TCG

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 wastelands 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 him 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 len 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."

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.

Anshar may have been free of ice, yet it remained bitterly cold, much more so than Lilith and Samael were prepared to endure with the raiment they presently wore.

Lilith broke into a sprint  toward Michael’s home  across the stony plain and Samael followed at the same pace. So Lord Samael was come to the stone dwelling  of Michael for the  first time. There was  much  glass,  yet natural  heating  from  geothermal features ensured it remained comfortably warm indoors.

Leliel, just four years of age, touched the  back of Samael’s hand to her forehead.

“Leliel!” said Michael,sharply. “That is Lord Samael. Show us how you greet a seraph.”

Leliel released Samael’s hand as though it had burned her own and moved back a few steps. Then she sank to one  knee and all the while kept her eyes on the floor.

“Much better, Leliel.” Lilith picked Leliel  up long enough to kiss har. “Wait for me in the kitchen, baby doll.”

Samael watched her leave, then caught  Michael’s eye. “Your daughter.”

“Sha knew who you were,” said Michael after embracing Lilith for a  kiss of  his  own,  “just  not the  proper  etiquette. “Please, Samael, be seated wherever you wish. We have things to discuss while Lilith prepares what might be  the last decent meal you and I will both eat for many days.”

Samael seemed puzzled. “What do you mean last decent meal?”

“No doubt you  can confirm  how the  experience captures  the psyche of an eloah like no other. Do you not see that will be a big problem in  our  case? What do you  think  will happen  to our  world-dwller bodies,  left unattended,  while we  are fully occupied with our lovemaking as stars?”

That wiped the smile off Samael’s face. he said, “I see you have given it more thought. I trust you have arranged things so we do not lose our living avatars.”

“Yes, and isn’t it a good  thing you have ended  the war to the satisfaction of  Lilith? Your life will literally be in her hands.”

“And I  suppose  you  will  stipulate  that  your  soon-to-be daughter should maintain a presence here in Kemen,  so that you might connect two locations with a fold-space segment.”

“Yes, that is the brideprice demanded of you, but  I know you cannot give something  with one  hand without  taking something with the other. I was reminded of  that in your  dealings with Lilith. So state your limitations on my fold-doors  and we will move forward.”

Samael said,   “You  and   our  future  daughter,   our  very near-future daughter,  are  hereafter  authorized  to  maintain avatars in Kemen, yet you may not open a  fold-door east of the Wall of God nor west of the bog that marks the frontier between Rammon and Adan.”

“I presume those lines extend north and south all  the way to the poles.”

Samael nodded, then he said with a smirk, “Yes, but before you ask, I will say this little  land called Anshar that  you think you own, yet that lies more or less due north of my capital, is not out  of bounds. You may still reach  this little  house. I would not want to my put my lady out of the mood for love.

"But as surety against your  long-range goal of  teaching these creatures  to  reach the  stars  I  insist  on bringing  my  own watchers into your system.”

“I will not  have  the  Eyes of  Samael  wandering Earth  and sabotaging human history. But I will give you fold-door access to reach any object orbiting  on an  ellipse which is  at least four times bigger on the  long axis  than is the  Earth’s own ellipse.

"By all means,  Samael,his  let your  agents  swarm through  my system,  but they  must  never  draw nearer  to  Earth than  its satellite.”

When living stars mate the  male literally extends some  of his living substance across the shortcut in space-time that bypasses the parsecs of real space  separating him from the  female. The sensation is ecstatic beyond all reason but it is only available to him by mating.

For female elohim the pleasure comes from  her living substance being compressed to accommodate the male, which culminates when their living star-stuff merges to form a third individual.

But mating is not the sole means of obtaining this compression. Female elohim could masturbate while males could not. Evolution drove  this  adaption. The female   could  postpone   having intercourse until she found the most suitable mate.

Males, in a perpetual state  of frustration, were  motivated to make themselves suitable. Elyon had never resorted to this while in union with Michael, since  it captured her attention  to the exclusion of attending to the needs of a body.

Now it was safe. The organized living nuclear matter  that was Elyon piled up in density,  leaving a  large area empty  in the thin layer of  the core  where she  existed. At the same  time Samael pushed into her, unaware of the sabotage.

There was only  one cycle  of Samael  pushing inside  for three weeks, culminating in  the  germination of  his eloah  daughter Bat-El in the habitable layer of Sol that had  been emptied out by Elyon by pleasuring herself first.

