The Wayward Godking (22 page)

“Marduk taught his people that the mouse loves the hawk in the same manner that the moon loves the earth and the sun loves the moon and the stars love the sun. All are one and one is all in the great cosmic scheme. A great modern poet of some renown, Kahlil Gibran
,
spoke of this love most eloquently when he said the bee loves the flower for her honey and the flower loves the bee as a messenger for
‘it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower, but it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee. For to the bee, a flower is a fountain of life, and to the flower a bee is the messenger of love’
.”

“Aha! I understand the bee and the flower,” Kinmalla raised one hand to stop him “but how could the mouse love the hawk that eats him? That is preposterous! It is against nature.”

“Not at all.” Omar shook his head. “I beg to differ with the great Lord Kinmalla. Allow me to elaborate.”

The judge nodded, but looked confident he had, at last, derailed Omar’s oratory.

“Creatures only seem to abhor death because of the pain that often accompanies it, but this is only natural. When death comes, its transforming effects far outweigh the pain one must suffer to attain it. The mouse avoids the claws of the hawk simply because it has an innate need to live in order to reproduce its kind,
and
he wishes to avoid pain. If such were not the case, we would all rush headlong into the arms of death. For is it better to struggle through life when all one has to do is die in order to experience the divine? The Creator in His Wisdom places this fear in His creatures so they will not simply lie down and wait to be devoured. But once devoured, they are set free, having done their part in the Cosmic Scheme, for only then they are not held at fault for having died, but are accepted into the ether, into the realms of Heaven where transformation will take place. If they have lived successfully, then they will attain to a higher level of perfection, and therefore, they have been freed by the hawk. Would not an oppressed soul love his benefactor? A drowning man loves his rescuer, does he not? A lost man loves the one who finds him. A thirsting man loves the one who quenches his thirst. A hungry man loves the one who feeds him. When a man is condemned to the squalor of prison without hope, should he not also love his executioner? Perhaps, it is not evident on the surface, but in the heart it is so. We welcome death when it comes at the appropriate hour.”

“I will accept that.” Kinmalla’s pleased look had faded. “But what has that to do with Lord Marduk?”

“I say to you, it was he who introduced the idea of altruistic love to mankind. It was Marduk and others like him who taught them to love for the sake of loving and as a natural progression, to do good for the sake of doing good. Even Jesus is credited with having said
cursed is the man devoured by the lion, but blessed is the lion devoured by the man
.”

“I would pity a man devoured by such a beast, not curse him,” Kinmalla objected. “Furthermore, I would say men should be blessed when the lion was devoured.”

“On the surface that might seem well and good,” Omar agreed. “But relate to it from a different level. If the lion is taken into the man, he becomes a part of the man, therefore he is lifted up, but the man who is devoured by the lion becomes part of the lion. He sinks to the level of the beast.”

“Ahhh. You are not speaking of dining literally, but rather allegorically.” The Judge returned Omar’s smile. “I concede your point. Yes.”

“Then, you would have to agree that the green plants of the earth love the people who eat them. Such a love may not be realized by the plant in its present form, but one day, when the plant has developed sufficiently along the lines of evolution, it will learn of the existence of such love and place a name on it. A name that was first given to men in this era of humanity by none other than Lord Marduk who sits before you. Altruism. The goal of all civilized men. Altruism is what we must learn in order to live together without the passion of war and the passion of cruelty spawned by cruel and selfish love. Contrary to popular belief, not all love is good. If you would look for evil love, you would find it, my Lord.”

“Evil love?” Kinmalla scoffed and then frowned. “You bring to mind things of which I should never have thought before. The concept of evil love would go a long way with some of the kings I have known.”

“Exactly, but we must transcend those stages of development. Even the gods must give up evil love, and I believe this one who sits before you has learned that lesson,” Omar turned to Marduk. “Have you not experienced the pain that goes hand in hand with evil love, Lord Marduk?”

