TC1

TC100: Lilith and Hamon had flown by avatar to Anshar many times but never before  to the  city  of Adan  where Shemhazai  ruled directly. Hamon took Lilith to a park in the  heart of the city that marked the place where humans were first brought to Kemen.

A statue of a cherub with a flaming sword stood over the eastern entrance. Hamon showed Lilith the ridge where  the portal would open, and the field where  Hebel grazed his bison. Paths laced through the grove where Kayin committed the first murder.i

TC101: "Was it always this beautiful?"

"More so, then,"  Hamon told  her. "A thousand years ago  the Deluge reached even these heights."

"What is your plan?"

"There is no  plan, Lil.  Even now  the Eyes  of Shemhazai  are moving to take me into custody."

"Your plan is to die! Have you forgotten that Malphas pronounced your doom?"

"It will not come to that."

"Could you not summon a bubble  as you did when  you whisked my brother to the other world?"

"That was a thing my father and I did together."

TC102: "Get your mother involved."

"I see I have been remiss in explaining precisely why that must never be."

"Then in the absence of your plan  I say we go  forward with my plan."

Hamon narrowed his  eyes. "Lilith, don't do anything  stupid. Better yet, don't do anything at all!"

A squad of len surrounded them  just then. Lilith was known to the captain, at  the very least. He said, "Your pardon I crave, Your Majesty, but by the command of King Rimmon we must separate your companion from you."

TC103: As he was led away Hamon called out,  "Lilith! Just drop it! Do you hear me?"

He was marched  through a  veritable museum  of torture  to the lowest levels of Rimmon's palace  and left  to shiver in  a wet cell. The next day Malphas paid a visit. He moved close to the iron bars to look directly into Hamon's eyes. After studying him quietly for a time he said, "Lord Shemhazai  gives his regards, Bat-El."

Hamon smiled. "I made no secret of the union,  yet you came all the way to Salem to deny it."

TC104: "Lord Shemhazai has learned that you put on something of a conjuring  act just  before he  whisked Melchizedek  to Earth. Only Bat-El could have timed things so."

"Excellent, Malphas! So now that your master has come to believe what you condemned me to die  for teaching, why do  I remain in this cell?"

"Certain actions and non-actions will be required of you."

"Shemhazai knows I can choose to  end my life at  any time. The disgusting  instruments  of pain  you  arrayed  for me  have  no meaning."

TC105: "A martyr is really the last thing we  want, Bat-El. But Princess Lilith has her mind quite  made up. Do you really think the Eyes are not aware of the preparations she has made for your rescue?  You will  be amazed  when  you see  it. Sleeper  cells, guards  taken out  with  a head  twist,  secret disguises,  body doubles, and safe houses from here  to the edge of the city! But it is doomed to fail. We will  catch Lilith in the act, scoop up key Fallen Angels and crush your whole movement in one night."

TC106: "You are grossly  underestimating Lilith and  her Fallen Angels if you think you can just roll them up."

"The Lord Shemhazai suggests a better alternative. If you agree to be  paraded in a  cage from here to  Salem so the  people may witness the  humiliation of their  would-be god, Lilith  and her friends will have no reason to carry out their suicide pact."

"I will die the moment you display me in a cage."

"You must not refuse, Bat-El, because the alternative is Lilith, remember? Her plan?"

TC107: "That  will  require  some backtracking  on  your  part, Malphas.  Have  you  forgotten   you  pronounced  my  death  for presuming to  teach I am  the living  avatar of Bat-El?  Now you would have everyone see I spoke truth after all."

Malphas curled his lips. "The rabble have short memories."

"I agree never to will myself to die," Hamon said, "void if I am ever put to torment." Is that all the Lord Shemhazai requires of me?"

"Your avatar must never again be seen in the lands ruled by King Rimmon."

TC108: "I keep my avatar  far to the  north of this  city. Does your king's rule extend beyond the ice wall?"

"You quibble, Bat-El. By  'lands' the Lord  means that  part of Kemen that is free of ice."

"Very well. Is there nothing more he requires?"

"Finally, you must share with the Lord Shemhazai  the secret of merging with a living lan, as you have done."

"Very good! When my mother and father have sent  Lilith home to Salem I will comply."

"You are in no position to make demands of your own."

TC109: "How unfortunate for you, Malphas. I will  now shed this container of  meat, and  when Shemhazai  makes his  inquiries he will be  dismayed how  close he  came to  learning the  trick of having  one of  his  own before  your  intransigence ruined  the negotiations."

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

"No need, Malphas. It seems my father and I are suddenly back on speaking terms."

The rumble of Bat-El's avatar lifting skyward was heard even in the dungeon beneath the palace.

TC110: At a tall cataract in the foothills east of Salem Lilith and a squad of  her Fallen  Angels refreshed  themselves before resuming their patrol. The waterfall completely obscured  the sound and vibration of onrushing hooves until it was nearly too late. Not even Lilith's  hypersensitive mare  gave warning  of Adanite  horselen  racing  up  behind them. Only at  the  last instant, by some odd instinct, did Lilith unlimber her blade to crash against a  mighty iron rod. She was knocked clean off her horse.

TC111: Still stunned, Lilith witnessed another Adanite horselan decapitate Imriel, her chief lieutenant, with a single stroke.

Lilith's horse possessed the  discipline to linger  rather than bolt. Shaking her head clear and choking back her grief, Lilith mounted up  once more. Four surviving  Fallen Angels  rallied around her.

Lumbering after the assailants at a full gallop, Lilith and her companions loosed many arrows while standing in their stirrups. They felled the lan wielding the iron staff.

