Lugalanu stared at her silently. She thought he did not believe her. Her ruse had been exposed.

"Emzara," he said with a scolding tone. She readied herself for punishment. "You are not a caged animal; you need only ask and I will extend your leash." He stared at her, oblivious to the incongruity of his statement.

She was thrown for a second. Her ruse had worked. He did not suspect a thing. She forced a sweet little smile of innocence.

He stepped up close to her, brushing her hair aside with a tender hand. "You see, Emzara, am I not a reasonable man?"

Chapter 10.

Noah and his band of warriors traveled seventy leagues north by northeast into the Great Desert, paralleling the valley plains and avoiding the cities. They found sequestered sand canyons and settled in for battle training with Uriel and their new sickle sword weapons. A labyrinthine network of channels cut through the canyon's sandy floor. Towering walls of sandstone surrounded them, walls almost forty cubits high swept by wind and water. Ancient waters, leaving ribbon-like waves of sedimentation, shaping grooves in the rock, had created the channels. The rocks were smooth to the touch. During the day, the light created a beautiful sight of orange, yellow, and red glowing layers.

Noah picked this location for the specific reason that they could lose anyone who might be after them. Both seasoned nomads and unseasoned travelers had died here, lost in the vast natural maze. But Noah had traversed these canyons in the past and knew them well. He knew them too well. His razor sharp memory both blessed and cursed him. Whatever he saw once with full concentration, he could remember with a detailed accuracy matched only by storytellers and scribes. If he were not the Patriarch he would probably have been an oral bard. The curse of his memory was that he could not forget the details of the pain he had experienced in his life: the expression of his best friend dying in his arms in battle, the gestures of his first wife that haunted him instead of fading away with time. And his superb memory did not help his impatience with others.

The men stood in a circle, gripping their iron sickle swords for fight. Noah, Methuselah, Jubal, Jabal, and Tubal-cain surrounded Uriel holding his double-handed swords in the center. Uriel barked, "Begin!" and one by one, starting with Noah, the men attacked Uriel, using the battle moves they had practiced for the last few weeks. Uriel had given them basic routines of sword-fighting moves to memorize and repeat endlessly. They contained repet.i.tious exercises that drove the men to near exhaustion and boredom. That was the intent. They had to develop second nature impulses for a fight.

The technique was based on the Way of the Karabu, the ancient secret order of giant killers from Sahand. Methuselah had learned these skills as a younger man. He was rusty, being out of practice. But Noah was somewhat familiar with it, for Methuselah had taught him over the years. The other three men, however, were entirely new to this technique.

Several weeks of exercises were no subst.i.tute for the kind of seasoned training needed to become a master swordsman. But fortunately, these men were already accomplished fighters in their own right, which gave Uriel some unantic.i.p.ated surprises. Jubal, a musician, may have had arms more slender than the others, but he proved to work his sword with fluidity and dance that outplayed the strength of the others. Uriel sometimes said that Jubal was a natural born Karabu.

Noah's sharp memory and strong will resulted in excessive devotion to mastering the forms. This resulted in a proficiency that impressed even Uriel. Tubal-cain's sheer muscle power made up for his lack of finesse, and Jabal's expertise with a staff gave him added skills that would no doubt benefit the group in a skirmish.

As Uriel brandished his weapon against each attack, he calmly tutored the men with corrections and observations of their moves. "Good thrust," here, "bad slash," there, "breathe deeply, feet spread." "Sweep more, Jubal," "Stay low, Noah," "Think of the sword as water. Wash over the enemy." The men grunted with exhaustion as Uriel deflected their every blow with a casual agility that frustrated them, making them feel they had not learned a thing.

"Cease!" yelled Uriel. He could see they were done for the day. Methuselah collapsed to the ground trying to gasp for air. Jubal and Jabal leaned on each other for support. "Well, that was invigorating," said Uriel.

"Invigorating?" countered Noah. "You have not even broken a sweat."

Uriel smiled. "I have had eons of practice. You have had only years, and they, mere weeks."

"If this is any sign of how difficult it will be to fight the G.o.ds and their supernatural minions," said Methuselah, still catching his breath, "perhaps we had better reevaluate our stratagem."

"Let us talk after a meal," said Noah.

Methuselah cooked a stew of roots and herbs on the campfire. They sat and listened quietly as Jubal breathed out a soft tune on his reed pipe. Unlike the harp, Jubal's personal favorite instrument, the reed pipe was more conducive for travel because of its small size and durability. Jubal valued this little bone-carved instrument as much as his sword. Without the beauty of music in his life, he would die a soul bereft of happiness.

Methuselah watched Noah scratching out markings on a piece of animal hide he had acquired from a carca.s.s found on the desert floor. Noah used some dye made from animal blood with a homemade quill from a vulture's wing. He had been at the writing all evening with a torch over his shoulder. Methuselah's curiosity got the better of him. He tried to take a look but Noah would not let him see what he was doing.

Tubal-cain finally blurted out in his characteristic bluntness, "Noah, do you still want to kill the G.o.d Anu?"

