“Would they love you if you were as ugly as they are now? You’re lucky your ugliness lives apart from you.”
“What do you mean?” Alais asked, but secretly she was already aware of it and shuddered inwardly. The memory of something burning and mutilated being separated from her by the fall pierced her brain with pain. It had happened! And it had not been a dream! And even if it had been, her dreams had never lied to her. In heaven in general, it was difficult to separate dream from reality. There, eternity passed like a dream. Grim reality began on earth. And dreams of magic invaded it with golden spells.
“We must show mortals what magic is!”
“Why?” A voice grows wary.
“Their lives are empty without it.”
“Mortals will not appreciate you, nor understand you.”
“But I’ll take my chances anyway.”
“And you will run into their knives.”
“I don’t think so, I’m still immortal. They are.”
“They will put you in a cage for your skill.”
“They are weak, I am strong. Only I have the power to rule them.”
“You’d better stay here with me.”
“I can’t even see you.”
“But I can see you, and I like your beauty, detached from me, even more than when it shone on my own face. It is only when we lose something that we know how valuable it is. Such is God’s curse.”
“He chose to teach us a lesson, but instead he gave us freedom. The world is our kingdom. We no longer share it with any god. Here we can become gods ourselves, we and our army.”
“You’ve already begun to talk about us as one. I like that.”
“You’re a good persuader. I am beginning to trust you,” or my dream. It doesn’t matter! She always trusted herself more. But the darkness was indeed half of herself.
It condensed beside her. Its outlines were forming into claw-like shapes. First it touched her golden curls, then it tried toВ penetrate her, but it failed.
“People call people like you genies,” Alais shared. Her ears were clearly picking up what mortals whisper behind the deserts. “Djinns are my warriors who have no bodies left-just a blob of darkness instead of a shell.”
There were also djinns ofВ fire, but it was the pillar ofВ darkness that hovered beforeВ her.
“Which of my warriors were you before you died? What was your name?”
“I have no name,” the darkness clung to her. “I am you! We have the same name! “Dennitsa.”
“Dennitsa means dawn! And you are all dark! How can you be called Dennitsa?”
“Do you want to give me a new name like you gave yourself?” The darkness’s voice became soulful.
Alais closed her eyelids, feeling aВ strange pleasure inВ the intimacy ofВ darkness. The darkness enveloped her entire body, caressed her wings, sought toВ penetrate her skin.
After the battle, Michael shouted insults-the devil, Satan. This meant an opposing angel, an apostate. These were probably her new names.
How absurd it all came out! Michael loved her to pieces, but the first argument over power ended in tragedy. The admirer had become the enemy. Alais remembered the way Mikhail’s blond hair had fluttered in the firestorm. She longed to cut off his head with her sword, to grasp it by his beautiful hair and hold it in her hands like a trophy. His head would remain alive even after it was cut off. It can be spoken to, it can be rebuked.
This naive angel wants her toВ go back toВ heaven. And she wants his head.
The darkness caressed her like aВ lover.
“I am you,” he repeated.
“Then your name is the devil,” Alais recalled Michael calling her.
The gloom fell silent for aВ moment.
“What can I do to make you believe that you and I are one?” After a pause, he asked softly.
“Destroy the heavens!”
“I am not strong enough yet.”
“Then don’t bother! We’ll speak when you are strong enough.”
“I could gather strength. There’s a lot of potential in this land. It needs people. Lure more people into the wilderness. I’ll take their lives and make me stronger.”
“If you have anything in common with me, you must deal with everything on your own, as I do after a defeat.”
Surviving was difficult. Alais was torn by a longing for the celestial sphere. The desert full of gold in front of her, though it looked fabulous, couldn’t take away the nostalgia. The sandy plain seemed like the back of a huge giant. It seemed as if it was about to rise from the sands. The darkness seemed like a giant, too. He hovered around Alais, fawning over her, and then suddenly disappeared. With him gone, Alais sighed more freely.
Seven
Alais woke up as if jolted. They were leaning over her. There were her former standard – bearers. Mastem, Noreus, Doriel, Setius, Novelin, Ramiel, and Amadeo. Their faces and bodies were as beautiful as ever. It was idyllic, like heaven! It was one exception. The angels had become marbleized.
“I remember when you were petrified,” Alais rose from the dune on which she had lain and grinned vindictively. “It’s good to know that all traitors have been given a fair trial. Are you comfortable being marbled? Don’t you feel a certain stiffness of movement?”
Beautiful curly heads drooped shamefully. Even the curls snaking down their shoulders turned toВ marble. Pale marble faces phosphoresced beneath the starry desert skies. The slender figures ofВ the angels looked bulky because ofВ the heavy marble wings. Was it difficult toВ fly with such wings? The celestial company did not seem toВ have any discomfort. The marble bodies were hovering over the sand, not treading onВ it.
