Servant of the Bones

“ ‘No, I’m not angry with you, Azriel, it’s just I don’t trust the priests of the temple. There are many, many old and conniving priests, and you never know what they will want of you. Now listen to me. I have some things to tell you before we get deeper into this, before you do, that is, for I am as deep as I can get. Let’s go to the public gardens. I like to see you eat and drink.’

“We went to his favorite place, a huge public garden right on the Euphrates, down away from all the docks and the shipwrights and the commotion. In fact it was where one of the many canals came in, and it was more on the canal than the river itself which was always busy. This garden was filled with big drooping willow trees, just like in the psalm, you know, and there were a few musicians out there playing their pipes and dancing for trinkets.

“Marduk sat down opposite me and folded his arms. We really did look so much alike that we could have been brothers. It occurred to me that I knew him better than I knew any of my brothers. And by the way, I didn’t hate my brothers the way Hebrews are always hating their brothers in the stories. Forget that. I loved my brothers. They were a little tame, when it came to drinking and dancing. I had more fun with my father. But I loved them.”

He stopped. It seemed out of respect for the dead brothers. He was now beyond beautiful in the red velvet, and these pauses brought me back visually to him in a way that was seductive. But then he began to talk again:

“Marduk started in on me right away. ‘Look, I am going to tell you the truth and you pay attention. I have no memory of my beginnings. I have no memory of slaying Tiamat the great dragon and making the world out of her belly and the sky out of the rest of her. But this does not mean that it didn’t happen. I walk most of the time in a fog. I see the spirits of the gods and the roaming spirits of the dead and I listen for prayers and I try to answer them. But this is a dreary place where I live. When I retreat to the temple for the banquet it’s a great pleasure because the fog clears. You know what clears it?’

“ ‘No, but I can guess…that the priests see you, that powerful seers see you.’

“ ‘That is it, Azriel, I can become solid and visible for witches, for sorcerers, for those who have eyes to see, and then I drink up the libations of water, I inhale them and inhale the fragrances of food and this puts me in the mood of life. Then I go into the statue, and I rest in darkness and time means nothing to me, and I listen to Babylon. I listen. I listen. But the myths of the beginning, I don’t remember, you see what I’m saying?’

“ ‘Not entirely,’ I confessed. ‘Are you telling me that you aren’t a god?’

“ ‘No, I am a god and a powerful one. Were I to draw on my will, I could clear this marketplace, this garden now, with a great forceful wind. Easy to do. But what I am saying is that gods don’t know everything, and this story of how Marduk became the leader of the gods, how he slew Tiamat, how he built the tower to heaven…well, I’ve either forgotten it, or I am growing weak, and I can’t remember. Gods can die. They can fade. Just like Kings. They can sleep and it takes much to wake them up. And when I awake and am fully alert, I love Babylon and Babylon loves me back.’

“ ‘Look, my Lord,’ I said, ‘you’re weary because the New Year’s Festival hasn’t been held in ten years, because our King Nabonidus has neglected you and your priests. That’s all. If we could get the addlebrained old idiot to come home and hold the Festival, you would revive; you would be filled with the life of all of those in Babylon who would see you on the Processional Way.’

“ ‘That’s a nice idea, Azriel, and there’s some truth in it, but I have no love for the New Year’s Festival, for residing in the statue and holding hands with the King. I get tempted in the very middle of it, to knock the King down and away from me and right to the gutters of the Processional Way. Don’t you see? It’s not what they tell you! It’s not!’

“He then went silent with a gesture to me to ponder these words and then he said he wanted to try something. These next few moments were to have a crucial influence over my own destiny as a spirit, but I couldn’t have known it then.

“ ‘Azriel,’ he said. ‘I want you to do this. Look at me, and strip me in your mind of this gold, and see me pink and alive as you are, with my beard black and my eyes brown, and then reach out and touch me with both your hands. Let the god out of the gold. Let’s try it.’

“I was trembling.

