TC3

Judith was met in the desert by a number  of Jewish farmers who lived a few miles inland  from the Mediterranean, at  a kibbutz founded by Polish immigrants in 1943 named Yad Mordechai. Judith could see the kibbutz near at  hand. The settlement lay on the coast highway only eight miles north of the city of Gaza and in later years  it was  only two  and a half  miles outside  of the border of the Gaza Strip. Judith spoke no Polish, nor  at that point had she even learned Hebrew, which had  been revived from extinction. But all she had to do was brandish the tattoo on her forearm, and it was enough for the pioneers.

In the weeks and months that followed, Judith  began to suspect she had been taken to her new  home by an actual  angel of God. The settlers  refused  to  speak  of  Michael,  other  than  to acknowledge they were on good terms with him. That first morning began to seem like  a dream  to Judith. But much fighting lay ahead, and it became much more like a nightmare.

During the War of Independence when the Israeli defense activity completely abandoned the coastal highway running south from Tel Aviv, Judith's kibbutz at Yad Mordechai was completely cut off. Only two private aircraft maintained contact  between north and south, carrying  newspapers  and  boxes  of  medical  supplies. The pilots of  these  aircraft were  called  Mahal, or  foreign volunteers. Judith herself was part of the  Gahal, or immigrant soldiers. Most of the children in the kibbutz were called sabra. That is, they had been born in Palestine and knew no other home. Judith was their guardian when their parents worked the fields, both before and during the war.

Egypt hurled two infantry battalions, one armored battalion, and an artillery battalion against the kibbutz for  five days. Much enemy armor was taken out with the  PIAT (Projectile, Infantry, Anti-Tank)  mortar. There was  a subtle  line  about a  hundred meters out where the soil of the desert made a sudden transition to the soil of the kibbutz. Perhaps it was an artifact of the water table. Before the battle the  kibbutzim already  set the elevation of the  PIAT  to  strike this  line  by firing  dummy rounds. Now it was only a matter of rotating  the barrel on its iron pivot sunk  into the  ground  to take  aim at  approaching tanks. When fired each round contained a  shaped charge massing one kilogram, designed to penetrate 100mm of armor.

Those tanks which managed to breach the perimeter were set light at close range  with Molotov  cocktails or  attacked with  hand grenades whose fragments would enter the tank  through the view slit, wounding the crew and forcing them to retire. Other tanks were taken out with buried mines, and still others simply broke down and were dragged out of  range by armored cars. But there were just too many Egyptians and the shelling never ceased.

When the settler's ammunition  was spent  Judith and  the other uninjured settlers helped carry the wounded through the Egyptian lines under the cover of darkness. Yad Mordechai lay abandoned, and in the morning the Egyptians occupied the  place and burned it to the ground. But during those five days of resistance Tel Aviv was saved from being overrun. The stubborn defense at Yad Mordechai gave Tel Aviv time to bring in reinforcements and firm up the defensive line on the road between the city and Gaza.

Between the third and fourth  cease-fire in the war  Judith and the Polish settlers moved back into the ruins  of Yad Mordechai and began to rebuild their farm. There would be a sharp bout of renewed fighting in the winter, followed by a  fourth and final cease fire, but Judith judged the continued existence of her new nation was no longer in doubt.

* * * * *

Even as Elyon and Belial  aided Bat-El to establish  a covenant people on Earth they were bitterly opposed to her doing the same thing in Kemen. The interloper named Michael had made Salem and the surounding country a lost cause in Elyon's view. He sent his army to contain the  plague and  neutralize Michael,  but Ophan Judith and her  Fallen Angels  had proven  remarkably efficient at shielding  Michael  from  being abducted  or  killed. As a consequence Salem was sliced out of intercourse with the rest of the Middle Lands.

Michael wished to bring all these things to a  head and flew by way of the avatar of Bat-El direct to the Adanite capital, where he was made to  stew for  a number  of days  in a  dungeon cell before receiving his first visitor, the Hashmal Bezaliel.

The noblelan moved very  close to Michael's  iron cell  to look directly into his eyes. After studying hym quietly for a time he said, "The Lord Elyon sends his regards, Bat-El."

