Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) (85 page)

“Anathematization,”
Mikal answered.

Maya stared at
him in shock. “You can’t,” she whispered. “You can’t.”

Mikal and Uriel
joined hands and murmured words no angel had ever thought to hear in the whole
span of existence. The sentence they passed had never before been contemplated,
and it would never again be imposed on another heavenly being unto the end of
time. It was indeed a fate worse than mere death.

Even Kaelus had
to firm his resolve to see through the fate they imposed on Maya. It was only
by keeping firmly in mind all she had done, all she hoped to do, and all she
still was that he maintained the will not to interfere at the last moment.

“You can’t,”
Maya gibbered again in terror. Her eyes darted about frantically, seeking some
escape, but the curse being pronounced upon her held the Seraph fast. “You
can’t, you can’t, you can’t.”

Mikal and Uriel
finished intoning their dreadful sentence and stared resolutely at Maya.

“You can’t do
this!” she shrieked. “You can’t send me to Hell!”

Uriel let go of
Mikal’s hand, stepped forward, and raised his flaming sword high over Maya’s
head. The Anathematization curse bound the victim with only one avenue of
escape – through the void of nether and into the infernal plane of Hell. Still,
they could not force her out of Heaven without her cooperation, even unwilling
as it was. As the Sword of Light raced down to Maya’s neck, her instinct of
self-preservation overrode all other options and – aided by the power of the
curse laid on her – Maya screamed in horror and vanished from sight an instant
before Uriel’s sword sliced through her throne.

The shorn-off
back toppled to the ground amidst the silence of the room. As an angel, Maya
would always be drawn back to Heaven, but the Anathematization would forever
bar her from reentry. For the rest her days, Maya would feel an undeniable and
unquenchable thirst for her natural plane of existence, which would ever remain
beyond her reach, and her new residence would forever reject her presence and
torment her very existence there.

Finally, Mikal
said, “It is done.”

Kaelus added
softly, “And may God forgive us, for I think we have just given Shaitan what He
most wanted.”

There are some duties that run so deep they become a
part of a man, and he cannot ignore them. In the end, my final duty lay only in
living as I have always done. For God. For Man. For Life.

- Birch de’Valderat,

“Memoirs” (1013 AM)

- 1 -

It was a grim
procession that wound slowly down the road to the small farmstead. Garnet led
the solemn train toward his family home with a lead weight in his stomach. He
grieved for news he would be bringing his mother.

It was an
acknowledged fact that one day, Garet jo’Meerkit would fall in the service of
the Prism. His family – especially his diminutive wife – had long ago accepted
that as inevitable. Every time Garet returned home alive had been counted as a
blessing from God, and every time he left again his wife and children had
waited apprehensively for the day he returned – either riding his dakkan in
triumph or riding under his shield in death.

Garnet looked
back at the wagon and stared without expression at his father’s corpse. The
body was stretched out on the back of the largest wagon they’d been able to
find on the road home from the Binding, and Garet’s shield was laid atop his
chest, his arms crossed over the top edges. His sword was clasped by both hands
in the center of his chest, and the blade ran down the length of the massive
shield. He still wore his armor, but his helmet had been removed. The red cloak
that signified him as a paladin was then draped over his body, leaving only his
head exposed.

He looked
peaceful.

On a smaller
cart behind him was Perklet Perkal, laid out similarly to Garet. The white
cloak of beauty, charred and soiled by the flames that had taken his life, in
no way spoiled the subtle sense of peace and tranquility radiating from the
calm smile on the dead man’s face. Garnet had heard from Birch the story of the
quiet paladin’s martyrdom – only a few seconds before Halo Company and Shadow
Company had arrived to rescue them. He still didn’t fully understand the
implications of his brother paladin’s fate, but he knew enough to respect the
extreme sacrifice and devotion Perklet’s death had entailed.

Since the former
Green paladin had moved on somehow, they’d had to decide what to do with his
body. The paladins who’d traveled with him before, James and Nuse, knew nothing
of their friend’s wishes and had suggested he be returned to the chapterhouse
with their other unclaimed brother paladins, but Garet had insisted that
Perklet’s body would be laid to rest at the family farm with his own.

