Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) (44 page)

“Come, Camael,” Maya
said aloud.

The angel who
entered was a Power, and his humanoid shape appeared to be made of brilliant
yellow smoke with blue, feathery wings on his back.

“Assume solid
form, Camael,” Maya ordered with mild irritation. If this was truly the form of
perfection, then it should behoove all angels to maintain corporeal,
mortal-like forms.

“As Metatron
commands,” Camael said smoothly, and his gaseous form coalesced into a
fair-skinned angel. His wings were furled neatly behind him, and his appearance
was both impeccable and formidable, as befitted a Power. His skin retained a
yellowish tint to it, but without his wings he could easily pass for a human
mortal.

“Your continued
devotion and obedience are to be commended, Camael,” Maya said. “You alone,
among all the Powers of Heaven, still maintain a strong allegiance.”

“I serve
Metatron as I serve God,” Camael intoned reverently, bowing low.

“Yes, I know you
do,” Maya practically purred with pleasure, “and that is why I have chosen you
for a critical task that requires the utmost skill and devotion.”

Camael
straightened and clapped his right fist on his chest.

“Command me.”

Without the
power of the Throne to augment her skills, Maya had felt her control over the
Heavenly Hosts quickly slip away. It had taken all of her remaining will and
attention to retain her hold over Camael, who was not only a strong Power in
his own right, but was second-in-command of the Archangels. A less prominent,
less willful angel would have proven much easier to control, but another angel
would never have the same opportunities Camael would have.

Maya studied the
other angel carefully and was quite pleased with what she saw. No angel in
Heaven could truly hide his thoughts and nature from her, and she saw nothing
but absolute devotion in this one. He was perfectly suited to her needs, and
with his success, others would return to their proper place and rightful
obedience.

“You are aware
that the demon Kaelus has come to Heaven, are you not? And that his presence
here has had a tremendous disruption on the proper flowing of power in Heaven?”

Camael nodded.
“It is because of his Hellish presence that so many of the angels doubt your
proper authority, Metatron, and thus chaos has filled our ranks. I do not see
how we can stand thus divided against the hordes of Hell.”

“Indeed. Were
you also aware that Kaelus has assumed command of the Heavenly Host itself?”

The Power stared
at her in shock.

“Oh, Mikal and
Uriel maintain appearances and pretend to command in their own right, but
Kaelus is stronger than they, and he has trapped them by twisting the
traditions of
shaishisii
,” Maya said. “He sows division and discord
everywhere he goes, commanding through deceit and slowly corrupting all those
around him. He must be removed, and yet I cannot leave here for fear of his
coming after me to finish what he started in the Hall of the Throne.”

Camael stared at
her silently, awaiting the orders he knew were coming.

“I need you to
seek out the demon and destroy him, loyal Camael,” Maya said. “Bide your time
and wait for an opportunity, for he is powerful and cannot be felled by a mere
Power through direct confrontation. The demon Kaelus must be destroyed and his
hold over our forces broken. Only then will we stand a chance against his
brethren from Hell.”

“I will seek him
out and remove him as you command, Metatron,” Camael declared. He bowed and
made as if to leave, but Maya held up a hand to stay him.

“He will be
protected,” Maya cautioned, “perhaps even by our own forces who may have been
swayed by his corruption. You serve under Uriel, the Seraph, correct?”

“I am an
Archangel. I am his aide and lieutenant, yes,” Camael said guardedly. “I have
served under him since the Great Schism.”

“You follow him,
respect him.”

Camael nodded.

“And if Uriel
himself comes to the defense of this demon?” Maya pressed him. “If Uriel tries
to defend Kaelus, will you face your commander and strike him down if need be?”

Camael hesitated
then, seeing Maya’s frown, he nodded.

“It will be
done.”

Maya extended a
hand, and Camael stepped forward and knelt before her. He pressed his forehead
against the back of her hand and trembled at her touch.

“Go now,” she
said, “and serve me as the Voice of God. I am Metatron. To break faith with me
is to break faith with Him.”

