“This is incredible!” I yelled over the wind. My hair whipped around wildly, and Lilith’s dark tresses flicked across my arms and neck as she turned to grin at me.
“This is nothing! Watch this!” She leaned forward, shouting something into the ear of the lion head. With a roar, Furcifer lunged forward through the air. I wrapped my arms around Lilith’s waist, holding on for dear life as he beat his powerful wings and climbed higher. Around us, dark purple clouds started to form, and I gasped as a jagged dart of green lightning crashed through the air, hitting the desert far below. Blue electricity began to run over his body, and I felt the tingle through my skin.
The wind seemed to pick up as the clouds grew thicker, and as the next flash of lightning cracked through the violet sky, I heard Lilith laugh with pure joy. I tipped my head back, feeling my hair stream out behind me, and closed my eyes, relishing the energy rushing through my body.
“Let go, Faith!” Lilith called over her shoulder, and I opened my eyes to find her watching me. I didn’t stop to think, I just released my grip on her and spread my wings. The air current caught me, flinging me backwards off the chimera’s back, and suddenly, I was airborne, riding the currents with him. He turned to face me and released a loud roar, but it was playful, and I screamed back at him as the green lightning lit us both up. He turned and darted into the cloud, and I gave chase.
I pursued him through the sky, dodging the bolts that flickered past me, now in a rainbow of colours, illuminating the clouds, and he led me on a merry chase, darting here and there while Lilith laughed at his joy of having a playmate that could keep pace with him. The tables turned, and I became the hunted as this immense beast roared his challenge and came after me. I plunged through the clouds like an arrow, Furcifer close on my heels. As the clouds broke below, we emerged over jagged steel and ebony mountain peaks. I dropped into their cover, zigzagging back and forth between the dark spires of rock.
The sky went quiet behind me, and I came to a hover near a high pinnacle of stone, listening for my pursuer. Other than the crackle of electricity in the cloud above me, the air was silent. The energy in the clouds seemed to hum all around me, and I felt a buzz in my body that mirrored it. Holding my hand out in front of me, I spread my fingers and stared at my palm as I pictured the buzz I felt solidifying and becoming whole in my hand. My hand grew hotter, and my eyes widened as sparks began to lift from my skin, coming together in the centre of my palm to form a tiny ball of crackling energy that glowed blue. I was so enraptured by what I had managed to create that I didn’t notice Furcifer’s approach until his dark shadow fell across me.
I glanced up at the last minute to see his great lion head inches from my own and shrieked, throwing my hands up in surprise. The small energy ball flew from my hands and into the clouds, and with a roar, he swung around and darted after it. It fizzled out and he turned, looking so disappointed that I laughed. Concentrating on my hands, I tried to form another. The first two fizzled out after an initial spark, but then the third flared up, and I flung it away again. He chased after it, and I sent a second dancing after him. He turned around and around, trying to catch them both, and I heard Lilith’s laughter. A memory of Amadi and his blue fireballs flashed across my memory with a brief pang of sadness. I forced the feeling away, focusing again on the energy in my hands, this time increasing the size as I pulled the electricity from the air surrounding us. It took more effort, but this time the orb was the size of a tennis ball, and it flew faster and farther as Furcifer chased it down. His great paw flicked at it, and it went out with a fizzling sound. He spun around, and I sent another and another. I was tired, but it was fun, and I was enjoying my new ability.
Finally, I spread my arms wide. “Sorry, Furcifer, I’m done!” My body felt drained, but I could feel the buzz of energy through me. I closed my eyes, tipped my head back, and took a deep breath, trying to direct the remaining energy back out into the storm.
A slight hiss was all the warning I got before something scaled and strong wrapped around my ankle and dragged me down in a rush of air. Furcifer came to a halt, landing with a thud on a rocky platform not far below. His snake head tail pulled me down with such force, that even though I landed on my feet, I immediately fell to my knees. A loud rumbling noise made me look up, and I saw his golden eyes inches from mine. Hot air blew into my face, and I realised the rumbling noise was coming from him. It dawned on me that he was either purring or laughing, and I grinned, standing up to face him.
He head-butted me in the chest, rubbing against me like the giant cat that at least part of him was, and I pet his head with both hands, trying to regain my breath and not get knocked over by the force of his affection. Lilith slipped off Furcifer’s back and walked over to me.
“This is as far as Furcifer will go. We need to go the rest of the way on our own, but he’ll wait for us here.”
I nodded and gave him one last head rub before stepping back and pulling in my wings. At the rear of the platform, a large cave opened into the mountainside, and Lilith headed towards it.
“Knew it,” I muttered to myself. “Why are there always caves?” We weren’t even inside yet, and I already felt like the walls were closing in on me.
