Part 13 (1/2)
”Yes,” said Uriel. ”Which is why your best defense is decapitation.”
Methuselah leaned in to take a closer look at the thing squirming under their feet. ”Disgusting,” he said. The body was made of rotting flesh that was falling from its skeleton. He could see that it was animated by maggots and worms that filled the cavities and muscles. An old saying came to his mind and he repeated it aloud, ”Where the worm dies not.”
Suddenly, two more shades jumped out from behind the rocks. Jubal and Uriel immediately cut off their heads. ”How many are there?” asked Tubal-cain.
Before Uriel could answer, eight more shades came at them. The living men hacked and slashed, taking the shades down.
Uriel stood up on a rock looking at a valley below them. It teemed with an endless ma.s.s of shades coming in their direction.
”Lots,” said Uriel. ”Run.”
They raced into the wasteland of twisted rocks and gnarled tree roots. But every turn they made, they were blocked by gangs of shades chomping after them. They changed course, only to be blocked by more marauding shades. At last, they broke through the maze of rocks and out onto a vast flat land of dried cracked mud.
Uriel led them out onto the flats. As they ran, the men saw shades bursting out of the ground. Their hands grabbed for the men, their mouths hungrily gnas.h.i.+ng and grinding their teeth. Very quickly, the number of shades bursting from the ground overwhelmed them on all sides. There was nowhere to go. They were surrounded. They circled in defense one last time. The ma.s.sive hive of hungry screeching shades pushed in on them.
”Prepare to be an eternal meal!” yelled Tubal-cain.
Uriel was not about to let that happen. He sheathed his sword, reached in his cloak and pulled out a ram's horn he had secreted from them until now. He put it to his mouth and blew for all his life. The deafening sound rolled out in shockwaves, blowing down shades with concussive force. It spread out in a ring around them.
”You are full of surprises,” said Noah.
”I take back my criticisms of you,” said Methuselah.
”It will not last,” said Uriel.
Methuselah wondered briefly if Uriel was talking of his effect on Methuselah or on the shades.
The effect did not last. The downed shades were soon over-run by a new wave of shades, climbing over the others, mouths munching, tightening their circle once more. Uriel gave another hearty blow. The sound waves pushed the swarms back again. But this time, not as far. It had decreasing effect.
Uriel put the trumpet to his lips a third time. But before he could blow, they were all thrown off their feet by a ma.s.sive earthquake. The ground exploded upward all around them. Seven giant ten-cubit tall warriors burst out of the ground. They rose from the earth like rulers standing to make judgment. They looked like Nephilim, but were taller and more regal. The shades laid down in submission before them.
”What are they?” asked Noah.
”Rephaim,” replied Uriel. ”Souls of the giant warrior kings. DemiG.o.ds like the Nephilim, only more powerful. These were imprisoned here at the t.i.tanomachy.”
Memories flooded into Methuselah's mind. One of those Rephaim had killed his wife's family and he had given it a permanent limp with his blade.
”Is that who you were calling on your trumpet?” said Noah.
”No,” said Uriel.
Methuselah put in his two shekels, ”I have a feeling we would prefer to be eaten by the shades.”
Uriel made one last blow on his ram's horn.
It was a quiet evening in the city of Kur on Mount Hermon. The new moon sacrifice was still weeks away. The villagers were in their homes asleep past the midnight hour. Hardly anyone noticed the faint echo of Uriel's trumpet resounding from the depths of Sheol.
Higher up the mountain on the north slope, just below the tree line, the nightlife fell silent. The crickets stopped. Wild rodents froze in their tracks, their eyes darting around in fear.
A blindingly brilliant light abruptly burst from the heavens above to the forest floor. It cut through the night like a dagger, and just as suddenly, it was gone. Darkness filled in the breach.
In a matter of seconds, three dark riders on horseback burst out of the brush from where the light had burned its path to the earth. The savage looking warriors, with armor that looked similar to that of the Nephilim, urged their fierce stallions onward. They rode with deliberation down the mountain toward the ziggurat on the south side.
Chapter 16.
Lugalanu stared into the flames of his hearth. He was heartsick, and his mind drifted into the consideration of new directions for his life.
A maidservant interrupted his thoughts. ”My lord?” she said for the third time. It was the first he heard. He looked up at her and she nodded. In a flash he was up out of his chair and rus.h.i.+ng down the hallway to the maidservant's quarters.
He arrived in time to hear the wail of a newborn child filling the darkly lit chamber. He rushed over to the quarantined area and whisked the curtains aside. Emzara lay cradling a baby boy in her arms. She was drenched with sweat, beaming ear to ear. Lugalanu smiled at her.
She had rejected the as.h.i.+pu shaman and his birth magic, and refused to cradle the traditional bronze amulet to fend against infant death. The amulet carried an image of a pazuzu on one side and an incantation on the back for warding off Lamashtu, a demoness believed to cause miscarriage. Emzara clung instead to Elohim as her protector and provider. She needed no other.
”His name shall be Canaanu,” said Lugalanu in antic.i.p.ation of their naming ceremony.
”I shall call him Ham,” she said. They had agreed she would have the right to call him her own name in secret, just as he had allowed her to retain her own family name within their private company.
The other maidservants cleaned up the bed sheets and tidied the room in preparation for Emzara's recovery. Lugalanu drew close to Emzara and whispered affectionately into her ears, ”Emzara, if you were my wife, I would take no other bride.”
”Why do you desire me so?” she asked.
”Why do you resist me so?” he responded.
Two priestesses of Inanna arrived with a ba.s.sinet. Their bald elongated heads and tattooed bodies still repulsed Emzara. Especially when she considered what they were there for and what they would do to her only son. That son was her only link to her beloved husband who she was not supposed to know was still alive, who may never discover that she was still breathing.
Emzara's eyes filled with pain. Lugalanu had been good to her, but she had no choice in this matter. Slowly, she raised the child to the priestesses, who took him and gently placed him into the ba.s.sinet.
”He will be a servant of the G.o.ddess Inanna,” Lugalanu said. ”He will serve in her temple for the rest of his life.”
”At least he will live,” she sighed in resignation.
”At least,” said Lugalanu. It was a great pain to him to do this. He had become deeply in love with this woman. Even though he detested everything the child was, even though his instinct was to kill it, as one would obviously destroy every last seed of one's enemy, he would not do so. He knew that would forever destroy his chance to win Emzara.
He was beginning to wonder if he was only deceiving himself. He had been so confident he could woo Emzara over the last year. He would take ten years to do so if he had to. A hundred years even. It represented the one thing that was unattainable in his reality, and it became the one thing he wanted more than anything else; more than the riches, more than the power, more than his exalted status with the G.o.ds and rulers.h.i.+p of the people. As he looked into her eyes, he could see the goodness, the truth, the beauty that had evaded him his entire life, and he wanted it to all be willingly surrendered to him. The one true thing he could not have was the one thing he was willing to devote the rest of his life to get. He would wait. He would remain patient, no matter how many years it took.
A messenger entered the room and approached Lugalanu. The priest-king lost his temper, ”Must I be constantly interrupted? May I have one moment of peace?”
”I am sorry, your lords.h.i.+p. But the Gibborim have returned.” Lugalanu looked up, surprised. He did not see that Emzara's eyes went wide with antic.i.p.ation.
Lugalanu asked, ”Was their mission objective achieved?” He had forgotten that Emzara saw him commission the Nephilim that day months ago. He certainly did not know she was aware Noah was still alive. So he spoke in generalities, referring to official matters that he expected she would not understand.
Emzara hid her emotions in response to the news of her beloved.