Winter

by Raven Taylor

  I wanted that feeling of rest and contentment to last forever. It seemed it was what my torn soul had been searching for its whole life. There was nothing like this in the heartless core of the Underworld or its residents. I wanted to stay in the embrace of this stranger and never leave. Still I could not even open my eyes to see the face of the one from which this feeling pulsed like life itself. Yes, that was it, this being was clothed in life while my kind where shrouded in death, that was the difference. I drifted further away, feeling reality slide away from me, I was happy just sleep in this glory as I was whisked away to I knew not where. Nor did I care.

  ***

  When at last I woke the first thing I noticed was that although I felt weak and drained and although my wing still ached I felt solid again. I was no longer hanging over the abyss on my way to becoming a ghoulish soul. Shreds of the warm peace that I had bathed in still clung to me and as I struggled to open my eyes I began to remember Cane coming to my aid with the stranger who had carried me here to…where?

  I sat up, I was in a bed like humans sleep in, very strange indeed. It was made of heavy dark antique oak and had four posts draped with heavy red velvet. I sat up against the many pillows that were piled behind me and stared around. The room was the very embodiment of human luxury. Deeply gothic with its dark furnishings and striking red and gold walls the room was filled with well restored antiques and period tapestries. There were shelves of books and a vase of white lilies on a table at the foot of the bed. I was confused.

  “At last, he wakes!” Cane emerged from one of the heavy doors.

  “Where am I?” I asked.

  “Welcome to The Inner Sanctum, an Angel’s place.” he sat in the red chair by my bed.

  “What?”

  “I should explain,” he crossed his legs, “I had to call on help to save you. You were so far gone that I could not even touch you let alone save you. You know I have visited the sky city, the place where no others are permitted, well, I have an associate up there who, at great risk to himself, agreed to come and pull you back from the spirit world.”

  “A Guardian Angel?” I recalled the amazing sense of peace and life that had emanated from the stranger.

  “Yes.”

  “Then we are in the sky city?” my eyes grew wide.

  Cane laughed, “No, look how human this place is.”

  “Then where?”

  “If I tell you I am indulging you in a great secret that could get us all into great trouble so please promise you will never repeat what I tell you?”

  “I promise.”

  “Good. Well you are in fact still in Edinburgh, not far from the castle. If you were to look out of the window you would see the Royal Mile just below. You are in a suite in one of Edinburgh’s most famous, exquisite and dare I say expensive guest houses: The Witchery: this is the inner sanctum.”

  “But how?”

  “Now this is the part you must not repeat to anyone. Alexander, he is the Angel who brought us here, has a contact in the human world. This man is very different from all other humans, he is the only one living in all the world who can see us. Usually his type, though very rare, are cut from the pattern as soon as they are discovered. Alexander, however, has managed to keep this one hidden and safe from harm. He spends most of his time here in the Witchery, working to hide who he really is, for this is an enchanted place woven with old Angel magic so the three cannot look into it and see. It can keep Angels in trouble safe, so when it is needed the human, Dylan, books out the Inner Sanctum under various names and we can reside here undisturbed. It is a sanctuary for Angels, quite simply.”

  I was in awe of all of this. But what I wanted more than anything was to see Alexander again.

  “When will he be back?” I questioned.

  Cane shook his head sadly, “He won’t, I’m afraid. He cannot risk it. He has done all he can in healing you and now you must remain here while you recover and while we figure out what to do with you. You are an outlaw now. You cannot go back unless I find a way to persuade Myron.”

  “But I don’t want to go back. What I felt when Alexander saved me is what I want. He was surrounded by life and love, that’s how I want to be.”

  Cane looked genuinely sad as he listened, “It cannot be, you know it can’t, I wish it could for I can see how much you crave it. I cannot give you the light, the life, the peace that they enjoy, I can only offer you my love, the love of a master for his apprentice.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  The Witchery truly was a sanctuary. It was alive with ancient magic so strong I could almost feel it oozing from the finely papered walls. I felt safe, beyond the reach of harm as I slowly recovered from my many ailments. My broken wing healed and my physical body grew stronger and my crushed spirit seemed to take on a new glow of courage as if the light from Alexander had leant a permanent shine to it. I kept up hopes that the golden guardian might visit after all but he did not. Still, I was just glad of the protection he had offered me.

  Cane’s visits were infrequent to avoid placing him under suspicion, he went about his nightly business as usual and returned to the Underworld by day always keeping an ear open for talk of me and my situation. I had everything I needed in the lavish suite of rooms though. It was funny to enjoy all of these human comforts: a bed to sleep in, books to read, a stereo on which to play music a study in which to sit. Even stranger still was my first visit from the human who had the gift of sight and survived.

