and I watched, and the flesh floated loose in the golden muck and the skull floated to the top, and the pot boiled and boiled and boiled and the room grew denser and denser with steam.
“Asenath was choking. She could not breathe, and she fell forward on her face. Remath stood staring at the pot. And Marduk merely looked up at me with wonder.
“At last the pot was empty save what was left of me. Remath kicked and poked at the fire to put it out. He drew as close as he could to the hot metal and he looked down at the heap of golden bones that lay in the bottom of the pot. The cloth was gone, it had dissolved, the flesh was gone, it had dissolved, the liquid was gone, it had dissolved. Only the bones were left and in this sealed chamber all the fumes and particles of what had been my body. And the bones were all gold.
“ ‘Call it to you, spirit,’ said Remath. ‘Call the flesh to you, call it to you now from all the world, call it from the depth of the bones and from the air to which it has tried to flee, call it.’
“I moved downwards and stood on my feet. In the thick torturous steam, I saw I had a body. It was vapor. But it was mine, and then it grew denser and denser.
“Marduk took a step backwards, shaking his head.
“ ‘What is it? Why do you do that?’ I asked.
“ ‘Oh gods of old, Remath,’ said Marduk, ‘what have you and the witch wrought?’
“Remath roared, ‘You are mine, Servant of the Bones, for I am the Master of the Bones. You will obey me. You will obey.’
“Marduk backed up against the wall, staring at me in perfect fear.
“Remath grabbed a heavy bunch of cloth from the couch to protect his hands and with this he managed to throw over the cauldron. The bones spilled out and what did not spill he reached for, hurt by the heat until he had all the bones on the floor.
“ ‘Wake up, old woman!’ he screamed. ‘Wake up! What do I do now!’
“I stood beside him. My body was dense as if it were living. It was pinkish and vivid as his body, but it wasn’t real. It didn’t feel real. It had no heart, no lungs, no soul, no blood; it had only the shape that my spirit gave to it, down to the last detail.
“ ‘Look, fool,’ I said, ‘Asenath is dead. If you want to know what to do, you’d better bring that tablet to me, I am the only one here who can read the old Canaanite words.’ ”
7
Remath did not move. He was far too frightened to move. He even let go of the bones. They lay gleaming on the glazed floor. Scattered, hideous, teeth among them, and the tiny bones of my hands and feet like pebbles.
“Marduk remained still.
“There was a low howling sound gathering round us. I could hear it as if a wind moved through the rest of the palace and temple, slowly, corridor by corridor, alcove by alcove, and then I looked up and saw the dense world of spirits as I had never seen it before.
“The walls and the ceiling of this cell were gone. The whole of the world was the lost mumbling souls staring and pointing and leaping towards me with grasping hands, yet afraid.
“ ‘Get away!’ I roared. And at once the entire cloud dispersed, but the howling pierced my ears and hurt me, and when I looked again I saw that Marduk’s face was alien to me, and no longer afraid, but neither trusting nor gentle as always before.
“I turned, walking easily and light as a man would walk to the body of the fallen Asenath, and I took from her the tablet. The text wasn’t easy for me. It was a form of Hebrew, yes, but a dialect from the time before my time. I stood reading to myself.
“I turned around. The priest had withdrawn to the farthest corner and the god merely stared. I read the words as best I could:
“ ‘And having seen his death, and having seen the fluids of his body, and the flesh and the spirit and soul boiled into the bones, and sealed in the bones in gold forever, let him be called down into the bones, made to enter them, and made to remain in them, until his Master should call him forth.’
“ ‘Do it,’ Remath cried. ‘Go into the bones.’
“I looked down at the tablet. ‘And once these bones are assembled, they shall forever contain his spirit, passing from one generation to another, to serve the Master by ownership and by power, to do the Master’s bidding, and roam only at the Master’s will. When the Master shall say, “Come,” the Servant of the Bones will appear. When the Master says, “Take on flesh,” the Servant of the Bones will take on flesh, and when the Master says, “Return to the bones,” the Servant of the Bones will obey him, and when the Master says, “Kill this man for me,” the Servant of the Bones shall kill that man, and when the Master says, “Lie quiet and watch, my slave,” the Servant of the Bones shall do it. For the Servant and the Bones are now one. And no spirit under heaven can rival the strength of the Servant of the Bones.’
“ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘that is quite a story.’
“ ‘Into the bones,’ he declared. ‘Go into the bones.’ He stood trembling, clenching his fists and bending his knees. ‘Return to the bones!’ he declared. ‘Lie quiet and watch, my slave!’ he declared.
“I did nothing.
“I studied him for a long moment. Nothing changed in me.
“I saw the linen he’d pulled from the couch. There was a sheet, fresh, changed from when I’d last slept here, and I picked it up now, and formed a sack out of it, and into it I put the tablet, and then the bones. I picked up the thigh bone, and the leg bone, and the arm bones, and the skull, my very own skull, still hot and gleaming with gold, and I gathered every tiny fragment of what had been Azriel, the living man, the fool, the idiot. I gathered the teeth, I gathered the bones of the toes. And when I had all of this in a small sack, knotted, I slung it over my shoulder and then I looked at him.
“ ‘Damn you into hell, go into the bones!’ he roared.
“I went forward towards him and I put out my right hand and broke his neck. He was dead before he hit his knees. I saw a spirit rise blundering and in terror, gauzy and soon shapeless and then dispersed and gone.
“I looked at Marduk.
“ ‘Azriel, what will you do?’ he asked. He seemed utterly confounded.
“ ‘What can I do, Lord? What can I do, but find the strongest Magician in Babylon, the one strong enough to help me learn my destiny and my limitations, or shall I simply wander as I am? I am nothing, as you see, nothing, only the semblance of the living. Shall I wander? Look, I am solid and visible, but I am nothing, and all that is left of me is in this sack.’
“I didn’t wait for his answer. I turned and I left. I turned my back on him as it were. I dismissed him, sadly, I think, and rudely and thoughtlessly and I had a sense of him hovering near me, watching me, as I went on.
“I went through the temple, in the convincing shape of a man, challenged again and again by guards whom I threw off with my right hand. A spear passed through my back. A sword passed through my body. I felt nothing, but merely looked at the perplexed and miserable assailant. I walked on.
“I walked into the palace and I walked towards the chambers of the King. His guards fell on me and I stepped through them, feeling this no more than a shudder and saw them stumble behind me, and then I looked up and saw Marduk watching from afar.
“I went into the King’s chamber. Cyrus was in bed with a beautiful harlot, and when he saw me, he leapt up naked from the bed.
“ ‘Do you know me?’ I said. ‘What do you see?’
“ ‘Azriel!’ he declared, and then with genuine joy he said, ‘Azriel, you’ve cheated death, they’ve saved you, oh, my son, my son.’
“This was so heartfelt and honest that I was stunned. He came towards me but as he put his arms around me he realized I was nothing, only the appearance of something solid, as a shell more or less, or even lighter than that, a bubble on the surface of the water so light it could explode. But it did not. I did not. I merely felt his heavy strong arms around me and then he backed away from me.
“ ‘Yes, I am dead, Lord King,’ I said. ‘And all that is left of me is here in this sack, and covered with gold. Now you must repay me.’
