He lay dazed on the ground trying to clear his head, hoping a serpent wouldn’t find him.
* * *
Throughout the battle, Noah kept a close watch on his family while they continued their push toward the woods through the left flank of Malluch’s army. Fighting to their father’s right, Ham and Shiphrah momentarily disappeared behind a group of soldiers interposed between them. Noah backed away from the skirmish in front of him to locate them.
“Look out, Father!” Shem shouted.
He turned back in time to block the sword thrust of an attacking soldier but was knocked off balance and fell. The foe raised a sword to finish him, but a golden blur came flying through the air and landed on his back, driving the soldier to the ground. The lioness neutralized him with a vicious throat attack.
Shem hurried to help his father up. “Are you hurt?”
“Only at the thought of my own imprudence. Thank you.” He glanced to his right to see the last of the soldiers blocking his view fall to strikes from Shiphrah and Ham. Of the six soldiers slain, Shiphrah had killed four.
At the same time, Japheth continued to overwhelm the enemy, cutting a swathe of bodies and severed limbs twenty cubits on either side. By Noah’s estimate, only the two tigers had inflicted more casualties. Near the forest, four soldiers foolishly tried to surround him. Japheth swept his sword at waist level, 180 degrees in front, then behind, sending all four to the ground holding their spilled entrails.
Noah and Shem reached the wood line at the same time the bodies of two soldiers came flying out of the forest a short distance away. Two gorillas bounded after them, pouncing on their chests and pummeling them with both fists. When another soldier attempted to come to their aid, one gorilla took the soldier’s sword and broke it in half, then slammed his body against a tree.
Above them, hundreds of animals darted about the trees, a stark contrast to the battle taking place on the ground. In another venue, they might just have easily been at play. Closer to the ground, a man hung from a tree limb with a large python wrapped around his neck.
A gruesome reminder of reality.
Japheth and the jaguars joined Noah, Shem, and the two lions at the woods’ edge. Fewer than a thousand soldiers remained on the battlefield, most of them still trying to fend off attacks from above and below.
“Have you seen Shechem?” Noah said.
“Not since the battle started,” Japheth said. He rose on his toes for a better look. “I’m more concerned about Bohar’s whereabouts.”
Noah had expected the enemy commander to come looking for his oldest, to use the battle as a subterfuge to settle their rivalry over Elisheva. But he also understood why his son was more concerned about Bohar, whose reputation for the abuse of women made him equally dangerous.
* * *
Shechem arrived at the house still disoriented from the fall. It had taken him around fifty-four parts to gain his bearings and retrieve his horse before following Bohar’s path around the battlefield. Exhausted and confused, he entered Noah’s home.
Two soldiers held swords to the throats of Miryam and Ariel. One also held a lit torch. On the floor to the left, Bohar lay on top of a struggling Elisheva, trying to kiss her. Shechem put a sword to his throat and peered at him through burning eyes. “Get up.”
Bohar tried to stand, but the blade cut deeper into his flesh, causing a trickle of blood to flow. “Shech—”
“Slowly. Unless you want me to cut an artery.” Bohar lifted himself off of Elisheva while Shechem kept the sword pressed against his throat. “Over here.” Using the sword against his neck like a bridle, he maneuvered him away from Elisheva and to the front door before pulling the blade away. “Now get out of here—before I change my mind and do what I should have done a long time ago.”
Bohar backed out holding the bloody cut on his neck. When he did, Shechem grabbed the torch out of the soldier’s hand.
“Bohar.” He threw him the torch. “I don’t expect any of us will make it out of here alive, but if you want to improve your station with Malluch, get to the ark.”
He nodded and disappeared out the door.
“No!” Elisheva jumped to her feet. “Shechem, don’t do this.”
“Find something to tie and gag them with,” he said to the soldiers.
“What are you doing?” Elisheva said.
“What I came here to do.”
Chapter 58
Noah and his sons watched first one, then another of the captains on horseback issuee the order to retreat. Malluch’s remaining army turned and headed north across the plain, predators nipping at their heels.
From the ark, a new wave of animals charged down the hill. Wildebeests, bison, zebras, and dozens of other herding animals joined their larger brethren in a stampede that would soon overtake the fleeing soldiers.
If this weren’t enough, above them, a cloud of birds followed the soldiers’ withdrawal and continued to harass them.
Infantry in the rear ranks fell first, disappearing under the legs of the galloping eclectic herd that included horses, camels, and antelopes. Carnivores, large and small, stopped to finish off those unlucky enough to still be alive after being trampled.
In 180 parts, it was over. Five thousand men lay dead or dying on the plain, crushed under the heels of God’s army. Other than the bodies, little evidence remained of a battle. Some of the animals had already returned to grazing.
Except for the birds. They’d descended from the air to enjoy their feast.
“Ouch. I wonder what that feels like,” Shem said, gesturing to the birds gorging themselves on the flesh.
“Be thankful, my sons. For with a mighty hand the Lord has delivered us this day.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Ham and Shiphrah running toward them. “Father!” Ham said, pointing. Someone’s headed for the ark.”
