by Tim Hawken
“Exceptions to an ideal make the ideal worthless,” they responded.
“Please,” Mary said. “You all know me. I am just as much a student of Zoroaster as you. If we begin to stray too far off the path of truth, then I trust you will be here to stop it. Michael and I will seek Master Zoroaster’s advice. I believe with all my heart that he’ll join us in this fight. Do you promise to hold your allegiance to me until we can meet him?”
“We promise with our souls,” they said in unison.
“Thank you, Mary replied softly.
“Are you ready for this, Michael?” asked Smithy. “I won’t be able to take you to the desert in my helicopter this time. You’ll have to take Mary there yourself without giving yourself away.”
I was wary of the idea. We had already rushed into our first plan too quickly to see the trap that Asmodeus was setting. Who knew what he had up his sleeve still. How he had snuck into Hell undetected was something that gnawed at me greatly. If he had done it before, he could do it again at any moment. It felt like he held all the cards. It felt like I couldn’t trust anyone except the people in this room who had helped in the battle against him. I racked my brain for other options. If we admitted anything to the outside world, we would be admitting weakness. It would risk word getting back to the enemy. Yet this seemed to be the only option. Where swiftness had been our downfall before, it could prove to our advantage this time. We had to work before Asmodeus could make his next move. We had to act immediately.
I looked from Smithy to the Seven and then to Mary.
“I’m ready.”
THREE
I WENT BACK TO MY ROOM and changed for the trip: all black as usual. I tied my hair back to keep it from getting in the way. I noticed my ears were still a deep red, but hadn’t grown any worse. I was nervous about the trip to Purgatory. It wasn’t just because of the danger; the hope of seeing Charlotte lingered inside as well. Our mission was to go straight to Zoroaster, no questions. Deep down I prayed we would be able to see Charlotte before we tore down the walls. I wanted to explain to her our plans. I wanted to let her know that once the walls were down, we would be together.
I met Mary back in the war room. She stood waiting, dressed in blue jeans and a black t-shirt. It was the plainest I’d ever seen her dress. She smiled at me as I entered. Her emerald eyes showed a sweet innocence inside despite everything she’d been through in her long and troubled existence.
“Is everything set?” I asked.
“The Seven are preparing what you asked. They should start at any moment.”
We waited silently and then heard a wailing scream outside. I smiled to myself and waited for a few more minutes. The clattering and yelling grew louder and louder, then faded away to silence. I got up and moved to crack open the door of the room. In the foyer, a trail of carnage led outside and down the steps. The room was empty except for broken paintings which had been ripped off the walls and scattered between splintered chairs and upturned tables.
I locked the rooms behind us and we quickly moved outside to the top of the stairs. Looking to the right I could see the Pure Seven. They were going berserk: tearing rosebushes from the ground, smashing fountains and screeching unearthly cries into the air. Azazel was flailing underneath them, trying to group his demon helpers to stop the angels of sin from destroying the grounds.
With all attention diverted away, Mary and I hurried around the opposite side of the castle. As we rounded the back wall, I put my hands onto the silver gates that hemmed in the Fount of Mercy. At my touch, the steel melted away to let us through. The field before us was a dark reminder of the battle that had taken place. The green waterfall of sleep plummeted down from the cliff I had constructed into the pool below. We moved towards it carefully. In the center, the floating stone pathway I had constructed bobbed above the water.
“Be careful,” I said. “One at a time.”
Stepping out onto the stones, I lightly padded my way across. As I did so, I created a thick shell of air all around me. When I came to the waterfall, the gel parted, cascading over the barrier I’d made for myself.
I turned and expanded the air barrier, making a clear pathway for Mary to wade through. She saw my signal and ran deftly over the stones and into the cave next to me. I let the elements fall back and the waterfall roared and tumbled again over the opening.
Green shimmered all around us in watery shadows which rippled up and down the walls. The roar of the rushing curtain of water echoed all around. I turned to the steep shaft at the back of the cave which burrowed through the mountain.
