Messiah: The First Judgement (Chronicles of Brothers) (19 page)

Lucifer studied Michael, his expression inscrutable.

‘A wilderness...’ Lucifer smiled at him tantalizingly. ‘How
careless
of me ... Two Kingdoms contesting for the Race of Men on a desert tract – one that obsesses him so.’ He took another huge bite of the boar’s leg and chewed for a long moment.

‘It is fortuitous, Michael.’ Lucifer moved his head to Michael’s, his voice an undertone. ‘The Nazarene will be scorched in the desert – without food forty days – fainting from hunger ... it will be greatly to my advantage.’

Michael bowed his head to Astaroth. ‘I have what I came for. I take my leave.’ He rose, then snatched his cloak, incensed, his hand on his sword. ‘I shall be there to witness your defeat, Lucifer.’

Lucifer stood, his arms outstretched. ‘You miscalculate, brother!’ Balberith draped his cloak over his shoulders.

‘Don’t you see?’ he hissed. ‘If the Nazarene obeys even one of my commands ... just
one
, Michael ... He will be my craven subject. Just like Adam before Him. To do my will. Yehovah’s pathetic little rescue mission is thwarted.’

Lucifer bowed to Michael. ‘The seal is lifted.’ Michael watched him striding down the corridors, his indigo cloak billowing after him. ‘The Nazarene is mine!’ he cried. The faint aroma of frankincense lingered in his wake.

* * *

Michael flung the doors of Gabriel’s southern chambers wide. Gabriel slowly turned from the balcony. ‘You are back safe, brother. I am comforted.’

His gentle features were haggard.

‘I have been tormented by dreamings, Michael – I have seen his very intention.’ Gabriel walked towards Michael. ‘He will lay his kingdom at his feet – the Ark, the title deeds, the books of judgements, the book of iniquities. It is in his hands to give to whom he would choose.’

Michael nodded, unclasped his sword belt and placed it wearily on a jacinth throne. ‘He chooses the Nazarene.’

‘Let us walk.’ Gabriel and Michael walked together across the vast diamond floors of Gabriel’s chambers, beneath the soaring vaulted ceilings until they reached the arched door of his private retreat that led to his glass house palace that hung over the very edge of the Crystal Sea. The soaring glass house’s floors were of lush lawn and covered in foxgloves and lupins of every colour of the rainbow. Grand pools flowed into waterfalls that fell leagues down into the Sea. Gabriel strode over the flowers that sprang up under his feet and dived into the deep silver pools. He surfaced.

‘Christos is birthed of mud and dust.’ He pushed his hair back from his eyes. ‘Encased in a body of matter. He confronts Lucifer and his evil scheming as one of the Race of Men. If He falters even once...’

Michael stared eastwards out towards the shimmering Rubied Door far in the distance. ‘Yehovah’s plan to liberate the Race of Men from Lucifer’s tyranny is lost.’

Gabriel nodded, his gaze dropping to the silver casket still clasped in Michael’s left hand.

‘Where is the contest to be, Michael?’ Gabriel whispered. ‘A second Eden?’

Michael followed his gaze past the Rubied Door to the vast golden bulrush meadows of the Eastern plains of Eden. The brothers watched the sheer majesty of the undulating rainbow horizons in silence.

‘No, it is far from any Eden, Gabriel.’

Michael bowed his head, a terrible suffering on his strong features.

‘The contest will be fought at Mount Quarnel, north of Jericho. He will face Lucifer in a wilderness, surrounded by wild beasts.’

Chapter Seventeen

The Vale of Temptation – AD 27

Jesus surveyed the vast expanse of barren, stony wilderness, His strong, imperial features set as stone. His long dark hair, lashed by the fierce desert sandstorm, thrashed against his bare, sun-scorched shoulders in the wind. He stumbled across the harsh, rocky terrain, faint from hunger and exhaustion. In the distance, a second figure walked towards Him. Lucifer stopped ten yards away, dark hair flying, majestic, noble. They could almost have been brothers, although Lucifer stood a clear three feet taller, his six wings spread behind him, his scarlet cloak blowing behind him. The dark seraph.

