Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
“The elders used to call it their time to become again,” Marduk added. “Perhaps you simply need to become again, Lady Caliane.” The ice blue of his gaze was acute in that dragonish face. “You must know how to ensure you wake after a certain defined period.”
“How will I know if I am safe to wake?” Caliane insisted, and in her voice was an anguish that made Raphael hurt for his mother.
She had tried so hard.
Marduk looked to Raphael. “You must trust the judgment of those who have no reason to lie to you.”
A long inhale, before Caliane said, “I will slip away now. That is the simplest and safest way to do this. Before any of the others become aware of my weakness.” While her mien was stark, her decisiveness was of the warrior again, nothing lost or dreamy about her.
The problem, of course, was that she could as easily flip back. “I’ll come with you,” Raphael said. “Elena too.” His consort wasn’t as fast as either of them, but in this, he needed her by his side.
“A decade,” Caliane murmured. “It is not so very long.” But in her voice hung a thousand tears.
* * *
* * *
It was the quietest journey of his existence, the weight of the horror that had almost taken place a black cloud that followed them from an Australian desert to the lush forests of Kagoshima, Japan, and home to Amanat.
Wild horses raced beneath them as they flew into the city protected by a shield only his mother could produce. Jelena and Avi were waiting in the garden in which Caliane chose to land, and he knew she’d warned them of her arrival.
He and Elena landed in silence behind her.
“I must Sleep,” his mother told the two warriors, her voice and expression stark. “Now, today.”
Jelena and Avi knelt as one. “We are ready to come with you, sire.”
Avi, speaking for both of them.
But Caliane shook her head. “No, you must stay. As must Tasha, and the entirety of my innermost court, along with all my senior generals and warriors.” She held out her hands so that Jelena and Avi could take one each, rise.
“Sire,” Jelena began, her distress clear.
“I will Sleep for a decade,” Caliane told her. “There is unlikely to be an ascension in that time—so you must watch over my territory. The Cadre will no doubt arrange oversight flights, but with nine, no one will argue against an experienced senior team maintaining the situation until I rise again.”
“We understand, sire,” Avi said at last, but his eyes had a wet shine. “We will do as you bid and wait for your return.”
Caliane touched her hand first to his cheek, then to Jelena’s. “Your devotion humbles me.” Soft words. “I won’t let you down. Now go, gather the others who must remain in the world, and leave Amanat. You have an hour.”
In that short window, Caliane sent a message to everyone in Amanat, telling those who did not wish to go into Sleep with her to step outside the shield. You will not be punished or considered disloyal, she said. Rather, it will be your task to help maintain my lands until I rise again in ten years’ time. Jelena and Avi will show you the way. Listen to them for they speak with my voice.
As Raphael had expected, the vast majority of Amanat chose to stay—his mother’s people were not just loyal; they loved her. In sanity, that was a gift she cherished. In madness, she might use them with the same carelessness with which the Archangel of Death had used her people.
Only once all was ready, mere minutes left, did Caliane turn to Raphael. “My son.” Tears rolled down her face. “A decade, Raphael, and if you deem me mad on my rising, I will listen and return to Sleep. This I vow.”
He crushed her into his embrace. “I love you, Mother.” Then there was no more time. He took Elena’s hand and they rose into the sky—and out of Amanat’s shield.
When they landed, it was beside the senior team and the few other residents who’d left the city. Their faces were grim where they weren’t awash in tears, and they stood in absolute silence as the timer clicked over to the hour…and Amanat sank into the earth.
Yet Raphael knew that if they dug there, they’d never find it. While most angels could bury themselves in Sleep, his mother alone could take an entire city with her—and in a way that defied any explanation. For Amanat had never been unearthed, even when explorers and hunters dug endlessly in the last place it had stood.
Grass rippled in front of them, no sign remaining of the vibrant city that had existed there mere moments earlier.
His mother was gone.
* * *
* * *
Child of mortals. A voice as old as time, faded and sleepy in Elena’s mind. I will watch over her. Tell this to her son.