TC112: Two other  weaving  len blocked  with  their own  bodies arrows fired at Imriel's  killer. This surviving attacker dove into a forest  glade guarded  by  a large  armed encampment  of Adanites. Contrary to her every wish Lilith reared  back on her reins to come to a stop and the other Fallen Angels conformed to her movements. This soldier they had chased turned to face them. Seeing the identity of the lan who killed  Imriel, the princess mouthed his name with all the bile she could summon: "Malphas!"

TC113: The track of burning villages around Salem had led Lilith to believe Malphas was  ten leagues to  the north. She guessed Malphas dragged his army  here by  forced march  overnight, but that made her wonder how he knew to come to just this place. She took pains to keep her own movements equally mysterious.

As though in reply Demonstroke soared over the trees. Lilith was shocked to see the last dragon in Kemen had been brought to the fight, but he climbed high above and made no move to attack.

TC114: At a signal the Fallen Angels gathered  close around the princess. She said, "Malphas pays for Imriel, life for life. You needn't follow me." She gestured at the horns that newly adorned her head. "Hamon says my death will not be my  death but he has made no such promise to you."

But the Fallen  Angels were  of a  single mind. The one named Raphaela answered for them  all when she  said, "Lead  us, Your Royal Highness. For Imriel!"

So heedless of the danger they all turned to face the enemy.

TC115: They sped forward to attack directly and not one yan held back. But Malphas ordered the  canvas  covering a  cage to  be removed, revealing Hamon just as Lilith entered the range of the enemy's darts. She brought her horse to a halt once more.

Malphas said, "You can kill me from where you stand, Lilith, but Hamon would join me in death."

Lilith rode a bit  closer. Pikelen arranged in a  ring brought their forest of spikes to the horizontal, yet not toward Lilith, but inward, toward Hamon.

TC116: "Don't sink to this, Malphas," she called out in disgust. "I expect this from Rimmon but not unpossessed Gerash noblelen."

She knew  her  words  were  empty. Hamon as  a  living  shield curtailed her actions quite neatly.

Malphas seemed to  read her  very thoughts. "Hamon is a noose around your  neck, princess, and the  closer you try get  to him the tighter that  noose will become. How easy it  is to make you dance with a simple threat to Hamon's life!"

Hamon shouted, "Lilith! Forget about me!"

TC117: Lilith's eyes became moist as she shook her  head with a sad smile. "Did you not know, Hamon? That  is the one  thing I could never do."

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

When the War of Salem opened Melchiyahu's army was the ordinary force while the Fallen Angels were throwers  of knives, cutters of throats, and fire setters. But Malphas' len perceived being swamped by leather-clad yen.

TC118: On a grander scale, it was Melchiyahu's army that gained the victory in the first battle. But Malphas remembered only how Lilith got behind his left and assailed his  supply trains. His flank was turned and he was driven down a narrowing ravine whose walls grew taller and his greater numbers were of no advantage. Malphas saw his army was in danger of being defeated in detail.

Flags of truce unfurled and Lilith  rode into the lines  of the enemy to see if Malphas had come to greater wisdom.

TC119: As Hamon watched from his cage a few paces away, Malphas said to Lilith, "Before this day, Princess, I never believed you were so valiant. Now I  would have you  working for me  and not against me. You  can destroy my army where we  stand, but I fear something unfortunate might happen  to Hamon during the scuffle. To keep him alive you will  dissolve your band of yen dressed as warriors, ride at  the head of my army, and  go wherever elyonim and nephilim and men hold the god of Kemen in contempt."

TC120: "Would you really appoint me your  general while holding hostage a peaceful lan that I love? Shemhazai would do better to shun pretense  and send  his dragon  down to  finish me  and the Fallen Angels."

Malphas was delighted to hear  Lilith declare her love  for the prisoner. "Then are the wild rumors true,  Princess? Hamon must never fall outside of the watchful gaze of the Eyes of Shemhazai but he need not be confined to  this cage. At a word from Rimmon you could go to him this very night."

TC121: "And at a word from  my father, " said  Lilith in reply, "every Salemite would flock  into his army.  Yea, the  old, the infirm, the  yen, even our dirks  and our dolls. This  war would grow so bloody that the whole  face of the land would stink with the uncovered dead, and no one would be left alive to bury them. This, Malphas,  must never come to  be." Then she turned on her heels and quit the parley.

Never was Hamon so proud of his first student. She had needed no prodding to do the right thing.

TC122: When Lilith had departed and Malphas knew he  was not to die that day  he returned to Hamon's cage to  gloat. "She knows, Bat-El. The things you  love are always  used against  you. She knows!"

"Lilith does indeed know," Hamon replied, "but woe to those who turn love into a weapon and dare  to use it against the ones who do love. Beware, Malphas. Your doom comes into view.."

"Speak you in the role of my oracle, Bat-El?"

"It takes no divine foresight to guess this war  will end badly for you."

TC123: Long before the war Lilith's grandfather old King Gordiel hitched a wagon to a nearby tree with a knot so elaborate no one could fairly begin to unravel it. At that time an oracle said (or Gordiel said that the oracle said) whoever untied the wagon would rule all of Kemen.

Malphas knew of this  prophecy, of course. When he was within sight of Salem he found  the wagon  and beheld what  the people called the Gordian Knot. For long hours while the army made camp he took his own turn at it.

TC124: This Malphas continued to do until a hashmal of the Eyes of Shemhazai arrived on the scene. He looked askance at what he took to be a move to usurp the power of Rimmon himself.

