People of the Flood (Ark Chronicles 2) (16 page)

13.

They sat around a dark campfire. The dragon, with its exhausted limp, had followed them up the mountain pass but had fallen behind. Somewhere in the darkness, it was out there: prowling, hunting for them, hungry for their blood.

“
It isn’t natural that it follows,” Ham said.

Nimrod spoke no more about possession
. Since his amazing exploit, he had turned quiet and reflective.

Beor shivered under a blanket, sweaty, drinking lots of water
. Ham had set his bone, but the big man had become feverish.

“
I agree with you, Grandfather,” Eel said. “The beast isn’t acting naturally.”

“
Which means it is acting unnaturally,” Ham said, “or supernaturally.” He glanced at Nimrod.

In the darkness, the handsome youth tested his arrows, saying nothing.

“Will it follow us all the way to the settlement?” Eel asked.

“
I don’t see how,” Ham said. “And yet—what did you mean before when you said it was possessed?” he asked Nimrod.

Nimrod shrugged.

“That’s no answer,” Ham said.

The youth put his arrows
away. “I told you what I know.”

“
Have you?” Ham asked. “Everything?”

Nimrod
’s blink seemed slow and snake-like. “What else could I know?”

“
We don’t dare lead it back to the settlement,” Eel said. “One of us will have to stay behind and trick it.”

“
Two of us,” Nimrod said.

“
I’ll do it,” Ham said. “I know more about animals than anyone. You and Eel take Beor home.”

“
No,” Nimrod said. “You have a bad hip. You can’t outrun the dragon. So you must take Beor home.” He peered at the stars, and it seemed he would say more.

But what more was there to say
? Ham reluctantly agreed with Nimrod’s logic and set out that night. He reached the settlement a half week later and told them what had happened and what might possibly happen.

That
’s when pandemonium broke out.

14.

Kush and Deborah prayed at a midnight altar. They sacrificed pigs and goats and pleaded for direction. The stars glittered in the darkness, bright motes in the blackness. Trees swayed and owls hooted. Kush’s knife rose yet again, and more pig’s blood ran. Soon, pork-scented smoke billowed.

“
Why won’t they answer?” Kush growled. “They must heed us.”

“
Perhaps we have displeased them,” Deborah said.

“
No. I followed their directions.”

“
And yet, Beor still lives,” Deborah said.

Kush wiped his blade, sheathing it
. His haunted eyes took in the slaughter. Had he been deceived? “Why won’t they at least give me the ingredients for brimstone?”

“
They have.”

“
I mean the exact measurements to make it.”

Deborah removed her calf-hide apron, one smeared with fresh blood
. “Something hinders our prayers.”

“
Or Nimrod is right, and they play their own hidden games.”

“
No, Kush. The fallen ones aid us because Jehovah has cursed us both. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

“
Maybe we’ve taken the wrong path,” Kush said. “Maybe instead of kicking against the curse, we could plead with and cajole Noah to revoke it.”

“
You know he said otherwise. Noah said he spoke for Jehovah. Unless you are satisfied to be a slave of Japheth and his sons—”

“
No!”

“
Then we must prepare to meet the dragon,” Deborah said. “To defeat it.”

Kush turned haunted eyes on his wife
. He had never meant to unleash such a terror on them. The dragon was supposed to kill Beor, thereby smoothing his path to power over the tribe. “How can you be so calm? It’s your son out there facing the dragon. The beast that surely comes to destroy us.”

“
To destroy those who hinder the road to Shinar,” Deborah said.

Was that true? Kush wondered
. Why then had the dragon devoured so many of Put’s sons? That weakened them for the day they fought Japheth and his clan.

“
We must sacrifice more goats,” Deborah said. “Slaughter more pigs until the aroma awakens them to our plight.”

“
No,” Kush said. “No more sacrifices. Instead, you must bend your guile to unlocking the secret of brimstone.”

“
But the fallen ones aren’t answering us.”

“
My father knows the secret. Think. Tell me how I may trick my father into telling us.”

15.

Ham limped out of the palisade and relieved a twelve-year-old great-grandson of his wooden spade. All around the palisade, in the flickering torchlight, hundreds of men and boys picked and shoveled the stony soil into waiting wheelbarrows, which other boys drove back into the settlement. Under the direction of Anom, the son of Menes, they dumped the dirt against the inner log wall.

As he worked, Ham recalled the day he had seen the demon enter Ymir and come out again to fight the angel
. Did evil spirits enter beasts? He had heard a story once in Antediluvian times of spirits entering hogs, making them act insanely, to plunge to their deaths over a cliff and into a lake.

The sound of picks striking stones, of shovels pitching gravelly soil and the clacking wooden wheels of barrows filled the night air
. Women with water jugs and words of encouragement went among the sweaty workers. It was their second sleepless night of digging.

“
Water, Grandfather?”

Sweat left runnels on his chalky skin and his mouth was parched
. He accepted a ladle from Semiramis, noting her dark curls and her intoxicating smile.

“
More?” she asked, as he slurped the wooden ladle dry.

He nodded.

“You’re working harder than the young men, Grandfather.”

He grinned, taking his time now as he sipped
. How smooth her skin seemed. “May I ask you a question?” she said. “A serious question?”

“
Of course.”

“
Do you think the others are still alive?”

“
Eel and Nimrod?”

She took the wooden ladle and plunked it back into the jug.

“I should think so,” he said.

Her fingertips brushed his forearm as she stepped closer, her perfume strong
, her face anxiety-ridden. “Did Nimrod really charge a dragon?”

He watched the way her lips formed words
. Beautiful.

“
Grandfather?”

He shook his head, forcing himself awake, alert
. “It happened as I’ve said.”

“
Nimrod charged the dragon?” she asked. “To save Beor…and Geba?”

