by Brian Godawa
Methuselah lifted his face to Lamech. His eyes were red with tears, his face flush with revelation. Everything in Methuselah’s life came clear in that one instant.
Methuselah took the pot of stew and ate like a hungry dog. He would need his strength.
Chapter 47
She had done it. Inanna had pushed her warrior horde at an unprecedented pace. In three days, they had gone over one hundred and thirty leagues, an unrivaled achievement of Nephilim endurance. However, her glorious fortitude had taken its toll.
“We must slow down, Inanna,” Enki complained in their command tent. “We have lost two thousand warriors to exhaustion and dehydration.”
“They were the weakest,” said Inanna. “More food for the strong.”
Utu jumped in. “The numbers of deaths will rise exponentially if we continue at this rate. Even Nephilim have their limits, and we are perilously close to it.”
They were within sixty-five leagues of Lake Urimiya, on the west perimeter of the Garden.
“We will be at our destination in one more day,” she said.
It shocked Enki. “Are you out of your mind? You want to take the last sixty-five leagues in one day?!”
Inanna’s eyes narrowed like a dragon about to strike. “Are you challenging my authority, General Enki?”
Enki backed down. Insubordination was punished by binding in the earth, a fate worse than death for a Watcher.
He softened his argument. “It will do us no good if we make it to Eden in record time, with a demoralized and exhausted army at a fraction of their fighting strength. It is suicide.”
“For Anu’s sake,” said Utu, “at least give the soldiers a half-day’s extra rest.” They were within minutes of trumpet’s call to march.
Inanna stared at them with incredulity.
Utu clapped his hands. The eleven Rephaim generals entered the tent and stood to attention. Thamaq and the limping Yahipan were among them.
Utu ordered them, “Report on the morale.”
Thamaq said, “My lord, there are whisperings of mutiny in some quarters.”
Inanna thought about it. She strode past the Rephaim. She spotted Yahipan with recognition. “Hobbler here is keeping up, why cannot everyone else?”
Yahipan gritted his teeth. On the one hand, his handicap was singled out again, but on the other hand, he clearly impressed Inanna. Now, if he could only find another way to shine like a star.
“Give the horde an extra hour of sleep,” said Inanna.
She thought to herself, Am I being too weak?
“We need to be to Lake Urimiya by nightfall tomorrow. Then they can have a few day’s rest before battle.”
“Yes, Queen of heaven,” said Utu. He raced outside to make sure the trumpet call would be delayed.
“And for my sake,” said Inanna, “track down these mutinous whisperers and execute them.”
Yahipan saw his opportunity and stepped forward. “Yes, Supreme Commander. I will rout them out before sunrise.”
Inanna stopped her pacing and noticed Yahipan again. She turned to the other Rephaim. “You see this will? If the rest of you had half the will of this invalid, we would be unstoppable.”
Yahipan bowed and left the tent on his mission. He wondered whether her comments would raise him up or keep him singled out as pitiful.
Inanna had no intention of giving the Nephilim a few days rest when they arrived. They would need a full day just to build their pontoons for crossing the lake. She would throw numbers at the enemy to overwhelm them. Tens of thousands of weakened Nephilim were still too many for the Cherubim to withstand. Nephilim were expendable and Cherubim were not invulnerable.
She knew the Cherubim well, their strengths, their weaknesses, and their numbers. Only several hundred of them were scattered around the perimeter. She would split her forces. The Western army would build pontoons as the Southern army travelled around the shore to mount a flank attack from the mountainous region in the south.
The Garden was walled by the Savalan mountain range in the north, the Sahand in the south, and by the huge Lake Urimiya on the west. The only opening into the valley lay in the East, where the dominant Cherubim forces stood guard. When they discovered the Nephilim army arriving on the lake, they would split their forces between east and west. They would not be expecting a flanking attack from the mountainous southern region. The huge volcanic chain of the Sahand was precipitous to climb and therefore an unexpected entry point for a raid.
The Cherubim were not experienced in fighting angelic/human hybrids. Humans they could slaughter easily enough with their flaming whirling swords, but Nephilim were a crossbreed. The forces needed to combat the angelic half of the Nephilim were the angels who were now busily held up in heavenly legal procedures.
The Nephilim would have to rise to the occasion. Inanna did not know how much longer the satan could keep the heavenly council embroiled in his lawsuit. It was a diversion made in heaven. God and all his heavenly host, because of their despicable dedication to righteousness would give their full attention and presence to due process of law. In doing so, they would not be available to defend the Garden when it was attacked. She had split the enemy’s forces and cut them off from their Commander in Chief, that loathsome tyrant from above.
She thought of cutting in half the extra time she gave the Nephilim to sleep. Beneficence was one of the demands on deity she detested.
Chapter 48
Lamech and Betenos had prayed for Elohim to deliver them. Awan and several villagers watched them like guard dogs the entire day. They fed them well. Methuselah considered that a mistake, because regardless of how “plumped up” Cain thought they were, they were also renewed in their strength and readied in their resolve to fight back if they had a chance.
