“Moloch is using your husband to gain a foothold in this universe,” Hashem warned. “Do you have any idea what will happen if the Evil One punches through? Shemijaza's child will be even more genetically evolved than he is! You must keep the child’s existence a secret!”
“I saw no sign of this Moloch." Asherah gripped the bed rails as her contraction built to its crescendo. "Shemijaza had blackouts. Times he seemed a bit … callous. Headaches. He is sick! Not evil. The only evil I see is a selfish old god who would deprive a child of his father!”
Dark feathers flew everywhere as Asherah's instinct to take flight warred with her need to remain Haven-bound because a newborn couldn't fly. The child was coming, whether he wished for it to exist or not.
“The child’s head is crowning, your Majesty” Dephar interrupted, his chief geneticist who was acting as midwife. He grabbed a scalpel and clamps with the same practiced ease he used whenever he delivered any other genetics experiment Hashem had cooked up.
"Shemijaza!!!" Asherah threw back her head and screamed her husband's name.
Her cries awoke something Hashem had never felt before, perhaps it was pity? Yes. He wished to alleviate her suffering so he wouldn't have to feel it himself. With no words to convince her this was the right thing to do, he resorted to something he hadn't done since he'd ceased being mortal.
"Take my hand, Asherah," Hashem moderated his power so he could safely touch her, "and let me help you bear this pain." His hand grew warm where it brushed her skin, the sensation igniting some mortal need he'd long forgotten existed.
"He has a right to know!" Asherah slapped away his hand. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she focused her attention inwards, seeking to make contact through the bond purebred Seraphim formed with their mate.
Asherah was only half-Seraphim, but he'd reason to worry she'd formed the bond which granted her kind telepathy, no matter how far apart they were in the universe. He'd gone through great lengths to make the rebel leader believe she'd committed suicide. If Shemijaza found out Asherah had just borne him a son, he would raze the Alliance into dust to get her back. With Shay’tan sapping his resources, there was no way he could withstand war on a second front.
“Goddess!!!” Hashem shouted, not with his voice, but with his mind. “I don't know how to prevent this!”
The scent of ozone and fresh flowers supplanted the sterile, medicinal scent of the genetics laboratory. A buzz that felt like tiny jolts of electricity filled the air as golden light descended from the ethers and coalesced into a tall, slender female with pointed ears and gossamer wings. SHE rarely descended into material form because it made her vulnerable, but keeping this child a secret was paramount. With a rustle of wings which sounded like crinkling cellophane, She-who-is plastered a sympathetic expression upon her chiseled features and stepped forward to console the grieving mother.
“I wouldn't ask you to make this sacrifice if the fate of the universe didn't depend upon it,” She-who-is's tone was hypnotically reassuring. “Ki warned you of this when you sang her Song to conceive your son, didn’t she?”
“Yes,” Asherah sobbed.
Hashem felt a twinge of envy. Why had a mortal been given access to the Song of Creation and not him? By Ki, no less? She-who-is's mother?
“Your Eminence,” Dephar's snout bowed with awe at the appearance of the goddess who ruled All-That-Is. “The child is stuck in the birth canal.”
“I shall deliver him myself," She-who-is lilted a perfectly shaped eyebrow in Hashem's direction. "He is that important." SHE placed her hand upon Asherah’s swollen abdomen to eliminate the Seraphim's physical pain. “Push, my daughter. I wish to meet this prince of Tyre.”
The child slid into HER waiting arms. He didn't cry as others did upon being cast out of their mother's womb, but looked at HER as though he could already understand what she said. He reached for her face as Dephar cut the umbilical cord and gurgled a sound which sounded like 'SHE.'
The goddess' lips turned up in a smile, genuine this time as she recognized something in the newborn which pleased her immensely.
“You're Lucifer, Bringer of Light." SHE glanced over to the sobbing Seraphim, too grief-stricken to hold the son whose conception had forced her to abandon her husband. "Be grateful, young prince, that this mortal loves you enough to keep you hidden from your -real- father. All-That-Is depends upon you not falling into Moloch's hands."
