Part 25 (2/2)
”They are here because you outdid yourself. I'll tell you, Lord Lucifer was quite impressed when he learned of your exploits, impressed and so pleased. I was too. Truly.” She chuckled. ”They really want to find you. Make an example of you so none of us will ever be tempted to play with the humans. Did you truly sleep with one of them?” She smirked. ”Must have been an adventure. . .Dariel was quite vexed when he didn't find you, and he has returned to the city for further instructions.”
”How do you know all of this?”
”Let's just say I've met some of the soldiers here and I've been very, very nice to them.”
”Why are you following them?”
”Why? They must have a portal. I want to know where it is.” Ami looked at Adryel questioningly. ”And you. Why are you here?”
Adryel didn't reply.
”Just stumbled past and decided to visit?” Her eyes never left Adryel's face. ”You're looking for it too,” Ami exclaimed. ”The portal. You want to find it so. . .Why would you want to find the portal? Unless. . .” Her eyes lit up. ”You miss home? You miss Ra-ma-el?”
Ami began to laugh. ”Pity. Pity. Pity. You can't go back. You'll never, ever see Ra-ma-el again,” she sang.
Adryel glared at her.
”You've spent almost four hundred days hiding from Dariel. You are not planning to throw yourself at Lord Michael's feet and beg for mercy, are you?” She paused, watching Adryel's face. ”You are! How funny.”
A smile spread across Ami's face, and Adryel wanted to slap it off, but she held her arm.
”He won't, you know. Give you mercy. Do you remember Pariel?”
Adryel shook her head. ”Not really.”
”The soldiers tell me he tried to get back to the city. Found the portal, climbed through it. Found himself about ten miles from the north gate. Guess what happened.” Ami vibrated with excitement.
Adryel shook her head.
”Oh, guess. Go ahead.”
”The. . .wild dogs ate him.”
”A real danger, to be sure, and I'll guess he wished they had.” Ami laughed. ”No. He waited until a caravan arrived and slipped through the gate with them. But,” she raised a finger, ”the guards had been watching him since he appeared on the plain. They cornered him as he entered the city, dragged him directly to Lord Michael.” She shook her head, looking sad. ”He tossed Pariel into a dungeon. Did you even know there was a dungeon in the palace? Left him in it for four days. No food. No water. . .Just terrible.” She sighed.
”That night, they carried him into the square. Five thousand angels stood watching as Michael cut his head off. . .Actually, he hacked it off. Took him half an hour.”
”You're such a liar.”
Ami smiled. ”Maybe. Maybe not. You'll never find out though.”
Adryel sighed now. She was tired of listening. ”Why not?”
”You'll never get to the city.”
”You're sure?”
”Yes. I'm sure. You see, once you step through the portal, well, it's the line you cannot cross, you know. I'll report back. . .Have you ever seen Lord Lucifer really angry?”
”Once.”
It had been her first night in h.e.l.l. Lord Lucifer had taken her to his room, and in the middle of the night a drunken angel, one of the students, had wandered in, flopping on the bed beside her. Lucifer's screams had awakened the entire company. He then tossed the poor boy all the way to the lake.
”I'll stand across the cavern when I tell him.” Ami walked around the opening to stand in front of Adryel. ”He'll send Beliel after you. He'll pick up your scent and run you to ground before sun up tomorrow. He's wanted the chance to be alone with you for so long. He'll finally have it. . .Then he'll carry you back to h.e.l.l.
”You were on Earth, I think, when Yariel tried to run.” Ami shook her head. ”Lord Lucifer a.s.sembled the entire company, and we all watched as he dropped poor Yariel into a pot of boiling oil. One horrific scream and it was done.” She threw her hands open in a gesture of completion.
”You missed the lesson. . .Now, Yariel was of no account. I doubt Lord Lucifer knew his name even.” She leaned close to Adryel. ”But you. . .your desertion will hurt. Losing the Mistress of h.e.l.l. . .that will hurt. As a result, you'll have to hurt. Badly.”
”But you won't make the report.”
”Why would I not?” Ami raised her eyebrows in surprise.
”Reporting me does nothing for you, and it may hurt you. Badly.” Adryel paused.
”Go on.”
”You may have some pleasure from seeing me suffer, true. But what if Lord Lucifer decides to kill the messenger?”
”No, he. . .”
”What if he blames you? Why didn't you force me to go back with you, he'll ask. Did you know about my plans? Or he may simply begin to think of me whenever he sees you. You'll find yourself exiled to the edge of the lake.” Adryel stared into her eyes. ”Though, Mia might be pleased,” she whispered.
She continued before Ami could reply. ”If you say nothing, you'll return to his bed.” She laughed at Ami's expression. ”Of course I know you sub for me when I'm away, but every morning for the past year when you've awakened, you've wondered, 'Will she be back today? Will I be with Beliel tonight?' But if I go through the portal, return to the city, then no matter what happens to me, you'll know I'm never coming back.”
Through the Portal.
Early the next morning, before the soldiers had awakened, Adryel opened the tent's flaps just enough to peer out and confirm she was surrounded. To reach the hill where she believed the portal to be located, to retreat to her cave, to go anywhere, she would need to pa.s.s numerous campfires and dozens of soldiers. All of them would question the presence of a female, and some of them might well recognize her. Her best hope was that they would leave during the day, either be recalled to the city or sent off to search for her in some other location.
By noon, the sun beat down on the tent. Even though the night had been cool and she had wrapped a blanket around her body when she lay down to sleep, Adryel now felt as if she had camped next to the lake of fire. With the flaps closed, not a whiff of air moved inside the tent, and she found it difficult to breathe. Perspiration flowed down her body and soaked her robe.
She started at every sound, no matter how small or far away. After avoiding Dariel and his soldiers for over a year, the thought of being surrounded by them made her stomach churn. A soldier could enter the tent at any time, without a reason. She berated herself for not searching for the portal the night she had arrived, rather than inspecting the humans' camp, but she had been so surprised at finding the soldiers that she had not been able to formulate a plan.
Ami sat in a corner, staring vacantly at a pile of animal skins in the rear of the tent. Adryel had feared she would go out and talk with the soldiers, perhaps bring one back to the tent. She didn't even approach the opening, though, indicating to Adryel that Ami, too, feared the soldiers and felt trapped in the tent. Quite likely she had exaggerated, or lied, when she had reported flirting with them.
She shared her water with Ami and offered her a piece of fruit.
”It's not poison,” she said when Ami hesitated to swallow the water. ”I just drank some of it.”
They heard the soldiers moving around the campsite, and a group of them sat just outside the tent, eating their midday meal and grousing about their a.s.signment.
”Can you believe the humans actually lived in these fleapits?” One of the soldiers slapped the side of the tent. ”I stepped into one of them and almost pa.s.sed out from the stench.” He coughed. ”And the heat. It was sweltering. How do they survive in this heat? It's as hot as. . .well, as hot as it was in h.e.l.l.”
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