Wingless, p.19
Wingless, page 19
The echo of the blow was still ringing in my ears when I looked up to see what had become of Azazel. To my surprise he was still standing, but there was an odd shimmering about his body. With a high-pitched noise like glass shattering, a very, very old miracle that was wrapped around Azazel’s body collapsed. Azazel’s features blurred for a moment as reality reasserted itself and revealed, standing in Azazel’s place, the Lightbringer himself. Lucifer. His first Angel, and Michael’s only older sibling.
With all possibility of any further obfuscation gone, Lightbringer’s shoulders slumped a little, and he sighed deeply. As he did, his magnificent, pure white wings extended out behind him, and he looked at Michael with disappointment on his face.
“Oh, brother,” the Lord of the Fallen sighed sadly. He then stepped sideways and in towards Michael in a fashion that didn’t completely conform to the laws of geometry or Euclidian space. He easily swept past Michael’s now extinguished sword and wrapped Michael in his wings before forcibly shifting both of them out of this plane of existence and to who knows where.
With the immediate danger past, I painfully got to my feet and looked about for my comrades. They were each pulling themselves together in a similar fashion, with Gary helping Silje sit up off the ground. It had hit her hardest of all of us, as I thought it had.
But the cry I had heard came from the other side of the park.
“Oh no.” Realisation hit me like a freight train. “There was someone…aargh!”
Suddenly, it felt like my wings, folded as they permanently are across my back, burst into flames. I screamed and collapsed. It was as if a white-hot metal bar had just been laid across my spine, but just as quickly as the pain had hit, it stopped. The others gathered around me, showering me with questions and concern, but I was having trouble regaining my breath and my silence just amplified their worry.
I finally managed to point towards where I had earlier heard the cry, causing Beatrice and Kateri to head that way looking for trouble, believing I was pointing at whatever had caused me to cry out. As the others helped me up once again, it almost felt like that hot bar was still there somehow, on my back, although none of my friends were reacting to seeing anything there, and the pain had not returned.
Kateri extended her black wings and was practically snarling as she stalked over towards the children’s swings. Beatrice was backing her up, moving around to stop anyone there from escaping towards the road. As Beatrice moved into a shadow from a streetlight, there was a quick intake of breath, and we could hear her call out, “Kateri! Oh no, quick, come help!”
Chapter Twenty-nine
I was trying, and failing, to brush off the helping hands of my friends as Beatrice called out. The tone in her voice wasn’t scared; it was concerned, worried. By concentrating solely on breathing, I was finally able to gasp out, “Let go already! I’m fine, it’s passed. Go help Beatrice!” Lennox, thankfully, refused to leave my side. She obviously realised that I was depending more on leaning on her in order to stand than I would care to admit, but the others rushed off to help Beatrice.
By this stage, Beatrice and Kateri were on their knees on the ground, bending over a prostrate figure lying between them. Beatrice looked up from the unconscious woman in front of her and into Kateri’s frightened eyes. “She’s dying! She must have been caught by Michael’s blow. That raw power could strip her soul out–we can’t let that happen Kateri, we’ve got to do something!”
Kateri swallowed her fear and grabbed Beatrice’s hand. Ignoring the confused look Beatrice gave her in response, Kateri placed Beatrice’s hand directly over the young woman’s belly. “It’s worse than that, Beatrice, they’re both dying.”
Beatrice gasped. “She’s with child!” The tiny life was merely a few weeks old, but it was still perceivable to the wingless angel. Without thinking, she placed her other hand on top of the one Kateri was using to hold hers, and poured all of her miraculous power into the mother and child.
Kateri’s eyes went wide, and she tried to pull her own hand back out of Beatrice’s grip, but it was too late. Beatrice’s miracle flowed through Kateri’s hand, burning the Fallen Angel as it did so. Kateri howled out in pain and her own miraculous power rushed to heal her hand, burning Beatrice in return.
