"Well, in the autumn when it hasn"t rained for a while, we aren"t allowed to take long showers, and our parents warn us not to flush the toilet every time we use it-"
"The what?"
"Sorry," Sandy apologized. "I keep forgetting." Grandfather Lamech was tidier about his body"s needs than many of the people on the pathways near his compound. Sandy had been requested courteously to go to a small grove which drained onto the desert, whenever he needed. But many people used no special place at all. When Sandy had wandered away from Grandfather Lamech"s, and onto the public path, he had seen that the streets were full of human dung as well as camel dung, goat dung, cow dung.
Perhaps the fierceness of the sun burned away things that would cause disease. He"d have to ask Dennys. Dennys knew more about sanitation and viruses and germs than Sandy did. Although, if he went into environmental law when he grew up, he"d have to learn about such things.
Grandfather Lamech gave him a bowl of still-unfermented grape juice, and Sandy drank it thirstily. He sniffed at the pot sitting in the banked embers of the fire- Grand-father Lamech cooked in the cool of the night, then set the pot in the ashes, where it kept comfortably warm.
"Smells good. Grandfather Lamech. What is it?"
"Pottage," the old man said.
"What"s that?"
"Lentils, onions, and rice, well seasoned."
"Hey, I"m going to have to tell my mother how to make that when I get home." A brief wave of homesickness enveloped him as his mind"s eye saw the lab, and a ca.s.serole of pottage cooking over the Bunsen burner.
Higgaion, too, sniffed. He had his own bowl, and he ate the same food as Sandy and the old man.
Grandfather Lamech seemed daily more tottery. If Dennys came to the tent, would it be too much for him?
But now that Noah and Lamech were reconciled, Noah not only came to Lamech"s tent to talk, he brought great kettles of food, skins of wine, bunches of grapes. And the two men laughed and cried, and Noah hugged his father. "Oh, my father, you must live forever!"
And Lamech did not answer.
In the end, Dennys was to cross the oasis on a camel, a white camel with a long, supercilious nose, sneering rubbery lips, and extraordinary gentian eyes, shaded by long lashes.
Noah had cut his foot on a sharp stone, and Matred forbade him to accompany Dennys. "Now that you and your father are reconciled, do you want to spoil everything with an infected foot? It is healing well, but the public paths are full of filth. You are not to leave the tent until it has healed."
"Women," Noah grunted. But he obeyed Matred.
"Our Den will be all right," she rea.s.sured him. "If he is in the care of the seraphim, he will reach Grandfather Lamech safely."
Alarid, the seraph whose host was the pelican, and who brought water to the tent for Dennys; Alarid, who had warned him not to change anything, came with another seraph. This one had wings of pale blue, and eyes like moonstones, a deeper, brighter blue.
"So," Alarid said to Dennys, not quite accusingly, "you have already made changes."
"But I haven"t!" Dennys expostulated.
"You persuaded Noah to go to his father, when he would listen to no one else."
"I didn"t really say all that much," Dennys said. "I sort of just listened to the stars. So I wasn"t really the one-"
"I am not here to accuse you," Alarid said. "We are full of joy that Lamech and Noah are speaking again, and it may well be that it was necessary for your brother to pre-pare the old man for reconciliation." He indicated the other seraph, who had been standing quietly listening. "This is Admael."
The seraph did not extend his hand. Seraphim evidently did not shake hands. Admael bowed, and Dennys returned the bow.
Together, the two seraphim carefully examined Dennys. "Yalith and Oholibamah have taken excellent care of you," Aland said.
Admael nodded in quiet approval.
"They"ve been marvelous," Dennys agreed. "I think I"d be dead it they hadn"t." The scabs were long gone from his skin. He could run across the desert without tiring. He knew that it was time.
He looked at Alarid. "And you, too. Thank you." He bowed to the seraph.
"Admael will carry you to Grandfather Lamech"s tent," Alarid said.
Admaei"s moonstone eyes beamed toward Dennys. "I will wait outside." With a grave look, the seraph left.
"I should thank everybody." Dennys hesitated. He was eager to be with Sandy again, yes, and yet he was not at all eager to leave Yalith. And, of course, Oholibamah and j.a.pheth. If he went to Grandfather Lamech"s tent, would he ever see Yalith again? Would her delicate fingers slide confidingly into his hand the way they did when she took him out at night to listen to the stars, or when they danced under the desert sky?
"Fear not," Alarid said. "I have thanked them for you, all of them, Noah and Matred, Shem and Elisheba, Ham and Anah, j.a.pheth and Oholibamah, and oh, yes, Yalith, too. In any event, you will be seeing them frequently. Now that Grandfather Lamech and Noah are reconciled, there will be much coming and going between the two tents. Are you ready?"
