Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) (32 page)

Uriel roared in
fury and triumph as he clove the last demon in two, splitting it from shoulder
to hip. He watched with fierce glee as two of the demon’s arms fell one way
with its head, while the other two accompanied its body in a completely
different direction. The creature dissolved into black dust and vanished.

The fight is
ours!
he exulted. White flames danced across the surface of his six violet
wings, flaring brighter in his exuberance.

Around him,
Powers and Cherubim joined their voices with the Erelim and Parasim in Uriel’s
command and cheered their victory. The Archangels were Heaven’s elite warriors,
led by Uriel since the earliest days of the Great Schism.

“Congratulations,
Uriel, my Fist of Justice.”

Exhilaration
died as the voice broke into his thoughts.

“I am no fist
of yours, Maya,”
he replied angrily.
“Willing it to be so will not work
with me, no matter how you exert your power.”

“I have
instructed you to call me Metatron.”

“And instead
I call you Pretender,”
Uriel bit back.
“This gets us nowhere, Maya. You
may control those around me, but you will never again hold sway over my mind.
My Archangels were the last to succumb, and they will follow me at the first
hint of your weakness. You will never dominate me, Maya, now leave me to my
work.”

“It is
my
work, and it can wait a moment. Come with me and see how the whole of Heaven
stands against our oppressors.”

Against his
will, Uriel found his awareness split, and he was compelled to follow the
guidance of Maya as she observed other forces of angels and the blessed dead as
they fought to defend Heaven. They looked down as though from a great height,
and Uriel knew that back in Medina, Maya stood in her tower and could observe
all of Heaven with ease.

Landscapes of
breathtaking beauty passed beneath them in the blink of an eye as they moved
from battle to battle. Waging war on a field that was quite literally
infinitely
large presented impossibilities in defense that had been mitigated through
strategic restructuring of Heaven’s landscape. Demons could not bear the touch
of the water from any of Heaven’s three rivers, so they had all been diverted
and widened to produce the maximum effective barriers possible against the
invading demons. Mountains of crystal and stone erupted to form barriers that
were all but impassable, but still there was only so much that could be done
against an army of such overwhelming might.

Wherever
possible, the demons were funneled into areas where Heaven’s forces had
gathered to fight them, but already most of these initial fortifications had
been overrun. Angels and dead souls now occupied secondary positions, and these
too were beginning to crumple – it seemed not a day passed without another
position being overrun by the demons and its defenders slaughtered or scattered
to carry word of their defeat.

“Our
situation is perilous. Division within our ranks can only further weaken us, my
Fist. Even Mikal saw this.”
Maya sounded smug.

“Lies and
false pride will be our downfall long before anything else,”
Uriel
countered angrily.
“The sooner you realize the truth, the sooner we can go
about trying to save our realm and the lives of the mortals entrusted to us.
Mikal was blinded by his own virtue and saw only what you wanted him to see. I
am not so blind, False One, not anymore. What you did was wrong, what you’ve
done is worse, and what you plan will only lead us to disaster.

“Mephistopheles
has learned from his mistakes, it seems. Will you not learn from yours?”

“You toy with
treason.”

“Why, because
I point out the truth?”
Uriel laughed scornfully.
“Mephistopheles once
thought as you do, and it was his downfall.”

“Righteousness
was his downfall; righteousness overcame him!”
Maya hissed angrily.
“What
I do has only purity and virtue at its heart. It has nothing to do with that
loathsome demon king.”

“It seems
Mikal isn’t the only blind one,”
Uriel kythed, now deliberately provoking
her. He smiled to himself in the silence that followed his taunt.

“I could
destroy you with a mere thought,”
Maya threatened after a moment.

“Do it then,
Pretender,”
Uriel crowed, undaunted.
“Think of me. Destroy me.
Obliterate me and prove the truth of my words. Even as I fade from existence, I
will laugh at your folly.”

Maya was silent.