Malphas took great offense at the insinuation. "Am I to believe the Eyes of Shemhazai give any credence at all to the babblings of local would-be seers and prophets?"

"What you believe or what the Eyes believe matters not one whit, Lord Malphas. What the rabble in aggregate believes is entirely another matter."

TC125: "Then you may be pleased  to report to King  Rimmon I am thoroughly satisfied this knot is  secure and the wagon is going nowhere.  Have your  len lash  Hamon's  cage to  this wagon  and arrange the army on the slope along every side."

Lilith padded out her ample curves and applied false facial hair to offset the soft  yenish features that  belied her  status as commander of  the most fierce  brigade on Kemen. Also, with the change that came  with her  horns, she  could speak  in a  deep baritone at will.

TC126: This along with an eidetic memory and other sundry skills were part of what Hamon  called the standard toolkit  for B'nei Elohim.

Lilith dressed as one of  the poor  farmers in the  vicinity of Salem who had  been pressed into menial service  at the business end of a whip but were not  made part of the  army. She drifted among the soldiers  ladling out  water and  calmly taking  much abuse. In the very center of the camp she noted the wooden cage that had been Hamon's drafty home for much too long.

TC127: The cage was covered  with a  canvas to keep  Hamon from freezing to death. It would not do,  as Malphas knew  well, to break  the single  thread  keeping himself  and  his whole  army alive.

Lilith could swagger with the best of them. The guards permitted her to attend  to  Hamon. She climbed up  onto  the wagon  and appeared between  the canvas  and  the  cage with  a  stoneware pitcher of water. For light  she donned  a  lamp  on a  green head band made  by Bat-El  herself, a  gift from  early in  her discipleship.

TC128: The brilliant white light of the headband  came from the body of  Bat-El  herself,  Hamon  once  told  Lilith,  down  an intangible  thread  finer  than  a  spider's  silk. The canvas covering his cage  was thick  enough that  no light  escaped to betray the princess. He was overjoyed to see her and willing to overlook the  beard. For the benefit of  the guards  nearby she grunted, "Here's your filthy  swill-water you  clutty bastard!" But she framed  her thoughts  to  say "THE  KETTLES ARE  SECURE ABOARD THE SHIPS."

TC129: "Hold the ladle still you bafty  hoach!" muttered Hamon, getting into the spirit of their little game.

Again, Lilith allowed a set  of words  to stand clearly  in her mind: "THE SHIPWRIGHTS SAY THE KETTLES WILL TAKE ON SEAWATER AND TIP THE SHIPS SO FAR HALF THE OARS WILL  BE AIRBORNE." And such was her new  talents following  the Change  that Hamon  clearly heard this speech in his own mind.

He replied in the same mode, "YOU HAVE DONE  WELL. THE OARS AND THE LEN TO ROW THEM WILL NOT BE NEEDED."

TC130: "Take the water or  leave be, you sputtering  ball bag!" Lilith grunted for  the benefit  of  the guards. To Hamon she handed over her head lamp and asked, "WHY MUST  I TO BRING THIS TO YOU?"

Hamon, somewhat surprised, explained once more he  could open a portal that leads to his body as  a living sun, but it takes two elohim to make a bridge. "YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS," he added.

"You smelly half a loaf!" she blurted, and mentally she asked the question again with a slightly different emphasis.

TC131: Hamon took  the pitcher  because he  really was  thirsty and he  drank  half  the contents  while  marveling  that  even mind-to-mind communication  was subject  to  misunderstandings. Then he said, "THIS ARTIFACT  IS UNIQUE IN KEMEN.  NOTHING ELSE SAYS 'LILITH WAS  HERE' WITH NO MISTAKE. I WANT  MALPHAS TO KNOW YOU CAN GET TO ME AT ANY TIME.'"

Lilith nodded, now seeing Hamon's plan in full. For the guards she said, "Keep your stinky grabbers inside the cage!" She took back the water and climbed down.

TC132: The city of Salem proper lay on a  rocky island across a narrow strait of  the Aramel Sea, which made it  such a hard nut for land armies to crack. At dawn twelve warships emerged from the seaward side. To the soldiers of  the Adanite army  it was evident something was wrong with them. They pitched in the water after the manner of toy rocking horses, and the sea behind them literally boiled, sending clouds of vapor  skyward. Their sails were all furled and their rows of oars remained idle.

TC133: One of the ships broke  off from the squadron  and raced ahead to the shore. Just before landfall it heaved  back once more, and with a final burst of boiling water beached itself on the  sand like  one of  the aquatic  mammals of  Earth. The sea swirling around its immersed aft end slowly cooled.

Shemhazai chose to  make this  vessel  an example  for all  the others. His dragon Demonstroke flew low along the shore from the north and set the wreck ablaze  to the great joy  of the entire Adanite army.

TC134: But something was amiss. The hulk was ablaze, to be sure, indeed the pyre sent up a great tower of smoke, yet the screams of any len trapped inside could not be heard. And it proved to be no deterrent  at  all. The eleven remaining  ships of  the Salemite fleet went on to beach themselves in like manner.

Then Malphas sent two of every  three len of his  army forward, but he kept a third part of them to  safeguard the cage holding Hamon. Boarding the ships, the soldiers found no crewlen within.

TC135: Belowdecks each  ship had  two large  bronze tank,  with pipes leading aft, but none could puzzle out their purpose.

Hashmal Bezaliel said, "This has all the makings of a trap, sir. Melchiyahu invites us  to cross  over  to the  city where  some unpleasantness lies in wait."

