“Can we deal with them all in the meantime, Mistress?” Remy asked as if she had already managed to appoint him as her new commander to replace all the dead. He pointed his frayed wing at the monsters crawling in the desert.
“Let them settle in for now.”
Unlike Remy, it pained her to look at them. She saw the blackened bodies, but thought of the statuesque angels. But she couldn’t turn away. Everywhere she saw, there was a sandy plain, where the remains of her great army crawled.
“Does it hurt that you’re burned?” Alaïs asked Remy. She herself no longer felt the burns. Her body remained white, though she remembered that she too had burned with the others. Maybe they too, despite all their burns, would recover. Time passed, but there was no regeneration.
“I felt as if I were still burning in the fire, and the flames hurt more and more, almost biting. The pain is unbearable, and it cuts through all my dicks. Isn’t it like that with you?”
Alais shook her head negatively.
“I feel free! For the first time since the moment of my creation,” she breathed in the desert air full of smoke. The sand smelled like the wings of her fallen angels.
“This is my new kingdom. And it is mine alone! There is no god here! There is no one else’s rules and regulations. No one tells us anything else. We have fallen, but we are free. This kingdom may be ugly, but it’s ours. At last we have something of our own. Let’s celebrate!”
Instead ofВ cheering, the monstrous Remy knelt before her. The other monsters inВ the desert howled with anguish and hunger.
InВ the beginning there was lizard blood.
Then, centuries later, the first humans wandered into the desert. Creatures without wings! Weak creatures! But the smell ofВ their blood stirred the memory ofВ war. Her army satiated for the first time since the fall. They felt better. The feast had begun. Who would have thought the desert could be aВ feast?
Demons were eating people alive, and Alais flew aimlessly between the revelers. She’d taken a few mouthfuls to quench a thirst that had been building up over the centuries. The monsters, on the other hand, were more voracious. Just now they had devoured an entire human army. Alien coats of arms and banners lay under the clutches of fallen angels. Alais crushed bones and filigree jewelry indifferently. Everything the humans had made with their hands she didn’t like for some reason.
Suddenly one dying man caught her attention. He was white, dark-haired, and blue-eyed. His appearance reminded her ofВ the archangel Gabriel. Several ofВ the feasting monsters were sucked into his veins at once. Alais flew closer toВ get aВ closer look at him. He marveled at the sight ofВ her. And she drank his blood herself. It was an honor for him. But he was waiting for something else. One last loving embrace before he died? Her love died with the first burns ofВ heavenly fire. All that was left was vengeance.
The living desert
The battle sword remained. Alais drew symbols inВ the sand with its tip. But the bracelet ofВ omnipotence had disappeared somewhere. Without it, she felt powerless. After all, all the power ofВ the sunlight was contained withinВ it.
Alais grabbed the snake that was slithering across the sand. It hissed, exuding venom. The tiny mouth opened dangerously. The snake wanted to bite, even if it was an angel, whose blood would immediately burn. It was an ugly creature, but brave! It was a matter of one minute to crush the snake. Alais didn’t even feel sorry for it. The desert, greedily accepting the shards of sunlight that fell to the ground at the same time it did, and became gold, knew what the angel expected of it. The snake’s body began to slowly turn gold. It was from tail to head. And now it was a new bracelet that came to life and wrapped in rings around Alais’s forearm. The dead snake became flexible and docile. She had made an excellent copy of the bracelet. It was just a copy. Alais frowned. That would do for now, but how and where would she find the real bracelet? She was wearing it when she fell. So where had it gone now?
The desert had lived and breathed since the angels had fallen into it. Out of the light that fell with them something was born… Touching the sand, it suddenly turned to gold. And the sands in front of her, which a day ago had been black, now glowed like a bottomless and boundless treasury reaching far beyond the horizon. Even in the heavens it was not so rich. Gold meant nothing there. But here on earth, it took on a special meaning.
People fought over it if they found it somewhere. ToВ them it was most often the object ofВ strife and murder. ToВ them it was rare, toВ her it was commonplace. Alais often amused herself byВ passing the sand between her fingers, and her touch would turn it golden. How can you fight over gold when you can turn everything around you into it? Fighting over freedom is another thing. Alais cast aВ grim glance at the heavens. They seemed toВ have turned purple, and the sand inВ the desert had all turned toВ gold for miles around. She had walked on it for too long. Her feet always left aВ trail ofВ gold. And there was no longer aВ trace ofВ the ash that had strewn the desert after the angels had fallen.
