“It wasn’t as bad as the first time, I guess,” Leila admitted, but didn’t add that it was a far way from being fine. Or fun. Still, she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, not when he had gone on and on about how much he enjoyed flying. Perhaps it was different if you were the one with the wings.
“The scenery was beautiful along the way,” Jerome started, shaking off the few ice crystals that had stuck to his grey feathers. “I wanted to show you but I didn’t think you’d look.”
“You thought correctly.”
“It’s a good thing you weren’t looking when I came down through the clouds too fast and almost ran into the mountain range.” He was smiling, but there was no joking in his voice. “But it was nice seeing the mountains up close.”
“The range just outside of town?” She received a head nod in reply. “They’re called the Rhondese Mountains. I used to go camping there when I was little. We’d all go together.”
“You and your family?”
“Yeah.”
They started the walk down the fourteen flights of stairs, Jerome barely fitting in the stairwell. Leila’s mind was fixated on the mountain range, remembering all the good times she had spent in amongst the trees with her father. He used to tell her so many stories about the area.
Suddenly, a long forgotten memory hit Leila on the fifth set of stairs. Her father had told her dozens of stories. They seemed like ordinary campfire stories at the time, but perhaps he had slipped in some true facts through the tales. She remembered one in particular.
“My dad said that Rhondese meant Warrior God in the native’s language. He used to tell me this story that it got its name from when the town was in danger from a huge tidal wave. The Warrior God stood in the path of the water and shielded the town. Everyone was saved but they feared it would happen again so the Warrior God agreed to be a mountain and protect them forever.”
“That’s a nice story. Completely untrue, but nice anyway.”
Leila shook her head, there was more to it than that. “In the prophecy, it mentions a Warrior God. Maybe it’s the same one.”
“From the shadow of the Warrior God, they’ll emerge to fight the war,” Jerome repeated, having committed the whole thing to memory when he was transcribing it. “It could be the same one.”
“It is the same one.”
Now it was Jerome’s turn to question her absolute faith. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because you fell here. Out of everywhere in the world, you turned up in the shadow of the Warrior God. You landed in the town next to the mountain. It can’t be a coincidence. The mortal is in Aron.”
Jerome grinned ear to ear, finally, she was getting that coincidences didn’t exist. He had taught the human something. “So we’ve come to the right place then. How many people live in Aron?”
“Before the war, about half a million. Now, it’s probably down to a couple of hundred thousand, but I can’t be sure. It’s not like anyone is keeping count anymore.”
“Well, at least we’ve ruled out most of the population of the world.”
“Not bad for our first day,” Leila nudged him, feeling good about their chances of understanding the prophecy for the first time. At least they had somewhere to look.
They rounded the final set of stairs and stepped into the corridor. They took the last few steps of their journey home and reached the tiny apartment.
Looking at the door, Leila didn’t need to find her keys, it was already ajar. Something was wrong, something was very wrong.
CHAPTER 7
“The door’s ajar,” Leila said with concern, pushing it gently to swing open. Stepping inside the apartment, the place was a mess. “Someone’s been here. They’ve gone through everything.”
Jerome checked the bathroom, checking to make sure that someone wasn’t still there. It was clear.
Leila frantically opened and closed every cupboard in the place. “Everything’s gone. All my cooking supplies, all my food, everything. It’s all gone.”
Tears started welling in her eyes, she wasn’t even sure if it was from devastation or anger. She was feeling both at that moment. Angry because someone stole her things, devastated that they were gone. It had taken her months to accumulate everything she needed for daily living. Now, she was going to have to start all over again.
“It’s going to take forever to replace everything. If I can replace everything. Half the stuff hasn’t been seen in months.”
Jerome looked at the tears welling and he felt his heart contract. He hated seeing her so sad. He wasn’t entirely sure what he was supposed to do with an upset human, but his instincts told him she needed comforting. He enveloped her in a hug, holding her tight while the tears ran down her cheeks. She held on equally tight, letting all her emotions out.
When the sobbing stopped, he chanced a look at her. Her eyes were red now, and her nose sniffly, but she was still the most beautiful thing he had ever set eyes on. He gently wiped away her tears, letting his large hand glide across her smooth face. She smiled, her sad eyes starting to dry.
“Thank you. I know I’m just a big baby.”
“You’re upset, it’s understandable.”
Leila sighed. “I guess they don’t get so attached to material things in your world as we do here.”
“We have stuff we use. I would be upset if someone stole all of it,” he tried to cheer her up. “I might not cry about it, but you know, I’m a guy and all.”
“At least they left the bed.”
“It was probably too heavy to carry.”
“They took the blanket,” Leila just started at the empty spaces left around the apartment. It didn’t feel like home anymore. The few days spent away and now all her things gone, it just didn’t feel hers.
“I’ll keep you warm.”
She looked him in the eyes, knowing it was true. She wondered whether angels had some kind of power over humans, one that made them have all warm and fuzzy feelings about them. Because looking at Jerome right then, she felt nothing but happiness.
