People of Babel (Ark Chronicles 3) (7 page)

17.

Hilda drove her father’s chariot the next day as Beor led Chin to other valleys and to the other villages in Japheth Land. It was south of Mount Ararat, much closer to the catchments of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers than those who lived in the Eastern Zagros Mountains. With the passage of years, Japheth Land had drifted southward, inching ever nearer the alluvial plains of the Two Rivers.

These were high valleys, thick with snow and pines and
, in the lowest regions, with many oaks. Game was plentiful, and, unlike Babel, the growing season was singular, so food wasn’t as abundant as in Shinar. Perhaps to offset that, many nodes of surface copper-ore—gold, silver and occasionally tin—lay strewn almost everywhere.

At each village
, Chin traded briskly for rare tin and precious silver and gold, the gold mostly in dust form. He also traded gossip and news, giving and receiving liberally. Patriarch Japheth treated him with respect and inquired after Babel. He wanted to know in particular about Nimrod.

“
Is he as dreadful as Beor makes out?” Japheth asked. They stood at an outdoor pit, with crackling logs. Tall pines rose behind them. Above, dark clouds hid the sun.

Chin glanced at Beor and Hilda before he said,
“Nimrod wears a lion cloak, one that had a black mane. They say this lion was the king of all lions.”

Japheth shrugged
. He was approaching two hundreds years of age. He was tall, with drooping shoulders and a long, blond beard. His eyes seemed wiser than before, if more haunted, and his mouth twitched from time to time, as if he knew a joke much too clever for anyone but himself to understand.

“
Our Beor is also a champion,” Japheth said. “He slew a great sloth, although no one has ever explained to me, to my satisfaction, what drove a sane man to such a deed. Then I think to myself, but of course, he acts like Ham, who faced Ymir and survived. Beor now warns us of Nimrod when he himself acts just like him.”

Beor shook his head
. “I refuse to be drawn, Lord Japheth. For, in debate, none may match you.”

“
And by such a refusal you think to refute me?” Japheth asked. “I know that ploy. Notice, Nimrod drapes himself in a lion cloak. You wear the head of the great sloth. All the sons of Ham, it seems to me, love ostentation of this most primitive kind. Warriors you are, indeed. Your naked bloodlust proves it.”

Chin cleared his throat.

“You wish to challenge my assertion?” Japheth asked.

“
No, Lord Japheth,” Chin said. “You asked for news of Nimrod. This might intrigue you, I warrant. He drove off a leviathan.”

Japheth glanced at several of his grandsons
. They wore thick woolen garments and hefted red-colored shields. Each had tattooed swirls of blue woad on either his forehead or cheeks and held onto copper or flint-tipped spears. They had red or blond hair tied in ponytails and wore leather caps with earflaps.

“
You’re right,” Japheth said. “I’m interested. We occasionally sail on Lake Van. But a leviathan…such creatures live in the oceans. Has Nimrod built another Ark?”

“
I don’t think so,” Chin said. “Ham fashioned a-a—”

“
Ah-ha!” Japheth cried. “I knew Ham lied to us during the Deluge. He pretended to abhor the waters, when in actuality they fascinated him. I warrant that Ham sailed with Nimrod.”

“
That is true,” Chin said.

“
And during the journey, they found this leviathan?” Japheth asked.

“
Yes,” Chin said.

“
Did Nimrod slay it?”

“
No, Lord,” Chin said. “But after it slew a Hunter, Anu the Light-Hearted, I believe, Nimrod wounded the leviathan and drove it off.”

“
I find that impressive,” Japheth said. “Don’t you also find that impressive, Beor?”

“
The lad’s a skilled hunter,” Beor said. “I’ve always said so.”

“
He’s the Dragon Slayer, they say,” Japheth said.

Beor turned away.

Japheth winked at Chin, smiled at Hilda and then, with his grandsons, took his leave, heading back to the village in the distance.

On their return journey to Javan Village, Chin
asked Beor, “Do you never wonder about the curse?”

Hilda drove the four donkeys pulling the chariot
. The small beasts blew white mist from their nostrils and occasionally glanced back at her. They plodded through a narrow pass, with high mountain walls on either side of them.

