Airs & Graces (24 page)

He worked quietly to get a blaze going while I set the last of what I’d need out of the pack. I pulled my jacket off and shivered. “Stay turned around, please,” I said, and of course that made him turn back towards me. I had my shirt halfway up to my breasts and stopped.

“Really, dude?”

“Apologies,” he muttered and turned back around to face the licking flames in the grate. I changed into clean, dry clothes consisting of jeans and a long-sleeved black thermal before slinging my messenger bag across my chest and pulling my jacket back on.

“Okay,” I gave him the all clear and sat on the floor, pulling on thick socks and my boots, lacing them up correctly. Tab watched me with something akin to approval. I shoved my wet things into a plastic sack from Wally World and tied it off before shoving it in the top of my pack, which I refastened. Everything was grab-and-go in case we had to bug out.

“What?” I asked, since he was still staring.

“Come by the fire. Get warm.”

I did as he commanded and sat down on the dusty floor beside him, re-braiding my hair out of my face. His wings came out, the one nearest me curving behind my back, reflecting the heat from the flames.

“Thanks,” I uttered, and he nodded, staring into the fire.

I stared with him, propping my arms loosely on my knees. “Sorry I’ve been such a self-absorbed bitch, wallowing in my own self-pity,” I said a time later.

“I am sorry to have left you feeling so alone.”

And that was it: all that was said, all that was
needed
to be said. Tab and I weren’t friends, it was true, but we
were
partners in this as long as our goals aligned, which was something. The revelation felt good, like I had found my footing while traversing a treacherous stretch of rocks. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, and he glanced back. He tried a tentative smile, and it made me smile.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” I joked. He laughed softly, and some of the pall hanging over my mood lifted.

“We should cross into the Italian countryside tomorrow,” he said.

“I’m down for that, as long as we can continue training along the way.”

“Speaking of which,” he reached into his coat and brought out a mass of leather with a knife handle sticking out of it.

“You know just what to buy a girl to inspire confidence,” I said dryly and took it from him, untangling the mess. It was a belt and holster, but there was more to it than that. I stood up, careful not to step on any wing or whatever, and slid the belt free of the mess and through my belt loops. I slid the knife on and finished off through the loops, startling when Tab’s hands grazed my jeans-clad thigh. He was buckling another strap around my right leg, cinching it tight so the knife rode securely along the outside of my right thigh.

“How does that feel?” he asked.

I pulled it and slid it home a couple of times, nodding. “Okay.”

“The defensive stances and basic sword techniques should work with this, just with drastically shorter reach. We’ll go over some things in the morning, before leaving.”

“Good idea. I need to get used to moving in regular clothes, anyway.” I sat back down, the knife a comforting weight along my leg, between me and Tab.

“You should sleep,” he said.

“Yeah,” I agreed, but my vision was captured by the flames. I sighed and tried to relax a little before I attempted to lie down. The orange of the shifting flames was hypnotizing and eventually became a catalyst for another vision entirely.

I stared at a bedraggled man in simple homespun robes. He was young, his black hair long. It was escaping out from beneath the long section of cloth that covered his head and wrapped around his nose and mouth to stave off the thick dust being kicked up into the air from the road. He leaned on a gnarled walking stick, wiping imaginary sweat and the very real orange grit from his brow. He looked vaguely familiar to the part of me that was still Addy, who was a mute captive for this show. I studied him and listened to the man whose body I was trapped in. I couldn’t feel Tab’s body along mine anymore; in fact, I couldn’t feel anything.

“Are you ready to go in?” he was asking, and I vaguely knew the voice, though I wasn’t sure how I understood what was being said. It sure as hell wasn’t English. The first man, the one I could see, looked at the man I was living the memory through in the eye, and if I could have, I would have gasped. I knew those eyes, staring so intently back at me… their soothing liquid gray would be recognizable anywhere. It was Tab, although I was pretty sure it was a Tabbris of very long ago.

“This is wrong, Gabriel,” Tab was saying.