AВ golden swirl ofВ grains ofВ sand swirled around Alais. AВ whole desert ofВ gold would have been aВ fairy tale for mortals, but not for her. But she had already noticed that once aВ man found aВ single bar ofВ gold, he was willing toВ kill for it. The glitter ofВ heavenly metal makes people lose their minds.
“Gold is like you,” Remy once remarked. “It brings them as much evil as you have brought us. But we don’t blame you, and they don’t blame it.”
Nor did Alais tear out his burnt tongue for being blunt, though the sword itself vibrated in her hands. It’s a good thing Remy stayed sensible. But it was better that he had remained handsome. Now he was a mountain of black muscle and leathery wings. All her supporters looked no better than him now. Some angels slept in the barchans, and when they emerged from them by nightfall, they looked like stuffed animals made of sand. As they shook themselves off, the sand stirred with ash.
How much ash could be left byВ burnt wings! The ashes seemed toВ begin toВ replace her army blood. InВ heaven they had been exposed toВ aВ wound that would not stop bleeding.
“It makes me want to stab one man, and see his blood gush out of the wound to no end, until it floods the whole desert.”
“There isn’t that much blood in those things, I’m afraid,” Remy said, still judiciously, showing his forked black tongue.
“I know! But they did it to us. And we have to do it to someone else to be comforted. It’s as if the heavens are still drinking our blood, though they seem to have drunk it all. But they will never stop drinking.
“Let us go at them with another war!”
“Not yet!” Alais looked around at the monsters in the sands. They had already gained their strength from the blood of men. Their angry hum alone would make the heavens tremble. The beautiful creatures had gone through torture, turned into monsters, and the monsters had hardened. Now they are capable of anything. So what is she waiting for? Why not give them the order to advance? Or does she fear another defeat? Alais threw back the golden strands from her forehead. The rumble of the first angelic battle was in her ears. It was too soon to repeat all that. She needed to recover from her first defeat. The moral wound was stronger than the physical.
The tip ofВ her sword resisted as she began involuntarily drawing aВ familiar name inВ the sand: Mikhail.
Michael betrayed her. He sided with the enemy, even led his armies. How quickly those who loved can betray!
You cannot draw his name toВ the end, or he will show up here and call her back. One must not trust him! He must not even be remembered!
Alais stirred the sand. The writing disappeared beneath the grains ofВ sand inВ an instant.
Michael certainly remained handsome, unlike Remy. She imagined his radiant face would one day blaze with fire, blacken and shrink like burnt parchment.
“Look what we have got! Do you like these deserts?”
“I don’t see the difference between the deserts and the clouds,” Remy was an optimist. Or was he only pretending not to care?
“The deserts are better, because they are ours. There’s no one here but us.”
“There are people and lizards.”
“Let them be food.”
The blood of the humans tasted good. Alais often drank it with pleasure. She only disliked that humans were beginning to show an intelligence that wasn’t there before. Existing on the same earth as the angels, it was as if they had begun to adopt a piece of their intelligence. It would be better to destroy people, but then there would be no more of their blood, which is so pleasant to drink. Somehow it tastes better than lizard blood.
But why is it? All living creatures on earth are the same. They came here aВ long time after her angels had fallen inВ the wilderness. Why should there be any difference between all these creatures? Why does the blood ofВ any ofВ them taste sweeter?
Sickle ofВ Blood
Alais found aВ sickle inВ the sand. Apparently it was formed from aВ shard ofВ sunbeam, curved inВ aВ strange shape. The sickle was still hot. And yet it was nighttime. The sand is not red-hot.
Black letters stretched across the golden blade, as if drawn inВ darkness.
“I’m still with you.”
What could that mean? Who was still with her? All around are her fallen legions, mutilated and burned. There is no one extra inВ them. Perhaps the inscription is aВ message from someone she counted among the dead? Hardly aВ message from God, but there is power inВ the words, as if someone stronger than the Almighty were present.
An aura of darkness enveloped the golden sickle, and suddenly the black letters on the blade were golden, too. You couldn’t read them now. The reliefs were barely visible.
Alais weighed the sickle in her hands. As long as it touched her skin, she had the magical feeling that there was someone she couldn’t do without.