Michael, who went into it prepared, was the first  to come back to hymself in Anshar. Far away his half of the core of Sol was beginning to transform permanently into male and that brought an abrupt end to the mating.

Lilith helped  Michael remove  all  the  catheters, tubes,  and needles, get dressed, then gave him the first hot, solid food he had taken in three weeks.

He was pleased  to find  he  suffered no  bedsores. Lilith and Leliel had done well in repositioning his body during the coma.

When Samael awoke hours later he would find his garments cleaned and folded  neatly by  his  bed,  lukewarm chicken,  rice,  and greens, plus  the  ground  still warm  outside  where  Michael, Lilith, and Leliel had made their  escape to the lands  of King Metatron by avatar.

In the wake of Queen Lilith's parley with Samael  the status of the Fallen Angels was left  dangling. They could not return east of the frontier,  nor would  the Cherub  Metatron receive  them before speaking to Lilith hymself. They made their encampment on fallow land and waited. They lived on what supplies  they had filched from Samael's ice cache, but these were  finite, and as the days of waiting became weeks, they plowed up the land around their encampment and prepared to gamble the last of their grain as seed for more food.

No word came to them. Lilith was aware of their predicament but she was preoccupied. Immediately after the ruined mating between Chokhmah and  Elyon,  while  Samael  was  still  incapacitated, Michael, Lilith and Leliel escaped in the avatar of Chokhmah on a curve directly for the land of Magodon.

Leliel always joined them on such flights now, if  only for the peace of mind  of Lilith,  who worried  Samael or  Israel might contrive some mischief involving a fold-door. Michael had warned of retaliation should his daughter  be harmed by  the seraphim, directly or indirectly. "Lilith can take care of her- self, but assail  my baby  doll, or  send others  to assail  her, and  all covenants between us are void, the City of Stars be damned."

"Breaking our covenants would only cause El Elyon to ratify your isolation, should you contrive to  reach across space  and make contact with an eloah. You  would be shunned for undermining the sole  basis  for  enforcing agreements  between  ourselves:  our absolute word-bond."

"Do you really believe I  would be shunned, Father?  After all, news of the discovery of  Students would dominate the chatter of Ein  Sof like  none  other,  and the  Students  originate in  my system. The  City of Stars  will never content itself  with your pitiful  colony here.  And did  you  know, Father,  that on  two occasions I've  sent a time  signal to  myself here? On  a tight beam, of course,  nothing that would violate  our agreement. But now I know the precise distance that separates you and I in real space, and  the rate of our  relative motion. That gives  me one leg of  a triangle. Then I  pick a star, let's  say grandmother. I  carefully  note  how  much  grandmother  shifts  against  the background stars both here and on Earth. That gives me the whole triangle. So by all means send a squad to Anshar to kill Leliel, because  the  very  next  thing  to happen  will  be  my  avatar accelerating on a course that will bring it very close indeed to dear old Gevurah sitting there at the apex of that triangle. Can you imagine what she will say after learning what a naughty dirk her Elyon has been?"

It was a rhetorical  question and  Michael expected  no answer. They all knew that if and when this harem  caper was exposed to the  larger  community of  Elohim  it  would mean  an  immediate trial and extinction for Elyon,  Chemah, Chesed, and  any other co-conspirators isolating elohim and the Students.

So with Elyon and Chemah  duly notified  that an attack  on hyz daughter would be a certain case of murder-suicide, and with the greatest warrior in Kemen, Lilith, unwilling to  let Leliel out of her sight, Michael knew his daughter was as safe as any angel in Kemen could be.

For Leliel's  sake  the  flights in  the  avatar  were  gentled somewhat, with less of an  impulse at takeoff and  landing, and more of a continuous  acceleration and deceleration. This made the period of free-fall at the top of the arc so short it wasn't safe for Leliel to fly free.

Instead, Lilith held fast to her daughter and  said to Michael, "It occured to me that when we arrive in Rumbek I might have to do most of  the groveling. Metatron will accept me  as the queen of Salem in exile but I deem  hy knows little to nothing of your union with Chokhmah."

"You had little time  to appraise his  son Barachiel  of that," said Michael in reply. "You were about the business of stopping an invasion."

Still, Michael weighed what hyz wife said and  altered the path of the avatar a small degree before their weight  began to pile up once more.

Pastoral Seliah Island was the breadbasket  of Rumbek. Forested uplands ranging between one and three thousand feet high ran the length of the island in  two long undulating ridges,  north and south, with one connecting ridge from east to west, thus forming a rough letter "H'.

