"Elohim's will is that my family find refuge in the box. Do you suggest I go without them?"

Methuselah b.u.t.ted in, "You will be captured and executed."

"Methuselah," chided Noah, "I am surprised at you. Where is your faith?"

An inhuman scream of pain from Hannah interrupted them. The midwives backed away, staggering through the curtain.

Noah and the others could see Hannah's body spasming violently. Then she stopped dead. Before anyone could move, they saw her belly rip open. What should have been her infant rose out of her torn body. It was twice the size of a normal infant. But it was not human. It was a Naphil. It made an unholy screech and began to feed on the corpse of its own mother.

Noah drew his sword and strode swiftly to the bed.

Behind him, Shem yelled, "Abomination!"

Noah whipped aside the remaining shred of curtain. The Naphil infant was ugly as it was evil. It had snake eyes and a hairless reddish gray skin color, holding its mother's flesh in its six fingered hands. It screeched at Noah, baring its newborn monstrous teeth.

Noah swung his sword and cut off the creature's hideous little head.

He turned back to Uriel with a justified expression. In measured tone, holding back a flood of righteous wrath, he declared, "I will not leave my wife and son to this wickedness."

"We are going with you," said Shem.

"In the name of all that is holy," added j.a.pheth.

For the first time since creation, Uriel had nothing to say.

Noah, Shem, and j.a.pheth mounted their horses at the edge of the village. Uriel, Methuselah, Tubal-cain, and Jubal saw them off. Noah grasped the map that Hannah had followed out of the temple and city. The exit point was a small cave opening in a b.u.t.te outside the city. "We will enter the city through the servant's escape route."

Uriel looked up at him. "I have discharged my duty. I protected you to accomplish your calling. The box is built. I must now help lead the armies of man to a war that you will certainly be caught in the middle of."

Noah smiled. "Fear not, Uriel, Elohim is the G.o.d of the impossible."

Uriel would not let that one go. "He is G.o.d of impossible men."

Noah grinned, grabbed wrists with him. "My guardian, my protector."

"My friend," finished Uriel with the first tear in his eye Noah had ever seen.

He rode away with his sons into the forest.

Uriel turned to Methuselah and Tubal-cain.

"The time has come. We ready for the morning."

Chapter 26.

They reached the plains outside Erech at a quick pace. Noah, Shem, and j.a.pheth found the outcropping of rock that was on the map. They hid their horses and slipped into the entrance. After going through the Gate of Ganzir and the Abyss, this long dark tunnel seemed a minor inconvenience to Noah.

Outside, past the river, the armies of the G.o.ds camped in military order. They filled the fields around the city and river like a ma.s.sive hive of soldier ants.

Twenty cubits below the milling armies, Noah, Shem, and j.a.pheth slithered through the catacomb tunnels on their way to rescue Emzara and Ham from their prison of paganism. From the moment he had discovered that Emzara was alive, Noah could not sleep. He could barely eat. His mind burned with desire to be united with his beloved. What had she endured all these years without him? He could barely contain the pain of knowing that she was alone in a world of evil without his protection and love to give her life-for her to give him life. Did they torture her? Would he have to carry her through great loss of her own dignity? And a son. A son! She named him Ham. Ham ben Noah. What had he grown into? Was he a soldier? A servant? A craftsman? Had he been corrupted by the world that enslaved him? The questions would not stop invading his mind as he traversed the shadows of the hewn caves lit by their pitch-covered torches.

Then Noah stopped. He thought he heard something. He looked back at Shem and j.a.pheth. They nodded. They had heard it too. They strained to listen for another sound. There was none.

"The rock must be settling from the ma.s.s of G.o.dless minions above us," said Noah. He waved them on.

Without warning, Shem and j.a.pheth were both lifted off the ground by their necks.

Noah turned to see an eight cubit tall Naphil grasping his sons by their throats. They clutched at the six fingered hands choking them to death.

Noah drew his sword. It was pitifully small compared to the ogre before him. The creature was a Naphil, but not a soldier of any kind. It was completely naked and its skin seemed as dirty as the rock around them. It seemed more like a cave troll, something sent to live down here to do precisely what it was doing to Noah and his sons, catch intruders and eat them.

The monster snarled at Noah and stepped forward. His sons had seconds before their larynxes would be crushed.

Noah yelled a battle cry and prepared to fight to his death.

The Naphil arched back in response to Noah's scream. It stumbled backward and dropped Shem and j.a.pheth. It tumbled to the ground. The young men landed hard and rolled out of the way, gasping for breath. They marveled that a mere scream should frighten a Naphil. How could that be?

The Naphil clawed at its own neck, grasping at some invisible object. It whirled.

Noah saw the true cause of their good fortune: Uriel had jumped on its back. He strangled it with the unbreakable binding cord he used on Watchers.

The Naphil spun around, unsuccessfully trying to grab the archangel just out of his brawny reach. It backed up against the tunnel wall trying to crush its nemesis into the rock. But its nemesis was not human. Like a lock-jawed crocodile, Uriel would not let go. The Naphil grew weaker. But these creatures did not die easily. They could go without air much longer than any human.

The Naphil had lost control of its defenses while focusing on its attacker.

Noah, Shem, and j.a.pheth grabbed their swords. They found their opening to thrust the weapons into the Naphil's abdomen and sternum, piercing its bowels and heart. Blood poured out. The Naphil gave a choked scream. It fell to its knees, and then to its face on the ground. Uriel quickly drew his two daggers and plunged them into the monster's ears on both sides, skewering its brain.

For the first time in battle, Noah saw Uriel catching his breath. Fighting a Naphil was extremely difficult, even for an archangel.

