Hummock outside Command Headquarters, Petra.
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Before the crackling bonfire, post-victory hugs and kisses worth a king’s ransom were in equal distribution among the brethren and kindred. Choruses of approval ascended toward the clouds together with the flames from the bonfire, consuming in their wake all the tridents and swords, and all the maces and halberds, which had lately belonged to our enemies.
The angel, Raphael, handed to me Abaddon’s armour and helmet, as well as his weapons – his sabre, sai and shield. Substituting my smile for a solemn scowl, I pitched them, one at a time, into the fire. While the rest of heaven’s hosts were exalting the Lord, Ariel and I observed the flames in silence.
The bonfire burned doggedly. The flames leapt about, lapping at Abaddon’s shield that was lying on top of the spoils. Not long after, the elders, Uriel, Remiel and Shimael, broke off to take leave of us. Their departure would diminish about three-quarters of the size of the camp still gathered round the bonfire.
“How’s it going?” my older brother asked when we were on our own.
“Yeah, good,” I replied.
Ari invited me to sit down beside him. We sat down on our haunches on a hillock in front of the bonfire. For the hundredth time, he proceeded to apologize for not coming to me sooner. I stopped him.
“Thanks for bringing my iFad back from the apartment, Ari,” I quickly stated.
“Huh . . . ah, you found it on your lectern?” Ari stated. “Good; good, good, good, good, good.”
I wondered at the urbane angel before me, barely avoiding tittering at his comical ways, and then continued: “Do you have time to chat?”
Ari nodded: “Sure, I have the rest of the night off. What’s up? What’s going on?”
“Oh,” I uttered, “I was wondering: do you know anything about Hashmal?”
“Hashmal,” Ari began, “the Fallen One? Yes, he’s the chief of the Infernal Legion. He calls himself the Marquis of the Infernal Legion . . . talk about an ego, huh? Why? What about him?”
“Well,” I replied, “the places you’d been sent to police so far: I was wondering if the situation there had been the same as what I’d been hearing – concerning the decimation of mankind by Hashmal?”
“Oh, I think you mean the carnage by Hashmal’s minions,” my sibling replied.
“His minions?” I queried.
Ari nodded: “Now, what were their names again? Ooh, I’m trying to remember. There’s Phoenix, I think . . . and Eligor. And I believe . . . Sytry.”
Ari started to scratch the back of his head, continuing: “Now who was that fourth guy? Well, not a guy guy, an angel guy, but you know what I mean. Um . . . oh, yes, Penemue. That’s right. Penemue. These four are some of Hashmal’s Infernal Legionnaires. For an entire month and a half they went from village to village, from town to town, one country after another . . . mercilessly slaughtering everyone that hadn’t the seal of the Lord. They resurrected diseases long thought eradicated to commit some of their homicides: measles, small pox, rubella, elephantiasis.”
“Genocides, more like . . . and not even women and children were spared, I hear,” I informed Ari.
My kinsman nodded: “If they weren’t murdering the people with their weapons of choice for that day, they were using the diseases. If not the diseases, the fact that they were manifesting in their true forms to the humans was sufficient to cause such dread and fear that the latter’s hearts gave out.”
“I heard about that,” I averred. “People were literally frightened to death.”
“The powers of the heaven are still being shaken,” Ari reminded me. “The Word of God has prophesied that in the last days men’s hearts shall fail them as they witness the demons coming on the earth. Only recently they’ve all been coming out of the woodwork: the spirits of the Fallen Ones’ bastard progeny, I mean.”
“I’ve heard about that too: about the increase in sightings of demonic entities, of demonic possessions,” I added. “People are so terrified they no longer want to leave the house.”
“Listen, Mish,” my brother submitted, “in regard to the Infernal Legion: it might’ve been Hashmal’s Legionnaires that were causing the carnage but remember, it was our Lord God in His omniscient will that had permitted the release of those four wicked angels from their confinement in the Euphrates. And, therefore, in His will and wisdom, permitted the carnage.”
“Those four you named were the angels confined in the Euphrates river, as per Revelation?” I asked, amazed.
“Indeed. They were bound in the river. Bound in chains,” Ari replied.
“I wonder why . . . must’ve been some infraction bad enough for Yah to punish them so severely.”
“Likely as bad as when some of the Watchers came down from heaven and took wives for themselves from among the daughters of men . . . back in the day. Yah evicted these Watchers from heaven and confined them in various places on earth, too. Well, you know the story, which is the truth.”