Methuselah watched the sun go down. He asked Awan, “Where is the wolf pack that accompanied Cain in our capture? I have not seen them in the camp.”
“They only come out at night,” said Awan, with a hint of dark delight.
Betenos wondered whether Cain planned on sharing his meal with those canine allies.
Awan watched Betenos with a cocked head, trying to read her lips moving in prayer.
“Where is your god?” said Awan.
Betenos stared back without fear. “He is in the heavens and he does as he pleases.”
“Evidently, he does not appear pleased with you,” said Awan.
“Our God is able to deliver us,” said Betenos. “But even if he does not, we do not fear you who can destroy the body, but rather Him who can destroy both body and soul in Sheol.”
“My god will consume your body and soul,” said Awan. “So I doubt there will be anything left over for yours.”
They turned to see Cain walking toward them in the darkness, like a phantom.
Awan said, “Here comes my god, now.” She and the other guards got up and left the captives alone with Cain.
“How goes the seed of the Woman?” asked Cain with a lighthearted tone of irony. “I had a good day’s sleep, and I am famished.”
Methuselah glanced at Lamech and Betenos. There was no way he would let anything happen to his son and daughter-in-law. But the only problem was that he was entirely at the mercy of this monster. He was in no position to save anyone.
The silhouette of an Anzu bird suddenly fell across the bright blood red moon. It came right toward them. It landed in the village which now looked strangely empty of people. It had become a ghost village.
Where had all the people gone? wondered Methuselah.
Cain turned to see the thunderbird and whistled.
From out of the darkness came six very large wolves. The raven-black she-wolf came up to Cain. He gave it a look that Methuselah saw was more than master or owner. Then Cain went to meet the Anzu bird in the distance.
The wolves circled the captives and watched them with hungry attention.
Methuselah looked into the eyes of the black she-wolf. In that moment, he knew where all
the people had gone. Those were the eyes of Awan, the black-haired wife of Cain. These wolves must be the human villagers transformed into canine beasts of the night. It started to make sense. Awan’s allusions, the disappearing wolves and now the disappearing villagers.
Methuselah glanced at Lamech and Betenos. They appeared to have had the same revelation.
Lamech whispered, “What black art is this? Does Cain know the secrets of the Watchers as well?”
The She-wolf growled menacingly and stepped closer to Lamech. He promptly shut up.
Cain came back to them. He spoke hastily, “I have some important business to attend to. I am afraid I will be gone for the evening.”
The wolves looked up at him as if they understood his every word. He turned to Methuselah.
“Do not worry, they will not be eating you after all. Not tonight.” Then Cain ran back to the Anzu bird. He climbed on it and it flew off like a bat out of Sheol.
The wolves turned their attention back to the hostages and stood watch as sentinels.
Lamech hoped Cain was not exaggerating with that last remark about not being eaten tonight.
Betenos was not as certain that these voracious carnivores would be able to exercise such self-control until their master got back.
Methuselah had seen real concern on Cain’s face after he had received the correspondence attached to the Anzu bird. Something was not going right with Cain’s plans, and that gave Methuselah just the edge he had been praying for.
He had begun praying again.
Chapter 49
The heavenly court reconvened for the satan’s litigation against the third part of God’s covenant with humanity. He took the bar and spoke with the particular disdain he had for rules.
“Ethical stipulations,” he said. “The laws required by the suzerain of the subject if he is to maintain his status as protected vassal before his lord.”
The satan launched into a new diatribe. “In this most primitive of law codes in the Garden, Havah was told by Elohim, and I quote, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge you shall not eat, neither shall you touch it, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”
The satan paced around shaking his head with ridicule. “We will have much to say about this curse of death in our fourth complaint. But for now, we would like to focus on this silly demand that humankind stay mired in unenlightened ignorance by submission to an impossible command. I ask the court, did Elohim actually say this? Could his childish motives be any more obvious?”
“Now, I have said this before, and I will say it again, this whole thing is a set-up by a god who is spiteful, mean, obsessively jealous, and self-protective. He wanted to keep humanity from becoming like us — from becoming gods. Elohim must have known that knowledge would allow man to control his own life and to discover all the secrets of the universe, and well, we just cannot allow that kind of competition, can we?”
The satan paused for effect. His cohorts smiled at the progress, but the heavenly host sat unmoved. He delivered his conclusion, “I submit to you that Elohim’s covenant is not the legal treaty of a suzerain protecting his servant, it is the declaration of a monomaniac oppressing his servant, and protecting himself from being outdone by his own creation!”
The satan sat down.
Enoch stood. He carried with him a tablet and dove right into his rebuttal. “The testimony we have just heard from the satan has several half-truths in it, or as I would more accurately define them, lies.”
