looked around him and his only refuge was the bench reserved for him. He sat down, suddenly frightened by what the next few days might hold. He felt like a prisoner, and she herself had said, You will be here day and night, although she had not added, You will, when I so decide, be my bull to cover me, a term that would seem not just vulgar but inappropriate, since covering is something that quadrupeds do, not human beings, but in a way it's very apt, because we human beings were quadrupeds once, and we know that what we now call arms and legs were, for a long time, only legs, until someone thought to say to those men-to-be, It's time you stood up. Cain is wondering if he shouldn't run away before it's too late, but what's the point, he knows perfectly well that he won't run away, inside that room is a woman who appears to enjoy giving him the brush-off, but who will one day say to him, Enter, and he will and in doing so, he will pass from one prison to another. I wasn't born for this, thinks cain. He wasn't born to kill his own brother, and yet he had left abel's corpse in the middle of the field with his eyes and mouth covered in flies, a fate for which abel had not been born either. Cain considers life and can find no explanation for it, there is that woman, who although clearly sick with desire, is enjoying postponing the moment of surrender, which is not at all the right word, because lilith, when she does finally open her legs to allow herself to be penetrated, will not be surrendering, but trying to devour the man to whom she said, Enter.
Chapter 5
Cain has now done as ordered and slept in lilith's bed and, incredible though it may seem, it was precisely his lack of sexual experience that saved him from drowning in the vortex of lust that gripped the woman and, in an instant, made her explode into screams like one possessed. She ground her teeth, bit the pillow and then his shoulder, even drinking his blood. Cain laboured determinedly away on top of her, bewildered by her wild, brazen movements and cries, but, at the same time, another cain who was not him was observing the scene curiously, almost coldly, the flailing limbs, the bodily contortions, the postures that copulation itself demanded or imposed until the acme of orgasm was reached. The two lovers did not sleep much on that first night. Nor on the second or third or all the other nights that followed. Lilith was as insatiable as cain was inexhaustible, the interval between two erections and their respective ejaculations insignificant, almost non-existent, you might even say that they had both reached the future paradise of allah. On one such night, noah, the lord of the city and lilith's husband, entered the antechamber, having been informed by a trusted slave that something extraordinary was going on. This was not the first time he had done so. Noah was the most indulgent of husbands, and during all their so-called life in common, he had been incapable of getting his wife with child, and it was his awareness of this continual failure, and perhaps also the hope that lilith might end up becoming pregnant by one of her occasional lovers and finally give him a son he could call his heir, that had led him to adopt, almost without realising it, the attitude of conjugal permissiveness, which, over time, had become a comfortable modus vivendi, disturbed only by the very rare occasions on which lilith, moved by what we imagine must be that much-vaunted thing female compassion, decided to go to her husband's bedroom for a brief, unsatisfactory encounter that compromised neither of them, for he then felt under no obligation to demand more than he was given and she could not be accused of denying him his rights. Lilith, however, never allowed noah into her own bedroom. At that precise moment, and even though the door was closed, the vehemence of the two lovers' erotic enthusiasm was like a series of slaps in the poor man's face, giving rise to a feeling he had not experienced before, an intense hatred of the horseman currently mounting the mare lilith and making her whinny as never before. I'll kill him, noah said to himself, without considering the consequences of that action, for example, how lilith would react if her favourite lover was slain. I'll kill them both, thought noah, broadening out his plan, I'll kill him and her. These were mere dreams, fantasies, deliriums, noah will kill no one and he himself will have the good fortune to escape death without having to do a thing to avoid it. Not a sound emerges from the room now, but this does not mean that the corporeal party is over, the musicians are merely resting, and the orchestra will soon launch into the next dance, the one whose final violent paroxysm will be followed by exhaustion, at least until the following night. Noah has withdrawn, carrying with him his plan for vengeance, which he caresses as if he were stroking lilith's inaccessible body. We will see how it all ends.
