Gods of Shadow and Flame

by M. H. Johnson

  Easing back his terrible wrath at last, the kitten purred.

  “There we go, little one. No need for anger, no need to fear. You are safe now.”

  At that moment a terrible roar like the rupture of a massive supernova unleashing a corona of plasma and radiation so hot and fierce it would incinerate all life, even as it forged the seeds for new stars, became the baritone bark of a great mastiff, panting happily by the young woman's side.

  The girl laughed. “You have an angry bark, my dear hound. Rage shall be your name, and Midnight yours, kitty. For your fur is like the starry night skies my bard tells me paint the heavens when the sun sets in the worlds above.”

  “An excellent name, my beloved mistress,” acknowledged the sapphire eyed cat now purring under the young woman’s gentle touch. “But what shall we call you, you who have named us?”

  The young woman became thoughtful, remembering an ancient tale her bard had once told a wide-eyed child. A tale of love, loss, and redemption. A tale of a noble paladin who braved terrible odds to save the people she had loved.

  "Jezabelle." She gave a firm nod, utterly unheeding of the gasps and hisses from the vast mob of twisted hellions gazing at the scene playing out before them; the youngest of their number effortlessly taming and binding to her will two of their most dreaded foes.

  The black cat flashed a toothy grin. “Jezabelle, indeed. I like it. Very good, my mistress. Now, shall Rage and I unleash our terrible powers and slay all these fools who would have let you perish, sucked into the Void that had almost claimed us without a second thought?”

  She chuckled even as the vast horde backed away, hissing in sudden panic, more than one beginning to chant infernal spells of protection and warding. Jezabelle, however, had only stroked the shimmering fur of that ancient god once known as Endless Night as if it were the sweetest of jests. "Of course not, silly kitty! Mother was only trying to make me stronger. You, dear one, will be my adviser, for I can tell that you are wise." She then turned to affectionately pat the eldritch being once known as Death of Stars, panting happily by her side. "And you, beloved Rage, shall be my protector and friend."

  The great mastiff barked happily at Jess's binding of their essence, Midnight as well giving a thoughtful nod. "Very well, my dear Jezabelle. I shall be happy to play the role of your adviser." His brilliant gaze danced over the assembled legion of Fallen angels, so twisted and depraved that they had sunk to the very depths of Hell as a result of their wickedness. He then gazed at his new mistress, eyes alight with an almost naïve innocence, a painful idealism.

  Midnight grinned. “I do believe this role shall be most entertaining.” He began to give himself a thorough cleaning, even as Rage barked his agreement.

  Lilith had roared with laughter at the discord these declarations had caused, her eyes alight with twisted triumph. “Thus you see the power of the Immortality Weapon, my fellow lords of Hell! She, who stands proudly before us in this, the lowest realm of the Abyss, where any lesser hellion would be sucked into the Void itself, dared to enter the great chasm, to brave the hideous winds of its gravitational well, to scale the neutronium crevice, casting her soul deep into the ultimate wellspring of destruction, the source of all our power!”

  Jezabelle felt of a sudden all eyes locked upon her, suddenly discomfited by their cold measuring gazes, even as Lilith spoke on. "So deep my daughter Delved that she has forged a bond with the Void itself, potent enough to bind two Primals to her service. Our greatest weapon has bound two of our most terrible foes as her familiars! Foes so fearsome they fought the deathly pull of the great Void for countless millennia! Never consumed! And now they are released at last, bound to my daughter's will."

  Lilith's cold lips stretched into a cruel smile. "To serve their mistress is their destiny, the shock troops who shall one day lead our charge as we shatter the very gates of Heaven! When all realms shall be broken to our whips, made to yield utterly to our will, as we become the masters of all creation!"

  The hideous crowd of Fallen angels roared and cackled in dread jubilation, even as Lilith gently coaxed her transformed daughter back to the massive fortress and the heart of Lilith’s domain that she had known all her life, and she was dazed by the abrupt transformation that had overtaken her mother at that time, feting Jezabelle with gifts of mithril, an entire tower of her own, blessedly free of the discordant cries of souls in torment, and for a time Jezabelle had felt as if her mother had almost loved her.

