Servant of the Bones

"A knock came. Priests were here from the Palace.

"We got up at once, wiped our faces, and then we went into the courtyard.

"Remath was standing there, and as soon as I saw him, I did remember him as my father had said. I had never spoken much with him as he was a real malcontent; I mean he hated Nabonidus beyond belief for not giving Marduk's temple what it should have, but he also hated everybody else. He usually stood around the palace and the temple, doing nothing. But he was clever. I knew that. And he was very restless. He was young and smart.

"He studied us now, his eyes very deep set and seemingly better sculpted in his white skin, and his long thin nose gave him a disdainful look. All the rest was the usual mass of curly black hair . . . and priestly robes very fine, down to his jeweled sandals, and then he drew near my father and he said, 'Did Asenath give it to you?'

" 'Yes,' said my father. 'But that does not mean that I will give it to you.'

" 'You're stupid not to. Your son goes into the earth otherwise. What good is that?'

" 'Don't call me names, you heathen,' my father said. 'Let's get on with it. Let's go.'

"In the anteroom stood other priests waiting for us, and as we went outside, we found that there were brightly adorned litters for us and we were taken to the palace, each alone in his own litter, and I lay back trying to figure this out.

" 'Marduk, are you going to help me?' I whispered.

"Marduk answered, 'I don't know what to tell you, Azriel. I don't. I can see what is bound to happen. I don't know! I know this, that when it is over, one way or another, I will still be here. I will be walking the streets of Babylon in search of eyes that can see me, and prayers and incense that can arouse me. But where will you be, Azriel?'

" 'They're going to kill me. Why?'

" 'They'll tell you. You'll see it all. But I can assure you of this much. If you refuse to do what they want, they'll kill you anyway. And they'll probably kill your father, because he knows the plot.'

" 'I see. I should have realized that. They need my cooperation and if I don't give it, well, then it would have been better for me had I never been asked.'

"There came only silence from him but I could feel his breath and I knew he was close. He wasn't material, but it didn't matter; we were even closer in the darkness of this litter, being carried with the curtains drawn through Babylon's hollow paved streets.

" 'Marduk, can you help me get out of this?' I asked.

" 'I have been thinking of that for hours and hours, hours since your prophet spewed out all his filth at me. I have been asking myself, "Marduk, what can you do?" But you see, Azriel, without your strength, I cannot do what I want to do. I can't. I can be the gold god on his throne and that is all. I can be the standing statue carried in procession. Those objects or encasements they already have. And if I were to run with you ... if we were to escape, where would we go?'

"A strange sound filled the little curtained compartment. He was weeping. Then suddenly, 'Azriel, tell them no! Refuse their filthy designs. Refuse them. Don't do it, not for Israel, not for Abraham, not for Yahweh. Refuse.'

" 'And die.'

"He didn't answer.

" 'Well, either way I shall die, no?'

" 'There's a third way,' he said.

" 'You're speaking of Asenath and the tablet.'

" 'Yes, but it is terrible, Azriel. It's terrible. And I don't know if there's truth in it. It is older than I am. It is older than Marduk and older than Babylon, that tablet; it came from the city of Uruk. Maybe from before. It is very old. What can I tell you? Know your own mind. Take your chance!'

" 'Marduk, don't leave me,' I said. 'Please.'

" 'I won't, Azriel, you are the dearest friend of my heart that I have ever had. I won't leave you. Make me appear if you need me to frighten them or stop them. Make me appear and I will try. But I won't leave you, I am your god, your own god, your god, and I'll be with you.'

"We had come to the palace. We were being brought in by a private gate, and now we were welcomed out of our little compartments so that we might walk on the grand stairway of gold and glazed brick, through the magnificent veils that separated one giant room from another, and we did, we walked, in silence, my father and I, we walked, following the priest, and they took us into the royal chamber where Belshazzar, listening to cases, made a farce of justice every day, and where his wise men told him hour after hour what the stars were saying to them, and we went beyond that into small and fine apartments that I had never seen.

"I saw that a seal had been broken, an ancient seal, as the doors had been opened. But the servants had come. For everywhere was luxury, fine carpets, pillows, the usual veils, and everywhere the lamps hung from the beams of the ceiling and the oil was sweet and the light was bright.

"A table stood in the middle of the room. Men were seated at it. And behind them stood my uncles, two of them, including the one who was deaf, may he have no name, and the Elders of Israel in Captivity, and Asenath and Enoch the prophet as well.

"Only gradually did I let myself look down at those seated at the table, though we were being placed opposite, the servants hustling to draw back the golden chairs.

"I saw our miserable regent, Belshazzar, and he looked stupid with drink and terrified, and was mumbling to himself something about Marduk, and then I realized I was looking at Nabonidus, old Nabonidus, our true King who had been gone almost half my life. Our true King sat there in his full raiment, though not on a throne, merely at a table, and his big watery eyes were dead and empty already, and he merely smiled at me, and he said, 'Pretty, pretty . . . you have chosen one that is so pretty . . . pretty as the god.'

" 'Pretty enough to be a god!' said a voice, and I looked directly opposite at this fine handsome man, taller than anyone there, thinner in build than any of us, with black curling hair but hair that was cut shorter than ours, and a trimmed mustache and a shorter trimmed beard.

"This was a Persian! The men beside him were Persians. They were in Persian robes, very like our own, but in royal blue, and they were crusted with jewels and gold embroidery, and their fingers were covered with rings, and the goblets before them were our temple goblets!

"These were men from the Persian empire which was conquering us, which was killing us. All the strange predictions of Enoch came back to me and I saw him glaring down at me, with a near impish smile, and Asenath seemed filled with wonder.

" 'Sit down, young one,' said the tall robust man with the big laughing eyes, the handsomest man, the man who gleamed with power. 'I'm Cyrus, and I want you at your ease.'