Malphas said, "I deem your counsel to be good. We will not take his bait, but we will take his ships, and assail Salem at a time of my own  choosing, not that of the king." And he ordered many of his len to take the oars.

TC136: One-third of the Adanite army stood  idle. Another third took to the ships. The final third heaved the vessels  off the sand with raw muscle power.

Two wings of  the army  of King  Melchiyahu emerged  from thick woods to the north and  south where  they had lain  hidden even from the dragon. The Salemite army and the Fallen Angels closed on the beach like the jaws of some huge beast.

The bronze kettles in the ships flooded and tipped half the oars of all eleven ships entirely out of the water.

TC137: Some of the ships  tried to  paddle further out  to sea, others tried to return to the beach, most of  them just twirled in place. All of them caught  fire. Nothing restrained Bat-El after Shemhazai set a precedent with the attack  by his dragon. And this time screams were most assuredly heard.

But the Adanites on the shore had simultaneous attacks on their left and right flanks  to worry about. Malphas ordered len to cart Hamon  in his cage down  off the hill toward  the center of his lines.

TC138: Yet the battle showed no sign of letting  up. Hamon as a shield was effective only against  Lilith as a weapon. And the dragon was no help on the field, lest Shemhazai destroy his own forces along with the Salemites.

Malphas scanned the chaos and  spotted Lilith fighting  her way toward the hill behind his  army where the wagon  remained tied up. A sudden fear gripped  him. Could Lilith solve the Gordian knot and inherit the promise of the oracle to rule all Kemen? He moved to cut her off.

TC139: Alone on the summit they both dismounted and squared off with swords in hand.

"Have you come to answer for Imrael?" she taunted.

"I will never allow you to test the oracle of the Gordian Knot!"

"This?" She pointed the tip  of her  blade at  the wagon. "My grandfather was either half-mad or his knot is  the most famous practical joke on Kemen."

This only elicited a  flurry of  clashing swords. Lilith drove Malphas back and said, "I live in Salem. I could have tested the oracle at any time!"

TC140: Lilith's logic didn't seem to penetrate. Instead, Malphas lunged forward. His blade slashed Lilith's bare midsection and he attained first blood.

She feigned shock at the  injury and slowed her  dance. Malphas saw that and let his guard wither for just a few heartbeats, but it was  enough. Seeing her  slim  opening,  Lilith let  fly  a ferocious kick  of one booted foot  to his face and  Malphas was laid out cold  with his  sword separated  from his  unconscious hand. Lilith tossed it out of reach.

TC141: With her prey  lying helpless Lilith  briefly considered making an end of him Before she met Hamon Lilith would have done just that, to avenge Imriel. Far better to let Malphas live and explain this defeat to his god.

She glanced at the forgotten  wagon fastened  to a tree  on the hilltop and ran to it instead. She flipped the drawbar up to the seat. Like everyone who came before she made no headway with the knot. Adanite skirmishers, she saw,  were climbing the  hill to aid their commander.

TC142: With no time to  lose Lilith  simply hacked at  the knot with her sword until it fell apart. The wagon was free, but she was certain grandpa didn't have  that solution in mind  when he created the knot.

Gravity made the wagon roll downhill. Lilith jumped up onto the seat and took the drawbar to steer it. The sound of her wheels drew the attention of  the Adanites. They gaped at  the horror rushing down upon them faster than any horse could drive it. All of the len fled as her gamble played out.

TC143: Hamon saw what she was trying to do. He flattened himself against a side of the cage that he guessed would avoid a direct impact.

Lilith's wagon collided with enough  speed to shatter  both the cage and the  wagon to  splinters and  she was  unceremoniously dumped on her ass. But somehow they both survived the collision. Lilith was more bruised than she had ever been  in her life but Hamon was free of  the cage  and the  enemy was  scattered into isolated squads.

Raphaela came to Lilith's aid.

TC144: When Raphaela  was satisfied  Lilith was  not in  mortal danger she said, "The enemy no longer has a  unified army. They are fleeing by platoons and squads. Shall we cut them off?"

Lilith said, "No, the king has left one route open, inviting the enemy to retire. The trickle  out the  back door will  become a flood.  We  must never  engage  in  slaughter  for the  sake  of slaughter dear Raphaela. It is enough that we have won the field today."

"Happy is the city that thinks of war in times of peace!"

Sarathiel rejoiced, and said, "Happy is the city that thinks of war in times of peace!"

TC145: "Happiness has nothing to do with it, Raphaela. The clash of arms is the worst experience the dwellers of  Kemen can ever experience."

"And  Your   Royal   Highness,   what   of   the   vainglorious thrill-seekers who claim to love warfare?"

Lilith said, "They are either lying and have never tasted actual combat, or their mind has failed them."

But something more  pressing  weighed upon  Lilith's mind,  the well-being of her husband. She hobbled over to the big pile of sticks that had been his cage.

TC146: "No more adventures for now," she told  Hamon while they each made  certain the  other  was  not seriously  hurt. "I've cracked a rib, for one thing. And I am thankful for the gift of shunting  the  pain  away.  But  this  battle  would  have  been unnecessary if you had just let me carry out my plan at Adan."

"You would have been killed."

Lilith touched the halo made  of horns  she now wore. "But you have changed me, and unleashed a warrior yan in  Kemen who does not blench at the thought of death."

TC147: "I would unleash an army  of them. But tell  me, why did you throw away everything you've worked for since you met me?"

"I don't understand what you just said."

