An Arrow In Flight (Seven Archangels Book 1) Page 7

  Beside Michael, Gabriel ran his fingers through his feathers. "I was in contact with that idol for the whole day. I need to purify myself. " He glanced at the heap of wood and former scaffolding. "They did a marvelous rescue job. I'm impressed."

  "Thanks for the help."

  Gabriel shrugged. "It was obvious once you realized three of the beams bore the majority of the weight. Oh, here it goes."

  As the man sat up, the woman—old enough to be his mother—reached under his tunic and pulled free the thong with the Ashera charm. "Thank you," she wailed, and kissed it.

  Michael flinched. I'm sorry. Thank you for letting us save him anyway.

  In his heart, God said, Wait.

  The man pulled back from the woman, and he yanked the charm off his neck. "This didn't save me! The God of Israel saved me!"

  The woman gasped, closing her hand over the idol. "But—"

  "The Lord our God, the Lord is one." The man's eyes watered. "I have sinned against him with idols, but he saved me anyhow."

  The man's guardian cheered.

  Michael grinned. Thank you!

  God said, Thank you for advocating for him. He needed a chance.

  Gabriel bowed his head and clasped his hands before his chest. Thank you for saving him. I apologize. I judged too hastily.

  The man crushed the idol beneath his heel, then leaned on one of the other workmen to hobble away from the building site.

  Cleanup continued until sundown, when the men left. Gabriel pulled the pomegranate out of the wall and as he sat back on the top with Michael, he said, "Oh, I forgot to mention something."

  Michael turned to him just as the wood pile creaked and twisted, and then with a bang that resounded off the sky, a log cracked. The pile collapsed further.

  "It's not stable anymore. But no one's around. It should finish settling overnight." As a log finished rolling to the opposite wall, Gabriel held up the fruit in the moonlight. "Why did you give me this?"

  Michael said, "God told me to give it to you."

  Gabriel cocked his head. "Why?"

  God replied, I wanted you to learn about it.

  Michael chuckled. "You talked about pomegranates for that long, and there's something you didn't know?"

  Gabriel looked puzzled, so he turned it over in his hand, turned it around again, lit it up from the inside out. As Michael watched, Gabriel illuminated various parts of the fruit, traced the cellulose structure of the pulp, felt through the living parts of the seeds, then shook his head. "What am I missing?"

  The moon rose. Gabriel focused on his open hand so his sword appeared, and then he shortened it to a knife blade. He made himself solid enough to slice into the fruit. Juice gushed onto his hands and clothes, but Gabriel concentrated until it vanished. Nestled in the white pulp were fruity pips, each bearing a seed.

  He ran his fingertip over the pips to loosen them, and then he popped one into his mouth.

  Eyes wide, he turned to Michael. "It's sweet! Sweet…and bitter."

  He pulled out more and tasted them again, then handed half the fruit to Michael. As Michael tasted them, Gabriel closed his eyes, and in the next moment Raphael appeared. "Try this!" Gabriel broke off a part of the fruit and gave it to him. "They're sweet and bitter together! I had no idea!"

  At Michael's side, Gabriel closed his eyes. Thank you, Michael felt him praying. Thank you for fruit, and for knowing about fruit.

  Thank you, God said in reply. Thank you for learning.

  A Fish Story

  637 BC

  Tapping her foot, Sarah held up half a broken dish. "This is the fourth time this month, Rebecca."

  The maid scowled as she got a whisk broom for the other pieces. "At least it's only my fourth time."

  Sarah dropped the pottery on the table. "What?" And when the maid didn't answer, "What did you say?"

  The maid kept sweeping the pieces. "You know what I mean. You're the one who strangles your husbands. Married seven times, but you haven't kept even one. Good men, fellow exiles from Israel here in Nineveh's territory – it's not as if we have thousands of them, or as if you're killing Nineveh men. By comparison, what's breaking a dish? Your husbands are dead—and you should join them!"

  Sarah stood motionless even as the other servants stared. Then like a slingshot, she pivoted and raced to her room.

  Sarah's feet pounded her intentions in rhythm: I'll hang myself, I'll hang myself, there's nothing left worth living for.

