The Wayward Godking (33 page)

“Give him room,” Omar spoke up. “He cannot concentrate.”

“Clear the passage,” Anu’s voice caught them all off guard.

The Boggans ran howling, back the way they had come. Lucifer and Ashmodel obeyed him with almost the same alacrity in the opposite direction. Omar took hold of Dunya and escorted her to a nearby niche, out of sight of Simon and Anu. Dunya clung to his arm, but took the opportunity to ply him with questions about his great-grandfather and the reason for his displeasure with her.

Nergal and Marduk hesitated at first and then joined the Queen when she stalked out of the area, leaving Anu and Simon alone with Abaddon.

Simon cringed away from Anu when he knelt beside him.

“You must gather your wits, my son,” the Lord of the Moon told him. “You possess enormous power, but it is scattered. You must focus it for maximum effect.”

“I find it hard to work under these conditions,” Simon said with as much courage as he could muster and pushed on the heavy form of the dark demon over on his back, arranging his wings under him as best he could.

“Do you mean the caves or the company?”

“Both,” Simon answered shortly.

The blue orbs had settled down a bit and were now circling high above his head. Too high.

“Allow me,” Anu said softly and stood beside him. He raised his arms and gathered the orbs from the air as if they were physical items. They coalesced in his hands, forming one brilliant blue ball of energy.

Simon watched this with a mixture of horror and fascination.

“These souls attach to you with fine loyalty,” Anu looked down into the glowing sphere. “So much power, so much love. You are, indeed, a worthy child, blessed by the gods.”

“I believe in only the one God, sir,” Simon told him.

“I must disagree with you,” Anu said as he released the ball. It hovered over Simon’s head, rotating slowly along a perpendicular axis. “You believe in me and you believe in the others. You worship only the creator.”

“Words,” Simon said softly and then placed hand on Abaddon’s brow. “He is very weak. Very little life remains here. It may be too late to draw him back.”

“It is never too late.” Anu knelt beside him again. “You know this very well. As long as the cord remains attached, it is never too late.”

“You apparently have not seen what I have seen, Your Grace.” Simon refused to be intimidated by Anu’s overpowering presence.

“You are bleeding,” Anu grasped his wrist suddenly and turned his hand palm up. Blood was oozing from between the bones of his arm just above his wrist. “You have suffered the abomination of the crucifixion? Why?!”

“Your Grace, I would remind you of the critical need for immediate action or else my suffering here will be in vain,” Simon said and looked steadily into his eyes.

“Well said. We will discuss it later,” Anu acquiesced and then smiled. “I will help you. This is a difficult win. Use the blood. Life is in the blood. Allow this creature to partake of your goodness.”

He took a bit of Simon’s blood on his forefinger and drew a crescent moon on Abaddon’s chest above his heart, then placed Simon’s hands on Abaddon’s chest over the symbol and pressed his own hands on top of the Healer’s. Simon said the prayer of healing and Anu caught him when he fell. He lowered the Knight’s limp form to the floor carefully and placed his hands at his side after inspecting the wounds in both wrists and his ankles. The Lord of the Moon bent over his great-grandson and placed one hand on his forehead before kissing him lightly on the lips. The blue orb split into its respective pieces and resumed the disorderly flow in the heights of the cavern.

“Sleep and rest, my son.” Lord Anu smiled down at him and then got up again. He checked the dark angel and found him breathing regularly. He raised his arms one more time and the blue orbs descended into the Healer and Simon smiled in his sleep.

“Reshki?!” He called over his shoulder and then turned to wait for his daughter.

Presently, she emerged from one of the dark tunnels.

“Come here, Daughter, and tell me what is passing.” He took her hand and sat her down beside him on the stone. “Tell me of my son’s works. You were born before him, the number of your days is very great and your heart belongs to him. Tell me how I should judge his works. Has he worked abominations or has he worked miracles? Does he serve himself still, or does he work for the betterment of all? How has he suffered, and does he now know why he suffers?”

