A Flight of Angels by Various (illustrated by Rebecca Guay).
Title: A Flight of Angels.
Authors: Holly Black, Louise Hawes, Bill Willingham, Alisa Kwitney, and Todd Mitchell.
Artist: Rebecca Guay.
Genre: Fiction, graphic novels, fantasy, mythology, novel of stories, Christianity.
Country: U.S.
Language: English
Publication Date: 2011.
Summary: A mysterious angel plummets to Earth and lands deep in a dark forest, where his dying body is found by the mystical denizens of this strange place. As the gathered fauns, faeries, hags and hobgoblins debate what to do with him, each tells a different story of who they imagine this celestial creature might be - a hero, a lover, a protector, or a killer. Once all the stories have been told, a final verdict is rendered.
My rating: 7.5/10.
My review:
♥ Occasionally, there are battles in the sky.
One likes to imagine the angels as always triumphant. One does not like to think of the ancient and terrible scales balancing the infernal and divine as wobbling back and forth. Tilting freely to and fro.
One does not like to think that sometimes it is the angel that falls.
There are dark forests behind every strip mall. At the edge of every highway. And in those dark forests, faeries still live, stepping out to spirit away children, borrow cups of milk, and inspire artists to a madness that is almost divine. Hags and hobs, pixies and fauns.
Look out of the corner of your eye and you might spot one.
♥
♥
My story happened in a place you won't find on any map. The angels sang Eden into being, and back then, each beast and flower had its own song, too. As they wandered their lush new home, the first man and woman soon learned to pluck fruit from the trees, and to sleep on beds of petals and feathers, holding each other until their scents and thoughts blended.
♥
So it wasn't long before Eve found being alone less painful than being with her mate.
Each day Eden offered some fresh delight that helped her forget the look in Adam's eyes, the look that said 'wrong.' Until one day Eve followed a well-worn path and found a pair of eyes that said 'right.'
♥
"Who are you?"
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Raziel, the Angel of Knowledge."
♥
"I'd like you to meet one of your great, great, great, great granddaughters, Helen of Troy... She will be so beautiful-and so well dressed-that men will fight terrible wars in her name."
The vision did not speak, but allowed the first woman to touch its gown, its light-drenched necklaces and rings.
"Permit me to unveil another of your children, Eve, her name is...
"...Cleopatra."
Eve gasped at the beauty of the new ghost, its arms and breasts covered with gems and hammered gold. But she had just summoned the courage to approach the exotic stranger, when the angel breathed across the last apple seed.
"And here is the greatest of all your daughters, Eve-the pinnacle of female judgment and cunning...
"...Queen Elizabeth, the Great. These children of yours, Eve, will each buse their beauty, wits, and wiles to gain power over others. All thanks to you. And if you think you can count them, you are wrong, for every geenration will five birth to new heroines and wise women..."
"Because of you, the earth will be blessed with empresses and queens, witches and oracles, dancers, artists, empresses, healers-all proud and beautiful daughters of Eve."
♥ "Your mate required no visions like those I showed you. I simply promised him that once you left Eden, humans would be in charge of everything."
As Raziel led the pair to the gates of Eden, Eve was both excited and confused.
"But why did you give the apple to Adam? Don't you want knowledge for yourself?"
"Knowledge is not much good to angels, not without choice. An angel must always be an angel, you see. Just as an animal must always be a beast. But humans are halfway between animals and angels, you never know which part of their nature will rule. I suppose I'm a scientist at heart, and this is a grand experiment."
"Experiment?"
"Once I unlock the Gates of Paradise and you leave here, you will not remember how to talk with animals or angels. You will forget your way back."
♥
"You will return to Eden only in your dreams."
"Why, there's a whole world outside these gates!"
"It will not always be easy, choosing between your animal instincts and your angelic nature."
"There may be a time when you will wish you had never tasted the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. There may even come a time when you will lie about who took the first bite."
But Adam and Eve hardly heard the angel's waning. Hands held fast and eyes fixed on the blood-colored sunrise outside the gates, the first pair of humans walked boldly into their future.
