City Appointed_Winning a City for God Page 9

  Suddenly she heard some loose rocks fall to her right and a scurrying of claws. Her dreams flooded back to her; she had been here before. Liberty remembered the sequence of events from her dream that were about to unfold. She didn’t have to look this time but lunged to the left where she knew the platform to be. She then lunged a second time to escape the next blow, bracing herself for the impact against the wall. Her sword was knocked from her hand. She looked up at the demon. Is this the moment? The demon sword went up, not slowing down. In her spirit, she knew she had to move again. She still had energy, so she threw herself back to the right in a final attempt to escape. The blade struck concrete. A narrow miss. Liberty was now cornered, ‘Isn’t there supposed to be a wall of fire by now that destroys this demon?!’ she thought in dismay. Liberty looked up through her strands of matted hair.

  “Come on fire ball, where are you?!”

  Flash! Explosion… blaze… heat… roar… echo… silence.

  As her eyes readjusted, she saw the smoldering ruins around her. ‘Talk about cutting it close!’ she thought, catching her breath.

  Liberty picked herself up, a bit sore after the knocks that she received on the hard stone. She rubbed her neck and arched her back to stretch it out. Liberty then pulled back her hair in a ponytail and wiped the sweat from her brow. ‘Right!’ she thought with determination, ‘No more surprises. I’m going to be ready for the next dirty demon!’ She puffed some loose hair that hung in front of her face out of the way.

  “Lord, let’s go!”

  19.

  Razor Peak

  (Mission Boys)

  Fully exposed, the boys dangled from a single rope, suspended high above the ground. All around was quiet, apart from the wind gusts swirling about them. The sound of rope creaking under tension as it held their weight was the only other sound, like a flexing mast on high seas. The three looked out at the skies, scanning for signs of danger. As they looked to where the cloud cover thinned out, they could momentarily see grey shadows circling overhead. Caden felt nervous, at the mercy of the elements. The three lone figures were dangling high from a rope with nowhere to go but slowly upwards. Tristan’s confidence dwindled the higher he got.

  Suddenly the silence was broken. A fearsome screech echoed around the boys. The demons had been exercising self-restraint, waiting for the perfect opportunity to bring the onslaught, and now was the moment. A demon sharply turned and swooped in to intimidate them, stretching out its claws to swipe Tristan.

  “Watch out, we are under attack!” shouted Tristan. Caden and Jack saw a dozen dragon-like creatures swooping and squawking like a hungry colony of scavenging vultures.

  Jack quickly drew out his sword to fend off any that came near while he held the rock face with his other hand. Caden drew out an arrow, but instead of shooting, he instinctively raised it and plunged it into the cliff. Surprisingly, it readily penetrated the rock and firmly wedged itself in the face. Suddenly it thickened and tripled in size. ‘I guess I picked the right one,’ he thought. Using it as an anchor, Caden took the coil of loose rope that hung off his belt and tied himself to the arrow to secure his position on the cliff. Now that he was safely tied, it freed up both hands to retaliate. He drew the next arrow, placed it in his crossbow and fired it at a demon. The bow kicked back in his arm with remarkable force. The weapon was so powerful that he barely saw the arrow fly through the air before it pierced a demon causing it to burst into flames. The demon let out a long screech as it fell writhing through the air.

  Caden was the only one with a long range weapon. He aimed and fired again, and another demon was taken out. This time as the arrow struck, the demon shattered to pieces like ice smashed with a hammer. Caden continued to take out demons with his crossbow. Another swooper hurtled towards Jack, colliding with him. The straps securing his shield broke as it slid off his back. The shield fell through the air, tossed about like a leaf in the wind, toward the ground below. Jack’s body swung towards the cliff and bashed against the rock. He was knocked unconscious and grew limp. All the while, Tristan had continued to climb to get to the shelter of a cave so that he could help to pull his friends up. ‘No point all of us being sitting ducks!’ he thought. Tristan made it to the cave and looked down. Caden was doing the best he could to shoot any of the swoopers that came into range.

  Caden looked down at Jack and then looked up at Tristan. “Jack isn’t moving, and I’m stuck,” he yelled.

  Tristan shouted back, “All I can do is help take some of the weight as you climb, but I can’t pull you and Jack up by myself. You will both still have to climb to get out of danger.”

  “What can we do? Jack’s out cold. We can’t just leave him hanging there. We both need to pull him up somehow so that we can make the final ascent together.”

  The air filled with the noise of screeching echoing off the cliff face. Just then a swooper curved toward them and seizing the opportunity to pick off the weakest, flew straight for Jack. Its razor claws were outstretched, ready to tear at him.

  Caden reached behind for another arrow, but it got caught in his quiver. He shouted in frustration, “What! Come on, get free!” The swooper went in for the kill and grabbed at Jack’s leg and shoulders. The pain and tearing action ripped Jack back into consciousness. He let out a painful yell. The swooper tore free and circled around in preparation for a final attack.

