I have already lost.
Who wins and who loses is for me to decide on earth. But in heaven, its harder to decide
So youre from heaven? Are you a deity?
My name is Alais.
The king took it as the name of a deity. And so it was now.
Your name is Menes, Alais read in his mind. And it seems that the kings in your country are called Pharaohs.
He nodded. It was so easy to read peoples minds, and later surprise them with information you drew from their own minds. Alais smiled victoriously. Darkness was descending over the deserts. It pained the defeated king to look at the angels glittering wings before him.
You are fortunate. I can see a reflection of myself in you, Alais leaned over and licked the blood from the mans cheek. Pharaoh fell to his knees before her. This is the way it should be. Earthly kings should kneel before angels.
Lets make a pact: my help in exchange for everything you will ever possess, Alais touched her hand to Pharaohs chest. Beneath the tattered white clothing his heart was beating. She had no such organ in angels. Angels dont have an organ like that! Humans, on the other hand, do! Alaïs wanted to press her fingernails into the vulnerable flesh and rip out the heart, but then Pharaoh would die. People are fragile! If you tear out any organ from within them, they die. Here were her angels cut in pieces and burned with fire for centuries, and they still survived. The angelic race is stronger, but humans are so curious!
Alais ran her finger over Pharaohs face. He had swarthy skin, coal-black eyebrows and lashes, plump lips, and bottomless eyes. Is it true that the eyes of men reflect the soul? The eyes of the angels reflected only the coldness of heaven.
Pharaohs long hair had become filthy with sand and dust, but if she brushed it, it would be as black as pitch. She had a beautiful specimen. He would make an excellent puppet. All she had to do was subdue his mind. Or would a mans love for an angel be enough to keep him faithful for centuries?
Alais decided not to take any chances.
Lets sign the sand like parchment! She pierced Pharaohs little finger with her fingernail. Blood spurted out into the sand and formed into the inscription Menes.
Do you think that power is worth great sacrifice? I did. And here I am, in your land. If you, too, believe that everything is worth sacrificing for sole power over the world, then you are like a brother to me.
Menes merely nodded. It pained him to watch Alais wings glow in the twilight, but her fleeting touches gave him pleasure. Who hadnt dreamed of being in the arms of a beautiful angel after defeat and getting help, but the price would be exorbitant.
Alais picked up a handful of bloody sand and blew it from her palm. The deal is done! The grains of sand have turned to gold. You can buy anything with gold, even peoples souls. But in heaven, no one needed it. On earth they were killing for it.
The golden grains of sand settled on a pectoral on Pharaohs chest and sparkled like stars lifted from the sky.
It is sand to sand, it is blood to blood! My name is mixed with yours, Alais belatedly remembered that the first thing she had written in the sand was her current name. Her fate with Pharaoh seemed to be closely intermingled. Was it a higher design? Or was it just an oversight?
The sand suddenly turned scarlet. Something was stirring under the sand, as if all the dead angels were planning to break free from the realm of death and live again.
Pharaoh looked around, dazed, as if he were having a nightmare dream. And the winged legionnaires of Alais hissed at him like a victim. They were climbing out of the dunes, clawing at the dunes from within, digging mazes of tunnels beneath the sand. Demons nested everywhere in the desert. Of course, the defeated warrior who wandered in didnt know that. Otherwise he wouldnt have come. And there would have been no deal.
Your army is crushed and dead! My army, Alais cast an eloquent glance at the hissing black creatures, is the same as dead! We have more in common than one might think. And I have an unexpected sympathy for you, human! We both rebelled for power, we both failed. But it is worth trying to turn it into a victory.
Was it her charms that swirled the storm in the sands, or was it the heavens that protested? The sand became hot. It swirled in an orange cloud around her scorched army.
I will raise your army from its graves, Alais promised, but in return you and all your descendants will obey me. Every new Pharaoh will obey my orders.
What else could the defeated ruler do but agree with her? She is a deity and he is only human. Even a ruling king is only a man under the heel of an angel, not like a defeated one. Alais realized it was time to learn to speculate on her heavenly origins. Menes obeyed her unconditionally.
