No Shadows Fall Read Free Page A

in the arcane arts, and his talents with governing and warfare.
    Azazel was in the human city of Paris. Semjaza chuckled softly, the sound echoing in the chamber that contained all the wealth of Ur. He would go there, but first, he would open the door to the passageway to Eden.
    Semjaza walked down the long corridors toward an arched doorway with a huge stone door. The door was closed, and the inscriptions in Sumerian that were carved into it told of the day that the anointed one would come and open Eden to the world once more. Confident that he was that anointed one, Semjaza put his hand on the door and pushed.
    It didn’t budge.
    Frowning, Semjaza used both hands and then leaned his shoulder against it, shoving with all his might. The door remained closed. Growing angry, Semjaza unleashed his power on the door.
    It remained stubbornly closed.
    Semjaza glared, reaching out again with his power, not attempting to open the door so much as trying to identify the reason it remained shut to him. The cause came as a shock, and he stumbled back.
    Raziel, Archangel of Mysteries and Secrets, had closed it and sealed it with his own blood. Only he or the anointed one could open it again, and even more alarming, by trying to force it, Semjaza had triggered a spell that Raziel had hidden within the very stone and alerted the Archangel to his exact location.
    Swearing in Aramaic, Semjaza teleported, departing Ur and cloaking himself with his magic and his power. Angry and frustrated, Semjaza went to Paris.
     
     
    S EMJAZA TRIED not to gawp like an unlettered country bumpkin as he walked down the Champs-Élysées. Paris was like no city he had ever seen, not even Eden. The lights and the color, the noise, the people… it was as if all the life in Eden had moved to this one city in the middle of Europe. The Arc de Triomphe was magnificent, Semjaza thought, and he decided to have one built in Eden as soon as possible.
    The Eiffel Tower, though… Semjaza could not stop himself from staring. Lit up by a myriad of lights so it seemed to glow like a twinkling jewel set in a living crown, the structure awed him. The ingenuity that had gone into designing and maintaining such a beautiful edifice was not lost on him. Semjaza stared for a good half hour, lost in his contemplation of the brilliantly lit Eiffel Tower illuminated against the night sky.
    Finally, he shook himself and resumed walking, listening to the snippets of conversation as he passed the humans going about their evening business. He could feel Azazel was close, and he was eager to see his old companion, but he did not want to appear impatient. He wanted to savor this, his first time walking in a modern city.
    The language these humans spoke was called French, he learned, and he became proficient in it by leeching the lexicon of the language from their minds and listening to them talk. By the time he rounded a corner and entered the small café from which the sense of Azazel’s presence came, he was as fluent as a native speaker.
    Azazel was alone, seated at a small table in the back corner of the café. He was nursing a glass of red wine, and his expression, as Semjaza approached, was a mixture of disbelief and joy. As Semjaza drew close, Azazel leapt from his seat and wrapped his arms around Semjaza in a hug.
    Laughing softly, Semjaza hugged Azazel back. It had been so long, and he was overjoyed to see his good friend once more.
    “I had scarce dared to believe it was true,” Azazel said, pulling back enough to look closely at Semjaza’s face. “I felt you land, my liege. I did not know if you were free by your design or by Gabriel’s.”
    Semjaza laughed loud and long at that. “By my design, old friend. Gabriel would hardly set me free, now, would he?”
    “Stranger things have happened,” Azazel said with a chuckle. “Come, sit, and take a glass of wine with me.”
    Semjaza sat in the chair opposite Azazel and smiled as Azazel took his hand in his own.
    “I