He knelt beside the grave, wings held low, and nobody bothered him as they buried their own dead. Out of all the people killed, Yalda and Zhila were the only non-combatants. Why kill two helpless old women? Shay'tan was a brutal oppressor, but the old dragon had rules, and killing the elderly wasn't usually part of his repertoire.
He fingered the strange, golden key which Yalda had given him moments before she'd expired. What did it mean? Bring the two Emperors to Jebel Mar Elyas? Where was this place, exactly?
He looked over to the unadorned pile of rocks where Immanu's brother had been unceremoniously buried. In what had to be the bitter old drunk's last act of revenge, Merariy had taken the location of that temple with him to the grave. Immanu didn't know. Neither did any of the other villagers, though they had a rough idea it lay west of the Buranuna River. He had no idea where that was, but thanks to Dadbeh, they now knew in which direction to search for the Sata'anic base so he could steal a shuttle.
The sun set. He could hear Yalda's last words echo in his mind…
“Not -her-. The Other One..."
The Other One…
The Other One…
He put his hands over his ears and shrieked until he drowned out the noise of his own heart breaking.
And then he looked to the heavens.
"Ninsianna," he whispered. "I am coming to get you."
~ * ~ * ~
Chapter 115
February: 3,389 BC
Earth: South of Assur
Gita
She feared he might not come, but the chitter of a ground squirrel alerted her that a predator was on the prowl. Gita faded back into the rocks, but it was just Dadbeh. As she'd hoped, he'd come back to retrieve his witness. Gita stepped out from where they'd buried Taziq alive.
"I was kinda hoping you might have already dug him out for me," Dadbeh grinned. His eyes sparkled, and for the first time in months he seemed a little happy.
"It was my intent to leave him there unless his life served a purpose," Gita said. There was no mirth in her eyes; she'd decided to give Dadbeh three days: one to rest; one to bury the dead; and a third for him to hike back out to the place they'd set up their last encampment. She'd been about to leave when Dadbeh had arrived.
"Mikhail has decreed they will listen to any witness I care to bring," Dadbeg said. "If Taziq testifies, the Tribunal shall declare Shahla was innocent of any crime, for even the least sophisticated villager knows that tincture of ergot causes hallucinations."
"Who is the third adjudicator now that Yalda is dead?" Gita asked.
"Behnam is lead, Rakshan is now the second, and old Liwwaresagil shall be the third." Dadbeh said. "She is not as sharp as Yalda was, but she is kind, and everybody in the village respects her."
"Liwwaresagil was one of the few people who acted kind after Shahla lost her baby," Gita said. She gave him a smile which did not reach her eyes. "With her on the Tribunal, perhaps Shahla will get a fair hearing?"
They dug in silence and dragged out Taziq, who'd run out of water two days ago. Gita had not dared dig him out because the urge to kill him was so strong. What had once been a small, dark whisper had grown into an all-consuming hunger. Dadbeh forced water down Taziq's throat while Gita divided between them the spoils they'd retrieved from the Uruk raiders; more for him because there was only so much she could carry, but in return Dadbeh had brought food and three goatskins filled with water.
"What of Siamek?" Gita asked. "Did he survive?"
"Pareesa swears she saw your ghost save him," Dadbeh said.
"She still protects me?" Gita asked.
"I don't think she's certain what she saw," Dadbeh said. "But once I bring back Taziq, all shall know you survived."
Gita's cheek twitched. She hadn't deliberately thrown herself off the cliff, but she had felt relief when the waters had closed over her head.
"And Mikhail?" She asked this last question tentatively, pretending she was not as interested in the answer as she truly was.
"He no longer speaks to anyone," Dadbeh said. "If Ninsianna is not retrieved, I fear he will leave our village and, if he can, our world."
"The world will be a poorer place without Mikhail here," Gita said.
"Yes," Dadbeh said.
They both stared west into the desert, the uncrossable desert from whence she'd originally come.
"Where will you go?" Dadbeh asked.
