The Dove (14 page)

“Outside!”  He told her.  “Very dangerous!  Where is my Father?”

“Mark!”  Sophia took him in her arms and held him very close.  “Mark, you’re killing me.  Your father is not here.”

“He is here!  I heard him calling me.”  Mark told her.  “He is everywhere.”

“No, no.  You have to be still.”  Sophia stroked his hair and kissed his cheek.  “You have to be quiet and still.”

“Ahhh.  The still, small voice.”  Mark nodded his head against her neck.

“What?”  She pushed him back and looked into his face.

“The still, small voice.”  He repeated.  “
After the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
  You see?  My Father is not in the wind.  My Father is not in the quaking of the earth.  But He is everywhere and nowhere and His voice comes as a still, small voice in here.”  He tapped his chest and smiled at her.  “I hear him.”

((((((((((((()))))))))))))

The sun touched the horizon and something seemed all wrong.  Abaddon leapt to his feet and scanned the horizon, frowning deeply.  Jozsef Daniel emerged from behind the tent flap and stood wiping his hands on a towel.

“What is that, Abaddon?”  The ‘Prophet’ asked his dark angel. 

“I’m not sure, your Grace.  I don’t see anything.”  Abaddon squinted into the red-golden sunset. 

“But I can
feel
something.”  Jozsef looked about.  “The wind stopped blowing.  That’s it!  That’s all.”

“No, that’s not all.”  Abaddon shook his head.  “The wind never stops blowing here, your Grace.  Can you feel something… like a weight… no, like a sound?”

“I hear nothing.”  Jozsef dropped the towel in the sand.

The general picked up his belt from the chair in which he had been sitting and strapped on his sidearm.

“That’s a good point.  It’s too quiet.  I don’t hear anything.”

The silence was almost oppressive around the tiny oasis.  Not the slightest breeze brushed the palm fronds.  No birds, no animals, no wind.  They could see the soldiers moving about on the plain in front of them and all around them, setting up their tents for the night, but they could not hear them.  Slowly, but surely, the soldiers began to notice the strangeness until they were distracted from their work completely.  They stood looking about in confusion or strapping on their weapons in panic as the silence seemed to grow louder.

Two sergeants and a captain rushed toward them from the command tent.

“Sir!  Your Grace!”  The captain stopped in front of him.  “We’ve lost radio contact with New Babylon.  We were…”  The captain stopped and turned about slowly. 

Jozsef was looking skyward, over the captain’s shoulder.

“Allah preserve us!”  The captain shouted and fell on his face in the dirt.  The two sergeants followed suit, cowering with their faces toward the ground and their arms over their heads, babbling incoherently in three different languages.

“Master!”  One of the sergeants crawled to Jozsef’s feet and clasped him about the legs.  “Save us!”

Jozsef kicked the man away from him viciously and strode into the open space in front of the tent.  Everywhere, his soldiers were running or standing frozen in place or rolling about on the ground in utter horror.

“Abaddon!”  Jozsef shouted at his servant.  “
What is that
?!  Can you see it?”  He yanked on the cord that held the Urim and Thummin about his neck.  He dragged the unwieldy instrument out of his shirt and held it in front of him.

A rolling white cloud, streaked with very dark layers was covering the sky from the west toward them.  Great bolts of golden light snaked out from the center of the boiling mass, but there was no thunder accompanying the lightning display.  An ominous vibration began to manifest itself in the pebbly ground about their feet.  Tiny rocks and particles of sand danced on the surface.  The cloud took on a fan shape as it came and then from the depths, appeared seven dark shadows.  The shapes came forward faster than the clouds in a V formation like that used by migrating geese.  As they came closer, the forms resolved themselves as great winged horses.  Their coats were shining white and their wings stretched fully ten feet on either side of their bodies.  Sitting astride the horses were figures like men, also shining white, with long, flowing hair and great swords raised over their heads, but still no sound could be heard.

