Qualia Page 21

  Belial breathed a small sigh of relief.

  This seemed a good time to give them the bad news. ‘Michael and Raphael were standing by the gate. The water didn’t reach them and, of course, there may be others.’

  ‘Not good.’ Belial heaved himself up off the rock. ‘We’d better get moving, because eventually they’ll call Metatron and come looking for us.’

  Carly called over. ‘He’s awake.’ She was backing slowly away from Lucifer.

  ‘Great,’ Belial murmured. ‘What wonderful timing.’

  ‘Keril?’ I sat down next to him. I still wasn’t sure if and when he was going to try and twist my head off. ‘How exactly did Gallard get it to rain?’

  He stared at me for a moment then, just when I thought he’d decided to ignore the question, he looked away. ‘Each building has a water tank on the roof,’ he said. ‘We just added the perfume to the water tanks and ran perforated pipework all over the city. Down every street, inside every building. When Gallard pressed that button it increased the pressure in the tanks and pushed the water down the pipes. Voila!’ He spread his arms wide. ‘Instant rain. The best ideas are always simple.’

  ‘But what if the angels hadn’t landed?’ I thought it was a decidedly ragged plan. ‘What if they’d all flown above the pipes?’

  Keril laughed. ‘What if, what if, what if.’ He shrugged. ‘You of all people should know not to dwell on what ifs.’

  ‘Why me?’ I didn’t understand. I didn’t dwell on anything – I always thought I was pretty upbeat.

  He watched the little girl run her hands along the damp wall. ‘If you hadn’t healed my sister you’d be in a large amount of very squelchy pieces by now.’ He stood up and clapped me on the shoulder. ‘But you’re not, so that’s OK, isn’t it?’ He stared at me for a moment. ‘But what if you hadn’t been able to save her?’

  As he wandered off to see what the little girl was up to, Carly hopped up on the rock next to me. ‘You OK?’

  I wasn’t sure to be quite honest. I watched Keril walk away and wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t managed to save his sister. None of the scenarios I concocted came out well for me. I turned to Carly, put my arm around her and, as she leant against me, I kissed her hair. Even in this dank, gloomy place it still smelt of flowers. I loved Carly’s hair. ‘Not really.’ I gave her a squeeze. ‘Better now though.’ We sat like that for a couple of moments while everybody got themselves together. Belial and Melusine seemed to be having an argument with Lucifer. Eventually Belial turned and pointed to me then began waving his arms as he tried to explain something.

  Carly looked rueful. ‘And along comes another problem …’ She gave me a kiss. ‘Guess we’d better go and see what the old man is setting you up for this time.’

  I nodded and, getting up, I reached down a hand for her to grasp. ‘Carly, are you OK?’

  She pulled me toward her father who was now running his hands through his hair in frustration and beginning to bellow at the man who was sitting below him and just laughing. ‘Don’t really have a choice, do I?’ She frowned down at her dusty purple Doc Martins. ‘Stay in the city, we die. Stay on Earth, we die. At least here we have a small chance.’ She looked at me and bit her lip, tears glimmering on her lids. ‘A very small chance.’ She dropped her head and her hair slid over her face. ‘So if those are our choices I’m really fine with being here.’

  We both looked up as Lucifer told Belial he was mad and staggered away from the group. He began screaming incoherent insults at Melusine as she caught his arm and stopped him. ‘And if he’s our only hope,’ Carly nodded toward the weakly struggling Prince of Darkness, ‘then, quite frankly, we’re really up shit creek without a paddle but at least we’re not dead.’

  I sniggered as Lucifer tried to kick Melusine in the shins. Then groaned as she casually twisted his arm behind his back and used it as a lever to press his face onto the boulder he’d recently vacated. ‘I don’t think it’s going well,’ I observed.

  Carly put on a bright smile as we approached her vastly irritated father. ‘You OK?’ she called to him.

  Melusine looked up as we wandered over and, taking her knee out of Lucifer’s back, gave him a sharp push. He rolled off the rock and onto the dusty floor. ‘You try and talk some bloody sense into him.’ Standing up, she busied herself by tying her long dark hair up into a knot on the top of her head. Viciously pushing the two wooden spikes through the dark mass, she stalked away to stand, breathing heavily as she alternated between clenching and unclenching her fists and kicking at the ground.