The pair of Angels, Wingless and Fallen, screamed together as they continued to pour life into the human between them. Their cries melded together in the night until it sounded like the cry of a mother giving birth. Beatrice’s power, meagre in comparison to a Fallen, gave out first, and the pair released their grips on each other and fell back onto the grass.
A car sped past the park, its horn blaring as we stumbled across the grass to help our friends. Drunken revellers hung out of the car’s back windows, loudly proclaiming to the world “Happy New Year!” as the car hurtled around a corner and out of sight.
“That explains the fireworks,” Admonae stated, as she got to Beatrice and knelt down by her sister.
Silje ran to Kateri’s side, replying as she carefully lifted Kateri’s head up onto her lap, “But...it’s only just April, isn’t it?”
Gary had gotten to the human who Kateri and Beatrice had been trying to save. “Hold on, begin the journey you’ve completed? You have got to be kidding.” Gary summoned a small ball of light over the woman and looked closely at her before sitting back. “Yep, of course it’s her. I mean, who else would it be?”
Admonae swatted Gary across the shoulder. “What are you talking about? Is she going to be okay?”
Gary nodded. “Oh, she’ll be fine. Her and her daughter. Or should I say ‘our’ daughter?”
Admonae raised her hand in warning. “Do you want me to smack you again?”
Gary moved the floating globe of light closer to the now-sleeping woman’s face. “Look at her, Admonae. You’ve seen this face before. It was just a decade or so older the last time you looked at it.”
Looking down, comprehension dawned on Admonae’s features. “She’s Tracey Newman?”
“You know she is,” Gary replied.
“Then the child...” Admonae looked from Tracey to Kateri and Beatrice, who had turned their heads to look at Tracey when Admonae had spoken her name.
“I’d say we’ve solved the mystery of how a new Wingless can be born,” Gary replied. “We happened. That bub has three mothers. Tracey, Beatrice, and Kateri. Not all that romantic as far as conceptions go, but then again we were pushed back through time by a Tree of Creation to do this, so who am I to judge?”
Kateri sat bolt upright, her Fallen constitution recovering from the strain quickly. “I…I have a—?”
Beatrice, lying in Admonae’s lap, finished Kateri’s sentence, “A daughter. It seems we do.”
We all fell silent with the revelation. Other than the obvious biological interplay that went into creating life, none of us really understood how or when humans gained their unique soul. That part of creation was never shared with the hosts of heaven, and the process was as miraculous to us, as our miracles were to humans.
And now, we had been involved, somehow, with the creation of this specific life. It was humbling.
It was terrifying.
Kateri stood, turning left and right, obviously not knowing what to do. “I’ve got to get back to her!”
“She’s right here,” Beatrice replied.
“Huh?” Kateri was struggling with the enormity of what had happened. “Not her, the other her. The older her. Dammit, you know what I mean!”
I had been watching all this from the edge of the group, while keeping an eye out for anyone else who might decide that a midnight walk through a riverside park was the perfect way to celebrate the new year. I was also having my own minor crisis. The burning and pain on my back had faded to nothing more than a hazy memory, but the puzzle pieces had been quietly slipping into place in my head.
Michael’s sword had no flame in London when he was chasing Kateri or in China when he battled in the underground train station. I watched it go out with the blow against Azazel tonight, a blow that violated the laws of heaven and nearly killed Tracey and her child. The flame of heaven had done more than just go out; it had abandoned him.
And then I felt the fire at my back.
With a confidence I did not know I had, I reached back over my shoulder and gripped the hilt of my sword. It flowed into existence in my hand, and I drew it. My normal, plain sword shimmered into view before me for but a moment before it shifted, lengthened just a little, and then burst into holy flame.
Tracey drew in a huge breath as the light of heaven’s flame shone on her face, her eyes flickering open and colour returning to her cheeks. I quickly sheathed the sword and Gary also doused his glowing light, plunging us back into shadow.