  “Jack!” yelled Caden. Jack looked up with pain in his eyes.

  “I’m done,” called Jack, “I’ve come as far as I can with you.” With great effort, he drew his sword and raised it to the rope.

  “No!” shouted Caden, “You can’t! You will drop out of the vision, and we will lose.”

  “I can’t climb anymore; I’m bleeding too much. I need to tell you something before I go. This quest isn’t just a vision.”

  “What are you talking about?” shouted Caden. The situation was tense, and Caden was getting annoyed that Jack wasn’t making sense.

  “I was assigned to protect you. I’m sorry I couldn’t see that through to the end. It was always going to be just the two of you in the end anyway. Don’t give up, keep moving.” Jack’s sword rested on the rope, ready for a single slice. The swooper was already on its way back with claws open for a fresh attack.

  “No!” yelled Caden in anguish, ‘We can’t do this without you.”

  “You must and you will!” he replied.

  Just then another swooper appeared out of nowhere, lined up, and went in to attack Caden. Jack’s eyes widened as he saw what was about to happen. With all his might, he flung his sword up at the incoming swooper, and the sword stuck fast in its chest. A cry echoed along the cliff face as the demon smashed into the rocks just below Caden’s feet. It bounced off, and they watched it fall far below.

  Jack looked over his shoulder, seeing his fate was imminent, pushed out from the cliff face with his legs, and guided the rope into the path of a claw. A sudden slackness recoiled through the rope. Tristan and Caden jolted as the weight was released. They looked down in disbelief watching Jack fall. As he did, he began to transform. Wings unfolded from his back and feathers tore free. He looked up, and as Caden and Jack’s eyes met, in one last engagement, Caden realized he was not looking at a man. As Jack continued to fall, he faded into nothing.

  “Deceived!” shouted the swooper, letting out an angry screech, realizing that it had attacked an angel rather than a human. It stormed off to find reinforcements to finish off the other two.

  “Tristan!” yelled Caden, “Jack was an angel!”

  “A what? I can’t hear you.”

  “An angel!”

  Suddenly the two felt more alone than ever.

  “We need to move,” said Tristan, “It was meant to be. Just you and me now. We can complete this together.”

  Caden untied himself from his anchor that was still holding fast in the cliff and gathered his strength to climb. Without the weight of Jack on the end of the rope, and with Tristan pulling him up from above,
he found that he could continue. Caden got to the ledge that Tristan was on. They both forced themselves to continue, aiming for a better shelter that they could see in the rock above. They strained and groaned, with each movement as they continued to ascend the exposed face.

  As the minutes slipped by, Caden tried to focus his thoughts on the handholds that were within reach. Slabs of rock jutted out giving opportune places to grip with his hands and clefts within the rock allowed resting places for his feet. But his thoughts drifted back to Jack as he considered the time that they had spent together. Caden searched in his memory looking for clues from past conversations with Jack that may have indicated he was an angel. He remembered the first meeting with Jack in the park. Caden remembered that Jack had said that he would have a significant impact in the city. ‘He must have already known about the assignment,’ thought Caden, also remembering that Jack had just vanished after their conversation. Caden had looked around, scanning the park from where he stood, but Jack seemed to have dissolved into the night. ‘How was I supposed to know anyway?’ Caden thought. ‘I guess…’ directing his thoughts toward God, ‘it was for our good that we had Jack with us, but why didn’t you let us know until now? I just assumed he was like us…’ his thoughts then went down another tangent, “God, have I met other angels before?’

  ‘What do you think?’ came the response in his mind.

  For Caden that was almost as good as a ‘Yes.’

  Caden dragged his thoughts back into the moment and looked up at Tristan who was making real progress. “Did you know Jack was an angel? Are you an angel too?” asked Caden

  “No way. And ‘no,’ I didn’t know he was an angel either. All I know is that I am not surprised by anything in this place anymore.”

  The truth was that the two of them were tiring and finding it hard to keep going. Grasping each handhold became increasingly arduous than the previous. Tristan’s arms were shaking, and he called out, “I’m really struggling. I’m feeling weak and finding it more and more difficult to find handholds. There seem to be fewer holds up here.”

  “How far do we have to our next shelter?” replied Caden

  “Looks like it’s about twenty metres up, but I can’t see a path we can take to it. We may have to find another route.”

  “There must be a way. We can’t start over.”

  “Watch out!!” yelled Caden, “Another swooper!”

  “We’re like sitting ducks up here. God, help us!”

  Three swoopers rounded the cliff face for another attack.

  20.

  Cloaked

  (Mission Girls)

  Trinity leaned into Shar as he spread his cloak around her. His cloak did not conceal her entirely but would be enough to cloak her presence from the unsuspecting enemy. But, if a demon took a particular interest, there would be little to stop her from being discovered.