“I do know it well,” I maintained, looking down sadly at my sibling’s sneakers.
The leader of the Halflings whispered: “Um, hey look, I know it’s all been overwhelming for you . . . for all the kindred. But I’m always going to be with you, Mish. We’re all in this together . . . and Eheyeh is with us through all this, of course. You’re not alone, OK?”
I nodded: “Okay; it’s just that all this suffering . . . all these hardships: if only people had just believed when they had the chance, before the Harpazo, you know?”
Ari drew me toward him and tenderly nuzzled my head under his chin. He sighed: “I know, little brother. I know.”
My brother seemed to remember something just then and reached for the parcel beside him. He handed it to me, explaining: “Compliments of our good friends from the Bible Study group.”
Curious I unwrapped the parcel. It was a Magewappa box. I gaped, feeling stunned, at the varieties of sweets contained in the double-decker bento box: brownies, bite-sized rocky road fudge, red velvet truffles and mochi.
“Luc Montagna’s left a note too,” Ari informed me.
I took the note from him and read it out loud.
“Dear Misha, all of us are thinking of you. Get well soon and come visit us when you're ready. By the way, the mochi's from Juno and Kar-mun Yen and the truffles are from the Nairs. Kennedy Yen asks about you all the time; she says she misses her Uncle Mish. We're well protected by your brother, Ari, so don't worry about us, okay? In the meantime God keep you in His protective arms always. From your friends in New Canaan, Luc.”
My eyes welled up: “I can’t believe they went through all this trouble.”
Ariel nodded. After that we partook together of the homemade sweet snacks from our friends in District 11.
Several others of our kindred approached us just as we heard the clock toll the midnight hour. We embraced Eli, Adonijah and Kaelan and kissed their cheeks. Without standing on ceremony, they collected rhapsodically around the hillock with us and began setting up their tents. Kaelan informed us they were going to bivouac out in the open air that night. Some time afterward, Kaelan and Ari were huddled in private conversation. I found out later that Kaelan had needed my older sibling’s opinion concerning possibly contributing an original poem for their upcoming cantata. Kaelan and Ari then excused themselves and withdrew from our company.
 |
| I looked down sadly at my sibling's sneakers. |
I searched for my mentors. They were reposed on the steps outside Headquarters, their battle array cast aside since leaving the combat zone. Gabriel looked smart in a white cotton shirt, black gabardine slacks and leather bomber jacket. His long rose blond hair was tied back in a simple pony tail from the nape of his neck. Mika was wearing a black turtleneck pullover and black trousers, his pony tail bound with a white string.
Breaking ranks, I headed their way. I must have interrupted their reverie: they gestured to each other – some tacit password that was their secret – and lifted their faces to me.
“You’re not still upset I ventured into the combat zone against your wishes, are you?” I asked Michael while I sandwiched myself between him and Gabriel.
“I wasn’t upset,” he explained. “I was concerned. You’re my son. Your being in harm’s way causes me concern. It’s intuitive.”
The angel, Shelumiel, appeared from the barracks. He delivered to us a platter of fresh fruit.
“There’s more in the mess hall if you want,” he informed us. “And I’m conducting a demo on making a pilau tomorrow evening, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“Thanks, Lumi,” I stated. “The pilau is your chef-d’oeuvre. God willing, I’ll be at your demo.”
“As the Lord wills, then,” the Quartermaster stated before departing toward the kitchen.
“By the by, Gabriel,” I smiled, remembering. “My room looks perfect. Better than I had expected. The wood gives the room an interesting texture. Thanks for all the time and attention that went into the renovation. And the manpower, too.”
Gabriel nodded with a smile: “Excellent, I’m glad you approve. And, by the by, Mish, welcome home . . . at last.”
I smiled: “It is good to be home, at last. And to be restored to fellowship with everybody.”
A succession of willy-nilly banter later, as well as spinning amusing yarns and playing catch-up with one another, I rose from the porch, making my way toward a tree – a Pistacia Atlantica. I stood before the lofty tree while I dug the toe of my boot into the bark to give me an exact toehold in the shank. Achieving this, I began my climb up the Steppe tree, one foot at a time on the chunky boughs. I was some way up – about four metres from the ground – when I stretched my right leg out along the length of a limb. It was the stoutest limb I could find at that level. My other leg dangled below me. There I rested, my back against the trunk. The tree gave me a bird’s eye view of the revelry still in progress on the hummock.