“Perky saved
your mother and gave me you twins,” Garet had told his children. “We can give
him a home for his eternal rest. He’s family.”

Family.

“I’m sorry you
never had grandchildren to enjoy, dad,” Garnet whispered. “I know I promised,
but…” he choked off, unable to finish the thought. He briefly thought of the toy
sword resting carefully in his pack.

Garnet looked
toward his brother and nodded once toward the homestead.

“Brad, go get
mom and Bronk,” he told his brother gently.

Brad nodded
soberly and jogged ahead, but he slowed and stopped as their mother came out of
the house without being summoned. She had one arm around her youngest son, and
even from a distance, Garnet could see they both knew what had happened.

Garnet stopped
the horse-drawn cart just outside the house and walked slowly toward his
mother. He towered over the tiny woman, who didn’t even reach his shoulders,
but he felt about six inches tall as he stood before her, head bowed, and tried
to say the words.

“Mo…” he choked.
“Dad is…”

“Hush. I know,
Garnet,” she said softly. “I know, dear one.”

He looked down
at her in confusion. Of all the reactions he’d expected, calm acceptance was
not one of them. His mother smiled gently up at him. Anolla rushed forward and
fiercely hugged their mother, who softly shushed her daughter and patted her
back comfortingly.

“An angel
visited us a few days ago and told us the news,” Bronk said, fighting back
tears. “He didn’t tell us how, just that… well…”

“Dad died a true
paladin,” Garnet told his youngest sibling, but his eyes were still on his mother.
“He sacrificed himself to save a Seraph, and he destroyed a powerful demon lord
in the process. He… His soul was there still, in Heaven, afterward, and he
asked me to give you this note.”

He handed his
mother a folded piece of paper sealed with their family crest – a mountain with
a sword crossed diagonally over it. Garnet now wore the ring his father had
used to make that seal, an inheritance he’d always been afraid to receive.

Garnet’s mother
tucked the note away without reading it. He knew she would only open it when
she was alone and could grieve further in private.

“He also said to
tell Bronk to eat his vegetables and obey his mother,” Garnet said with a weak
smile. Then he handed a second note to his youngest brother.

Bronk and
Bradley wheeled their father’s and Perklet’s bodies off to a barn to be
prepared for burial. While they were gone, Kala came to Garnet’s side and laid
a hand on his arm. He drew her close and breathed deeply, as though drawing
strength and comfort from her proximity. Garnet’s mother looked at them with a
knowing gleam in her eye, and she smiled at them with genuine happiness.

Somewhere inside
the house, an iron skillet crashed to the ground and they heard Trames yelp in
fright. When he emerged, blushing, he had a small pot of honey in one hand and
a spoon in the other. He, too, looked at Garnet and Kala standing together and
smiled benignly at them. The old man winked once at his ganashir, then wandered
off happily spooning honey into his mouth.

“Should we…”
Garnet began, but Kala stopped him.

“He’ll be fine,”
she said. She put one hand to his face, tilted his head down, and kissed him
gently. “I think we all will be.”

Garnet looked
around at the farmstead where he’d grown up and tried to imagine it without his
father being there. Then he glanced down at Kala and considered the future they
had talked about while returning from the Binding. Garnet and his siblings
would not be the last generation raised on the farm, of that he was certain. He
knew a few hundred denarae who wouldn’t mind helping him build his own house
when the time was right, and he even knew just where it would go: a nice spot a
bit closer to the pond.

“Yeah, I guess
we’ll be all right at that.”

- 2 -

Moreen was
already out of bed and halfway dressed before she actually woke up and became
aware of what she was doing. A chirping bird on her windowsill brought her back
to herself, and she actually thanked the creature as she continued getting
ready. She dressed in loose-fitting, comfortable trousers and a sturdy tunic
and vest, then tugged on her hardiest boots. Moving quietly through the Iron
Axe Inn, she avoided the kitchen staff – who were no doubt aware she was awake
anyway, given their denarae abilities – and made her way outside.

