“It is.”
“I found it here this morning when I was patching the gouge. I tried to pick it up, but it burned me.” Noah paused, looking intently at Aizarg. “It repelled me much like the ark just repelled you.” Noah placed his large, calloused hand tenderly on Aizarg’s left shoulder. “Do you understand me, Aizarg?”
“We cannot come with you,” Aizarg whispered.
“No. I am sorry. We must all follow the paths God has placed us on.”
A faint rumble sounded in the distance, slowly growing louder. It played at the back of Aizarg’s consciousness, not quite loud enough to draw his full attention.
“Why were we led here if it wasn’t to join you? Why is your god condemning us?” Aizarg tried to control the swirling anger and fear brewing in his heart. “My people cannot survive the coming cataclysm without you.”
“Condemn?” Noah pointed to the ark. “This is the manifestation of my people’s salvation, inspired by God but built with my hands.” He pointed to the staff. “This is the manifestation of your salvation, forged by the finger of God himself! God has surely judged your people and found them worthy of a second chance.”
The hollow rumbling sound grew louder, the sound of approaching wagon wheels.
Once again, Aizarg felt himself staring into the abyss. “My people will perish,” he whispered.
Noah focused beyond the Black Gate. “The Hur-po come to trade. Our time is short.” Noah turned back to Aizarg, expression as resolute as stone. “Did or did not God make a covenant with you?”
Aizarg stared at the ground and didn’t reply. The flood had already poured into his heart and washed away all his hope.
“Aizarg!” Noah shouted and shook Aizarg. The pain startled Aizarg and he looked into Noah’s eyes.
“Did or did not God make a covenant with you?” Noah repeated.
“He did,” Aizarg whispered.
“Then honor it!” Noah shouted. “Keep your promise and He will keep his.” Noah lowered his voice to a whisper. He leaned in close and grasped the back of Aizarg’s head the way a father may when speaking to his son. “Last night God gave me a message for you. He said ‘Cut the anchors to this doomed world and let the waters carry you to the Promised Land.’ That is not a message given to a condemned people.”
Aizarg finally noticed they were not alone. All of Noah’s family stood to their left, along with Sarah and Ezra. Sarah and Ezra were dressed in fresh, heavy wool robes. They carried large packs made of oiled wool with heavy stitching.
Ezra appeared stoic, but Sarah cried.
They know we can’t go with the Narim.
Shem handed another bag, heavy and packed, to Ezra. “This is your bag, Aizarg. Ezra said he would carry it for you. The bags are filled with several weeks of provisions and a spare set of clothes.” Shem smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry about shooting you last night.”
Zedkat spoke quickly as tears welled in her eyes. “Aizarg, There are spare bandages and balm in your pack and...and...I put some loaves of bread in there, too.” She turned and buried her head in Shem’s chest, trying to stifle her sobs.
“Stop it, child!” Noah chastised her. “They are not condemned, but in God’s hands, as are we!”
The rumbling grew louder, echoed off the cliffs, and then ceased.
“Ham...Japheth, prepare to open the inner gate,” Noah commanded. The men walked down the slope to the two towers on each side of the gate. The rest of the group followed, with Noah and Aizarg falling to the rear.
The realization of what was about to happen suddenly dawned on Aizarg.
“The Hur...why are you sending us out into their clutches?”
Noah smiled as if he had a secret. “The sun will rise soon. When the outer gate opens, just keep walking until you pass out of the city gates. The Hur-po will not hinder you, I promise.”
Aizarg looked up at Noah through the corner of his eye.
A loud, deep bell rang from beyond the wall and reverberated off the cliffs. Ham and Japheth stood in front of two large wheels at the base of each tower. A long loop connected the wheels to the rigging in the towers. The men looked to Noah and waited beside the outer wheels.
Ezra and Sarah held hands and faced the wall.
“Good luck, Aizarg of the Lo,” Emzara said and gave Aizarg a light kiss on the cheek. She approached Sarah and Ezra and kissed them lightly, too. The rest of Noah’s family stood around their patriarch.
