Later, as he drifted to sleep with Lilah snuggling close. Parry considered what had occurred. He had succeeded in singing the demons of Hell itself into quiescence! How could that have happened? The surface of the world was the mortal realm, where mortals and demons could interact in limited ways; human magic could prevail against demon spirits if appropriately exercised. But Hell? That was hardly to be believed! If the damned souls could escape, they would be doing so in droves.
Of course he was not yet a damned soul; he was a mortal. Perhaps, then, Lucifer had been bluffing; he could not hold the souls of the living in hell. That meant that Parry's singing could have been incidental; all he had to do was walk out.
But Lilah—she was of Lucifer's domain. Surely Lucifer could hold her if he chose. Had Parry gotten her free despite Lucifer's sentence on her—or had that, too, been a bluff? For once Parry got free, who would corrupt him if not Lilah? Perhaps Lucifer had to let her go, once Parry made his move for freedom. Therefore all of this could be less than it seemed.
Still, suppose he had not tried to make the break? Suppose he had simply stood and let Lilah be raped by the demon? Would he ever have escaped then? He wasn't sure. Lucifer, the master of deception, had tried to deceive him into believing that he was a prisoner in Hell, and it had come closer to success than Parry liked to imagine.
He had done what he had done because of the threat to Lilah. That had perhaps been an act of folly. But it had demonstrated the extent of her hold on him, and she was duly pleased. She was after all a demoness; her power lay in her influence over him. Thus neither his action nor her reaction reflected favorably on either of them.
He tried to be angry with her. But his hand stroked her warm, plush bottom, and his lust, so recently sated, rose again. She responded, encouraging it. His anger turned back on himself, but did not cause him to desist. His need for her was beyond outrage.
Parry realized that his corruption was proceeding apace.
Parry was slated to die in 1250; he no longer doubted Lucifer's word on that, for such knowledge was a most insidious torture. That meant that his time with Lilah was limited, for he knew that once he died, her assignment with him would be over. He was desperate to please her, so as to gain as much of her semblance of love as he possibly could while he could. He knew it was not real, for a demoness was incapable of such emotion, but he cherished the illusion. It was all he had to pursue.
Indeed, she acted like a woman in love now, and she was letter perfect at it. She no longer teased him by fading out just before the culmination of their sexual unions; she remained with him throughout, making each fulfillment as compelling as the arousal. She did whatever he asked, whenever he asked, being completely malleable to his will. If he asked her a question, she answered; if he asked her to leave him for a time, she did so.
"But what do you want?" he asked, perplexed by the consistency of her attitude.
"Just to hear your voice, Parry," she replied. "Sing to me, as you did in Hell. I thrill to the suggestion of the Llano."
"The what?"
"The Llano, the ultimate song. Sing to me again."
Technically, he had been singing to the warder demon, but it had been on Lilah's behalf. He was curious about this special song she spoke of, but did not care to advertise his ignorance lest it in some way benefit Lucifer. He sang to her extemporaneously, and she simply watched him with a look of adoration on her face.
Parry did not fully trust this, so he was careful to keep trying to please her exactly as if she still rewarded him only on performance. He searched for new evil to do, so that she would know he was on the job.
He found a beauty. King Louis IX of France was the most chivalrous monarch of Europe, lofty of character and an excellent King. He was working hard to establish proper justice in the kingdom. This tended to inhibit the developing procedures of the Inquisition, and certainly it was not good for Lucifer's operations. If Louis could be removed from the scene, it would be a coup!
He worked out the way. A crusade! There had been talk of such an effort for years, but it hadn't materialized. Now Parry used his influence as a leading friar and got the crusade moving. In 1248 Louis set sail for the Holy Land by way of Egypt.
In 1249 the Nile Delta city of Damietta was taken by the crusaders without a struggle; all seemed to be going well. But Parry knew that this was a trap. The crusaders marched south toward Cairo—and were routed. The army was massacred and Louis was captured by the Saracens in 1250. The job had been done.
