Joshua Valiant (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (12 page)

The thing made Arisha want to vomit.

The Ob
was brought up to each woman. The woman’s robe was torn off and the Ob licked her body from vulva to face in one upward motion. Upon approval, he was taken to the next one.

When the Ob reached
Arisha, it snickered with delight. Its inhuman eyes looked her up and down, causing a chill down her spine. But also, a pang of hatred for yet another evil to be wrought upon her in this world.

A priest pulled
off her robe.

The Ob looked her up and down and cackled with a
sleazy laugh.

The Ob
licked her.

She shivered. It resurfaced the memories of her betrayal by Izbaxl years ago. She was also reminded of the courage she found within her to respond in self-defense. And she thought she would grab this tongue in like manner and cut it off, if she only had a dagger.

But she did not have a dagger. And she was about to be offered up to the dagger in sacrifice to Nachash.

But the Ob
stopped, hissed, and made a choking cough.

It was raised up to
her face and glared into her eyes.

She found all the anger in her soul to stare back in defiance.

They may destroy my body, but they will not destroy my soul.

Then the Ob went into a trance. Its eyes went back into its head, and it jerked and spasmed with a seizure.

When it was done, its eyes reopened and it croaked out, “This wench is a chosen vessel.”

It stopped even the go
ds, who turned to look at Arisha. She now felt more vulnerable under their penetrating gaze.

The Ob continued, “I have entered the spirit realm and I have seen great and terrifying things.
This is no ordinary being. Out of her womb will come forth a great and mighty warrior whose kingdom shall overthrow all kingdoms. Thus saith the Ob.”

Arisha
was in shock. What in heaven was this creature saying?
She
is no ordinary being?
She
is a chosen vessel? It made no sense to her.

His fellow gods followed Nachash
as he stepped over to Arisha and stared at her. His gaze was hypnotizing. She felt paralyzed and entirely at his mercy.

He tilted his head trying to understand what he could not see. But then a huge grin came across his face. His fangs gleamed in the torchlight.
From out of nowhere, six reptilian wings spread out behind his back creating a kingly presence of glory.

Arisha lost
her bladder.

Nachash
said, “Take this vessel and prepare her for the sacred marriage.”

The other gods
appeared shocked. Arisha did not understand why.

Nachash turned back to them
by the tumulus and they argued quietly amongst themselves.

Arisha
grabbed her robe and draped it back over herself protectively.

Four
priests grabbed her and escorted her out of the Circle back to the Nest.

She would not be sacrificed to Nachash this evening. No, her fate was much worse. She knew she was to be impregnated by that
malevolent monster.

Flashes of that evening in Banias
years ago intruded in on her mind. The pain, the horror, and the aftermath. It had taken years to put it behind her. But she now realized she had not put it behind her. She had only ignored it. And all the wellspring of emotion was rising in her because she knew it was going to happen again.

S
he determined in her heart that there was no way she was going to let it happen again.

Over by the tumulus, the gods conferred. Molech was conspicuously silent around his superiors in intellect. Ashtart was angrily determined.

“You should not do this,
Mastema,” she snapped. “You know what happened with my antediluvian plans of interbreeding.”

“Yes,” he whispered thoughtfully. The Deluge frightened the Sheol out of all of them.

Chemosh added, “And now we are only seventy.” He was referring to the original two hundred Watchers who came to Mount Hermon to defy Yahweh. All but seventy were bound into the earth by Yahweh’s archangels because of their mating with the daughters of men. This was why none of them had ever tried the hybrid mating again. None of them, except Ashtart.

Ashtart said, “I
tried again at Sodom with less. And I almost lost everything. Do you want to see all of Canaan go up in flames?”

Mastema simply said, “Yes.”

Chemosh said, “You cannot be serious.”

A grin spread on Mastema’s face. And they understood he was
not being entirely so.

He said,
“You heard the Ob’s prophecy. I doubt that it was intended for us.”

Ashtart understood first. “You think thi
s may be
Yahweh’s
chosen vessel.”

Chemosh said, “The Seed of Eve
.”

Mastema said, “If I impregnate her and kill her after the child is born, then it will
have to be my seedline whose kingdom will overthrow all kingdoms.”

Ashtart giggled. “
The anti-Seed.”

Chemosh
chimed in with approval, “Yahweh is coming to dispossess us from the land. So if he wants to burn up his children’s inheritance like he did Sodom and Gomorrah, then let him burn it all. Let it all go up in flames.”

Molech
was titillated. He loved fire as much as he loved children. He loved children
on
fire. He wanted to create an entire valley in Canaan that would be devoted to passing children through the fires of Molech.

Mastema quieted them all. “This must remain a secret. Tell no other gods. It will only increase our chances of discovery by
the enemy, as well as those usurpers in our ranks who would seek to use it to their advantage.”

Ashtart knew Ba’al was just such
a usurper. He had the power to contest even Mastema, and would surely do so if given the chance. It was Mastema’s prestige that had saved Ashtart when Ba’al was about to bind her in the earth at Sodom. They had been at odds for millennia and Ba’al had finally bested her in the battle of the nine kings. But when he was about to leave her crushed under millions of tons of rocks, she had offered him a deal that turned his mind.