“Do you know, thousands of years ago, caves were thought of as entrances to the womb of the Great Mother, the goddess who gave birth to us all?” Lilith commented as we stepped through the opening.
“That’s not a particularly comforting thought, especially considering what happened to her,” I replied, feeling my way along the cave wall and trying not to think of what happened last time I thought it would be a good idea to go underground. The walls were dry but broken, and the sharp edges scraped across my skin.
“Here. I forgot you can’t see in the dark yet.” White light flared, and a small, fiery ball of white flames danced in Lilith’s hands, illuminating her face and mine.
“I thought you were human,” I said.
She smiled. “I started as a human, but the consequence of growing and birthing demons had effects on me, some of which have given me certain abilities. This particular one often comes in useful.”
She turned, and we began to make our way deeper into the cavern. It was fairly spacious, and glancing down, I saw that the cave floor had been paved. A thick layer of dust lay on top, bearing only Lilith’s tiny footprints. As we moved deeper, the claustrophobic feeling increased. Despite the fact that the walls, although rough and jagged in places, had no other tunnels leading out of them, I had the horrible, creepy feeling that we were being watched every step of the way.
“Lilith, where are we going?” I asked, too creeped out to remember she was an ancient queen and we probably weren’t on a first-name basis until I opened my mouth. She either didn’t notice or didn’t care, because all she did was gesture in front of us. Another hundred or so metres away, the cave walls converged into a dead end, except for one small archway.
I swallowed, feeling nauseous. “We’re going through there?” I wanted to add, “Do we really have to?” but I bit my lip and said nothing.
About twenty metres away, she paused and turned to me. “I want to prepare you. Once we pass that door, things will get a little dicey.”
I stared at her. “What do you mean dicey?”
“That feeling you have, that dark, creepy feeling? It’s coming from behind that doorway. The stone keeps most of it at bay, but a little leaks through the archway. Once through it, it’s going to feel a lot worse, but I know you’ll handle it.”
“This is why Furcifer wouldn’t come any farther,” I mused, completely understanding and sharing his stance.
Lilith nodded and turned forward, continuing towards the archway. “Well, yes, that and then there’s Medra.”
“Who’s Medra?” I questioned, hurrying to keep up with her.
“She guards the gates,” Lilith replied and disappeared under the archway.
“Of course she does,” I muttered, and with one last look back at the rather far away cave entrance, I took a breath and stepped through the opening.
“Holy shit!” I breathed, freezing in place. Lilith had sent her floating light ball all the way up to the top of the cavern, and it threw everything into sharp relief. The platform we stood on was no bigger than Cas’s living room. Walkways carved into the stone walls branched off left and right, the narrow paths having no guard rail or rope to protect you from falling into the pit below. It must have been several stories deep, and my feet tingled at the feeling of being so high up. In front of us, a wide stone road sloped down to the bottom where an enormous dark circular space lay in front of massive stone statutes. Two colossal angels were carved into the rock walls, their feet at the lowest point and their heads level with where we stood. Their wings spread across the cave walls, and their arms were stretched towards each other.
“Where are we?” I whispered. She had been right, the feeling I’d had of being watched and studied had increased, and I felt like I was blindfolded in a room full of people that I knew were there but couldn’t see. I felt sick to my stomach.
“The gates of Tartarus,” Lilith murmured, staring down into the dark abyss at the bottom of the slope.
“What?” I looked back at the statues and saw the long, dark divide down the cave wall halfway between them. I realised the statues were carved to look as though they were holding the gates shut, and I shivered. The dark energy that radiated out of this place made me want to turn and run.
“Come on. Stay close to me and keep very quiet or you’ll wake her up.” Lilith continued to look into the darkness of the pit below, but she held out her hand for me.
“Wake who?” I took her small hand in mine, and we started down the slope.
“Medra, of course.”
“What happens if she wakes? Will she try to kill us?” I queried, the feeling of dread growing even more intense.
“Probably, but she’ll stop when she sees it’s me,” Lilith answered, her voice sounding distant.
“So then why don’t we want to wake her if she’s not much of a threat?” I whispered.
Lilith looked at me. “Because she gets cranky and might kill us by accident.”
“Oh.” Obviously.
We moved forward and dropped into the shadows below the light cast by Lilith’s light ball. My unease grew, and Lilith must have sensed it, because she looked up and the ball of light dropped lower, revealing the very bottom of the pit. I gasped out loud, earning myself a glare from Lilith.
Not two hundred metres from us, Medra lay sleeping. She was curled up, so it was difficult to guess her true size, but I figured she might easily be able to reach the roof of the immense cavern with one of her many gigantic snake heads when straightened out.
