Servant of the Bones

"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. 1 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, staring 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's 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.' "

8

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.