“See anything?” Sam inquired.
Cas shook his head slowly. “No... but there’s something else there, something I just can’t place, but I can sense it. Just out of reach.”
Euriel huffed behind us. “Clearly, her mother placed a powerful protection spell on her. It’s common sense, considering where she worked. Can we please get on?”
Cas nodded and pulled away. “Maybe that’s it. Maybe not. We’ll drop by the Concordia later and get Deliah to take a look at you.”
“Who’s Deliah?”
“She’s Hargreaves second-in-command. A powerful witch. If something has been cast on you, she’ll be able to find out what.”
I nodded. “Okay then,”
Sam walked over to one of the bookcases. “I guess we’d better get started.”
We spent all day there going through my mother’s things. I had never given much thought to how hard my mother worked. As a kid, I just hadn’t been interested, and I had barely known her as an adult. I felt a pang of regret as I flipped through pages of notes in her neat, elegant handwriting. When this was all over, I was definitely going to make sure we talked. Pins and needles started to tingle in my legs, so I put the papers aside and stood up. I walked around the room, trying to ease my aching muscles, trailing my hand across the bare brick wall. At the end of the back wall, I paused. A slight draught had tickled my hand, and I looked up to see if there was an extractor fan or vent somewhere nearby. Nothing. I ran my hand back over that section and felt the draught again. I found it blowing in through a crack in the mortar between the bricks, and following it farther down, I realised it wasn’t a natural crack.
“Sam? Can I borrow you for a sec?”
Sam glanced up from the leather diary he was skimming. “Sure. You found something?” Cas and Euriel looked up at me.
“Well, no, not exactly. Only, I think these bricks might come out. Maybe there’s something behind them?” He leapt lightly to his feet and padded over to me. Taking his hand, I placed it over the crack in the wall. “There. Feel that? And it goes all the way down to the floor and up to the ceiling, I think.”
Sam looked down at me, his warm hand curling over mine. “I think you’re right.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Cas, you’re up. See if you can open this hidey-hole.” He pulled me back from the corner to let Cas through, and I noticed he hadn’t let go of my hand. The thought made me smile.
Cas stepped up and felt around the crack all the way up to and along the ceiling, which with his current height wasn’t exactly a stretch. He stepped back and stared at the wall. “I don’t think it’s a hidey-hole.”
“Oh?” Disappointment bloomed inside me. Hours of searching, and we were still no closer.
He shook his head. “No, I think it’s a doorway.” I watched as he placed his hands on either side of the wall and murmured something in Sumerian. For a moment, nothing happened, and then a section of the wall slid backwards and sideways out of view, and a gaping black hole appeared in front of us. I started forward, but Cas reached out his arm to block me. “Hold up, Peaches. It’s pitch-black, and I haven’t checked it for any more enchantments yet. You want to get knocked out again?”
“Fine.” I leaned back against the wall, folding my arms. Yes, I knew I looked like a sulky child, but I was tired and cranky.
Cas ran his hands over the doorframe, muttering to himself. Eventually, he stepped back. “It’s fine.”
“Great.” I stepped in front of him to go first.
“And how are you going to see? Immaru.” He opened his hand and a glowing ball of light appeared.
I looked at it, then up at his arrogant smile. “Impressive. But I can do that too.”
He frowned. “What? No, you can’t.”
“Sure, I can. Watch.” I slid my phone out of my pocket, swiped down, and turned on the torch, shining it onto the floor just beyond the doorway. It showed large, smooth flagstones on the floor. “See? Easy.” Sam burst out laughing behind me, and I stepped into the room, grinning to the sound of Cas telling him to shut it. Stopping a couple of feet into the space, I lifted the phone and swung the torch beam slowly around the walls.
“Whoa.”
“What is it?” Sam stepped through after me, and Cas stuck his head through the door.
