Sword of the Gods II: Prince of Tyre

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Galactic Standard Date: 152,323.09

Haven-3

Alliance Secret Services: Special Agent Eligor

ELIGOR

Eligor hid his boredom as they escorted the Prime Minister back from the Emperor's palace on Haven-1. Usually it was Furcas and Pruflas who shadowed Lucifer everywhere like a pair of matching gargoyles, with their bulging muscles and flint-cold eyes, but whenever he was summoned to answer to his father, the two regular bodyguards were always indisposed. Chief of Staff Zepar also found excuses, leaving Eligor and his naive sidekick, Lerajie, to babysit the Alliance's highest civilian authority. Eligor suspected it was because the Cherubim would not let the two hired guns step foot inside the Eternal Palace, not that he was much better.

"Are we going to get shore leave?" Lerajie's pale wings fluttered with hope. It had been a long, boring stint out in the uncharted territories where Lucifer kept his diplomatic flagship stashed to avoid a surprise inspection.

"Depends on whether or not Zepar has any 'mating appointments' lined up for him," Eligor snorted in disgust. "I don't know why he persists trying to impregnate an Angelic when he's got 17 half-human offspring on the way."

Eligor was as ordinary as Angelics came, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, neither handsome nor unhandsome, with a nose which had been broken once and never quite set right, accentuating his natural expression of cynicism. He had white wings as all Angelics did, and was a bit taller than average, though not by much.

His feet hurt from standing outside the Great Hall for seven hours. The two unblinking Cherubim guard had neither offered them a seat, nor a bite to eat while they waited for Lucifer to get his ass handed back to him by his immortal father. Twenty-five years Eligor had been making these runs and never once had he been invited inside to meet the Emperor!

Both gave the clown-prince they shadowed a furtive glance.

"So which one do you think he is today?" Lerajie asked. "The good twin? Or the evil one?" That was how the Angelics stationed on the Prince of Tyre referred to the two sides of Lucifer they saw with increasing regularity.

Lucifer stared out the window, deep in thought. His snowy white wings and white-blonde hair picked up the dying sunlight as the spacecraft dipped beneath the stratosphere of Haven-3. Just for a moment it looked as though he were made of sunlight, his pale features reflecting the light that streamed in through the heat-shielded window and casting it deep into the recesses of the passenger compartment. The shuttle grew warmer as it descended into the troposphere and began its final approach.

"The good twin," Eligor whispered. "Whenever he goes to see the Emperor, he's always on his best behavior."

Lerajie shot him a conspiratorial grin. The pale-winged Angelic was always quick to argue on behalf of an emerging species or the civil rights of pond scum. Idealist. It had been Lerajie's mouth which had landed him on Lucifer's ship.

Eligor shot him a look that said 'knock it off.' The last thing they needed was the Alliance's highest-ranking civilian authority to overhear them making fun of him. It would be a one-way ticket to the Tokoloshe front.

The shuttle lurched as the VTOL pushed back upon the concrete space port and gave a momentary sensation of floating before setting down. This flight was supposed to have been confidential, but as usual, someone had leaked the Prime Minister's flight plans to the press. The terminal was so crowded it was a wonder the paparazzi didn't push each other off the elevated launch pad to their death below.

"I see our friends are waiting for us," Lucifer shot Eligor a displeased look. "Looks like you two will be earning your keep today."

A low rumble emanated from deep in Lerajie's chest. Eligor placed his hand upon his crewmate's shoulder. Lucifer had always been a bit of an ass, but ever since Ba'al Zebub had cut a deal to sell humans as mail-order brides, a whole other side of Lucifer had emerged. One that made Eligor want to cut and run.

Unfortunately, he had a few warts in his own past, the kind that would get an Angelic court-marshaled … or worse … executed for treason. Black marks Zepar made no bones about being able to make reappear … with interest … on his service record if he ever tried to quit. Every man on Lucifer's ship was in the same boat. Including Lerajie.

Lucifer sighed, his white wings drooping with exhaustion. "I'm sorry … I didn't mean that to come out like that." He shot them a weary grimace. "Rough meeting with my father. Let's just get through this clusterfuck, okay?"

Eligor stared into Lucifer's eerie silver eyes. Even on a good day Lucifer had always been an arrogant f**k, but lately the Prime Minister had been acting 'off.' Right now he just looked tired.

"We'll do our best, Sir," Eligor said.

"But…" Lerajie began to say.

Eligor elbowed him in the ribs. Ever since Lucifer had kept a few of the human females they were gifting all over the Alliance to sterile hybrids for himself, Lerajie had been on the warpath. The 17 women Lucifer had impregnated after 200 years of unsuccessfully trying to perpetuate his bloodline were little more than animals, not even sentient enough to speak, but it still goaded them to see the root-race of their own species mistreated. Only Eligor's warning that Zepar would 'disappear' them, along with any incriminating females, kept Lerajie's tongue in check.

