The Wayward Godking (27 page)

“Good, good, but no. Enki sleeps still and I have no plans of waking him any time soon.” Anu slapped one fist absently against his other hand as they walked along. “I am pleased to learn you and my daughter are happy together. I know she can be trying at times. Tell me, have you seen Nanna and Shammash? And what of his daughter, Inanna? Such a lovely creature, that one. She reminded me of your grandmother, Ki before she left me.”

“Inanna is somewhere in the overworld, I believe. The last I saw of her, she had taken on the form of a great and powerful wyrm. Her consort was wreaking havoc on the infestation of godless men. Shammash, of course, is still wandering lost in his gardens. A poor excuse for a god if you ask me. And he had such a following at one time. Lord Nanna on the other hand. Now there is a force to be reckoned with. He has produced more offspring than even Lord Adar. Children! Bah, who needs them? I asked the same question of Reshki time and again, but she insists they are necessary to the fulfillment of our existence. I, on the other hand, prefer to have solitude and peace when I wish it. Why, just the…” Nergal stopped speaking. His grandfather had stopped again. Anu’s face was frozen in a sort of curious expression between shock and disbelief.

“What is wrong, Grandfather?” Nergal leaned close to him and squinted into his deep blue eyes.

“Nothing!” Lord Anu snapped out of it and then drew a deep breath. “This cavern is a bit stuffy for me. I prefer the colder, thinner places. It will be more difficult than I imagined, beginning anew. I will stop in your Gate and see these children of my daughter.”

((((((((((((()))))))))))))

“John Paul!” Meredith called to the runners as soon as they broke free of the darkness into the open sunlight of the plain. She and Selwig had been scouting the perimeter of the strange blackness that hovered just under the trees. They had not dared enter into it for fear of what ill effects they might suffer. Selwig had told her everything he knew about the whereabouts of the people with whom he had been living of late. Armand was not at home, and his lovely wife and three sons had disappeared a few nights ago, though Selwig couldn’t say why or where they had gone. The poor little Tuathan had wandered about the old keep, lost and afraid, wondering if he’d been forgotten until suddenly Meredith had appeared at the door asking after Armand and the others. He’d been so very overjoyed to see her; she’d not been able to get out of his sight for more than a second or two since.

The two explorers had been on their way back to the keep when John Paul’s party jogged toward them from the trees.

John Paul greeted her with a great hug and kisses and then each of her kinsmen had plied her with more hugs, kisses and questions as they slowed their pace and started back toward Mark Andrew’s old castle walls. The sight of the clear blue sky, the swooping seagulls and the sound of the surf thundering below the cliffs was in strange contrast with the line of darkness in the east.

John Paul stopped in the middle of the windswept plain and tried once more to summon the mystical stallions. This time, seven of the wonderful beasts appeared from the trails away south of the castle, galloping across the sunny expanse toward them. Meredith told them of her strange adventure in the Seventh Gate and her unexpected escape with Abaddon from the overzealous Kinmalla. John Paul was puzzled to learn how many people she had seen in the Seventh Gate, but the tale of the horrid spiderlings and the presence of Huber upset him even more.

So the Great Huber had denned in the Seventh Gate. They should go there at once, but how could they go? How was it that Abaddon could move freely through the underworld and the Gates, and they could not? John Paul mulled these things over in his head while they made their way back down the steep trail to the beach. He wanted to see how far the darkness extended and he wanted to call on Bart, the Knocker, and see if he had anything to add concerning their strange circumstances.

When they reached the ledge where the entrance to Bart’s cavern had always been, they were shocked to find it blocked with an impassable pile of rocks and debris. If Bart was home, they would have a very hard time finding him. They shouted for him all the same, and then finally made the last leg of the climb down on foot and in silence, allowing the horses to go free. None of the elves of Il Dolce Mio’s kingdom seemed to have survived whatever the blackness was. The castle was empty. The caves in the cliffs blocked. The forest choked with the unnatural darkness. Whatever had happened had been devastating. At last, they determined the heavy blanket of black was confined to the forests. Here and there, they could see the tops of the taller trees peeking through the ugly mist.

