"I think so." Mikhail was trapped in those eyes like a prey animal, so much like Ninsianna's, only black instead of gold.
"They are but animals," Siamek said. "Smart animals, which is why we fear them, but still just animals."
"It's very brave what you did," Varshab said, "killing a lion with nothing but a knife. Only the bravest warriors dare come up against a lion."
He cringed as he noticed the warriors had pulled their spears out of the female and were pulling out their obsidian blades to skin it.
"You must take its pelt and carry it back to the village," Kiarash said. "It will show those few who still question your methods how brave you are."
"Only Jamin has ever killed a lion single-handedly," Siamek said. "We call this beast the king-maker. Only a great leader dare take on a lion alone."
Mikhail ran his hand through the great beast's pelt. It was not the creature he'd first mistaken it to be. He could see that now. But in the moment … it had seemed like…
"It's just an animal," Pareesa said. "See?"
It wore no uniform, no rank pins. Its claws were dirty and chipped, with no sign of being groomed and its fur unkempt and not brushed. The fingers on the paws were too short, too paw-like, and it didn't have opposable thumbs. Something about the way its hip and shoulder joints were shaped also didn't look right. Whatever his subconscious had been screaming out at him, this creature was close, but not exact. Regardless, he reached down and closed its eyes.
"I think … I think Gita is right," Mikhail wiped clean his cheek. He shook his head, frustrated at the memory which lurked just beneath the surface, but refused to come free. "I think where I come from we have people who look like this." He glanced up to thank the young woman who'd provided him with a logical explanation for his bizarre emotional reaction, but she'd disappeared.
Two of the warriors helped Firouz hobble over.
"Thank you," Firouz said. He pointed to the big male gazelle he'd taken down for himself, the buck which had been leader of the herd. "I'd killed it and was carrying it back when they came out from behind those tall grasses. I didn't even see them coming."
Mikhail rose to his feet.
"Had you not broken rank," Mikhail's wings trembled with rage. "This wouldn't have happened. You were supposed to fill the hole in the line! Not go chasing after your own glory! This is why eleven people were killed during the raid!"
Anger filled his body, begging to be let off its leash. He could feel it there, a wound so deep, so palpable, so horrible and black it felt like the chill of death. The warriors backed off. Firouz cringed in fear.
'You must control your anger. Anger opens the door to other things...'
The warning of a Cherubim master he only vaguely recalled replayed over and over again in his mind, words to an incantation to calm his emotions. He stepped back, his mouth moving as he whispered the words to the prayers they'd taught him to control his rage. The emotion seethed beneath the surface like an ancient volcano, trying to get out. The Cherubim had taught him that he must never lose control of his anger.
He was a foot taller than Firouz and with his wings he was huge. An image of how he must appear popped into his mind and shamed him. He was acting like a bully. He whispered the prayer, more focused this time. Calmness poured through his body like water, soothing the angry cauldron simmering beneath the surface, covering the ancient wound he couldn't remember receiving with dirt and whispering for it to lie at rest.
'It was nothing but an animal…'
It would be an abomination against the goddess to kill such a noble creature and not use every part of it as SHE intended. He didn't need Immanu to tell him that. He handed his knife to Pareesa.
"I can't do this," he said. He turned so he wouldn't see the other warriors, already skinning the dead female lion. "This animal is too much like a creature I know to be a friend. You do it for me. Present its hide as a gift to the Chief and make sure they bury the both of their remains side-by-side with honors. When you're done, I'll come back and say the death rituals."
"But it's just an animal," Kiarash said. "We only pour water over its nose before we skin it to give thanks to the goddess."
Mikhail gave him a look that communicated he wouldn't be questioned on this matter.
"I'll fly back and get Immanu." With the blood of his brother still on his hands, he took to the air to fetch his father-in-law.
Chapter 105
Galactic Standard Date: 152,322.11 AE
(three months prior to the crash)
Colonel Mikhail Mannuki’ili
Mikhail
“Colonel Mannuki'ili,” General Jophiel said. “We've received intelligence that the Sata’an Empire is amassing resources in Zulu Sector.”