At the  head  of the  Dul  Valley  on  the  north side  of  the connecting ridge was  the castle  of the  Ophan Barachiel. But Michael choose to bring the avatar to ground on the south side, where gently-rolling slopes of grass were  sparsely dotted with trees as benign as any of Earth.

Michael helped his wife down out  of the avatar as  she carried Leliel, and led them a safe distance away where they could watch the artifact rise into the sky once more. Looking around Lilith expected to see the largest city in Kemen, but  there were only scattered hovels. When Michael saw  the  questioning look  in Lilith's eyes hy said, "Something you  told me on the flight led me to choose  another sort of opening gambit  with Metatron than frightening the  king and  his subjects with  my avatar.  I well remember Chokhmah's first visit to Salem."

"So a seraph and a cherub march from the hinterlands to Rumbek," Lilith said, bordering on disbelief. "And Leliel almost too big to carry."

"Walk, yes, to begin, but we shall also ride and even float. And there is no need, I think,  to carry Leliel. Let's  see how she does."

The land was open  and airy  with grass  kept short  by grazing animals and trees that resembled those of Earth in one important way: none of  them tried  to  kill Michael,  Lilith, and  their daughter. Toiling north and west they gained six hundred feet of elevation in three miles. Leliel seemed not to tire at all. By noon they reached the place  where the connecting  ridge joined the west ridge at an elevation of about a thousand feet. Michael indicated a long  prominence  to the  south  that rose  another thousand feet. "They call that Living Mountain." To the north Michael indicated a round hill that rose five hundred feet more. "They call that one Yam Hill. Leliel! Let's see how fast you can get to the top!"

The doll sped off and  Lilith was  shocked. she had never seen even wild animals run so fast after their  prey. Lilith guessed that Michael had changed her daughter somehow, made her swift of foot and tireless, and she saw  the utility of the  change. One question remained. "When did you do it?"

"On the flight.  I doubt  that she  felt anything.  The reentry would have distracted her."

Leliel attained the summit of  the hill far faster  than Lilith would have imagined possible. She was waving at them furiously.

Michael said, "Let's ascend after  her to assure  ourselves sha remains safe. Perhaps now she no longer needs such protection as I can give har."

They began to ascend the hill, with ever an eye to the summit to assure themselves Leliel remained in view.

Michael said, "It was not magic, Lil, what I did  to her. Or at least it was a kind of magic that will cease to be magic someday when I can find a way to explain it."

"I am your first student, Michael, and more, I am the mother of that doll. So let us see if you can explain it to me."

"Yes, you are Leliel's mother," replied Michael,  "and so there are things about her that resemble  you. Yet if she had a sister they would not  be identical. This is because  all living things are governed by  both law and by  chance. We run so  fast and no faster because there  is a fire that burns within  us that burns so hot and no  hotter, and this is a law. Yet  of old, purely by chance, some  living things  burned hotter. But  these creatures could not endure  long, because the hotter  fire within demanded more food than they could find, and so they perished before they could pass this new law to  their young. But Leliel is an ophan, and sha will never want for as much food as she can eat."

"And this change you wrought  in our  daughter that you  call a law, will she pass the same down to her son or daughter when she is of age to become a mother in her turn?"

"No, it is imposed by me, it  does not rise up  from that which makes Leliel who she is. Shall I undo it?"

"No, husband, let the change you have made stand. You have seen what a joy it seems to be for har, and if by some misfortune she runs across  enemies who would  do harm  to har, sha  can easily outrun them. And you are  right. Leliel, being noble-born, shall never want for food."

They took considerably  longer to  attain the  summit than  did their daughter. Michael had started a tradition  of giving each member of the B'nei Elohim a special talent, but Lilith started the tradition of giving them an apropos nickname when she asked, "Are you well, Scout?'

"Yes momma! Look how far  we walked!" Leliel pointed far below and far away where they could still see a circle of burnt grass. That was the place where the avatar had landed and taken flight once again.

Michael directed their gaze to  the west where houses  could be seen. "Do you see? Our walking is nearly at an end. That is the town of  Vennor. There  I will  hire a carriage  and we  will be driven to edge of Tala Strait yonder."

Lilith raised har head and  beheld a  swath of blue  some seven miles distant, and a dark  wall of  rock beyond the  blue. "And what will you pay,  Michael, when you  hire this  carriage? You carry no gold about your person, unless you've hidden it well."

