The Wayward Godking (25 page)

“What is your pleasure, my Queen?” Lucifer asked her as if greatly surprised to have received this call.

“I would…” she began and then glanced back at the spectators. She took both angels by their arms and led them further from her followers. “I would like to know if your creature can take us to the Seventh Gate.”

“Where are we now?” Ashmodel asked.

“The realm of Lord Nergal, the Fifth Gate,” she told him.

“He brought us here,” Lucifer shrugged. “I see no reason why he could not penetrate to the Seventh Gate.”

“Now, please, Lord Lucifer. One moment.” Ashmodel held up one long finger in front of his companion. “I am already in trouble for having brought us to this place. If…”

“If, schmiff,” Lucifer sniffed. “You are always too hesitant, my friend.”

“Yes, yes,” Ereshkigal agreed. “If we do not go down and put an end to this monkey business in Adar’s gate, it is going to ruin my party. My captain tells me Huber has spawned a horde of trash in the Seventh Gate, and that it will be spilling out into the Sixth and the Fifth before long. Furthermore, I am told a certain charge of Lord Marduk, one Kinmalla, is also down there trying to hold court on the Lords and Watchers. I tell you, fine sirs, I am quite perturbed by this news. We should have done away with her once and for all at Baghdad. But, oooohhhh noooo, none would listen to the counsel of the Queen’s wisdom. So now here we are, dealing with
her
yet again.”

“There is no need to be distraught, My Queen,” Lucifer said and patted her hand. “I’m sure my illustrious brother, Ashmodel, would agree Uriel would most likely approve of a bit of spring cleaning in his lair. If he were able, I am also quite sure Uriel would tidy up himself. As for this Kinmalla power, we may be able to do something with him as well.”

“But what about Leviathan?” Ashmodel asked miserably. “He will not wake up.”

“He is awake,” Ereshkigal told him shortly and gathered her gown in her hands. “Show me the way. I will accompany you forthwith.”

She headed back for the mouth of the beast with Lucifer and Ashmodel on her heels.

“Hold one moment!” Nergal shouted to his wife.

All heads turned and gaped in amazement at the Lord of the Fifth Gate, who was standing on the back of his horse in order to be seen and heard. The crowd fell back as he rode thusly stallion through the elves and men gathered in the meadow. He stopped beside Plotius, threw the reins to the startled captain and jumped down. “Just where do you think you might be going?”

“I am going to do what should have been done to start with.” Ereshkigal scowled at him and then smiled. She went to give him a quick peck on the cheek before returning to the mouth of the creature where the two angels waited. “It’s good to have you back, my love. I was worried.”

“You can’t leave all these people here in my gate unattended!” Nergal took off his helmet and tucked it under his arm. He glanced back at the milling crowd watching them.

“You can look after them for a while and a bit,” she called to him as she swept up the living staircase like debutante. “Have a care for the elves. They are puny creatures.”

With that last instruction she was gone and the wide, bright mouth snapped shut. Nergal turned in disgust to Plotius, and the Queen’s captain fell back in fear as usual.

“I don’t want to be bothered,” Nergal growled at him. “I’m going down to the pits for a nap. If anything goes amiss here while I’m gone, I’ll hold you personally responsible. Do you understand?”

Plotius nodded and then snapped a smart salute as the Lord of the Fifth Gate turned on his heel and marched away across the meadow, his bright armor flashing in the sun. He reached the trailing edge of the forest before turning back once more to scan the dozens of confused and concerned faces looking his way.

“And one more thing!!” He shouted back at them. “If any of you take any confounded notions of derailing my Queen’s plans, I will personally take an interest in your sojourns in the afterlife!! Do you all understand?! This is
my
Gate! I am Lord Nergal and, in my Gate, I am Lord and Master!!”

No one moved or dared oppose his declarations. He waited a few short moments and then disappeared into the green depths of Ereshkigal’s faux forest.

“Your mother seems to have made your stepfather angry,” Louis leaned close to Konrad’s ear when the crowd began to disperse.

