by Raven Taylor
"What are you saying Winter?"
"I'm saying I think we should get married."
"You serious?" although she tried to keep the smile from her face it was as though invisible strings were attached to the corners of her lips, pulling them up into a grin.
"Lilly, will you marry me?"
"Yes Winter, I will!" she threw her arms around me and I picked her up off her feet.
"And I have another surprise for you," I said, suddenly remembering they key that was in my pocket, "come on."
I took her back down the Mile and up the spiral staircase that took us to the Inner Sanctum. She gasped when I opened the door to the lavish suite and we fell across the threshold into the reception room with it's red carpet and deer head the wall.
"Look at this place," she skipped across the room and pulled at the door to the bathroom, "Oh my God have you seen this?"
She was enthralled by the sight of the huge Victorian Claw Foot tub, "you could fit two people in here easily."
"Well let's test that theory," I said, but she had already turned on the taps.
In the tub we drank champagne, among other things, before we moved on to the bedroom and the lavish four poster bed to continue our night of bliss.
"I never want to leave this place," she remarked when we were curled up by the fire, utterly exhausted.
"We can stay a while," I told her, I didn't have the heart to tell her she could stay forever because for her, forever was but a week.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
All around me a strange environment was opening up. Miles and miles of white marble buildings and green turf stretched off to the horizon and the surreal pink sky that hung like a painting before me. The dimensions of the place seemed oddly distorted, the perspective askew, but there was a feeling to it that wrapped me up and held my safe just as it once had before. I knew I was dreaming and that somewhere my physical body was sleeping next to Lilly but somehow in this unconscious state I felt more real than I ever did down there. I knew where I was too. I was in a place I had always wondered about but never actually seen. I was in the blessed place of the Guardian Angels. I was in the sky city.
As I looked to my left I realised that I was not Alone. A shinning white figure was standing next to me and he was so bright that I could barely look at him. His light burned my pale being and I was forced to shield my eyes. The intensity of his radiance was so powerful it brought me to my knees.
The Angel laughed and the sound was like bells ringing in the breeze. There was such a sense of comfort and well being about him that was a sharp contrast to my own anguished and black inner self. In his presence I felt small, insignificant and overall evil. The sight of him called to my deepest self loathing. The very image of him made me ache inside.
“Please stand up Winter,” Alexander touched me on the shoulder and a sense of warmth ran through me, “I here that congratulations are in order."
He knew about me and Lilly?
"Yet still you suffer, I brought you here so that you might see."
I rose to my feet and discovered that I could now make out his features; the glowing skin that was the colour of peaches, the soft blue eyes that were filled with nothing but love and compassion and the long golden hair that fell about his shoulders. And of course the wings. The beautiful, transparent dragon fly wings. They reflected the rosy light and broke it into prisms and I could see fine veins running through them. They were like stained glass. He was dressed in neat blue silk shirt and blue trousers and his feet were bare. Again the complete opposite to me who was dishevelled, dark and gloomy. Though we were both beautiful just in different ways.
“You are not evil because of what you are,” he told me as if he had read my thoughts, “Everything Cane has said to make you see that is true. You are a part of life and have as much place in the world as we do.”
“Why am I here?”
“He asked me to bring you here because he said you always wanted to get in that elevator but as a Dark Angel this was never possible.”
“How is it possible now?”
“Because you are not really here. You are dreaming. The part of you that it is talking to me now is merely a projection of yourself.”
“I see.”
“He wanted me to bring you here to show you some things, they will help you further in your quest in the physical world. They will help you understand the way of things. Come.”
Alexander began to walk, but his feet barely touched the ground. He glided with very little effort across the emerald grass and I watched him for a few moments before I followed with movements that seemed clumsy compared to his passage.
He led me towards one of the white marble buildings and I was in awe of this place of beauty and splendour. The building had spires that seemed infinite in their reach towards the pink sky and there were countless grand arches and windows. It was a magnificent cathedral of splendid proportions. The oak doors we were about to enter towered above us so it seemed that they were built for giants.
“Don’t worry when we go inside,” Alexander said to me, “They will not see us, I have seen to that.”
With only the slightest touch from his palm the doors swung inwards without a sound and revealed a long corridor also constructed entirely of white marble. I trailed behind him as he swept down the hall, nervous and exited, having no idea where he was taking me.
The hall arched high above our head and various scenes of Angels and the world played themselves out like a giant timeline carved in the stone of the roof. I felt sure that if one had the time to stop and follow each image that they would tell a story, probably that of the history of Angels of which I knew nothing. It seemed to last forever but at last we turned a corner and it opened out into a balcony which was no more than a dot on the walls of a vast white chamber with a huge domed roof through which coloured light filtered so the whole place became a kaleidoscope.