“You could’ve flown, fledgling,” Gabriel told me, looking up at me.
“I could’ve, Gabriel, but what would’ve been the fun in that?” I responded.
Gabriel glanced at Mika, nodding: “He has a point.”
Mika shrugged; then grunted: “Mm.”
Laughter persisted from the hummock. The laughter broke out in waves, a complementary juxtaposition against the discordant mating calls of the cicadas. The latter were a vanishing species, not just because the cold season was on the way, but primarily because of the plagues of God that had cut a swath through formerly-verdant grasslands.
Then, I noticed something above me; I drew out my wings before ripping into the sky toward the hills, leaving a hazy trajectory trailing my wake. My telepathic powers heard Gabriel’s question: Is he bored already?
Before he could obtain an answer, I was in the trees again, my wings fluttering spiritedly among the leaves. “Bon appétit,” I told them.
Curiosity getting the better of the elder, he vaulted from the steps. He flew into the trees. “Whom are you talking to, fledgling?” Gabriel asked me.
“Fledglings,” I informed my elder, pointing to a nest. “They’re literal fledglings, Gabriel. Look, three of them. I found them some worms in the hills. How unusual to find fledglings at this time of year.”
“Well,” the elder explained, “the seasons and weather are all off-kilter due to God’s supernatural judgment on the world, which is compounding earth’s axis tilt. We’re going to see more and more anomalies in nature like this.”
Returning to the porch, Gabriel sat back down on the steps. “Precious,” he smiled.
“Thank you,” Mika said to him.
“For what?” he asked modestly.
“For caring for my son,” my handler smiled, “and for giving so much of yourself to him, your time and your knowledge; and your love. Your strictures, more often than not, are austere but they’re a stabilizing influence on him.”
Gabriel stated plainly: “I want what’s good for him. And I want to make it up to him for the roughhousing two days ago when we returned from the gorge. What was I thinking punishing him when I should’ve been giving him guidance? I had misjudged him. I misread his behaviour and poorly managed his behaviour. My own behaviour frightened him. I never want him to be afraid of me again.”
“I know the child,” the General assured my mentor, “and I know he thinks the world of his Commander. That hasn’t changed despite the incident over the gorge.”
“Good to be reminded,” Gabriel responded.
I returned to my stout limb and leaned back against the tree shaft. I shut my eyes while I resumed eavesdropping on my elders.
“Is he asleep?” Gabriel asked.
“He appears to be,” Mika opined. “We should keep an eye on him in case he falls.”
“Aye,” Gabriel concurred, adding, “he’s suffered much in a very short time. It seems so long ago that either of us has seen the child without the burden of life weighing on his three-year-old shoulders.”
“Yes,” Mika replied, “he’s been dealt a difficult hand; he’s had a lion’s share of challenges recently. That’s not going to end until the Lord brings earth’s history to its culmination when all the Fallen Ones shall be in fetters in the abyss. Perhaps our child can enjoy some peace of mind now that Abaddon is finally out of the picture – even if briefly.”
“Well, it’s good to see him relaxed,” Gabriel maintained. “It’s how he should be.”
“It’s been a long time,” Mika stated.
“I long to be home – our real home in heaven,” Gabriel lamented.
“Only about three years to go,” Mika encouraged him, “before the Lord sets up His Kingdom and thousand-year reign in Jerusalem. And, then, we can all go back to our heavenly home. In any case, home’s just a thought away. You’re entitled to visit any time, even now if you so wish. You could apply for a junket.”
Gabriel demurred: “There’s much more work to do on earth still, and many more lives to save. I can’t go back yet, even for a brief visit. I won’t feel at ease. But still on the subject of the Little One, does he seem as fragile to you as he seems to me?”
“Indeed, he does,” Mika replied. “His physical strength and courage have substantially eroded as a result of Abaddon’s assault; his faith, both in the Lord and in himself, has been undermined somewhat. Nevertheless, in spite of his tenuous physical and emotional states, I thought he held his own admirably at the combat zone this evening. I’d just as soon no one mentioned Abaddon or demons or the Fallen Ones around him, for a while, just to allow him time to mend without needing to deal with the bad memories as well. If I had to take an educated guess, he’s going to need another month, perhaps more, to get back to being one hundred percent battle-ready again.