“That’s pretty remote, Sir,” Mikhail said. “Isn’t that uncharted territory?”
“That sector doesn’t belong to either empire,” Jophiel said. “There's nothing out there … at least not that we know of. Now, all of a sudden, Shay’tan has every vessel he owns heading out there to trade. He's up to something.”
“What are your orders, Sir?” he asked.
“Take a scout ship and start shadowing these so-called traders,” Jophiel ordered. “Find out where they're going and what they're up to.”
“That’s too remote for a scout ship. What's my jumping off point?”
“I'm stationing you with an old friend,” she said. “Report to Colonel Israfa on the 'Light Emerging.' I'm positioning his command carrier on the border between Zulu and X-ray so it doesn't arouse too much suspicion. You'll be black-ops on this one, eyes-only, but Colonel Israfa is in the loop.”
He noted the unconscious way she caressed her swelling midsection. The corners of her mouth turned downwards in a sad little smile. Mikhail had known her too long to be fooled by her professional demeanor.
“He's a good man, Jophie,” Mikhail said softly, using her familiar name. “You shouldn't have sent him so far away.”
Her expression softened as a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. Wistful…
“Take good care of him for me, will you?” Jophiel asked.
Chapter 106
September - 3,390 BC
Village of Assur
Ninsianna
Ninsianna awoke to the rhythmic sound of Mikhail's heartbeat whirring through the brachial artery of the arm she used as a pillow, her cheek resting upon his chest. While she'd been sleeping he'd captured her hand and placed it over his heart, his large, strong hand gently caressing her smaller one. He was awake already, watching her with that unreadable expression he habitually wore. Ninsianna thought of it as his ‘default expression’ because he always donned it whenever he had something on his mind. The village was ecstatic with the bounty they'd brought back and divided amongst the whole village of fifty-three gazelles and two lion pelts, but for some reason he refused to speak about it.
“Good morning.” He stroked her hair. She liked that he was fascinated by her long black hair. She'd allowed it to grow longer since she'd met him because she knew it pleased him.
“Good morning,” she answered, stretching. It was rest-day. They didn't have to tend the fields, teach any classes, or do anything else except spend time with each other and her parents. She reached up to touch his cheek and looked into his beautiful blue eyes. “What's on your mind?”
“I have to go back to my ship today,” he said. “I remembered a little bit more about why I was sent here.”
“What?" Ninsianna felt a feeling of dread. Something significant had happened yesterday during the hunt. She could see the way the light streamed from his body and flowed someplace far away, no longer centered on her or her village.
“The Sata’an Empire is building bases in this sector," Mikhail said. As he spoke, he looked not at her, but inward, trying to pry loose the memories that wanted to remain hidden. "I was sent to investigate what was so important about such a remote spiral arm. I was shot down before I had a chance to send my report.”
“Why haven’t they just come and gotten you, then?” Ninsianna asked. She couldn't understand much about what he spoke of, empires and sectors, but she could see the concern in his eyes.
“I was in stealth mode when I was hit,” he said. “Black ops. Like a wolf stalking a prey animal through the grass. They have no idea where to look for me. But the fact they shot me down means there must be a Sata’an base somewhere on this planet.”
What was a black ... op? Her gift of tongues translated the foreign word, but it still meant nothing to her.
“Why?" she asked. "What would these people's interest be here?”
“I can’t remember!” Mikhail's voice rose with frustration. “I can't remember enough to piece it all together! All I remember is that it's critically important that I report the existance of this base back to Supreme Commander-General Jophiel.”
“Who is General Jophiel?” Ninsianna asked. Until now, Mikhail had only spoken of his Cherubim Master and friend Raphael. Images from her vision ... the one that showed he wouldn't be here to protect her when the Evil One came ... intruded into her mind. Was he trying to tell her that he had to leave? Ninsianna swallowed, trying to hide her fear.
