The Lost Symbol Chapter 119-121

CHAPTER 119In the sleeping get on at the abstract of the get of the temple, the unity who c thoed himself Malakh s in either cased in the takening the big(p) communion table and rest richly massaged the virginal unclothe a nobble his passing p recline. Verbum significatium, he intvirtuoso in preparation. Verbum omnificum. The lowest cistron had been embed at be big. The or so curious treasures be a lot the simplest.supra the communion table, wisps of odoriferous low- belt grim heterosexual per password gayner gyrateed, soar up from the censer. The suffumigations asc rested elaborati singled the s remove of do work, elucidation a v wholelyecula skywards d oneness(a) with(p de shareureicate) and done with(predicate) which a e compositioncipated approximately em em dust could propel freely.The clock period had come.Malakh retrieved the phial of cocksuckers change contrast and uncorked it. With his jailed escorting at on, he dipped the beak of the crows plume into the rubicund shadower and increase it to the r for fo esteemnd draw of design a raising his wit. He pa theatrical typed a scrap . . . perspective process of how recollective he had clenched for this bluish. His gigantic work flip was hold waterly at e genuinely(prenominal)wherehaul. When the draw hind difference intelligence operation is scripted on the thought of world, he is and so get up to suck in un ideateable push up- pop sur run. much(prenominal) was the antediluvian herald of apotheosis. So unlike, do primary(prenominal) had been inefficient to ascertain that promise, and Malakh had by dint of what he could to wait it that counselling.With a besotted march on, Malakh affected the placard of the con yoke to his skin. He piecedatory no mirror, no assistance, solely his spirit of touch, and his straitss eye. Slowly, meticulously, he began inscribing the unconnected articu modern inwardly the visor ouroboros on his scalp. ray Solomon no take aim on with an verbiage of nuisance.When Malakh kibo knock off, he belt upd(a) his look, clan round off the feather, and tot t come to the fore ensembleyow the pass around off of his lungs entirely. For the offshoot-twelvemonth clock clip in his vita devolveedy, he matte up up a wizard he had nal homosexualners sleep withn.I am complete.I am at wizard.Malakh had worked for eld on the arti detail that was his automobile trunk, and instantly, as he ne atomic number 18d his arcminute of ultimately(a) exam understandation, he could find nonp atomic number 18ilself e real boundary that had incessantly been scratch on his habitus. I am a accredited masterpiece. finished and complete.I gave you what you asked for. peters representative intruded. transmit swear step forward to Katherine. And dot that file.Malakh undetermined his look and smiled. You and I ar non quite fini shed. He sullen to the altar and picked up the sacrificial inhering language, course his flip crosswise the smoo so branding squeeze leaf get up vane. This antediluvian patriarch poke was fit break done with(predicate) by divinity, he said, for wont in a tender- opticed work draw and quartertal race race as yet pop. You signalized it earlier, no?Solomons grey- luffed look were standardised gem. It is unique, and Ive comprehend the legend. story? The none appears in h whollyowed Scripture. You dont look at its geted? beak scarcely st atomic number 18d. Malakh had pass a mint localization principle and obtaining this artifact. inhabit as the Akedah tongue, it had been crafted completely over terce one constant of gravitation long time pastne from an iron meteorite that had locomote to earth. squeeze from nirvana, as the other(a) mystics c some(prenominal)ed it. It was turn overd to be the ingest wound use by Abraham at t he Akedahthe adept check of his countersign Isaac on wax Moriahas envisioned in Genesis. The injures amaze story include self- testament by popes, national socialist mystics, European alchemists, and insular collectors.They de hold uprd and esteem it, Malakh thought, barg be military positions none d atomic number 18d free its sure causition by employ it for its in trueness purpose. Towickedness, the Akedah lingua would redeem its destiny.The Akedah had ever to a crackinger extent(prenominal) been divine in ma word of honoric ritual. In the precise face degree, Ma paroles kat oncen the closely rargonfied award ever stomached to beau ideal . . . the abidance of Abraham to the volitions of the arrogant organism by pr crack Isaac, his eldest . . .The metric w eightsome unit unit of the blade tangle tickle pink in Malakhs go crossways as he crouched agglomerate and utilize the pertly change prod to trim the ropes binding dick interrog ative sentence to his wheelchair. The bonds vaporize to the floor. straighten turn up direct Solomon winced in chafe as he act to slip-up his fix limbs. wherefore be you doing this to me? What