Many Waters Read online

  Matred tended to think it a waste of time. "I have too much to do, keeping tent. How else would I keep the soup pot full for the poor who come to us for food? Who would keep the manticore from eating Selah if I didn't have boiling wine to throw in its ugly face? Who would see to it that the great auk's eggs aren't stolen? Who else dares to speak to the gorgons and griffins? And what with everybody's appetite, I never have a chance to get away from the hearth."

  Yalith did her fair share of the work, and now she was doing most of Mahlah's, too, but she needed time to herself, to listen to what the stars might have to say. Her father heard a Voice in the vineyards, but it seemed to Yalith that in the quiet dawn there were voices all around her, waiting to speak, waiting for her to hear. When the birds woke and started their orchestra, the other voices would be quiet. She was filled with a vague sense of foreboding, but she had to come and listen.

  When she was not listening for whatever it was that was going to be spoken, she found her mind sliding to thoughts of the twins. As she spent more time with Dennys, nursing him through the chills and fever of his delirium, she saw that the twins might look alike but they were definitely not one boy in two skins.

  The twins were often the topic of conversation in the big tent in the evenings--how they were alike, and how they were different. It was generally accepted that they must be some strange breed of giant, from the other side of the mountains. Although they were immensely tall, they were also unbelievably young.

  "Fifteen, he told me," Matred said one evening when it was she who had taken the lamp to Grandfather Lamech, and some of her special broth to Sandy. "Fifteen," she repeated to the others in the big tent. "At fifteen, our men are still children. The Sand and the Den are not babies. I simply do not understand."

  "The Den is certainly not a baby," Yalith replied. "Now that he is getting better, he is full of questions. He wants to know what the herbs are that the pelican puts in the water, and what the salves are made of."

  "The Sand," Elisheba said, "wants to know where the salves come from. They are certainly full of questions." She laughed her hearty laugh and told them that Sandy had wanted to know who ran the oasis. Was there a mayor? Or a selectman?

  The words had no meaning. Elisheba had told Sandy that those who sought power were greedy, wanting gifts, and bribes, and willing to steal from the poor. "Shem hunts for us all, and I help with the winemaking," she said contentedly. "That is enough for us. We have plenty to eat, and to give to those in need. Matred is a good mother to us all, with her fine sons and daughters."

  "Mahlah and Yalith are not married yet," Matred prodded.

  "They are still young," Noah said.

  "I thought the Voice told you--"

  "Not about Mahlah and Yalith. They should have time to grow up."

  "I think," Matred said pointedly, "that Mahlah is grown up."

  Yalith sat on the cool, starlit stone, the echoes of the evening's conversation still in her ears. She wondered if Matred had noticed the swelling of Mahlah's belly--Mahlah, whose betrothal to the nephil was not yet acknowledged by her mother.

  Yalith was so deep in thought that the stars had to hiss at her to get her attention.

  SIX

  Adnarel and the quantum leap

  Yalith looked up and saw a circle of strange animals. In the center of the circle stood Mahlah, looking pale and frightened. Her dark hair covered her breasts, her body. Yalith started to cry out, to leap up and go to her sister, but it seemed that a firm hand came across her mouth, held her down on the rock.

  The cobra uncoiled, hood spreading, swaying as though to unheard music, then stretched up and up into the loveliness of lavender wings, and amethyst eyes that reflected the starlight. "I, Ugiel, call my brothers. Naamah!"

  The vulture stretched its naked neck, until great black wings and coal-black eyes in a white face were revealed.

  "Rofocale!"

  A shrill drone, a mosquito whine, and then there stood on the desert a nephil with wings of flaming red and eyes like garnets.

  "Eisheth!"

  The crocodile opened its mouth, showing its terrible teeth. It appeared to swallow itself, and vomit forth a tall, green-winged, emerald-eyed nephil.

  Yalith trembled as she saw the dragon/lizard.

  "Eblis!"

  He burst from his scales, beautiful; awe-inspiring.

  "Estael!"

  The cockroach scuttled a few inches and then burst open and dust rose, and dissipated to reveal another of the nephilim.

  "Ezequen!" The skink.

  "Negarsanel!" The flea.

  "Rugziel!" The worm.