“You’re just like a friend to me,” Alais whispered to the sickle, and the sickle glowed brighter. It resembled a month in the sky. And that was the month she held in her hands.
“We are like night and day. We are one! As day does not exist without night, so you do not exist without me.”
The mysterious voice sounded only in her head. It enveloped her consciousness in a black mist. Alais grew wary. There was definitely someone nearby, but she didn’t see him, and her armies didn’t see him either. Otherwise they would have panicked. There was as much danger from the invisible creature as there was magnetism. she wanted to see it.
Perhaps someone’s soul was hiding inside the sickle. Alais examined the sickle more closely. Wasn’t the face of one of the dead angels shining through on the blade? Only the writing was visible. The letters of the angelic hieroglyphs echoed the words of the invisible being: “We are night and day, merged together. Without each other we do not exist. We are the pillar of creation and the ruin of the universe.”
And where is her name? She puffed on the sickle, and the letters of her new name stuck out at the tip. That’s better. Only her name is here; the name of the invisible being is not nearby. She set her seal and hammered the sickle to herself. The voice of the invisible creature fell silent. In time, however, the sickle proved useful.
It was easier toВ kill with aВ sickle than even with aВ claw. InВ one fell swoop, you could cut the heads off aВ whole troop ofВ men. Alais was harvesting bloody crops when she barely saw the travelers arriving inВ the wilderness.
Someone had spread rumors that there were gold mines hidden beneath the dunes. Greedy people rushed toВ check it out and fall into the claws ofВ the fallen legion.
The sand was increasingly sprinkled with blood. Alais was chopping away. The sickle had become her favorite weapon. It was like part of her arm or wing. It was so comfortable and easy to use. The sickle is her faithful helper and protector. No sword or shield is needed with it. Too bad she didn’t have the sickle before, or she would have won.
The desert greedily absorbed the spilled blood. The dunes vibrated as if they were alive. They made the desert look like aВ humpbacked giant with an angelic legion treading on its back.
It didn’t need a legion at all, as long as it had a sickle. One sickle could easily harvest the blood of a whole army. One day an army of men marched past the deserts. Alais swooped in and mowed them all down like bloody ears in a field. She made the raid out of inertia. She didn’t like the people. They were trespassing on angelic territory and rushing to do things her way. Humanity is an anthill that should be destroyed. But the more time passed, the more civilized this anthill became.
And one day a man appeared, worthy of the angel’s respect. It was a pharaoh who had lost a battle.
The first pharaoh
This man was special. He was tired, exhausted. He was desperate. But there was aВ sense ofВ greatness about him. Almost likeВ her.
“He is a warlord!” Alais realized, watching him from the dunes.
The traveler was dragging across the sand, barely, leaving aВ trail ofВ blood. He was wounded. The luxurious robes were tattered and stained withВ mud.
She could have jumped down gracefully, spread her wings, and block his path. The traveler was barely able toВ walk, stumbling and hunched over. Alais clawed at his chin and forced him toВ lift his face. There was something lurking inВ his eyes that hurt her. Alais recoiled. Looking at this man was like looking inВ aВ mirror.
Instantly the painful cries ofВ her fallen army and the all-consuming pain ofВ defeat came toВ mind.
“You’re like me!” Alais whispered in the ancient angelic language. The traveler, of course, did not understand. He was speaking in an entirely different dialect. Remy seemed to call it Egyptian, and the country beyond the desert was Egypt. This wretch had come from there. He was the local ruler, but now the corpses of his army were being eaten by vultures. Disfigured bodies were also lying in the sands. He had suffered a crushing defeat, and the enemy was advancing.
“You came here to die!” She stated. “Well, just like the ones I missed after the fall. Maybe it’s too soon to die. I, for one, cannot die at all.”
The man was stunned. For some reason, the sight ofВ her always brought people toВ aВ standstill. Yes, inВ heaven she was considered the most beautiful creature, but here on earth she was considered aВ deity.
Well, it’s nice to fall where there is no other god. In a place like this, and without winning the war, there’s a chance to be the one and only. She’s lucky to have fallen here. Who would have thought it!
“Don’t be afraid of me!” Alais made an effort over herself and began to mimic the wayfarer’s speech. Speaking Egyptian was not difficult for an angel. The language was akin to that of an angel. Probably some of the wandering legionnaires of Alais had taught people to speak it. Not long ago, she remembered, humans had been voiceless creatures. And suddenly they spoke, imitating the speech of angels! Nothing could explain it but the intervention of demons. She wondered which of her warriors had taken it upon themselves to teach the human race languages and crafts. The light armor on the wayfarer was also modeled on that of the celestials.