“The time may
come when we confront each other, but you know I will fight you with every
shred of power I possess. And while I know I can only lose such a battle, in
the end I’ll still win. You’ll be so drained, your influence will fade enough
for many to wake from your poisonous dream. The Archangels and those like them
will arise, and then they, too, will resist you. You cannot fight us all, False
One. Should we get it over with, O Blessed Bitch?”

Uriel could
sense Maya’s fury pulsing. The air itself throbbed with anger, and even the
omnipresent light of Heaven seemed to seethe in self-righteous fury.

But no bolt of
power lanced out of the firmament to strike him down, and he snorted in
disgust.

“I thought
not. Now leave me, Pretender. I have better things to do than banter with the
blind.”

“One day,
trickster, you will bow to me, and I will mock your subservience and force you
to kiss my feet in apology.”

“But not
today,”
Uriel replied. And then she was gone.

Uriel shuddered
in spite of himself. He’d skirted dangerously close to open confrontation with
Maya, and he hadn’t been pandering when he said he knew the only outcome to
such a battle would be his destruction. He was confident that in the aftermath,
her power would be sufficiently shaken that most of the Seraphim and Dominions,
and even some of the more powerful Powers and Cherubim, would rise up against
her, but still, he wouldn’t be there to see it. Uriel had no more desire to
court his own destruction than any sane creature, mortal or immortal.

He put the
conversation behind him and looked for Camael, the Power who served as his
second-in-command. Before he could locate the other angel, however, Uriel felt
a pulse reverberate throughout the immortal plane. He stared about in alarm,
expecting another attack, but he quickly identified the source as other than
demonic in nature.

It felt more
like… Yes! Someone or something had just crossed the Binding, and for Uriel to
feel the effects this strongly so far away, it must be someone of tremendous
power. Focusing on the sensation, Uriel sensed several smaller, familiar
ripples he identified as mortals – but living ones! – then he was shocked to
feel another pulse almost as powerful as the first. Another series of smaller
waves, then still another pulse, stronger than both that had come before. There
was a strange echo to that one Uriel couldn’t place, and he gave up after only
a moment of concentration. He was too far away to really decipher anything
useful.

One thing he did
recognize, however, buried in all the hundreds of small waves, one of the three
strong pulses had a familiar feel to it, and Uriel smiled grimly.

Mikal was back,
and it seemed he had found reinforcements of some sort.

“Camael,”
Uriel kythed,
“I’m leaving. Hold our position here and treat the wounded.
You’re in command until I get back.”

“Yes, sir,” the
Power replied aloud, drifting nearer. His flesh had a yellowish hue, which
Uriel knew carried over from the brilliant-yellow, smoke-like body he also
possessed, and his eyes glowed a vibrant yellow color. Camael used both gaseous
and corporeal forms with equal frequency, and Uriel was used to his second’s
idiosyncrasies.

Camael’s blue
wings dipped in salute, then he immediately turned and started issuing orders,
gesturing curtly with his broad-bladed war spear. His yellow-gold hair gleamed
in the light of Heaven.

Leaving Camael
in command effectively put the Archangels temporarily back under the control of
Maya, who now dominated the mind and will of nearly every being in Heaven,
including Uriel’s second-in-command, but it couldn’t be helped. With Mikal’s
return, Uriel had more pressing matters to see to, and he had to hurry before
things moved beyond his control.

- 5 -

Alicia and
Moreen quickly mobilized the remaining support staff from Shadow Company and
got packed and ready to depart with the first signs of morning light. Most of
the people left behind were women and younger children, but a dozen or so men
were on-hand to deter any bandits or other form of harassment they might
encounter on the return journey. The
jintaal
under James Tarmin offered
what help they could, then set to tending their dakkan mounts.

Moreen heard a
distant sound, like a piercing, hooting birdcall of some sort, and she turned
her head about curiously, looking for the source. The night sky overflowed with
the stars visible from such a lofty, unimpeded view, and with both Sin and San
so recently full, the ground was clearly visible beneath their twin
luminescence. While she watched, something passed swiftly in front of Sin, and
a chill went down her spine as if it were a premonition of some sort.

