remained silent.
Lucifer slowly pivoted, facing him. “And where is your elder brother?”
Bael regarded him somberly, almost rudely, to Lucifer’s thinking. He was dressed, as usual, all in black, in a long-sleeved turtleneck sweater, jeans and boots, matching his ebony hair and eyes, in contrast to his ruddy golden complexion.
“Well?”
“To answer your first question, I would still love Leianna. It might lessen my pleasure a bit when we made love.”
“So this love, after all these centuries, is more than just a need for closure, to finish an interrupted passion and let it run its course? Do you intend to marry her?”
“I believe the betrothal has stood the test of time.”
Lucifer nodded. “And where is Ashtoreth? I sent for him also.”
“Ashtoreth is not in Hell tonight.” Lucifer waited, and Bael obliged him. “He is on the upper planes, consulting with Quatama.”
“The great Gautama Buddha, championing Leianna, your brother and you in this fairy tale quest. You would think that the current behavior of humankind would prove my point and end this reformation folly.”
“The Alliance may—possibly—improve mankind’s behavior.” Bael spoke haltingly, as if trying to convince himself as well as Lucifer.
Lucifer raised an eyebrow, incredulous. “Bael, I don’t believe souls damned to Hell will ever be redeemable, not even with one-third of Earth’s humanity being incarnated angelfolk and the rest carrying some measure of angelic DNA, thanks to the Creator’s great rebreeding experiment, going on now for what . . . nearly 35 millennia?”
“Nearly that. And most mortals know little to nothing about the angelic incarnations. But I bring other news Quatama conveyed to us. The old ones, the elders who left Eliom on the eve of Leianna’s immortal birth, are due to return to our sector of the universe at the start of the 21st Century. He believes they will influence the goals of the Alliance.”
His son’s eyes met his deliberately then broke contact, but Lucifer continued to gape at him, as if Bael had delivered a blow, stunning him. He forced himself to swallow, to draw air into his lungs, then found his voice: “You’ve trumped me! Do you know who was among those elders trusting our Creator to send them light-years away to help with some newly sentient species on some unknown planet? Do you know who was taken from me and from your mother with no knowledge as to where they’d gone or when they might return? You were barely a year old, but I later told you of it. But I demanded to all who were told, that they never again mention my loss. Perhaps you’ve forgotten in the passage of centuries exactly who we lost.”
“Your parents and Mother’s parents. Your father Othorath. Your mother Ise. My paternal grandparents. And my mother’s mother, Venea. And her father Mercurius. My maternal grandparents. And Leianna’s paternal grandparents, Zoras and Heira. And you only became bitter, questioning the Creator’s ability to safeguard them, after we were exiled into Hell.”
Lucifer nodded. “And when they do return, what will they find? Eliom changed, its people scattered, their own kin lost to them in Hell!”
“Father, they willingly took on the task set for them by the Creator.”
“And I didn’t.” Lucifer paced, agitated. “My and Affaeteres’s parents will find us banned from Eliom—or whatever damned name it goes by now, their son disgraced and their daughter destroyed by this dark realm.” And by me, he thought, and for love of me. “And what will you and your brother Ashtoreth, who are permitted where I may not trespass, tell them?”
“Heaven has placed rules and restrictions on Ashtoreth and me, Father.”
“Dammit, answer my question!”
“I . . . I would ask that they be permitted to visit you,” Bael said, his voice raising, “if you would explore a potential alliance, a long-awaited chance to heal the ostracism we’ve suffered, no longer rebels, but leaders negotiating for our realm’s future!”
“Ah! But could I visit Heaven?”
Bael hesitated, staring at him. “Possibly. In time.”
Lucifer sucked in air and expelled it, teeth gritted, lips twisting. “So you dangle a carrot before me, thinking me some old goat you can lead forward to your own ends!”
“Father,” Bael murmured, but Lucifer could feel the anger smoldering behind Bael’s quiet reproof, its sparks ready to erupt into bitter flames.
They had fought before. Bael never shied from speaking out; he would never play the role of sycophant to anyone. But a sudden, overwhelming need, to see a burden, too long carried, possibly lightened, prompted Lucifer’s next words, not the stubbornness of his second-in-command. He took the carrot but would somehow control the direction of this Alliance business. “Tell Quatama that he and Leianna may visit my realm and, at my insistence, dine with me and my family. I will guarantee them safe passage.”
Now Bael gaped.
Lucifer shot him a mocking glance. “I would question Quatama myself about our elders’ return. That is why and only why you’ve won this small victory. And I make no promises beyond it.”
“When, then?”
“On the next Sabbath.” Lucifer turned from him, walking to the private door to the right of the dais, his voice loud in the high-vaulted room. “One A.M., Saturday, as time is measured in your lady’s mortal world. Thus I even accommodate her.” His guard opened the door as he approached. “To meet my adversary on the Sabbath suits my humor.”
He went to his chambers, leaving Bael to carry the news to Heaven that the goat had snapped at the bait.
CHAPTER 4
A Dinner Party in Hell
Bael had warned Leianna: “Don’t ever come down to Hell without me!”
As it turned out, she had never set foot on the lower planes comprising his kingdom, despite being tempted to seek him out and explore the Netherworld. Despite her protests, Quatama had tweaked her soul’s aura with some power that blocked her ability to even venture near the darker planes. Only tonight had he lifted that psychic block.
Now as a guest of Lucifer, she and Quatama were in Hell. Even so, Leianna still hadn’t even left the royal palace.
She leaned over the low stone balustrade that circled one-third of its highest tier. Bael had led her outside onto this balcony. Above and directly behind them, a round, lighted dome crowned the northwest corner. It cast shadow and light onto the yellow, white, beige and brown flagstone floor that they stood upon. Leianna welcomed the dome’s soft illumination; it chased away the murk of the Netherworld night.
Bael waved his hand toward the cityscape far below them: the buildings, shops, parks, and thoroughfares of the capital city of Tandour in Domain. “Here in Domain, our royal principality in Hell, and in the four other countries sharing this first level of Hell, the noble classes of Hell rule and play.”
“And their servants?” Her tone challenged him. The panorama below stretched past the city limits to open country with the lights
