All Living : A Seedvision Saga (9781621473923)

by Humphrey, Michael C.

  “Oh, what a touching scene between brother and sister,” said Cain, with venom in his breath and thunderclouds on his brow.

  Kesitah took a step forward. “Cain, this is not what you think.”

  “Ah, my perceptive wife, now you know what I think, do you?” Cain spat. “Kole, you should count yourself fortunate not to be burdened with a woman who is always second guessing your thoughts.”

  “Cain,” interjected Kole, “I’m glad you’re here. Kesitah and I were just talking.”

  “Just talking, were you? Do you think me so naive, Brother? I have had conversations before, and rarely do I find myself with my arms around my audience. So, as intriguing as your story sounds, sibling, I have very little interest in conversations that occur between loose women and backstabbing betrayers. You have made your intentions perfectly clear, Kole. You intended to come to my city, seduce my wife, and establish yourself upon the throne of my family.”

  “You have missed the mark, Cain. I had no intentions at all concerning your family. I had hoped to hear you express remorse over the death of our brother and your part in that travesty. I had also come to claim the wife that you had stolen from me.”

  “Stolen?” roared Cain, stepping forward with threatening menace. “So now I am a murderer and a thief? Is that what you think? I assumed you’d be too much of a coward to voice those views aloud. But I see that I have underestimated you, Brother. You are no coward. You are a fool.”

  Kole felt the blood drain from his face. This would not remain a mere talking fight for long. Kesitah cringed in a corner and more of Cain’s men spilled into the room, Enoch and Irad among them. Kole could smell their sweat and sensed the intensity of their hatred.

  “That is my purpose no longer, Cain, I assure you.”

  Cain laughed. “You scare so easily, Brother? I had hoped you would make this a bit more challenging. Enoch, stay here, but send the men outside. Have two of them escort my wife to her chambers. And see to it that she stays put until I deem it necessary to deal with her. My brother and I have some unfinished business to attend to. And be sure the whipping posts are prepared. It seems we will have need of them again today.”

  “You heard Father,” said Enoch. “Get moving.”

  The men filed out of the room, gently prodding Kesitah ahead of them and Cain spun on his heel toward Kole.

  “It would seem, Brother, that you find yourself in a bit of a dilemma, does it not? For your crimes against the city you have earned the privilege of public flogging. However, since you are not a citizen of Enoch, you may elect to have Kesitah take your punishment for you. Her whipping or yours. Or both.”

  Kole felt his blood burn in his mouth as he bit his lip in shock and fury. “You blasphemous dog,” shouted Kole. “You inhuman outrage. Have you forgotten everything good that Father and Mother taught us? Should not a brother and sister, long parted, embrace when reunited? Should not a man and a woman who have loved and lost be allowed a moment to come to peace with the past? Should not two brothers, equally abhorred at the others actions, allow mercy to triumph over judgment? Speak, Cain, and choose wisely. You proudly displayed for me your weights and scales earlier this morning. But now the afternoon has descended and I have taken your measure, Brother, and found you wanting. What possible ballast can you bear to bring balance back to your mind, Cain? I beseech you to seek it quickly, for we stand at the brink of a precipice, and if this matter is pushed, one or the other of us will plummet from it.”

  “Well, on that account, Kole, I wholeheartedly agree with you, but I am chagrinned that you will not address this in the manner of men. Here in the city of Enoch, I teach my children that if something is worth having it’s worth fighting for. Isn’t that right, Enoch?”

  “Yes, Father,” growled Enoch, flashing Kole a toothy smile.

  “So you see, Brother, my son seems to be having a good time at your expense, and if I read him correctly, he believes it is a having worth fighting for. I’ll tell you what, why don’t we add a bit of entertainment to tonight’s festivities. Prior to breaking bread between brothers, perhaps you’d like to test your mettle against Enoch here, with the winner earning a place of honor at the table and the loser going hungry. I will warn you though, Brother, your nephew is tough as old leather, unbeaten… except by me.”

  “I think not,” said Kole.

