Uriel: The Inheritance (Airel Saga Book Five)

Chapter VII

Arabia—1230 B.C.

URIEL HAD BEEN FORCED to meet with Anael well out of the way, in an inconvenient place. The Brotherhood's draining draw had been a significant concern to him, but he didn't know her very well yet, didn't know that she could shadow even the draw and eliminate all trace of her true allegiance with the Brotherhood. It was no matter. Caution was certainly merited at this stage of their uneasy conspiracy.

So she had agreed to meet him well outside the walls of Ke'elei, in the bowels of the forest, in the darkest stage of the night so that the conference between him, the leader of the angelic council at Ke'elei, and Uriel, the living catalyst who would be its undoing, could take place.

Anael, an ancient-looking figure crowned and bearded and robed with white, walked delicately into the clearing where she waited, concealed not by her supernatural talents but by her black cloak, by fronds of fern and tangles of creeping vines on rotting trunks. "Traitor, speak," he said. "Show thyself."

Uriel emerged from the darkness and felt the pale light of a slivered moon illuminating her features. She pulled back the hood of her cloak and allowed the sickly light to fall upon the unnatural hair of her head, like the breast feathers of a tropical bird. Out here, away from all constraint and rule, she could be who she really was. Out here, outcast, she could leave Eriel, her erstwhile friend Santura, and Kreios, Zedkiel—even Uncle Yamanu behind. "I am here."

Anael smiled at her. It was veiled with a sprinkling of fatherly benevolence, making it all the more chill, dread, and evil. "I am glad indeed to see that I have not labored in vain, child."

"Let us be quick about our business," she said. "The forest might house a witness against us if we remain too long here."

Anael agreed with a nod. "You must know, then, what I require as payment for the surrender of the council's plans and strategy?"

"I am able to guess," Uriel said, spitting onto the mossy earth. "Do I need to speak it aloud here, or no?"

"No indeed, for I shall speak it for you. You will bring me the red stone that hangs from the neck of the Seer."

"A different man now holds that office, old one. Kreios punished my master in the clipping of one wing, as well as the slaying of his slave and host. You must know that such a request is ... that it would be impossible for anyone but me to fulfill it."

"Yes, I am aware of your talents." He waved his hand in dismissal and disdain. "What I am not yet assured of, though, is the quality of your character—whether I can trust you to follow through on our bargain."

She scoffed and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Can two traitors ever trust one another?" She dissolved from his sight in an instant, reappearing on a limb above and behind him. "A better question, old one," she said, waiting for him to turn toward her, "would be to ask yourself if you want to trust me." She dissolved again, reappearing directly in front of him, right in his face, saying, "Or even more, if you can afford not to."

Anael smirked at her, unperturbed. "Talents aplenty. If I did what my rash thoughts now suggest to me, I would try to choke the life out of you." He shrugged. "But I know you could easily escape my grasp." He paused, regarding her. "I also know what motivates you." He stepped closer and she took a step back, the closeness unwelcome. He looked down on her and continued. "I know how powerful it is, vengeance. All that pain and suffering. The sure knowledge that what you suffered, and at the hand of your own father, no less, wasn't the product of love, or even of a modicum of fatherly concern. I know what you feel, child—that it was spite. That he hated you for killing his beloved as you entered this world, and now blames you," his eyes widened and intensified, "for everything."

Uriel stepped back once more and raised her hand against him. "Stop. Enough."

"I know," Anael continued, "that what fuels your fire is your father's regret. That he regrets having ever come here to begin with. That he regrets having loved and lost. That he regrets you, most of all, and that he sees not a daughter when he looks upon you, girl. I know what he sees."

Uriel gritted her teeth. "Cease."

"He sees in you his eternal punishment."

"Stop." she demanded, and though her intent was to brandish forceful tones, the word exited her lips desperate and petulant.

He relented. "Oh, I can trust you, girl. I know that I can trust you. And your hatred. For such things also fuel my fires."

She pushed him backward. "I care not."

"Liar."

"You can have the bloody stone. I revel in the fall of great kingdoms."

"Fill up your cup with potent revenge, then, for you shall drink your fill, girl, and have all you want of it."

She crossed her arms. "Agreed."

"Our pact is firm." Anael turned back toward Ke'elei.

"When next we meet, we shall together overthrow two dominions."

"Yes," he called to her over his shoulder. "Under the great tree."

She watched him depart the clearing. She then dissolved into the air, invisible, undetected, the perfect infiltratrix.