The Crystal Lake

by L. J. LaBarthe

  “Ah,” Lily said. “Avalon.”

  “Yes,” Raziel said. “That was actually my exact reaction.”

  “Do we know where the real Grail is, sir?” Shateiel asked.

  “Yes. He gave some fairly vague descriptions about it, but I think I’m right. It’s in the caves beneath the Little Langdale Tarn.”

  “There aren’t any caves beneath that,” Lily objected.

  “There are,” Raziel said, “they just haven’t been found yet.”

  “How is that possible?” she demanded.

  Raziel looked amused. “Have you met us? We’re Archangels, pleased to meet you.”

  Lily rolled her eyes and flushed a little. “Okay, fair enough, but the Cathedral Caves are close by, not beneath it.”

  “I think you’ll find that there are some caves beneath it. It’s a bog sort of a lake, and it’s got the local name of the Crystal Lake currently, which is quite poetic. In any case, once we get home and recover, we’ll go there and see what’s left.”

  “That’s a pretty good summary,” Uriel said. He looked at the three Venatores. “Go to bed. You’ve got about four hours to get some rest, so make use of it.”

  “Okay. Though I’m still pissed you pulled me away from Julian. He’s nice,” Angelique said.

  “He’s also a couple of thousand years dead in our time,” Uriel said. “Go to bed.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him and then stood up. “We’re going, we’re going.”

  Lily and Danny stood as well. “Maybe we should take some water with us when we travel through time,” Danny suggested. “It might help a bit.”

  “Can’t hurt,” Raziel agreed. “Rest well, you three. I don’t imagine you’ll get a proper sleep, but rest at least.”

  They bid him goodnight and filed into their rooms, closing the doors behind them.

  “Is there anything else?” Agrat asked.

  Raziel shook his head. “Not really. You two don’t know who might have appeared to Joseph in his dreams, do you?”

  Shateiel shook his head. “I do not think that any of the Seraphim would know. We are military, not messengers. Perhaps one of the Cherubim would know?”

  “We’ll ask Tzad,” Uriel said.

  Conversation turned to more general subjects, and the slow hours ticked by as they talked in low tones. An hour before they had planned to leave, Shateiel and Uriel went downstairs to pack their wagon and hitch the horses, and Raziel and Agrat gathered their belongings together and several water skins. Then they went to wake up the Venatores.

  “I think I’ll have the world’s longest sleep when we get home,” Lily said, stifling a yawn as they made their way out of the inn and into the courtyard where their wagon waited for them.

  “That sounds like the best damn idea ever,” Danny said. He helped Lily up into the wagon bed, then Angelique. Agrat climbed in after them.

  “Let’s go,” Raziel said as he climbed up into the wagon seat. Danny climbed in beside him, and Uriel and Shateiel mounted their horses. Danny took the reins and clucked to the patient animals, and they moved into a walk.

  “Go north,” Raziel said as they traveled toward the vicus gate.

  “Right.”

  The guards waved them through sleepily, not bothering to stop and ask them questions, and Raziel was relieved. He could smell the faint reek of wine—the guards were most likely wishing they were anywhere but on duty. Sloppy they might be, but tonight, Raziel was grateful. As Danny turned the heads of their horses to the north, Raziel reached out with his mind and power, seeking a spot where they could hide so that they could begin the jumps through time.

  IT WAS nearly dawn when they were ready to travel. Raziel had waited for Shateiel and Uriel to send their horses back to where they’d found them, along with the wagon and the pavilion they had first rested in. While they were doing that, Raziel, Agrat, and the Venatores had put their three trunks back to back, and now the Venatores were sitting on them, holding the water skins that Raziel had taken from the inn.

  “Are we ready?” Raziel asked as Shateiel and Uriel walked over to them.

  “Yeah. The horses were happy to have helped.” Uriel tugged off his helmet and put it on one of the trunks. “No need to wear that now, is there? It makes my head sweaty, and I’m going to be fucking sweaty enough once we start this.”

  “No, by all means, be comfortable,” Raziel said. He hadn’t meant to be sarcastic, but Uriel rolled his eyes at him.

  “How far are we jumping the first trip?” Agrat asked.