"And his priest-king," added Noah. He remembered the look of Lugalanu and his proud a.s.sertions spouted at Noah. He was just as guilty of killing Noah's wife and unborn child as the G.o.d who corrupted him.

"I told you," said Uriel, "the G.o.ds cannot be killed."

"Then I will die trying," said Noah.

"You would sacrifice us all?" challenged Uriel.

"Everyone is free to leave at any time," said Noah.

Methuselah jumped in. "You are a proud man, Noah ben Lamech."

"A beautiful woman once told me that," said Noah. "She was murdered, along with my people, by the pride of G.o.ds."

"Would you make your sons orphans as well?" said Uriel.

That one made Noah pause. The one way to his heart was his family.

"Not if my guardian does his job," concluded Noah.

Noah was bent on using Uriel's commission to protect him as a way to manipulate Elohim's help in his quest. Surely, if Elohim wanted Noah alive for his purposes, then he would have to exercise some kind of supernatural protection over him, even if Noah was willing to go to Sheol and back to accomplish his goal. And if it did not mean that, then Noah would rather die and stay in Sheol anyway. Lugalanu had Noah's entire tribe wiped out with his wife and unborn child, and Anu had ordered it, so they must pay.

Methuselah spoke again, this time with pain in his every word. "Noah, do you think you are the only one who has lost his beloved to the ravages of this evil world?"

Everyone fell silent. Noah knew it was a rhetorical question, so he did not answer. He listened.

Methuselah continued, "Do not be so sure that revenge is a meal that will satisfy your hunger. It is more like a disease that eats away your soul. As the years go on, bitterness turns you into the very thing you detest. You begin a blessed man. But when Elohim takes away that blessing, you begin to believe you deserved it in the first place. You blame him and eventually you end up an old bellyaching ingrate without the ability to appreciate the good in anything. And you realize that you are the reason for your misery. You have become your own enemy."

Everyone knew that Methuselah spoke of himself, and they honored his vulnerability with their silence. They all stared at the flames until Methuselah's words of experience sank deep into them.

Uriel finally spoke, "If you want to defeat your enemy, then you must know your enemy," he said. "And the first thing you must know about the G.o.ds is that they are not what they seem."

Jubal stopped his music. Everyone sat up and looked at Uriel.

"What do you mean?" said Tubal-cain.

Tubal-cain and the twins did not know of Enoch's visions as Noah and Methuselah did.

Methuselah began, "My father Enoch first told us of the Watchers, the Sons of G.o.d."

Uriel explained, "They were in Elohim's divine council. They fell from heaven and made themselves G.o.ds on earth. Two hundred of them, led by Semjaza and Azazel. They landed on Mount Hermon in the region of Bashan in the north." The others were rapt in attention.

Uriel continued, "Along with those two hundred, a number of lesser angels or mal'akim, the lower messengers of Elohim, also came into the world."

"What do you mean, lower? Are they weaker?" asked Jubal.

Uriel shook his head. "To call these angels lower in rank than the Sons of G.o.d is misleading. Mal'akim are warriors who have the wisdom of sages and the power of a dozen men."

Methuselah continued with the history. "Mount Hermon and Bashan have important lore behind them. The name means place of the Serpent."

Jabal nodded. "It is the Cosmic Mountain," he said. "The Gateway of the G.o.ds. Some people say the mountain is also the gateway to Sheol."

"They are not wrong," Uriel said. "It is in the foothill village of Kur, guarded by the G.o.ddess of the underworld, Ereshkigal, sister of Inanna. If one makes it through the Seven Gates of Ganzir, they have access to the waters of the Abyss, which leads to the netherworld of Sheol." Noah took note of the connection of Ereshkigal to Inanna.

Methuselah's voice took on more force. "It was in Bashan that the first of the mighty warrior giants appeared. They became kings called the Rephaim and they spread out on the land to rule after the Watchers came down from heaven. These Rephaim had first ruled the cities then led their evil minions in the great t.i.tanomachy." He took a deep breath. "They were hunted down and cast into Sheol by the archangels, where they remained to this day." Uriel nodded.

Methuselah continued, "The Watchers set up their rule as G.o.ds and began to teach mankind sorceries, astrology, warfare and other violations of the natural order. They have inst.i.tuted an aggressive program of breeding. They want to create their own paradise. They saw the daughters of men and mated with them to create the Nephilim as their own bloodline. They have enslaved humanity as their servants to build them temples. They are egotists. They have structured their temples to look like the original cosmic Mount Hermon. They even call the temple shape 'holy mountains.'" He snorted with derision. Noah knew all this, but it was new information for Tubal-cain and the brothers Jubal and Jabal.

"What is their intent?" asked Tubal-cain.

"They are the seed of the Serpent, Nachash," said Uriel, "and they are at war with the seed of the Woman, Havah, the mother of all living. They have been effective in their strategy, for Elohim has seen that the wickedness of man is great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. So he prophesied that a Chosen Seed would come who would end the rule of the G.o.ds, and out of his bloodline would come an anointed King who would crush the head of the Nachash and his seed. Noah is that Chosen Seed."

