“A boy…a Nephilim boy to be precise; one who is the same age as was his son when he last stepped foot upon Eden’s shores,” the lady answered, and when Thaniel wasn’t immediate with his response she pressed all the more urgently, “Well…is it true?”
“She’s asking about you,” Max whispered the obvious before he was quickly hushed by Jacob.
Just then, Thaniel spun quickly around and the boys ducked from sight only a split second before his gaze fell on the hollowed trunk behind which they hid.
“What is it?” they heard the lady ask.
Jacob’s heart was pounding so hard and loud inside his chest he was sure the angel could hear it. “Now what?”
“I say we make a run for it.”
“Are you crazy? He’ll see us for sure.”
Then came the sound of heavy footsteps fast approaching and panic set in.
“He’s coming this way,” said Jacob.
“Quick, lay yourself on the ground!” ordered Max.
“What good’s that going to do?”
“Do you want to get caught? Just do it” Max barked impatiently while forcing his friend down onto the damp earth. “Now, don’t move a muscle…and definitely don’t take what I’m about to do the wrong way.”
No sooner had Jacob stretched out flat on his back on the ground did Max throw the full weight of himself down on top of him painfully knocking the wind from his chest. Jacob fought to keep silent the sharp, uncomfortable groan struggling to escape him, but it was quickly forgotten when he finally managed to pry open his eyes and found himself staring not at Max as he expected, but through a thick covering of what appeared to be fern leaves surrounding him. Only he remembered the ground around the felled tree to be bare.
“Keep still,” he heard not only the whisper of Max’s voice but the feel of his breath against his face as though his mouth was just inches away, “and don’t say a word!”
Then came a heavy booted foot as it came to rest on top the tree trunk. Jacob froze, allowing himself not even to breathe through his nostrils. A moment later Thaniel slowly came into view as he leaned himself forward to peer over the top of the trunk. There was an expectant look fixed upon his face, as if he was certain he would find something that shouldn’t be lurking on the other side of the tree. It was quickly replaced by questionable surprise, however, when instead he found nothing but a thick patch of fern nestled close to the trunk. Jacob followed Thaniel’s gaze with his own as it raked itself across the fern. He dared not make even the tiniest movement, scared that even the slightest tremble would cause the delicate fern leaves to quiver. For the briefest of moments the angel’s eyes met his own and he couldn’t help but catch sharply his breath. He quickly realized, however, he was completely shielded from sight beneath the shroud of fern.
Thaniel then stared out into the darkness held by the distance of woods and only when he was certain there was no one else besides himself paying a visit to the company of trees did he finally retreat back to the pool. Once Thaniel had gone, Ja
cob released a breath of relief and noticed the many fern leaves blanketing himself begin to shrink and recoil. It was like watching the life cycle of the plants captured by a time-lapse camera only in reverse. The feathery leaves and thin stems curled inward and disappeared back into arms and legs and fingers and shoulders from which they sprouted until Max could once more be seen stretched across Jacob.
“Bloody ripper!” exclaimed Max with a victorious grin as he rolled himself off his friend much to the relief of Jacob. “Never imagined the ability to mimic plants would ever come in handy. Guess I was wrong.”
They gave a fleeting glance back over toward the pool where they saw Thaniel had returned. Instead of testing their luck any further by continuing with their spying, they carefully and quietly as they could retreated into the darkness. Only when they emerged safely from the trees and felt they had escaped the Forest’s reach did they allow themselves to breathe easy and even celebrate in muffled giggles how two Fledglings had managed to put one over on someone with eagle-eyed brilliance like Thaniel, and right under his nose at that.
Yet despite being “happy as a box o’ birds,” as Max put it, they quickly made a pact with one another to keep their covert outing absolute secret. Not even Leos, Kairo and Ethan could ever hear about what they had been up to while they slept knowing all it would take would be one loose tongue to land them both in hot water. Once they had made their agreement binding with a handshake, they took off again into the night, allowing whatever adrenaline remained flowing through their veins to carry them back to Havenhid.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Guarded Answers
I
t didn’t take long before the first cracks in the pact Jacob and Max had made to keep secret their excursion into the Silent Forest began to appear. Jacob started feeling a gnawing at the pit of his stomach during Study the next day. Thaniel was at the front of the class lecturing; the topic of which Jacob had fallen deaf to as he found his attention becoming more and more fixed on Max who was seated off to the left one table in front of him. Max’s eyes were fixed firmly ahead, but it was clear to Jacob just by looking at him that his thoughts were no more focused on what Thaniel was saying than his own.