  His name was Dylan and it was the strangest sensation when he first came into the room and looked directly at me without surprise or astonishment. At first it was hard to believe that for the first time ever I was being caught by human eyes, but I got used to it.

  Dylan was 21 years old with blonde hair and blue eyes. He told me he had been able to see Angels since he was very young. At first he would point them out to his Mother but as she could not see them she became very worried about his mental health. It scared her when her son kept pointing at nothing so he simply stopped talking about them though they were always there. He said Alexander was the first and that he came to him while he was in bed and told him he was going to keep him safe. He explained to the awed child that he had a very special gift but he must be very careful to keep it hidden or else the Dark Angels would be sent to kill him. After that when he saw an Angel he pretended not to see but Alexander still visited and taught him all about the way of the world, about the Underworld, the Middle world and the Sky City, he told him too of the great design of the World and of Isaac, Elias and Myron, the great Gods who wove the pattern of every life and decided when it was your turn to die. He knew all about the role of Angels. He knew that a Guardian Angel was not permitted to interfere with acts of fate, that if someone had been chosen to die it was the job of the Dark Angels to set their death in motion. He knew too that if a stitch were dropped in the pattern that this was an act of chance and either kind of Angel could deal with it, leading either to death for that person or a lucky escape. All of this, of course, I knew from my teacher Cane.

  Dylan looked after me when Cane was not there. He brought me food from the kitchens and fine wines. I spent my days in the study reading the old leather bound books from the shelves or listening to rock music on the stereo whilst gazing down at the tourists passing by on the Royal Mile. Amid the magic and comfort my strength slowly returned and my body healed. Sadly I knew this meant that soon I would have to leave, but to what?

  A week I had been in the Inner Sanctum of the Witchery when Cane returned with the news I did not want to hear.

  “Soon it will be time to say goodbye to all of this luxury,” he told me, “We must decide what is to be done with you. I am at a loss. You cannot stay here forever neither can you step outside for it would only be a matter of time before Myron found you and he is very, very displeased.”

  I watched as he paced the room. A lamp glowed on the desk and shadows clung to the antiques. The heavy drapes around the bed appeared black. I wis
hed I could remain safe here forever.

  “What would you have me do?” Cane looked straight at me, he was afraid, almost as afraid as I was.

  He took a glass of red wine from the table and drank from it.

  “If you want to go on the run, flee Edinburgh and spend your days running then I will run with you but I warn you it will be no kind of existence. We might last a year, or even two, but he would catch up with us eventually and who knows how much he could make us suffer then.”

  “No Cane, that is not what I want.”

  “Then what? What other option do you have but to give yourself up? Again, I do not know if I could bare to watch him torture you for all eternity.”

  An idea was beginning to form in my head, something so obvious it was a wonder I had not thought of it before.

  “Does Myron know about my love of Lilly?”

  “What?” Cane stopped pacing and gave me a frustrated look, “No, but it hardly matters. He just knows you have been refusing to do your job or answer his calls. He doesn’t know why but I doubt he could get anymore angry if he tried. What’s your point?”

  “I know what I want Cane.” I said, sitting up straight in the leather chair.

  “Yes? What is it?”

  “I want to be cast out onto the earth. I want to become mortal so that I can be there for Lilly as she dies. She has no family, no one, I want to support her and make her last days the best she’s ever had.”

  “He’s lost his mind!” Cane exclaimed to himself as he rubbed his temples, “All of this sickness and stress has sent him over the edge.”

  He was standing with his back to me muttering to himself.

  “You do know that Myron is the only one who can cast out an Angel. I cannot do it. The Guardians cannot do it.” he turned to me in exasperation.

  “Precisely.”

  “What do you mean ‘precisely’?”

  “Well, this is how I see it. Myron does not know about me and Lilly, so as far as he is concerned, what reason would I have for wanting to be mortal?”

  “None I suppose.”

  “Right. So, if you could persuade him that being cast out would be the best punishment for me, then we’ve done it! Tell him you think I should be made mortal so that I can learn to understand Death.”

  “Oh Winter,” he moaned and he crouched down on the floor at my feet, “Your plan is full of holes. Even if I can get Myron to agree to this you are still going to suffer immeasurably. Do you think he will treat you kindly before he sends you away? No, he will hurt you and make sure you are pain in all the days while he considers your fate. Then he might not even agree. If he does there will be more pain. He will have to tear off you wings and what’s more he will enjoy it. Then once you are mortal you will more than likely remember nothing of your existence as an Angel, nor of Lilly and I won’t be able to help you because you won’t be able to see me.”

  His eye was pleading with mine, brimming with sorrow and anguish.

  “You remember in the tomb when you though I was lost?” he took my hands as I spoke, “You would have given anything to comfort me but you could not.”

  “Yes.”

