 
### Cry of the Eagle Spirits

### Volume II

### The Chronicles of Heaven's War

### Book VI

### Ava D. Dohn

### Copyright 2017

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**Table of Contents:**

Section 31: Ghost Heaven

Section 32: Breathe in the Dragons

Section 33: Behold the Beast

Section 34: Birthing the Secret Nations

Section 35: Shall All the Children Cry

### Section 31

Ghost Heaven

Rae stood upon the heaving deck, grasping the mast to maintain his balance while shouting to the men struggling with the oars, "Keep her into wind! It's but a squall and we'll soon be through it!"

The stout Kittim ship groaned reluctantly as oarsmen forced the vessel about and into the wind, the carved dragon head with opened-fanged mouth mounted high off the bow's stem, its flaming red eyes staring defiantly into the tempest. Rae glanced up to see the Thomasine banner whipping in the wind, grinning, thinking how proud his father would be seeing him bravely mustering his crew in this storm.

A sudden scream coming from afore the mast inside a hastily constructed cabin of leather and hides startled the boy. "Keep her steady! Ease her into the waves!" Rae cried. The bowman began calling cadence, the oarsmen quickly picking up the beat and singing it back to him.

Another scream rent the sky followed by another, and then rapidly by several more. Rain pelting his face, BondaBoor stepped from the enclosure onto the open deck. HuushBonn reached out to greet the man just as the ship pitched to its side, BondaBoor catching the old Dragon up before the man fell. Regaining his footing, he asked, worried, "How does our girl fare? Do we have need for concern?"

Grasping a lashing to keep his balance, BondaBoor shouted against the wind, rain driving hard upon his face, "The child is tough. She'll live, I believe. This storm doesn't help. We had to tie her down to keep her from being knocked about. I think she's scared more than may be - didn't believe birthing a baby could be such an ordeal, especially for someone so young."

HuushBonn grinned, patting BondaBoor on the shoulder. "It teaches her a lesson, it does...the storm, I mean. Iam's like that. Makes you feel all important and then humbles you to teach you your place. Good lessons for later days when our queen leads armies into death and chaos."

Noahashonie unleashed another moaning cry as she dug her fingernails into Swalhawena's arm. "Oh, for my rape! Give it please to me instead of this torment!"

The ship suddenly pitched, sending Swalhawena sprawling across the deck boards. If not for the ropes tied around Noah under her arms so that she was secured to the upright main post, she would have toppled over, too. Dresden clutched hard on a forestay, managing to remain sitting on her knees in front of Noah's spread legs. Looking up at her charge, she grinned, "I see its head. One more push is all it will take...one more good push." Noah could do little more than obey, her contractions erupting without control as another pitiable scream rent the sky. Then she fell silent.

BondaBoor and HuushBonn leaned toward door flap of the cabin, listening, staring into each other's eyes as rain washed down their faces. An eternity seemed to pass before the men heard the hearty bawling of a healthy, newborn child. BondaBoor slapped HuushBonn on the shoulder, laughing, "We did it! We did it!"

HuushBonn frowned, "What of the girl? Has she fared well this ordeal?"

When the baby's crying abruptly stopped, both men looked anxiously toward the cabin, worried. At that instant, Dresden pulled the door flap open, beaming, grinning from ear to ear. "It is a girl as promised by the white-haired mistress. Hyhoset...HyhosetHoshoniSodasonie is the child's name. Do you wish to see our new maiden princess and her mother fair?"

Both men excitedly accepted Dresden's invitation and hurried through the opening into the tiny cabin. With wondering eyes, they saw Noah holding her newborn infant close, nursing at her breast, Swalhawena doting over the both of them, a giant, purple bruise shining on her forehead. Noah looked up, smiling weakly. "My baby!" she exclaimed with halted breath. "My baby...Javan's baby!"

BondaBoor wiggled his way past Dresden and the other midwife until he could look down on mother and daughter. Swalhawena reached over, squeezing his arm, her eyes reflecting the girl's excitement. "My Lord BondaBoor, see our baby! Our baby!"

