Barlowe, Wayne - God's Demon

Eligor nodded and turned and saw Mago, the hope written upon his face.

"He will mend, Mago," Eligor said fluently and convincingly in the souls' tongue. "The loss of his arm will be a problem only for a short time. Considering what souls are used to here, his problems will seem insignificant."

Lilith was looking at Eligor with a raised eyebrow. "That is a skill I did not know you had, Eligor."

"What? Lying?"

"No, Eligor," she said gently. "From what I could tell, you were reassuring. I meant speaking their tongue. It is very difficult."

Eligor looked pleased. "I have made them a focus of study, my lady."

"So I have heard. Once again it is clear to me that Lord Sargatanas has chosen his staff with great care." Lilith replaced her knives and rolled her tool-blanket, carefully tying the skin ribbons that held it together. She looked once more at the soul. His features were as strong as his will. He must have been quite a force to reckon with in his Life, she thought. And then, in an odd way, she realized that she was proud of him. In Hell, he was her finest creation.

Lilith turned to Eligor and looked up at him. For a moment she looked deep into his silvered eyes.

"I want to go to Sargatanas, but I am sure that I cannot find the way. Will you take me?"

There was the briefest of hesitations.

"But, my lady, he is certainly in his chambers."

Whether Eligor knew his lord's whereabouts and was simply protecting him as was his duty or truly did not know Lilith could not be sure.

"No, Eligor, he most certainly is not."

Eligor's chin went up a fraction. Again she could not tell if he was being intractable or was merely found out. Does he know where Sargatanas is or am I revealing something to him that he had not considered? The demon's wings twitched slightly as he slowly looked down at his feet, either considering the situation he was in or realizing just what she was suggesting. Both paths led to the same door, and either way, she knew that he would have to obey her; she was Lilith and there was no way to deny her.

When he looked up again he said, "I know the way."

"I knew you would."

* * * * *

She dreamt of green trees heavy with scent and brightly colored fruits and streams of diamond-glittering water and yielding, fertile earth beneath her feet, and those feet were like the feet of souls. And she dreamt, too, of a sun's golden light upon her naked body, bathing it in sensual warmth, as she wandered the Garden heaven she had once known. In her dream she knew she was dreaming, but it did not make the turquoise sky any less blue.

The distant soft scuffing of Eligor's approaching footsteps drew her away from her lost, short-lived heaven, pulling her back down into the darkness of reality. She awoke fully, and as frequently happened when she had this dream, the bitterness washed away from her any pleasure she might have derived. She missed that place and the freedom that had gone with it, missed it even more than her equally short life with Lucifer. But it was gone forever and she had vowed that even if all of the seraphim of the Above came on bended knees to beg her to join them she would refuse. The Throne had cast her away and here she would stay. She knew this was nothing more than an idle fantasy; her anger, wreaked quite purposefully on the souls, had lasted a dozen of their generations—a moment really in the Above, but it had been enough.

Lilith rose from the hard bench, her skin robes falling in some disarray, and stretched unselfconsciously. But as he came closer she could see Eligor's eyes avert, and she quickly covered herself. She often forgot the effect she had on those around her.

A sound from behind the thick door of Sargatanas' shrine caught her attention and she nodded to Eligor, who, apparently, had not heard it; his eyesight, so keen when he was airborne, was far better than his average hearing. Lilith watched him step close to the door and press his ear to it. She smiled, for each tiny sound from within confirmed her certitude that he was within.

Eligor pulled away from the door and shrugged.

"My lady, I beg your forgiveness that I did not tell you immediately that he was here. You were wise to understand him so well."

"He doubts himself, Eligor," Lilith said. "And now he has lost his one true friend. This is where he would have to come."

"Only a handful of us know of the Shrine. I should have—"

Lilith put a sharp-nailed finger to her lips.

"He is repeating the same phrases over and over," she whispered. "He has been doing that since you left me here. I cannot make out what he is saying, but it is as if he were praying. In the old language, no less."

"No, you must be mistaken. It is forbidden. Even he would not ..."

"He, especially, would."

Eligor smiled and then said, "We are, indeed, in a new world."