TCE3

The fold-door left Ophan Melchizedek in the very place where he had been taken, the audience hall of the King, but only one lamp was burning to give light.

Melchizedek had forgotten when it was day on one world it could be night on the other, and he wondered how that could be.

Knowing that his father Melchiyahu slept, he went the wing of the palace where his sister Lilith lived, as he remembered her to be rather nocturnal.

When he drew near to her chambers he saw servants going out with wet linen and going in with dry linen. Hy wondered if he really wanted to see this.

The worst fears of Melchizedek materialized when he came into the presence of Lilith and found her to be nude from the waist down, with each leg held high in the air by servants, debauched even by his sister’s standards. But Michael was also present amid a flurry of activity.

Lilith spied hym approaching and smiled broadly. “Deck, you’ve come! And just in time!”

Michael said to har, “The head has breached. Push, Lil! Push!”

Melchizedek saw little after that. He only remembered that it was all very liquid. Afterwards he realized to his surprise that he, a warrior of Salem, had fainted.

After Lilith’s servants revived Melchizedek he guessed he must have been unconscious for some time. The newborn was already skin-to-skin against its mother. She said, “Deck, is Leliel not beautiful?”

“I see there have been many changes here these three years I’ve been away.”

“Who more worthy to wed an Ophan of Salem than a Seraph?” replied Lilith, affirming what Melchizedek had guessed about Michael, that he was the living avatar of an eloah, greater in glory than any king. “And Deck, in your absence the city has withstood a mighty attack.”

Hy said, “Beloved sister, you are the most valiant and hardy yan I know, but unless I am still unconscious and dreaming, just moments before you went through one of the most difficult and painful experiences possible in this world and you did not once cry out.”

“I cannot stand to watch my wife suffer in the smallest way,” Michael explained, “so when she came to me in Adan I gave her a gift. She can stand apart from any pain, if she so chooses.”

“And I most certainly did choose, tonight,” Lilith said, as a nipple slipped into the mouth of her tiny Leliel. “There are things Michael has told me that it is well Samael or Beliel not discover until it is too late for them. Not the most refined torment could wrest them from me now.”

Melchizedek caught the eye of Michael and told hym, “Abraham proved true in the testing.”

“That is so,” said Michael, ‘but he has little love for a god who demanded the life of his son. Still, it is not his love I crave. I suppose a man might remain loyal to a god he actively hates. Even now he and his son are offering the animal we sent to them.

"But come, Melchizedek, let your mind be at ease and rejoice with your sister: you have a niece! Tomorrow we shall see your father and speak of what has befallen Salem in your absence.”

For years the Adanite army blocked and garrisoned all the roads leading to Salem from the north, south, and east. Salem lay on an island within a large lake fed by meltwater from a place where the northern and southern sheets of ice came together as one.

When the people of the city yet mourned the passing of Melchiyahu, the father of King Melchizedek, Michael spoke in council of the movements of the Adanite army he had discerned from the avatar of Bat-El. “The forces now moving in the field are five times again what came against Salem before.”

“Five, or half, or a hundred times greater,” said Melchizedek, “so long as I reign as king over this city, none shall face the enemy in the field.”

“My lord,” said Lilith, “we have ships enough to carry all the people of the city away.”

“But where would they go, Lil? There’s a hundred small coves scattered around the Sea of Aramel where clans of fisherfolk barely survive from what little they catch and what lesser still they trade. The vale of the Dashok is too rock to grow crops.”

“Even so Your Majesty,” said Michael, “I beg you to release to me one seaworthy craft, at least. I would send spies to the very source of the river Dashok. Samael maintains a fortress in an ice cave there and supplies it by fold-door. It blocks any escape to the west. Samael has me at a disadvantage. he knows precisely where the cave lies on the surface of Kemen and I do not.”

“If my brother the king is willing," said Lilith, "Azarael and Jael would be perfect for the job. They’re ghosts. They could travel light and live off whatever supplies they find in the cave.”

“Then they shall have their barque,” said King Melchizedek, “and what provender they need.”

In the weeks that followed the Adanite forces closed in upon Salem until the city, which was an island that lay half a league offshore, was entirely isolated.

