Naramsin: Babylon Part 2
The sharp yellow rays of the rising sun cut through the morning mist, wrapping their tendrils of dawn around the towering, golden being standing before me.
Resplendent in his full white tunic, copper hair cascading around his bronze face, it was, after all the years, after all the countless, endless years…Vashtar.
I smiled broadly at the sight of my ancient friend, once more before me. Again, as she had in many times before, maiden Destiny had brought us together; but whether this time she would be benevolent and kind, or capricious and cruel, could not be foreseen.
“Vashtar,” said I, opening my arms. Extending his own, he smiled and stepped forward, and we embraced heartily under the gaze of the new day’s brilliant orb. “It is good to see you, old friend,” I said, clasping his forearms with mine and looking up into his gold-flecked eyes.
“And you as well, Naram-Sin,” he replied, his voice a rich, melodious tenor rolling over his fair, weathered lips. The sun began beating hotly upon our faces, but that was a discomfort that we had long ago learned to control. Nevertheless, I motioned Vashtar to the shade of a fig tree but a few feet away, and he nodded.
The stirrings of the royal camp were already easily heard in the near distance as we settled cross-legged on the grass underneath the arms of the fruiting tree.
“It has been a long time,” Vashtar said softly, smiling at me.
“Yes, it has been,” I replied, “a very long time.”
Serendipity is quite an amazing thing. It remains a source of mystery and pleasure even to one such as myself. This unpredictable aspect of life has never ceased to lose its fascination for me, and unexpected positive occurrences such as my meeting with Vashtar are always welcome, particularly since they seem, at times, so heavily outweighed by coincidences of a more malignant nature. I therefore found myself smiling easily, for the first time in many, many moons, as I gazed at my companion, silently thankful that my search for him had finally been concluded.
But there was danger at hand. And that danger was why I had come to Babylon.
“I have been seeking you for the past four months, Vashtar,” I said, “and I must admit that you are not the easiest one to find.”
“I know,” he replied. “But found me you have. Congratulations!” he chuckled, then narrowed his eyes. “And I see you have made quite the spectacle of yourself again, Naram-Sin. Accounts of your battle with the ekimmu in the temple of Innanna have already traveled widely throughout the kingdom, and have brought much attention to your person. Such attention, as you know, may not always be welcome. Saving the king, indeed!”
I shrugged. “Pure coincidence. The truth is, it was your lingering scent that drew me through Babylon to the temple that night; however, I must agree that it certainly was quite fortuitous for Sumulael that I arrived when I did. Seeing him there, I realized that he might be able to aid me in my search for you, so I destroyed the revenants to gain his gratitude.
“Of course, I realized that my display and continued presence as his guest could attract unwanted attention, but it was a gamble I was prepared to take in order to find you, particularly since the trail of your scent vanished there in the temple.” I paused, and studied him carefully. “How curious, Vashtar,” I said, “that your scent should play in the same place, at the same time, as the attempt on the life of the king.”
Vashtar laughed, his golden eyes dancing. “As if I gave a whit about the destiny of Sumulael! It is already clear that his son seeks to ascend to the throne by using the sorcerer Adarak to, shall we say, speed up the king’s inevitable demise.” He answered the question in my eyes with a slight nod. “I do have my spies, dear Naram-Sin, even at the court of the king. But nevertheless, to summon the ekimmu is a powerful magic indeed, so, should you elect to stay further, I would say that the sorcerer bears close watching. Be also aware that he worships Marduk, the god of wind and demons, so prudence dictates that you stay alert.
“In any event, know that the reason for my attendance at the temple had been purely gastric: the virgins had gone to pray to the goddess earlier in the evening. Ah, virgins, so succulent, so ripe, so fresh!” He smiled dreamily. “I waited and caught the last one before she left, and flew off with her straightaway. I had my way with her not too far downriver from where we now sit, and afterwards ate my fill of her while still wet with her nectar, which had flowed so sweetly for her first - and last - time.
“But you have not searched me out, Naram-Sin, to hear me discourse about politics, or passion, or dining.” He peered at me attentively, and I nodded.
“The past several years, I have been biding time in the court of Senustret III, the great pharoah of Egypt,” I said, “and have given him counsel which has aided his expeditions against the Nubians, against whom he has achieved great success.”
“Go on.”
“It was after our last expedition against the Nubians when, during our stay at the southern border fortress of Semna at the end of the Second Cataract, word reached the pharoah of the discovery of several great chambers deep underneath the Sphinx.”
