“Now get going to your tent,” he said. “I’ve got to get to the command tent before Gerard starts spitting daggers out his ass.”
- 2 -
The meeting was already well underway by the time Garnet arrived, but Gerard did little more than nod to acknowledge his presence. Kaelus motioned with one clawed hand, then resumed speaking.
“Now that we’re all here, it’s time we divided our forces and got this war underway the way we want to run it,” the demon said. “I’ve been conferring with Mikal and Gerard on and off for the past few days, and we agree this is our best chance. We need several groups, each with a distinct mission, each contributing to the larger scheme of disrupting Hell’s advance and ultimately stopping them cold. If we are to turn the momentum of this war, we must use our smaller size to good advantage.”
He waved a hand toward Gerard, who stepped in smoothly.
“We saw during the beginning of the Barrier War how a small unit can have a major impact against a much larger force,” the Red paladin said. “Shadow Company had a devastating effect on Merishank and later held against impossible odds when facing the damned souls. We need to expand that thinking and utilize it on a much broader front without losing the essence of its success.”
Gerard motioned to the expansive topographical representation of Heaven that dominated the floor of the tent.
“As we’ve discussed, we’ll be gathering a massive force of relatively untrained souls here,” Gerard said, pointing to a broad valley well back from the front lines of battle.
Kaelus rustled his leathery wings as he resumed talking.
“I’ve asked Gerard to take over the training of that force,” the demon said. “While I value his tactical advice, he knows more about training than anyone else we’ve identified in Heaven, and I trust him to get the best results in the shortest period of time. We’ve gone over and over possible tactics, and I think Mikal and I have a firm grasp of what needs to be done. Just to be sure, we’ll still be in contact with the Red teiranon,[23] and I expect we’ll want him back here much sooner than we can afford to remove him from the training.”
Gerard inclined his head at the compliment.
“In the meantime, I’m sending Shadow Company to do what they do best,” Kaelus continued. “I saw through Birch’s eyes during the war just how deadly and effective you are, and I can think of no one better to accomplish the sorts of things I need done. We’ve discussed several assignments I’d like you to consider, Garnet, and soon enough we’ll go over their respective priorities so you can plan accordingly.”
Garnet nodded.
“El’Siran,” Kaelus went on, directing his attention to the elven commander, “I regretfully must keep you close at hand. In the weeks and months to come, I will be forced to stay mobile. In addition to a force of angels that will accompany me, I respectfully require you and the Elan’Vital remain close by to protect the mobile command from sudden, unexpected disaster. If something goes wrong and we encounter demons, I can think of no force better suited for this task than the elite guard of the elven nation.”
Siran clapped a hand on his fist and bowed low.
“It is an honor to serve,” the elf said.
Kaelus nodded in satisfaction, pleased with his choice.
“Last is the combined force of paladins, angels, and the blessed dead,” Kaelus said. “We’ll be splitting the main body of the Heavenly Hosts, which currently includes most of the best commanders we have available. Mikal will command one wing of the divided Hosts, and Uriel the other. Other Seraphim and Dominions will be found to command further units as I move about and redeploy our forces, but these will be the primary wings of the Hosts. Birch, I’d like you to take command of half the living paladins and accompany Uriel. Garet, you remain in command of the rest and follow Mikal. As we’ve done here, Mikal and Uriel will primarily command the angelic forces, while you two will command the mortals and blessed dead. Uriel,” Kaelus said, and his immortal friend looked up attentively, “I’m counting on your Archangels to help lead the way. You’ll be bearing the brunt of Malith’s offensive, and I need the very best there to hold him as long as possible.”
Uriel nodded, then glanced over at Birch and grinned.
“I’ll hold them, you kick ‘em where it hurts,” the Seraph said. Birch smiled briefly, then winked one of his fiery eyes.
“Thanks to Garnet,” Kaelus said, gesturing, “we have a few new tactics to help move around and fight the demons from Hell, and hopefully we can surprise that motherless Black paladin they have in charge there.”
