Glorious Companions

by Summer Lee

  “Yes, dear. Is that all that troubles you?”

  “No, there is more.” She thought about her attraction to Tall, but could not say anything about it to her husband.

  “Give me an example.”

  “I was recently visited by a fallen angel in the yard.”

  Asher sat forward. “Oh?” He might be king, but he was also a Goel. Her Goel. This was something he should deal with.

  “Relax, my dear,” Kenana said, touching his muscular forearm lightly. “Apparently, Malluch had sent him to confirm that Tyro had survived the war led by the Nephilim.”

  “Fallen angels care not for their offspring,” said Asher, his jawline rippling. “He seeks to recruit our son.”

  “I suspected as much, and so I told the spiritual being—with some pride I might add—that we did not raise Tyro to seek evil. But rather that he was taught the virtues of being good. I said that Tyro is a righteous man, unlike his biological father. I had nothing else to say, and commanded the fallen one to depart in the name of El.”

  “Good!” Asher hugged her tightly. “We’ll make a Goel of you yet!”

  Kenana leaned into him, inhaling his masculine scent, and listened to his strong, beating heart as the wind rushed through the trees that covered the nearby hills. She let her mind go back through the years to Tyro’s conception.

  After a while, she said, “I carry the pain of being with Malluch. It burns into my soul. And yet, I know we are all born for a purpose. Could having Tyro by Malluch have been part of my purpose in life?”

  He looked down at her, raising an eyebrow. “What do you think, my angel heart?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “Perhaps what the devil meant for evil, God turned around for good.”

  Kenana nodded. It made sense. “So, what do you think my purpose in life is my husband?”

  Asher wrapped his arm around her, squeezing her shoulders comfortingly. “Well, if I had to guess, I would say that falling madly in love with an extremely handsome Goel was your purpose.”

  She slapped his arm lightly and smiled. She had once loved him deeply, and wished she loved him still. She said a silent prayer in her heart. Only God could work a miracle like that. Only God could rescue her from her own lustful heart.

  He grinned broadly and added, “And raising two beautiful children, and running a kingdom with kindness and love. With you.”

  She snuggled deeper into his arms, and they sat together looking out over their kingdom, which was dotted with the glow of oil lamplight from many windows.

  Yes, Kenana liked that very much.

  The End

  Return to the Table of Contents

  AWAKEN THE PASSION

  Glorious Companions Series #4

  Copyright © 2011 by Summer Lee

  Dedication

  To all my grandchildren.

  Special thank you to:

  J.R. Rain, Elaine Babich and Leslie Whitaker.

  Awaken the Passion

  Author’s Note

  The idea for the Glorious Companions Series originated from the stories of fallen angels in early chapters of Scripture. A destructive global flood makes more sense if, 5,000 years ago, such creatures as the Nephilim wandered the Earth.

  The Bible says: “When the earth began to be populated and daughters were born to the people, it developed that the sons of God took notice of the daughters of men, admired their looks and married all of those of them whom they chose. There were giants on earth in those days, and later, too, when the sons of God used to cohabit with the daughters of men, who bore them children, those mighty men of old who made a name.” (Genesis 6:1, 2 & 4)

  I discovered the name “Sammael” and his description in a book about angels. Part good and part evil, it seemed that the name Sammael fit the purpose for this book perfectly.

  Rachael is the restless eighteen-year-old daughter of Queen Kenana and King Asher. Unhappy with her sheltered royal upbringing and hoping to find freedom and fulfillment as an adult, she chose a different path from those of her parents.

  “El” is the earliest name for God and is sometimes used here. Names of actual Biblical figures are used only to add verisimilitude to the story. Characters found herein are fictitious; their personalities and physical descriptions are my own interpretation.

  —Summer Lee

  Prologue

  The Watcher

  It was the time before time began for humans…

  The entities that existed were the High Spiritual Watchers, also known as the Angelos.

