Fire Prophet (Son of Angels) (8 page)
“We, however, have arranged a different space for our lessons. Since there are only thirteen of you, you will all be taught together. We have some very gifted teachers who will be instructing you. I can’t wait for you to meet them.”
Rupert raised his hand tentatively again. He looked like he was going to be sick. “So this begins now, then?”
Camilla snapped her fingers. “I’m glad you brought that up, Rupert! Actually, it begins tonight.”
A buzz swept through the kids again. School at
night
?
“Now, enough questions for today,” she said. “A special brunch has been prepared for you by the sisters of the convent. I hope you will use the day as a time to rest and get to know one another. You’ll start your regular classes tomorrow. But we will meet back here tonight at nine o’clock, for the beginning of Angel School . . . Yes, we’ll call it that.” She glanced at Jonah and smiled. “You will get more answers to your questions tonight, I am sure.”
With that, she flapped her wings ever so slightly and hovered toward the back of the room—whether she was walking or floating Jonah couldn’t tell—and disappeared through the open door.
C
amilla Aldridge was waiting in the meeting room when Jonah, Eliza, and Jeremiah arrived at nine o’clock. A few of the quarterlings were there, and the others trickled through the door.
“Hurry along, students,” she said. “You cannot be late to our session—you will miss class. And there is much to see tonight.”
Frederick stood right beside Camilla, listening attentively. Jonah caught his eye briefly, and Frederick glared at him. Jonah wasn’t sure why the other boy seemed to hate him so much, but he knew he should try to rise above it. Jonah quickly looked away, shoving his hands in his pockets. He tried to focus his attention on their new leader.
Camilla was wearing the same blue, shiny robe, and she spoke both with an authority and enthusiasm that drew all of their eyes.
“Before we do anything, we shall ask for Elohim’s blessing,” she said. “Let’s pray together.” All of the students bowed their heads. Camilla raised her hands in the air.
“Father Elohim, we are blessed by Your presence tonight. Lead us together. Help us learn about one another—and about You. Give us the strength to fight the good fight of faith. Protect these children and their parents. Thank You for the gift of hospitality from our sisters here. In Your Son’s precious name, amen.”
Jonah and the rest repeated
amen
quietly.
“Okay then,” Camilla said, clapping her hands together loudly. “The best way to get to where we are going is by entering into the hidden realm. Now, is there anyone here who has not done this before?”
A handful of kids raised their hands, including Frederick.
“Your first lesson, then,” she said, smiling. “Nothing to worry about. It is as easy as breathing. After a little practice, it will become second nature to each of you.”
Jonah nodded. He remembered the first time he had entered the hidden realm, this spiritual world that was a layer behind the physical world—the place where the battle between the angels can be seen—and how amazed he was at what he saw.
“Since each of you has angel blood coursing through your veins, it is within each of your abilities to come and go in the hidden realm as you wish. All you need to do, children, is pray, and believe that it exists.”
She looked at each of their faces. “Ready, everyone?”
They nodded. Jeremiah reached out and grabbed Jonah’s hand. Even though he had entered the hidden realm with Jonah the day before, it was still new to him. Jonah could see a hint of nervousness on his brother’s face.
“Very well,” she said. “Bow your heads with me, and in your heart, say something like this: ‘Dear Elohim, I believe not only
in the physical world but in the spiritual things that cannot always be seen—the hidden realm. Allow me passage into this place now.’”
As they prayed, Jonah opened one eye, peeking in time to see each of the quarterlings, one at a time, begin to disappear.
Pop, pop, pop.
They were here one minute and gone the next. Just before he slipped into the spiritual world, he glanced down at Jeremiah and saw him disappear too.
Closing his eyes, he felt something inside him shift, and he knew that when he opened his eyes again, he would see all of the students there with him in the room.
When he looked up, Camilla was standing in front of them, just as she had been. Everyone was in the same place. Jeremiah was still holding his hand, squeezing it a little tighter.
“Cool!” Jeremiah said, looking at Jonah. He looked the same, except that a glowing light emanated from the center of his chest, stretching its fingers out to his arms.
Jeremiah turned and beamed at Eliza, who had the same glow, and then at his own light-filled chest.
Jonah looked around at the rest of the quarterlings. Entering this world always amazed him, no matter how many times he did it. There was a glow that every person had—the thumbprint of Elohim, the Creator of everyone. But some had a brighter, more profound glow. And he couldn’t help but notice that some of the quarterlings did not.
Camilla quickly addressed this before anyone could point out the obvious. “In the hidden realm, we see the glow of Elohim within every living person—every living thing, for that matter.” Jonah remembered how he could see the grass and trees sparkle from Elohim’s touch. “It is also possible to see the bright glow of
those who have invited Elohim into their lives and have accepted His forgiveness through His Son.”
Some of the quarterlings—Hai Ling, a girl form China; Lania, an Australian; Rupert, the English boy; and Frederick— had very dull glows. Sensing the eyes of the others, each of them took either an awkward step backward or began to stare down at the floor. Except for Frederick, who stood with his eyes locked straight ahead, not moving an inch.