  But no matter how honey sweet her mother had acted, her devoted Twilight had always given her careful counsel, cautioning her never to make any binding oaths to Lilith, most especially where her two familiars were concerned. A move that had turned out to be very wise indeed.

  62

  Jess shuddered even as Malek shook her. “Jess, what’s wrong?”

  Jess blinked, the terrible din of a thousand thousand hellions roaring and cackling across the vast chasm cutting off their small group from Lilith’s united armies came crashing back to Jess's awareness, even as she locked eyes with a suddenly confused looking Malek.

  Twilight smiled. “I think our mistress has finally awoken to who and what she truly is.”

  Jess’s eyes filled with tears, even as she gazed into her beloved familiar’s brilliant orbs. “Yes, my dear Midnight, eternal darkness between the stars, I remember now.”

  Her familiar shivered, eyes gazing at her with a terrible coldness, the fierce fury of blackest night eternally locked within, a singularity at the heart of a simple cat that held within it the terrible potency of all the vast reaches of space. “Mistress!” Jess nodded solemnly, even as she looked at the strangely vulnerable gaze of her beloved Malek, stepping away, suddenly uncertain.

  Suddenly afraid.

  Her beloved Malek turned pale, sweating, gripped with a sudden terror that all the legions of Hell had failed to inspire.

  “Jess. Please. I don’t think, I really don’t think I want to know.”

  Jess smiled into his eyes even as she gently stroked his cheek. “My beloved shieldbrother. It is the final hour. For the sake of all those we love, for the sake of the world we call home, you must have the courage to remember once more.”

  Shuddering, Malek froze, eyes clenched tight, tears streaming down his cheeks, evaporating even before they touched the parched sands of Hell. “Oh gods, Jess. No! I will lose myself, I will spin away in a maelstrom of madness and terror and…”

  “And forget the pleasant dream of being a boy when you remember what you really are?” Midnight’s voice was as cold as the void. “Are you really such a coward, brother and enemy who I have danced with for endless millennium across the cosmos, that you would deny who you truly are and allow our mistress’s world to perish, the world you have embraced by her side for all the centuries you played at being a mortal, simply because you are afraid?”

  Malek shook at Midnight’s scathing words, even as Morlekai gently gripped his shoulder. “If there was ever a time for courage, boy; ever a time to prove what you really are, to risk losing yourself for a cause greater than yourself, that time is now.” Gently he tilted Malek’s chin, gazing long and hard into the eyes of a boy who had always worshiped him a bit from afar. “In your heart of hearts, you know you’ve always wanted to be a hero, Malek. Well, now’s that time. Be a hero! Embrace what you are, my brother in spirit, and be greater than I could ever hope to be.”

  Speechless, Malek gazed mutely at all of them, clenching his eyes shut with an abrupt jerky nod of his head. “Very well. For you, Jess. And you alone. I have lost everything I loved in the world above. If I am to die, if I am to lose myself, let it be for those I love, fighting by my side, here in the depths of Hell.”

  Midnight gracefully leaped to his accustomed perch upon Malek's shoulder, the pair staring at Jess as one. "It is time, Jezabelle."

  Jess smiled even as she felt her heart breaking. She did her best to ignore the guttural chant uttered by all the legions of Hell, their powers arcing to a hide
ous crescendo, about to unleash the combined might of damnation's forces upon the handful of Delvers that had dared to stand against them.

  Jezabelle's voice, when she spoke, seemed to echo through the entire realm, her words causing the tainted ground itself to tremble and quake. "I release you, Malek, my shieldbrother. Rage, my Hound, you who are the birth and death of fiery stars rupturing brilliantly in the night sky; I release you of all bonds, oaths, and covenants binding you, ancient god that fought my kind for endless eons, before being cast into the Void. Be free, my brother! No bond save compassion may claim you now! Embrace your power, Death of Stars. You are free!”

  And Malek screamed, twisting about in such agony Jess’s heart broke, even as his cry became an endless mournful howl, the entire horizon suddenly dwarfed by the presence of a force so massive, so terrible, the realm itself cracked and broke under its weight. And in the blink of an eye a massive fiery wolf whose maw touched the very heavens howled for his loss and freedom both.