Marduk nodded his head slowly. Semiramis. Meredith. To name two.
The company of women
. But there had been other evil loves in his life. He’d always called them lust, but perhaps lust had only been a word invented to cover up the real nature of the emotion men wished to deny. Renaming it did nothing to diminish its destructive power.

Omar turned back to the judge. “Look upon him, Your Honor,” he continued. “He does not deserve further punishment than that which he already suffers. His soul, though he believes himself rift of such, is ripped in twain, and he suffers for the return of his mate. All pleasure is gone from his life.” Omar paused, and Marduk tried to affect a hurt expression. “Let this be his punishment, great Lord, that he should learn the value of altruism over selfish love. Once he has made the distinction and recovered sufficiently, then he may be worthy of the great titles afforded him by the Sons of Atlantis long ago.”

“What do you know of the Sons of Atlantis?” Marduk was suddenly on his feet, all pretense lost.

“I know Lord Adar is a Son of Atlantis among other things, and that he is also your venerated uncle, who ruled the land of Khem when you were but an upstart in Sumeria. Who sent you the message to teach the Sumerians of your wisdom? From whom did you gain authority to lead the people into the Light, Lord Marduk? Did he not send his priests to you and your followers in the shadows of the past?”

“Lord Adar? Nay! Twas the great Thoth! Thoth, the Son of Light. It was Thoth who sent out word to….” Marduk fell silent and his shoulders slumped before he continued. “So! He was there in front of my eyes even then. I had searched the world over for him.” Marduk turned his back and slapped one fist against his open palm.

“You sought to destroy him along with his father and your own,” Lord Kinmalla continued the story for him. “He was secreted amongst the men of ancient Atlantis until the Dweller of Undal found him in the darkness. He could not hide long amongst men. And so the Lords of Amenti used him to spread their wisdom to the hairy barbarians as told in the Emerald Tablets of Thoth. Ahhh, yes, I have heard of these great tablets. A wasted effort, if you ask me. Men… bahh!”

“I am a fool.” Marduk dropped onto the stone bench. “I worshipped Thoth. I worshipped Lord Adar. I
am
a fool.”

Nergal looked at his companion in amazement.

“This is most interesting, my friends,” Nergal spoke in the ensuing silence. “But speaking of selfish motives, I would ask if I might be allowed to return to the Fifth Gate. My wife is waiting for me. I appreciate all of this knowledge, though it burdens my poor brain to the limits of its capacity. I see that things are under control here, and so I should be on my way.”

“What of Lord Nergal, Your Honor?” Omar asked the judge. “Do you also have crimes of which to accuse him?”

“No,” the Judge said and stood up again. “He has committed no crime of which I am aware. No children have come from him, intentionally or otherwise. Nor has he interfered in the affairs of man other than a few displays of power here and there. In fact, he has led an exceptional life since his retirement to the Fifth Gate. He may go.”

Omar nodded to Nergal, glad to know that Nergal’s most recent forays into the world of men had yet to be recorded in the Ancient Records. The Lord of the Fifth gate rose slowly and placed one hand on Marduk’s shoulder.

“I will be waiting for you in the Fifth Gate, when you are finished here, my friend,” he told the distraught Marduk. “Do not take it so very hard. We have all been deceived by Lord Adar. A crafty one that. Look at my dear wife, Ereshkigal. Has she not fallen victim to him on several occasions?”

“What say you?” Kinmalla interrupted him. “Your wife is Ereshkigal, Queen of the Abyss?”

“Of course.” Nergal turned a dark, suspicious eye on the judge.

“She would stand before this bench and give account of herself.” The Judge wagged one long finger at him. “I suggest you send her at once.”

Nergal almost spoke and then clamped his mouth shut. He bowed slightly and then placed his helmet on his head.

“I shall see to it,” he said shortly, and then winked at Omar before leaving the cavern.

When he emerged from the cavern, he was set upon immediately by what he thought to be a fist-sized rock thrown from above. The thing hit his neck and bounced onto the ground. He looked down to find that it was not a rock, but a spiderling. This one had no leathery wings or red eyes as the others, but deep blue compound eyes, which sparkled in the moonlight. Its bulbous body was covered with black and white striped fur. Nergal raised one foot and squashed it flat before it could regain its legs. It made a horrid screech and a sickening pop.