Ereshkigal frowned slightly and looked as if the questions made her head hurt.

“Fear not for the demon, for he will be healed,” her father assured her. “Now begin.”

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

Nicole fell screaming into her bed and Luke fell directly on top of her, knocking the remaining breath from her, cutting her scream short. He came up quickly, climbed blindly out of the marble pit into the waiting arms of Bari Kadif. He fought wildly with Bari, and then Nicole screamed again as the gory figure of Asadarlu materialized in the air above her and crashed down on her before she could move.

“Great God in Heaven!” Bari shouted and drew his sword as he fell back disengaging Luke Andrew. “What in God’s creation have you done, Nicole?”

Luke ran, stumbled, fell and got up again. He looked about Nicole’s bedchamber desperately before his eyes fell on a table full of weapons near the door. Within seconds, he had armed himself with a long, curved knife and a short dagger.

Nicole screamed again and then once more as the nasty creature used her body as a stepping stone from the bed, kicking and flinging cushions and pillows in all directions. The thing bellowed, gnashed its gruesome teeth and drooled on the marble tiles as it stepped up in front of Bari. Its eyes rolled in their lidless sockets, and then focused on Luke Andrew as he took another step backwards toward the door. It glanced at the Prophet’s son only briefly. Bari was not its target. It turned and headed directly for Luke.

Luke made a valiant effort to remain in the room with the hideous creature, but when he saw that Nicole was still alive, he shrieked uncontrollably and dashed through the door.

“That’s him!” Asaralia rushed to Bari’s side as he recovered his balance. “That’s Asadarlu! He wields the flaming sword!”

Barshak scrambled into the bed and helped Nicole disentangle herself from the coverlets there.

“After him!” Nicole shrieked at them. “Get him!”

Barshak, Asaralia and Bari flew from the room after the hideous beast with Nicole close behind them. Asadarlu was already closing in on Luke Andrew as he ran full tilt down the polished corridor. Several doors opened as they passed, shrieking, shouting and screaming, and soon, everyone at the palace was charging down the hall, wielding various weapons, in pursuit of the outraged power of Marduk.

“Where did he come from?!” Nicole shouted the question at Bari when she passed him on the stairs.

“I don’t know! You brought him back with you, didn’t you?!”

They topped the stairs and ran headlong down the Djinni’s inner courtyard. The beast crashed straight through the lily pond. Colorful parrots and small monkeys were screeching and fleeing or flying in all directions. Nicole could see that Luke Andrew had stopped and turned to face his attacker on the balcony where he waited with his pitifully inadequate weapons. There was nowhere left to go except over the railing. His weapons were pitifully inadequate for confronting the monster that swung one of the twisted golden swords back and forth, slashing limbs, leaves and flowers from the plants on the artificial islands dotting the long pools in the courtyard.

John Paul, Nicholas and Gregory skidded through an arched doorway ahead of Nicole and raced after the thing. Nicole rushed headlong toward her brother without even a letter opener to defend herself.

Bari caught up with her again and shouted for her to stop. Barshak tried to stop her, but she fought with him on the edge of the pool, screaming at him to help her brother.

“I cannot!” he told her. “The powers cannot fight against one another. It is impossible. You must stop, my mad princess. He will kill you!”

Nicole jerked free of him and ran toward the fight. John Paul, his two sons, Semiramis and Luke Andrew took turns charging and striking at the incredibly ugly brute, but none of them could get close enough to land a good blow on it. Bari tried to fling himself onto its back and was batted against the wall like an annoying insect. He struck the wall and slid to the floor where he remained. The thing had the flaming sword firmly in one hand now and a seemingly endless supply of daggers and knives at its disposal, with which he alternately threw or slashed at them.