“All are in their entirety!” Alais counted. “It was like being in heaven! Only one angel was missing. Ciel has shown more loyalty than you, and has not become marbleized.”
“We’ve been thinking of bringing him back,” Cetius answered for all. He was the boldest of the Seven Angels and always took the initiative. She was sure he’s the one who’s put everyone up to this treachery. “Our strength would seem to be growing weaker without Ciel.”
“Serves you right!” Alais glared vindictively at Amadeo. The seventh angel was as if he were superfluous in the company. Would his cunning and poise, in time, compensate for the loss of the most powerful of standard – bearers?
“We carried your standards and assembled the disparate parts of the legion into coherent units,” Setius began to pity them. “We were your standard-bearers and commanders of your armies. All your orders we faithfully obeyed. You know all our secret talents. Can you do without us from now on? Take us back.”
That’s it! They came to serve. And she remembered the moment they turned their backs on her.
“It was from him! Not from you!” Setius had read her mind. “It was from that ugly creature that burned in the fire.”
“Are we not the same?” She was just trying to tease them? Alais frowned. She wasn’t sure of anything, but their presence around her made her uncomfortable. One look at them brought to mind the moment they had turned away from their fallen warlord in disgust. From her!
“I can’t forgive you,” Alais spoke for the two of them. It was for the first time. The darkness was spoken from her mouth besides herself.
“Why is it not? We’ve always been together.”
Setius’s marble finger slipped to adjust her unruly curl, and it burned. Steam ran from the marble hand.
“It is like the sun! Still! Oh, yes!” He exclaimed.
Alais was pleased. So toВ this day she still burns anyone whose touch displeases her. Cetius had aВ nip inВ the bud. The marble toe crumbled toВ ash before his eyes.
Beneath the angels’ marble feet the sand crunched, teeming with deposits of hard gems. The desert had become a treasure trove. Alais had long ago realized that the commonplace gold and diamonds, to her, were valued above all else on earth.
But with the burnt creature that had been mistaken for her, the matter was unclear. She herself remembered the moment she had burned. Her skin was blackening and shriveling, and then suddenly it was gone. She rose from the sand as if the fire had not touched her body.
“Let us stay with you!” Setius flew after her. Though his body had become marble, he could still fly.
“You wanted to be alone,” Alaïs was reminded again of that moment when they had turned away from her in horror.
“We thought you were disfigured,” Setius said shamelessly. “If you remember, when we followed you into battle, we were only attracted to your beauty. The angels said the world should be ruled by one who is like the sun. And suddenly you were ash instead of sun. Naturally, we were disappointed.”
“Well, then maybe I should be disappointed that you’ve become marble?”
“It’s healthier to be marbleized on earth. We’ve become stronger. Our touches kill people. Once a man enters our ring, he is destroyed.”
“I don’t care about people,” Alais shook her golden curls.
“And they care about you and your secrets. You know that some renegade from your armies has begun to teach humans speech and angelic skills. These creatures would have remained as unintelligent as animals if he had not put in them the ability to cut fire, to make iron, to make weapons, even to speak. Because of him, people have become enemies to us.”
“And who is this renegade?” Alais thought feverishly. Indeed, from the beginning, humans were like cattle. They wore no clothes, couldn’t cook food. They didn’t know about intelligent speech and weapons. Then suddenly these creatures became intelligent. They went from savages to civilized beings. There was clearly a higher being at work here, teaching them all the things only angels knew.
“It’s either that angel I think is dead, or one who has partially lost his memory and doesn’t know what he’s doing himself,” Alaïs didn’t allow for the idea that someone could have deliberately betrayed her. After all, he was betraying himself that way, too. Why create an enemy against race of angels?
“We haven’t identified him yet, or even seen him,” Setius answered in a flimsy way, “but the wind has been telling us rumors about him.”
“You shouldn’t believe the wind,” Alais clenched her hand into a fist and triggered a sandstorm. The wind roared and swirled into a hurricane, but the angel statues stood unshaken. The sand could have swept them upside down. The wind could blow with incredible power, and the living statues did not move an inch. They stood beside Alais, waiting for orders.
“To forgive you is to put yourself in danger. Where is the guarantee that you will not betray again? Traitors will always be traitors,” Alais said, feeling a slight prick of conscience. The last of the seven angels was special. Amadeo had not participated in the war at all, but barely had his friends been exiled from paradise as he had volunteered to follow them. Apparently, enduring hardship in their company was more pleasant to him than living carefree in heaven. Amadeo looked innocent now, but time would pass and he would become embittered.