“Which brings me to my next subject: I want to talk to you about your report on the debriefing you’ve just conducted with Mishka . . . in regard to the apprehension of Manolo Valdez.”
“You’re referring to his confab, of course,” Gabriel deduced.
“It’s not the first time he’s admitted to confabulating events after an exhausting round-the-clock hunt for Antichrist’s minions,” Mika maintained.
“And it won’t likely be his last,” Gabriel agreed. “There’s an inveterate tendency for its occurring when he’s not had more than an hour’s sleep, at the very least.”
Mika proceeded, his voice sounding pained: “It’s precisely this that grieves me and the reason I want him relieved of his duties in New Canaan. Don’t get me wrong, Gabriel: I’m his General and, undoubtedly, I’m making this decision as his General . . .”
“Undoubtedly,” Gabriel interjected. “But you’re speaking now as his Dad . . . and your concern is from the perspective of his Dad. I get it.”
“You know me well.”
“Of course, Mika. Now, I had invited Asahel to sit in and undertake an evaluation of Mishka’s health: he’s by no means downplaying the enormity of the issue but neither is he unduly alarmed. It’s his professional opinion that the confab is caused by, one, sleep deprivation and, two, brain injury, but the latter should correct itself over time.”
“Do we have the luxury of this time, Gabriel? The child may be in his maturation stage – he’s in his crucial formative years of development – but a Halfling’s rate of maturation is a decade in advance of that of a human child.”
“And you’re concerned his growth spurt may deny him the time necessary to heal his brain of its injury.”
“That’s exactly the concern. As his Dad, I cannot condone the manifold attacks and assaults on him that may be impairing and stunting his mental development. I won’t keep ignoring their probable nocuous impact on both his mental and physical development.”
Gabriel intonated with empathy: “I get it, Mika. I understand. And there is hope: Asahel’s certain the brain injury isn’t permanent. He will, of course, need a lot of rest and catching up on sleep.”
“And, so, I’ve been toying with the very tempting idea of recommending him for an extended furlough, to help him with his recovery process,” Mika continued.
“It’d certainly do him a lot of good,” Gabriel replied. “Of course, I shall approve his secondment from District 11, if that’s your decision.”
“It is,” Mika replied. “I plan to finalize my recommendation to the Council of Elders this evening.”
“So be it,” my Commanding General stated. He added: “And Ariel’s more than capable of taking over the Little One’s duties. Rest easy, old friend, you have my support. You shall have all the elders’ support.”
“Thank you,” Mika finally said. “I appreciate everyone’s support.”
After some time Gabriel spoke again. “You were right, you know,” he stated.
“What about?” Mika asked.
“The decision to cast him from the physical presence of his kindred,” Gabriel replied. “I had my doubts but, as it turned out, it was expedient that we had kept an eye on him the way we did. It had never entered my head that Abaddon would drive him to attempt suicide. If you had listened to the elders . . . if we had let him come home sooner, we mightn’t have caught him in an act of self-harming and rescued him in time from it.”
“Well,” Mika stated, “if you must know, I had my doubts, too; but the mind of the Lord is not as our minds, nor is His timing as our timing. In His own time, He had intervened to exorcise Abaddon’s demons from the child, albeit at the eleventh hour. The Lord’s never in any hurry; it’s His prerogative to test His servants’ faith or teach them patience. Ours is to be assiduous in waiting on the Lord and being patient while we wait.”
“You confound me, Mika: why didn’t you come right out and let us know that it was, in fact, the Lord who had given His orders for the child’s confinement in the infirmary? Why did you feel you had needed to keep the truth from the brethren?” Gabriel asked next.
“Gabriel,” Mika replied, “have we known each other for over six thousand years and, yet, you haven’t been able to read me? You of all individuals? You’re my dearest and oldest friend. Have I not reminded you each time that we needed to obey the Lord’s will in the matter?”
“Please, Mika,” Gabriel implored sadly, “just answer my question.”
Mika sighed: “The Lord wasn’t only testing Mishael’s faith and obedience. He was testing the faith and patience of several of the kindred among us also. No one failed – there were questions and disagreements, even among the brethren, but there was no other backlash.”
Gabriel agreed: “It certainly was a time of testing for the Halflings. Opinions were unevenly split: not a few thought you had been unfeeling and your measures draconian. They believed that Mish was suffering enough and didn’t need to be sent to Coventry as well. A handful, however, were willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.”