  “I am disappointed then but not overly surprised. Perhaps you’d rather take my first offer and flee back to Mother’s lap. Your dignity will suffer, but your backside will remain unscathed.”

  “That too is unacceptable,” said Kole patiently. He already knew how the outcome of this encounter would end, but it could not be helped. Cain had a lesson to learn today, and it was long overdue.

  “Well, there is one other option then, Brother, but in light of your negativity, I don’t think you’ll like it.”

  “You seem enchanted by the sound of your own voice, Cain,” said Kole, “I will grant you one more opportunity to hear it. What is this final choice that you have saved for last?”

  “You will stay here Kole, in my city. You will become second only to me in power and authority.”

  Enoch looked up at his father in stunned surprise, but Cain continued without taking notice. “You will, however, have to be taught the laws of the land, but you will forego your punishment and spare Kesitah hers. A very generous offer, if I do say so myself. And all you have to do is kneel before me and swear your allegiance to the city of Cain. You may demonstrate your sincerity, to spare your sister her humiliation and to not go back on your word, with but a single kiss upon my ring.”

  Cain held out his hand. Upon his middle finger was a large, copper ring with a triangular seal. Kole first noticed that Cain’s finger was green beneath the metal, but then he noticed the seal itself. The triangle was made up of three spears, tip to end, with an eye in the middle of them. Kole wondered how many of Cain’s sons had felt that ring with their lips, either when they kissed it in allegiance to his vanity or when he hit them with it for some infraction.

  Kole felt laughter bubbling up inside him. He knew the situation he found himself in held no humor and that laughing at Cain would provoke him to further inanity, but he could not help himself. A memory intruded itself into his mind, and he chuckled before he could stop himself.

  “Remember when we were boys, Cain?” Kole could barely get the words out around his mirth. “Remember the day you challenged me to a rematch of fist, fingers, flathand for the opportunity to sit next to Kesitah at the family meal. You were so sure of yourself. Don’t think I hadn’t seen you practicing, hunkered down in the tall grasses along the riverbank. The look on your face after you lost three times in a row, it was hilarious. Your mouth opening and closing like a fish, your eyes blinking in disbelief. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. And the funny thing was, if you had just told me that’s what you wanted, I’d have moved over. But it was always a competition with you Cain, always going out to take instead of waiting to be given.”

  As Kole paused, he could hear Cain grinding his teeth together. Enoch was looking at his father, a mixture of anger and amusement on his face. Obviously Cain did not tell these sorts of stories around the family’s fire.

  “It seems, Cain, that again you have lost three in a row. I will not run, I will not fight your son, and I will not bow to you or your ring. But there is an obvious alternative, brother, that you have neglected to mention, either intentionally or by narrow mindedness.”

  “And what might that be then, oh wise one?”

  “I will fight you.”

  Cain stood there for a moment in silence, his mind racing for an honorable out. From out of the corner of his eye, Kole noticed Enoch glance his way then back to Cain. Kole waited, guessing the way this was going to go and regretting it. But perhaps it might save years worth of violence and bloodshed between the two hal
ves of his family. That in itself would justify what he was about to do.

  “Nothing would please me more, Kole, than to wipe that arrogant, firstborn smirk off your face. However, I am under the Lord’s protection. The Creator himself has decreed that none, including even you, Brother, is allowed to harm me. Obviously you behold this mark of distinction upon my face. You would be a fool to disregard the Lord’s warning. Heavenly punishment seven times greater than that which Abel received would descend upon you. No, even I would not willingly do that to another human being, Brother. It is my son whom you must fight, but don’t despair, I believe you may have a slight chance at besting him, if you haven’t grown soft over the last hundred years, sitting around in the Lord’s garden petting the furry little animals.”

  Enoch sniggered and Kole raised his eyebrows.

