by Nancy Madore
Ornias was stunned. “Does Ham know the truth?”
“It would appear that he does not,” replied Og, “as he’s still married to her.” He lapsed into another fit of laughter. “The stories the sons of men will come up with to save face,” he concluded, wiping the tears from his eyes.
Ornias felt Og was a man after his own heart. “Speaking of female companionship…” he began.
“Oh, you’ve come to the right place!” exclaimed Og.
Ornias raised his eyebrows with interest.
“Just go out there…to the temple.” Og pointed to a building that stood out in the distance.
“Women…at a temple?” asked Ornias, wondering if he could actually believe anything the man was telling him.
Og just smiled. “Here,” he said, tossing Ornias a coin.
“What’s this?” asked Ornias.
“Just give any women you see outside the temple that coin and she’ll immediately submit to you,” he said.
Ornias examined the coin and then Og. “Is it a magic coin?”
Og laughed. “In a way, it is,” he said. “It’s the curse of Mylitta, the sacred goddess.” He shrugged. “I know it sounds crazy but when the sons of men get an idea in their head there’s no getting around it. Might as well go along.”
“Who are the women who honor this coin?” Ornias wondered.
“Every woman in the village must honor the sacred goddess once in their lives,” said Og. “It doesn’t matter if she’s a queen or a servant. She must sit outside the temple and prostitute herself to the first man who tosses a coin in her direction. She cannot go home until she has completed the ritual.”
Ornias was astounded.
“Just throw your coin at the woman you want and say, ‘I command thee in the name of Mylitta to submit,” said Og.
Ornias couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Could there really be such a wonderful place as this temple Og described? Perhaps it was a joke Og was playing on him. There was definitely amusement in Og’s expression as he watched Ornias’ face. Ornias recalled the many unpleasant scrapes he’d gotten into listening to similar stories from his brothers. If it seemed too good to be true, it probably was.
“I think I’ll steer clear of this temple of yours,” he said, giving Og back his coin.
This sent Og into another round of raucous laughter. “Then you must come home with me,” said Og, “and meet my family.”
The people of Babili were indeed a strange people. For one thing, they all spoke different languages. This was partly because they had come from all over the world, and partly because the giants were able to change their language at will. Ornias understood the languages well enough, but he was not as quick to speak them, so it was sometimes difficult to communicate with the sons of men. And Babili’s gods were even more numerous than their languages. This was not just a land for giants. It was a haven for anyone not fitting into the stringent mold of the ‘chosen ones.’
The next day Ornias took Og back to the camp with him.
“Og!” he heard a loud voice cry out, long before they reached the camp. He looked up and saw Asmodeous running toward them.
Og was taken aback. “It can’t be,” he whispered.
Asmodeous reached them and the two men embraced.
“How did you manage to survive?” Asmodeous asked him.
“I rode out the storm on the back of the ark of the Others!” Og announced proudly.
“The hell you did,” laughed Asmodeous. Ornias just gaped at his leader in surprise. It was the first time he’d seen Asmodeous laugh.
Og grinned. “Okay, so I talked one of the women on the great ship into hiding me,” he admitted.
Asmodeous laughed again. “That sounds more like it.”
Og suddenly grew somber. He hesitated. “Lilith?” he asked.
Asmodeous turned away from his friend and shook his head.
Og lowered his head and was silent for a long time. When he looked up there were tears on his cheeks. “I can’t believe it,” he croaked.
Ornias watched this exchange with interest. So the name of Asmodeous’ mysterious lover was Lilith. And Og had known her! Ornias was curious to know more.
“How long have you been in Babili?” Asmodeous asked, but he interrupted Og before he could answer. “I have so many questions for you!” Asmodeous paused suddenly to look at Ornias.
“I wasn’t fooling about the temple,” Og told him. “I swear it is the truth.”
Ornias considered this. He supposed he was better off getting pummeled by a pack of angry women than staying here, where Asmodeous was scowling at him. Shrugging, he left the two alone and headed for the temple of Mylitta.
Chapter 20
Ornias tried not to look at her, although like him, she was there every day. He’d already relieved twelve women from the curse of Mylitta, but was quickly becoming ensnared in it himself in the process. He couldn’t seem to stay away from the temple. And it never ceased to surprise him to find so many women still waiting out there. Where were all the men of the village? Didn’t they find this place as enticing as he did? He couldn’t quite believe that it was real and sometimes wondered if it wasn’t just a big joke that the people of Babili were playing on him.
Perhaps the strange young woman he encountered on the front steps of the temple each day was in on the joke. Ornias studied her from the corner of his eye. She was ragged and dusty from all the days spent outside the temple, but she was pretty in spite of that. Her prominent eyes and thick, curly hair seemed to emphasize the delicacy of the rest of her features. But Ornias was disturbed by the way his eyes inevitably sought out, and found, the stump where her left arm should have been.
His loins had once again drawn him to this place, but now something else made him stop beside the young woman with one arm.
“How long have you been out here?” he asked.