Nicole met them halfway down the trail when they started back up. She threw herself on John Paul’s neck, and then greeted the others in his party enthusiastically, at first, and then with less vigor as she perceived their somber expressions and the lack of good news. When she finally came to Meredith in amongst them, she stood looking at her mother in surprised silence.

“Nicole,” Meredith nodded to her. “It’s good to see you are well.”

“And you,” Nicole returned the greeting, and then kissed her cheek. “Have you seen Luke? I’ve tried to find him by every means I own, and I can’t find the least news of him.”

“I saw him in the Seventh Gate,” Meredith told her and took her arm, turning her back toward the Djinni’s white palace. “I’m afraid I have no good news for you.”

As they walked, Meredith told her what she knew of Luke’s fate. Nicole took the news rather stoically at first, but then, after some bit of blinking and hiccupping, she could not hold back her tears. She was convinced they would never see him again, and she would never get the chance to reconcile with him. Meredith was equally grieved at the loss of her son, but she was also greatly relieved to be reunited with John Paul and Marco. The presence of Gregory and Nicholas lifted her spirits even further, and she wanted to see Lucia, but her heart also went out to her most wayward child. Nicole needed someone desperately, but John Paul was leery of her. He led the way back to the palace, occasionally glancing back at his mother. The last thing he needed was another care on his shoulders. Things were going very badly for the Lord of the First Gate. He could hardly imagine how they might have gotten worse; however, he was glad to have Meredith back with him.

((((((((((((()))))))))))))

Leviathan broke through what was left of Mark Andrew’s Scottish meadow in the Seventh Gate very near where the old cairn would have been. Ragged clouds obscured the moon momentarily while the three passengers leaned and stretched inside the left eye bulb, trying to glimpse the situation outside the beast. They waited impatiently as their living aircraft seemed unwilling or unable to make a stable landing. They rocked and swayed slightly while it made a place for itself on the surface of the meadow.

When the moon cleared the edge of the cloudbank, they recoiled in horror at what they saw before them. It was no great wonder Leviathan did not seem to want to settle down. The meadow was alive before them. Thick layers of webbing blanketed the ground and thousands upon thousands of spiderlings jumped and crawled through the billowing rafts. It looked as if they were adrift upon a white sea amidst undulating waves. Several of the creatures leaped directly at the Leviathan’s eye covering, trying to get at the creatures inside. The great lid dropped instantly, plunging them into inky blackness before it opened again. The spiders could not hurt the great beast, nor could they penetrate its thick skin to where the three horrified passengers stared at each other in shock.

“I knew it would be bad, but this is ridiculous,” Ereshkigal murmured and gathered her gown about her as she prepared to exit the observation area.

“One moment, dear Queen,” Lucifer held up one hand and rushed after her. He caught her at the bottom of the ridged tunnel leading from the beast’s nose to its throat. She stopped inside the breezy chamber and Ashmodel crashed into Lucifer’s back when he drew up short. “Let us not make any rash moves just yet,” the Lightbringer suggested as his companion righted himself. “That looks very nasty out there. Those things are not easily overcome. They present small targets and appear to be moving quite independently of each other. They are neither flocking, nor schooling things. It will be most difficult to gather them for wholesale slaughter as one might do a herd of deer or a gaggle of geese.”

“What do you suggest?” she asked him impatiently. “I will simply burn them into oblivion.”

“That might not be so very simple, my Lady,” Ashmodel spoke up from behind Lucifer. “First of all, we would have to go out amongst them and secondly, Leviathan would not stand for fires too near his skin. He is impervious to the cold, heedless of water, unmindful of tremendous pressure, but he is extremely shy of fire. If you go out there setting fire to the meadow, he will abandon us here.”

