The Heavens rumbled as the archangel voiced his objection to being called a dog.
Satan laughed, and lightning licked across the sky. 'Turn your militant maverick loose, Thunderer; let him face me. Let us see if his powers are as great as mine.'
That was the wrong thing for the Dark One to suggest.
The Heavens were calm, even while Satan howled and cursed and called down malisons on all the residents of the firmament. He received no reply.
That enraged the ruler of filth. Satan fired his thoughts into the head of Jean Zagone. 'You have sampled nearly all the men around you, bitch!' he said, still smarting from his conversation with the Holy One. 'Pick five of the most virile and have them ready to receive Balon's pious whore.'
And on the Zagone ranch, on the plains, the dancing began, preparatory to the Friday night sacrifice. The Coven members danced lewdly, hunching obscenely as they shouted filth to the Heavens. They were not afraid in their vocal and physical defilements, for the Prince of Evil had assured them his protection; guaranteed them a long and lustful life on earth.
These Coven members, these worshipers of Darkness, these students of Bell, Book, and Candle … they had made any number of mistakes in their evil lives. But paramount among them was believing anything the Devil said, while forgetting that the one True God is a vengeful God.
'Let's see how far our thoughts will carry,' Sam suggested. 'We'd better know, 'cause I think things are going to get down to the nut-cuttin' pretty quick.'
'I do love your expressions, Sam,' Nydia said, smiling. 'I wonder if your father used the same colloquialisms? Bearing in mind he was a minister.'
'Probably so. Mother often said he was a real character. Would speak his mind whenever and wherever.'
'And yet, he has God's favor. I don't understand that. From what little I know of God's Word, I always thought of Christians as rather meek and mild types.'
'Oh, I think that's a dangerous misconception, Nydia. God loves His warriors. I think Michael sits at God's side. Some even think he is God's bodyguard. Others think of him as the hand of retribution.'
She glanced at him, thinking: Yes, I believe God does love His warriors.
They separated in the timber, walking first a few hundred yards apart, testing their ability to project and receive thoughts. They found that distance did make a difference in the receiving and sending.
'Let's go see this circle of stones,' Sam said.
'What if we run into Black and Susan?'
He grinned at her, thinking how beautiful she was in the light filtering through the timber. 'We'll just ask them how it was.'
She playfully pushed him away. 'Sam, you're impossible.'
But the circle of stones was deserted when they got there. They looked for Black and Susan, finding only the still-pressed-down blanket of pine needles where they had lain.
Sam kneeled down, studying closely the stones of the huge circle; he studied with great interest the largest stone, which depicted scenes of great depravity: of men with huge jutting phalluses; of women with their legs spread wide, exposing the genitalia; scenes of mass orgies: men with men, women with women, men with small children; scenes of hideous torture; of grotesque creatures, monsters, leaping and snarling. And finally, on the east side of the boulder, a scene depicting a saintly looking man who was locked in some sort of combat with a beastly appearing creature.
Sam looked up from his studying. 'You didn't tell me about this.'
Her face was pale. 'That was … never there before, Sam. I mean, the rocks, yes, but not all those carvings.'
'Nydia …' he let his statement drift away. 'No … I imagine the carvings were always here; you just couldn't see them. They are probably exposed only when Satan wants them to be.' And how do you know all that? he silently questioned his mind.
'Or when he is near,' she said tightly.
'Yes.' Sam rose from his squat position and put his arms around her. She was trembling.
'I'm scared, Sam. For the first time, I'm really frightened. Now I know what you meant when you said you didn't know what to do—where to start.'
Sam comforted her as best he could, for he, too, was frightened. 'Come on. Let's see this hole in the ground.'
They smelled the stench long before they came to the hole, both their noses wrinkling at the foul odor. 'Can you imagine what it's like deep in that hole?' Sam tried a grin, unaware that his father had said almost the same thing to a couple of friends back in '58, standing near The Digging.
'Gross!' Nydia said. She watched as Sam reached into his jacket pocket. His face paled. He jerked his hand from the pocket as if he had touched a snake.
'What's wrong, Sam?'
His face regained a bit of color after his initial shock. 'That . . . that's not my pistol in there.'
'What!'
'I … thought just a moment ago, when I was kneeling down by that boulder there was too much weight in my