“Another chimera?” I whispered to Lilith.
She shook her head and beckoned for me to follow her. As we edged around the creature, I kept my distance as much as possible. “No, Medra is a hydra. They are truly amazing creatures. I have many daughters like her, but she is the biggest.” She sighed. “It broke my heart to imprison her down here.”
“Why did you imprison her?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the sleeping monster for a second, even as we rounded her huge form and stood before the gates.
“We needed a guard for the gates. Medra was a good choice. Nothing has ever got past her.” She smiled proudly, and without thinking, I blurted out, “Well, except us right now, and Shemyaza escaped, but other than that, she’s grand!”
Lilith turned piercing eyes on me, and the force of her annoyance made me look away. “Shemyaza escaped, yes, but his physical body did not. Somehow, he was able to free himself of it and escape in spirit form. Medra is a physical guard, she cannot subdue spirits. And as for getting past her, look behind you.”
I turned, and my blood ran cold. Silently, the monstrous form of Lilith’s daughter rose behind me, and several pairs of slitted green eyes stared down from giant swaying heads. I hoped to all the gods that Cas was right and we could trust Lilith, because otherwise I was about to be giant snake food.
I stepped back, closer to Lilith, who laughed coldly. “Medra may sleep, but she has incredible hearing, and no footsteps, however light, or whisper, however quiet, can escape her notice.”
“But you said…”
Lilith’s eyes narrowed. “I wanted you to know, to witness, that Shemyaza’s escape was not any fault of ours. Our guard has been relentless and unwavering.” Her gaze pierced mine, and for a moment, I was reminded of Sam’s aunt in the Black Forest. I realised I was being tested again, and I met her gaze head-on.
“As impressive a guard as Medra is, Shemyaza still got past her. We need to know how he got out. Deliah told me there were two hundred watchers, plus many of their offspring, trapped in Tartarus. If they are all as strong as Shemyaza, we can’t afford any more escapes. What if they all got out? I can’t imagine they’d be very happy.”
Lilith sighed. “You’re right, of course. And yes, it would be devastating for any more watchers to escape.” She turned and stared at the gates, reaching her hand out but not quite touching the stone, as if she were afraid of even that small contact. “Look…”
I looked where her fingertips almost brushed the stone, and then I saw it—fine cracks snaking their way through the dark stone, often following the elaborate carvings and making them almost indiscernible.
“A weakness,” I breathed, looking up at Lilith in horror.
She stared back at me, her dark eyes wide in her pale face. “But he sealed them. He sealed the gates.”
“Who? Samael?”
“No, no. Some time back, I guess, a couple of millennia maybe, there was a mortal who died on Earth. He was executed, murdered by his own people. He was sent to Earth by God. His grip on mankind was loosening, fear was abating, and the stories people told of His wrath were now just fables. He created a being, born of humans but with the soul of an angel.”
“A nephilim?” I guessed, stunned. “God created a nephilim himself?”
She shook her head. “No, not nephilim. Nephilim were born from the darkest sin, from lust and turning from God. It was never the mixing of races that offended God, it was the act of turning from Him and what He said was right, of choosing another over Him, of loving another more than Him. It was defiance. This man, he was created by God to do his bidding. He was sent to be a king, to rule over all humans as God’s representative on Earth. Except he didn’t. He was raised by humans, and he learned what real love was—love for your family, friends, other human beings. He couldn’t bear to spread the punishments he had been sent to impose, and instead he wandered the lands speaking about love.”
This was starting to sound rather familiar. “Are you talking about Jesus?”
She nodded. “Yeshua? Yes. It didn’t take long for God to influence enough people to send him to a torturous death. He died in agony, abandoned by his father, still trying to explain to people that they just needed to love one another, regardless of their differences. It was just a shame his father never learnt that lesson. Anyway, Yeshua’s soul came down to Sheol for judgement, and the moment it fell, Sheol was rocked by huge storms. They raged for three days and nights, never letting up. Thunder, lightning, and earthquakes shook the cities unlike anything I have ever seen before. Afraid of the damage the storms were causing, Samael came down here to inspect the gates and found them cracked and battered, but still holding—just. Yeshua appeared at his side and sealed the gates with objects of great power before returning to Pandaemonium for judgement.”
She pointed to the centre of the gates and stepped back. My gaze ran up the length of the divide and stopped not far above my head, where it was covered by a large plank of wood crossed by another. The wood was old, but it emanated strength. There were depressions carved into it, a wide circle, a triangle shape, and something that reminded me of an hourglass.
I took a deep shuddering breath, stepping back a little to get a better view. “Lilith, is that a cross?”