The evidence was inescapable. Michael’s sword had abandoned him. And for some unknown reason, it had chosen me.
Poor planning was my first guess.
Tracey opened her eyes and lifted one hand to hold her forehead. “What? Who are you? Ohhh, my head.”
Silje moved to comfort her. “I’m Susan. I think you fainted, my friends and I found you here. Do you live nearby, can we help you get home?”
When Silje turns on the charm she rarely needs any miraculous power to get people to relax around her, and tonight was no exception. After introductions and a gentle amount of persuasion, Tracey was up and walking us back through the darkened streets to her home.
What Tracey didn’t realise, of course, was that while she was walking through what would normally be considered a rather rough area of London at night, she was surrounded by six Angels. Two of them had just discovered they shared a very personal connection to her unborn daughter, and another that she was now the chosen bearer of the Sword of Heaven itself. Right now, Tracey Newman was probably the safest person on the planet.
I hoped, however, that no one was going to be idiotic enough to try to mug us this night, as we were all so on edge with what had occurred that an overreaction on our part was definitely in the cards.
Luckily, the walk was peaceful and filled with pleasant conversation. Some gentle persuasion from Silje for Tracey to see her doctor about her ‘fainting’ tonight was accepted, and a few knowing smirks were shared that Tracey would soon be finding out about her pregnancy.
Once we got to her building, Tracey got onto the elevator, and we waved her goodbye. Following her up to her apartment would have seemed a little too familiar, and I felt that we had interfered in her life enough for one night. Or for one lifetime for that matter.
“Sooo...” Gary posed, drawing the single syllable out until he had our attention. “Just how do we get back? Are we supposed to hide away somewhere and just wait?”
Silje tipped her head to one side and up to the sky, listening, before shaking her head and looking back at us. “No, this part of the song is coming to an end. It feels like it will be over by sunrise.”
“Then all we have to do is wait,” Beatrice stated.
Gary put his best ‘offended’ look on his face, gasping theatrically. “All we have to do? No! Dawn is still a few hours away and we have some serious celebrating to do!”
Everyone started talking at once. Kateri, Admonae, and Lennox questioned the sensibility of interfering too much with the timeline and attracting attention. Silje enthusiastically supported Gary’s idea and Beatrice stood there quietly, still wearing a slightly stunned and exhausted look on her face. That at least made sense–where Kateri could regenerate her power the moment she extended her wings, the miracle back in the park had completely drained Beatrice, and she would not get even her limited amount of power back until the sun rose on her.
This felt like a win, however, and we’d had precious few of those recently. When the discussion hit a lull, I spoke up. “Friends, I’m going to have to side with Gary on this one.” I held up a hand to quell his over-enthusiastic cheer before continuing. “We’ll find a nice, out of the way diner and have a quiet celebration. We can toast the New Year, for the second time for this particular year, and we can be with our new mothers as they get a chance to talk to each other and be a family.”
Admonae nodded at that last part. “Family. That’s who we are, you too Kateri.”
Kateri almost looked like she was on the verge of tears, “That’s a lovely thought Admonae, but we all know the truth. I’ve fallen. I’m no longer part of your family.”
“Incorrect.” Beatrice’s abrupt, sharp interruption brought Kateri up short. “You fell to protect us. You are one of the mothers to our child.” Beatrice’s face softened and a small smirk grew on her lips, “And besides, at this point in history you haven’t fallen yet.”
The rest of the evening passed in gentle bonhomie. In the corner of an all-night café, crowded into a booth around steaming mugs of cocoa, we joked, hugged, and talked. Dawn was still about an hour away by the time conversation about the impending joys and responsibilities of motherhood was brought to a close by Gary casually commenting on the irony of a group of Angels cooing over the birth of a child who was already over a decade old.
As Gary was removing the last remains of the soggy, chocolate-soaked marshmallows that he had been pelted with from his hair, Admonae drew a deep breath, and with a pause, addressed the table.
