by Anne Rice
"Suddenly I felt an unbearable heat. I saw a huge fire. I thought I heard my father's voice, but I wasn't sure, and then I heard Asenath say,
" 'It is powerful powerful magic! Do you want him to die! Give it to me!'
"For one brief second I saw my father, and in confusion, he gave over to her the old tablet, in its clay envelope. 'Azriel!' he called out. He reached beyond her, towards me.
"I wanted to speak but I was past it. I couldn't do anything.
"The doors were slammed shut on my father and on the world.
"We were in a chamber with a hot, hot fire, the cauldron full of gold boiling, and the air almost impossibly hot. And Asenath then broke the clay envelope of the old tablet. She just smashed the outer clay as if it was nothing, and then she held up the secret tablet to the light of the torch.
"I was standing on my own, too rigid to move, too rigid to fall, stating at them. I wasn't even too horribly afraid of the fire. What were they doing, Remath and the old woman? Where was the High Priest? Hadn't I glimpsed him now and then?
"And then Asenath began to read, but this was not Sumerian, it was Hebrew, old old Canaanite Hebrew.
" '...and that he should see his own death and that he should see his soul, his tzelem and his spirit and his flesh all boiled together in the bones, to live in the bones, forever, only to be called forth by the Master who knows his name, and calls his name...
" 'No!' I screamed. 'That is not a charm! That is Hebrew. That's a curse. You lying witch.'
"The gold covering on me cracked all over as I sprang with all my drunken strength at her, but she backed up like a dancer and Remath had me by the throat. I was as stupefied and weak as those lions who had come against it.
" 'You witch, that's a curse,' I said.
" 'That he shall see all of him that is visible and invisible and all fluids of his body boiled down into the bones, and that he shall be bound to those bones and whoever is Master of those bones, and that he shall not be taken into the darkness of Sheol nor the eternal life of God forever and ever.
" 'Marduk!' I screamed.
"I felt myself heaved backwards, and thrown into the boiling gold. I screamed and screamed. It was unthinkable. It was not possible that I could know such pain. It was not possible that such a thing could happen to me, that boiling gold should choke my mouth and cover my eyes!
"And when I thought I would go blank mad, blank mad with horror and pain, with nothing of human thought left, I shot upwards out of the cauldron, free-floating above the body that was slumped and boiling in the pot, with only one open eye above the bubbling gold. The body that had been mine! And I was not in it.
"I was there above, arms outstretched, staring down. And I saw the face of Asenath upturned.
" 'Yes, Azriel,' she screamed, 'watch, watch the gold boil, watch the flesh fall from your bones, watch the bones become the gold, don't take your eyes off it, lest you be drawn back down into agony and death.'
" 'Marduk,' I cried.
" 'It's your choice,' he said. 'Go back down into that cauldron of pain and you die.' His voice was broken or sad. I realized that he was below me. He stood looking up.
"And for the first time he looked small to me and simple. Not grand or godly. And Asenath was just an old fool of a woman. And Remath staring at the body sinking into the bubbling pot was jumping up and down and making his hands into fists and cursing and screaming.
"There was no time. There was no decision. Or maybe it was pure cowardice. I could not go down into that pain. I could not be boiled alive. I could not bear that such a thing would happen to any human being. I watched and I watched, and the flesh floated loose in the golden muck and the skull floated to the top, and the pot boiled and boiled and boiled and the room grew denser and denser with steam.
"Asenath was choking. She could not breathe, and she fell forward on her face. Remath stood staring at the pot. And Marduk merely looked up at me with wonder.
"At last the pot was empty save what was left of me. Remath kicked and poked at the fire to put it out. He drew as close as he could to the hot metal and he looked down at the heap of golden bones that lay in the bottom of the pot. The cloth was gone, it had dissolved, the flesh was gone, it had dissolved, the liquid was gone, it had dissolved. Only the bones were left and in this sealed chamber all the fumes and particles of what had been my body. And the bones were all gold.
" 'Call it to you, spirit,' said Remath. 'Call the flesh to you, call it to you now from all the world, call it from the depth of the bones and from the air to which it has tried to flee, call it.'