“This will take us almost to the foot of the jungle below,” I said to Mary. “We can then fly low, over the top of the canopy. I’ll create a camouflage around us, just in case anyone is looking down from Casa Diablo, but we should be fine.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to travel through the jungle?” she asked. “To save your strength?”
“I have no idea what’s in there,” I answered. “There could be creatures of unimaginable horror for all we know. I don’t want to risk it. This way is quicker. I shouldn’t need to use the elements in Purgatory and flight doesn’t take up too much energy.”
I stepped forward to climb downward into the earth. The descent was steep, but not so steep that you couldn’t walk down carefully, steadying your hands on the low roof. Our footsteps sounded around us as we scratched down the shaft. The roar of the waterfall above faded to a whisper as we went. Soon we could make out a red light below which signalled that the opening wasn’t too far ahead.
“Do you have the keys safe with you?” I asked Mary. She patted her chest and nodded.
The opening wasn’t large, barely head height. It looked over the green jungle below us. We were slightly above the height of the trees. I searched into the distance and could only just make out the glowing light of the Chinvar Bridge over the horizon.
“Hold on tight,” I told Mary. She moved to the back of me and hugged me around the chest, nestling her head between my shoulder blades.
“I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to be a bird,” she whispered in my ear.
I pulled a swirl of molecules around both of us. Raising us just off the ground, I gathered a tornado at our backs. With a burst of wind, we flew out of the mountain like shot from a cannon.
FOUR
WE ROCKETED IN A BLUR over the teeming jungle, the wind at our feet. I put up a mirror of elements around us to reflect outward movement. Any probing eyes watching from above or below would see just a smudge running across the sky. It wasn’t perfect invisibility but it was the simplest to maintain.
Mary giggled in my ear as we flew, her hair ruffling me on the neck. She clung to the back of me, her arms wrapped under my armpits, her legs around my middle. She wriggled forward so her head was next to mine. Her hips squirmed over my back.
“This is incredible!” she yelled above the wind. “I feel like a little girl in an amusement park!”
I swooped lower toward the trees to give her a thrill, pushing the elements of air faster behind us to accelerate. She yelped as we almost touched the leaves below. In minutes we’d cleared the jungle and were whipping along the desert sands, shooting toward the Chinvar Bridge.
I undulated our flight up and down, hugging as close to the ground as I could without disturbing the surface of the dunes. As the illumination of the bridge came closer, I slowed down, squinting into the rays. Almost blind, we floated over the last small rise of sand before the bridge. The light subsided back to a healthy glow and my vision returned in blurry dots. Keeping a straight line I pulled up and wafted gently to the ground. My feet touched down next to the Monastery of Zoroaster.
Mary jumped off my back. Her normally porcelain skin was flushed from the flight. She smiled a big grin, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Wow. Wow!” she exclaimed, bursting with energy. “I thought war missions would be all serious business.” She was flicking her hands up and down, her eyes wide.<
br />
I couldn’t help but smile back briefly.
“I’m glad you liked it, but the fun’s over, Mary. We have to figure out how to get up this bridge to the gates. We need to be careful now we’re so close. We can’t have any other setbacks. Maybe we should just fly up and follow along the row of light to the gates?”
My tone sobered her mood somewhat and she looked up into the sky. The thin ray of light beamed up uninterrupted through the black storm clouds that were ever present in the sky of Hell. She shook her head.
“No, the light fails in the clouds. We would be hopelessly lost without the guide of the bridge. We have to use it the right way. It’s safe.”
“Do you know how it works?” I asked. “I always thought a bridge was something you walked over.”
She nodded slowly, moving a little further toward the beam.
