"A royal entourage from Erech is encamped near the brook," whispered Lemuel.

Noah sat up abruptly, waking Emzara. "What? How many? Are they armed?"

"A small delegation," Lemuel said. "Should we muster our forces?"

"No," said Noah. "It must be an amba.s.sador. Go gather the elders. We will ride and see what they want."

The royal encampment was a third of a league distant from Noah's settlement. A large ostentatious tent dominated the center, twenty cubits in diameter, made of embroidered fabric from the Indus valley. A line of bird-men soldiers with spears, maces, and axes guarded the perimeter. The banner of Anu flew high overhead on a golden standard.

Noah, Lemuel, six elders and an escort of a couple of warriors halted briefly at the edge of the brook, still partially concealed in the dense forest. Noah patted the neck of his onager as he looked at the horses of the visitors. He trusted his durable domesticated a.s.s, but he had known of the horses which recently traded all over the Levantine and Mesopotamian plains. They provided stronger mounts and faster travel for flight or fight, either of which might happen in the next few moments.

Noah and his men crossed the brook with caution, leaving the escort of two warriors behind as watch. A truce would automatically be in effect for such a meeting, but it would not hurt to have a reserve. Noah plodded forward, eyes straight ahead, oblivious to the fact that most of his companions, with the exception of Lemuel, did not share his courage in the face of such large numbers of hostile soldiers, truce or not.

As they reached the edge of the royal camp, a priestess greeted them. She had painted eyes, hairless elongated skull, and flesh full of tattoos and body piercings. She walked up to Noah with a seductive gait in a translucent gown.

Noah thought, This heathen religion is a lascivious one.

The priestess hissed in a whisper, "If you please, you and your man may follow me. The others may refresh themselves."

She gestured to a lavish banquet table out in the open filled with golden cups of wine and silver platters of wild boar and vegetables.

"Thank you," replied Noah, "but we already ate breakfast. Early risers." He dismounted, followed by Lemuel and his men.

"Well, then," she said, "This way."

Noah and Lemuel followed her through a gauntlet of bird-men and portable bronze pillars leading to the tent entrance. Noah wondered at the kind of conceit that would produce such luxurious waste of resources. The vast number of slaves needed to maintain the excess of royalty and deity astounded Noah. He noticed that Lemuel kept his hand on his belted mace.

As they entered the tent, four human officers greeted them, and then stepped aside, bowing in deference. Behind them sat open chests of gold, silver and precious gems, sparkling in the rays of light that peeked in through the tent entrance. It was a king's ransom. Noah glanced at it briefly. If the display was meant to impress him, it failed miserably.

Behind the treasure, Lugalanu lounged on a miniature throne in his royal vestments, like a miniature version of Anu. He spoke to Noah in a mimicry of Anu's own lofty, lighthearted grandeur.

"Welcome to our humble delegation from the mighty sky G.o.d Anu, Lord of heaven and earth, father of the G.o.ds. I am his priest-king, Lugalanu."

Noah sniffed. "I know a certain Creator who would beg to differ with those t.i.tles. And I am not impressed by pompous exhibition."

"Well, now that I know what you are not, pray tell, who you are?"

"I am Noah ben Lamech, son of Methuselah, son of Enoch, Patriarch of my clan."

Lugalanu's brow rose with interest. "Noah, son of Enoch. I have heard of you. You are most respected among the human tribes."

Noah, dismissed the small talk. "We are nomads and we seek no trouble with the G.o.ds of this land."

"I believe you," Lugalanu responded. "The G.o.ds, however, are not so easily persuaded." He paused to add gravity to his tone. "Especially when their servants return to Erech grievously wounded by nomad arrows."

Lemuel looked nervously at Noah, then at the officers, his eyes on constant watch.

"Some token of respect might alleviate their concern," Lugalanu continued. "Simple obeisance to prove your peaceful intentions, perhaps."

The priest-king was no match for Noah, who made his own p.r.o.nouncement. "We will bow the knee to no G.o.d...," the pause was noticeable "...but Elohim."

"Indeed?" questioned Lugalanu. "And I suspect you even have trouble doing that." No detail escaped Lugalanu's eagle eye. Years of court intrigue honed his senses to pick up the slightest nuance of body language and tone that betrayed underlying motives and meanings. He could tell instantly that this man before him had a proud sense of self-importance such as he had not encountered in a decade. He decided to throw out some bait. "Every man is ruled by a G.o.d. Except perhaps the man who will end the rule of the G.o.ds."