“It has been a momentous night, an amazing and wonderful one, but we should at least acknowledge the other…little bombshell dropped this evening,” she hesitatingly said.
“That wasn’t just another illusion, then?” Lennox asked hopefully.
Admonae and Kateri answered in unison, “No”. After a pause Admonae continued, “It was real. It seems that Azazel is the illusion, and a masterfully woven one at that.”
I snorted. “He is known as the master of deception and manipulation after all. He’s been playing us since the war.”
Gary shook his head, comically sending a final blob of marshmallow onto the table. “Sorry, Joan, I don’t buy it.” He held up his hand to forestall my comeback and continued, “It’s no secret there is no love lost between you and the fallen, present company excepted Kateri, but I honestly think he did it because he cares about us.”
“Then why lie to us about who he is?” I spat back.
Lennox placed a hand gently on my shoulder. “Would you have accepted him if he hadn’t? Joan, be realistic, you would have fought him before he had the chance to say hello.”
Lennox accurately read my silence as agreement with her statement. She squeezed my shoulder before letting go and continuing. “Think about it. He was the first Angel ever created, the Lightbringer, tasked with igniting the suns. He was there at the genesis of each of us, watched us awaken and open our eyes for the first time. He has known us our entire lives, has been our ‘big brother’ throughout all of time. He may have rebelled against our father, but we are still his family.”
We were all quiet for a time after that. I still didn’t trust him, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to voice that thought. It was Kateri who finally broke the silence.
“Well, he’d better behave himself from now on–he’s an uncle now, after all.”
The first rays of sunrise streamed through the window and with it the smell of the rarefied, cold air of the Himalayan mountains wafted through the café. In the time it took me to blink, we were back in Tibet.
Chapter Thirty
Judging from the angle of the sun, barely any time had passed in the present since we had placed our hands on the tree. I found myself reluctant to remove my hand from the trunk, hesitant to rejoin the world. I felt something press into my palm as I lifted it from the bark, looking down, I saw I was holding an acorn-like seed. From the reactions of the rest of my friends, each of us had one.
In my head, a voice resonated as I looked at the seed. “A gift. A link through time to who you were, will be, and are.” A puzzled look passed between each of us, but we all still carefully placed the seeds into our pockets. If a Tree of Creation, especially one that has proven abilities to play with time, gives you a gift, you take it.
There was no sign of Raphael or the Tao-shih outside the courtyard when we cracked open the gate and snuck out. They obviously expected our ‘communing’ to take a lot longer than it apparently did. We were able to cross the compound back to our lodge and sneak back inside without encountering another soul. I’m not sure why we felt that was important, I think we just needed some time to ourselves before facing the troubles of the world once more.
Kateri and Beatrice shared a final hug before she stepped back and placed her hand on the doorframe. “Sorry Joan, I’m going to leave explaining all this to Raphael in your capable hands. I’m going to take a shortcut back to …” She stumbled over the word until a delighted but shy smile emerged “...To our daughter. I’ll keep an eye on her while you do what you have to do.” We watched as she practically skipped out of the lodge and across to the edge of the plateau, where the miracle-cancelling effect of the Tree would end. Balanced on the brink of the precipitous drop, she extended her arms and stepped off the edge.
We held our collective breaths as the seconds ticked by. Her fall would soon take her beyond the Tree’s influence, but time seemed to stretch in that moment. A blink of the eye later, however, we could see her glorious black wings as she swooped upwards in the distance, showing us she was safe, before activating her power and miraculously transporting herself back to England.
Almost on cue, Raphael emerged from the lodge of the Tao-shih and started to cross the compound towards us. I moved back into our lodge as Raphael arrived, signalling to the Archangel to follow.
Once we were all seated on the cushions that surrounded the small brazier in the floor, Raphael spoke. “Joan, may I enquire if you found the answers you sought?”