Gregory received one of the glittering missiles in his upper arm and fell out of the fray. Meredith and Aurora dragged him away as Jozsef and Anna joined in the fight. A number of others stood watching in shocked horror. Jasmine and her son, Seularik, came at once and helped carry Gregory out of the courtyard. William and Marco came down the stairs from the roof in time to retrieve Nicholas from beneath the feet of the monstrosity, but not before the creature landed a devastating blow on the back of his head with hilt of the sword. They dragged Nicholas to safety and handed him over to Meredith and Lucia while Jasmine struggled to pull the unconscious Bari out of the way.

Aurora’s scream pierced the air as Asadarlu ran the full length of the golden blade completely through John Paul. The prophet fell against one of the great brass urns on the balcony when the beast jerked the blade free, and then tumbled down the steps, losing his gold and silver sword in the process. William von Hetz turned to go after him and received a crushing blow to the top of his head. He joined John Paul at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding and unconscious.

The beast roared as if well pleased with its great success and scooped the precious sword from the steps. Meredith left Nicholas with Lucia and the Fox sergeant, who had finally ventured close enough to lend a hand and ran back to help Aurora with John Paul.

To their horror he left a wide trail of bright blood on the white tiles. Meredith had thought it impossible for him to fall, let alone bleed! Only Jozsef, Anna and Luke remained actively fighting with the creature. Semiramis had been dispatched over the balcony railing some few moments before John Paul had fallen. Her screams still seemed to echo in the palace corridors as Selwig and a number of the household servants, along with several of the Djinni’s Zoroastrian followers rushed down the spiraling stairs leading to the beach below. A sizable crowd lingered, ebbed and flowed in and out of the anterooms adjoining the courtyard as the house of Adalune endeavored to see what was going on. Many of the women and children had been sent rushing down into the relative safety in the depths of the palace’s underbelly, but it was Nicole who persisted in harrying the creature with a surprising number of household items. She darted in and out between the fighters, throwing vases, statuettes, bowls, goblets, stones from the pools, coconuts, oranges and anything else she could get her hands on. Most of these struck their marks quite accurately, sometimes helping to hinder the deadly movements enough to spare its opponents.

The creature turned suddenly on Jozsef who was attacking him from behind, taking him unawares. The silver and gold blade belonging to his father barely missed Jozsef’s head as he ducked, but the flashing blade of the flaming sword caught him a glancing blow in the ribcage, spinning him around and down. Anna leapt between the creature and Jozsef and it withdrew in the face of her frenzied onslaught, but not before receiving a nasty cut to the left forearm and a painful jab in the right thigh.

It roared in pain and anger before turning its attention back to Luke Andrew.

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

The Golden Eagle was caught completely off guard by the sudden transition. One moment he had been sitting at Mark’s camp fire and the next, he had found himself standing in the midst of a forest of ancient oaks. A grand buck with a tremendous rack of antlers, crashed away under the trees, startled by his sudden appearance. He turned about quickly, searching for signs of his companions.

“Vanni! Merry! Luke! Where are you?!” he shouted into the gloom.

He could hear sounds of voices, distant, but distinctly human. They did not sound distressed, but rather like a party or gathering of some sort. The light was brighter away to his right, and so, with no better plan in mind, he began to walk toward the light and the edge of the forest. Before he reached the sparser vegetation, a solitary figure emerged from behind one of the broad tree trunks. He wore a long, hooded cloak that seemed to change from black to silver and back as he moved. His face was in shadows, but there was something unmistakably familiar about him. Lucio’s heart leapt into his throat when he recognized the man.

“I know you!” Lucio’s face grew very pale. His breath came in short gasps and he appeared ready to faint. “You are the Great Lord who sits in the Midst of the Flower of Flame.” He swayed and sank to his knees. “Have I done wrong? Have you come to take me back? I know I should not have lost my temper, my Lord. It has always been a millstone around my stubborn neck. I ask… forgiveness, my Lord. Don’t take me back. You don’t know the love of a father for his children…”