by Summer Lee
He reddened. “Of course, my queen. Then again, you also carry our future king.”
Kenana studied the big man who had a forlorn look about him, with jowls hanging like those of an old hunting dog. However, he was not an old dog himself; Kenana knew the man to be brave and fierce in battle. He had proven himself loyal and respectful, a man of surprising insight and depth. His blush deepened under her close scrutiny. He averted his eyes.
“How do you know the child will be king, Captain?” she asked. “Perhaps the child will be the once desired and future queen.”
“With all due respect, I have never seen a belly as large as yours. He is a boy if ever there was one.”
“Is it that obvious, Captain?”
Somehow, his blush turned nearly purple. Kenana thought if she looked hard enough, she could see wisps of steam rise from his face.
“Perhaps it is only my imagination,” he said.
Kenana found herself rubbing her belly. “No,” she heard herself saying. “I think you might be right. I have always thought it would be a boy.”
“Sometimes, you just know,” he said.
“Sometimes,” said Kenana. “Good evening, captain.”
“Good evening, my queen.”
*
Kenana made her way carefully up the wide stone steps to the palace door—this time taking the captain’s advice and accepting the help of the elderly manservant.
There’s no reason to deny myself assistance, she thought. I’m as big as a stable door. I really do need help!
Servants of every age, shape and size filled the palace. As she waddled briskly, they all bowed deeply. She smiled politely at each, although she understood that the prior queen had all but ignored the servants and slaves, treating them like dogs and swine. Kenana was raised to be polite, raised to respect her elders, and raised to show mercy and kindness to those less fortunate. All of those lessons could be applied a thousand-fold to her new lifestyle as Queen as Adah. Besides, she liked to smile, and she was certain that those around her appreciated the effort.
Smiling brightens any room, she thought, even this cold fortress of a home.
It felt even colder knowing that her friends were not near. Nine months ago, in Egypt, Kenana had set free her three servants. Sarah, Tall and Asher were all dear friends. Especially Asher, who had turned out to be much more than a friend.
Goodness, much more!
Indeed, Asher was a Goel, a man born with the protective powers of Heaven. A true guardian angel in the flesh. Her guardian angel.
At the time, setting free her three favorite servants had brought a tremendous joy to Kenana’s heart. She had always treated them like friends—for truly, they were her best of friends—and they had rejoiced in their freedom. It had been the first such freedom they had ever had.
Obtaining complete independence had allowed her lanky field hand, Tall, to go out into the world in search of his roots. That had been eight months ago and he had yet to return. Of course, he had taken his future bride Sarah with him, who just happened to be Kenana’s closest and dearest friend.
Kenana sighed, missing her dear friend to the point of tears.
Not long after her return to Adah, Asher himself left in search of his own place of origin. That had been hardest of all. She loved Asher with all her heart.
Now, she was alone, or more accurately, without friends. And she was supposed to be in mourning for a year, eschewing cheerful events and wearing modest dreary clothing.
She still had her two trusted field hands, Gauss and Bo. Both were still here and both were loyal to a fault. Still, loyalty and friendship were not the same. She appreciated the loyalty but craved the friendship.
Trailed by a small line of servant girls, Kenana continued through the massive edifice, past room after room. Guards stood at attention throughout the palace. She smiled at each of them, although they were less likely to respond, which was just as well. A distracted guard was not a good guard.
At the door to her massive bedchamber, a tall guard nodded simply and opened it for her. Kenana entered, and the young girls followed quietly behind.
Once inside, Kenana surveyed the massive bedchamber, complete with furs and a raised bed fit for a queen.
Now the room was empty, and so was her heart.
She had never had friendships that matched what she had with Asher, Tall and Sarah—friendships that had been fortified by her travels abroad last year. She smiled as she remembered how she and Sarah had frolicked over the hills together in Zoan, Egypt.
If Kenana had had a selfish bone in her body, she would not have released them; indeed, she would have insisted they serve her forever. Neither could she deny them their freedom, but she had never suspected just how lonely she would become without them.
El was putting it on her heart to free Gauss and Bo, but she didn’t know if she could bear it without them. Plus, having them here gave her a measure of safety that was beyond the loyalty of the soldiers. They were from her home, knew her, and cared about her. In a world where she now had to be careful about getting murdered by Ham, it was good to have them as protectors.
Kenana sat heavily before a hammered metal mirror as one of the servant girls worked a bone comb through her long hair, making a subdued hair arrangement that suited a new widow. She blinked back the tears. There had to be a way of finding love again. She was determined in her heart to search for it, someday. Yes, someday, she would find love again.
But for now, for a year, she would be in mourning before she could even think of marrying again.
And of course, she had a child to deliver. She hoped for the best.
Chapter Four
The wind was restless.
It whistled over her balcony railing and howled through the nearby trees. Kenana, restless herself, slid out of bed and through the wide double doors and out onto the stone balcony, itself drenched in silver light from the full moon above. The wind pulled at her freshly brushed hair, whipping it into a rippling flag.