  "Come to me." Ghosting her was the demon Asmodeus, crooning inaudibly. "Come to me."

  Sarah's guardian angel couldn't block out the demon's call, but he prayed. As Sarah reached her room, Uriel appeared in purple fire, a flurry of silk garments and six lavender wings.

  Unable to see the angels, the woman barricaded the door. Her guardian dropped to his knees, praying, but Uriel reached out to block Asmodeus's will, locking down the demon so Sarah could make a free choice. Sarah heard neither, twisting her belt into a noose.

  "God's forgotten you," said Asmodeus. "He's let seven husbands die and lets you be a shame to all Israel."

  Sarah tested the knot and looked for a place to fasten it.

  "Sarah," said Uriel with a very level glance and voice, "people will level this insult against your father: 'He had a daughter, but she hanged herself for ill fortune.' You'll cause your father in his old age to depart to Sheol in grief. It's far better for you not to hang yourself."

  Sarah took a breath and set down the noose. "No, I can't. People will insult my father, and he'd depart to Sheol in grief. It's far better for me to beg the Lord to have me die."

  The guardian angel looked up through his tears.

  Uriel regarded Sarah at the windowsill; facing the Holy Land, she leaned on her hands.

  Asmodeus' eyes glinted, staking out his territory. He couldn't touch her now, not during her prayer, but he had all the time in the world.

  The Throne departed.

  Directly before God, Uriel lay prostrate and remained motionless until the Most High asked the Throne to rise. Uriel knit prayerful hands and waited with wide eyes. Then a smile dawned on the angel's features.

  - + -

  Raphael and Gabriel arrived as one before the Most High. "Ready, Lord," said Raphael.

  "Two prayers will arrive now," said Gabriel in a pitch between tenor and soprano. "Receive and present them."

  Gabriel's employment as God's mouthpiece brought no reaction from Raphael other than a nod for the Cherub to continue.

  "This comes from Sarah, daughter of the exile Raguel of the tribe of Naphtali."

  Raphael closed his eyes, simultaneously receiving and presenting her prayer:

  Blessed are you, O Lord, my God!

  Forever blessed and honored is your holy name:

  Oh Lord, bid me to depart from the earth,

  never again to hear such insults.

  O Master, I am innocent, and I've never defiled my own name

  Or my father's name in this land of exile.

  I've lost seven husbands: seven good men.

  Why should I live?

  "You can't mean me to kill her?" Raphael said. "Can I find her another husband? What do you want me to do?"

  Gabriel brushed his wings by Raphael's, and he drew down the Seraphic fire.

  "You'll help her," said Gabriel in God's voice. "She's obsessed by the demon Asmodeus because he thinks he loves her." He added in his own, "There's a second prayer coming, from someone else."

  Raphael channeled the second prayer, this one with an older feel and a different voice:

  All your ways are mercy and truth, O Lord,

  You are the judge of the world.

  And now, look with favor upon me.

  Punish me not for my sins,

  Nor for those of my fathers.

  So now, command my life's breath to be taken from me

  That I may go from the face of the Earth into dust.

  It is better for me to die than to live

  Be
cause I have heard many insults

  And am overwhelmed with grief.

  Lord, refuse me not.

  "But—why?" asked Raphael. "Why two at once?"

  "Lack of faith." Gabriel shrugged. "I don't understand it either."

  God said, "The second prayer belongs to Tobit, another exile of Naphtali living in Nineveh. He's become blind after many years of faithful service to me."

  "You must remember him," Gabriel said, projecting a list of details into Raphael's head. "He's the one who used to bury the dead even when the Ninevites warned him not to."

  Raphael frowned. Of course Gabriel would recall the location and the dates, but Raphael remembered the heat, the misery of the Israelites kidnapped by Nineveh and deported en masse to another country, the grief of the onlookers who longed to bury the dead but longed even more not to be noticed by their captors.

  "Tobit's fortune failed him, and now he's living on the charity of his relations." Gabriel shook his head. "And he's just had a spat with his wife, which I suppose makes his situation seem worse."

  Raphael's feathers spread. "Is there a way I can help?"