“It’s... incredible.” It really was. The room wasn’t huge, but it was still impressive. Huge tapestries hung on every wall. I stepped closer to the one nearest me and shone the torch over it. A beautiful garden was embroidered in exquisite detail. Hills covered in trees rose in the background, from between which glistening waterfalls tumbled and swept around into sparkling streams silver fish jumped out of. Every kind of tree you could imagine, bearing flowers and fruit, provided perches for colourful birds and small animals, and below, all kinds of animals wandered through the lush grasses and ferns. It was truly stunning.
“It’s paradise,” Cas said. He’d managed to squeeze into the room and stood behind me, his eyes running over the stunning designs.
“It really would be. How beautiful.”
He smiled. “No, I mean it’s a depiction of paradise. Look.” He grasped my wrist gently and pulled me around to the far end of the room.
“Oh, God!” At the end of the room stood another altar, but instead of being almost empty, this was laden with all kinds of objects. Pillar candles of varying heights were intermixed with crystals and gemstones, river pebbles and pinecones. Cones of incense, partly burned away, gave off a lingering scent of sandalwood and roses. Hundreds of flowers had obviously covered the altar recently, but they had died and were starting to rot. A wide, wooden bowl held the remnants of rotting fruit and vegetables, an offering to the statue behind, I assumed. It was a simple female figure, pillar-shaped, with her hands coming around to support her generous breasts. Her eyes were beautifully carved, and her hair was in braids. In front of the statue lay a wooden plaque, inscribed with the words, “Kima Parsi Labiruti.”
“Treat her in accordance with the ancient rites,” I murmured to myself.
“Did you know?” Sam asked me, his hand on my shoulder.
“About all this? No.”
“You didn’t know your mother worshipped Asheran?” Cas interrupted.
I turned to look at him, his red eyes gleaming in the near darkness. “Cas, I have no idea what that even means.” He took my phone from me and pointed it at the wall behind the altar. Another tapestry hung there, even more intricate than the others. It was a continuation of the garden, depicting a low hill with a beautiful tree. The tree’s branches hung low, and it was laden with all kinds of fruits. Two naked human figures stood below, entwined in a loving embrace.
“Adam and Eve, right? So it really is paradise, or at least the Garden of Eden?” I asked.
“Look closer.”
I did, moving around the altar to get nearer. “They have wings! But Adam and Eve were human, not angels.” I touched the figures gently, running my fingertips over the embroidered feathers. Adam’s were tawny, a range of browns and creams touched by gold, like an eagle’s, but Eve’s were the iridescent blue of the peacock, blue and green merging together like the sea. I looked back at Cas and Sam, confused. “What—”
“Oh, this is becoming utterly ridiculous. You are now telling me that the woman everyone so desperately wants to find just so happens to be a soulless, worthless heathen, and nobody knew?”
I spun around to see Euriel standing at the entrance to the room, looking around with undisguised disgust on his face. I’d had enough. Marching up to him, I slapped him hard across the face. “My mother was not soulless, and she’s missing. For someone who is supposed to be an angel and full of God’s love, you are incredibly insensitive, and, well, basically, you’re being an arsehole. Grow up and stop being such a dickhead. In fact, I want you to leave.” He glared down at me, his bright eyes causing my hands to shake as I felt the pressure of his stare. I stuffed them into my pockets and glared back at him.
“How dare you?” Hi
s voice was low and measured, but the power in it shook me slightly.
I didn’t care. “I said leave. Now.”
“You cannot order me to leave, you miserable little human.”
“Yes, I can. This is my mother’s house. As she is not here, being her next of kin, I am in charge of it, and I say you need to leave, or you will officially be trespassing.”
He took a deep breath, and his wings spread out behind him. “You presume to order me? That your pitiful earthly laws apply to one such as I?”
“Fairly certain the Bible says that everyone should abide by the laws of the kingdom they are in. And yes, I presume, you nasty little sparrow. Now get out.” He stared at me, his mouth gaping open like a fish. I held his stare, and he snapped his mouth shut, then turned and stormed out of the room. I relaxed slightly, letting out a breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding.