  "Rumael!" The slug.

  "Rumjal!" The red ant.

  "Ertrael!" The rat.

  One by one, the creatures transformed themselves into the nephilim with their white skin and brilliant, multicolored wings.

  Ugiel raised his arms. "I, Ugiel, in the presence of my brother nephilim, take to wife Mahlah, penultimate daughter of Noah and Matred."

  Mahlah slowly moved toward him, was folded in the great wings.

  Yalith fought for breath. Her chest felt constricted, and she gasped for air.

  Then she saw that there was another circle, outside the circle of the nephilim.

  The pelican who daily brought water for her pitcher stretched himself into the tall, bright personage with silvery hair and wings. "Alarid!"

  Light seemed to flash against the bronze shell of the scarab beetle, who rose up in a rush of golden wings and burnished skin. "Adnarel!"

  A tawny lion with a great ruff of fur about its neck rose on its hind legs and stretched into its seraphic form. "Aariel!" The golden tips of his wings glimmered in the starlight.

  A golden snake, as large as the cobra, but as bright as the cobra was dark, called out as it was transformed, "Abasdarhon!"

  One by one, the seraphim called out their names as they changed form. A golden bat shot up into the air. "Abdiel!"

  A ruffled white owl widened its round silver eyes, and the eyes were suddenly the silver eyes in a seraphim's face, and moon-blue wings seemed to touch the sky. "Akatriel!"

  A white leopard, swift as the wind, called, "Abuzohar!"

  A soft, furred mouse rose, crying, "Achsah!"

  By the mouse a tiger moved, stood, stretched. "Adabiel!"

  A white camel and a giraffe rose moments apart.

  "Admael!"

  "Adnachiel!"

  Lastly, a white goose flew skyward, its wings changing to snow-white. "Aalbiel!"

  There seemed a healing in the calling of their names.

  Although the circle of seraphim was outside that of the nephilim, when they spread their great wings to the fullest span the wing tips touched.

  Likewise, the nephilim raised their wings, turning so that they faced the seraphim, and the glory of their wings brushed.

  "Brothers," Alarid said. "You are still our brothers."

  Ugiel touched his lavender wings to Alarid's silver ones. "No. We have renounced you and all that you stand for. This planet is ours. Its people are ours. We do not know why you stay."

  Alarid replied firmly, "Because, no matter how loudly you renounce us, we are still brothers, and that can never be changed."

  For a fragment of a second, Ugiel seemed more cobra than nephil. Yalith choked back a scream. Mahlah, small and frail, still stood in the center of the circle, protected only by her dark hair.

  Eblis, shimmering in and out of his dragon/lizard form, touched wings with Aariel. "We have made our choice. We have forsworn heaven."

  "Then the earth will never be yours." Aariel was once more a lion, and with a great roar he galloped away, vanishing into the far horizon.

  The two circles broke up with a great flurry of brilliant wings. Yalith blinked, and when she opened her eyes, she saw only a tall, lavender-winged nephil, with his arm tenderly about Mahlah--Mahlah, who was no smaller than any other woman of the oasis, but who came barely to Ugiel's waist.

  Yalith sat on the rock,
as though frozen into motionlessness. Ugiel's wings spread, wrapped gracefully, protectingly, about Mahlah. Yalith thought she caught a whiff of stone. Then there was a flash, not bright like the unicorns', but a flash of darkness even darker than the night, and then the desert in front of her was empty. Mahlah and Ugiel were gone.

  She cried out in fear.

  "Little one," a gentle voice spoke behind her. "Why are you afraid?"

  She turned to see Eblis, his purple wings lifted so that they seemed to mingle with the night sky.

  "Mahlah--" she said. "I am afraid for Mahlah."

  "Why fear, my precious? Ugiel will take care of her. As I will take care of you. There are rumors on the oasis of fearful things to come, the volcano erupting, the mountain falling, earthquakes such as have never been felt before, terrible heavings unlike the silly little tremors you hardly notice."

  She nodded. "I think my father is afraid. But what can we do? If the volcano is going to erupt, there is no way we can stop it."

  "No. Nor can you run from it. But I will protect you."

  "How?"

  "Nephilim have powers. If you will come with me, I will keep you safe."

  "Come with you? Where?"