Beor took his time answering
. “It’s in the back of my mind, of course. And, if you’re like me, whenever I speak with Lord Japheth, I think about it more than otherwise. When I first arrived, I thought about it so much that I journeyed to Mount Ararat.”

“
Only to the range’s northern slopes,” Hilda said. “You never did trek up the mountains to show me the Ark.”

“
Yes, I stand corrected,” Beor said with a smile. “The point is that I spoke with Noah, and one night I asked him about the curse. I wanted to know if I was in danger, living in Japheth Land.”

“
What did Noah say?” Chin asked.

“
Noah said that only Jehovah knows. Yet he said that often the curses of Jehovah are long in coming, with many opportunities for repentance.”

“
Can the curse be avoided then?” Chin asked.

“
I wondered the same thing,” Beor said, “and I Noah asked that. The ancient patriarch shook his head.”

“
Javan won’t enslave us,” Hilda said.

“
Not outright, anyway,” Beor said.

“
You don’t trust Javan?” asked Chin.

“
Out of everyone in Japheth Land,” Beor said, “who bargained with you the most sharply?”

“
That’s easy,” Chin said. “Javan did.”

“
Yes,” Beor said. “Javan.”

For a time they traveled in silence, until Chin glanced sidelong at Beor.

Hilda caught it, and she waited for the question plain on Chin’s face.

Chin asked,
“Why do you live in Javan Village? It seems there are…nicer people in some of the other villages.”

Beor shrugged
. “One place in Japheth Land is as good as any.”

As the donkeys plodded through
the snow and worked their way down into a pine forest, Hilda pursed her lips. She could have told Chin the reason why. Deep in his heart, almost locked away from himself, her father still loved Semiramis. Hilda knew it from the hidden things he did. There was a copper locket with a long strand of Semiramis’s dark hair hidden under Beor’s straw mattress. Other items of hers, a comb, a pin or a buckle from an old belt, Hilda had seen her father late at night when he thought she was asleep. He sat in his chair in front of the fireplace and, with his thumb, rubbed the pin or comb, with his eyes unfocused, as if he saw into another, happier time.

Hilda pitied her father, for she knew that Semiramis was cruel and vindictive
. Oh, how her stepmother had terrified her as a child. Nimrod and Semiramis deserved each other.

18.

Chin and his companions departed and life went on in Javan Village. As Rahab had suspected, the amber necklace wove a spell over Hilda. She often took it out, wearing it in her room, gazing at herself in her slate mirror. She finally went to Tarshish, the father of Semiramis, and in his house wheedled a gown from one of his daughters. In her room, Hilda wore the gown with the necklace, moving about and practicing walking like a woman. A month before spring, she waltzed into the main room for supper. Eyebrows rose and her father smiled.

“
From which cloud did you descend, my fair princess?” Beor asked.

“
Father,” she chided. But she sat at the table, delighted. It gave her the boldness the next day to go outside in the dress. Heads turned. It was caused as much from her loveliness as the treasure hanging from her neck.

Beor warned her two weeks later
. “People are gossiping. I’ve heard it, and so have the others. You must put the necklace away and only wear it on special occasions.”

“
The other girls wear nice things,” Hilda said.

“
Certainly,” Beor said. “I’m not against that. The amber necklace, however, isn’t just a nice thing. It’s the greatest treasure in Japheth Land. That makes people jealous. Remember, we’re guests here.”

“
Guests, Father? After all these years? We’re no longer just guests.”

“
That isn’t how people think,” Beor said.

“
Many of the Japhethites have married Hamite women,” Hilda argued. “They’re not just guests.”

“
It’s different for women, Hilda. A woman and man become one flesh. She becomes like a Japhethite, just as a woman from here, married to a son of Ham, becomes a Hamite. For me and the Scouts, however, it’s different.”

“
Javan has welcomed you with open arms,” Hilda said. “He’s said so many times.”

“
That’s what he said, I agree,” Beor told her. “But at times, they still resent us.”

“
They ask you and the Scouts to lead the most dangerous hunts and to help them make the most intricate bronze-work.”