“I obey, Metatron,”
Camael said without looking up. He stood and backed away, then left the room.
His steps never wavered, and his gaze never faltered as he left to carry out
her will.

- 3 -

Kala peeked into
Trames’s tent and saw him sitting calmly, his legs folded beneath him and his
hands resting on his knees. His eyes were closed, and he looked for all the
world like he’d fallen asleep sitting upright.

She started to
let the flap drop, but his voice stopped her.

“I’m not asleep,
Kala,” Trames said without opening his eyes. The tent had an extra blanket
thrown over the top to block most of the ever-present light, something many of
the living warriors had taken to doing when they needed to sleep. Those who
didn’t usually slept with blindfolds on, or else simply learned to sleep with
the extra light.

“Do you need
anything?” Kala asked, staring at him in curiosity.

“No, I have
everything I need, which is everything I want,” Trames replied.

Kala hesitated.
“What are you doing, Trames? All the times I’ve seen you sitting like this,
I’ve wondered.”

“One cannot
learn if one does not ask,” Trames said, “and yet one cannot learn if one does
not remain silent to listen. An interesting combination, and it’s odd how often
the latter precedes the former.”

Kala shook her
head and smiled slightly at Trames’s strangeness.

“As to what I’m
doing,” the balding man went on, “I guess you could say I’m trying to pick
myself up off this blanket.”

When Kala didn’t
respond, Trames laughed and finally opened his eyes.

“Sorry, my dear,
I know that sounds strange,” he said. “It’s a little joke from my younger days.
When I was still little more than a boy, I came across an old man under a tree
sitting much like this. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was
seeking enlightenment.” Trames shook his head. “Fool that I was, I asked how he
would make himself lighter, and if he would float if he did.”

Kala laughed
with him then.

“So is that what
you’re doing, then?” she asked. “Seeking enlightenment?”

“Always,” Trames
replied, “except I don’t need a tree to do it.”

“So if you find
this enlightenment, will it make you smarter?”

“No, my dear.
Intelligent people know who others are. An enlightened man knows himself. Power
conquers others, but it takes true strength to conquer yourself.”

Once more, Kala
shook her head. “Sometimes I just don’t get you, Trames,” she said with a sigh.
“You say some of the most insightful things I’ve ever heard, and then you turn
around and capture invisible creatures in empty honey pots and spout nonsense
rhymes with equal delight and sincerity.”

Trames smiled
sadly at her.

“The people of
our home believe me to be mad, and as they look at it, I suppose perhaps I am,”
Trames said. “That is why you were assigned as my ganashir. I didn’t accept you
as ganashir for my own benefit, though, rather for your own.” He looked at her
with such an expression of warmth and fatherly love that Kala’s hand trembled
as she held back the tent flap. “You have such wonder and beauty about you, my
dear, I weep when you cannot see it. You are so open, and yet so deaf and
blind.
 wide behind her.

o emulate us.
I still await the day
when you will allow yourself to have what you want and to be happy.”

Kala felt her
eyes burning, and she wiped her fingers across her eyes and flicked away the
wetness.

“If you would,
please, leave me now, Kala,” Trames said softly as he closed his eyes again.
“Further talk would only throw pebbles into a pond that’s slowly settling.”

Silently, Kala
nodded and allowed the tent flap to close.

“Rest well,
Kala,” Trames said from within.

Not trusting her
voice, Kala ran a hand down the tent canvas. Somehow, she knew Trames would
understand the gesture and unvoiced sentiment.

Her emotions
still unsettled by the brief encounter, Kala did not, at first, notice the men
who passed by her. Finally, she was jerked out of her reverie when a denarae
kythe spoke into her mind.

“Are you
looking for someone?”
the voice asked, and she looked up and saw Trebor Dok
standing nearby looking at her with polite concern.

“I’m fine,”
she replied, belatedly realizing that’s not what he’d asked.
“Are.. are you
all coming back so soon?”

“Our parlay
is over,”
Trebor said grimly.
“We’ll be packing to leave within the
hour, and the rear guard will stay until everyone else is away. It shouldn’t
take too long, since we got most of the garrison to safety already.”

