Mephistopheles was growing impatient, which meant Malith was getting worried. It did not do well to displease the King of Hell, especially when he was in such an agitated state. The recapture of Kaelus had gone a long way toward placating the demon king, but Mephistopheles could practically taste his upcoming victory, and any delays he considered unnecessary were to be punished swiftly and mercilessly. Not that Malith would ever let his reluctant followers ever see his need for haste – any sign of weakness could be a death sentence in an army such as this.
“General Malith.”
Malith turned and saw a gremlin kneeling on the ground behind him, trembling slightly.
“Report.”
“General, there is some activity in the fortress on our left flank,” the gremlin reported. “Lord Molekh requests your presence and guidance.”
Malith’s lips twisted. The demon lord had likely said nothing of the kind. Molekh resented Malith’s presence and authority more than most, and he rarely missed an opportunity to curse or disparage Malith – just never in the Black paladin’s presence. He was not a complete fool.
Still, there was no sense in angering the demon lord further, so Malith quickly went to the bull-headed demon’s location and stood patiently beside him. Molekh was aware of his presence, and it was a long game of waiting before he finally was forced to acknowledge Malith.
“You have come, general,” the demon lord growled.
“I understood my presence was requested,” Malith said in an off-hand manner. “I am nothing if not accommodating to demons worthy of my respect.”
Molekh snorted, and a tongue of flame leapt from his bovine nostrils.
“What seems to be the issue, Lord Molekh?” Malith asked.
“There, general,” the demon said, pointing to a broad slope that led from the nearby angelic fortress toward Malith’s army. Angelic arrows occasionally streaked out from the fortress and felled a demon or damned soul who was unlucky enough to have been targeted, but for the most part they were ignored by the fortress. No doubt, the angels were still expecting the demons to form up and lay siege.
A week ago, that would have been the standard tactic, but no longer.
“I fail to see…” Malith began, then he stopped. Using powers granted by the demon king, Malith sharpened his vision and finally saw large objects rolling down the slopes of the fortress. After a moment’s study, he realized they were not, as he first guessed, large boulders, but rather enormous spheres of ice taken from one of the three heavenly rivers.
“They will crash into our flank in a moment’s time,” Molekh said.
“Then have your demons get out of the way when they get here,” Malith said irritably. “Those icy boulders are too unwieldy to pose a serious threat. What could they possibly hope to accomplish?” he said scornfully.
Molekh passed the order for the demons to avoid the balls of ice. None of the oncoming spheres was anywhere near Malith, so he was free to observe the results with strategic detachment. He watched with his enhanced vision and, as the ice spheres drew near the demons, he finally realized just how big the frozen chunks were. Each was easily twice as tall as a man, and they thundered forward with unstoppable force.
A very few demons were crushed by the spheres – most were able to clear enough space so they rolled by unhindered.
“A strange tactic,” Molekh rumbled.
A barrage of angelic arrows streaked out from the fortress, but their targets were not demons this time. The bolts of heavenly power struck the spheres of ice and shattered them with a tremendous explosion. Shards of ice were scattered in every direction and tore into the surrounding demons with lethal force. The icy shrapnel pierced demonic flesh with ease, then quickly melted inside the demons and assaulted the very essence of their existence.
All told, only fifty spheres of ice had rolled from the fortress, but the resulting explosions had destroyed hundreds of demons and damned souls caught by the frozen shrapnel and damaged thousands more.
“That is what they hope to accomplish, General Malith,” Molekh said with a fiery sneer. “Contempt for our enemies will only lead to such destruction. What if one of them had been near us? What then for our mortal general?”
“A drop in the sea of our forces,” Malith said with deceptive calm. “You whine like a baby Cherub, Molekh.”
A few minutes later, a blue-fleshed balrog came forward and reported to Molekh the extent of the damage. Nearly a thousand demons and souls destroyed, another three thousand seriously injured by the blasts.
