The Guardian

by Carol Robi

  I reinforce the shield, making extra sure that we are invisible to all as we land on the sides of a steep hill, large boulders piled up on top of each other just before us. I stumble a little at my landing, the sharp double-edged sword just missing my foot by an inch. Mika holds onto me, steadying me in place.

  "I think this is it," I say to him, looking into his face. He looks back at me with his dark eyes, his face lacking any expression, but I humor myself to thinking that I have seen him bite back a smile, and I smile back at him.

  I can feel the buzz from the sword increase in intensity, giving off much more Essence than I will be able to store in a few minutes. I have the key, I think, lifting the sword much easily, now that there is a lot more of Essence to play around with. I just need to find a keyhole.

  Mika seems to sense my intentions, and lifts me into the air once again. We fly about as I wave the sword before the boulders, trusting it to find its keyhole just as it had found its way.

  My assumptions are right. I feel the magnetic pool, as the tip of the sword pulls towards a point to the top.

  "Mika," I whisper to my soldier angel. "There." I do not need to explain further.

  The angel leans backwards a little, giving the sword enough room to direct us. The tip of the sword then sticks with a loud clink onto a point near the top of a massive rock.

  I barely think it, but without even saying the words, Mika glides backwards allowing me to hold the sword perpendicularly to the point, before we both push hard forward. Driving the sword deep into the boulder through an invisible keyhole.

  As the sword disappears into the rock, it lets out shuddering quantities of energy in rocking waves that knock us back. The waves of Essence are so great and so strong, pulsating out of the rock over and over again, that I am completely unable to absorb them, my haggard body just struggling to stay up with the last strokes of energy left in me.

  I fight the wave of panic that threatens to envelop me. Soon we’ll be surrounded by the fallen angels and their Divine Army. If there was ever a time I needed Raphael, this is it.

  We turn to face the crumbling boulder before our eyes. It probably only takes a minute, but I know a minute is like eternity for angels because they are fast. Very fast.

  Finally the rock falls apart completely, revealing a wide gaping hole that leads into some form of caves in the hills.

  "Mika fly me in," I call to my angel, but he stays routed where he is. Oh no, the fallen! I think, as I begin inspecting as quickly as I can the shield around me. it is however intact, so I turn to face my angel soldier in confusion.

  "I am not to go in there, Caroline," he says to me as a matter of fact.

  "Why?" I ask in exasperation, panicking as I wonder how I could possible go into the dark cave alone, and find my angels. I can barely stand on my own!

  "It is the divine law," he states. I have no idea what that means, but I know from his voice that there is no way I could convince him otherwise. If I leave him out here, I know that my shield will leave him. When the fallen arrive, he will rejoin them, and I’ll have no ally.

  “Please do not show the fallen Archangel where my mother lives, or tell him my name. Please Mika.”

  “I cannot promise you that, Caroline.” My heart breaks at his words. “You have to order me to forget everything.” I could swear his eyes look sadly at me as he says this.

  "Good bye, Mika. And thank you."

  "Goodbye, Caroline," he answers me quietly, and we both know it truly is. Despite the numbing pain from my arm urging for as minimal movements as possible, I tip-toe and kiss my angel soldier on his smoothly chiseled cheek.

  “Forget everything concerning me,” I tell him. Cold hard eyes look back at me right before I run into the dark caves as fast as I can, despite the sharp jolts of pain from my side.

  The minute I go in, I feel the Essence get knocked right out of me. The pain from my arm, that the Essence must have numbed, comes to me in searing waves, and I almost topple over in anguish. I however push forward through the burning red pain, stretching my able hand before me, and call out at the top of my voice in the enveloping darkness.

  "Ariel! Raphael! Urie...”I barely finish before a figure grabs at me in the dark, squeezing my broken hand as it envelops me in a rough hug, and sending new waves of excruciating pain through me.

  "Caroline?" I would recognize that voice anywhere.

  "Raphael, we have to get out now, I opened the door!"