Kala stumbled
over her thoughts, trying to order her mind and make sense of the turmoil.

“I think
Garnet was looking for you,”
Trebor suggested.
“He’s back that way about
fifty yards.”

“Thank you,”
Kala replied, and she waved to Trebor as she started off the way he’d come.

Kala found
Garnet sitting on a raised bump of heavenly ground and staring at a chunk of
crystal the size of his fist. Garnet held the rock in one thick hand and tilted
it ever so slightly to examine the play of light on the crystalline facets.

“It has six
facets,” Garnet said as she approached him from behind. “Six facets on each
side, then six on top that meet at a point, and six on bottom that do the same.
It looks so perfectly cut, but I broke it off the top of a short pillar of
crystal a few minutes ago.” Garnet looked up from the crystal and stared off
into the distance. “It’s like this whole place, it’s so perfect it’s
unnatural.”

Kala walked
closer behind him and laid a hand on either shoulder and felt the tenseness
contained in his body. Without asking, she worked the massive muscles of his
shoulders between her fingers, massaging away the muscle tension, even though
she knew she could do little about its inner source.

While she
worked, they watched silently as Birch walked quickly past. He stopped a few
feet away and slowly clenched his fists. Kala thought she saw a flicker
of…something, between his fingers, but she couldn’t be sure.
Flames?

“Here, Birch,”
Garnet said, and lobbed the Gray paladin the crystal he’d been holding. Birch
caught the stone and shattered it with one clench of his fist. A large chunk
fell to the ground, an exact miniature of the larger stone – six facets each on
the sides, top, and bottom. Birch picked up that stone and stared at it, then
he walked away, stone in-hand.

“I take it the
parlay didn’t go well,” Kala said with forced lightness.

Garnet laughed
bitterly.

“He was taunting
us just by his presence,” he replied. “We dug a few jabs at him like schoolyard
children, but the whole time he was laughing at us. He only came for parlay
because he was
curious
, of all things. He could have sent in his forces
right then and crushed us all. I think he’s amused at the thought of us
struggling against him and watching in vain as our armies crumble against the
horde he’s brought here. After seeing that army up close, I can’t say as he’s
wrong, either. What we saw at the Barrier in Lokka was only a fraction of the
army he’s got now.”

Kala had never
heard such despair in Garnet’s voice. Without thinking, she used one hand and
gently guided his head back to rest against her abdomen. Garnet leaned back far
enough that he could just barely look up and see her face. Their eyes met, and
Kala smiled down at him with what she hoped was a reassuring expression.

“How are things
here?” Garnet asked. “How’s Trames?”

“Trying to
levitate,” Kala said and laughed at the bewildered look on Garnet’s face. “I’ll
tell you some other time.”

Garnet slowly
closed his eyes as he relaxed under her ministrations.

“I like that,”
he said softly. “
Some other time
. It implies there’ll be a future for us
to enjoy and spend time talking about anything and everything under the sun. It
means we’ll be alive. It’s hopeful.”

An unnaturally loud
voice boomed out across the encampment, startling them both.

“Garnet!
Garnet!” Mikal’s voice boomed.

Garnet
practically leapt to his feet and pulled Kala off balance. She stumbled and
fell against him just as he turned and caught her with one arm. Kala looked up
and met his eyes, and for a moment, she was extremely aware of just how close
his lips were to hers. Just a slight tilt of his head and a few inches…

“Garnet!”

Garnet turned
away and took his arm from around her. He took two steps, then stopped and
looked back. Kala hadn’t moved. He opened his mouth as if to say something,
then blushed and turned away.

“Coming,” he
bellowed and trotted away.

For the first
time, Kala thought she might understand what Trames meant when he said to allow
herself to have what she wanted.

“And to be
happy,” she whispered, staring after Garnet’s now-vanished figure.

Mortals have a unique trait: they know they
will
die, but they do not when it will happen. A day,
a year, a decade, a century even – it is as inevitable as it is unknowable.
Thus, they can treat every moment as a gift and every experience as limitless.