Between Heaven And Hell Part 11

Still. . .why did her stone have to strike Ramael? She didn't aim it in his direction. Why did Adonai allow it to strike him, rather than some other soldier? And when Ramael fell, why did Adonai not restore his life? He had given new life to others who had died. Those angels had been injured in accidents, she reminded herself bitterly, they had not been tossed aside by Lord Michael.

Michael could not be trusted. Adonai could not be trusted.

Everything she had believed in, everything she had trusted was gone. Why would she even want to live?

She nodded her head. Adonai, Lord Michael, the council, they would all pay. She was Lord Lucifer's now. What he asked, she would do.

The rules had changed.

Lucifer smiled, clapped her on the shoulder, and slipped away. Then, Adryel barred the gate behind him.

The next morning, she found Lord Lucifer's letter.

Calling an a.s.sembly, she related all he had written, all he had told her. She said anyone who wanted to leave could do so. She a.s.signed a group of ten to wait in the gatehouse-a small set of rooms beside the front entrance, designed to house the night watchman. When the soldiers attacked, they were to slip out, taking advantage of the confusion that would follow, then announce what Lord Michael's army had done. She mounted guards on the rear wall, returned to the solarium, and sat down to wait.

Time ceased to have meaning. She watched as the day wore on, as the shadows shortened and then grew long again. She had nothing to do, no cla.s.ses to teach, no lessons to plan, no meetings to attend. She would never go home again. She had no meals to cook, no pair to welcome, no bed in which they might lie. She waited for the soldiers. She would allow them to imprison her. She waited to die.

Darkness fell, and she stretched out near the fire with the others. Only six had chosen to leave, and they had departed just after sunset. She heard the voice of the town crier floating over the city, calling midnight as she dosed off.

"Guards. Soldiers," a lookout shrieked. "They're coming."

Adryel was on her feet before she was fully awake. A loud shout came from across the wall and a loud BANG, like a thunderclap, was followed by the sound of splintering wood as a bolt of lightning leveled the front gate.

Only Lord Michael could do that.

Almost as an echo, she heard an explosion from the rear. The shouts of the guards rang through the school, and Adryel knew the rear gate was gone too. Students screamed and began to run, some toward the wall, where they seized rocks and began to pelt the soldiers, others toward the buildings in search of safety.

Adryel scrambled to the steps leading to the Commons and called for the students to stand their ground, to fight, to surrender only in death, but she saw it was a futile effort. Easily three times as many guards as students filled the quadrangle. Those who opposed the guards were disarmed, subdued, and flung to the ground.

An arm reached around her body, and she screamed as she was lifted into the air, carried down the steps. She kicked, hit, and bit the guard who held her, tasting blood. He yelped, slapped her across the face, and dropped her to the ground. She struggled to regain her footing, but he stepped on her chest and held her. Looking up, she found Dariel. He bent to see if she was all right, and she ran her fingernails across his face.

Dariel seemed to have taken Ramael's command. He called for his guards to check the buildings, to bring everyone to the quad.

They would kill them all, place them in a ma.s.s grave, and hide what they'd done.

Thirty minutes later, Lord Michael strode into the quadrangle. As he walked toward the steps, he stopped and looked down at her.

"She tried to rally the rebels." Dariel's bandaged hand hung in a sling. "He seems to have left her in command."

Sadness crossed Michael's face. He sighed deeply and shook his head as he walked away, climbing the steps.

He ordered quiet.

"Lord Lucifer has fled the city. He saved himself, and he left you here to die for his cause."

"He will continue the struggle," one student shouted.

"You can kill all of us, but the struggle will live on," Adryel screamed.

"He will continue his search for power," Lord Michael thundered. "That indeed will live on."

"We are prepared to die." Adryel looked around, drawing nods from the others. "Go ahead and kill us."

Michael sighed loudly. "No one is going to die."

"Liar."

"You murdered my best friend," an angel shouted.

"You've now come for us."