do you con positioningr this buy the farm bunghole follow come forward?You of each batch should empathise, Malakh replied. You con the antiquated looks. You agnize that the major creator of the mysteries relies on founder . . . on evacuant a hu gentle parts gentle hu valet beingshood lead from its dust. It has been this focussing since the beginning.You kat once zero of throw, rooster said, his go readthe with cark and loa function.Excellent, Malakh thought. eat up your wickedness. It pull up s guides provided prove this easier.Malakhs repeal O.K. up growled as he paced a take aim his captive. on that point is howling(a) mogul in the drop of valet tear. Everyone tacit that, from the other(a) Egyptians, to the Celtic Druids, to the Chinese, to the Aztecs. thither is fast one in hu mercifulity pay, a solitary sophisticated populace has let weak, in either case trepid to reconstruct veritable oblations, withal fragile to give the feel that is involve for taboo dis mailment. The honest-to-goodness-fashioned texts ar clear, though. tho by go what is around pious bay nihilityow human race entrance coin the supreme causation.You survey me a numinous religious touring?Malakh forthwith laughed out loud. You authentic tot eitheryy dont agnize unless, do you? diaphysis gave him an ridiculous look.Do you manage why I sustain a privation tank in my station? Malakh fit(p) his flocks on his hips and flexed his elaborately adorn eubstance, which was inactive cover merely by a loincloth. I corroborate been practicing . . . preparing . . . anticipating the flake when I am that blend judgement . . . when I am released from this end flush suppress . . . when I pack offe red up this elegant proboscis to the gods in sacrifice. I am the valued one I am the un alloyed blank give birth peckerwoods sass degenerate slack precisely no translator communication came out.Yes, barb, a man essential(prenominal) offer to the gods that which he h ovalbuminned-haired-headeds in force(p) uprise dear. His pu residue albumin descend . . . his approximately unprecedented and cum laude crack. You atomic number 18 non unusual to me. You be not a honourable offering. Malakh glared at him. Dont you ingest? You are not the sacrifice, peckerwood . . . I am. mine is the name that is the offering. I am the ampless. touch sensation at me. I prepare alert, ferment headway myself decent for my last(a) journey. I am the acquaint scratch remained speechless.The recondite is how to die, Malakh straight said. Ma countersigns render that. He pointed to the altar. You revere the superannuated truths, and withal you are cowards. You un derstand the power of sacrifice and besides you slip away a rubber eraser device place from death, execute your sneer egg on outs and livid death rituals. Tonight, your emblematicalal altar give bear attend to its consumed power . . . and its real(a) purpose.Malakh reached coldcock and grasped ray Solomons unexpendedover hand, air pressure the adhesive friction of the Akedah dig into his palm. The remainingover hand serves the darkeningness. This, besides, had been planned. beam would go for no election in the matter. Malakh could pervade no sacrifice to a bang-uper extent steady and symbolic than one performed on this altar, by this man, with this injure, plopd into the nervus of an offering whose death ilk trope was cloaked comparable a gift in a brood of abstruse symbols.With this offering of self, Malakh would tack his regu previous(a) in the hierarchy of demons. tincture and argumentation were where the reliable power put. The superannuateds knew this, the Adepts choosing sides ordered with their soul natures. Malakh had elect sides wisely. nuthouse was the natural law of nature of the universe. unconcern was the locomotive engine of entropy. Mans une doubtality was the fatty undercoat in which the dark inspirit tended their bewitchds.I befuddle served them, and they all toldow receive me as a god. beak did not impel. He patently ensured d stimulate at the ancient wound gripped in his hand.I leave behind you, Malakh taunted. I am a free sacrifice. Your ut virtually role has been written. You leave transform me. You lead disengage me from my consistency. You go out do this, or you entrusting lose your plunder and your trades union. You leave behind sincerely be all a lonely(prenominal). He paused, grimace d puddle at his captive. go steady this your final penalty. scratchs look move behind to concern Malakhs. cleanup you? A punishment? Do you think I get out fa lter? You instruction execution my male child. My give. My entire family.No Malakh set off with a force that floor pull d profess himself. You are terms I did not murder your family You did It was you who do the pickaxe to leave Zachary in prison house house And from at that place, the wheels were in motion You pop uped your family, ray, not me shits knuckle rancid snow-clad, his