passion, in whose grip they once more lost all control and fell into delirium, absolute and utter, as if the world were nothing more than that, two lovers interminably devouring each other, so much so that lilith said at last, Kill me. Yes, perhaps that would be the logical end to this story of the love between cain and lilith, but he didn't kill her. He placed a long, lingering kiss on her lips, looked at her for the last time and then went and spent the rest of the night in the bed reserved for him in the antechamber.
Chapter 6
Despite the grey gloom of pre-dawn, you could see that the birds, not the charming winged creatures that will soon be singing their songs to the sun, but the brutish birds of prey, those carnivores who travel from scaffold to scaffold, had begun their work of public cleansing on the exposed parts of the hanged men, their faces, eyes, hands, feet, the half of a leg left uncovered by a tunic. Two owls, startled by the sound of the ass's hooves, flew up from the dead slave's shoulders with a silken murmur perceptible only to experienced ears. They swooped very low down a narrow alleyway next to the palace and disappeared. Cain dug his heels into the donkey's sides and crossed the square, wondering if he would again meet the old man with the two sheep, and, for the first time, he asked himself who that impertinent person might be, Perhaps it was the lord, he murmured, he'd be quite capable of such a thing, given his liking for turning up when and where he's least expected. He preferred not to think about lilith. When he woke in his lonely guard's bed after a broken, constantly interrupted night's sleep, he had felt a sudden impulse to go into the bedroom for one last word of farewell, one last kiss, and who knows what else. There was still time. Everyone was asleep in the palace, only lilith was sure to be awake, no one would notice his brief incursion, or perhaps only the two slave-women who had half-opened the gates of paradise to him when he first arrived, and they would simply say with a smile, How well we understood you, abel. Once he turns the next corner, the palace will disappear from view. The old man with the sheep wasn't there, the lord, if it was him, was clearly giving cain carte blanche, but no road map or passport or recommendations for hotels and restaurants, it was how journeys used to be made, leaving things to chance or, as they used to say even then, in the lap of the gods. Cain again spurred his donkey on and soon found himself in open countryside. The city had become a dull grey-brown stain, which, gradually, with increasing distance, and even though the donkey was moving at only a moderate pace, seemed to merge with the earth. The landscape was dry, arid, with not so much as a thread of water in sight. Faced by such desolation, it was inevitable that cain would remember the hard journey on foot he had made after the lord drove him out of the fateful valley where poor abel would remain for ever. With nothing to eat and no water to drink, apart from that which miraculously fell from the sky just when his soul had lost all strength and his legs were threatening to give way beneath him. At least this time he would not lack for food, the saddlebags are crammed full, a loving thought on the part of lilith, who, it would seem, was not such a bad housewife as her dissolute ways might lead one to believe. The problem is that there is not a scrap of shade to be had anywhere. By mid-morning, the sun is already pure fire and the air a shimmering mass that makes us doubt what our eyes can see. Cain said, At least I won't have to go to the trouble of dismounting in order to eat. The road rose and rose, and the donkey, who was clearly no ass, was following a zigzag path, now to the right, now to the left, and one imagines that he must have learned this trick from mules, who know all there is to know about mountain-climbing. A few more steps and they had reached the summit. And to cain's surprise, astonishment and stupefaction, the landscape that lay before him was completely different, full of every imaginable shade of green, with leafy trees and cultivated fields, glittering water, a mild temperature, and white clouds drifting across the sky. He looked back and saw that nothing had changed, the same parched, arid scene lay behind him. It was as if there were a frontier, a line separating the two countries, Or two different times, said cain, unaware that he had said anything, as if someone else were thinking for him. He looked up at the sky and saw that the clouds moving in the direction from which we have come stopped precisely at that point and then, by some unknown art, vanished. We must bear in mind the fact that cain is ill-informed about cartographical matters, one might even say that this, in a way, is his first trip abroad, and so it is only natural that he should feel surprise at seeing other lands, other people, other skies and other customs. That's all very well, but what no one can explain to me is why the clouds cannot pass from here to there. Unless, says the voice issuing from cain's mouth, this is a different time, and this land cared-for and cultivated by the hand of man was once, in ages past, as sterile and desolate as the land of nod. So are we in the future, then, we ask, having seen