Given what we have described, it's only natural that it will occur to someone to ask if cain isn't tired out, squeezed dry by his insatiable lover. He is tired out and squeezed dry, and as pale as death. His pallor is due simply to a lack of sunlight and exposure to the fresh air that makes plants flourish and people's skin turn brown. But anyone who had known this man before he entered lilith's bedroom, where his time is divided between the antechamber and sex, would be sure unknowingly to repeat the overseer's words, He's a ghost, a spectre, as the person chiefly responsible for his condition finally realised. You don't look well, she said, I'm fine, replied cain, Maybe, but your face says otherwise, It doesn't matter, Yes, it does, from now on you will go for a walk every day, you can take a slave with you so that no one bothers you, I want to see you with the face you had when I saw you at the treading pit, Your wish is my command, madam. The accompanying slave was chosen by lilith herself, what she didn't know, however, was that he was a double agent, who took his orders from noah, even though he was, for administrative purposes, her servant. Let us, therefore, fear the worst. On the first few occasions, the walks passed off without incident, the slave always walking one pace behind, listening attentively to whatever cain said and suggesting what he thought would be the best route to follow outside the city walls. There was no apparent reason for concern. Then, one day, concern arrived in the guise of three men waiting to ambush them and with whom, as cain quickly realised, the treacherous slave was in cahoots. What do you want, asked cain. The men did not answer. They were all armed, the apparent leader with a sword and the other two with knives. What do you want, cain asked again. The answer came in the form of a sword suddenly unsheathed and pointed at his chest, To kill you, said the man, stepping forward, Why, asked cain, Because your time is up, You can't kill me, said cain, the mark on my forehead will not allow you to, What mark, asked the man who was, it seems, somewhat shortsighted, This one here, said cain, Oh, yes, I can see it now, what I can't see is why a blemish would prevent me from killing you, It's not a blemish, it's a mark, And who put it there, did you do it yourself, asked the man, No, the lord put it there, What lord, The lord god. The man burst out laughing and the others, including the unfaithful slave, provided a gleeful chorus. Better the last smile than the first laugh, said cain, and then, addressing the gang's leader, Do you have family, he asked, Why do you want to know, Do you have children, a wife, a father and mother still alive, other relatives, Yes, but, You will not need to kill me for them to be punished, said cain, interrupting him, the sword in your hand has already condemned them, the lord's word on it,
Don't think you're going to lie your way out of this, shouted the man and advanced, sword at the ready. At that same moment, the weapon was transformed into a cobra which the man, horrified, shook from his hand, There, said cain, what you took for a snake was a sword. He bent down and picked the sword up by the hilt, I could kill you now, and no one would come to your aid, he said, your companions have fled, as will the traitor who brought me here, Forgive me, begged the man, kneeling down, Only the lord can forgive you, if he so chooses, I can't, now go, you will find the reward for your villainy at home. The man left, head down, weeping, tearing his hair, regretting a thousand times over ever having chosen the profession of murderous bandit. Repeating the steps he took when he first arrived, cain walked back into the city. Just as on that occasion, he turned a corner and found himself face to face with the old man leading the two sheep by a rope. Goodness, you've changed, said the old man, you don't look anything like the vagabond who came from the west or the treader of mud, No, I'm a guard now, said cain, and made as if to go on his way, Guarding which door, asked the old man in a tone that was intended to be mocking, but which sounded rather resentful, If you know already, why waste time asking, Because I don't know the details, and the savour of any story is always in the details, Well, go hang yourself on them then, you have a rope after all, retorted cain, and that way I wouldn't have to see you again. The old man shouted, You will go on seeing me until the end of your days, My days will have no end, answered cain, moving off, and watch that those sheep of yours don't eat the rope, That's what I'm here for, but it's all they think of doing.
Lilith was not in her room, nor on the roof terrace, where she often sunbathed naked. Sitting on his bench, cain considered the situation, trying to weigh up what had happened. It was clear that the slave had taken him down that path on purpose in order to meet the waiting bandits, so someone must have plotted against his life. It wasn't difficult to guess the name of what we would now call the mastermind behind that failed murder attempt. Noah, said cain, that's who it was, no one else in the palace or in the city would gain anything by my disappearance. At that moment, lilith came into the antechamber, That was a short walk, she said. A thin veil of sweat made the skin on her shoulders gleam, she was as succulent as a ripe pomegranate or as a split fig from