“You’re going to need to eat,” Jerome finally diverted his eyes, being sensible rather than sentimental. “You stay here and I’ll see what I can do.”
Leila shook her head. “You wouldn’t even know where to start looking.”
“I’ll be fine. Lock the door and don’t open it until you’re certain it’s me.” He closed the door behind him, a secret plan forming in his mind. He didn’t need to know where Leila sourced her food from, he had seen many farms on the fly in. Within minutes he could be back there and able to fill the cupboards with a week’s worth of food.
Which is exactly what Jerome did. He flew out of the city and stayed low, stopped to pick fruit and vegetables when he saw some. He didn’t want to take everything from one place, he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving people hungry. So he spread around the pillaging until he was so laden with fresh supplies that he had to flap his wings just a little bit harder. He returned to the tiny apartment, triumphant with his swag.
Leila’s eyes grew wide with amazement when she saw the food. “Where did you get all that?”
“Out in the country.”
“I take back the skepticism.” Leila took the food and stocked the pantry. She would have enough for more than a week, she may even be able to eat three times a day again. She hadn’t had such fresh supplies in over a year. “Thank you for this, it really is wonderful.”
“You’re welcome.” He took a seat on the bed while he watched her cook dinner. He enjoyed the knowledge that it was he who had returned the smile to her face. Perhaps he knew more about humans than he realized. Or maybe it was just this particular human he understood so well.
Leila boiled some potatoes on the stove. All she had to use was a spatula and dingy pot but it would do. At least she had something, she couldn’t imagine eating the vegetable raw.
“I was thinking when you were gone,” she started while stirring. “I don’t know much about prophecies, I have alway
s thought they were a bit stupid. This guy, Nostradamus, wrote heaps of prophecies and then people made events fit them so it looked like he got everything right. It’s all just interpretation.”
“For most, yes. But Tiresias is different. He was very well respected in his time. Too much, actually.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Blind Prophet of Thebes, as he was known, was said to know too many of the God’s secrets. They turned him into a woman for seven years in punishment.”
“Are you kidding?”
Jerome smiled. “Nope. She got married and had a few kids before she was turned back into a man.”
Leila didn’t know what was more wrong with the story – the fact that being turned into a woman was punishment, or the fact he was actually turned into another gender. “That’s just a myth, right?”
“Not according to the Ancient Greeks.”
“How do you know so much about these Gods?”
“They originated from Heaven.”
Leila nodded, assuming it must have been something like that. “So was this Tiresias guy accurate with his prophecies?”
“All the stories say he was,” Jerome answered, remembering the numerous tales he had heard about Tiresias. He predicted several of the big events which was how he came to the attention of the Gods in the first place. “He predicted the war between the demons and the angels. His story has been passed down through the generations for centuries. I guess that means he knows what he’s talking about.”
“There’s a lot to the prophecy. It’s hard to take it all in.”
“So we break it down line by line, just like we did with the ‘shadow of the Warrior God’. We can solve it.”
Leila stared at her potatoes, lost in her thoughts. She knew they would do their best to find the mortal the prophecy referred to. And perhaps that person would accept the call and help fight the war. But the question was, how long was it all going to take? How many more people were going to die in the meantime? How much worse was the violence, pain, and suffering going to get? What if they were too late and the world had descended too far into evil for it to be turned around? It definitely wasn’t just about succeeding, it was about doing it quickly.
They spent the rest of the evening poring over the prophecy. Leila didn’t voice her concerns but Jerome could sense there was an urgency and desperation in their actions. As far as they knew, they were the only ones in the entire universe trying to stop the war. He doubted whether the council back in the village had progressed any further. They were too scared to do anything, it was all up to them.
Sleep came out of exhaustion only. They fell into their comfortable embrace and slept right through the night. They didn’t even know what time it was or how long they had slept for. Their sense of night and day was skewed on the flight home. All they knew was that it was dark and they were tired. When it was light again, then it was time to get up and get to work.
Leila made herself some breakfast, relishing in actually having a choice. She sat on the edge of the bed and nudged Jerome to wake up. It was a pity, he looked so peaceful in his sleep, but there was no time for it.
His feathers quivered as he woke. The grey wings fluttered with the exertion of sitting up. He wiped at his eyes, willing them to adjust to the light. “Good morning,” he said groggily. “Did I oversleep?”
“No, it’s still early. I just don’t want to waste any time.”
“Right. Thanks.”
“I’ve been going through the prophecy, line by line like we agreed.”
Jerome perked up. “And?”
“Nothing.”
His shoulders slumped again, so much for the optimism. He took the sheet from her and read through it yet again. He had already memorized it, but actually seeing the words helped. Besides the lines rhyming, he still couldn’t see any logic behind them.
A person born to a beater of gold,
Yet an orphan they will be.
“What’s a beater of gold?” Leila asked, interrupting his fifty-eighth read through.
