Extinction (The Divine Book 7) (14 page)

Mother Hahn and Josette vanished from the room immediately after the Mother declared me "good enough." I still wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but I imagined that the improvement in my personal psyche was somehow visible to her, and she had decided it was acceptable. To be honest, the whole thing was still a bit of a mystery to me, though I was very glad I had been given the opportunity to confess to Josette. It was her child at the center of the storm, after all.
 

"Where do you think they went?" Obi asked some time later.
 

An hour had passed. Maybe two.

"To go talk to the Council on our behalf?" I suggested. "Alfred, do you know?"

He shook his head. "I am not invited into the affairs of the Sisterhood. Before today, I didn't allow that they ever left the Convent grounds."

"Even a thousand-year-old angel can learn something new," Obi said. "There's still hope for me."

"Whatever it is, it's taking a long time. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"Come on, man. This is you we're talking about. Whatever happens, it's a bad thing."

"Funny."

Obi put his hand on my shoulder. "Seriously, if they don't show up soon, I think we should head out on our own."

"I'm starting to agree."

Another ten minutes went by. I was giving heavier weight to the idea of breaking out when the door to the room opened, and Josette swept in.
 

"What's happening?" I asked. She looked troubled.

"Mother Hahn was trying to get an audience with Archangel Michael, to discuss Raguel's actions and call him out on them. He refused to see her."

"Why?"

"Apparently, because he's in agreement with Raguel."

I froze. "What?"

"My feelings exactly. Michael is at the top of the hierarchy within Heaven, second only to the Holy Trinity. The idea that he has begun to question God is unfathomable."

"This is worse than I thought."

"It is worse than any of us thought."

"Okay, so how do we stop it?"

"We can't stop it. Landon, Michael ordered Mother Hahn to turn you over to the Council."

"Will she?"

"She has no choice if you are still here when she arrives."

"Where is she?"

"Tied up with some other official business, I'm afraid," she said, winking.
 

Then she lifted her robe over her head and dropped it on the floor. She wasn't nude, at least not to my eyes. She was wearing loose fitting clothes that resembled a karate gi. A pair of wooden sticks sat on her hip.
 

"Mother Hahn will do her best to keep His Excellency occupied while we make our escape."

"Our escape?"

"She has ordered me to accompany you. I can't return to the mortal realm, but I can assist you here, as can my sisters. They are waiting at the southern entrance."

"I don't understand," I said. "Won't you get in trouble for this?"

"We are taking a tremendous risk, but the need is great, and Mother Hahn believes that you will do the right thing. When you shed your defenses, your soul is more good than it is evil. You can stop Sarah, and save her. I know you can."

I wasn't as confident about that as she was, but I was hopeful. I followed her as she left the room again, with Obi and Alfred behind me. There were other Sisters in the hallway, but they largely ignored our passage, looking away as we turned the corner.
 

"Out here," Josette said, bringing us to a final hallway.

We paused at the end of it. Josette's sisters were already sitting on the floor, their hands bound by rope. Four angels were blocking the exit.

"Sister," one of them said. "The Diuscrucis is ordered to turn over the shards and await return to the mortal realm. This directive came directly from Archangel Michael. Refusal is akin to treason."

Josette stood her ground in front of me.

"Josette, don't," I said. "You already got in trouble for me once. I don't want you to sacrifice your faith for me again."

"You speak as if my faith is something I can lose or give up," Josette said, her voice rising. "Do not be concerned. I know your cause is just. The Lord has affirmed it in his mercy." She stepped forward, locking eyes with the angels. "Be careful with your next decision, brothers. You are being led down a path that ends in treachery and a fall from grace. I would not like to see that happen."

"The decision is not ours to make, sister. It is our Master's, and he has already decided. The Lord cannot punish us for sending him back where he belongs."

"How about for stealing?" I asked. "The shards are mine."

"The shards belong to the seraphim."

"They were lost. I recovered them. Finders, keepers."

"That is absurd."

"Whatever. You still aren't getting them."

The angels started their approach. They had sticks that were similar to Josette's, only they were metal and etched with runes. I assumed it was their version of non-lethal control.

"I won't allow you to touch him, or take the shards," Josette said.

"Then you will be disobeying our Lord and Master. You will fall."

"Will I? Let us see."

She rushed them, bringing her sticks to hand as she did. I stepped forward behind her, trying to think of something I could do or say that would stop her. I didn't want her to fall. I didn't want to cause a fight in Heaven.

She reached the angels, going for the one on the left first, attacking him with a quick series of strikes that he used his arms to block. The one on the right tried to grab her, but she slipped away from his grip, cracking one of the sticks hard on his wrist. His hand dropped numbly as she passed through to the second row.

She stood in the center of them in a ready posture, sticks out beside her, legs low and balanced. More importantly, she hadn't fallen.

"My cause is just," she said.

"Perhaps you believe it to be. That may absolve you to our Lord, but it does not make it so."

They went after her, coming at her in unison. Their metal sticks bounced off her wooden ones, her arms moving in a quick rhythm, her body held planted by her legs. She writhed and undulated around the attacks, sneaking in an occasional strike to the chest or hand that would leave the angels in limited pain. If a disabling blow was what she was after, it was going to take her a while to get it.
 

Or at least, I thought it was. Then she leaped out from the center of the square, getting behind one of the seraphs and hitting him solidly on the side of the head. The stick made a sharp crack against his skull, and he dropped to the floor.
 

