“The Six of Swords. Travel. A Low Point. Recovery. These we will discuss at a later time. I show you this for the benefit of your companions, that they may understand I come forth openly, with no plan in my mind or malice in my heart for them.”
“Are you trying to tell me something?” I asked, looking at the baby in the raft on the card. “He looks nothing like me.”
The card vanished and Hecate’s face reappeared. Her eyes darkened from green to blue to violet to a deep indigo before exploding into a brilliant yellow. She smiled, her voice changed to match the light in her eyes.
“Think on it for now, Morningstar. The reading begins. Eve, first daughter of Man, first lady of Creation, wellspring of life, stand before me and see.”
Monkey leaned in close to me, “Which one are we dealing with now?”
“I have no idea, but be ready in case something happens.”
“You think she’s going to try something?”
Eve rose to her feet as Hecate’s face vanished again. Her card appeared across the sky, a man and a woman gazing at each other. Each of them was holding a cup. The man’s was made of gold, the lady’s of ceramic. Above them, a bird hovered in the sky, trailing a veil in its beak (presumably lifted from the lady) and hiding the man’s face.
“The Two of Cups. Unusual, the face has never been obscured for me before. This card speaks of love, romance, friendship. The joining of your heart to another. You have a painful road ahead of you. You seek closeness to your heart’s desire. Beware, God will grant this wish. It will give you greater joy and pain than anything you’ve experienced.”
“My husband,” Eve said.
“If God wills it,” Hecate smiled. “Which is why you shouldn’t get your hopes up. Focus instead on yourself. Don’t try to see his face in this card. The same goes for you, Morningstar. Don’t see your face there either.”
Eve was hurt by this. Her eyes met mine briefly, her face flushed and I read it all there: she was shocked that I would consider myself to be her ultimate prize, leery that I might stop her from reuniting with Adam.
“Have I touched a nerve?” Hecate giggled. “I could tell you many stories warning you about socializing with the likes of him .” Her face extended down from the sky, looming closer to me. “Should we take a break to look into the black pit that he calls a heart? Should we reveal more about this silver-tongued thief?” “I’ll take a turn if it’ll get us away from you faster,” Goliath said, rising up to his knees.
“Ah, the Philistine. Let’s see what fate says about you,” Hecate’s face vanished again, and another tarot card appeared above us. The card’s face was swirling in blue smoke. “Tell me first, do you harbor ill will towards me?”
“You know I do,” Goliath answered. “Weren’t for the honor of my friends, I’d tear yer tits off and stuff ‘em down yer throat.”
“My, my! The legendary Philistine misogyny runs strong in this one,” Hecate cackled.
“Y’ain’t my wife,” Goliath said. “She’s d’only one I gotta be nice to. Skip the games and sexy crap, witch, and let’s get down ta business.”
“You’re not helping matters, G,” I whispered.
“What, you afraid o’ her? What’s she gonna do, kill us by reading our palms?”
“Dude, she already killed you once today, chill ,” Monkey hissed.
“I will brook no more insults from you, Philistine. Take your reading and be glad I’ve blessed you with it. The balance of all Creation hangs on all of your success. When this is over, if your legendary blundering hasn’t caused you to doom us all, we will meet again.”
“It’s a date,” Goliath growled.
The card’s face cleared to reveal an old acquaintance – Odin, the Norse god – hanging by his ankle from a gnarled and withered tree branch. Goliath let out a whooping laugh and beamed up at the ceiling.
“The hanged man, huh? Yeah, I know a l’il bit about your card tricks. Fantastic! I’m gonna be a martyr. Truth be told, Bitch Queen, the only fear I had from this afternoon is that I woulda died for nothing at the hands of a floozy like you. This card’s a great thing, innit? A martyr. Gonna sacrifice myself for the greater cause of our group. Yeah, I died once. Already did my part.”