Noah ignored the suggestion. "My people are leaving this forest this very day. We will leave you alone. We beg your indulgence to leave us alone."

Lugalanu stared at him for what seemed an eternity. Then matter-of-factly, he said, "I cannot indulge you."

The answer did not please Noah. Lemuel fidgeted uncomfortably.

"But I have a counter offer," Lugalanu continued. "You are influential with the remaining nomadic tribes. You and your people will not be taxed like everyone else. You will not even be forced to join in public worship. I only ask that you bow the knee to the G.o.ds in private and not obstruct the rest of the human tribes from submitting to the pantheon." His voice was almost conciliatory. "Then you will be left alone."

Noah stared at him unrelentingly. Lugalanu clearly had no idea whom he was talking to. "I will not bow the knee," said Noah.

Lugalanu let out a deep sigh. Noah clearly had no idea whom he was talking to. "Very well, then. Pazuzu!" he barked.

Noah and Lemuel whirled to see one of the black hideous dog-faced creatures at the doorway of the tent.

"Pa.s.s the order. Destroy the village."

The pazuzu took off in flight.

"NOOOOO!" Noah screamed as he realized they had been betrayed.

In a flash, he and Lemuel were out of the tent, their maces ready to strike.

They stopped in their tracks. A hideous sight confronted them. The six elders and two warriors from the brook hung limp from pillars by their broken necks. The bird-men had managed to completely surprise their quarry with silent death.

Noah's world spun around him.

Lemuel's screaming voice brought Noah back to reality. He dodged just in time to avoid an axe that almost cleaved him in two. He backed up against Lemuel. Twenty bird-men surrounded them, weapons at the ready. But these mutant creatures had cornered the wrong two fighters. As a battling duet, Noah and Lemuel swung their weapons in a macabre dance of death, taking out soldiers left and right.

Noah downed a soldier behind Lemuel. Lemuel spun and hacked an attacker in Noah's blind spot. Methuselah and Lamech had trained them together most of their lives with the secret art of the lost order of warriors called the Karabu. They were seasoned and unbeatable.

Unbeatable until the net dropped from above.

It enveloped them like a spider's web. They were trapped prey. Their weapons were useless. The soldiers rained blows upon them, pounding them into submission. Noah's raw anger kept him conscious. Lemuel blacked out. When the soldiers stopped, Noah knew they were not going to be killed. He dropped his weapon.

Someone yanked the net away. The prisoner's arms were held back by five soldiers each. Lemuel came to from his black-out.

Lugalanu stepped up to Noah, reveling in his victory.

Noah spit at him. "You piece of filth. I should have known never to negotiate with the wicked."

Lugalanu crowed, "I would expect the nemesis of the G.o.ds to be smarter than that." He gestured toward the trees behind Noah with a slight nod of his head. "Your village is no more."

Noah looked up in the sky in that direction. Billowing clouds of black smoke in the distance told him all he needed to know.

Noah broke down into tears struggling in vain to get free. He pleaded, "Please. No."

Lugalanu looked at Noah with feigned surprise. "Again, you beg my indulgence? Well!" He made a dramatic pause. "I must admit, until I found out who you were, I did not antic.i.p.ate you would be such a valuable treasure. Your friend, however, is not."

A wave of dread washed over Noah. He locked eyes with Lemuel, firmly held in place by the soldiers. Lugalanu nodded to one of them, who reached over and drew his blade across Lemuel's throat. Lemuel dropped to the ground, choking to death on his own blood.

Lugalanu grabbed a mace from one of the soldiers. "Every man is ruled by a G.o.d," he declared, and clubbed Noah into unconsciousness.

It was a ma.s.sacre. Noah's camp fell swiftly, taken completely by surprise. The men tried to gather their arms but a contingent of soldiers and a squad of Nephilim warriors overwhelmed them before they could get organized. It would not have mattered if they had. The tribe had last seen the fearsome giants many years before, but no amount of past experience prepared them for this new terror. The giants' armor was more frightening, their weapons more vicious, their killing more ruthless. If it was even possible, they were more evil.

At twice the height of humans, Nephilim could sweep their strange blades like a scythe, decapitating a circle of surrounding enemies. The extra digit on their hands gave them a more powerful grip on their weapons. The extra digit on their feet gave them a wider surface area for balance. The armed strike of a single Naphil shattered both weapon and limb of a human opponent.

At the first alarm of the attack, the tribe scrambled for their weapons and mustered for defense. The women and children hid. The circle of evil t.i.tans squeezed the tribal fighters into a cl.u.s.ter, ready for reaping. The captains rallied as best they could, calling out for formation.