Enoch read from the clay tablet in his hand. “Yahweh Elohim did not say that the couple could not touch the tree, he said that they could not eat of it. That is an exaggeration of the command to make the Creator appear excessive and overbearing. Secondly, it was not ‘the tree of knowledge’ that was forbidden, it was the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ Yahweh Elohim was not forbidding knowledge to humanity, he was commanding reliance upon him as their ultimate authority to define good and evil. And we are right back to ultimate authorities that I spoke of earlier. Yahweh Elohim is the only ground of morality that can justify the satan’s own attack on morality.”
Enoch paused for a moment in thought, then said, “It would not surprise me if one day, the serpent will have effectively convinced the masses with more of these kinds of distortions. I can imagine him twisting the ‘forbidden fruit’ into sex, and turning Yahweh Elohim into a cosmic killjoy prude who just wants to keep people from having fun.”
Enoch launched into his conclusion, “No, the forbidden fruit is the essence of freedom. The satan would have us believe that boundaries of protection are restrictions of oppression; that rules repress human potential and laws take away freedom. He and his Watchers argue that freedom is the ability to do whatever one wants without an external code imposed upon them. Let each man be a law unto himself. Yet, look around the earth below to see the consequences of such ideas. Humans have achieved the self-determination from the knowledge of good and evil and in so doing have become slaves to their own lusts. Prisoners of their desire. They claim to be free, but they are everywhere in chains of their own making. Only in the boundaries of a loving Creator can humanity be free. Is a fish out of the water free? Is a bird out of the sky free? Only in fulfilling our god-given purpose can mankind experience the liberty of obedience. Disobedience is not enlightenment, it is pure blindness; it is not freedom, it is slavery.”
Enoch stood for a moment as his words sank into his own soul. He realized that he had fought God’s purpose for himself so many years — that he prayed when he should have fought, fought when he should have prayed, and pursued the ultimate sin of spiritual pride.
Enoch fell to his knees and wept in repentance before Yahweh Elohim.
Chapter 50
In the early morning, the Nephilim horde arrived at their beachhead destination in the mountains on the edge of the vast Lake Urimiya. Inanna allowed them a few hours rest. Utu had been wrong. They did not lose exponential numbers of warriors in the final push toward Aratta. They only lost five thousand total gimps and weaklings to the extreme running march. That left her with about twenty five thousand Nephilim fit warriors, plenty of fodder to accomplish her goal.
She employed thirteen thousand in cutting down trees and building pontoon rafts to cross the great lake. The other twelve thousand, she sent thirty leagues around the lake to the volcanic fields of Sahand. They prepared to climb the rocky face of the mountain for an incursion on the south of the Garden simultaneous with the amphibious landing in the west. Their attack would launch at midnight when the moon was high in the sky, allowing them enough darkness for cover, enough light for battle.
She noticed that some of the trees had been carved and used to impale a host of about twenty Nephilim in the sight of all. These were the “mutinous whisperers” that Hobbler had hunted down and punished. It was a pathetic indication that a cripple could be more loyal than the other Rephaim generals who seemed to prefer ordering others around.
The undead Cain arrived the night before on an Anzu bird. Ohyah and Hahyah had heard through their officers that Inanna did not know exactly where the Tree of Life was located in the Garden, having only rumors and legends to go by. The twin giants had relayed to the goddess their connection with the Cursed One. They were allowed to send one of their thunderbirds to fetch him. Cain’s knowledge from his parents of the Garden and the location of the Tree of Life could be just the intelligence she needed to strike with a more accurate ferocity.
Because of his nefarious reputation, Cain was awarded admission to the presence of the goddess and her Rephaim generals. Inanna knew that any enemy of Elohim was an ally of hers.
But Cain brought with him another idea that would prove of inestimable value for her. The rock face of the Sahand on the interior of the Garden was precipitous. The sheer cliffs would severely impede the attackers’ ability to attack with swift surprise.
Cain shared with Inanna an invention he had developed
to traverse the heights of his own mountainous paradise. By sewing together cloths and animal skins into large “sails” five times the size of an individual, they could create a traveling source for each individual warrior. When grasped through some ropes the skins would allow them to jump from the great height and “sail” a pocket of wind down quickly and safely. It would delay them a few hours to construct these “sail chutes,” but it was an ingenious invention.
They buried Cain in the ground according to his request, to avoid the light of day that was dawning on them. If exposed to the sun, he would burn up into ashes as a consequence of his curse. At nightfall, he would be allowed to return to his Hidden Valley on one of the Anzu birds. It was a great loss to give up one of their six thunderbirds, for they were crucial to their air strike, but it was worth it to Inanna. Cain’s information might actually help them win the war on Eden. She could use this Cursed One in her new administration — or kill him as a potential usurper.
Inanna performed a valuable service to her cause by apologizing to the troops.
She gathered the horde to speak to them before their Rephaim leaders set out. They assembled around the clear-cut tree stumps. She spoke to them with her amplified voice of divinity.