Hamon held up one end of  the wagon's rope. "I'm talking about the Gordian Knot.  I'll admit, cutting it was  probably not what the oracle  intended, but now  you are  destined to rule  all of Kemen. Fate! The unreformed Lilith must return."

"'Must she? Do you think Shemhazai will have his way forever?"

Hamon slowly shook his head.

TC148: What if the oracle was  really saying the spirit  of the new Lilith will take over Kemen? The Lilith who changed --" her eyes brimmed with moisture and her voice broke, but she went on. "The one who changed on  that unforgettable day when  she first heard you speak."

The last word was a sob. She regretted the wasted years.

TC149: Hamon ran his hand  over Lilith's side and  somehow took the underlying pain away. Lilith no longer had to use  her new talen tto dull her agony enough to breathe deeply.

Hamon straightened up from his examination of Lilith's injuries. He played the oracle just then, perhaps as a kind of postscript to the seer inspired by (or perhaps hired by) old King Gordiel. He said, "It will take many centuries to play  out, my beloved, both here  and in the  other world.  But you broke  through more than  just my  cage here  today. If  every person  in every  age becomes willing to do for each  other what you did for me today, then love won. Don't you see? Once and for all, love won!"

TC150: Avram means "the father is exalted" which glorified Terah rather than his son. In the ritual sealing the  covenant with Bat-El Melchizedek changed  his  name to  Avraham, which  means "father of many nations".

When Avraham's own son  was fourteen  years of  age Melchizedek said, "Take now Yishak and  go to  the hill country.  There you shall make  of him a  burnt offering  upon one of  the mountains that I will show you."

At first Avraham searched the face of  Melchizedek, thinking it to be a bad joke.

TC151: Avraham was tempted  to refuse outright  as he  did once before in Harran, but  he remembered the  covenant. Melchizidek says this Bat-El now requires the life of his son? So be it.

"Let my word be true. I will obey my God, even though I find his demands to be hateful."

When all was ready Avraham left his flocks grazing on the plains nigh to the coast. There he left his wife and all his servants. With Yishak at his side he was led by Melchizedek into the hills that overlooked the Salt Sea.

TC152: On the first night  Melchizedek told Avraham to  look at the  stars and  asked if  he could  count them. "So shall your descendants be," said he.

Avraham got the point. He already possessed many  animals and servants and  great riches. He did  not  place his  hopes  on obtaining a better second life. The only new thing Bat-El could give Avraham was the assurance that his name and  his blood and the memory of him as a faithful servant of the living God would be carried into the indefinite future.

TC153: They saw no game along the way, so when they drew near to the designated place and  Melchizedek pointed  out the  hill to them, Yishak asked, "Where is the animal for the offering?"

Melchizedek said nothing. Avraham could not bring himself to lie to his son. "God himself will provide the offering."

Yishak was excited to see what God was going to bring so he ran ahead up the hill with youthful energy.

Avraham said to Melchizedek,  "When we reach  the top  you will help me restrain my son."

TC154: When they caught up with  the boy on the  hilltop Yishak called out, "Father, there's nothing here!"

Avraham had a length of rope and was tying loops in it. He said, "Join me here son, and help with this." Yishak promptly obeyed his father.

Thus distracted, Melchizadek took the opportunity  to seize the boy. Yishak didn't cry out at first because he didn't understand what was happening until Avraham and Melchizedek had lashed him securely to a flat boulder that would serve as the altar.

TC155: After that Avraham didn't  need to  work up the  will to slay his  own son, he  was actually in a  hurry to do  it. Every instant the helpless  Yishak lay  in mortal  terror of  his own father tore at his heart. Avraham couldn't stand it. He raised his blade...

Melchizedek was barely  in time  to restrain  him. He shouted, "Enough! Do not harm the boy!" To be certain, Melchizedek used the Killing Relic to cut the lad free once more.

Yishak ran off to a safe distance and turned to face his father.

TC156: Avraham's face twisted as  he worked through a  storm of dark  emotions. He seemed to  arrive at  an answer. "A day of testing?"

Melchizedek nodded in the  affirmative. "This day will  not be forgotten while cold and heat, seed-time and harvest remain. For God Most  High knows you  will not  even withhold your  only son from him."

Avraham longed to embrace Yishak but  he saw how the  boy stood well away. Trust, once betrayed like this,  could never return. "Could there not have been another way?"

TC157: Melchizedek said, "It would be difficult  to explain the full background of the controversy. It is enough for you to know the enemy of  man has made certain claims and  God Most High has chosen you and your descendants to show them to be false."

Avraham lamented, "What I  dread most of  all is  answering the hard questions  of Sarai after Yishak  has spoken to her  of all this, which he doubtless will."

Just then a portal appeared on the hilltop. With the crack of a whip a ram rushed through.

TC158: With a smooth  stroke of  the Killing  Relic Melchizedek separated the head and body of the animal after it emerged from the bubble, that Avraham may not be proven false in what he had said to his son.

He said, "Farewell, Avraham of  Harran! One day  other servants may be sent as God Most High commands."

In the audience hall of Melchiyahu one lamp alone was burning to give light. Melchizedek had forgotten how day on one world could be night on the other, and he wondered how that could be.

TC159: Melchizedek went to the wing of the palace where Princess Lilith lived, as she was quite nocturnal. When he drew near to her chambers he saw servants going  out with wet linen and going in with dry  and he  wondered  if he  really wanted  to go  any further. The worst fears of  Melchizedek materialized  when he found Lilith 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 Hamon  was  also present  amid  the  flurry  of activity.