  In this time, love was the unspoken universal language and the love of the Angelos exceedingly surpassed the love of humans. Their love knew no bounds.

  Ah, but even with pure love, problems arose. The highest of the Angelos was a beautiful, gifted spirit called Lucifer. He led the choirs and symphonies for the Creator. Yet, one day, his heart hardened with jealousy of the Supreme Being, and he fell like lightning from Heaven. When he led a revolt against the Most High, God banished him from His presence. Angered, Lucifer was determined to overthrow El, the God of creation, and thus, the war began between good and evil.

  There was one Angelos known as Sammael. His name was important. Sam meant that he was poison; El meant that he served God. He represented both evil and good. He was the chief ruler of the Fifth Heaven, and also, he was the angel of death.

  Millennia went by and humans appeared on the Earth, created by God. At that time, all people knew God as El. They honored Him to the best of their abilities, because it was obvious to them that someone had created the flowers and trees.

  The Angelos were curious and jealous of the free will of the humans. Sammael was among the curious ones. His desire was to appear before humankind as one associated with fertility and sexuality, so he journeyed to Earth. The humans called him the Watcher, although he was much more than that.

  Casting a spell over the people of Babylon, he quickly established himself as Prince Sammael, Prince of Babylon. He told his subjects, “I shall search for a bride. Babylon needs a lovely princess by my side.”

  He journeyed over land and sea, over hills and under skies, carefully searching for the right maiden.

  Not far away, he caught sight of Princess Rachael, daughter of Queen Kenana and King Asher, the rulers of Mesopotamia. She was sleeping in her splendid palace bedchamber in a scarlet and gold bed. Sammael approached her open window and sat on the ledge near her bed.

  While she slept, he touched her eyelids with the sweet oil of a flower petal. A magician’s secret, this created in Rachael’s heart an instant illusion of love. Startled, she awakened immediately and asked, “Who are you?”

  “It is I, Sammael,” he said, stroking her face.

  “You are an angel, are you not?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “What do you want of me, Sammael the angel?”

  “I have come to declare my love to you.”

  “And I shall receive it,” Rachael said, thrilled. Mesmerized by his spell, she gazed into his blinding splendor with a yearning heart.

  “Then, dear Rachael, come to Babylon and be my princess,” he said.

  “When?” she asked excitedly.

  “Now.”

  “How can I do that?” she asked. “There is no way to simply walk out of here with you. My personal guards are strong men who are loyal to my parents. They watch me day and night.”

  “Ask two of your guards to take you to the marketplace in Babylon,” Sammael said. “I will cause them to obey you.”

  “I am not permitted to leave the kingdom until my prince comes for me.”

  “Your prince has come,” Sammael said with a smile. “Just ask your guards to bring you to Babylon. Tell them you want to visit the marketplace, and I will do the rest. Your guards will do whatever you ask. How could they not, my love? They are enchanted by you, as am I.”

  She blushed. “Do you intend to marry me if I go with you? I will not be your mistress.”

/>   “Yes, angel heart, I will marry you as soon as you arrive in Babylon.”

  He placed an orchid on her pillow and caused her to return to her slumber.

  Chapter One

  Morning came.

  Rachael thought back to the visit from the angel-prince. Had she been dreaming? Was it a vision or was it real? She would take time to think about what had happened before talking to her guards about a journey to the marketplace.

  Overprotected, she had been isolated and alone most of her life. She was alone now in the royal garden. Her garment clung to her slender hips and small waistline. She had developed well, and wanted to share her beauty with a husband. She would not settle for anything less.

  Rachael felt the wind upon her face. It blew her long strawberry-blond hair behind her. She paused and listened. It seemed that the wind was whispering to her, telling her to go to the Prince of Babylon.

  She finally knew it was real, his coming, and she would go to him.

  Sammael had said that her prince had come. A shiver curled in Rachael’s stomach. Her dream had always been to marry an angel-prince. She knew this would be her only chance.