Malith recognized the balrog as Goriel, Molekh’s second in command and one of the demon lord’s favored subordinates. Goriel was powerful… but then, so was Malith. He drifted slowly toward the demon officer.
“A loyal and worthy demon,” Malith remarked as soon as Goriel finished his report. The balrog remained kneeling. He was several yards away from Molekh, but only two strides away from Malith.
Molekh looked away, then jerked his head back at the tone in Malith’s voice. Too late, Malith reached out and grasped Goriel by the throat and, with a quick jerk, snapped the demon’s neck. Goriel gurgled in pain and flailed against Malith for a moment, but the Black paladin unleashed a surge of the power granted him by Mephistopheles. Black flames ran down the length of his arm and engulfed the balrog. As a final touch, Malith ripped the demon’s throat out and left him screaming to burn into ashes.
“Malith!” Molekh roared. Crimson flames leapt from the bull-headed demon’s mouth, and he lowered his head and crouched as though preparing to spear Malith on his horns.
“Contempt only leads to destruction, Lord Molekh,” Malith said with icy calm. “Were you not so valuable, that would have been you feeling the fires of Mephistopheles’s wrath. Count it a mercy. I am the demon king’s arm here, and I will brook no insolence nor tolerate questions of my command. Am I understood, demon?”
“Aye, mortal,” Molekh growled, straightening so he could glare down his bovine nose at Malith. “You enjoy the demon king’s favor for now, but know the instant that lapses, I will be but a step behind you, and then you shall feel my mercy. It will give me great pleasure to drag your screaming soul back to my pits in Dis and torture you for eternity. Daella told me you were among her favorite victims – a pity you broke so quickly, else I might already know firsthand.” He growled deep in his throat, the sound of a raging wildfire, and his eyes bored into Malith’s. “When you are mine, mortal, you will scream for release and beg me to give you to one of the other lords, and when I am sated I shall do just that – perhaps to Daella. Then I shall sit in her parlor and drink in your screams like blood and dine on strips of your flesh.”
Malith paled slightly, but he maintained a disinterested sneer as he allowed the demon lord to finish his rant. Flames spat from Molekh’s nostrils as his chest heaved – Malith was reminded of a pair of bellows blowing over a roaring forge fire.
“Until that day, however, Molekh, you will follow my orders, or I will dine on your flesh, demon,” Malith replied mockingly. He spun on his heel and strode casually away, deliberately showing his back to the bull-headed monstrosity behind him.
Malith returned to his tent, shut the flaps, and knelt. Safe from observation, the Black paladin’s shoulders trembled as memories of Daella’s attentions flooded his mind.
I did not break, he told himself. I was chosen to lead this army. I did not break. I followed my destiny.
He shivered uncontrollably for nearly an hour before he regained his composure.
I must have victory, he told himself over and over.
I must have victory, or else my soul is doomed to an eternity of demonic “mercy.”
- 2 -
The city was truly beautiful to behold. Several times as they traversed the streets, James and Nuse stopped to stare at a particular park or building that took their breath away. In one courtyard, four fountains of perfectly clear crystal sprayed water from the Alethion, which flowed in waves of pure, golden light from the
mouths of stone angels and overflowed a bowl to cascade down the sides of a small obelisk inscribed on six sides with the names of the six primary virtues.
The pair of paladins rode their dakkans through the deserted city, unsure of where to begin their search.
“Tell me again why the two of us are doing this search,” Nuse said as they passed beneath an archway with carvings of angels in flight covering the side.
“Because Vander is our friend, and Uriel asked us to find him,” James replied.
“No, I mean, why is it just the two of us searching?” Nuse corrected himself. “It took us a week to get here alone, when an angel or two might have sped things along and stayed to help us search. Why not?”
James glanced at him out the corner of his eye.
“Because they can’t spare a flight of angels to do a building-by-building search for one dead Orange paladin, no matter how much we want to find him,” James said. “It may take us until the end of this war, but the two of us will find him.”
They moved on in silence for a while before Nuse spoke again.