  Finally getting herself under control, she walked over to where Belial was sitting head in hands. ‘We have to get moving, old man.’ Putting one booted foot up onto his rock she pulled two small knives from a holster on her ankle, examined them and shoved them roughly back in again. ‘The angels are going to be coming down and shit knows what’s going to be coming up.’ She stared off into the darkness. ‘You sitting there like a great big lump isn’t helping.’ She began checking all the various pockets in her canvas jacket. Weaponry appeared, was checked and put back again: knives, small vials, a length of chain and other less recognisable things appeared and disappeared into the coat. ‘Keril!’ she shouted over to the Drekavak.

  Keril wandered over with an enquiring look.

  ‘Do you have any more of that “queeries” stuff?’ She didn’t look at him, concentrating instead on checking a small handgun.

  ‘Qeres.’ Keril corrected her. He blanched slightly as she stared at him from beneath lowered brows.

  ‘I don’t care what it’s called.’ She turned slowly to face him, unblinking. ‘I just want some.’

  The Drekavak hesitated for a moment, shuffling his big feet as he considered her request. Eventually he reached into one of the many pockets on his black waistcoat. ‘One touch of this stuff and you can do some serious damage.’ He sighed and handed over a vial. ‘Just make sure you know what you’re doing, all right?’

  The tiny bottle glittered, sitting in Melusine’s hand like a tear. She stared at it expressionless.

  ‘There’s enough there to take out about ten angels.’ Keril turned away shaking his head. ‘Please don’t make me regret giving this to you, Melusine.’

  Melusine closed her eyes and her hand then sat down with a thump next to Belial. ‘I can’t believe I’d use this stuff.’

  ‘Really?’ Belial looked up at her. ‘Strange – nobody else would have any trouble believing that you’d use it.’ He stared back down at the floor. ‘But listen to me, Melusine, daughter of Pressyne. Keep in mind that these were once my brothers.’

  She pursed her lips, ‘I’m not big on family as you know,’ she said. ‘But I will keep that in mind if and when I decide to use this.’ She reached over and placed a hand on Belial’s shoulder. ‘Needs must when the Devil drives, eh?’

  Belial shook his head then laughed as he looked over at Lucifer who was now sobbing on the floor. ‘You know what?’ he said. ‘I’m beginning to think this wasn’t one of my better ideas.’

  A dull boom made us jump and we all looked back toward the gates. There was another and another, getting louder with each repetition.

  ‘Shit!’ Melusine jumped to her feet. ‘Time to get out of here, I think.’

  The whole party rushed around gathering bits and pieces.

  Carly pushed me toward Lucifer. ‘You’d better get him up and moving.’

  ‘Why me?’ Dealing with the Morning Star again was the last thing I wanted. I felt I’d done my bit and now someone else should be put in charge of Mr Wimpy.

  ‘You can tell him what happened.’ She gave me a strange look. ‘You’ve been with him every step of the way.’ She hit me on the arm. ‘Don’t roll your eyes at me and don’t sigh either – just get on with it.’ Reaching up to give me a kiss she went to help Keril dress the little girl in something warmer.

  Lucifer, Abbadon, The Great Accuser, The Father of Lies and the owner of many other titles was currently
sitting in the dirt. His legs stretched out ahead of him, his arms were wrapped around his torso and snot covered his face. He was the very picture of a man in deep, deep misery.

  I squatted down and studied him. He didn’t look much different from when I first carried him from the car crash. I studied him harder; I was sure he’d changed far more when I’d dragged him out of my house. ‘Lord Lucifer.’ I lowered my voice so as not to startle him. ‘We’ve got to get moving, you need a hand up?’

  The man hunched his shoulders and stared down at his feet. ‘I don’t understand,’ he whispered. ‘I’m dreaming?’ He looked up at me hoping for an agreement of some sort.

  ‘No.’ I figured this wasn’t the time to get into a major theoretical discussion about what was and what might be real. The booming sounds had taken on a monotonous regularity and now shouts could be heard.