“
Another reason not to like us,” Beor said. “Because they need us.”

“
That doesn’t make sense.”

“
True. But that’s human nature nonetheless. So I want you to put the necklace away and only wear it for Festival.”

“
Yes, Father.”

Beor patted her on the cheek, no doubt thinking the problem solved.

Hilda, however, wore the necklace whenever he took a Scout as his charioteer instead of letting her drive. Those days, she donned the dress and proudly wore the necklace, turning heads and making others jealous.

Some of the most spiteful women
went to Minos, the younger brother of Semiramis. He was a lanky fellow with curly, dark hair and handsome, olive-skinned features. He was the most handsome man in the village. He wore fine clothes, with linen undergarments and golden rings on his fingers. He disdained stone weapons and tools and wore on his belt a silver dagger, one of his many vanities and joys.

He listened to the harping of the jealous women: that a daughter of Beor should show them up and strut about their village as if she
were its queen.

“
Your sister was driven to distraction by Hilda. Surely, if Semiramis learned that you taught Hilda the price of arrogance, it would warm her days and cause her to remember you even more fondly than she does.”

Minos pondered that, and he saw that although Hilda was young, under age, that she was yet pretty, even if rather innocent
. He spoke with his thuggish cousins, Thebes and Olympus, muscular youths who bragged they were much better hunters than the Scouts were. When they sensed the drift of his thoughts, they, too, urged Minos to play a prank.

“
It isn’t as if you’re hurting her,” Thebes said. “Not truly.”

“
Yes, we don’t counsel you to anything as foolish as that,” Olympus said.

“
Isn’t she asking for it by wearing that necklace? ‘Look at me,’ she says. And the way she entices us with her stride and those coy glances over her shoulder.” Thebes shook his head. “It simply demands a reaction.”

“
Besides,” Olympus said. “What woman can resist you? You’ve told us yourself that you need merely crook your finger to make any woman come running. Hilda will count herself lucky to have even been noticed by you.”

“
Yes,” Thebes said. “I, as well, recall that boast, about your crooked finger. It can’t possibly be true, of course.”

“
Oh, it’s quite true,” Minos said. “Believe me.”

“
You’re just bragging,” Thebes said.

“
If I prove it, who will protect me from Beor’s wrath?” Minos asked.

“
What will Beor have to be angry about?” Thebes asked. “In fact, after you’re done, he may give you the girl in marriage. Then you’ll own the necklace.”

“
I don’t want to marry her,” Minos said.

“
Why not?” Olympus asked. “If, later, another girl takes your fancy, marry her, too. I’ve never understood why we only marry one woman. Especially fellows like you…”

“
That’s very strange,” Thebes told Olympus. “I was thinking the same thing.”

Minos walked away deep in thought, to the soft chuckles of Thebes and Olympus.

A week later, as the snow began to thaw and Beor went on an extended trip, Minos came to his cousins and said, “I’ve been accused too often of being a fool, of leaping before I think. This time and against Beor, I refuse to go. Unless…”

“
Yes?” Thebes asked.

“
Unless you two join me in the prank,” Minos said.

“
Join you?” Thebes asked. “I’m not sure. Then Beor might have real cause for rage.”

“
No,” Minos said. “I’ve thought this out carefully. If the three of us do this, the girl will surely be too ashamed to let anyone know what happened, least of all her father. The stigma of it will keep her silent.”

Thebes and Olympus glanced at one another in surprise.

“I believe the handsome devil is right,” Olympus said.

“
It’s brilliant,” Thebes said. He clapped his cousin Minos on the back, staggering him. “To tell you the truth, I’ve had my fill of these haughty Scouts. Do you know that Beor had the gall to tell me the other day that I shouldn’t stagger about drunk in public? A Hamite trying to tell us about drunkenness. If he wasn’t such a mound of muscle—a freak, I tell you—I’d have knocked him to the ground.”

“
This is your chance,” Minos said. “We can hurt him where it will hurt most and without having to worry about retaliation.”

“
Yes,” Thebes said. “Count me in.”

“
Me, too,” Olympus said.