TCD

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 Lilith 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."

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. Sha cried out in a loud voice, "May Chokhmah 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 sha 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 Samael,  the now  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 he went himself to the vicinity of Salem to impress upon Zadkiel the two dilemmas confronting hym. Samael 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  Chokhmah 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 har 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.

Lilith went on to say, "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."

Imrael asked, "Your Royal  Highness, why  have you  ordered the Fallen  Angels to  make  camp this  plain,  and thereby  allowed Zadkiel to seize the high ground that is nigh at hand?"

Lilith said, "In the battle that will be fought here, Imrael, we are only the guest, and Zadkiel is the host.  Therefore I yield the hill of honor to him and accept this lower station."

Imrael objected, "But he can see our entire force at one glance, while we cannot know what strength he has behind the ridge!"

Lilith said, "Ah, but Imrael, that would only be important if we were the attacker. In that case we would tire ourselves fighting uphill and possibly be  surprised by  hidden forces  waiting to ambush.  Instead, my  army is  like water,  dwelling in  the low places considered of negligable value."

Imrael shook her head. "I fail to  see the advantage  in that, Your Royal Highness."

Lilith said, "Is not water  itself vital  if the people  are to live? Do the people not seek it out in wells and rivers and even swamps?  It is  certain Zadkiel  will come  to us.  By our  mere continued presence  on this  plain Zadkiel  will begin  to covet this plain."

Imrael said, "But Your Royal  Highness, we are ringed  by hills all around.  When Zadkiel attacks,  we will not know  from which direction he will come!"

Lilith said, "Yes, Imrael, but his forces are spread like a ring all around us while  we have  interior lines  of communication. Anywhere he  attacks I can order  reinforcements within minutes, and anywhere I  counterattack he will be weak. Do  you see, dear disciple, why we humble ourselves by keeping to the low land?"

And Imrael said, "Excellent."

True to her  foretelling  Lilith carried  the  day. The Fallen Angels drove off the Adanites 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 sha  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. Sha 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 sha understood Demonstroke was  brandished only as insurance against any more interference from Chokhmah's avatar.

Lilith signaled for the  Fallen Angels  to gather  close around har. Sha said, "Zadkiel will pay for Imriel, life for life. You needn't  follow me." Sha 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 Raphaela 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. Sha 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. Sha 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," sha 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 har 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 sha  shook her  head with  a sad smile. Sha 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.

During the first major battle for the city of  Salem 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 len 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 len  to march west from Adan like buckets of water in a fire brigade.

Zadkiel spent the lives of len  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 second major battle for Salem Raphaela 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, Raphael. 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."

Raphaela objected, "But the hashmal Zadkiel is  over there! And under him are the most famous erelim and sarim in House Gerash!"

Lilith said, "And how did they get so famous, Raphael? 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."

Raphaela said, "But behind them are the best soldiers in Kemen!"

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

Raphaela 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."

Raphaela 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, "If the force is too light we invite  aggression. But  if  it  is  too heavy,  it  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."

"How will you do this?"

"My father and  I will  do this  together. I  will unleash  the extraordinary force. When the enemy  sees 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.

Zadkiel had not truly believed Elyon's words concerning Lilith, but that was  before this  fight. As Michael listened to  the exchange from his cage only  a few  paces away, Zadiel  said to Lilith, "I  find I want you  working for me and  not against me. 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 lan  that I  love? Elyon would do  better to shun  pretense and send Demonstroke  down to finish the Fallen Angels and the army of my father the king."

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. This 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 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, Michael," said  Zadkiel. "The things you  love are always used against you. Always! she knows!"

"She does indeed 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."

Many years before  Zadkiel  brought war  to  Salem, the  Cherub Gordiel hitched  a wagon  to  a  nearby  tree  with a  knot  so elaborate no one  has ever been able to fairly  begin to unravel it. At that time an oracle said whoever untied  the wagon would rule all the angels in Heaven.