  “Five hundred years. Take the date and location from me,” Raziel said. He fixed the year 598 A.D. firmly in his mind as he took Uriel’s and Shateiel’s hands. “Ready? Good.” And then he moved them, feeling Uriel’s, Agrat’s, and Shateiel’s minds and powers linked with his, four powerful angels propelling their small group through time and space.

  When they emerged in the world again, Agrat was gasping and Lily promptly leaned forward and threw up.

  “Sorry,” she said as she sat up.

  “It’s all right,” Raziel said. “Have a drink of water. Here, Danny, hand me that skin.” He took the skin as Angelique got the stopper off the one she was carrying and held it out to Lily.

  “Are you all right, wife?” Shateiel looked worried.

  “Yeah. Just a bit weird here. I think I was close by at this point in time. We shouldn’t stay too long. We’re in 598, right?” As Raziel nodded, she took a long drink of water. Once she’d swallowed, she took a deep breath. “Then we should move right along. I can feel myself. That sounds so weird.”

  Raziel laughed. “I know what you mean. Where were you? Are you?”

  “The wall. Hadrian’s Wall,” she said. “Western end.”

  “Still too close,” Uriel said.

  Raziel handed the water skin back to Danny. “We have to move. Sorry, Lily, we can’t wait.”

  She waved a hand at him. “I’m fine, Raz, really. Move us.”

  “Right.” Raziel took Uriel and Shateiel’s hands again. “This time, we’re going to 1298 A.D.”

  “That’s a bit longer than a five-hundred-year jump,” Uriel protested.

  “I know. It’ll be fine,” Raziel said.

  “It better. I don’t want to be lost forever in time,” Uriel grumbled.

  “Take the date and coordinates from me,” Raziel said, ignoring Uriel’s grumblings, and when he felt the power of his three angelic companions, he moved them.

  The jump took much longer this time, and Raziel counted slow seconds. As the count ticked past sixty, Raziel felt his worry begin to ooze out of control. He was right on the verge of panicking and reaching out for Heaven and begging God for help, when reality exploded around them.

  The thicket was unchanged, but Raziel could hear the sounds of people riding along a road that must be nearby. “Everyone all right?” he asked.

  “So far, so good,” Agrat said.

  “You’re not close to yourself again, are you?” Raziel said.

  She laughed. “No, I was in Palestine at this point in my timeline. Shay was with me. Where were you and Uri?”

  Raziel looked over at his lover. “Where were we?”

  “Switzerland, I think. You were recovering from yelling at a bunch of clergymen about the Crusades.”

  “I remember now. I was very angry.”

  “With damn good reason, they were all a bunch of assholes. Greedy assholes.” Uriel shook his head. “How are you kids doing?”

  “Okay,” Angelique said. “Though I know we’re going to be exhausted when we get back. We’ve got, what, nearly a thousand more years of time to cross?”

  “Just under eight hundred years, yes,” Raziel said. “Everyone have a drink of water, and we’ll move on to 1985.”

  “Oh great, we get to hear Wham and Duran Duran all over again,” Uriel said. “I am not wearing shoulder pads or socks with loafers, Razzy.”

  Raziel burst out laughing. “But you rocked the Don Johnson ‘Miami Vic
e’ look, babe.”

  Agrat and Shateiel began to laugh. “I can’t imagine it,” Agrat said. “Did you have big hair, too?”

  “It was a carefully blow-dried quiff with loads of hair gel,” Raziel said.

  “Please tell me you have photos of this,” Agrat said.

  “Somewhere, yeah,” Raziel said.

  “I hate you all,” Uriel growled. “Let’s go.”

  Raziel took Shateiel’s and Uriel’s hands once again. “All right, are we ready?” As everyone said yes, he took a deep breath, and feeling the strong hold of three other angelic Graces on his own lending power and energy, he moved them.

  When they emerged in the world once more, it wasn’t the sound of horses’ hooves on the road that roared around them, but the sound of cars.

  “We’re right by a fucking motorway!” Uriel yelled.

  Lily was throwing up again.

  “This isn’t good, Raz,” Agrat said. “She’s been sick twice now. We need to get back and get her to Raph.”

  “Are you in pain, Lily?” Shateiel asked.

