by Peach, Hanna
Alyx continued, not stopping to acknowledge the gasps that came from around her. There was no time. “This is why he attacked us at our home. We are his greatest threat. Michael wanted to distract us so that we were too focused on finding a new home and rebuilding rather than stopping him. He didn’t realize we would have Cleo and the use of her large home. There’s one more thing he won’t see coming.”
“What’s that?” asked Tobias.
“We’re going to fight back.”
This was met with more loud astonished cries.
Tobias shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Alyx, we don’t have the numbers.”
The plan that had been formulating in her head swirled again, folding itself over and over, trying to make itself as tight and as waterproof as possible. For her plan to work, she needed help. A lot of help.
You don’t have to do this alone.
Alyx had to ignore, to push past her gut reaction to try and defeat Michael by herself. She had to trust that she would get the help she asked for, and she would have to place her faith in those who would help. All these things made her nerves tremble like a guitar string being plucked over and over again. But she had no choice. She couldn’t do it alone. But with help, maybe…
“I can get the numbers,” Alyx said.
“How?”
“Who?”
“Where from?” These questions flew at her from across the room.
She ignored them. She didn’t have time for them. “I can get the numbers. I know I can.” She turned to Jordan. “Remember when you said that with enough Seraphim working together, we could do incredible things?”
He was watching her strangely. “I do. What are you getting at?”
“How many DreamWalkers do we know? How many would help us?”
Jordan shifted in his chair. “We have a few here in our community. I know several more in the other communities, and a few of the nomads who live outside of us. So maybe…fifteen in all. Give or take.”
“Good. I need you to contact them all and get as many of them as possible to meet me in the Great Ballroom at midday. That goes for all of you,” she said to the rest of them, all in various stages of open-mouthed shock. “I need all of you to reach out to any DreamWalkers you know. Tell them we need their help and we need them to be here by midday.”
“But that’s only three hours away,” said Jordan.
“Are you saying you can’t do it?”
“No, I−”
“Then do it. Please,” she added after a small pause.
Jordan stared at her for one long moment. Then he nodded. “Okay.”
“I’ll see you all at sunset,” she said, grabbing her sword off the table and rushing for the door.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“To start building us an army.”
* * *
Alyx stood atop a cliff ridge gripping Balthazar’s Communicator. She had salvaged it from the remains of her room in the castle. It was activated so the demon bug now fluttered in its cage.
“Would it be too much for me to think that you called me just to invite me to tea?” Balthazar appeared through the forest, alone, his own Communicator around his neck pulling towards her like a magnet.
“Sorry,” she said. “We ran out of scones.”
Balthazar stopped before her. “No mini-cupcakes sprinkled with candy, then? No tiny buttered cucumber sandwiches with their crusts cut off?”
“Not even tea.”
“You’re not a very good host, are you?”
“This isn’t a social call.”
Balthazar sighed dramatically. “You never call, never write. Only when you want something.”
“I need to know how the Trinity Amulet works.”
Balthazar narrowed his eyes at her. She thought he might not answer but then he began to speak. “Lucifer’s demon army has a link in their minds to him. He calls an order to them through this link and they obey. Without fail. No questions. Total obedience. The Trinity Amulet allows the wearer to override this link. Which means that any command he or she gives is as good as having come from Lucifer himself.”
“Does everyone in Hell have this link?”
“Not everyone. Only those conscripted to Lucifer’s army.”
“Do you have this link?”
“No. Lucifer and I have a separate and different link.”
At least that was a relief. “Couldn’t Lucifer send a call down his link to refute the Amulet’s command? Like a counter-command to confuse the army?”
“Alyx, I really don’t like where this is going.”
“Please just answer me.”
“No. The Amulet, once activated, overrides Lucifer’s link.”
“So if the wearer of the Amulet told Lucifer’s army to kill all humans, they’d do it.”
“Like I said, total obedience. Without question.”
“And if the wearer of the Amulet told his army to kill Lucifer…”
Balthazar hissed as if she had splashed acid on his face. “Don’t you dare threaten him.” He drew his weapon from his side. “I will cut you from ear to ear−”
Alyx snatched her blade and countered Balthazar’s sword. “Balthazar, stop. I’m not threatening you. I don’t have the complete Amulet.”
Balthazar paused but his blade remained against hers applying a steady pressure. “Why all these questions?”
“I don’t have the Trinity Amulet.” She swallowed. “But Michael does.”
Balthazar blinked at her once. Twice. He seemed to have frozen.
“Balthazar?”
Balthazar snatched his blade away from her in a flick. It flew from her hand towards a tree, striking it directly in the center of its trunk, small pieces of bark scattering from where it embedded. A string of low guttural utterances left Balthazar’s mouth. Alyx guessed that this was some sort of demon swearing, but she dared not ask what he had said. This went on for some time before he stopped, seeming to remember himself. He drew himself up, brushed down his clothes and tucked part of his shirt that had come out of his pants before retrieving his blade and sheathing it. Alyx resheathed hers.