Asherah wept. She-who-is reached towards her temple to grant her the mercy of wiping Shemijaza from her mind, but Asherah slapped away HER hand. Even Dephar gasped at the Seraphim's audacity.
“Don’t you play your memory games on me!” Asherah hissed. She sat up in her childbed as regal as a queen. “I shall do as you ask, but the soul doesn't forget! Someday Shemijaza and I'll reunite!"
Hashem cringed. She-who-is might be all-powerful, but Asherah understood the rules of the larger game which bound even old gods such as himself. Not quite genetically evolved enough to achieve immortality on her own, the Seraphim was too close to perfection to manipulate against her will.
“So be it." She-who-is wrapped the infant in a blanket and handed him to Hashem. “You must protect this child with your immortal life. Train him to lead his people on the path of balance or I'll hand him over to someone else who will.”
“Yes, your Eminence." Hashem bowed. “I'll raise him as though he were my own son.”
The goddess' eyes burned gold with power. With a disdainful flick of her gossamer wings, She-who-is shimmered out of the material plain.
Hashem looked down at the child who had just been placed into his care. The infant didn't cry. Not even a squeak. He had his mother's delicate facial features, but the snow-white wings and white-blonde hair of his father. Instead of blue, the child had inherited Shemijaza's eyes, so pale and blue they were silver like the moon, a genetic throwback to a bloodline they had all believed to be extinct.
Morning Star…
Would this child also inherit his father's intellect?
Hashem shivered even though he'd long evolved past the ability to feel the cold. Shemijaza had outsmarted him. Outsmarted Shay’tan. Outsmarted every creature in the galaxy including She-who-is. Asherah had brought warning of a new threat snuffling around the rebel leader, one terrifying enough to cause the half-Seraphim to abandon her mate and flee.
Morning Star…
A bloodline that was even older than She-who-is. Heaven help them all if Moloch got his hands on Shemijaza's offspring!
“Asherah?" Hashem presented the infant to the grieving Seraphim, beautiful in her grief. “Your son…”
“Go away!" Asherah curled up in a fetal position and refused to look at her child. “You wanted him, now you’ve got him!”
The infant stared up at him, his eerie silver eyes filled with trust. It couldn't be good for the child to be rejected by his own mother. Hashem knew from his work as a geneticist that most rejected offspring simply withered and died.
Morning Star …
The most genetically advanced bloodline in existence!
Hashem glanced around at the cold, sterile artifices of his genetics laboratory. She-who-is had given -him- the prize, and neither Shay'tan nor the child's own father even knew it! All he'd to do was make sure Moloch didn’t find out, either.
He took the infant and gave Asherah the space to grieve.
'Prince of Tyre'
Book 2 of the Sword of the Gods Saga
Now available at Amazon.com
Lucifer cover art by Rochelle Greene aka Caelicorn © 2012
PREVIEW: Angel of Death: A Love Story
Book 1 of a new series:
Children of the Fallen
Azrael Thanatos wants nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of his scientist mother. Sent to study humans on a wager between the Eternal Emperor and Shay'tan, he has no idea Earth is gateway to a fiery prison. Far from home, he is befriended by Elissar, a precocious child with silver eyes. When Moloch instigates the invasio
n of Carthage to escape, Azrael sacrifices his life to snatch his friend from the Devourer of Children's maw.
Saved by a mysterious goddess, Azrael is given a new mission. Watchman. Roaming the Earth without shape or form, he searches for those who would help Moloch escape and drags them to a prison where only Lucifer holds the key. It's a hellish immortality, for who wants to serve alongside the Fallen or exist when no living creature can survive your touch? Haunted by Elissar's death, he despairs of never finding love or friendship again as time grinds civilizations into dust. For who would love Death?