Gerard made a dissatisfied noise in the back of his throat.
“Yes?” Kaelus asked.
“Just wanted to be fair, Kaelus,” Gerard said. “Malith did have a mother, I met her once and she was rather pleasant, despite her previous life as a street madam. We’re just pretty sure his unknown father was a pit viper.”
- 3 -
Flasch hurried through the camp, trying to find Anolla and her brother before they left. The twins were to accompany Gerard and an escort of dead paladins and a handful of angels on their way to the new training grounds, and Flasch had been trying all day to get Anolla alone so he could talk with her away from the men in her family. He wasn’t sure what her twin thought, but he was rather certain that both Garnet and his father frowned upon Anolla’s interest in Flasch.
He sincerely hoped it was nothing more than familial concern and not anything personal. The first could be overcome with time, but the second left him in something of a quandary with his emotions on one side and his friendship and loyalty on the other.
Flasch slipped between two tents that, judging by the snores emanating from both, were currently occupied by slumbering paladins.
“How am I doing, Trin?” Flasch asked his squad leader. Against his reservations, Flasch had deployed his platoon around the camp and asked them to act as scouts for him. Apparently, they all found his situation highly amusing and accepted the assignment with broad grins and a few knowing winks.
“Looking good, sir,” Trin replied. “I’ve got Dishka in place helping to pack some of their things. He and Brad have thrown a few games of darts together, so I thought it best he volunteer to help out.”
“Good thinking,” Flasch thought back. He grinned. “Good initiative. I like that in a squad leader.”
Trin chuckled through his kythe.
“Cut between the two tents on your left, then stop behind the gray tent with the blue pennant on top,” Trin directed him. “Wait there, then step out and hold. She’ll be able to see you, and Dishka will do his part.”
Flasch followed Trin’s instructions and waited patiently.
“Step out now.”
As Flasch peeked out, he saw Dishka nudge Anolla and mutter something close to her ear. Anolla turned slowly until she saw Flasch, and a brilliant smile lit up her face. Flasch’s breath caught in his throat, even at a distance, her smile was so genuine and radiant it sent his senses reeling.
Now that is beauty, he thought to himself.
“You’re a lucky man, sir,” Trin kythed to him.
“Objective one completed, now get out of my head,” Flasch thought irritably. “Warn me if someone’s coming, otherwise go stare at the mountains or something.”
Anolla carefully slipped away from the others and made her way casually toward where Flasch was hiding. When no one was looking, she ducked behind a tent and soon after appeared at his side.
“I was worried you would leave before I could see you,” Flasch said, flustered now that the moment was upon him. His tongue felt like a lead weight, and his thoughts seemed to whirl about beyond his ability to control.
“I was worried you wouldn’t come see me,” Anolla said. Her cheeks turned a rosy color. “Well, I mean, I was hoping you’d come say goodbye.”
San, she looks beautiful when she blushes!
A hundred different things passed through Flasch’s mind, all rehearsed beforehand and all forgotten i
n the moment. Florid phrases suddenly seemed inadequate, and instead Flasch opted for simple honesty.
“Anolla I…” he stopped and reached down awkwardly to take her hand in his. “Anolla, I just wanted to tell you how much this last week has meant to me. Spending it with you, I mean, even just the little bits we’ve been able to sit together and talk. I don’t know when I’ve ever had so much pleasure just talking to someone.”
Flasch cleared a lump in his throat and swallowed it again, then he smiled briefly in embarrassment.
“It’s just, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you, and I don’t want to lose something it’s taken me so long to find and recognize,” Flasch said, his words alternately rushing from his lips and stumbling past his thoughts. “It’s just as Trames said, everything else I’ve seen just seems dull beside what I feel when I look at you and see the simple truth of your beauty. It’s true,” he said, laughing slightly at the blush on her cheeks. “I was just too stupid to see it before.”
“Well, I was pretty ugly before,” Anolla said with a laugh. “I don’t think I could blame you.”
“And yet, if you looked like you did then, but I knew you like I know you now, it wouldn’t make the least difference to me,” Flasch said. “I’d still feel the same way about you.”