“For many months,” she replied, but her voice held no trace of bitterness. It was sweet and clear, like her gaze. “I can’t go back until…,” her voice trailed off.
“It is a strange custom, to be sure,” Ornias observed.
“One that you’re enjoying, I couldn’t help noticing,” said the woman with a little smile.
Ornias blushed. “I’m drawn here like a fly to honey,” he admitted. “What I can’t understand is why there aren’t more men hanging around.”
“It’s mostly an attraction for travelers,” she told him. “The men of our village don’t come unless they’re looking for someone in particular. Most of them have their own concubines.”
“Is it…horrible for you?” he asked.
She just looked at him.
“I’m Ornias,” he said.
“I’m Ninbanda,” she said.
“How did you survive the war?” he wondered.
“On God’s ark, along with the rest of His chosen people,” she said. “Noah is my grandfather.”
“You think God saved your family?” Ornias asked. “The people I came here with were also saved in a large boat.”
Ninbanda appeared to consider this. “Yes, there were other survivors,” she finally agreed. “But my ancestor, Enoch, spoke to God, is that not so?”
Ornias could not deny this. He recalled the Watchers sending angels to plead with Enoch to speak to the Others on their behalf. “So now Enoch’s descendants get the world,” he concluded.
“No one dares dispute it,” she replied. “Not after what just happened.”
“Are the people afraid there will be another war?” asked Ornias.
“No,” replied Ninbanda. “Not a war. But vengeance…if we do not obey the covenant.”
“Tell me more about this covenant,” said Ornias.
“The angels delivered it from the one true God,” she told him. “Like you said, it gives the world to Noah’s descendants. In return, they have to obey God’s commands. And it promises that neither God nor his angels will attack this world again.”
“What happens
if you don’t obey His commands?” asked Ornias.
“We will be punished later…in the next world,” she replied.
This didn’t make sense to Ornias, but he kept his opinions to himself. “Who are these descendants of Noah?” he asked.
“Noah has three sons,” she replied. “Ham, Shem and my father, Japheth. Shem’s descendants have been given the land that is east of here. Japheth was granted the region farthest west and south, and Ham was given much of what lies between.”
Ornias recalled what Og said about Ham. “Tell me,” he said. “What was this sin that Ham committed?”
Ninbanda shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said.
“Does it have anything to do with the giants who dwell here?” he prompted.
“Many think so,” she said. “The giants are said to be the curse that Ham’s sin brought to this land.”
“If your father was given the world that lies southwest of here, why are you still here?” he wondered.
Ninbanda smiled, raising the stump where an arm used to be. “Because I, too, am cursed,” she replied.
“Curse or no,” announced Ornias, “I happen to like it here.”
Ninbanda laughed, and Ornias couldn’t tear his eyes away from her delicate little lips and small, even teeth. He felt lightheaded, suddenly remembering the silver coin in his hand. Without another thought he tossed the coin at her feet.
She looked up at him in surprise.
“I command thee in the name of Mylitta,” he said softly.
*
Ornias brought Ninbanda back to the camp with him that evening so that she could relay all that she knew about the covenant to Asmodeous. She had, after all, witnessed the event first hand. Afterwards, she stayed on at the camp with Ornias. If anyone found her presence odd, they kept it to themselves. Ornias supposed the Anakim were pretty used to his quirkiness by now. It was one of the things that had bonded him to them; that they accepted him for who he was.
For reasons that he couldn’t explain, Ornias felt closer to Ninbanda than any other human being, male or female. It seemed that he could discuss anything with her. He told her things about himself that he hadn’t told anyone else on earth. Her large eyes seemed to understand everything. His desire for her startled him a little, in that it seemed to grow stronger, rather than diminishing. And her love for him was humbling. Eventually—he never quite new how it happened—he found himself tasting her, savoring the luscious warmth of her life’s blood. Just like everything else about her, it brought peace. He sometimes thought he could feel her goodness seeping into him. He regularly read her thoughts—they weren’t trivial, silly thoughts, but exciting, momentous ideas that had the power to change his own thinking. Sometimes it felt as if their souls were one.
The Anakim, meanwhile, spent many hours discussing the covenant and what it meant for them. Asmodeous was intrigued by it. It was a contract, supposedly from God, but delivered by those clandestine angels that called themselves ‘the Others.’ It promised that they would not raise their hands against mankind again. To Asmodeous, this seemed to indicate that the Others had regrets about what they did.
Why create such a covenant? As the ruling body over this universe, the Others hardly needed to apologize for their actions. Were they having second thoughts about the war they had waged on the Watcher angels, and the many innocent lives that had been lost in their attempt to rid the world of their seed? Or was there an even higher power condemning them for what they did?
Was there a God, after all? The Others claimed to be acting on God’s behalf, but how did one really know if this was true? The Watcher angels had acted independently; why not the Others too?
The Others had set out to cleanse the earth of the Nephilim race. But the Nephilim race had survived. Only now they were calling them a ‘curse,’ and claiming that they came about through the sins of man. What did it all mean?