“And where exactly are we going to start searching?” the Blue paladin asked. “I hate to point it out, but this is a bloody large city, and we don’t know where anything is.”
“Uriel suggested we start where he last heard from Vander, which was the library,” James said. Where else would Vander be? he mused. “We might find some clues, or at least it will give us a base of operations to start our search.”
They passed by an alley, and James stopped as something strange caught his eye. First of all, the alley was too narrow for an angel to fly through, which was curious in itself. But even more strange, there was a gate of polished silver that barred the far side of the narrow corridor, and on the far side James could just see a courtyard with several toppled pieces of stone in it.
“Nuse,” he said and motioned toward the alley. They steered their dakkans that way, but had to dismount so they could fit in the alley. Nuse’s dakkan had scales the color of deep amethyst, and it transformed into a hawk with violet bands on its wings. The hawk landed on his shoulder and clung to a leather pad incorporated into the paladin’s studded armor. James’s burnt-orange dakkan shifted to a drann of the same dull color.
“Arrete,” James said, and the drann immediately scampered into the alley ahead of them. A moment later, he returned and crooned an unconcerned tone back to his paladin.
“It’s clear,” James said to Nuse. Nevertheless, both paladins drew their swords as they approached the gate.
The lock was slightly skewed, and the gate opened easily on silent hinges. They walked into the courtyard and found yet another six-sided obelisk, but it was the only thing left standing in the entire courtyard. Rubble from shattered stone columns littered ground, statues were smashed, and what had once been beautiful fountains now dribbled water that disappeared into an unknown drainage.
Their eyes were drawn back to the obelisk, which like the others had been inscribed with the six virtues. Instead of just the words, however, this stone also depicted six faces on it, one carved on each facet below the inscribed virtue. Around the top, where the six facets met, were carved the words, “The first journey” in the human tongue, along with what looked like translations in elven, dwarven, what looked like ancient gnomish,[35] and even the immortal tongue – James recognized the word jintaal, the immortal word for “journey”.
The two paladins slowly circled the stone, staring in awe at the remarkable faces drawn into the stone.
“Do those faces look familiar to you?” Nuse asked.
“Two of them do,” James replied. “That one is Uriel, beneath Justice, and that one is Mikal beneath Temperance.”
“What about that one?” Nuse asked, pointing to another face.
James stared in disbelief. “It can’t be. What is Kaelus’s face doing drawn on a stone in a courtyard in Heaven? He’s a demon.”
“He may be a demon,” a deep, tired voice said, “but apparently that doesn’t stop him from being a representation of Courage.”
The two paladins whirled and saw a broad-shouldered man slumped in the shadows of a fallen stone. James peered closely at the man, but it took him several long seconds to recognize him.
“Hoil?” the Yellow paladin said in amazement.
“Aye,” the former thief replied.
“What are you doing here, and looking like that?” Nuse asked. Hoil’s clothing was rumpled and damp in places where he’d been sitting in a trickle of water escaped from a shattered fountain.
“I’m reveling in the joys and beauty of Heaven, can’t you tell?” Hoil asked harshly. “Isn’t this place just wonderful?”
“Did you do this?” James asked, frowning as he gestured to the courtyard.
Hoil barked a laugh. “I’m flattered you think I’m that strong,” he said. “No, James, my only contribution to this scene is the lock I accidentally broke getting in here. I don’t think anyone will really mind; it doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in a few thousand years. Probably longer.”
James offered a hand to Hoil and helped him up, then steadied him as the former thief wavered on his feet.
“I’d say I’m just hungry, but food doesn’t seem to be a problem here,” Hoil said. He stumbled to the obelisk and leaned against it for support.
“You’re right, though,” he said. “This is Mikal and Uriel, and believe it or not this is Kaelus. This one here under Piety is Gabriel, and under Love is Raphael,” he said, pointing to the one female face on the stone. “This last one, here under Knowledge, I believe is Abdiel. He’s technically a demon also, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at this picture.”