  "Rapha'li," said God, "you are my healer. Heal them both. Act in whatever way you wish to alleviate the sufferings of Tobit and Sarah, and also, put Tobit to the test. He is a faithful servant, but he can grow more than he has."

  Raphael knelt with his arms crossed over his heart.

  At that moment, Sarah descended from her room, and Tobit left the courtyard where he had prayed.

  - + -

  The sun-baked earth shimmered while a figure who cast no shadow waited beside a stand of trees. A second figure appeared shortly.

  "This is going to be an interesting assignment. Thank you for letting me come with you." Gabriel grinned, and Raphael could feel Gabriel's mind turning over the pair of problems and all the various wild cards. "Tobit believes God's going to answer his prayer with death, so he's cramming as much as he can into one final sermon to his son Tobias about duties toward his mother, practicing virtue and avoiding evil, almsgiving and charity, proper marriage, industry, prompt payment of wages, temperance, and prayer . . . among others."

  Raphael chuckled. "In other words—"

  Gabriel finished, "—everything he should have said long before."

  "But he lived it," Raphael said. "His faith is failing now, but he knows God blesses His people."

  "That's true," said Gabriel. "The way Tobias is listening, I think he'll make you a good pupil."

  Raphael probed Gabriel with amused eyes, but Gabriel only fingered one of his primary feathers. "This morning Tobit remembered the money he left with his relative Gabelus in Rages. He's happier now thinking he'll leave a wealthy widow and son."

  Raphael huffed. "They'd rather have him than the money."

  "Maybe you can tell him that." Gabriel's eyes unfocused as he probed through the walls. "Tobias says he doesn't know how to get to Rages."

  Raphael could have done all the information-gathering on his own, but it felt right for his Cherub to do it, and he enjoyed the feel of Gabriel planning and re-planning even as Raphael knew instinctively what he wanted to do. "That's easy. I'll just offer my services as a guide."

  Gabriel nodded. "I figured you would."

  You'll put me in a human form? Raphael asked, and God agreed.

  Gabriel sparkled. "Good. I wonder what you'll look like?"

  Raphael said, "I wonder what I'll call myself."

  "'Oh, I have the perfect name for you: Raphael.'" Gabriel nodded. "God Heals is a very solid name. It says what you are."

  "Yes—an archangel of the Presence." Raphael shook his head. "I'd rather they think I'm human."

  Gabriel flinched "They don't treat other humans very nicely."

  "I can't have them thinking I'm a god."

  Gabriel choked. Then, "No, of course not. But you can still use your God-given name."

  "Which they'll recognize."

  "They aren't that smart." Gabriel chuckled. "Besides, isn't the man you're going to see in Rages named Raguel, brother of Gabri? You'll fit right in."

  Raphael withdrew his heart from the vibrations coming from Gabriel, vibrations too sharp and angry. "I can't have them following my orders just because they think they're disobeying God if they don't. God told me to test Tobit. So, no. I can't be an angel. Besides, no one's going to notice a human name." Raphael's nose wrinkled. "Why are you arguing with me?"

  "Because I'll notice." Gabriel glared into the sunlight. "And it's not just the name, is it? Once you make up a name, you're going to need a lineage and credentials, and that's more lies to cover up the first. They'll want to know things that happened in your past. You'll be in major trouble if Tobit starts quizzing you about who, what and when. Where do the lies stop?"

  With a feeling like a thump, Raphael found himself a solid man.

  Tobias the younger stepped out of his doorway and squinted in the dry light of the Nineveh desert. He was sixteen, angular and a little too tall for his own body. He took a few steps with his eyes adjusting and bumped into Raphael, who was still trying to figure out what he was.

  Tobias blinked at Raphael before asking, "Who are you?"

  "An Israelite," said Raphael. "I've come to find work."

  Tobias squinted upward at Raphael, who realized just then how tall he was in human form. "We're looking to hire someone," said the young man. "Do you know the way to Media?"

  "Oh, I know the place well." Raphael turned to hide his smile, staring off to the east as though he could see Media from where he stood. Gabriel floated on the periphery of his consciousness. "I used to stay with my kinsman Gabelus, who lives at Rages. It's about a two day journey, in the mountains."

