Peeking around a boulder that partially hid the pa.s.sage, she saw Dariel looming over the others. His appearance was striking, his brilliant white robe shining in the semi-darkness, a vivid contrast to the soiled clothing worn by Lucifer and his angels.

She stepped into the cave, lingering at the back of the crowd that surrounded Dariel. She stared in amazement at a group of twelve angels, all female, who huddled in front of him. Had more angels been cast into the pit? Why was Dariel with them? Looking more closely, she saw their faces were bruised. Some of their robes had been ripped.

"They are coming with me. All of them." Dariel held up a hand to silence Beliel's protest. "Your portal to the northern mountains will be sealed. Do not set foot there again."

"And if we don't let you take our females?" Beliel gave an evil smile. "Do you believe that you alone can defeat all of us in a fight?"

"Beliel, silence," Lord Lucifer snapped.

"I likely could not." Dariel shook his head. "But if I do not return with all of them, my legion will a.s.sault your home." He smirked as he spoke the word home.

"Do you have weapons?" He studied their faces. "I thought not. We'll bind you to the rocks nearest the fire, and we'll seal your portal to Earth." He cackled at the surprise written on Lucifer's face.

"Yes, we know about that portal too. We've seen you come and go. Lord Michael wanted to end your forays, but Adonai has allowed it. For now."

He turned to those who had been taken captive. "Come with me. They won't hurt you again."

Beliel and his friends began to protest again, and Adryel placed her hands over her ears as their voices filled the cavern and echoes bounced between the walls. One of them, Zerael, grasped Dariel's arm and pinned him against a wall while two others grabbed one of the females and dashed away, dragging her behind. She screamed as her body sc.r.a.ped across the rocky floor of the cave.

Dariel punched Zerael in his stomach, and he crumpled to the floor. Then, drawing his sword, he ran after the other two, stepping in front of them he pulled his arm back to strike. They loosened their grips on their prisoner and scurried away. Dariel pulled the female to her feet.

"We're going now."

He herded the females toward a tunnel Adryel had never explored. As they entered, he glanced behind and spied her. He turned back.

"Adryel, you were not here when I arrived. I wondered where you might be." His eyes took in her robe, stained beyond hope. "You look as beautiful as ever."

Adryel gazed down. She had prided herself on her appearance when she taught at the Inst.i.tute, and she was embarra.s.sed that Dariel saw her now, wearing the single robe that she owned.

She looked up and met his eyes. She would not let him know how she felt. Neither would she tell him where she had been or what she had been doing.

"I did not know you had come. Why are you here? Who are they?" She motioned at the group of prisoners who continued to move away, seeming not to want to linger.

"Your friend Beliel tunneled into the northern provinces. Of all the things he could have brought back, what did he choose?"

Adryel sighed. "Females."

"Just so." He raised an eyebrow. "He tells me Lord Lucifer refuses to share." He smirked.

Adryel felt her face turning warm. "You do what you must."

"Of course." He gave a little bow. "I trust we'll not meet again, Mistress."

Adryel's mouth dropped open and she stared at him, unable to respond. Dariel snickered and turned away. As he caught up with the others, she glared at his back, clenching her teeth to prevent herself from hurling the string of obscenities that ran through her mind.

She hated Dariel.

As the group disappeared, she crossed the cavern, finding Lord Lucifer staring down the tunnel. "What happened?"

He turned. "Adryel, you've returned. I was beginning to worry." He smiled, obviously happy to see her and acting as if nothing unusual had taken place in her absence. "Did you find the humans?"

"I did. Only a day's walk to the east." She recounted her experience, omitting any mention of her plans to meet them in the garden. Beliel certainly did not need to meet two female humans.

"They were so grateful for the fire that they slaughtered one of their sheep. We had quite a feast."

"Wait. You helped the humans?" Beliel's voice reverberated through the cave.

"Stupid orb," another angel shouted. "She helped the humans."

"Traitor." Maliel jeered.

Adryel glared at them. "They would have starved."

Beliel stomped toward her. "Why didn't you let them die?" He sneered and rubbed his hands together. "Who cares? Just toss her in the fire." He turned to his friends and snickered.

Adryel stared at him. How stupid he was.

"Adryel?" Lord Lucifer was smirking, but she could not tell if it was meant for her or for Beliel.