"I have some small  diamonds, Lil. I  can produce  them without limit within my  own body. I am speaking, of  course, of my body as a living sun."

In town they ate a late lunch. Lilith was astonished to see how much food her little doll Leliel put away. she wondered if she had spoken prematurely to say Leliel would never want for food. But their hosts, amply compensated with a diamond, ever brought Leliel more.

Afterwards they rode within a carriage down the undulating creek valley that led from hillside Vennor to the well-ordered fields stretching west to  Tala  Strait. The hills  they passed  were lower, and fewer, detached from one another like lone sentinels over the plowed fields. As they rode past the  thinning hills Leliel fell asleep in her  mother's lap, so Michael  and Lilith grew silent, content to stir their own thoughts.

And Michael recalled how his wife had reminded him that she was his first student. That was true, and she was a  good student. Michael loved Lilith  as  his mate  and as  the  mother of  his daughter, but he  longed for  a better  student, one  who would understand how he had changed Leliel on the deepest level. This culture did not  even  have  the concept  of  atoms, let  alone microscopic machines made  from atomic  groups. But he guessed that Lilith would have  another child, a  son or  daughter, and Michael vowed to make a  change in  that child as  well. Rather than being a fast runner, Michael would give the child a greater capacity to understand things  than any planet-dweller  who had yet lived.

When Elyon and Chemah suffered their inevitable defeat it would be at the hands of Leliel's  younger sibling, a mere  angel who would outthink elohim. Michael even had the name picked out for his next offspring, whether it was male or female. Ithuriel, the Brilliant One of God.

The final leg  of their  journey to  Rumbek by  sea took  place overnight. It was not far, but there was no wind so the ship was rowed. Michael and Leliel slept  for the  entire passage,  but Lilith mostly lay awake, ruing every passing hour with no answer for her Fallen Angels.

At dawn when they awoke they  went outdoors to the  rail of the boat to watch  its  slow approach  to  the seaport. Everything Lilith had heard about Rumbek was  true. her eyes could not be denied. This capital of  the  Larund kingdom  was  by far  the largest city in all of Kemen.

The Great Sea of the West Lands is divided into a pair of lobes by the Magodon Peninsula, which is as large as Florida on Earth and anchored to  the mainland  on  the west. But sheer cliffs rising as much as four hundred feet guard every approach to the peninsula by sea. This wall is sheer  sandstone and  cannot be scaled by  any army. Where it is eroded by gullies  the streams fill the entire channel.

At the foot of this  bluff around the peninsula  lie impassible swamps and sinkholes  that would  swallow horses  and trap  the wheels of chariots. Also none can pass by land around the Great Sea to the north or to the south. There roaring waves run nigh to the Ice, and often frozen slabs melt and  slide into the sea with great thunder. No permanent road  can be  carved and  no tunnel bored to permit passage east or west.

Between Seliah Island  and  the  city of  Rumbek  lay the  much smaller Krone Island and Fanok Island, walled suburbs linked by a  network  of bridges. Even the  smallest islet,  Krone,  was covered with dwellings  and fortifications  that alone  made it greater than  all of Salem. The mainland was little wider than the road that traversed it. But behind this rose the Nine Mile Wall, that part  of the  cliffs ringing  the Magodon  Peninsula which was fortified by  angels and nephilim  and men. The Nine Mile Wall and the City of Rumbek were one and the same.

The dwellings of the city were carved into  the wall, connected by tunnels with endless ramps and stairs. Where these dwellings faced the open air  they boasted  a faC'ade  of ornately-carved harder stone. Rumbek was so large it even spilled over onto part of Seliah Island. Where Tala Strait met  the shore-line  road there existed  many  warehouses  and piers  for  the  ships  of merchants and for the peerless navy of King Metatron.

On the other side  of the road,  at the base  of the  Nine Mile Wall, there were storefronts and market stalls beyond number. A rare mood of unhappiness  over-came Lilith  when she  saw these shops and this distressed Michael in turn when he saw it. "What is wrong, beloved?"

"I can't excape the memory that I used to extort shopkeepers for their money, when I already had everything I could ever need."

"That was before you  embraced Elyon,"  Michael said. "You are ashamed because cannot  fall back  on the  justification others make that they fell in with the wrong sort of friends."

"I was always their leader," she acknowledged. "I was the wrong sort of friend for them."

Michael took out hyz little leather pouch of  diamonds. 'I know it hurts, Lil, but you can let it go. The shame you feel now is sufficient punishment for the misdeeds of your past. Take three deep breaths! Good. Now, will you help me choose  something to purchase for Leliel?"

