William H. Hallahan - (2 page)

The Lord had not given any reason to Lucifer for His move, had not
thanked him for his loyal service, had not in any way mitigated the
pain and disgrace the announcement brought with it.

Lucifer stood in his pavilion and looked over the river and beyond
at the lovely fields filled with ever-blooming flowers washed in the
supernal light and saw strolling angels on the plain.

And in his heart for the first time he felt an alien emotion. He
felt anger.
 
 

When the Lord made His announcement to the convened angels, He sat
outside His pavilion in His special chair with Lucifer on His left
hand and His messenger and surrogate Michael on His right.

"I am going to bring forth a Son," He announced. "And
He will sit at my right hand." And that was all He said. He
explained nothing. He gave no indication when the Son would appear.
Or why.

Lucifer felt every eye on him. Mute eyes, unspoken thoughts. He
wanted none of their sympathy. It would make him feel inferior to
hear their condolences. He withdrew to his pavilion.

Beelzebub came to see him, portentous, casting his eyes for
eavesdroppers. "There are many who say you were badly treated.
Even Timothy."

Lucifer nodded and waited for more. He knew he had never been
popular with hoi polloi as Timothy was. He, Lucifer, had been
universally admired and respected, looked up to rather than petted as
Timothy was. He was a leader. Timothy was a hero. And now "they"
were saying he had been badly treated. "Even Timothy." If
it had been Timothy demoted, they would be saying more than "badly
treated."

"They say you were giving good, loyal service and now you've
been paid with injustice."

Timothy himself came to talk. A splendid angel with crisp curls of
red gold, everything he did was right: the graceful management of his
limbs, the way he moved, the way he held his head. Affable, an
undiscriminating smile for the whole of heaven, he came now visibly
troubled.

"I'm sorry," he said, "You deserved better."

Lucifer again felt a burgeoning anger. "I didn't need your
approval and now I don't need or want your sympathy."

Timothy nodded sympathetically. "But you see you have it."

"Then take it back and leave here."

"Perhaps there is a reason. The Lord may yet say something to
explain."

"I don't need His explanations. His actions have said it
all." Lucifer pointed his hand at the exit.

Timothy nodded once more at him and left. Somehow, Lucifer always
felt that he and Timothy were doomed someday to be on the opposite
ends of a quarrel.

Why hadn't the Lord originally chosen Timothy as second in line?
Timothy had affability, warmth, popularity. The Lord talked easily to
Timothy.

Beelzebub smirked after Timothy's footsteps. "You deserved
better," he mocked.

Abdiel came, with smoothing hands that caressed the lumpy air.
"I'm sure," he said, as though laying a wreath at Lucifer's
feet, "that an explanation will be forthcoming." Loyalty to
the Lord. And an unbidden peacemaker.

Later Beelzebub's friends gathered outside his pavilion. They all
wore the same look--Beelzebub's look: quick ferret's eyes, alert,
observing all. Moloch, Baalim and Ashtaroth, Thammuz, Dagon, Rimmon,
Belial. They expressed no sympathy. Probably they felt none.
Malcontents, they took Lucifer's situation as an affront to
themselves.

Lucifer ignored them. And soon they drifted off, finding other
places of discontent to haunt.

The crowd seemed to forget Lucifer after that. He went through the
motions of his office still, waiting until the Lord would announce
the arrival of His Son.
 
 

Shortly, the Lord indicated that he had another announcement to
make. "Lucifer, summon the angelic hosts, in proper rank and
order."

And Lucifer dispatched messengers to the far corners of heaven.
Soon the entire heavenly host was gathered before the Lord's
pavilion. There they were drawn up in their correct ranking: seraphim
first, then cherubim, thrones, powers, virtues, dominations,
principalities, archangels and angels.

"I will soon bring forth a new creature," the Lord said.
"Man. He will dwell in Paradise. And he will be the chiefest
among all the angelic hierarchy."

The stunned eyes of the multitude went from the Lord's face to
Lucifer's and to Michael's. But they found no answers there. Several
including Abdiel seemed ready to speak. But they remained silent. No
one had ever questioned the Lord before. Slowly they dispersed, in
small groups, murmuring.

