All That Is Fallen

by Brendan Carroll

  “He has seen me drunk before!” Luke snapped indignantly and tugged on his belt. He leaned forward slightly and checked the hem of his kilt. “We have waited too long. Jozsef Daniel can’t be allowed to get away with this…. this…. atrocity against my family any longer. We have the power! We have all we need to go after him.”

  “True. True.” Raziel walked alongside him as he continued on toward the house more slowly. “But I was not referring to your state of mind; I was referring to the order of the household at this moment. It is in particular disarray. The rabbi has returned from captivity and there is much confusion and celebration.”

  “What?” Luke frowned at the angel. “The Rabbi? Did you say rabbi?”

  “The son of your Healer, Simon of Grenoble. He has returned.” Raziel smiled at him. “I released him from his prison.”

  Luke stopped again, too suddenly, and his head seemed to spin. Raziel touched his arm slightly to steady him.

  “You released him?” Luke grabbed the angel’s arms and then quickly let go of him. The feeling was almost like grabbing a live wire, but there was no pain. He looked down at his hands and his thoughts seemed to clear almost instantly. It was as if the effects of the wine had been pulled from his mind by the contact. “I’m sorry!”

  “It was my pleasure.” Raziel told him. “I broke the spell and released him.” Raziel held out both hands. “It was simple. His celestial companion was also with him. The one he calls his wife.”

  “Menaka?” Luke blinked at him in wonder and then started for the house again. “That’s great! I have to…” Luke stopped in his tracks and faced the angel again. “If you can do that, you can help me get Omar back and Anna and Jozsef and…”

  “They are in New Babylon. Even I cannot reach them there without travel.” Raziel’s smile faded. “When we face the Ancient One, we will see what needs to be done about those you speak of. Their prison is a much more formidable fortress surrounded by immense evil works.”

  Luke’s hopes faded further as he realized that Raziel was right. If he went off half-cocked to New Babylon, he would simply end up as a prisoner there himself, but something had happened to him earlier that had frightened him and brought on his extreme depression. It had occurred during the odd episode when he had been speaking with Raziel and Haniel after dinner. He had seen Nicole briefly and she had been crying. He’d never seen her cry.

  “I saw my sister.” He blurted and felt on the verge of tears. “She was calling to me to help her!”

  “Yes.” The angel nodded and took his arm again, directing him gently toward the house. “She is in need of help and soon help will come.”

  “You saw her?” Luke asked him as they walked more slowly now.

  “She was with us in the banquet hall.” Raziel told him. “She knows that I am here with you. And Haniel. You must guard your thoughts, little one. The dark one is using her to learn of us.”

  “Oh my God!” Luke stopped again. “You’re right! I have to tell my father!”

  “That would be good.” Raziel agreed and urged him forward. “But you will have to wait. The rabbi is telling his own tale.”

  ((((((((((((()))))))))))))

  Levi sat in the midst of the crowded library with his wife very close by his side. The Knights and apprentices and some of their angelic guests crowded around him, sitting on the floor or chairs or standing as room allowed, while the Master and Simon plied him with questions. The initial uproar had died down and now the father and grandfather of the Rabbi sat on a foot stool and a straight chair while everyone strained to hear their words. Mark Andrew stood back near the doors with Lucifer. Luke stopped just inside the door and his father put his finger to his lips to silence him before he could speak. Luke raised up on tiptoe to catch a glimpse of Levi through the press of bodies in front of him.

  “Again and again he brought me to his council room and tried to get me to agree to help him. He made all sorts of threats against us and against some of you.” Levi looked around at the faces of his brothers and the Knights. “But I told him what he wanted was impossible. He wears the Urim and Thummin constantly. He never lets it out of his sight that I am aware of. He threatened to use it against me. He threatened to use it against Menaka, but she assured me that he could not approach her.” Levi smiled at his wife and patted her hand. “She eluded them time and again when they tried to find her. The prison they made for us worked to her advantage. Once we were there, they could not remove us. They tried time and again and they could not find her. It was an immense place of white. Very monotonous. I am grateful that you found us so quickly. I would not have wanted to spend many days there. I believe I might lose my mind in such a place.”