The tip of a large knife depressed the skin  at Michael's neck. The yang holding the blade said,  "Give to me what  you hold in your hand or  I'll let flow your life's blood!" This would have seemed sadly familiar to Lilith's brother, Melchizedek, who was accosted in Har- ran.

"Scout!" barked Lilith. "Run away!"

And such was Leliel's training that she  immediately obeyed her mother as though it were  a battle command, despite  being only two years of age. The robber scowled at Lilith but dismissed her as any threat. Sha was standing too far away. Michael carefully offered the bag of precious stones, knowing hy could always make more.

While the attacker greedily grasped the pouch a terrifying hiss began to be  heard. Lilith, standing well  away from  Michael, extended the dark shaft of the  Golden Gift as long  as a pike. she sliced the attacker's own weapon in twain, leaving only the hilt and letting the blade clatter to the ground.

That was Lilith's idea of a warning shot, but it  was a hint hy did not take. his other hand stashed the diamonds in his pocket and fumbled for a second blade. When the weapon came out Lilith swept the black shaft closer to the yang's wrist than the first sweep had been. Hy screamed as his hand  and the blade  it was holding fell to the ground together.

Michael kicked the bloody mess away as Lilith brought the Golden Gift to repose.

"Hold out your arm and  I'll help  you," Michael told  him. The yang brought out the  gushing stump from  under his  armpit and Michael laid on his hands to staunch the wound. "You should be grateful. The way the relic cuts leaves arteries wide open. Only a flame would seal them.'

Lilith drew near to them. "No rebuke from my teacher?"

"It was a  good deed,"  Michael  admitted. "He could not  have killed me with yz blade for  the same reason he's not dying from yours. But  he seemed set  on his unprofitable course  of action even when you offered him a way out."

When Michael was satisfied the robber would survive his wound he stood up and looked around. Leliel still had not returned from the place where she had made har escape. Michael noted that many onlookers had witnessed the robbery attempt and  the healing of the attacker's arm.

Lilith darted off to look for her daughter. Shortly Leliel came to her father alone, showing off her new talent  as soon as she had learned from her mother that it was safe to come back.

"Where did you go?" he asked. she pointed to a place high above in the Nine Mile  Wall. "You did well to  obey your  mother so quickly.'

"Thank you father!"

After a long interval that spoke of Leliel's  new speed, Lilith rejoined them. "Five levels over our head my Scout  was," said she, "and she got there  so quickly she  was able to  watch all that transpired."

"One good thing will come of all this, at  least," Michael said to har. "You have been seen wielding the Golden Gift. The Ophan Barachiel has  seen you do the  same on the frontier  and has no doubt spoken of it to many. We should have our audience with the king soon."

True to Michael's words troops arrived and began questioning the crowd that had gathered around the scene. The robber attempted to scramble to his feet but Lilith pushed him back down, digging in his pocket for the pouch of diamonds, which  she returned to her husband.

The troops were commanded by a  yeoman of the king's  court who addressed Lilith as respectfully  as hy  could while  yet being unsure of her identity. "I am Gruen,  a humble servant  in the court of  King Metatron. Do I  have the honor of  addressing her Majesty the Queen of Salem?"

"I am Lilith,  yes,  the  rightful ruler  of  Salem.  Yet I  am dispossessed of that city."

"Your Majesty, you shall be received by the king at mid-morning tomorrow. A messenger shall be  dispatched to Ophan Barachiel in the  Dul  Valley expressing  for  the  Ophan to  return  hither. Meantime the king bids you to lodge together with any who travel with you within  chambers in the highest level of  hyz castle. I assure you these  lodgings are second in opulence  only to those of the king hymself."

"I would be honored to stay at the castle with my family."

Gruen looked unfavorably  upon the  prisoner as  hy was  bound. "Were you but common travelers from Adan I would still be filled with shame for what this lan tried to do."

Lilith said, "Do you think the  king will listen if  I tell him the lan has already been amply punished?"

"Probably not," Gruen replied, "and  more's the pity.  No doubt his  missing hand  will  argue  with him  should  hy ever  again consider robbery

"But you should try," said Michael. "Reckless forgiveness is all I ever had to teach at the Sunset Discourse, and nothing more."

The Nine Mile Wall angled south  and east for half  its length, then abruptly changed direction to march south and west. At the pinnacle a razor-thin ridge  of sandstone half  as high  as the Wall jutted into the Strait. This was the skeleton of the castle of King Metatron.