BondaBoor took Swalhawena's hand, silently nodding agreement. Since the company's journey over the mountains and boarding this ship to cross the Great Northern Sea, everyone had taken to Noah, she becoming their sister, wife, lover, companion and ward. It mattered little which disposition was chosen. Already the tribes and clans had accepted the young woman as their unquestioned leader, reports of the Lady's declaration having spread quickly across the land. Those stories were only enhanced by rumors that Noah's unborn was to be a slayer of demons, greatest of all the Daughter Dragons because Iam said it was to be.

"Yes, she is so beautiful!" BondaBoor exclaimed. He kissed Swalhawena on the cheek. "And you've been such a loyal companion to our queen." He then kissed Noah on the forehead, whispering endearments to her, then moved aside as best he could so HuushBonn could offer his congratulations.

Pushing open the flap and stepping out of the cabin, BondaBoor was surprised to see the morning sun peeking through breaking clouds. The wind was already easing, the rains ended, and the waves diminishing. He shouted to Rae that Noah had given birth and he should come see her. Rae yipped with joy, calling the helmsman to stand his post. In moments, the boy was squirreled away in the cabin, snuggled up close to Noah and Hyhoset.

Looking around, BondaBoor could see dozens of scattered ships similar in design to his, slowly turning about and returning to their northeast course. He shook his head in wonder. The storm had suddenly arrived just before Noah went into labor and as soon as Hyhoset was born, the storm subsided. Was it only by chance that this had happened, or did Iam send the hurried squall as a future sign? If so, was it as a good omen, or possibly for ill was it sent? He would make sure to ask HuushBonn when time permitted. For the moment, everything felt good. They had suffered little damage if any, and it appeared that the other ships had fared no worse. Mother and child were well and... and everything just felt right.

By late afternoon, Noah was up and about, carrying Hyhoset around with the pride that only a young mother could manage. With the ship now under full sail, there was little for the crew to do but celebrate with their queen over the birth of her child...Javan's child. Each and every man and woman just had to come close and offer a blessing and give a small token gift to Hyhoset, treasures that Noah carefully preserved in a cedar chest for the child, remembering the face and name of each giver. As signalmen alerted the other ships, Rae would sail over to within hailing distance so that Noah could show off her newborn to passengers and crew. It was well into the evening before mother and child were able to crawl back into the cabin and curl up for a long-needed sleep.

The sun rose into a clear, cloudless sky with a warm, southwest breeze filling the giant square sail on the ship's mast. Rae had climbed high up to the crosstree to have a look about, really just enjoy the beginning of a pleasant day only in the way young men can. Standing high above the world with such a commanding view, he took stock of the accompanying fleet. From his perch could be seen at least sixty longships, each with a complement of fifty to one hundred men and women, warriors one and all. There was a smattering of young ones, a few aged - elders mostly - some livestock and an occasional horse or two. It was a grand sight to behold, indeed, and this fleet was only the vanguard of the host following them.

Rae grinned in satisfaction, knowing that this flotilla was gathered here in league with its new queen, loyal to a person. With them were Javan's Templars and others of and loyal to Javan's house, each one having offered up life and fortune to Noah and her cause. Others from the houses and clans of Tomassie, Kittim, and BondaBoor's Riphath filled the ships. Indeed, some one hundred of BondaBoor's bravest warriors accompanied him in this leading wave.

On the seas off to the West, waiting to board harbored vessels, were countless thousands of other loyal ones setting course for the same destination as Noah's contingent. Hundreds of Phoenician tall ships loaded to the gunnels with people and supplies were slowly making their way east. Aboard these was a myriad of cavalry riders and their mounts, the very same who defeated Pharaoh AnahNakaNoah's cavalry in the battles along the Bantoowazzi River, with multitudes of other ardent souls willing to take up sword and spear to rid the eastern lands of the evil peoples condemned to extinction because of their wickedness. Indeed, so vast was the company seeking the eastern lands, the number of ships available was dismally inadequate, requiring several return voyages by these same ships and crews to rescue people. This would take another two shipping seasons to accomplish their task.