  “No, just woozy tummy,” Lily said, wiping her mouth. She took the water skin that Danny gave her, giving her husband a wan smile.

  “We should jump one more time,” Shateiel said. “If we try to break up the trips any smaller, she may be seriously ill when we reach home.”

  “Not going to argue,” Raziel said. He looked at Lily in concern. “Are you sure it’s just a wobbly tummy?”

  “Yeah,” Lily said. “I never did well on long car trips. This is a bit like that, in a way.”

  Uriel’s eyes were narrowed, and Raziel could feel the delicate whisper of his power as Uriel reached out, looking for something. A moment later, he held out his hand, and on his palm was a roll of butterscotch candy.

  “Here,” Uriel said. “Butterscotch helps travel sickness. Raph used to give it out all the time.”

  Lily took the roll. “Thanks, Uri.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  Lily popped one of the candies in her mouth and offered the roll around. The angels all declined with shakes of their heads, but Danny and Angelique both took a piece of the candy.

  “Let us know when you’re ready,” Raziel said. “This is the last jump.”

  “Hopefully,” Uriel muttered.

  “Do you mind?” Raziel asked.

  “Hey, you’re the glass-half-full Archangel, I’m the glass-half-empty Archangel.” Uriel shrugged. “Let’s get out of the eighties.”

  The angels took each other’s hands as the Venatores sat close together on the trunks and Raziel concentrated. He focused on the elegant boardroom in Ondrass’s suite of rooms in the hotel in Yerevan and the date of the day two days after when they’d first left for the past. Then he added four hours, so that their return time would see them back just after dawn. Once everything was fixed in his mind, he looked at Agrat, Shateiel, and Uriel and concentrated hard. Then he moved them.

  It felt as if this trip would last forever and for several moments that felt like centuries, Raziel thought that they really had gotten lost. But then reality crashed back on them, and they were in the boardroom.

  This time, Lily was the only one not throwing up; Angelique and Danny were bringing up everything in their stomachs. Uriel stumbled, dropping down to the floor, panting harshly. Agrat simply sat where she stood and then lay on her back, taking great gulps of air. Shateiel dropped down beside her and held her hand, although he was panting just as harshly as Uriel.

  Raziel felt as if he’d been put through a wringer several times and beaten with a legion of baseball bats and pelted with several tons of rocks. He sat down, feeling himself shaking, and took slow, long, deep breaths. A moment later, he felt Uriel leaning into him, and he leaned back, taking relief and comfort from the strong, solid presence of his lover.

  “Well,” said a new voice, “that certainly was unexpected.”

  Wearily, Raziel looked up. Seated at the boardroom table, a porcelain cup of tea before him, was Ondrass. He wore gold silk pajamas and a red and black open silk robe. He looked genuinely stunned.

  “Hi,” Raziel said.

  “Indeed,” Ondrass said. Then he frowned. “You all look terrible. Markus!”

  Before Raziel could say anything, Markus rushed in. He wore black silk pajamas, and as he took in the scene, he looked astonished.

  “Back so soon?” he asked.

  “Shut up,” Uriel growled.

  “Markus, would you be so good as to ring down to room service? Have them bring cold spring water—lots of it. Also have them bring food, carbohydrates. They need to eat and rehydrate. Also have them bring some vitamin B12.”

  “At once, boss,” Markus said. He hesitated a moment. “Did you get what you went for?”

  Raziel nodded.

  “Thank Lord Lucifer,” Markus said. Then he dashed from the room.

  Ondrass looked at them critically. “I will refrain from summoning your glorious leader until you’ve taken refreshment.” Then he grinned. “You’ll owe me for that favor, though.”

  Raziel laughed tiredly. “Thank you and fair enough.”

  Uriel grunted.

  “He agrees, he’s just too tired to speak,” Raziel supplied.

  “And yet, you seem to be able to do so,” Ondrass pointed out.

  “I’m running on empty,” Raziel said. “Now I’m shutting up.”

  Ondrass nodded. “As you wish. Do eat, though. You all need to.”

  “I will. We all will. Thanks, Ondrass.” Raziel leaned a little more into Uriel.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” Ondrass said.