As the sarim Azarael and Jael of the Fallen Angels slinked their way through the ice tunnels far to the west of Salem only three of Samael’s soldiers ever discovered them. Their bodies were left to be discovered in such a way that their deaths could be explained as entirely accidental.

The two yen found the location of the enemy’s main storeroom of meat and grain. Not even Bat-El knew the exact position of that space where it sat under the ice, but she knew the position of Lilith’s headband, the one capable of casting a bright light, at all times.

Azarael left the artifact inside a container near the center of the ice cave in such a way that it would not likely be discovered and moved, even if the storeroom were actively being drawn down, which to her eyes it was not.

After that she and Jael moved some distance away. They moved far down one of the tunnels radiating from the central space like wheel spokes, there to remain until such a time as they detected, as Michael put it using what he warned was extreme understatement, a disturbance. “This is not a suicide mission,” he had explained.

They would never starve amid the bounty of stores but it was always cold. Fortunately they had a good remedy that never seemed to get tiresome. In the cozy little rat’s nest they made for themselves Jael slipped nude between fur blankets and purred to Azarael to come to har.

Melchizedek considered abdicating the throne, but no one believed Samael would seat Princess Lilith on the throne to succeed him, and a successor more to the liking of Samael was unthinkable to everyone who was now dwelling in Salem. Yet a siege would be even worse.

He said, “Beloved sister, the time has come for the Fallen Angels to quit Salem or renounce the sword for so long as they dwell within the city walls.”

Lilith replied, “My brother and lord, this is a bitter edict. Raphaela and my fighting yen have already sworn their hand shall ever cleave to the sword.”

“And where shall they go, Lil?”

“Sire,” Michael said, “I propose to call together a council of royals with the aim of uniting all Kemen against Samael. I will fly Leliel to safety in Anshar but Lilith and Raphaela will lead the Fallen Angels to Rumbek. King Metatron boasts he will welcome any refugees departing from what he terms ‘the unlovely lands ruled by Samael’.

So steadfast is this enmity that I plan to commit Queen Aurra and King Uriel to the council before I even meet with the Larund king. I thank you, King Melchizedek for your years of service to me in the other world. I have made far greater demands on you than you ever did of me.”

“There has been a spring in this city,’ said Melchizedek. ‘It has lasted far longer and tasted far sweeter than anyone dared to dream. But if winter must now come to Salem, Michael, may the flowering we have known also take root outside of the lands trampled by House Gerash.”

“Will you reconsider accepting my offer, that your sister may not be parted from you forever?”

“It is tempting, yet as the centuries wore on I think would become alien to the living, like a stone smuggled into a nest of eggs.” The King saw how Lilith grew supremely unhappy at these words.

“Then Sire, think on the refined cruelty of the Eyes of Elyon, and what you may suffer should you fall into their hands. Your sister accepted the Change and not even the pains of childbirth made her blench. At the very least you could die at the moment of your own choosing.”

Melchizedek said, “I have no fear of that. Every moment that I remain alive in their captivity Samael will fear I will be snatched out of his hands by my sister. No, Michael, my end will be quick.”

Melchizedek saw how Lilith was allowing her tears to flow freely. He was moved to drop the airs of a king, step down from the dais, and embrace her one final time as any brother would the sister he loved. He said, “I regret the years I had to admire you only in my thoughts.”

Lilith could find no words other than to merely sob, “Oh, Deck, this parting is bitter. Bitter!”

Melchizedek held her gently apart and said, “Michael told me Leliel is the firstborn of the B’nei Elohim. The Children of the Gods! How fortunate you are, Lil!”

Then like the shadow of a cloud passing over the white sun the King saw how they were inflicting torment upon themselves as cruel as anything devised by the Eyes of Elyon by letting the necessary parting linger too long.

At his command Melchizedek was arrayed in his finest raiment, and he donned a jeweled cloak. Then he led his weeping subjects to the lower levels of the city, and Princess Lilith longed to follow, but Michael gently stayed har, and together with Leliel they went another way.

Two hours later a lone craft neared a dark shore thronged with the enemy after making a nighttime crossing from Salem, but no darts flew, since it was yet too dark to see the identity of the boatyang.

The living avatar of Samael passed through the ranks to properly receive the visitor. Suddenly night became day as the avatar of Chokhmah rose over the walls of Salem on a pillar of flame.

