An Arrow In Flight (Seven Archangels Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Seven Archangels: An Arrow In Flight

  Jane Lebak

  (Untitled)

  A note about the format

  Acknowledgments

  Dedication

  Heartless City

  1415 BC

  Holiday

  1236 BC

  (Untitled)

  (Untitled)

  (Untitled)

  (Untitled)

  Stones

  1015 BC

  (Untitled)

  In Carnation

  973 BC

  Pomegranate

  960 BC

  A Fish Story

  637 BC

  Irin

  614 BC

  Wanderer

  593 BC, Elul 29

  Tishri 1

  Tishri 4

  Tishri 5

  Tishri 6

  Tishri 7

  Tishri 10

  Tishri 11

  Tishri 14

  Shepherd

  Kislev 2

  Kislev 3

  Kislev 4

  Kislev 5

  Schevat 20

  Sin | Commentary

  Adar 16

  Adar 17

  Adar 27

  Nissan 2

  Farmer

  Nissan 5

  Nissan 9

  Nissan 10

  Nissan 22

  Nissan 27

  Iyar 2

  Sivan 6

  Sivan 8

  Sivan 19

  Sivan 20

  Teacher

  Sivan 22

  Sivan 23

  Sivan 27

  Tammuz 4

  Tammuz 18

  Tammuz 27

  Av 15

  Elul

  Elul 26

  Elul 27

  Children In Hell

  576 BC

  The Epilogue

  3 BC

  (Untitled)

  (Untitled)

  Year Eighteen

  Seven Archangels: An Arrow In Flight

  Jane Lebak

  Ever since Adam left the garden, Gabriel has known why humans sometimes act irrationally, and he helps them without hesitation whenever God gives him an assignment. All seven Archangels of the Presence do as much, sometimes even without orders — whether it's redirecting a lovesick princess, encouraging a terrified hero, or dealing with an amulet-wielding old man who's compelling an unlikely service from the angel least likely to give it.

  But after a brutal attack during one assignment, Gabriel starts getting touchy and harder to deal with. The other angels love him, but it's been going on for centuries, and he won't take redirection.

  Then God gives Gabriel an assignment that could result in the destruction of Jerusalem, and Gabriel makes the wrong decision.

  God forces Gabriel out of Heaven. He's got one year now to make things right between him and God, except he can't possibly do enough. He's isolated from the other angels and being propositioned by demons. Even worse, as Gabriel wanders the Earth trying to change others' lives for the better, it's becoming more and more obvious that the one thing he needs to change is the only one he never wanted to risk.

  An Arrow In Flight features each of the seven Archangels of the Presence in their own short stories, from Abraham to the fall of Nineveh, all leading up to a long-story crisis that requires each working in unison to help Gabriel when he doesn't seem to want their help at all.

  Philangelus Press

  Boston, MA USA

  Copyright © 2014, Jane Lebak. All Rights Reserved.

  By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author. So there.

  Cover: C.K. Volnek

  Epub ISBN: 978-1-942133-14-8

  Print version ISBN: 978-1-942133-03-2

  Kindle ASIN: B00PB4I7BY

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2014955901

  Also in this series:

  Sacred Cups

  Shattered Walls

  The Wrong Enemy

  Seven Archangels: Annihilation

  A note about the format

  The story of a nation, two species, and several centuries is going to spread out a bit differently than the story of an angel struggling to deal with a huge mistake or a team of angels fighting to save a kidnapped comrade. In Arrow, each of the seven Archangels of the Presence will have his or her own story as they work through salvation history. After each has had his spotlight, we'll begin the main story, the one driving all the rest. At the end, you'll get one more short story with everyone working together.

  It's not the usual format for a novel, but I hope you'll find it's fun to spend a little solo time with each angel.

  Acknowledgments

  I wrote the first draft of this book in 1992, and I rewrote it about every five years until it stopped feeling not-quite-right. I have no idea how many people I've consulted, subjected to early drafts, or otherwise relied upon. Some of the chapters were workshopped in college and grad school or local writing groups, and I don't remember the names of all my classmates. I'm sorry. It's a problem of chronological sprawl.

  Back in high school, I used to spend lunch breaks in the school library reading Gustav Davidson's "Dictionary of Angels." It was amazing to sort through all the myths and stories, but the book was out of print and I couldn't find a copy. Right before graduation, the librarian Arthur Stein handed me a copy he'd tracked down in a used book store. I especially want to thank him because having my own copy was an incredible inspiration.

  While putting the finishing touches on "A Fish Story," by accident I found an article in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Geoff Miler's "Raphael the Liar: Angelic Deceit And Testing In The Book Of Tobit" and it helped clarify some of what I'd been working with in the story.

