Lamb The Gospel According to Biff Christs Childho - By Christopher Moore Page 0,77

light like loneliness or infinity. They had eaten some bread and cheese, then settled in close to the fire to share the last of a flask of fortified wine, Balthasar's second that evening.

"Have I told you of the prophecy that sent me in search of you when you were born, Joshua?"

"You spoke of the star. My mother told me of the star."

"Yes, the three of us followed that star, and by chance we met up in the mountains east of Kabul and finished the journey together, but the star wasn't the reason we went, it was only our means of navigation. We made the journey because each of us was looking for something at the end."

"Me?" Joshua said.

"Yes, but not just you, but what it is said was brought with you. In the temple where we travel now, there lies a set of clay tablets - very old - the priests say that they date back to the time of Solomon, and they foretell the coming of a child who will have power over evil and victory over death. They say he will carry the key to immortality."

"Me? Immortality? Nope."

"I think you do, you just don't know it yet."

"Nope, I'm sure," said Joshua. "It's true that I have brought people back from the dead, but never for very long. I've gotten better at healing over the years, but my back-from-the-dead stuff still needs work. I need to learn more."

"Which is why I have taught you, and why I am taking you to the temple now, so you may read the tablets yourself, but you must have the power of immortality within you."

"No, really, I haven't a clue."

"I am two hundred and sixty years old, Joshua."

"I've heard that, but I still can't help you. You look good though, I mean for two hundred and sixty."

At this point Balthasar started to sound desperate. "Joshua, I know that you have power over evil. Biff has told me of you banishing demons in Antioch."

"Little ones," Joshua said modestly.

"You must have power over death as well or it does me no good."

"What I am able to do comes through my father, I didn't bargain for it."

"Joshua, I am preserved by a pact with a demon. If you do not have the powers foretold in the prophecy I will never be free, I will never have peace, I will never have love. Every minute of my life I must have my will focused on controlling the demon. Should my will fail, the destruction would be unlike anything the world has ever seen."

"I know how it is. I'm not allowed to know a woman," Joshua said. "Although it was an angel that told me, not a demon. But still, you know, it's hard sometimes. I really like your concubines. The other night Pillows was giving me a back rub after a long day of studying, and I started getting this massive - "

"By the Golden Tenderloin of the Calf!" Balthasar exclaimed, leaping to his feet, his eyes wide with terror. The old man began loading his camel, thrashing around in the darkness like a madman. Joshua was following him, trying to calm him down, fearing he might have a fit any second.

"What? What?"

"It is out!" the magus said. "Help me pack up. We must go back. The demon is out."

I stood cringing in the dark, waiting for disaster to fall, for mayhem to reign, for pain and pestilence and no good to manifest, then Joy struck a fire stick and lit our lamps. We were alone. The iron door hung open into a very small room, it too lined with iron. The entire room was just big enough to contain a small bed and a chair. Every span of the black iron walls was inlaid with golden symbols: pentagrams and hex symbols and a dozen others I had never seen before. Joy held her lamp close to the wall.

"These are symbols of containment," Joy said.

"I used to hear voices coming from in here."

"There was nothing in here when I opened the door. I could see in the second before the lamp blew out."

"Then what blew it out?"

"The wind?"

"I don't think so. I felt something brush me as it passed."

Just then someone in the girls' quarters screamed, then a chorus of screams joined in, primal screams of absolute terror and pain. Instantly Joy's eyes filled with tears. "What have I done?"

I took her sleeve and dragged her down the passage toward the girls' quarters, snatching up two heavy