In the distance, Astaroth, Dagon and Moloch stood silent, high on the mountains, behind them thousands of the fallen host waited, menacing, covered in shadow, in their monstrous black war chariots.

Jesus looked resolutely at Lucifer. He studied the Nazarene’s crystal clear gaze.

‘So this is what it’s come down to...’ Lucifer laughed manically. ‘The great Yehovah ... Christos, sovereign ruler of the universe, ensnared in matter. Jesus of
Nazareth
...’

Jesus was silent.

‘The seal of the seventh stone has been lifted. You are unprotected, Christos.’ Lucifer walked towards him menacingly. ‘You have none of your former powers now – you must pass the tests as one of
them
. It is the condition of the Codices.’

Jesus continued to gaze at him. In silence.

Lucifer spat. ‘That I would ever see such a day – Yehovah, Almighty Creator, denying Your deity and taking on their inferior form. Lower than the angels. It
insults
me,’ he spat.

Lucifer’s eyes narrowed. ‘But maybe You are not
He
. I require proof...’ He swung around. ‘If You are the Son of God, then prove it. You fast and are faint from hunger – turn these stones into bread.’

Jesus stood completely still as Lucifer moved closer. Lucifer leaned down and picked up a stone; it turned to bread, freshly baked ... still steaming.

Jesus bowed His head. He had been without food for nearly forty days, and His famished body was starting to rebel violently.

Lucifer took and ate. Revelling in Jesus’ torment. ‘Satiate Your hunger.’ He held out the fresh bread.

‘Matter requires sustenance to exist,’ he smiled, ‘unlike the angelic.’

He studied Jesus with narrowed eyes, then tore more of the bread and bit into it deeply. With great relish.

Jesus bowed His head. His voice was faint. ‘It is written by My Father: man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God.’

Lucifer studied Him for a long moment, then moved his hand across the skyline. Immediately he and Jesus stood on the lofty pinnacle spire of the temple of Jerusalem. Lucifer watched Jesus intently, drawing nearer to Him.

‘Thirty years away from His presence, away from the very elixir of life – You suffer, Christos; I sense it,’ he whispered.

A terrible grief crossed Jesus’ face. ‘Hearken back to your days of glory!’

Lucifer knelt on one knee and bowed his head. ‘Behold, O God our defender, and look upon the face of Thy chief princes, for one day in Thy courts...’ A slow cruel smile spread across his face as he raised his arms raised to the heavens. ‘...is better than a thousand elsewhere.’

Jesus said nothing as He watched image after image of Lucifer and the archangels bowing before His throne. An agonized sob rose in Jesus’ throat, and He turned to Lucifer, suddenly vulnerable.

Lucifer was ready. ‘I suffer as You do, Christos, each and every dawn.’ He reached out his hand, still wearing his ring with the royal crest of the House of Yehovah. Jesus stared in recognition at the royal seal, and an intense, searing yearning coursed through Him.

Lucifer smiled. ‘I
know
what it is to be desolate, Christos – away from Him.’

* * *

Jether walked slowly out of the entrance to the Holy of Holies, his white head bowed in silent supplication.

‘Lucifer revisits Eden as the tempter.’ Gabriel turned his face away.

‘This is no Eden,’ murmured Jether, his face ashen. ‘He is now to be tempted under all the pressing conditions of the fall.’ He walked towards the edge of the hanging gardens, looking out towards earth, and raised his hand. Instantly Mount Quarnel came into view.

Michael watched Lucifer and Jesus of Nazareth in horror. ‘He launches the whole fiendish arsenal of hell against Him. He has meticulously planned it.’

‘We wait, Michael.’ Jether placed a firm hand on his arm and bowed his head.

‘Have faith.’

* * *

The tempter continued, ‘A carpenter’s son from Nazareth cannot herald in a kingdom
unless
they proclaim You their king ... They do not understand Your deity, Christos,’ he whispered, ‘even in Nazareth, the carpenter is a prophet without honour...’

Christos bowed His head.