“If that’s how you choose to interpret the card, more power to you. This card is wilier than your fearless leader, contradictory, impulsive. It may mean you have to run counter to your true nature for any progress to be made. You may have to retreat, step back, admit fault, use your brain; in other words, you may have to act entirely unlike yourself to succeed, and frankly Philistine, I don’t think you have it in you. I say this to you as a warning, and as my final act of apology: think twice before you act once. And if you address me impertinently again, things will become very, very personal between us, the honor of this reading be damned.”
“That’s okay with me—”
“No,” Eve laid a hand on Goliath’s forearm. She was almost dangling from him in an effort to hold him back.
Goliath clenched his jaws, then looked at Eve and softened. “Awww, anything fer you, doll.”
Eve tapped Lenny on the back of his head with her foot. He scurried forward, eager to break the growing tension.
“Angel-Head, let’s see what the cards have in store for you.” The card that appeared next looked almost exactly like Lenny (with a body). A young man was skipping along a path, headed directly for a cliff ’s edge, too preoccupied with himself to see his impending doom.
“The Fool,” Hecate announced. Lenny looked genuinely hurt. Hecate continued. “It’s not an insult. It merely implies change. There are many things ahead on the path for you. You must release your worries, release your fears. You’re living without a body now, without your angelic powers. Until you learn to embrace your new being, you’ll be forever stagnant. Accept the changes that come to you, however big or small, and you will succeed.”
“My,” Lenny sneered. “How specific. Amazing. Really.” He scuttled off the pedestal and towards Monkey. “You’re up, O Hairy One. Get ready to have your mind blown.”
“Only my mind?” Monkey smirked.
“Monkey,” Hecate’s voice boomed. “You lovely creature, come forward. Are you as much a trickster as your legend tells? Will you leave me lonely, wandering the grey plains after you leave?” “Hey, you got me all wrong, baby! Soon as all this blows over,
I’ll be heading right back over here. I mean, we didn’t even finish what we started. That was just the warm-up,” Monkey waggled his eyebrows towards Hecate’s face in the sky. The sky pulsed a deeper shade of purple and Hecate moaned. The space felt…muggy, suddenly.
“Okay, kids, do we need to leave you alone for a minute?” I asked. “If it starts to rain, I’m going to throw up.”
Hecate frowned towards me, then returned her gaze to Monkey. “I hope this shows romance in your future.” She faded away and Monkey’s card appeared. It was a large castle tower, racked by lightning and beset by storm clouds. Hecate shrieked. “Noo!”
“So I take it that doesn’t mean I’m coming into some real estate soon?” Monkey asked.
“The Tower signals many things, few of them good. Upheaval. Chaos. A humbling experience. Downfall…” and it did begin to rain, great salty fat teardrops that bathed the area in a depressing gloom. Hecate’s face reappeared in the sky, her eyes shining like twin blue streetlights. “I feel like I was just starting to get to know you.”
Monkey waved his hands. “Hey, the Chinese have a word for a situation like this. But my Chinese is so rusty I won’t even bother. Just know this: I’m Monkey. I’m doubly immortal, I master love portals, hands like stone, fists like fire, the demi- god’s fear and the ladies’ desire, the king of rock with the ten foot—”
I cleared my throat loudly, twirled my fingers at Monkey to wrap up his self-aggrandizing speech.
“Doubly immortal. You remember that when you think anything bad might be happening to me. You think a little card is going to scare me? I’ll b
e through this and back in your arms in no time, baby.”
“You’re so fantastic,” Hecate cooed.
“Yeah,” Monkey said, waving his arm in a “no sweat” gesture. He hopped from the pedestal.
I leaned in close to him. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were actually falling for her. Just remember, you date one of her, you date all of her.”
Monkey sat back to ponder that as I approached the table. “Time to wrap it up,” I said. “What have you got for me?” Hecate’s face blinked out of the sky and she was standing before us. She clutched a small, cracked glass orb in one hand. A spent anima crystal. In her other hand, she held my tarot card between two fingers.
“This is the spent crystal that the girl left behind. I don’t remember how she passed my test, but she did, and in record time.”
I remembered what happened last time I touched a spent crystal, the vision of Aspen on the bridge. I’d see how she was faring first, and then catch up on my own fate. I reached out to touch it and Hecate seized my wrist, flipping my hand over and kissing my palm.
