Heaven and Hell (54 page)

“We have no business here. We are, as you might say, just passing through, taking but a moment to rest our wings. We thought to observe this game of yours more closely.”

“Game? You think this is a game? Your kind disgusts me,” said the demon. “God has discarded you. You dwell within the master’s domain now, yet you refuse to pay him homage. Satan is the rightful ruler of creation, and one day he shall take his place of honor upon Heaven’s throne. When that day comes, we shall be at his side.”

“I’m not surprised, a blind guide leading the blind,” retorted Abaddon.

“So you say now, but in the end, where shall you and your kind be?”

“One can never know,” Abaddon said. “Yet it is clear to me that we are not welcome here. We are sufficiently rested. Furthermore, we have promised your master that we shall not interfere in your affairs. Therefore, we shall take our leave and trouble you no more.”

“No you won’t,” retorted the demon. “You are not telling me the truth. There is something wrong here, you are hiding something. Or is it that you are hiding someone?” The demon turned toward Serena. “You are the mystery. There is something about you, about your aura. I will know what that thing is. You will come with me into the sanctum, there to be interrogated.”

“Not likely,” replied Abaddon, stepping into the demon’s path. His face displayed no emotion.

The demon spun about and cried out in a shrill tone. Then he turned to Serena once more. “There is a strange odor to this one. Yes, you will come with me.” He moved toward her, yet barely completed a step before being apprehended by her guardian.

In an instant Abaddon had hold of his throat, rendering the demon unable to speak above a whisper. He lifted him from the ground with one arm. “Now, where are your manners? You do not seem to comprehend the nature of your predicament. Don’t make threats that you cannot possibly see to fruition. You were not created to be a warrior. On the other hand, I was. Shall I demonstrate the difference?”

Abaddon paused; he had sensed something. He turned to his left to see several dark figures in the distance, the figures of demon sentries, just beyond the threshold of the city. He had been here many times, yet he had never received such an unpleasant reception. Already two of them had taken flight, and were moving swiftly in his direction. He had erred, and in doing so placed Serena in grave jeopardy.

“No, it is you who are in a predicament. You won’t escape us,” squeaked the demon, still struggling to free himself from the powerful warrior’s grasp.

Serena had now caught sight of the approaching band of demons as well. She was absolutely terrified. She could not see how many there were, yet she feared it was a number greater than Abaddon could handle.

Abaddon cast the demon away like a child’s toy. He hurtled over 20 feet through the air, crashing into one of the crystal pillars at the city’s edge. Then Abaddon turned to Serena. “We must flee at once, there is great danger here.”

He drew her close, picked her from her feet, and began to run. Within seconds, that run had turned to flight. The wind whipped through his cloak, as they soared ever higher; yet, their demon pursuers were closing in on them. With all of his might, Abaddon struggled for speed and altitude. He might have out flown them easily, were it not for the extra weight he carried in his arms, a weight that was far too precious to shed. He pushed himself harder. He swept downward, in an attempt to pick up some additional speed. He turned inland, away from the illumination of the infernal city, toward the realm of profound darkness.

This was a dangerous game. Although his pursuers would be hard pressed to see him in the fading light, he was running the risk of slamming into a rocky ridge in the increasingly rough country before them. He would have to depend on his intuition, upon his memory of the landforms.

The gravity of their situation was not lost on Serena. She knew all too well what it was that Abaddon was attempting to do and the dangers inherent in that undertaking. She kept her silence so he might accomplish the difficult task. She offered a silent prayer.

A dark silhouette hurtled past them on the right, then another on the left. The dark rugged terrain seemed to rush up at them from beneath. They were going to crash! Serena felt the force of the acceleration as Abaddon’s wings tilted back, beating to an increasing rhythm. They soared over the ridge top with only a few feet to spare. They pulled steeply up, swung hard to the left, then plunged into the steep walled canyon beyond.

There was a moment of total silence as the angel’s wings went still; then came a sudden deceleration as they swung around a barely seen pillar of rock not an arms length away. Abaddon swung upward for a second; then there was a jolt as his feet planted themselves firmly on the ground. They had landed safely in the near total darkness of the canyon.

“Quiet,” he whispered, as he gently placed Serena on the ground.

Abaddon wrapped Serena’s black cloak around her and pushed her tightly against the rock face.

There was a distant sound of confusion, it was cursing in the language of angels, and a tumbling of rocks to the canyon floor. Apparently one or more of their pursuers had not cleared the ridge above the canyon rim. A second later, Serena could just barely discern the forms of several flying demons against the dark sky, faintly illuminated by the distant lights of the infernal city and the glowing sea beyond. They swung toward them, paying no mind to their companions left behind on the ridge and continued the pursuit at full speed, passing nearly overhead. A moment later, they vanished into the gloom.

“In just a moment, they will realize that we have evaded them,” whispered Abaddon, so softly as to barely be heard. “They will probably double back, but by then we shall be gone.”

“Do these demons usually treat you like this?” Serena asked, still disoriented from the wild ride.

“No, and this troubles me greatly. Something is going on in the ranks of satan’s minions today. They appear to be on a high state of alert. I have been very foolish; I have placed you in great peril.”

“It’s OK,” said Serena, trying to comfort her troubled companion. “Tomorrow we’ll probably look back and laugh about this whole affair.”

“I only wish that I shared your optimistic appraisal of our situation. Our trip home is going to be most difficult. We would be easily spotted over the sea of fire. We will need to move inland and try to swing back later, perhaps several hundred of your miles up the coast. It might be sometime before we see home again. We cannot risk our being followed back to our lair.”