“ ‘Why are you so scared! Nobody will see anyone across from you but a noble in fine dress, that’s all.’

“ ‘I’m scared because it might work, my Lord,’ I told him, ‘and the most troubling thought has come to me. You want to escape, Marduk. You want to get away. And if this works, if my eyes and my touch can render you a visible body, you can escape, can’t you?’

“ ‘And why the hell does that frighten a Son of Yahweh!’ He took in his breath. ‘I’m sorry I was angry with you. I love you over all my worshipers and all my subjects. I’m not going to abandon Babylon. I will be here as long as Babylon needs me. I will be here when the sands come to bury us all. And then maybe I will escape. But yes, this would give me freedom. It would teach me that as a god I could slip into a visible human body and walk about. It would teach me something about what I can do, you see? I can make storms, I can heal sometimes though this is very very tricky, and I can make wishes come true because I know things, and I know the demons the people fear are just the restless dead.’

“ ‘This is true?’ I asked him. But let me say here that in Babylon getting rid of demons was a big business. I mean men made fortunes getting rid of demons from houses and sick people and so forth. There were rituals and charms for it, and you went to the exorcist and you did what he said. So I wanted to know if there were no demons. But he didn’t answer me right away.

“Then he spoke up, ‘Azriel, most of the demons are the restless dead. But there are strong spirits, spirits as strong as gods and some of them are full of hate, and like to hurt. But most of the time they don’t bother with making a milkmaid sick or cursing a little house. That’s the mischief of the restless dead! And the restless dead need to make mischief so that the fog and the smoke in which they wander will lift.’

“I didn’t wait any further. I was impressed with his generosity and patience with me—and you must realize how splendid he looked sitting there, covered and permeated with gold, this beautiful noble creature—that I loved him with a beating heart. I loved him with tears. I loved him with laughter.

“I reached out, and as I touched him, I asked that all the gold covering him be stripped and that he have the freedom of a man to walk amongst us. Can you guess what happened?”

“He became visible as real,” I said.

“He did, and I learnt something then about spirits that I was later to use to my advantage and used up till not very long ago. He did. He became visible, a great noble gentleman in festival dress sitting opposite me at the marble table with the wine cup in front of him, and he smiled. There was a stir all around as people saw him, and took notice. I don’t think they had seen him materialize as we would say in this day and age. They just noticed him. For he was beautiful.”

“Was it clear that he was Marduk?” I asked.

“No. Without the gold he could have been a King, an ambassador. You know. The statue, you see, it was more stylized, remember. But everybody saw him. Even the musicians stopped their piping until he turned his head and gave a gesture for them to go on. And they saw him! And they went on.

“I was frozen with anxiety. ‘Come on, friend,’ he said. ‘I see more clearly than ever, and though this body is light, I like the form of it, and it draws eyes to me which give me power such as the New Year’s Procession itself gives. They see me! They don’t know who I am but they see. Come on, friend, let’s walk, I want to walk up on the walls and through the temple with you, I want to see things clearly now with you. You don’t have to take me into your home. Your uncles will all go crazy. Unfortunately, I can hear with this god’s ears that they are already gathering the wise men of Judea to talk about you, and that you can see and hear the pagan gods. Come on, let’s go, I want to walk.’

“He stood up and put his arm around me and we strolled out of the garden. We walked all afternoon. I asked him, ‘What happens if you don’t go back to the temple for the morning feast?’

“ ‘Idiot!’ he said laughing. ‘You know perfectly well what happens. I just smell the food. I don’t eat it. They’ll lay it down before the statue and take it away and bring it to all the temple personnel who are to eat from the table of God. Nothing is going to happen!’

“We walked all over the quarters of Babylon, along the canals, the river, over the bridges, through different districts and through the marketplace and through the many open gardens and parks. He was staring wildly at things, and now, of course, spirit that I am, I know what it was like for him to see these vivid colors. I understand better what he had endured.

“Suddenly, near the Ishtar Gate, he stopped in his tracks. ‘Can you see that?’ And I did see it; it was the