Adryel spoke to the crowd. "Lord Lucifer told us that Lord-" She sniffed and wrinkled her nose as if she smelled spoiled fish. Michael was sc.u.m. Why should she call him lord? "He told us that Michael would try to deceive us," Adryel shouted. "Don't trust him."

Insults rained down on Michael from all sides. He walked over to Adryel. "We will harm no one. You know you can trust me. Can you have them simply listen?"

Adryel sneered at him and spit, hitting his forehead. A cheer went up from the students.

Michael wiped his face, and returned to the steps and waited. Gradually, the shouting died way.

"No one has been harmed except those who attacked my soldiers. If you will renounce Lord Lucifer and acknowledge Adonai, you will be free to go."

"And if we don't?" The voice came from someone on the wall.

Michael looked around at the faces of the students and his eyes finally rested on Adryel's.

"You will be expelled from the city."

In the end, about a third of the rebels accepted Michael's terms. Two mornings later, at dawn, Adryel and two hundred others sat in wagons at the north gate, their hands tied behind their backs, their feet bound so they could only shuffle, not walk or run. Unwilling to renounce Lucifer and pledge loyalty to Adonai, they had been named as traitors and, as Lord Michael had warned, they were being expelled from the city.

In spite of the hour, it seemed as if the entire population had turned out to witness the students' expulsion. Adryel had expected the catcalls and the insults that were hurled at them, but she found not everyone supported Lord Michael. As her wagon rumbled through the city, she learned that the students who had been a.s.signed to alert the population had performed well. She overheard angels grousing about the tales of brutality, of students who were beaten and humiliated by the soldiers. Those who told the stories had left the Inst.i.tute as the soldiers had entered, but their tales seemed true enough that the denials issued by Lord Michael rang false to many ears.

At several intersections cheers were raised for the captives. Children dashed up to the wagons, ignoring the guards' orders to stay back, and stuffed sugar cakes into their pockets. Bystanders tossed rotten fruit at the guards. She heard bits of reports of opposition that had flared across the city. Twice, she caught glimpses of pitched battles between the soldiers and angels who had come out to rescue the rebels.

As the first wagon was emptied, the one carrying Adryel drew up to the north gate. A tall guard grasped her about her waist and lifted her out. He unbound her and, gripping her arm firmly to prevent her from fleeing, he pulled her through the gate, out of the city.

She looked out on the wide, barren plain. Not a single tree stood between them and a row of tiny, gray peaks far to the north. Brown gra.s.s covered the ground, and Adryel could hear it crunch as one of the guards stepped on it as he hauled a reluctant angel away from the wall. Small, p.r.i.c.kly bushes dotted the landscape. Adryel knew wild animals roamed the prairie after dark and that water, even after a rare thunderstorm, was scarce.

It would have been kinder to kill them in the quadrangle. Adryel supposed if they died on the prairie, then Michael's hands would appear clean.

A guard handed her a flask.

"Water," he said. "Lord Michael ordered each of you be given water." A look of disgust crossed his face as Adryel sniffed at the water to tell if it was tainted.

As she stepped through the gate, she almost knocked over one of the students who had arrived on the first wagon. He and the others milled about, aimlessly, appearing unsure what they should do next.

Dariel stood nearby, his hand bandaged where she had bitten him, and Adryel approached him.

"Where are we to go, Dariel?" She wanted to ask about Ramael, whether he had known she was the one to hurl the rock at him, whether he suffered, whether he had asked for her as he lay dying, but she didn't, afraid to hear what he might tell her. "What are we to do?"

"Go where you want," he growled. "Do what you want. . .Don't return to the city."

He paused, his eyes trained on something in the distance. "If you want to follow your hero," he snickered, "he's there." He pointed to a set of black dots, far across the plain. "We suppose they're headed for the mountains."

