People of the Tower (Ark Chronicles 4) (17 page)

13.

It was late at night on the upland plain of Nineveh. The moon had set and the stars twinkled. Bats returned to their lairs and wolves, gorged on game taken that evening, slunk to their dens and lay down to await the dawn.

A door creaked
. The sound ceased. A shadow, a blot of darkness that had moved, now stopped. The head of the shadow bent forward. The door inched open, the creaks loud and poignant in the gloom. The shadow stepped into the log cabin and closed the door until the latch clicked.

Using all the skills learned over the years
, Hilda crept to her bedroom. Her mind boiled. Odin had begged once again for her to be his wife and escape with him to the Far North. How she yearned to say yes and flee this doomed place. She almost agreed. She worried about her father, though. How he would react to her departure?

She stopped
and listened. It seemed—she froze. Someone was in the room, someone awake.

No, no, she told herself
. Her father slept in his room. Why would he be up this late at night? She waited. The feeling grew. She held her breath and listened harder.

She could have sworn a moment ago that she had heard someone
breathe. Oh, how she wanted to stop this subterfuge and call out. But what if her father sat up and waited, and what if even now he watched her in the darkness? He wouldn’t be able to see her, of course. But if he sat up, holding his breath, also wanting to call out—

Her stomach whirled
. She loved Odin. She wanted to marry him. But she didn’t know if she could leave her father all alone, after all the terrible things that had happened to him. She hated it when he looked at her in the morning, so sad, so…

She took a step
. The floorboard creaked. Gradually, creak by creak she moved to her room, opened the door and slipped within, shutting her bedroom door behind her.

I
n the darkness of the main room, in the corner, Beor let out his breath. He vowed that, come what may, he would slay this imposter Odin who tried to steal his daughter from him.

14.

Ham rubbed his eyes. His arms ached and his fingers had grown stiff from hours of slinging and archery. Hay-backed targets stood thirty paces away. Splotches had appeared in his vision so he could no longer make them out.

“
Let me help you,” a lad said, the one who had been fetching arrows for others.

Led by the hand, Ham soon sat on a bale.

“Food has always helped before,” the lad said.

Ham accepted bread, mechanically tearing it, stuffing the pieces into his mouth
. He swilled cold mountain water, wishing it were ale.

“
Should I find Odin before he sneaks off to Hilda?”

“
Does everyone know about it?” Ham asked.

“
Everyone but Beor,” the lad said. “Well, none of his band knows, either. People want to see her married and are secretly praying for Odin’s success.”

“
Ah, that’s better,” Ham said. He could see again. He tousled the lad’s hair. With a grunt, he rose and picked up his bow.

Snowcapped hills
stood to the north, mere blurs for him, although he could make out the palisade-ringed hill to his right. The palisade wasn’t a town in the Akkad or Babel sense, just Assur’s first line of defense. Rocks and boulders littered the undulating terrain, stands of pines here and there and a stream that had detached from the Tigris. It meandered until it reentered the main river several leagues from here.

To the north and west of the hill fort
, lived the majority of Shem’s clans and a few of Japheth’s. Some Shemites had migrated to Babel along with many Japhethites, and now Japheth himself had gone. The numbers were three to one in Nimrod’s favor. Worse, except for Beor and his band, there was nothing like Nimrod’s Mighty Men. Few here owned bronze armor, although many had fashioned leather coverings and practiced with the bow or spear.

“
Patriarch,” the lad said. “Here comes Assur and Shem.”

In the process of tying on a leather bracer, Ham glanced at the blurry hill-fort
. Of course, he saw nothing. “Where are they?”

“
Halfway down the hill.”

“
Walking?”

“
Riding donkeys.”

First r
ubbing his eyes, Ham squinted at the targets. The bracer on his left forearm protected the flesh from the slashing string of the bow. Whenever he released, the string scraped the wrist, and after continued shooting, the bowstring would cut and made his skin bleed without the protection. He tested various bows.

Most of those owed by the
Shemites were short bows, usually drawn to the chest. Few men had huge, six-foot bows like Beor. Few could have drawn the string of Beor’s bow to their cheek. The usual tactic with the short bow was to sneak up close and shoot from hiding. Long distance shooting demanded a bow like Beor’s. Close-set ambush tactics, Ham felt, wouldn’t work against Nimrod. So he looked for the right combination of bow that shot far but didn’t need a truly strong man. It seemed for what he envisioned that slings were better. The only problem was that slings took years of practice to use well.

H
am plucked an arrow out of the ground and notched it. His shoulders ached and his fingers stiffened. “Steady, old man,” he whispered. The arrow hissed and the heavy smack told him he’d hit the bale.

“
It’s in the circle,” the youth shouted.

Ham grinned, but the hint of a splotch in his eyes and a twinge in his shoulder convinced him he had pushed himself to the limit
. He unstrung the bow and told the lad to gather arrows. Then he ambled to his bale, awaiting his brother and nephew.

Assur was tall
, lean and had a curly black beard almost down to his waist. He had wise eyes and a broad forehead. He judged disputes between his siblings with a wisdom that had earned him the title: the Just. Shem, riding a donkey, looked much as he had when they built the Ark. Shem savored his words as always, prayed every morning at the family altar and chose a different cabin each day to visit. The great-grandchildren loved to crawl over him as he told them Jehovah-centered stories.

“
Good afternoon, Uncle,” Assur called.

Ham waved.

The Shemites hobbled their mounts and strolled to him, Assur in his disjointed stride and Shem in his leisurely pace.

“
How goes the target practice, Uncle?”

“
In truth,” Ham said, “my eyesight could be better. I’m debating having Odin fashion me a spear and begging Beor for a suit of armor.”