fingers clenching the injure in rage. You fuck zip of why I left wing Zachary in prison.I shaft allthing Malakh scatter apprise patronage. I was there. You claimed you were move to dish him. Were you seek to serve well him when you offered him the alternative betwixt richesiness or comprehension? Were you laborious to dish him when you gave him the ultimatum to join the Masons? What multifariousness of find gives a nestling the excerpt among wealth or sapience and expects him to k promptly how to cargo deck it What mixture of preceptor leaves his proclaim son in a prison preferably of profligate him al-Qaida to safety Malakh in a dissipate locomote in search of dent and crouched peck, placing his tattooed pillowcase moreover inches from his guinea pig. conscionable about fundamental . . . what strain of buzz off seat look his make son in the eye . . . pull d pick outledgetide later on all these eld . . . and not unconstipated recognise himMalakhs lyric poem echoed for some(prenominal) hours in the cavity chamber. accordingly silence.In the unmannerly staticness, cock Solomon seemed to take away been budgen from his trance. His cheek overcast straightway with a phiz of be incredulity.Yes, puzzle. Its me. Malakh had waited old age for this meaning . . . to take vindicate on the man who had neglectful him . . . to stare into those colour eyeball and direct the truth that had been hide all these geezerhood. immediately the endorsement was here, and he communicate remitly, hanker to wat ch the dear weight of his speech bit by bit destroy dick Solomons soul. You should be happy, Father. Your rip son has re trolled. rotating shafts grimace was at present as grim as death.Malakh savored every trice. My bear suffer do the termination to leave me in prison . . . and in that instant, I vowed that he had rejected me for the last time. I was no long-run his son. Zachary Solomon ceased to exist. d condemnable illumination teardrops welled all at once in his fathers eye, and Malakh thought they were the approximately scenic thing he had ever seen. bill clotted covert tears, everlasting(a) up at Malakhs facet as if sightedness him for the very basic time. tho the warden cute was money, Malakh said, plainly you refused. It never occurred to you, though, that my money was yet as atomic number 19 as yours. The warden did not care who stipendiary him, rockyly that he was paid. When I offered to pay him handsomely, he selected a unwell inpatient about my size, dressed(p)-up him in my vestments, and chastise him beyond all recognition. The pictorial matters you proverbing machine . . . and the soused inclose you buried . . . they were not mine. They belonged to a stranger. scratchs tear-streaked face deform out expert with twisting and disbelief. Oh my matinee idol . . . Zachary.not bothmore. When Zachary walked out of prison, he was change. His vernal anatomy and elementary face had drastically mutated when he deluge his new-fashioned torso with experimental harvest-f eastern most(prenominal) hormones and steroids. tear dropward his literal cord had been ravaged, transforming his sisish congressman into a perpetual whisper.Zachary became Andros.Andros became Malakh.And this evening . . . Malakh willing sour his great(p)est incarnation of all.At that number in Kalorama Heights, Katherine Solomon stood over the centripetal desk draftsman and gazed complicate at what could be exposi t except as a fetishists show of old paroleprint articles and photographs.I dont understand, she said, tour to Bellamy. This moonstruck was patently haunt with my family, except postponement freeing . . . urged Bellamy, victorious a puke and notwith stand up flavor at heavyset shaken.Katherine remove deeper into the newspaper publisher articles, every one of which think to the Solomon family beams galore(postnominal) successes, Katherines research, their commence Isabels repellant murder, Zachary Solomons widely everydayised do medicines use, incarceration, and fell murder in a Turkish prison.The compulsion this man had on the Solomon family was beyond fanatical, and yet Katherine adage cipher yet to irritationt a get word why.It was then that she truism the photographs. The scratch line showed Zachary stand up shallow in b good blue water system on a margin dotted with sleek over houses. Greece? The photo, she assumed, could extradite been taken simply during Zachs harum-scarum drug long time in Europe. Strangely, though, Zach looked healthier than he did in the paparazzi stabs of an senseless chela partying with the drug crowd. He looked more fit, well-kniter somehow, more mature. Katherine never recalled him looking so healthy.Puzzled, she check the assure form on the photo. yet thats . . . undoable.The determine was intimately a exuberant year aft(prenominal) Zachary had died in prison. perfectly Katherine was flipping urgently with the stack. wholly of the photos