"The love is . . ." He opened his eyes and stared at her.
"I know-there are no words . . . and your eyes are silver."
He kissed her so hard he almost chipped a tooth, and then pulled away. "I'm sorry. Don't know where that came from."
"I do," she said and then returned his kiss just as hard. "It'spart of the abundance, part of the gifts of nature, of living, of procreation, of marriage . . . that, too, is part of the Divine."
He was about to say damn, but censored himself. She nodded. Her eyes said not out here, not in this holy water. Her eyes didn't have to tell him twice.
"This river has a lot of current init, D . . . you still wanna do the sword thing?"
Damali materialized herIsis long blade in her grip. He opened his palm and the blade of Ausar filled it. Reading each other's eyes, they rammed their swords into the lush silt between them at the same time. She led the dance, placing her right hand over his heart and her left hand on the handle of her blade. He matched her positioning and stood waiting for instructions.
He watched his wife go old-school, into hard-down prayer, and then closed his eyes. She opened with a litany of thanks, calling out everything in the world that they were thankful for, down to the last breath she just took to speak. His part was minor, he felt, by comparison, in that he was merely support and backup with nods of agreement and well-timedamens .
But he also felt every word she'd said in his spirit; there was agreement in the name of the Most High for every word she uttered, and then she got specific-started calling for people's healing by name, going down the team list, going down the friend list, going through folks they didn't know, speaking on world crises, families beset upon by tragedy and evil. She spoke on people who knew loss and pain and heartbreak and financial woe, asked that they be lifted up, even before her own family.
HisAmen here or there started getting rowdy, got down right off da chain. He heard himself going fromAmen toThat'sright, tell it, boo! He could hear what she was calling out in his bones. Could feel the empathy draining out into the water and coming back to fill them up. He could feel for that person who could be accidentally caught in harm's way, knew the terror of the innocent victim caught in the cross fire of good and evil. Knew what it was to be the vanguard for a family only to watch itbe decimated one by one. Felt for the soldiers in every country and their wailing families.
Oh, yes, his wife could take it to the wall, could send it through his marrow,could make the angels sing. The words Damali was delivering had her sweating, tears running, wings beating a cadence till she was foot-stomping and jumping up and down, splashing water everywhere.
It was everything he could do to keep his hand against her heart. When she spoke on him, though, he was so full that there was only one word,Yes .
Each impassioned stanza ended in,my husband . If he never knew what he'd meant to her before, he definitely knew it now. Her voice was brittle, husky, and worn-out. Her body shook,sweat making her tank top cling . She called him by name, Carlos Rivera, and told anyone in Heaven who would listen all that the Devil had done. Asked not forher own sake, but for the sake of her husband, that Satan be sent from their door.
Then she got to calling Archangels out by regiment and specialty-asked God to send Raphael for healing for Father Patrick and asked that Michael bring his blade to take heads and take names. She wanted some good news from Gabriel and begged him for a word. Asked for mercy sublime for all her shortcomings and her husband's, too . . . and asked for the wisdom to know the difference between the things she could change and the things she couldn't.
Of all the spoken word he'd ever heard Damali do, he was sure this was the most profound. She might have playedMadisonSquareGarden , butthis was the invisible audience that could change their destinies.
He could feel her winding down. They were both breathing hard, sweating, tears streaking their faces. The waters were crackling with blue-white charge and it raced over their sweat-damped skins in intermittent waves. But before she closed out, he had something to say. He hadn't really had a lot of practice; most of his conversations like this were always in his head-not out loud. Something moved him beyond thought, just jumped up in him and had him. He pulled his wife close and buried his face against her neck.
"I have no right to ask for anything, given allYou gave me-but I just want her and the baby to be safe. I'd give my life for this woman right here, this gift. I'm ready to change my life, give it toYou in full service.Your will this time and forever, not mine. Amen."
The moment Carlos closed the prayer, heat swept through both blades so quickly that it forced him and Damali to part. A blue-white beam shot up, exploded in the sky like a nova disc, and then sucked back down through the blades, shaking the earth beneath their feet before they could even draw a breath.
Massive ground tremors toppled them, sprawling them in the shallow water. They came up coughing and sputtering, and stared at each other. Their blades were glowing and vibrating in resonating tones. The cloudless sky flashed pastel hues and then suddenly large cumulous clouds gathered and then exploded in a sparkling confetti-like rain.
Damali and Carlos stared up, gaping, and then slowly looked at each other.
"I think they heard us," he said quietly.
"Yeah," she whispered. "I'm pretty sure they did."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Adam and Eve ran into the meadow, barefoot, with Aset and Ausar right on their heels. Two young men were with them that neither Carlos nor Damali had seen before. Too disoriented to get up without assistance, the young couple allowed themselves to be pulled to their feet. Elder Neterus splashed into the water, creating a commotion, as Damali and Carlos just stared at them.
"Are you hurt, children?" Eve said, her hands touching their faces and then scanning them with panic in her eyes.
Aset was right beside her. "Please tell me you are all right?"
"No," Damali said. "We just got the wind knocked out of us."
"Are you unharmed, brother?" Adam asked, patting down Carlos's body like he was about to frisk him for weapons.
"Yeah, I'm cool-just like D said, just got blown away. I'm good."
Ausar let out a hard breath of relief, but from the command in his voice and the speed at which he delivered choppy sentences, Carlos could tell the man was shook.