But Parry was out of time. His aging body was breaking down; his breathing was hard, even when Lilah gave him the semblance of youth, and he knew his lungs were deteriorating. His heart was going, too; he could feel its too rapid flutter.
"Now you are dying, thoroughly corrupted," Lilah said. "You know you are destined for Hell."
"I know. But these nine years with you have been worth it. Mock me as you will, demoness; I would do it again. Will you visit me in Hell?"
"I think not."
He sighed. This was of course part of his punishment: to long for the demoness and be forever denied her.
"Will you kiss me once more before I go?"
He expected another refusal, as she savored the last dreg of her victory over him, but she got down close to him. Her eyes seemed luminous. "Parry," she whispered, "it doesn't have to be!"
He tried to laugh, but only gagged. He was in the last hour of his mortal life, perhaps the last minutes. He had to the, and he surely was not going to Heaven!
"Parry," she repealed urgently. "You are a sorcerer! A potent one! You could be the best, if you tried! The way you sing—that suggests your potential. Use what you know to—"
"What is this?" a new voice interrupted.
Lilah shrank away. It was Lucifer himself.
Parry coughed and managed to clear his throat enough to speak. "You come for me personally, Lord of Lies?"
"I always come for My vengeance personally," Lucifer replied. "What would existence be like without the pleasure of the torment of Mine enemies? You have served Me well, mortal, and now you shall pay for that with eternal torment in the most excruciating fires of Hell."
"I am ready," Parry wheezed.
"But you have a few minutes remaining to suffer in this life. I want you to understand your situation exactly." Lucifer's baleful gaze moved to Lilah. "Wench, revile him."
Wench. Old anger stirred in Parry's breast. His blood began to circulate more strongly, and his mind clarified. He knew it was his last effort of life, but he wanted to strike back at his former nemesis and present master. He served Lucifer; that did not mean he liked him.
Lilah stood by Parry's bed, gazing down at him, unspeaking.
What was it she had told him? To use his magic to—
"Speak, slut!" Lucifer said. But still she did not. She merely looked at Parry with that same emulation of adoration she had affected these past three years.
To do what? She had said that it didn't have to be. What could she have meant? That there was some alternative to Hell?
"Do you defy Me, you piece of ether?" Lucifer snapped at Lilah. "What is the matter with you? Spit on him!"
Still Lilah gazed, and now a tear showed on her cheek.
"You disreputable bitch!" Lucifer exclaimed, amazed. "You have fallen for him!"
Fallen for him?
Lilah dropped to her knees and embraced Parry's supine form as well as she could. Her tears wet his face. "Oh, Parry, I cannot say it!"
She was a demoness. She could not say she loved him. But now he realized that she did. Her gazes of adoration had been genuine.
"When?" Parry rasped, as amazed as Lucifer.
"Yes, tell us when," Lucifer said in such fury that steam was rising from him. "It is an error I shall never again permit."
"When you sang me out of Hell," Lilah said to Parry. "When you sang to me with the power of the Llano. You charmed the demons—and I am a demoness."
"When he sang," Lucifer demand
ed incredulously. "You deserted Me for a song?"
"I deserted You for a man," she said.
Lucifer considered. "A mortal can love, and be in other respects unchanged. A demon can love only totally. When the object of that love is gone, that demon is destroyed. You have given up your existence for three foolish years with a dying mortal."
"It was worth it," Lilah whispered, kissing Parry's lips.
Now Parry knew why she would not visit him in Hell. When he died, she would cease to exist. She had known this throughout, as surely as he had known that his involvement with her would damn his soul. A truer love could not exist.
"But I intended you to suffer!" Lucifer said angrily to Lilah. "No one betrays Me without punishment!"
"I am suffering now," Lilah said, clinging to Parry.
"It is not enough," Lucifer said grimly. He lifted his hand, and a flicker of fire played about it. He pointed at the demoness. "Burn, bitch, while he watches!"