  "I will make a home for you full of lovely things. You will no longer have to sleep on rough skins, still smelling of animals. I will give you food and wine such as you have never tasted. Come, my lovely little jewel, come with me."

  "When--" She faltered.

  "Now. Tonight."

  She thought of the two circles, the seraphim and the nephilim. It was Eblis who was offering her protection, not Aariel. Mahlah had gone with Ugiel, not with Alarid. "What about my family?" she asked. "What about my twins?"

  "Only you," Eblis said. "That is as far as my powers extend."

  She looked up at the stars. Shook her head. "Twin Den still needs me."

  "Love is patient," Eblis said. "I will wait. But I think that in the end you will come to me." His hand soothed her soft, burnished hair, and there was pleasure in his touch.

  She blinked, looked at the brilliant pattern of stars, and it seemed that she could see Sandy bowing to her in her grandfather's tent, could see Dennys holding her hand as the pain of his burns made him cry out.

  Eblis touched her hair again. "I will wait."

  Japheth came to visit Dennys, examined him carefully, touching the remaining scabs, gently pulling off a flaking strip of paper-thin skin. "You are better."

  "Much better." Dennys smiled at him, and the smile no longer seemed to crack the burned skin of his face. "I go out at night with Yalith and Oholibamah, and we listen to the stars."

  "It is good that you can hear the stars." Japheth sat beside Dennys on a pile of skins, putting his hands, stained purple from winemaking, on his brown knees.

  Dennys looked troubled. "They keep telling me to make peace. At least, I think that is what I hear the stars saying to me."

  Japheth nodded. "Oholi told me. Peace between my father and grandfather. Have you talked to my father about his quarrel with Grandfather Lamech?"

  "Yes, once when he came to visit me. But I didn't really understand what their quarrel is about."

  "Water," Japheth said flatly. "That is what most quarrels on the oasis are about. Grandfather has the best and deepest wells on the oasis, and he's letting his own gardens and groves go to seed in his old age."

  "But he lets you take all the water you need from his wells, doesn't he?"

  Japheth sighed, then laughed. "Oh, Den, the quarrel is so old and stupid I think that both my father and grandfather have forgotten what it is about. They are both stiff-necked and stubborn."

  "Your grandfather--what is he like? I mean, if he's so old, is he able to take proper care of Sandy?"

  "Oh, I'm sure he is. Grandfather Lamech is as hospitable as our mother, and kind, and gentle. It was he who taught Yalith and me to listen to the stars, and to understand the wind, and to love El." He sighed again. "Oh, Den, I'm sorry to involve you in our family quarrel."

  Dennys sighed, too. He did not reply. He looked up at the brazen sky, behind which were the stars. And they had already involved him.

  He shivered.

  Grandfather Lamech and Higgaion began taking Sandy out in the daylight, not into the direct and brutal sunlight, but in the shade of a thick grove. Like Dennys, Sandy wore only a loinskin. His underclothes were folded with the rest of his things, in case they were ever needed again. The loinskin, unlike his own clothes, could be scrubbed clean with sand, and eventually discarded and replaced. He liked the freedom of the loinskin, liked the way his own skin had healed and was slowly turning a rosy tan.

  Adnarel came by Grandfather Lamech's tent almost every day, and as Sandy grew stronger and more willing to accept that he was not going to wake up in his own bed at home, he grew more aware of his surroundings and of the tender care given him by the tiny ancient man.

  "Hey, Grandfather Lamech," he said one morning after breakfast, "now that I'm better, it's time I stopped free-loading."

  The old man looked at him questioningly. "What's that?"

  "What can I do to help?" Sandy asked. "I've never done any cooking, but isn't there stuff outdoors I could do to be useful? At home, Dennys and I chop wood and mow the lawn and we have this huge vegetable garden."

  At the mention of the garden, Lamech's eyes brightened. "I have a vegetable garden, and lately I have much neglected it. Higgaion helps with the watering, but I am too old for the long hours of work, and now there are great weeds choking the plants."

  "Let me at it!" Sandy cried. "Dennys and I are terrific gardeners."

  Grandfather Lamech's face creased into a broad smile. "Not so fast, my son. The time for work in the garden is in the earliest morning, and just as the sun is setting in the evening."

