People of the Ark (Ark Chronicles 1) (17 page)

11.

Noah, Ham, Ikkesh, an obese ambassador from Arad, and the captain of the Red Blades strolled down the menagerie path together. Cages filled with tigers, antelopes, ibex and smaller pens of rabbits, raccoons and rattlesnakes stood under leather-stretched awnings. A variety of roars and bleats and squawks vied against the hammering of new pens and the constant axing of planks. Workers with water-buckets waddled past while others guided dogcarts filled with hay, oats or hunks of meat.

Ham knew their guests troubled his father
. Noah gave away his unease because he strolled with his gopher-wood staff and hadn’t yet preached to these two prominent men. Not since Ymir and Queen Naamah had such important people taken time to investigate the Ark.

They paused at the crocodile pit, leaning over the low fence to gaze at the reptilian monsters sunning themselves in the mud.

The captain of the Red Blades, a grizzled veteran with short, gray hair, cupped his hand around Ikkesh’s ear in a feminine manner. The captain indicated the crocodiles.

Ham shivered
. A glance at his father showed placid features. It was a front. Even more than himself, his father loathed the homosexuality that had taken hold of the people of Arad.

The Red Blades were a manifestation of it
. They practiced a deadly form of hand-to-hand combat. With swords little bigger than daggers and expert in their use, they closed in packs and hewed like a swarm of piranha. Whenever the Red Blades won, the defeated lay with hacked-off limbs and slashed vitals. Each Red Blade also had a warrior lover. Older men were encouraged to seek out the younger and form trysts. The theory was that no bearded veteran was liable to flee while his particular boy fought beside him, and if the boy died the veteran surely would seek revenge and thus fight all the harder.

The Red Blades had become widely feared and distinctive in their red cloaks, heavy
, square shields and dagger-swords. Because of them Arad dared stand in the path of the conquering armies of Chemosh. In the past year, the king of Arad, from the other side of the Great Forest, sought allies against Queen Naamah. This visit, apparently, had something to do with that.

Ikkesh the Ambassador, a blubbery man with baby-fat cheeks and with a robe of purple silk, waved pudgy fingers that were adorned with rings of ruby, diamond and garnet
. “That crocodile yonder must have cost a pretty sum, hmm.”

“
No more than most,” Noah said.

“
No?” Ikkesh asked. “But that is a prime monster, a specimen to excite the masses.”

“
What masses?” Noah asked.

“
Ah,” Ikkesh said, smiling. “You are wily, Noah, and so is Queen Naamah. Yet surely you do not think the king of Arad is so easily duped as that.”

Noah glanced at Ham, who shrugged.

Ikkesh produced a hanky, mopping his gleaming face. He seemed to sweat abnormally easily. “Are they trained?”

“
How do you mean?” Noah asked.

Ikkesh grinned
. “In Nod, in their coliseums, are exquisitely trained beasts. Wild animal shows are very popular, I hear.”

Noah shrugged.

Ikkesh mopped his face again before tucking away his hanky. “We have spies in Nod, you understand, in the capital. A story came to us of their training techniques. For we learned that even big cats like sabertooths and lions seldom seek men out, and in the glare of the coliseum with its sparkling sand and the roar of the mighty crowds, the beasts tend to slink to the sides. They tend then to avoid the condemned criminals instead of devouring them. But if they are trained… ah, then it is very interesting. This cruel training, I’m told, must begin early. Aggressive cubs are sought, the mean ones. Then—in this instance a leopard—the half-grown cub is put into a small ring. There a padded beast-trainer pretending to be nervous approaches the cub. The instant the cub swipes at the man, the trainer falls, rolling in apparent agony. To his pads are tied bits of meat. This the leopard devours and thus his training in aggressiveness toward men begins.”

“
What’s so cruel about that?” Ham asked.

Ikkesh chuckled
. “Indeed, very little, for as the cub grows the trainer continually loses these bouts and the leopard feeds and his confidence increases. At other times when he eats, the cub is only given human flesh, until he will touch no other. In Nod, in the arenas, I’m told, are wagonloads of such meats. Now, as the cub reaches maturity, slaves have their arms broken and their teeth knocked out and are only then put in the ring with the beast. At the end of his training, when the cat is utterly confident of his powers, unarmed slaves are given him. But even then, a trainer with a spear stands ready to help the cat overcome someone too powerful. These exquisitely trained sabertooths, lions, leopards, and, I suppose, crocodiles, are put into the thundering coliseums with its sparkling sand and they eagerly, to the roars of delight of the crowd, devour the condemned criminals.”

“
A ghastly process,” Noah said.

“
Indeed, indeed,” Ikkesh said, smirking, waiting for something, it seemed. Then, giving Noah a careful scrutiny, he said, “I don’t understand your variety. Why keep all these small animals? In Nod they use mammoths as well as sabertooths, not gophers or monkeys.”

“
The variety is easily explained,” Noah said. “When the Flood destroys the world only the beasts and the people within the Ark will survive. In order to repopulate the empty lands, variety will be imperative.”

Ikkesh chuckled politely.

The captain of the Red Blades, however, Bera, who had grown agitated during Ikkesh’s story, now scowled and motioned to some veterans. They hurried near, burly men with beards.

“
Come now, Noah,” Ikkesh said. “I’ll admit you’ve staged an elaborate deception. That boat yonder—simply impressive. The locals must be awed into believing your tale of impending woe. Yet speaking as we have together I’ve come to see you’re no fool.”

“
This is a rare endorsement,” Noah said.

“
No, no,” Ikkesh said. “You shouldn’t take offense. For I’ve not meant to give it. What I ask, though, is that you not offend me.”

“
What?” Ham said. “How have we possibly offended you?”