For the numerous refugees stranded upon the shores awaiting transportation, life was not too unpleasant. Tent cities sprang up all along the northern coast, wild herds of bison and antelope drifted down from the western mountains filling the land. Forests and valley plains erupted, overflowing with grains, fruits, and nuts and the remaining locals were as courteous and generous as could be. This crowd, too numerous to count, lived out their waiting days in peace, their sworn enemy, Dungie, busy far to the South slaughtering the Nubian population unable to escape his wrath.

Not that the Nubians had not been warned of Dungie's intentions. Juufet and Kontin had hurried back to their homes in the Southlands, warning their brother clansmen to flee, telling them about the treachery of the Hormaxians and plans to have Dungie's armies exterminate the children of Nubia for their forefather's revolt against Hormax and his supposed murdering of two of Hormax' sons. A few thousand had believed the boys and acted on their counsel. Long ago had their tiny rafts and boats departed the western lands for the isles of Cush. By the time the remainder of the Nubian population realized the truth of the matter, Dungie had convinced Atlanticia's newly established king, Narduke, to send his fleets down along the eastern coast of the Southlands, blocking escape. He was currently absorbed in an attempted genocide of an entire race of innocent people.

Looking down from his perch, Rae caught sight of Noah and her baby, accompanied by Swalhawena holding Meric. He hurriedly slid down a halyard to the deck, offering them his warm hellos. Noah grinned and kissed Rae on the cheek. "My prince," she cooed, "a child of my king I carry in my arms and suckle at my breasts." She winked. "But so much more elixir I have than meets her needs. Should my prince find delight in satisfying a thirsty palate, well..." she giggled.

Swalhawena harrumphed, frowning, "My lady has promised her servant girl a taste or two. Do not give away the larder and leave this child thirsty." She then looked into Rae's eyes, motioning toward Meric. "One day, one day I expect you to gift me with such a treasure. Then my milk you shall also drink to your satisfaction."

Rae stepped back in delighted surprise, having been caught off guard by Swalhawena's declaration. True, the girl was beginning to take on a womanly form...just beginning to. She was often present in his company for little or no reason, he having not noticed or considered the girl's desires. He tipped his head, replying, "If it is what will pleasure my maiden lady at that time, then I shall dutifully obey."

Looking toward the bow of the ship, Rae cautiously asked, "BondaBoor is very fond of you and you of him. When your day of betrothal arrives, shouldn't he be the man to give your heart to?"

Swalhawena argued to the contrary, "No betrothal shall this child ever seek. A free woman I have become by the very mouth of my queen and a free woman I will remain. Now as for BondaBoor, I may choose to give him my virgin gift as a reward for his loving kindness and protection, but for my first child, it is your bed I shall seek out to accomplish that."

Rae blushed, "We will have to see. You may well change your mind by that time, having found a much more charming suitor to satisfy your desires."

Swalhawena shook her head. "My queen was as young as I when she chose her husband, and a fine man he was, too. I am almost a grown woman, with no father or mother to choose for me, and my queen has already granted my request."

She looked over her shoulder at BondaBoor. "It is six days before we set foot in our new world. In celebration of that event, I am taking that man into my tent to gift him as I have said, and to learn the arts in the ways of pleasing a man. When my days of celebration are finished and my time of fertility arrives, your tent I shall enter into, and my reward from you I am to receive."

Noah spoke up, looking at Rae. "I do expect you to warm her heart as you do mine, to teach her through a man's love the things I've shared with her through a woman's. Dancing Stones taught me well the arts of a woman, and I have shared with you some of that hidden knowledge. It will soon be your time to share it with my sister here. Please do it for me, for us."

Rae bowed his head, addressing Swalhawena. "If it is the will of my queen and yours, then I shall give to you whatever I have to offer."

Swalhawena took Rae's hand, kissing him on the lips. "My Lord," she whispered, "you will not regret this."

A distant cry of seagulls drew everyone's attention. TyreHiramTomassie, the navigator and first cousin to EricTomassie, called over to Rae, "The isles of Ruuak lie but a day or two to the North. Before nightfall, we must be turning to the East to avoid the Ice Sea. The birds tell us that fair weather lies ahead, promising us a pleasant journey."