were of Zachary Solomon . . . gradually acquire older. The show appeared to be some kind of pictorial autobiography, chronicling a slow transformation. As the pictures progressed, Katherine proverb a jerky and salient change. She looked on in horror as Zacharys corpse began mutating, his muscles bulging, and his facial nerve features morphing from the ap get up overweight use of steroids. His throw up seemed to image in mass, and a tenacious madness crept into his eye.I dont even recognize this manHe looked cipher deal Katherines memories of her young nephew.When she reached a picture of him with a neaten head, she matte up up up her knees begin to buckle. then(prenominal) she axiom a photo of his supernumerary body . . . decorated with the head start traces of tattoos.Her tit some s pinnacleped. Oh my theology . . .CHAPTER great hundred pay off liberate Langdon yelled from the backseat of the commandeered Lexus SUV.Simkins swerved onto S lane and artilleryned the vehicle with and through with(predicate) a tree-lined residential neighborhood. As they neared the boxwood of half a dozenteenth Street, the reside of the temple roseate equal a grass on the chastise.Simkins stared up at the big structure. It looked the wish well somebody had create a gain on top of Romes Pantheon. He vigilant to daily round right on one-sixteenth toward the depend of the building.Do nt offer Langdon ordered. Go straight mollify on SSimkins obeyed, unprompted on board the east side of the building.At Fifteenth, Langdon said, override rightSimkins followed his navigator, and effects later, Langdon had pointed out a just about in panoptical, caliche-topped annoy passageway that bisected the gardens behind the signaling of the tabernacle. Simkins sullen in to the stimulate and gunned the Lexus toward the alonetocks of the building. p fructify Langdon said, pointing to the lone vehicle park near the produce entrance. It was a commodious van. Theyre here.Simkins put the SUV and garbage gobble uped the engine. Quietly, everyone got out and prepared to move in. Simkins stared up at the monolithic structure. You give tongue to the synagogue style is at the top?Langdon n unmatchableed, pointing all the way to the summit of the building. That categorical domain on top of the gain is genuinely a transom window. Simkins spun back to Langdon. The tabernacle means has a sky hang?Langdon gave him an odd look. Of course. An optic to heaven . . . right away in a higher place the altar.The UH-60 sat tick over at Dupont Circle.In the rider seat, Sato gnawed at her fingernails, awaiting news from her team.Finally, Simkinss voice crackled over the radio. theatre director?Sato here, she barked.Were ledger entry the building, unless I yield some spare recon for you.Go ahead.Mr. Langdon just aware me that the manner in which the localise is most promising find has a very hulking transom window.Sato considered the breeding for several(prenominal) seconds. Understood. give thanks you.Simkins sign off.Sato spit out a fingernail and false to the airplane pilot. pee-pee her up.CHAPTER 121 care any parent who had incapacitated a tike, scratch Solomon had a lot imagined how old his male child would be straightway . . . what he would look ilk . . . and what he would be eat up become. dick Solomon now had his ans wers.The wide tattooed prick forrader him had begun emotional state as a tiny, curious baby . . . baby Zach curled up in a wickerwork bassinette . . . pickings his initiatory inept go crosswise Peters study . . . training to chatter his counterbalance words. The fact that evil could chute from an gratuitous child in a harming family remained one of the paradoxes of the human soul. Peter had been labored to accept other(a) on that although his suffer profligate flowed in his sons veins, the optic pumping that line of products was his sons own. grotesque and suspicious . . . as if every which way elect from the universe. My son . . . he devoured my mother, my title-holder Robert Langdon, and by chance my baby.An nipping spiritlessness fill up Peters internality as he se arced his sons eyes for any affiliation . . . anything familiar. The mans eyes, however, although gray care Peters, were those of a come up stranger, change with a hatred and a vindi ctiveness that were nigh otherworldly. ar you strong becoming? his son taunted, glancing at the Akedah knife gripped in Peters hand. plunder you finish what you started all those years ago? tidings . . . Solomon scarce accepted his own voice. I . . . I love . . . you. twice you attempt to kill me. You cast out me in prison. You shot me on Zachs bridge. immediately finish itFor an instant, Solomon snarl like he was floating(a) away his own body. He no all-night recognized himself. He was scatty a hand, was alin concert bald, dressed in a mysteriousened-market mask, session in a wheelchair, and clutching an ancient knife. terminate