“I cannot disagree with you my brother; I only agreed to do this for your peace of mind. It is our Father’s will that this be…”

“I know it is!” Tab snapped. “Still, not all of them have chosen the path to damnation, Gabriel; surely there are some worth saving.”

I’m living Gabriel’s memory?
I could feel myself get further and further away as I was drawn into the memory of whatever was going on. Gabriel sighed and nodded, and I could feel his resignation.

“Tabbris, we’re not here to save anyone. That wasn’t our bargain.” Gabriel went on to remind him, “I said I’d come with you so that you could see for yourself why the decision was made. So let’s do that.” I held out my arm in an ‘after you’ motion, and Gabriel said, “Let’s go in and see for ourselves.” When Tab didn’t move immediately, I turned and walked down the roughhewn road. It was no more than a track or rut in the earth, worn by the passage of many travelers and caravans, but as far as roads went, however long ago this was, I guess it was as good as it got. Tab fell into step silently beside me, his face grim.

We followed the flow of people and drew several curious looks at our passage. At least they started curious. They became somewhat analytic, looking for what we had around us. Some became hostile. The wall around the city was high and was made from the solid, if rough-hewn, sandstone indigenous to the region. It had been bleached to a pale cream by the punishing sun, and Gabriel shaded our eyes from the glare with one of his graceful, long fingered, hands. Several of the people around us found themselves doing the same. We were nearly through the gate when Tabbris almost tripped over a man that had stooped to retrieve something he’d dropped.

“Oh! I am sorry sir.” The man said to him. “Please forgive me!”

Tab steadied the middle-aged man with a hand on his arm and bent to retrieve whatever it was the man had lost his hold on.

“I apologize,” Tabbris said, handing him his purse, “I didn’t see you there.” It was as Tab had bent that his face covering had fallen away. The middle-aged man’s eyes narrowed as he looked from Tabbris to Gabriel, who let down his own face covering and smiled.

“I am Lot,” he said. “What brings you gentleman to the city of Sodom?” he asked, his voice kindly.

“We seek work.” Gabriel’s voice startled me, it was becoming difficult to remember I was Adelaide and just along for the ride, so entrenched was I in what was happening. I watched the man look Tabbris and myself – er, Gabriel – over.

“You are new to the city then?” he asked. I think we both nodded in unison. “You have lodging?” he asked, and we both shook our heads.

“We’ll find some place this night,” Gabriel said. “Even a place in the streets is no harm. For tonight it will be fine.” I smiled at the man.

“Ah,” he looked nervous for a moment, then finally his eyes lit up and he beamed at the both of us. “Then I must insist that you spend your first night in comfort!” he heaved his pack back onto his shoulders. “Come, you will stay in my home tonight, a proper welcome to the city.”

Tab exchanged a look with me,
with Gabriel
, and we both turned to the man.

“We can’t impose,” Tabbris was saying. The reactions I was feeling were confusing. I knew, because Gabriel knew, that this offer of hospitality was perfectly normal in towns like this. But not this town, or its neighbor.

“It is no imposition at all young man,” Lot said, beaming. “Please, I must insist. You are new to the city of Sodom, and the nights get quite cold. Please come. My wife will cook lamb. I and my daughters’ husbands-to-be would love to hear news from distant places. I can see you’ve come far. Tomorrow you will be well rested, and it will be easier to find the work you seek.” Lot paused. “A little easier, at least.”

I shared another look with Tabbris, and after several more attempts to convince us, we finally acquiesced to the man’s wishes, funneling through the city gates on his heels. The streets were packed, and it was slow moving. Though the buildings’ shadows provided relief from the sun’s punishing rays, it was still no less hot, though the dust was much less. Gabriel unwound his head covering completely in a bid to appear that he was attempting to gain relief from the heat. As he looked this way and that he observed the rather obvious sidelong looks that he and Tabbris were getting. Many continued to be hostile. A few involved smiles that were no more comfortable than the hostility.