  Levi looked around and his eyes fell on his younger brother Dan.

  “Dan?” His face lit up with concern.

  “Yes, brother, it’s me!” The apprentice smiled at him, very pleased to have been singled out. Being the second youngest of eleven brothers made such recognition a rare pleasure.

  “You are…” Levi faltered and he began to cry again. “You have aged! How long have we been gone, Poppi?” Levi returned his attention to Simon.

  “Twenty years more or less.” Simon told him gravely. “There is much to talk about, my son. Remember your faith and the Creator who has returned you to us unharmed.” The Healer looked about the room. “Izzy! Get your recording equipment. We will show Levi a bit of courtesy here. He needs time to gather his wits. Brother Mark?” The Healer stood up and searched for Mark Andrew in the crowd. “Lydia!” The Healer’s wife pushed her way through the crowd. “Lydia, take Levi and Menaka and go with Brother Ramsay. Find them a room and allow them time to rest.” Simon turned to his father who stood beside him. “Father, it would be best to continue this tomorrow.”

  D’Brouchart nodded and then hugged Levi again when he stood up.

  Levi dragged Menaka through the press to the door with Lydia on their heels. Mark Andrew stepped into the hall and looked up the stairs.

  “Luke. Is Nicole’s room in good repair?” He asked his son.

  “Nicole?” Luke frowned in confusion. “Oh, yeah, sure.”

  “Take them upstairs.” Mark told him. “Get whatever they need.”

  “I need to speak with you.” Luke told him in a low voice. “It’s urgent.”

  “Take them up and then meet me in the lab.” Mark cringed as the people began to come out of the library. He had never liked crowds. He felt as if he would suffocate in his own home.

  Luke motioned for the rabbi to follow him and started up the stairs slowly. Levi’s brothers had to stop him and hug him and their sister-in-law again before they would allow him to go.

  Philip and Zebulon followed them, intending to sit outside the door throughout the night. They would not let him go far again and they assured everyone on the way up, that no one, nor nothing, would disturb them this night. The d’Ornan brothers were beside themselves with joy at their brother’s return and the ensuing rumble of conversation in the foyer was deafening. Dan could not decide whether to run up the stairs after them or stay downstairs with his father. He kept running back and forth between the stairs and his father until d’Brouchart caught him by the arm and flung him after his brother Izzy, who was making his way through the rear hall in search of his recording materials.

  Benjamin and Little Barry nearly carried their father away in their own exuberant celebration as Simon clung to Rachel and his youngest grandson, Adam Lee Sussex, who was now in his mid twenties. Mark watched this display with a peculiar expression on his face. He barely knew Barry’s son and only recognized him when he saw him because he looked so much like his father. Mark wondered how he would react if he could suddenly have his own grandchildren restored to him and he wondered if he would ever win Nicole over as he had finally brought Luke Andrew into the fold. Certainly, there would be no such display as this and it made him feel a slight pang of jealousy for the Healer. A feeling he had rarely suffered. Not particularly jeal
ous of the love that Simon enjoyed from his sons, but moreso he wished he could simply trade places with him for just a while… just a short while… Mark felt a hand on his arm and turned to look into the face of the warrior chieftain.

  “Did you say lab?” The angel asked him.

  “Aye. My laboratory. In the basement.” Mark nodded. “It’s a bit more… cozy.”

  “Ahh. I would like to see it.” Lucifer told him and Mark sighed. He had almost forgotten about their unlikely dinner guests.

  “This way.” Mark threaded his way through the crowd toward the kitchen.

  Chapter Thirteen of Twenty-Two

  May your deeds be shown to your servants,

  your splendor to their children.

  Jozsef Daniel stayed long enough to see that Nicole had gone to sleep and then rushed down the hall to Ruth’s room. He did not bother with formalities, but simply burst into the room where she sat on the sofa with Bari. Bari lay on the couch with his head resting in his mother’s lap as three servants cooled them with the feathered fans. The emperor sat up abruptly and stared at him in consternation.

  “What is wrong with you?!” Bari demanded at the intrusion and his mother caught his arm.