"The Kemet said they would linger in Sippar, and then head north to the headwaters of the Buranuna Ruver." Gita shrugged, causing her too-large Kemet robe to slip off her shoulder. "I shall head west and try to catch up with them in Mari."
"Nothing lies that way but open desert," Dadbeh said. "Without a guide, you shall never survive."
Gita stared across the empty, ochre-yellow landscape which bore nothing but dust and rocks and the ever-present wind.
"I was five years old when I first walked across the desert," Gita said. "If I could do it then, somehow I will do it now. For this time, there is no village for me to come back to."
Dadbeh did not contradict her, for he had heard the warriors blame her after they had welcomed him back into their midst, and no one had spoken up for her. Not even Mikhail.
The sun shifted west beyond its apex to settle behind a hill, giving the illusion that the sun radiated out of it as though it was the doorway to a temple. A shape took form within that sunlight and moved towards them. Behind them, Taziq cried out, for although he was still disoriented from his lack of water, even he could see the ghost which came to greet them.
"Be gone!" Taziq shrieked. "And do not haunt me anymore!"
Gita met Dadbeh's gaze. From the tears which welled in the skinny man's mismatched eyes, he could see Shahla as well.
Shahla looked the way she had before she had gone insane; beautiful, graceful, and sophisticated. In her arms she carried a plump, swarthy-skinned baby, her hair curled with ringlets and matching eyes just like her father. Although Gita could see the resemblance to Qishtea, she kept her mouth shut, for Dadbeh had wanted that baby to be his baby, and even if it wasn't, what did it matter so long as the baby was loved?
"Why is she here?" Dadbeh's voice choked up with tears.
"She has something she wishes to give to you," Gita said.
The ghost of Shahla shifted the baby to her hip, and then she reached out with something in her hand.
Dadbeh stared at the fruit.
"I wanted you to have it," Dadbeh said, "in this life or in the next."
Shahla's eyes welled with tears, but they were happy tears, and even though when she spoke her words could not be heard, Gita somehow understood.
"She wants you to find love and be happy," Gita said. "She wants you to marry and have many fine sons; and if you have a daughter, she would like you to name that baby Rimona, which means pomegranate, in memory of her."
Tears welled in Gita's eyes, and she could see that Dadbeh wished to weep as well.
Dadbeh reached out and took the pomegranate from Shahla's hand. It was insubstantial, for the pomegranate was a thing of spirit, but it was also a promise. That Dadbeh would not forget her.
"How can I let you go?" Dadbeh cried aloud. "For all along I was in love with you, and you did not notice me until the end!"
Shahla stepped backwards with her baby, and the sunlight grew to surround her, and then it enveloped her until she was nothing but a shape. And there she stayed. Waiting for him to join her. Just but on the other side.
The sun dipped beneath the hill. The illusion disappeared.
Dadbeh gathered his things, and then forced Taziq to his feet to begin the march to Assur. If he left right now, they would reach the village shortly after nightfall, for the days had begun to grow longer, and already spring was in the air.
"Where will you go?" Dadbeh asked. "In case I need to get a message to you?"
"I shall ask the Kemet traders to bring me to Ugarit," Gita said. "And sell me to the first lizard person they see because they cannot afford to
pay a dowry to get rid of me."
"But the lizards will sell you to the Evil One!" Dadbeh exclaimed.
Gita gave him a small, dark smile which did not meet her eyes.
She waited until they disappeared over the hill, her hand splayed protectively across her womb. The desert stretched in front of her, an inhospitable land, and yet, because of Mikhail, somehow this time she knew she would find the strength to traverse it. She picked up Zhila's spear and began her journey west.
~ * ~ * ~
Chapter 116
Galactic Standard Date: 152,324.02
Earth Orbit: Prince of Tyre
Prime Minister Lucifer
Lucifer
The Prince of Tyre spun just outside of Earth orbit, she and the Sata'anic battle cruiser which had no idea there had just been a coup d'état. Could it truly be a rebellion if he had only seized back what was already his? Lucifer had no idea. All he knew was this ship was the only thing he had which had not been given to him by the Eternal Emperor or the Alliance. That, and the man who lay unconscious in his bed.