Aizarg clasped Noah’s hand. “Thank you, Noah. I do not know what your god has in store for us, but I will keep the covenant and try to find hope.”
The patriarch’s hands enveloped Aizarg’s. “He is your God now, Aizarg. Do not forget to pray to him. Prayers and love to God are like fire and ore to the smithy. They are the raw materials with which He forges hope.”
Noah turned to his sons and raised his hand. The men grunted and began to turn the wheels. A cheer went up from beyond the wall.
“Ha!” Noah laughed. “The Hur-po think we are trading gold again.” He looked at Sarah and Aizarg and laughed louder. “Today, I give them silver! Today, I give them Narim!” Noah bellowed.
Aizarg stepped between Sarah and Ezra and held Sarah’s hand. The wheels stopped and Japheth and Ham rested, both out of breath. Beyond the inner gate the rumbling briefly resumed.
The bell rang again.
Noah nodded to his sons. The men turned the wheels in the opposite direction until a loud thud echoed off the canyon walls. The men moved to the inner wheels and began to turn them, but with less effort. The inner gate smoothly swung inward, revealing a large holding area between the two gates. Two enormous wagons sat in the holding area, each heaped with bulging sacks.
Aizarg, Sarah and Ezra stepped forward into the holding area.
“Father, what of the wagons?” Shem asked.
“Leave them,” Noah said.
Aizarg, Sarah and Ezra took one more look back over their shoulder. Daybreak approached the crest of the mountains beyond the ark. Noah and his family waved once more, dwarfed by the backdrop of the giant ark. Noah nodded and the wheels turned again until the patriarch and his family vanished behind the black gate.
Sarah gave a small sniffle. Aizarg squeezed her hand and led them around the wagons until they faced the outer gate.
A deeper, louder bell sounded from within the compound and the cheers went up again from the outside the wall.
“Be strong, children.” Aizarg took a deep breath and placed his hope in the God of the Narim.
My god?
The gate slowly opened inward to reveal a crowd of richly dressed men. Behind them were dozens of nude male slaves, heaving and sweaty with red harness welts across their chests. To either side were warriors and more Hur. All of them leaned around and peered expectantly into the holding area. Cries and gasps suddenly went up. Looks of shock and disbelief rippled through the crowd. A few of the warriors pushed the traders to the side and rushed forward.
“Look at their hair!” a voice shouted. The Hur-po looked at one another with trepidation. “Their hair!” someone else yelled out. “It is as the legends say!” another shouted. Soon, a chorus of shouts cried out, “The Narim! The Narim!”
The sun crested the mountain and Aizarg’s staff caught the sunlight. It reflected the streaming rays and scattered them across the crowd in a dazzling spectrum of red and golden rays. The crowd dropped to their knees and averted their eyes.
All three of them looked at one another and then, without a word, strolled through the open path between the prostrate Hur-po.
Like a wildfire, shouts of “The Narim have emerged!” and “The Narim walk among us!” preceded Aizarg and his company as they made their way down the Cliff Road and into the city. The crowds parted and bowed low before them.
On that morning, a fisherman, a slave girl, and a thief passed unmolested through the City of Gold as gods.
***
Noah stood on the roof of the ark and looked over the Black Wall to Hur-a
r and beyond. Now that he saw the ark for what it truly was, he examined the Black Wall with fresh eyes. He knew a smaller, simpler wall could keep the Hur-po out. It’s true purpose would remain a mystery to be revealed in God’s time.
Noah gazed out at the Kupar Bridge.
The river is wider this morning. The bridge looks besieged.
Building the bridge all those years ago started his journey to this moment. Without it they could not have transported all the lumber across the river. But it, too, was more robust than that task demanded. Noah often contemplated why God wanted it to be so big, so strong.
God is preparing to reveal all his purposes.
To the southwest, far across the steppe, Noah spotted what looked like smoke drifting high into the morning sky.
Shem approached Noah and stood by his side. “Is that smoke on the horizon?”
Noah didn’t answer him. “Did you do what I asked?”
