People of the Flood (Ark Chronicles 2) (26 page)

10.

Deborah brought Rahab that night to see Semiramis. They had doctored the bruises, making them seem worse. Rahab hardly spoke at all, finally retiring and returning with Miriam, Beor’s mother. Rahab suggested they repeat the accusations against Beor. Miriam listened stiffly, soon storming out.

Immediately thereafter
, Kush married Nimrod and Semiramis, grumbling afterward to Deborah that he didn’t see how this could work. She began to weave out a plan, even as he continued shaking his head.

In the morning
, news of the marriage stunned the settlement.

The sons of Canaan muttered among themselves, while their wives looked away whenever Semiramis chanced by
. Several times, a lone Hunter found himself jostled by friends of Beor. Tempers grew. Five days after the marriage, everything unraveled as Gilgamesh strolled to a well and an arrow hissed from between two buildings, cutting a furrow along his neck. Bleeding profusely, Gilgamesh stumbled to his Grandfather Put’s house. Put sewed the gash, and he ordered Gilgamesh to stay in the house until the culprit was found.

Nimrod called out the Hunters, stationing them around Put
’s house. Meanwhile, the sons of Canaan gathered in their father’s house and demanded that Gilgamesh, Nimrod and Semiramis be handed over to them for punishment.

Deborah went to Rahab, saying that only the patriarch could solve the dilemma
. Rahab was dubious, although, in the end, she persuaded Ham. He crossed to Canaan’s house and found the main room filled with armed men looking scared and angry, a bad combination. Through logic and hot argumentation, Ham persuaded Canaan to try to solve this crisis through law rather than bloodshed.

“
But if I don’t get justice from the elders,” Canaan said. “Then it is my sons who will win it for me.”

11.

In the middle of the settlement, in a grassy yard reserved for community festivals and surrounded by solid log homes, Menes, Put, Kush, Nimrod and Ham clattered heavy stones into a pile. The exertion left them panting, winded, and Menes and Put, more fair-skinned than either Kush or Ham, grew flushed. The stone altar grew to chest height, while nearby, in a wooden cage, doves cooed. Atop the crude altar, Menes piled straw and twigs and then set a brass grille over it.

The lanes were empty
. A gentle wind whispered between the log houses. It would soon be spring in warmth as well as in season.

Canaan and Zidon approached
. They were a lean, olive-colored pair with dark hair that seemed to glisten in the sunlight. Each was handsome, a reflection of the other, and each wore a white tunic and red cloak. Each had a long, bronze dagger belted at his side and hurried past the quiet homes.

I
n a long robe, Kush hurried to meet them, dwarfing his slender brother, ushering him to the altar, which Menes had lit with coals. The countenance of each was grave and solemn as they wore their best finery.

“
Jehovah in heaven, give us wisdom, we pray, give us peace.” Kush accepted a dove handed him by Menes. With his thick fingers, Kush twisted off the head, placing the blood-spurting body and head onto the grille.

Canaan took a second dove, frowning, bowing his head
. “I ask for justice, Lord of Heaven.” Then he too, with wiry fingers, with several silver rings, tore off the head and sacrificed the dove, placing it beside Kush’s offering.

Feathers curled in the fire
. Blood bubbled. And the stink of it wafted skyward in the oily smoke.

Kush turned to Canaan
. “I’m glad you came.”

Canaan seemed impassive, but he couldn
’t match Kush’s graveness. Zidon glowered at the bigger Nimrod, seeming like a hound readying to launch himself at a lion. He was game for the battle but doomed, it seemed, to defeat. With his scarred hands and muscled-knotted forearms, to say nothing of his smooth athleticism and broad shoulders, Nimrod exuded deadliness. He bowed his head meekly, yet it seemed like a sham, something ill-suited to his nature.

“
I’ll start,” Put said, “since it was my grandson who was ambushed. And this is on top of the loss of four of my sons, Gilgamesh’s father Rosh being one of those.”

“
This isn’t about you,” Zidon said.

“
Gilgamesh is my grandson,” Put said. “So, of course this is about me.”

“
This is about Gilgamesh the Hunter,” Zidon said, his eyes never leaving Nimrod.