  ‘I’m not Satan.’ He shuddered and began to cry again. ‘I’m an insurance salesman, I’m Graham and I’m just …’ His voice trailed off.

  Grabbing him under the arm I pulled him to his feet. ‘We can talk about this as we walk, but we do have to walk.’ I grimaced as a particularly loud thump was accompanied by a cracking sound. ‘There may also be some running.’

  Parity, shouldering her pack, stopped next to us. ‘They’re nearly through the gates.’ She looked worried. ‘We have to go now! Do you need any help with him?’ She stared down at the still crying man. ‘He’s not who you think he is, you know.’ She frowned. ‘Not now.’

  I shook my head at her enigmatic statement and pushed Lucifer toward the rest of the group. ‘It’s OK, I’ve got him.’

  Half-walking, half-carrying the man, I followed the rest of the party once more into the darkness. As this became absolute Melusine broke out a powerful torch for herself and distributed smaller ones among the party including a tiny one to the little girl. The child was delighted, and amused herself by creating moving spots that highlighted the rugged old walls of the tunnel, laughing and talking to herself in a high singsong voice.

  Carly jogged beside me. ‘She doesn’t know her name.’ She nodded toward the little girl who, sitting high on Keril’s shoulders, was now shining the torch on her fingers and giggling. ‘What do you think she’d like to be called?’

  I shrugged. ‘Ask her.’ I grabbed Graham’s arm as he tripped over some loose stone.

  ‘We need to keep walking.’ I put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a little push. He promptly tripped over and fell to the floor. Carly sniggered quietly and wandered off to catch up with Keril.

  The man remained on the floor breathing hard.

  I handed him a bottle of water. ‘Sorry.’ I hunkered down beside him. ‘I didn’t mean to push you that hard.’

  He took a long drink then, after pouring the last of the water over his head, he raked both hands over his face and through his hair. Taking the hand I offered he climbed to his feet. He shuddered as he ran his hands through his long hair again. ‘This is all wrong.’ He tried to look at himself – his hands, his body – but it was too dark. ‘I need a mirror,’ he said.

  We walked in silence then he nudged me. ‘Humour me,’ he said. ‘Tell me what happened – can you do that?’

  ‘Yes, I can, but you’d better make sure you really want to know before I tell you.’ I carried on walking, waiting for him to make up his mind. The silence was broken only by the echoing footfalls of the party and the occasional soft giggles of one little girl.

  He squared his shoulders. I was surprised; when he stopped hunching and whimpering, he was taller than Belial. He nodded. ‘Keep it short, keep it simple.’

  I thought, for a moment, that was a fairly tall order. Eventually I just plunged in. ‘You, Graham Latimer, are the last in line from the man that killed Jesus. Lucifer has been hiding in your lineage since Christ’s death. If one particular angel gets his hands on you he’s going to kill you, which in turn will kill God. Power can’t be destroyed so God’s power will go to him.’ I hesitated then sighed. ‘And yours will evidently go to me.’

  Graham paled. ‘Stupid religious nonsense,’ he muttered.

  I couldn’t repress a snort. My whole life had been dictated by stupid religious nonsense. I’d tried to get away from it but it kept coming back and biting me in the bum. ‘I don’t want to be the “Great Adversary”,’ I said, ‘so we’re keeping you out of the hands of the angels and trying to get you back to being who you’re supposed to be.’ I paused. ‘But you seem to have taken some of Lucifer’s looks but none of him, so now we’re all at a bit of a loss.’ I paused trying to work it all out then gave up. ‘Oh, I don’t know.’

  Carly looked back at us and frowned.

  I hurried on. ‘So we’re taking you to your old Throne Room in the hope – and I stress the word hope here – that this will bring it all back to you because that was your place of power and where you sat for a long time.’

  Graham shook his head. ‘What a load of shit.’ He snorted. ‘You can’t even get your supernatural creatures right. Demons are bad and angels are good – they’re nice, they look after people.’ He frowned. ‘I used to have a client with angel cards – she used to give me readings. Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and all the others. I think she said that Michael was my guardian angel.’

  Coming to a junction we stopped while Belial tried to remember which way to go. ‘Anybody recognise anything?’ At the silence he shook his head and turned left.

