The Rose Demon

His creation. In Himself, all that was created, both visible and invisible, would become one. Lucifer and others rebelled at this, withdrew from Heaven and created their own.’

    ‘And you fell with him?’ Matthias asked.

    ‘What I did is not contained in your books.’ The answer was short and terse. ‘But I saw the divine plan: to create flesh and to love that flesh.’ His voice fell to a whisper. ‘To create another being, Matthias! To be like God, that was my dream!’ Canabo stopped and closed his eyes. ‘In Eve that dream became a hunger, a lasting ambition, to fall in love with this image of God in flesh, to beget through her other images of the divine.’ Canabo plucked a blade of grass and held it up between his fingers. ‘I, the Rosebearer, God’s own gardener, the keeper of Paradise. I took my ambition in the form of a rose and offered it to Eve, to seduce her, to give her powers so that she and I would be one.’ Canabo opened his eyes and stared up through the interlacing branches at the sky. ‘That was my sin,’ he declared. ‘Not one of rebellion but one of love as well as ambition. When Eve fell, I fell with her through time and space.’ He let the grass fall from his fingers. ‘God has offered me eternal pardon and I eternally refuse. I love the daughters of men and my desire to be with them, to be one, to create is an eternal hunger.’ Canabo paused and sipped from the wine gourd. ‘I wish to be like God,’ he whispered. ‘To become incarnate in flesh.’

    ‘And you can’t,’ Matthias replied bitterly. ‘You can only possess: the bodies of the Preacher, Rahere, Santerre and the rest. Empty houses!’

    ‘Empty houses,’ Canabo replied. ‘I could never have taken possession if they had not willed it.’ Canabo leant across and touched Matthias gently on the cheek. ‘I have to be close to you, Matthias, my beloved, my son.’

    Matthias felt his stomach clench. He gently removed Canabo’s hand from his cheek.

    ‘I am not your son,’ he replied. ‘I am the son of Parson Osbert and Christina.’

    ‘You are my son, the Beloved,’ Canabo retorted, his eyes hard and shining. ‘Christina was my second Eve. In her I found fulfilment, the conception of you. Love and will uniting in another being: that being, Matthias, is you. You are part of me.’

    Matthias stared back. ‘You really believe that, don’t you?’ He shook his head. ‘But it’s a lie! You cannot beget. You have no authority. You do not have the power to create souls.’

    Canabo breathed in, nostrils flaring.

    ‘And did you think I’d respond?’ Matthias declared. ‘Did you plot my life on the walls of Tenebral church?’

    ‘The future is like a river,’ Canabo replied. ‘You, Matthias, can only see either bank but I can see the way it flows.’

    ‘But why?’ Matthias asked. ‘Look at me! Exiled from my own home. Hunted, harried, threatened and persecuted!’

    ‘Is that my fault?’ Canabo replied. ‘Has it not been explained to you? How different is your life from millions of others? I had to let you go, Matthias. I had to let you feel and drink deeply from the cup. Yes,’ he leant forward, eyes gleaming, ‘reflect on your life, your world: what meaning does it have? The rich get richer, the fat gorge themselves, the hunter kills the hunted. Tell me, what does that have to do with the will of God and the law of Christ? I had to let you experience life, Matthias: to reflect, to bring you to a point where you could see the empty glories of the world, the power and pomp of princes, the hypocrisy of the Church, the greed of human kind.’

    ‘For what?’ Matthias asked.

    ‘To accept me, Creatura bona atque parva . To accept me for what I am.’ He stretched out a hand. ‘To love me for what I am.’

    ‘And if I refuse?’

    ‘I am making the same offer to you,’ Canabo replied, ‘which the great Lucifer made to Christ at Gethsemane: to forsake the world of man, to leave them to their power struggles, to the darkness which they create. Just to leave. And yet I offer more,’ he added. ‘To come with me, Matthias, become part of me, to drink the blood, to live for ever, to travel the face of the earth. Never to know death, no more hardship, no more persecution, to live like kings and ride in glory.’ He paused and gestured around. ‘Soon we can leave here, travel south, Matthias, to great kingdoms you have never even thought of, to be accepted as gods: you and me, the Rosifer