  Trinity felt a little uneasy being this close to an angel. ‘I wonder if anyone in the whole world has ever been this close to an angel before,’ she thought. She could sense no heartbeat or any warmth coming from him, just the presence of the silky fabric draped over her body. ‘I guess I can trust him to get us through. Doing this is actually quite nuts!’ she told herself and shivered. ‘No, I must be full of faith,’ she corrected, ‘I believe you, Lord. I know you have brought us this far. Right now we are in the middle of your will and your plan. The throne is our mission, and we shall get there!’ she resolutely said to herself. As she decided this, she felt more confident, and a fresh clarity lifted her mind.

  Trinity was out in front. The others followed behind. She gazed along the road ahead. It seemed like an endless distance to the entrance of Grace Falls. ‘Once we get to the entrance, then what? Do we just walk right up to the throne? OK, stop over-thinking. One challenge at a time. Let’s just get ourselves to the entrance and perhaps there we can find a place to regroup and prepare ourselves to enter the falls.’

  Trinity saw two of the enemy standing beside the river from a distance, but now they were rapidly approaching them, up ahead on the left.

  “Are you OK?” asked Shar in a hushed tone.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Keep your head straight. Don’t look down and don’t look at them. They can sense someone looking at close-range.”

  Trinity thought it would have been better for her to lower her head to conceal herself more, but she obeyed and looked straight ahead. She pressed herself against her angel. ‘Shar could take these two demons on with no problems,’ thought Trinity, ‘But, I guess the longer we can conceal our presence, the longer we can put off an all-out war.’

  As the pair came within metres of the demons, the demons shuffled backward to maintain enough clearance between themselves and the angel. Trinity’s heart beat faster. She looked straight ahead and kept on walking. The others also passed by the demons who continued to talk with each other, not paying too much attention to the three angels who were passing them. Trinity had not turned to look back but trusted that the others were following and hoping they were feeling undaunted. As Trinity got to a place amongst the rocks where she was safely out of view, she turned to look for the others behind her. But Trinity had a moment of worried confusion. She expected to see four figures following, but she could only see two figures walking alone. She saw the two angels, but not her friends.

  ‘What happened? They’ve gone!’

  “Where are they?!” Trinity whispered to Shar with a worried quiver in her voice.

  “Your friends? That’s them,” he said, “When I cloaked you, my form became your garment. You walked clothed in my form. You looked like an angel walking alone. When an enemy looks at you, all they will see is one of us. The danger is in making eye contact. Only through your eyes is your true identity revealed. We cannot cloak the eyes. Your eyes are windows to what is really there.”

  As she looked, she saw that it was Samantha walking and Layla following behind, looking as stately and as regal as angels. She could distinguish them now, by their faces. Her friends looked amazing, like princess warriors returning to take up their residence at Grace Falls.

  Once the three of them were safely behind the rocks, the girls stepped out from under the angels, and they became six distinct entities again.

  “Great!” said Layla, “We can go right through like this.”

  “We could,” said Trillion, “but there are many enemies to pass. We have now made it to the base of Grace Falls and the gateway of the palace. The next part is harder to get through. The entrance opens out into the main foyer. This foyer is always densely populated. There will be a lot of enemies to navigate through, and they are heightened in their alertness because they are aware of the importance of this juncture in time. It is also wise to conceal our presence from other angels so as not to draw attention to ourselves. The fewer who know you are here, the better. When you enter through the gates, you will see an archway slightly to your right, on the opposite side of the foyer. You will begin by walking straight into the foyer. When you get about halfway through, veer to the right and aim for that archway. There will be no place to rest. You will continue under the archway and into the Hall of Coronation. The hall will also have a lot of activity, but there are no gatherings scheduled for the next few hours, which is good news for us because we wouldn’t be able to get through a formal meeting of council. At the opposite end of the hall is the central staircase. Once we reach the stairs, I do not know what will happen because we may not be able to continue to hold our ‘cloak’ without a rest. I’m hoping that once we get there, we will get some help from the surface.”

  “What do you mean by help from the surface? What will happen if we don’t get help?”

  “We operate through the prayer and faith of believers. If we don’t get support, the enemy gains the upper hand. We need help from the surface because Satan got control of the world way back in the Garden of Eden. The ground became cursed, and Satan obtained dominion. But there is a greater authority that can be c
laimed by believers who extend the Kingdom of Heaven on earth through faith. We work through partnership and don’t operate alone.

  “Partnerships for assignments usually begin with a prompting that heaven releases. The Holy Spirit will prompt a single believer to pray, or the Holy Spirit may ask many Christians to intercede. They will exercise their free will to pray, or not. In our present situation, if we don’t get an engagement of faith from the surface, our cloaks may fade, our cover will disappear and we will either have to flee or fight or both.”