by Vox Day
“You need both of us, you mean, Derek and me?” Holli stared at Khasar, not knowing if she should be more surprised at his uncharacteristic seriousness, or at the idea she was getting lumped in with a serial killer. “Oh, no, I don’t think so. It’s one thing to, you know, keep the demons from getting him, but I don’t want to go anywhere with him!”
“This is about a little more than you, honey.” Aliel patted her shoulder. “There’s a lot of other people involved and one does not question the means of the Most High. Derek has been chosen, but he needs a companion, one who has experienced the spiritual world before.”
“What about Christopher? What about Jami? Why can’t they do it!”
The angels looked at each other again. “Holli, that thing that attacked you… it’s waiting for your father. To witness what he is about to go through will tear at your faith, which has been much shaken already.”
“Is he going to die!”
“You are all going to die.”
“I mean now!”
“Not immediately. You will see him again, before the end.”
Tears were running down her face. “No! Then I can’t leave now! You can’t ask me to leave my Daddy if he’s dying!”
Aliel placed her hands on Holli’s shoulders and pressed her forehead against Holli’s temple. “Holli, listen to me. There is war among the Fallen. If we do not act, if you do not help us act, it is very likely that millions will be killed. Some of the most powerful lords of the Pit are stirring, as their decades-long slumber comes to an end. They were sated, for a time, but now they hunger for another great blood-offering and their minions seek to serve them.”
“Isn’t there someone else?”
“There is no one else,” said Khasar sadly. “It is even possible that this attack on your father was made precisely to prevent you from acting.”
“You can’t make me go!”
Aliel shook her head sadly. “No, darling, we will never make you serve against your will. If you choose to stay, then you will stay and Derek will go alone.”
“Let her go!” Derek called out from the steps. “She’s suffered enough. I’m not afraid to go alone.”
“We don’t question your courage, boy, only your ability to succeed,” answered Khasar. He looked deep into Holli’s eyes. “Is this your decision, then, to let him attempt to do this on his own?”
Holli stared into Khasar’s eyes, so like a cat’s even in his human form. She saw blood and fire there, death and destruction. She saw a tall, thin young man, holding two tiny bundles in either arm and laughing with delight. She saw a single tombstone sitting peacefully on a hillside cemetery, and then a mound of dead, naked bodies piled in a jumbled heap.
“Oh Khasar, is it really necessary?” she whispered. More than once, he had sacrificed himself for her, and now she trusted him, perhaps even more than Aliel, to tell her the truth.
“It is needful, daughter of the King.”
When Khasar called her that, Holli realized what she had to do. For there was one whose claim on her long preceded even Daddy’s, one to whom she owed everything. What did it mean to be a follower if you did not follow? But God, it hurt. It hurts so much! She never thought anything could possibly be worse than Prom Night; now she knew better.
“I will go,” she said, just before a sob choked her throat. “But I will see him? You promise?”
“You will see him, darling,” Aliel whispered, kissing her cheek and wiping her tears away. “Now go, my darling, and may the blessing and the power of the Lord God Almighty go with you.”
Despite her blurred vision, she could see that Derek was already mounted on one of the angelic unicorns. He had a look of wild exaltation on his face that almost made her smile; he might be a killer, but she’d forgotten that he was a geek, too, and he probably had more than a little in common with Christopher.
Khasar transformed back into his lion shape, and lowered his wing for her to clamber onto his back. It hadn’t really been all that long since she’d ridden on him, Holli thought, not for her, and yet it seemed like several lifetimes ago. So much had changed, including her. She held on tight to the loose fur of his ruff to steady herself as he launched himself into the air. The sensation of flight was as pleasant as she remembered, but even so, her thoughts were as dark as the night through which they flew.
Chapter 21
The Call
He realized it was his duty to undertake this expedition of reprisal. But what is duty? How many duties are there that we so often neglect without the slightest compunction?
—Herman Hesse, Magister Ludi
“Okay, so that was totally cool!” Derek patted the unicorn which had borne him to this empty parking lot in a friendly manner. He was a little taken aback when the beast disappeared in a flare of silver light, and in its place stood a warrior angel who stood nearly a head taller than him. His hand, which he had withdrawn in alarm, was still up in the air; he slowly lowered it without taking his eyes off the angel.
“The Archon Khasarotjofee will take you to those who await you.” His erstwhile beast of burden nodded civilly to Derek, then inclined his head to Holli. “Fare you well, children of the King.”
There was another silver flash, and they watched him soar into the sky as if he burned rocket fuel.
“Dang, I’m glad he didn’t fly like that when I was on board. Was I supposed to say thanks, or something?”
Holli shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably. Khasar likes it when you scratch behind his ears, even though he won’t admit it.”
“Stop that,” ordered the lion as she flicked the black tufts that tipped his ears. His human voice was startling, coming as it did from a set of jaws featuring six-inch canines.
She couldn’t blame Derek for his enthusiasm, though. The lights of the two cities were spectacular when seen from treetop level; they’d soared down over the murky darkness of Lake Phalen with the lights of Minneapolis and its towers across the river to their right.