  "I will go," he says to me weakly through the dark, "and keep watch so the doors aren't closed behind us. Call out the others." I barely have time to begin telling him that it would be difficult for me to save the others, considering my broken hand, before he speeds past me.

  You are welcomed, I think to myself after he leaves. Once again, mastering all my energy, I stretch one hand out before me, and call out to the other angels.

  "Ariel? Ariel? Uriel? Twins? Cassiel! Ambriel!"

  "Caroline!"

  "Caroline!" I hear what can only be the twins' voices chorusing my name.

  "Cassiel, Ambriel, I opened the door. One of.." I begin, before I feel their bodies run past me at full speed, one of them even knocking me down onto the hard rocky floor.

  "Thank you, princess," I hear them calling back, from a distance far behind me. I am feeling quite unappreciated right now. I try to lift myself off the rocky floor, but all my energy is spent, and my head is very woozy, having it hard to discern my surroundings. At least the twins had said thank you, I think to myself.

  "Penuel! Araqiel!" I call out, for I am not sure if they got captured last night. "Ariel? Uriel?"

  "Ariel? Uriel?" I cry out again in a haggard voice, my energy quickly dispensing away. Where are they?

  "Camael?" I finally call out to the angel I like least.

  "Caroline!" The voice sounds unfamiliar, but it then crosses my mind that it could be Camael's. She rarely spoke to me before, so it would explain its unfamiliarity. I then feel her by my side.

  "Camael?" I call to her weakly. "Carry me out with you," I beg of her. The angel wastes no moment, cradling me to her, beside another body she is cradling too, and runs at what I note to be human speed towards the gaping open gates. She is holding me by the wrong side, crushing my shattered arm against her, but I swallow back the overwhelming pain, just glad to be almost done with my mission.

  When we get outside, my eyes struggle against the bright light after the dark tunnels, and my breathing struggles too, drinking deep the large quantities of free Essence in the air, before my brain registers the bloody battle ravaging before me.

  Hundreds of angels have swarmed around where the crumbled boulder had stood, hacking at the brotherhood, who look pathetic and weak, fresh for slaughter. They have been starved off their Essence, is why, I perceive.

  Mastering all my pain, I take in the ample supply of Essence around us, and begin to create my imaginary walls, creating another Epitome around me.

  "Mtacho hano ndingi!" Hurdle together behind me! I shout at them in my mother’s native language that Raphael had used on me before in a similar setting. He used it because the fallen have probably not had time or bothered to learn it, as it is considered a ‘primitive’ language of no significance. It is a perfect language to use in this setting, for the divine and I understand each other perfectly. I must have enabled them to understand it that time I ‘granted them’ the gift of tongues, as it is not an insignificant language to me.

  None of them, however, listens to me.

  "Raphael!" I shout with all my might at the Archangel getting his weak self beat up by a group of fallen angels, but all he does is send me a short glare, annoyed at being interrupted, before turning back to his futile fighting.

  But this is not a time to fight, this is a time to retreat and regroup. None of them is listening to me, so I do only what I know I must, to gain their attention. Bracing myself, I concentrate so hard that I feel the wetness around my nose. Nose bleeds, indicating that I have exerted my
self too much already. I ignore my body’s warning signs, and concentrate on pulling the Essence from all the brotherhood, causing them to fall weakly to the hard ground surface below them, as their ability to fly is taken away. All the heavenly beings look around in confusion.

  "Ndabatebya! Mtacho hano ndingi!" I said, hurdle together behind me! I order the arrogant divine angels. It only takes a moment for them to register the fact that this weakling human has just knocked them down, before they produce some more Essence with their adrenalin, and follow my instructions, rushing to hurdle beside Camael, that is still cradling me, and what I make out to be a hunched up Ariel.

  I immediately put up the shield, simultaneously swerving away from a sword that was just inches from piercing through my forehead, which had been thrown by one of the soldiers in the Divine Army. It could have been Mika, for all I know. The thought hurts me, as I looked at the soldier that had thrown the sword, studying his features, to see if he stands out in anyway, as to be my Mika. They are all identical though. I give it up, and instead concentrate on absorbing more and more Essence from the battle ground, and inject it into our small cocoon.

