Last of the Nephilim

by Bryan Davis

  Flint yanked his weapon out and stalked toward Angel. Just as he lunged with the blade, Dikaios jumped out of the way, taking Angel with him. Flint wheeled around, grabbed Mantika from behind, and held the blade to her throat, panting. “If you do not stay with me … before this creature draws five breaths … she will join her mate.”

  With his eyes darting, he began a rapid count, matching Mantika’s frantic respiration. “One, two, three …”

  Mantika held her breath. Angel whispered to Dikaios, “What should I do?”

  “Pray.” Dikaios swung around and aimed his rear hooves at Flint. Should he risk a kick? Or would Flint slice her throat before he fell unconscious?

  Flint swatted Mantika’s head. “Breathe, you fool!”

  Suddenly, Flint arched his body. A long dagger protruded from between his shoulders. As his arms drooped, another horse leaped over the fence and charged into the yard. A rider reached down, snatched Mantika up by her clothes, and dragged her away. “Let us fly!” the rider shouted as the horse slowed to a stop.

  “Valiant!” Angel cried.

  Windor jumped down from behind Valiant and helped his mother to her feet.

  As Flint wobbled in place, Dikaios kicked him in the back, knocking him headlong. “Valiant, help the boy remount! I will take his mother!”

  When the two had climbed aboard, Dikaios galloped ahead and leaped over the fence. Listening to the pounding hooves behind him, he followed Abraham’s fiery trail. With the failing light of evening dimming his vision, he plunged through the channel, then into the shallower marsh. Flames crawled up and down the reed stalks and crackled at the ends of skinny branches on nubby trees, illuminating the path. Soon, the fire grew brighter, the flames healthier. Was this a sign that they were catching up with Abraham?

  Finally, in the distance, a striding column of fire came into view, surging through the marsh like flames following a trail of lamp oil. When Dikaios caught up, he slowed and trotted at the side of the column.

  “Abraham?” Dikaios called, breathless. “Is that you?”

  A raspy voice replied. “It is I … or what is left of me.”

  As the sorrel mare galloped to join them, Valiant shouted, “Father! What are you doing?”

  The voice, weaker than before, sounded again. “Protecting my people. You will understand soon enough.”

  The column of fire turned and began a new course. “The boundary starts here,” Abraham continued. “Remember it well. My journey will take all night. If I have enough fuel, I will enclose the Valley of Shadows. Goliath, Roxil, and the Nephilim are there.”

  With every inch he pressed forward, his body of fire seemed to shrink ever so slightly. Now, instead of dying out, the trail of flames behind him grew into a towering wall, rising higher and higher until the top reached out of sight. Reeds and trees crackled. Water boiled and sizzled, shooting plumes of steam into the sky.

  With heat singeing his hide, Dikaios backed away. “Valiant!” he shouted. “What is your counsel?”

  Valiant stared at the rippling orange wall, his eyes wide and gleaming. His voice was barely audible over the crackling fury. “We must obey Father and return to the village.”

  “Then let us go.” Dikaios turned, but before he could leap away, something splashed at his side and jerked a passenger from his back. Angel’s white gown swept past his eyes, clutched in the arms of a mule-riding man.

  Dikaios and the mare turned as one and gave chase. The mule galloped to Abraham’s flaming form, and the rider dismounted with Angel still in his arms, his stiletto again in hand.

  Abraham stopped and turned toward them. His flames illuminated their faces. Flint, his teeth clenched, pressed the dagger against Angel’s throat. Her eyes wide with fear, she stayed silent and kept her body stiff.

  “Flint!” Valiant shouted as the mare came to a stop. “If you harm her, I will feed your flesh to the muskrats.”

  Dikaios joined him. “If there is any left after I trounce you to pieces.”

  “I will not harm her.” Flint eased the dagger away. “She only needs to complete the vows.”

  “Is a forced vow a true one?” Valiant splashed to the ground and marched toward them. “Give her back to me now, and I will let you live.”

  “Stop!” Flint again pressed the dagger, this time drawing blood. “I will accept a forced vow. I want her womb, not her devotion.”

  Valiant halted within three steps of Angel, his fists clenched, but he said no more.