The building before which they stood looked desolate, unlit and apparently unoccupied, and standing alone in the middle of the huge expanse of the asphalt lot made her feel like the last man standing in an apocalyptic sci-fi movie. It was a church, judging from the sign in front of the sidewalk, but one that had seemingly been converted from an industrial facility. It was getting to be late, and even on a weekend night, St. Paul wasn’t exactly the city that never sleeps. The city that naps most of the day, spends the evening watching TV and finally falls asleep on the couch halfway through Leno was more like it. Even the neon signs on the strip mall across the street were already turned off.
“Okay,” Khasar said. “Let’s go in.” He seemed a little nervous, and that made Holli feel a little jumpy herself.
Either the church wardens were in the habit of leaving the doors unlocked, or there were some angelic tricks Holli hadn’t seen before, because they didn’t do anything fancy like pass through the thick plate-glass doors, instead, Khasar simply pushed down on the handle of the rightmost door and held it open for her. The high-ceilinged entry hall was dark, illuminated only by what little light found its way in from the sparsely-lit parking lot, but Holli was almost blinded by the explosion of rainbow-hued radiance that engulfed her when after walking through the foyer, Khasar opened one of the big metal doors leading to the main auditorium.
“Holy katzenjammers, what is that?”
Like her, Derek was shielding his eyes from the brilliant glow surrounding three colossal figures standing in front of the elevated sound stage opposite the main stage, in an open area behind the rows and rows of blue plastic chairs that served in lieu of wooden pews.
“Hail and welcome, Derek Wallace! Hail and welcome, Holli Lewis! Be not afraid, children of the King, for like you, we are but servants of the Most High God!”
The voice was not amplified, but it might have well been, for it boomed like the announcer at a monster truck rally. Holli found herself physically recoiling from the visual and sonic
assault and wishing desperately for four hands, two to cover her ears and two to shield her eyes from the excruciating brightness.
“I’m not afraid, sir,” she shouted back. “But I can’t see anything and you need to turn the volume down!”
She blinked as the overpowering light abruptly disappeared, and the towering figures were replaced by three men wearing a red-and-white uniform that, except for the color, looked a lot like what the Marines wear in their TV commercials. The three were seated around a round, wooden table, in comfortable leather chairs, and one of them indicated that they should sit down in the other two chairs, both of which were empty.
“Please, take a seat, Derek, Holli,” the man opposite the empty chair said. He had an erect, military bearing, and his voice had a crisp tone that left you with no doubt that he meant business.
“Thank you, sir,” Holli replied politely, sitting down after an uncertain glance towards Khasar.
“What’s going on?” Derek broke in. “And who are you?”
“Our names are unimportant, my young friend. Suffice it to say that we are, like yourself, servants of Heaven’s King. To be more precise, we are angels of an order under the direct command of Prince Uriel. Unlike your guardians, our order seldom involves itself directly in human affairs, except in extraordinary circumstances like those in which we have found ourselves at the present.”
“Your guardian has informed us that you have made a practice of studying human warfare, Derek, so perhaps you could think of us as Heaven’s Delta Force,” the angel to his right suggested. He had hawk-like features and a look of sharp intelligence about him.
“Cool,” Derek said, obviously impressed. “I wouldn’t really say I study warfare per se, to tell you the truth, but I play a lot of Counterstrike and Combat Mission. Some ancients, too, but mostly fantasy instead of medieval proper.”
Holli blinked in disbelief when the angel nodded. These guys were up on video games?
“In any event, you take my point. Know that we were created specifically to assist with special operations, missions requiring a level of secrecy. It is our job to ensure the Fallen do not know what the Almighty has in store for humanity. Or, if they do catch wind of something, it’s our job to see that their understanding somehow misconstrues the truth.”
Derek frowned. “I don’t know about Delta Force, then. That sounds more like the C.I.A. to me.”
A smile flickered briefly across the first angel’s face. “As you prefer. We seldom work directly through mortal instruments, but from time to time our responsibilities do bring us into direct contact with the occasional individual.”
“Like us?” Holli asked. She hoped this wasn’t all the explanation she was going to get. At least Derek seemed to have a clue.
“Perhaps it would be helpful if I were to give you an example. On one occasion, we forestalled a determined attempt to wipe out the Chosen by the simple expedient of encouraging a Temptress to lead her charge into disobeying her husband.”
“To all appearances, it was a petty victory for the temptress, but that apparent defeat led directly to the survival of God’s people.” The angel to Holli’s left spoke for the first time.
“Okay…I see….” Actually, she had no idea what the angel was talking about. “But I don’t see how can I do anything for you guys, I mean, I’m not even a junior yet!”
The first angel glanced at the others, then returned his eyes to Holli’s face. “You are young, certainly, but you have more extensive experience of the spiritual realm than any human alive, with the exception of your brother and sister. We believe your experience is required for our present mission. The challenge we face is that our orders preclude allowing this mission to come to the attention of the greater Fallen powers, which is what would certainly happen if we were to go about this in the traditional manner.”