“
Yes.”

She gripped his forearm with surprising strength, searching his eyes
.

“Could he have been killed?”

“Anyone near the dragon risks death. It’s a monster, Semiramis.”

“
Then why did he do it?”

“
He was a hero.”

Her frown deepened, as if he spoke gibberish.

“You would have been proud of him,” Ham said.

Her head swayed back
. “Me? Why me particularly? Why would I have been proud of Nimrod?”

H
am realized his mistake, and he wondered what Rahab had said to Semiramis concerning adultery.

A few voice emerged from the din of noise.
“Father, there you are. We’ve been looking all over for you.”

Urbane Canaan was as unlike his son Beor as anyone could be
. Smiling—he was always smiling, even now when disaster threatened the settlement. He hugged Semiramis. “Lucky for us, Beor survived his ordeal. Lucky for you.”

“
Yes, Father,” she said. To Ham: “Do you think Eel or Nimrod will slay the dragon?”

“
No,” Canaan said. “They merely delay it. We must slay it. Father, we’re holding a meeting. We’d like your advice.”

“
I’ve told you all I know,” Ham said. “So I’ll keep digging. I’ll encourage the others by it.”

“
That’s very noble,” Canaan said. “But Kush has a new idea, and we need your opinion.”

Ham raised his eyebrows
. It had been a long time since either Canaan or Kush had wanted his advice. He jammed the shovel into the dirt. Then he said goodbye to Semiramis as he let Canaan help him out of the trench.

16.

The elders and Ham met in Kush’s log house, beside the hearth. On a table lay bread and a flagon of wine. Tapestries hung on the walls, while hawk-eyed Put, a lean, angular man, stared at the fire. Geba, Rosh and the Twins had been his sons.

“
Isn’t it obvious?” Kush asked.

They discussed the Rainbow Promise, the one
Jehovah had given them the day they came out of the Ark and Noah had sacrificed to Him. Jehovah had said that animals would fear men.

“
Was the dragon exempted from the promise?” Menes asked. He was the tallest of Ham’s sons and slender, with regular features, a long, straight nose and magnificent eyes.

“
Of course not,” Ham said.

“
Does the promise still hold true, then?” Menes asked.

“
Do you doubt the word of Jehovah?” Ham asked.

“
Doubt?” rumbled Kush. “I don’t think it’s a matter of doubt. Look at what the dragon did.”

Put turned from the flames, his eyes smoldering.

“The promise regarding the dragon turned out to be useless,” Kush said.

“
It was worse than that,” Canaan said. “The Rainbow Promise dulled us into complacency.”

These kinds of discussions gave Ham a headache
. How could his sons imagine Jehovah was a liar? But then they had never been on the Ark. They hadn’t seen an angel. They hadn’t seen Noah cowing down giants.

“
The question, however, is moot,” Canaan said. “The dragon, according to father, is coming. So we must figure out how to kill it. Kush.”

Kush clasped his hands behind his back
. With his white beard and dour features, he seemed more like a patriarch than Ham ever had. “We’ve decided to use one of your suggestions, Father.”

“
Mine?” Ham asked.

Kush turned brooding eyes on Canaan.

“About naphtha, bitumen and pitch,” Canaan said. “Kush has the ingredients. They’re stored in buried jars. What he lacks is the exact measurements, the proportions to make brimstone.”

Brimstone
? Ham had never told his sons about brimstone. Years ago Japheth, Shem and he had decided that certain knowledge was better left on the other side of the Flood. Armies, especially besieging ones, had often built catapults and flung brimstone over the walls. The inflammatory missiles blazed as if stolen out of Sheol. Buildings burst into fire, so did people. No. Better, the three of them had agreed, to leave such horrible knowledge in the Antediluvian Era.

In the ensuing silence
, his four sons watched him. Did they hold their breath?

“
Father?” Canaan asked.

“
When did I tell you about brimstone?” Ham asked.

Kush glanced sharply at Canaan.

Canaan cleared his throat, smiling, brushing his hands across his pants. “Don’t you remember that time you banged your head on a rock?”

“
What rock?” Ham asked.

“
You were…” Canaan’s smile widened. “You drank a lot that night. Then you went out hunting, even after we begged you not to. Just as we’d feared, you slipped and banged your head, and I found you in the morning. You raved, I’m afraid. You spoke about naphtha and bitumen, among other things.”

Ham rubbed his forehead, at the knot that had nev
er gone completely away.

“
You said it was a deadly weapon,” Kush said.

“
Very deadly,” agreed Canaan. “You told us to keep it a secret.”

Ham stared at his feet
. He couldn’t remember, and yet he couldn’t believe he’d tell his sons about brimstone even if he’d been drunk to the depths of his being. But if he hadn’t told them… Japheth and Shem never would have. Certainly none of their wives or Noah had. Who else could? Who else in the New World had been in the Antediluvian Era?

“
Forget about brimstone,” Ham said.

Kush took a deep breath.

Canaan strode to Put, putting a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “How can we forget, Father? We must slay the dragon before it slays us, slays more of our children.”

“
You don’t need brimstone for that,” Ham said.

“
But we do,” Canaan said. “We need everything we can get our hands on.”

“
Especially if the Rainbow Promise is worthless,” Kush said.

“
But the trench,” Ham said. “The trench and the—”

“
Do you want more of your grandsons to die?” Canaan asked. “Would you rather believe a failed promise than help your own flesh and blood?”

Ham wouldn
’t look at them. Had Jehovah truly failed them?

“
We can’t afford more deaths,” Put said, his eyes shiny.

Ham dearly loved Put, in some ways the best of his sons
. The words came reluctantly. “Very well, but I alone will mix it. Agreed?”

“
Yes,” Canaan said. “Agreed.”