Then one day a child takes his hand and lives…
Life for Elisabeth is not easy. The Angel of Death took her entire family the night a drunk driver plowed through a stop sign and left her in a wheel chair. Azrael is forbidden to interfere as she bounces through foster homes, hardship, and grueling rehabilitation. Then one day he is forced to reveal he is not a figment of her imagination. Oh, how she hates this angel who has taken everyone she ever loved! She will beat him if she has to squeeze the life force from her own body! The invasion of Iraq inspires her to join the Army as a trauma nurse, unaware that Death has fallen in love with the woman who can defeat him.
Will she take his hand a second time?
Angel of Death: A Love Story
Available at Amazon.com
Angel of Death cover photo by ~xartez © 2011
A Moment of your Time, Please…
Did you enjoy reading this book? If so, I would be most grateful if you would do me the honor of revisiting whatever distribution platform you purchased it from and leaving a written review. This book took more than a year of my life to write working diligently for 5-6 hours each day. Unfortunately, without the multi-billion dollar advertising budget of a big commercial publishing house, most independently published and small-press books don't make back the cost to produce them (much less eat while writing them) … unless … readers such as yourself pass along word to others that you enjoyed it. In this day of online shopping, websites rank which books you see and readers decide what books to buy based on reviews left by other readers. I would be oh-so-grateful if you would do me the honor of leaving a written review.
If this book came your way via a gift or a loan from a friend, you can still share the love by leaving a review on one of the reader-centric review websites:
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Feel free to contact me or leave feedback at my Facebook page. I love hearing from you and I do write back!
Be epic!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anna-Erishkigal-author/203837383044945
About the Author
Anna Erishkigal is an attorney who writes fantasy fiction as a pleasurable alternative to coming home from court and cross-examining her children. She writes under a pen-name so her colleagues don't question whether her legal pleadings are fantasy fiction as well. Much of law, it turns out, -is- fantasy fiction. Lawyers just prefer to call it 'zealously representing your client.'
Seeing the dark underbelly of life makes for some interesting fictional characters, the kind you either want to incarcerate, or run home and write about. In fiction, you can fudge facts without worrying too much about the truth. In legal pleadings, if your client lies to you, you look stupid in front of the judge.
At least in fiction, if a character becomes troublesome, you can always kill them off.
Her general-purpose Facebook page is at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anna-Erishkigal-author/203837383044945
Or view book extras, including maps of the real-life village of Assur, fantasy casting calls, artwork of the different species, inspirations, bits and snippets of research, and excerpts from upcoming books at:
www.facebook.com/pages/Sword-of-the-Gods/266590273421583
Other Books by Anna Erishkigal
Sword of the Gods Saga:
--The Chosen One
--Prince of Tyre
--Agents of Ki
--The Dark Lord's Vessel (coming soon)
--The Fairy General (coming soon)
Children of the Fallen:
--Angel of Death: A Love Story
--A Gothic Christmas Angel (A Novella)
Leviathan's Deep:
--La Sirène (coming Summer 2014)
Short Stories:
--The Watchmaker (A Novelette)
List of Species
Humans: a species that went extinct after an asteroid hit their homeworld, Nibiru, approximately 74,000 years ago. All attempts to reseed humans onto other planets failed and they died out. It's rumored this is the species which spawned the Eternal Emperor, but the Eternal Palace has refused to comment.
Angelics: genetically engineered super-soldiers spliced together from a genetic base of humans and the keen eyesight and wings of eagles. They carry the highest percentage of human DNA. They act as the Alliance's air force. Due to inbreeding to maintain their animal features, fewer than 7,500 Angelics remain in existence today.
Leonids: genetically engineered super-soldiers spliced together from a genetic base of lions and humans. They are the most animalistic of the four branches of the Alliance military. They act as multi-purpose situational forces. When the going gets tough, the Emperor says, 'Send in the Leonids!' Due to inbreeding to maintain their animal features, fewer than 3,500 Leonids remain in existence today.