"I moved downwards and stood on my feet. In the thick torturous steam, I saw I had a body. It was vapor. But it was mine, and then it grew denser and denser.
"Marduk took a step backwards, shaking his head.
" 'What is it? Why do you do that?' I asked.
" 'Oh gods of old, Remath,' said Marduk, 'what have you and the witch wrought?'
"Remath roared, 'You are mine, Servant of the Bones, for I am the Master of the Bones. You will obey me. You will obey.'
"Marduk backed up against the wall, staring at me in perfect fear.
"Remath grabbed a heavy bunch of cloth from the couch to protect his hands and with this he managed to throw over the cauldron. The bones spilled out and what did not spill he reached for, hurt by the heat until he had all the bones on the floor.
" 'Wake up, old woman!' he screamed. 'Wake up! What do I do now!'
"I stood beside him. My body was dense as if it were living. It was pinkish and vivid as his body, but it wasn't real. It didn't feel real. It had no heart, no lungs, no soul, no blood; it had only the shape that my spirit gave to it, down to the last detail.
" 'Look, fool,' I said, 'Asenath is dead. If you want to know what to do, you'd better bring that tablet to me, I am the only one here who can read the old Canaanite words.' "
7
Remath did not move. He was far too frightened to move. He even let go of the bones. They lay gleaming on the glazed floor. Scattered, hideous, teeth among them, and the tiny bones of my hands and feet like pebbles.
"Marduk remained still.
"There was a low howling sound gathering round us. I could hear it as if a wind moved through the rest of the palace and temple, slowly, corridor by corridor, alcove by alcove, and then I looked up and saw the dense world of spirits as I had never seen it before.
"The walls and the ceiling of this cell were gone. The whole of the world was the lost mumbling souls staring and pointing and leaping towards me with grasping hands, yet afraid.
" 'Get away!' I roared. And at once the entire cloud dispersed, but the howling pierced my ears and hurt me, and when I looked again I saw that Marduk's face was alien to me, and no longer afraid, but neither trusting nor gentle as always before.
"I turned, walking easily and light as a man would walk to the body of the fallen Asenath, and I took from her the tablet. The text wasn't easy for me. It was a form of Hebrew, yes, but a dialect from the time before my time. I stood reading to myself.
"I turned around. The priest had withdrawn to the farthest corner and the god merely stared. I read the words as best I could:
" 'And having seen his death, and having seen the fluids of his body, and the flesh and the spirit and soul boiled into the bones, and sealed in the bones in gold forever, let him be called down into the bones, made to enter them, and made to remain in them, until his Master should call him forth.'
" 'Do it,' Remath cried. 'Go into the bones.'
"I looked down at the tablet. 'And once these bones are assembled, they shall forever contain his spirit, passing from one generation to another, to serve the Master by ownership and by power, to do the Master's bidding, and roam only at the Master's will. When the Master shall say, "Come," the Servant of the Bones will appear. When the Master says, "Take on flesh," the Servant of the Bones will take on flesh, and when the Master says, "Return to the bones," the Servant of the Bones will obey him, and when th
e Master says, "Kill this man for me," the Servant of the Bones shall kill that man, and when the Master says, "Lie quiet and watch, my slave," the Servant of the Bones shall do it. For the Servant and the Bones are now one. And no spirit under heaven can rival the strength of the Servant of the Bones.'
" 'Well,' I said, 'that is quite a story.'
" 'Into the bones,' he declared. 'Go into the bones.' He stood trembling, clenching his fists and bending his knees. 'Return to the bones!' he declared. 'Lie quiet and watch, my slave!' he declared.
"I did nothing.
"I studied him for a long moment. Nothing changed in me.
"I saw the linen he'd pulled from the couch. There was a sheet, fresh, changed from when I'd last slept here, and I picked it up now, and formed a sack out of it, and into it I put the tablet, and then the bones. I picked up the thigh bone, and the leg bone, and the arm bones, and the skull, my very own skull, still hot and gleaming with gold, and I gathered every tiny fragment of what had been Azriel, the living man, the fool, the idiot. I gathered the teeth, I gathered the bones of the toes. And when I had all of this in a small sack, knotted, I slung it over my shoulder and then I looked at him.