“Okay,” he said, considerably calmer now. “Michael has the Trinity Amulet. But he can’t command Lucifer’s army while the Gates between Earth and Hell are locked. At least he doesn’t have the keye.”
Alyx remained silent.
“At least he doesn’t have the keye,” Balthazar repeated. He lifted an eyebrow at her. “Right?”
Alyx pressed her lips together grimly.
Balthazar let his head fall back and he sent out another string of harsh sounds towards the sky. His arms began to flail as he erupted into shouts. “How could you let this happen? How could you let the only keye, your protectee, fall into the hands of that maniac? I knew this would happen, I knew it. He is a danger to us all. That boy should have died in Port Safaga years ago!” Balthazar’s eyes went wide, then he clamped his mouth shut like he said something that he shouldn’t have.
Alyx latched onto the very last thing that Balthazar said… That boy should have died in Port Safaga years ago!” Port Safaga, Egypt…why did that sound so familiar?
Israel was almost killed in Port Safaga when he was a boy. He survived, but only because his heart was on the left side of his body. It was why he had all his scars. Those pale diamond scars across his body and on his lip.
“You…you were the demon that tried to kill him?” Rage grew in her body as she imagined a young Israel, pain consuming him from the knife in his chest, blood leaking from him, as his distraught aunt fought to save his life. She drew her blade and pointed it at Balthazar. “He was just a boy.”
Balthazar drew his sword again. “Who turned into a man, a dangerous man, the keye to unlock Hell for Christ’s sake, now in the hands of a madman who would destroy us all. Thanks. To. You.” Balthazar exhaled as he forcibly struggled to calm himself. “We should have let him die with that poison but unfortunately Lucifer is a sucker for a good love sto
ry.”
Alyx glared at him and he glared back as they circled each other, weapons brandished, their anger building like a real, palpable thing between them. Alyx was about to leap at him when a voice inside her said, stop fighting. You’re wasting time. This is more important than throwing blame for something that happened long ago.
Another voice inside her cried, this is justice. Israel deserves vengeance for the attempt on his life. An eye for an eye.
Israel deserves to live. If you don’t get Balthazar’s help now, then Israel. Will. Die.
“Wait,” Alyx cried, the anger leaking out of her. “We can’t fight each other or we’ll do Michael’s work for him.”
Balthazar let out a long breath, which made him appear to deflate as well. “You are right.”
Slowly Alyx sheathed her weapon, and Balthazar did the same.
“There is a Gate in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco,” Alyx said. “Do you know it?”
“I do.”
“Michael has an army guarding it now. He’s going to try and open that Gate tonight.”
“That’ll be a party to end all parties,” muttered Balthazar.
“Not if we can stop him.”
“It’ll be close to impossible.”
“Not if we work together.”
A smile slowly crawled across Balthazar’s face. “My, my. Putting our personal feelings aside for the greater good, are we?”
“This is bigger than you or me or any…disagreements we’ve had up until now.”
“Which is what I’ve been saying all along.”
“Don’t push me.”
“Fine. What are you thinking for this new…renewed…alliance of ours?”
“If the Gate is opened, you distract Lucifer’s army from Hell’s side of the portal until I figure out how to close it.”
“Distract them how?”
Alyx snorted. “Invite them all to sit down to a game of backgammon.”
“Backgammon?”
“Sarcasm, Balthazar. The only way to distract an invading army is to attack them first.”
“Right. Except for one thing… Michael will have control of our army.”
“So find another.”
“Find another?”
“Rally the demons of Hell who aren’t part of Lucifer’s army to fight against them from your side.”
“And what will you be doing?”
“Attacking him from the Earth side of the Gate.”
“Attacking him with what?”
“My own army.”
Balthazar stared at her. He knew as well as she did that the FreeThinkers didn’t have an army.
Not yet.
“Two rebel forces on two sides of Earth and Hell against two well-trained armies. It’s suicide,” he said quietly.
Alyx paused and swallowed. “If we work together−”
“It’ll be partial suicide.”
“I just need… I just need to distract them long enough to get to Michael.”
“You mean to get to Israel.”
Alyx didn’t answer.
Balthazar sighed.
“Will you help?” she asked.
“Why not. As my mother used to say, ‘Why fear death? We’re already in Hell’.”
* * *
“Master,” Balthazar dropped to his knee in front of Lucifer as he sat in the shadows of his throne. They were alone in the vast throne room decorated with the statues of black beasts. Balthazar always felt like he was being watched when he entered this room.
“Rise, loyal servant,” Lucifer’s voice boomed out throughout the large hall.
Balthazar stood on his hooves, his real form. “The thing we have feared most has happened.”
“I know. I was watching as you spoke with her…so, I’m a ‘sucker for a good love story’, hey?”
Balthazar grimaced. Because of his mental link with Lucifer, Lucifer could enter his mind at will, seeing what he saw, feeling what he felt. It was a similar magic to what linked Israel and Alyx together. “I’m sorry. You weren’t meant to hear that.”
“It’s not important. We will need to send a call out to the kingdoms that are loyal to us. We need bodies and we need them now.”
“So we will join Alyx’s war?”