Anolla’s hand tightened in his.
“And how is that?” Anolla asked.
“Well, please don’t tell your father, and for the love of God don’t tell Garnet, but I’m falling in love with you, Anolla,” Flasch said. As soon as he said it, the whirling in his mind settled, and he no longer felt like his stomach was about to burst. “I didn’t want you to leave without knowing, and I didn’t want to leave you without saying it.”
Tears welled in her eyes and Flasch’s heart skipped a beat until he saw the radiant smile on her face.
Without saying a word, Anolla slipped a long, flimsy scarf with a swirling green-and-violet pattern from out of a pocket and wrapped it around Flasch’s waist. She tied an intricate knot in the middle, then shifted it off to one side.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“It’s something my mother told me about,” Anolla said, wiping away her tears. “Women would sometimes tie scarves to the men they loved as a token, and the knot was supposed to contain a piece of their love to keep him safe. I know she still gives one to my dad sometimes when he leaves and she has a bad feeling. Only the woman who tied it could undo the knot, and it was a symbol of a mutual promise to return to each other.”
Flasch didn’t even stop to think, he just lifted a hand to her cheek, leaned in, and kissed her delicate lips for the first time. Anolla responded with a passion that surprised him, but after only a moment they parted by silent consent.
“I’ll come back to you,” Flasch whispered. A mental warning from Trin alerted Flasch that Anolla’s father was on his way to say goodbye to his children. Flasch lifted Anolla’s hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles gently. Anolla left him reluctantly, but she went back to her tent and finished stowing her gear a moment before Garet arrived.
She glanced back once, but Flasch had already disappeared.
Chapter 25
What good is patience if you have nothing to hunt? No goal? No target?
- Malith jo’Tarqin,
private journals (997 AM)
- 1 -
“A month!” Birch said in disgust. He stared out the window of a marble-white wall toward the endless white plains beyond. The citadel he now occupied was a recent construction. Less than twelve hours before, the cloud-like ground of Heaven had been flat and featureless as far as the eye could see. Then Uriel had caused the earth to split, and a perfectly formed fortress of white stone erupted from the ground, towering so high it was visible for miles and it dominated the landscape. Rivers were diverted, mountains moved, all to funnel enemy forces to this one location.
Here they would stand, and here they would hold for as long as possible before Malith’s overwhelming army forced them to retreat yet again. This had been the pattern for the past fifty days, and Birch saw no end to it in sight. The endless panorama laid out before him seemed an apt metaphor for the war being fought upon it.
“A month since Kaelus divided our forces with the vague promise of turning the tide of the war, and all we’ve done in that time is hold and retreat,” Birch said as he clenched his hand around the stone of the window. In the mortal realm, Birch knew, this would be the first day of Solmanth and the beginning of the summer season. Spring had long since thawed the last vestiges of winter from all but the most remote of locations, farmers would be working in their fields under an increasingly oppressive sun, and children would be swimming in lakes and streams to cool off after a long day of play.
In Heaven, none of these was true. There were no children playing. The light was constant, despite the lack of a definite source. The temperature was constant, neither hot nor cold. The war was constant, and the days blurred together in a never-ending cycle that slowly ground away at their forces as they ceded ground to the demons. Retreat was constant. Defeat was constant.
Red flames erupted between his fingers and scorched the pristine rock, and when he turned to regard the angel behind him, he left a blackened handprint on the otherwise perfect surface. Selti scampered into the room in his drann shape and immediately poked his nose into every corner, sniffing hungrily.
“A month, Uriel,” he said to the Seraph, who stared at him patiently. “You construct, we defend. We hold, then we run. This is not a war, it’s a slow slaughter and a long road to defeat and despair. What in the name of Hell is Kaelus thinking?”
“You’re not thinking straight, Birch,” Uriel explained calmly. “Our wing of the army is supposed to be falling back…”
“As if we had a choice,” Birch said bitterly.