Michael smiled. "I made no  secret of  the union,  yet Hashmal Zadkiel came all  the way to Salem to deny  it, and he pronounce death upon me for having the audacity to claim it.

"The Lord knows that you  put on  something of a  conjuring act just before he opened a  fold-door in Salem to whisk Melchizedek away to Earth. Only Bat-El could have timed things so."

"How wonderful that  both you  and your  god deny  the lies  of Zadkiel and have come to belief."

"Certain actions and non-actions will be required of you," said Bezaliel, "and you must obey. "

"Elyon knows well I can choose to  end my life at  any time. No threat of death or torment can  compel me to do his bidding, let alone the whims of one of his thralls."

Bezaliel smiled and said, "Oh, a martyr is really the last thing we want, Bat-El. Lord Elyon has a far better idea. Your sentence of death will be set aside. Instead, we shall parade you captive in a cage  through every  settlement  from here  to Salem.  The people must  see the humiliation  of their would-be  god, Bat-El dressed up in the body of a helpless captive."

"That will require backtracking  on Elyon's part,  Bezaliel. Or have you forgotten your Lord Elyon's decree pronouncing my death for presuming  to teach Elyonim that  I am the living  avatar of Bat-El? Now I am to live after all?"

Bezaliel curled his lips. "The rabble have short memories. The Lord Elyon also demands you reveal  to him the secret of merging with a lan as a living avatar, as you clearly have done."

"Very good. When my mother and father have brought Ophan Lilith here for, let  us say, a week of final  instruction, in somewhat more  comfortable surroundings  than this  cell, and  after they have sent her safely home to  Salem once more, I will conform to the demands of Elyon."

Bezaliel chuckled. "Bat-El, you are in absolutely no position to make any demands of your own."

"Very well, Bezaliel. I will  now shed this container  of meat. After that I will let Elyon know, through more direct means that are  always available  to his  daughter,  how close  he came  to learning the trick of having a  meat sack of his very own before your arrogant intrasigence ruined it."

"Hold! I will bring your request before the Lord himself."

* * * * *

After the war someone  who appeared  to be a  very tall  boy of indeterminate race  arrived at  Yad Mordechai. Che said, "I am named Elin, a servant of one who  is known to the people of this farm. Michael would have me  speak with Judith Margolies, one of the kibbutznikim here."

Judith was relieved  of her  duties teaching  the children  and brought to one of the empty houses in the kibbutnikiyot section to meet Elin. She saw how the short-haired newcomer was at least a foot shorter than Michael,  yet che  was still loomed  like a tree  over Judith. And being  this close  to  hem, Judith  was entirely unsure if the visitor was  male or female. It was her first encounter with one of the nephilim.

The jen said, "Peace be with you, Judith Margolies. I am called Elin. I  serve the  one who met  you on a  beach of  the English Channel  and  asked  if  you  would hunt  the  enemies  of  Jews throughout the world."

"And it is proof of your sincerity, Elin, that you know exactly what he said to me on that early morning."

"Michael sent me, first of all, to ask if you were well."

"Apart from my trusty British-made rifle," Judith began, "I have very little in  the way  of  personal possessions.  I own  some clothing, I 'own' a radio I share with the others in the Women's House, and  I have  other such  simple things.  There are  a few tractors and jeeps, but they  belong to the whole community. All the profits of the kibbutz are  pooled together for the needs of the laborers. I have a little pocket money from my reserve duty. I have good health. In fine, apart from the occasional firefight with the Arabs, you may tell Michael I am living in utopia."

"That is good to hear," said Elin, "because it clears the way to my next question. Have you heard of a man named Horst Wagner?"

Judith wanted to spit, but  caught herself as she  realized she was indoors. She said, "What Jew doesn't curse the  name of the German  diplomat  who was  instrumental  in  the deportation  of hundreds of thousands of European Jews to death camps in Poland? I  know he  was  arrested by  the allies  and  testified at  the Nuremberg trials  as a witness.  But what happened to  him after that I know very little."