  “Calm yourself, Joel.” She told him. “Surely Jozsef has a good reason for invading my rooms so… rudely.” She made a face at Jozsef. Bari had become more and more jealous of Jozsef’s relationship with ‘Naomi’, and she had told Jozsef that things were going to have to change or else there would be a great deal of trouble in New Babylon.

  Jozsef caught himself and bowed his head slightly. “Pardon me, Your Grace, but I have just learned something very disturbing.”

  “Oh?” Bari stood up and tugged on his disheveled tunic. “What? They haven’t found the parts for the air conditioning yet?”

  “No! That has been taken care of. They are working on it now.” Jozsef walked around the sofa and made himself a drink with ice from the bar. “This is much bigger than that. The disturbance away to the south… in the Sudan… was caused by what appears to be more allies of the Templars. It seems they have enlisted some of the celestial powers to their cause. The loss of the rabbi was most unfortunate. We will need to send for the Ark at once! If they take it to Scotland, we may have a great deal of trouble getting it back.”

  “And what about the skulls?” Bari frowned at him. “You said we would need them in order to quell these insurrections.”

  “I’m working on it. We can’t just walk into Wewelsburg and take it. The place is crawling with de Goth’s people.”

  “Then I suggest you use something more imaginative.” Bari told him. “We are not without power, you know. Surely this de Goth is no match for us? He is not a mystical creature! He is just a man… a very old man.”

  “Did you hear what I said, Your Grace?” Jozsef downed the liquor and poured himself another shot over the ice. “I said they have enlisted the aid of angels! They have been killing our beasts as fast as we create them.”

  “What?” Ruth pushed herself up. “Our children?” These were her beasts. Her children! Her eyes blazed with an infernal light and her face grew dangerously dark.

  Bari’s own face changed slightly as a chill coursed up his spine. He cut his eyes slowly at his mother and then looked again at Jozsef. What was he saying? Their beasts? Their children? He had been told that the creatures roaming the wastelands were a result of mutations caused by the nuclear waste and pollution accumulated in the aftermath of the wars.

  “What are you going to do about this, Jozsef?!” Ruth walked toward him and the ‘Prophet’ cringed away from her slightly before pouring himself another drink. “I thought you said it would be safe to bring them here? Are you going to allow history to repeat itself? Where is your dark angel? He can deal with these others! Use your power, Jozsef! You know how to vanquish them!”

  “I will send for Abaddon.” He told her. “We’ll discuss it with him. He should have some notion of what to do about these creatures. I believe he has had dealings with these very same angels in the past.”

  “Oh!” Ruth threw up both hands. “How is it possible? I thought you said God had abandoned the Templars?! You had better do something! Use that thing you used against the Prophet!”

  Bari stood motionless beside the sofa, listening to this exchange as Ruth and Jozsef continued to argue. It seemed as if they had forgotten he was there. Forgotten he, Bari, was emperor. He shivered again as a series of almost audible mental clicks went off in his head as several small, unrelated things fell into place, creating a larger picture of something he had not and did not want to see or believe. While he had been worried and concerned over his mother’s possible affection for Jozsef, she had been more than affectionate towards the ‘Prophet’, she seemed rather to be in league with him in more ways than could be readily understood. And while he had been concerned about the war, which he had considered the workings of ignorant foreigners bent on annihilating each other, Jozsef was apparently the direct cause of it. They had been keeping him in darkness. Using him and diverting his attention from the real issues. Running his empire behind his back! It was all too clear in that one moment what had happened. And it was becoming very clear he knew nothing of what was really going on in the world.

  His mind raced now at an alarming speed as if he had opened a flood gate, but with the realization also came the knowledge that he was in a very precarious position here, even in his own palace. He had continued his studies of history in spite of his mother’s disinterest. With Jozsef running the affairs of state almost entirely now, he had found himself with more spare time than he knew what to do with, but the knowledge he had gained of the past stood him in good stead. His mother had been right. One could learn from the past without experiencing the events firsthand. This would not be the time for an outburst of righteous indignation.

