Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) (39 page)

As Birch took
yet another step forward, a monstrous roar split the air behind him and the
ground trembled in tandem with a muffled crash. Without looking, Birch knew
Kaelus was freed from Maya’s power. While the demon recovered, Birch and Danner
took another step forward, bringing them even with the frozen bodies of Mikal
and Uriel. As they came abreast with the two Seraphim, the angelic pair
abruptly resumed motion and fell in step on either side of the two mortals.

Kaelus pounced
forward and crashed down between Birch and Danner, and the five of them faced
Maya from only a few feet away. Trames stayed on the floor below them, all but
forgotten in the moment. He watched the scene playing out before him with sad
eyes.

“You cannot!”
Maya screamed. “I am Metatron! I have the power of the Throne.”

“And we have the
power to deny you,” Kaelus growled. Blue flames engulfed his horns as he glared
at the pink-winged Seraph. “No mortal am I, but now even I see the truth and
the power of free will.”

“Impossible!”
Maya gasped. “We are as we were created, granted power and dominion over the
mortals to guide them to the light of God. What you say is heresy!”

 “You’ve
said that word a lot today, Maya,” Kaelus chuckled, a rumbling, ominous sound.
“I don’t think it means quite what you think it does.”

Maya cowered
back as Kaelus stepped out in front of the others and swelled slightly so he
towered over her, even perched on the Throne of God.

“Mikal, Uriel,”
he said in a firm voice, “you two yet retain the power as Keepers, yes?”

“We do,” Mikal
answered.

“Only we two
remain,” Uriel said grimly. He looked meaningfully at Mikal. “It must be done
here, and it must be unanimous.”

 “You know
what needs to be done,” Kaelus said. “Let it be so.”

Mikal and Uriel
exchanged another long look, then they nodded.

“Maya of Heaven,
self-proclaimed Metatron, the so-called Voice of God,” they proclaimed in
unison, “you are hereby barred from the Hall of the Throne. No longer shall the
light of its power shine upon you. No longer shall the power of its glory be
known to you. No longer shall the glory of its presence be yours to behold.”

Maya cringed as
Kaelus loomed over her and added, “And no longer shall you blaspheme the power
of God by assuming that which is reserved only for the divine.”

“Be gone from
this place!” Uriel and Mikal shouted.

“No!” Maya
screamed, staring at them in horror.

“Be gone from
this place!” they repeated.

As they watched,
Maya seemed to grow a little fainter.

“Be gone!”

Fainter still,
until she was barely visible.

“Be gone!”

And with that,
she vanished from the Hall.

When Gerard died, Shadow Company shattered for a brief
time. Garnet picked up the pieces and put us back together in a way no other
could have, but I think he’s always worried about whether he put us back
together the right way.

       
- Michael Semnriak,

private journal (1013 AM)

- 1 -

“It is done,”
Kaelus said heavily, and his shoulders slumped as he shrank down from the tower
of intimidation he’d presented to Maya. He was still taller and more massive
than anyone else in the room, but he made an effort to reign in his
āyus
so he didn’t overwhelm the mortals with his presence.

The Hall of the
Throne was silent in the wake of her passing, and even the least perceptive of
men could sense that something profound had just taken place. None of the
immortals present relished their momentary victory, but it had been necessary.

Danner stared at
the Throne where Maya had stood.

“She’s not,” he
hesitated, “
destroyed
, is she?”

Mikal shook his
head.

“Merely banished
from this hallowed Hall,” the Seraph said. “At the moment of our creation,
Uriel and I, along with Raphael and Gabriel, were anointed Keepers of the Hall,
and access to the Hall can only be granted through our sufferance. Anyone can
enter the structure, but the closer you come to the Throne, the harder it
becomes to approach. The stronger your
āyus
, the more impossible it
becomes to near the Throne without permission. Those most able to use the
Throne are restricted from doing so, and for untold eons, only we four were
deemed worthy to approach without temptation. Maya convinced me to let her
approach the Throne during the Great Schism, despite Uriel’s protests.”

