“Shhh! Don’t spook them!” Nimbus warned, his progress muffled by the straw-strewn floor.
“What are we doing here?” Jam whispered back.
“You’ll see,” he said as he crouched and snuck the length of the stables, filled with an ordinary assortment of barnyard animals: lamas, ostriches, bears and golden-horned deer. In a large coral in the middle of the long building, stood a herd of snow white cows that brayed lowly as the two passed by. Nimbus halted at the end stall, gesturing that Jam should remain hidden. He rose cautiously, calling quietly as he did so.
“It’s alright buddy. It’s Nimbus.” He received a whinny in response and the winged stallion Pegasus trotted up to him, nudging Nimbus’s cheek with his velvety nose. Nimbus gave him an affectionate rub. “Got to ask a favour. You may need to involve the family and probably the oxen and others as well. I hate to request you risk your loved ones, but things are a bit dire at the moment.” The horse nodded and neighed softly. “Knew I could count on you,” said Nimbus and he outlined his plan.
“Do you really think it’s wise to use dumb heifers for such a risky enterprise?” Jam asked a short while later as they stealthily made their way towards the Chamber of Greats.
“They aren’t ordinary beasts of burden. They’re Apollo’s sacred herd and they’re probably smarter than me!”
“That is no compliment of their intelligence,” Jam grinned.
“Oh, how very witty!” Nimbus rolled his eyes.
“Hades too has a magical herd that roam the Asphodel Fields. Only, they have sable black hides. I am not sure how clever they are.”
“You are an absolute font of trivia.” They arrived behind the Chamber and slumped tiredly to sit with their backs to the wall.
“Thank you,” Jam replied.
“So, do you think you can do it?” Nimbus asked, his voice almost inaudible.
“It will not be easy. I am still a beginner and taking another human form is the hardest to accomplish, but for my Celestial, I would battle the Geryon with its bat wings and three giant bodies. I promise to do my best. Good luck to you… Nimbus!”
Had Jam addressed him by his name before? Nimbus rose and started to leave for the front of the building. He pivoted. “I have faith in you, Jam. This will not work without you. Celestial needs you and we will not forget your contribution when this is done.”
Jam blinked in surprise. “No one has placed their trust in me before.”
“Never?”
He shook his head. “I’ve been pushed around, picked on, criticised for a long list of inadequacies and threatened with the cat-o-nine tails or the rack if I did not follow orders. Truly depended on to do the right thing of my own accord? Never!”
“Here’s your chance,” Nimbus smiled. He prayed to every known deity they weren’t wrong about Jam and this wasn’t another part of the black angels’ trap.
“You can count on me,” he said sincerely.
“Wait for the signal. Then give it a minute or so, okay?”
Jam nodded. Nimbus made for the entrance and the massive golden doors to the Chamber. He rounded the corner and almost collided with Ram, who’d been wandering aimlessly about the ruined square. Ram’s eyes went wide and he instantly burst into scarlet flame.
“Stand down!” Nimbus yelled. “I’m here on the directive of your master. Your life won’t be worth living if you get in my way!”
“Where’s Jam!” he bawled. “What have you done to him?” Ram’s fists remained alight.
“Stand down, I said!” Nimbus crossed his arms over his chest and planted his feet in defiance. Ram reluctantly did as asked, maintaining an obstinate expression.
“Where is my brother?” Ram repeated. “I demand you release him!”
“Your ‘brother’ is safe and unharmed and at liberty to return to his kind at any point. Maybe he simply chooses to be free of your bossing and bullying.”
“Jam would never leave his Brethren. We are his family!” Ram was clearly incensed by the suggestion.
“Doesn’t sound like it.” His tone hid a lack of confidence.
Ram’s unyielding attitude made Nimbus nervous. What if the hex wore off and Jam reverted to his true nature in the middle of the current crucial proceedings? They would be stuffed like a suckling pig on the proverbial feasting spit then. Given that Jam had chosen to flee with Ram back at Skylar’s, it seemed the only barrier to Jam’s desertion was his obsession with Celestial. Nimbus needed to hurry while it still held.
“I don’t have time for this. Move aside and let me do what I came to do!”
“Not until you tell me where Jam is!” Ram mimicked Nimbus’s stubborn stance.
“Okay!” Nimbus pretended irritation and raised two fingers to his lips giving a long high-pitched whistle.
Ram looked about edgily. He did not expect to get his way so easily. His suspicions were confirmed, when a huge golden eagle plummeted from on high -- Zeus’s familiar. Its claws outstretched to grasp Ram by the arms, and haul him off to its eyrie on the top of Mt Olympus. Ram shouted obscenities and struggled mightily, but to no avail. The eagle’s power neutralised that of any in its grip or near its nest. It would take a while for Ram to climb his way back down the steep cliff face.
Satisfied he could focus solely on Azazel now, Nimbus progressed to the door, braced himself and pounded, loud booms reverberating across the courtyard. The doors swung slowly inward, gradually revealing Azazel in all his terrible glory. He sauntered over and gave Nimbus a cold, superior smile.