“
Yes,” Nimrod said. “And as a Hunter, Gilgamesh stands under my protection.”

Kush scowled, shaking his head at Nimrod, who fell silent, bowing his head once more.

“Elders!” Canaan said. “This is a matter of law and justice.” He pointed at Nimrod. “That one harbors an adulteress, and he also drove away my son, Beor.”

“
That’s a lie!” Nimrod shouted. “Semiramis is no adulteress, and Beor left of his own accord.”

Canaan looked shocked
. “You dare to tell us, here before the elders and the patriarch, and after sacrificing to gain Heaven’s attention, that you never slept with Semiramis behind Beor’s back?”

“
I never did,” Nimrod said.

“
Then why did you chase Beor? Why track him with the might of your Hunters, as if he were some beast of the field, if you weren’t in love with Semiramis? And how else did you fall in love with her unless you slept with her behind her husband’s back?”

“
I never slept with Semiramis,” Nimrod said, “but I’ve spoken with her before. Everybody knows we used to talk together. What they don’t know…” Nimrod hesitated, biting his lower lip. “I am reluctant to say this. I loved Beor as an older brother. I admired his bravery, his reckless courage. Yet I learned from Semiramis that Beor had become deranged.”

“
You lying dog,” Zidon hissed, turning crimson.

Canaan put a restraining hand on his son
. “Let Nimrod speak. Let him damn himself with his… with his tale.”

“
This is a hard truth, I’ll admit,” Nimrod said. “I have no joy repeating it. Only because the tribe itself is at stake do I reveal what I’ve learned—I had hoped to spare everyone and, most of all, to spare Beor’s memory. But…” Nimrod blinked at the ground and took a deep breath as if this indeed pained him. “The loss of his leg warped Beor. You know he hasn’t been acting like himself. Semiramis feared for her life. That’s why she didn’t sleep with him. When I heard Beor had taken her, I recalled that she’d said he often boasted to her how he would kill her in the wilds. I couldn’t bear the thought of that or that Beor had taken leave of his senses. So I followed. Yes, that’s true. And Beor misconstrued my intentions and attacked us. We tried to disarm him. Dakis took that awful wound then, and I gained the gash in my side. At last, before more damage was done, Gilgamesh reluctantly fired an arrow into Beor’s shoulder. Beor raved after that and said that he divorced his wife. I had no choice, then, but to take Semiramis with me. He would have slain her otherwise.”

The elders looked at him askance
. Hawk-eyed Put shook his head in disbelief.

Zidon said,
“I’ve never heard a more daring lie. I congratulate you, Nimrod.”

“
I should cut out your heart for that,” Nimrod said. “But your father has enough sorrow, and I’ve no wish to add to it. Ask your nephew, Chamoth, if what I’ve said isn’t the truth. He was there. He heard what happened. He saw.”

“
Chamoth is a poor liar,” Zidon said. “Oh, yes, he says what you say, but he sweats when he does, and his eyes dart every which way. Some people, it seems, can’t lie with a straight face.”

Nimrod spread his scarred hands
. “What more can I do or say? I’ve spoken the truth, even though I only wished to shield Beor and then shield his memory. Chamoth, a grandson of Canaan, agrees that everything happened between Beor and me as I’ve stated. Zidon even attests to that.” Nimrod hesitated again, until a look of sternness fell upon him, as if he forced himself to continue. “Let us have an end to assassins lying in wait in shadows as they did for Gilgamesh. If anyone thinks me a liar or feels a bizarre need for so-called justice against me, let him step forward now and face me man-to-man.”

“
A splendid idea,” Zidon said, drawing his dagger, sunlight flashing from it.

“
No!” Canaan said. “Wait.”

“
I can kill him,” Zidon said, clutching his dagger so his hand shook. “Justice is on my side.”

Canaan shook his head, looking dubious
. “This isn’t about brute force, about who’s stronger. This is about my son being driven from the tribe and losing his wife to that scoundrel.”

“
But I’m innocent,” Nimrod cried.

“
Maybe innocent is the wrong word,” Kush said.