"Then Judith, allow me to pick up his trail  where it runs cold for you.  Late in 1947 Wagner  was placed in an  internment camp for Nazi  war criminals  called Nuremberg-Langwasser but  it was guarded very  weakly. He managed  to escape to Austria  and made contact with a rat line."

A rat line was a  kind of  underground railroad for  Nazis, and Judith didn't need that explained to her.

Elin went onto say,  "Specifically, he  availed himself  of the Kloster  Line run  by elements  in the  Catholic Church.  He was hidden in a  network of monasteries until a  German bishop named Alois Hudal made arrangements for him to obtain an International Red Cross passport. He then made  his way to Genoa, Italy. Using Vatican funds he  sailed to Argentina to link up  with the likes of Adolf  Eichmann and  Josef Mengele.  We're going  after those last two, eventually, but for right now we're beautifully set up to get  Horst Wagner, and  Michael wants you  to be part  of the extraction."

"Who else is part of this?"

"There's a woman of the  B'nei Elohim  named Adriel. She  has a certain talent, as do each one of us. Adriel can cause others to have illusions. She can make herself appear to be a native South American woman  without this...halo...you see on  my head. She's been working Wagner undercover for  two months. Wagner prefers a very neat home  and Adriel has been coming in  to tidy things up for him.  Along the  way he's  been flirting  with her,  much to Adriel's  disgust off  the record,  but she's  very professional about it. Recently she got Wagner to agree it's time for a major field day  so that's where we  come in. We're going  in as extra cleaning girls."

Elin threw a bundle on the  dining table and said,  "You should change into these. I can step out if you want me to."

"That depends on whether you're a bloke or a bird. I still can't tell which."

"I'm both, actually. I lean slightly to the bloke side but I can turn around  while you  disrobe,  if  you  think that  will  be sufficient."

Judith nodded. While she was changing she said, "Where  do you come in?"

"My code name in the B'nei Elohim is Arc  Flash. Sometimes they call me the Stick. I'm going  to incapacitate the subject so you can  deliver  him  to  your  government  alive  and  fit  to  be prosecuted."

"Why does Michael want me to be involved?"

"Someone has to  make the  actual  delivery of  the package  to Mossad HQ. Michael thinks there  are multiple advantages all the way around if it's you."

In a few more moments Judith was fully dressed  as an Argentine housekeeper. "Go ahead and turn around, Elin."

Che did, and after a quick glance at Judith, the scenery around hem changed from a home in the kibbutz to a back alley in Buenos Aires. They had gone there so no one could  see the transition. Judith marvelled at this once more, but she was  not stunned to totally incapacitation by the  transition. Michael once used the same trick to whisk her away from England.

Judith followed   Elin  out  of   the  alley  to  one   of  the better-looking houses on  that  street. There was  no need  to knock. The door was opened just as they arrived on the portico. Judith assumed it was opened by  Jashen, and she noted  that he seemed to be  of normal height, for once, although  he was still somewhat taller than most men she knew.

They followed him inside. Judith saw Wagner standing in his den and tried to suppress her rage. She had picked up enough German in the camps to know he  called he was asking  "Diego" if these were the housekeepers he spoke of. Immediately after he spoke a miniature bolt  of  lightning  played between  Elin  and  Horst Wagner. He fell to the floor in a dead faint.

Jashen said, "Sit on the floor right next to him, Judith."

She did as she was instructed. Elin sat the unconscious man up in front  of Judith and  propped up  his knees so  together they both had a small profile. Then che said, "I'm sorry about this next  part, it  will  probably disgust  you  more than  Jashen's undercover work did him, but Judith,  you need to hold his knees so he  doesn't spread  back out,  at least  until you  get where you're going."

While they   were  gathering   Wagner  into  an   even  smaller configuration Jashen went through his desk drawers as though he knew exactly  what he was  looking for  and where they  were. He threw a small book down at Judith's side. "There's his fucking ill-gotten Red Cross passport." Then he threw down a thick ream of correspondence right next to  that. "And your Mossad agency should find  that stuff to  be very interesting  reading indeed. But now,  Judith, off you pop  back to Israel. I'm  glad we met, and I hope we work together again."