Parry summoned his last resolve as she hugged him. "No!"
Lucifer's lip curled into a sneer. "I will banish her to that very fire awaiting you, mortal fool! But she will suffer only while you remain alive. Then your soul will replace her there, and she will not exist. Take your time about dying!"
Lucifer made a gesture. Lilah clung to Parry. And Parry did the only thing he could think of: he invoked his mirror spell. His shield against hostile magic. All of his remaining strength went into it; he knew that the strain was destroying his heart, and that he would be dead in a moment. But Lilah would spend no time in the agony of the flame.
Lucifer's magic bounced. Suddenly Lucifer himself was bathed in flames. He disappeared, screaming.
Lilah lifted her head. "You did it!" she cried. "Take the Office! Take the Office!"
Parry's heart was fibrillating, going into its final throes. "What?"
"Assume the Office!" she screamed at him.
His brain was clouding. As his consciousness faded, he made his final effort to please her. "I—assume—the Office," he gasped.
Flame coalesced about him, but it did not burn.
"Choose Your title!" she cried.
What was she talking about? "Look, Lilah," he gasped "I—"
"Your title! Your title! It must be now! But different from that of your predecessor. You can be Scrotch, or Satan—"
The second was less objectionable. "Satan," he repeated.
"Choose Your form!" she urged him.
"What?"
"It must be now, at the outset! Your true form for the Office. Choose Your form."
"I—choose the form I was at age twenty-five," he said.
Abruptly the constriction of his heart eased, and it beat slowly and strongly. Strength returned.
"Choose Your consort!" she cried.
He hardly understood this process. "I want to be with you."
She hugged him and kissed him. "For as long as You want me, my Lord of Evil!"
The bottom dropped out of his equilibrium. "Who?"
"You have assumed the Office, my Lord! You vanquished the former holder, and now it is Yours. You will be forever as You are now, physically, until some other claimant deceives You as You deceived Your predecessor and dispossesses You. But that need never happen."
"I—am Lucifer?" Parry asked, dumbfounded.
"No, Your title is Satan. You chose it."
"But I am the—the new master of Hell?"
"The Lord of Evil," she agreed. "In Your mortal body as it was at age twenty-five, and I am Your consort. All else is malleable."
"But all I was trying to do was protect you from torture! I never thought my spell would destroy Lucifer himself!"
"You protected me from extinction itself," she said. "I have no existence apart from my love of You. Now I will serve You utterly, in any manner You require, just as I served the prior Lord of Evil when I loved him."
Parry felt dizzy. "There is something about the way you pronounce—"
She laughed. "You are now a deity, my Lord! Co-equal with the other one. I refer to You always as such."
"And—and I am now to run Hell?"
"And forward the cause of Evil, exactly as Your predecessor did. As You have done these past nine years, serving him." The subtle accent that denoted her respect was no longer on her reference to the prior Lord of Evil.
"I don't think I know how to handle this."
"I will help You in any way I can," she assured him. "You will quickly grow accustomed to the exercise of this power. You will come to understand that Evil is the opposite aspect of, of—may I say the word?"
"Say it," he said, uncertain of his authority in this respect.
"Of Good," she finished. "That both are required for either to have meaning. G—G—"
"God," he said. "You may say it."
"God. God is the Incarnation of Good, and Satan is the Incarnation of Evil, and the struggle between the two of you is the essence of mortal existence. Your position is as important as his."
"And I can authorize you to say those words I can say, that no demon otherwise can say?"
"Yes, my Lord Satan. Your power over Your minions is absolute. Your predecessor forbade those words, but Your law governs now."
Parry shook his head disbelievingly. Then she embraced him again, and kissed him again, and his young, strong body responded ardently, and he began to believe.
He had completed his progress from Good to Evil. He had become the Lord of Evil.
Chapter 9 - HELL
"What now?" he asked Lilah, after a suitable orgy of celebration over his sudden fortune.