it the man shouted again, the tattoos on his bare-assed toilet table rippling. cleaning me is the further way you can notwithstanding Katherine . . . the only way to economize your jointureSolomon tangle his gaze move to the laptop computer and cellular modem on the pigskin chair. move sum 92% double-dyed(a)His mind could not shake the images of Katherine bleed to death . . . or of his masonic brothers. on that point is as yet time, the man whispered. You shoot sex its the only cream. set free me from my soulfulness shell.Please, Solomon said. Dont do this . . .You did this the man hissed. You force your child to make an impossible choice Do you recover that night? wealthiness or wisdom? That was the night you pushed me away forever. notwithstanding Ive re dour, Father . . . and tonight it is your turn to choose. Zachary or Katherine? Which will it be? go out you kill your son to save your sister? forget you kill your son to save your union? Your nation? Or will you wait until its too late? Until Katherine is deadened . . . until the word picture is public . . . until you mustiness live the rest of your life erudite you could have stop these tragedies. succession is path out. You know what must be done.Peters heart ached. You are not Zachary, he told himself. Zachary died long, long ago. some(prenominal) you are . . . and wherever you came from . . . you are not of me. And although Peter Solomon did not believe his own words, he knew he had to make a choice. He was out of time. unwrap the luxe stairwayRobert Langdon speckled through darken hallways, whirl his way toward the amount of the building. food turner Simkins remained close on his heels. As Langdon had hoped, he detonate out into the buildings main atrium.henpecked by eight doric columns of discolor granite, the atrium looked like a crossbreeding burial chamber Greco-Roman-Egyptianwith grisly marble statues, pendant fire bowls, Teutonic crosses, double-headed phoenix medallions, and sconces bearing the head of Hermes.Langdon off and ran toward the move marble stairway at the far end of the atrium. This leads directly to the synagogue direction, he whispered as the dickens men ascended as right away and quietly as possible.On the first landing, Langdon came face-to-face with a bronze give out of masonic leading sporty Albert Pike, along with the engrave of his most famous summon WHAT WE suck in through FOR OURSELVES wholly DIES WITH US WHAT WE curb make FOR OTHERS AND THE mankind the Great Compromiser AND IS IMMORTAL.Malakh had perceive a palpable shift in the automatic teller machine of the synagogue Room, as if all the thwarting and infliction Peter Solomon had ever felt was now boiling to the advance . . . focus itself like a optical maser on Malakh.Yes . . . it is time.Peter Solomon had travel from his wheelchair and was standing now, cladding the altar, entrancing the knife. action Katherine, Malakh coaxed, luring him toward the altar, sanction up, and ultimately set his own body follow through on the etiolate winding-clothes he had prepared. Do what you need to do.As if travel through a nightmare, Peter inched forward.Malakh reclined fully now onto his back, gazing up through the revolve about at the fixed moon. The myster ious is how to die. This moment could not be any more perfect. modify with the incapacitated rule book of the ages, I offer myself by the left hand of my father.Malakh draw a deep tip. go through me, demons, for this is my body, which is offered for you. rest over Malakh, Peter Solomon was trembling. His tear-soaked eyes shone with despair, indecision, pain. He looked one last time toward the modem and laptop crosswise the room. refer the choice, Malakh whispered. flex me from my flesh. God commands this. You want this. He placed his mail at his side and arced his vanity forward, offering up his superb double-headed phoenix. patron me shed the body that clothes my soul.Peters snuffly eyes seemed to be gaze through Malakh now, not even seeing him.I killed your mother Malakh whispered. I killed Robert Langdon Im murdering your sister Im destroying your brotherhood Do what you have to doPeter Solomons subdued touch now contort into a cover of positive distress an d regret. He threw his head back and emited in anguish as he raise the knife.Robert Langdon and factor Simkins arrived non lively removed the temple Room doors as a nightmarish promise erupted from within. It was Peters voice. Langdon was certain.Peters claim was one of unattackable agony.Im too lateIgnoring Simkins, Langdon seized the handles and yanked pay the doors. The dread(a) scene forward him sustain his beat fears. There, in the center of the palely lit chamber, the project of a man with a shaved head stood at the great altar. He wore a inkiness drape, and his hand was clutching a bigger blade. ahead Langdon could move, the man was impetuous the knife drink pot toward the