" 'Damn you into hell, go into the bones!' he roared.
"I went forward towards him and I put out my right hand and broke his neck. He was dead before he hit his knees. I saw a spirit rise blundering and in terror, gauzy and soon shapeless and then dispersed and gone.
"I looked at Marduk.
" 'Azriel, what will you do?' he asked. He seemed utterly confounded.
" 'What can I do, Lord? What can I do, but find the strongest Magician in Babylon, the one strong enough to help me learn my destiny and my limitations, or shall I simply wander as I am? I am nothing, as you see, nothing, only the semblance of the living. Shall I wander? Look, I am solid and visible, but I am nothing, and all that is left of me is in this sack.'
"I didn't wait for his answer. I turned and I left. I turned my back on him as it were. I dismissed him, sadly, I think, and rudely and thoughtlessly and I had a sense of him hovering near me, watching me, as I went on.
"I went through the temple, in the convincing shape of a man, challenged again and again by guards whom I threw off with my right hand. A spear passed through my back. A sword passed through my body. I felt nothing, but merely looked at the perplexed and miserable assailant. I walked on.
"I walked into the palace and I walked towards the chambers of the King. His guards fell on me and I stepped through them, feeling this no more than a shudder and saw them stumble behind me, and then I looked up and saw Marduk watching from afar.
"I went into the King's chamber. Cyrus was in bed with a beautiful harlot, and when he saw me, he leapt up naked from the bed.
" 'Do you know me?' I said. 'What do you see?'
" 'Azriel!' he declared, and then with genuine joy he said, 'Azriel, you've cheated death, they've saved you, oh, my son, my son.'
"This was so heartfelt and honest that I was stunned. He came towards me but as he put his arms around me he realized I was nothing, only the appearance of something solid, as a shell more or less, or even lighter than that, a bubble on the surface of the water so light it could explode. But it did not. I did not. I merely felt his heavy strong arms around me and then he backed away from me.
" 'Yes, I am dead, Lord King,' I said. 'And all that is left of me is here in this sack, and covered with gold. Now you must repay me.'
" 'How, Azriel?' he asked.
" 'Who is the greatest sorcerer in all the world? Surely Cyrus knows. Is the strongest and wisest of wise men in Persia? In Ionia? Or is he in Lydia? Tell me where he is. I am a horror. I am a horror! Even Marduk fears me now! Who is the wisest man, Cyrus, to whom you would trust your own damned soul if you stood here as I do!'
"He sank down on the side of the bed. The harlot meantime had covered herself with the sheets and merely stared. Marduk came silently into the room, and though his face was no longer cold with suspicion it lacked the warmth we'd always shared.
" 'I know who it is,' said Cyrus. 'Of all the wizards ever paraded before me, only this man had true power and simplicity of soul.'
" 'Send me to him. I look human, do I not? I look alive? Send me to him.'
" 'I will,' he said. 'He is in Miletus, where he roams the markets daily, purchasing manuscripts from all the world, he is in the great Greek port city, gathering to himself knowledge. He says the purpose of all life is to know and to love.'
" 'You are saying then that he is a good man?'
" 'Don't you want a good man?'
" 'I hadn't even thought of it,' I said.
" 'What about your own people?'
"The question confused me. In one instant I knew a whole list of names and I could smell skin and hair, and then the identity of these beings was gone. 'My own people? Do I have people?' I tried desperately to backtrack, to recover my memory. How had I come to this room! I could remember the cauldron. I could remember that woman but what was her name, and the priest I'd slain, the god, the good gentle god who stood there, invisible to the King, who was he?
" 'You are Cyrus, King of Persia and Babylonia, King of all the world,' I said. I was horrified that I did not know the names of those I loved, for surely I had only moments ago. And that old woman who had died, I had known her all my life! I turned and looked around the room in confusion. It was filled with offerings, gifts from noble families of all Babylonia. I saw a casket, made of cedar and gold. It wasn't big. I went to it, and opened it.
"The King watched speechless. Inside were plate and goblets.
" 'Take them if you wish,' said Cyrus, very well masking his fear. 'Let me call my Seven Wise Men to me.'
