broke a bit of roll to sop up the remains of the wine sauce on his plate, chewing slowly. Leianna slowly finished her own meal, surprised at how delicious everything had tasted, certain that the meat was an illusion, but not an evil, deliberate one. On the higher planes, a roast turkey dinner was created using a form of psychic tofu for any animal flesh. “It will help me to understand what you and your people underwent.”
Lucifer poured more wine for himself, sitting back. “Regan,” he commanded, “clear the table and serve dessert.”
The petite blonde complied. For the first time, Leianna noticed that she was dressed in the Eliomese style, a snug white gown that hugged her soft curves and resembled Affaeteres’s. Regan removed the used dishes and glasses, waited until the head waiters tasted the thick berry pie and chocolate mousse, and then served them to the dinner guests. The coffee and tea were also tasted, and steaming pots were placed onto the table for them to choose and help themselves.
“Very good, Regan,” Lucifer told her. “You may sit down and join us again.” His tone held a softened edge of weariness. He looked at Leianna. “The last you saw of me, my family and followers, we were being lifted into the roiling cloud of blinding light. Now you ask me what befell us afterwards. Didn’t Bael speak to you of this?”
“Only that you were blinded and buffeted about within that cloud, and that he fell unconscious until he arrived in a land that seemed devoid of light, except for the fiery glow of volcanoes and phosphorus pools.” She glanced at Bael. “He told me that hours later a dim, misty dawn broke, and that a dark grey sky rose over the world you were exiled into.”
Lucifer remembered, grimacing. “Exiled, yes! Our arrival point resembled a moonscape except that in the distance a volcano soon steamed rivers of lava flowing down its slopes, its smoke and ash obscuring the sky.”
Ashtoreth spoke up. “We were all afraid, especially the women, who began to wail and beseech my father to ask the Creator’s forgiveness. But it was too late for that. None of us knew this would happen.”
Affaeteres stood up. “I didn’t wail.” She sat down.
“No, you didn’t, Mother,” Ash said. “You were very afraid, but you acted bravely.”
“Yes, I did. When this world was at its worst, I could stomach it better.” She looked at Lucifer. “Well, my dear, tell Leianna and Quatama the tale of how we survived Hell.”
CHAPTER 5
Into the Abyss
In the utter darkness—(Lucifer recalled the terror of their arrival in Hell)—he heard screams, wails and calls by his followers to their friends and family and to him. Lucifer once again took command. He called back to them, his voice booming above their fearful babble. “Everyone be quiet! Everyone! This is Lucifer!”
He had chosen his people well. Their cries died down to silence. “I am going to call out the names of my leaders one by one, who must answer me and then call out the names of their own charges, who must answer them and alert us to their presence. And once we have done that, I will call for my family. In this way we will know if we have all arrived here intact, that none of us are missing.”
He started with Dagon, the only spirit master who had rebelled with Lucifer.
His eldest subcommander answered him, his voice hoarse as the gravel beneath their feet. “I am here!” Dagon called out the names of those under his command, who called out their presence in the darkness.
Lucifer then called out the names of Moloch, Adrammelech, Chemosh, of Behemoth, Mammon and Belial, of Thamuz, Phoenixious and Cimeries. All responded as did the folk under their guidance. Adrammelech complained of the suffering of his seven year old son Marech, and his mother, Maura, Adrammelech’s wife, called out shakily: “He will not speak sense to us! The child utters nonsense words, and shivers, as do I in this black void.”
Lucifer spoke soothingly to her. “We will find light, and we will ease your son’s shock, Maura. For now, let me continue to identify us all. I call for Naamah. Answer me, lady, if you be here.”
“I am here,” came her voice, faintly, from what seemed like a distance from him. “Those who are under me, I will call out your names for your acknowledgment. Answer me swiftly!”
Her charges did so quickly, trusting Lucifer’s only woman subcommander and voicing no complaint.
Lucifer continued: “Lothan, I know that you, your wife, Tia, and daughter, Sharlan, must be here.” They all three raggedly voiced their presences to him. “Now call out to those angelfolk who serve under your command.”
Lothan’s strong, deep voice rang out: “Answer me, my folk, as I call your names.” His charges did, all accounted for.
Lastly, Lucifer called out, “Nergal! I call you last. Are you and Shadella and your group of angelfolk safely accounted for?” Silence greeted his question. “Nergal? Nergal! Shadella was with child. Are you both here?”
A loud masculine wail shattered through the blackness. “Damn our Creator, who has stolen Shadella’s unborn child from her very womb! We are here, but our child is not! Shadella’s womb is flat, as if it had never blossomed with my seed! Daughter or son, I know not, but know that I have been robbed and my wife’s heart torn into pieces of pain.” A woman’s incoherent wail matched his cry.
“Nergal!” Lucifer shouted above their outcry. “Nergal! My heart grieves for your and Shadella’s cruel loss. But you must calm her and yourself. You are also indebted to the folk you took as your charges. They will be like your children now, until you and Shadella can again conceive. Put aside your grief until there is time for it. Call out to your people!”
“My people?” Nergal’s voice sounded drained of emotion. “Very well. Until there is time for grief.” He called his charges. They answered not only with their names, but with murmurs that consoled him and Shadella.
Lucifer nodded to himself, invisible in the blackness. “Lastly, I call to my own. Affaeteres?”
“I am here, Lucifer, but I cannot see where you stand.”
“No one can see. Ashtoreth?”
“I am here, Father. And Mother is beside me. We arrived here together. I was holding her. Protecting her.”
“And your brother? Bael?”
No answer.
“Bael?!” Lucifer waited, wondering if his second son had been taken from him, just as Azmodeus, his youngest, had been. “Answer me, if you are here!”
A second more of silence, then a soft mutter. “Bael is present, but his heart is lost.”
* * * *
Lucifer looked up, mid-memory, glancing at Leianna, who asked, “If there was a volcano in the distance, wouldn’t its lava flow create some light?”
“It didn’t freshly erupt until perhaps an hour or two later. Time was difficult to judge. And then we had a better sense of place and space.”
Bael added: “There are stars in the Netherworld, a cold, faint light, but no moon. We later found that the volcano, one of many which originally dotted the landscape, had erupted earlier and the ash in the
