The Wind-up Forest

by L. J. LaBarthe

  “You’re all being very dramatic,” Agrat said. “It’ll be fine.”

  “You think it will be fine.” Ishtahar moved closer. “You do not know this for certain. Yes, I am sure that Lucifer has information, but he has his creatures working with the Brotherhood of Archangels even now. Lilith has not sought you out for thousands of years, Agrat. It is highly suspect that she chooses to do so now.”

  Agrat ran her hands through her hair and bit back a frustrated curse. “Ish, I promise, I’ll be fine. Lilith won’t hurt me.”

  “How do you know?” Ahijah asked.

  “Because Lilith is many things, but she wouldn’t hurt her sisters. We were the only ones who stood with her before she went to Lucifer. And even though we didn’t agree with her decision, we respected it. She won’t repay that loyalty with bad behavior.”

  “I think you’re wrong,” Hiwa said.

  “That’s your right,” Agrat said coolly. “But you’re wrong, young man, and don’t try and overstep yourself. I honor your family, yes, but remember you’re still Nephilim, and I’m still an angel.”

  Hiwa bared his teeth at her. “You never used to be like this, Auntie Aggie.”

  Ahijah stepped forward and took Hiwa’s arm in his hand. “Let it lie, bro,” he said softly.

  Hiwa grunted but stepped back.

  “Hiwa has a point,” Remiel said.

  Agrat drew herself up. “Do not make me call on God. I will, don’t you think I won’t. I’ll get authorization from Him to make sure that none of you come with me. And Michael and Gabriel can stick that in their pipes and smoke it!”

  “Wife, please….”

  “No, Shateiel.” Agrat brought her hand down heavily on the wooden sideboard. “I’m determined. We leave in an hour. Stop arguing with me and deal with it, or go join Michael and Gabriel wherever they are now and suck it up.” She marched out of the room, her head held high. She knew that if she remained, she would lose her temper and say things that would upset everyone. It would be better for all if they had a little space.

  “Agrat.” It was Shateiel, and his blue eyes were full of concern. “Talk to me.”

  “And say what? I told you everything I know already!” Agrat turned away.

  She jumped when she felt his hands on her arms, when she felt his lips on her forehead. “Shay,” she sighed, leaning into him, “why can’t you just accept that I know what I’m doing?”

  “I always do, wife. But consider. This situation is making everyone jumpy. Two hours ago, Lord Gabriel alerted me to the fact that little things are starting to break down. I am very worried, beloved. More worried than I have been for millions of years.”

  Agrat relaxed into him, leaning into his broad chest. “I know. I can feel it. I think we all can, whether we’re angel, immortal, or monster. It’ll be noticed by humans before too long, won’t it?”

  “Lord Raziel estimates six months until total breakdown of the walls between realities.”

  Agrat groaned. “That’s not good.”

  “No, it is not. But I must know, Agrat, do you think that this meeting will help?”

  It hung between them for a moment, and Agrat finally let out a long, slow breath. “I do. It might not be much, but it’ll be better than nothing.”

  “Then we will be ready to leave within the hour.”

  Agrat smiled up at Shateiel. “Thanks, Shay.”

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “Do not mention it, beloved.”

  LILITH WAS reclining on a pile of silk cushions laid on a priceless Egyptian carpet. A shade cloth awning had been constructed, and two men stood on either side of her, slowly fanning her with large palm fans. A low table sat in front of her, upon which was a jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and small plates of dates, grapes, stuffed vine leaves, olives, and hummus.

  Agrat slowly walked over to her sister without looking over her shoulder. The meeting was taking place on the banks of the Gaberoun Oasis in southwestern Libya, a region not without its own troubles. Agrat mused to herself that Libya had been a trouble spot for as long as humans had decided to try their luck in surviving in the desert.

  She sat down opposite Lilith without a word, and one of the men with the palm fans moved so that he could fan her and keep her cool. Agrat nodded her thanks to him, and with her power, read in his aura that he was mute. His tongue had been cut out. She quirked an eyebrow at Lilith as her sister plucked a grape from the bunch on the table and languidly ate it.