"Wait! Tell me one thing, Adriel. Who is Michael?"

"More to the point, you should be asking what is Michael."

But she didn't  have the  opportunity  to ask. The next thing Judith knew she was still crouching with Wagner  on his kitchen floor, but the floor  was now  just a circle  of wood  lying in front of Mossad  headquarters at the Red House  on Yarkon Street in Tel Aviv.

* * * * *

One of the farmers who dwelt outside of Salem drove to the lines of the army ringing the city. The farmer and three sturdy young len removed a box from their wagon and bore  it toward the city gate using staves threaded through brass rings on the box.

One of the Eyes of Elyon  barked at the yeng  carrying the box, 'What yang of you are the loadmaster?' The  three dirks lowered the box to the ground and edged fearfully away. The oldest lan said, "This shipment be mine, milord. I am Sibiel of Odargas."

"Do you pledge troth for whatsoever goods you bear in the box?"

"I do, milord."

"Yet I would see within."

Crestfallen, Sibiel ordered the dirks to open the box. The Ophan Lilith tumbled out, shielding vision dazed by the sudden light. The three dirks feigned outrage at the sight of har.

The Eye of Elyon said,  "Stand apart  from this Sibiel,  if you value your lives! Contrary to the  will of Elyon hy bears aid to the fugitive daughter of King Melchiyahu to enter Salem."

But Ophan Lilith  was  not  cowed by  the  pretensions of  this uncouth lackey of Lord Zadkiel. She cried out in a loud voice, "May Bat-El send down fire to slay you and your companions!"

At first the  Eyes of  Elyon thought  the princess  was mocking their speech, but only a few heartbeats after She spoke bolts of fire shot down from the clear  sky. So bright and hot was this fire that Sibiel and the three dirks thought their eyebrows had been burnt off, and the  noise of  the attack seemed  to deafen them. The immolation left only smoking grease spots where twelve Eyes of Elyon stood an instant before. None remained to hinder Lilith from proceeding to the gates of Salem.

When the living avatar of  Elyon learned what happened  hy knew the attack was interference from Bat-El. It was the first such meddling that Bat-El had dared to  do in Kemen. So Samael went himself to the vicinity  of Salem to  impress upon  Zadkiel the dilemma now confronting hym.

He said, "The people must not come to believe this yang Michael is in  union with  an eloah. Otherwise  my controversy  with him will lead angels  to hold the eloah Bat-El in  contempt. That is the natural impulse of  world-dwellers when dealing with enemies among your own order. Also I have encouraged the people in their belief  that  yen are  unwarlike,  and  to  be treated  as  mere property. The Ophan Lilith and  her so-called Fallen Angels, who are without peer in Heaven, contradict this tradition every day. This cannot be permitted to continue.  Yet when it comes down to it, who is really worthy to confront them?"

Zadkiel snorted at the mere  thought and said, "Surely  my Lord makes a ridiculous joke."

Samael continued to  explain things  to Zadkiel  as though  his prophet had not made hyz interruption at all.

"Lilith is held at bay only by the continued health Michael. So I am willing to tolerate the human incarnation of an eloah being caged like a beast, because I  assure you that is the only thing staying  the annihilation  of  your expeditionary  force by  the Fallen Angels. When  you put the city under siege  you must keep Michael in full view of Ophan  Lilith at all times, with pikelen ready to run  hym through at the slightest  provocation from her Fallen Angels or  the forces of Cherub Melchiyahu.  I assure you victory will hang upon that slender thread."

In the days of King Melchiyahu when war was come to the city of Salem and Michael  was captive of Hashmal  Zadkiel, Ophan Lilith instructed her chief lieutenant Imrael in what Michael said was 'War the Way Water Flows'.

And Imrael inquired,  "Your  Royal Highness,  I  know you  have fought in countless battles. How did you survive all of them?"

Lilith replied, "A coward thinks only of his personal survival. Thus he endangers himself and his entire force. But a yan of war advances on  the battlefield already reconciled  with death. She goes into  battle as  though she were  certainly doomed  to die. When the thought of dying  has already been accepted, this frees the yan of  war to focus only on fighting.  Thus she retains her life. Keeping her life, she  gains victory. Gaining victory, she preserves the life of the people she protects."