“…so that we can maneuver Malith’s forces as we wish,” Uriel said with a hint of force. “You’re a sound enough tactician to recognize this, and we both know it.”
Birch frowned distastefully even as he nodded in acknowledgement.
“So what’s really eating you?” Uriel asked.
“I’ve given enough to this war,” Birch said in a level voice. He paused a moment to collect his thoughts. Temperance, he thought to himself. Anger is not a weakness unless left uncontrolled or misdirected.
He allowed his anger to drain out of him with a self-control built on the teachings of the Prism and tempered in the fires of Hell. Selti appeared under Birch’s hand and changed himself into a gray-furred Labrador, which Birch began to pet absently. His voice softened as he continued. “I’ve given enough both as a paladin and as a man, and the thought of yielding anything, even a piece of the infinite ground of Heaven, sits inside me like a viper coiled and ready to strike. Every inch we yield is like poking that viper with a stick, and with every fortress we leave behind, the serpent coils tighter and tighter.”
Birch gave a dry, humorless laugh. “I’ve counseled my nephew on most of the virtues at one time or another, but I think he would find me a poor example of temperance right now.”
Uriel laid a hand on Birch’s shoulder and withheld a wince. The demonic presence within Birch was growing stronger with every day, it seemed, and while Uriel knew Birch was still in command of himself, he worried about the growing effects on his mortal companion.
“I can sympathize, my friend,” Uriel said, by now comfortable enough with Birch to use the familiar moniker. “I really can. It is not easy for me to watch my home being slowly devoured by my immortal enemies, and to know that I must continue to yield before them like some cowering weakling. My anger and despair would threaten to drown me, save for one comfort I hold close.”
Birch turned and looked questioningly at the Seraph.
“Our time will come,” Uriel said with a fierce intensity as he gripped Birch’s shoulder more tightly. “Malith will lead his forces all unknowing exactly where we would have them go, and when we strike, we will make such an ending of hi
m that the forces of Hell will shatter and the blow will reverberate across the immortal plane and echo hauntingly in the ears of the King of Hell. And then, Mephistopheles himself will feel the sword of justice, and he will know fear.”
Birch held Uriel’s intense gaze for a moment, then he faltered and looked away. Uriel’s hand slipped from his shoulder.
“What is it?” Uriel asked.
“I’m afraid of him,” Birch admitted in a low voice.
“Malith?” Uriel asked disbelievingly. “No, not him. Mephistopheles?”
“Yes. He is everything from the worst of my nightmares, which are but pleasant dreams compared to the reality I endured, much of which at his hand,” Birch said. He returned to the window and stared out across the empty plains once more. “Did you know, when I first came to Heaven, I felt something strangely familiar about this place? Like I’d been here before. It wasn’t Kaelus,” Birch said, forestalling Uriel’s comment. “It was something from me, and it’s taken me until recently to figure it out.”
“And?” Uriel asked quietly.
“I died once,” Birch said, “and for a brief moment, I felt I was in the afterlife. I was in a place that felt peaceful and comfortable. I didn’t have a body, I didn’t see anything or hear anything, but I knew I was in eternity and it was nothing like this.”
Birch paused a moment. Selti looked up forlornly as Birch’s hand ceased its caresses.
“This place reminds me of Hell,” Birch said, and he smiled without humor as he heard Uriel recoil behind him. “It’s beautiful where Hell is grotesque, and it’s holy where Hell is damned, but still, they feel the same to me. There is no life here, Uriel. Heaven is just as impossibly large and utterly devoid of life as Hell, no matter how much more breathtaking it might seem. Even the perfect beauty of Heaven grows tiresome to one who is used to lush greenery and the beautiful variety of life.” He turned slightly and looked over his shoulder at the dumbstruck angel.
“Life requires both good and evil, and Heaven is as pristinely good as Hell is purely evil. Given a choice, I would give up both and live forever in the mortal realm or else exist as nothing, taking part in neither. Man was made out of the stuff of both good and evil, and doing completely without one destroys what he is and the thing that makes him truly great.”
Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) Page 34