Ashtart had the favor of Mastema in Canaan, and had
been breeding the Seed of the Serpent that would war with the Seed of Eve. Since Yahweh himself in the Garden prophesied this enmity, Ba’al knew it would be his way of ingratiating himself to a superior in Mastema. By saving Ashtart and making her his submissive consort, he was building his own strategy for conquest.

But Ba’al was in southern Canaan now with the Anakim. So he would not be privy to Mastema’s plans. Ashtart finally had leverage over Ba’
al. It would only take some time before she could find a way to use it against him, and free herself from servitude at his command.

But right now, there was blood to drink.

• • • • •

The four priests brought Arisha into the Nest to prepare her for the sacred marriage rite. The first stage was to ritually clean
se her in the waters of life in their cavern.

The
y brought her down to the waters’ edge and started to disrobe her.

She pulled away from them and snapped, “
Do not touch me, you reptiles. I will clean myself.”

The priests looked at each other. This was typical of Arisha.

The leader was Bodo, a gangly and sniveling weed of a man. He knew what was going to happen to Arisha, the humiliation, the pain and suffering. He actually felt sorry for her, despite her obstinate attitude.

He said, “
Arisha, your willfulness will not be welcomed by the deity with the tolerance we have too often displayed toward you.”

She did
not respond. She just stared at him defiantly.

He buckled. “
Be sure to fully immerse.”

She walked to the edge of the water, turned her back to them, not allowing them the personal thrill of a glimpse of her
frontal body. They had all taken from her in the past, but not this time. This time, she had some control.

She slipped off her robe and stepped into the water.

One of the priests licked his lips. They all became aroused. She was truly the most desirable female that had ever graced their commune, and now they would never have the opportunity to take her again.

What a pity
, thought Bodo.

She dipped into the water up to her neck. She was breathing heavily. Hyperventilating.

Bodo thought that the water was cold or that this stubborn independent girl was finally beginning to face the consequences of her spirited pride.

Arisha then slipped below the surface.

She was in the habit of staying under a long time. It was her way of getting away from the community to be alone, of feeling in control. So initially, it did not alarm Bodo that she failed to return to the surface. She had hearty lungs and could stay down for quite a while.

But
more time passed and Bodo began to be concerned.

She was not coming up.

It had been over five minutes.

Now, closer to eight or nine.
Something was not right.

Bodo
finally ordered the priests. “Get others. Spread around the shore of the lake. Make sure she does not surface and try to get away.”

He unclothed himself and walked into the water to search for her.

He dove in search of Arisha, expecting to find her body trapped in a crevice or ridge by suicidal intent. There were many in the deep cavernous lake.

He dove downward.

There was a special algae in the lake that glowed with iridescent light, thus giving him the ability to see in what would have been pitch-blackness.

But he could not find her.

He came back up for air and dove again.

Others surrounded the lake shoreline with torches to make sure she did not escape.

Bodo must have dove down a dozen times before he gave up from sheer exhaustion.

He had others dive as well. But they came up with nothing.

This was not good.

Nachash would not be happy.

• • • • •

Later that evening,
Tannin, the high priest, had returned to the Nest to retrieve Arisha for Nachash. But he found Bodo and the priests cowering in fear of their lives.

“She what
?” yelled Tannin.

“She drowned,” said
Bodo. “We took her to the lake for cleansing. She refused our help and demanded to clean herself. You know how stubborn Arisha can be.”

“Yes, I know, fool!”
said Tannin.

Bodo
continued, “When she went under the waters, she never came back up. We immediately called for help and posted sentries all around the lake. She could not have escaped our net.”

“Yet,
she is gone,” said Tannin with biting anger.

“Several of us dove down to try to find her body, but we were unsuccessful.”

“That was several hours ago when you brought her here. Why did you not alert me?”

The priests looked nervously at one another.
Bodo whimpered, “We were afraid for our lives.”

“As well you should be. You failed to secure
the god’s vessel for sacred marriage. You let her drown. And then you did not repent.”

The
four priests fell to their knees. Bodo cried out, “We do repent, my lord! Please have mercy on us.”

“If I have mercy on you,” said Tannin, “then Nachash will have no mercy on me.” He turned to the other priests around them and barked an order, “Execute them now.”

The priests were immediately put to the edge of the sword.

As it turned out, Nachash had no mercy
on Tannin either. He was cut down with the others when he brought the information to the god.

But
Nachash also refused to believe Arisha was drowned unless he saw her bloated lifeless body before him. This female was too important to be so easily killed in a twist of fate or suicide. So he sent other divers to continue scouring the cavernous lake to find her.

It was a very deep lake with many
rocky crevices and fissures for a body in which to be lost or stuck. They searched for a full day, but could find nothing. And they never did discover what happened to Arisha, the rascally spirited girl who had brought so much trouble into their commune.

She was dead and gone to them.

• • • • •

Arisha
did not drown. She escaped. Her relentless curiosity had saved her again. For years she had known of a hidden underwater cave that led from their lake down to an underground river. But she had told no one, and kept it as her secret. It was her hideaway.