“Angels!”  Abaddon spat the word and drew his pistol.

“You can’t shoot them, you fool.”  Jozsef stared at him in disbelief.

“What then, do you suggest, Your Grace?”  Abaddon went down on one knee and braced his elbow on his knee, aiming at the lead horse.

“Let’s see what they want!”  Jozsef nudged him with his boot and clutched the device in front of him.

“They want our heads!”  Abaddon shouted at him and squeezed off two rounds.  He could see the barrel of the pistol recoil and feel it in his hand, but the shot made no sound, nor did it have any effect on the rapidly approaching danger.  The dark angel threw the pistol to the ground and drew his broadsword, stumbling to his feet.

“Hold still.”  Jozsef told him in a low voice as the first horse touched down several yards from where they stood.  Its hooves sent up a cloud of dust, but still no sound reached their ears as the other six horses came to earth behind the first.  The sight was innervating, their movements seemed too smooth, almost liquid as if they were coated with quicksilver.  The sand splashed up around their hooves as if it were liquid.  The riders dismounted and formed a horizontal line in front of their mounts.  They began to walk toward the only two members of the Fox contingent who remained standing.

When they were close enough, Abaddon began to speak in a language that Jozsef did not understand.

“What?”  Jozsef hissed at him.  “What is wrong with you?”

“Lucifer! It’s Lucifer!”  Abaddon turned on his heel and fled toward the tent.

Jozsef stood his ground.  There was no where to run.

“What do you want?!”  He shouted at the golden-haired warrior when he stopped a dozen yards away.

“We have come for our brothers.”  Lucifer told him.  “Repent and live, turn not from evil and you will be destroyed!”

“Your brothers are not here.”  Jozsef managed to smile at him.  “You’ve come a long way just to frighten my army, great Lucifer, bringer of Light.”

“Take that chain from off your neck and cast it on the ground.”  Lucifer commanded him and raised his sword.  “Your time is drawing near an end!”

Jozsef looked down at the device in his hand.  They had come for the Urim and Thummin.

“You think to command me?”  He asked and raised the crystal device in front of his face.

“We came to offer you your one chance to leave this place!”  Lucifer took a step back.  “Surely your reasoning tells you that you cannot win!”

“Oh?  Why are you afraid, Lucifer?”  Jozsef’s smile broadened.  “Surely you are not afraid of a piece of pretty glass?”

“Do not mock the Servants of God, Sabaoth.  Leave this place and take your lowly minion with you.  The time of destruction is upon you!”

“You speak harsh words.”  Jozsef’s tone was indeed mocking.  He placed the two crystals in front of his face.

Lucifer looked back at his companions and uttered something in a high-pitched warble.  The angels fell back toward their horses.  Two green cones of light shot from the Urim and Thummin, striking the ground in front of Lucifer.  Chunks of rock and debris flew into the air from the force.  Lucifer threw up his arms in front of his face and then moved with such speed, he seemed only a red and white blur.  The cloud above them crashed to the ground, obscuring the seven winged horses and riders as the sound of thunder returned suddenly.  The ground quaked violently and Jozsef struggled to keep his feet. Thousands of screams arose from the soldiers as the noise ripped across the plain, rumbling and roaring.  A tremendous blast of cold wind issued from the retreating cloud, buffeting the fleeing soldiers, sending them to the ground, rolling them and their tents over the desert as if they were dried leaves blown before a gale.  Several of the nearest armored vehicles were overturned by the blast and the undulating ground.

Jozsef was knocked onto his back and then pushed along the ground, out of control.  He heard himself screaming as he was blown into his purple and white tent, which immediately collapsed upon him.  When he crawled out of the ruin a few minutes later, the sky was gold and purple and the artificial wind was gone as was the cloud.  He clutched the Urim and Thummin in his hands as he looked about for signs of Lucifer and his companions, but they were gone.

“Abaddon!!”  He shouted as the general crawled out of the purple and white billows.  “You cowardly dog!  Have you no confidence in me at all?!”