True to her  foretelling  Lilith carried  the  day. The Fallen Angels drove off the Adanites in the first engagement and there followed a brief season of  peace. But none yet dared  to hope Elyon had put the conquest of Salem out of his mind.

At a  beautiful  cataract  in   the  mountains  east  of  Salem Lilith and a squad of  her Fallen Angels  refreshed themselves. Afterwards they resumed their  usual mode  of riding  slowly on their horses while patrolling all  of the land approaches to the city for intruders. The waterfall completely blanked  out the sound and vibration of onrushing hooves until it was nearly too late. Not even Lilith's hypersensitive mare gave warning.

Undetected, Adanite horselen raced up behind  Lilith, her chief lieutenant Imriel,  and the  other  yen. At the last  instant Lilith's sword was unlimbered only to crash with sparks against a mighty iron rod. Lilith was knocked clean off her horse.

Still stunned, Lilith  witnessed another  horselan decapitating Imriel with a single stroke and choked back her grief. her horse possessed the intelligence  to linger  with Lilith  rather than follow her equine instinct, which was to bolt. Shaking her head clear, Lilith mounted up again.

Poor Imriel was dead but four other Fallen  Angels survived the assault and they rallied around har. Lumbering after them at a full gallop,  Lilith and her  companions loosed many  arrows and felled the one wielding the iron staff.

Two other weaving horselen were slain blocking  arrows fired at the one who killed Imriel. he had a swift horse and far too much of a head start. Hedove into the safety of a vast forest glade guarded by a large armed encampment.

Contrary to her every wish  Lilith reared back and  brought har horse to a  stop. The other Fallen  Angels  conformed to  har movements as the soldier they had chased turned to face them.

Seeing at last  the  face of  the lan  who  killed Imriel,  the princess mouthed his name with  all the bile She  could summon: 'Zadkiel!'

Yet every  indication Lilith  had  gathered  from the  path  of burning  villages told  her Zadkiel  was yet  twelve to  fifteen leagues to the west. She guessed that Zadkiel must have dragged hyz army here by forced  march overnight. But that led her to marvel how he  knew to come to just this  place. "Elyon," Lilith muttered, answering her own unspoken question.

As though in answer, Demonstroke soared over  the trees. Lilith was shocked to see the last dragon in Heaven had been brought to this fight, but he  orbited far  overhead and  made no  move to attack. Then She understood Demonstroke was  brandished only as insurance against any more interference from Bat-El's avatar.

Lilith signaled for the  Fallen Angels  to gather  close around har. She said, "Zadkiel will pay for Imriel, life for life. You needn't  follow me." She gestured  to the  back  of her  head. "Bat-El has said my death will not be my death, but she has made no such promise to you."

But the Fallen Angels were of a single mind. One of them named Sarathiel answered  for all  and  said,  "Lead us,  Your  Royal Highness. For Imriel!'

So heedless of the danger Lilith  turned her horse to  face the enemy. She sped forward to attack Zadkiel directly. Buy Zadkiel ordered the  canvas  covering  Michael's cage  to  be  removed, revealing hym just as Lilith  entered the range of  the enemy's darts. She brought her horse to a halt once more.

Zadkiel said, "You can kill me from where you stand, Lilith, but I assure you Michael would join me in death."

Lilith stared at  Zadkiel with  narrowing eyes  and rode  a bit closer. Then moving in  a well-practiced  dance, Elyon's  best pikeyeng, arranged in  a  ring around  Michael's cage,  brought their forest of spikes to the horizontal, yet not toward Lilith, but inward, toward Michael.

"Don't sink to this,  Zadkiel," She called  out in  disgust. 'I expect as  much  from  Samael  but  it  is  not  worthy  of  an unpossessed Gerash noblelan."

But her words were mere bluster. Lilith was shocked how neatly the use of Michael as a living shield curtailed her actions.

Zadkiel seemed to read her thoughts. 'Michael has become a noose around your neck, and the closer you try get to hym the tighter that noose will become. How easy it is to make you dance with a simple threat to Michael's life!'

