Pillars of Fire

by Laurice Elehwany Molinari

  “Thanks. You shouldn’t have,” she said.

  “Just hold ’em,” Vero said sternly as he broke a long green leaf from its stalk.

  He flipped over the leaf. There were dozens of dead zombie ants attached to the underside. Fungus spouts grew from their heads.

  “I’ve got an idea,” Vero said. “We need to pulverize the infected ants into powder and then blow the spores in his face so he’ll inhale them.”

  Kane looked skeptical. “Do you think those spores will be strong enough to kill him?”

  “We don’t want to kill him,” Vero replied. “Just knock him out.”

  “What if it doesn’t?”

  “They will make a nice addition to his bone collection,” Vero answered.

  Ada handed Vero a smooth rounded rock. “Here’s a rock to grind ’em with.”

  “Glad you’re the one doing that, Vero,” said Kane. “I wouldn’t want to touch those ants.”

  “I’m not going to touch them,” Vero said. “But even more important, I will definitely be careful not to breathe any of the powder.”

  Vero set the leaf on the ground and gingerly turned both ends of the leaf upward to form a canoe. He gently pulverized the ants with the rock into the leaf, being careful not to touch them. Greer knelt down to watch and inadvertently created a minor air disturbance with her movement.

  “Greer! Stop moving! Any wind and the spores could blow back in our own faces,” Vero scolded. “Unless you want to become a zombie.”

  “You should put something over the powder so it won’t blow back on you,” Ariel suggested.

  “Here,” Ada said pulling a tissue from her pants pocket. “Place it over the leaf. Then cup your hand over it,” Ada suggested. “Like walking with a lit candle.”

  Vero nodded and laid the tissue over the leaf. “I need to fly right up to his face so I can blow it up his nose,” he explained. “Someone’s gonna have to distract him.”

  “I’ll do it.” Kane stepped forward. “I’m the one who ticked him off so bad. He already hates me.” He handed Greer the jawbone. “Guard it with your life ’till I get back.”

  “Okay, let’s do this,” Vero said bravely.

  Kane flew over to Ahiman who was still stacking the bones, and poked the giant in the back with his finger. The giant spun around with a huge femur bone in his hand.

  “Yeah, me again!” Kane taunted.

  The giant’s face turned purple with rage. He swung the bone at Kane who dodged it. Kane flew circles around Ahiman.

  “Hey, big guy over here!” Kane taunted him. Ahiman tried to shuffle toward Kane as Kane flew around the chamber. “Now, Vero!” Kane shouted.

  Vero flew up to the giant’s eye level, his hand carefully cupping the leaf.

  “Get close to his face!” Kane shouted “You only get one shot at this!”

  The giant took another swing at Kane. Kane dove, feeling a gust of wind as the bone swished dangerously close to his head. As the giant raised his weapon for another swing, Kane decided the situation called for something crazy — ​he zoomed around the back of the giant and landed on his left shoulder. The giant looked left, but Kane had already flown to his right shoulder. The giant looked right, but by then, Kane had flown back to the left. A stupefied look came over the giant — ​and then Kane knocked as hard as he could on the top of Ahiman’s head. “Knock-knock!” Kane taunted.

  When the giant finally raised his eyes upwards to Kane, Vero saw his opportunity. He removed the tissue covering the leaf and blew the powder up the giant’s nose, momentarily stunning him.

  “Direct hit!” Kane cheered.

  Vero smiled triumphantly. But then the giant did something Vero hadn’t counted on. The giant opened his mouth and inhaled deeply as his eyelids closed. Vero’s eyes widened in fear as he realized what was about to happen. With a sound louder than an elephant’s trumpet, the giant sneezed the powder all over Vero! The zombie dust flew into his eyes, up his nose, and in his mouth. Kane shuddered. Vero instantly felt a tingling sensation that started in the back of his throat and worked its way down to his toes. He felt as if his body belonged to someone else. He stared at his hand but could not feel it. It was like someone else was controlling his mind. His wings stopped flapping, and he plummeted to the ground.

  “Vero!” Kane shouted, nosediving after him.