  “What?” Lilith asked, pushing back her fiery auburn hair. As always, she was beautiful, as she had been when she had caught Lucifer’s attention so long ago. Olive skin, sea-green eyes, auburn hair that fell in waves and curls to her waist, she wore a simple silk gown the color of the lake that shimmered turquoise beside them, belted with gold. The cut and design of the gown was Grecian, and Agrat, in her cotton shorts, T-shirt, and sneakers, felt woefully underdressed.

  “Did you have to cut their tongues out?” Agrat asked. She poured herself a goblet of wine.

  “No, because they were like this when I hired them.” Lilith fixed Agrat with her unblinking gaze. “Do you really have to ask me about such inanities? And did you really have to bring your family?”

  “Yes and yes,” Agrat said. “They insisted.”

  “How annoying. Lucifer places no such bonds upon me.” Lilith suddenly smirked, a wicked expression. “Other bonds, though, oh yes.”

  “Spare me. I don’t want to hear about your Hell life.” Agrat rolled her eyes and reached for a date.

  “I’m the eldest of the four of us, I can boast if I want to,” Lilith said.

  “As the youngest of the four of us, I don’t want to hear about it,” Agrat retorted. Then she laughed. “How quickly we fall into old patterns. It’s good to see you, Lilitu.”

  “And you.” Lilith smiled. “Have you heard from Eisheth or Naamah?”

  “No, but Raphael tells me that Eisheth still lives in the stars, comforting those that near the end of their life, and Naamah lives in the oceans.” Agrat ate the date, then tore a piece of bread from the loaf and dipped it into the hummus. “This is a nice little setup, by the way.”

  “There are some things that Earth has that not even Hell can provide. You don’t need to repeat that, though,” Lilith said.

  “Your secret’s safe.” Agrat lay on her side, watching her sister. Lilith hadn’t aged a day, but then, Agrat hadn’t really expected her to. “Are you happy?”

  “Yes.” Lilith nodded. “I really am, Aggie. I know that God created me to be His to start with and then He decided to give me to Adam. I didn’t really like being passed around like an unwanted present, and Adam was an idiot. No, he really was, don’t glare at me like that. Adam had the intellect of a rock. Eve must have had the patience of a saint to put up with him. So when Adam and I had our falling out, and I went out of Eden and had my time with the monsters, I realized that sex didn’t have to be about procreation. It didn’t have to be a duty. It could be fun, too, and it could be pleasurable.”

  “I know that,” Agrat said. “I am the Angel of Prostitution and Sex, after all.”

  “Yes, but your original gift was just sex. Sex that would lead to procreation, nothing else. God realized when I left Adam and Eden that maybe He’d made a mistake. I bet He misses me in His bed. Even more now that I’m in Lucifer’s.”

  “You know, I don’t think God thinks that much about it,” Agrat said. She ate some more of the bread and hummus. “He’s got bigger things to think about.”

  “Yes, the Grail. I know.”

  “And?” Agrat asked.

  “And what?”

  “That’s an irritating habit you’ve picked up,” Agrat said. “What do you know about the Grail, Lilitu?”

  “It makes those who ask me things be specific. It helps avoid misunderstandings.” Lilith picked up her own goblet and drank. “I know that it is of grave concern to Lucifer. He and Adramelek were shocked. So this theft came as a surprise to everyone, not just your t
eam.”

  Agrat pursed her lips. “So it’s true that no one saw this coming.”

  “It seems so.” Lilith tilted her head to one side. “What does God say?”

  “Nothing, I’m told.”

  “What a surprise that isn’t,” Lilith drawled. “What about Joseph of Arimathea?”

  “Samael can’t find him in the Land of Light,” Agrat said.

  Lilith’s eyebrows shot up. “Truly?”

  “Yes,” Agrat said. “This is a very prickly situation, Lilitu.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you know where the Grail was kept?” Agrat asked.

  Lilith shrugged. “The Saint Catherine’s Monastery.”

  Agrat sighed. “Damn. No, that wasn’t the real Grail. It was a very clever fake.”

  “A fake? Are you sure?” Lilith shook her head and answered her own question. “Of course you would be, Tzadkiel, Raziel, and the other two Grail Archangels, Michael and Gabriel, would have verified that. Who made the fake?”