Sam came over and put his arm around my shoulders. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I just feel awful.”
“Don’t,” Cas said. “That asshole totally had it coming.”
I turned and grinned up at him. “Oh no, not him. I just feel bad for insulting sparrows.” They both looked at me for a second, then burst out laughing.
“Hell’s bells, Faith, you are one fine woman!” Cas commented, wiping tears out of his eyes.
Sam nodded, a huge grin on his face. “That you are. Not many people could face down an angel like Euriel.”
“That idiot? Why not?” Cas looked at Sam, then back at me, pressing his lips together as if trying to repress a smile.
Sam looked at me. “He... um... Euriel is... well, he’s second-in-command over the Heavenly Host.”
“He’s what?”
Cas let out another booming laugh. “He’s basically one of the highest angels you can get. He’s second only to those in the highest Host of Heaven, and you…” He paused, gasping for breath through his laughter. “You just called him a dickhead. To his face!”
I stared at the two of them as they collapsed into giggles.
Oh fuck, I am totally going to Hell.
Chapter Eleven
FAITH
Putting a possibly pissed off Dominion to the back of mind, I chose to concentrate on the matter at hand. My eyes scanned the obviously well cared for altar and fell on the stone statue at the centre. “So you were going to tell me, what’s an Asheran?”
Cas sat on the floor, leaning back against the stone wall. I noticed he had managed to shift back to his human form and guessed that the enchantment must only reveal truths as the person passed through the doorway. He could have shifted back at any time. He had probably kept his angel form to let me get comfortable with it. I sat down on the opposite side of the room, and Cas waved a hand in the direction of a small console table against the wall he was leaning on. Several pillar candles on the tabletop flickered to life, and I gasped.
“Show off,” Sam muttered as he dropped gracefully down next to me.
Cas grinned for a moment, then the smile left his face, and he grew more serious as he turned to me. “An Asheran is a follower of Asherah.”
I frowned. “Is that some kind of a demon or something?”
Cas shook his head. “No, not even close. Asherah was... is... was a goddess.”
“Like Artemis, Aphrodite, and Athena—that kind of goddess?”
“Yes and no. She was the Queen of Heaven and Consort of Yahweh. She helped Him create the Earth and the Heavens and all of the creatures in between.”
Sam snorted. “Don’t let Euriel hear that.”
Cas glared at him. “Euriel is a pompous, brainwashed sheep, the same as the rest of them. He’ll believe whatever his superiors tell him to and won’t question anything.”
“Are you telling me that God had a wife? Like the whole Jesus and Mary Magdalene thing? I loved that film. Knights and quests and legends…” I trailed off as Cas looked at me.
“No. This was a long, long time before Jesus made an appearance. I’m talking about Yahweh. Allah. God. Asherah was his goddess, his equal.”
“Hang on a minute. I’ve read the Bible. Many times.” I grimaced, remembering the many Bible study classes my mother had made me attend and quizzed me on afterwards. “There was no mention of a goddess in there. I mean, Christianity is not exactly well known for its sexual equality.”
Cas jumped up and disappeared into the ritual room, reappearing a moment later with an old Bible of my mother’s. “Actually, you’ll find she’s mentioned several times. Over forty times in some translations, in fact. Here.” He flicked through, then leant forward to pass me the book. I looked down at the page he pointed to. “There, in 2 Kings. Solomon built a temple for Yahweh, and Josiah is reported as cutting down the statues of Asherah later on.”
I looked up. “What? She had statues?”
“Statues, shrines, temples. Jewish women used to have shrines inside their houses where they would burn incense and leave small cakes as an offering to her.”
“So... how is she not known now? Why isn’t she in the Bible more?”
Cas sighed. “It’s tricky. There’s a lot you don’t know. What’s in the Bible and other holy texts written by humans are just snippets of stories. All know some things, and in some they agree, but none of them know everything.”