Alaïs gracefully threw her arm behind her back. Pharaoh marveled. Obviously, human hands were not as flexible as angelic hands, and such a movement might have seemed unnatural to humans. We must be careful not to pass for a mere trickster in his eyes. Somehow she cared about this mans opinion of her and her subjects. Probably because he was the first in whom she saw an earthly reflection of herself. She had fallen, he had fallen, only in his own way, but it was time for them both to raise their armies, some from ashes, some from death and earth, and fight again.
Behind her back, between her wings, Alais carried a sword left over from the battle in the heavens. Its hilt might have seemed like a fanciful ornament placed between her shoulder blades. But behind that sun and wing-shaped ornament, lurked a deadly blade. It was no longer fiery. Alais didnt like it. The steel hissed, but it did not glow in her hands. Still, it was enough to perform the ritual. She ran the blade across Meness palm, open for a friendly greeting. Menes clenched his teeth to keep from screaming in pain. The cut was so deep it nearly severed part of his arm. Blood spurted out and dripped into the sand. There was blood on the blade as well. The blood was just right.
Alais plunged the sword into the ground almost to the hilt. Now it burst into flames. It was time to read the spell. But she couldnt remember the words. No problem! In angelic, any wish spoken aloud becomes magic. To the man her hissed speech tore at his ears. He clamped his ears shut, and the desert storm grew worse and worse. The sand rose. In the light of the flames it began to look as bright red as blood.
Pharaohs dead warriors rose from the earth and sand, shaking them off like dust. They were monstrous, but strong. The spirits of the dead angels entered into their bodies to make them rise. Pharaoh himself didnt know about the spirits yet, though he probably didnt care. The defeated do not choose with whom to ally or into which realm to fall. Alais knew this from her own experience.
A huge army marched through the desert and waited beyond the desert. The warriors who had risen from death were countless. Menes will surely win.
You will not participate in this battle? Remy hovered beside Alais. His black wings cast shadows over her radiant form.
Let them fight. They will fill the country, and we will come later. It will be easy to follow them on the path they have cleared.
The path is clear enough for you, Remys voice became hushed.
People are building temples. I can feel it.
Are there temples to you?
They dont know yet themselves. We must occupy these temples before the god we have fought against does. There must be no room for him here, fly and tell them to chase all his servants from the earthly temples before they wander there. Let the people worship only me and my warriors. The God on whom we raised our swords remains far away in the heavens, and the earth belongs only to us from now on.
The path is clear enough for you, Remys voice became hushed.
People are building temples. I can feel it.
Are there temples to you?
They dont know yet themselves. We must occupy these temples before the god we have fought against does. There must be no room for him here, fly and tell them to chase all his servants from the earthly temples before they wander there. Let the people worship only me and my warriors. The God on whom we raised our swords remains far away in the heavens, and the earth belongs only to us from now on.
Remy understood her. A club of black tornado swirled in the place where he hovered. Its speed could only be envied. It would arrive in the country before the armies reached there.
It is civilization! Alais watched the red tornadoes in the desert, from which the dead armies rose. Who had thought of building it on a land on which only animals had roamed before?
Men were but animals, and now, suddenly, they had become intelligent. Did the angels bring intelligence to earth and infect these creatures with it? Without intelligence, they were easier prey, and now you have to make deals with them. Wouldnt it be easier to just squash them all at once?
Alais sprinkled the bloody sand on her palm, and it turned into a huge ruby that was shaped like a tear.
Take it! She called to the king, who still could not believe that his armies were rising from the dead. Even his horse, killed by enemy arrows, rose from the sand and run back to his master surrounded by a sandstorm. Once white, now black as night. The horses eyes shone an ominous red light. The snake he had crushed froze something like a bracelet on its leg just above the horseshoe.
Urey! The king couldnt believe he was seeing his favorite again, but the ruby pleased him even more. The face of one of Alais lost standard-bearers was clearly visible in the stone. It began to resemble something of a womans face. Instead of many pairs of wings it was surrounded by many arms and legs. The former cherub had become like a monster within a stone. Souls change, and so do bodies. This standard-bearers name was once Kali. She recognized the face, no matter how monstrously it had changed. So lost spirits sleep in the sands, and somehow they could be brought back.
Alais placed the ruby in the kings hand.