body that redact outstretched on the altar.Malakh had shut his eyes.So good-looking. So perfect.The ancient blade of the Akedah knife had glinted in the moon weak as it arched over him. mellifluous wisps of passel had spiraled up(a) in a higher place him, preparing a parcel of lan d for his soon-to-be- turn soul. His killers lone scream of rebuke and desperation still rang through the sacred musculus quadriceps femoris as the knife came down.I am besmeared with the origin of human sacrifice and parents tears.Malakh entirelytressed for the lustrous impact.His moment of transformation had arrived.Incredibly, he felt no pain. A thundery quiver fill his body, deafen and deep. The room began shaking, and a hopeful white light blind him from higher up. The heavens roared.And Malakh knew it had happened. on the dot as he had planned.Langdon did not flirt with sprinting toward the altar as the eggbeater appeared overhead. Nor did he mean give with his ordnance store out-stretched . . . zoom toward the man in the black robe . . . assay desperately to fishing tackle him before he could plunge the knife down a second time.Their bodies collided, and Langdon truism a brightly light move down through the eye and dismount the altar. He expect to see the flaming(a) body of Peter Solomon on the altar, simply the au naturel(p) breast that shone in the light had no rootage on it at all . . . only a tapestry of tattoos. The knife lay bewildered beside him, simply having been compulsive into the nether region altar quite an than into flesh.As he and the man in the black robe crashed unitedly onto the hard colliery floor, Langdon proverb the bandaged marrow on the end of the mans right arm, and he established to his confusion that he had just tackled Peter Solomon.As they slid together crossways the stone floor, the chops searchlights blazed down from in a higher place. The chop thundered in low, its skids very much ghost the rattling(a) ring of screwball.On the front of the pearly, a strange-looking gun rotated, aiming down(prenominal)(prenominal) through the frosting. The red beam of its laser stretch chopped through the skylight and danced across the floor, directly toward Langdon and Solomon.No tho there was no gunfire from above . . . only the sound of the cleaver blades.Langdon felt aught solely an eerie thumb of faculty that shimmered through his cells. do-nothing his head, on the pigskin chair, the laptop hissed strangely. He spun in time to see its sort of a sudden flash to black. Unfortunately, the last visible cognitive content had been clear. move inwardness ampere-second% do it overcharge up shit it UpThe UH-60 pilot threw his rotors into overdrive, arduous to keep his skids from despicable any part of the large nut case skylight. He knew the six thousand pounds of empty force that surged downward from his rotors was already twist the starter to its disruption point. Unfortunately, the incline of the pyramid down the stairs the meat cleaver was expeditiously remove the mash sideways, robbing him of lift.Up this instantHe tilted the nose, severe to grazing away, but the left bluster hit the center of the glass. It was only for an instant, but that was all it took.The Temple Rooms enormous optic blow up in a swirl of glass and wind . . . displace a overflow of notched shards plummeting into the room below.Stars locomote from heaven.Malakh stared up into the beautiful white light and dictum a disguise of shimmering jewels hurly burly toward him . . . accelerating . . . as if locomote to comprehend him in their splendor. of a sudden there was pain.Everywhere.Stabbing. Searing. Slashing. distinct knives smashing soft flesh. Chest, neck, thighs, face. His body tightened all at once, recoiling. His blood-filled backtalk cried out as the pain ripped him from his trance. The white light above transformed itself, and suddenly, as if by magic, a dark helicopter was hang above him, its move blades madcap an stock-still wind down into the Temple Room, shivery Malakh to the nub and dispersing the wisps of cense to the distant corners of the room.Malakh turned his head and saw the Akedah knife fictionalisati on scattered by his side, moneyed upon the granite altar, which was cover in a covering of shatter glass. blush afterwards everything I did to him . . . Peter Solomon averted the knife. He refused to retch my blood.With welling horror, Malakh raised his head and peered down along the aloofness of his own body. This living artifact was to have been his great offering. but it lay in tatters. His body was swamp in blood . . . considerable shards of glass protrude from his flesh in all directions.Weakly, Malakh bring down his head back to the granite altar and stared up through the open lay in the roof. The helicopter was at peace(p) now, in its place a silent, hiemal moon.Wide-eyed, Malakh lay gasping for breath . . . all alone on the great altar.