♥ "Very well then, I probably deserve you. For my sins."
That got my attention, let me tell you. When anyone else talks about his sins, it could be intended as a metaphor, exaggeration, or poetic license. But when an angel mentions sin, one had best take note.
♥
"I lost touch with Ham after the war, when we were each transferred to different hosts. He went into the messenger service. I learned later that he was one of the angels embroiled in that scandalous business among the humans. 'The sons of heaven knew the daughters of man,' and their offspring were neither human nor angel. Some were giants. Some were monsters."
♥ Still, for the most part, the folks who lived in Krasnaya Sloboda (for that was the name of the town) were happier than they knew, and content to live out their long lives nestled high up in the mountains, where the air was fresh and always a little cool, even in summer. When asked the secret of their longevity, the villagers explained that the fresh air made their grass grow sweeter, which made their cows produce richer milk. Drinking the good milk, they said, was the reason so many of them lived to be over a hundred years old.
Others gave a different explanation. Because the village was high up and hard to reach, it was cut off from the towns and cities in the valley. The villagers heard rumors of troubles in other places, but no outside evil touched them in their secluded mountain retreat. Some were of the opinion that living so far from the rest of the world preserved their spirits and kept them alive far longer than valley folk.
But while sweet milk and peaceful nights might help a person live a little while longer, eventuality everyone dies. Everyone, that is, except for Chaya Surah. Chaya Surah was the oldest woman in Krasnaya Sloboda, which meant that she was probably the oldest woman in the world. She knew something that none of her neighbors did, the real secret to keeping the Angel of Death at bay. In her youth, you see, Chaya Surah was a great beauty, and the daughter of a brilliant Kabbalist. The Angel of Death was taken by her charms, and she struck a bargain with him. He promised not to enter her home to claim her without her consent.
♥ "But how do you trick the Angel of Death, Rabbi?"
"There's no tricking Malakh Hamavet, child. Not that I haven't asked the same question myself, you understand. But where would we be if no one died? For every soul that dies, a new one is born, you know."
♥ The Rabbi was concerned, for he knew that foolishness and fear are liker tinder and matches, and wickedness the flame they produce.
♥ "Yes, you'll recover. Our old agreement still stands. I won't take you without warning you first, and you have the right to refuse. And even though you tricked me, for I spoke of love and desire, and not of death, I am bound by honor. I will not go back on my word. Let me in, my love. It's gone on too long already. There's a soul here who has been waiting far too long."
"But what does that have to do with... Oh. You mean that until I die...?
"This soul cannot be born."
For more than a hundred years, Chaya Surah had dreaded the thought that one day, she might open her door to death. Above all else, she had feared the unknown. Just as her neighbors now feared her.
♥
"Now, that was clever. I didn't expect you to come to me."
"I don't suppose you'd care to tell me where we're going? It's so strange. I've been frightened of you for so long, but now... The terror is gone. Yet I still don't want to go."
"I know you don't remember this, but you said the same thing to me the last time I took you."
"The last time... You mean, when we met in the field while I was bathing and we...?
"No, my love. The last time I took you from one plane of existence to escort you to the next."
And where they went next remains a mystery, which each of us will solve in the fullness of time.
♥
And nine months later, a baby boy was born in the village to a woman who had long passed her childbearing years... But that is another story. This one is done.
♥
To the contrary, she was seen by many as being a plain, ungainly wench, barely deserving of a second glance...
..
Still, she held her head proudly as she carried off the tray. Only to stumble again by the door.
Now, an angel's heart is a mysterious thing. For where others saw a plain, clumsy girl, Ellisien saw the most wondrous creature he'd ever encountered.
♥
"But you're different from that. You startle me, Tara. I could spend eternity with you and never tire of it."
"I must be crazy. You're not even real."
"Yet I'm here."
♥
The physical realm could be a harsh place for angels. Some who had attempted to embody themselves in human forms quickly perished beneath the relentless ache of bones and flesh. Others became addicted to earthly pleasures and stayed until their wings withered and vanished like fine shells ground to sand by the crushing force of waves. Then, unable to return to their true forms, they ended their lives... Only to be reborn again in the physical realm, human in body, but not in soul-condemned to an eternity in exile.