  “Flint!” The crackling voice came from the leading edge of the fiery wall. “Let Angel stand freely, and I will finish the ceremony.”

  Flint glanced between Angel and the fire. “If Valiant gives us room.”

  Patting Dikaios on the flank, Valiant backed away. “Let Father Abraham do what he must.”

  When the two horses and their riders had retreated a distance of fifteen horse lengths, Flint released Angel but kept the stiletto flat against her back.

  The flames spoke again. “Angel, it is time for you to make your vow.”

  “Father Abraham?” She lowered her head. “My time of widowhood has expired, and I do not wish to die, so it seems I have no choice.”

  The head of the flaming figure dipped a few inches. “I am in agreement.”

  “I now understand what you said earlier, but if I make the vow you request of me, who will care for my children?”

  “Mantika will be welcomed into our village, and she will love Candle and Listener as her own.”

  “Very well. I have seen the heart of a mother in her eyes.” Angel withdrew the dead companion from the pouch at her side and threw it underhand toward Valiant. When it splashed near his feet, he reached down and plucked it from the water.

  Keeping her gaze on the wall of fire, Angel straightened her shoulders. With tears streaming, spasms punctuated each word. “I take you … to be my lawfully wedded husband … to have and to hold … in sickness and in health … to love, honor, and cherish … as long as we both shall live.”

  She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

  After a moment of silence, Flint pushed his stiletto into its sheath. “Is that it? Are we married?”

  “That depends.” The flames crackled louder than ever. “To whom was Angel speaking?”

  Angel lifted her head. She looked at Flint, then at the fire. Finally, she leaped ahead and ran. “To you, Abraham! My forever Adam!” She collided with the wall, her arms spread wide.

  In the midst of the flames, Angel’s form ignited from the garland of flowers in her hair to the hem of her silky dress. As arms of fire wrapped around her, she and the wall became one. The inferno billowed and brightened, and dozens of fireballs shot out and arced to the ground.

  Flint dropped to his knees, his mouth agape.

  A new voice emanated from the flames, now sounding like two in perfect harmony, a blend of male and female. “Flint, if you leave now, Valiant will allow you to go home without harm.”

  Flint rose slowly, his legs shaking as he looked at Valiant. He jumped aboard his mule and slapped it on the rump. With firelight dancing on their forms, the mule trotted off toward home, making a wide berth around the edge of the flaming wall.

  As they faded in the darkness, Valiant slid his feet toward the raging fire. “Father.” His voice faltered. “What shall we do?”

  Again the blended tones rose above the crackling flames. “You and the warrior chief must make ready for the greatest conflict our world has ever seen. We will try to keep the enemies hemmed in long enough for you to prepare a mighty army.”

  Valiant backed away. As the warrior’s tears dripped down his cheeks, his voice strengthened. “We will do your bidding, Father. Every able man will fight, and every woman and child will lend support. We will truly be as one.”

  “Then you honor us well.” The fire marched on without another word.

  Valiant remounted and extended the dead companion to Mantika, still seated on Dikaios, with Windor now standing at the
horse’s flank. “Will you care for her children?” Valiant asked.

  With tears sliding down her dark cheeks, she took it and gave him a quivering smile. “I care.”

  He used his thumb to wipe away one of her tears. “Angel passed the authority over her children to you. Take her companion to them in remembrance of their beautiful mother.”

  Reaching for Windor with one hand, she raised the crystal egg to her lips and gave it a tender kiss. “We remember.”

  Chapter 25

  The Calm before the Storm

  Sapphira carried the ovulum through the familiar tunnel, allowing its light to lead the way. The museum chasm lay ahead, as always. Of course, no one would be there. Bonnie and Shiloh and Irene would all have gone with Acacia, and the only voices within would be her own and any echo that cared to answer.

  Still, maybe they left a note, a farewell of some kind. With nothing else to do, why not have a look? It certainly wouldn’t hurt anything, and maybe she could kill some time perusing some of the old scrolls she hadn’t read in the last hundred years.

  As she neared the end of the tunnel, a strange light flickered in the distance. Did they leave the lantern behind? How could it still be burning after so many hours? Could one of them have come back and lost her way?

