Jovah's Angel (59 page)

“Are you happy?” he asked her drowsily, and heard her laugh in the dark.

“Yes,” she said. “Are you?”

“I will be tomorrow,” he said, and heard her laugh again. She resettled herself once and was soon asleep in his arms. He kissed the top of her head, and followed her down the shadowy avenue of dreams.

In the morning, there were endless details to attend to, and Caleb thought they would never get away. But while Alleya made her farewells, he pared down their belongings and rounded up enough provisions for a week. He packed as lightly as he could, but still he wondered if he might be expecting one angel to transport too much.

“Can you carry all this?” he asked Alleya anxiously as she finally joined him.

She laughed. “I've flown farther with more. I can carry all this, and you besides.”

“But how far?”

She reached her hands up, placing one very carefully on either side of his face. “To Ysral, if need be,” she said softly. “To
Jehovah
and back. Trust me. We will be safe together.”

After that, there was no need for protests. They loaded up, and she put her arms around him. “Are you ready?” the angel asked.

“I have waited my whole life for this,” he replied.

It was like nothing he had ever known and everything he had dreamed of. The great wings rose and fell around him; the angel's slim body tensed and sprang forward. The world hurtled backward; the sky stooped low. Beneath him, the landscape was a dizzy blur of green and slate and blue, but if he concentrated very closely he could make out individual features—trees, mountains, lakes. The air felt winter-cool, snow-damp, and yet it glittered around his face with sunshine that had not yet fallen all the way to the earth. There was a perpetual wind against his cheek and a pleasant sense of vertigo, and with delight he realized that this forward rushing movement might not come to an end for hours.

He threw back his head and laughed, for the world was a wondrous place. At this moment, he believed in everything, science, religion, and the melding of the two. He loved an angel and she loved him. And he was flying.