The room turned to taffy. I became hyper-focused. I saw currents of air moving, I heard Goliath’s beard growing. What the hell did she do? I looked to her for answers. Hecate floated back from me, hovering ten feet away. She squeezed the anima crystal and it turned to powder in her hand. She palmed it into her mouth, winced and bit down, her eyes rolling back. Her arm stretched across the room, impossibly long, and she entwined her fingers in my hair. Goliath was rising up from his seat to intervene, and I couldn’t turn my head fast enough to tell him to stop. It didn’t matter. Time was flowing like mud.
Hecate floated to me, her face bending through layers of reality to draw within inches of mine. She brushed her lips on me and my jaw went slack. Then she kissed me, and the universe exploded behind my sinuses. Her tongue darted out, probing into my mouth, long, hunting, wet, burning. The tip of my tongue made contact with hers, and the kiss was fiery, freezing, vibrant, dead, opaque and translucent, and smooth smooth smooth…
Chapter Ten
All was right with the world again. Aspen was the center of attention wherever she went. Things had definitely gotten easier with the Glowing Spear of Truth. Great masses of people met her wherever she went. Nobody would speak to her if she wasn’t holding the spear. They’d point at it, even talk to it, but until she picked it up, she might as well have been invisible. Once she grabbed it, they’d start talking, confessing all of their sins, and asking for forgiveness. She’d remain quiet for a few minutes, and then say something pithy to absolve them, like “Whatever ”. It usually worked. Their hearts would lift, their faces light up, and they’d head over the horizon with a skip in their step, leaving behind the husk of an anima crystal.
Then there were the silent ones, those who would try to confess their sins but couldn’t bring themselves to speak. They followed the glowing tip of her spear ceaselessly, resting when she rested, and walking when she walked. She had briefly considered asking them to carry her, but they tended to stay about ten feet away from the spear. When she picked it up, she felt an odd tingling through her arms. Something tugging at her heart and mind, a feeling she’d never had before: purpose. She had no idea what the purpose was, but knew that she had to follow where the spear led.
Currently, she was leading an entourage of three dozen fans down a steep ravine. The chasm narrowed as it sank, ending at a dark pit that looked like the mouth of Hell. Or rather, like the mouth of Hell used to do business there, but had since relocated. Someone else had taken up shop and repainted the place.
The cave was framed on either side by massive stalagmites. A smaller series of stalagmites ran between the two, creating the impression of a monster with severe underbite. A statue stood beside each of the large stalagmites. The one on the left was squatting. The other was leaning against the right “tooth” in a devil-may-care pose. It was only when Aspen was about ten feet away that she realized they weren’t statues, but men.
The one on the left moved first, standing up from his crouch and looking at his watch. “Took you long enough,” he said. “No test here, keep moving into the cave.” He was portly, and wore an expression of sullen defeat. Every breath was a sigh, an admission that he was powerless against the forces of fate.
Aspen felt the spear buck in her hand, as if it was trying to move away from the two men. She gripped tighter. If they meant to do her harm, she was ready to fight, or at least appear that way. She couldn’t turn back. Running away would mean pushing through her horde of fans. She knew they couldn’t shuffle away from her fast enough to clear a path. But perhaps that was the answer – the two men didn’t know this.
“These guys love me,” Aspen said, motioning to the legion standing behind her. “They’ll fight to the death to protect me.”
“Oh, I hope they do,” the skinny man on the right said. He stubbed his cigarette out on his boot and stepped towards Aspen.
“My brother Cain likes to fight,” the large man said.
The skinny one stepped closer to Aspen and stretched his body. He leaned forward, his body moving slowly, then in a blink, he had the tip of his dagger poised near Aspen’s eye. She felt her lashes vibrate against the cold steel when she blinked.
“Don’t move,” Cain said. “I’ve got steady hands, like a rock, but if you startle me, well…”
Abel lumbered forward and laid a steady hand on his brother ’s forearm. “We’re going to need that eye later.”
“Well, just the one,” Cain said.