  Also, much thanks to the prophet Ezekiel, who in 16:49 spelled out the sin of Sodom (yes, some have scolded that I softened it for this story, but no, Gabriel's quoting the Bible and trying to be very delicate about it). Ezekiel also recounted the vision of the wheels of the Cherubim in chapter 10. Where yeah, Gabriel does exactly what this story said he did.

  Of my pre-readers I remember, in no particular order, I want to thank Maria Franzetti, Kenneth Elwood, Pauline Griffin, James Lebak, Ivy Reisner, Wendy Dinsmore, Kaci Hill, Sarah Begg, Evan and Madeline, Nicole Grimes and Liz Grimes.

  I want to thank my fans and followers who have offered me encouragement all the way through. I love hearing from you guys, and I hope you love this book too.

  Dedication

  To my mother, Maria Franzetti, who always encouraged my writing and saw the best in me.

  Heartless City

  1415 BC

  Three figures stood on the road with their backs to the sun, but only two cast shadows. Cattle clustered in the distance, their caretakers watching from the slanting shade of the terebinth trees, and even further beyond were sheep with their shepherds. At the crest of the hill before them, birds circled the gates of a walled city where even the land seemed to fall silent. Each mudbrick structure stood washed with flares of sunset that gave a burnt illumination to the little metropolis.

  In a pitch between tenor and soprano, one of the two shadow-casters spoke like a dreamer. "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see what t
hey have done. If it is bad as the outcry, I will know."

  It was a perfect reproduction of God's voice even though none of the three were present when God spoke to Abraham. The speaker studied the city with simultaneous pity and revulsion flickering over her grey eyes. She ran one hand through blond hair emblazoned by the sunset.

  Momentarily, the Cherub Gabriel continued in a more solid voice, "Abraham has asked for mercy, and God made an agreement. If we find ten righteous people in the city, we're to spare it."

  Michael looked cautious. "That many? All but four were abandoned by their guardian angels."

  Gabriel shook her head. An hour ago, she and Michael had been angels, two of the Seven directly before God. The Lord's touch had transformed them into humans for the day, but some of their origin showed. Gabriel seemed to brush against the ground without actually resting on it.

  The only one not in human form, Raphael said, "You'll go as a woman?"

  "I see no reason to change my apparent gender." Gabriel gave a perfectly balanced smile. "I've remained female since God created me, and I'm comfortable this way."

  "Part of the report to God was that Sodomite men take advantage of women," said Michael.

  "According to the report," replied Gabriel, "they take advantage of men, too. I'll be fine."

  An unease crossed Michael's face as he folded his arms. He and Gabriel were obviously outsiders: with her blond hair, pale eyes and fine features, she looked like a northerner; Michael had a warrior's build and a square jaw, but his auburn hair and blue eyes gave him a striking appearance. God could have put them in Semitic bodies for the mission; Michael wasn't sure why He hadn't.

  Raphael whistled to a bird, which called back from its bush.

  Michael kept his head down. "I know God wants us to do this, but it goes against common sense. The whole city stinks of evil. Why not call Lot and his family away without going inside?"

  Gabriel nodded. "As far as I understand, our presence will evoke their true natures."

  Raphael kept his brown eyes trained on the hawk. "You're their last test."

  Gabriel traced the flight of a honeybee before locating its hive in a tree a mile distant. "It would be unjust to condemn someone based on foreknowledge of events which won't occur. We'll go into the city and offer them a final test, and that will solidify them one way or the other."

  Darkness shrouded Michael's eyes. He might have been a housewife finding bugs in the bread.

  "I'd go instead if God let me," said Raphael.

  "I'll obey," Michael said. "That wasn't an issue."

  Michael and Gabriel proceeded on foot, Raphael on wings behind. "How did it get this bad?" Michael said. "I understood the Flood, but that was everyone. How can only two cities deserve destruction?"

  Gabriel stayed toward the center of the road as they ascended the hill, but despite her silence, the information flowed into Michael as though she had spoken: Sodom started out clannish, and it prospered due to the trade routes. Over time the residents had stratified, either the comfortable rich or else the very, very poor who worked as servants or slaves.

  She stepped around a puddle, paused at a snake sunning himself, and then looked up at Michael. "The economics don't allow for any meeting in the middle. Everyone has gotten so hidebound that they see one another as useful rather than as people. This distortion extends to their interpersonal relationships as well, thus the more sexual particulars of the outcry."

  Michael said, "Is that their big sin?"

  Gabriel's eyes unfocused, and her voice changed in pitch again so she became the mouthpiece of God, pulling words out of time. "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."

  Michael said, "Oh, there's an idea. If we show up as poor and needy, we can urge them to respond with compassion, and then we won't have to destroy the city after all."