TC160: Lilith spied him approaching and  smiled broadly. "Deck, you've come! And just in time!"

Hamon said, "The head has breached. Push, Lil! Push!"

Melchizedek remembered little after that, only that  it was all very liquid. Afterwards he realized to his surprise  that he, a warrior and prince of the city, had fainted.

When he was revived the newborn was already skin-to-skin against its mother. She said, "Deck, is Leliel not beautiful?"

"I see there have been many changes this past year."

TC161: "Who more worthy to wed an ophan of Salem than a Seraph?" replied Lilith, affirming  what  Melchizedek  had long  guessed about Hamon, that he was greater  in glory than any  king. "And Deck, in your absence the city has withstood war!"

He 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 did not once cry out."

TC162: "I gave Lilith a  number of wedding gifts,"  Hamon said. "One of them is  that she  can set  aside any  pain, if  she so chooses."

"Yet pain is  the  not enemy  most people  think  it is,"  said Melchizedek. "A 'gift' such as that leads only to a short life."

"That is true, Your Royal Highness, but only if the gift stands alone."

"There are things it is well Shemhazai not discover until it is too late," Lilith explained as  she nursed Leliel. "Not the most refined torment could wrest them from me." TC361:

TC163: "Avraham proved true in the testing," Melchizedek revealed.

"That is so," said Hamon, "but he has little love for a god who demanded  the life  of his  son. Still,  I suppose  a man  might remain loyal to a god he  actively hates. Even now he and Yishak are offering the  animal I sent to them.  But come, Melchizedek, your task  is done. 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."

TC164: The "sea" of Aramel is a  lake fed by melt  water from a barren and twisted land, a  low gravelly pass where the northern and southern sheets of ice  came together  as one. In the year following the return of Prince Melchizedek Adanite forces seized once more the land approaches to Salem. The city, built upon an island a league offshore, was completely isolated.

The penultimate stroke of the war came when King Melchiyahu was discussing this development  with Hamon  and the  lords of  the city.

TC165: The king was speaking in the center of his audience hall where twice his son had been taken by portal to Earth. The mouth of a bridge in reality appeared once more. The king never had a fighting chance. Malphas struck  from  behind,  removing  the sovereign's head with a single swift stroke of his  blade as he cried,  "Sentence pronounced  and  carried out!" The sphere of distorted  light snapped  out  of existence,  leaving the  usual crater. The king's body and his head rolled separately therein.

TC166: Melchizedek was first to  reach the bleeding  remains of his father  and was  overcome with grief. He called for aides. Lilith met Hamon with  pleading eyes but  there was  nothing he could do.

"I knew Shemhazai had  this weapon in  reserve," he  said, "but there is no defense. I have given much thought to a deterrent."

Instead of bewailing the  death of her  father Lilith  stood up straight and  said to  the assembled lords,  "The king  is dead! Hail Melchizedek, king of the city! Long may he rule!"

TC167: The noblelen  of Salem  moved  from their  seats in  the audience hall and  sank to  their knees  near the  crater where Melchizedek and three servants, with infinite care, arranged the body and head of the  dead king on a  bier with some  degree of dignity. Lilith and even Hamon joined them in genuflection.

With a word of command Melchiyahu was carried away. The new lord of the city rose to the acclaim of those  assembled before them who shouted, as though with one voice, "Hail Melchizedek King!"i

TC168: The new king  held out  a hand in  the direction  of his father's receding litter and inquired of Hamon, "Will this, too, be the manner of my passing?"

"Not immediately, Your Majesty. Shemhazai now expects to receive messengers from Salem suing for peace."

"Excellent!" said Lilith. "Then he will not anticipate another taste of war!"

Hamon shook his head. "No, Lil, your own lieutenant has told me the forces moving in the field  are five times greater than what came against Salem before."

TC169: "Fivefold, or a hundredfold, or half," said Melchizedek, "for long as I reign as king  of this city none  shall face the enemy in the field."

"Your Majesty," 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 rocky to grow crops."

TC170: "Even  so,  Your  Majesty,"  said  Hamon,  "Release  one seaworthy craft, at  least. I would send spies up  the Dashok to the ice bridge. Shemhazai maintains a fortress there by the same means he sent Malphas to murder  your father here. It blocks any movement  west. The  enemy has  me at  a disadvantage.  He knows precisely where  the ice cave  lies under  the surface and  I do not."

"If my brother and king is willing," said  Lilith, "Azarael and Jael would be perfect. They're hunters and they're ghosts."

TC171: "Your   spies  shall  have  their   barque,"  said  King Melchizedek, and "what provender they need. But what think you, sister mine? Shall I abdicate the throne?"

"Shemhazai could never stomach me as queen, dear brother, and a successor  more to  his  liking  would be  despised  by all  the dwellers of this city. Yet a siege would be worse."

He said, "Then, beloved sister, the  time has come for  you and your Fallen Angels to quit Salem or become unwarlike for all the days you live in this city."

TC172: Lilith replied, "My brother and  liege-lord, my fighting yen have sworn a solemn oath their hand shall ever cleave to the sword."

"Then where shall they go, Lil?"

"Sire," Hamon said, "With my  mother's aid I will  whisk Lilith and Leliel to my home  in Anshar. Shemhazai could hardly object. It solves  a number of  problems he  has, the biggest  one being Lilith  herself.  But King  Galizur  of  Rumbek boasts  he  will welcome anyone cast  off from what he terms  'the unlovely lands ruled by Rimmon.""

TC173: Melchizedek could feel events rapidly accelerating toward a conclusion he had no wish to  see, but no way  to alter, even with his power as king. With a sigh he said to Hamon, "Then so let it be."