  Rachael walked out to the stables and thoughtfully stroked the neck of her mare, a strong Arabian. The mare could handle the trip to Babylon, but she would also need two horses for the guards. She would not take the best, for those were her parents’ horses.

  She asked the stable boy, “Are there two large, strong horses that have been feeding and resting in the pasture?”

  He nodded. “Yes, Princess, I know of two good stallions, but they are too big for you, and too spirited. You have your gentle mare, a perfect fit for your stature.”

  “Please catch the two strong horses—but not my father’s or mother’s personal mounts—and saddle them for me early tomorrow morning,” she said. “And my mare, as well. I will need to carry measures of grain for several days for all three horses.”

  The stable boy looked afraid, but asked, “Will there be fresh grass along the way? Grain will not be enough and they have been on fresh grass all summer, resting by the river and fattening up for the breeding season. They are used to their feed and could become ill if their feed was suddenly changed.”

  “I do not know if there will be grass. They will be ridden a long distance.”

  “Then I shall prepare provisions for the horses. I must cut and bundle some sheaves for your journey.” He hesitated. “I ask this most respectfully: Is all well with you, Princess?”

  “Yes, all is well. Speak of this to no one.”

  “Yes, my Princess.” He bowed his head humbly and reached for the scythe to go and cut the long, fresh grass for bundling into sheaves.

  Rachael was thrilled that her plan was being set into motion. She loved her parents and her brother, but she was just tired of being smothered by their constant protection. She wanted to be free and this was her only opportunity. The angel-prince had come to her with such tenderness that she was certain he would be easy to love. She was almost ready to leave, but had one more thing to take care of.

  She stopped by the guard house and spoke to two of her personal guards who were just leaving for the day as the night guards walked toward their places outside her bedchamber.

  She took aside the day guards. “I need you two to accompany me tomorrow. You both ride well, do you not?”

  The guards looked at each other nervously and nodded.

  “Very well. Be ready at daybreak for a trip to a marketplace to buy gifts for my parents. The gifts are to be a surprise, so you cannot tell anyone what we are doing or where we are going. Meet at the royal stables after the cock crows.”

  “Where are we going, Princess?” one of them asked.

  “Yes, which marketplace?” the other one added. “We can easily walk to our marketplace without the need for horses.”

  “I will tell you tomorrow,” she replied.

  After a night of soul-searching about whether she was sure about what she was doing, Rachael arose early and dressed for travel in clothes that were not as fine as her usual clothing, for she did not wish any road bandits to set upon them.

  She packed a fine purple tunic to change into after she arrived, as well as her best slippers, made of the softest kid leather that were only fit for indoor wear, or at most, for a few steps in a royal garden. She packed facial cosmetics and unguents for softening her feet and hands. She packed her handheld polished metal mirror as well as her most prized possession, her comb, which her father had carved for her from tortoiseshell with his own two hands. Lastly, she packed a slender-necked fired clay bottle with a cork stopper. It contained attar of roses—rose oil that had been pressed from the finest rose petals of the palace gardens. She wanted to smell lovely for Sammael, her angel-prince.

  She glanced around the room where she had lived—no, had spent—all of her life. She had never truly believed that she had ‘lived.’ Her parents would be upset that she had run away, but they would do everything to stop her if they knew what she had planned.

  However, she knew she had to go and seek her destiny with Sammael. It was time to start ‘living’ her life. She had few regrets about leaving, and she was more than ready for the adventure of a lifetime.

  As a last thought, she went through her things and packed small items to trade for provisions along the way.

  Sometime during the night, she knocked the orchid onto the floor. She never saw it. As she walked out of the palace, the orchid lay wilting behind her bed.

  When she arrived at the stable just after the cock’s crow, the two guards were already mounted up and the stable boy offered his knee so she could mount her mare. She stepped on his thigh and settled herself on her mare.

  The stable boy handed her the reins and shook his head fearfully as they departed.