Lemuel's protege, young Shafat, joined the inner ring as the more experienced fighters took the perimeter. Every man faced out toward the circling giants.

For the first time in his life, Shafat was scared, truly scared. Lemuel had taught him well, and Shafat had proven himself single-handedly worthy on more than one occasion with lions and bears. But these were not wild beasts; these were demonic monsters. Vomit rose in his throat and he urinated in his loincloth. It was a natural bodily reaction in the jaws of death. Others around him did so as well. The real test was how you responded now that your body had evacuated the toxins.

He saw the impossibility of victory that was crushing in on him. He saw his fellow soldiers struck down in waves before him. He knew he was going to die. The Nephilim were too strong, too coordinated, and inexhaustible. His heart went weak. He would never see his beloved Shemariah again. They were betrothed. Their marriage would be celebrated at the next moon. But it was not to be now, he thought. He would never look into her true eyes again, never kiss her velvet lips. And he would never have the joy of seeing his sons and daughters grown into families of their own-because he was not going to have sons and daughters. All his hopes and dreams would die with him this day, mere moments from now.

His training kicked in. He pushed his fear aside to focus on the task at hand. True courage seized him, not some fantasy of fearless glory, but the resignation to his duty to face his fears like a man, to act like something he was supposed to be, not like something he felt. He would do his best, and he was best with a bow. He nocked an arrow, raised his bow arm, and found his target, one of the gargantuan monsters hedging them in. He released without hesitation.

The arrow found its mark-in the right eye of the Naphil. The monster lurched back in pain and screamed hideously. The other Nephilim quickly covered their comrade. The wounded one stepped back and painfully ripped the arrow out, pulling its eye with it. It then set its sight on Shafat with revenge and renewed its advance.

Shafat's boyhood friend, Akiva, saw it all and shouted, "Good shot, Shafat! Elohim is with you!"

Elohim was with him. He was with all of them, but not in a way that some might expect. Elohim obliged no man life or blessing. He dispensed his purposes as he wished and he did not owe an explanation for his ways. He was the potter and humanity was the clay, quite literally as their creation story explained. If Elohim chose to craft some of those vessels for destruction and others for glory, that was his prerogative. He was accomplishing his purposes for his people. Shafat would trust Elohim to be just and ultimately put the world to rights one day. Elohim only promised victory in the end, not in the entire process. He promised that he would be with them through the fire. This was Shafat's fire of testing, and he shone forth with the glory of refined gold before he fell to the blade of the wounded Naphil. This is the glory of Shafat's victory: no one would live to tell his story, the only warrior of Noah's tribe to seriously wound a Naphil that day, but Elohim knew. And Elohim would not forget Shafat.

The defending warriors were slaughtered to the last man.

Lugalanu's human soldiers went after the women and children. They did not take much concern for the elderly, which was their mistake.

One-armed Lamech and his elderly wife Betenos scrambled to the tent of Shem and j.a.pheth. They pulled the two little boys inside Then Lamech and Betenos stepped back out front to protect their grandchildren from the onslaught. Betenos raised her bow. Lamech unfurled his whip-like weapon Rahab. He had lost his right arm years ago, but had worked hard to relearn with his left hand as best he could. His abilities might be sorely diminished, considering he had taken down giants in his youth. But he still had enough strength in him to swing Rahab accurately enough for her snakebite of death to snap off heads and arms of attacking human soldiers. Together, they felled over a dozen of those soldiers before being taken down by a Naphil from behind. A human soldier entered the tent after the boys.

Two warriors dragged Emzara behind her tent to have their way with her. Emzara caught a glimpse of the soldier exiting her boys' tent, wiping his b.l.o.o.d.y dagger on the tent cloth. Her boys were dead. She screamed in horror and crumbled into weeping. She knew in her heart that Noah must have been ambushed. It was all too coordinated. She prayed to Elohim that her demise would quick, so she could be reunited with her beloved and the cherished fruit of her womb.

One of Emzara's captors snarled, "This one is comely! I want some time with her!"

Before he could even begin, a javelin pierced him from behind. As he fell to the ground, Emzara saw Methuselah behind him with eyes afire and a maniacal snarl to match.

"Have your time in Sheol, you jackal!" he bellowed.

Methuselah was old and curmudgeonly, but he was no feeble relic. He still had his teeth, and his tactical wisdom made up for his lessened strength. He did not get to be the oldest man on earth without learning a thing or two about battle. In his day, he had been a mighty Karabu warrior, now he was a seasoned veteran.

