All Kindreds

7: Four Creatures

"And out of the throne come lightnings and thunders, and seven lamps of fire blaze before the throne."

Liz felt the platform slip into gear. It began its descent. Silence fell. A rumbling curse followed them down. No lightning, no thunder, no flame. The special effects had malfunctioned again.

"And around, and around the throne," the minotaur above stuttered, exasperation tingeing his voice. "And around the throne there are four creatures that see ahead and behind."

Spotlights blazed. Liz squinted against the glare. She could hear the collective breath of the audience hidden in the vast darkness beyond the lights. They had heard this before, just as she had. She knew it as the revelation of John.

The platform descended in silence to the stage below. Still no special effects.

"And the first, and the first creature is a grombero, and the second creature is a rurkabarachimo--"

A minotaur, Liz mused. The second creature is a minotaur.

"And the third creature is a yuma--"

Yes, a human. The third is a human.

"And the fourth creature, the fourth creature is a skeereeree."

The eagle-being ruffled the feathers of her crest and blinked her fierce eyes at the blazing spotlights.

Liz felt faint. Her mind reeled at the thought that all these various species from worlds far apart had been given the same message long ago. Her minotaur companion caught her arm as she swayed. In his haunted glance she saw a flicker of compassion. She could feel that he shared her deepest beliefs.

"And they have no rest, no rest day and night as they say--"

The loudspeakers crackled and hissed. From above came the purely acoustic voice saying, "Holy, holy-- Holy, holy-- Horns of hell, not the sound system, too!"

"And they have no rest day and night," resounded the words in Liz's mind as her memory snapped into sharp focus. She knew those words as if she had recited them every day of her life. She could see the text on the printed paper. Revelation, chapter four. She could touch the pages beneath her fingers, could sense the words that should come next -- could feel them in her bones, in her blood, in her soul.

Liz heard someone else take up the narrative. No, not someone else. Herself. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!" The words burst forth of their own accord, first in English, then in commonspeech, and as she spoke she felt strength flow up her body, washing her weakness away. Her voice rang clear as a trumpet through the wide chamber.

As the echoes died away, the minotaur gazed down on her, wonder in his eyes.

A low rumble came from the throat of the lion creature. He shook himself, and his golden mane rippled as if blown by the wind. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!" roared the lion in one language, then another and another.

The eagle arched her neck and slowly reared up off her support. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!" she screeched, spreading her wings against a gravity that no longer bound her.

The minotaur puffed and snorted, and glanced down to meet Liz's gaze. Wonder gave way to joy. He threw his head back and bellowed, first in his own tongue, and then in commonspeech. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!"

An orb of brilliant light burst into flame just a pace or two before them. Then a second, then a third. Had the special effects panel come back to life? came a passing thought. No, Liz realized. Even the spotlights were failing now, and curses still rang down from above.

She glanced around. Seven flares of light encircled the four creatures, swirling and swelling and blazing brighter still. A random transit phenomenon, Liz realized. Or not so random.

One last time the foursome raised their chorus in unison: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"

The flames merged into a wheel of fire, and swept the human and her companions to a higher realm.

(New Testament) Revelation 4: 1-8