Alexander observed me with a faint smile as I stared around in wonder trying unsuccessfully to take in everything I was seeing. There was too much, my mind could not even begin to comprehend what I was seeing. It went beyond my capacity of thought.
“This is where it all happens,” Alexander was taking great joy from telling me all of this, “This is where life begins, ends, where every tiny detail of fate is laid out and planned and brought into being.”
“Myron, Elias and Isaac?” the words came as whispered question from something only half remembered.
“Yes, they are here, look, down there.”
And there they were, far down on the floor below, the creators of the world, the bringers of life and death sat at the giant loom from which silver threads hung as the design emerged. But how to describe Gods? The simple answer is that I cannot. There is not words in any language that could come close to describing them and to try and do so would be sacrilege. But I could pick out each one individually even though at times they appeared to be as one. There was Elias at the start of the loom surrounded by what I can only describe as glass bottles filled with silver light though to compare them to such earthly things barely comes close to how they really looked.
Now what I am about to describe I will do so in terms of things I know you will understand. But be aware this is merely a metaphor, the only way I can give you a picture that will make sense to you. In reality it was like nothing you will ever see. No one can expect the divine to resemble anything mundane.
Elias was picking up bottles one after another in quick succession and releasing the silver light as long streaming threads which he then proceeded to work onto the spindles of the loom.
“Do you see?” said Alexander happily, “The bottles? Those are souls waiting to be reborn, to be reintroduced into the pattern of life.”
Further down the loom was Isaac weaving intently, spinning and intertwining the threads so that the great never ending work emerged from the bottom. The design itself stole my breathe. It was multi coloured and shinning and I bet that if you got close en
ough and magnified it you could see actual events of the physical world, past present and future all being played out on that awesome web.
Then at the foot of the loom was a terrifying sight that chilled me. Myron like a dark shadow flitted back and forth clutching a huge scythe which he used to slice swiftly through random threads with the sharp, curved blade. And of the three it was Myron who captivated me with his grim work. I could not take my eyes off him. Cutting lives short with so little regard. Myron who was once my Lord and Master.
“Do you understand?” I turned away from the scene and back to the calming sight of Alexander, “It is a constant circle, every thread is recycled, reused, if Myron did not cut them out then the design would go on and on and there would not be enough room to hold it.”
I shook my head and I realised that I was crying. All of this had become too much.
“Alexander, I cannot take peace from this in the end because there is still much I am at odds with. Why do I have to be so ugly? Why am I what I am? Can’t Myron take care of his own twisted deeds. If death is so important then why is it so ugly? I want to be up here with you, in the sky city.”
He shook his head and looked at me sadly.
“It is not as easy as it may look being what I am. We all just have to accept who we are. You have Cane, he loves you, but I have no one. Guardian Angels are truly alone, bound only to the one we were meant to protect.”
I looked back down to the dizzying drop and the loom below.
“I am lucky to have seen this aren’t I?”
“Yes, of your kind only Cane and now you have ever been up here.”
“Then I want to thank you for bringing me here, and also for saving me the other time, saving me from fading away.” I found that I did remember him and the healing love with which he had pulled me back from the edge.
“It is not me you should be thanking, as I said I am in debt to Cane, all of these things I do at his request. You do not appreciate how much he actually cares for you.”
“Maybe not.” I sighed.
"There is one more thing," he said, "something I myself wanted to give to you."
I waited eagerly, wondering what further wonders be was about to reveal. From his pocket he took two short lengths of shining skiver thread much like those I had seen on the loom.
"What are they?"
"Small pieces of life threads," he told me, "one is you, the other Lilly."
Alexander placed them across my palm, "When you marry her it will be more than a silly human gesture. It does not matter who performs the ceremony, where it is or how it is done, just so long as you take these threads and knot them together, this will ensure that wherever she ends up next, you will find her and she will remember you."
"Alexander, thank you so much," I cried, "You cannot imagine what this means."
“It is time you were leaving,” he looked at me and I could see a trace of pity in his gleaming eyes, “Your lady is waiting for you and you still have much to do.”
“Yes, Lilly, she’s the important one now.”
“Take my blessings with you Winter and take care. I wish you the best of luck for the coming weeks.”
He hugged me then and as I was pulled into his arms I was overcome by the sense of well being and safety, a feeling I struggled to hold onto as sleep released me from its hold.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
I woke early, the dream still clear in my head and I as I sat up I found I still had the threads in my hand. The precious threads that where a part of our souls, a piece of our paths in the world. I glanced across at Lilly who was still sleeping. I did not want to wake her but there was much to be done if we were to marry before she departed the world. I posted a note for her telling her I would be back soon before I went out into the crisp morning.
