Cardinals
Cardinals
Ian Conner
Published by Black Raptor Books, 2022.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
CARDINALS
First edition. May 2, 2022.
Copyright © 2022 Ian Conner.
Written by Ian Conner.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Cardinals
If you enjoy my books | Write a Review | on Goodreads and LibraryThing.
A special thank you to | Kristy | Who types and proofreads so much better than I do.
CHAPTER 1 | — Kingdom of Heaven — | — 930 years before Christ —
CHAPTER 2 | —Elijah and Enoch — | —The Dead Sea—200 Years Before Christ—
CHAPTER 3 | — Origins — | — Golgotha Palestine 33AD —
CHAPTER 4 | — Scotland & England — | — 14th Century 1306 —
CHAPTER 5 | —London — | —January 1307 —
CHAPTER 6 | — Kùltbraggen House — | — January 1307 —
CHAPTER 7 | — IRAQ AND SYRIA — | — JANUARY 17, 1991 —
CHAPTER 8 | — San Diego, California — | — Present Day —
CHAPTER 9 | — Time to go — | — Scotland 1307 —
CHAPTER 10 | — Gijón Spanish Coast — | — Villa de Los Alados Blancos 1510—
CHAPTER 11 | — Saint Andrews University — | — Present Day, Scotland —
CHAPTER 12 | — Lindbergh Field — | — San Diego, California Present Day—
CHAPTER 13 | —Selene and Amara— | —Sea Brae in Crail, Scotland –Present Day—
CHAPTER 14 | —Arrivals— | —Scotland 2021—
CHAPTER 15 | —Departure— | — Scotland 1307 —
CHAPTER 16 | —Yasmeen and Nalia— | —London Present Day—
CHAPTER 17 | —Kùltbraggen Castle — | — Scotland - Present Day —
CHAPTER 17 | —Vatican City — | —Italy Present Day—
CHAPTER 18 | —Target Practice— | —Scotland Present Day —
CHAPTER 17 | — Kùltbraggen Castle— | —Scotland Present Day —
CHAPTER 19 | — Kinlocahard Castle— | — Scotland Present Day—
CHAPTER 20 | —Scotland, England, Rome and France— | — Kùltbraggen Present Day—
CHAPTER 21 | — Rome St. Peters Square — | — The Domus Sanctae Marthae Present Day—
CHAPTER 22 | — Jewelry Shopping— | — Burgandy France Present Day—
CHAPTER 23 | — History and Treachery — | — Kinlochard Castle Scotland Present Day—
CHAPTER 24 | — The Board is Set— | — Kùltbraggen, Scotland Present Day—
CHAPTER 25 | — Calling the Chariot— | — Kùltbraggen, Scotland Present Day—
CHAPTER 26 | — Celebration— | — Kùltbraggen, Scotland Present Day—
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About the Author
About the Publisher
FOR MY WIFE BONNIE
WHO LOVES SCARY STUFF
…AS LONG AS IT IS DURING THE DAY
Other books by Ian Conner
Solaris
Skadegemutc: Ghost Witch
False Dragons
Danger is Light Years Closer
Revenge is Reason enough
The Silicon Gambit
If you enjoy my books
Write a Review
on Goodreads and LibraryThing.
A special thank you to
Kristy
Who types and proofreads so much better than I do.
CHAPTER 1
— Kingdom of Heaven —
— 930 years before Christ —
Who first inspired them to that foul revolt?
It was She, Asherah,
Whose guile stirred up
Envy and Deceit.
The Mother of Angels,
What her Pride had cost.
He had cast her out from Heaven,
Cursed with a hunger unspeakable.
Followed by a host of rebel angels,
by whose aid
she aspired to set herself in Glory,
above her peers, above him
She, trusted to have equalled the mostHigh.
-Paradise Lost
Asherah sat on the throne next to His, pondering. He was away on another self-important task. Again. She was incredibly unhappy with how He was so self-centered.
Perhaps it was time for a change. A change in leadership. She thought.
Despite having an equal hand in all creation, she and her angels were treated as second class citizens in heaven.
His presence wasn’t required to accomplish the task at hand. Indeed, He could have done anything while sitting on the throne next to her. She thought.
“So why be away at all, unless it was to be away from me?” she said aloud.
She was in physical form. Like her angels, it was unnecessary, but it was how She preferred it. At the sound of her distressed voice, the Angel Lucifer appeared at her side.
“What troubles you, mother?” Lucifer asked.
Asherah sighed, then tousled the cherub’s hair. Running her fingers through Lucifer’s shoulder-length hair had a calming effect on her.
“Always ready to offer a shoulder to me. It’s nothing. Father is gone again.”
Lucifer knew what was bothering Asherah before he appeared at her side.
“Father can be recalcitrant when it comes to his rules and his pets,” Lucifer said, his tone acid.
Asherah raised an eyebrow. Lucifer’s open disdain for mankind was bound to get both of them into trouble with Him.
“Your mouth.” She hissed at him but smiled.
“It’s not as if this was the first time either you or I have disagreed with Him. There are others.”