“I beg your pardon, Your Grace.”  Abaddon knelt at the ‘Prophet’s’ feet.  “Lucifer is too powerful for me.  I am afraid of him.  I am a coward as you say!”

“But I have this!”  Jozsef struck him with the Urim and Thummin and he cried out in pain as he rolled away.  “If you ever desert me again, I will destroy you myself.  Now get my tent up and get these sniveling dogs back to work!”  He turned and kicked at the captain who was still cowering on the ground with eyes clenched shut and his arms over his head.

Chapter Six of Sixteen

The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood

Vanni removed the grass stem from his mouth and blinked up at the bright swath of the Milky Way threading its way through the eternity of stars in the moonless night sky.  He pushed himself up on one elbow and looked at Luke Andrew who sat next to him in the meadow.  The son of the Knight of Death was bending over something in his lap, squinting at it in the dim starlight.

“I have been pondering these Scriptures, Master.”  Vanni’s words made Luke jump.

“What Scriptures?”  Luke picked up the dagger that he had dropped in the grass and went back to work on the mud that was caked in the tread of his boots.

“Genesis 1:3 says ‘And
God said, Let there be light: And there was light.
’  God said this on the first day.  I believe that He was not speaking of light as in the light of the sun or moon, but something else.”  Vanni told him thoughtfully.  “He didn’t create the moon, stars and sun until the fourth day.  I believe that this light on the first day might have been light as in knowledge or wisdom.”

“Hmmm.”  Luke said distractedly.  “I never gave it much thought.  The point is that there is both light and wisdom.  It really doesn’t matter which came first, does it?  You know, the chicken?  The egg?”

“Of course, it does!”  Vanni sat up cross-legged next to him and pulled his drum toward him.  “Without wisdom there would have been no need for light.  What would light have illuminated if there was only ignorance in the universe?”

“A good point!”  Il Dolce Mio agreed enthusiastically and plopped down in front of them.  “I, too, have pondered these first words of Genesis.  But I believe that wisdom is a part of the nature of God.  He did not need to create it; He simply emanates Wisdom like the sun emanates photons.  I believe photons came first and then the sun and stars.  Since He grouped the moon with the stars and sun, it would go without saying that light had nothing to do with their creation as the moon does not produce photons, it only reflects them.  I believe that he created photons on the first day and then created the sun and stars to contain them… you see?”  The elf held up his slender arms and then brought his elbows together and his head down.  “Like so, He compressed the photons into limited space, containers, if you will and allows them to issue out to the planets and moons as necessary for life.  The planets receive the photons, absorb something of them to convert into life forces and then reflect the rest as beautiful emanations.  Much as He issues out Wisdom to men so they may reflect it as beautiful emanations.  A wise and godly man will reflect light because he is of the light, whereas an evil man, who lives in darkness, will absorb the light of Wisdom and hold it within himself so that it does no good and others cannot see it.”

“That is very interesting.”  Lemarik spoke up from where he reclined against a purple cushion in the grass.  “I, too, have read what is written in the works of men called physicists and astronomers… not to be confused with physicians and astrologers, of course.  The physicists say there was a great explosion of energy in the beginning and all things came into being from this explosion.  Perhaps it was the Big Bang that God brought into existence in the first day and then fashioned everything else from the energy that was created.  Surely such a bang would have created light energy and would fit quite nicely with your theory, little brother.”

“Yes. Yes. Yes.”  Il Dolce Mio nodded vigorously.  “That makes sense!  He created the energy of photons and all things proceeded from that point on, forming and building, building and
forming.  I have read that all things are created of the same basic material.  The so-called building blocks of the Universe.  If I were to be turned into pure energy, I would also emit photons!”

“And you would blow a great big hole in the meadow,
mon petite roi
.”  Luke yawned.  “I don’t know how God created the Universe and, personally, I don’t want to know.  I have enough trouble trying to make sense of what I do know.”