" 'I want the casket only,' said I. I emptied out the contents gently, so as not to dent these precious things and then I held the cedar box and I could smell the cedar beneath the red silk padding that lined it. I tore open the poor linen sack and into this casket I first put the tablet with all its writing, including words I hadn't even read aloud yet, and then I laid down gently my bones.
"I wasn't even finished when the beautiful harlot had come, and she put out a golden silk veil. 'Here, to wrap them,' she said. 'To cushion them.' I took it and it wrapped the bones, and she brought me another of deep purple, and I accepted that and wrapped them more securely so that when the casket moved now they wouldn't make any sound. I had scarcely looked at them.
" 'Send me into them, Cyrus,' I said. 'Send me into the bones!'
"Cyrus shook his head.
"Marduk spoke up. 'Azriel, go yourself into them and then come out again, do it now or you will never be able to do it, or you will never know. This is the advice of a spirit, Azriel. Cast aside all the particles that make up your form and seek the darkness and if you cannot come out, I will call you forth.'
"The King who could neither hear nor see Marduk was confused. Once again he mentioned his Seven Wise Men, and indeed, I could hear men outside the chamber, I could hear their whispering.
" 'Don't let them enter, Lord,' I said. 'Wise men are liars; priests are liars; gods are liars!'
" 'I understand you, Azriel,' said Cyrus. 'You are an angel of might or demon of might. I don't know which, but no ordinary wise man can guide you.'
"I looked to Marduk.
" 'Go into the bones,' he said. 'I promise to use all my power to bring you out. See if you can seek refuge there as I do in my statue. You must have refuge!'
"I bowed my head. 'Into the bones, until I will myself to return; all of you that are parts of me, you are to remain near and wait for me till I summon you.'
"A huge wind caught the bed hangings. The harlot ran to the King and he quietly enfolded her in his arms. And I felt immense and any--indeed I touched the walls and the ceiling and the four corners of the painted room and then the whirlwind tightened around me, and I felt the intolerable press of the howling, screaming souls. 'No, you don't, damn you!' I shouted. 'The bones, I have the refuge of my own bones
. I go into my bones.'
"There was darkness. Perfect darkness and stillness. I drifted. It was the sweetest rest I had ever known. Only I should do something now, should I not? But I couldn't. I couldn't. And then came the voice of Marduk,
" 'Servant of the Bones, rise and take form.'
"Of course, that was what I had to do, and I did it. It was like a deep intake of breath and then a soundless shout. I found myself again a tolerably perfect replica of Azriel standing beside the open casket and the golden bones. My body shimmered in my own eyes and then grew steady. I felt the cool air as if I had never known it before.
"I looked at Cyrus. I looked at Marduk. I knew now that if I entered into the bones, I didn't have the power to return. But what did it matter? There was velvet sleep. There was the sleep you sleep when you are a boy and lie on the warm grass of a hill and the breeze strokes you, and you have no cares in all the world.
" 'Lord King,' I said, 'I beg you. I will go now back into the bones. Send them in this casket with the tablet to your wise man in Miletus. Do that for me, and if you do betray me, what of it? I won't know. Someone else...has betrayed me, but I can't remember who it is...'
"He came forward to kiss me. The kiss was on the lips in the Persian style of kings and equals. I turned and looked at Marduk.
" 'Marduk, come with me, I can't remember what is between us except that it was always good.'
" 'I haven't the power, Azriel,' he said calmly. 'It's as the Lord King Cyrus says. You are what the Magi call an angel of might or a demon of might. I have no such power. The tender flame of my thoughts is fed by the people of Babylon who believe in me and pray to me. Even in captivity, the devotion of my captors sustained me. I can't go with you. I don't even know how.'
"His brow became furrowed. 'But why trust any man, even a King?' he asked. 'Take the casket yourself and go where you would...'
" 'No. Look, even now the body quavers. I am newborn and not that strong. I can't. I have to trust in...Cyrus, King of the Persians, and if he would get rid of me, if he would be as vile to me and as cruel to me as all those whom I loved, if he would do that, I will find a way for vengeance, won't I, great King?'