Samael was not distracted as the other yeng were. he recognized Melchizedek and ordered weapons free. As the Cherub foresaw he perished quickly in a storm of arrows.

In the sky the avatar’s light diminished as it bent to the north and picked up speed, becoming lesser in light than the orange cold sun that reigned over the night, then finally no brigher than an ordinary star as it raced out of sight. Never again would Salem know a ruling monarch.

When the Fallen Angels forced the entrance of the ice cache the commander, Bezaliel, ordered a retreat to the central chamber while dealing out fire.

There his troops made a stand that seemed impossible to break. As Lilith’s forces emerged from one tunnel or another he shifted soldiers to meet the threats when they appeared. Lilith found it impossible to attack the core simultaneously from more than a handful of tunnels since the cross tunnels were few and the enemy knew them well.

Raphaela spied a drop of water rolling down Lilith’s cheek, and her lieutenant was shocked at first, then she steeled harself up to rebuke her Queen. It was one thing to feel despair during a battle, it was quite another to allow that despair to be visible to underlings.

But a large drop of water landed square on Raphaela’s head. she looked up to see many such drops were falling from the dimly-illuminated ceiling of ice far overhead. The drops became a true rain.

The ceiling began to glow with a light of its own and a deep thunder grew. Lilith ordered the Fallen Angels to disengage and fall back in the tunnel. The ceiling of the ice cave glowed orange before exploding, with the more fortunate Adanite defenders killed by house-sized chunks of ice and the less fortunate ones boiling alive.

The avatar of Bat-El drilled into the chamber of ice with all six engines skewed, spouting fusion fire from the heart of Sol and turning the water to steam. The water boiled away and the bodies of the yeng were crisped by the raw flame until even their ashes were scattered away.

Lilith and her lieutenants walked to the ragged end of several tunnels trying to comprehend the chaos of the scene below. The avatar fell silent. Far across the chamber at another tunnel stood Azarael and Jael, both quite safe.

The applause of the two yen echoed across the now quiet space. Lilith dropped to the lowest level and spoke to the inert avatar. “Michael, if Leliel is in there with you, you’re dead. And if you left her alone in Anshar where Elyon or Daat can get at her by fold-door you’re twice as dead!”

The avatar of Chokhmah began to shrink before her eyes until it was a white faceless figure with a head, arms, and legs. It said, “Do give me some credit, Lil.”

Lilith had quite forgotten that Chokhmah could fly her avatar perfectly well without Michael inside. Bat-El marched out of the Adanite supply cache with every footfall sounding like an avalanche.

After a number of days the Adanite expedition-in-force, having seen the ruins of the garrison, emerged from the ice and the underlying hills to reach the flats of Magodon, where like numbers of Brown Beards stood across the path of their advance.

Two soldiers of the House of Larund advanced alone under flag of truce. Samael and Belial wore no emblems of rank. Their raiment was that of common footsoldiers, and no banners flew over them, yet the envoys from the Larund side galloped toward the Seraphim without error.

Then Samael saw one herald was Lilith herself, to his admiration. The other wore a brass helmet but when he drew nearer Samael identified hym as he Ophan Barachiel. Both he and Lilith dismounted and sank to both knees, bowing deeply before Samael and Belial with their hands open.

She said, “My Lord Samael, Bat-El is willing to give you that which you most desire.”

Samael said, “You have not the wit to comprehend what it was I crave most.”

Lilith said, “Indeed, the courtship of elohim is beyond reckoning, yet Bat-El has put me in something of the role of a chaperone. You must please me to please her. Send the army of Adan back to the land of the Black Beards, and come not again save by leave of the rightful king.”

“Impossible, dear Lilith. I never relinquish one scrap where my forces make footfall. This all in Kemen know.”

Lilith turned to her companion. “What say you to this, Prince Barachiel? As touching oaths the elohim are never faithless like angels or men can be. Lord Samael’s resolve never to retreat from conquered land would also hold his army here just as firmly once his word is given.”

Barachiel said, “This land is of small worth. My father would be full willing, I deem, to give it in exchange for the word of a Seraph that no Adanite boots would ever cross west. And if that Seraph’s word ever proved false that precedent, too, would be worth the land.”