  "How...” Camael starts, but I ignore her, concentrating on the shield even as my eyes start blurring due to the pain, while the brotherhood deflect away the swords been sent our way. This is my chance to show them that I am not just a weakling human to be pushed around.

  "Where.. Where is Uriel?" I ask, as a fallen angel outside keeps hacking at the shield, sending us rocking backwards.

  "She isn't here," Raphael answers, and I wrinkle my forehead in confusion.

  "She betrayed us!" This he says unemotionally, and his words take a moment to sink in.

  Not now, Caroline. Concentrate on the most important, I tell myself.

  "What about the watchers, Penuel and Araqiel?" I ask, not wanting to leave any man behind, even as my mind seeks to hide from my pain by seeking unconsciousness. A notion I fight off fiercely. This is no time for weakness.

  "Did you call out their names?” The Archangel asks, as he swings his sword above my head, to deflect another flying sword from our assailants. I nod in answer.

  “Then they were not in Tartaros with us. If they were captured, they are being held somewhere else," he answers me. My head is swimming, so I close my eyes shut, concentrating on injecting more Essence into the shield and checking it thoroughly for weaknesses in my mind.

  "Is there a place to retreat, somewhere to be safe from them for a while? I don't know how long I can keep up...”

  "You are hurt...”

  "I asked, is there a damn place to be safe!" I grind out quietly, impatiently, cutting off Raphael's cool voice. Is he just noticing that I am hurt?

  "Yes. Devil's cove," he says, as he takes me from Camael's arms, just as another wave rocks us as our enemies outside try to break my shields again.

  I grit my teeth tightly, my eyes still shut, as I concentrate on the shield, and do not even notice the fact that the divine angels have set out soaring in the air all huddled together. My agonised body is tightly held against the Archangel's chest, as scores of fallen angels and their great army follow behind us, hacking at my quickly failing shield. I keep my eyes shut, and concentrate on the only thing I have control of.

  None of the fallen are coming in through my shield today. Not as long as I still draw breath.

  ~The End of Book 1~

  Now Available!!!

  Chapter 1

  ¨Who was that?¨ His voice bellows as he looks at the army assembled before him, his powerful dark wings fanned out behind him majestically as proof of his current agitation.

  ¨Could one of you tell me who that was?¨ He repeats, flying impatiently to and fro before his assembled army.

  ¨Her name is Caroline. She is Archangel Gabriel's representative on earth.¨ This comes from one of the Divine Army soldiers, a tall well-toned man with wings near identical to his spread out behind him, dark blood stains smudged onto his body and wings as evidence of the just ended battle creating a macabre piece of art.

  ¨What..?¨ The Archangel puzzles, coming menacingly close to one of the Divine Army soldiers. The soldier does not move or flinch a muscle though. Nothing scares these killing machines. He is not the soldier that had spoken up, but it is not necessary either to find the particular one that had, because all the soldiers in the Divine Army are part of one, and as per that, are essentially one being. What one knows, all know.

  ¨She said her name is Caroline. The Archangel's Essence runs in her blood.¨

  ¨That little devil Gabriel. I should have known she would go and do something like this!¨ The Archangel laughs boisterously, his temper seeming to have quickly vanished away.

  “Do you know anything else about her?” No answer.

  ¨I know her,” Daniel, another fallen angel says before Abaddon can lash out angrily again. “I saw her, the day Raphael severed your neck..” this last part he says carefully, not wanting to embarrass and ergo anger the already testy Archangel before them.

  “She was sitting on a rock in the middle of the rice paddy fields, and I just assumed her a mere son of man,” Daniel proceeds.

  “Aye, now I remember her too. But.. she didn’t seem touched in any way. She didn’t even seem to notice us..”

  “You forget that sons of man are masters at lies and treachery.”