Centauri: genetically engineered super-soldiers spliced together from a genetic base of horses and humans. They act as the Alliance's cavalry. Due to inbreeding to maintain their animal features, fewer than 4,000 remain in existence today.
Merfolk: genetically engineered super-soldiers spliced together from a genetic base of humans and aquatic mammals. They were engineered to act as the Alliance's navy. Five hundred years ago their species merged with a sister-species, Leviathans. Only a handful of purebred Merfolk still exist today. The hybrids are known as Mer-Levi.
Leviathans: a genetically enhanced species of sentient aquatic mammals originating from the same homeworld that humans came from, Nibiru. They evolved separately after being successfully reseeded on a remote planet. Many of their species merged with Merfolk into the Mer-Levi.
Mantoids: a naturally evolved species of sentient six-legged insects. They have supplemented Angelics in the Alliance Air Force.
Spiderids: a naturally evolved species of sentient eight-legged insects. They have supplemented Leonids in the Alliance Air Force.
Delphiniums: a naturally evolved species of sentient frog-like amphibians. They have almost totally replaced Merfolk as the Alliance's Navy.
Saori: a naturally evolved species of gazelle-sized sentient mammals. They supplement and support the Centauri Cavalry, but due to their small size, haven't been able to replace them.
Muqqibat: a naturally evolved species of sentient serpent-like creatures with short arms and legs and a head that resembles a dragon. They are an 'ancient species' and many of their number teeter at the threshold of becoming ascended beings.
Cherubim: a naturally evolved species of fierce, ant-like creatures which dwell in hive-like colonies of Monks ruled by a single queen. They are the personal guard of the Eternal Emperor and teeter at the threshold of becoming ascended beings. Their population has remained stable at exactly 1,000 for the past 15,000 years.
Seraphim: an sub-species of dark-winged Angelic which was wiped out 25 years ago by unknown aggressors. Only one member of this species survives, Colonel Mikhail Mannuki'ili. The Colonel went missing 7 months ago and is presumed dead.
Grigori: a species of fire-breathing dragon which disappeared from the galaxy approximately 150,000 years ago. It's rumored Emperor Shay'tan was once a Grigori, a true dragon, a question which always elicits a toothy, enigmatic smirk.
Sata'anic Lizards: a species of sentient lizard which make up the largest portion of Shay'tan's armies. They suddenly appeared 74,000 years ago to replace Shay'tan's predecessor species of soldier, the
Nephilim, a species which is now extinct.
Marid: a naturally evolved species of blue-skinned humanoids which had begun to spread out in the uncharted territories until the Sata'an Empire annexed part of their territory three generations ago. They are now divided into two sub-species: the Sata'anic Marid, who serve in Shay'tan's armies, and the Free Marid Confederation, whose homeworlds still remain free.
Catoplebas: a naturally evolved, boar-like species that makes up part of Shay'tan's armies. They are known for their pugnacious disposition.
Tokoloshe: a sentient, bear-like species infamous for its aggressive nature and their disgusting habit of cannibalizing their enemies. The Tokoloshe have spread across the uncharted territories like a plague and all species fear them. Rumor has it they are a science experiment gone terribly wrong, but whenever asked, Emperor Shay'tan and Emperor Hashem point their fingers at each other and say 'he did it.' It's rumored this is the motivation behind the Eternal Emperor's strict 'seed world' policies prohibiting interference with emerging pre-sentient species.
Ascended Beings: aka 'old gods.' Most are creatures which were born mortal but, after countless lifetimes, genetically evolved enough to figure out how to make themselves immortal. They possess various levels of ability, ranging from demi-gods who can merely heal themselves to 'elemental' gods who have learned to harness the laws of physics. A few such as She-who-is were born full-fledged gods by virtue of the fact they have gods for parents.
Sword of the Gods: The Chosen One (Sword of the Gods Saga) Page 57