♥ "Never speak to me again. Never let me see you again."
"But I thought you cared for me...?"
"No. I never did."
Though an angel could not lie, a human surely could. This was her gift to him-her way of setting him free. It was the greatest thing she could give him.
Or so Tara thought.
Tara wept for weeks. She feared she wouldn't be able to exist without Ellisien. Hunger finally drew her from her room. When the gold ran out, she sought work at the inn where she and Ellisien had last stayed.
As time passed, there were others who saw a spark in Tara and came to fancy her. Some had silver buttons on their coats, and some were stable hands, smelling of horses. Some danced well, and some danced horribly. Yet none came close to being as perfect as Ellisien. And because a human heart is flawed, her heart moved on.
But an angel's heart is an entirely different thing. Once it loves someone it never stops. For the rest of her life, Ellisien followed Tara. He kept his promise-never speaking to her, never letting her see him again. Yet he was always there... as the years passed and Tara married. And birthed children. And grew old.
Still Ellisien watched, ever entranced by the ways she surprised him. The things he could never do. Her divine... accidents. He watched her fall with silent devotion, as do all guardian angels. For all of us.
♥
Once, in a shining city so small it would fit on the head of a silver pin and so cast that none of its inhabitants could map its borders, there was a clan of bird-men, which we call angels. Ophanim with their burning eyes ans Cherubim and Seraphim with wigs that covered their faces and feet and backs until they were shrouded in a sea of feathers.
The highest order of angels in the Silver City were the Archangels. They soared above the rest. Michael, his hair as pale as sugar. Raphael, with his easy laugh, fierce Sariel, Uriel with her flaming sword, Raguel and Remiel with their trumpets...
...And Lucifer, eldest of the princes. His mouth was cream and blood. His eyes were so bright they could only be compared to the morning stars.
One day, Lucifer yawned. And realized he was the prince of nothing.
Nothing spreads. It seeps into everything it touches. It dulls laughter. And spoils songs. Nothing seeks darker pleasures. Raphael begged the angels to return to what they were, but how can one forsake nothing? How can one undo a change that has already been wrought?
Soon a war raged in the skies above the Silver City. Where there once had been singing, now there was only the sound of blade clinging against blade. Feathers dusted the world below like a shower of cherry blossoms.
Lucifer fell. With him fell all those whose hearts were wormed with nothing.
They fell. And fell. And fell.
All those gloriously terrible angels crashed through the firmament of the earth to the darkness beneath it. Their flesh reddened, burned and bled. Horns cracked through skin. Feathers caught fire, leaving only leathery wings beneath. Smooth limbs grew heavy with fur. With hooves. With tails long and sinuous as snakes. Even their voices changed, although they were no less beautiful.
The merely wicked fell here. Too good for hell, but not good enough for heaven. Those who dropped into the forests found their wings falling off their backs or shriveling into the thin, gossamer wings of insects. Some who fell into the seas found their hair turning to sea grass as their skin pocked with scales. Some angels became gnarled as trees or rough as stone.
They became elves and glaistigs and goblins, grigs and grims, merfolk and nixies, hags, trolls, treefolk, and countless more vast and varied beings. Those angels, those left-over angels, became the faeries.
♥ "Angels make poor pets. They may be devoted to you, but they are always more devoted to another."
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♥ "I say the tribunal isn't over!"
Hate breaks over the boy like a wave.
"If it wasn't for you casting us out, then I might be an angel. I might live in the Silver City and not-not with that hag!"
"There's still hope. Help me. Please."
"No."
"If we were supposed to have any pity, you should have given us souls."
♥
Nutmarrow isn't used to have power. He's never caused pain. Or death.
"Get away from me! Get away from me, all of you!"
If fills him with exultation. Then terror.
"You can't really be dead, can you? Angels aren't supposed to die. You're not supposed to need my help. You were supposed to wake up and save me."
Sometimes angels fall to earth. Sometimes they fall farther than that.