Vashtar’s eyes opened wide. “The Hall of Records,” he whispered, pursing his lips, “and the Container.”
“Yes,” I confirmed grimly.
I related to Vashtar how almost a dozen of the Shemsu Hor, whose order had guarded the secret of the Sphinx’s chambers for untold millenia, had been violently slain by a lamia of great power, which had appeared suddenly and without warning after the pharoah and I had departed for the southern border. The lamia had proven impervious to their spells and legendary combat skills, and after a brief and vicious battle, had forced her way through the great doors leading to the vast hidden chambers beneath the earth, from which she stole several of the mystical Books and, most ominously, the Container.
Senustret had been furious and distraught, for responsibility for the location of the ancient secrets had been entrusted to him, as it had been entrusted to each pharoah before him by the Shemsu Hor, and the disgrace of having failed his trust was almost more than he could bear. He knew full well the danger presented by the violation of the sanctums of the Sphinx, but even he was not aware of the deeper, darker significance of this thievery. He did, however, have the good sense to immediately kill all non-Shemsu Hor who had gained knowledge of the chambers; but it was in vain, for the lamia, and those who controlled her, had vanished long before our arrival back at the Giza plateau, leaving no clues within the Sphinx, which remained as vast, as cool, as unsympathetic now as it had been when first carved out of the rock more than 13,000 years earlier, before the ice melted and the floods came, before the lion’s head had been defaced and recarved by the vain Khufu in his own image.
And thus had I begun my quest to warn my kinsmen, the kin of the Pact, of the evil that would soon be upon us….
It was then that I picked up the sorcerer’s scent on the westerly wind, drawing quickly close by. He was not alone. Vashtar too had been alerted, and within a few seconds Adarak appeared over the ridge of high grass, accompanied by a half dozen of the king’s guard.
I looked in front of me at the huge white heron, resplendent in his golden headfeathers. The gigantic bird’s gold-flecked eyes twinkled knowingly at me in the sun, and I watched as he stretched out his mighty wings and rose gracefully from the grassy shore. Our further conversation would have to wait.
I rose, and watched Vashtar slowly recede into the distance over the broad river. The tramping of feet in back of me stopped, and I felt the sorcerer’s eyes boring into my back.
“Our guest, it seems, also communicates with the beasts of the field,” said Adarak mockingly, an undercurrent of suspicion thinly disguised in his voice. I turned and faced the sorcerer and his guard, smiling thinly.
“I am, my lord, as are you, very appreciative of the beauties of nature. That animals may occasionally demonstrate a certain trust in my presence happens only by the grace of the gods, as you well know.” I watched Adarak’s eyebrows rise questioningly, his dark eyes flashing, but he said nothing further about the heron, instead motioning me toward the direction of the camp.
“The king requests your presence at his table this morning, and has asked me to deliver you to him. So, if you would be so kind, please accompany us.” I bowed slightly, and began walking with the wizard back towards the encampment. He turned towards the guard, and instructed them to remain thirty paces behind us; and once the distance had been gained, he spoke to me in a low, dark voice.
“I know who you are, Naram-Sin. More importantly, I know what you are. The question is, why are you here?”
I smiled again at Adarak, whose pomposity and vanity were, at that moment, more than I cared to bear. But I bore his questioning patiently, and deflected his inquiry innocently. “I am but a pious traveler following the Euphrates to Assyria, whose passage through Babylon turned out to be a blessing for both the king and myself. Praise to Innanna. But why does one such as you concern yourself with one such as I?”
“Think not to play me for a fool, Naram-Sin, if that be your true name,” he replied icily. “No mortal man could have defeated the ekimmu.”
“Perhaps the sorcery that conjured them was poor and weak, Adarak. How else could one such as I have then defeated them?”
He glared at me, but said nothing further. We arrived at the royal tent and entered. The court was fully engaged in their morning repast, and laughter and shouts mingled with the clatter of cups and platters. King Sumulael and Prince Sabium rose when they saw me, and the king motioned me to his side as Adarak took his place behind the prince.
“Naram-Sin!” he bellowed. “Do you not sleep, man? Come, eat and drink your fill, and tell me of your future plans.” Sumulael motioned to the raven-haired slave girl of the night before, who smiled at me knowingly as she poured the morning wine, then returned with a large silver platter of fresh fruits, roasted ox, and fish. The silver stung my fingers as I touched the platter when lifting the lightly-cooked meat, but I simply smiled and began to eat. The animal blood revived my spirits somewhat, although it was a poor substitute for the elixir my body yearned. But there would be time enough for that later.