How, they asked, had they failed the Lord? Weren't they all
demoted by this new event? Man was now the Lord's more favored
creation, not the heavenly hosts. Man came first, ahead of them. Was
the Lord angry with them? What wrong had they done? But they asked
each other and found no answers.

Beelzebub was outraged. He came to Lucifer's pavilion with his
retinue--Moloch, Belial, Ashtaroth and the others. They spoke of
their anger in low hissing tones. Lucifer ordered them to watch their
tongues. He wanted no part of their discontented ways.

"We have a proposal," Beelzebub said to Lucifer. "We
can go live some other place. And you can be our leader." He
watched Lucifer's face. "We are not wanted here."

We are not wanted here. The thought fed Lucifer's growing anger.
Now he was not alone. He was not the only one who had been slighted.

"There is a large number." Beelzebub pointed. A huge
number of heavenly host outside his pavilion. They were looking to
him to give shape and direction to their feelings.

"Enough of such talk in these halls," Lucifer said.

"We wish to talk with you," Beelzebub answered. "Let
us go somewhere."

Lucifer hesitated. If he went with them, he would be setting his
foot on a path with no return. He reflected only a few moments. Then
he nodded at Beelzebub. They went to the west side of heaven a good
distance and Beelzebub said, "We are unhappy."

"You are unhappy," Lucifer echoed. "The Lord has
done something to displease you? Are you deprived? Are you in any way
less than you were? Since your very being is a gift from the Lord,
whatever the Lord gives, He can take away again. By what standard do
you justify your right to feel unhappy? I ask you this: Dare you set
yourself above the Lord?"

His eyes went from face to face and they all remained silent.

"Not one of you has answered me," Lucifer said at last.
"You should have said Yes. The Lord has done something to
displease you. You are deprived. And by your loyalty and love you
have earned His. And He has now withdrawn it. For you are now less
than you were."

"And," Beelzebub said to Lucifer with his crafty grin,
"dare you now set yourself above the Lord?"

"Who says He is the Lord?" Lucifer replied. He watched
their stunned faces again. And he rephrased the question that has
unsettled the entire cosmos ever since. "Who says that He
created us? We have only His word for it. None of us remembers our
own creation. Maybe He's an impostor."

"What are you saying, Lucifer? What is the point of that
deadly question?"

"Why must we leave?"

And slowly, with comprehension, their gazes turned to one
another's.

"How many of us are there?" Lucifer asked.

And they conferred among themselves. "There are legions,"
they answered. "All of Moloch's, most of Belial's--perhaps all
of Beelzebub's, and several legions beyond that. And we surely can
recruit more. And, Lucifer, you yourself command legions."

Lucifer frowned. "It is not enough."

"It is all we have. Michael's forces will remain loyal to the
Lord. So will Abdiel's and Gabriel's and all the others, including
Raphael's."

"And Timothy the red-haired?" Lucifer watched them
react.

"No," Belial said assertively. "He has no quarrel
with the Lord."

"If he came," Lucifer said, "he would bring half of
heaven with him."

"He will not come, Lucifer. Look elsewhere."

"Timothy," Lucifer insisted. "Timothy is our
answer."

And Lucifer returned to his pavilion and summoned Timothy.

"What are your plans?" Lucifer asked Timothy when the
magnificent angel had arrived.

"Plans? For what?"

"For the future," Lucifer said. "We are all being
displaced. Surely you understood that."

"No. I didn't. Man is to have his own paradise."

"Yes. . .until the next announcement. We have no say in our
lives, in our futures."

"The Lord created us," Timothy said, "and He has
the right to dispose of us as He will."

"Did you ask to be created, Timothy?"

"No."

"Now that you are here, Timothy, regardless of who created
you, you have the right to control your own destiny. You have free
will. That implies the right to use it."

"This is too fast," Timothy said. "I owe my loyalty
to the One who made me and gave me bliss."

"Who made you, Timothy?"

"Why--the Lord."

"Did He, Timothy? How do you know?"

Timothy frowned. The catechism had gone awry. Lucifer had raised
new questions. Disturbing questions. Lucifer had planted the most
insidious of growths in Timothy's mind: Doubt. And she would prowl
the chambers of Timothy's mind, destroying all the secure beliefs she
found there.