Uriel looked up at Noah and said blithely, "I knew you would still need me."

Shem and j.a.pheth ma.s.saged their necks.

"I thought I got rid of you, pestering guardian angel," smiled Noah. But he sobered quickly. "What about the war?"

"Methuselah will make a fine general," said Uriel. "He is almost as old as I am."

Shem and j.a.pheth were able to smile again.

"Well, we have to hurry," said Noah. "It appears the escape route is no longer a secret."

Two soldiers guarded the hallway outside Emzara's quarters. She would not have the freedom she previously treasured.

The secret pa.s.sageway opened a crack, just a few cubits away from them. It caught their attention. They readied their spears and approached the opening. Anything that came through that pa.s.sage would not live long enough to know what happened to it.

But nothing came.

Cautiously, they slipped into the darkness with their weapons ready.

They were both clubbed to the ground by Shem and j.a.pheth.

"What do they teach these numskulls?" whispered Shem.

Noah hushed him. He led them into the hallway. They sought the doorway that matched the one on the map. Noah's heart pounded with excitement and a heightened awareness of danger. When they found the door, they used the special knock that Hannah had shown them.

Emzara was visiting with Ham when they heard the rap on the door. Emzara clicked her tongue for the maidservant to answer the door. Ham slipped silently behind one of the large pillars by the fireplace. Who could be visiting like this? Since they had been caught, no one had used the secret knock or tunnels. It would have been stupid. Was this a trick?

The maidservant brought Noah and his sons into the room. Emzara knew it was not a trick. It was a miracle from G.o.d in heaven above.

"Utnapishtim, you are alive!" she gasped.

"My Naamah," said Noah. They walked straight into each other's arms. They kissed boldly, desperately. She could not stop saying over and over again, "You are alive. You are alive."

Noah pulled her back. "And our sons."

Then Emzara noticed them behind Noah. They stepped forward with tearful eyes.

Emzara fainted.

When she awoke, she saw the faces of Shem and j.a.pheth staring at her.

"My sons," she said, "back from the dead."

They moved in close to kiss their mother. She ran her hand down their rough cheeks. She held onto their arms.

"You have grown," she said simply.

Noah could not help it. His joy brought out his humor again. "You have aged," he threw in.

It was true. She had-gracefully, but she had. She looked closer at him. "You have not."

It disturbed her. Was he a phantasm? Was this all a dream-vision?

"It is a long story," said Noah. "But I will never let you go again."

She saw the beaten copper bracelet on Noah's wrist and smiled. "My husband, you never did."

She looked past them to the pillar in the corner. "Ham."

Noah, Shem, and j.a.pheth turned. Ham stepped cautiously from behind the pillar.

"Ham, these are your father and brothers, Shem and j.a.pheth."

Shem and j.a.pheth gave an uneasy nod. But Ham stared at Noah.

It was strange for all of them. Ham was hairless, with temple tattoos, and an elongated head. The men before him were hairy, bearded humans in animal skins worthy of slaves. Noah had prepared them for this possibility. And it did not matter to him.

"My son. My son," said Noah. He stepped up to Ham, looking at him. He was not sure what to do.

Ham broke down in tears.

Noah moved closer and embraced his lost son, the son he could not save, the son he was not around to raise, to teach how to lead and fight, and how to love; the son who was stolen from him and violated by an evil G.o.d.

Ham cried like a child in Noah's arms. It was as if he had reverted to the childhood he lost.

Noah shared his tears. "We have come to bring you home."

j.a.pheth jumped in a bit too eagerly. "A war of G.o.ds and men is brewing. The human tribes are ama.s.sing for a.s.sault on the city."

Ham snapped out of his emotion almost instantly. "Are they led by the Chosen Seed?"

The others exchanged uneasy looks. Ham could not understand what it meant.

"I am the Chosen Seed," said Noah.

Ham stepped back in shock. "You will end the rule of the G.o.ds?"

"Exactly my reaction," said Uriel, stepping out from behind everyone.

"Meet Uriel," said Noah, "my guardian angel."

It was almost too much for Ham all at once.

Noah continued, "The judgment of Elohim is coming upon the land. This family is to be spared, and you are a part of this family."

Ham looked away in retreat.

"Husband," said Emzara, "our son's past is not our own. He is a stranger to Elohim."

Ham felt like a total outsider at that moment. Then Noah smiled at him and slapped him on the back. "Sometimes, I too feel a stranger to Elohim. We shall get along well, you and I."

Ham blurted out, "My wife, Neela. She is in the temple of Inanna."

Noah looked at them all and gave a shrug. "Well, then, we shall have to go get her."

They needed to move quickly. Ham went to retrieve his wife from her bedchamber. Emzara led Noah, Uriel, Shem, and j.a.pheth to the courtyard of Inanna. They did not want to chance another encounter with a Naphil guarding the tunnels below. They decided to do the one thing that no one would expect. They would simply walk right out the front door of Inanna's Temple district, right under their filthy noses.

They met in the garden area. Neela was overwhelmed to meet her true Father-and brothers-in-law, men of whom she had only heard stories. Now, here they were before her, in the flesh, ready to take her away from everything she had known and into a new world of danger and the unknown. She hesitated at first. But she loved her husband so terribly that she would go to the very gates of Sheol if he asked her. He was a good man, a devoted husband and lover. She could see that the way he treated his mother was proof of a man she could trust, who would love his wife and family as deeply as he loved life. It was the only point of departure from his obedience to the G.o.ds. Still, she wondered how he could give up the royalty, the privilege, and the security of this, the only life that they had known.

They crossed the open courtyard under the moonlit night. Ham was well known by sight, which would create enough of a diversion for them to take the gate guards by surprise.