  Clasping his arm across his chest, Kane caught Vero before he hit the ground. Ariel and Dumah rose up to meet them. Together they safely guided Vero down. A loud bang reverberated throughout the cavern, and more bones fell off their shelves. The fledglings turned to see the giant clutching his head and stumbling back from a wall. He, too, was in a stupor. He walked straight into another wall, creating another mini earthquake.

  “Let’s get the heck out of here!” Greer yelled.

  Vero could not stand. His arms and legs felt like they were a mixture of pudding and marshmallows. He grabbed Dumah’s perfectly chiseled face. “Got your nose,” Vero teased.

  Kane slapped Vero’s hand away. “Let’s go!”

  With Dumah and Kane holding Vero up, the angels ran out of the skeleton chamber into the main cave tunnel, the sounds of the giant’s groans echoing behind them. Greer looked over her shoulder as the giant tripped over a mound of bones and face-planted onto the cold, hard floor, causing a quake so large the angels lost their footing and fell.

  They quickly got back up and raced toward the cave’s main entrance. They knew they had to be in the home-stretch, and yet, they still could not see the daylight. Ada wondered if perhaps night had fallen while they had been seeking the jawbone and dodging the giant.

  Dumah and Kane hoisted Vero along. “You know I love you guys,” Vero said slurring his words. “You guys are awesome. My best friends for life.” Vero turned his head to Dumah. “Now what was your name? Oh, that’s right, you can’t tell me anyway.”

  “Shut up, Vero,” Kane said. “We’re almost out of here.”

  “Boo!” Vero shouted in Dumah’s ear.

  Of course, Dumah said nothing, but he looked very annoyed.

  They dashed onward, but then Ada came to an abrupt halt as she tripped and nearly smacked into a wall. Her elated expression soured when she saw what was before her — ​an enormous boulder blocking their only way out. It completely covered the entrance, which explained why they hadn’t been able to see daylight. Everyone else bunched up behind her.

  “Uh-oh,” Vero laughed. “Looks like we’re gonna need to make a bolder plan! Ha-ha! Get it? A bolder plan!”

  “No wonder Ahiman never seemed interested in chasing us,” Ada moaned. “He rolled this boulder in front, knowing we couldn’t get out.”

  Greer looked confused. “Maybe he’s not such a big dumb lug after all.”

  “Any ideas?” Kane asked. “Because Vero’s getting pretty heavy, and I can’t take any more of his bad jokes.”

  “We could all try to push it out of the way,” Greer only half-suggested.

  “Way too big,” Ariel said.

  “We could wait for the giant to wake up. He’s going to have to go to the bathroom sooner or later, and he’ll have to remove the stone to go outside?” Kane tentatively offered.

  Greer gave him a deadpan look. “Seriously? You sure some of that powder didn’t blow up your nose too?”

  “Any other ideas?” Kane asked looking Dumah squarely in the eyes.

  Greer huffed. “Even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to tell us!”

  “I say we tickle him until he talks,” Vero said, flexing his fingers.

  “Will someone shut him up?” Greer said, holding the jawbone threateningly at Vero.

  Dumah and Kane sat Vero on the ground. Greer watched as Dumah held out his hand and closed his eyes in concentration. After a moment, a scepter with an orb on the head of it materialized from the palm of Dumah’s hand. When the orb began to send out ribbons of light, Greer banged the side of her head with her hand to make sure she was seeing straight. The lights began to swirl. The
angels stepped back, as the light ribbons grew brighter and brighter. They formed into the shape of . . . Greer squinted through the intense light . . . into the shape of Dumah — ​only about five times larger. And yet, she could still see the normalsized Dumah standing holding the scepter. The giant-sized illuminated Dumah placed both hands on the boulder and, with no effort, rolled it away from the entrance. The angels watched in amazement. Dumah then tapped the bottom of his scepter to the ground, and the ‘light Dumah’ was sucked back inside the orb ball. Moments later, the entire scepter disappeared back into Dumah’s palm.

  “Totally awesome, dude,” was all a spaced-out Vero could muster.

  Vero lay on the moist ground in the jungle as Ariel kneeled over him, her hand on his forehead, silently praying. The others crowded around. After a few moments, Vero’s senses began to return to him. He sat up, looking bewildered.