"Ready." He would see Yalith again. Surely she would come to Grandfather Lamech"s tent to visit him. Surely he would feel the touch of her delicate fingers.
He followed Alarid out of the tent. Night had fallen, and the sky was crusted with stars. He was getting used to the pattern of early rising, the long afternoon nap, and going late to sleep when the fiery sands had cooled down and the very air had lost its burning quality.
He looked for Admael, but there was no seraph. Instead, a white camel stood in the dim shadow of the tent.
Noah was waiting for him, standing by the camel, leaning on a stick, his foot bound in a clean skin. "This is not goodbye, my son. We are all eager to see you and the Sand together. Then maybe we will believe that you really are two. The seraphim has looked at my foot and says that I will be able to walk on it safely in a couple of days." He held out his hand, palm up. "Put your foot there, and I will help you up onto the camel"s back. Even for a young giant like you, a camel"s back is a long way up."
The camel had no real saddle, but heavy skins were spread on its back. Dennys was not at all sure how easy it was going to be for him to stay seated. There was nothing for him to hold on to, no reins, no pommel. But Admael in his camel form seemed to be a real flesh-and-blood camel, not nebulous, like the virtual unicorns. He did not think the camel would lose its tendency to life.
Matred came hurrying out of the tent, carrying a bundle, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Here are your clothes. Perhaps, sometime, you will need them. Goodbye, our dear twin. We will miss you."
And suddenly he was surrounded by the entire family, weeping, laughing, reaching up to the camel"s flanks to hug Dennys"s feet, which was as close to him as they could reach, even on tiptoe.
j.a.pheth had his arm around Oholibamah, and Yalith was standing with them. They blew him kisses, which he blew back, and then, without warning, the camel took off, and everybody called after them, "Goodbye, twin Den, goodbye, and we"ll see you soon!"
"Goodbyel" he called in return, trying to wave at them without falling off.
The camel turned off the oasis onto the desert as the calls faded into the distance. Dennys clutched the bundle of clothes Matred had given him-what remained of his clothes after he had thrown away the ones fouled in the garbage pit. He could not imagine ever needing winter clothes again. He could not imagine going farther than Lamech"s tent, where he and Sandy would be reunited.
He remembered reading somewhere that to ride a camel was like being on a small ship rolling in rough seas, and that seemed to him to be a very good description. He bent over and clutched the white hair on the camel"s neck, trying to let his body swing with the camel"s odd rhythm. A soft night breeze only faintly gritty with sand touched his cheeks. Above them, the desert stars gave out a cooling light. In the distance the mountain smoked, and the horizon burned red. Dennys was glad the oasis was as far away as it was from the still active volcano.
The camel lurched swiftly across the desert. Dennys found that the more he leaned into the animal"s syncopated rhythm the less tendency he had to slither off. The camel was going with such speed that it would be halfway across the desert before it realized that Dennys had fallen, so he"d better hang on.
He tried to breathe in time with the arhythmic ride. He would be incredibly sore in the morning. This was far harder on the muscles than riding a horse. He noticed a shift in pace, a quickening of rhythm. He clutched at the camel"s neck, barely managing to hold on. Barely. He began to slip to one side, with the skins under him sliding with him.
The white camel was racing across the desert. Suddenly Dennys realized that the sound of camel"s hooves on sand, on stone under sand, was echoed by another sound.
A voice from close behind them roared, "Hungry!" and Dennys felt a breath so hot that it seared. He felt himself slipping farther and farther off the camel, until he was clinging to the side, and then he realized that the camel had turned, so that it was between Dennys and whatever it was that was roaring. He found himself sliding so that he was head down, peering under the camel"s belly.
Something was peering at him from the other side of the camel. A face. Whiskers. A bulbous nose. Bleary eyes. Horns which curved down, with sharp, wicked points. Dennys looked for the body that belonged to the face and saw, instead, a lion"s body. Looked along the lion"s body to where the tail should be and saw, instead, a scorpion"s tail, its sting rattling. He had never seen anything like it before. He did not want to see it now. Clutching the camel"s white hair, he tried to struggle up onto its back again.
The camel whickered, and continued to race across the desert.
"Hungry!" the creature roared.
Dennys felt very small. Very young. Very afraid. "Is it going to eat me?"
The camel glanced back at Dennys, the gentian eyes enigmatic.
"Hey!" he protested. "Aren"t you going to stop it?"
The huge face loomed over the camel"s back. "Hungry!" it roared again. The enormous lips opened, to reveal a double set of ugly, stumpy teeth, which looked as though they had been worn down from gnawing. The purplish lips opened.
Dennys pulled at the camel"s hair. "Hey. Help." The ugly creature"s breath came closer. The bloodshot eyes were looking directly at Dennys"s grey ones. He tried to stare it down. The tongue, thick but long as a snake"s, flicked toward him. He drew back, shielding himself with the camel, but the man/lion/scorpion bounded over the camel"s back, landing on the sand beside Dennys.