“I realize all that,” the General stated. “No doubt you were my biggest detractor.”
“I was,” Gabriel replied matter-of-factly.
Mika smiled: “Well, on the plus side, I’m happy to know that you’ve always got my son’s back.”
“Never doubt that, old friend,” the Commanding General smiled.
Over at the bonfire, the Halfling, Eliel, was singing the hymn, Amazing Grace. I made my rapid climb down the Steppe tree. I sat down once more between my elders. Snubbing holds barred on protocol and propriety, I kissed my Commander lightly on his cheek before nuzzling my face against the General’s chest. I was feeling somewhat overcome with guilt for eavesdropping on their conversation.
“Thanks for helping me get through that dark chapter in my life, both of you,” I confessed. “I overheard everything.”
“We thought you were sleeping,” Gabriel stated.
“Only resting,” I stated. “Sorry.”
“Sneaky,” Gabriel chided, shaking his head.
Mika gave me an affectionate noogie: “I’ll have to devise an apt punishment for you, won’t I?”
“No,” I replied. “Please don’t.”
The General smiled.
“The General’s just yanking your chain,” Gabriel explained.
Not much later, I opined: “Eli’s hymn has prompted me to ask. Do angels understand grace, since grace is not in the hosts’ experience?”
“That’s a good question,” Gabriel replied. “I can’t speak for the rest; it’s rarely come up as a topic of discussion and I don’t read minds, but I submit that the Lord’s angels do not have an empirical understanding of grace. God’s grace is extended to lost humanity only. However, I believe that millennia of observing the application of the Lord’s grace in the salvation of humanity have given the hosts of heaven head knowledge of the implication of grace for humanity’s eternal destiny. The head knowledge they have is the vicarious substitutionary atonement for sins through the shed blood of the Messiah, Yahushua, and it’s a gift. Thus is the gift called grace for it’s not earned but freely given.”
I nodded: Gabriel’s peroration on the matter was sufficiently reasonable.
“Qael’s cantata is coming along nicely, I heard,” I stated next. “Eliel’s an able replacement for me. I’m sorry I’m going to be missing the cantata this year. Ariel thinks it’s shaping up to be a tour de force for Qael’s choir, judging from the recent rehearsals.”
“It seems to be,” Gabriel responded. “Don’t be too disappointed; there’ll be other cantatas.”
“Oh, I’m not too disappointed,” I replied, yawning noisily. “Eli’s grateful for the opportunity to shine.”
Mika noticed the dark rims under my eyes. “You look exhausted, son,” he opined. “Why don’t you turn in? Get some sleep. It’s already very late and you’re still in recovery.”
I shook my head while I yawned loudly: “Let me stay up just a bit longer, Dad. I’m on my furlough. I’m allowed to sleep in tomorrow, surely?”
“You don’t want to get into the routine of sleeping in, Dear One,” Gabriel advised. “Besides, you’re starting strength training in the morning. You may be on your furlough but you’re still going to be put through the paces. Training starts at five o’clock.”
“Five!” I exclaimed, feeling alert. “Whoa, that’s a little unreasonable. It’s now . . . what? Nearly two. That gives me three hours’ sleep. I’m a human being, guys; I need more than three hours’ sleep. And who’s going to be able to sleep with all this celebration still underway?”
Gabriel easily folded.
“All right; you can start your training the day after tomorrow,” he sighed.
I nodded: “That’s more like it. I can stay up till the end of the celebration, then?”
My elders glanced silently at each other.
I directed my gaze at Mika.
“OK?” I asked again.
Mika readily caved.
“Okay,” he sighed.
I smiled, adding: “You’re both staying till the end of the celebration, too, aren’t you?”
Gabriel nodded: “I believe Kaelan has me scheduled to lead in prayer later.”
“I’ll stay for just a bit longer,” Mika replied. “I should get back to my paper work soon, some red tape to finalize to confirm a number of the kindred’s furloughs.”
My head shook while I affected dramatically: “Ah, those red tapes: they hold things up, don’t they?”
Gabriel’s eyebrows rose: “I dare say our child just made a witty remark.”
Mika chuckled: “I dare say he did.”
“I don’t know why either of you should be surprised,” I maintained, feeling my face go red, “I learn from only the best.”
“He means you,” Gabriel inferred.
“As I recall, you are his language teacher,” Mika replied.