“Trust me!” Alais demanded. “Tell me what happened!”
AВ flood ofВ spontaneous images flooded into her head. There was aВ battle! Here on earth. People were fighting! But it was no less bloody than inВ heaven.
“The upper kingdom… The lower kingdom… You had to combine the two to be a full-fledged king… I wanted to be.”
“So you’re a king?” Alais didn’t understand what the stranger was saying, but the familiar title interested her. “A king defeated? Just like me…”
“Deja vu” caused a sharp pain. How many thousand years ago did the battle in the heavens take place? One thousand years ago? Was it two thousand years ago? How long did her warriors sit in the deserts, enduring hunger and deprivation?
“Are you a queen, too?” asked the defeated king.
“Yes, I am” Alais said without hesitation. In fact, she became queen of the wilderness as soon as she fell into it. “I’ve been ruling this world long before you people came along. So I’m the one who decides who among you is king, and who isn’t.”
It’s time to take control of the world she finds herself in. She has military power behind her. Michael is not here. The universe of sands and men belongs only to fallen angels.
“My chosen ones will rule, and the defeated kings will go to my servants for a feast,” Alais held the defeated king by the chin with her claws, forcing him to look into her eyes. “My servants prefer to eat human meat and drink human blood. Anyone who becomes king will be obligated to feed them. I will show mercy and choose as food only those who will be rejected by the kings. For example, if you win, all the warriors you defeated will be given to my servants to feed.”
“I have already lost.”
“Who wins and who loses is for me to decide on earth. But in heaven, it’s harder to decide…”
“So you’re from heaven? Are you a deity?”
“My name is Alais.”
The king took it as the name ofВ aВ deity. And so it wasВ now.
“Your name is Menes,” Alais read in his mind. “And it seems that the kings in your country are called Pharaohs.”
He nodded. It was so easy to read people’s minds, and later surprise them with information you drew from their own minds. Alais smiled victoriously. Darkness was descending over the deserts. It pained the defeated king to look at the angel’s glittering wings before him.
“You are fortunate. I can see a reflection of myself in you,” Alais leaned over and licked the blood from the man’s cheek. Pharaoh fell to his knees before her. This is the way it should be. Earthly kings should kneel before angels.
“Let’s make a pact: my help in exchange for everything you will ever possess,” Alais touched her hand to Pharaoh’s chest. Beneath the tattered white clothing his heart was beating. She had no such organ in angels. Angels don’t have an organ like that! Humans, on the other hand, do! Alaïs wanted to press her fingernails into the vulnerable flesh and rip out the heart, but then Pharaoh would die. People are fragile! If you tear out any organ from within them, they die. Here were her angels cut in pieces and burned with fire for centuries, and they still survived. The angelic race is stronger, but humans are so curious!
Alais ran her finger over Pharaoh’s face. He had swarthy skin, coal-black eyebrows and lashes, plump lips, and bottomless eyes. Is it true that the eyes of men reflect the soul? The eyes of the angels reflected only the coldness of heaven.
Pharaoh’s long hair had become filthy with sand and dust, but if she brushed it, it would be as black as pitch. She had a beautiful specimen. He would make an excellent puppet. All she had to do was subdue his mind. Or would a man’s love for an angel be enough to keep him faithful for centuries?
Alais decided not toВ take any chances.
“Let’s sign the sand like parchment!” She pierced Pharaoh’s little finger with her fingernail. Blood spurted out into the sand and formed into the inscription Menes.
“Do you think that power is worth great sacrifice? I did. And here I am, in your land. If you, too, believe that everything is worth sacrificing for sole power over the world, then you are like a brother to me.”
Menes merely nodded. It pained him to watch Alais’ wings glow in the twilight, but her fleeting touches gave him pleasure. Who hadn’t dreamed of being in the arms of a beautiful angel after defeat and getting help, but the price would be exorbitant.
Alais picked up a handful of bloody sand and blew it from her palm. The deal is done! The grains of sand have turned to gold. You can buy anything with gold, even people’s souls. But in heaven, no one needed it. On earth they were killing for it.
The golden grains of sand settled on a pectoral on Pharaoh’s chest and sparkled like stars lifted from the sky.