The other angels moved in, eager to stop her assault. She fell back on defense, deflecting their strikes and making efforts to land her own. They were more wary of her now, and more focused on defending themselves.
 

"Okay, I've had enough," I said, gathering my power. I wasn't going to sit on the sidelines and let her do everything for me.

Alfred put his hand on my shoulder. "Wait," he said. "I will handle this. Using your power here and now will hurt your case."

The older angel moved forward. Unlike Josette, there was no beauty to his approach, no artistry. He grabbed the first of Raguel's cronies by the back of the neck, holding him and punching him hard enough to knock him out with one blow. He dropped the unconscious seraph and turned to the one next to him, raising an arm to block a blow from a metal stick. His wrist shattered at the force, but he didn't react, using his other hand to shove the angel against the wall. Then he reached out and took one of Josette's suddenly offered sticks, smacking his opponent hard enough to knock him out.
 

Suddenly outnumbered, the fourth seraph dropped his sticks and raised his hands in submission.
 

"The time for change is coming, Josette," the angel said. "Be a part of it, or be left behind."

"It is not for you, Raguel, or Michael to determine the pace of change. Only He may make that decision. Right now, He supports the Diuscrucis." Josette raised her stick. "I can't have you running to Raguel ahead of us."

The seraph spread his hands and exposed his temple. Josette hit him, knocking him out.

"That should keep them for a few hours," she said, leaning down beside her sister and releasing them from their bonds. "Fight with me, sisters. The Lords is on Landon's side in this matter."

"Now what?" I asked. I couldn't quite get used to the idea that God agreed with what I was doing. I wasn't going to argue the point either.

"We have no choice. We have to go to the Council building and free Uriel."

"How are we going to sneak past Raguel and Michael?" Obi asked.

"We aren't," Josette replied. "Mother Hahn will handle the diversion."

The Council building was the tallest skyscraper in the city, visible from almost everywhere. According to Josette, the Archangels occupied the highest floors, ostensibly to be the closest to God. In reality, the hierarchical nature was obvious, and in my opinion in direct contention with the concept of humility.
 

"The only one of us who is without flaw is God," Josette said in response to that observation.

According to Dante, even God had his imperfections. That may or may not have been true, and at the moment I wasn't interested in a theological argument. I just wanted to get Uriel to put the sword back together. We had already been in Heaven for three hours, which was more than enough time for Sarah to put the hurt on any number of demons.

Getting to the building was relatively easy. With Raguel's hench-angels disabled, we were able to take the backstreets right up to the building itself without being noticed. Really, the Archangel wasn't even trying to catch us on the way in. We had to come to him if we wanted Uriel, and I didn't exactly have a lot of other options.

"So, tell me more about this diversion," I said as we stood across the street from the building, staring up at its western wall of glass.

"Mother Hahn requested an audience with Archangel Michael," Josette said. "When Michael refused, she took her case to Raphael. He and Mother Hahn have a long history of friendship, and he agreed to go to Michael at her bequest. When I signal her, she will send Raphael to Michael, while she takes up her argument with Raguel. With them both distracted, we will have an opportunity to reach Uriel."

"You know where they're keeping him?" I asked.

"The main conference room at the top of the tower," she replied. "It is the only place. They cannot keep him prisoner, they can only stall him with questions and matters of affairs. I imagine he may understand what they are doing, but then again, he might not want to help you anyway."

"So we could go and rescue him, and he'll still say no?"

"I wouldn't call it a rescue. More appropriately, we will be the ones who may be taking him against his will."

"But he's an Archangel, right? He's got power of his own."

"Yes. It is power he has sworn not to use again in conflict."

"Okay. How do we get up there?"

"Really, Landon? I am an angel."

I wondered again if her clothes were real or of my own mental design. It was probably better not to know.

"In that case, send the signal. We're-"

I stopped speaking as the silence around us was broken by the sound of shattering glass. I looked back at the tower just in time to see a body plummeting from the top. It fell halfway before turning to dust, the momentum spreading it wide and casting it down like confetti.

"Mother Hahn," Josette said, her face contorted in shock.
 

"Who?"

"Raguel. It must be."

"But he has to fall for that."

"Perhaps. He is an Archangel. He cannot be cast down so easily. There is no time for a diversion. If he is ready to kill for this, Uriel is not safe."

She circled behind me, her hands coming up beneath my arms. I was in the air before I could protest, being carried up toward the window.
 

"Oh, crap," Obi said beside me, dangling from Alfred's grip. "Did I mention I hate heights?"

We sped toward the clearly broken window at the same time a dozen seraphim appeared on the edge of the building and leaped off, swords appearing in their hands as they dove toward us.

"We're too late," Josette said. "Raguel has started the war. He is afraid of you, Landon. Give him a reason to be."

Her arms flexed, and she tossed me forward, releasing me from her grip. I didn't look back to see what happened to her or her sisters. I reached out with my power, grabbing the edge of the window and pulling myself toward it, using it like a slingshot. I launched forward in a rush, avoiding the oncoming angels. They spread their wings to slow themselves, taking ineffective cuts at me as I rocketed past, and then turning to give chase.
 

Then I was shooting through the window and into the building. I threw my power out again, pushing against it to slow my entrance, landing almost gracefully a few feet inside of the edge.

Archangel Raguel was standing beside a large, natural wood table. Another angel was sitting beside him, watching with resigned eyes. Uriel, I presumed.