“A bridge is just something that joins two things together. It can be anything. This Chinvar Bridge is something the like of which you’ve never known. You have to focus on a single truth while you are touching it,” she said looking at me. “It might sound easy but it’s not. If any other thoughts enter your head, any doubts, then your grip on the bridge will begin to fail. You need to create a clear vision of something in your mind and cling to it. You then reach out and hold onto the beam. Once you attain the right clarity, the beam will draw you upward. For me, before, my single thought was my desire to get Judas back. I always held onto that with all I had. I used it when we came down here and realized that in truth it was my only driving purpose. I would picture the face of Judas in my mind. That was the one thought I could keep without any distraction.”
“Charlotte,” I said firmly. “I will focus on Charlotte. There’s nothing more powerful than my love for her.”
She looked up to the bridge grimly. All of the light in her eyes from before had vanished.
“Judas,” she said quietly. “I just want you to wake up and be happy.”
She turned back to me.
“Come and put your hand on the beam. Wrap your fingers around it and start to breathe slowly. Let the image of Charlotte arrive in your head freely. Don’t force it. Once you have it, the beam will become solid in your hand and draw you up inside it.”
She put her hand over the beam and closed her eyes. I walked next to her and clasped my fingers around it, just below hers. It was like trying to hold onto a rushing jet of water. My hand bumped up and down with the current. Closing my eyes, I let air fill my lungs, steadying my mind. In and out, I felt the scorching air rush into my nose, through my throat and into my lungs.
Mary’s body brushed past me as she lifted off the ground. I sucked air into my lungs again and as I let it out I pictured Charlotte’s face. Her white teeth sparkled beneath full, pink lips. Her eyes locked into mine and she became more than a face. She became a person: my wife, my love. Vaguely I could feel myself rising into the air, as I smiled back at Charlotte.
We looked at each other. She blinked a few times. Her face was warm and kind. I was floating upward in bliss. I wanted to talk to her. She seemed so real.
“I love you Charlotte,” I said.
Charlotte then opened her mouth and, in the voice of Mary, screamed, “Michael, help me!”
FIVE
A BODY CRASHED INTO ME FROM ABOVE. Hands fumbled to hold onto my legs as I tried to hold on to the vision of Charlotte.
“Michael,” I heard Mary scream again.
I opened my eyes and looked down to see Mary’s face mixed with a vision of Charlotte looking up at me in desperation. We were still just encased in a white light, but I could barely see anything else. Black mist swirled around us. Piercing thunder rumbled in my ears. Mary was grasping onto my leg, her hair swirling around in the wind. The keys to Purgatory dangled around her neck. She looked up to me again, pleading.
“Help me, Michael. Pull me up!”
The memory of Charlotte flickered out of my mind completely and the light around us gave way. The bridge shrank back to a rushing torrent of light in my hand. We started to slide downwards as my grip began to fail. I clasped my hand tighter, reaching right into the middle of the beam. Touching a hard surface within, sharp edges of heat sliced deep into my skin. I clenched my teeth and wrapped my fingers around the surface as hard as I could. The central chord of the bridge cut through to the bones of my palm. I let out a cry of agony and we shuddered slowly to a halt. The blade of light burnt into my hand. I squeezed tighter, but it just made the pain worse. I thought about using the elements but didn’t, lest I lose grip of the bridge completely and get lost in the clouds. The weight of Mary pulled down on me. I reached up and clasped my other hand over the one that was holding on to the bridge. Blood was seeping between my fingers and down my forearms.
“Climb up!” I said between gritted teeth,
“I can’t!”
“You can!” I screamed back. “Get onto my back.”
She started to claw up my leg, clinging around my thighs.
“I can’t get any further!” she yelled.
I closed my eyes at the torture throbbing in my arms. I had to reach down to her. I couldn’t lose her. We were so close. Holding with all my might, I dug the fingers of one hand into the beam and swung the other hand down. The heat of the Chinvar Bridge burned into my bones. Our combined weight started to pull us down slowly again, the blade cutting jaggedly what was left of my shredded palm. I reached down with extended fingers. Mary stretched up and clasped my hand. Wrapping my fingers around hers tightly, I wrenched her upward. She reached up with her other hand and grabbed my forearm. I pulled her up so she was able to grasp onto my torso. Lightning flashed and a ghastly crack of thunder almost threw me off the bridge.