The flesh and bones of the castle were hard  stone on the whole exterior, and what windows existed  were only large  enough for archers to fire their darts upon attackers below.

There were three hundred  ninety steps to  the top,  yet Lilith and Michael  did not  ascend  them. Instead they were  ported individually to the top  in seats  carried by  staves. Thirteen teams of servants handed their  passengers off to  another team after ascending thirty steps. And all the while  Leliel walked beside her parents, summing everything up with one word: "Lazy!'

Their lodgings were everything Gruen had  promised. Lilith said to the attendants who waited upon them, "My daughter shall need at least five  times the amount of food you  would guess a child har  age would  need, and  her chamberpot  must be  emptied with corresponding frequency."

The castle stood  straight  out  from the  Nine  Mile Wall  and when day  became night  the  lights  of  the dwellings  of  the city stretching north  from  them burned  for  a time. Michael extinguished the lights  in their  own dwelling  to let  Leliel marvel at them, but she soon fell asleep. Leliel was gently put to bed. A side-effect of Leliel's new talent was  sha tended to sleep much more than she ever did.

Michael and Lilith saw  an opportunity  to share  intimacy, one that that had been delayed  for many weeks. Michael and Lilith kissed and began to disrobe. When Lilith laid aside her weapon, her brass, and the leather that  protected har, as well  as the mental armor that lay beneath all these, there was revealed, to her husband alone,  a yin of exquisite tenderness  who could not deny har sex. Michael this found very provocative.

Afterwrds they  lay  together holding  hands,  limbs  entwined, watching the pattern of light on the wall of the chamber slowly change as the king's subjects who  dwelt in the Nine  Mile Wall extinguished the lights of their own homes as they would. Sleep quickly overtook them.

In the morning after a leisurely breakfast a gentle knock on the door announced the return of  Gruen, who inquired how  they had fared overnight. He was come to escort them into the presence of King Metatron.

"What has come of  the yang who  accosted us  yesterday?" asked Lilith.

"His Majesty is  incensed,"  Gruen replied,  "and  his view  of justice is that  the punishment should ever fit  the offense. He is in the  place where he did  the crime and there is  a knot of rope that obsesses this yang more than your gems or the goods of any other of his victims. The yang  angs by one arm, you see. Hy could untie the knot and release  hymself of his torment if only his mouth weren't gagged to free hyz  teeth, or if only hy had a second hand  to grasp the knot.  And so hy remains,  because the king has not said his suffering should end."

To this Lilith said only, "Let no one question the wisdom of the Larund King."

But Michael could see,  as they gathered  Leliel with  them and departed their guest  chambers with  Gruen to  come before  the throne of the Cherub Metatron, that Lilith was  troubled in her heart.

The King received them at the  end of a long,  narrow colonnade exposed to the elements, where hyz throne had been set with its back to the very face of the Nine Mile Wall. From here hy often enjoyed watching the doings of  his subjects in the  streets of the city far below. Lilith was brought before Metatron with her daughter Leliel in hand and with Michael at her side. she found the Larund sovereign to be like an echo of her beloved father of happy memory. It was  as  though both  yeng  were the  angelic incarnation of a couplet of rhyming verse.

And yet, Lilith was  forced to acknowledge  to harself,  if the greatness of a lord was reckoned by the realm over which hy was sovereign, Metatron bordered on the status of a seraph. All the angels of Adan at the  heart of the  Gerash lands would  fill a mere borough of Rumbek. she saw that the king's son, Barachiel, sat at his right hand. So hy was neither dead  nor in fetters, which told Lilith that his father had accepted the conditions of the truce hastily worked out on the field of battle between her and Samael.

Metatron noted her glance. "I am not certain I  should welcome you  to Rumbek,  Queen Lilith,"  said he,  after Gruen  made the formal introductions. "My son Ophan Barachiel told me it was you who gave a fair portion of my land to the Black Beards in such a way that I must either ratify it or go to war."

"Your Majesty,'  replied  Lilith,  "Ophan Barachiel  was  at  a disadvantage even with my Fallen Angels fighting at his side. It would have been a rout and your new frontier  with the Adanites would be that  much closer  to  this city. The King doubtless understands battle decisions."

Metatron# grunted dubiously. Then: "It is said you  are exiled from Salem. How come you to such a strait?"

"I spoke truth to yeng of  the House of Gerash,  but they hated the truth because it was like  a bright light that threatened to reveal the dark things they do in secret."