The first thing I noticed when I stepped out was the police tape cordoning off the alley way across the street. With a sickening feeling of dread I noticed the white tent that had been erected to hide the crime scene. Something horrible had happened there last night. With a shudder I continued on my way. I did not want to hear about another death.
I knew Lilly did not want a church wedding. We had talked at length before falling asleep the night before and she had made it clear that it was more the gesture that was important. She was not religious and had told me the only thing that really mattered was that her small collection of friends (she had no family) where there and that it was held somewhere beautiful. Giving we had less than a week to arrange this small affair I knew I would have to act fast and my first point of call was going to be to the psychic Lilly had took me to who was an old friend of her deceased parents.
Gwen owned a small shop on Candlemaker row where she did readings for people and also stocked an array of magical items for the New Age practitioner. The shop was only just open and the small bell above the door chimed as I entered. Immediately I was assaulted by the overpowering scent of incense and the sound of whale song drifting lazily through the air from the stereo. In the far corner was a small wire cage in which a yellow canary sat on a swaying swing singing a pretty melody.
Gwen passed through the beaded curtains that divided the shop from her reading area, her long skirts swishing and the bells at her ankles jangling.
"Bright blessings to you Winter," she said warmly and she extended a hand adorned with coloured rings and took my hand in her own. I noticed that on her wrist that she was wearing a collection of silver bangles.
"I need your help Gwen."
"It's Lily, isn't it?"
"You know about what's been happening to her?"
"Darling, I'm her medium, she couldn't hide a thing like that from me," she gave a sad nod, "And you. There's a change in you too. I would almost go so far as to guess you've regained your memory?"
She frowned at me as though something was puzzling her, I quickly directed her thoughts back to why I was here, I wasn't about to start a conversation about Angels with this Lady despite the fact I was almost certain she would believe every word of it.
"Yes, it is Lilly I'm hear for," I told her.
"Come and sit," she said with a knowing nod.
I found myself once again in the small room where we had sat when she had read for me.
"I need your help," I said, "I know Lilly has no family now and that you were a close friend of her parents so I thought you'd be the best person to ask."
"She does not have as long left as she thinks," she said, "But I sense you already know this. You want my help with something rather pressing, something that must be done before she passes. Not something sombre though, a joyful occasion, a final farewell but not just that...no...ah, you are to marry!"
Her power amazed me but I was in no position to question it, not given that I currently believed myself to be an Angel of Death.
"Yes," I confirmedand she nodded with satisfaction.
"This is joyous and welcome news," said Gwen as she clapped her hands together, "And you want my help with the arrangements. Quite right, I don't want the two of you bogged down and stressed out when you should be enjoying your time together."
"Yes," I said, dumfounded, "Well, I was rather hoping you might preside over the ceremony. We don't want anything official, we just want to get all of Lilly's friends together in a celebration of our love and her life."
Gwen wiped a tear from her eye as she choked on a mixture of happiness and grief, "And still there is something more, something important that you aren't telling me. What is it you have in your jacket pocket Winter? Something important and vital?"
I hesitated. Was she talking about the silver threads? Carefully Itook the small bundle from my pocket spread the two chords on the table.
"They are very beautiful," she said, "What are they?"
"They represent myself and Lilly, I thought it would be nice if we could bind them together in the ceremony, just to represent our souls being joined even in death," I shied away from telling her the complete truth.
"
What a nice thought, a bit like a Wiccan hand-fasting," she smiled but there was a glint in her eye that said she knew more than she was letting on but also that she knew it was not her place to ask.
"We need to hold the ceremony next week, the 14th."
"I can pull it all together by then," she assured me, "don't worry, It will be perfect, a fitting send off for such a lovely and special girl."
***
"Caroline, we have some good news."
"The detective phoned here earlier," you cut me off before I could go on. We had come to your flat with the intention of telling you that we were to be married but you had greeted us with this statement delivered in such an anxious tone that all thoughts of our engagement temporarily fled my mind.
"What did he want?" I wondered, I already knew he would not have found any evidence of the non existent cult I had sent him on the trail of.
"It's that young boy, the waiter you told them about, it's horrible, just horrible."
"Caroline, what is it?" your distress was plain to see in the way you pulled at the collar of your shirt and stared wildly around the room.
"They questioned him yesterday, asked him about Cane, but he refused to tell them anything, he said his life was in danger and that they where going to kill him."