“Boss wants her in one piece.”
“Crappo. We’re supposed to be freelancers, you know. Get things done on our terms and our time.”
“This is bigger than us,” Abel said, folding his arms.
“Tea and crumpets it is,” Cain said, twirling on his heel and walking into the cave. He glanced back at Aspen. “Come on, then. They’ll still be waiting for you when you come back out.”
Before Aspen could protest, Abel seized hold of her spear and planted it in the ground in the center of the mouth of the cave. He removed his coat and hung it over the spear, spreading it out to cover the entrance. “Private meeting,” he grinned at the wandering dead.
Aspen shuffled forward in the dark, following the vague shape of Cain as he led her deeper into the caverns. After much bumping and bruising, and – to her dismay – the scuffing of her designer sealskin boots, she began to see a faint glow around a bend ahead.
They emerged into a wide cavern full of green geodes, some carved into monoliths engraved with strange sigils, others shaped into smooth, ergonomic seats. Aspen sat without invitation. “I did a fashion shoot for BCBG once in a setup like this. So uncomfortable. Catering was good though.”
“I suppose you’re wondering what all this is about,” Abel mumbled.
“Do you guys have any food?”
“We are here to talk to you of food for the mind. Knowledge. Life eternal at the right hand of the New Father.”
“Oh…I gave at the office? I mean, I’m totally spiritual and all, but not really religious? So I don’t think I can help you?” she replied.
“Please don’t insult us by playing naïve,” Cain sneered.
“Huh?” Aspen blinked.
The Brothers exchanged a glance. “Perhaps I’ll have to take this a bit slower,” Cain said.
“Do you believe in God?” Abel asked.
“I’m totally spiritual? I mean, we’re all connected? You know, like in the sense of being alive, our alive-ness. We’re very much one universal being at the core.”
Abel leaned in to Cain, “If she continues on like this my ears are going to bleed.”
“Maybe a teenage girl wasn’t the right choice after all.”
“Oh don’t start with me on that again! You never like my ideas!” Abel looked on the verge of tears.
“I’m just saying you tend to make rash decisions that lead you into hardship rather than ease,” Cain said.
“…
and then it was like, right after Yappy died the first time? And my kinkajou reached a paw up to the ceiling? Like he was waving goodbye to Yappy. It’s like he knew Yappy was watching over us? That’s when I started believing in God?” Aspen finished.
Cain leaned in to Abel. “We absolutely need her?”
“His progeny must grow in an empty vessel. It is what the New Lord demands.” Abel replied.
Aspen kicked off her boots, and rubbing her feet, launched into a speech on the merits of spirituality and slingback heels.
“She’s what they call a drama queen, right? Let’s give her some drama. Drive the point home,” Abel said.
Cain stood dramatically and pulled his shirt open. Abel rose and opened his shirt as well, standing next to his brother. A new light filled the cave and Aspen fell silent. Their chests were open, fleshless and hollow, ribcages like steel girders on a burning warehouse. Flames licked between the crossbeams, tickling up their necks and into their mouths.
“You’re daft, but surely you’ve heard,” Cain said. “Whosoever slayeth Cain…”
“That was me,” Abel smiled.
“Vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold,” Cain finished. “So we both bear the mark, the eternal Heart of Hell. It burns day and night like you wouldn’t believe.”
“You kind of get used to the pain after a while.”
“But you, my fair-haired ignoramus, are going to play a vital role in helping us lift the curse. Thumb our noses at the old man, so to speak.”
“Wait. If you killed Abel, how did he kill you?” Aspen asked.
“You meet some interesting people in the underworld. Especially when the whole concept of the afterlife hasn’t been fully formed. Lot of deities jockeying for position. I was pissed at Cain, and I asked my Maker for a chance at vengeance. He refused. So I found another avenue. And now we’re both eternally cursed.”
“We’ve made up since then, of course,” Cain said.
“Of course!” Abel concurred.
“You met someone more powerful than God?” Aspen asked.
“Not quite. Not yet. But let us tell you what you can do to help us.”
Angel Falls Page 11