A light tap rapped upon the door. Lucifer flapped the crick out of his wings, and then lowered his voice so he would not wake his sleeping lover.
"Come in," Lucifer said, projecting the command more than speaking it.
Eligor strode in, a stern, silent wall of watchfulness and guarded emotions. Three guards shadowed him, but Lucifer signaled them to remain outside. Eligor's pale wings settled against his back in a sloppy facsimile of 'dress wings.'
"Report?" Lucifer asked.
"We could find no sign of Zepar, Sir," Eligor said. "Neither him, nor his two goons." His white wings flared like a bird with ruffled feathers, betraying the anger which Eligor otherwise hid.
"Did they steal my shuttle?" Lucifer asked.
"No, Sir," Eligor said. "I pulled the ignition interface when we landed so that wouldn't happen, but it appears they stole your needle."
Lucifer hissed with irritation. If they'd taken the needle, they could be anywhere in the universe right now, but he feared from his mother's warning the three hadn't gone very far.
"I want a guard on Ninsianna at all times," Lucifer said. "That thing has a vested interest in getting its hands upon her baby."
"Lerajie will watch her," Eligor said. "He is quite smitten with her, you know? They all are, all of the men."
Lucifer snorted. He had seen into her mind when she'd tried to convince him to trust her. Yes. He trusted her with his life. But he pitied the poor bastard stupid enough to ever trust her with their heart!
"What did she say when you told her?" Lucifer asked.
"She was not happy," Eligor said. "Doctor Halpas promised her you would let her go. I told her it was just a delay, that you feared letting her leave until you are absolutely certain your friend will live."
Lucifer squeezed his lover's hand. His mind he could read much better, for even in Jamin's dreams, every thought he had echoed within Lucifer's own heart as if it was his own.
"She dumped him when the Colonel came along because she wanted to see the stars," Lucifer said, "and now she is apprehensive about going back to him, because she fears her husband will relegate her into a role of housekeeper and mother. Find out what excites her, and then use it to make her want to stay."
"She is quite a healer," Eligor said. "Perhaps if you let her shadow Doctor Halpas? That should keep her happy for a while."
Lucifer stared at the place beneath the bandages where Jamin bore evidence of a second scar. That scar was one of the few things he remembered from the night they had bonded; an intimate wound that would be only seen by a lover or a healer. Even within a modern Alliance, when one found such talent as that possessed by Ninsianna, one did not allow it to lie fallow.
"Order Halpas to start training her to do whatever sparks her interest," Lucifer said. "I want two guards with her at all times, but order them to make it appear as if they are tour guides. We must somehow convince her not to go running back to my father's watchdog."
"Yes, Sir," Eligor saluted him and left. If Lucifer didn't know better, Eligor looked to be relieved.
He brooded at his lover's side as Jamin drifted somewhere between consciousness and sleep. Power … or love. That was the choice the gossamer-winged creature of light had given him, and he had chosen love. The only problem was, She-who-is hadn’t told him exactly what that choice entailed. Should he disappear into the uncharted territories to avoid prosecution, perhaps set up a brand new colony like the Seraphim had done? Should he turn himself in to his adoptive father for punishment and in exchange for Earth's protection, let Hashem put him in jail? He couldn't stay here, because there was a Sata'anic armada on the way.
At last Jamin began to stir.
“Mo ghrá? Lucifer stroked the luscious, sandpapery beginnings of a beard which graced Jamin's cheek. “Tá tú ar ais chugam ó mhairbh [you have returned to me from the dead]."
Jamin opened his bottomless, black eyes, filled with pain as he felt the bandage wrapped around his midsection and wondered how he came to be still alive.
“You came for me?” Jamin said in broken Galactic Standard. “Why did you risk yourself to save a lowly mortal such as myself?”
“It is you who saved me,” Lucifer's voice warbled. “But now I face a difficult decision. As you know, while I was possessed by evil, I committed many heinous crimes?"