“How do you know who it is?” Nuse asked. “I heard Abdiel died during the Great Schism. So did Gabriel and Raphael, for that matter.”
“I know because I pieced a few things together, old man,” Hoil said. Nuse flushed slightly, but otherwise ignored the comment. “Kaelus said he and five others were companions during the days before Pleroma was sundered into Heaven and Hell, so it’s no great stretch to assume a stone with three of those faces might have all six. Even I know enough about the history given to us by the angels to know Raphael was the most gifted healer of all angels, so it stands to reason she’d be aligned with the virtue of Love, and Gabriel was foremost of the angels in his devotion to God, which leaves him under Piety. Process of elimination.”
James smiled slightly. Hoil was clearly not quite as ignorant or common-minded as he pretended.
“Can’t fault your logic, Hoil,” he said.
Birch’s brother stared at the image of Uriel with an unreadable expression.
“These three dead since the first war,” Hoil said to himself. “Heaven has been without its icons of love, piety, and knowledge since then, and courage has been held captive. Temperance and justice were corrupted. No wonder things got all shnieked up here.”
“Excuse me, Hoil,” James broke into the other man’s thoughts, “but I don’t believe you’ve answered Nuse’s original question. What are you doing here?”
“I have nowhere else to be just now,” Hoil said. “I tried going home, but the Binding is still a one-way gate. My only reason for coming here no longer exists.”
He told them about his wife, the angel Alanna, who had been executed for the “sin” of giving birth to Danner.
“I also looked for my parents, but apparently neither was good enough to make the cut here,” Hoil said. “Even my sister, who died when she was still just a little girl, isn’t here. There’s nothing here for me, but since I can’t leave, I’m stuck wandering these lonely streets until either someone tells me we’ve won and I can go home, or else the demons take over and I cease to exist. Neither choice really appeals to me just now.”
James stared at Hoil a long moment, judging the man’s state of mind. He was still sane, if only barely, just depressed and wallowing in his own despair.
“Well then, Hoil,” James said, “if you’ve go
t nothing better to do, you’re going to help us look for Vander.”
“That Orange buddy of yours?” Hoil asked. “Isn’t he dead?”
“That’s the one,” Nuse said. “He’s been imprisoned by Maya somewhere in this city, and we’re going to look for him.”
“He’s in the library,” Hoil said dispiritedly.
James blinked in surprise.
“He’s what?”
“He said he’s in the library,” Nuse said helpfully. James glared at him, then turned to Hoil.
“How do you know?” he asked.
“I got lost and wandered in there, and I saw two Cherubs guarding one of the doors,” Hoil replied. “I asked, and they rather helpfully told me they were guarding someone for the Metatron. That’s what that angel bitch Maya calls herself, so when you said your friend was imprisoned by her…” Hoil shrugged. “I could probably find my way back there given a bit of time.”
James stared at him a moment longer in surprise, then he laughed.
“Well then, Hoil, you’ve just volunteered to guide us to the library,” he said, and stooped to slip one shoulder under Hoil’s armpit. “Come on then.”
“Why should I bother to help you?” Hoil demanded. “Just leave me alone. You know where he is now.”
“I know he’s in the library, but I don’t know where that is,” James replied cheerfully. “As my friend here recently pointed out, this is a bloody large city, and we need your help. I plan on our side winning this war, and I don’t relish having to tell Danner that I left his father alone wandering the streets of Medina.”
James grunted as he pulled the still-struggling Hoil along.
“Plus, you’re going to be a grandfather soon, right?” the Yellow paladin asked. “What kind of example are you setting for the new little tyke? Nuse, do you want to tell Danner’s kids their grandfather is a spiritless laggard?”
“I’d rather not,” Nuse replied with a perfectly straight face.
“There, see?” James said. “Get your feet under you and get your ass moving, Hoil. We wouldn’t want to disappoint your future grandchildren, now would we?”
Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) Page 51