Zadkiel had heard  the prophecy,  of course. When the Army of Elyon drew near the city he found the wagon and laid eyes on the Gordian Knot. For several days, while the army built  camps in the  surrounding fields,  Zadkiel  tried to  undo the  legendary knot, but to no avail. This he did in great secret, for the Eyes of Elyon would look askance at any attempt to usurp the power of Samael by fulfilling the prophecy. Then, accepting at last the wagon was going nowhere, Zadkiel had his len lash Michael's cage to the old wagon on the hilltop.

Sibiel, the  farmer from  Odargas  who  once tried  to  smuggle Princess Lilith into Salem, was fingered by witnesses after the Eyes of Elyon threatened torment. The Eyes elected not to kill or even maim Sibiel, for  it seemed  a waste of  good lenpower. Lilith and her Fallen  Angels, it  seemned, had  made Zadkiel's army short-handed.

Sibiel was issued  army livery  and pressed  into service  as a waterbearer  in Zadkiel's  camp. Having little else  to do  for entertainment, often the Adanite soldiers tripped hym, laughing together with their fellows as Sibiel trudged back and forth to refill his waterskin.

One night when Sibiel wandered off toward the edge  of the camp he was attacked by a  hooded shape  and dragged into  a ravine. When they were alone the attacker revealed her self to be Lilith and ordered hym to  swap their clothes. As he stripped Sibiel said he wanted to  help. But after some  stern words  from the Ophan, tempered with ample thanks for what he  had already done for her,  Sibiel  faded off  into the  night  under the  black robe.Lilith adjusted  Sibiel's  second-hand armor  and  helmet, which was almost worse than no protection at all.

Sha 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 army in heaven. Then Lilith drifted into camp fetching water for the len and taking abuse as though she were Sibiel.

Lilith searched in the area  where Sibiel told her  Michael was being held captive. The wooden cage that had been his home for far too long had been taken off the wagon tied to a tree by the Gordian Knot and relocated to  the center  of the camp. It was guarded by only two yeng.

The cage was covered with a canvas to keep Michael from dying of exposure. It would not  do, Zadkiel knew,  to break  the single thread keeping hymself and his whole army alive.

Lilith could swagger with the best of them. The guards permitted her to bring  water  to Michael. Lilith appeared between  the canvas and the cage with her  ladle of rancid water. For light she put on a green flexible band of intricate make, a gift from Michael. In the center it possessed a brilliant white light that allowed Lilith to move on the darkest nights.

There was none like it in Heaven. The canvas covering Michael's cage was thick  enough  that  no light  escaped  to betray  the princess and whispers could not  be heard outside. Michael was initially filled with joy when he saw the face  of his disciple but this quickly changed.

"Nice beard.Hush! Take  my headband.I  gave that  to you  and I never ask for  my gifts to be returned.You will  have to make an exception.Do you  want me  to use it  to escape?Please  don't do anything stupid, Michael. Better yet, don't do anything at all!'

Michael immediately got the joke and smiled. Lilith offered the water she brought, such as it was. Then she said, "That headband is the only thing I  have that  says 'Lilith was  here' without mistake. Zadkiel  will come  here later to  gloat over  you like they always do."

"At that time  I want  you  to let  hym  see that  you have  my headband. That's my message to hym, and it is a very simple one: that I  can come or go  at will.It will rattle  hym good.It will rattle him to the point of  pulling many len off the front lines to guard you."

"It is a sound plan," whispered Michael. 'I never doubted that you had a scheme to get me away from Zadkiel."Their last moment together that  evening was spent  in a passionate kiss  that was made necessarily  short because the guards  were already getting suspicious.

At dawn Lilith and her father beheld the enemy,  now very close to the city, from a small  rise. Michael's cage was visible in the center  of the  field, protected by  a sizeable  fraction of Zadkiel's available yeng, perhaps up to a third. Lilith marveled how easy it had been.

