of the mountain. He heard multiplied peels of thunder cross the sky, yet no rain. He imagined the fierce battle taking place in the atmosphere above while he ran for the edge of the chasm. This way would take him down into the heart of Shaddai’s Temple.
Mordecai finally reached the edge of the cliff. The massive chasm opened up before him like the maw of some giant monster. It looked as though it might be able to swallow an entire city. Faint lantern light shone to him from various places far below. Despite Jericho’s affirmations, Mordecai was surprised to get this far without encountering the Temple’s heavenly defense. The diversion, apparently, was working.
Mordecai removed the layered loop of rope from his shoulder and placed the grappling hook firmly in place on the rock. He wrapped the rope under his rear and took the other end in his hand. Mordecai backed off the ledge, beginning a quick, controlled descent into the mouth of the chasm.
It would be close, but this longest length of rope, taken from the General Goods Store in Millertown, would be just long enough to reach the highest level of the Temple’s many levels. The thunder continued unabated for another five minutes, until Mordecai had almost reached his destination.
When Mordecai came, literally, to the end of his rope, he stood still on the face of the cliff wall, watching a sentry patrol the stone walkway of the highest level with a lantern in hand. Each of the levels held a walkway running like a horizontal vein through the rock nearly three quarters of the way around the wall of the cylindrical chasm. Each walkway acted as a hub joining living quarters for the priests and other rooms and tunnels to the whole. From there, a series of terraces and stairs interconnected the twenty levels and the massive training courtyard below.
Mordecai hugged the wall with his body as the sentry reached the end of the walkway, searched out over the railing into the darkness of the chasm, then turned to go back the way he had come. Mordecai saw by the color of the young priest’s robes: that he was still a novice learning under a mentor.
Mordecai spotted his opportunity and thrust his body away from the wall. He sailed in a wide arc-a pendulum upon a rope-bringing him precisely to the place where the priest was walking. Mordecai released the rope, and his momentum carried him over the carved stone rail and into the young sentry.
Mordecai delivered a single deadly blow, while in flight, with enough force to break the man’s neck. The young priest never even saw the assassin coming. Now all Mordecai needed to do was get down to the first level where all of the priests-in-training lived. There he would find the boy and finish the job he should have completed in Grandee.
NIGHTMARE AWAKENING
Isaiah tossed and turned upon his bed. Sweat drenched his body beneath his blankets as a nightmare unfolded itself while he slept. He sensed urgency in this dream not present before in earlier dreams and the images pulled him in.
Isaiah viewed the Temple from above, saw angels in white apparel and golden breastplates guarding The Order of Shaddai. Demons of all sorts descended en masse against their heavenly defense. The angels rose to the fight and a battle of epic proportions shook the very heavens as blades and war hammers, battle-axes and whips, fist and claw clashed above the citadel of Shaddai’s priestly servants.
The vision warped to a man in black lurking in shadow, then to Gideon running across the courtyard stones as black pitch rose around his feet, steadily hindering his progress until he struggled to keep his head above the thick darkness. He saw young Ethan, then the man in black sprang from the shadows to attack the boy.
The High Priest burst out of the dream as suddenly as he had been dragged into the nightmare. He was awake, sitting upright in bed, heaving every breath in and out of his tight chest. His senses screamed to him that this vision was not merely part of the future. The danger was now!
Mordecai laughed at how easy they had made this assassination for him. There on the door was the boy’s name: Ethan. He knew the layout of these rooms as well as anyone. His own room, when he had been a trainee, stood just three doors down from this one.
Mordecai drew his blade and kicked the door in. The assassin shot into the room, heading for the teenage boy sitting up in bed. His blade sliced the air. Goose down exploded into a cloud around the bed.
Ethan crouched on the floor in the dark, trying to orient himself after waking up so suddenly. The attacker came again, but Ethan evaded, rolling across the cold stone. Sparks leaped after him as Mordecai whipped the blade back and forth against the floor, following his prey.
Ethan rolled up to his feet, facing his attacker. Mordecai was dressed completely in black, but Ethan could still see him, even feel the heat from his body. The edged steel whistled, cutting through the air. Ethan ducked beneath the strike. But he was backed against the wall already.
Mordecai made a quick thrust, which should have finished the boy, but his blade only bit into the stone. The boy had disappeared. Mordecai leaped back quickly, slicing the air around him as he did so. He had already been informed of the boy’s power by Jericho. Ethan might be invisible, but he could still kill in the physical realm if he put the proper effort forth. One asset Jericho had equipped Mordecai with was the knowledge that any spiritual being, seen or unseen must become physical to affect the physical world.
This was where the rigorous training of a priest of Shaddai would either fail him or empower him. Mordecai closed his eyes and focused on his other senses. He shut out the need for physical sight, waiting motionless for the boy to make his move.
A spiritual blade, suddenly taking on physical characteristics, cut through the air behind Mordecai. He whipped his own sword over his head to his shoulders to block. His steel sang out, impacting with the boy’s unseen weapon. Mordecai’s skin tingled with expectation, every hair standing erect, waiting to taste the ripple of an air current when his invisible enemy moved into the physical world again.
“Come now, boy, let’s not play this game all night,” Mordecai hissed.
The glow of lamplight and the sound of rapid footfalls approached the open doorway. “The sentry…can you warn him before I kill him, Deliverer?” Mordecai asked.
Mordecai ran for the door to meet the unprepared priest who was coming to investigate the noise.
Ethan materialized in order to sound a warning. “Assassin coming out of my room!
Mordecai turned back when he heard Ethan’s voice, whipping his sword at the boy. Ethan sidestepped the weapon, as he had the arrows earlier, but caught the pommel as it passed. Now he had Mordecai’s sword and he went after him.
The sentry appeared in front of the open doorway with a sword in one hand and a lantern in the other. Mordecai kicked the lantern back into the priest’s chest. The glass bell shattered upon impact, spraying the sentry with fire. He dropped his sword as he tried to beat the flames out.
Mordecai swept the blade up, turning to meet a strike from Ethan. A rapid-fire series of strikes, blocks, parries, and faints ensued as each of them tried to find gain the advantage-neither could. Ethan’s sight allowed him to see every move Mordecai made with vivid detail, but he could not make his own movements fast enough to get past his defense.
The sentry screamed as he rolled on the ground, trying to put the flames out. The other priests on the first level began to emerge from their rooms along with a few from the second level. An alarm bell sounded.
Mordecai turned from the fight and ran out into the darkness of the courtyard, expecting Ethan to follow without thinking. He was right. Ethan ran after him without a second thought, bent on destroying his assassin.
The first alarm caused more bells to sound all over the complex. The priests came out of their rooms like angry bees from a busted hive, weapons at the ready. But they were all focused on the first sentry who had managed, by now, to extinguish himself with help from some of the first responders.
Mordecai and Ethan were now shrouded in darkness a good one hundred yards out onto the courtyard. Mordecai turned and swiped at Ethan as he ran up behind. Ethan had too much momentum to stall on the dew- laden grass, so he used it to somersault over the blade as it cut horizontally through the air.
Ethan landed and countered, but Mordecai blocked again. The stalemate raged on in the darkness. Mordecai heard voices: the sentry trying to explain what had happened. Others mentioned the courtyard.