“Yes, Father. The food is loaded. The mine is empty and the walkway has been destroyed as you commanded. The women have moved our belongings into the ark. Shall we enter the ark and close the door?”
Noah thought about the message God instructed him to tell Aizarg. He only told Aizarg half the message, the other half of the message remained for another to deliver.
The Lo shall not be forgotten.
“Father?” Shem asked. “Are we ready to move into the ark?”
Noah clapped Shem on the shoulder and pointed to the dust cloud. “No, my beloved son. Tell your brothers to standby at the gates and tell your mother to prepare for guests...many, many guests!”
***
For seven days and seven nights the creatures of the land gathered in the Valley of the Beasts. They lay about, slept, and drank from the rapidly swelling stream.
Over those seven days, the stream overflowed its banks and soon ran too swift and deep for the animals to cross. Animals that entered the water were pulled under by a demonic undertow of shadowy hands. By the third day, the marshes were submerged and the river became an extension of the Great Sea. The animals trapped on the west bank perished. The east bank became the new shoreline of the sea and the animals remaining there still were legion.
By the sixth day, many of the weaker animals on the east shore were dead. With the last of their strength, they crawled to the edge of the water and died. Black hands slithered out of the water and pulled their carcasses into the depths.
The surviving beasts waited along the shore of the dark ocean. On the red dawn of the eighth day, they stirred. The larger herd of animals and predators lumbered into a great counter-clockwise circle around a solitary hill between the shore and the eastern ridge. Toward the center of the living circle, smaller animals scurried at a faster pace. Above them, birds soared in the same direction; the larger birds to the outside and the smaller birds in tighter spirals near the center. In the innermost center, the flying insects created a buzzing whirlwind spiraling high in the pale morning sky.
And so the living wheel turned and turned throughout the morning.
26. The Raft
Of the ten Nephilim who walked the earth, only my mother repented, but her forgiveness came with a terrible burden.
She would wield the Offering Blade that cleansed the world with blood and water.
The Chronicle of Fu Xi
***
No man directly witnessed the events in the Valley of the Beasts. Nomads observed the dust cloud from miles away as they fled the rising rivers. Already fearful, they dared not approach the Valley of the Beasts. If they had, they might have glimpsed a human-like form visible in the eye of the cyclone of living flesh.
The angel faded in and out of focus like smoke. Her ghostly limbs blurred and faded away, only to reappear again in a spiraling mist within the maelstrom of animals. Sometimes only her burning eyes were visible, like diamonds forged from blue lighting.
As the sun reached its zenith, she stretched out her arm and pointed northeast. At that moment, from the outskirts of the spinning wheel of beasts two elephants emerged, one a magnificent bull, the other a young female. They trundled up the slopes and disappeared over the eastern ridge. Then two rhinoceroses, a male and female, exited the dust cloud and followed the elephants. One after another, animals peeled away from the edge of the circle and formed a long procession to the east. Sometimes they went in pairs, sometimes in groups of seven.
Over the course of the morning and afternoon animals spun off the living circle like thread from the weaver’s wheel. Then, while the sun still had life in the west, hordes of insects and creeping creatures slithered and scuttled away. Finally, the birds and bats went last into the twilight until the procession vanished over the eastern ridge. Yet, most of the animals still marched and soared in the circle. So few departed it did not diminish the clouds of dust.
***
The sun almost crested mid-day when Aizarg, Sarah and Ezra reached the hilltop beyond the bridge. Ghalen and Setenay waited on the crest, as if they knew Aizarg approached.
Aizarg had never been so glad to see Setenay. They embraced and Ghalen slapped his back with a wide grin.
Ghalen considered Ezra. “And who might this be?”
Ezra hung back. Aizarg sensed the boy’s uncertainty.
The old patesi-le grabbed the boy’s chin and turned his head left and right. At first, Ezra brought his hand up to swat her away, but Sarah cleared her throat and gave him a stern glance.
