I was hugely relieved. I just don't like having things clutching at me-unless they're young, female, and shapely; and even then I'm wary. This one may have been female, but she was anything but beautiful, and I could have sworn she was growing older by the second.
"Your soul shines like newly minted silver," my angel said. I looked up at him, startled. Compliments were one thing, but this ...
Then I realized he was prompting me. "Say it yourself," I snapped.
"No way am I going to deliver a line like that!"
"To whom do you talk? " Sobaka quavered. I looked down at her, then looked up quickly at the angel. No, he was still there. "Him," I said, pointing. "Can't you see?" She looked where I was pointing, and fear creased her wrinkled face, not that it made much difference. "Nay," she said. "There is none there."
"Well, there is," I sighed, "even if he's invisible to you."
"A familiar!" Her tones quaked.
"No, an angel," I said quickly, and started improvising; anything to give her the guts to keep going. "You've got one, too, and he-"
"She," my angel prompted.
"She," I corrected. Maybe the Quakers had been right. "She is watching you every second."
Sobaka glanced around her, fear turning into wonder on her face.
"Can you see her?"
"No," I said, "but she's there."
"She is very happy just now," my angel informed me.
"She's very happy just now," I told Sobaka. "Don't make her sad again, okay?"
"Oh, I shall not!" She turned away, heading off downslope. "Oh, bless you, unseen angel, for never having despaired of me! Oh, stand by me and lend me strength, for I now must undergo the strongest trials of my life!" She turned back to call to me. "Ever shall I praise you in my prayers, healer of my soul!"
I shuddered, but managed to fake a smile. "Pay it back to other people," I called. "You don't have much time left. Better get busy."
"I shall! Oh, I shall!" And she headed off down the hill, caroling her joy.
I winced; a singer, she wasn't. "At the rate she's aging," I muttered, "I don't think she'll even make it to the bottom of the hill."
"Even if she dies, she will be on the road to Heaven," my angel assured me. "Her angel thanks you, too."
"Tell her she's welcome." I turned to him, frowning. "So angels come in sexes, too?"
"Well, no," he admitted, "but it makes you humans think of us more easily if we seem to. You term it 'identification' and 'selfimage.' Call it 'gender.' "
"Identification!" I looked up, understanding something I'd been wondering about. "So that's why you've dropped the 'thee' and 'thou' form.
"That you might better understand me, aye."
"Understand, my foot! You want me to identify with you, to emulate you! Hey, I'm not even supposed to be able to see you!"
"You did call upon me," he reminded.
"And Sobaka didn't, so she couldn't see her angel? Is that who you were talking to, about whether or not to get her out of the hole or let her die."
"Her guardian angel, yes." He nodded. "You have made three most happy today."
"Three?" I looked around, frowning. "I only count two - Sobaka, and her guardian angel. if you say so."
"Three," he said proudly. "Count me, also. You have struck a blow for the angels today, Saul. You are on our side, after all." Why did that send such a thrill of panic through my veins? Why did I snap out, "No way! If I did something that worked for your side, it's just because it was the right thing to do under the circumstances! Don't bet I'll do it again! If something else comes up that I think is right, I'll do it, even if it's for the other side-by your rules!"
A look of apprehension crossed his face. "Nay, nay! Do not sin for no reason other than my having said you are on the side of the angels!"
"Very funny," I said bitterly, "considering who's talking. If it seems right, I'll do it, even if it's against your side-but don't worry, I won't murder, loot, or rape, just to keep from signing up with your team, either. I won't go out of my way to commit what you think is wrong." I turned on my heel and stalked away.
"You have lied," he called after me, "with that speech."
"See?" I said over my shoulder. "I've started already."
Chapter Four
The nice thing about being past Sobaka's checkpoint was that I was able to keep on trudging up-slope. I didn't know where I was going, except that it felt right-especially since it was out of her domain. Maybe, if I was lucky, I could get out of this massive hallucination.
Or else find Matt ...
Another nice thing about getting up in the world, was that I kept stretching out the sunset. Finally, I came to a pass at the top of the mountain. Down below me, the valley was in shadow-twilight, to them. I could even see a few lights appearing-fires of some sort. Maybe smoke-holes in huts? Had these people invented the chimney yet?
Then I looked up and saw one of the most glorious sunsets of my life. The only ones to beat it had been out in the Great Plains, where the landscape is mostly sky. Here, I was high enough up to have a lot of sky again, though not quite as much. Everything looked golden and rose, every mountaintop-and there were a lot of mountaintops. I wondered where I was-the Pyrenees? The Alps? Was I even in Europe?
Or even on Terra?
I shelved that thought, but it shook me enough so that I stopped contemplating the sunset, I turned back to the pass, saw its huge granite walls towering to either side, and decided I wanted to be through it before the light completely failed. I hurried, with a wary eye above me, glancing from side to side - I'd heard that mountain eers, historically, tended to be rather territorial. I'd also heard that they had reasons. But if they were watching, I guess they figured I was no threat, or was too small a fly to swat, because nothing happened. in fact, the only living creature I saw was a kind of mountain goat, who watched me for a while, then jumped into a shadow and disappeared. He was beautiful, but the experiences of the day made it seem rather spooky.
So, as I came to the other end of the pass, I was wondering what I was going to do about being alone in a strange country, in what was promising to be an extremely dark night.
I was very glad to see the camp fires below me.
Not very far below, and I could tell they were camp fires, because of the tents. But the hallucination was still on - the men between the tents and the fires were wearing armor covered by long white tabards, and leading Percherons.
l sighed, squared my weary shoulders, and started the downhill hike.
One of the younger ones looked up, saw me, and called out, "Stranger!" He lugged out a sword the size of the Eiffel Tower and brandished it as he came toward me, demanding, "Friend or foe?"
"Either one," I snapped - that sword got my back up. "Take your choice."
He frowned at me - it wasn't one of the expected answers. But his buddies dropped what they were doing and came clustering around; I hadn't seen that much steel in one place since I'd crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. "Declare yourself," one of the older ones demanded. That was exactly what I had been trying not to do. "Saul Delacroix Bremener," I told them, and nothing more.
"Saul Delacroix?" He frowned at his companions. "Named for the king or the apostle, and one of the cross."
"But Paul was not of the cross," one of the others objected. "He never knew the Savior, in life."
"Still, 'tis a goodly name," another said, then moved aside quickly as a tall, broad-bodied man with grizzled hair stepped through. He had a face like tanned leather and a jaw like a vise. The commander, at a guess.