“To be fair, even the ones who were there don’t agree on everything,” Sam added, stretching his long legs out. “Like I said, Euriel would be horrified by Cas telling a human this story.”
“Heaven falls into three lots of angels. Those who question, those who don’t, and those who refuse to take sides.” Cas leaned back against the wall again, lost in thought.
“Why do I think you’re on the questioning side?” I asked dryly.
He tipped his head forward and grinned at me. “The word ‘fallen’ should have given you a clue.”
I stared at him. “You mean every angel who questioned something they were told fell from Heaven? That’s barbaric!”
“To be fair, there’s a bit more to it than that. I mean, there are these little things called the Wars of Heaven—huge, epic battles where fire and ice fell from the sky and rained down on Earth for generations. Let’s just say the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs didn’t come from space.”
I was now gaping at Sam who returned my gaze with a deadpan expression, and for the life of me, I couldn’t tell whether Cas was kidding or not.
“Anyway, that’s a very long story for another time. The point is, if you believe... well, my side, as Sam would say, Asherah was a goddess who, with Yahweh, created the Earth and Heavens and all living beings. Some say that Yahweh created the masculine, and Asherah created the feminine, hence that passage in Genesis, ‘Let us make man in our own image.’ She was worshipped and adored by humans, and shrines and temples were erected to her all over Earth, often alongside those to Yahweh. At some point, something happened. There was a huge falling out between Yahweh and Asherah, and she was banished. No one knows where, or if she even still exists. Commands were sent throughout the realms that any shrine, temple, or image of Asherah was to be destroyed.” Cas nodded at the book in my hands. “Look up Deuteronomy, there’s a passage in there that clearly states, ‘You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God.’ No more shrines, no more worship, no mention of her.”
“What does it mean by planting a tree as an Asherah?” I asked, interested now.
“She loved trees, they were her love. So beautiful, so essential to life on Earth. She covered every space she could with them. They were sacred to her and to her followers. Her temples weren’t usually built of stone, they were groves of trees planted in her honour. When the orders came, many groves of trees were burned. I remember the smoke column rising from Earth, it was heartbreaking.” His eyes left mine and focused over my shoulder.
“You... knew her?”
Cas blinked and glanced back at me, then away. “From afar. I wasn’t high in the hierarchy of angels, even
before I fell. I doubt she knew my name. But I remember the day she was banished, and I remember her tears for her trees and for her people. It was probably the thing that tipped me into fighting on the ‘wrong side.’” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, she is still remembered as an ancient Semitic goddess, and pagans all over the world worship her under many names, so that’s some small comfort. Your mother was clearly one of them.”
“All the things she taught me about the Abrahamic religions, and she never mentioned this. I wonder why, especially since she obviously had some pretty strong beliefs.” I gazed around the room, my eyes falling on the flowers that had been placed on the altar less than a week ago.
“I assume she was trying not to draw attention to herself,” Cas murmured. “The worship of Asherah is still officially forbidden by God, and Concordia exists as a balance, so its members aren’t meant to take sides. Maybe she was worried she’d be thought badly of. I believe Phillip leans more towards the side of Heaven on this one, so perhaps she thought if he found out, her services would no longer be required.”
Sam rose to his feet. “With that in mind, I suggest we check that there’s nothing in this room that might help us and then close it back off again.”
Cas started to get up to. “The white-winged wonder saw the room. I doubt we’ll get him to keep quiet about it.”
“Maybe he will, or maybe he won’t see her as being important enough to worry over,” I suggested, mentally crossing my fingers. “Anyway, I suppose this is the most secret place in the house. If she was going to hide anything, it would be here.” I stood up and stretched. “Then can we call it a day? It’s nearly five, and we’ve been here all day.”
Cas nodded. “Yeah, we’re supposed to be meeting Amadi in the gym at six. We should wrap this up.”
Nephilim the Awakening (Wrath of the Fallen Book 1) Page 10