Setenay poked at his ribs and felt his arms. “He is lean and hungry like a swamp fox, but he has a lion’s eyes.” She looked at Sarah. “A prince’s eyes.”
Ezra and Sarah frowned at each other with a surprised expression.
“He is my brother, Setenay,” Sarah said.
“I see.” She looked at Aizarg. “Your family grows surprisingly fast, Uros.”
“There is much I must tell you, Setenay,” Aizarg sighed. “We have so little time.”
“You have seen our fate. I can see it in your eyes,” Setenay said grimly.
“I must tell the men, and then we have to return home as fast as we can.”
“What is our fate?” Ghalen asked cautiously.
“The Narim cannot help us. The rest I will save until I can speak to all of you at once. What of the others?”
“Okta, Levidi and Ood-i stumbled into camp this morning, without Ba-lok and with even worse news,” Ghalen said.
The news of Ba-lok gave Aizarg a sinking feeling.
“Where are they now? Searching for him, I hope.”
“No, Uros.” Ghalen looked about, as if trying to find the right words. “They are west, in the low ground from whence we came. We need to leave immediately. I will tell you everything as we walk.”
***
They descended back into the canyon and walked west for a short time until they crested a small ridge. Aizarg beheld a grim sight.
The Great Sea has followed us. The deluge has begun.
The water stretched to the horizon, dotted with hundreds of tiny islands that used to be ridges and hill tops. Occasionally, chunks of what looked like jagged islands of snow floated by.
Aizarg could only think of his family and his people.
Levidi, Ood-i and Okta were waiting for them. They were stripped down to their loincloths and busily constructing a raft from the driftwood heaped along the shore.
My men look like respectable Lo again, making a raft by the water’s edge.
The men rushed to meet them. They all stood in a circle exchanging hugs and back slaps. Sarah rushed to Ood-i, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. At first he hesitated, and then abandoned himself to her embrace.
Sarah and Ood-i had promised as part of her adoption to break off their affair. Shocked, Aizarg started to say something, but Setenay grabbed his arm and shook her head.
“Let them be. The sun will soon be hidden from our view, let them enjoy what warmth is left to them.”
Levidi squeezed Aizarg so hard his shoulder hurt. �
��I knew you’d come back!” Levidi looked at his sling. “What happened?”
“All in good time.” Aizarg basked in his friend’s affection, thankful they were all together again.
But they weren’t all together.
“Any signs of Ba-lok?” Aizarg asked.
Okta spoke up. “We searched as far north and south as we could before we encountered the rising water. We even entered the Hur Valley and searched its eastern slopes. I’m sorry, Uros. I called off the search to build the raft.
“The water is getting higher by the hour. We’ve had to pull the raft back twice to avoid getting swamped.” Okta poked the raft with his foot. “The water is wickedly cold, just like the Black River.”
“Okta,” Aizarg shook his head. “I think this is the Black River.”
“River or no river, it’s water and a welcome sight. This raft will take us home. Anyway, I’m out of mud weed and I don’t think I can take another infernal day on dry land!”
Okta is happy. He’s making his raft and returning to the water. Even in the face of doom, I find comfort among my people.
Levidi spoke up, “We only have about another hundred or so paces of gentle slope before the water forces us against the ridge. At that point, the raft will get wet, whether we are ready or not.”
“Not to worry, it will be finished by nightfall,” Okta said confidently. “It only lacks a mast. We’ve used up all the good, straight wood on the deck. We’ll have to scout farther up and down the shore for a good candidate.”
“I do not recognize this hardwood,” Ghalen said. “It must come from far upstream, far beyond the g’an.”
“We found st-strange animals among the timber,” Ood-i said
Levidi nodded. “Yes, big hulking monsters like the dead thing we saw several days ago. Some were smaller, with horns sticking out of their heads. All of them were drowned.”
Sarah tested the raft with her foot. “Will it take all of us?”
“Easily, young lady,” Okta beamed. “I’ve been making rafts since I was a boy.”
“Where did you get the rope to tie it all together?” Sarah asked.
Black Sea Gods: Chronicles of Fu Xi Page 35