Michael shouted, "Lilith! Forget about me!'

Lilith's eyes became moist  as She  shook her  head with  a sad smile. She said, "Did  you not  know that is  the only  thing I could never do?'

Yet there was nothing more she could do that  day on the field. Spurring her horse, she led her Fallen Angels back to the city.

On the eve of  the second  battle for  Salem Sarathiel  came to Lilith and said, "Your Royal Highness, you have been gracious to instruct me in the way of  Bat-El, but many of the Fallen Angels have remarked  that you are  a yan of  very few words.  It seems that to be a yen of war  is to set yourself apart from all other yen, not to mention apart from all len and jen and men."

Lilith said, "This is true, Sarathiel, but it is not not rooted in  a desire  to be  considered elite,  and therefore  powerful. Power attracts people  who are more interested  in expanding and clinging to their power rather than nourishing their mind in the way  of Bat-El.  But the  common people  lack ambition.  Here in Salem  and  even  in  distant  Rammon  they  have  embraced  the preaching of Michael and live  in natural simplicity, and so too does the yan of war. She  protects her inner dignity even as she protects  the people,  by being  supremely mysterious.  Only the outward actions of her can  be observed, never her guarded inner core."

Sarathiel said,   "Your  Royal  Highness,  before   I  make  an assertion, I  always take  care to  qualify it  with, 'I  may be wrong about this, but...' or 'I'm not really certain, but...' or 'This will probably sound stupid, but...'"

Lilith said,  "You  do  not  even realize  it,  but  with  such self-effacing language  as you describe, you  are really playing down  your intelligence  in order  to gain  acceptance from  the opposite sex."

Sarathiel said "Your  Royal  Higness, are  saying that  mincing words is not true humility, but actually a form of display?"

Lilith said, "Yes!  And when  your tentative  speech becomes  a habit, you  begin to automatically  think bad of  yourself. This serves only to perpetrate the  dominance that len enjoy over yan which is  reinforced by  physical strength and  by law,  None of those things are important to the yan of war. She is interested, rather, only in the survival and well-being of the people."

And Sarathiel said, "Excellent."

During the battle the King's  forces, which were a  larger body than the Fallen  Angels, took  the role  of the  primary force. Lilith's yen  were  the  skirmishers, the  saboteurs,  and  the assassins.

On a grander  scale, it  was King  Melchiyahu and  his ordinary force that gained  the victory,  but Zadkiel's  yeng remembered only the leather-clad yen who  had somehow gotten  behind their lines, throwing knives, cutting throats, driving off horses and setting fire to wagons.

And Elyon, watching through the eyes of  the dragon Demonstroke flying high over the field, witnessed the defeat of Zadkiel. He discounted his numerical losses and ordered more  yeng to march west from Adan. They moved toward Salem like buckets of water in a fire brigade.

Zadkiel spent the lives of yeng on the Plain  of Galcha without remorse until the  Adanite  horde  was on  the  utter brink  of mutiny. Then Melchiyahu and Lilith withdrew closer to Salem but the enemy did not pursue.

There was relative  quiet  for  a time  as  Zadkiel waited  for replacement troops to come west. But on the day before the third battle for Salem Sarathiel came to Lilith said,  "Look at that, Your Royal Highness! Thrice ten thousand arrayed against us! Did you ever see such a host?"

Lilith said, "A large force does not assure the enemy a victory, Sarathiel. What are the  stakes? They  are fighting  to restore Salem as a taxpaying province in Samael's empire. But our people can barely  made do  as things stand  now. Paying  the 'worship' tribute  to the  Eyes  of  Samael would  starve  them. They  are fighting to survive."

Sarathiel objected, "But the hashmalim Zadkiel and Bezaliel are over there!"

Lilith said, "And they hate each other more than  they hate us. They  only  joined  together  against  me  only  because  Samael commanded it."

Sarathiel said, "But under them are the most  famous erelim and sarim in House Gerash!"

Lilith said, "And  how did  they get  so famous,  Sarathiel? By their reckless aggression. If I  present my shock troops to them as bait  they will rush  out to  engage them, thinking  how this will advance their reputation."