Perhaps the war had accomplished what the Others set out to do after all. With the Watchers trapped in the abyss, no more first generation giants would be produced. With each successive generation, the giants would grow smaller, weaker—and more human. At some point, they would actually become fully human—even following the other human souls to the designated place in death. That left only a limited number of Nephilim souls remaining on earth, for the vast majority of them had been captured in the war and forever trapped in the dark place.
There was something else too. Asmodeous and the other giants couldn’t help noticing a significant shift in values among of the sons of men. Before the war, they seemed fixated on finding gods here, on earth. Now, their obsession turned toward what lay beyond this earth; a new, perfect world, that was waiting for them, like a reward. That was where they would find the one true God. Despite the covenant protecting their earth, the sons of men began pining after the ‘end of the world.’ And it appeared that the Others were encouraging this. In their many messages and directives, they seemed to be foretelling the end of the world—even as they vowed that it would not come at their hand.
The powerful hand of the Others had been stayed. They would not destroy this world. Yet they predicted that that destruction would nevertheless come, and even implied that through it, they, or God, would regain control over the souls of man.
Had someone—someone with even more power than the Others—forbade further interference unless, say, it became absolutely necessary? Until, in fact, they were approaching the proverbial ‘end of the world?’
This end of the world scenario seemed unlikely to come at the hands of men, especially considering all that it had endured at the hands of angels. Yet, since the war, the sons of men seemed even more unreasonable and destructive. As Asmodeous watched them dividing up the lands, he could see them separating, isolating themselves, becoming even more intolerant of each other. Was this just the nature of man? Or was it the influence of the Others?
There was one group in particular that was especially disturbing to Asmodeous. They were the descendants of Noah’s eldest son, Shem, who called themselves the Eberites. They were becoming a surprisingly powerful influence—surprising, because they were nomads, going where they wished with impunity and proclaiming a disturbing message of gloom and doom that they insisted came straight from God Himself. Many saw them as opportunists, determined to lay claim on the entire world instead of being content with their share of the spoils (for why not just take the land that they were given in the covenant?). Most people considered them harmless—and even laughable. They were, after all, completely disorganized and wanderers, with no means for acquiring wealth or power. But Asmodeous didn’t trust them. He was convinced that the Others were using them to do the work that they, themselves, had been forbidden from doing.
And this gave Asmodeous an idea. The Qliphoth, too, might influence the events of this new world. But they had to tread lightly. Blatant domination of the sons of men would only provoke the Others. Asmodeous didn’t want to attract their attention again. With the Others’ hands now tied by the covenant, the Qliphoth had a fighting chance. Like the Others, they would use the sons of men to accomplish their goals. If there was one endearing quality about the sons of men, it was that they were easy to manipulate.
“We’re going home,” Asmodeous announced. “We will confront this young Canaan and get back our land.” He and Og exchanged grins.
“Canaan—the son of Ham?” inquired an anxious voice from the crowd. By now, everyone had heard of the covenant.
“No,” interjected Og with a satisfied gleam in his eye, “the son of Og!”
Chapter 21
Present day
Long Island, New York
“You’re his daughter!” Ornias announced suddenly, as if he’d just solved a riddle he’d been pondering for a while.
Nadia was jerked back to the present. She was too stunned to reply, but then remembered that she wasn’t permitted to reply, anyway.
Ornias’ expression seemed to soften. “He was a great leader,” he said
sincerely. “Greater even—dare I say it?—than the Others would be, given the chance they so covet. Asmodeous envisions a world where Qliphoth and the sons of men live together in peace. I don’t think the Others can make the same claim…do you?” He spoke quietly, but his words had an enormous impact on Nadia. Her chest felt so full that it was all she could do just to breathe.
She felt Will’s hand on her arm and fought the urge shake it off. “Gordon…” she heard him say, “let’s wrap this up.”
“Are you okay?” Gordon asked. She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
“I just have a few more questions then,” said Gordon, turning back to Ornias. “So…I take it the Anakim got Kiriath Arba back,” he began.
“Yes,” replied Ornias. “We reclaimed Kiriath Arba, and the various other tribes of giants took over other parts of Canaan. Let’s see, there were the Zidonians northwest of us, and the Hittites, barely a stone’s throw away. The Jebusites were over near Jerusalem, and the Ammorites settled all along the Jordan. Girgashites and Hivites were scattered in between. Canaan might have been a cursed land, but those were good years for us giants. We were happy.
“The descendants of Ham—or Og, as they really were—were a peaceful lot. Our world was so tranquil that the sons of men came there to get away from the constant fighting that existed everywhere else. We took in many of Shem’s and Japheth’s descendants and provided a safe environment for them to live in.
“Those were pleasant years. But the sons of men were plotting against us. The Eberites—or Hebrews, as they later came to be called—had disappeared for a while, but suddenly they returned in even greater numbers. Everyone still thought they were harmless. But they were smart—they were the world’s first sages and archaeologists. They had collected all the secrets that had been buried before the war, you see. They found everything…though we wouldn’t realize it until many years later.”