Sword of the Gods: The Chosen One (4 page)

With a sigh, Ninsianna
began making camp for the night.  To her west, a burning orange sun reunited
with the arid horizon, reminding her that refuge amongst the Halifian tribe
would be even
worse
than forced marriage to Jamin.  The people of the
desert took many wives and treated them as burdens
. 
They would make her
cover her face and keep her opinions to herself, if they didn't sell her right
back to Jamin for a hefty fee!  Or worse … the enemy tribe might sell her as a
concubine just to spite the Chief! 

What
other
options were available to a runaway bride?

She rifled through the
supplies she'd pilfered from her father and lay them around her as she prepared
to perform the ritual of divination.  A sack of bones for divining the future. 
Dried parrotia, to burn.  A small, clay flask containing belladonna berries and
poppy pods to aid the mind in slipping beyond the material realms.  Women were
forbidden to perform magic, but Ninsianna had never been a particularly
obedient daughter and had always had a special relationship with She-who-is. 
Papa liked to brag that instead of saying Mama and Papa, her first words had
been to reach for the sunlight and gurgle '
SHE.'

"Why do you favor
Jamin and not just me?" Ninsianna questioned the setting sun which made
the desert appear as though it were on fire.  "
He
never did
anything
to worship you!" 

Ninsianna sighed. 
Because
everybody
knew the goddess favored the pretty boys.  That's
why… 

She licked the thin,
white powder which coated her skin and made it itch.  Salt.  Left behind when
her sweat had evaporated.  She unwrapped her long fringed shawl and stepped into
the water to bathe, a relief after two days wandering the wilderness.  Suitably
purified, she dug soft yellow ochre out of the stream and smeared it onto her
body to symbolize a willingness to return to the womb.  As she did, her mind
raced.  What would convince the goddess to spurn her favorite son?

"Papa says you
favor this marriage because I'll stabilize Jamin's hot temper," Ninsianna
said.  "But Mother!  He has a cruel streak!  What will he do if I
displease him?” 

She felt
the
flow of energy shift as at last she piqued the goddess’ interest.  Papa said
the
s
ecret to using magic was to figure out what the goddess
really
wanted
and offer her a solution which would give her the same end result.  But what?
Every time she'd been granted intervention in the past, she'd offered
HER
something in return.

The sun slipped
beneath the horizon.  Oh!  How Ninsianna hated the dark!  She rinsed the ochre
from her hands and fished out her firestone.  The desert grew cold at night
this time of year and hyenas prowled the wilderness searching for an easy
meal.  Wood was scarce, but this close to a stream-bed there were enough twigs
to build a fire.  Her lips moved in prayer as she thwacked the firestone
against the striker. 

It was a relief when
the desiccated leaves finally ignited and beat back the encroaching darkness. 
She fed the hungry red tongues sticks until they burst into a satisfying roar. 
Listening to it crackle, she contemplated solutions to her sorry predicament. 
Betrothed!  To a man she did not love!  All because she'd been foolish enough
to believe him when Jamin had promised to take her on this next trading
mission!

“Couldn't you make him
fall in love with somebody else?" Ninsianna pleaded.  "He -
is-,
after
all, the son of the Chief! 
Somebody
will want him!  Why not send him
someone
better
so he forgets all about me?" 

Yes!  That was it! 
She would perform a love ritual!  But who?  Who would want the most eligible …
and arrogant … man in the village?  Shahla?  No.  Jamin only used the village
trollop to satiate his baser appetites.  He'd be the laughing stock of Assur if
he took to wife a bride so well-used.  Perhaps her cousin Gita?  No.  Not only
was Gita as plain as dirt, but the peculiar girl followed Shahla around like a
shadow.  How about Yadidatum?  Soft-spoken, rubinesque, and a talented weaver,
Yadidatum would be a prize for any man to take home. 

Ninsianna paused
feeding the fire to seriously consider the idea... 

No.  That wouldn't be
nice.  Yadidatum was betrothed to Tirdard … and far too meek.  For all his talk
about submission, Jamin would never fall for someone who wasn't as
strong-willed as
he
was. 

"It would serve
Jamin right to wed somebody powerful enough to put
him
into
his
place for a change instead of the other way around!" Ninsianna exclaimed. 
"But who?  Who would be tempting enough to get Jamin to stop obsessing
about
me?
"

A thrill of mirth
welled up in her psyche.  Ninsianna could almost
feel
the goddess
laughing at her musings.  -
Who-
didn't matter! 

'Ninsianna …
trust…'

A burst of light
radiated from the fire, indicating the goddess found favor with her wager. 
Wind giggled through the grass.  Moths danced around her as laughter welled up
from Ninsianna's lungs, but the amusement was not her own.  The goddess would
decide Jamin’s fate and bring
her
somebody better in the process! 
Someone formidable enough to make even Jamin back off.

'Come child … I
wish for you to see…'

Ninsianna smiled. 
Yes.  She wished to see for
herself
what the goddess expected of her. 
Why should men determine the fate of woman fate when it was a
goddess
who
was the architect of All-That-Is? 

She pried the stopper
out of the flask containing the sacred beverage and gave it a wary sip.  Ugh! 
It tasted like dirt mixed with goat urine!  She pinched her nose and took a
long draught.  Coughing, she took deep breaths and bit down upon a piece of
flat bread to quell the urge to vomit.  Feeling ill, she stared into the fire,
not certain what should happen next. 