She nodded. “It is the cross. The relics on Earth are fakes. It was brought down here after the crucifixion to seal the gates, as were the other relics. Mahazael deemed that he had a pure soul and gave him the physical body of an angel so that he might ascend to Heaven, but instead, Yeshua returned to Earth, taking the relics, the keys to the gates, with him. I have no idea what he did there, but we never saw him again.”
I frowned, trying to get my head around it all. “So God would have allowed Jes—Yeshua back into Heaven, even though he had betrayed him? That doesn’t make sense.”
Lilith shrugged. “I don’t know. We never saw him again, and I’ve never heard any substantiated rumours of him still being on Earth, so I assume so. But he definitely sealed the gates, and the cracks were closed up—at least, we thought they were.”
I moved closer to the gates, studying the cracks intently. “Maybe he couldn’t seal them all the way. Maybe he didn’t think he needed to.” I traced one of the cracks with a fingertip. “Ouch!” I jerked my hand back at the scalding heat that scorched my skin and stuck my finger into my mouth.
“What is it?” Lilith asked, taking my hand. I held my finger up for her to see the angry burn mark on the end of my finger. She turned and tentatively pressed one of her own digits to the stone. “It’s cold. Maybe the crack…” Her finger drifted to the nearest hairline fracture, and before she even touched it, she snatched her hand away just as I had.
“If heat can escape,” I murmured, “more of them could, just as Shemyaza did.”
“Sheol will be overrun,” Lilith said slowly, her pale face growing even whiter.
“I thought there were only two hundred.”
She turned to me. “Two hundred watchers, each spawning a great many children who then spawned their own. God sent a worldwide flood to cleanse the Earth of the nephilim that were left over from the battles and bloodshed. How many do you think were imprisoned here? Hundreds of thousands, Faith!”
My mouth dropped open. “Hundreds of thousands?”
“And they kept their physical bodies so they could be subjected to physical pain for eternity, as well as every other mental and emotional torture that could be inflicted. They became monsters, created and twisted from an eternity of torture. Who knows how many more have been created inside Tartarus over millennia?”
The feeling of dread I’d had since we entered the tunnels intensified, and I felt sick to my stomach. “Lilith, if they get out… if Shemyaza lets them out…”
She stepped close to the gates and pressed her ear against the stone, being careful to avoid the tiny cracks. Her beautiful face screwed up in pain. “I hear them sometimes, you know, in my dreams. Screaming, howling, begging for release, begging for a death that will never come.” She whirled around to look at me. “They didn’t deserve this. None of us did. What did we ever do but fall in love? Love is the law, or so their book reads, but that’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? The law governs who you should love and punishes you when you fall.”
I realised with a start that there were tears in her eyes, and I thought back to what I knew of Lilith’s story. She was betrayed by the first man she loved when she refused to completely submit to him, and then she punished cruelly for falling in love with another and daring to have children—children she loved fiercely, but I could imagine her pain and agony each time she brought another into the world that would suffer because she fell in love.
Forgetting any fear or decorum, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close. She was no longer the ancient Queen of Hell, and I was no longer an abomination. Right now, we were two women grieving and in need of comfort. Lilith sobbed into my shoulder, and I held her, feeling her shake in my arms until her tears ran dry and the trembling subsided. She drew back, and I used the hem of my t-shirt to blot the tears from her face.
Suddenly, something large and heavy hit the ground next to us, and I jumped backwards with a cry. Medra had laid one of her gigantic heads on the stone floor, and she was inching closer to Lilith as she tried to comfort her mother. Lilith gave her a shaky smile and rested her hand on the creature’s head, stroking along her brow ridges. She turned back to me.
“Thank you. Other than Samael, I do not have what mortals would call friendships. I have my children, servants, and subjects, but no one I can connect with. Sometimes I forget what it’s like to be human. It’s strange, isn’t it? That term, ‘human,’ designates a race of beings, and yet can also be used to describe a range of emotional reactions, from anger and weakness of will, all the way up to love and compassion. I was human once, but I haven’t been for a very long time, and you… nothing about you is human. Maybe humanity shouldn’t be used to describe a race of people when you can find evidence of it in so many different beings. Weakness and strength, hate and love, cruelty and compassion. We all need to remember the humanity inside us.” She laid her hand on mine. “The tortured souls inside Tartarus, they have none of that humanity left. No love, no compassion, pity, or mercy. They dream of one thing besides their own end, and should they all escape, that is what will drive them.”
I looked up at the imposing dark gates. “What does Shemyaza want, Lilith? The watchers and nephilim, what do they dream of?”
She looked at me with dread-filled eyes, and her one-word answer rocked me to my core as the full implication of it hit me.
“Revenge.”