“We don’t have much choice, do we?”
“No, we don’t.” He paused. “We can stop Elder Michael.”
“Perhaps.” Lucifer shifted on his throne. “The boy is dangerous. His blood contains too much power for one person to have. Unfortunately, where there is great power there is someone who will want to exploit it. I gave him the chance to live once…my being a ‘sucker for a love story’…thinking…hoping for their sakes that he could somehow exist without becoming a danger. But I was wrong. We cannot let sentiment overrule the greater good. The happiness of a mere two souls is just footprints in the sand when it risks the possible destruction of an entire world. Balthazar, if by chance he is still alive when this war is over…”
They had talked about this before. Balthazar had agreed with the solution but he didn’t have to like it. Sometimes you don’t like doing the right thing.
Balthazar bowed his head. “If he is still alive, I know what I must do.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Alyx flew over the expansive lawn of Cleo’s mansion as the sun was setting. She was surprised to see just how many DreamWalkers were waiting for her, all mostly jittery chattering silhouettes. Almost two dozen at her quick count. Jordan had really come through for her. Perhaps…perhaps they had a chance.
She landed down on the grass where Tobias and Jordan were standing a little apart from the others. Her face fell when she saw the open fear on both Tobias’ and Jordan’s face. “What’s wrong?”
Tobias turned to her. “We’ve heard from our familia contacts around the Society. It appears that Michael has taken over control of Uriel and Gabriel. Both leaders have disappeared, presumed dead. Michael is ordering all warriors from all three cities to prepare for battle. His army just tripled in size.”
Alyx let this thought filter into the plan in her head. “Good.”
“Good?” Tobias gave her a confused look.
“Yes, good. It gives us an advantage.”
Tobias became more flustered. “In all of the seven levels of Hell I can’t see how this could be turned into an advantage.”
“You will.”
“Whatever you’re planning on doing,” Jordan said, “go do it.”
“Do I have your full support, Jordan?”
“Do you…?” Jordan paused. “Am I going to regret saying yes?”
Alyx shot him a brief and weary smile. “Probably.”
“I thought so,” Jordan muttered to himself. “Alyx, you’ve always had my full support. Even now.”
Alyx let out an exhale. “Thank you.”
“Are you going to tell me what you’ve got planned?”
“We’re going to raise us an army.” She turned to the DreamWalkers gathered on the lawn. She noticed several of the other community members were gathered, watching at the edges of the lawn and there were faces at almost every window of Cleo’s mansion. She had an audience.
Jordan whistled loudly to get the DreamWalkers’ attention, then stepped slightly aside to let her have center stage. A silence fell upon the lawn. And every single pair of eyes turned to her.
Alyx pressed down her nerves to stop them from jangling. Then she began to speak. “Thank you all for coming. I’m sure you all know who I am. Our situation is serious, so you’ll forgive the curtness of my greeting. Elder Michael is going to start a war on this planet. Tonight. We need to stop him. With your help we’re going to perform a mass DreamWalk, one that will reach every single Seraphim across this planet.”
A rumble went through the DreamWalker crowd. “Can we do that?” several voices asked.
“If you all work together, it can be−”
“It’s impossible,” someone cried, interrupting her. “We can’t DreamWalk every s
ingle Seraphim on this planet. What about those who are awake?”
“Jordan can lead the mass DreamWalk. He is able to create a DreamWalk that will appear like a daydream to those who are awake.”
“Will it work?” a seraph closest to the front asked. He was looking directly at Jordan, his arms crossed over his chest.
Jordan glanced at Alyx before addressing the crowd. “Perhaps collective magic use is an idea that is strange to you. That is only what we have been taught. There was a time when our people used our magic collectively on a daily basis. It was what we were born to do with our magic: share it, help each other with it. Not to ration it or horde it or to only use it ourselves. Alyx’s idea will work.”
“But we won’t be able to discern between Seraphim who are on our side and warriors fighting for Michael,” someone called out.
“That’s what we want,” said Alyx. “We need to reach everyone. Michael has made his move on Urielos and Gabriela. Their Chief Elders are missing. The Seraphim there will already know that something is amiss. We just need to talk to them.” Alyx couldn’t believe that her people had all turned bitter and hateful like Michael. If they knew the facts, if they knew the truth, she had faith that they would do the right thing.
“What are you going to tell them?” someone called out.
“You need to lie to them. Tell them we already have a larger army,” another voice called.
“No, you need to make them fear you more than Michael. That’s the only way you’ll get them to rise to mutiny.”
“Guilt them! You have to tell them−”
“No,” Alyx said, cutting all the voices in the crowd to silence. “Fear and manipulation and lies are things that Michael has used for centuries. We will not turn into him to fight him. I’m going to tell them the truth. Our people deserve the truth. And I will give them something that Michael has never given them.”
“What is that?”
“A choice.”
* * *
From the group of DreamWalkers sitting hand-in-hand in a tight circle on the lawn, a Dream mist rolled out into the world. As was the power of dream to instantly transport a person from their bed to the other side of the galaxy, this Dream mist covered the world in the time it took to shut your eyes.