“It would seem so,” Konrad agreed and then frowned deeply. “I am sick of this, Louie. Lord Nergal seems to be living in some sort of daydream. It doesn’t make sense. If mother is planning a reunion, why doesn’t she simply get on with it? Where are the rest of her invited guests? Why doesn’t Nergal do something about it, if he doesn’t like it?”

“I will tell you this, Brother.” Armand plopped onto a brightly striped purple and white cushion and looked up at them. The golden elf-Knight had a sprig of grass in his teeth and an intense look on his otherwise timeless face. “I have done a bit of study concerning these Lords and Ladies of the Abyss, and there may be some question of who is in charge here. I know we once assumed that Nergal was, as he says, Lord of the Fifth Gate, but have you never wondered why Ereshkigal also lives in the Fifth Gate? Did you never wonder why the Queen doesn’t have her own Gate?”

Louis pulled up a low stool made of heavy, carved wood and sat down next to Armand. He kept his eyes on Oriel and her brother, Levi. They were walking back toward the main pavilion with Sophia and Menaka, who had almost completely taken over the care of the young Michael Emmanuel. Already, they were calling him Mikey. Michael Ian sat down next to him and popped the top on an ice-cold can of beer. The foam ran up and over the side of the golden can and Louis frowned at it. Incongruous and anachronistic. He’d not seen an aluminum can of beer in ages. It was simply beyond understanding.

“It has crossed my mind from time to time,” Louis admitted.

Many things had been crossing his mind more often than he liked. The day dragged on endlessly. The elves had adjusted nicely, but they remained frightened and in a constant state of barely covered agitation. Konrad had tried everything to make his mother allow them more leave to come and go, but she insisted the woods were dangerous and the paths to the overworld even worse, though she refused to explain why. All she would say was that things would be different very shortly, and they would appreciate her more in the near future; furthermore, they would come to love her for the truly kind and beneficent personage that she was. Louis had yet to see anything that would change his mind about his mother-in-law, though she had actually done nothing to harm any of them… yet. She had provided them with every comfort. Everything they asked for was brought without delay. Everything that is, except news of the other members of the extended family of the Red Cross of Gold.

She simply assured them everything was going well and right on schedule. Everything… again, with one exception. She claimed to know nothing of the whereabouts of Sir Ramsay, his brother and his sons, stating that they were beyond her control, ungrateful and troublesome beyond endurance. Ranting endlessly about Ramsay’s wayward behavior was one of her favorite topics. This gave rise to certain hopes within the hearts of those held against their wills in the meadow. If Mark Andrew and Luke and the rest of the Ramsay clan were outside the Queen’s territory, then there was the possibility that their lots might change at the drop of a hat.

Even so, Oriel and Levi worried over Simon and the rest of the d’Ornan clan incessantly and none could do or say anything to assuage their fears.

“I will tell you my theory,” Armand said a bit louder and sat up a bit straighter before looking around for the queen’s Boggans, who seemed to be everywhere and nowhere when you least expected it. “Queen Ereshkigal is not simply a title or name bestowed upon our hostess. She is much more powerful than you might think. The reason she doesn’t have a Gate of her own is because she is, in fact, Queen of the entire Abyss. This is her world, not Nergal’s, not Marduk. She can come and go as she pleases, have access to above and below whenever and wherever she likes and she doesn’t answer to her husband or any other Lord or Lady of the Abyss. They are actually more like her guests or boarders. In other words, she was here first and then they came. I don’t know if she even realizes just how much power she has. Long years have passed since these powers have been up and around in our physical dimension. They are still remembering, stretching, testing their powers, as it were.”

“Really?” Apolonio spoke up from where he lay on his back in the grass, gazing up at the clouds overhead. “Then she can essentially tell Nergal what’s what?”