“It is alarming how easily the defences of the Most High can be penetrated. The Book.” He signed eagerly for Nimbus to hand it over.
Nimbus had no choice but to reluctantly obey. He fumbled in his robes, buying extra time. Over Azazel’s shoulder he saw Jam appear by Celestial’s side, able to do so now the concealments were broken. He grasped her limp form about the middle and hauled her carefully off the bulky chair, laying her down beside it, where she remained hidden so Nimbus lost sight of her. He had an unsettling momentary vision of Celestial coming around, unaware Jam was her ally and attacking him. But Nimbus was comforted to observe the Dark Angel step to the chair, change his appearance, which became remarkably like the real Celestial except for the ebony eyes, and reseat his replacement in her stead.
Azazel’s patience clearly waned. He urged with a manic power-hungry air, “Give me the Book. NOW!”
Nimbus produced the Book and with a heavy heart, handed it over. As the Book left his grasp, making contact with the tips of Azazel’s fingers, a frosty wind filled the square, ruffling his hair and sending ominous shivers down his spine. In an instant the leaves were stripped from every single tree to scuttle dismally across the paving in a growing tempest.
The peaceful rosy glow that usually infused the Ethereal Realm became the hostile pallor of the gathering storm and Nimbus felt the ground beneath his feet tremble. He could not understand how the Most High remained unaware of this unfolding tragedy. Their superiors had left them on their own! An oppressive feeling of foreboding stole over him, energy draining away as though sand slipping through fingers.
“Release Celestial!” he faltered.
“That has always been the problem with the side of good,” chuckled Azazel. “Far too gullible. When I rule as the greatest lord over my dominion of darkness in the sky, I require a powerful and beautiful queen. Celestial will rule beside me as my eternal Princess of Night and remind the arrogant Gods of this lost land just how foolish they have been!”
Nimbus stood transfixed. Azazel never intended to release Celestial! “You forget one thing!”
Azazel raised a brow in mute inquiry, completely unfazed by any issue Nimbus could bring to proceedings.
“Celestial would never yield to your authority. She would fight you until the bitter end!”
Easily manoeuvring the Book to one hand, Azazel casually raised the other and loudly clicked his fingers twice. Nimbus watched devastated, as from behind the Chair of Forgetfulness,
Celestial raised herself and commenced a floating glide towards them, arms oddly outstretched like a voodoo facsimile in some type of deep trance.
“Nooo! NO!” Nimbus’ panic mounted.
Azazel glanced from the hovering Celestial to the prone substitute in her place on the Chair. “Very interesting,” he mused. “Well, we shall discover the impostor’s identity soon enough and they will endure fit punishment. But now, to the matter at hand.” Like a ghost, Celestial drifted to the Fallen Angel’s side. “Come my Princess,” he smirked, snapping his fingers again.
Nimbus launched himself at his immobilised twin coming up against a solid invisible barricade. He rebounded uselessly from the rubberised wall, shoved to his rump.
“Wake up, Celestial!” He was up in an instant to futilely batter the air. “Celestial!”
She was cocooned within the enchantment and no longer reachable by normal means. Azazel sneered, enjoying Nimbus’s apparent helplessness. However poorly his approach was going, Nimbus did not succumb to his enveloping despair. His determination crystallised and he instead closed his eyes and sent the mental signal to instigate the rest of his desperate plan. Azazel peered curiously down at his feet. The surrounding pebbles bounced erratically in response to strange increasing vibrations.
“What mischief is this boy?” he growled, squinting in an effort to discover its source.
A thunderous rumble grew from the distance to a deafening pitch, the floor trembling violently as a mammoth rotating dust cloud blasted the square. Without further warning, all the creatures from the barn stampeded into the courtyard making directly for Azazel and the comatose Celestial. Huge brown grizzly bears lumbered roaring next to nimble leaping does, encircled by the herd of oxen whose lowed guidance echoed above the din.
Flying gracefully at the helm of this charge soared Pegasus, his nostrils flared and his ears flat to his temples in readiness for battle. His immortal fire-breathing mare Equinox lead the attack from the ground, billowing smoke as she broached the stairs three at a time and surged forward.
Azazel perceived the rush and turned on his heel to run for the Pedestal of Omniscience, abandoning Celestial to the trampling onslaught. Nimbus barely had the opportunity to barrel her from harm’s way as pounding hooves made the wide terrace. They rolled to the ground protected by a sturdy pillar. Still, Azazel was fast and would reach his destination first, trailed by the skirmish. He could not get the chance to read the passage from the Book! Pegasus, whose wing span was too large for the Hall, landed at the door, whinnied, stamped his foot and shook his long white mane.
