Unholy Empire: Chronicles of the Host, Vol 2: Chronicles of the Host, Book 2 (12 page)

As the War Council meeting continued, Kara reported on the details he had learned of Noah’s assignment, and how the Lord intended to re-populate the world with Noah’s seed. He agreed with Pellecus’s assessment that God had decided to preserve Eve’s seed against a future date and thus carry forward the hope of
all
humanity in the coming one.

“So what now, Master?” asked Tinius with a twinge of sarcasm.

“Don’t try me, Tinius,” Lucifer responded, looking sharply at the angel who had offended him. Then he turned to the others with hopeful eyes. “Hear me all. I once said that our Lord always seems to leave an opening for us. He did so in Eden. He did so again with Cain. By naming Noah the Lord has exposed His plan.”

As he spoke, Lucifer began to get caught up in the possibility of it all. “He has made it much easier for us. Until now we have had to be watchful of every family for signs of the coming one. Now we can concentrate our efforts on one man—Noah!”

“And what of the other humans?” asked Pellecus. “Shall we not continue to harass them? They are, after all, also made in God’s image.”

“If we destroy Noah they have no hope,” said Lucifer. “We’ll continue to foster the destructive habits of humans.” He snickered. “They have become quite adept at bringing destruction upon themselves with our help!”

Rugio spoke up. “Where do we begin?”

Lucifer smiled at Rugio, supreme commander of all the warring angels under his control. Of all the angels he commanded, Rugio was the most blindly loyal. What the other angels found menacing in his attitude, Lucifer found quite useful. He turned to the warrior, and placing a hand on his shoulder, continued speaking. “Noah’s name means ‘comfort,’” he said, almost whispering. “I suggest we make things extremely uncomfortable for the man and his family.”

Rugio nodded. “I’ll see to it personally,” he said, and vanished with his two aides.

C
HAPTER
7

“Father, you really believe these people are worth saving?”

Chronicles of the Host

Noah’s Progress

True to their plan, the angels under Lucifer’s domination began to attack Noah from every possible avenue. The holy angels guarding Noah and his family violently fought back the dark angels who tried with all their might to assault Noah’s body or to bring about a mishap of some sort that might result in his death.

With the protection the Lord had placed over Noah being too strong to penetrate, attacks on his person were out of the question. Thereafter, Lucifer decided on another tactic—one that had proven very successful among humans thus far. He unleashed his angels among the populace, inflaming their base passions of mockery and discouragement, so that they daily hurled insults at Noah and his family, castigating them as freakish outsiders and fanatics.

As all of this continued, Kara worked hard among the members of Noah’s own family, his sons and their wives, creating a subtle discord until they too began to murmur and grumble among themselves. Lucifer reasoned that whatever could be done to discourage progress on the ark must be attempted.

As for the Host of Heaven, ever watchful, they awaited instruction from the Most High as to how to contest the darkness opposing mankind. From time to time they were allowed to intervene when one of their fallen brothers transgressed his domain of influence. However, the greatest show of strength demonstrated by the holy angels occurred whenever Noah cried out to the Lord in faith-filled prayer. On those occasions, the Host appeared in greater numbers and, with effort, forced back the dark veil of evil spirits who were at the moment encroaching upon him…

“Noah! You crazy old man!”

“Better hurry—looks like a lot of water coming in!”

Noah ignored the laughter and jeering that had become routine after so many years. He didn’t even look down from the scaffolding that hugged the huge ship. Instead he continued on, as he had been doing now for…could it be nearly one hundred years? He wiped his sweaty brow as he looked at Shem on the other end of the structure, squinting because of the distance.

Shem, however, did look down. He also had become used to the daily ridicule of the locals. But whereas Noah had hardened himself, Shem allowed the constant harassment to disturb him from time to time. He loved his father and would never speak a word against him. But this ceaseless work amidst unruly neighbors and the complaints of his wife sometimes drove Shem to the brink. All of his friends had deserted him years ago, and he was utterly committed to finishing the project out of respect for his father. But he had decided that when it was all over, he would settle a few scores.

Looking down this day, he noticed that one of the usual ringleaders, Kerz, was almost directly under him. Looking at the container of tar, Shem grinned a bit and then slowly eased the bucket to the side, spilling the black gooey substance out and over the scaffold. A large portion of the mess hit Kerz on the shoulder. Kerz yelped in surprise, then glared upward at Shem amidst the noise of the now laughing crowd.

“You! Shem!” he screamed. “You’re just as crazy as your father!” He picked up a rock and threw it at Shem. It bounced off a massive beam and fell harmlessly to the earth. “You can’t stay up there forever!” he yelled. “And I’ll be waiting for you!”

Shem watched as Kerz walked away, most of the crowd following him. He heard the steps of Noah coming his way and prepared himself for his dad’s disapproving lecture. Noah picked up the bucket that dangled halfway off the crude, wooden walkway encircling the final few feet of the ark to be completed.

“Shem,” he began, looking at his son more with understanding than anger. “You mustn’t fight with these people. We must be examples to them…”

“Father, you really believe that these people are worth saving?” demanded Shem. He stood up and faced Noah, a little taller than the old man. “You waste your breath preaching at them to return to the Lord. They curse you and the Lord every day. Why do you do it?”

“Because it is the Lord’s will,” said Noah. He patted the side of the ship. “Just like the building of this holy ark. It is God’s will that I preach to these people. And it is God’s will that we build—and so we build!”