Noah shook his head at Ham.

“Hmm,” Ikkesh said, who produced a fan, and with quick flicks shooed away flies. “Please keep in mind that the Red Blades are ready to die to the last man for the glory of Arad. That glory, I might add, ill takes to abuse or insult.”

“
And don’t be thinking
we’ll
be doing the dying this afternoon,” growled Bera.

“
If it should come to that,” Ikkesh said.

“
It just might,” Bera said. “So keep that in mind when you address the ambassador.”

Noah gripped his gopher-wood staff, leaning on it, peering from under his bushy-white eyebrows
. “We thank you for your warning. You humble me by it.”

“
No need to take it so hard,” Ikkesh said.

“
Ah,” Noah said. “I suspect you misunderstand. You humble me by your zeal for the glory of Arad. Yet that is a kingdom of people. How then should we feel about the eternal kingdom?”

“
Please, Noah,” Ikkesh said, “I’ve warned you we won’t be taken in by your act.”

“
I too am willing to die,” Noah said, “but not for my glory or for that of any earthly kingdom. Ambassador, this world has forgotten its Creator. To Him should be given glory.”

Ikkesh sighed
. “You want to play your little game I see. Very well, bring out your Jehovah so we may speak to him.”

“
Yes!” Bera said. “Bring him out to me. My boys can have a little fun then.”

“
A Flood comes,” Noah said. “That is why I construct the Ark. That is why I gather the animals. For on the Day of Judgment all who mock Jehovah, all who have forgotten to honor Him, will face His terrible wrath. I warn you, gentlemen, it is not a light thing for a sinner to fall into the hands of an angry Jehovah.”

“
Nor is it a light thing to mock the ambassador of Arad,” Ikkesh said.

Noah straightened
. “You must repent of your arrogance, you must give up your desire for strange flesh and you must fall before the Lord and beg His mercy and cry out that He forgive you. Then He shall. For Jehovah is merciful and desires that none perish.”

“
Jehovah,” Bera said. “I see no Jehovah. Show me Jehovah.”

“
Open your eyes,” Noah said, “so that you may see His handiwork. For His eternal power and divine nature are understood by the creation. All men know this, but by hardening your hearts and lying to yourselves, you deny the truth. For although you know Jehovah you neither glorify him as Jehovah nor give thanks to Him, but your thinking has become futile and so your foolish hearts are darkened.”

“
Silence!” Bera roared. “You will be silent.”

“
I will speak the truth,” Noah said.

“
Truth?” Bera peered at the sky. “Jehovah! Do you hear me? Do you see me? If so, then I defy you. I challenge you this instant to slay me. Come down and face me if you dare.”

Everyone, even the waiting veterans, paused, glancing skyward.

Bera sneered at Noah. “Nothing happened.”

“
But it did,” Noah said.

“
What happened?”

“
You stored up more of Jehovah’s wrath against you. Now you are in even greater danger than before.”

Bera
’s eyes goggled and he turned to Ikkesh. “It is insulting to be taken for fools.”

“
Now, now, we mustn’t become too irritable,” Ikkesh said. “You’ve had your say, and our host surely realizes by now that I need merely give the command and you will engage in bloody mayhem.”

“
He has insulted the glory of Arad,” Bera said. “And that stripling of his keeps twisting his mouth as if he can’t stand the sight of us. Any more of that and I’ll let the lads drag these two into the tents so they can teach them why it isn’t wise to test our patience.”

Ham bristled, pointed at Bera
—Noah laid a restraining hand on his forearm and shook his head.

“
At last you are showing wisdom,” Ikkesh said.

“
You are our guests,” Noah said.

“
Then start treating us like guests,” Bera spat.

“
How would you suggest we do that?” Noah asked.

“
Have you no young men around?” Bera asked. “My warriors like fresh sport.”

“
Here we do not practice such perversions,” Noah said.

Bera scowled and snapped his fingers
. “Like that, old man, and your menagerie can be fired and you and your sons brutalized, castrated and blinded. We’ve given you more than fair warning that the ambassador represents the glory of the king of Arad, while I am his strong right arm.”

Ham, in cold fury at these insults, limped near and swung his cane, knocking Bera
’s helmet from the crook of his burly arm. Bera snarled and snatched for his sword. Ham struck again, hitting the captain’s hand. Bera, who had led the Red Blades for over thirty years, roared in pain. Ham swung a third time, striking Bera’s skull with the knotty part of his cane. With a dull
thud
it connected.

Bera fell unconscious into the arms of his startled veterans.

A pack of hounds, shaggy hunting dogs that had faced lions and bears, loped to Ham as he whistled. They bared fangs so Ikkesh backed against the crocodile fence, his features pale, while the veterans shrank from the massive beasts.

“
No!” Noah said. “Ham, restrain them.”

Ham hesitated
. Then he wrapped his fingers in the fur of the lead dog, a monster brute. “Heel!”

Stiff-legged, the dogs backed away, although they kept their eyes on the veterans.

“That was not my intention,” Noah said.

Ikkesh licked his lips, as he seemed visibly to fight for self-control.

“You are my guests,” Noah said. “None of you shall be harmed.”

“
What… What of the captain?” Ikkesh said.

“
He’s coming around,” one of the veterans said.

“
Ham, you’ll have to apologize.”

“
But father, did you hear what they threatened us with?”

Noah laughed
. “When haven’t we been threatened? Hurry now, he’s coming around. I want you to apologize.”

“
As a gesture of good will,” Ikkesh said, “why don’t you have your son escort the captain into our tent? They may socialize there, and that will also allow you and me to speak together in peace.”

Noah gave Ikkesh a level stare
. “I shall warn you this once. Proffer any of your abominations to me or mine and none of you shall leave alive.”