"I can never adequately thank you for your 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 and  a summer  in  this city,"  said Melchizedek. "It lasted far longer and tasted  far sweeter than anyone ever dared to dream."

TC174: "If winter must now come to Salem," said Lilith, "may the flowering we have known take root outside of the lands trampled by House Gerash."

Hamon said, "Your Majesty,  will you  not reconsider  my offer, that Lilith may not be parted from you forever?"

"It is very tempting," said Melchizedek,  "most especially just now. Yet  as time wore  on I 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.

TC175: "Then Sire, think on the refined cruelty of  the Eyes of Shemhazai, and what  you will suffer should you  fall into their hands. Your sister accepted the Change and not even the pains of childbirth could daunt  her. At the very least you  could die at the moment of your own choosing."

Melchizedek said, "I fear no torment by the enemy. Every moment I remain  alive in  the hands  of Shemhazai  he risks  having me snatched away by  my sister, or so he would  fear. No, Hamon, my end will be quick."

TC176: Melchizedek saw Lilith's  tears were flowing  freely. He was moved to drop  the airs of  a king and  embrace her  as any brother would embrace  a sister  he always  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. "Hamon told me your Leliel is the first born of the B’nei Elohim. The children of the gods! How very fortunate you are!"

TC177: Like the shadow of  a cloud  passing over the  white sun Melchizedek saw how they were inflicting torment upon themselves as cruel  as  anything  devised by  Shemhazai  by  letting  the necessary parting linger too long.

At his command Melchizedek was arrayed in his finest raiment. He donned a jeweled cloak and his father's crown. Then he led his weeping subjects to the  lower levels of  the city,  and Lilith longed to follow, but Hamon gently stayed her, and taking Leliel they went another way.

TC178: A lone craft neared  the near  shore of the  Aramel Sea, thronged with the  enemy,  yet no  darts  flew. Rimmon himself awaited. The living avatar of Shemhazai expected Melchizedek to send forth an underling as messenger, but no: it was the king of the city himself! Message received. King Rimmon ordered weapons free. As Melchizedek foresaw he  died  quickly in  a storm  of arrows. By the end of the day the city was pacified by the cruel Eyes of Shemhazai and would never again know a ruling monarch.

TC179: Ice pinched the equatorial  latitudes of Kemen  in three places, leaving three unfrozen swaths of  roughly equal length. Each land in the Slush Belt was some two  thousand leagues long but only a hundred leagues from north to south. The ice bridge between the East and West Lands was the thinnest  of the three, and in the centuries to come it would be the first to melt. But the earliest  explorers  despaired  of  crossing  four  hundred leagues of treacherous crevasse-ridden ice and turned back.

TC180: The first travelers to cross the ice bridge waded through swamps that may have run  another four hundred leagues  for all anyone knew, as none found their way to the outflow of the vast bog that was the source of the River Loenna. Yet the West Lands could still be  reached by  traveling the  long way  around the world. As elyonim and  nephilim multiplied  on Kemen  humans of original stock crossed  two other barriers of  ice and descended the Wall of God to reach a fertile land they called Sala.

TC181: The Gold Beards  of Sala  developed an  enduring culture unique in Kemen,  based on  the  Ringhouse. This was a  common wooden dwelling with  about eighty  people at  the center  of a small circle of cultivated fields. Along the rim of this circle a dozen footpaths entered the forest, but only half of these led to another Ringhouse some  leagues away. The rest dwindled to game trails or  dead-ended in a grove of  lethal whipping trees. The wealth of the whole land of Sala was scattered in this way.

TC182: No Adanite would cross  the ice  and the swamp  for such meager booty. What combat, such  as it  was, came  against the capital of Saharad. There were periodic raids by the Red Beards of Gerazan, and more frequently  Rimmon appeared to  both sides with the newest Adanite arms and left with their gold.

In the main the men and women of Sala embraced Hamon's teachings to an extent that  rivaled the Salemites. Yet Hamon had never visited Saharad. To Lilith's  mind  that  raised  a  pressing problem.

TC183: When Lilith experienced the portal travel that four times had whisked her brother between worlds, and beheld Saharad, she remembered how few in the land  of Sala knew her  by sight, and Hamon none at  all. "What do you imagine  they  will do  when strange elyonim  arrive at  the city gate  demanding to  see the queen?"

"I imagine they will  throw us  in chains.  But I  have already given  some  thought to  this,  dearest  one. My  covenant  with Shemhazai makes only the land of Adan forbidden to my avatar."

TC184: So it came to pass that Saharad, that great capital city of the land of Sala, knew the terror of the coming of the avatar of Bat-El upon jets of fire from the very heart of Earth's sun. And when it had safely touched down upon a  field of unoccupied land outside of the gates of the city and the flame ceased Hamon walked to stand near  it, and  Lilith went  with him  with baby Leliel in her arms. It was there the guards of  the city found them when they had summoned the courage to approach.

TC185: To  a man  the  Gold  Beards  they were  proud  subjects of a  powerful  queen,  Aurra Firegem,  which  thing  would  be absolutely unthinkable  to the Adanites. Queen Firegem canceled what audience her courtiers had prepared for that day to receive instead her unannounced visitors.

With her husband Duke Evander the two made an imposing pair, but the queen was not beautiful in the eyes of many men, as she was broad of face and frame. Her skill with the bow was said to be unmatched anywhere on Kemen.