The king's next question was sharp  and to the point. "What is truth?"

Lilith glanced at Michael, then  said in reply,  "Your Majesty, truth  is the  way  things  are. We  know  this  truth when  our thoughts and  deeds echo the world  as it plainly is,  without a single contradiction.'

"What do you ask of me, Queen Lilith? Shall I  put my armies at your command?  Shall I use force  to protect the purity  of your truth?'

Lilith said, "Nay, Your Majesty. If what I teach  is so fragile that I must shield it from  contamination, what I have cannot be the truth.  he Eyes of Elyon  fight to con-vert others  to their view and  make war against  other views, because what  they call truth is  too weak to  sell itself to  those who seek  the truth with sincerity.  They are certain  they already possess  the one truth and refuse to look at reality."

"If truth comes to those who seek it with  sincerity, then tell me, Queen Lilith, what is the most sincere truth?"

"Only this,  your Majesty:  the  noblest  activity is  unending love." Metatron pondered this silently. And Lilith added, "There is a yang who tried to rob my husband yesterday."

The king emerged from his reverie to search the face of Lilith. she went on to say, "Your  Majesty, what he tried  to take from Michael was of  little account. If he chose  Michael could flood both Kemen and Earth with so many diamonds they would be like so many wooden beads."

The king said, "Yet it has come to me that your own daughter had to flee for her life."

She did so at my command,  in the event the  attacker threw his blade. I severed the  hand of  this yang  to preserve  the life of my  husband. And that,  I think,  is  a  most  extravagant punishment."

Metatron saw to the heart of Lilith's words to  hym. With great tact she was  trying  to balance  his  absolute sovereignty  in Rumbek with  the radical graciousness  she had learned  from her husband and teacher.

"Gruen!" barked the king, and  his  yeoman sunk  to his  knees before hym. "Gruen, tell the  malik  supervising this  yang's punishment that in  my desire for justice it did  not enter into my mind  to be excessively cruel.  Let him be released  from his suffering and let him be cleaned and fed. Go in haste!"

The king's yeoman bounded to his  feet and fled. Lilith made a small feminine  gesture of respect  from one Cherub  to another. "Hyz Majesty is  merciful and  wise,  yet a  far greater  thing weighs upon  my thoughts  than the  chastisement of  this thief. Some  four hundred  yen, exiles  of Salem,  are stranded  on the frontier  with Adan.  They  cannot return  east  under the  same covenant that stays the forces of Samael from marching west, and even now their meager supplies are running out."

"Queen Lilith, have  you  again established  conditions on  the field that leaves the House of Larund with little choice?'

"Nay, Your Majesty, at the last throw Queen Aurra has offered to settle the Fallen  Angels in  Rammon, yet  this would  have the effect of  disbanding them  as an  army. What  an army  they are indeed that Samael  has mustered all his warriors  to drive them out of the Middle Land."

"It is well that House Sala has opened their gates to you, yet I deem it would  be a  journey  of at  least two  years to  reach Rammon.  Is that  what  you crave  of me,  Queen  Lilith? Is  it provender for your four hundred Fallen Angels, and leave to pass peacefully through Magodon?"

"Nay, Your Majesty.  Give the  word, rather,  and to  a yan  my Fallen Angels will become your most loyal subjects."

"Yet as an army they would  be of no  use when I march  east to regain the lands occupied by  Samael. You said yourself they are forbidden to cross the new border."

"That is true, Your Majesty, but for such an endeavor you would no  doubt muster  your whole  army to  strike the  Adanites. The Fallen Angels could  patrol your western marches,  lest those of House Bellon or perhaps even  rebels within Magodon itself covet your unguarded lands."

"And let us say I did not make your Fallen Angels my subjects," Metatron suggested, "nor  send them  provisions, nor  give them leave to cross my land. What then?"

"In that event, Your Majesty,  the avatar of Bat-El  would come into play. May my husband address the king?"

"By all means let the consort of the Queen  speak freely," said Metatron. "I would learn  of this avatar,  and of  those things which converted  the whole House  of Sala to follow  Bat-El, and which tamed the heart of a warrior yin."

"Your Majesty is  gracious," said  Michael." "An  avatar is  an object not made by angels nor  nephilim nor men. If Your Majesty is willing to accept this, an avatar is made in  the heart of a sun that is the body of an  eloah, yet it can fly free, and part of the mind and will of the eloah is  bound with this artifact. But mere words concerning  an avatar will  not suffice. If his Majesty will come to the edge of his colonnade hy will soon see the avatar with his own  eyes. It was set into motion  from an idle state just moments ago."