She turned to him. "If letting the humans die is the goal, why wait for them to starve? I can show you where they live. Two of you can come with me tonight and kill them. But if having them die is the goal, why have they survived until now? Why did I have to search for them? Why did you not slaughter them in the garden?"

No one spoke.

"Stupid angels," she sneered. "Lord Lucifer wants to show that Adonai made a mistake. What does it prove if we kill the humans?"

"We'd show we are stronger than they are and. . ."

"Not in doubt," she replied to the angel who had spoken up. "If you kill them, it proves nothing that is not known. Adonai can replace them if he chooses."

She paused, allowing her words to sink in.

"We want them to choose to do what Adonai would not want," she said. "Well, Adonai failed to give them a method to obtain fire. He wanted them to depend on him. I showed them how to make it themselves, and the human and his family will no longer follow Adonai quite as blindly as they have before." She looked at all the faces staring back at her.

"I made friends with him and his family. He'd heard of angels. He thought I might be one of the evil ones."

Laughter rang through the cave.

"Now he likes me. His family trusts me. Perhaps in the future, I can use that." She looked directly at Beliel. "This is not a war that we will win in a single battle. You should realize that and consider the long term, not only what might be good today. . .Now, tell me what happened here while I was gone?"

"We explored that tunnel." Lord Lucifer pointed the way Dariel had gone. "We dug a portal that opened to the northern provinces, beyond the mountains."

"Indeed." Adryel was impressed.

"Beliel, as usual, behaved. . .impulsively."

"Lucifer, almost two hundred of us are here and only three are female. Perhaps if you would share-"

As Beliel eyed Adryel, Lord Lucifer cut him off, shaking his head. "Impulsive. He kidnapped a dozen females and brought them home. You saw them?"

Adryel recalled their bruises, the terrified depressions on their faces. She sneered at Beliel. "They were obviously well treated."

"Humph. . ." Beliel crossed his arms. "As I was ordering them retuned, Dariel appeared. . .You know the rest."

Adryel turned on Beliel. "So, instead of using the portal as a route to the city, as a means to repeat your grand battle with Michael's army you used it for. . .?" She shook her head. "Stupid angel," she said again. "Had you been able to defeat Michael, you could have taken any female in the city, as many as you wanted."

Beliel grasped her left arm and twisted it behind her back. "One night of ten, Lord Lucifer, that's all I ask."

Before Lucifer could respond, Adryel's right hand closed around Beliel's neck. He gagged. As he released her arm, she placed a foot behind him and pushed, slamming his body against the floor of the cave.

"Now, now, Adryel." Lord Lucifer reached out to her. "Come now. . ."

She glared at Beliel, speaking through clenched teeth. "Last warning. So much as touch me again and I'll choke the life out of you. Remember, I'm not one of your helpless little female angels. I'm a power. I was taught to control thugs like you while still a child."

Beliel coughed and struggled, but Adryel stood over him, her foot pressing on his chest.

"Can't breathe," Beliel gasped. "Please. . ."

Adryel pressed her foot into him even harder for a moment, and he cried out in pain. Finally, she released him.

She turned to Lord Lucifer. "I've walked a long way and I'm tired. If you'd like for me to be pleasant tonight, have him," she kicked Beliel's leg, "bring me something to eat."

Cain and Abel.

Although she had walked on the earth many times since the day she had met Abi and Mari in the garden, it had been some time since Adryel had seen the humans, and Lord Lucifer had asked her to visit them again.

"We need to create some mischief," he had said. "A demonstration that Adonai was wrong is our only way to return to the city."

Adryel had looked away. They had already created mischief, she had already created it. She had led the humans to be disobedient. She had taught them they were not totally dependent on Adonai. What more could Lucifer want? Rather, what more would it take for Adonai's error to be obvious?

She wished she could think of something grand, some magnificent and memorable way in which to demonstrate Adonai's incompetence, but nothing of the sort occurred to her.

She sighed. She longed to see him-him and his minion, Michael-groveling in the dust in Palace Square, just reward for what they had done to Ramael.

Still, she set out, at first light, facing the rising sun. Visiting the humans might be pointless, but staring at the hard walls of the cavern was even more so.

She knew where to look. Their fields had been producing bountifully, the sheep had pasture, and Cain had been able to find game to eat. There likely had been no reason for the humans to pull up and move away.

She strolled away from the portal. The air felt cooler than it had the last time Adryel had left the cavern, causing her to shiver. The sensation felt foreign-in h.e.l.l, the lake of fire kept the air constantly hot.