“Already she was
working her tricks into us,” Uriel said sadly. “So terribly subtle, none of us
saw it coming until it was too late.”

Mikal sighed.
“The sad thing is, I think she truly believed everything she did was for the
greater good. For the longest time, I believed as she did, because I never
stopped to question her. I stopped thinking for myself. I pity her.”

Uriel’s face
hardened as he turned to Mikal.

“Pity her all
you want, my friend,” he said harshly, “but never forget that consciously or
not, we allowed ourselves to become a part of her madness.”

 “Indeed,”
Mikal said sternly. He turned back to Danner. “She is still somewhere in
Medina, greatly reduced from her power here, but far from helpless.”

“She could still
be a problem,” Kaelus grumbled.

Mikal shook his
head. “We can’t spare the time or power to search for her. She may still have a
hold over many of Heaven’s forces, but the strongest still command, and they
will be the first to shake free as she continues to weaken. Given time, she’ll
lose all control without the Throne to bolster her influence.”

“And now that
Kaelus is here,” Uriel said with a broad grin. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen
her more terrified than the instant when you showed up, you horny devil,” Uriel
said, clapping Kaelus on the shoulder. Blue sparks flew from the impact and
both immortals winced, but Kaelus returned Uriel’s grin with a toothy smile of
his own.

For the first
time, Danner realized Kaelus’s teeth were sharpened points.

“Speaking of
Maya’s reactions,” Kaelus grumbled, then turned to look pointedly at Trames,
“you caused quite the stir, old man. How is it that you were able to resist her
power where none of us could?”

“Weren’t you
listening?” Trames replied. “I was certain you’d at least be able to hear, but
maybe you were too focused on staying afloat in the air.”

Danner choked
back a laugh and ended up in a fit of coughing.

“I heard your
explanation, Trames,” Kaelus said with an indulgent smile, “and I’m only now
coming to believe it myself. Free will. But how was it you were so thoroughly
convinced in your own mind that she held no sway over you from the outset?”

“I’ve lived with
it a long time,” Trames answered simply. “All my life, I suppose. It just felt
wrong to give it up now, after having it for so long.”

Kaelus opened
his mouth to reply, but a groan behind them brought everyone’s attention back
to the other full mortals in the room, most of whom were just now being freed
from their frozen state. Kala hurried to Trames’s side, aware that
something
had just happened involving her ward, but not entirely sure what. The
elves, Siran included, immediately stared about distrustfully and backed into a
circle, weapons at the ready. Garnet and the other paladins had their swords
drawn and stared about in perplexity.

 “She’s
gone, mortals,” Mikal said. “There is no need for alarm.”

“No bloody need
for alarm?” a harsh voice cried. “What ass-spawned idiot ever uttered such a
blatant piece of water-weak tripe? We’re in the middle of a God-forsaken war
with the damned demons of Hell itself, and just because some angelic bitch gets
herself dethroned, you think there’s no need for alarm?”

Danner locked
eyes with Garnet and just barely held back a burst of laughter.

“I guess that
means Gerard’s back to normal,” Flasch said dryly as he sheathed his sword.

“We’ve missed
you, sir,” Garnet said with a broad grin as Gerard shoved past the elves. The
demi-humans reluctantly parted for him and relaxed their guard. Danner saw
Trebor trailing in Gerard’s wake, a broad grin on his denarae face.

“God above,
it’s good to feel like myself again,”
Trebor kythed into Danner’s mind.

Danner’s
answering grin was the only response needed.

“You bet your
ass I’m back to normal, you skinny Violet,” Gerard said, cuffing Flasch lightly
on his head, “and while you’re all standing about either in shock or patting
yourselves on the backs, you’re ignoring the war going on outside.”

“We just
defeated her not five minutes ago,” Uriel said lightly, a patient smile on his
face.

“And four
minutes ago, you should have had your asses in gear and already been in motion
toward the front lines,” Gerard snapped. Uriel stiffened, but Gerard pushed
right past him and confronted Mikal, Kaelus, and Birch. “You boys may have been
living the easy life for the past few months on Lokka, but even through the
mind-numbing pleasantries that witch forced on us, I know things have slowly
been sliding into a cesspool around here, and
she
didn’t have what it
took to dig our way out.”