I glared at my elders, my mind blenching at the bathos: it was going to be one of those days – preoccupied with petty palavers and pettifogging pursuits.
While the elders were deep in thought, my attention became drawn to the sounds of hands clapping.
“Look over yonder,” I alerted them, my mood droll. “The flautists and harpists are assembling. It’s been a year since we last sang and danced together, all of us.”
I heaved Mika up with me.
“You’re down for a merry time, too, aren’t you, Gabriel?” I asked concurrently.
Gabriel enthused, getting up: “Are you kidding? The shepherd boy, David, was such a virtuoso performer with the harp that his repertoire could put King Saul in a good mood. Saul forgot he wanted to kill the future king of Israel.”
“What?” I exclaimed, dropping Mika’s arm. “What’s that to do with your having a merry time? That was so random and incongruous.”
My mentor grinned. He turned and gave Mika a short wink.
“That was a non sequitur,” Mika informed me. “It’s incongruous because it’s a non sequitur.”
I raised a brow at them: “That’s madness, that’s what it is. Go ahead, then, gentlemen, have your fun at my expense.”
Gabriel glanced at Mika again, appearing quite solemn.
Mika shook his head: “Work with us, son. We’re trying to sharpen your wits.”
I broke into infectious laughter: “Heh, got you worried for a moment there, didn’t I?” Grinning, I started toward the bonfire, warning them cryptically: “Be careful what you wish for.”
The warriors in Gabriel’s and Raphael’s units, the ones on their furlough or between deployments, had constructed a large circle around the bonfire by the time we reached them. I found my older sibling, Ariel, and assumed my position beside him. Gabriel and Mika took their places directly opposite us: Mika wedged himself between the angels, Jekuthiel and Shealtiel, whereas Gabriel was flanked on either side of him by Haziel and Jerel.
The half-angel, Qael, circulated to distribute the tambourines. He handed one to me; I embraced my portion with the percussion after a bit of good-natured arm twisting by Ariel.
The first song commenced. We crossed our right arms over one another’s shoulders to form a circular chain and, with exact timing, we were quickly kicking up our heels to the dulcet pulse of the music and vocally harmonizing in synchrony to the song’s refrains.
We danced, sang and snapped our fingers in unison. Whenever the paean reached a crescendo, we let our voices and singing reverberate loudly toward heaven.
We sang and danced in like manner – arms often linking and about thirty pairs of boots, moccasins and sneakers thumping on the grass, and shuffling, skipping and spinning, till the ground was denuded and only the top soil remained – and the night wore on. After two hours, we had served up to heaven a lyrical euphony of one hundred and fifteen medleys of the Lord’s minuet.
Approaching the tail end of our celebration, we all sat in pairs or small groups on the rolling hillocks. Several of my kindred presented their solos accompanied by a flautist or harpist; whenever their suite included an allegro, a bongo was introduced. The Halfling, Eliel, had skilfully kept time with his bongo. After that, Ariel and I performed the song ‘El Shaddai’, which we had rendered in parts. Qael’s choir finally led us into a time of solemn worship and exaltation to God, according Adonai our adulation for granting us victory over Abaddon and his forces of darkness.
“Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Highest praises, honour and glory
Be unto Your name,
Be unto Your name.”
Thus was sung our last anthem to the Lord.
We were in prayer when we felt an unearthly vibration in the ground beneath us. Tiny embers from the dying bonfire were unnaturally spewed into the air. The oil lamps we had lit and dispersed about the privet that hedged our camp flickered like the chasing lights round a Christmas tree.
We also sensed something portentous in the air.
“I feel ill at ease,” I complained, shifting about while I looked skyward. I thought perhaps there was something in the dark clouds that was causing the ground to tremor. My body shuddered.
Haziel, sitting lotus-style behind us, exclaimed: “That felt like the EMP assault that had obliterated the entire electronic infrastructure of the eastern American seaboard late last year. It was exactly as our brother, the angel, Jediael, had described it to us.”
One by one, we started to rise from the tussocks. Gabriel had ended his prayer. He was inching slowly toward us, his head turned to the sky.
“This can’t be another nuclear EMP,” Mika replied Haziel. He kept me close to him. “Antichrist is too narcissistic and hasn’t the gall. It wouldn’t serve his vainglorious need for grandstanding before live audiences, at this time of his reign, to render inoperable anymore of earth’s electronic systems of communication. Something else must be causing this aberration in the atmosphere.”
