Fall of Lucifer Read Online Free

celebrate your inauguration,’ Lucifer said.
    As the muslin fell to the marble floor, Gabriel gasped. Before him was an exquisite painting depicting himself before the Seat of Kings at his inauguration.
    ‘Ah, my cherished brother approves of my gift!’ Lucifer’s sapphire eyes lit up in pleasure.
    Gabriel swung around to him. ‘Why, it is truly exceptional, Lucifer!’ he exclaimed. ‘You are surely the most generous of brothers!’
    Lucifer gestured up at the hundred-foot ceilings with their ornate, magnificently painted frescos. ‘Your collection will soon rival my own!’
    ‘Generous indeed!’ Michael slapped Lucifer hard on the back. ‘All I received was an elder brother’s lecture!’
    Lucifer laughed. ‘You, my dear, pragmatic Michael, showed absolutely no appreciation for the finer aesthetics of life. Unlike our Gabriel.’ Lucifer shook his head, beckoning Gabriel nearer. He dropped his voice to a roguish whisper: ‘The last painting I gave him – most magnificent, may I add – I discovered a hundred moons later behind Jether’s closet door, with the rest of his . . . ’ He turned to fix Michael with an affectionate look. ‘ . . . collection.’
    ‘You create mischief, Lucifer!’ Michael wiped away tears of mirth. A tall angel with a gentle countenance and dark hair tied back in a silvered braid walked through the door, bowing deeply before the brothers, then turning and bowing again to Lucifer.
    Lucifer nodded and smiled. ‘Asmodeus.’
    Lucifer noted the parchment missive, sealed with Yehovah’s golden seal, in Asmodeus’s hand and immediately held out his hand.
    Asmodeus bowed once more. He spoke respectfully, quietly. ‘The missive for His Excellency, Chief Prince Lucifer – the light-bearer. From Yehovah – Great King of the universes.’
    Lucifer tore open the missive with the blade-edge of his golden cinquedea and studied the contents. ‘He summons me . . . ’ His mouth moved in wonder.
    Asmodeus bowed again. ‘Your stallion is prepared, Your Excellency.’
    * * *
    Lucifer tore across the vast golden meadows of the eastern plains of Eden astride his magnificent black stallion, his raven locks flying in the zephyrs, his imperial figure dwarfed by the sheer majesty of the undulating rainbow horizons above him.
    Each time he entered Eden was always as the first for him.
    He raced across the golden bulrush meadows and on through the lush rain forests, the heavy elixir-laden undergrowth drenching him as he rode. He threw his head back in exhilaration.
    Two enormous pearl gates towered far in the distance – the entrance to Yehovah’s Hanging Gardens of Eden. Half a mile beyond the gates thundered the great Waters of Eden that literally dropped a full mile down into the Eternal Fountains. Lucifer pulled on his stallion’s reins as they galloped across the meadows, his eyes locked on the incredible vista before him.
    Massive curtains of flickering light shafts literally danced across the horizon, all the hues of the rainbow collected like some immense swirling celestial aurora. Lucifer watched in wonder as the shafts of light changed from lilac to aquamarine to vermilion. With a deft pull on the reins, Lucifer urged his stallion to leap. They soared a thousand feet into the heavens, defying gravity, and plunged into the centre of the aurora’s spinning vortex.
    His senses were utterly consumed by the colossal wall of roaring light and sound that seemed to invade every fibre of his body. With each scorching shaft it seemed that every atom of his being was newly invigorated as the glowing purity coursed through him.
    Instantaneously, he found himself on the far side of the chasm at the entrance to Eden. Lucifer stared down in wonder from the gates of the hanging gardens at the sheer drop of the never-ending chasm beneath him.
    Two cherubim, ten feet in height, clothed with fires and lightning bowed low before him, their four outstretched wingtips touching each