“Abaddon,” she pressed one dark fingernail to her chin.

“Abandon,” he corrected her.

“No, no. Abaddon is here.” She looked all around them in the shimmering silver light. “I feel him.”

“Here? Inside the beast?” Lucifer looked rather alarmed.

Abaddon! The lifelong foe of the Lightbringer. The angel laid his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“No.” The Queen placed one hand on his and shook her head “he is here on business.” She smiled and Lucifer looked at Ashmodel, who smiled at him as well before shrugging.

“I have sworn to destroy him,” Lucifer told her roughly. “I
will
fulfill my oath.”

“Oaths are sins, my Angel.” The Queen started off again. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that? Besides, he was merely doing what he was told when he put you away.”

“Aha!!” Lucifer drew his sword anyway and followed after her. “What do you know of my quarrel with the dark angel?”

“Everything,” she called as she stepped onto the back of Leviathan’s tongue.

Lucifer forgot himself in his wrath and grabbed her arm above the elbow, spinning her around.

“Then you know I am bound to avenge myself and my warriors,” he told her.

“I know no such thing!” She snapped at him and brushed off his hand. “But I do know this, sir. Vengeance is a sin. Killing is a sin. Oaths are abominations. Grudges harbor foul thoughts, and foul thoughts lead to heinous deeds unworthy of the gods. We do what we must do when we must do it. Abaddon served me well, and when I told him to cease hostilities, he used every means at his disposal to do my bidding. It was to your detriment you refused to parley with him when he came to you as my ambassador.”

“Your ambassador?” Lucifer’s face changed from anger to shock. “You sent him against me?”

“Not at all.” She cast a warning glance at Ashmodel who was backing slowly away from them. “I sent him to inform you the wars were over. That we were retiring for a time from the affairs of men. I sent him to make overtures to you for accommodations. Your brothers accepted graciously, and there were no further problems. You, on the other hand, were unruly and disobedient to the will of the Father.
He did what he was supposed to do
.”

Lucifer’s mouth fell open and he spun around, searching for Ashmodel.

The angel cowered against the wall of the beast’s mouth.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded. “You bargained with her? You knew all along?”

“What would you have me do, Lord Lucifer?” Ashmodel shrugged. “It was none of my affair you did not wish to parley for peace. I, on the other hand, was advised by Uriel to accept her terms. Uriel never steered me wrong. He had been my benefactor for long ages before the wars. Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? Did not our Father give us the sense to make wise decisions? If you chose to ignore them, then it is not for me to judge.”

“I see.” Lucifer swallowed hard and put his sword away slowly.

“It really made no difference,” the Queen told him. “Just consider it time well spent at rest. You did not suffer. I saw to that. I daresay when you were awakened by the lovely Sophia, you found yourself in tip-top repair, did you not? At least you did not go moaning and groaning about like that nephew of Nergal, Shammash. If Lord Adar had not rescued him from that damned pyramid, he’d be hanging there yet.”

Lucifer said nothing in response. Her simple declarations brought back hundreds of unwanted, unwelcome memories from a time before history. Images of Abaddon pleading with him, pleading tearfully with him, and he saw himself as if from a distance, casting Abaddon aside brutally. Laughing at the dark angel, cursing him and calling him all manner of filth including ‘traitor’ and ‘coward’. How arrogant he had been. How stupid!

“Now get that silly look off your face. We have work to do.” She pushed past him as the great beast’s mouth began to open. Before them lay a horrid mass of seething terror. The black and white striped spiderlings jumped about nervously in front of the Leviathan’s open mouth, too wary to venture inside while more of them flapped about on leather wings in the air just above their earthbound brothers. Leviathan bucked gently as they stepped into the morass, and just before their struggles began, they heard thunderous roars in the distance and saw great flames leaping into the air.

Abaddon was destroying Lily Ramsay’s home.