  As they rode out of the palace, Rachael said to the guards in a quivering voice, “Do you know the road to Babylon?”

  They did.

  Under the close scrutiny of her guardsmen, they stopped alongside a group of curious nomads to water the horses at an oasis. It was there that she took stock of her own appearance in the pond’s reflection. Her nose, eyes and mouth were perfectly framed by long, strawberry-blond hair. Her svelte body was shapely and delicate. Her complexion was as smooth as wet clay. The title, Princess Rachael, bride of Prince Sammael, seemed splendid to her ears and she could not wait to hear it spoken aloud.

  She gratefully drank the cool water of the oasis pond from her cupped hands while her personal guards filled the skin bags with fresh water. The men let the horses drink until they raised their dripping faces and drank no more.

  A little nomad girl brought a net bag of dried dates and Rachael bartered, giving her a necklace of tiny purple seashells for the food. The little girl exclaimed over the trade and ran back to her family. Her mother came over with a square of cloth that was wrapped around a block of heavily salted goat’s cheese and she also had a handful of pistachio nuts tied in a thin piece of cloth. She opened both cloths to show Rachael what she had to trade.

  This time, Rachael traded a necklace made of rose-petal beads. She had made them herself and dried them, then strung them on string made of dried gut. She showed the woman that she could sniff their fragrance and the woman smiled a toothy grin in thanks for the rose petal bead necklace.

  When they were on their way to Babylon again, Rachael asked, “What will I do when I have nothing left to trade for food?”

  Saul laughed. “I suppose you will eat what we eat, Princess.”

  “What is that?”

  “Nothing quiets a growling belly like locusts roasted on a stick over an open fire. With honey, if we can find any hives and we’ll smoke the bees to calm them so we can steal a honeycomb.”

  She shuddered. “I like honey, but bees frighten me. And I won’t eat locusts. Not ever. I am a Princess.”

  The men smiled at each other over her head.

  She handed the dates, nuts and cheese to Saul. “When we stop
for the evening meal, we shall all share this food. You will divide it equally for us and serve it.”

  “Thank you, my Princess. This shall make a fine dinner for us all. That was wonderful trading you did today with the nomads,” Saul said.

  Rachael blushed. It was the first time she had done such a thing on her own. It felt good.

  Two days later, seated on her royal mount and stiff and sore from sleeping on the ground on her horse’s saddle blanket, Rachael arrived in the Mesopotamian city of Babylon to wed her handsome angel-prince, Sammael.

  Even dressed in her dusty traveling clothes, Princess Rachael’s stunning presence commanded attention from those in the palatial yard. All heads turned and watched her go into the courtyard. The palace guardsmen had been casting sidelong glances at her hair since her arrival. This was not unusual for Rachael; she had become used to turning the heads of men wherever she went. She believed that her beauty gave her a certain power over men—and though she didn’t understand it or enjoy it, her unspoiled loveliness apparently gave her parents a reason to be overprotective.

  Keeping the secret of her impending marriage ceremony from her loyal guards had been quite a challenge on their journey as they became friendlier toward the end. She had told them that they were going to the marketplace in Babylon for surprise gifts for her parents and they had believed her. She felt dismayed by the realization that lies were so easy to tell.

  The guilt of her lies weighed heavy on her and, as she and the two well-built guards rode through the heavily guarded palace in Babylon, with its lush, hanging gardens and large whitewashed buildings and impressive temples, she felt compelled to tell them the truth.

  “Saul? Abihu? I must confess something to you. We will not be attending the Babylon marketplace today.”

  Confused, Abihu asked, “Then what are we doing here, your majesty?” Abihu was the younger and shorter of the two men.

  “We will be living here,” Rachael said to the men. “I plan to marry the Prince of Babylon, and you will join the Babylonian royal guard.”

  Surprised, both guards looked at each other. “I’m sorry, your majesty, but do your parents know of this marriage arrangement?” asked the handsome guard named Saul.