  “It intrigues me how you have twisted the Lord’s meaning, Cain. Abel’s punishment? Are you kidding me? You’re not, are you? You have fully convinced yourself in the veracity of what you are saying. How astonishing. Well, let me clarify a point for you, little Brother. For your sin against God, against our brother Abel, you have been punished. Yet through begging and nagging even you, Cain, the earth’s first murderer, were able to procure a boon from the Creator’s bottomless fountain of mercy. The mark placed upon you, Cain, is no badge of honor, but a warning to those who see you that no vengeance can take place against you for the death of Abel. Let me repeat that, Cain,” said Kole, raising his voice.

  “For the death of Abel alone are you protected from me! I may not kill you based solely on the reason that you killed Abel. Vengeance belongs to the Lord, Cain, but I am not here to avenge Abel nor do I want to kill you. But let me make this one point perfectly clear as well, Brother, there is nothing stopping me from hurting you. Do you hear me? Nothing.”

  Cain swallowed hard, all his bragging and blustering forgotten for the moment. Enoch looked to be deep in thought as if he’d just had some sort of epiphany, and for a moment, Kole felt sorry for Cain. He had raised his boys to fight for anything worth having, and Kole had opened Enoch’s eyes to the fact that his father was not as sacrosanct as Cain had led them to believe. There may be some rough days ahead for Cain, but right now, this day was about to become all the rough he could handle.

  The two men stood still and stared at each other. Enoch, off to the side, was wisely and uncharacteristically silent. Kole’s face was stoic, but clouds drifted across Cain’s features as if his face were nothing more than a placid lake reflecting the shifting sky. Pale thoughts swam through the cold, dark places of his mind, bitter and blind and far removed from the light.

  “You have over-stepped yourself, brother,” said Cain with barely concealed hostility. “You are no longer hidden behind the Lord’s hedge, Kole. You no longer frolic naked among the garden trees eating fruit. You are in my town now, and in case it has slipped your mind, you are surrounded, surrounded by my sons, loyal to me. I could kill you, Brother, and no one would lift a finger to stop me. With a word any one of my children would slit your neck like a yearling, just to please me. They would elbow each other out of the way for the pleasure. You are outnumbered, Kole, and out of time,” said Cain, stepping forward.

  “Step aside, Brother,” stated Kole flatly. “I am not concerned with your sons or your sundials. The time I have left is all the time I will need. The Lord promises no less to every man.”

  “Perhaps that is true, Kole, but did the Lord fail to mention just how short that time really is…for you?”

  Cain’s arms came up suddenly, and he struck Kole as hard as he could in the chest with the palms of both hands. The blow should have been enough to knock the wind out of Kole and send him reeling to the floor. As it was, Kole was ready, and the blunt impact merely knocked him back a step. It was not the result that Cain had hoped for, but it did provide him with just enough time to sweep the copper knife that he had given Kole earlier off the water stand. As Kole regained his balance and took a step forward toward Cain, his brother raised the knife over his head and plunged it down at Kole’s exposed chest.

  Kole was quicker. With his right hand he caught the wrist of Cain’s left arm and stopped the momentum of the deadly weapon. Kole pivoted his body and swung his free hand out and around, his fingers and thumb spread wide. He hit Cain hard in the throat, and the impact lifted Cain off his feet. Kole pressed him up against the wall. Cain’s feet dangled in the air, kicking at Kole’s knees. Kole smashed the hand holding the knife into the wall of bricks until the blade fell to the floor.

  Cain gasped, choked, and struggled for breath as he hung powerless in Kole’s grip, his damaged gullet barely managing to supply the air he needed to stay conscious. Kole sensed a movement behind him, and without taking his eyes off Cain or loosening his hold, he kicked out blindly with his right leg. Enoch had seen Kole turning the tables on his father, and although his mind had been recently forming mutinous ideas, he was not about to let this usurper off the hook.

  He charged Kole, intending to ram into his exposed back with his shoulder, hopefully breaking it and earning his father’s good graces at the same time. It came as a complete surprise then when Kole’s foot lashed out and blasted into his gut. The force of the jolt caused him to nearly bite his tongue in half and sent him sprawling backward. Enoch gurgled on his own blood as his head came in contact with the far wall, and he slumped to the ground, out cold.