  Gabriel's voice returned to normal. "Your assertion is that it's easy to derail an entrenched self-centered focus. That may not be the case. Even if God causes upheaval in their lives in the form of a war, it may no longer be possible here to raise moral children."

  A bee flew across their path, and Gabriel stopped, then followed it with her gaze. "Oh, there you are," she murmured, walking to the rotten trunk where the bees had made their hive. She pressed her hand against the wood, closing her eyes. "Raphael, feel this. They're marvelous."

  Michael glanced at the city and at the setting sun, but Raphael joined Gabriel in a languid and unhurried scan of the tree. "Hundreds of them," she said in a low voice. Workers buzzed out and landed on her, but she breathed over them and they only crawled on her without stinging. "Are you making honey? Do you have a lot of little ones in your comb?"

  Michael checked the sunset again, the length of the shadows. He projected to Gabriel a sense of the time.

  "God put this here so we can learn." Gabriel focused her soft grey eyes on him. "They don't sting when they're not threatened. The people in Sodom must feel threatened. Did you know that if something devastating happened to this hive, so long as there was one worker and one egg remaining, they could form a new hive? The worker could feed royal jelly to the one egg and raise up a new queen. The new queen would lay unfertilized eggs that became drones. The drone would fertilize the queen, and then she'd produce new workers. All that hope from just one worker and one egg. The goal with our test of Sodom should be to bring them that form of hope."

  Michael looked at Raphael. What?

  Look past what she's saying, Raphael said. It's easier to do all this inductive stuff than to think about how horribly these people have behaved and what you're likely to do to them.

  Michael's eyes widened, and he glanced at Gabriel again. She didn't look nervous or grieved but was talking even faster than before. "Did you know if a beehive starves, they all starve at the same time? Individual bees don't hoard honey, just share and share until there's nothing left for any. Sometimes there's even honey remaining, but their wintering cluster only moves up the comb, not sideways, so if they don't break up the cluster, they never find the other honey. Maybe that's what's happening in Sodom. There wasn't enough love and concern left, and when we come, our test will break up their cluster and get them in touch with their own better natures. Then God can reach them."

  She stroked the wood, her hand still covered with bees. "This tree is dead, but it's serving a purpose. Sodom could do the same. It may never have life again, but it can shelter life."

  Michael said, "Gabriel? We need to get up there before dark."

  Gabriel's brows furrowed. "Maybe the human soul is in some ways like a honeybee hive."

  Raphael put a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe it is. Ask God."

  She looked at him sidelong with a smile. "You know God teaches the Cherubim by letting us debate each other."

  "So work with other Cherubim." Raphael glanced at Michael. "I'm a Seraph. Seraphim burn with excitement, so bring me the answers when you discern them, and I'll get excited. But sometimes the process gets a little tedious."

  Gabriel sighed. "Truth exists, and by whittling at the argument, we'll reach it. Absolute truth won't contradict itself, and when we reach that nugget at the core of the argument—"

  "Everyone in Sodom will be a thousand years old?" said Raphael.

  Michael laughed aloud as Gabriel bit back whatever she'd been about to say.

  Raphael added, "I know the word Cherub means fullness of knowledge, and I would never want you to change, but sometimes that's just a little too much fullness for the other eight choirs."

  Michael realized Raphael was exerting calming pressure on the Seraph-Cherub bond he shared with Gabriel, and the words were only the surface of the exchange. Of all the choirs, only Seraphim and Cherubim bonded, probably because of their differing intensities and the ways they added to each what the other was lacking.

  Michael said. "Leave the bees. It's too close to sunset."

  Gabriel ble
w on her hand, and the bees frothed up, then returned to their hive.

  When they reached the city's unmanned gates, Gabriel's eyes probed the empty nooks that should have had guards.

  "They aren't afraid of intruders." Michael kept his voice low. "Reputation guards them."

  Gabriel turned to Raphael, her eyes wider. "Are you sure you can't come with us?"

  "I'm sorry." The Seraph's visage darkened. "I asked again. God refused."

  Still scanning the city, Michael nodded. "You'd do best to pray for a conversion. We need six."

  "What about Gomorrah?"

  Gabriel shook her head. "If God judges against Sodom, we'll burn Gomorrah too."

  Raphael extended the tips of his wings toward Gabriel and Michael in a blessing, then flashed away, transported like a thought.

  Gabriel watched the place where Raphael had vanished, then sidled closer Michael.

  "I'm with you," Michael said. "What can they do to angels?"

  The Cherub crossed her wrists at chest height and closed her eyes: They can make us witness evil.

  They entered the city and made their way toward the center square. What few people remained entered houses as the streets continued darkening. Reflected light produced horizontal trip-wires between buildings.