And indeed Metatron did rise from hyz throne to watch." A streak of rushing fire appeared in the sky over Tala Strait followed by two thunderbursts so  loud it  seemed to  Metatron he  would be knocked over. The fire streak, the king could see, formed behind a small dark object that raced across the sky almost too quickly to follow.

"Behold, Your Majesty, the original avatar of Bat-El. With this con- trivance world-dwellers were  discovered on Earth, whom the elohim name the Students. The same artifact once whisked me to a hidden place  to be brought into  full union with Chokhmah  as a kind of living avatar."

"Tell me, Lord Michael," said the king, "are you like Samael and Israel? In times past they have appeared before me, unheralded, and seem to have the power to  come and go as they will heedless of my castle guard. Samael calls hymself a seraph, a master even of cherubim."

"I was the first angel to  join with an eloah,  Your Majesty. I taught the  art to Elyon, and  he in turn taught  Chemah. I have the same power  to move about Kemen at will  but a covenant with Elyon restricts  my use of this  power to the lands  west of the Wall of God. Here I must  resort to riding within the avatar. It brought me to  Seliah with my wife and daughter  and if needs be it can bring supplies to the Fallen Angels and the Fallen Angels themselves to Rammon,  if the king finds it wise  to refuse aid. In Magodon you rule absolutely, even over a seraph."

"You need not resort to your avatar," said the King, "for any of the yen willing to swear fealty to the Crown. A choice land will be given to them in my  realm. They shall have  whatsoever they might need to begin to become productive subjects, and you shall dwell with them."

Lilith was visibly relieved. "I am grateful beyond all telling, Your Majesty, and the Fallen Angels  who look to me will be much gladdened. Yet if you say they must lay down the sword, so shall it be,  for this  too would  be their  fate scattered  among the ringhouses of Rammon."

"Nay, Queen Lilith,' replied Metatron, 'let them grasp the sword even so, and see that you train them well. Samael is faithless. I  portend his  army will  one  day pour  through an  overlooked loophole in the covenant and  then your Fallen Angels will repay me a hundredfold."

Michael said, "I am certain  Samael will never  directly assail you with the main bulk of  his army, Your Majesty. Elohim cannot break  the bonds  of even  the smallest  concession. Yet  he can still send assassins  and spies, and arm all  your enemies, both within Magodon and  without. And Samael will  continue to foment hatreds  between House  Larund and  the other  houses, that  you would remain at  each other's throat, so that hy  might sell his remedy in the form of arms,  first to one, then the other. Queen Aurra and King Uriel have agreed this must end. Give the word of assent, Your Majesty, and I will  bring the rulers of House Sala and House Bellon hither to take  counsel with the aim of forging a peaceful union between the kingdoms of Kemen."

"A council as you describe would  be a good thing,"  agreed the King. "And it would be,  I think,  the first such  council ever taken in the history of Kemen. But for now let us find a land to settle the exiles of Salem, and  watch for a time whether Samael will break the truce he made."

Michael bowed and said, "Let it be as the king commands."

"Your Majesty," said  Lilith, "when  we came  to your  realm we touched down in a fair valley that runs south through the middle of Seliah  Island and we  fell in love  with the place  at first sight.  There are  some  houses and  farms but  it  seems to  be lightly settled in the main."

"You speak# of# the Living  Valley," said the  Ophan Barachiel, who turned to face Lilith. "It is near to my own castle in the Dul Valley,  though a ridge  intervenes. High hills run  nigh to the  water, so  it is  difficult to  bring the  increase of  the valley to Rumbek."

"The Fallen Angels shall dwell in the selfsame  vale," said the king. "You, Barachiel, my son, shall extend generous hands until the Salemites are able of their  own to work the  land. This is the labor  I lay  upon you  for your part  in what  Queen Lilith named a battle decision."

Barachiel bowed his head low. "It shall be as you  command, my father and liege-lord. But meantime, Queen Lilith and her family shall stay in a  wing of my own house until  a dwelling is built for them in the Living Valley. Alas, I cannot extend the same to her four hundreds."

Then Michael, Lilith, and Leliel departed from  the presence of the cherub Metatron. They were taken to dwell in the Dul Valley for a time while  the Fallen  Angels were  sup- plied  by goods carried by the avatar of Chokhmah and made ready  to settle the land apportioned to them.