Mikal crossed
his arms over his chest and glared down at an unflinching Gerard. The Seraph’s
six emerald wings rustled behind him in suppressed irritation.

“Am I to assume
from your tone that you think you
do
have what it takes?” Mikal said
flatly.

Birch and Garnet
both let out sharp barks of laughter. Mikal snapped his attention toward
Garnet, then Birch, his eyes demanding.

“Ease off,
Mikal,” Birch said, and there was steel behind the calmness of his words. “You
may have lived since the beginnings of time, but Gerard here knows more about modern
warfare than any ten men combined. He’s more than capable, and he’s just what
we need right now.”

Before anyone
else could speak, Kaelus came forward and stood next to Birch. He stared at
Gerard with blue flames flickering in his eyes.

“And you, mortal,
must recognize that Mikal is now the most powerful angel in Heaven and has
fought more battles than there are stars in the heavens,” Kaelus rumbled. “You
would do well to put aside your pride and work with him. Teach him, yes, but
learn from him. As of this moment, you two are in charge of crafting our
defenses and developing a strategy to save Heaven.”

“Kaelus,” Uriel
said grimly as he stared at the stunned faces around him, “you act as though
you have authority, when…”

“I
do
have authority,” Kaelus barked, and the Hall echoed with the force of his
voice. He stared at Uriel as blue flames pulsed and slowly coursed their way up
and down his black horns. “My friend, Mikal may be the most powerful angel in
Heaven now, but I am the most powerful
immortal
here, and I challenge
anyone to prove otherwise.”

Danner wasn’t
terribly surprised when everyone remained silent.

“By immortal law
and custom, I rule,” Kaelus said.

“I don’t think
that putting a demon in charge of Heaven was what we had in mind,” Mikal said
stiffly.

“I don’t think
anyone ever thought to try it,” Uriel added with a sly smile. Mikal glared at
him.

“If I have
learned nothing else from observing mortal history, I know that an army must
have one commander and one commander only, and while the Heavenly Hosts will
never accept a demon as their commander, it is not them I command, but you,” he
said, pointing to include the entire group assembled before him. “Through you,
I will command the Hosts themselves, with them never the wiser. None of us can
succeed without the other, and each must play his role as it has been handed
down.”

He locked eyes
with Mikal.

“You know this
to be true now more than ever before,” he said grimly. Mikal nodded reluctantly
and clapped his fist to his breast in salute.

Gerard mimicked
the salute, as did Birch, Garnet, and all the assembled paladins and elves.

Uriel was the
last to salute Kaelus, but he did so without any sign of reservation or
rebellion.

“Now,” Kaelus
said firmly, “I believe it would behoove us all to follow the suggestion of our
master warrior and get our asses in gear.”

Very
deliberately, Kaelus turned toward Uriel and winked.

- 2 -

Kala listened
attentively to Brican’s description of the meeting he had just left. Nearby,
Trames hummed happily to himself as he peered intently into a hole he’d just
made in the cloudy surface. When asked, he said he was trying to decide whether
the hole was empty or full, and if not one, then why the other?

Since their
return from Medina and the incredible events there, the various officers from
the expedition had been closeted in a meeting with their new commanders, Mikal
and Gerard. A handful of angels arrived soon after and immediately joined the
meeting without speaking to a single mortal before they entered the command tent.

An hour later,
mortals and immortals alike had erupted from the tent in a flurry of activity.
Most were intent on their tasks, some were flustered. A few were angry.

“Gerard doesn’t
want anything all that unreasonable,” Brican told her, “he just wants it all
now
.
Immortals aren’t used to immediacy. They’re used to immortality and
timelessness.
Now
has never meant very much to them.”

“Until now,”
Kala quipped. Brican flashed her a brief smile, but it was immediately lost as
he turned his eyes to the soft ground and sighed. Without looking up, Brican
held out a hand as Trames handed him a roll. Wordlessly, Brican started picking
the bread apart and stuffing pieces into his mouth.