The Inner Circle: Holy Spirit (32 page)

‘
I’ll do anything,’
Ilgrin pleaded as a third droplet touched his flesh and oozed down
his arm, sending a cold shiver through his body. ‘Please.’ His mood
darkened and he felt unwarrantedly aggressive.

‘
The creation of a
sieift requires sacrifice,’ Teah said slowly. ‘Are you willing to
pay the price, my Devil?’

‘
Yes.’ Ilgrin exhaled
slowly when he realised what Teah was asking.

‘
Then follow me,’
Teah turned and leapt from the balcony with Ilgrin at her heels. He
pursued her determinedly to the top of the tree followed by gasps
of disbelief from the crowd and shouts of reprimand from the
coronation conductor.

‘
They’re watching us
now,’ Teah said, landing on a wide branch. ‘When they see your
willingness to sacrifice, they will help us.’

‘
Then do it now!’
Ilgrin cried as drips became drizzle and thunder growled like a
fighting dog restrained.

‘
I suggest you take a
deep breath.’ Teah raised her arms and Ilgrin took a step
back.

Clenching his teeth, Ilgrin
waited for a painful explosion. But angelic power was crueller than
that and manifested incrementally. His skin tingled slightly before
it began to burn. Ilgrin felt somewhat nauseous and his heartbeat
increased. His joints felt like they were being pulled apart and
his muscles began to twitch and spasm. By the time the pain had
become true agony, Ilgrin was barely conscious enough to hear
himself scream.

Despite wanting to vanish into a
tiny hole and die, Ilgrin forced open his eyes to find himself
squirming in a mass of mist. The white cloud spewed away from him
and drifted into the sky where Teah focused on it so that it
flattened and spread out forming a barrier between the tree and the
clouds. Throughout the legion’s woods more puffs of white mist
moved into the sky, where they too flattened out to form a single
continuous barrier that spread out over all of Hel.

When the pain went away, it left
Ilgrin feeling numb and empty. ‘Why’d you stop?’ Ilgrin asked
without the slightest complaint in his voice.

‘
The angels got the
message,’ Teah replied. ‘And we need our Devil to be strong.’ She
looked at the sky. ‘Hopefully the storm is short and we won’t need
to worry about patching that up when it starts to leak.

Through blurred vision, Ilgrin leaned
back and stared into the sky where the giant sieift flexed and
rippled against the black downpour. Purple lightning struck at the
sieift but failed to penetrate much deeper than a stride before
being snuffed out of existence.

‘
Who were the
others?’ Ilgrin asked, the sieift globe’s enormity taking him by
surprise.

‘
The sufferers,’ Teah
replied. ‘Willing demons.’

‘
Who would be willing
to go through that?’ Ilgrin gaped in astonishment.

‘
Not all silts are as
fortunate as you, Enoch,’ Teah said sadly. ‘People will do horrible
things to feed their young.’

‘
You pay them?’
Ilgrin gasped. ‘You pay the poor to let you torture
them?’

‘
It was not we who
first recruited the sufferers,’ Teah spoke scarcely above a
whisper. ‘The Holy Tome speaks of sufferers being utilised as early
as the second Devil’s reign. It was Sa’Tan’s son who created the
concept. It was the only way. Maker instructed us in the beginning
not to allow demon movement north of Hades. But we were also put
here as their guardians. Employing sufferers is the only way we
could do both.’

Ilgrin got to his feet unsteadily.
‘That’s disgusting.’

‘
It could’ve been
worse,’ Teah said with a nonchalant shrug. ‘History tells us that
some Devils encouraged the kidnapping of humans for the purpose of
sieift creation. At least this way the legion is protected and the
sufferer’s family are well fed for a year.’

‘
That’s disgusting,’
Ilgrin repeated his sentiments from earlier.

‘
Well, what
alternative is there?’

‘
I don’t know,’
Ilgrin threw out his arms. ‘Maybe stop making whisps so that we can
finally see the sun!’

‘
Go ahead. You try
telling a demon mother that she can’t resurrect her dead child,’
Teah scoffed.