  “Joseph himself, apparently. He did so in order to keep the real one safe.”

  “And see how that worked out.” Lilith took another sip of wine. “Well, he must have had some insight into what was to come.” She fixed Agrat with a look that Agrat remembered well from when they had been young, naïve and innocent, playing among the fruit trees before Eden was built. “You might have to convince your Archangels to send a delegation back in time.”

  Agrat blinked at her. “Back in time? Why? To when?”

  Lilith seemed amused. “You were much smarter than this when we were younger. Why, to speak to Joseph himself and find out what his plans were. And when, well, to sometime in the first century anno Domini, in Britain. Aquae Sulis, I think.”

  “Why there?” Agrat asked.

  “Because it was a thoroughly Roman city in a land of barbarians, and Joseph, coming from Arimathea and the Holy Lands, would be used to certain things that the barbarians would have no idea about. Like hot water, heated floors, civilized things like toilets and bathrooms, and, of course, the baths themselves.”

  Agrat shook her head, amazed. “You’re a goldmine of ideas and suggestions, Lilitu. Thank you. I’ll put this to the Brotherhood as soon as I leave here to report to them.”

  “I’d also suggest they do this sooner, rather than later.” Lilith’s expression turned serious. “I am closer to the planet than you are. I hear the whispers and songs of my children and their children, the cries of the spirits of the murdered giants. Things are breaking, Aggie. Things that should not. We do not have long until we all reach a point of no return and chaos, not the chaos that my lord and his people like, but true, evil, unredeemable chaos, reigns.”

  Agrat digested that silently. Despite the heat of the desert and the warm breeze that blew off the lake of the oasis, she felt chilled to the bone. Lilith’s warning resonated with her, and she knew that she had been trying to ignore the signs and portents of the very same thing.

  Finally, Agrat nodded. “I’ll make them do it in the next twenty-four hours. I don’t know how, yet, but I will.”

  Lilith nodded. “Good.”

  “So how have you found Earth today? It’s been a while since you set foot here,” Agrat said.

  Lilith chuckled. “The humans advance, then they kill each other. Other humans decide they can do better as rulers and want to create a dictatorship. They make deals with demons and Fallen Ones, and then the Archangels thwart them. Then there’s a fight. Rinse, repeat. It’s all the same. At least the planet heals itself even if humanity doesn’t.”

  Agrat snorted. “Cynic.”

  “Realist.” Lilith was about to say more, but she stopped, a strange expression crossing her face.

  “Lilitu?” Agrat asked, feeling alarmed. And then she heard it.

  There was a strange whining in the air, as if a thousand bees had been trapped in a tight glass jar with no air. The whining intensified, grew shrill, and Agrat winced, noticing that the two human males had stopped fanning them and were covering their ears, their mouths open in silent screams.

  “Agrat, what’s going on?” Lilith asked. She sounded frightened.

  “I don’t know, Lilitu. I—” Agrat was cut off as a sound like canon fire shattered the whining.

  In the aftermath of that sound came the sense of loss, the feeling of unalterable pain and misery, and Agrat was on her feet. She had no idea what was happening, as she and Lilith grabbed each other and clutched one another in terror and despair.

  “Eisheth!” Lilith cried out, tears streaming down her cheeks.

  Before Agrat could say anything, she heard laughter. It was a high, wicked laughter, and it ricocheted from horizon to horizon.

  Then Naamah’s voice filled their ears, and Agrat and Lilith gazed at each other in horror as they heard their third sister speak.

  “You are a pair of fools, who have cast your lot in with other fools. Eisheth did too, but she was always too trusting. Now, she pays for that. She’s dead, by my hand, with my blade, her blood in the Holy Grail. The Grail is mine now, mine to use as I see fit.”

  And then the voice was gone.

  Agrat, tears on her face for the death of her sister, the gentle and trusting Eisheth, looked at Lilith, certain the expression of horror and loathing on Lilith’s face mirrored her own.

  “Naamah has the Grail,” Agrat whispered.

  “And she’s killed Eisheth in an act of sororicide to start profaning it,” Lilith replied.