“
You never change,” Shem said. “I remember how you practiced diligently before facing Ymir. Do you remember that night?”

“
This time we don’t face giants. Just men like us.”

“
Where’s Odin?” Assur asked.

“
I want to talk to you about something,” Ham said. “It occurred to me while I practiced and it concerns the coming battle.”

“
Maybe Nimrod won’t come,” Shem said.

“
You’re the one who prophesied it,” Ham said. “Have you lost faith in what you saw?”

“
I meant he might not come this year.”

“
That’s right,” Assur said. “I still don’t understand your certainty about this year, Uncle. Wouldn’t Jehovah have given us the prophecy with enough time to get ready? Just like He warned Noah about the Flood in time to build the Ark?”

“
Maybe Jehovah means for you to take advantage of Odin’s idea,” Ham said. “The Earth is vast and devoid of people. Why not gather our clans and march far from here?”

“
We’ll do well enough in a fight,” Assur said.

“
You don’t train together,” Ham said. “You don’t armor yourselves and you lack a real chariot arm.”

“
Perhaps,” Assur said. “But Shem seeks the mind of Jehovah. There lies our true strength, a foil to Nimrod’s deceptions.”

Ham bit his lip
. He didn’t like arguing spirituality. But today— “I’ve wondered about that, too.”

“
Oh?”

“
Jehovah said to spread out, to fill the Earth,” Ham said. “So what have you done? Why, come in clans and clan groupings to the plain of Nineveh. That’s practically as disobedient as my children. You know what Jehovah wants and yet you don’t do it. Why then do you think Jehovah will protect you?”

“
I disagree that we’ve been like Nimrod,” Assur said. “If people now did as Jehovah commanded, each family or clan would be at Nimrod’s mercy. We settled the plain of Nineveh as a counterweight to Babel.”

“
Weren’t you listening?” Ham asked. “The world is vast. Trek far enough away and Nimrod won’t ever find you. Your argument is that since King Nimrod and his people have disobeyed, you’re forced to disobey for your own protection.”

“
Assur knows how I feel about his thinking,” Shem said. “It’s sheer sophistry.”

Assur
’s shoulders tightened.

“
Why do you think you’ll win?” Ham asked.

“
We’ll be fighting for our homes,” Assur said, “like bears in a cave. It will make us ferocious.”

Odin
walked up and sat on a nearby bale.

“
Nimrod outnumbers you.” Ham said. “And he has more trained fighters. Who can face the Mighty Men? Surely not Beor’s handful or your mob.”

“
The Mighty Men are just like us,” Assur said. “They’re prey to the same fears.”

“
That’s why Nimrod has trained them these long years,” Ham said, “why these seek dangerous beasts.”

“
We’ve hunted the same beasts,” Assur said.

“
Your people have driven off the occasional wolf or stray lion. That’s another thing entirely from remorselessly hunting them day after day, challenging them in order to build your courage. Why do you acclaim Beor such a valiant warrior? Because he sought out and slew a great sloth in single combat. Who else has done that?”

Assur
frowned.

“
Farmers and shepherds cannot face warriors in the open,” Ham said.

“
So we should hide behind walls?” Assur asked. “Or forge more armor suits?”

“
What you need is something else entirely.”

“
Brimstone balls?” Assur asked.

“
Let him finish,” Shem said.

Assur dipped his head
. “I’m sorry, Uncle Ham.”

Ham waved aside the apology
. “I’ve thought about this a long time, and it may already be too late. But you need a new mode of war that counters Nimrod’s plan. I’m devising a method of long-distance battle, to harry them and to make life miserable on the march. I propose that a band diligently search for horses. Once we train them, you must construct new style chariots to my specification.”

“
Chariots like Kedorlaomer once had?” Shem asked.

“
Exactly,” Ham said. “And new archery and slinger tactics.”

Assur threw up his hands
. “Why not ask for the moon? If Nimrod marches soon, as you keep predicting, we don’t have time for that.”

“
So send an emissary to Babel and ask for terms,” Ham said. “Beg if you have to and let them send out governors. Meanwhile, you send out searchers, train in these new ways and once you’re ready, throw off Nimrod’s yoke.”

“
You’re full of trickery,” Shem said.

Assur
began to pace. “Nimrod may or may not march this year. If he does, we’ll fight harder than he expects, harder than you believe. Beor and his band will practice their harrying tactics while the hill-fort will act as a breakwater against which they must either storm or siege. Then our massed might shall fall upon them in surprise.”

“
What if they bring the onager and use brimstone?” Odin asked. “Your hill fort’s walls are made of wood.”

“
What if Beor drives one of his three foot shafts through Nimrod’s chest?” Assur asked.

Odin nodded sagely
. “Kill Nimrod and you win. That’s the best strategy.”

Assur
turned to his father. “It’s time we headed for Uz’s settlement. I want to inspect their arrow supply.”

Shem and Assur
said their goodbyes and soon mounted the donkeys.

“
How did it go with Hilda?” Ham asked.

Odin
brooded. “Do you really think there are horses somewhere?”

“
Of course.”

“
Why doesn’t Nimrod search for them?”

“
Searching for horses would send out wandering teams everywhere. It might give his Mighty Men the wrong idea.”

“
I didn’t see any horses in the Far North.”

“
So we know where not to look.” Ham shrugged. “It’s just an idea. Anything to give us hope of victory.”

“
That hope died when Japheth and Gomer migrated to Babel.”

Ham rolled his shoulder, testing his sore muscles
. “Do you think you can fashion me a spear like Gungnir?”

Odin shook his head
. “Stick to what you know this summer. If Nimrod still hasn’t shown by fall, I’ll think about it.”

Ham stretch
ed, and that made his eyes splotch again. He hoped he wasn’t going blind. That was all he needed.