“Someone that beats gold, I guess.”
“Real helpful.”
Skyward archers witness the birth,
And the world was changed forevermore.
“Skyward archers, what could that be?” Leila spoke aloud, not really expecting an answer.
“Archers that shoot into the sky?”
“This is going to be a long process.”
Jerome nodded, it sure was. It didn’t, however, stop Leila mulling each line over in turn. It all seemed like doublespeak, like everything meant something else. If it wasn’t written in English, she could have assumed it was another language all together.
She kept going back to the skyward archers, two words she actually understood. She considered everything she knew about archers. They had a bow and they shot things – targets, animals, each other. Could it mean a bow and arrow? But then, what about witnessing the birth? Tiresias had to be talking about a person, a real archer. Were there any famous ones? She doubted it, it wasn’t exactly a high profile sport or anything. Or if it was, she didn’t know about it.
So if it wasn’t about a particular archer, what did archers represent? Hunting? Protection? It wasn’t clicking. There was something she was missing.
Then it hit her. She had seen archers being used symbolically before and they were skyward. Star signs. Every star sign had a symbol, a bull for Taurus, twins for Gemini, and an archer for Sagittarius. She should know, it was her star sign.
“I’ve got it. Skyward archers means Sagittarius. Whenever the mortal was born, Sagittarius was in the sky witnessing the birth. They were born in either late November or early December.”
“Of course,” Jerome said with amazement, annoyed he hadn’t thought of it himself. “The zodiacs have played a big part in civilization since anyone can remember. They used to write their calendars by the star formations.”
“So now we know we’re looking for someone in Aron with Sagittarius as their star sign. Not that it really helps.” Her excitement at solving another line of the prophecy died down when she considered the implications.
“Unless we can somehow access records on people’s births?” Jerome suggested, wondering if that was even possible. In his village, every new angel born was recorded in a big book at the council building. It was traditional for the father to handwrite their child’s details within the first day of the birth. All the council workers would cheer and applaud the entry. Perhaps Earth would have a similar book, albeit much bigger.
“There’s a website that has all the records.”
“What’s a website?”
Leila was actually shocked he didn’t know. She knew he wasn’t human and didn’t exactly live in the same world as her, but it was still surprising that someone didn’t know what the internet was. She didn’t even know how to explain it to him.
“If we can find a computer that works, I’ll show you what it is.”
“What’s a computer?”
“I’ll show you that too,” a smile spread across her lips. It was so cute he didn’t know about technology. It was refreshing when so many people had been completely obsessed with gadgets and electronics. Not that they were of much use now when barely anyone had electricity to run them.
“How do you think-” Jerome was interrupted by the sound of the doorknob rattling. He put his finger to his lips and used his other hand to point towards the door. Leila sat frozen in place, unable to move even if she wanted to.
There was someone at the door, not knocking but trying to break in. The sound of their metallic tool scraping on the doorknob was horrible to listen to. Not just for the persistent squeak that was like nails on a chalkboard, but because they might actually succeed.
“Go into the bathroom,” Jerome whispered as he stood. As light as the feathers in his wings, he crept over to the door. His plan was nothing more than to protect Leila. She did as she was told and tiptoed to the bathroom, closing the door slowly so it
wouldn’t creak.
Jerome pressed his ear against the door, he could only hear the same scraping noise from the tool. There was nothing to tell him who or what was standing just mere inches away with nothing but a thin piece of wood separating them. The door was flimsy to say the least, it didn’t have any business being a barrier between good and bad. It may have been sufficient in ordinary times, but definitely not in times of war.
He worried about what was going to happen once they broke the handle and the door casually opened. It wasn’t a matter of if but when. He knew he had to protect Leila, but what if they were too strong? He had never been in a real fight with a human before. There was that incident in Ronana, but they didn’t put up a fight. The human trying to break in might be desperate enough to take him on. He didn’t know how to hurt a human. He had spent his entire life learning to protect them, keep them safe no matter what happened. To hurt one now went against everything he believed in, everything he was born to do. He didn’t know whether he would be able to do it.
The scraping turned into a clunking, the doorknob was loosening. Whatever Jerome decided he was prepared to do, he needed to work it out quickly. He was fast running out of time.
He took a look at the bathroom door, it was firmly closed. He thought about the scared human behind it. Leila was relying on him. She believed he would protect her and keep her safe from harm. The answer became clear. Jerome needed to do whatever he had to in order to keep Leila safe. It was simple, really.
His decision came just in time. He watched the doorknob turn and be released from its lock. It made a soft click, its final protest against its harsh treatment. Jerome took a breath while he waited for the door to swing open. He pulled himself up to his full height, the tip of his wings just touching the roof.
A young man stood at the doorway. He couldn’t have been more than a teenager himself. His chisel was still in his hand as he took in the angel standing before him. It definitely wasn’t what he was expecting to find in the tiny apartment.
World Without Angels Page 8