“Burning vapors from hell,” Nergal muttered and dragged his boot across a stone before looking up. Hundreds of Huber’s children were crawling in the rocks above the cavern. His stallion reared and pawed the ground nervously a few yards away. He mounted the horse quickly, and then kicked him to a gallop as he turned for home. Several of the spiderlings leapt from the rocks and he knocked them away from the horse’s neck as they sped toward the open meadow.

((((((((((((()))))))))))))

Mark tossed a handful of grass into the fire that Lemarik had built near the road leading up to the old quarry. No one was left on the island. Not a single inhabitant was found in any of the ruined villages. Almost everything had been obliterated by the flood. It appeared the ocean had washed over the island, but not with the devastating force it could have had. Apparently, the force had been sufficient to either set the islanders adrift in boats or drown them in their beds. The buildings had fallen from their foundations, but they had not been washed completely away.

“I would surmise the quarry may have survived the waters,” Schweikert commented as he chewed on a stick of beef jerky scavenged from the ruins of a small grocery store. “It looks like there are definite water marks about halfway up the walls of the standing buildings. I would also surmise the water simply swelled up, inundating the coast and the island interior like an exceptionally high tide, but not like a tsunami.”

“The forces of nature are always full of surprises,” Lemarik agreed and pulled on the long stem of his pipe. The white smoke drifted into the air above their heads. “If the quarry flooded, it will still be filled with water. A great lake would have formed there. There are some small pools scattered here and there, but most have evaporated.”

“The islanders probably floated away on the tide,” Luke said as he tore into a plastic bag full of dried fruit.

“An extremely high tide, yes. That might be plausible,” Mark agreed and looked up at the brilliant stars overhead. These were not his stars. These were alien to him. He preferred the Northern Constellations. “They must have been terrified.”

“I’m sure they were,” the General murmured. He eyed Luke Andrew cautiously, unsure of whether this one might be friend or foe. He remembered quite well how close Mark Andrew’s son had been with Omar, the Prophet, but his memories of those times were vague, dismembered, bits and pieces. “Have you no idea why we might have come to be here? Lord Adalune thinks we did not come here by accident.”

“I don’t know why
you
are here.” Mark eyed the general thoughtfully. “But I have a few ideas concerning our presence.”

“It was my mistake, I am sure,” Lemarik told them. “I was in too great a hurry when we left my lab. I had been thinking of our ancestors, I’m afraid.” The purple wizard shrugged slightly and his robe rustled. “And then I shifted my thoughts to Omar too late. Sometimes these things are tricky and, of late, travel has been most hazardous.” Mark smiled at his son’s sing-song voice. “You may attest to the truth of this, my father.” The Djinni’s dark eyes sparkled in the light of the fire.

“What should we do?” Luke Andrew asked as he munched on dried pineapple, dates and raisins. “I don’t like all this jerking around. I’m afraid to try anything else. What if we end up back in the Seventh Gate? Huber’s pests will be everywhere by now, and Kinmalla’s goons will be after me. If you go back there, he’ll nab you… maybe both of you.”

“I am not an elder god,” Lemarik told him confidently. “I am simply a misplaced child. I have no home. I was not substantial when the foundations of the earth were laid.”

“You are no innocent child, son. You have grown past that stage,” Mark chuckled. “Kinmalla sentenced Luke to a few years on the surface of Saturn. I fail to see where you would fare any better. Most likely worse, though it is not for me to say. You would be a better judge of your own actions than any of us.”

“Ahhhhh. Ooooh,” Lemarik nodded. “Then we have come up in the world. I would like to think my actions have been guided by an innate desire to bring goodness and beauty to the world with the exception of eating a few humans even though it was done with the greatest concern for their suffering. There is so much ugliness,” the Djinni fell silent for a few seconds. “I have done wrong… from time to time.”