“Correct,” Armand nodded. “Michael and I were just talking about it earlier. She is in complete control here. There is no doubt about it. Whatever is occurring anywhere else, she knows it. She knows, but she is keeping quiet about it. I would say that means it is frightening… even to her. Furthermore, I believe she is controlling Nergal’s very thoughts. We noticed whenever he would begin to question her or grow aggravated, he would suddenly change his tune and become totally complacent as if whatever was annoying him had suddenly evaporated.”

“I noticed that as well,” Louis agreed.

“It is possible that this is a part of some grander scheme,” Michael added. “None of us can deny that some very potent powers are at work when it comes to the comings and goings of the Order and its family. We have, none of us, ever been at liberty to make our own ways. We may have thought it so, but every step on the paths of our lives have led us exactly where we need to be, when we need to be there.”

“You can’t mean that we should simply sit here and do nothing?” Louis asked inn frustration. He was a man of action. Sitting around the Fifth Gate was driving him crazy. He wanted to destroy the pit and the tables and overthrow the pavilions like Jesus Christ on the Temple Mount, but each time he’d almost lost control and done such a thing, he had been restrained by some event or another. Now the Queen had left them in the charge of Nergal, and he had abandoned them to Plotius. Louis scanned the bright landscape for signs of the dashing Captain of the Queen’s Guard. Plotius was, indeed, a changed man or beast, as the case may have been, but he was still very childish in many ways.

The Captain sat under the limbs of an impressive old oak on a red and white blanket with his sweetheart. A comely young Tuathan princess, supposedly. She seemed quite taken by her escort as he poured a tall glass of fruity punch for her and opened a basket in front of them. The Captain was totally absorbed in her, but three of his burly soldiers sat near the trunk of the tree with their spears, clubs and knives, ready to confront any trouble that might come near the happy couple. When Louis looked directly at them, one of them partially rose up on its muscular haunches and waved the spear at him in a menacing gesture.

“Good grief,” the King muttered and returned his attention to the men around him.

“I think our best course of action might be no action at all,” Armand suggested. “The notion is an ancient one spoken of by the greatest sages of the Orient. It is called simply allowing nature to take its course. Eventually, an opening will present itself to us, if we are patient. We haven’t been here long. Perhaps, keeping peace a few more hours will show us what this is all about.”

“A good idea,” Michael agreed and Apolonio nodded his head.

Louis made a sour face, but had to agree as well. They would wait, but only a few more hours. If the Queen stayed gone long, and neither Nergal, nor Marduk showed up again, he would try his luck with the dauntless captain. He glanced at the couple again in time to see the Captain present his ‘date’ with a plate of silver, filled with tiny delicacies of some type. Incongruous and anachronistic. Beyond reason.

((((((((((((()))))))))))))

“He is not in the villa,” Galen said menacingly, lowered his head and looked at Simon in disgust. “You have lost my father and Sir Ramsay as well! Are you going to simply sit there and do nothing? I’m going to the Master.”

Simon was up in an instant. He grasped Lucio’s son by the wrist and twisted his arm behind him, slamming him with surprising ease into the wall near the door. Lydia shrieked and Simon told her to shut up.

The Healer had never spoken a stern word to his wife in all their acquaintance. Lydia’s mouth fell open as she stumbled backwards toward the small desk where he’d been sitting and listening to Galen’s rant only moments before. Galen could not find Vanni or Lucio. No one had seen them since they had tried the experiment with the dream walking technique. Reuben and Simeon had been dispatched to affirm the truth of Galen’s complaint, and Simon was bracing himself for the impending confrontation with Catherine that was bound to come. She and Roni were down at the pool, taking in the sunshine and had no idea that the two men were missing. It was only a matter of time before d’Brouchart learned what had happened. Barry of Sussex had come by twice looking for the Golden Eagle and Sir Ramsay. It seemed the Master wanted to confer with them.

Things were going from bad to worse when Carlisle Corrigan beat on the door post, and then stuck his golden red head inside the door without waiting to be invited.

“My, my, brother.” He clucked his tongue as he observed the odd state in which he found Simon and Galen. “Is this the way you treat all your guests? You never fail to amuse and amaze.”