“Hold on!” I yelled. “I’ll take us up!”
I swung my free hand up and clasped it over the one holding onto the beam again. Struggling to push the pain from my arms, I worked to regain the vision of Charlotte. As Mary pressed into me tightly her weight eased.
I grimaced and recaptured the light of Lotte’s eyes in my mind. Her smiling face came back in the haze of agony.
“Help me, Charlotte,” I begged her. She nodded and closed her eyes. Warmth encircled my being. I was with her again. We started to move back toward the heavens. “Thank you, Charlotte. Thank you, Charlotte.” I was saying over and over again.
“Thank you, Michael.” Mary said into my ear. “We’re here. We’ve made it to the gates.”
SIX
I OPENED MY EYES AND LOOKED AROUND. Purple lightning forked below us. We were perched on top of a ledge of light, inches below a swirling black and white vortex. It was enormous. I looked out across the spinning filter and could see no end. Chaotic eddies of emotion twisted around and around in an endless cycle. Thunder crashed about our heads, the black and red clouds stewing underneath us. We were right in the eye of the spiral. Currents of power crackled mere feet above us. The flow of the elemental hurricane churned out from the center in a white chord and came back inward as a black river of power. It all converged on the spot directly above our heads. The convergence was a shimmering purple dot, barely the size of a clenched fist. The entire force of the whirlpool channelled into it on one side and burst out on the other.
I looked to Mary at my side. She held the keys in her hand with tears in her eyes.
“What happened?” I yelled to Mary above the thunder. I looked at my lacerated hands. They were healing painfully.
“I’m so sorry! I lost my focus. Judas’ face turned on me.”
“To what? What happened?” I asked, not understanding what she meant.
She cast her eyes downward in shame. After a few moments she looked up again.
“Thoughts of revenge on Asmodeus invaded the space I held for Judas. I’m sorry. I almost ruined everything.”
“We’re here! It’s enough. What do we do now?”
She took one of the keys off the ring in her hand and passed it to me.
“Do you see the gap there in the gat
eway?” Mary asked, pointing upward.
I nodded. If I put my hand in the air I would be able to touch it.
“Reach up and place your key inside. Once it’s in, turn the key clockwise. When the lock clicks you’ll be drawn with the key into Purgatory.”
I held the key steadily between my fingers and raised it upward, slotting the end into the chink above. As I turned my wrist, I felt the metal vibrate between my fingers. With a deafening howl of wind I was ripped upward into darkness. Voices of every language screamed in my ears. My eardrums almost split with the assault. The physical force of the noise speared into my gut. As quickly as it began, everything fell silent. I was standing in a calm grey meadow, wobbling on my feet. The ground about me looked as though it was made of the tops of clouds, yet it was as solid as rock. About six feet across the rocks gave way to dull grey blades of grass that continued into the distance in every direction. With a hiss, one of the bubbles of rock next to me turned into a glowing, red, molten puddle. The form of Mary shot up out of it. I had to blink it was so fast. The cloud-like rocks were now solid at her feet again and there she was, teetering for balance at my side. I reached out and steadied her. Mary looked at me. With shame still in her eyes she handed me her key.
“Take it. I don’t ever want to jeopardize our mission again. I can’t believe I was so stupid!” She hung her head.
“Forget it,” I said, taking the key. Securing it with a sticky set of elements, I hid it inside my pocket. “We made it, Mary. None of this could have been possible without you. Now, we need to focus. We have to keep on track. Where are we and how do we get to Zoroaster?”
She peered around. There wasn’t a breath of wind. Everything was completely still and grey. The dullness of the place sifted around me like a worn out soul. It was tranquil, although nothing about it brought me any sense of peace. Grey wispy clouds hung in the sky, layered over the top of each other to create a dense wall of mist above.