  Sapphira tucked the ovulum under her shirt and ran. When she burst into the chamber, she stopped. A fire blazed at the center of the museum room, so bright, it washed out everything else inside.

  She hurried ahead and stopped again at the museum’s broken doorway. Flames covered the tree of life, licking the trunk, branches, and leaves, yet they emitted no smoke at all or even the slightest crackling sound. Between her and the fire, two bodies lay amid scattered stones, pebbles, and sand, one body wearing a backpack.

  Sapphira pushed her way into the room, fighting wave after wave of hotter and hotter air. After passing the two bodies, she stopped and raised her arms. “Extinguish!”

  The flames continued unabated.

  Turning her back to the fire, she tried to shield the victims. She grabbed a backpack strap and turned one body to its side. “Bonnie? Can you hear me?”

  Bonnie’s smudged cheeks quivered, accentuating her swollen lips, but she gave no answer. Her dry skin was so cracked, it looked like dragon scales. Chalky dust spattered her clothes and made a trail of white that led back to the burning soil. Sapphira stared at the dust. Could it be residue from the bone she had sprinkled in the planter?

  She reached for the other girl and turned her on her back. Her lips had also swollen from the heat. “Shiloh! Wake up!”

  Blinking at the flames, Shiloh murmured, “Sapphira?”

  Sapphira pushed her upright. “Try to crawl! I’ll drag Bonnie before she gets heat stroke.”

  Shiloh rolled to her hands and knees. “Better check her collarbone first. It might be broken.”

  “Okay.” Sapphira set her fingers on Bonnie’s collar and pressed down. Bonnie winced but her eyes stayed closed.

  “It’s either bruised or broken, but we have to get her out of here somehow.”

  Shiloh squatted and pushed her arms under Bonnie’s legs. “You get her back. Let’s see if we can carry her out.”

  After sliding her arms between Bonnie’s backpack and her sweatshirt, Sapphira lifted and shuffled sideways, her knees bent. Shiloh did the same. With sweat dripping down her cheeks and nose, Sapphira grunted. The searing heat stung her skin, and Bonnie’s weight made her arms ache, but she had to push on. Bonnie was so dehydrated, she could die at any moment.

  When they finally passed the entryway, Sapphira jumped up and pushed the broken door across the opening, blocking the heat.

  Shiloh’s eyes turned glassy. She leaned her head against the wall and let her mouth drop open. Her tongue pushed out, cracked and swollen.

  “I think we have some water left over.” Sapphira ran around the museum’s perimeter, collected four glass bottles from a pile of empty containers, and filled them from a jug of water she had stored long ago behind a barrel. She dashed back with the bottles in her arms and handed one to Shiloh. Shiloh poured a trickle over her tongue before pressing it against her lips for a long drink.

  Sapphira poured another bottle over Bonnie’s lips. Then, ever so gently, she opened Bonnie’s mouth and let the water trickle inside.

  As it drained to the back of her throat, Bonnie gagged, then swallowed, smacking her lips. Soon, Sapphira was able to get her to drink slowly, though her eyes remained closed.

  She turned back to Shiloh. “How are you doing?”

  Shiloh had already drained half of another bottle. “Much better. How is my twin?”

  “I think she’ll be okay. She’s drinking.” Sapphira let some of the water wash over Bonnie’s parched skin. As she rubbed it in, the scaly cracks vanished. “What happened? Where are Acacia and Irene?”

  “They made it through the portal, and we didn’t.” Shiloh gave her a shrug. “It’s kind of hard to explain.”

  Sapphira propped Bonnie’s bottle as she continued to drink. “I have time. Give it a try.”

  “Acacia’s fire surrounded us,” Shiloh said, drawing a circle in the air, “but when she climbed out, it started squeezing us in. A big rock dropped on Bonnie from the other dimension, and she rolled into the dirt under the tree. The tree caught fire, so I had to drag her out, broken collarbone or no broken collarbone. When I grabbed her, she was coated with that chalky stuff, and blue fire burned all over her body. I thought she was a goner, but after I dragged her a few feet, the flames just snuffed out by themselves. I think I fainted after that.” Shiloh drained her bottle and set it at her side. “Give me a minute to recover, and I’ll try to remember more.”