  ‘Gabriel is currently nowhere to be found. Allegedly he completely lost it and tried to kill a city full of people somewhere in Brazil. Michael is looking to kill everybody on Metatron’s order. This is because Metatron wants all humans dead so that he can scrap the blueprint and start again. And Raphael …’ I paused ‘I think all Raph wants is doughnuts, a quiet life and a beach where he could learn to surf.’

  I ground to a verbal halt. He was right: this was complete crap. Even to me this all sounded incredibly improbable and I’d lived through it all.

  ‘Rubbish.’ Graham laughed. ‘I just can’t understand why you’d tell me all this. Is it money you want?’ He shook his head. ‘You’ve kidnapped the wrong person. I don’t have much, I don’t have any family or friends, I don’t have any influence … Are you a terrorist? Why would you try and make me believe this?’ He stumbled again then cursed as he hopped about getting his footing back. ‘I remember the card for Metatron. He had all these circles above his head, a beautiful purple aura and he loved children.’

  I coughed remembering the children squabbling over the body of a dead cat. ‘Metatron was the little guy that nailed you to that cross then tried to find out what was in your gooey centre.’

  Graham came to a sudden halt, his face in the torchlight ashen and stark. ‘But that was just a dream – how do you know my dreams?’ He swallowed convulsively, his eyes darting back and forth. ‘This man just kept smiling and saying that it was for the good of everybody.’ Turning away, the tormented insurance salesman was suddenly and violently sick. All the water came back up and splashed over the walls and floor turning the dust to mud.

  Parity ran back toward us shouting and waving. ‘They’re through the gate. We have to go, run … run!’

  I stood and listened. ‘I can’t hear anything?’

  ‘Don’t argue,’ Carly said. ‘If Parity says they’re coming through then they’re coming through. Get him – let’s go.’

  We ran. It was difficult holding on to Graham who, still suffering the effects of sickness and a sudden deluge of regained memories, kept stumbling and tripping. We staggered along together in a horrible drunken parody of a three-legged race.

  There was a sudden flare of light and the crack of beating wings. The tunnel behind us lit up as huge balls of fire exploded onto the walls. Burning droplets bounced then exploded again as they hit other parts of the tunnel.

  ‘Come on!’ Belial screamed. ‘We’ve just got to get to the Limbo Gate then we should be able to hold them off for a bit.’

  ‘What is that?’
Graham panted as he ran, eyes wild as he stared at the rain of fire that blasted molten lumps from the walls and trickled along the floor in ever-deepening runnels and valleys. Rocks crackled and snapped as they heated up then immediately began to cool. The air made humming sounds as it fried in Michael’s righteous fire. ‘Is that some sort of weapon?’

  ‘That’s your “guardian angel”,’ I said in a rush, out of breath. It was difficult to talk and run at the same time. I had to concentrate hard to keep from breaking an ankle. ‘That’s Michael and I’d say he’s almost terminally pissed off.’

  Graham looked over his shoulder as the sound of wings intensified. ‘Bloody hell!’ Ripping his arm out of my hand he bent his head and, pumping his arms and legs, put on a turn of speed that Nessus would have been proud of. He disappeared toward Melusine’s bobbing torchlight.

  Wondering what had caused the sudden change in attitude I looked over my shoulder. Michael was bearing down on us from the glowing and flickering tunnel. With wings spread wide and teeth bared he forged the way with sword drawn, its howling flame a comet’s tail behind him. Spittle glistened on his chin and his eyes were fixed open. Blood dripped from an open wound on his face – the result, no doubt, of one of Gallard’s “raindrops”. He was screaming incomprehensible invective and each time he stopped for breath he would punctuate his rant with another volley of fireballs.

  I copied Lucifer’s example and, grabbing Carly as I passed, we ran like hell.

  ‘Joe, you traitorous little shit!’ Michael screamed. ‘I always knew I was right about you. A leopard can’t change its spots.’

  Carly, despite the situation, snorted then looked horrified as Farr and Melusine walked calmly past us. They were going the wrong way. ‘Farr!’ she screamed.

  Belial stopped her. ‘Watch,’ he ordered. Farr placed himself in front of the frothing angel and held up one hand.