Abaddon scooped Serena up in his arms and took to the skies. He flew low and with little speed so as to make a minimum of noise. Serena couldn’t imagine how Abaddon was navigating this treacherous canyon. She could see the rim on one side and occasionally she could make out the rocky floor below, but not well enough to navigate the labyrinth of towering pillars and sinuous ridges. All the while Abaddon’s speed and altitude grew, until they climbed above the canyon rim.

Serena turned her head to see the city far behind them and only darkness ahead. She could feel the growing chill as they penetrated ever deeper into this land of profound gloom.

“I’m afraid it’s going to become a little uncomfortable for a while,” warned Abaddon, swinging out of the canyon and flying across the barren landscape beyond. “I am going to try to circle back to the sea, and from there on home, but we might have a few very cold hours along the way. I’m sorry to put you through this.”

“I’ll hold up fine,” assured Serena, wrapping herself all the tighter in her black cloak. “You just concentrate on the flying.”

Abaddon didn’t reply; he was already focusing on his task. His endurance wasn’t limitless. He had been flying for hours with only a short break, and he was beginning to tire.

They flew higher, above a towering range of mountains barely seen in the fading light of the sea of fire behind them and the dim glow of an aurora that danced in the sky overhead like a ghostly apparition.

“Those happen quite often in these parts,” Abaddon said, sensing the concern of his companion. “It’s a completely natural phenomenon, nothing to be concerned about. Actually it may be helpful in lighting our way, making it less likely for us to fly into a mountain. That sort of thing could ruin our entire trip.”

Abaddon’s attempt at humor didn’t dispel her fears, yet she appreciated the thought.

They soared over a sharp mountaintop and down into a vast interior valley. All the while it grew colder. Her cloak helped somewhat, but Serena could not remember when she had felt so cold. Beyond the next ridge of mountains she saw a towering peak, and above it, a red plume of fire and smoke—a volcano.

“Fire and ice,” Abaddon said, “the extremes of the senses, both capable of delivering great pain. Your poet, Dante, wrote of fire and ice in Hell. Well, there it is. Satan has devised a whole range of cruel and painful ordeals based around those themes; and there, beyond the next ridge in the Valley of Sheol, one can experience both. The fire comes from the scorching depths of Hell, the ice from the unimaginable cold of outer darkness. We shall avoid that region.”

“Are there a lot of demons there?” asked Serena.

Abaddon laughed slightly. “No, not too many at all. Actually, demons try to avoid these regions. The conditions here are even too severe for them. Only the delivering of a soul to his or her eternal torment will bring them to this dark realm.”

For over an hour, Abaddon and Serena cruised the black, frigid province before turning back toward the distant sea. The journey seemed to be taking a toll on the mighty angel. His wings beat irregularly and his course through the air wavered. Inevitably, he descended toward the dark, wide valley below.

“I have to rest,” he said in a breathless tone. “I can’t afford to reach the point of exhaustion over the sea of fire. Such would have dire consequences for us both.”

The ground grew closer as the angel battled for control amid the strong, icy breezes. To Serena it looked like a good landing site below, flat with few rocks; yet Abaddon seemed to be struggling. She held her breath.

Abaddon touched down on a vast level expanse of rock and ice. Almost immediately, he dropped to his knees. “Stay close…I must rest for a few hours. Then we can travel home.”

Abaddon released Serena as his wings drew tightly about him. Within seconds, he went still, resting upon his large, folded wings and his knees.

“Abaddon?” asked Serena. There was no response. “Abaddon?” Still nothing.

She quickly realized that he had dropped away into some sort of trance-like sleep. She had seen him like this before in the cavern. There would be no waking him until he was ready. All that she could do was to wait. She could definitely think of more pleasant places to do that. It had to be well below zero here, and the constant merciless winds, made it seem all the colder. Right now, she was grateful to be wearing the thick boots and the incredibly resilient cloak. Even still, the wind cut into her like a knife. It produced such a mournful sound as it whined and howled across the barren landscape.

She took a moment to scan her surroundings, seen only by virtue of the auroral lights overhead. The ground was frozen solid, a mixture of dark sand and ice interspersed with flat gray rocks that reminded her of flagstone. There were mountains to either side of the valley; she had seen them from the air, though she couldn’t see them from here through the haze of blowing sand and ice. She was by no means inclined to wander away from Abaddon in this place. She would try to rest as well. She settled down beside her guardian angel, allowing his wings to partially shield her from the gale. She pulled her cloak around her, and did her best to catch some sleep.

S
ERENA awoke quite suddenly to the biting cold that had even managed to penetrate the black cloak that Abaddon had made for her. She rose to her knees and looked around. Abaddon hadn’t moved a muscle. Apparently he was still in a deep almost comatose sleep. She wondered just how long it might be before he was ready to resume the journey. Whenever, it wouldn’t be too soon for her.

The winds had died down to little more than a gentle breeze and the blowing dust and snow had settled, leaving the air crystal clear. Overhead, the aurora coursed in colorful waves of light through the starless heavens. It was far brighter now, allowing her to view her surroundings more vividly than before. It was a haunting and unearthly sight, as ice glistened in the shimmering waves of light from above. To either side she could see distant craggy mountains of dark rock, dusted here and there with snow and ice.

Again she glanced over at her sleeping companion. She considered waking him, but no, she’d best allow him to come around on his own.

Perhaps a short walk would help her warm up a bit. She set off down the valley, mindful not to place too much distance between herself and her guardian. If the winds would rise again, there might be enough snow and ice to produce a whiteout that would make it difficult to find her way back. She would not take any chances.

As she walked, she often scanned the skies, searching for any sign of flying demons, yet the firmament remained clear. What self-respecting demon would travel on a night like this anyway?

She was only about a hundred or so yards from her guardian, and was about to turn back, when a mournful cry emanated from somewhere nearby. To say that it startled her would have been an understatement—she was terrified. She turned in the direction of the cry, yet nothing immediately caught her eye.