“Death would be
preferable to life as a brood goat!” Ninsianna wrapped herself with her coarse
woven blanket, ready to accept the vision.  “Please, Mother!  I'll do anything
you ask!  Just not marry
him!
”

A paralyzing numbness
crept through her limbs.  Night fell, the sky turned black.  The
chirp-chirp-chirp of crickets took on the eerie percussion of a shamanic
rattle.  Her body shivered, but she could no longer feel the cold.  A jackal
howled and was answered by its mate, but instead of being afraid, she felt as
though she were part of the pack.  Grass and shrubbery glowed with an internal
light, the spirit-light she could sometimes see, but never before this
clearly.  This was the closest she'd ever felt to She-who-is in all the years
she'd been stealing dregs from her father’s shamanic journeys and sneaking into
the date-palm groves to perform her
own
magic. 

Stars whispered
secrets older than the universe.  Ninsianna reached up to touch them, wishing
she could dwell amongst them as the goddess did.  The sound of the universe
moving in an intricate dance was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.  She
whispered the plea she'd made every night for as long as she'd been alive.

"Mother … when
will you let me join you?"

'Soon, my Chosen
One.  But first you must do something for me…'

Ninsianna closed her
eyes and slipped into the flow of information, relishing the feel of the
goddess' thoughts flowing all around her like the brook which gurgled at her
side.  Ever since she'd first sensed the mind of She-who-is as a little girl,
all she'd wanted to do was become one with the vast consciousness.  Who
cared
what happened in Assur when eternity was so beautiful?

Time and space became
meaningless as her spirit journeyed outwards.  She saw creatures that flew
between the stars in strange enclosed canoes, every kind of creature that could
walk or creep or crawl.  Her eyes were drawn to one of the sky canoes.  In it
was a man unlike any she'd ever seen before. He battled a cancer which seeped
into a vortex of spinning stars like pooling blood.  As she watched, a blade of
darkness reached out and smote his sky canoe, casting it out of the stars
towards a blue stone she understood was her home.  She sensed a query. 

'This man can carry
you out into the stars.  Will you help him?' 

"Yes,
Mother," Ninsianna murmured.  "I will help him." 

A sensation not unlike
a hug caressed her thoughts and carried her back to her own body, well-being
warming her consciousness as though it were a drug.  She and the goddess had
reached an agreement.  Whoever this man was, her fate was to be tied to his. 
Content that her prayers had been answered, she snuggled into her blanket and
fell asleep.

Bathing in the stream
the next morning to remove the ochre, she was not surprised to see an enormous
ball of fire hurtle out of the sky and slam into the earth not far from where
she'd spent the night.  Belting her shawl around her waist and flipping the end
over her shoulder to cover her breasts, she gathered her things and headed in
the direction it had gone.

~ * ~ * ~ *
~ * ~

February - 3,390 BC

Earth:  Village of Assur
(present
moment)

Jamin

The moment the spear
left his hand, Jamin knew his aim was off by a good hands-breadth.

“Hah!” Firouz laughed. 
“You missed the target!”

Jamin gave his band of
elite warriors a scowl.  Tall, olive skinned, with black eyes and hair the
color of a raven's wings, his bitter expression conveyed he was in no mood this
morning for fun and games.  Or practice.  Or arbitrating the petty quarrels
villagers kept bringing to him in his father's absence.  He had better things
to do than to waste his time solving problems people should prove capable of
solving themselves
! 
What he
really
wanted to do was search for
his reluctant bride before she was eaten by a lion!

“Jamin?” Siamek
asked.  “What -
is-
that?”  He pointed towards the horizon where a second
sun had appeared in the sky. 

“That’s no shooting
star!” Dadbeh said. 

The group stared in
mute disbelief while Jamin weighed the consequences of his actions the way his
father
insisted
a future chief must always do.  The warriors practiced
within plain sight of villagers who would someday look to
him
to lead
them.  If he cringed at shadows, he would lose face.  If, on the other hand,
the phenomenon was a threat, raising the alarm would be prudent.  As he weighed
the consequences of choosing one path or the other, the fireball grew so large
that it dwarfed the horizon.

He'd never had a
threat come hurtling at him through the sky before…

“That thing is hot!” 
Siamek's voice was a whisper.  “I can feel the heat from here.”

“Run for cover!” Jamin
shouted.  “Order the villagers to hide in their houses until the threat has
passed!”  

The warriors
scattered, every man for himself.  In their panic, they never heard the second
half of his command to protect the villagers, leaving little old ladies and
children gaping at the growing fireball.  Jamin tackled a little boy to the
ground and yanked him behind a pile of sticks. 

With a roar like an
avalanche of rocks, the fireball shot overhead.  An ear-splitting boom shook
the mud brick houses and raised dust devils from the ground moments
after
the
object had passed.  Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, an explosion
rocked the village and knocked him flat upon his back.  A cloud of fire and
dust erupted into the air far off in the distance.  The warriors remained
hidden until Jamin gave them the all-clear.

“What the hell was
that?”  Firouz's voice was the whine of a small boy.  The warriors ignored
mutters from the villagers about incompetence as they brushed the dust from
their kilt.

“A star has fallen
from the sky.”  Jamin picked a clump of goat-dung out of the fringe of the kilt
he wore belted around his waist as he tried to appear chiefly.  “It's an omen! 
The gods are displeased with one within our village.”