They puffed up to their full height, ready to take out any threat, and spread their wings, shoving paparazzi aside who tried to stick microphones into Lucifer's face and, in one instance, knocking a too-aggressive reporter to the ground. Not a single reporter was one of the four species of genetically engineered super-soldiers which made up the Emperor's armies. With their species teetering at the brink of extinction, the Alliance could not spare a single hybrid on so frivolous a pursuit as reporting the truth.

"Mr. Prime Minister! Mr. Prime Minister!" A young male Angelic rushed up to them.

Eligor flared his wing to create a shield.

“Mr. Prime Minister … Please … Wait!” the young male persisted. “I need to speak to you!”

“The Prime Minister is busy,” Eligor gave his iciest stare. “If you want to speak to him, call the office and make an appointment."

The young man had neither the practiced persistence of the paparazzi nor the wild-eyed air of a crackpot. Eligor had never been prone to pity, but ever since Lucifer had taken that first human female against her will, he'd been experiencing bouts of remorse. He'd thought he was long past the point of caring, his chequered past dabbling in the intrigues of the Third Empire making him hard and cold, but every now and again something reminded him that once upon a time he had been a good man.

"Sir?" Eligor lowered his wing, drawing Lucifer's attention to the young man.

Eligor had occasionally seen Lucifer use his position of power to help an ordinary citizen, with no hope of gaining anything in return, and keep it from Zepar and the press. It didn't happen often, less since Hashem had returned from the ascended realms, but he suspected Lucifer liked to remind himself why he ruled even though he'd become disillusioned by Alliance politics long ago. Perhaps this would be one of those cases?

“It’s okay,” Lucifer gave a weary sigh. “I’ve got to talk to my constituents some of the time.”

Eligor nodded. That same desperation which had caused him to take pity resonated with Lucifer, as well. Lerajie frisked the man for weapons while Eligor cleared a path to the terminal. Spaceport security did their best to hold back the teeming masses, but Eligor had been running interference long enough to see it would only be a matter of seconds before people slipped past and thronged around their rock-star of a leader like adoring fans.

“What can I do for you today?” Lucifer asked.

“My name is Hasdiel,” the young male said. “I’ve been looking for my half-sister, Pravuil. She's one of your junior legislative aides.”

“Pravuil … Pravuil …” Lucifer tried to recall the name. “Lerajie … do we have a Pravuil on our staff?”

“Not anymore,” Lerajie said. "She was the … um …" Neither one of them wished to say 'the ugly one' in front of the young woman's brother.

Eligor remembered Pravuil well, hard working and eager to please despite her plain-as-dirt features and mousy wings. They'd been surprised when she'd stopped coming around. Towards the end, she and Lucifer had always had their heads pressed together, whispering secrets and laughing like two best friends. Rumors had begun to circulate that the homely young woman had caught the alpha-stud's fancy, something different than the endless stream of beautiful Angelic females who threw away a precious mating cycle in a vain attempt to set Lucifer's seed.

One day Pravuil had come onto the Prince of Tyre on Lucifer's arm like someone who mattered instead of the distance he usually kept with every other female he had ever f****d … and then she had disappeared.

"You remember her, Sir?" Lerajie said. "The one with the … um … greyish beige wings. You used to send her on errands."

Eligor had been around the Prime Minister long enough to tell when he was full of s**t or covering for one of his all-too-frequent intrigues. Something about Lucifer's perplexed expression set off a warning bell.

"I can't remember." Lucifer's hand shot to his temple. He grimaced, a telltale sign of the migraines he'd been experiencing lately.

Lerajie opened his mouth to contradict him. Eligor elbowed him before he could stick his wing into his mouth.

“My sister called me every week,” Hasdiel said. “Your Chief of Staff told me she went AWOL with a Centauri stallion, but Pravuil never said anything about dating anyone, much less a Centauri.”

Head over heels in love with Lucifer was more the truth. They'd all assumed Lucifer had lost interest and sent her away, the same as he had every other star-struck female he'd ever f****d. News she had run off with someone else did not fit with what Eligor had seen.

"She spoke very highly of you, Sir," Hasdiel said. "The week before she disappeared, she called me, really afraid. She said that if anything ever happened to her, that I should speak to you. She said you were the only person she trusted."

Lucifer clutched his chest as though it hurt to breathe. "I can't remember." His voice sounded strangled and weak.

"Of course he can't remember," a voice cut through the clamor of the crowd. Chief of Staff Zepar. Was here. Flanked by the two steel-eyed goons who usually accompanied Lucifer everywhere except for when he stepped foot on Haven-1.