A man on horseback rode from the house up the hill carrying a lighted torch.
“It’s Bohar,” Japheth said. “If he gets inside the ark with that torch—”
Noah, his sons, Shiphrah, and the four big cats ran toward the ark. The jaguars and the male lion kept pace, but the female lion, seeming to sense the urgency, pulled out in front by a good fifty cubits.
Bohar reached the top of the hill and headed for the ramp.
The nine pursuers increased their pace, but were just reaching the bottom of the hill when their quarry turned his horse onto the ramp. The lioness was closer, but had still only made it halfway up the rise.
“She can’t get there in time,” Shem said.
Bohar pulled back on the reins just before reaching the door. He wildly swung the torch back and forth over his head, as if trying to defend himself from some kind of airborne attack. Meanwhile, his horse backed away from the doorway, heading for the left edge of the ramp.
Noah’s family hurried up the hill. “What’s he swinging at?” Ham said.
Bohar screamed, increasing the speed and intensity of his swings. His horse’s left rear foot slipped off the edge of the ramp, dumping him out of the saddle and plummeting fifteen cubits to the ground below.
When Noah and the others arrived at the ark, he lay moaning beneath the ramp, his right leg broken. He tried to drag himself to retrieve his torch only a few cubits away. When he reached for it, the lioness slammed her right front paw down on the handle. Bohar yanked his hand away but remained focused on the paw with two white toes holding down the torch.
Bohar’s body trembled when the lioness leaned down to smell him, her nose and whiskers twitching. She growled once, then with teeth tearing into his throat cut short his final terrified scream.
A few moments later, a buzzing sound behind him caught Noah’s attention. Two hummingbirds hovered at eye level between him and Shem.
“You think they had something to do with this?” Shem said.
“With God anything is possible. We’d better return to the house and see about our wives.”
They found Miryam and Ariel
on the floor bound and gagged. Noah and Shem rushed to untie them.
“Where’s Elisheva?” Japheth said, looking around the room.
His father removed the cloth covering Miryam’s mouth. “She’s gone.”
* * *
Noah returned from the pasture leading two horses he’d recovered from the soldiers following the battle. Japheth paced back and forth outside their front door. “Father, where have you been? Let’s go.”
“Just a part, son.”
“But Mother and Ariel said they’ve been gone nearly two hours now.”
Miryam told them how after she and Ariel had been bound and gagged, Shechem ordered the other two soldiers back to the battle before he took Elisheva from the house. “We’ll find them,” Noah said.
“Shouldn’t we go with you, Father?” Ham said.
“No. Japheth, the lioness, and I will bring Elisheva back. I need you and everyone else to start loading the animals on the ark.”
“But why?”
“Just now, in the pasture, the Lord came to me in the wind again. In seven days, He will bring rains on the earth that will last forty days and forty nights. And every living thing on the earth will be destroyed.”
He drew blank stares from each family member, except for Miryam, who looked at him with her soft, understanding eyes. “Seven days?” Ariel said.
“Yes.” Noah said.
“And how do we get the animals to the ark?” Shem said. “Blow a horn?”
“The Lord will send them to you, just as He said, two of each, male and female. But for every clean animal and every bird, you shall take seven. All you need do is lead each kind to the pen or cage we constructed for them.”
“Father, please,” Japheth said. “Every moment we waste here increases the distance we have to travel to catch them.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll catch them.”
“Not if we don’t leave now.”
“Did I not say the Lord just gave me instruction? If you can’t wait, you’re free to go on ahead and we’ll follow.”
Japheth’s face reddened. “All right.” He tramped to his horse and mounted with such force he nearly slipped off the other side. “I’ll wait for you at the bottom of the hill.”
Noah pulled Shem aside, out of range of hearing of the others. “If we’re not back in seven days and it starts to rain, move everyone inside the ark and close the door.”
“And what about you, Japheth, and Elisheva?”
“It won’t take long for people to figure out what’s going on. Panic is sure to set in. Some may try to commandeer the ark. Do what you must to keep them out. Once you’ve closed the door, don’t open it for anyone.”
“But what if—”
“Even if you believe it’s us.”
“Mother’s not going to let—”
“Not anyone. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Father.”
He hugged and kissed Miryam, whispering in her ear. “Take a moment to enjoy the sunset the next few nights. They’ll be the last ones you’ll see for a while.”
Miryam kissed him again.
When they reached the far end of the field of corpses, Noah swung in his saddle for a last look behind. Half a dozen pairs of animals, including the elephants, giraffes, elks, and buffalo had lined up near the bottom of the ramp. Another twenty species walked side by side with their mates back up the hill toward the ark. “Japheth.”
“Amazing. Now can we get moving?”
Chapter 59
After four days, Shechem and Elisheva camped for the night on this side of a river, still a day’s journey from Eden. Although they could have easily made it across, he chose not to chance it in the dark. They had one horse between them, and he didn’t want to risk losing Elisheva to a fall should they encounter a problem in the water. Besides, he was convinced he’d outdistanced anyone who might be following them, so why rush to get home?