Little Tiara will be upset that all her hard work had been for naught, Kenana thought with a small grin, remembering how the servant girl had worked diligently on her hair.
Her eyes were drawn to the copse of olive trees just beyond her balcony, all of which were swaying hypnotically, their leaves rustling, branches groaning. Moonlight cast the palace gardens into enchanting shades of silver and white. She embraced it with tenderness and joy. Even though she was desperately lonely, the palace was a beautiful place and so were the grounds. She still marveled that it was now hers.
Kenana had always been mesmerized by the wind. She believed with certainty that it was sent by El to thrill her soul. She believed it had various ways of enticing her. She loved the sound of it, the haunting call of it, and the restless, unexpected nature of it.
The freedom.
Blow me away, oh wind. Take me up with you and show me the heavens. Give me strength and courage.
And then, for one startling moment, she thought she saw a man standing there beneath the swaying limbs. Kenana blinked and leaned forward over the stone balcony, her rotund belly resting on the ledge. The wind picked up again, whipping at her robe and hair angrily. The tree swayed violently.
Kenana pulled her robe tighter, staring into the silver-drenched darkness. She knew of no reason why one of her servants would be out in the darkness at this time of night, in this terrible storm. It was her guess that they were all huddled in the servants’ quarters, scared stiff of whatever portent or omen they thought was carried on this unusual wind.
In that instant, from a particularly malevolent gust, one of the olive tree’s larger limbs snapped off and crashed to the ground.
Kenana gasped and covered her mouth. Whoever was out there was surely gone now. Or maybe no one was really there. Had she had made it up? After all, wasn’t she known for her flights of fancy? Indeed, but her fantasies sometimes turned into reality, as had been the case with the fallen angel, Malluch. That angel had been
totally deceptive. He had fooled her completely to the point that she had fallen in love with him. Well, maybe.
Yet, the Nephilim were certainly no fantasy.
They were a reality in this world. The Nephilim, those giants that roamed the Earth, born of human women but sired by fallen angels, were quite real.
Kenana had had her run-in with such creatures in the recent past, creatures who wanted her dead. Because of her marriage to Prince Jubal, a marriage that had united two warring clans, the Nephilim had vowed to destroy the union, and thus, destroy her.
Two warring tribes: the Sethites and the Cainites, had been at odds since the days of Adam and Eve. The descendants of Cain often hired the Nephilim to do their dirty work and kill off the descendants of Seth. One oversized giant, Nod, had literally chased Kenana all over Egypt when she had gone there a year ago to sell her husband’s wares.
Yet, Asher, her brave manservant, had proven himself to be much more than just a manservant. Nod would have killed her while she was away from home if Asher had not been there to rescue her. Indeed, more than once, he had proven to be her savior.
Kenana’s love for Malluch was flimsy compared to the feelings she had deep in her heart for Asher. At least, that was how she now felt about Asher.
Asher, I wish you were here with me now.
Chapter Five
Too upset to sleep, Kenana asked a maidservant to bring her a bowl of soup. Shortly, the young maiden set the steaming broth down on the bedside table and departed with a small curtsy. No sooner had Kenana picked up the bowl and blown gently on the steaming contents when a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky outside the window, followed by a booming clap of thunder.
Kenana gasped and nearly spilled her soup. She set the clay bowl down and dashed to her balcony once again.
There, she received an unexpected surprise. A drop of water fell from the sky, landing heavily on her forehead, splashing into her eyes. Water from the heavens.
Rain?
According to her grandfather who was the great prophet, Enoch, a massive canopy of clouds protected the Earth. He called it the ring of ice. According to her grandfather, who claimed to have received this information from El on High, this ice ring saturated the world with enough water for all plants and animals and humans combined. Rain from the heavens was not a necessity. Again, this made little sense to Kenana, who, like all of Mesopotamia and, for that matter, the rest of the known world, had known little of rain, and did not understand how or why it occurred. According to her grandfather, as revealed by El above, the ice ring also stabilized the weather and climate. There were no extremes of heat and cold.
“But this shall end soon,” warned her grandfather so long ago, as she and the rest of the grandchildren had sat by the campfire. “Someday soon, the heavens will be rent open and there will be a great deluge and a deep curse shall fall upon the land, followed by great torment and suffering and gnashing of teeth.”
Some of the children had started crying at the terrible prophecy. Kenana had not cried, but try as she might, she could not imagine water just falling from the heavens.
“But how will we know when this day comes, Grandfather?” asked one of Kenana’s older cousins, a gentle boy named Lamech.
“Rain,” Enoch had answered. “It is called rain. And it will begin with a single drop of water falling free from the heavens. Powerful winds will cause ocean waters to engulf the seashores. Then the waters from the Earth will rise and fall on the land, destroying all in its path.”
Now standing on her balcony, Kenana watched as several small animals scurried up trees and dashed across the palace grounds.
Another drop of water fell, landing wetly on the back of her hand. Water from the heavens!
Rain.
Had the curse begun?
Kenana pulled her cloak about her tighter. Fear suddenly gripped her. Indeed, she had not known such fear for a long time.