‘
Then resurrection
should be supervised by angels,’ Ilgrin said desperately. ‘If
someone wishes to perform a resurrection they must first suffer the
sieift in preparation to cancel out the whisp as it
forms.’

‘
That sounds good in
theory.’ Teah shrugged. ‘But once more: those before you have tried
time and again to enforce such laws and it has proven fruitless.
There are far too many demons and far too few angels. By the time
we could get around to everyone the bodies would’ve long since
become too dead.’

‘
So we’re damned to
live this way forever?’ Ilgrin threw up his hands in defeat. ‘Must
we fear the clouds above until they’ve one day become too strong
for us to defend ourselves?’

‘
There is much I have
to tell you,’ Teah replied. ‘But first you must address your
people.’

Ilgrin flew back down to the
balcony where nervous faces waited, many peering up at the newly
formed dome above them. ‘People of Hades,’ Ilgrin started with an
elevated voice. ‘I hereby swear to fight for the good of all silts.
It is time to bring equality to both Hades and New World. We will
make the humans accept us!’

Ilgrin was aware only after he’d
finished speaking that the speech probably sounded very odd to the
silts below. They probably didn’t much care about feeling equal to
humans. He frowned.

‘
I will bring glory
to the lineage of Sa’Tan!’ He finished. The crowd roared. That was
what they’d wanted to hear. He turned away awkwardly and headed
inside to find Teah waiting there.

‘
Come with me.’
The angel
took Ilgrin’s hand and guided
him farther into the tree. From there they weaved through numerous
passageways until Ilgrin found himself standing in what could only
be described as a library. The walls were lined with shelves grown
out from the tree surface to be filled with countless books. Teah
removed one of the larger ones and flicked through the
pages.

‘
What’s
that?’

‘
The Holy Tome,’ Teah
murmured as she sought out a specific entry, sliding her finger
down the page as she went.

‘
Sorry.’ Ilgrin
raised his hands in protest. ‘I’m not religious. Abnatians don’t
believe in Maker.’

‘
The Tome speaks of
redemption.’ Teah ignored Ilgrin’s objection. ‘Here.’ She pointed
at the tiny black writing. ‘This is one of the most prominent signs
that we are living in the last days. It says that the darkness will
begin to spread north.’

‘
I’m sorry.’ Ilgrin
backed away. ‘I really don’t believe in--’

‘
Just try to keep an
open mind,’ Teah snapped in exasperation. ‘It is said that Maker’s
Holy Spirit will come down upon the earth and that She will descend
in the clouds and every eye shall see. A key will be given unto Her
and with it She will reopen the gates of Hae’Evun.’

‘
Wait.’ Ilgrin shook
his head in confusion. ‘The Holy Spirit is a woman?’

‘
Many humans believe
the use of “She” to be symbolic.’ Teah frowned. ‘I’ve never really
understood the problem myself. People always seem so determined to
believe men must be assigned all of the important jobs.’

‘
I suppose.’ Ilgrin
nodded. ‘So who is she?’

‘
No one knows,’ Teah
replied. ‘Not even the Spirit Herself. The Tome says that nobody
but Maker knows the day nor the hour. We just have to watch for the
signs.’

‘
You said this spirit
will have a key,’ Ilgrin stated. ‘What makes you think that demons
will want to return to Hae’Evun? We must’ve left for a
reason.’

‘
I think that you
might be surprised by how many of us are tired of living this
way--foreigners imprisoned in somebody else’s world.’ Teah sighed.
‘But, like you, too few believe in the Holy Scriptures anymore.
Perhaps even I had lost my faith until . . .’ She trailed off and
leant forward, allowing her long hair to tumble over her
shoulders.

‘
Until
what?’

‘
Well . . . the sky
is moving,’ Teah said almost apologetically.

‘
Look, it’d be really
nice if your story book was true,’ Ilgrin stated apathetically,
‘but I’m the Devil now and I can’t just wait around hoping on your
mythical Holy Spirit. I have to do what’s best for my people right
now.’

‘
So what are you
going to do?’

