“I hope so.”
“Somewhere in this area; it’s been some time since it felt a hint of what might be hellish.” He gave us one more splash of water and petted us a bit and then stood up, surveying the ruin. We weren’t inside a perfect circle or anything; the shape of the fire was a splattery business many acres or meters or whatever long.
Atticus pointed to the west, where we could dimly see flickers of flame beneath billowing clouds of black smoke. “We are basically on top of Kanangra Walls here, but in that direction they fall off into a gorge. If I were going to be busy doing evil, I’d want a view of the destruction. So let’s head that way. Tell me if you see or hear anything.”
We trotted to the west across a blasted landscape, stumps and twigs looking like scorched French fries. That made me think how nice a basket of poutine would go down right then, but I doubted I’d be getting any of that here.
Atticus saw it first and told us to hold up. He squatted down next to us and pointed with his hatchet, whispering. “See that moving through the trees?”
We all went still and watched. Something was there, but it wasn’t any animal or human I’ve ever seen before.
Okay, good, I’m not imagining it, Atticus said in our minds.Let’s move closer, but slowly and quietly. No barking or growling. I think it’s holding something.
Atticus stayed low and we crept along next to him, keeping our eyes on the target. The intervening trees kept me from seeing what it held in its hand—I couldn’t even see arms, most of the time. But then it moved slightly and I finally caught a glimpse. Its arms were as thin and sticklike as the legs, but the hands held a squishy accordion thing.
It’s called a bellows. That’s exactly what it is. I think I know who that is, and he’s definitely trying to make the fires worse.
If I’m not mistaken, that is Xaphan, a fallen angel who is supposed to be fanning the furnaces of hell.
The ones who fell mostly lost their beauty during the fall. Lucifer was an exception.
Starbuck observed. He’d noticed, like I had, the smell of sulfur that accompanied most anything that came from hell. They should definitely not be allowed to have any artisanally crafted ass candles made of their scent.
I asked.
I don’t know. Maybe the new furnaces of hell are just... Australia in the summertime. This Blue Mountains region was already hit hard in the Black Summer of 2020 and maybe he’s come to finish the job.
What do you mean?
Oh, yes, I think that’s right. How’d you hear about that?
Right, right. Okay. I’m going straight at him because he has to go. Circle around to his flank but do not engage unless I’m in trouble.
Starbuck added.
Atticus set off in a sort of duck walk, trying to stay low and unobserved to surprise Xanax or Xaphod or whatever, I’d already forgotten his name. I nipped at Starbuck to get his attention and the two of us took a course headed to the right, which would eventually intersect the fallen angel’s path if he kept going. Atticus would engage him before that, though, and once he faced Atticus, we’d be coming at him on his left side. That was usually what you wanted if you were tracking humans, since most of them were right-handed, but I didn’t know if that was true for angels. Were they all ambidextrous?
I didn’t need to wait for a signal because there wouldn’t be one. When Atticus decided a thing had to be done, he did it. And hewouldn’t try to engage the fallen angel in negotiations to leave peacefully, because that would never happen, and he wouldn’t seek a fair fight either, because there was no honor to be had here. There was only a forest to save, and all the creatures who lived in it.