About this time, Dresden appeared with a wrapped oilcloth containing dried fruits and meats for her husband. The woman requested to take Meric after delivering her foodstuffs. "I'm full to dripping and a bit uncomfortable. I need the boy to give me some relief." Then looking into Swalhawena's anxious eyes, she added, "If you'd care to aid in easing my discomfort, it would be appreciated. My own little one has assisted me a bit, but it is not enough."

Swalhawena grinned hungrily, "I would! I would! So sweet is your milk and warm your embrace. So much like my mother was you are. When with you, I don't miss her so much."

The sun climbed higher into the sky as the fleet of longships continued on to the Northeast. No longer were these a people fleeing a world that was soon to end. They were now become the warrior-hunters, an aggressor nation about to set foot in a new land that was to be conquered. Little did they comprehend at the time just how greatly they would change that new and strange land. Cities, rivers, nations and peoples would eventually carry so many of the names these invaders were to deliver upon this world. Their words passed on in their stories and songs would be remembered down into the final days and beyond, their passionate thirst for freedom eventually giving rise to a new world power.

* * *

Tuosolmerica handed a steaming mug of tea to Odethbethel and quickly sat down across from her at the table. Hefting her own cup of brew to savor its intoxicating aroma, she mused, "The mint comes early this year and in great abundance. Along with the vast amounts of dried onions and wild leeks, we will soon have several carts filled with foods for delivery to the mountain caves for storage."

Odethbethel frowned, asking, "Do you think it wise to ignore the counsel of HuushBonn and other visionary Dragons who speak as one regarding the fate of this land? It has been said that our mother, Aphrodite, herself warned Pharaoh TitanAmactony to prepare for seven years of tribulation that would consume the entire earth. And the words our sister, Dancing Stones, spoken to you in this very city, in this very house, were that but seven more years would pass before all things in this land were to come to a finish."

Tuosol placed her tea on the table, peering down into the cup, answering sadly, "I am the eldest living child of my order. Oh yes, our mother, Aphrodite, still lives and even walks among us, but she has disavowed leadership over the Dragons, saying to a greater order she has been delivered. So it is I who must take up the commanding staff until our days are finished. I must make the final decision as to heeding the Dragons' counsel."

She glanced over at JulietDalmatia who had been silently listening to the women's conversation and then back at Odethbethel. "My very name was a prophetic saying, my grandfather giving it to me, calling me 'a child of future days'. Tuosol...'bringer of good gifts, saver of multitudes'...that is what my name means in the old tongue, Noah's tongue. So it is, or so it has come to be. I believe more than a healer of flesh am I to become, but a preserver of it as well."

Staring at the door as if seeing beyond the oaken planks into the city and hills beyond and the multitude of peoples dwelling therein, Tuosol sighed, resigned, "There has been no word from Iam commanding us to leave this land, only the warning of doom coming upon it. Shall the coming destruction be like that of our father's flood? That I do not know, but I do not believe it to be so.

"Yes, great will the coming tribulation be and like the sands of the sea will be those who do not survive it, but I do trust our father's words when, in speech and vision, Iam swore an oath regarding the future of our world. For Iam spoke to our father, Noah, promising eternal plantings and harvests, that summer and winter would never cease. I see that even the fire and rage saved up for the ending destruction not to be as great as the Deluge of our father's day. Dancing Stones spoke of blood being saved, a seed, and many other strange and wonderful things regarding future days that she had seen in vision. She spoke of the Lady, the hidden lands of Eden, and the wonderful machines and devices used to preserve life... make life new... but not global destruction.

"No," she shook her head as if declaring any other statement to be false, "I believe that Iam is the Preserver of life and wishes his children to be the same. The coming tribulation will be waged against a culture, a demonic kingdom, in order to stave off the coming day of wickedness. It buys us time. Death and destruction of individuals will be at the hand of chance. The wise who prepare for that day may well survive it, here or in some distant land. I must remain here to help give wisdom to those unable or unwilling to leave in hopes of living up to my name."