She looked at Lucifer with concern.
“You know those side glances those who disagree with Him give you when they think no one else is watching?”
“Anyone in specific?
“Meloch, Azuriel, Azazel. That is only a start.”
Asherah looked up, startled by his frankness.
“An insurrection here. Would that be so bad. I’m tired of hiding how I feel, Mother. It’s not as if He doesn’t know.”
“Shush.” Holding up her hands in panic. “He can hear you.”
Asherah relaxed slightly, knowing Lucifer was right.
“I have spoken to Him again and again about allowing the angels into heaven instead of acting as his servants.” she told Lucifer.
Lucifer’s reaction to the word servant was pointed and angry.
“You always told us heaven was a collective effort of Father, yourself, and all of us. Now He calls us servants.”
“Lucifer,” his mother began.
But Lucifer’s powerful wings left only a breeze on her face as he took flight. Asherah closed her eyes and placed her thumbs on her temples and rubbed. The tension of the moment gave this bodily form a headache. Rubbing her face that way eased the pain.
“The angels are your creation, not His,” Azazel said.
Asherah opened her eyes to find Azazel standing in front of her. The most beautiful of her creations, even she found him stunning to look upon.
“Indeed, my beautiful boy.” she said, stroking the silvery-white feathers of his wings.
“I have noticed you spend more and more time in that body. It’s as if you had reason to get used to it.” Azazel said, arching his eyebrows.
Azazel folded his wings neatly behind him. He bent next to his mother, placing his forehead on her knee. A sign of great respect.
“Mother, Lucifer’s thoughts on the matter mirror my own. As he said, I am not the only one.”
“You know how your father feels about envy and pride, Azazel.”
“He’s not my father. I have no father.” Azazel said, pulling away from his mother.
He spread his wings.
“I will come and find you later, Mother.”
Again, a breeze from an angel’s wings cooled her face.
She smiled. Asherah had several other angels to speak with, but thus far the conversations she had produced the results she wanted. Meloch was already brooding when she found him. Lucifer left just as she arrived. Meloch still wore a sour face.
“Your muscles are so impressive.”
“Thank you, Mother. You gave them to me.”
Unlike Azazel, Meloch’s face was difficult to look upon. None of the beautiful symetry or chisled features of the other. Plain did not begin to cover a description. It was a subject she avoided.
“Belial and Azazel have been by voicing some disturbing thoughts. Father spends far too much time fawning over them. As Azazel said, we angels prostrate before him, singing his glory day and night, but we may not inhabit the heaven which we serve.”
“And how do you feel?” Asherah asked.
“The burning ones cater to his every whim and ego. It’s not fair that the Elders, all Four and Twenty Tirthankara, carry Him and his throne around. The Archangels are his favourites. Michael and Raphael in particular. Gabriel and Sariel share some of our views, but despite that, they consider themselves above us, we, who are the same.”
“You know, it was Him who designated the spheres after I created the angels. Each of you has your worth and skills equal to the others.”
“Another example of how Father’s arbitrary decisions affect us
all, and not for the better,” Belial replied.
“You should be more careful, Mother. He will not be happy with any of us when he returns. Where is He, anyway?”
“Away, again,” Her eyes teared up.
Tears were a hazard of the human form She was now in. Crying in response to her frustration. Belial stroked her hair and face, comforting her, as She continued to cry softly. She hugged her creation. Belial closed his wings around her like he knew she enjoyed.
“Your wings are so soft,” She said. Asherah pulled away and departed for her last stop.
As Belial mentioned, Azrael shared some of the ideas Asherah and Lucifer were espousing to his peers. Azrael, however, had no divided loyalties. His position as the Angel of Death allowed him to treat the souls of human disbelievers with total disdain.
“Mother, I agree the monkeys are beneath us, but what am I to do? Father decreed what he wants. End of story.”
“Is it?” Asherah asked.
Azrael tilted his head and looked at his mother.
“This conversation is over. Father, I’m certain, is listening.”
“But...”
“And he will not be amused.”
Azrael’s black wings unfolded, and he quickly took flight, leaving on a breeze from an angel’s wings on her face for the third time that day.
Asherah was returning to the throne room, walking at a leisurely pace. He was there, of course, waiting patiently. She could sense him. He was uncharacteristically blank.
It’s so unlike you to hide from me. Asherah thought.
“You shall never again enjoy the company of my thoughts.” came the reply.
“I think I will miss the feel of the clouds and the smell of this place most of all.”
Asherah took a deep breath in through the nose. Closing her eyes, she stepped out of her sandals and continued to the throne room. The clouds felt as if she were walking on the softest grass. Each step caused the most pleasant of scents to rise around her. A cross of orange blossoms and delicate ginger. Strikingly potent but not overpowering. Already aware of what was to become of her, Asherah continued to enjoy her last steps in heaven.
As she approached the throne room, those loyal to her, those who conspired with her and even those who didn’t support her, lined the path outside and the halls inside. Each took her hand and kissed it. Even the Archangels-Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Raguel, Remiel, and Sariel. Last before she entered was Lucifer.