“Go away!” Alaïs was adamant. “I don’t need you anymore.”
“But…” Setius tried again, but in the end he realized that his pleas had no effect.
“I never forgive anyone,” Alais glanced indifferently at the seven winged statues frozen in the sands in bewilderment. Their faces were astonished. It would be a long time (probably many centuries) before they felt insulted and made plans for revenge. Then she will shatter them into a thousand pieces. She is strong enough. A single punch of her fist would be enough. Alais looked down at her gold-encrusted palm. She could smash the living marble right now. But should she? Let her former standard – bearers live and suffer.
Having fallen to earth, many angels have realized that death is a mercy. Most likely, they weren’t exterminated only to be cast down into the wilderness to continue to suffer for all eternity. It was better for the angels to die, but God invented an elaborate punishment for them. One thing he didn’t think of was that Alais benefited from having an army of her own. Even though her legions are burned, they are still strong. With them in reserve, she can do whatever she wants with the land.
“If you think the men are dangerous, I will deal with them,” she tossed at her former standard – bearers one last time.
The seven statues stood on the barchans. The sand was dragging them down. AВ long time had passed. So much sand came down that the statues were hidden under it, but they stubbornly continued toВ stand and wait for the Mistress toВ forgive them. It was not until several years later that they realized that waiting was pointless. Then they flapped their marble wings, shook off the sand, and flew away. Alais stared blankly after them.
Some caravan was caught inВ their marble claws. Blood flowed across the desert. Somewhere jackals howled, and marble fingers tormented the flesh ofВ men.
“You will regret telling us to leave,” Setius’s angry thoughts echoed to Alais.
So far, she hadn’t regretted it. Without the seven standard – bearers, she could get along just fine. Besides, she didn’t have a standard anymore. There was nothing left to carry into battle. All the standards had burned away, along with the heavenly appearance of the fallen angels. Their power is no longer beauty, but terror, and monstrous strength.
Setius, Noreus, Doriel, Maestem, Ramiel, Novelin, and Amadeo disappeared behind the desert. This is even better. She needs only loyal warriors. The monsters left with her have proven they can be loyal. So they’re the ones to bet on.
The chariot’s trail of blood
There was more and more gold in the desert. You’d think it was the sunlight that was breeding it. In fact, Alais was playing a game. She picked up handfuls full of sand and let it slip through her fingers. Eventually everything around her turned golden.
“Where do you go with so much sand and so much gold?” Alais looked around at the vast expanse, gleaming with magical gilding.
Remy understood her question inВ his own way. He immediately dispatched aВ company ofВ builders from her demons. Soon aВ huge palace was erected inВ the desert. It was made entirely ofВ golden blocks. There was so much gold inВ the desert that it could be used as building material.
Alais glanced indifferently at the golden piles, columns, and arches. This palace was aВ faint parody ofВ heavenly mansions. But since heaven was far away, that should be enough.
One could wander the golden halls for days, but eventually Alais grew bored with such aВ pastime. Sitting under aВ desert starry sky was far more pleasant than living inВ aВ golden palace, as if inВ aВ crypt. Black-winged demons nested among the golden pillars. Alais told them toВ draw signs inВ the sand around the building toВ keep travelers from seeing the palace. Gold was too much ofВ aВ temptation for humans.
Remy’s gift went unappreciated, but his diligence awakened the builder in Alais. She ordered a cohort of demons to build a huge palace out of sand. The entire structure was supported only by spells. The ceiling and walls crumbled as soon as the magic wore off.
A traveler stopped by the sand palace one day. Alais watched him, lying on the flat roof. The wayfarer couldn’t see her, but she saw him. It’s so convenient to watch people from above, as if they were insects. It’s a good thing people can’t fly, or they would know that angels live in the heights.
“This is the king’s messenger,” Remy determined at a glance.
“So what is of it? You think I give a damn about people’s ranks and titles?”
“He comes from the United Realm,” Remy said, his eyes tensing. For a moment there was the thought that he was going to run down and tear the ambassador apart.
“Yes, I remember, the Upper Kingdom and the Lower Kingdom united,” Alais broke off an ornament from the sand pediment, crumbled it into the sand, and sprinkled the grains of sand down. The sand fell beneath the messenger’s feet, but he didn’t even realize it was a joke of the celestials. He boldly walked into the sand palace.
“The country is now called Egypt,” Remy reported. He flew everywhere and learned about everything.
“What business is it of ours?”
“If it had not been for your efforts, the Upper Kingdom and the Lower Kingdom would not have joined together, and Egypt simply would not exist.”
“If it hadn’t been for the efforts of Menes,“Alais corrected.
“But it was you, Madam, who gave him the power.”