Yes, she needed Asher. Where was that insufferable man? She did not want to be alone, not now, not with the curse falling from the heavens—
Just then, an excruciating pain ripped through her lower abdomen. The strange storm had upset the baby—or perhaps it was choosing this wild moment to come into the world.
Kenana leaned on the railing, gasping and holding her belly.
Water continued falling from the sky. It hit the back of her neck, sending shivers through her hot body.
Still holding her belly, Kenana looked into the heavens. Black churning clouds claimed the night sky across the entire horizon.
What was happening?
Fear surged through her body. She tried to converse with El in her heart, but no words were there. No one could tell her what the storm meant.
Kenana, in all of her twenty summers, had never seen such an atmospheric phenomenon. And still, the rains came. Harder and harder. Pounding on the roof. Sounding to her like the march of ten thousand angry soldiers, bent on destroying her and all that she had ever known.
“Asher, where are you?”
More lightning blazed across the sky, illuminating the wide balcony. Kenana had never seen anything like this before, and she found herself shaking with fear. Wrapping herself tightly in her cloak, she watched the unprecedented storm with fascination and horror, until finally it subsided and the sound of the marching soldiers retreated.
The clouds were still heavy outside, but the rain had slowed to a light sprinkle. Kenana breathed a sigh of relief and stepped back into her room, still holding her aching belly.
She sat carefully on the edge of a cushioned chair and sipped her now-cold soup with shaking hands.
Kenana could not shake the feeling that she was witnessing the beginning of the end of the world. Would it continue to rain until her house was covered with the rain? No, she thought, El would surely give a warning first.
Alone, the Queen wept.
Chapter Six
Kenana slept fitfully that night, dreaming of rain and floods and one massive ship riding high on the waves. A ship that appeared to be full of animals.
The dream shifted and she dreamed of the ship she and her friends had taken to Egypt. For a moment, the four of them laughed and danced together on the deck, but then the face of Malluch the fallen angel appeared before her face, and she was out on the mountain where he had forced himself on her. She screamed, jerked and awakened with a gasp.
Instantly, there was a knock at her bedchamber door and Kenana’s heart skipped a beat. She sat up—momentarily confused. Sunlight streamed into her bedchamber, pouring through delicate lace curtains.
There was another knock, this time followed by the voice of her favorite maidservant, Ruthie, asking permission to come in. Kenana liked the young girl, but no one compared to Sarah, who turned out to be a wonderful friend. Kenana told her to enter.
The door opened and the young girl, flushed with embarrassment, stepped through the door, her head bowed low.
“Please stand, Ruthie,” said Kenana.
“Yes, my queen.” She did, although she still looked down.
“Who is here to see me?”
“His lordship, Prince Gad. He says it is urgent.”
Kenana remembered now. Prince Gad had asked to see her.
“I shall be down shortly.”
Ruthie bowed again. “Yes, my queen.”
“And Ruthie?”
“Yes, my lady?”
“For El’s sake, let’s keep the bowing to a minimum.”
She bowed again. “Yes, my lady.”
Kenana laughed and sat up. “Off you go.”
Relieved, the young servant was gone in a blink. Kenana had tried to break her servants’ and slaves’ addiction to bowing, but the ritual was too deeply ingrained. It made her feel awkward.
Soon, another servant girl was working Kenana’s long hair with a bristle and bone comb. Kenana’s sleep had apparently been quite restless, for her hair was snarled in knots. The servant girl worked furiously untangling it, apologizing pr
ofusely with each tug. Kenana gave up asking her to stop apologizing.
Finally, dressed in acceptable modest widow’s garments, Kenana followed Ruthie down the long hallway and down the curving flight of stairs. There, sitting by the massive hearth, was her deceased husband’s youngest son, the very handsome Prince Gad.
He does not look like Prince Jubal, thought Kenana. Thank El!
“Hello, my queen,” he said, rising gracefully. He strode to meet her and took her proffered hand, bowing to place his forehead against it, as was customary.
She sat with him at the edge of the hearth.
“I seem to recall that you were to stop by last night, my dear Gad,” said Kenana. Her tone was light. She and the young prince—her stepson, really—had always gotten along well. In truth, last night would not have been a good night. Indeed, between the ominous storm and the strange figure lurking in the garden, Kenana was sure she would not have made for good company.
“I was on my way, but feared for my life in the storm. I saw you leaning on the railing of your balcony, and called to you. You seemed to be caught up in your thoughts.”
“I did not hear you.”
“I decided it was not a good night to call on you.” The young prince shifted his position. “A branch broke off the tree, nearly killing me. Regrettably, I was forced to turn back, my queen.”
Kenana wanted to laugh, but held it in. “Truly, the storm was fierce.”
“Apparently, El Almighty decided that the land needed to be drenched.”
“It was most unusual,” Kenana said casually. “What did you make of it?”
“Water falling from the sky…” Gad held up his hands. “I do not know. Perhaps an omen of things to come.”
Kenana nodded and let the matter drop. The young prince, of course, was not privy to her family’s sacred prophesies. How could the young man know that such an unheard of storm could portend the end of the world?