“
Then you admit he’s wrong?” Canaan asked.

“
He’s shown poor judgment regarding another man’s wife,” Kush said slowly. “Yet each of you knows how large-hearted Nimrod is. Which of you pledges loyalty to another like Nimrod does to his Hunters?”

“
Nimrod stands with his friends just as we stand with Beor,” Zidon said. “He’s no better than any of us.”

“
Beor deserted the tribe,” Kush said.

“
He was shamed into it,” Canaan said. “Driven away!”

Kush appeared thoughtful, stroking his white beard
. “We know how valiant Beor was. If he thought Nimrod had slept with his wife, he would have killed him.”

“
On a peg leg?” Canaan asked.

“
Beor has never backed down from anything or anyone,” Kush said.

Canaan brooded, bending his head in thought, rubbing his chin with a silver
-ringed finger. “Will Nimrod pay no penalty then?”

“
I wasn’t aware that I was under judgment,” Nimrod said.

“
You’ve had your say,” Ham said. “Now let the elders talk.”

Nimrod glanced at this grandfather before stepping back.

“Yours is a hard question, brother,” Kush said. “I am baffled. To keep the spirit of unity, I think it is time to split the tribe.”

“
No,” Ham said.

“
I will go to Shinar,” Kush said, “to a land of Antediluvian lushness.”

“
Is that wise?” Menes asked. “Unified, we’re greater than spread out in driblets for the wild beasts to devour. Could we have slain the dragon if it had caught us family by family?

“
I will raise a city as they used to be in olden times,” Kush said. “No dragon will touch us there, nor will any who think to use Noah’s curse against us.”

“
What of us?” Canaan asked. “Will you leave us here alone in the Zagros Mountains, prey to that curse you just spoke about?”

Kush shook his head
. “Join us, by all means. Or wait until time heals your anger.”

Canaan glowered
. Zidon, still clutching his dagger, hissed into his father’s ear.

Kush faced his youngest son
. “This day, I banish Nimrod. He and as many of the Hunters as wish to go with him, will ready the way to Shinar.”

“
Wait,” Ham said. “Reconsider. We must not split the tribe in a fit of anger.”

“
This is to avoid bloodshed,” Kush said.

“
How does this give me justice?” Canaan asked.

“
Yes,” Zidon said. “Nimrod must be punished.”

“
Nimrod has been banished,” Kush said, “the same with Semiramis.”

“
Only to go to a better place,” Canaan said.

“
They will work in hardship for the good of the tribe,” Kush said.

Zidon pulled his father beside a wooden fence
. Ducks waddled in the enclosure, ignoring them as they thrust their bills in the grass, quacking in complaint, as they found little to eat. Zidon whispered, gesturing, showing his father his dagger. Canaan shook his head. Zidon sheathed his dagger, enraged, looking away.

“
I need time to consider this,” Canaan said.

Kush nodded, and the elder meeting ended.

12.

Opis knew something was wrong when she saw Uruk and his father driving goats to their house
. She peered around a tree, watching the brute that had knocked her down and then dragged her up and kissed her. His breath had been vile—like onions! If it hadn’t been for his friend, Gilgamesh, drawing his bow on him… and her brother, Ramses, showing up…

She shuddered.

She loathed Uruk.

She thought of him as a troll
. He swaggered instead of walked. He had a single thick eyebrow instead of two like everyone else. It grew upon his bony brow like weeds gone wild. He had long arms like a gorilla, and his face was flat, wide, always sneering, always giving the impression that he was superior. What she hated most about him was whenever she was in the settlement, and he spotted her. He would stare at her dead-eyed, making her skin crawl. Lust, that’s what it meant, the glassy look. She wished sometimes that Gilgamesh had drilled Uruk with the arrow. Then she felt terrible and asked Jehovah to forgive her such wicked thoughts.

Why did Uruk and his father, a fat man with bowed legs, drive goats toward their house
? They moved along the trail through the woods, crushing dead leaves and stepping on twigs, snapping them. Every time Uruk switched a goat, the poor animal bleated.

Opis pitied the goats
. But then her brother often said that she was too softhearted.