  "Oh."

  The old man laughed. "Truly, you do not want to go out in the garden during the day, or you will be felled by the sun all over again. But as soon as the sun drops behind the palms I will show you the garden. I thank you, dear my Sand. You have been sent to me by El--this I believe."

  "Hey, it's the least I can do," Sandy protested.

  In the late afternoon, when the sun's rays were slanted, Lamech and Higgaion led him past a small grove to the garden, which was indeed in need of helping hands. Great weeds of varieties Sandy had never before seen grew higher than many of the vegetables. This was going to be a full-time job. The weeds had deep roots, he discovered as he tried to pull one up. He found a sharp stone and would have started digging had Lamech not stopped him.

  "You are not quite ready for such hard work, and it is still hot. Tomorrow morning you can try coming out for an hour."

  "All right. It'll make me feel at home, working in a garden again." Sandy knew that he did not have to win Grandfather Lamech's approval, but he had a deep sense of happiness that he could do something for the old man who had been so kind to him. Despite the profusion of weeds, the garden was lush with more vegetables than he had ever seen before.--Too bad there was no way to can or freeze them.

  "We sun-dry some of these." Lamech pointed to a long row of red ovals on tall, leafy stalks, and another of something purple that looked like eggplant but was twice the height of the plants at home. If these people of the desert were smaller than anyone Sandy had ever seen, their plants were larger. "That way," the old man continued, "we can eat them in the winter in soups and stews. I have groves of fruit trees, too, that need pruning and harvesting. Japheth and Oholibamah come when they can, to help me out, but they have more than enough to do in my son's vineyards. It must have been ordered in the stars that you should come just as I have to accept that I can no longer manage on my own." His face was joyful.

  Sandy felt bathed in the old man's joy. There was certainly going to be no time for boredom. And if there was plenty to do, there would be less time in which to worry about getting home.

  One morning Adnarel said, "The Den is much improved."

  Sandy nodded. "Good. But why
do you call us the Sand and the Den, as though Sands and Dens were some kind of rare species?"

  Adnarel's bright laugh pealed. "We picked it up from Japheth. And to Japheth the Sand and the Den are indeed rare species, of a kind never before seen on the oasis, or indeed on any oasis roundabout. It is good that your head is covered." Adnarel nodded approvingly at the woven straw hat Matred had brought over one night with the night-light. "Lamech tells me you are doing valiant work in the garden."

  Sandy pulled the hat firmly down on his head. "The weeds are something else. We have weeds at home, but not like these. But I'm getting rid of them, little by little. Hey. Does your name, Adnarel, mean anything?"

  "That I am in the service of the Maker of the Universe."

  "Why are you sometimes Adnarel, the way you are now, and sometimes you seem to be a scarab beetle?" Sandy started to scratch his shoulder where skin still flaked, stopped himself.

  "I am not sure you will understand," Adnarel said. "The scarab beetle is my earthly host."

  "What on earth do you need an earthly host for?"

  Adnarel sighed. "I said you might not understand."

  "Hey." Sandy was indignant. "Dennys and I may not be the geniuses of the family, but we're nobody's idiots."

  "True," Adnarel agreed. "And I suspect that you also understand that energy and matter are interchangeable."

  "Well, sure. Our parents are scientists."

  "On the other hand, you live in a time and place where those like myself are either forgotten or denied. It was not easy to get you to believe in a unicorn until the need was desperate."

  Unthinkingly, Sandy scratched his forearm, and shreds of skin blew across the ground. "When you're in the scarab beetle, can you understand everything we say?"

  "Certainly."

  "Then why do you bother to come out?"

  "When I am in the scarab beetle, I must accept its limitations."

  Sandy grunted. "I think better when I have Dennys around to bounce ideas off. When am I going to be able to see him again?"

  "As soon as he is able to be moved. Grandfather Lamech has offered his hospitality. It is less noisy and crowded here than in the big tent."

  Sandy sighed. "People have been very kind to us. You, too."

  Adnarel smiled a smile so grave that it was not far from a frown. "We do not yet know why you are here. There must be a purpose to your presence. But we do not know what it is." His eyes seemed to shoot golden sparks at Sandy. "Do you?"