Stopping in the garden, she recalled the visit she'd had with Abi and Mari. The three of them had spent two days exploring the garden. The humans' eyes had sparkled as they walked in the lush green gra.s.s and relaxed beside the river, their feet immersed in the cool water.

"We've nothing like this at home," Mari had exclaimed as she bit into the piece of fruit Adryel had plucked from a nearby tree, the same fruit she had tempted their mother-in-law to eat.

The red b.a.l.l.s were soft and fuzzy. Mari had initially wrinkled her nose as she held it, but when she bit into it, the sweet juice had filled her mouth and run down her chin. Later, she had wiped her face and licked her fingers, eager to lose none of the juice.

Adryel had managed to find three pieces of the fruit to send home with them as a gift. After eating it, perhaps Abi would plant the seeds at their settlement. She thought it unlikely the old woman would recognize it, and, if she did, it would be simply another ill.u.s.tration of Adonai's lies. After all, she was still alive, not dead as he had threatened.

Abi and Mari had never seen the garden when it was new, but Adryel felt disheartened whenever she thought about its state of disrepair. Several times she had attempted to talk Lord Lucifer into having the angels tend it. She had tried to enlist others to a.s.sist her in doing so, even though she knew the entire group would insist on sharing anything she produced. She found it maddening that the idea of work, even as a simple distraction, if not for the taste of the food, repelled all of the others.

Pushing thoughts of the garden and the other angels from her mind, she gazed across the plain toward the hills. Whatever else one might say about Adonai's creation, she had to admit it was beautiful.

She especially liked the trees. She approached one covered with large leaves, rising high into the sky, six or seven times her height. Today, the large, green leaves were tinged with red and orange, creating a pleasing palette of colors. Before long, the leaves would fall to the ground, turn brown, and shrivel. Still, the tree's bare limbs silhouetted against the deep blue sky would be beautiful too.

The gra.s.s felt soft beneath her feet. It was so much more attractive than the stone floors of h.e.l.l, and much more pleasant than the paved roads and squares in the city too. Gra.s.s grew in the palace garden and in the other parks, but in general it had disappeared from the residential areas of the city. She slipped off her shoes and felt it. It was still damp and her foot slid across it, almost as if she were standing on ice.

Had things been different, Adryel would have enjoyed being a.s.signed to watch over the humans, since the a.s.signment would have required her to visit Earth.

"Do they visit Earth?" she asked aloud. She'd never seen any angels when she'd been out walking, only the guard at the gate, and he disappeared years ago.

Had Adonai simply abandoned his creatures? Set the ball in motion, so to speak, and then stepped back to watch?

She shook her head. Not like him. Angels must come to Earth sometimes, and some might be stationed there permanently. More likely, though, they had a portal from the city.

If she could locate their portal, she could make all types of mischief.

Adryel walked all day, stopping briefly to rest and eat a midday meal. Late in the afternoon, she crested the last hill and spied the human's settlement below. On the eastern end of the settlement a stone table had been erected. She could see Abi walking back and forth between the table and a stack of wood, and she appeared to be piling sticks in a mound on the tabletop.

Raising the fire so one could stand beside it rather than kneel on the ground sounded like a good idea, but a fire still burned in the pit where it had on her last visit.

Curious.

Adryel sauntered down the hill, calling and waving to Abi as she approached. She wondered where everyone else had gone.

Abi came out to meet her, a smile on her face. "Adryel, my friend, it is so good to see you again. I was doubting if you would be coming back."

"I told you I would." Adryel smiled. She liked Abi.

"What is the table?" She pointed toward it. "Why are you piling wood on top?"

"It's for tomorrow's sacrifice."

Adryel frowned. "What is a sacrifice?"

Abi looked puzzled. "It is when we offer food to Adonai. Cain will bring grain for a cereal offering and Abel will bring an animal. We used to have to do it over the pit. Before you taught us we could control fire. It is much nicer this way, don't you agree?" She seemed to realize that Adryel did not understand. "This is an altar. We'll burn the offerings so Adonai can receive the food."

They believed Adonai needed food? Adryel almost laughed. She looked away and covered her mouth.

"Abel and Mari are inspecting his flock, searching for a perfect lamb. Cain is selecting half an ephah of choice grain." She pointed across the compound, and Adryel saw him, bending over a large bowl, crushing the grain with a stick. He was so quiet she had not noticed him before.

"May I stay for the sacrifice?"