Queen Lilith reached into her raiment and struck up the killing relic. she dug a deep trench in the stony ground between her and the Adanites and said, “My Lord Samael, sight north and south along this line. Henceforth no soldier of Adan shall march west of this line. ”

Samael said, “So too shall it be a fence barring yourself and the Fallen Angels. You, and your daughter after you, shall be queen in name only, with no city to rule.”

Lilith uttered words formally sealing the bargain.

“Are you now sufficiently pleased, Your Majesty, that we may proceed to the other thing?”

She said, “Even if King Metatron ratifies our bargain there remains the matter of Demonstroke.”

“Yes, there remains the matter of Demonstroke,” said Samael as he reached over his shoulder to draw the blade strapped to his back in a leather sheath, the diamond sword known as Dragonthorn. “In Kemen, Your Majesty, there always remains the matter of Demonstroke.”

Samael made the diamond sword Dragonthorn to dart this way and that, and soon Demonstroke was seen in the sky. As he drew nearer the armies drew apart, leaving only Barachiel, Lilith, Samael, and Belial standing at the new border.

The dragon circled to the north and lined up on the border. Even Samael backed away from the line, and the others found it prudent to follow his cue.

Lilith was fascinated by the grace of the landing. The wings of Demonstroke spread to their full extent and he sank. The dragon’s hind legs touched first, then he tipped forward to run on all fours. Demonstroke came to a stop and sank to the ground directly between the four nobles exactly on the trench Lilith had carved.

She saw that the beast did not belch smoke or even seem to breathe. With the beast so inert, Lilith’s curiosity overcame her caution and she advanced to touch the creature’s hide. she found its scales did not merely resemble metal, they were metal.

Samael said, “Come, Queen Lilith. Let us have an audience with King Uriel and so complete our bargain.”

Lilith watched Samael seat himself forward of a horn on the dragon’s back. Further, Lilith saw that Samael, who was patting his thighs, expected her to sit in turn forward of hym and behind a shorter horn. she sighed and took the indicated position, knowing it was the only way to be done of her errand for Michael.

Demonstroke sprang to life. Lilith was not dismayed by the sensation of sudden rapid flight. she had flown much higher and faster many times within the avatar of Chokhmah.

Far below she saw Prince Barachiel turn west to ride to his father and say he had given away the eastern hinterlands of Magodon. she also saw the Adanite force dispersing at the command of Belial to garrison their new province against invaders who would never come.

Demonstroke’s head bent back over them on its long neck and fire spewed out in a jet that propelled the dragon into the sky, pushing Lilith against Samael, and he in turn against the bony ridge at the place where the serpentine neck joined to the rest of his body.

The dragon rose until the air became almost too thin for Lilith to breathe. Then Demonstroke’s head bent forward again. He extended his wings and with gentle flaps the beast extended his glide as the waste- lands of Magodon rose to meet them underneath.

Then, when the tops of trees native to Kemen nearly brushed the belly of Demonstroke, he bent his head back again and let loose another long jet of flame. They chased the sun out over the sea and Lilith lost count of the cycles.

As westering Rigilkent sank below the horizon they glided down to one of the many scattered campfires visible on Sealiah. A party of Brown Beards were preparing to sup around their fire on the moors in the north of the isle when Demonstroke appeared and scattered them all away in abject terror.

When the dragon came to a stop, Samael slid off to check what was cooking, and he seemed pleased.

Lilith joined hym after pissing behind the beast’s bulk and found supper was a good beef stew made all the more delicious by her near starvation. she smiled and said, “Will your pet have some? Of course not, with only pulleys and ropes inside!”

“What a clever yen to have guessed Demonstroke is mechanical. Tell me, Queen Lilith, did you imagine any living thing could maintain such a hot fire within itself?”

Lilith shrugged. “At least Bat-El’s avatar has provision to ride comfortably inside.”

Samael said, “Demonstroke has a different purpose than Chokhmah’s toy and was not designed to carry anyone. Were this Bat-El’s avatar and had scattered Larund yeng to steal their food, the Brown Beards would already be returning. Not so with a dragon.”

Lilith took a deep swig from a wineskin no one would try to reclaim by reason of the nearby monster. “By the gods you have thought of everything, Lord Samael! But when we leave the beast with Uriel what is the qualifying stipulation? With thee there is always at least one.”