Ramses wasn
’t softhearted. It didn’t mean that he was cruel. He was, after all, the only person who was really nice to her. But Ramses didn’t let people push him around. He didn’t even let Father push him around. Not that Father was big and strong like Great Grandfather Ham or his son Kush or even strong like that brute Uruk heading to their house. Father was lean like his father, Menes. Father was lean like a hungry wolf, with greedy eyes and a vulpine way of examining everything. He reminded her of foxes in Great Grandfather Ham’s stories about talking animals, his fables that he claimed old Methuselah used to tell him before the Flood.

The reason Uruk had to trek way out here was that her father lived beyond the settlement, in a log house, where
Father practiced many of his various arts. He carved wood, for instance, making things out of them: beautiful tables, chairs, beds, and figurines like Great Grandfather Ham did with ivory. Father also crafted the best pots and clay cups, and he fashioned jewelry that other people loved to wear. He said he needed solitude in order to think, quiet in order to create. She tiptoed whenever she was in the house—even Mother had to be quiet. Usually she ran into the woods, not hunting like Ramses, but to gather flowers, berries or wild grass to make baskets or rope.

She decided to follow Uruk, the brute switching his goats.

She dodged from tree to tree, not letting herself be seen, and she came to the conclusion that it was bad that Uruk and his father drove goats to her father. It meant a deal was in progress.

No one ever got the better of her father in a deal
. It’s partly what made him seem so foxy. But why was Uruk along for a deal? What did her father have that a brute like Uruk wanted?

As she darted to the next tree, her breath coming in gasps, she recalled Uruk
’s glassy stare, the way he seemed to undress her with his eyes whenever he looked at her.

Unease knotted her stomach.

She was too young to get married. It would be several years before she went to Festival as a possible bride. Yet why was Uruk with his father? Shouldn’t Uruk be frightened to come out here? Father might be slow to anger if there was profit to be made, but her brother Ramses never forgot a slight. He hated Uruk. Ramses had never said, but she knew that he meant, one of these days, to repay Uruk for what he had done to her. This would be the perfect opportunity.

She froze as she peeked around the next tree.

Uruk, ahead in an open area, pointed back at her. He said something and his fat father turned, looking.

She threw herself behind the tree
. Then she ran, hiding, panting and trying not to breathe so loudly.

She dared peek again
. The trail was empty.

She crept home the rest of the way.

A wooden fence circled their house, which was sturdy and well made. Years ago, the logs had first been peeled before Father fashioned it—many people built their log homes with the bark still on. Tuffs of grass and mud acted as stucco between open spaces between logs, while a wisp of smoke trickled out the chimney. In the yard wandered chickens, several tired dogs and Uruk’s goats. They bleated, sounding hungry.

She slunk through the gate, through the back door and listened.

Men’s voices came from the front of the house.

She slipped through a hall, past
Father’s pottery room and past her mother’s storage closet, until she stood outside the door where the men…

She leaned against the wall, closing her eyes
. Her eyes flew open. They talked about bridal prices. She couldn’t breathe. Uruk spoke. He said how much he desired Opis—her!

Then Ramses interrupted, telling them about that time in the woods.

“High spirits,” Uruk’s father said. “He meant nothing by it.”

Ramses made a rude sound
. Father told him to mind his manners. These were guests, and Ramses must treat them as such.

A moment later
, the front door slammed. Ramses had left.

Then Opis heard father shout her name
. She blinked in confusion, startled, already moving in obedience before she caught herself.

“
Opis,” her father, Lud, shouted. “Come here. I wish you to meet Uruk.” A pause, then: “Where is she?”

“
I’ll see if she’s back,” her mother said.

Opis never knew when the moment of decision came
. She couldn’t remember the last time she had disobeyed her parents. Now, however, she fled through the house, even as her mother shouted for her to stop. She ran out the back door and sprinted through the yard, scattering surprised and angrily clucking chickens. She hopped the fence the way Ramses sometimes did and ran panting into the forest.

She was to be married to Uruk the Troll.

With a face wet with tears, she cursed Gilgamesh. She cursed him for not drilling the monster when he had had the chance.

Oh, what was she going to do?