Chapter 16 Feather #2
I wanted to argue that I had a Celestial key. I wanted to correct their stupid assumptions. I wanted to smack them upside the head with a big bunch of Sanctuary ropes tied together like an enormous flail and—
“Ahhh!”
I dropped my hand and goggled at the scene. Somehow, part of the floor had risen up and formed an X-shaped frame. The Guide who had backtalked me was tied to it with thick, jagged ropes of Sanctuary’s power, and the flail I’d imagined was smacking them over and over on their back.
“Sanctuary, stop that!” I yelled.
The flail hesitated in the air, then smacked the Guide once more. I glanced down at my arms, to check on the murder snakes. No. This wasn’t them. The realm itself had been listening, and had obviously had enough of their bullship.
“I mean it, Sanctuary. No torturing the Guides unless I specifically say so.” The energy dropped away so fast, the Guide fell on their face, their robes rucked up around their naked, bony ass. “Truth, help him?”
The atmosphere now was a mixture of disbelief, horror, amusement, and shock, as I apologized to the Guide, then said loud enough for everyone to hear, “I get it. You don’t like me.
You think you know more than me, and you know what?
You may be right. Instead of getting classes up here for four centuries, I was stuck on Earth, with no idea who I was, or what I was.
All I knew was I had to protect the vulnerable.
And like it or not, right now? That’s you.
“My job is to get you all out of here before the Abyss finishes breaking through the basement.” I held up a hand at the outcry those words brought.
“Gavriel gave me those instructions. He and Seraphiel are in the basement now”—I choked back a sob—“killing themselves to give me time to get you out. So I’m going to do that.
Hope?” She’d stepped back from the door, and was shining brightly. “I need you to come here.”
She flew over the crowd. Next to me on stage, her glow was almost as bright as mine.
“Gimme a sec,” I told her and reached down, grunting at how hard it was to pull even a tiny thread up.
Stop sulking, I mentally chided the realm, and I’ll let you play BDSM games with the shadow beasts later. They seem to like it.
A whole spool of string came up in my hand then, and I held it out toward Hope.
“So you’re ready to ascend, right?” She nodded, looking confused, and I lifted both hands in the air, wrapping them in the golden thread.
“Hear me, oh, citizens of Sanctuary. Hope—” I stopped, and whispered, “What’s your whole name? ”
For some reason, her cheeks went pink. “Why?” I rolled my hand in a hurry it up signal and she mumbled, “Hope, the Waking Dream.”
No, not your porn name, birch, I snarked. She bared her teeth at me while I laughed. And people made fun of my name?
She glowered. “It’s an Aristotle quote. Maker Mikhail was his drinking buddy. What’re you doing?”
“Promoting you, Wet Dream.” I lifted my hand again, and tried to lower my voice.
I was going for excited, but I overshot and hit WWE announcer.
“Let’s give it up for the baddest of all birches, the beloved of Sunny the Light of Truth, and my right-hand commander, Hope, the Wet—the Waking Dream, and your newest High Angelus!
Follow her instructions if you want to live!
” And then I smashed my power-covered hands on both sides of her cheeks and gave her a big, sloppy, energy-laced smooch.
“Sunny sent that,” I whispered into her dazed face.
Her eyes had tiny stars buzzing around in them.
Maybe cuckoo clock birds, too. “I’m a pretty good kisser, right?
I’ve been practicing on my Heigel Jellies as often as possible. ”
Power flooded through her. For a moment, she sagged, and I held her up the best I could, considering she was six feet tall and Amazonian in structure. But after only a second, the energy stabilized. I felt Sanctuary giving a tiny cheer under my feet.
“You’re going to feel dizzy for a bit,” I told her. “And not just from my excellent smooching skills. Sanctuary takes a little getting used to.” She nodded, dazed, and backed up a few steps.
Quickly, I sent a thought to both Hope and Percy.
They went pale, but both of them nodded.
“Right,” I announced, turning back to the excited crowd.
“We have to evacuate Sanctuary. Our options are limited on where to go. If you would like to go to Earth, follow Percy to the Flight Hall. He has a soul knife.” I tried to remember what Gavriel had told me they could do.
Oh, right. “He’ll cut off your wings, and you will have the chance to go to Earth, live a blameless life, and then, if you manage that, you’ll ascend to the Celestial Realm immediately upon your mortal death. ”
“W-what if we don’t live a completely blameless life?” someone called.
“Uh, buddy, I think you already know the answer. You’d join the souls in the Abyss, at least for a while.” I pointed to Percy. “Who’s going with him?” No one moved.
“What are the other choices?” Truth asked.
“Well, they can follow me and Arabella to the Great Gate. I’m going to use my powers of persuasion to ask Revel—the gate—to open for us.” Hope shot me an evil look when Truth started vomiting off the side of the stage.
Arabella narrowed her eyes. You know Gavriel and Seraphiel may not make it there in time.
I know. I fought to keep my face from betraying my emotions. I can’t be separated from Gavriel, anyway. But I can get everyone else out and work on what’s next, once I know my friends are safe.
The corners of her lips turned up. I am so proud of you, little sister.
I smiled back, then returned my attention to the crowd.
“Anyway, I think I can get you all out. You’ll need to travel through the void to the Limen, the lobby of the Celestial Realm.
It’s a nice place. Lots of clouds, benches.
Even though most of you haven’t technically ascended, I figure if you knock hard enough on the gate, they’ll get annoyed and might let you in. ”
“Those are both terrible choices,” snarled a Guide who still hadn’t lost the attitude. “What else can we do?”
