Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,107

the war hadn’t yet begun.

It was a risk to assume nothing would change during the short time they disappeared to bury Antonicus, but the risk was a considered one. The more opaque patches seen by Neha’s drones and confirmed by Alexander and Zanaya seemed to indicate that the Archangel of China was consolidating herself. How she might be doing so was a thing Raphael didn’t like thinking about.

He remembered too well the pathetic half-consumed husks he and Elena had discovered. Lijuan fed from life to make death. There’d been millions of people in China before the fog. Now, no voices penetrated the dark wall and Antonicus had said the landscape was devoid of light.

The blurry green-tinged images picked up by the camera worn by the Ancient had shown the same: an endless wall of pitch black, so murky that even technology meant to penetrate night had failed.

Raphael did not want to see what remained when the fog retreated.

Resting one another by taking turns with the sling so they had no need to stop, the eleven archangels made a direct trek to an ice island that Alexander and Charisemnon flew ahead to scout.

Conscious of her vulnerable physical state, Raphael had checked in with Michaela multiple times during the trek. I can ask for a break if you need it, he’d said. I will blame it on the output of wildfire.

A little pale under the smooth richness of her skin, she’d nonetheless demurred. We must do this if my son is to be safe. I cannot stand any delay.

So they flew on. He noticed that Caliane stayed close to Michaela, not enough for it to be remarked on, yet enough to render assistance should it be necessary. But Michaela managed to stay airborne until they landed at their destination: a small, rocky island encased in clear ice.

Together, Zanaya and Elijah created the deep hole needed for the burial, then all eleven of them joined to lower Antonicus into it using the ropes. They took it slow, none of them wishing to simply dump him. Once the sling touched the frozen soil that was his resting ground, they dropped the ropes into the hole with him.

Caliane stepped forward to the edge of the grave. “Antonicus is gone from this world, perhaps forever, but before he went, he gave us a great gift. He showed us the enemy we must be ready to fight, the evil that may defeat us all if we are not ready. For that, he will be remembered forever in our histories. I will ensure the Historian knows of this, so she can share it with angelkind when the time is right.”

Right now, Raphael understood, the knowledge of Antonicus’s passing would only spread fear and terror. Archangels were not vulnerable. That was their legend and what kept the world in balance.

“To Antonicus.” Caliane lifted a handful of shattered ice-rock.

“To Antonicus.” Together, they threw the handfuls into the grave, then Raphael, Titus, and Astaad collapsed the grave inward before filling it with the material excavated during its creation. It left a depression over which they built a cairn using rocks taken from another small and distant island.

Then, while Michaela and Caliane kept watch, the rest of them flew toward a trawler anchored about two hours from the island. Each of them had contacted their seconds while yet in India, gotten details of any ships that’d be passing through the wider Antarctic area at the correct time.

Their target flew the flag of Elijah’s land.

On it were the timbers, sheets of metal, wires, and other materials necessary to build a research station in a different area of this remote continent. Distant as the trawler was, there was no danger the crew would realize the archangels’ flight path or final destination. That crew watched goggle-eyed as archangel after archangel flew down, before flying off with materials to build a crypt that would act as a cage for the infection.

I shall destroy the ship and its crew, Aegaeon said after the last pickup.

There’s no need, Neha replied. I wiped their memories. They know only that they have been ordered by their archangel to return to base and renew their supplies. Better to leave no ripple here, not even the small one caused by the loss of a trawler.

Raphael knew his hunter would be horrified by Neha’s unilateral choice, but those mortals could now live out their lives in safety. This secret was too huge, too deadly.

It had been decided they would embargo the entire area