  Jess turned to stare into her beloved Midnight's unfathomable gaze, feeling almost as if she were falling endlessly into unspeakably vast reaches of space and time. "I free you, my beloved Midnight. Ender of all things, and the blackness between all points of light. Be free, my constant companion. Remember only that I love you."

  And the unfathomable sapphire gaze Jess had found herself falling into became infinite. She blinked and shook herself free of her daze, only to sense the vast and terrible inky black darkness that covered the landscape entire, and she shouted with delight as she felt the terrible presence of her beloved Midnight stretch out from horizon to horizon, covering the entire sea of chanting hellions in a gloom that quickly deepened to blackest night. The color of emptiness. The void between the stars.

  “Bravo, my brothers! May fang and claw, darkness and fire, strike true! May your wrath show our enemies the price they pay for daring to threaten our home!”

  Jess smiled with dazed delight, losing herself then in a far purer note, one that called to her alone. Dreamily, she gazed upward in directions unthinkable, even as Morlekai’s hands gently gripped her, focusing her. “Can you feel it, Jess? Can you feel the path you must take to answer the call of the horn? Go forth, my beloved Jezabelle, astride your wings of fire. Go forth, and save our David!”

  The awful roars of her most ancient companions, now freed of all binding and compulsion, free to do whatever their hearts desired, were but distant echoes to the grand song Jess felt echoing inside her mind. She, who couldn't carry a tune to save her life, she who differentiated not between a jester's masterful baritone and a wolf's mournful howl, felt of a sudden the piercing beauty that was the orchestral crescendo of the very Heavens, crashing through her with all its might and wonder.

  She could no longer deny the mournful, beautiful note of that divine artifact reaching out to her, compelling all that was noble and pure within her heart and soul to do what must be done. To answer its call.

  Her smile was one of pure bliss, even as she felt wings she had scarce credited stretch forth and blaze with a shimmering light. "I never fell," she whispered in awe, even as she launched upwards with a single powerful beat of her wings, soaring across a bridge of divine music only she could sense, seeming almost to shimmer as her very being crossed unspeakable distances between realms in the blink of an eye.

  “By all the gods!” Alacabar whispered, breathless, earning a solemn nod from Morlekai.

  “Indeed.”

  Lucienda gazed longingly as Jess blazed across the sky. “I knew you were keeping secrets, Morlekai.”

  Morlekai of a sudden arched his head. “Ward yourselves! The barrier between worlds is shattering!”

  Alacabar had the energy for a breathless curse, Lucienda gazing about in sudden confusion even as the concealment separating Lilith’s pocket dimension from the vast realm she ruled shattered. Shattered with a glorious cacophony of laughter, shattered with the final scream of a child forced to endure agony unthinkable.

  Eyes blazing in terrible exultation, Lilith revealed herself in all her inhuman glory, shouting her final triumph, tearing free eternally young David’s heart with a single awful wrench, the boy shrieking and shaking even as he collapsed, the horrific demoness above him gazing upon his heart with fascinated relish, her wickedly perfect rosebud lips suddenly opening wide in a terrible snakehead rictus, devouring the still beating organ glowing with such divine light in one terrible gulp.

  Lilith suddenly screamed. Writhing as a gentle warm light seemed to emanate through every pore of her being.

  And then she laughed.

  Laughed as she savored the sweet hearts-blood of a dying angel, feasting upon it with every corrupt fiber of her Fallen soul.

  "It is over!" she roared. "For by the paths of blood and kinship, my serpent's tongue has pierced the flesh of my enemy! His power is mine, and the pathway to the divine realms above is now open!"

  Lilith shrieked her triumph, blazing eyes gazing at her massive army below, even as they hooted and howled, reveling in her hideous act.

  Her mocking, terrible laughter filled the brooding sky. "Do you wish to join me now, Morlekai? Now that my victory is assured, your friends either fled or dying at your feet? Too late, fool!" She turned toward her legions, only then registering the massive wolf so vast his body filled the heavens, gazing at her with fiery eyes. Snarling as she beheld the cloak of darkest midnight that flowed about him, ready to consume all that fell within the endless blackness of his form.

