Barlowe, Wayne - God's Demon

Lilith saw, through the curling currents of ash and cinders, the broad carpet of lights outside the walls that were the joined fires and sigils of the legions' and souls' encampments and imagined the legionaries preparing for war, yet again. His war. They must be numbering in the millions by now. And he commands them all. Such power! All of which he is so willing to give up—and me as well. For a dream.

From below, the tiny, distant screams of buildings coming apart reached her ears, almost inaudible against the noise of the feasting hall and the wind. Eventually, as the demons retired, the sounds from inside diminished and she heard only the soughing of the hot wind through the sculpted eaves above her.

The cinder-storm was passing. And just as she thought to go back inside, she felt a hand placed gently upon her back and she turned and looked up into Sargatanas' face. Compassion was written upon his even features, and she almost could not bear to look at him. He returned her gaze, staring deeply, probingly into her eyes. She knew what he was doing, what he was capable of.

He took a deep breath and said, "I know."

"Can you?"

"Yes. I know what you're feeling. ... I feel it as well. I know how unfair this all seems. The irony of finding you after all those millennia, only to ..."

He looked out toward the legions.

"Only ... what?"

"Only to lose you because of a ... vision."

She said nothing.

"Lilith, my heart," he said softly, "my mind was made up long before you came here. I'm too far along in this to stop now."

"I know." She was neither bitter nor angry. "Yours is the greatest vision anyone in Hell could have. I could never ask you to betray it, Sargatanas. Never. Especially not for me."

"You are the only reason I would consider giving it up. And knowing that you would never want to go to Heaven ... it's one of the hardest truths I've had to accept. I know how much resentment you have inside you ... it's understandable ... but will you not reconsider?"

If anyone other than Sargatanas had asked, anger would have been her first response. But she knew just how serious he was and responded with equal seriousness, as firm in her mind as he was in his.

"Hell is where I will stay, my love."

"Would that I could give you Heaven instead."

"You have."

She reached up and pulled him down and they kissed, their emotions fanned by their awareness that now all things between them were, in all likelihood, transitory. How tightly must I hold him to make this a memory that will never fade? Some time in the solitary and distant future—perhaps millennia from now—she would remember this moment and almost disbelieve that it, like all the others they had shared, had happened.

When they separated she looked into his eyes and for once knew without question what lay behind them: no matter where he was, his love for her would never cease.

"What will you do if—when you are back?"

Sargatanas looked away, almost as if the prospect of returning were now, somehow, something he could not talk about. After a moment he said, "I will bathe for a small eternity in the river called the Source to wash away this place. After that, I suppose, I will wait to be brought before the Throne. And you ... when this is over?"

"I don't know; wander, I'm guessing. But I won't be staying here."

He nodded, clearly understanding; staying in Adamantinarx would be a constant wounding reminder of their separation. The all-too-short time spent with this demon, in this city, was, she thought, so unlike her time in Dis, and yet both were proving to be sad beyond measure, for very different reasons.

Without a word, he turned and beckoned her to come inside with him. Lilith held back for just a moment, the bitter memories of her past colliding with her unachievable, fleeting dreams of the future. And from them came inspiration.

"Promise me one thing, Sargatanas," she said. "Promise me that you will not let the Black Dome stand when you are done with the Fly."

He looked into her eyes, again finding what he needed to know, and said, "I will. For you ... and Ardat."

Chapter Twenty-Seven

DIS

"I summoned you because something appears to be happening across Adamantinarx," the newly appointed Prime Minister heard Agaliarept hiss. Pointing abruptly and in a revelatory manner with five of his arms, the Conjuror General continued, "Pockets of weakness are opening. ... Look at these configurations. Here and here and ... there! See how they fade?"