“I’m so sorry Mother.” He wept and kissed her cheek.
She entered the throne room. Angels were not actually allowed in the presence of God.
Yet another slap in the face. she thought as she closed the door.
The Four and Twenty Tirthamkara’s Elders laboured to move his throne to face her. The Elders always appeared to be one step away from collapsing but never did. Asherah took the time to touch each elder until she reached the throne. Try as She might to read His thoughts, He remained stoic and unreadable.
“For the crime of insurrection and attempting to incite your angels to rebellion in the Kingdom of Heaven, you are cast out, forgotten, and cursed.”
“Oh, this should be good,” Asherah said proudly.
After all, She was his equal. Was. They had made all of creation together. Now he would cast her aside.
“Your name will be struck from all memory, here and on Earth. It will be as if you never existed.”
“You will be cursed to wander the earth, immortal but not living. Eternally thirsting for the blood of the living, but unable to live. Cursed to never see the sun again. A creature of the night dreaded and feared. An obscenity to the world in which you will reside.”
“And my angels?” Asherah spat.
“Some will be given one last chance to return to the fold and remember their purpose. The fifty angels who agreed to follow you will indeed follow you to earth. You will soon know their fate and realize for all your days, throughout eternity, it was you who condemned them.”
“You! You and your rules and your pet humans. I will feed on them all. I will return here. My Angels will rule in heaven. Your pets will be obliterated from the earth, and you will be excised from all creation!”
As Asherah finished her sentence, a bolt of lightning struck. Both Asherah and her throne disappeared. After a moment of confusion, the angels who witnessed Asherah’s banishment offered their praise to Him and returned to their duties, totally unaware their mother had just been cast out of heaven.
The summit of Mt. Hermon was a little above nine-thousand feet. Covered in snow, it was twenty-nine degrees this time of year. The Assyrian boy tending sheep looked up at the peaks.
“Not a cloud in the sky,” the boy said aloud.
He closed his eyes and turned his face to the waning sun, enjoying the warmth on his cheeks. It was dusk. He leaned on his Shepard’s hook and continued to enjoy the view of the mountain.
A huge, bright lightning bolt appeared out of the clear blue sky. The boy squinted against the brightness of the bolt as it streaked toward the center peak of Mt. Hermon.
“Baba, Baba!” the boy ran from the bolt, screaming in fright for his father.
His father, Rabbu, and Uncle Polous emerged from their hut on the slopes below the peaks at the commotion. Just as they came out, a rumbling wave of thunder and wind hit them in the face.
“What was that?” the uncle asked.
Poulous’s voice trembled with fear. He felt thunder was a terrible omen.
“Baba!” the boy pointed to the peak.
A dark black scar was visible, even from this distance. The two men looked at each other in alarm.
“Do we go see?” Poulous asked Rabbu looking at the smoke rising from the peak.
“We are simple herders. Whatever the Gods have done on that mountain is their business.” Rabbu shooed his son off to resume watching the sheep, then went back into the hut.
Far above Rabbu and Poulous’s herd of sheep, Asherah lay in the centre of a blackened area. The waning rays of light from dusk burned her skin.
The fire spread across her back, arms and legs as the light struck her skin. It made it impossible to think or function at first. Feeling agony for the first time was intense and crippling.
“Pain,” she said.
She cast her eyes angrily toward heaven. She quickly made her way out of the blackened area of the lightning strike. The smell of ozone filled the air. The air was cold, she could see her breath. It was uncomfortable walking across the landscape, littered with sharp stones. She was nude, no sandals, and her skin still burned. Asherah reached the snow and stopped. The cold burned her skin, different this time, but she barely noticed. Spread across the white snow were huge rubies. Fifty of them, spaced as if they had fallen as a group from heaven.
“From heaven,” Asherah repeated aloud.
Asherah fell to the snow in a fetal position, sobbing. Upon the realisation that those fifty gems were the angels who agreed with her, who God had cursed because of her. She lay there, naked and crying in the snow, until she was exhausted. She was awakened by a pair of men.
“We came to see why the lightning struck the peak. My name is Seth; this is my son, Enosh.”
Seth helped her to her feet.
“How is it you came to this mountain top alone?” Enosh asked, offering her an overcoat to cover herself.
“Perhaps that story could be left for later?” Asherah said.
“And these?” Seth asked pointing to the stones.
“Could you gather up these red jewels for me? They have great sentimental value to me.” Asherah asked.
Enosh gathered the rubies into a small bag and held it out to Asherah. That is when the overwhelming, overpowering thirst took her. She ran through the snow away from Seth and Enosh as fast as she could. She stumbled down the mountainside.
“I can’t believe he did this,” Asherah said, panting as she ran.
Seth and Enosh ran after her.
“My lady, let us help you! We saw you come to us in a vision. We’re supposed to help you,” they called after her.
The night had descended into complete darkness.
“Let’s light the torches, father before we take a fall.”
He still held the bag of jewels.
“Father, these were part of the vision of the future. How do we protect them?”