  “Take all the time you need.” Sapphira pulled back Bonnie’s shirt collar, revealing an angry gash. Blood drained down her back, clotting quickly as it ran across her scaly, dirty skin, much of it dusted with the chalk Shiloh had mentioned. What could it all mean? Enoch had said something about the planter becoming a resurrection garden for dragonkind.

  She stretched Bonnie’s collar a few more inches. Would it be okay to see if she had wings? Even if she didn’t before, maybe she had them now.

  She eased the collar back into place. No. It wouldn’t be right. That revelation belonged to Bonnie alone.

  “Bonnie?” she called softly. “Can you hear me?”

  “Hmmm?” Smacking her lips, Bonnie opened her eyes. “Sapphira?”

  Sapphira couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Girl, you really scared us.”

  Bonnie rotated her shoulder, grimacing. “I think I might’ve broken something.”

  “Maybe.” Sapphira pulled back Bonnie’s collar again. “We’ll have to clean this wound right away and then take you to the hot spring for a good soaking.”

  “That sounds perfect.” As she stretched out her arms, her face twisted in pain. “Help me get my backpack off.”

  Billy slid on his headset, gripped Merlin’s yoke, and looked over at Walter as he sat in the copilot’s seat. “Ready to give it a try?”

  After adjusting the earphones, Walter set his microphone in front of his lips. “Can you hear me all the way over there?”

  “Loud and clear. I know it seems stupid to wear these, but they’ll come in handy when the propeller gets louder.” Billy rolled the airplane along the bumpy dragon launching pad. Outside, Ashley and Acacia waved, while Hartanna basked nearby in the sun, obviously exhausted. Stooping between Hartanna’s front and back legs, Pearl rubbed some kind of salve into one of her wings, massaging a wound she had suffered while saving Pearl’s life. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to rescue Mason. It was all she could do to snatch Pearl out of the air just before she hit the ground.

  Billy sighed. Now another widow would cry out for comfort as she reared her children without a husband … or an Adam. If this mission failed, he would have to get used to that term. He might have to stay in Second Eden for a very long time.

  Fortunately, Onyx and Willow survived, b
ut Steadfast would have to stay in the flying hospital with them, at least for a while. Cliffside was already making plans to bring the hospital in for a landing. With the threat from the altered tribes so low, he saw no reason to keep it up in the air, but since landing was a complicated procedure, he was taking plenty of time to do it safely.

  As he throttled up, Billy tried to smile in spite of his anxiety. Since the tunnel portal in the Valley of Shadows was inaccessible behind Abraham’s and Angel’s wall, and his father had failed to open a portal with fire, this journey represented their last hope. And it could be a dangerous journey, maybe even shakier than his close encounter with the flying hospital.

  Walter tossed a packet of peanut butter crackers into Billy’s lap. “What’s up? You look like you bit into a hunk of earwax.”

  “Just thinking about all the stuff going on.” He picked up the crackers. “Where’d you find these?”

  Walter tilted his head toward the back. “There’s a stash by one of the seats.”

  “Sir Barlow sat there,” Billy said. “He loves peanut butter.”

  As he unwrapped his own packet, Walter gazed out the window on his side. “I’ve been thinking, too. The creepiest thing was what Ashley said when she stood near that barrier.”

  Billy nodded as he replayed the scene in his mind. Hartanna had already tried to breach the wall of fire, but she could neither penetrate it nor fly high enough to surmount it. Then he and Ashley had flown the airplane, trying to find the top, but to no avail. After landing in a dry portion of the marsh, he stood next to Ashley as she faced the flames. “I sense two minds within the fire,” she had said, “one male and one female. They are in pain, more emotional than physical, I think.” After shivering in a blast of cold wind, she added, “But there is much love within that fire. They are content.”

  As he pushed Merlin toward top speed and began a wide orbit around the village, Billy added a shiver of his own. A wall of human flames protected the people from a horde of giants, shadow creatures, and an evil dragon. That might just be the strangest of all the strange things he had seen over the last couple of years.