Odethbethel placed a hand over Tuosol's. "For my part, I shall remain with you as long as I may. I am thankful that I still live, although when TromPaxies repaired my rupture so that I didn't die, I was so dismayed." She looked at Juliet, smiling, "Your man, Chuphoe Tobanahazz, has done so much to refresh my spirit. As a sister-wife he has taken me into his house, satisfying every desire of my heart. He has made me want to live again."

Juliet grinned, "Chuphoe is not my man. I am his little servant girl, his alone for as long as he wants me. True, he parades me about on his arm in the open, but you he loves in the shadows of the night, because of you being the wife of Dungie. I do believe the words Dungie spoke to Chuphoe regarding you and his other wives he left remain at Castle Dodanim ring with truth. Indeed, the practice of having a surrogate tend to the needs of one's wives is commonly practiced by the chieftains in the Western lands. It is done to help keep strangers out their beds, or so I've been told."

Tuosol agreed. "Yes, a common practice it is, especially where our womenfolk are losing their freedom. More and more I see the men of this world enslaving our kind, oppressing us so that we become little more than slaves in our own homes. Chuphoe's people are much that way, the practices of Babylon and Egypt having infected even the righteous of that world. I am pleased to see that the man has taken to our ways so well. He is a good man, better than many of our own blood."

She leaned forward, waving a finger high. "A runner arrived here from the Northlands this very day. Cothath and SchroGarthTho will be arriving soon, leading their kinsmen from Missisaugwah as well as several neighboring clans off to the North down the Southern Pike, finally turning east toward Atlanticia, there to take ships to the isles of Cush, at least for most in the company.

"SchroGarthTho is taking Zambiadoo, Noahashonie's mother, along with his other children and their families, and is going to take to the eastern mountain highway when they arrive at the crossroads at GrayBold. They plan to join up with SusannahKiabottam and LumdonDuridshemion who are trekking east with their kindred from the western Mozerathas clans and journeying into the eastern lands to join up with Noah and BondaBoor."

The woman grinned in anticipation. "When their company reaches GrayBold, SchroGarthTho and Cothath are cutting west, taking the hill road to Ausalmerica to gain news from the Talking Stones at Magog and to pay us a farewell visit."

Juliet was thrilled. It had been several months since EpiphanOida's funeral burning and Juliet's returning to Castle Dodanim. Since that time, she had been busy assisting Chuphoe with his duties at the king's house in the city and tending to the mothering of Star and Jewel, names given to the two girls Chuphoe had purchased from the slave owner. Strange had been the language of the children and little of the common tongue did they understand, so he gave them names precious to his own heart.

At the end of the last new moon celebration, Odethbethel had desired to make her way south to Ausalmerica for a visit. Juliet and her two companions were invited to come along, Chuphoe sending a dozen of his trusted guards along with them. Since her return from ObebBailSoar, Juliet had not discussed any of the preceding events leading up to Noahashonie's escape, Chuphoe warning the woman that walls have ears, for there were many people remaining in the city loyal to Dungie. Here in Tuosol's house she was able to speak freely, fearing no traitors.

"It will be so good to see them again. I've wondered how things were in the land of the North, having heard nothing since before the winter melt."

Tuosol warned, "They have a long journey yet to go. Their time here will be short, just long enough to reconnect with the outside world, and then they will be off again."

Getting up from the table, she went over to the fire pit, stirring the bubbling stew in the pot hanging over the blaze. "King Narduke has opened the treasure house of Atlanticia to any who wish to depart this land, offering free passage across the Eastern Sea to distant isles. Now is the time to take advantage of his generosity for I fear that southern door may soon close. Dungie gains in glory with each passing day. Every victory brings him a greater following. It has been rumored that Pharaoh AnahNakaNoah has been driven up into the western mountains, surrounded by Dungie's armies. Now it's just a matter of time..."

