Chapter 115
July – 3,390 BC
Earth: Village of Assur
Colonel Mikhail Mannuki’ili
MIKHAIL
A small, dark-winged Angelic stares across the chess board. A ticking clock counts out the seconds. He doesn't speak. But then, he never does.
"Tá sé do bhogadh, [160] Gabriel," I say.
The boy picks up his black bishop and makes an L-shaped move to capture my white queen.
*
A frantic pounding jarred Mikhail out of his sleep and kept on pounding, despite his best effort to block out the noise by covering his head with one wing. With a weary groan, he rolled off his sleeping pallet; his feathers crumpled, and knocked aside the curtain which separated his “bed” from the living quarters.
“I’m coming,” he grumbled, swearing to eviscerate whoever dared wake him at this ungodly hour. He yanked the d