“She is the highest ranking military authority we have and equal to the civilian Prime Minister,” Mikhail said. “She is second in power only to the Emperor himself.”
“She?” Ninsianna tilted her head in disbelief. “Your highest ranking military authority is a woman?”
“Of course,” Mikhail said. “Many of our generals are female. Why do you think I keep insisting that the Chief include women in the training?”
"Oh," Ninsianna said. What else could she say, other than a feeling of elation at the fact that a woman could be a general. “Why is my world so important?"
“Why? I still can’t remember why!" Mikhail stared out the window, his facial features showing rare frustration. "Every single moment of every day, it eats at me, this mission I know I was supposed to complete! I can even remember how urgent I felt it was to complete my mission at the time!" He lifted her chin so he could stare directly into her eyes. "I was supposed to follow that enemy ship and report where it went. Now I remember who I was supposed to report that information back to."
“Then we must go back to your ship and send that message so your people know where you are," Ninsianna said. Her own words gave her a mixed thrill of fear and elation. Elation ... his people would come for him and then he would take her to see the stars! Fear because ... what if his people made him leave her behind?
“First I need to get the communication system running," he said. "All I have is battery power. Somehow, I must compress a databurst into a beam and hope I’ve got it aimed in the right direction so I can reach Raphael’s ship with what little power I have left. If his ship is still even in this sector. It has been seven months...”
Ninsianna propped herself up onto her elbow and stared into her husband's eyes.
“Mikhail ... I don't understand a word you just said.”
“The gift ... is it fading?” Mikhail asked. His brow furrowed in concern. He liked that he could converse with her in his native tongue ... or reel him back to the planet in the Cherubim language whenever he was forced to use his ‘gift.’
“The goddess' gift works just fine,” Ninsianna laughed. “I just don't understand how your tek-no-lo-gee works. You haven't taught me yet.”
“Oh ..." Comprehension dawned about the nature of the problem. His lips curved up in a smile, his blue eyes flashing with rare excitement. “Then you must come with me and I'll bring you up to speed on the last 70,000 years worth of technological advances.”
“I think I'll enjoy some more time alone with you at your ship,” Ninsianna lowered her voice to a sultry whisper. She suggestively ran her hand down his abdomen. “We never get to spend enough time together anymore.”
The troubled expression he'd worn ever since he'd come back from the hunt yesterday faded. In her hands, he was putty, and she knew he relished each and every second of it! With a growl of pleasure, Mikhail rolled on top of her for a playful morning romp.
“And I wonder why I can never get any work done while you're around,” he said.
It was Ninsianna’s squeals of laughter and the sound of wings thumping against the wall that woke Ninsianna’s parents up on this fine rest-day.
Chapter 107
Galactic Standard Date: 152,323.09 AE
Haven-3
Prime Minister Lucifer
Lucifer
“Sire,” Zepar shook Lucifer awake. “Sire! Wake up. You'll be late for your meeting.
A sensation akin to a man with a sonic jackhammer pounded into Lucifer's skull and made it feel as though someone was sucking his brain out of his head and spitting it back out afterwards into his lurching stomach. Not again! Lucifer groaned in agony.
“Couldn't you call in sick for me or something?” Lucifer whimpered. It hurt so badly that he didn't dare open his eyes. “I need to go to a real doctor so I can get my head examined.”
“No!” Zepar said quickly. “You can’t, Sire. If you tell an Alliance physician you've been experiencing blackouts, they'll have you removed from office so fast your head will be spinning.”
“I no longer care." Bile rose in Lucifer's throat, burning the entire way up. “Zepar! Quick! I need a bucket!”
Lucifer spent the next 20 minutes heaving curdled chunks of goddess-only-knows what kind of meal into an ice bucket. He was too shaky to even make it to his bathroom to worship the porcelain god. At some point the vomit-induced fog cleared enough for him to recognize he was back at his penthouse on Haven-3, not his ship. Finally, he began to regain his equilibrium.