  Tobias gaped. Raphael flashed him a smile.

  "Wait right here," Tobias stammered. "You might be just what we want."

  Raphael looked up at the sun as if checking the time. "Okay. But don't be long."

  Tobias flew into the house.

  Arms folded, Gabriel appeared in front of him. "I had no idea you have a kinsman in Rages. Second cousin, is he?"

  Raphael shook his head. "Has anyone ever said you have a hang-up?"

  Gabriel huffed.

  "You have a hang-up."

  "And let's see: a two-day journey? On foot?" Gabriel opened his hands. "Plus, Ecbatana isn't in the mountains. We're in the mountains right now, but you'll be going downhill."

  Raphael said, "I know that. I want to see what will happen."

  "What will happen is he'll decide you're a liar and that's the end of your assignment."

  Tobias stuck his head outside. "Please come to speak with my father."

  Raphael entered, Tobias before and an invisible Gabriel behind.

  Tobit's room was dark and dusty the way the room of a blind man might become. Tobias said, "Father, he's here."

  "Joy to you," said Raphael.

  "What joy is left for me?" said Tobit. "Here I am, a blind man who can't see God's sunlight but have to remain in darkness. Even though I'm alive, I'm among the dead because I can hear a man's voice, but I can't see him."

  Not exactly the life of the party, thought Raphael to Gabriel, but the Cherub didn't relax. Raphael said, "Take courage. God has his healing in store for you."

  Gabriel glared sideways at the Seraph. "You can't avoid inserting your name, can you, Rapha'el?"

  Tobit remained gloomy. "My son Tobias has to go to Rages, in Media. Can you go with him? We'll pay you."

  "I can go with him," said Raphael. "I know all the routes. I've traveled to Rages and crossed all the plains and mountains. I know every road well."

  Gabriel said, "And here comes the cross-examination."

  But instead of a quiz about which roads he'd take, Tobit said, "Tell me whose family and tribe you're from."

  Gabriel bristled.

  Raphael glanced at Gabriel. "Why? Do you want a tribe and a family? Or are you looking for a hired man to travel with your son?"

  Gabriel's approval su
rged through him.

  Tobit's mouth tightened. "I wish to know truthfully whose son you are, and what your name is. I'm entrusting my son to you."

  With a flare of disgust, Gabriel vanished. Raphael braced himself. "I'm Azariah, son of Hananiah the elder."

  Tobit exclaimed, "God save you, brother!" A series of strange chills curled along Raphael's spirit, not at all unpleasant. "Don't be upset with me for wanting to learn the truth about you. You're one of my own kinsmen! Your father and I used to make the pilgrimage together to Jerusalem. A good lineage. Welcome!"

  And then, despite Gabriel's predictions about getting cross-examined, no more questions came, not even, "So how is your father?" The old man beamed, his sightless eyes wrinkling as he told Raphael about the money he'd be retrieving. He finished with, "For each day you travel, I'll pay the normal wages. Perhaps I'll even give you a bonus."

  "It's a deal," said Raphael. "Don't worry about your son. We're leaving in good health, and in good health we'll return to you."

  - + -

  Gabriel sat on a rock. Michael stood beside him, the lowest leaves of a cedar touching his hair.

  "He's sorry you're upset," said Michael.

  "You say that as though I can't detect what he thinks." Gabriel nudged the ground with his foot. "He shouldn't have lied."

  Michael said, "But God gave him permission."

  "It's a compromise of his integrity: that's the name game." Gabriel looked bleak. "Yes, prevarication gets the job done, but maybe honesty and not deception would do the job better."

  Michael didn't respond.

  Gabriel spoke almost to himself. "God should have reminded Raphael distortion was wrong. But it's not really wrong, either. It's grey."

  Raphael appeared. "You're grey too."

  Gabriel glared at the ground. "Grey of wing isn't grey of soul."

  Michael stepped backward.

  "Stay." Raphael reached toward Michael. "Will the pair of you be around for the journey?"

  Michael shook his head. "I'll catch up when you confront Asmodeus, but before then, call if you need me."