"Camel!" he shouted. "Please be Admael!" He sidestepped away from the monster.
Again the camel agilely placed itself between Dennys and the creature. Gave Dennys a glance. Dennys remembered that seraphim did not like to interfere or change things.
"Hey!" he shouted. "If he eats me, won"t that change the course of things?"
With a flash of lightning almost like the unicorn"s, the camel stretched its whiteness up to the sky, seeming to brush against the stars, to catch blue fire, and then Admael stood beside Dennys. "Go, manticore, go quickly. And don"t go to any of the tents. And don"t even think of eating any of the mammoths. Do your hunting in the desert."
Tears began to trickle down the manticore"s cheeks, dampening its scraggly beard.
"And don"t try to make me feel sorry for you." Admael paused. "Though I am sorry for you. You appear to be one of nature"s more peculiar efforts."
The manticore turned, head drooping, and with its lion"s body it padded across the desert, scorpion sting clacking as it went.
"Wow!" Dennys said. "That was a close call."
"Not really. Manticore"s courage is as skimpy as its vocabulary." Admael picked up the skins which had served as saddle. "Let"s go." Dennys looked at him questioningly. "It isn"t far. I"ve been running parallel to the oasis. Can you walk a little?"
"Sure." He"d just as soon walk as be bounced around on the camel"s back. But he asked, curiously, "You"re not going to be a camel?"
Admael had slung the skins over one shoulder. "Not now. It takes considerable energy to transfer. We do not like to waste power when it is not necessary. The manticore is basically a coward, but there may be other dangers in the night desert. It"s best that we keep moving."
Admael glanced upward, and when Dennys looked skyward, he saw the dark wings of a vulture blotting out the stars in swift circles.
The circle of the nephilim was dark against the desert, a dark shot with flames brighter than those from the mountain as they flickered in and out of their animal hosts in a show of power. They spoke from their nephil forms in bursts of primal energy, reverting in negative lightning to their animal hosts, and bursting with bright wings again in order to speak.
The crocodile opened its enormous jaws, then lifted green wings as it stretched skyward. "What are they doing here?"
"What are they?" Pewter wings faded like smoke and a rat"s tail swished back and forth over the sand.
There was a sulfurous smell as the nephilim flickered in and out, charging the air. "Not true giants." Red wings and hair flamed in the hot wind and then a mosquito whined shrilly.
"Not one of us." Purple wings misted and the dragon/ lizard stretched its useless wings.
"Though they speak the ancient tongue."
"They burn in the sun."
"They can"t change form."
"Young. Infants."
"Almost men, though."
"They don"t belong here."
"What to do with them?" Bronze wings dissolved and shrank with a tearing sound as the c.o.c.kroach lifted its armored wings.
"Do we let them live?" Great garnet wings dimmed the clouds, dropped with a sharp crack, and the red ant"s small body cast a dark shadow in the starlight.
Flicker. Flame. Shadow. In and out in prideful bursts of energy.
"Ummm," moaned the nephil who was the cobra. "Maybe we promise them that they will live."
"Ummm, kkk." The vulture appeared briefly and clicked its beak. Then dark wings shadowed the stars. "Power. Put them in our power."
Yellow wings puffed into sulfur and the flea leapt from the dragon/lizard to the vulture, then raised wings high. "Power. That"s right."
"Temptation," the dragon/lizard nephil suggested.
"Temptation. Good." And the mosquito droned.
"l.u.s.t," suggested the cobra, and the nephil"s face was whiter than the sand.
"Ummm. l.u.s.t," agreed the vulture. "Kkk. l.u.s.t."
"We"ll sleep tomorrow in the heat of the day." The reunited Sandy and Dennys sat outside Grandfather Lamech"s tent as the stars wheeled across the sky. The old man had gone in, after having sat outside with them to eat a fresh mess of pottage, and to prepare bowls of fig juice.
Higgaion was curled in the star shade of the tree, his flanks heaving in and out as he slept, occasionally twitching in dreams.
"Noah and Matred have a mammoth called Selah," Dennys said. "Usually she sleeps by Yalith"s sleeping skins, but sometimes she came into my tent and slept with me. It was weird being without you." Dennys wriggled his bare toes in the sand.
"Yeah," Sandy agreed. "It was weird for me, too. Higgy and Grandfather Lantech have been very good to me." He wanted to ask about Yalith. But something stayed his tongue. He said, instead, "I love Grandfather Lamech. You will, too "
"He seems okay," Dennys agreed. "I"m glad j.a.pheth was the first person we saw. Otherwise, I"d suspect everybody of being like those awful people who threw me out of their tent into the town dump."