“But how much longer?” wailed Shem. He looked down at his brothers.

“For one hundred years of this miserable planet’s life Noah has labored on this ark, as he calls it. And in all of those years we have hardly been effective at all, much less impeded his work. Would someone care to explain to me why the greatest angels ever created cannot stop one old man and his family?”

Not one angel dared look at Lucifer straight on. Each deliberated in his own mind what answer he would frame should he be called upon—but nobody dared volunteer an answer. Lucifer, clearly disturbed, looked over his leadership. They were assembled upon a high spot that overlooked the meadow where the ark was being constructed.

“Look at it down there,” he said. “For years we have had to watch this work take place. You hear that laughter down there? Those vile, harassing humans aren’t laughing at Noah. It is we who are being laughed at! Rugio! What happened to your vaunted legions? I thought they were inciting people to torch this folly?”

Rugio looked at Lucifer. “My lord,” he began, “as you well know I have several times assembled the humans in a riotous grouping with the intention of destroying the ark. But as they approach the site they begin to panic and break up.” He shook with anger, his reddish aura beginning to manifest. “There is always a cordon of holy angels surrounding it.”

“They are like an impenetrable wall,” admitted Kara.

“There will always be opposition to our efforts,” said Lucifer.

“We have learned that. With most humans there is little or no covering. But those who are close to the Most High, such as Noah, or that tired old dog Methuselah who is finally dead, will always be strongly protected. If we are to win this war we must find a way in!”

They all heard the noise of construction resuming.

“Every spike driven…every plank put in place…every deck completed is another victory for the Lord,” said Lucifer. “Kara! What of your efforts?”

Kara stood as if addressing the Council of Elders in Heaven once more. “My lord, I must admit that of all our efforts, short-failed as they might be, I believe mine have proven the most useful and effective.”

“Naturally,” said Pellecus sarcastically. “This is why the ship is almost completed.”

“I only say this because we have learned the power of discouragement,” Kara continued. “Noah is a man of faith. So be it. But I have seen his faith at times grow weary—even weak—through the persistence of a discouraging spirit working through those closest to him.” Kara smiled. “It seems humans are hurt most by those who love them most!”

“Love is a powerful weapon when used correctly,” mused Lucifer. “Go on.”

“True, we have never stopped the ark’s progress,” Kara continued. “But those times that the work
did
slow down correspond with the times that Noah was discouraged. I believe that the ark is a schoolmaster for us—an academy of sorts—that is teaching us how to refine our tactics for future engagements.”

Kara was quite animated now. “I tell you that more powerful than torches and curses by filthy outsiders are the wounds of one’s own family! That, my lord, is a valuable weapon that makes the one hundred years’ of human time and effort seem small in comparison.”

Everyone remained silent for a few moments. A hawk circled overhead, lazily and elegantly riding the gentle breezes. Lucifer watched the graceful bird, now careening to one side, now to another, finally disappearing over the mountains to the west. Then he spoke up. “Just like that hawk, who seeks out his prey and strikes swiftly and unexpectedly, so must we engage our enemy in this war.”

“Perhaps you are correct, Kara.” He stood with the ark looming behind him, engulfing much of the horizon. “Perhaps we cannot stop the ark’s construction. But what we
can
do is prepare for the next effort. You see, there will always be a next effort…the next battle…the next place where we can watch for the Seed to emerge so that when it finally comes out into the open it can be destroyed!”

He waved his hands in dismissal. “Let the ark be completed. If it is to carry the Seed, then we shall watch its progress. And like the hawk we shall be watching from afar…our prey’s time of vulnerability…and then we shall strike hard and swiftly.”

Behind him Lucifer could hear the sounds of rejoicing. The ark was finished! Turning to look at the family, he saw the raucous celebration turn into a time of prayer and thanksgiving led by Noah. Holy angels gathered over the family as they prayed, keeping a watchful eye on the dark spirits who were always nearby.

Lucifer looked at the angels gliding in from Heaven and positioning themselves around the family. “They too, like hawks, are patient and vigilant,” he said, “swooping in on their prey, greedily holding it in their talons.”

“I never thought that part of my duty to the Most High would include rounding up animals!” said Serus.

Serus and Archias walked alongside the pair of water buffalo, who suspiciously eyed the angels herding them toward the ark that loomed in the distance. A well-worn trail, fast becoming a path, indicated the way to the craft that would soon be the home of all sorts of creatures, human and beast.

“No, this way,” yelled an exasperated Archias. He steered the brute back onto the trail, to the snickering of other angels who were engaged in similar tasks. All along the pathway leading to the ark were pairs of animals, some accompanied, but most being guided by holy angels sent to help Noah fulfill the Lord’s command that animals be brought into the great boat.

As for Noah, he was amazed to see the animals coming to him, as if they had minds of their own. Of course he could not see the invisible herders, and he gave all of the glory to the Lord Most High.

“Look at it, my sons,” he said with a feeling of pride in his God. “The Lord is so good. He sends us the animals so that our work is greatly lightened.”

“Yes, Father,” said a panting Ham, who was carrying a heavy bundle of straw up the gangplank leading inside the bowels of the ship. “But provisioning for these animals is quite another task!” Coming down the plank, Japheth met Ham and indicated that they were almost done with the straw.