"Yes," Jamin said. He avoided Lucifer's gaze. "I committed some of those exact same crimes myself, only unlike you, I cannot claim some defect of possession."
"Then you understand the nature of the problem," Lucifer said. "The only justice I can give to those I have so bitterly wronged is my own death. But I fear in doing so, not only will I take you with me into the next world, but also my species, and the fates of our sister-species as well.”
Jamin gave him a bittersweet smile so handsome it took Lucifer's breath away. He was a beautiful, muscular man, built to hunt and relish in the blood of his enemies, a primal force of nature, the very essence that Hashem had bred out of the Angelic species.
“Then we shall do our best to make amends,” Jamin said. “And if we fail, then we shall walk into the next world together. For I realized as I entered the garden with the Eternal Tree, that I did not wish to be parted from you. I only came back because you called for me.”
Lucifer gasped for breath, for all his life he had longed to hear those words, even as he had cursed his mother for making that same choice.
“What did you see on the other side?”.
Jamin looked past him, as if he could still see it.
“All of the wrongs I committed flashed before my eyes." Jamin said. "But I also saw the one thing I had done right. Loving you.”
Lucifer grimaced to hide an overwhelming jumble of feelings. His wings, however, he could not force to obey, and as he tried to suppress it, his feathers rustled like leaves in a wind-blown tree.
“I was shot once in the heart,” Lucifer whispered. “I saw a room on the other side. It was terrifying and dark, and nobody waited for me there.”
“My mother waited for me with my baby sister,” Jamin said. He reached up, and captured the tear which slid down Lucifer's cheek. “And there was another woman there, a winged creature such as yourself, only she was dark like Mikhail, and her eyes were blue instead of silver. There was a man with her, tall like you are, with the same white-blonde hair and wings. She pleaded with me to go back and tell you she had not abandoned you by choice.”
The wellspring of grief which Ninsianna had released bubbled forth from the place he had hidden it all those years ago. It was not the ruler of the Alliance who blubbered onto his lover's bandages, but a fifteen year old boy who had been abandoned to sit next to his mother's body. Jamin ran his fingers through his hair and feathers and told him he knew exactly what it felt like to feel such sorrow.
"Tell me what to do?" Lucifer wept. "For never have I felt so lost!"
Jamin reached up to cup his face.
> "I do not trust this Emperor you speak of," Jamin said, "for when I bonded with you, I saw how he left you alone. My father became grief-stricken and paralyzed after my mother died, but he did not abandon me as your adoptive father did. I realize now my father loved me as best he could, and if some defect has arisen in our relationship, that fault lies with me, and it is up to me to make amends."
"And what of your friends, the lizards?" Lucifer asked. "From how you spoke of them, you seemed to be on good terms?"
Jamin sighed.
"General Hudhafah treated me fairly," Jamin said, "and amongst their kind I enjoyed a kinship with many good men. But men are not their gods. This dragon god they worship likes to sit upon his treasure, and because he is stingy, some of my good friends needlessly died. After all I have been through, I trust no god, and I would not trust Shay'tan any more than you trust your father."
"And what of Moloch?" Lucifer asked. "Would you love him?" His voice was a whisper, for he feared the answer.
Jamin looked past him, his black eyes filled with pain and longing.
"He is everything you are," Jamin said, "but twisted beyond belief. I see in him, you, and you in him. And I loved him. I won't deny it, for he was beautiful, and powerful, and oh! So powerful! Never have I sensed so much power! He showed me what he thought I wanted most to see, and he would have given it to me, too, because deep down I sensed that all he wanted was to be loved."
"Then why did you not choose him instead of me?" Lucifer asked. "He is a god, while I am just a mortal man."
Jamin's smile was wistful.
"Because Moloch did not know how to love me back," Jamin said, "but you did. You saw within me the yearning that your spirit-father could never give me."
Spirit-father… Lucifer's mind rejected the notion even though he knew it was true.
Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) Page 108