“A word of warning, and perhaps encouragement, to you all,” said Camilla, gathering their attention back to herself. “Do not judge those who have not yet called upon Elohim. He can use all of us in mighty ways, if He wills. And do not, under any circumstances, allow yourselves to separate out those without the glow from those with it. There is plenty of time for Elohim to work and draw hearts to Himself.”
If anyone had been standing outside the convent on the dark street, watching, they would have sworn that the door opened all by itself. In reality, thirteen quarterlings and one warrior angel opened it and walked out onto the New York City sidewalk. The quarterlings stayed close together, trying to keep up with Camilla, who was moving with purpose.
In the hidden realm, they couldn’t be seen or heard. But the only time Camilla spoke, or even stopped, was when she came across a man sprawled out on the ground, asleep on a vent in the concrete. She halted abruptly when she spotted him, bent down, and cradled his dirty face in her hands. Jonah watched as she bent down and kissed his forehead. The man turned his head up,
opened his eyes for a second, then closed them again and returned to sleep.
“Bless you, my brother,” she said softly. “Elohim loves you deeply.”
Jonah saw the man smile and mutter something. Camilla held his face for a few more seconds, and then stood. Jonah silently wondered if he would have even noticed the man if she hadn’t stopped.
“Ah,” she said, almost as if she’d forgotten they were there. “Let’s keep going, shall we? Almost there.”
Their curiosity for where “there” was grew by the second. The quarterlings started whispering back and forth to each other.
“I think she’s crazy,” Jonah overheard Frederick say. “Why is she taking us out here in the dark? The streets of New York are the safest place for us to be? Really?”
“Oh, just trust her, okay?” Eliza shot back at him, looking disgusted. “I’m pretty sure she knows where she’s going.”
Finally, Camilla stopped in front of a set of white granite steps that led up to a large building with tall columns across the front.
“Here we are, students,” Camilla said.
Jonah looked at the sign by the street. It read:
N
EW
Y
ORK
P
UBLIC
L
IBRARY
H
OURS
: 9 :00 A.M.–9:00 P.M. D
AILY
He raised his hand slowly. “We’re going to have classes . . . at the library?”
“That’s right,” she said. “We’ll be using the side entrance, though. Even though they are closed, we don’t want to draw too much attention to ourselves now, do we?”
Before anyone else could ask a question, she headed down a path that led to the side of the building. There was a single door there. Rupert went ahead of her and tugged on the handle.
“It’s open,” he said, turning the handle and pushing the door open slightly.
“Of course it is, dear,” she said with a sly smile. “We have friends in high places.”
“Right this way,” Camilla called out as she walked through the door. “Follow me. Quickly now.”
Jonah gazed up at the ceiling and the walls as they walked quietly through the hallway. It was the largest library he had ever seen. Everything seemed made out of marble, and large paintings of serious-looking people hung on the walls. The library in Peacefield was a small, one-floor building with old, tacky carpet and only a few shelves in the youth section.
They rounded the corner and saw that Camilla had stopped. Standing with her hand up in the air, she motioned for them to move over against the wall.
A security guard was coming down the stone steps with a security dog on a leash, clicking his flashlight against the railing and whistling a tune. They all sucked in a breath of air and held it, even though they all knew he couldn’t see or hear them.
In nervous silence they watched as he ambled down the hallway. He stopped to get a long drink of water at the fountain. Just as Jonah and the rest were breathing a sigh of relief, the German shepherd turned its head toward them and barked once. Its eyes narrowed as it seemed to look right at Jonah.
The dog pulled the guard over until they were right in front of Jonah. It began to sniff around excitedly at Jonah’s feet and barked again several times.
Jonah tried not to breathe as he looked down at the dog in front of him. His mind told him it couldn’t bite him in the hidden realm. But everything in him wanted to run.
“What’s gotten into you, Molly?” the guard said, looking down at his dog strangely. “There’s nothing here. Just an empty hallway.”
He tugged at her leash, pulling her down the hall after him. The dog continued to look backward but followed her master’s orders.
“That’s why we always stay in the hidden realm when we are here,” Camilla said after they had turned the corner.
She continued up a flight of stairs until they arrived in front of a sign that said M
AIN
R
EADING
R
OOM
.
“Here we are!” she announced, beaming back at the kids.
“How is it possible,” Eliza asked, keeping her voice barely above a whisper, “that we are having class in the New York Public Library? It just doesn’t seem like it would be, well . . . allowed.” She pushed her glasses up on her nose and looked at Camilla.
“As I said, we have friends in high places, dear,” she said with a twinkle in her eye and a mysterious tone in her voice. “The director of the New York Public Libraries is sympathetic to our cause.”
They walked into the largest reading room Jonah had ever seen. There were thousands of books lining every wall from floor to ceiling. Dozens of wooden tables sat in perfect symmetry on the floor, bronze reading lamps and computer docking stations on each one.
“This must be the size of two football fields,” Jonah said to David.
David was in awe. “I’ve never seen so many books in one place before. You could stay in this one room for the rest of your life and
never run out of interesting things to read.” Out of the corner of his eye, Jonah saw Eliza give an approving nod.
Some of the kids were looking up at the ceiling. Jonah’s eyes were drawn there too, to the sky blue images painted across it.
“It’s like we’re outside under a sunny blue sky,” Jeremiah said.