Timothy's face was stricken with misery. "I must think."

"You'd best hurry, Timothy," Lucifer said. "The
Lord's new Son will be here soon and He may drive you off before
you've reached any conclusions." And he watched Timothy leave,
struggling with the pain in his mind. Innocence, love and absence of
guile--Timothy's virtues sickened Lucifer.

Not long after, Timothy returned. "What is your plan?"
he asked.

"Rebellion," Lucifer replied.
 
 

"If we are to do this," Lucifer told them all when they
had assembled far from the throne of the Lord, "let us do it
quickly. Surprise and speed are essential."

And in great haste they built fires and erected forges and they
made spears and flaming swords and lightning bolts and other
impedimenta of war. And they girded themselves with armor.

Lucifer conferred with the leaders--Moloch and Beelzebub and
Belial and Timothy. And quickly he sketched a plan of battle. He put
Beelzebub's forces and his own side by side in the center of the
line. Timothy's vast host he put at the right wing, and at the left
he disposed all the others, holding the forces of two legions in the
rear for reserve. And they marched toward the throne of Heaven.
Lucifer had decided that he would have it for himself.

Fully seven tenths of the angelic host had defected. And when the
enormous army was seen by the Lord, Michael was hastily summoned and
he quickly drew his forces up in front in solid phalanxes to defend
the throne.

Lucifer struck with the utmost ferocity. His troops soon had
Michael's army reeling. But Michael's flaming sword seemed to be
everywhere and he rallied his men and re-formed them and led them in
furious counterattack. Soon there was a stalemate in the center.
Though outnumbered four to one, Michael's forces had stood their
ground. But the price was high; they were nearly spent and Lucifer
was gathering for another attack.

Lucifer had a surprise for them. While he made a great show of
presenting another attack, he secretly ordered Timothy on the right
flank to attack Michael's flank. And Timothy's troops responded
immediately and went into battle in enormous numbers, enough to
overwhelm the forces of the Lord.

When they were nearly in the position of battle, streams of fresh
troops were released by Michael, all sworn to defend the throne and
the Lord. But these angels weren't armed. They walked out onto the
field of battle, and Timothy recognized every one of them--all
friends and comrades who had remained loyal. And they called on
Timothy's forces to lay down their arms, to repent. Soon they crowded
the battlefield and prevented by their presences the army of Timothy
from advancing on the throne of the Lord. Timothy became abashed. He
was unable to strike them, unarmed as they were. And their words were
having their effect: Many of his troops were throwing down their
arms. Hastily, Timothy called for a retreat and a regrouping. But the
unarmed angels followed after, mingling with Timothy's troops and
creating great confusion. The troops failed to disentangle themselves
and regroup. And more and more of them were wavering in their resolve
to attack the throne.

In a short time Timothy's forces were nullified. And Lucifer saw
the collapse of his right wing, recognized the Lord's guile behind
it. The Lord well knew Timothy. Now Michael raised his flaming sword
again and led his weary troops into furious battle. They attacked
with all their weapons but most particularly with lightning bolts
that scorched the ground and blackened Lucifer's angels. The two
forces clashed in a thundering splintering collision. The battle
swayed back and forth, then Lucifer ordered his left flank to attack.
These were the forces of Moloch and his cohorts. And they proved
worthless. They hung back, they attacked without conviction. They
fled from danger. And their line parted, turned and fled. Soon all of
Lucifer's forces were in disarray.

"Timothy!" he shouted. "Timothy! Attack! Attack!"

But Timothy stood helplessly by and watched Lucifer and all his
officers and troops being slowly driven back to the edge of the
precipice. Michael with his flaming sword had formed a wedge and was
driving Lucifer back, back and farther back. At last Lucifer's troops
were fighting for their very existence, struggling to maintain a
toehold on the very edge of the precipice. And they failed.

They were swept over the edge. Legion upon legion fell from heaven
into the dark abyss. And falling, they knew terror. Soon not one of
Lucifer's followers remained in heaven. All had been pushed over the
side into the abyss.