Sarathiel said, "But  behind them  are  the best  fed and  best trained soldiers in Kemen!"

Lilith said, "But they aren't fighting for their wives or cities or farms in the east, they  are fighting to prop  up a bankrupt culture and a fragile slave economy.

Sarathiel said, "Your Royal Highness, help me to understand how we, numbering in our thousands,  can hope to prevail against our enemies numbering in tens of thousands?"

Lilith said, "A light commando force wreaking havoc behind enemy lines will tie down a much greater force hunting for it. A small army that is still and rested  with have the better  of a large army that is worn out marching double-time to meet it."

Sarathiel said, "But there must be a limit to  how small a unit can be before  it is ineffective no matter  how intelligently it is employed."

Lilith nodded  in  agreement. She said, "Too  light,  and  we invite aggression. Too  heavy, and our army  becomes unwieldy. A commander  in harmony  with the  way of  Bat-El coordinates  the small with the  great, the strong with the weak,  the eager with the reticent, balancing  opposites to attain the  middle path. I will unleash the extraordinary force.  When they see the carnage wrought by  the Fallen Angels,  they will hesitate. And  in that moment my father the king will strike with the main force. Salem must prevail  because the army  is humble. Our soldiers  and the officers who  lead them do  not think of  self-aggrandizement of the aggrandizement of the state."

During the battle the King's  forces, which were a  larger body than the Fallen  Angels, took  the role  of the  primary force. Lilith's yen  were  the  skirmishers, the  saboteurs,  and  the assassins. On a grander scale,  it was King Melchiyahu  and his ordinary force  that gained  the  victory,  but Zadkiel's  yeng remembered only the  leather-clad  yen who  had somehow  gotten behind their lines, throwing  knives, cutting  throats, driving off horses and setting fire to wagons.

They clashed in the ravine  of Anixi and Melchiyahu  was driven down the brook to  Nolesh Wood. But Zadkiel's greater numbers were of no advantage there. Then Lilith came with timely Fallen Angel reinforcements  to turn  Zadkiel's  flank  and press  the Adanite army to the very edge of the gorge of Armak.

The flags of truce were brought out, and with the King's consent Lilith rode into the lines of the enemy to see if Zadkiel, with hyz back against an awesome precipice, had come  to new wisdom. He had not truly believed Elyon's words  concerning Lilith, but that was before this fight.

'I find I want you working for me and  not against me,' Zadkiel told her as Michael watched from his cage only a few paces away. 'You can destroy this finger  of army  in this position,  but I fear  that Michael  is close  to  the edge  and something  might happen to hym during  the confusion. To keep Michael  safe you will dissolve your band of yen dressed as warriors, ride at the head of this army, and go where I command you in the East Lands and the West Lands and Salem, and every place  where angels and men dare to hold the law of the God of Kemen in contempt.'

'Where is the honor here, Zadkiel? Where is the glory? Do you really want me  to command  your army  while every  decision is tainted by  holding hostage a  peaceful yang that I  love? Elyon would do better to shun  pretense and send Demonstroke  down to finish the Fallen Angels.'

Zadkiel was delighted to hear Lilith declare that she loved the prisoner. 'Then are the rumors true, Princess? Michael must not fall outside of  the control  of  my army  but he  need not  be confined to a cage. Consider very carefully. You could go to hym this very night.'

'At a word from my father  every Salemite would flock  into his army, Hashmal Zadkiel; yea, even the yen, the infirm, the dirks and the dolls. The war would grow so bloody that the whole face of the land would be covered with the dead, and no one would be left to bury them.

This,' said sha, 'must not be.' Then she turned on her heels and quit the parley. There had been no need to prod Lilith to do the right thing. Never was Michael more proud of her  .'Sha knows, Elyon. The things you love are always used against you. Always! she knows!'

'Sha does know,' Michael  replied, 'but woe  to those  who turn love into a weapon and dare to use it against the ones who love. Beware, Zadkiel. Your doom  lies  before  you. It takes  no supernatural power of  foresight to know the  struggle for Salem will end badly for you.'