He glanced coldly at Khasar. “Indeed, there are some indications that matters have not been handled in a manner sufficiently circumspect.”
Khasar didn’t say anything; he seemed to be finding something on the far wall to be particularly fascinating at the moment. Derek raised his hand.
“Where do I come in? I mean, I assume you didn’t bust me out of prison to play Counterstrike for you.”
“No, we did not,” answered the first angel. By this point, Holli was pretty sure he was in charge. “We are hunting a pair of missing items, but we are not the only ones hunting them. There are a number of Fallen lords also intent on finding either or both of the pair, which, as you can probably imagine, rather complicates things.”
“The Fallen lords, are they like those guys we saw outside Holli’s house?”
The angelic commander glanced at Khasar. “Yes, you could say that, except that some of them are a lot worse.”
“How worse?”
“If you can imagine the difference between a junior high school football team and the NFL, that should give you some idea.”
Derek blinked, though if it was the analogy or the thought of running into an even greater evil that surprised him more, Holli couldn’t tell. Then again, they seemed be more hip to vids than she was. What on Earth was Counterstrike?
“I don’t know about this,” Derek whispered out of the side of his mouth to Holli before addressing the commander. “I think you’d better tell me exactly what you want me to do, because if there’s bigger bads than those wolf-things out there, I don’t know what I can do about it.”
“I’m afraid we’re on a need-to-know basis here, Derek. The scope of the mission is almost surely beyond you, as the complexities of Fallen politics are incomprehensible to mortal minds. However, you needn’t trouble yourself about the big bads, as you say. The entire point of this particular exercise is to avoid them.”
“We intend for you to go undercover,” the second angel explained. “You will be, for all intents and purposes, an ordinary human, undistinguishable from the crowd. However, Holli will play the role of your guardian angel—in disguise, of course—while Khasar will take the part of your customary tempter.”
Holli glanced at Khasar. He shimmered, and in his place stood an arrogant, black-haired demon, with no shirt and a large sigil marking his left shoulder. His appearance was almost mortal, except for a pair of black rams horns that circled down from his temples and behind his ears like a capricornic parody of a bob. He made a devil’s sign with his right hand. “Rock and roll, baby!”
“Please do desist, Archon Khasarotjofee,” ordered the commander. “You may indulge your puerile sense of humor to your heart’s content once you’re deployed, until then, please maintain some sense of decorum.”
“As you say, Captain.” Khasar snapped a crisp salute that bordered perilously close to insolence in its perfection, but Holli noted that he returned to his more habitual human form without delay. Still, she found herself smiling when Khasar winked at her.
“How am I supposed to act like an angel?”
“You’ll be endowed with the appropriate powers. To the common angel, you will appear to be no different than any other guardian. You will be able to see, hear and otherwise communicate with spirits both Fallen and Divine, as well as the ability to traverse the lower three strata.”
“Will I be able to fly?”
An indulgent smile briefly softened the angelic captain’s stern face. “Yes, of course. It would not make for a convincing masquerade otherwise.”
Derek held up a hand. “Look, I understand you think we’re too stupid to grok the fullness of this supernatural spy game you’ve been playing for thousands of years or whatever, but don’t you think that maybe we’d have a better chance of succeeding if you’d at least tell us what we’re supposed to do?”
“Absolutely, but first you must accept the charge.”
“What, I just have to accept it without knowing what we gotta do? I’m just supposed to hope that you know what you’re doing?” He glared at the captain, but the angel answered him calmly.
“Your life will be at risk.
Your sanity will be at risk. You will see things that cannot be unseen, and learn things that cannot be unlearned. You will be a pawn in a game of which you know nothing, and even if you are successful, you will not know the tenth part of what you have accomplished.”
“You really should be in sales,” Derek said, his voice dripping sarcasm.
“And you will be serving the Lord your God,” the angel added.
“All right, I’m in,” Derek said without hesitation. He folded his arms and raised his chin, as if to say, so there.
The angel turned his cool gaze to Holli. She met his eyes without flinching, but she felt as if he could see her pain and inner turmoil. The thought of being torn away from her family now, when her father was dying and he wasn’t even saved, caused her actual physical pain, a terrible hollowness in the pit of her stomach. And yet, she had no doubt about what she must do. What was her pain, her loss, compared to what otherwise might be suffered by the poor murdered people of the vision?
“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t in,” she answered softly.
The captain nodded to her, looking satisfied, if not necessarily pleased, then glanced at his two companions. “They are worthy,” he said. “Archon, for the love of the Almighty King we serve, do not fail them in this.”
“I will not fail them, captain.”
“Then let us prepare them.” In the blink of an eye, the table disappeared and the four angels were standing in a semicircle around Holli and Derek. The two angels of Prince Uriel’s order approached them, and held out their hands, palms upward. Derek took those of the angel in front of her without hesitation, while Holli was a little slower to do likewise. She looked at Khasar, and was somewhat reassured by his surreptitious thumbs-up.
“It will hurt,” the angel told her, not unkindly. “But it will not be more than you can bear. It might be best if you closed your eyes.”
She nodded, and swallowed hard.