  Kole’s eyes were lightning-struck granite as he stared at Cain.

  “Listen to me closely, Cain, before you black out,” said Kole through clenched teeth. “You’re not going to die this day. You will wake up in a few hours with a splitting headache and a very sore throat. This is the last violence I ever expect to take place between the city of Enoch and the camp of our father. I am the new, self-appointed keeper of the peace, and I won’t take the duty lightly. If ever I hear of any violence taking place between your sons and Father’s, I will be back. If you so much as harm a hair on Kesitah’s head in retribution for this day, I will be back. And when I come, nothing you can say or do will prevent me from punishing you for your forgetfulness. But I will not kill you. The Lord has placed a mark upon you that you may live out your days in asperity, and it is not my right to deny you that.

  “However, since you do not seem to understand the opportunity the Creator has given you to seek humility, perhaps you will grasp the threat of shame that I now lay before you. I will keep the knife that you have fashioned for me, and from this day forward it shall be a bond between you and me, Brother. If the merest hint of violence disturbs our newly-formed harmony I will come back with this knife, and I will remove both of your thumbs and big toes. This is your first warning and that will be your second.”

  Cain’s eyes began to roll back in his head, and Kole shook him awake.

  “Any further sign of violence, any additional abuse of these terms, and I will return again, each time taking a small piece of you with me, Brother, until you are no more than a head and a stump. Women and children will flee from the sight of you. Men will cringe in your presence and mock you behind your back. You will become a thing of horror and a byword among all those forced to look upon you. This, it seems, Cain, is the only thing you understand. Do not take these words lightly. You are still a whole man. Count yourself fortunate that my love of our father’s God has stayed my hand. But I will be watching.”

  With that, Kole released Cain, and he fell to the floor in a heap. Kole let out his breath, not so sure that he shouldn’t be ashamed of himself for his words. In a daze he gathered up his pack and the knife that was lying on the floor and opened the door. The men standing in the corridor were confused about what to do. They had heard the commotion in the room but had heard neither Enoch nor Cain summon them to their aid. Kole stepped out into the hall.

  “Your fathers will be needing you now,” said Kole and the men parted. Kole passed through them and had reached the d
oor to the outside when the cry went up.

  “Father Cain has been attacked. Don’t let him escape.”

  Kole stepped out into the bright light of day. The sun was still hot and the city still smelled. Women and children stopped what they were doing to look at him. Kole made no pretense of looking back. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked to the center of the square. He pulled his water bladder out of his pack and was filling it in the fountain when men began to pour out of the buildings.

  Irad limped out of the eyeball building surrounded by other brutal-looking troublemakers. Each one seemed to be carrying some sort of stick or spear or club. Two men helped Enoch hobble out of the side building where Kole had been housed. More men followed them, brandishing various assorted weapons.

  Kole would not run. The Lord had carried him this far and Kole would see this through whatever the outcome. He stood his ground and watched them come. Within seconds he was surrounded by a brooding mob of angry young men. Kole calmly capped his water bottle and put it in his pack.

  “Well,” he said, “do you mean to come at me all at once or one at a time.”

  The men had all kept a safe distance between themselves and Kole, whether from the memory of the display of strength that he had demonstrated when carrying the hrak or because they knew he had just bested their two most experienced and feared leaders. Kole was not a man who could be taken by surprise or quelled by unequal odds. The men it seemed were waiting for a sign. Enoch lurched forward.

  “Let me go. Enough already,” he grunted to the two men assisting him. He spat a bloody glob on the ground at Kole’s feet and looked him in the eye.

  “You are a dead man,” he said. “And you don’t even know it. No one comes to my city and assaults my father and then thinks he can just walk away. There is a price to pay for folly, and your price is your life.”

  “Your father may wish you to reconsider your rash haste,” warned Kole, knowing that Enoch would have no idea what he was talking about. “Had you not been asleep on the floor you would have witnessed the covenant that was made between brothers. How is your head, by the way? Is it feeling better now that your stomach has settled down and your breath has returned?”