"Do you see what I have  done, father?' said sha.  'Things have been  neatly reversed.  Michael  has  become Zadkiel's  greatest weakness instead,  a precious  jewel tying down  a third  of his force just as our attack begins."

And Melchiyahu did not hesitate to let the attack begin.

The wagon collided with enough  speed to shatter both  the cage and the wagon to splinters. Lilith was unceremoniously dumped on her ass. But somehow they both survived the  collision. Lilith was more bruised and beaten than she had ever  been in her life but Michael was free. Melchiyahu and the Fallen  Angels under Lilith's lieutenants pursued the defeated and  scattered forces of Zadkiel's army into the forest.

But Melchiyahu knew this  defeated army was  a fraction  of the strength that Samael could bring to bear on hym. The king knew Samael would return with an even greater force.

When Lord Zadkiel awoke he drank in the scope of his humiliation from his vantage  on the  hilltop. Cursing, he fled  the field alone on his horse. For the rest of  his life,  which endured little longer than his long ride back to  Adan, he contemplated how to explain it to Samael.

Raphaela came to aid Lilith but  was waved off. She said, "The Adanites no longer have a coherent army. We are seeing them flee east by platoons and companies. Shall we cut them off?"

Lilith said, "My father has left one escape route open, inviting the enemy to retire. What  is now a  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 this day."

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

Lilith answered, "And wise is  the yan who immerses  herself in military lore. But make no mistake, dear disciple. Happiness has nothing to do with it. The clash of arms is the worst experience the dwellers of Kemen can ever experience."

Raphaela said,   "And  Your  Royal  Highness,   what  of  these vainglorious thrill-seekers  we often  hear about, 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 her way to the pile of sticks that had once been his cage.

"No more adventures for a while," Lilith told  Michael while he made certain she was not seriously hurt.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I've cracked a  rib, for  starters. But  you know  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 back of her head. 'But now you have changed me, and unleashed a warrior yin in Kemen who does not blanch at the consequence of death."

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

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

Michael 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 Kemen. Fate! The unreformed Lilith must return."

"Must sha? You say Elyon was behind all this,  but do you think he will  have his way forever?  What if the oracle  really meant the spirit of the new Lilith  will take over Heaven? The one 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.

Michael ran his had over Lilith's side, and somehow he took the underlying pain away. Lilith didn't have to use her new talent to shunt the agony away enough to breathe deeply.

"It may take many centuries to play out, my  beloved, both here and in the other world. But I really believe you turned a corner here today. If every person in every age grows willing to do for each other  what you did for  me today, then love  won. Once and for all, love won!'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After Lilith’s servants revived Melchizedek he guessed he had fainted for some  time. The newborn was already  skin-to-skin against its mother. She said, "Deck, is Leliel not beautiful?"

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

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

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

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

"And I most certainly did  choose, tonight," Lilith said,  as a nipple slipped into the mouth of her tiny Leliel.

Melchizedek looked puzzled.

Lilith said, "There are things Michael  has told me that  it is well Samael  or Beliel  not discover  until it  is too  late for them. No torment could wrest them from me now."

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

"That is so," said Michael, "but  he has little love  for a god who demanded  the life  of his  son. Yet  it is  not his  love I crave. A man might remain loyal to a god he actively hates. Even now he and his son are offering  the animal we sent to them. But come, Melchizedek,  let your  mind be at  ease and  rejoice with your sister: you have a niece! Tomorrow we shall see your father and speak of what has befallen Salem in your absence."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"And where shall they go, Lil?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lilith had quite forgotten that  Chokhmah could fly  her avatar perfectly well without Michael inside.

Bat-El marched  out of  the  Adanite  supply cache  with  every footfall sounding like an avalanche.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lilith uttered words formally sealing the bargain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Samael said,   "Demonstroke  has   a  different   purpose  than Chokhmah’s toy and was not designed to carry anyone. Were this Bat-El’s avatar  and had scattered  Larund 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."