a few films and read a few books on the subject. Yes, that is the usual formula used to explain what appears to have happened here, the future, we say, and we breathe more easily, now that we have placed a label on it, a docket, but, in our opinion, it would be clearer to call it another present, because the land is the same, but has various presents, some are past presents, others are future presents, and that, surely, is simple enough for anyone to understand. The creature who appears to feel the greatest joy at this change is the donkey. Born and bred in drought- stricken lands, fed on straw and thistles, with water often rationed, or almost, the vision before him verged on the sublime. It's a shame there was no one there capable of interpreting the twitchings of his ears, that form of semaphore with which nature had endowed him, never thinking that the fortunate beast would one day have to express the ineffable, and the ineffable, as we know, is precisely that which cannot be expressed. Cain is happy too, dreaming of eating his lunch in a countryside full of greenery, babbling brooks and a symphony of little birds warbling away in the branches. Indeed, to the right-hand side of the road, he can see a line of large trees, promising the best of shades and siestas. Cain and the donkey trotted off in that direction. The place would seem to have been created on purpose to provide cool shade for weary travellers and their respective beasts of burden. Running parallel to the trees was a line of bushes that concealed a narrow path going up to the top of the steep hill. Relieved of the weight of the saddlebags, the donkey had surrendered to the delights of lush grass and the occasional rustic flower, neither of which he had ever tasted before. Cain took his time choosing his lunch menu and ate it right there, seated on the ground, surrounded by innocent birds pecking up the crumbs, while memories of blissful moments spent in lilith's arms once more heated his blood. His eyelids were just beginning to droop when he was startled into wakefulness by the voice of a young boy calling, Father, this was followed by a much older male voice asking, What is it, isaac, We have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering, and the father replied, The lord will provide a lamb as the burnt offering. And they continued on up the hill. While they are doing so, it would be as well to know how all this began, as further proof that the lord is not a person to be trusted. About three days ago, at most, he had said to abraham, the father of the young boy carrying the firewood on his back, Take your only son, isaac, whom you love, and go into the land of moriah and offer him up for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, later I will tell you which one. Yes, you read correctly, the lord ordered abraham to sacrifice his own son, and he did so as naturally as if he were asking for a glass of water to slake his thirst, which means it was a deep-seated habit of his. The logical, natural and simply human response would have been for abraham to tell the lord to piss off, but that isn't what happened. The following morning, that unnatural father rose early to saddle up the donkey, prepared wood for the sacrificial fire and set off to the place the lord had indicated, taking with him two servants and his son isaac. On the third day of the journey, abraham saw the aforementioned mountain from afar. He then told his servants, Stay here with the donkey, the lad and I will go over yonder to worship the lord and then come again to you. In short, as well as being as big a bastard as the lord, abraham was a consummate liar, ready to deceive anyone with his forked tongue, which in this case, according to the personal dictionary belonging to the narrator of this story, means treacherous, perfidious, false, disloyal and other similarly fine qualities. When he reached the place of which the lord had spoken, abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. He then tied up his son and lifted him on to the altar, on top of the wood. Without pausing, he took up his knife in order to sacrifice the poor boy and was just about to slit his throat when he felt a hand grip his arm and heard a voice in his ear shouting, What are you doing, you wretch, killing your own son, burning him, it's the same old story, it starts with a lamb and ends with the murder of the very person you should love most, But the lord told me to do it, said abraham, struggling, Keep still, or I'll be the one who does the killing, untie that boy at once, then kneel down and beg his forgiveness, Who are you, My name is cain, I'm the angel who saved isaac's life. This isn't true, cain is no angel, that title belongs to the being who has just landed with a great flapping of wings and who is now declaiming like an actor who has finally heard his cue, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, nor do anything to him, for now I know that thou fearest the lord, being prepared, for love of him, to sacrifice even your only son, You're late, said cain, the only reason isaac isn't dead is because I stepped in to prevent it. The angel looked suitably contrite, I'm terribly sorry to be late, but it really wasn't my fault, I was on my way here when I developed a mechanical problem in my