When I come, it will bleed. Then you will know I am close.
Menes bowed to her. Unlike Remy, he was not taken aback that she was not coming to fight with him. He expected her to come as soon as he established himself on the throne, and their separation would not be long. The sands in the desert are like time. They flow, folding into sandstorms. They breed demons. Alais was engrossed in looking at the swirling bloody grains of sand even before the armies rising from death rushed into the decisive battle.
Times of Sand
Remy flew over the battlefield and brought the news of Meness victory.
Upper and Lower Kingdoms are united, he announced with a bow.
I wish we could have won as easily! Alais smashed the miniature palace she had built of sand with her hand. It would have cost her nothing to enlarge it to a grandiose size and dwell in it. They would be surprised by a palace made of sand in the desert. It would be easy for an angel to fly into such a palace, but the crumbling arches and ceilings would most likely bury the man who walked in.
The sandy palaces were nothing compared to the heavenly palaces. Alais felt homesick. It was always bright in heaven, but evening and night often fell on earth. Before the angels had fallen to earth, it had always been night. The light brought into the deserts of Alais was only enough for part of the day.
The sun has followed me fickle ever since we fell here. Do you think it has given up on me?
Its more likely that its rays cant reach you here, Remy concluded. You were too far away.
Part of the sun has fallen on land that was once in perpetual darkness. Oh, my! Alais laughed, and her wings trembled. A chill ran through her body.
The sun is where I am!
Remy nodded in agreement. Alais body shone in the night in a way that dispelled the gloom.
Gemstones crunched in the sand beneath her feet. You could pick them up with your hands. Some people found out that the desert was full of jewels and came to get them. Thats when they fell into the claws of the monster armies.
Somehow it so happened that the blood and tears of the angels that fell in the sand turned into precious stones. The angels, having fallen to earth, became known as demons.
Were they demons? Alais frowned. The word was unfamiliar. It seemed to be what Mikhail had called them all when they were tortured after their defeat. Not long ago there had been a sea of stakes and red-hot blades, but now there was only sand.
The light of the sun was reaching the ground, overcoming the distance. The suns rays reached out to Alais. They touched her face, slid across her skin, and solidified something like a golden plate.
Its a mask! Remy explained. I heard Michael call our cut-off faces masks. He flew around the stakes on which your armies were crucified and cut off the faces of the defeated angels. He made masks of the cut-off faces for some reason.
I dont remember that, Alais peeled the gold plate from her skin. So youre called a mask!
The mask completely copied her facial features. Looking at it was the same as looking in a mirror. The only difference was the color. The white changed to gold.
Michael wants to talk to you, the mask sang, its lips rounded.
Its the first living mask Ive ever seen, Remy marveled and touched the golden face with the tip of his claw. The masks Michael had taken off all of us and carried to heaven were dead.
The golden mask wriggled and squirmed in Alaiss hands.
Tell him I dont want to see him, and I dont want to talk to him.
I cant tell him anything, the mask hissed, moving its ears like wings. My function is only to relay reports to you. He wants you back. Everyone wants you back.
Alais tosses the mask back into the sand. Let it lie there. The mask tried to crawl after her for a while, but then fell behind.
Soon the discarded masks became numerous. The sunlight that reached the deserts was as if it were trying to create a replica of the lost angel. Its rays froze Alais face and turned into talking masks. One day the suns rays created something like a golden statue that was trying to come alive. The statue copied Alais winged figure and her curly head.
Alais looked at it as if in a mirror. Golden curls snaked down her shoulders and folded into a halo-like shape at the back of her head, her facial features strikingly beautiful. The wings were the largest organ of her body, towering over her head and casting a shadow over her shoulders.
I should fight again! Alais lovingly stroked the hilt of her sword. But it is not yet the time. We are too exhausted.
Shall I gather the masks? Remy asked.
No, let them crawl wherever they want.
But they can take some of your power.
Theyre useless, Alais said, tossing the last of the masks into the dune. The mask moved as if it were a lizard.
The masks could crawl and even fly, moving notches in the form of wing-like ears, spikes, or horns. But Alais didnt care about them. Theyre just masks. They have no personality. Theyre just a mold of her.