As Nimbus frantically searched his oppositional brain for alternatives, he caught sight of three lightening quick darts spearing down upon Azazel, plumes of ash and jets of fire accosting him as he sprinted closer to the Pedestal by the second. The triad winged foals of Pegasus had arrived with a vengeance, the triplets harrying and swooping over his head, diving to kick with their hooves and pull at his hair and wings with their gnashing teeth. The exchange resulted in a few fruitless mouthfuls of coal feathers. Azazel waved a free hand at them, shooting poorly aimed flashes of crackling electricity back over his head. The charges blackened and charred the frescoed walls raining down chunks of plaster.
“Be careful!” Nimbus was responsible for the peril the reckless young colts now faced. He could not bear the thought of anything happening to them.
The Great Hall filled rapidly with the tumultuous sounds of animals that pressed in on their fleeing quarry. They prevented Azazel’s fraught efforts to open the Book and peel pages from its cover, which grew heavier and more ornate nearer the Pedestal. His focus occupied by the seething horde about him, the black angel was no longer able to expend the mental energy keeping Celestial at bay and she roused from her stupor with a sharp gasp.
“It’s a trap. I’m caught! How could I be so stupid? I’m so sorry Nimbus,” she cried, living in the memory of that moment. No time had passed for Celestial, stuck in limbo on the Chair of Forgetfulness.
Nimbus took her by the shoulders and shook her gently. “Come back to me, Celestial. I need you now!”
She blinked and stared about, seeing clearly for the first time since she was taken. Her eyes went wide as she took in the unfolding mayhem and viewed Azazel’s frenzied efforts to gain the Pedestal, persistently buffeted in a constricting circle of churning animals. Pegasus’s foals harassed from on high, trying unsuccessfully to dislodge the Book from his unwavering grip.
“He has the Book! How could it happen? It’s a copy, surely?”
“No it’s the real deal. We had no option, Celestial,” Nimbus admitted guiltily, fully conscious of the fact that Celestial would not agree and almost welcoming the attendant heated lecture.
“Well,” she said resolutely, (Nimbus thought it highly likely the sermon was merely delayed until later), “let’s get it back! He will be greatly weakened by his stay in the Chamber. He does not belong here. It would have sapped his strength and he cannot draw on the reserves of his own Realm as he has been too far away, for too long.”
Nimbus clapped his forehead, of course! How could he have been so blind?
“We need a distraction,” she said, her eyes rapidly scanning the interior.
“What? You mean aside from stampeding herds and flying fire-breathing horses?” Nimbus asked.
Celestial raised her eyes in an appeal to the Heavens. It really was so good to have her back. If they survived this, Nimbus swore to listen avidly to every word that escaped her mouth, never taking for granted his good fortune again.
“No,” she said patiently, “in addition to. He won’t be expecting me, you he knows about. So, you take the front and keep him occupied and I’ll get the Book while he’s dealing with you.”
“Err, how do I manage to get at him through the whirlpool of bodies?” Nimbus asked, knowing that it was a silly question but unable to pluck the answer from the mass of competing thoughts in his head.
Celestial looked at him, her expression a mixture of exasperation and amusement. “You have wings, don’t you?”
Nimbus would have slapped his own head again at the obviousness of the answer, but like Bacchus, he thought it best not to deprive himself of precious brain cells. His supply was clearly deficient. “Right!”
Celestial nodded encouragingly, and Nimbus sprung into the air, wings whooshing him straight up to the vaulted ceiling. In his peripheral vision from the air he saw her craftily make her way to the front of the hall, almost swimming atop the chest high tide of nature, as they helped her hurdle from back to back.
Nimbus’s offensive unfortunately penned Azazel in with the Pedestal too soon, forcing Equinox to direct her children to stop breathing fire so close to the Book. The Fallen Angel would shortly achieve the upper hand on the raised platform, within a brief calm of confused and densely packed animals, too gridlocked to move. Yet, he would also be preoccupied reading. Nimbus had to time his ambush perfectly to this precise moment of weakness. And height.
He had never truly appreciated just how challenging it was to fly inconspicuously, reduced to gliding awkwardly from column to column and clinging on by wrapping his arms about its thick girth like some ungainly tree-frog. He kept losing altitude with each jump, bringing him closer to the turmoil below than was sensible. Suddenly, Azazel’s form elevated above the throng as he lunged onto the podium having finally fought his way through. He was bloodied and bruised, his silken shift tattered and the crown on his head askew.
He wasted no time thumping the Book down onto the Pedestal, not bothering to clear a trickle of blood oozing his right eye. What pitifully scant light remained in the Chamber dimmed and flickered. Nimbus anxiously clambered higher up his pillar, adjacent to but on the opposite side of Azazel. He needed to go just a little higher to get enough momentum!
Azazel’s mouth opened and the room shook fiercely, knocking Nimbus further down into the animals and weakening him greatly at the same instant. The immense cosmic power that
was usually available to him at a whim was jerked away, leaving his body wracked by never previously experienced pain. Nimbus cried out in agony, his muscles cramped and reflexively let go. He was swept helplessly down towards the heaving bulk, too feeble even to call out to Celestial and warn her that their attempt at saving the Book had failed and infinite doom was upon them.
***
Chapter Eleven
Perdition Road