The mountains were small lumps on the horizon, but Adryel knew they were ma.s.sive, impossible to climb, cut by a single pa.s.s. Beyond the mountains, though, she would find food and water and other settlements of angels, angels who would not yet have heard she had been expelled from the city.

"How long will it take to reach the mountains?"

Dariel shrugged. "They have been walking for two days and they're not there yet."

Adryel looked up at the parapet atop the wall. It was lined with ordinary angels, watching to see what would happen. Several females sobbed, calling for their sons to come back, begging them not to leave.

Dariel scowled. "Lord Michael's offer stands," he called out. "Renounce Lord Lucifer and you can stay."

Adryel sighed and her shoulders slumped. She took a deep breath. "Thank Michael for the water."

She slung the flask over her shoulder, looked toward the mountains, and began to walk. As she moved out, onto the plain, others followed.

That night, Adryel and twenty others camped beside an almost-dry pool of water. Another, larger group had stopped about a kilometer behind them, and they discussed if one of them should walk back to tell the others they'd found water. Three days ago, Adryel would have agreed and might have volunteered to be the messenger. Tonight, she suggested that the others would find the pool when they set out in the morning.

They broke off pieces of the p.r.i.c.kly shrub and one of the students started a fire. As twilight faded and night fell, she could see the city far off to the south, its lights glowing in the darkness as if lit by the morning light. Ahead, to the north, though, she could see nothing. Everything that lay more than three meters from their fire was shrouded. She hoped the fire would last through the night, keeping at bay the creatures-wild dogs, she thought-that could clearly be heard barking in the distance.

She ate two sugar cakes to quieten her rumbling stomach. Then, she lay on the dry gra.s.s, her arm under her head for a pillow, and, for a while, she was at home with Ramael, eating their evening meal, talking into the night, laying with each other in the darkness.

When she awakened with the first light, she cried in disappointment, realizing it had only been a dream.

In the clear morning air, the mountains seemed much larger than they had from the city's gate. The black dots that Dariel had told her were Lucifer and his party were no longer visible. They had either taken shelter in the mountains the night before, or they had perished.

Adryel had little hope they would stumble across more water, so she, like the others, drank her fill from the pool and filled her flask, leaving only a mud hole for the other group to find.

By midmorning, the sun beat down on them. Her body ached from the night on the ground and her legs were becoming heavier with each step. Although clouds moved across the sky late in the afternoon, perspiration rolled down her body, soaking her robe. By sundown, only half of her water remained.

Two of the students stumbled across a patch of berries while they were collecting fuel for their fire, and the entire party descended on it, picking the bushes bare. Adryel was not fond of bilberries, and she gagged when she placed the first one on her tongue, but she forced herself to eat, stuffing them into her mouth and chewing them vigorously to release the juice. Three days ago she might have suggested they take some of the berries to the other group, which had fallen a little farther behind them, but she ate her entire portion, as well as a handful that one of the students did not want.

The city was just a dull glow on the horizon as she lay down to sleep. She awoke after what seemed like a few minutes. The fire was reduced to glowing embers and she heard animals sniffing a few meters away. She sprang up, screaming, and as the others jolted awake, Adryel heard at least a dozen sets of feet dashing away into the darkness.

The student who was supposed to be awake tending the fire had dozed off, and three of the others took turns punching and kicking him for allowing the dogs to approach. Three days ago, Adryel would have intervened to stop them, would have argued that they were all tired and no harm had been done, but tonight she simply sat and watched as they meted out his punishment.

The rules had changed.

The mountains were still at least a day's journey, but they loomed over the plain as they left camp at dawn. Adryel spied dog tracks and shivered as she realized the animals had not been more than two meters away from her. If she had not awakened when she had, she might not have awakened at all.

By midmorning, she could make out caves in the mountains. Most of them were high on the slopes and inaccessible. A couple of very large ones, though, opened from the plain, and it seemed as if once she reached them, she would be able to simply step inside, one foot in the cave, the other resting on the plain.