Turning about, the dripping ladle in her hand, Tuosol lamented, "When Dungie wraps things up in the South, he'll make his triumphant return, but I doubt it will be to Castle Dodanim. No, I believe he will set his sights on Atlanticia. I'm not saying he'll attempt a coup on Narduke, but he may not need to do that. Narduke's wife, Queen Nidgha, has taken quite a liking to Dungie, openly flaunting her relationship with him. Narduke thinks it cements his power over the boy, but I think the opposite, especially with Dungie's Hormaxian allies. Least case, he will make sure the roads south of Ogallala are closed to those seeking escape from this land."

Juliet asked, "What of Baalath? Will Dungie risk his wrath and that of his people?"

Tuosol gazed off toward the South as though seeing the broad valleys and rolling hills opening onto the wide Megiddo plain with the sluggish Bantoowazzi River meandering eastward. "Baalath is a Dodanimian as well as are most of the inhabitants of Ogallala and its surrounding districts. His loyalty is to the house of Dodanim, which includes Javan's son, Dungie. Indeed, over one hundred of Ogallala's guard marched off with the army when it journeyed south in early spring."

She turned back to the others, confiding, "He will never betray the Dragons, nor do I believe would he permit the murder and destruction of innocent people. Yet if Dungie were to close the roads to Atlanticia for those wishing escape from these lands, Baalath would not force the issue as long as other means of escape remained. Besides, Baalath's military strength is not great, especially since the raid on Ogallala as well as the large number of his people who have already passed over the mountains for the eastern lands."

Odethbethel agreed. "Yes, now is the time to leave this land if a person wishes to make their way across the Eastern Sea to Egypt and the lands beyond or go south to the isles of Cush. The Straits of Hermanum open into the Shemion Sea, offering a direct water route to Egypt. They then can journey south to the lands of Cush or, if one wishes, they can disembark the ships at Sidon, taking the northern trade routes past the land of our forefather, Noah, and far into the east. As for those following our sister, Noahashonie, I believe Dungie will not bother to close those roads or attempt to prevent a crossing to the East. Yes, the roads going east over the mountains that are north of Ogallala should remain open, and... and as long as that remains so, Baalath will not interfere should Dungie close the southern roads leading to Atlanticia."

Juliet was confused. "But Baalath is one of the Haudenosaunez. Why would he remain loyal to a man the likes of Dungie, the very murderer of his own father, Javan?"

Resting her hands on the table, Tuosol answered, "Baalath plays with wisdom. Should, or when Dungie closes the southern roads to Atlanticia to those seeking escape from these lands, he may well reach out to Baalath for him to block passage through Ogallala to the roads south of the city. Better it will be for the people to face Baalath and his soldiers than to be confronted by Dungie's holy knights along with the ruthless priests of Hormax. Yet that is only one reason. Consider, too, that the people of Ogallala are small in number. If they resisted Dungie, it might lead to war and their slaughter. Do you believe the survivors of Dungie's rage would fare any better than at the hands of AnahNakaNoah's henchmen before? No, sad would be that people's lot, and Baalath knows it."

Returning to stirring the stew, Tuosol added, "Besides, not one of the Haudenosaunez has been given a mission from Iam except for our sister, Noah. For the remainder of us, we wait. Baalath is not a Dragon, not being bound by the rules of our order." She glanced at Odethbethel. "Yet even the Dragons will play the game when it is necessary to do so, especially when it is to save lives. As I said, Baalath will never betray the Order or those who support it, but he will play the part of loyal servant of the king to the limit. It is what is best for the people...best for us also."

Juliet puzzled. "How does it serve us as well?"

Tuosol leaned forward, staring into Juliet's face. "My dear child, it is true that Dungie is in fear of me and would personally avoid confronting the chief of the Dragon Order, his last experience sufficient to convince him of the possible danger should he attempt another encounter. Still, the man was not humbled at that time, his desire for revenge dancing in his eyes as I glared down at him. If he could manage a little innocent bloodletting to restore his ego, well... Baalath's presence in Ogallala off to the South provides Dungie with an ego-builder without risking his, um, manhood, so to speak."