I shrugged. “Well, you can stay here, I suppose.”
The Guide was about to answer when, as if on cue, the Abyss attacked the basement full force. The whole room swayed back and forth, like an earthquake had struck. But it wasn’t anything natural. It was the shadow Shai-Hulud.
And I felt it begin to break through.
Gavriel! I called out, feeling a surge of pain in my chest. Somehow, he was pulling power from Sanctuary, and since I was connected to it, it siphoned some from me as well.
He sent a hurried thought that he needed it to protect Rafe, who had fallen.
Rumple! There was no answer, but Gavriel pulled harder.
I asked Sanctuary to send them more energy, begging it to go to their aid, though it sapped my own strength to almost nothing.
The pools of blue light in my mating marks were almost dry now.
Even the reservoir of power that Imriel had used to cushion the Celestial key seemed thinner. That worried me.
Arabella caught me as I fell, and I noticed Hope staggering on her feet. I hoped Percy wasn’t flying; he would have fallen from that for sure.
“Let’s get these bassholes to the gate,” I muttered to Arabella as she led me through the crowd. “I have to get to the basement now.”
My heart was racing, and I was driven to move as fast as possible so I could help Rumple and Gavriel, but she laid a hand on my arm, stopping me.
“Calm. You’re the leader. Set the tone. Gavriel and Seraphiel are strong and competent.
You are giving them the power of the realm.
Keep your heart light, or the shadows will overwhelm us all. ”
Crapsicles. She was right. Negative emotions were dangerous right now.
“I should never have given Revel my dildo,” I murmured, trying not to wheeze as I marched out the door. “I need some good vibrations right now. And maybe a couple of rechargeable batteries.”
Arabella shot me a worried look. “I would gladly share my power with you, little sister, but my hold on it is slipping. I might overdo it.”
“Nah, I got this,” I panted. “I could ask Sanctuary for a bit more.” I didn’t say, if I didn’t know the realm needed it to help Rumple. But Arabella’s knowing gaze made me shrug. “I starved to death like four times on Earth. Maybe more. This isn’t half that painful.”
I wasn’t lying. It was twice as painful.
The crowd was already streaming out of The Merge—a little soft on the concept of following the leader—but when they saw shadows at the end of the hallway outside, they jumped behind me. “So brave,” I snarked, pulling on two small strips of energy. “Truth! I need your naked octet!”
In seconds they were there, singing. I frowned. “You’re not naked. You sound better naked.” I wasn’t making it up; their music really was more powerful.
“The shadows might cut us,” Truth reasoned.
“I suppose. But you know you all have to be naked to go through the gate anyway.” With tight smiles and more than one blush, Truth and his friends handed their robes off. I whistled. “You’ve been working out.”
“It’s the music,” he said, showing off a tiny bicep that had not been there before. “And playing a harp for hours every day. Builds definition.”
“I like. Go ahead, you all sing.” I twisted around to face the subdued crowd. “The rest of you, hum along as we go. Try to pick up the words. It’ll help. If we had instruments, it would be better…”
“But we do!” Delight, the sassy gal I’d met on my first day of Purity class, had a whole sack of something that clattered when she shook it. “I found these in the supply closet.” She pulled one out.
“Kazoos!” I whooped. “Best news ever. All right, everyone, grab a kazoo. Stick it in your mouth and it’ll amplify the hum—” I stopped talking, seeing Delight shaking her head.
“They’re not that kind of kazoo, Leader Feather. They’re…” She started lifting her toga.
I waved her to stop. “It doesn’t matter now. We’ll use what we have. Hand them out, Sassy!”
“It’s Delight,” she muttered. The hallways shook while she distributed them.
“Start walking!”
A bunch of protests rose. “Walk? Why walk?”
“We can stay closer and defend better, and… for glitter’s sake, are you all toddlers?
Just do as you’re told! We don’t have time for this sort of insubordination.
We can’t fly. We have to march, and sing, and play the danged kazoos.
Stick them in your mouths or stick them in your butts.
I don’t care. Start humming them and let’s get out of here!
” I yelled, exhausted. My knees turned to jelly, but Arabella grabbed me before I went down. I really need a soulfire energy drink.
Ew. Stop thinking about giving head to your mates, Hope thought with a wink as she supported my other arm.
“Everyone!” she shouted, holding one of the lap harps over her head.
“The only weapon that works on these shadows is music, combined with a blade. Songs in High Angelic are best, but any music at all is somewhat effective as a deterrent. Next, if your leader tells you to put an actual piece of shit in your mouths, you will do so with a smile or you will be left behind, do you understand me?”
A few shouted, “Sir! Yes, sir,” but one or two more complaints of “There is something brown on mine” rang out.
Most of them got over their grump and stuck their kazoos in their mouths, making faces but joining in the tune as we traveled.
It took longer than I’d hoped, my own fear and tension threatening to overwhelm me as each moment ticked by.
Sanctuary sent small, reassuring licks of power my way now and then, though, and I knew my guys were still okay.
And the shadow sandworm hadn’t made any further progress inside.
What took the most time was checking for stragglers.
We had to make a pass down each hallway, visually inspecting the rooms, which meant Hope, Perception, Arabella, or I had to override the personal locks with an angelic word.
We found a few where people had hidden, and one where some brave Guides had been unmade, shielding fallen Protectors.
Hope pulled the survivors out, and everyone carried litters of the injured.
Percy took the soul knife and did a flight to the upper levels, returning with a lot more Guides. Obviously, that had been a popular place to cower.
At last, we reached the large space in front of the gate. And that’s where our luck ran out.