  Chapter Eighteen

  GABRIEL LISTENED as Raziel recounted their experiences in Vinovia. He felt a slight pang of regret—he had been fond of the Roman Empire and being able to go back and live within it again, for however brief a period, would have been a chance he would have leapt at. Although, looking at the weary faces of Raziel, Uriel, Shateiel, Agrat, Danny, Lily, and Angelique, Gabriel thought the exhaustion was something he could do without.

  “So, that’s where we stand,” Raziel concluded.

  “Are you certain that this Little Langdale Tarn is where the Grail was kept?” Michael asked. “It is, after all, a very tenuous link between what Joseph said and the Tarn itself.”

  “I am mostly certain,” Raziel said. “I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am. It feels right.”

  “Like divine providence?” Haniel asked.

  “Yes, exactly. I think this leap was a leap of faith, and God is letting me know that I made the right one. For whatever reason, God isn’t talking to us, so we have to make these leaps. I think He will let us know when we make the right one or the wrong one as much as He can.”

  “I suppose we can visit the Tarn,” Michael said.

  “We have to,” Raziel insisted. “Sooner, rather than later, I think.”

  “Another leap of faith?” Adramelek asked, skepticism coloring his voice.

  “Yes.” Raziel ran his hands through his hair. “I’m tired. If you lot want to argue about it, do it later. What happened while we were in the past?”

  “Apologies,” Michael said. He inclined his head to Raziel. “You are correct. We should not wear you all out further with our discussions. Gabriel, will you please tell them what we discovered at Minnie and Max’s home?”

  “Aye.” Gabriel moved to the polished oak sideboard and poured glasses of water for Raziel and the others. He waved a hand and used his power to float them over to the four angels and three Venatores. “You all look parched,” he said.

  Raziel took a glass. “Thanks,” he said. “Seriously, Gabe, thanks. Dehydration was an issue. Ondrass fed and watered us when we got back, but I bet I’m not the only one still a bit thirsty.”

  “It was a very tiring exercise, sir,” said Shateiel.

  “I can well imagine.” Gabriel walked back to his seat and sat down. “Okay, so this is what we know.” He relayed what they had learned, ending with,
“And then Michael went and made a lightning storm and created some fulgurite for Minnie to make these nifty amulets.”

  “Fulgurite, eh?” Raziel mused. “Clever girl, that Minnie.”

  “You should tell her that when you’re more energetic,” Gabriel said.

  “I will,” Raziel promised.

  “While the prince was playing with the weather, we had a little chat with some demons who had gone over to Naamah,” Ondrass said.

  “Must you call me that?” Michael asked.

  “Yes,” Ondrass said.

  “Wonderful,” Michael said.

  “As I was saying,” Ondrass said with a smirk on his face, “we went and had a nice little chat with those traitor demons. They told us what Naamah wants.”

  “And that is?” Raziel asked.

  “Chaos. Now, before you ask why, I am going to tell you. She wants chaos because apparently, we all failed her somehow and allowed for destruction of coastlines, the increase in seawater temperatures, and the deaths and extinction of various marine life.”

  Raziel blinked. Gabriel had to hide his amusement, for Raziel’s expression of absolute astonishment was rare. Raziel, as the Archangel of Mystery and Secrets, was rarely surprised about anything. Despite the seriousness of their situation, Gabriel thought seeing him so bewildered was quite wonderful.

  “She’s pissed because of global warming and climate change?”

  “Yes. And death of marine life.”

  Raziel rubbed his eyes with both hands. “I feel like I’ve slipped into an alternate universe. That can’t seriously be her sole motivation. Can it?” He lowered his hands and looked at Ondrass.

  Ondrass shrugged. “Who knows? That’s what we were told. It sort of makes sense, as Raphael was the first to inform us that Naamah was living in the seas of the planet. But things like this happen, do they not? It isn’t something that we or you can or should stop. Is it?”

  “Too many questions,” Raziel muttered. He shook his head. “No. It’s not something that we should stop, because evolution is a natural process. Sometimes things speed up evolution, such as human invention or war. This… no. No, I don’t buy this. This is bullshit. There’s something else and this is a candy-coated reason to confound us if any of her lackeys were caught. Which they were.”