  “Did I just see what I thought I saw back there?” he asked.

  “Yeah, Dumah was holding out on us the whole time,” Greer said, eyeing Dumah who smiled with pride. “But why didn’t you just save yourself when the giant tied you up?”

  Dumah held out his wrists, the left one over the right. Greer knit her brow, unsure what he was trying to convey.

  “I think he’s saying because his hands were tied up, he couldn’t make the scepter appear,” Ada deduced, looking to Dumah to see if she was correct.

  Dumah nodded enthusiastically. The ground began to shake underneath them, and the treetops swayed. The angels looked around. “I guess Ahiman is awake,” Ariel announced.

  “No biggie. If he comes after us now, at least we can fly off this island,” Greer said.

  “Let’s get this jawbone back to C.A.N.D.L.E. and collect our prize,” Kane said, with his hand out to Greer. “I’ll carry it from here.”

  Greer looked to Ariel and Dumah, her eyes apologizing for Kane’s insensitivity to them. After a moment, Greer held out the jawbone. A smile spread across Kane’s face as he took the priceless relic from her hands. Kane looked like a proud papa laying eyes on his newborn child for the first time. He turned it over in his hands, admiring it from every angle. And then, out of nowhere, a flash of light appeared, snatched the jawbone from his hands, and vanished with it.

  Kane’s gloating smile disappeared.

  12

  INVISIBLE ANGEL

  Vero and the other fledglings raced through C.A.N.D.L.E.’s entrance. Vero was surprised to see that no one was inside. Given all the visitors for the Trials, he expected it to be brimming with angels. The only movement was the colossal torch with its swirling flames twisting in and out of one another.

  “Where is Uriel?” Kane panted.

  “Everybody must be outside!” Vero shouted as he continued running toward the back doors.

  The fledglings burst out the doors, headed to the natural auditorium. But when they stepped outside, the auditorium was no longer there, nor the verdant fields of the Ether. Instead, they beheld a vast expanse of rolling brown-green hills with little other vegetation. A sweltering heat hit them. It was as if they had stepped right out of the Ether and into a foreign land.

  “Where’s the amphitheater?” Vero asked. “Where are we?”

  In the distance, a stony hill rose high above the rest, and just beneath it were throngs and crowds of angels, some standing and many hovering.

  “If I had to guess, I’d say Jawbone Hill,” Ada suggested, “the place where Samson defeated the Philistines.”

  Kane sprouted his wings and rocketed into the air. The others quickly followed. They flew over the parched grass until they reached the floating gathering of angels and pushed their way through.

  “Excuse me, coming through,” Kane repeated as he elbowed angels left and right.

  He finally reached an opening in the crowd and glimpsed the scene below. Pax and X were standing with Uriel and Raziel near a small pile of dirt. An intense anger shot through him like a geyser when he saw the illuminated outline of Melchor, the translucent angel, triumphantly holding up the jawbone. The spectators cheered his success. Melchor knelt down before an open patch of grass that appeared to be a shallow grave, and Kane’s anger reached a new height when he saw what lay inside — ​the skeletal remains of an animal minus a lower jaw. It had to be the donkey! The words of the riddle came back to him: “There is no rest beyond the clouds. No rest for me, ’till I be shroud.”

  “No!” Kane shouted, causing every head to turn in his direction. “Stop!”

  He dropped out of the sky. Vero and Ada exchanged worried looks as they followed Kane to the ground. Kane landed at the head of the grave and immediately shoved Melchor’s shoulder, knocking him to the ground. Surprisingly, for looking so ghost-like, the angel appeared to have a physical form.

  “You stole that from me!” Kane yelled, his eyes flashing.

  Melchor met Kane’s eyes but said nothing. Uriel grabbed Kane’s elbow and pulled him away. Kane tried to wrestle his arm free, but Uriel’s grip was too tight.

  “Uriel, he snatched it right out my hands!” Kane protested. “Ask Vero or any of ’em! We found it first! The Guardians solved the riddle!”

  “It’s true,” Vero said, stepping from the crowd.