  “Indeed, indeed.”

  “I remember her too,” Samael now speaks up. “When we fought the Archangel and my nemesis, Azrael. They’d been attempting to lead her into the Epitome for protection.”

  “Is she the same son of man..”

  “The very same,” the fallen angel of death says with certainty. “Her soul bears the very same print.”

  “Well then, at least we now know we hold the upper hand. The divine must be desperate, forced to rely on a human to save them,¨ Azazel, another fallen angel says. The other angels laugh in unison, except for the hundreds of clone soldiers that remain standing ramrod straight in their positions, emotionless and at attention.

  ¨What do we do, now that they are free, Archangel?¨ Samael, the large warrior-built angel with devilishly good looks, asks with his low husky voice.

  ¨We hunt them, dear brother. We hunt them down and destroy them! How much longer can they stay hidden behind an Epitome created by a little human girl?¨ He mocks.

  ¨We hunt them across the worlds if we have to, like they hunted us and our children. We become their worst nightmares. We terrorize their conscience by day and hunt them every night. What is that for payback?¨

  ¨Damn good payback, I say,” Samael says with a cocky smile playing on his charming lips.

  “What is that for payback?” The Archangel turns to the smallest angel among them, yet probably the most dangerous of them all.

  “I say It is about time we settled the score!¨ She replies with a confident smile, playing with a fireball in her hand. Nuriel, or the fire princess as she had been referred to back home, is an expert manipulator of the fire element, as well as possesses other gifts of the dark arts. She is the worst woman to scorn, and as that has a very big bone to pick with Raphael for what he had done to her over thirty thousand earth years ago.

  His comrades cheer at her words, stomping their feet in agreement, their thuds resounding loudly across the polished wooden floor they stand on.

  ¨But first, we shall feast and build up our spirits. Call in the humans. Tell them to bring in the food and drink. We celebrate tonight, brothers, basking in the memory of the terror we, the fallen, reigned upon the self-righteous divine angels.¨ More cheering ensues.

  ¨As for you, my dear soldiers, I know you prefer to celebrate in more savagely ways. You are hereby permitted to scour the world and do unto humans as you see fit.¨ Cheers and roars now arise from the ranks of the Divine Army, as the multitude of dark winged creatures begin to separate into groups and fly out of the hall.

  The destroyer looks around triumphantly as the last of the identical soldiers fly out o
f the massive hall they are assembled in. Due to the written laws they call the Principles of Divinity, he can never give a direct order for mankind to be harmed. The Principles of Divinity are a set of laws passed by the Heavenly Assembly that govern all beings in the universe, angels included.

  The vague order he’s just given is a loophole that ensures that the Divine Army attacks mankind. The Divine Army is a violent war-mongering lot, that lives for blood, death, and instilling fear and pain. A free order to entertain themselves is similar to ensuring that they reign hell on earth until called upon to stop. Now that would definitely draw out the weakened divine angels from their hiding place.

  He turns away and heads back towards the large modern banquet halls where twenty two of his followers are now assembled around the long dining table, gouging themselves in wine served by the large human staff around. Another dozen or so waiters rush about laying the tables and serving the food that’s disappearing almost as soon as it lands on the table.

  The fallen Archangel looks at the setting, unable to stop the melancholy that settles into his heart. One very important angel is missing- Hanael. Unlike the rest, who think she’d been released while they still rotted in prison, Abaddon believes that she’s out there, still waiting for him. Hanael may not be the most faithful of angels, but she never wavers from a course. She wanted this as badly as he does, to ensure the ultimate principality of heavenly beings over all life form, earthlings or otherwise. She wanted to amend the set Principles of Divinity just as badly as he does, and a few thousand human years in prison, starved of Essence, wouldn’t change that. Hanael is still out there, and he would find her.

  He flies over to the large seat at the very head of the table, picks up a delicate wine glass and raises it above his head. All talking stops, and even the drugged-looking humans instantly stop what they are doing and turn their eyes towards him.