‘
We’ve destroyed our
world and there’s nothing to be done about that,’ Ilgrin said
regretfully. ‘So . . . we’ll just have to take theirs.’

‘
You would invade New
World?’ Teah raised her eyebrows.

‘
I don’t want to hurt
them,’ Ilgrin said softly, his thoughts straying to El-i-miir. ‘We
must find a way to co-exist. They will learn to tolerate our
presence, given enough time.’

‘
They will fight to
the death.’ Teah shook her head at Ilgrin’s naïveté. ‘They hate us
and rightfully so.’

‘
You would believe
that.’ Ilgrin shrugged. ‘But I’ve seen another side to them. If we
can just be good to them, we’ll win them over in the
end.’

‘
In the end,
perhaps,’ Teah said without conviction. ‘But not in the beginning.
Many lives will be lost before they’ll listen to you.’

‘
I know that,’ Ilgrin
said solemnly. ‘The armies must be defeated and the Elglair will
have to be watched carefully.’

‘
The Elglair will
have to be destroyed completely,’ Teah said
fatalistically.

‘
Completely?’ Ilgrin
balked.

‘
You know it’s true,’
Teah said firmly. ‘They’re too dangerous and too
sneaky.’

‘
Yes,’ Ilgrin
said
. ‘I suppose they
are.’

‘
Ilgrin.’ Teah
touched his arm. ‘We didn’t start this, but we do have to finish
it.’

‘
Didn’t we?’ Ilgrin
said shakily, somewhat surprised by her having used his preferred
name. ‘They only hate us because of the lives our whisps have
destroyed.’

‘
Perhaps you’re
right,’ Teah replied. ‘But this is about survival. They will
continue to attack. We either defend ourselves or we lay down and
die.’

‘
I know.’ Ilgrin
sighed in resignation. He turned and left the library with a heavy
heart. He walked the length of a dark tunnel curving through the
tree with downcast eyes. He flew through the internal cavern on
unsteady wings and exited the tree. The sieift above was waning,
but the storm had come to an end, so it’d served its
purpose.

Someone screamed in flight. It
was a sound that sent chills running down Ilgrin’s spine. He looked
into the sky and there he saw something that filled him with fear.
An angel flew straight toward the tree carrying a large capsule
with an ignited fuse burning close to its end. The silt thrust his
legs forward and released the bomb. It hit the tree with shuddering
force, spraying fire in every direction.

Matt-hew 24

23. Then if any man shall say unto you,
‘Lo, here is the Spirit,’ or ‘there,’ believe it not.

24. For there shall
arise false spirits and false prophets and shall show great signs
and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive
the very elect.

25. Behold, I have told you before.

26. Therefore, if they shall say unto
you, ‘Behold, She is in the desert!’ go not forth, or ‘Behold, She
is in the secret chambers!’ believe it not.

27. For as the lightning cometh out of
the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming
of the Holy Spirit be.

28. For wheresoever the carcass is,
there will the eagles be gathered together.

29-30. Immediately after the
tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon
shall not give her light, and the demons shall fall from the sky
and the powers of Hae’Evun shall be shaken, and then shall appear
the body of the Spirit in the sky. And then shall all the tribes of
the earth mourn bathed in blood, and they shall see the Holy Spirit
coming in the clouds with power and with great glory.

Scriptures of the Holy Tome

CHAPTER
Twenty-Four

Black Powder Bombs

Jakob hurried down the seemingly
endless stairwell that served as the only Sa’Tanist route through
the great tree. There were many duties he had to take care of in
his service to the new Devil. Sa’Enoch was a good man and had
remembered him as he’d hoped. He was allowed free access to the
tree and was set up to receive an admirable income. Jakob smiled at
the thought. He’d done well for himself.

His foot fell toward the next step, but
it was gone. A deafening explosion filled his ears, the blast
thrusting him back against the wall of the stairwell. He gaped in
horror as the side of the tree disappeared and he stared out over
the trees of the legion below. He was blasted by hot, fiery air as
the tree shuddered and moaned. He watched in disbelief as the great
army of New World slowly carved its way through the outer portions
of Hel.