She could recall little about the mountains. She had never paid attention when she was in school, never expecting to leave the city. She did know angels lived beyond the mountains. Lord Jophiel, in fact, traveled across the plain whenever he attended a council meeting. She was not at all sure how such things would work, but she guessed the settlements across the mountains would be more accessible for the humans than would the city. She thought Lord Jophiel to be foolish not to be more concerned about the plan than he had seemed to be.

They ought to find water in the mountains. She'd heard stories of waterfalls taller than the palace's Great Tower and rivers that rushed between the mountains, carrying away anything, or anyone, that fell into the water. Fruit trees were said to grow in the valleys, and grain sprouted wild on the mountain slopes.

Unless Lord Lucifer had perished, she felt certain they would find them in one of the caves. She was not at all certain, though, that his party had survived. They might have died of thirst or hunger two nights ago, or they might have been carried off by the wild dogs. Lord Lucifer would have been too proud to even pick berries from the bushes, and Ami, she thought, would be useless in the wild. Beliel and Maliel might be able to survive, but they were evil, and they might not see any advantage in sharing what food or water they had.

Then, she recalled that her group had shared nothing with those who were behind them and she felt a pang of guilt.

"I'm no better than Beliel," she mumbled, disgusted at her behavior, but she quickly pushed the feeling away, noting that she barely had enough water to last the day and that, had she shared, she might not now have the strength to walk on.

"The rules have changed," she whispered to herself. "Everyone for herself."

She pushed herself to her feet and began to walk, her eyes fixed on the mountain that towered above them and the large cave that opened at its base. By afternoon, she had to crane her neck to glimpse the summit. She had never imagined anything could rise so high.

The sun beat down, and Adryel took her last sip of water, allowing it to swish around her mouth before finally trickling down her throat. The empty flask slipped from her hand and she left it in the dirt, of no use to her now.

The mountain seemed as if it were just ahead, a few more steps until she would be able to rub her hand over the cool, black rock, but so it had seemed since early morning. She no longer thought about Ramael, or Lucifer, or the group behind her, or those who walked with her. She directed all of her energy into taking another step, just one more, and one more, and. . .

The sun hung near the horizon when her foot landed on hard rock, rather than brittle gra.s.s. She had made it.

Falling on her knees, she crawled the rest of the way into the cave, and she sank onto the cool, hard rock, not sure she would be able to move again. She lay still, hearing her companions trudge into the coolness and sink to the ground beside her, then she drifted off to sleep, with no thought as to whether she would ever awake.

"Good evening." Lucifer's voice echoed through the cave. Although she knew she must be dreaming, Adryel sat up. Lucifer stood at the cave's entrance, a torch in one hand, a flagon of what she prayed was water in the other.

"We've been watching your progress all day. You have done well. Not everyone has been so fortunate." He squatted beside Adryel. "What happened at the Inst.i.tute?"

She described how she had set watchers on the walls, how the guards had surprised them at midnight, battering down the gates, swarming though the school like locusts in a wheat field, how the students had told what had happened, and how the angels of the city had supported them as they were carted away.

"We did not surrender, Lord Lucifer. The attack was so sudden, we were prisoners almost before we knew they were there."

"You made Dariel pay, though, Adryel," one of her students said. "I'll wager he's still bruised from the beating you gave him, and you took a good bite out of his hand before he slapped you."

Lucifer smiled. "I knew you would make me proud."

He stood, reaching out his hand to her. "Come with me."

Ami huffed and turned away when Adryel stepped through the opening of a larger cave some distance from the first one. The others, though, even Beliel, seemed pleased they had survived.

"They offered to let us stay," Adryel told them as they began a simple meal of fruit and bread. "Lord Michael required that we renounce you, Lord Lucifer, and acknowledge Adonai's authority. Some of the students did as he demanded."

"It's just as well," Lucifer snorted. "They weren't committed to our cause. We don't need halfhearted soldiers in our ranks."

"Soldiers?" one of the students asked in surprise.