"Now You must establish Your mastery over Hell."
"Isn't that automatic, now that I have the Office of the Incarnation of Evil?"
She shook her head in negation. "You have dispatched Lucifer; You have not proved You can fill his boots."
"Oh? What happens if I don't prove it?"
"You have a thirty-day grace period. If in that time You do not demonstrate Your fitness for the Office, You will be dispatched to that fate Lucifer intended for You, and he will be restored as Incarnation of Evil, unless some truly evil mortal preempts the Office first."
Parry was abruptly serious. "You knew this—yet you supported me?"
"A demoness can be a fool; that is one of her few similarities to mortal souls. When I came to love You, I could do no other. Thus I did not warn Lord Lucifer of his danger."
"His danger?"
"He could not banish You to Hell without first separating You from the soul with which You are bound. I would ordinarily have reminded him of that, just as I will remind You of those things You need to know but may on occasion forget."
"The soul with which—" Parry repeated blankly. Then it came to him. "Jolie!"
"In the drop of blood on your wrist," she agreed.
"But she went to Heaven long ago, didn't she? Once you made it impossible for her to be with me?"
"No, my Lord. She merely retreated into her drop and slept. She cannot leave You until her onus is abated—and because she is in balance, she cannot be relegated to either Hell or—"
"Say it. Say any word you need, while you serve me."
"Heaven. She must remain with You, until her balance is changed. She is with You now, though she cannot manifest."
"She is not suffering?" he asked anxiously.
"No, my Lord. She knows nothing now, and will not until she wakes again, which may be only when You retire."
Parry was relieved. "And her invisible presence caused Lucifer's spell to bounce?"
"Your spell did that, my Lord. But Lucifer knew of Your spell, and was contemptuous of its feeble power against the magnitude of his magic. But no amount of magic could send Your wife to Hell with You, so your spell assumed far more force than Lucifer reckoned."
"Like an iron bar hidden in a loaf of bread," he agreed.
"Yes, my Lord. Had I warned him, he would have severed Your hand first, thrown it away, then banished You with his magic."
&
nbsp; "But she was with me in Hell when we visited. How—?"
"That was not the same. You may go to Hell of Your own volition, and she may travel with You, because that is not damnation. But she cannot be damned eternally. Lucifer inadvertently tried to do that."
And Lilah had known. "So I owe my salvation—" He paused, reconsidering. "My present situation to Jolie—and to you. What an unlikely collaboration!"
"True, my Lord. But also to Your own effort, which enraged Lucifer and caused him to be careless in his arrogance. He was past his time, I think."
"Because he treated you with contempt," Parry said.
"You might put it that way."
"Lilah, suddenly I want to know more about you."
"Ask, my Lord, and I will answer, as I always have." She smiled and embraced him.
"Exactly who are you? I mean, I know you're a demoness, but what is your history? What is the nature of your association with the Incarnation of Evil?"
She grimaced. "That would be long in the telling, my Lord."
"Are you refusing to answer?"
"By no means, my Lord! But if I told You my complete history, I would be talking for the full month, and You would get none of Your necessary work done."
"Let me put it this way: your defection from Lucifer led to his undoing. I want to understand you well enough to know what would cause your defection from me."
"That much is simple. I will serve You loyally as long as I exist. You have the power to destroy any demon, me included, and to create any demon from ether. If You destroy me, I will not be able to serve You. If You do not destroy me, but treat me with contempt, in time my love may go elsewhere, and then I will serve You less loyally. But I will never truly betray You."
As she had not truly betrayed Lucifer, he realized. She had merely failed to serve him completely. The distinction was worth noting. "Lucifer treated you with contempt?"
"Yes, lately. He took concubines from among the damned souls, and even from among living witches, neglecting me. He assigned me to corrupt a mortal, and did not reward me for my success. He even threatened to confine me to eternal punishment in Hell, and finally with destruction."