  Greer and Ada stood behind him and nodded in agreement.

  “The Thrones see everything,” Kane said desperately. “Ask them!”

  Uriel looked to Kane and examined his pleading eyes. But after an intense moment, Uriel turned back to Melchor. “You may continue.”

  Outrage overtook Kane. He yanked his arm away from Uriel. “That’s it?” he shouted. “So the cheaters win?”

  “We were all blessed with different gifts, and Melchor was just using his,” Uriel told him.

  “What gift? Stealing is a gift?”

  “The Virtues can see the future,” Uriel explained. “Melchor saw that you and the other guardians would retrieve the jawbone — ”

  “So he waited and watched us risk life and limb until the moment was right?” Kane interrupted.

  “He used his gifts to accomplish a task,” Uriel corrected him. “The challenge was not just to find the jawbone, but to be the first to bring it back and bury it. What were you doing that enabled him to take it from you?”

  “Nothing! I was just holding it and admiring it . . . And then Melchor stole it right out of my hands!” Kane said.

  “Holding and admiring the relic was not part of your challenge. You were to bring it back directly. There is no room for self-righteous pride when executing any of your angelic missions.”

  “That’s not fair!” Kane shouted. “Stealing is stealing, and it’s wrong! Maybe you’re not familiar with the Ten Commandments? If not, I suggest you read the seventh one!” His voice was laced with sarcasm.

  Vero cringed. He turned to Ada. “I can’t believe he’s talking to Uriel like that,” he said in a low voice. Ada slowly nodded.

  “First of all, Kane, the jawbone is an ancient relic and was never yours, so Melchor did not steal from you. You may have found it — ​actually Ada may have found it first, but you failed to protect it and bring it back here.” Uriel’s voice was stern and serious.

  Kane’s eyes locked on Uriel’s.

  “And as for fairness, when demons and maltures come after you with everything they’ve got, is your only defense going to be, ‘hey, that’s not fair?’ Think they’ll listen and back off?” Uriel asked.

  Uriel’s words began to register for Vero. He had fought two of Lucifer’s maltures and knew how ruthless and evil they were. They would have done anything to defeat him.

  Kane shook his head and balled his hands into fists. “This is different! We are supposed to be good! I would think at least amongst ourselves a competition ought to be fair!”

  “Kane, we must never confuse the concept of ‘fairness’ with the much higher precept of ‘justice,’ ” Uriel answered, his eyes softening. “It’s not always easy, even for angels. Lucifer fell because he thought God’s love for man was unf
air to angels.” Uriel paused and looked around at the fledglings.

  “So you want us to fight dirty?” Kane spat out. “Undercut other angels?”

  “I want you to use what God has given you . . . I don’t want to lose a single one of you.” He put a hand on Kane’s shoulder. “You might think these Trials are about winning a trophy or personal glory, but they are not. The Trials are about pushing you to become a fierce fighter, to hone your skills to better carry out God’s will.”

  “It’s totally bogus,” Kane said angrily before storming away from the crowd.

  As Uriel watched him sprout his wings and fly off in the direction of C.A.N.D.L.E., Vero caught a look of sadness on Uriel’s face. When Kane was no longer in sight, Uriel turned back to Melchor.

  “Continue.”

  Melchor reattached the jawbone to the donkey’s skull. The small dirt piles lying next to the grave lifted off the ground as if gusts of wind had gotten underneath them. The dirt spread out over the donkey’s remains, covering the skeleton. In a split second, grass grew over the hole, and the grave was completely concealed. No one could ever tell what lay underneath. Melchor turned to the spectators.

  “Thank you for allowing me this honor,” he said in a clear and melodious whisper.

  “How could you let him steal the jawbone?” X asked Kane as they and the rest of their flight stood before the giant torch back inside C.A.N.D.L.E. “Why didn’t you protect it?”

  “I would have,” Kane answered adamantly. “The dude’s invisible. How was I supposed to know he was following us?”

  “Yeah, X,” Greer added. “You weren’t there. You weren’t battling killer flytraps or a giant! You had the cushy job of hanging out in the library! At that moment, we were all just happy to be back out in the fresh air and daylight.”