There were several raucous shouts to Lot from men in doorways making inquiries as to Tab and Gabriel’s identity. Some called that he had better not be bringing beggars into town. Some threw things I-or-Gabriel could barely dodge. Some had other things on their minds. Looking down a few alleyways revealed… well, sex. Obvious sex that was accompanied sometimes by a full audience and cheering. There were couples – mostly male – and sometimes groups engaged in acts I didn’t even have a name for, out in the open. If it had been anywhere in modern times they would have been arrested, but here it was just business as usual. The idea of sleeping in the street if necessary certainly wouldn’t have worked. I thought for a moment that I saw someone who might be homeless, as he was wearing clothes less fancy than others were wearing – those who wore any at all – but he was chased away from where he’d started to slouch.

Several of the shouted inquiries had lewd suggestions about what could be done with the foreigners, and I swear some of them were enough to make the Angels blush. I know I would have had I really been there, and who knows, maybe I was, though I could feel nothing of my body. As the three men went deeper into the city, the level of debauchery became more and more apparent, and the lascivious actions of the citizens became too forthright to ignore. Some went so far as to approach Tab and Gabriel and attempt to cop a feel. Lot was their staunch defender, shooing unwanted advances away as best he could, but still the lines of Tabbris’ face became more set and grimmer with each step into what was becoming a pornographic madhouse.

In cities like this, with the buildings so close, the night did not fall from the sky. Rather it crawled out from the dank alleys and doorways, spilling from windowsills to pour through the streets until it filled out to the surrounding wall. Torches began to flicker in sconces on walls and in doorways before we reached Lot’s door and several men, already drunk, wine skins dangling from their belts, open jugs being passed between them, had begun to follow us.

Lot ushered us into his home and barred the door behind us, leaving the men to their calls and laughter and to continue imbibing their wine and to rut in the streets. He called out to his wife to set two more places for supper and called his daughters and sons-in-law to greet his guests. The two Angels sat with the family warily, growing more at ease when it became apparent that these people were different compared to most of Sodom’s inhabitants. We all ate, and Tab and Gabriel shared news from where they were supposed to have traveled from as the shouts and laughter outside the door grew louder. Finally the sounds were becoming too much to ignore, and then they suddenly stopped, the din going silent for just a fraction of a moment. The entirety of Lot’s family and the two Angels went still and apprehensively listened.

All of them jumped as the door rattled in its frame under three massive blows.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
This was followed directly by a man’s loud drunken bellow, “Lot! Send out your two men so that we might know them!”

I felt Gabriel swallow and look at Tabbris, an eyebrow raised, but Tabbris only had eyes for the human, Lot, as did his family. He looked from his wife to his daughters and finally to his sons-in-law.

“I will not!” he shouted back, and in a display that caused both Tabbris and Gabriel surprise he turned to his sons-in-law and his daughters and said, “I brought them here to save them from this plight. They are new to our city and did not know the fate that befell them on its streets.”

Gabriel looked at Tab, who shot him a look of triumph. I could feel Gabriel set his jaw and look back to the humans around him.

“What will you do, Lot?” I asked them in Gabriel’s voice, the Archangels thoughts and mine echoing each other.

The men outside pounded on the door and threatened to enter, and take the two men by force. Lot looked at his sons-in-law and his two daughters. The men looked at their wives-to-be and nodded to the older man, who stared at his two daughters for a heartbeat. It was the oldest daughter who was the first to hold her head high and nod at her father, the youngest following suit quickly.

Lot nodded, and his shoulders slumped, and he rose dejectedly and went for the door. The two Angels watched him passively and waited to see what he would do. Lot waved at them, motioning for and telling them to get back into the shadows at the rear of the room, farthest from the door. Gabriel got to his feet, Tabbris following, and I lost sight of the older gentleman for an instant as they repositioned themselves.

When Gabriel looked again it was to see Lot opening his front door, drawing himself to his full height, back straight. The picture of defiance, he spoke loudly enough for his voice to carry out over the assembled crowd.