An image of Lucifer being a puppet dangling upon a string whispered into Eligor's mind.

“Our father placed us in the same academy together,” Hasdiel insisted. “We were born a month apart from different mothers. Our father made sure we were placed together and encouraged us to watch out for one another. Pravuil would have told me if she’d formed a meaningful emotional attachment to another hybrid!”

“Permanent attachments are forbidden by the Eternal Emperor!” Zepar interrupted. “It’s illegal for a hybrid to get married while they are still obligated to serve in our military. She probably ran off with her paramour into the uncharted territories!"

“She wouldn’t do that!” Hasdiel clenched his fists in anger. “Even if she did secretly get married, she wouldn’t go absent without leave! She takes her obligation to serve our Emperor very seriously! At least she would have told me where she went!”

"Zepar?" Lucifer held out his hand in front of him as though he could not see, his expression panicked. "Zepar? I remember… she… was … my … chol beag [little dove]!" His handsome features bore a look of agony as he reached past his Chief of Staff for someone who was not there.

Pravuil … Lucifer's little dove? It was an endearment Angelic's only whispered to those they felt closest too, immediate family, children and a girlfriend one wished to take as a permanent mate. The warning bell in Eligor's mind grew louder.

'Watch Lucifer,' the instinct whispered into his mind.

“It is not our problem,” Zepar squeezed Lucifer's shoulder in a fatherly manner. “Let the police look into it. It’s not the job of the Prime Minister to chase after every female who breaks the law.”

Lucifer cast off Zepar's hand and stepped back, regarding his Chief of Staff with an expression of horror.

'Watch Lucifer…'

Lucifer gripped his head as though it were about to split in half. He whimpered in pain, and then froze. As if his pain of only moments before had never existed, Lucifer straightened out, his eerie silver eyes glinting with an ice cold stare.

“Our species is in enough jeopardy without foolish females running off with someone they can’t even reproduce with!” The air reverberated with Lucifer's power of persuasion. “Of course she didn’t tell you! Now be gone!”

“Please, Sir!” Hasdiel exclaimed. “The police won't do anything except keep a copy of my missing person report. I’m afraid something bad has happened to her!”

Lerajie opened his mouth to contradict both Lucifer and Zepar. Eligor caught the dead-ice stare of Pruflas, one of the two goons, and discreetly ground his heel into Lerajie's foot before his crewmate could utter a word. Lerajie was idealistic, but Eligor had dwelled on the fringe of the shadow-empire founded by Lucifer's biological father long enough to know when he was walking into a minefield.

"Get him out of here," Zepar ordered Furcas and Pruflas.

The two goons slammed the frantic young Angelic to the ground and twisted his arms behind his back. Feathers flew everywhere as wings clashed, obscuring the view. Security guards rushed forward. Eligor was the only person in position to see beneath the shelter of Furcas's wing the practiced move to slip a miniature pulse pistol into Hasdiel's hand, and then step back just long enough for the security cameras to document the gun before stomping on his wrist and breaking it. The young man curled up in pain, crying out for Lucifer to help him.

"This man threatened the Prime Minister," Zepar shouted. "He's got a gun."

Civilians thronging at the security checkpoint shouted in terror and began to stampede, some out of the building, others to rubber-neck and see. It was total chaos.

"I didn't see a…" Lerajie started to interrupt.

Eligor kicked him.

"We weren't in a position to see anything, Sir." Eligor shot Lerajie a 'trust me on this' look, that, luckily, Lerajie had seen proven right far too many times. Lerajie opened his mouth as if to speak, then shut it. Eligor breathed a sigh of relief. They could argue about it later, someplace where the spies Zepar had everywhere could not overhear.

With shouts that he was innocent, the security guards hauled Hasdiel away. The penalty for a failed attempt on the Prime Minister's life was life in prison. Lucifer would not be bothered by Hasdiel ever again.

'Third Empire' whispered into Eligor's brain.

Lucifer straightened up and assumed his usual politician's pose, the triumphant leader who had, once again, prevailed against the enemies of the Alliance. The crowd cheered. Hundreds of flash bulbs flashed as the paparazzi documented the failed assassination attempt. With an exaggerated flourish of his arm, Lucifer waded into their midst, feeding upon their adoration and becoming one with them as though he were a rock star playing for a stadium full of fans.

Eligor looked into Lucifer's now ice-cold eyes and shuddered.

'The evil one,' he thought to himself.

He grabbed Lerajie by the wing and dragged him out of there before the foolish idealist got himself killed. Perhaps once upon a time Lucifer had been a decent man, but the creature which stared out of those malevolent silver eyes reminded him of someone else he had met before the man had been slaughtered along with every other rebellious inhabitant of Tyre.

Shemijaza. Lucifer's biological father…