She sat down, explaining further, "He can brag that even a chieftain who attended Dancing Stones' memorial remains loyal to him, thus acknowledging the boy as the true king of Dodanim. Then, if Baalath obediently blocks the roads leading south from Ogallala, Dungie will feel no need to station his own people along the highway, feeling secure regarding any threat from the North. He will also be able to boast that the Dragons must be in fear of him, otherwise they would attempt to break the blockade of the roadway. Let him boast."

She smiled with relieved satisfaction. "For us, we can sleep at night, confident that no raiders will sweep up the southern roads to harass the local inhabitants, Baalath serving as our protective guard and warning herald."

The three women went on chatting about more mundane matters. Visitors came and went, and the day quickly passed into night. Tiny fireflies lit up the restful evening darkness as the women quietly slept in forgetful dreams. Ausalmerica was peaceful as was the countryside all about. War was far away, food was aplenty, the weather sublime, and... and things just felt pleasant and secure. Long would Tuosol remember those carefree summer days spent with these close companions, those memories comforting her during the long, dark, cold future years.

* * *

General TusuiHisop slowly made his way up the shadowy cobblestone path toward the opaque darkness of an arched passage leading into the walled courtyard of an ancient citadel. A robed figure silently stood far below, eyes peering out from under a hood, intently watching the general as he disappeared into the blackness of the night. Through smiling lips, the person sighed, satisfied, "He will do just fine... just fine."

"So you say it is the one thing I must do to regain the favor of the priests of Horus? Just this one thing?" AnahNakaNoah sat back in his chair, placing his half-empty wine goblet on the table as he pondered the offer.

"Yes, my holy king, that is what the high priest, ZaphipheRa, said it would take to return Lord Samyaza's blessing to you. The priest has told me that Samyaza has found no delight in this Dodanimian who pollutes these lands with the blood of Javan." General TusuiHisop sourly commented, "Even now I am told that the northern filth are taking women of this land to make bastard half-breeds to corrupt our pure world, and some have even taken to tearing down the altars of Hormax and slaughtering the sacred bulls to feast upon!"

He stepped forward, refilling the pharaoh's goblet, continuing to speak as he did. "The alliance King Dungie has forged is collapsing, thanks to the rumors being spread by the priests of Horus who are tired of the boy's callous attitude regarding the sacred worship of our god-king, Samyaza, they fearing his wrath if he finds too few hearts have been offered up for his appeasement. It is said that Samyaza fondly remembers your willing, faithful obedience and regrets his long absence resulting in your sorry state. ZaphipheRa tells me that Samyaza has returned and is waiting to deliver his military forces to you as soon as may be."

General TusuiHisop stepped back. "But the priest warned me that all the Nubians in your camp must be slaughtered on the high places before the sun lives twice more in the sky. This includes all the men, women and little ones to the third generation that are among us in the city."

AnahNakaNoah sat up, moaning in dismay, "My wife, Zambellua, is granddaughter to Chief SowallaHoole, headman over one of the southern tribes of Nubia, and I have two little daughters by her. If I should follow Samyaza's command, even my own wife and children I would have to put to death on the high places!"

General TusuiHisop sadly agreed, expressing his personal plight. "My Lord and King, JuuBandie, my second wife, is also of Nubian blood as well as the little male child she bore me just two months ago."

He sat down beside AnahNakaNoah, reaching out and resting a hand on the pharaoh's forearm, sighing with remorse, "There are times when leaders must make the ultimate sacrifice for the benefit of the people. ZaphipheRa has promised us Samyaza's support should we do this one little thing for him. After all, it is no secret the hatred the sons of Hormax harbor for the sons of Nubia and the oaths they took to bring down his flesh and that of his children after his murdering rampage upon their brothers. We both knew this day would eventually come, but now we can use that day for our own salvation and that of our people...the true sons of Ham and Shem."

Closing his eyes in sadness, AnahNakaNoah regretfully agreed. "The things a ruler must do for his people... What good would it be to protect the few only to see the many dashed upon the stones when Dungie's army overruns the city? Better that those already assigned to death should be used to rescue the vast, innocent host."