The men all sat open-mouthed, looking at Noah. They could have cut the thick silence with a dagger. Uriel turned to Noah and said, "Noah's bloodline is the key to their defeat."

"Then help me defeat these Sons of G.o.d," said Noah.

"You will defeat them by building the box," said Uriel.

"What box?" asked Jubal.

"None of your business," Noah snapped. "That is a certain disagreement between me and my Maker. My main concern right now is to find a way to defeat these b.a.s.t.a.r.d deities."

"The Sons of G.o.d cannot die," said Uriel. "But they have similar limitations on the earthly plane as we archangels do. Though they are divine, they are created beings, so they can be bound."

Noah stared inquisitively at Uriel. He realized that Uriel concealed much more than he revealed. "What do you mean by 'bound?'"

Uriel stared back at Noah thoughtfully. He decided he would reveal that detail later. He avoided a direct answer. "For some reason, they are weakened by water, for instance. If you plunge them in water, they lose their strength. More importantly, if they are trapped in the depths of the earth, they would not die, but they could be imprisoned."

Methuselah said, "To live forever trapped in rock?" He could not comprehend such a fate.

Tubal-cain said, "That would be worse than death."

"And more difficult to accomplish," added Uriel.

Noah sat, deep in thought. Everyone was missing the point in focusing on the mechanics of binding. He watched Uriel like a falcon as he asked, "Is that what you are here to do, Uriel, bind the Sons of G.o.d?"

Uriel paused, then nodded. The others were confused. "Elohim is about to bring judgment down on the earth," Uriel explained to them. "Part of that plan is to bind the G.o.ds in the midst of that judgment, to imprison them until the Final Day."

"Only archangels can accomplish this binding?" asked Noah.

"It is one of our talents," admitted Uriel.

"Now we are talking," smiled Noah.

Uriel sighed. He wondered if he would ever get this man to build the box.

"You mentioned Ereshkigal is the sister of Inanna," said Noah.

Uriel nodded. Noah smiled with satisfaction. It was more satisfying revenge to kill the family members of your target of hatred before you killed them. "She is much weaker than Anu," he said.

Uriel nodded again. He knew where this was going.

"So, if we start with one of the weaker G.o.ds," Noah speculated, "we can work our way up the pantheon."

"Noah, this is not your calling," said Uriel.

"Think of it this way," said Noah, "we are helping you to fulfill your calling."

Before Uriel could respond, a strange bellow in the distance interrupted them. The hideous noise sounded like a beast from the pit of Sheol. The camels stirred in agitation.

"What is it?" asked Methuselah, looking to Uriel.

"The call of the Gibborim," said Uriel darkly.

"Gibborim?" asked Tubal-cain.

"The mightiest of the Nephilim, Seed of the Serpent. We are being tracked," said Uriel. He began packing up his things. "It was inevitable."

"Is there anything we can do?" asked Tubal-cain.

"Run for your lives," said Uriel.

Jabal gave a nervous laugh, and then realized Uriel was not jesting.

"We have to leave now, or you will all die," said Uriel.

The others began packing up immediately.

Uriel turned to Noah and said, "It is probably a squad of four to six of them. We do not stand a chance. If we stay, they will find us. You may face the G.o.ds sooner than you expect."

The five Nephilim stood at the southern edge of the sand canyons. The leader of the squad looked down at some camel droppings on the sandy floor. He took a deep breath through his nose, seeking a trace scent. Then he leapt forward into the canyon opening, followed by the others. The ground rumbled under their feet, a rolling wave of evil. They were tall and would be slowed down by some of the tight corners and low hanging formations of the canyons. But they were locked in on their prey, and it was only a matter of time before they found them. Just as the height and strength of the Nephilim were amplified, So too were their five senses, which were acute to an extreme. It was said they could see their target's eyes at nearly 700 cubits, smell blood at half that distance, and when on the hunt, could hear the silent breath of their victims. But they were also offspring of the Sons of G.o.d, born of sorcery, that gave them a sixth sense into the spiritual world. They were more than mere killing machines. They were killing demoniacs.

Noah and his men barreled out of the north canyon pa.s.sage and found themselves at a crossroads. The desert lay before them, while to the east spread the Fertile Crescent valley. They gathered to take their bearings.

"Split up by twos," said Noah. "Take different routes and we will meet at a common destination."

"Where?" said Methuselah.

Before Noah could decide, Uriel p.r.o.nounced it, "Mount Hermon."

The men looked at him with surprise, Noah, the most taken aback.

Uriel answered their expressions. "The mountain village of Kur, where the G.o.ddess Ereshkigal guards the gates to Sheol." Noah was surprised at his change of att.i.tude.

"You said you wanted to start with a weaker G.o.d," said Uriel.

Noah smiled. Uriel was on board, but not entirely. The angel had his own agenda yet, for the box. But Noah now felt for the first time that he actually had a chance at revenge. He could not resist getting a dig in. "You changed your mind," he said on the sly.

"No!" snapped Uriel. "My charge is to protect you until you change your mind!"

Noah grinned. "So if I build the box, you will leave me alone?"