‘You – the Great King of the First Heaven have made Yourself lower than the angels, Christos – for the sake of what? The Race of Men? You have granted them free will, and yet they embrace
me!
They do not
care
that You were born one of them. The sacrifice of the great Christos is passed over, completely disregarded in the Race of Men.

An evil smile played across Lucifer’s mouth as he caressed the ring. ‘What visions of despair, what desolations have filled Your soul these forty days and nights, Christos – visions of a mission aborted ... a mission failed?’

‘The Race of Men seek signs, Christos. They seek wonders. Descend, heaven-borne, into the midst of the priests, Christos ... prove to them Your deity ... Jump,’ he hissed.

Lucifer moved his arm across the skyline, and instantly a panorama unfolded before them. Jesus watched, transfixed, as images played of Himself jumping off the spire to shouts of acclamation. He watched as the Pharisees and Sadducees hailed Him as King. He stared, almost mesmerized, at the chief priests and priests falling in homage before Him as he walked through the temple courtyard.

Lucifer’s wheedling tones broke through His reverie.

‘Yehovah will give His angels charge over You to keep You,’ he whispered. ‘Michael will save You ... then they will all hail You as their true Messiah. ... Take the short cut, Nazarene ... Show them Your power ... Jump...’

Lucifer drew close to Jesus. They watched in silence together as the massive temple gates opened and the priests’ trumpets blasted through the pale dawn silence.

Jesus looked up, pale and trembling. ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’

Lucifer paled. He pulled his heavy velvet cloak tightly around him in fury, then moved his hand across the heavens. Immediately he and Jesus stood on the summit of a vast mountain, in the full blaze of sunlight, where they shared a bird’s-eye view of the entire earth.

Instantly the horizon changed, and the sounds of millions of voices from heavenly choirs; of tabrets; pipes, violins – wondrous sounds beyond human or angelic comprehension – titillated His senses.

‘The splendour of Eden ... the breathtaking elements of earth in all its glory...,’ Lucifer murmured seductively. ‘Observe the beauty, the majesty...’

Lucifer circled Jesus.

Jesus stared, strangely captivated, as a thousand images played out in vivid technicolour. ‘Nations rising and falling, kings and kingdoms...,’ Lucifer whispered.

Jesus watched hundreds of millions of soldiers – Chinese, American, British, Japanese, Arab, and Russian, their flags all emblazoned with Yehovah’s royal seal – marching.

‘This is why You are here, Christos.’

‘To proclaim Yehovah’s kingdom. You need not pass any test for indeed I will bequeath all the nations of this planet to You now.
All
that was delivered to me in the title deeds of the Ark of the Covenant of the Race of Men.’ A slow strange smile spread across Lucifer’s features. He bowed down before Jesus.

‘I
give You
my kingdom.’

He waved his hand. Asmodeus and six fallen angels walked towards them carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Race of Men upon their shoulders. They placed the great golden ark before Jesus’ feet. Slowly Lucifer opened the lid. Inside were the twelve glowing golden codices, the title deeds to earth and the solar systems. Lucifer stated, ‘I grant You the rulership of the Race of Men.’

‘And...,’ he gestured to the millions of the shadowed fallen host in their war chariots waiting on the horizon, ‘I give You – the armies of the fallen ... once Yours – to be at Your command.’

* * *

Jether shook his head grimly. ‘How far has the lightbearer fallen – he offers his damned host that once served Christos back to be His vassals.’

Michael frowned. ‘The title deeds – What scheming strategy is this now?’

‘He offers the kingdom of the Race of Men in exchange for His very soul.’ Gabriel said softly. ‘We knew it would be so,’ Jether said.

‘The very same same strategy that he used to tempt Eve, and Adam after her.’ Jether continued. ‘If Jesus, weary of the contest, succumbs to his seductions, He has bowed His knee to Lucifer, just as Adam did so easily in the first Eden. He then becomes his subject and forfeits the right to proclaim the kingdom of the First Heaven.’

‘It is the rule of Eternal Law,’ Gabriel echoed. ‘This Lucifer well knows.’

They watched as Jesus closed His eyes.