  Shateiel was there, Agrat realized, and Ishtahar, Hiwa, Ahijah, and Remiel. “I have to go,” Agrat said. She hugged Lilith tightly, almost crushing her sister to her. “Take care of yourself and stay close to Lightbringer!”

  Lilith hugged her back just as tightly. “I will,” she promised. She turned to Shateiel. “Keep her safe, angel. If she dies or is injured, I will come for you personally.” Before Shateiel could answer, Lilith kissed Agrat’s cheeks, released her, and vanished.

  Agrat turned to her husband and her friends and drew in a deep breath. “Eisheth….”

  “We know,” Remiel said. He was shaking. “We heard. We felt it. It went through all of us—angel, demon, immortal.”

  Ishtahar moved to her, laying her arm across Agrat’s shoulders. “We must go to Yerevan,” she said.

  Agrat nodded, groping for Shateiel’s hand and clinging to it when she felt him take it. “Yes, yes. Naamah….” She couldn’t finish.

  “We will fix this,” Shateiel said.

  “I hope so,” Agrat whispered.

  “Come,” Remiel said. “We must go now.”

  Agrat looked around for the two human males and saw, to her horror, that they were dead. “Oh, no.”

  “They died because of Naamah,” Remiel said. “In their proximity to you and Lilith, they were destroyed by Naamah’s voice and the beginning of her corruption of the Holy Grail.”

  Agrat buried her face in her hands and wept. She felt Shateiel pull her close, and she went, unresisting. The next thing she knew was the merciful blackness of teleportation, and then they were in Yerevan, in a room full of angelkind, Archdemons, shifters, and some of Michael’s Venatores.

  Agrat turned away, burying her face in Shateiel’s chest, and sobbed. She sobbed for her sister, Eisheth, and she sobbed for the loss of Naamah’s soul in her quest for the Grail. She sobbed for humanity, for Earth, for Heaven and Hell. And she sobbed for two nameless men who lay dead in the Libyan desert.

  Chapter 19

  AT 1:00 p.m. in London, Penemuel gasped, coming to his feet in his office and spilling a cup of tea on his table. Later, he would be relieved that there were no priceless manuscripts or old books on his desk, but at that moment, the sound of the death of an immortal, the succubus-blended angel called Eisheth, filled his ears and his soul. He felt his throat constrict with horror as he heard the triumphant cry of Naamah reverberate around the world, and he squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself to breathe, to not crumple into a ball, to not scurry and find a
place to hide.

  At the same time, in the forests of far northern Scotland, the angel Camael and his two companions stopped in their tracks, frozen by the roar of glee that crossed the ether to fill their minds. Naamah’s voice held them still; the act of her sororicide of Eisheth paralyzed them further.

  At 2:00 p.m. on the clock, in Brussels, Belgium, Kokabiel and Baraqiel ran from the observatory dome to the parking lot and stumbled, falling to their knees. They clung to each other, tears of grief and fear coursing down their cheeks as Naamah’s voice came to them, as the shock of her murder of her sister filled their souls.

  In Hell, at an unknown hour, everything fell silent. Lucifer, always pale, always handsome, stood transfixed by the voice of Naamah, shocked into immobility by her brazen actions. The ever-restless Sea of Frozen Souls stopped its movement, as everything in the reality that was known as Gehenna fell silent, awed and horrified.

  In Heaven, at another unknown hour, angels keened, their voices filled with distress and sadness at the death of Eisheth, and their hearts and Graces pounded with terror for what Naamah’s actions might bring about.

  In space, the stars who knew Eisheth, who loved her, cherished her, all winked out. For a single moment, all of space was made dark as the stars mourned her death in their own tribute to a life snuffed out for reasons of selfish greed.

  It was 5:00 p.m. in Yerevan, and Angelique sat, squashed between Lily and Declan, gaping at the tableau of horrified beings before her. The Archdemons clustered by a window, and their expressions were terrible, full of a desire for violent and horrendous retribution. The Archangels expressions were also terrible, the colors of their powers shining in their eyes, as they looked at each other, grim expressions on their faces. The shifters who lived in the apartment block were nervous and clung to each other, not sure what to do, who to look at, what to say.