What bothered him more was what he was going to do with her now that he had her. It wasn’t as if he could take her home. I should have gotten rid of Claudia beforehand. But he’d acted purely on impulse in taking Elisheva, a longing he’d carried with him for a hundred years.
He and Elisheva sat warming themselves around a fire. For the eleventh time since being taken, she tried to reason with him. “Shechem. This doesn’t make any sense. We’ve known each other all our lives. Please, let me go back to my family.”
He gazed into the fire, unable to look at her. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
He didn’t answer but peered at her across the dancing flames with moist eyes that said, “You know why.”
“You were my best friend. Surely you don’t believe I married someone else just to hurt you.”
He jumped up and threw a handful of dirt into the fire. “But I loved you first.”
Elisheva rose to face him. “We were children. I grew up. You grew up. You went on to marry the most beautiful woman in Eden.” She stood directly behind him, but he kept his back to her, partly out of anger, but also to hide his tears. “Listen to me. Do you know what I did when I heard the news? I had Japheth pour us each a cup of wine in honor of you. We rejoiced, both of us, knowing you were finally going to be as happy as I was.”
“Happy? Huh.” He walked a dozen or so cubits to the river’s edge. “This river reminds me of the Eden, that group of rocks over there the ones you slipped off of.”
“A long time ago.”
“I remember it like it was yesterday.”
“Don’t you understand? The fact is, it wasn’t yesterday. And no matter how hard we try, we can’t go back and live that part of our lives again.”
“We could start a new life.”
Elisheva placed her hand on his shoulder, turning him to her. “But I don’t want a new life,” she said, her voice lowering. “I’m happy with the one I have.” Her look seemed to bore directly into his soul. “And the man I have it with.”
“I’m not.”
Her brow furrowed. “Well there it is. You’re not happy with your life, so you think you have the right to ruin mine. That’s not love. That’s selfishness.”
“No, it’s—”
“Sure, you can kidnap me. You can keep me locked up. You can even take me against my will. But it won’t change what happened a lifetime ago.” She softened her gaze. “All it will do is destroy that special relationship we enjoyed when we were young.”
“But what about—”
“Didn’t you hear what I just called you? My best friend. That’s a memory lasting three hundred years. Let me keep it. Don’t do something to make me regret you saved my life.”
They turned to the sound of movement in the grass to the south and slipped back to the light of the campfire. The flames cast light reflecting off five approaching figures: Noah and Japheth leading their horses, and the lioness. They entered the camp.
Shechem reached for his sword, but the lioness let out a growl and started toward him, causing him to think better of it. He lowered his arm.
Japheth didn’t hesitate. He charged his rival and lifted him off his feet by the throat. Elisheva grabbed his forearm. “Japheth, don’t.”
“What do you mean, don’t? This murdering swine took you from me.”
“He didn’t harm me. Now let him down. Please.”
Japheth glanced over at Noah, who nodded. His son lowered him to the ground and removed his sword.
Elisheva hugged her husband, then ran to her father-in-law. “Mother and Ariel. Are they all right?”
“Yes,” Noah said.
“And the ark? Shechem sent Bohar to burn it down.”
“He didn’t make it.” Noah reached to stroke the lioness. “Did he, girl?”
Japheth joined him and Elisheva, pointing at her abductor with the sword he’d taken. “What do you want to do with him?”
Noah paused to look down at Elisheva. “Let him go.”
“Let him go? So he can run to Malluch and they send another army
against us.”
“Eden’s army is destroyed. And in three days it won’t matter.”
At first, Shechem was thankful Elisheva had saved him from Japheth’s wrath, until he realized he was about to lose her again. He briefly considered attacking him when his back was turned, but thought better of it. He wouldn’t get two steps before the lion would be all over him. And what did the Preacher mean by three days? “Is this the flood we heard you’ve been preaching about?” Shechem said.
“It is.”
“Well, all I can say is if it does come, you’ve got the ship built for it.”
“We have to go.” Noah mounted his horse.
“For what it’s worth, Preacher, you should know your father died in Eden five years ago—of natural causes.”
Japheth’s look told his father he had something to say, but remained silent. “I’ll remember your kindness.” Noah said.
His son lifted Elisheva onto the horse and climbed on behind her. He threw Shechem’s sword at his feet.
Shechem watched the three of them and the lion disappear into the darkness. Loneliness descended over him like a bad omen.
* * *
The next day, Shechem arrived at his daughters’ farm without a clue about what he was going to say to them. But he’d seen and heard enough in the past few weeks to justify paying them a visit on his way back to Eden. Methuselah had warned him of a coming flood, something the Preacher had confirmed would begin in another two days. And after what had just happened to his army, he wasn’t nearly so skeptical about things beyond his understanding.
“What happened to you?” Naomi said when her father entered the house. She, Channah, and their husbands gathered around him, their eyes drawn to several blotches of dust and dirt that stained the front of his clothing.
Channah reached to gently touch several cuts on his face. “Who did this?”
“Believe it or not—birds.”
She twisted her mouth. “What kind of birds?”
Shechem raised his arm to reveal the gouges inflicted by the eagle. “Ones with sharp beaks and claws.”
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