  “That is how I feel about Lilly, perhaps now you can understand the pain of watching someone you love slip away. I want to be there for her when it happens, even if the chances of that happening are tiny I want to try. And I may not remember once I get there but I’ll find her, and when I do my body will at least recall the love I felt for her as an Angel. You cannot wipe out a feeling that strong, nothing can.”

  There was so much pain in Cane’s eye now. His spirit was in agony.

  “You are so beautiful in spirit Winter. There will never be another like you. If love is as strong as you say it is than maybe even as a mortal I can love you still from afar.”

  “Then you’ll do it?”

  “I once said I would do anything for you and if I care about you half as much as I think I do then I will try my best. I will suffer with you through the whole thing.”

  What had happened to Cane? Where was the hard hearted, controlling, twisted individual I was used to? He was a wreck at my feet and it was usually me who wept.

  “Tomorrow night we will go to Myron together,” he said, “I will act as if I do not care. Turn you in. Then as you are locked away and suffering while he contemplates your fate I will talk him round. I believe he will listen to me. But be prepared to suffer Dark Angel for he will not make a decision at once and all the pain you have felt in your existence will be but a shadow of the distress he will cause you in that time.”

  “I know, and I am ready for that.”

  He pulled me from the chair so that we both sat on the floor and he held me close. He felt different, no longer overpowering and stifling or frightening and cold.

  “You are stronger than I thought Winter. From now I am no longer your master, you are not my apprentice, we are equals now.”

  “You are noble Cane. All the time I have known you have confused me and hurt me and I have never been sure how I felt about you but here you have proven what lies beneath your eccentric façade is good and true.”

  I was crying too now. I was imaging what might happen if Myron did not agree to make me mortal. Still, it was a risk I was going to have to take. We sat on the floor in each others arms and it was the first time I had felt truly comfortable being that close to Cane. Eventually I pulled away when there was a knock on the door and Dylan entered.

  “Excuse me, I was wondering if you wanted supper tonight.”

  “Dylan, I want to thank you for your help, without you I would not have recovered. We will be leaving tomorrow night and I wish you the best of luck in life. You are in safe hands, Alexander will not let anything happen to you.”

  “Thank you.” he stammered.

  “We won’t be needing supper tonight, you can leave us now, but please continue to keep this sanctuary for us. You never know who might need it next. It is a very special place.”

  As he left he was muttering to himself about not understanding the business of Angels.

  “Well we still have this one last night together as Angels. I suggest we make he most of it.” I said.

  “Yes, you are right!” Cane jumped to his feet and wiped away his tears.

  “Let us go out into the city and visit all our old haunts; the castle, the vaults, the bars. Let us drink and listen to rock music and admire the city, all the things we used to do only this time as equals.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  “Did I not warn you the price would be great?”

  I was lying on the cold stone floor somewhere deep in a part of the Underworld where I had never been before. I was bound in a strait jacket, my arms roped around my abdomen and my wings crushed against my back.

  “I can hardly even breathe.” I moaned to Cane who was sitting on a stone bench across the room from me.

  “Yes, well?”

  “Well is there any news?”

  “Myron is still considering my request that you be sent to earth as a mortal to learn all about death but he seems keen that we should both suffer first either way. He wants your wings, as you know he must before he can cast you out anyway, but he insists that I must be the one to take them. That is the bad news. That is why I am here today."

  Our return to the Underworld two days ago had been quite an event. It seemed everyone was looking for me and all the Dark Angels were lined along the corridors watching with their hateful eyes as Cane led the fugitive triumphantly towards Myron’s den. Cane put on a grand show as he pushed me before him, boasting about having caught me and accepting the congratulations of the others, he even joined in their sneers. It hurt to be hated so, to walk with my head hung low among the jeers and insults until we reached the deepest part of our cavernous dwellings. There was a crowd pushing in behind us as Cane approached the impressive door to Myron’s chamber and rapped hard on the steel surface.

  “I have the traitor here! I have brought his pathetic carcas
s from the streets of the middle world right here to your door for judgement.” he called.

  There was a low rumble of large bolts being undone and the huge door swung noisily inwards. Of course I had never been inside Myron’s chamber before. Cane pushed me over the threshold, followed me inside and then closed the door on the crowd of gloating Angels.

  It was very dark inside and the air was heavy with the pungent, sweet smell of incense. Only one light burned on the wall next to the door and much of the chamber was in shadow. It was far more lavish even than Cane’s quarters. The stone walls and floor were draped with thick red velvet and human artefacts lay about everywhere. None of the random bottles of whisky that littered Cane’s room though. It seemed that death himself preferred vintage wines which were stacked in crates against the left hand wall. My eyes scanned the room as I tried to catch sight of Myron but there were too many shadows.