But he was still no match for the camel that blind-sided him from behind, knocking him into unconsciousness.

Chapter 5.

The marketplace of Erech buzzed with celebration. Citizens lined the streets cooking food on grills and drinking too much beer. Men were bare-chested with sheepskin skirts wrapped around their waists. Women wore fabric tunics with embroidered adornments. Everyone stayed out of the street in eager antic.i.p.ation of the triumphal procession.

In the early days of the cities, when G.o.ds and kings conquered an adversary, they commonly paraded the captured leaders, dead or alive, along with the plundered booty, through the city streets in a procession of victory over their enemies. It commanded respect from the populace for their leaders and engaged them in the victory and complete humiliation of the vanquished foes. It was a time of state pride and unity.

The trumpets blew, announcing the arrival of the parade. The people interrupted their banter and play to settle in for the entertainment. Everyone lined the Processional Way, a long wide paved road that ran from one of the main gates all the way through the city and up to the gates of the priest-king's palace.

Lugalanu led the procession in a four-wheel chariot drawn by horses, which had recently replaced his onagers. He felt that the horse was much more powerful and regal. It was stronger, swifter, and far more pliable for domestication. They had only recently been bred and introduced into royalty and military use. Lugalanu liked the authoritative feeling he had riding horses. Glorious in his royal robes, he waved to the ma.s.ses with a proud arm of power.

A wave of awe rolled through the crowds, keeping pace with him. What helped to breed that awe was the squad of giant Nephilim escorting him through the streets. They marched in complete coordination and created a wake of fear in their path. The ground shuddered beneath their feet. Apart from their sheer height, their tattoos, strange armor and weapons proclaimed them as the demiG.o.ds they were.

Following the Nephilim, a herald shouted, "Behold, the victory of Anu and his spoils of war! The human tribe who would live as rebels without law and without the G.o.ds!"

The cart with Noah tied to a stake, stripped naked and beaten b.l.o.o.d.y, followed behind the herald. The people jeered and threw rotten vegetables at him. Some of the missiles. .h.i.t their mark, stinging him and covering his body with a sticky putrid sc.u.m.

After Noah, a train of carts carrying the bodies of Lemuel and the other elders of Noah's tribe rolled along. The corpses hung from their stakes like gutted carca.s.ses, surrounded by kindling wood that would be set ablaze when they reached the town square. The people cheered with bloodl.u.s.t.

The sun settled on the horizon of the cityscape. Inside the royal palace throne room, Anu and Inanna contemplated the dead goat lying on the stone altar before them, its throat freshly cut. They would soon suck it dry of every drop. Inanna worried about getting blood on her elaborate makeup and ornate costume of satin and wild ostrich feathers She set those thoughts aside. The first matter at hand was before them: Noah.

Three armed guards held him, but Noah was in no condition to be a threat. He could not see through his left eye, a black bulge of pus. He had lost a few teeth. So much of his blood had spilled that the court physician had to care for him to make sure he would not die on them.

Lugalanu stood beside the prisoner. He remained judiciously silent.

"So, this is the mighty tent-dweller of the human tribes, Noah ben Lamech, a son of Enoch," mocked Anu. The term "tent-dweller" was a word of scorn to urbanites. It reeked of primitive ignorance.

Noah could barely focus on the deities. He was too dizzy.

Anu continued, "We are familiar with the revelation of Enoch. Are you the Chosen Seed to end the rule of the G.o.ds?"

Noah did not respond.

Inanna exploded, "SPEAK, MORTAL! ARE YOU THE CHOSEN SEED?!!"

Noah coughed. He made them wait.

And then he laughed.

The act confused Anu and almost set off Inanna.

When Noah spoke, his voice burned slowly. "All I value is dead. My G.o.d, my tribe, my family. You murdered them. And you now have the power to end my life. What power do I have to end anything?"

Noah had given up the fight. Elohim was nowhere in sight. What was the difference between a G.o.d who existed and did nothing, and a G.o.d who did not exist at all? He resigned himself to obliteration. He truly did not care what happened anymore. "Just execute me and choose another for your foolish prophecy."

"That, my dear captive, is why I will not execute you," countered Anu. Inanna and Lugalanu both looked at Anu with surprise.

"If you are the Chosen Seed, and I kill you, then Elohim will simply raise up a new man to take your place. No, I will do the one thing that can thwart the revelation. I will keep you alive but forgotten. Erased from the history of man." Inanna and Lugalanu listened eagerly for the pay off.