“Tell me about my schedule for the day,” Lucifer eyed Zepar with weary determination.
“You're scheduled to meet with the Ministry of Education at eleven o’clock,” Zepar said. “You have a prescheduled mating appointment at twelve-thirty, and then we need to hop a three o’clock transport to Haven-1 to make the seven o’clock banquet with the Eternal Emperor.”
“When did we get back to Haven?” Lucifer asked. The last thing he remembered was finishing up a budget meeting in Parliament and hopping a transport back out to the borderlands to rejoin his diplomatic carrier. The ship should remain elusive in case Jophiel decided to bust his chops by having one of her goons run a ‘safety inspection’ of his ship.
“We hopped a needle back last night,” Zepar said. “You had quite a bit to drink. Perhaps that's why you're feeling under the weather this morning?”
“Yes, of course,” Lucifer said. That old feeling of dread surfaced as Lucifer realized he had no recollection of arriving. “Zepar, what day is it today?”
“Thursday, Sire,” Zepar said.
“I mean, the date?” Lucifer asked. “We've been moving around the galaxy so much lately that I'm planet-lagged. What’s the date here on Haven-3?”
“September 17th, Sire,” Zepar said. “The Eternal Emperor’s birthday. He asked you return to celebrate his 1,178,432nd birthday party tonight.”
What?
July … August … September … oh … fuck…
“Can you leave me alone a few minutes to get dressed?" Lucifer's voice betrayed how shaky he felt. “Oh … and get me the brief for today’s meeting with the Ministry of Education. I can’t remember jack-shit about why in Hades I'm even meeting him in the first place."
“Whoever does?” Zepar flipped one hand back in a dismissive gesture. “The brief will be in your hands within 20 minutes." Zepar left him alone to get cleaned up and ready for the day.
Three months. How in Hades had he just lost three months of his life? And worse … what had he been up to all that time? Holding his head to prevent it from splitting in two, Lucifer frantically spooled up his electronic scheduling device, clicking through his appointments for the past three months to try to piece together what in Hades he'd been up to.
He'd done the budget meeting he recalled coming ba
ck for and hopped a transport back to his ship. He noted receipt of several more shipments of human females. He'd met with various high-placed members of the Alliance who were experiencing fertility problems and made cryptic notes in his schedule with some sort of code, presumably tracking numbers to keep track of the females since they weren't sentient enough to even have names. Although he had no recollection of it, everything on his schedule fit his plan to stave off extinction by opening the human homeworld to trade. He stopped, however, at the last appointment in his schedule. His hand trembled as he scrolled back, then forward again, certain his hangover must be causing him to read what was written in his social calendar wrong.
“Kunopegos is ten times the size of a human,” Lucifer said, horrified. He immediately reached for his comms pin. He wouldn't tell Zepar just how long of a blackout he was waking up from, just the last week. “Zepar … I need you to come back in here in half an hour.”
He got showered and dressed, playing it as cool as possible. His heart raced. He should step down from office! He knew he should step down! It wasn't right that the Alliance's highest elected official lost months out of his life! But if he did, all of his efforts to override his father’s seed-world policies would go out the window. Hashem didn't know how to fix the hybrid fertility problem. It was up to him to save his species from extinction!
Should he discuss this with Zepar? No. Deep down he'd always known Zepar was only along for the ride. If Zepar knew how badly he was losing it, he would ditch him in a heartbeat. He had to somehow enlist his help without Zepar knowing just how much help he really needed. Lucifer composed his features to play it cool.
“Sire,” Zepar said as he came back in. “Are you ready to go?”
“I don't know how to say this,” Lucifer said, “so I'll just come right out with it. I think I may have experienced another blackout. The last thing I remember was we were scheduled to meet General Kunopegos to discuss the human females, but then I can't recall what happened afterwards. I need you to fill me in on the details of that meeting.”
Sword of the Gods: The Chosen One (Sword of the Gods Saga) Page 54