By now everyone had had a similar prescience of an ominous occurrence about to turn our celebratory mood on its head. A number of the Lord’s angels had taken to the sky, their flaming swords drawn in front of them.
Without warning, something forceful pummelled against Mika. I could tell from my sidelong glance that he was no longer beside me. Then, I found myself airborne, but not of my own volition. My shoulders were in the grips of a dragon’s talons.
“Mishael,” Ariel yelled, instantaneously starting after me. Gabriel and Mika followed him without delay. In no time, they too were in the balmy air. Several others of Mika’s warriors had also gathered with them, forming a circle around my captor. The latter grumbled at them, spitting out tongues of flames from his mouth, his square nostrils smouldering with black vapours. I wiggled violently while I hollered indignantly at my captor; the thunderous fluttering of his colossal wings relegated my cries as regnant noise.
Encircling the dragon – the ancient Serpent of Eden himself – Mika’s warriors drew their swords in front of them. One after the other, the remainder of the Lord’s angels who were not in current deployment, those from the squadrons commanded by Uriel and Remiel, left our garrison on terra firma to add to our numbers and strength. Every one of them had unsheathed his sword in front of him. The flames from hundreds of angelic swords lit up the sky creating golden halos that banked up against the clouds like standards.
“It was always me, fools,” the Serpent of Eden cussed, “not Abaddon. He was simply doing my bidding. I was the one that had masterminded this nipper’s abduction. But you were accurate on two other counts. It was by my machination that the nipper was accused of theft and breach of security. Indeed, I had wanted to drive a wedge and cause distrust between him and the brethren. Divide and conquer, you see. It works all the time. And as I had correctly assumed, his support system was sufficiently weakened to allow me to wound him with my sword at the time of the Temple Mount blockade.”
“Lucifer,” Mika hollered, “we knew that if we goaded you long enough, you would expose yourself and admit to your crimes. You’ve always been too vain to let your underlings take the credit for your actions, devious as they are. Now, free my underling at once. I’m warning you just this one time. The penalty for your recalcitrance will be immeasurable, otherwise.”
The dragon roared as Mika’s circle surreptitiously narrowed toward him.
“Consider yourself duly warned,” Mika informed my captor. He hurled his broadsword at the latter’s head. The sword reached its intended target, nicking the dragon on his temple. I was instantly released. I started to free fall.
“Already there,” Gabriel informed Mika, straightaway in pursuit to eliminate any risk inherently threatening my life. While still in flight, he augmented his stature, which swiftly verged on behemoth size. Gabriel quickly overtook me; true to form, the elder made an acrobatic half-loop manoeuvre midflight before reclining his body, his massive arms and wings spread out like a driftnet under me.
Then –
Got him, Gabriel reported to Mika. I have the child. He’s safe.
“Thanks, Gabriel,” I whispered, tightly clasping the sleeves of his jacket.
“Don’t mention it,” he replied unassumingly.
“I wasn’t going to harm him,” the Serpent growled above us. “But this has, indeed, been an eye-opening encounter. Mishael, you certainly live up to expectations. This is not over, however. I have warned you in advance. Remember I told you first the next time you see Achante Montagna.”
Gabriel was soaring back toward the clouds. He put his lips near my ear: “See if you can muster the strength to change.”
I nodded. Summoning the little that was left of my energy at last, I changed into my angelic persona. I parted from my elder’s arms.
“What about Achante?” I yelled, going after the Serpent. “What about her? Oy, you can’t just leave me high and dry like this.”
The Devil had long vanished behind the billowing clouds.
“What about Achante?” I sighed dejectedly, floating uneasily in the air.
“I have to go,” I exclaimed at once, taking off toward my former mission field. “I have to go back to New Canaan this night.”
I barely heard either Mika or Ari above the wind that was complaining volubly at me.
“Mishael, wait a minute. You’re still very weak. You’re not ready,” Mika said.
Immediately following that, I heard his telepathic orders: Put a stop to whatsoever it is you’re planning to do this instant, Mishael. This is a direct order.
I glanced over my shoulder at my General. He was pursuing me. I disliked ignoring his orders but my friend was in a lot of trouble. If the Devil’s threats should carry any weight, she was going to need my help. I had to find her. I had to warn Achante Montagna about Satan.
A burst of glorious light blinded me while I was teleporting to New Canaan. I had changed back to my human form. I was falling toward a row of trees.