  Lilith hissed her fury. "The bitch actually did it. Dared to free them of all bindings!" She turned to the endless sea of dark hellions forged into an army to serve her as she strove to overthrow the realms above. "Go forth and wipe them from the map, my legions! Dispel those ancient gods, my loyal specters of darkest Hades, sorcerers of blackest night! Prove yourselves worthy of me! Prove yourselves worthy of the rape and pillage to come!”

  And with a great cacophony of shrieks and howls, the massive army of the damned launched their hideous magics in unison, every dark abyssal chord of power channeled into one overriding spell of oblivion, even as they began their implacable march toward the fallen Delvers, the rifts between their forces closing, its purpose served as the hideous maelstrom of power pummeled down upon the tiny speck of life amongst their endless number, massive comets plunging down from the heavens, as if to crush the pinned Delvers to utter oblivion.

  The ancient god once known as Malek howled his wrath as the rage and fury of a dying star consumed him, even as Midnight tightened his tendrils of perfect darkness about their endless sea of foes.

  The Hound's terrible cry caused the many sharp outthrusts of jagged rock dotting the crimson horizon to shatter and collapse in one massive cacophony of destruction, crushing endless thousands of Lilith's infernal legions, even as the very abyssal earth broke and heaved under the terrible weight of that ancient god awakening at last to his darkest gifts, locked away endless ages ago.

  Rage howled once more, so vast he now was that his terrible roar shook the very stormy skies of Hell, burning away the endless brooding mass of crimson clouds once more hiding the heavens, revealing an endless armada of moon-sized fortresses filling the skies, save for a spot exactly overhead, the focal point for the hideous doom all the legions of Hell had just unleashed.

  Rage instantly caught sight of the maelstrom of meteors even then pounding into the ground from above, the massive wolf darting with terrible speed to place himself over his frozen friends but an instant before they were pulverized to oblivion.

  The ancient god disappeared in a cacophony of violence that left the central of that battlefield a mass of pulverized rock and dust, the roar of titanic destruction drowning out all other noise, save for the howls and cheers of the endless forces that had poured their combined might into the summoning of a spell that could wipe continents off maps.

  Yet there was no crater.

  And howls of triumph turned to shrieks of dismay when billowing clouds of dust and r
ubble parted at the base to reveal massive burning embers glaring back at the assembled legions of Hell. And from the ever growing shadows about the army, endless pairs of brilliant sapphire eyes peered coldly into their own.

  Even as the avatar of darkness locked gazes with endless millions of howling demons, the terrible wolf, standing strong and proud for all that he was covered in pulverized rock, looked up, beholding once more the hideous armada of flying cities formerly hidden within those endless billowing clouds even now reforming. Forged of rock and screaming souls, crawling with bleeding eyes gazing upon the lands below, each and every one of those flying fortresses stood ready to soar off to realms untainted by infernal corruption, waiting only for the command of their mistress to rain a terrible barrage of horror and death upon the helpless armies of man inhabiting the realms above.

  And all this was instantly understood by the ancient being so vast and terrible his gaze was on par with the dread fortresses long hidden by those brooding clouds. The size of moons, bristling with endless arrays of massive siege weaponry, shadow wizards already casting terrible magics from within, soldiers readying their dread weapons, each such fortress the spearhead for countless campaigns of dominion as they rained horror and death upon the face of a thousand worlds. And somehow Rage sensed that this armada, unlike the endless sea of hellions below, was as capable of traveling to new worlds ripe for conquest through the coldest reaches of space as they were through the rifts between worlds.

  And the massive wolf who had just been pummeled by a furious barrage of planet killing stones howled, his fangs vast and terrible, stretching his maw in inconceivable dimensions, the shrieking incantations of the dread wizards in the nearest floating moon having no more effect upon the elder god than tossing pebbles into a cauldron of molten steel. The creature once known as Malek savored a moment of his enemies shrieking in terror before snapping shut jaws seemingly wide as the heavens themselves upon the nearest sailing moon of death, bursting it into a storm of molten hot shards and ruptured bodies screaming as they crashed down upon the milling armies below.