The gnome
Faldergash was visiting, checking in on Alicia and her pregnancy in Danner’s
absence. Heaven above only knew how the gnome had found out about her
condition, but still he was here, and more importantly, he’d brought a buggy
with him. When Moreen reached the vehicle, however, she realized she wasn’t the
only one awake at such an awful hour.

The pre-dawn
light filtered down from the sky and provided just enough illumination for her
to recognize Alicia already squeezed into the driver’s seat of the gnome’s
buggy. The gnome’s latest model had only two seats, but had a covered storage
compartment in the back rather than the open-air seating seen in other
vehicles.

“Couldn’t
sleep?” Moreen asked. Alicia jumped guiltily as she fumbled for the switch that
would start the engine.

“I… I just had
this feeling…”

“I know,” Moreen
told her. “Me, too. Let’s go.” She looked pointedly at Alicia’s swollen belly,
which was interfering with her ability to fit comfortably behind the steering
wheel. “Maybe I should drive,” she told the younger woman.

Alicia smiled at
her gratefully and awkwardly shifted to the passenger seat. Fortunately, Moreen
had enough experience driving dwarven buggies that Faldergash’s customized
model wasn’t too difficult for her to figure out or handle. The two women eased
away from the Iron Axe and drove quickly through the dark streets of Nocka,
going west.

They passed few
people as they drove, mostly bakers and other shopkeepers going about their
morning routines of preparing for the day ahead. Moreen waved to a few merchants
she traded with for supplies for the inn, but didn’t slow as she hurried toward
the Barrier.

Talking their
way past the guards proved troublesome, and in the end Moreen was forced to
bribe the city guardsmen to let her pass through. She grumbled in exasperation
as the gates closed behind them. She eased the buggy forward until the Barrier
began to shrink behind them, then she stepped hard on the accelerator. They
shot forward with unbelievable speed, and Moreen quickly eased off the pedal
lest she lose control of the vehicle.

They drove in
silence until they reached the area where the Merging had once stood. Scholars
of every race and affiliation had been out to the site in the months since the
Barrier War, and everyone agreed that the Merging was no longer present. It had
faded slowly away over the past months. Moreen could have told them that
anyway, based on what she knew from Birch and his companions.

When they
reached the area, however, a faint shimmer in the air told her that something
had changed. The Merging was back! She stopped the buggy and stared
apprehensively at the curtain of power draped across the landscape. Moreen
wondered what had brought them both here, and she began to regret having come
with just Alicia. What if demons broke through the Merging again while they
were sitting right there?

As if in answer
to her fears, a wall of shadowy figures appeared in the distance on the far
side of the Merging and came toward her. She backed the buggy slowly away from
the apparitions, ready to spin the wheel and race away at a moment’s notice.

The foremost
figure began to take shape, and she saw it was humanoid. There was something
about the figure’s walk…

“Birch,” she
breathed, daring herself to hope. She eased her foot away from the accelerator
and stood in the buggy, peering anxiously ahead, praying that her eyes weren’t
playing tricks on her.

Finally the
shadows disappeared, and Birch stood in front of a mass of men wearing armor
and cloaks of every color of the Prism, including some who wore white. She
recognized Gerard Morningham and Garet jo’Meerkit standing just behind Birch,
then a smaller shape walked up next to him, and she smiled as Alicia struggled
to free herself from the buggy.

Danner raced
forward to her side and dropped to his knees to catch her as she all but fell
out of the buggy. The young couple embraced and clung to each other with a
passion and fervor Moreen knew all too well. She stepped from the buggy and
walked toward Birch. Gerard and Garet fell behind and stopped just short of
crossing the Merging, but Birch came forward alone and silently wrapped his
arms around her.

“Birch,” she
whispered.

“I love you,” he
said softly, and Moreen’s world melted.

How long they clung
to each other, Moreen was never sure, but no matter the time their embrace
lasted, it was too short by any reasonable estimation. Eternity might have been
long enough, but just barely.