I informed the king that my plan was to now continue northward to Assyria to the city of Carchemish on the high Euphrates. It was my hope, I declared, to engage King Aplahanda on the merits of shipping fabled Anatolian timber down the Euphrates to Babylon, to supply Sumulael’s burgeoning capital with fine building stock, at, of course, a modest profit to myself. It was an easy lie, and one whose premise the king agreed with entirely, for the Babylonians were eager to increase trade with the northern kingdoms.
“Sabium!” he shouted when I had concluded the detailing of my plans. “It is my wish that you go with Naram-Sin as my ambassadors to the court of King Aplahanda, and persuade the king of the merits of Naram-Sin’s proposal. Indeed, there are many northern cities with whom an alliance may prove beneficial, and now is a ripe time to further the glory of our empire. We may find easier alliances through goods than through swords.”
During this conversation, I had noticed Adarak slowly circling the core of the tent unobtrusively, within which the king, the prince, several guards, sycophants, and myself were placed. The sorcerer seemed fully aware of my observing him, but continued his pacing unabated, until he had completed a full circle. Then he suddenly clapped his hands loudly, quieting the assembly and drawing everyone’s gaze to him. The wind picked up outside. The sky began to grey. A distant thunder crackled.
“King Sumulael!” he thundered. “Would you send the prince to his death at the hands of this lilitu, this utukku?” Gasps arose around us, and I began to rise to my feet, but the king held me down by the shoulder and rose instead.
“What! You insult my guest yet again, Adarak? He who saved my life? Did you not bring sufficient disgrace upon yourself last night, when you invoked the legend of the curse? What say you?”
The sorcerer bowed, locking his eyes on mine, and pointed at me. “My lord, this thing next to you is no man. He is an evil spirit, a demon of the night, who schemes to gain your confidence, only to destroy you.
“Who else,” he continued, “could battle the ekimmu so fiercely? And who else, my lord, could have set those monsters upon you in the first place? For it was not coincidence that drew Naram-Sin to the temple that night. It was his design to win your gratitude, so that he might ingratiate himself into your company, and ultimately take over your kingdom!”
A flicker of doubt suddenly played over the king’s face. I stood indignantly and glared at my accuser. “This is absurd. Your spells and potions have addled your mind, wizard. Have you taken leave of your senses? What strange trick is this that you seek to play?”
A thin smile crept across his face as he pulled a half-filled pouch from beneath his robes. “This is no trick, demon,” he replied, reaching into the pouch and sprinkling a fine grey powder on the floor. I saw that he had completed a circle of powder around us, and as he mumbled a low incantation, I suddenly understood.
Dark clouds began to block out the sky, casting a pall inside the tent.
“Archers,” he called. From outside the circle his half-dozen guardsmen drew their bows and pointed their arrows at me.
King Sumulael was suddenly furious. “Adarak! Have you gone mad?”
“No,” he replied. “I am only protecting you and the prince from the demon. Watch now as I prove the truth of my words. Step outside the circle. All of you.”
“If this be a lie, sorcerer, know that this will be the last lie ever to issue from your lips,” said the king angrily as he stepped over the circle, followed by Prince Sabium, the guards, and the courtiers. All stepped over the circle. All except me.
The gathering was silent as a sudden rain began to beat against the walls of the tent. Slowly I rose, and lifted my foot over the circle; but an invisible wall blocked my exit. The crowd gasped, and King Sumulael stared unbelievingly at me.
Adarak smiled at me smugly, and poured a handful of the grey powder from the pouch into his palm, holding it high to show all.
“This is silver!” he cried. “When combined with the proper spell, it is a wall against these demons. See now the true Naram-Sin, caged like an evil beast, as he paces against the circle!”
My eyes glowered and my nostrils flared as I stared at the sorcerer, all the while searching for a break in the circle. “I don’t know what wizardry this is that prevents me from leaving your trap, priest, but I say that only a demon would turn a king against his saviour. Perhaps it is you who seeks the throne. Perhaps only I can stand in your way.”
The priest grimaced, and motioned to the archers as the king and crowd continued to stand in shocked silence. His eyes narrowed as he raised his arm.
“Return, Naram-Sin,” he said, “to the hell that spawned you…”