“I will tell the king that Demonstroke is controlled only by Dragonthorn, which is true, and that Dragonthorn must only be touched by a virgin female or it will grow brittle, and that is not true now but it will be true by the time we reach Jelaket in the land of Sastrom.”

“I knew it would be something like that. Do you know, Lord, that Michael calls you Ha-Satan?”

“Ha-Satan? The Accuser?” Samael considered it, then he shrugged and said it was fair. “I am allowing world-dwellers, collectively, to build the case they are not the Students. You are not the first world-dwellers we have known. There were others, yet they would not heed our wisdom. We watched them drive themselves to extinction. The true Students will accept our teachings.”

Jelaket was the keystone of Kemen, a seaport and the first step in the staircase of the Wall of God. The city was the gatehouse for all goods moving east and west and grew fat on the duties levied thereon in commerce interrupted only by war or, just once, by Demonstroke himself.

Many of the people of Jelaket remembered when the monster came last, and they were not happy memories. When Samael landed in the large outer courtyard of the castle of King Uriel, near the stables, he was most unwelcome, but a flying dragon need never knock.

Watching from the ramparts, King Uriel saw hez archers assemble in a wary circle around the beast as the two riders dismounted. One che recognized as the Seraph Samael, but the other, a yan arrayed for war, che knew not. They conversed with hez guard, and one ran inside.

Uriel reached a silent count of nearly fifty before the soldier appeared. “Your Majesty, Lord Samael has arrived, and with hym is Queen Lilith of Salem. she says they have flown upon Demonstroke from the frontier between Magodon and Adan and crave audience with the king.”

Uriel said, “And shall I treat with foreign nobility while their living engine of war skulks within the walls of my castle like a blade over my neck?”

“Your Majesty, Lord Samael swore the beast would not move one whit, nor even so much as breath, so long as he and the queen remain your guests.”

Uriel knew Samael always coated his menace with honey. Che said, “Attend to our visitors’ needs and seat them in the smaller council chamber. Send to notify the First Minister. Uriel knew the dragon must portend some deep form of humiliation that he would rather keep private.

At a casual first glance, First Minister Makassar Bronzesaber might have been mistaken for the king of the Red Beards, and Uriel merely his son. As a human male, for instance, Makassar really had a red beard, while the actual king, a jen, could not even manage a sparse down.

Lilith and Samael stood up when they entered, but Uriel said to them, “I beg you, esteemed ones, be seated once more. I do not relish observing all the correct formalities here. For one thing, Queen Lilith, your claim to be a cherub hast outrun any news from Salem.”

Makassar remained standing at the king’s side as though interposing between Uriel and Samael, and he was armed with a sword. Samael glanced at it. Uriel glanced at Samael glancing at it.

Che said, “Forgive the perceived affront, great ones, that Minister Makassar is girded for violence, but he tells that me you, at least, Lord Samael, bear a weapon, and would not lay it aside.”

Deliberately, with a stately pace that gave no hint of the violence feared by the king’s minister, Samael brought the diamond blade into view and laid it on the table with the hilt toward the king. he said, “Dragonthorn is not really a weapon but rather a talisman, Your Majesty. It has powerful spells to act as invisible reins upon Demonstroke.”

“Then tell me, Lord Samael, what does your dragon, and this blade, bewitched or no, have to do with me or any of the House of Bellon?”

“Your Majesty, if you are pleased to listen,” put in Lilith, “my father Melchiyahu lies dead. Samael took the natural death of my father as the signal to rekindle an Adanite family squabble and moved on Salem. My brother King Melchizedek suffered a decidedly unnatural death and I fled.

Yet I knew with his dragon alone Samael could lay waste to every city and town outside of Adan. Naturally the question of what to do with Demonstroke arose as we parleyed. In the proposed bargain, Your Majesty, the Dragonthorn blade is to be kept here in your safekeeping.”

“More specifically,” Samael put in, ‘I propose the blade should go into the keeping of a human female of the House of Bellon. She must be one who has never known man nor jen nor lan. She must remain pure for all the days she possesses Dragonthorn, or it will shatter.”

“And only once more,” said the king, “I ask why do you lay this burden upon the Red Beards?”

Samael said, “When I brought humans into Kemen from the other world I have ever played the natural philosopher, mixing potions to see what happens. Will one maid child break the glassware?”