TC186: Lilith  felt a  little  awed  in the  queen's  presence. Setting Hamon aside, Queen Firegem  (or at the very  least, the Queen Firegem that  was depicted in the words of  those who knew her)  was  the  greatest  influence  in her  life. But a  more important thing was  pressing. Lilith said, "Your Majesty,  I regret to say  my father and my brother were  slain by their own kinsmen on a  single day. Even as  I speak the city  of Salem is trampled  by the  Eyes of  Shemhazai  and forces  loyal to  King Rimmon of Adan."

TC187: The queen  was shocked  almost beyond  the capacity  for speech. When she found her voice she could only gasp, "How could this come to be?"

"Hashmal Malphas killed  my  father in  a  most cowardly  way," answered Lilith. "He appeared even as Hamon  tells me Shemhazai has appeared before you, by that bridge in reality only Seraphim can summon. He  appeared behind my father's back  and struck off his head  without warning.  He left  no chance  for the  king to defend himself. But I will avenge my father."

TC188: After the queen  had absorbed this  she said,  "And your brother Melchizedek? How did he die?"

Hamon spoke for  Lilith here. "Your Majesty, Melchizedek knew King Rimmon had brought overwhelming force against his city, and a siege  was immanent. He  deemed, correctly, that no  edict the king of  Adan would likely impose  upon the elyonim of  the city for their long defiance could be worse than their starvation. He went willingly  to the enemy  camp and Shemhazai admits  he died quickly and cleanly."

TC189: "Your  Majesty,  King  Rimmon has  already  appointed  a governor over the city, and he  has levied a heavy tax. The Eyes of Shemhazai multiply  almost as fast as do  the mournful edicts and the checkpoints, and none may  depart. And yet for all that, Queen Firegem, Rimmon has utterly failed, because a daughter and a granddaughter of  King Melchiyahu remain alive,  and both have slipped away from his grasp. I hold Lilith to be a cherub and to be the Queen of Salem in exile. Rimmon will come for her."

TC190: Duke Evandr  Firegem was  moved to  speak. "Do you seek safety for your family Lord Hamon? We are eager to have you live with us here in  Saharad, and if our city is  not to your liking you may dwell anywhere in the land of Sala."

"I thank you, Sire, but my family aside King Rimmon is pursuing other exiles from Salem even into  the land of the Brown Beards. Were I to do nothing to stave  off the war that must follow King Galizur would no  more welcome them in Rumbek  than Rimmon would in Salem."

TC191: The duke said  in reply,  "Lord Hamon,  if war  comes to House  Larund,  know  that  the  men and  women  of  Kemen  hold ourselves to be  exiles also, and Bat-El to be  our only God. We will never turn away any who embrace her."

"I thank you, Sire," said Hamon, "and Her Majesty the queen. But if war comes it will not stop at Rumbek. Rimmon means to overawe the kingdoms of Kemen one after the other before they can unite to stop him. Think on this when  next he appears before you as a merchant of arms."

TC192: Azarael and Jael of the Fallen Angels  slinked their way through caves and tunnels in the ice far to  the west of Salem. Only three of Rimmon’s  soldiers ever discovered  them. Their bodies were left to be  found in such  a way that  their deaths could be explained as entirely accidental.

There the yen discovered the  enemy’s main storeroom  of meat and grain. Not even Bat-El knew the exact location of that cache where it lay under the ice, but she always knew the position of Lilith’s headband.

TC193: Azarael left the  artifact inside  a container  near the center of the cache in such a  way that it would  not likely be discovered,  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 went 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 Hamon  described  it,  using what  he  warned  was  extreme understatement) a disturbance.

TC194: "This is not a suicide mission,"  Hamon assured Lilith's two spies when he briefed them. They would not have to wait for long. Lilith rejoined the main body of the  Fallen Angels where they camped east of the pass.

Lilith's spies could live upon the bounty of stores  but it was always cold. Fortunately they  had a  nice  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 her.

TC195: When the Fallen  Angels forced the  entrance of  the ice cache the Adanites  fell  back  in good  order  to the  central chamber while dealing out  fire. There they made a  stand that seemed impossible to break. As the Fallen Angels  emerged from each tunnel the enemy commander, Bezaliel,  shifted soldiers to meet the threats as 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.

TC196: Raphaela spied a drop  of water rolling  down Lilith’s cheek. Her lieutenant was shocked  at the  sight of  this, and steeled herself 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 then a large drop of water landed square on Raphaela's own head. She looked up to see many such drops were falling from the dimly-illuminated ceiling of ice far overhead. As she watched,  the drops became  a true rain.

TC197: The ceiling began to glow with a light of  its own and a steady  thunder  grew. Lilith ordered  the  Fallen  Angels  to disengage and  fall back into  the tunnel. The roof 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 supply cache with all six engines skewed, spouting fire from the heart of Sol and turning the ice directly to steam.

TC198: Falling ice melted to water, the water  boiled away, and the bodies of len were  crisped by  raw flame until  even their ashes were scattered away.

Lilith and her lieutenants walked to the ragged  end of several tunnels and looked down, trying to comprehend the  chaos of the scene below even as the avatar abruptly fell silent.

Far across the chamber at the entrance to  another tunnel stood Azarael and Jael, both quite safe. The applause of the two yen echoed across the newly quiet space.

TC199: Lilith dropped to the lowest level and spoke to the inert avatar. "Hamon, if Leliel is in there with  you, you’re dead. And if you  left her alone in Anshar where  Shemhazai can get at her by portal 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, Lilith."

Lilith had quite  forgotten that  Bat-El could  fly her  avatar perfectly well without anyone riding inside.