The Devil's Assistant (Watty Awards Finalist 2011)

Devil's assistant [19]

Chapter 19

An hour after the council session had ended, the there was a knock of the gilt door to our temporary chambers. I didn’t even have to tell them to enter because ever since we had been shown into these rooms they had been doing the exact same thing, they knock on the door and then walk in uninvited. It seemed to me that it was merely a formality. It’s lucky that I wasn’t walking around completely naked.

The door pivoted fluidly on its hinges. The woman who I had met earlier entered without the fan and procession that the others had insisted upon. I had learnt that her name was Calantha which apparently means beautiful flower in Greek, well that was what Lucius told me.

I smiled as she approached and gestured for her to take a seat. We weren’t doing much. Lucius was off talking to some of his ‘old friends’ with Ezekiel and Gabriel had opted for baby duty. Never in my life would I have been able to imagine that Arch angel Gabriel would be changing my son’s nappies. It looked even cuter because he had fallen asleep a few minutes ago with Danny curled up on his chest. Until today I didn’t know that he even slept. I just assumed that with them all being immortal beings they were on guard all night and didn’t need to sleep.

Calantha swept across the room and took a seat before me. The sound of her body made as she curved into the seat similar to when a tree creaks as it sways in the breeze. Glancing over at Gabriel I saw that his eyes were still shut as his chest rose and fell with each of his deep even breaths so I turned my attention back to the beautiful oddity before me.

“I know we have to be somewhere in a little while but I was wondering if I could talk to you about something.” My tone implied that it was more of a question but she only nodded in response. My lips pulled into a shaky smile as I glanced over at my son on the other side of the room and then kept them trained on his small body as he shuffled in his sleep before snuggling further into Gabriel’s chest. “Can I trust you Calantha?” I pulled my gaze away with reluctance only to see Calantha looking rather startled at my question but she responded nonetheless.

“Yes, human, I assure you that you can trust me.”  She replied her tone soothing me a bit so that I relaxed back into the chair.

“I need you to do something for me, I know you owe me nothing but I just…” I broke off as I felt tears swim at the edge of my vision. Blinking them away I lowered my gaze to my lap not being able to trust myself with the responsibility of looking her in the eyes without crying. “I need you to look after my son.” I lifted my head as I scurried from the seat and knelt before her, my hands wrapping around her twiggy ones. Resting my head on the back of her hands I just begged her over and over again in a whisper. Normally I would feel bad about lowering myself to beg but it was for Danny, there really was no other option. “Please, please, please.”

“Hush,” she whispered as I felt her take back one of her hands and her fingers stroked through my hair in such a motherly gesture that sent a tears back to my eyes. “What you ask is no great boon, I will protect young Daniel. You have my word.”

It took a moment for the words to sink in before my whole body sagged in relief. “thank you so much.”

Calantha grasped my shoulders and pulled me to my feet before sorting me out, her hands brushing away the tear stains and patting down my hair.

“There is the beautiful human I saw.” She smiled widely as she examined me in my entirety before stepping backwards and taking my hand. “Come, we must prepare you for the feast tonight.”

I gaped for a moment, my mouth opening and closing several times as she pulled me towards the door of the room, giving one last look at the sleeping boys before picking up my pace trying to keep up with her. She let out a throaty laugh before speeding up even more so that my feet were barely touching the ground as I tried to keep pace.