Lilith spoke quickly to fill the sudden awkward silence as King Uriel fumed. “The Lord Samael made an unfortunate jest, Your Majesty. All of Kemen knows you to be a good and wise king. Who better to keep the dragon out of play than a consecrated virgin in your own court?”

“It is equally unfortunate,” said Uriel, ‘that I am in no mood for threats, even when explained away as weak jests. Take your talisman, Lord Samael, and make your offer to another.”

After Uriel had uttered hez decision the blade began to glow. Blue and white the weapon shone, until it became so bright that Uriel, Makassar, and Lilith shielded their eyes. Samael simply looked away.

When the glow faded once more Samael said, “Behold, the deed is done. Dragonthorn will shatter of its own accord without a damsel’s touch, and that soon. Nothing will then restrain Demonstroke from carrying out the purpose I instilled in him when he was first created, which was to relentlessly seek out and extinguish the life of every world-dweller in Kemen, no matter how long it takes. And he will begin killing here in Sastrom.”

“Your orders, my liege Lord?” asked the First Minister, and the king saw Makassar’s hand gripping the hilt of his sword beneath his tunic.

“Hold!” Uriel barked. Then in the ensuing silence the king sighed. This was the humiliation the king had expected. Che caught the glance of Lilith and asked, “Did you know?”

“Only a broad outline of what Lord Samael wanted to do, Your Majesty. Not this detail.”

Cherub Uriel looked into the eyes of Samael then and saw the matter was clearly nothing even Queen Lilith could describe as a joke. Che stood up. “Makassar, send for food and wine and see to our noble guests. A grievous errand has fallen to me and I must be about it.”

Lilith knew all along that only the king’s own daughter could safeguard the dragon. Samael had conditioned it upon her celibacy, and Uriel, for as long che reigned, could control that absolutely.

Seeing the diamond blade lying on the table and knowing Lord Samael had given it complete power over the dragon, a deception suggested itself to Uriel as a way to lighten the lifetime burden that was about to be laid upon Dafla.

Che said, “Behold the Dragonthorn, daughter. Take up the sword and none shall have the power to deny your least whim, save in the one matter of which we spoke. With the blade in hand the beast must obey you. All my subjects must obey you. If you so choose, even I must obey you, as well as Queen Lilith, and Lord Samael.”

Makassar, Lilith, and Samael immediately discerned what the Bellon king was doing, and none dared to contradict hym. Samael smiled broadly at how Uriel had just set hez daughter on the path to her own destruction and che had no inkling that che had done so.

Then the king’s daughter did take up the sword, unleashing another light show that impressed everyone present save Samael, who worked it, and Lilith, the wife and first disciple of Michael, who knew all sorcery to be mere showmanship like the gentle ruse Uriel was carrying out with Dafla.

Samael said, “I commend you, King Uriel! Demonstroke is now bound by chains that may only be broken by an act of human will. Furthermore, you have the means to travel anywhere in Kemen in mere days that would otherwise take a year or more. And none now dare assail you.”

King Uriel said, “Yes, Lord Samael, I considered that when I weighed laying this yoke upon Dafla, that it should be made lighter with a dragon at her beck and call. I need not see you again peddling arms of Adanite craftsyeng and making off with the gold of my treasury.”

Dafla took this cue and decided to test the power of the Dragonthorn blade. She pointed the tip at Lord Samael and said, ‘Leave at once, you, on foot if you must, and never return!” She pointed the tip at Lilith as well. “You must leave as well, for your part in upsetting my father!”

“Indeed.” Lilith stood up, reached inside her breastplate, removed a fragment of parchment, and handed it to Samael. she said, “I do not understand any of the symbols written here, but Michael said you would know what they mean and take this to be our next destination.”

Samael read the parchment and summoned a fold-door, the one bit of sorcery that even Lilith could not put down as a simple trick. she and Samael were enveloped by an insubstantial dome that showed forth a land free of snow, roaring with the dim sound of Mt. Anshar in eruption.

Lilith bowed to the king and said, “Farewell, Your Majesty! In the name of Bat-El may good fortune be with you and all who look to you.” Then with a loud noise that frightened Dafla to tears they were gone, leaving only a familiar but unnecessary crater in the floor that was Samael’s calling card.