  “Where is Abaddon?” Bari ventured a question in the midst of the heated exchange. Both of them jerked their heads about to look at him in surprise. “Is he still in Africa?” He tried to make his voice light. Tried not to betray the horror he felt in his heart. These were not his kinsmen. This was not his mother. This was not his cousin, Jozsef Daniel Sinclair-Ramsay. What had they done to his father?

  He needed allies. He needed friends and he had made none. He had allowed Jozsef to run everything. The only people he knew was a group of simpering diplomats and household servants. Even the Fox commanders reported directly to Jozsef. He had become a figurehead, a puppet and he was having a difficult time keeping his fear from showing in his voice. He had thrown out the question about Abaddon just to make them remember that he was there before they said too much and then decided he would have to die for having heard the truth if it had not already been done.

  “Oh.” Jozsef placed the decanter back under the bar and smiled at him as if nothing were amiss. “Yes. He has been in Egypt and Israel, checking on the status of the monuments. He has sent word the pyramids are unharmed and the Temple still stands in Jerusalem. The war passed over them, thank God.” Jozsef’s entire demeanor changed. “If all goes well, we should, with your permission, your Grace, be able to send an expedition to bring back the most valuable artifacts to New Babylon for safe-keeping. Sooner or later people will begin to return to those regions and they might destroy priceless works and artifacts if they are not made safe.”

  “The construction on the new museum at Old Babylon is coming along quite well, you will be happy to hear. It is almost complete and there will be plenty of room there for most of the more precious relics from the museum at Cairo. I would like to dedicate an entire wing to Ancient Egypt. The treasures from Israel will not take up an entire wing, however, and we should be able to integrate it into the Sumerian and Babylonian section since they were always intertwined historically speaking.”

  Ruth had returned to the sofa and was now examining the lacquer on her fingernails. She clapped her hands and two servants came from their work in the dining room adjacent to her parlor.

/>   “Bring some refreshments.” She told the two men. “Our ice has melted.” She turned back to Jozsef. “And can you please check on the progress of the workmen? Surely they have had time to finish the repairs?”

  “Of course, Your Grace.” Jozsef smiled, bowed graciously to her and walked toward the door. “Again, please,” he stopped at the door. “Forgive me for the intrusion. I was merely beside myself with worry. Your advice will be most helpful. I’m sure that Abaddon will have a more truthful report. This is most likely exaggerations and fantasies brought on by too much exposure to the desert sun.”

  “I certainly hope so.” Bari forced a smile and then sat down on the footstool near his ‘mother’. He took her hand in his and pressed it against his bare face. He had shaved his beard again, this time as a small relief against the heat. “Naomi.” He smiled at her. “I do not like to see you upset yourself with the affairs of state. I will tell Jozsef not to bring these things here to bother you. He and I should work them out in my office.”

  “That would be nice, Joel.” She nodded and then ran one hand under her hair as a rush of cool air flowed from the vent above their heads. “Ahhh. Air! This is indeed wonderful.”

  “Yes. It is. Wonderful, indeed. I have some things to do, Naomi. Won’t you take a bath while the apartments cool down.” Bari stood up and addressed the servants with the fans. “Close the doors and windows. Prepare a bath for the Empress.” The servants hurried away to do his bidding and he leaned over Ruth, kissing her lightly on the cheek. “I will be back as soon as possible.”

  She caught his hand and pressed it to her lips. “Do not tarry too long. Perhaps you would care to join me in the bath?”

  “I’ll try to hurry.” He smiled.

  “We will spent this night in comfort.” She told him. The nights had been miserably hot. Too hot for sharing beds. And now he was glad that he had been away from her for a few days. When he was near her, he seemed to live in a fog. The longer he stayed away from her, the clearer his thoughts became. Another startling revelation and one she no doubt knew might be occurring. He wondered how many times had she and Jozsef carried on these bizarre arguments or conversations in his presence and he had failed to hear them. Nicole had mentioned to him only a few days earlier that she felt something was extremely peculiar about Jozsef and Naomi’s relationship. He, of course, had shrugged it off as jealousy on Nicole’s part. It took one to know one, he had heard, but now things were looking altogether different.