“A wild dakkan,
no doubt,” she reassured herself quietly.

“What’s wrong?”
Alicia asked from nearby.

“Jumping at shadows,”
Moreen waved her off. Even so, she went back to studying the sky.

“Isn’t it
clear?” Alicia said, coming to stand next to her. “And so bright. Why I…”
Alicia’s voice cut off as they both saw stars vanish and reappear rapidly all
about the sky, as though a flurry of winged creatures was flying high overhead.
The chill feeling returned, only this time it froze Moreen’s spine as she
gasped in fear.

“James!” she
shouted. “Overhead!”

One of the other
paladins must have noticed the phenomena, because the six holy warriors were
already in motion. James joined the Red and Green paladins as they stood
back-to-back with weapons drawn, warily scanning the sky. Nuse led the Orange
and Violet paladins to their dakkans, and they quickly leapt into the air.

No sooner had
they left the ground, when suddenly the Orange’s pale-green dakkan screamed in
pain and crumpled to the ground, dark shapes clamoring over its verdant scales.

“Demon attack!”
the Orange shouted as he was swarmed by a dozen shadowy forms.

Chaos erupted as
the denarae and humans left from Shadow Company drew their weapons and were
immediately set upon by a wave of snarling creatures charging forward out of
the night. Moreen saw Garet’s children charge into the thick of the fray,
weapons drawn and faces eager.

“No!” she cried,
reaching out, but they were already gone.

Beside her,
Alicia picked up a sword from somewhere and stood by, ready to defend them
both. Moreen drew a pair of knives she kept for personal protection, but she
didn’t know what good they would do against a swarm of demon-kind.

“Come on!”
Alicia shouted, and they moved forward to do what they could to help.

For the most
part, Moreen kept to the background with the other women and younger men who
had no weapons training. Against bandits or other mortal men, they could have
picked up pans, knives, and other familiar implements and joined the fray, but
against demons they could do little.

The two paladins
remaining in the air wheeled about, and demonic creatures fell screaming to the
ground or vaporized into black ash as they were cut or clawed out of the sky.
After the Barrier War, these paladins were adept at midair combat against
demons, and their experience kept the men on the ground from being swarmed by
the dozens of airborne monsters swooping through the night sky. Three of the
riderless dakkans joined the fray above, while the other – grounded by torn
wings – ripped into the demons below.

Little by
little, the line of mortal men and women shrank and collapsed in on itself as
the demons crushed them mercilessly. Moreen watched in despair as James was
forced back and tripped, then fell to the ground. She rushed to his side and
helped him stand while a denarae – no doubt the younger brother of a Shadow
Company warrior – stood heroically above him in defense. The youth’s sword had
limited success, though it had obviously been blessed and marked with the
Tricrus
,
but it was enough to hold the beasts back while Moreen pulled him to his feet.

“We can’t hold,”
Moreen said as she helped James to stand. He had a deep gash across his chest,
and his forehead oozed blood from a vicious looking wound near his scalp.

“There’s too
damn many of them,” James said. They both glanced up and saw that Nuse had
apparently finished off the airborne demons at least, and was now flying low to
help the rapidly depleting forces on the ground. James whistled shrilly and
motioned him to change course and land near him.

“We’ve got to
evacuate onto the dakkans,” James shouted when the Blue paladin was near
enough. “Hessan and I will hold them off as best we can while you coordinate
getting everyone loaded who will fit. Everyone else must head for the Binding
and take their chances in Heaven.”

“Are you sure?”

James shook his
head in disgust, “Damn it, it’s the best we can do.”

Nuse nodded
reluctantly and turned his dakkan away, already shouting orders. James turned
to Moreen and said, “I want you to climb aboard my dakkan right now and help
people get loaded. You’ve ridden before with Birch, so you’re my best
resource.”

Moreen
hesitated.

“Go,” he
shouted, then charged back into the fray.