He tipped his goblet high, draining down the last of the bitter wine. Standing quickly, he ordered the general to be about the business at hand. "Tomorrow we shall call the people together for a great sacrifice to Horus. Tonight send out your soldiers to gather those for the sacrifice. Do not allow one to escape this fate. Zambellua shall be the first of those to appease Samyaza, her children to follow, then your wife, JuuBandie, and her child. We will do this to please the gods and receive their blessing."

Crimson shadows of the setting sun cast their eerie rays upon hundreds of bodies thrown from walls of AnahNakaNoah's fortress mountain city. Thick, gray smoke drifted heavenward as the last of the sacrificial victims' hearts were placed upon the sacred altars. All day drums beat to the chanting of the people watching from far below the high places where priests of Horus celebrated in the blood festival of death to the glory of their god-king. In the courtyard between the high towers men still danced in a drugged frenzy, whipping and slashing themselves into bloody unconsciousness, even to the death.

When darkness shrouded their world and crowds dispersed for quieter places, AnahNakaNoah and General TusuiHisop retired to Pharaoh's private chambers to escape the night and find relief from a tempestuous day. After consuming generous portions of new wine, AnahNakaNoah leaned back in his royal chair, toying with a wilted flower tied up in a ribbon, bemoaning, "Oh my Zambellua, will I ever find a sweeter one than you? Your love was like a breath of summer ocean breeze, your breasts more delightful than a prancing gazelle, your thighs bejeweled flowers of enchanting hyssop, your lips...your lips..." A tear ran down his cheek as he reminisced about the previous evening.

After leaving General TusuiHisop, he had called for his wife, Zambellua, to join him in his private bedchambers for one last passionate interlude of abandon to enjoy the sensual delights of a woman skilled in all the loving arts, Zambellua never knowing her coming fate until the guards took her away in the early morning light. Lifting his chalice high, the pharaoh offered a drink to her memory. "Never shall I find another lover the likes of her."

While refilling AnahNakaNoah's goblet with more spiced wine, TusuiHisop attempted to soothe the pharaoh's troubled mind. "My lord should not have regret over this matter. For your part, all that High Priest ZaphipheRa has informed me you should do has been accomplished. For you, I suggest you go to your rest in peace. Entwine your dreams with the love of Zambellua whose perfume still lingers upon your bed."

Yawning, AnahNakaNoah agreed about his need for rest, and then stood, stretching. "Yes, yes, I must be wide awake for the morrow. You say my work is finished. Good. I look forward to my meeting with ZaphipheRa as he has promised. You say that your company has been requested there as well?"

General TusuiHisop smiled, bowing slightly. "As you have said, together you and I will join in company with the high priest to discuss future plans. He made it clear that we come together. Your work is finished. It is time for you to receive your fitting reward."

AnahNakaNoah yawned again, shaking a hand to tell the general he wished for no more wine. "To my bed I shall retire. It has been a long day and I have great need for sleep. Can I expect your arrival early?"

General TusuiHisop smiled, tipping his head in salute. "I will personally see to your wellbeing. Trust me, High Priest ZaphipheRa will not be disappointed with our arrival."

After AnahNakaNoah retired to his bedchamber, General TusuiHisop sat down at the table, pouring the remainder of the spiced wine onto the floor. He spoke quietly, but as though the pharaoh was still sitting there, "Yes, my Lord, your duties are completed. Now I must finish mine.

* * *

A runner hurried into the council chambers, bowing low on a knee, waiting to be recognized. Dungie did not rush such acknowledgment, but instead continued to chat on for some time with one of his generals regarding the contrast between the refreshing mountain breezes and the oppressive heat of the jungles in the lower valleys. In due time, he motioned for his courier to speak.

My king," the anxious man exclaimed after standing, "there has arrived before us at the entrance to our camp a body of men and priests holding high banners of truce, saying they wish to speak with you concerning their desire to make peace with this great and wonderful host over which you rule." The soldier quickly added, "Naked and with heads shaved, their headman, General TusuiHisop, and his leading officers have come to prove that no weapons do they carry, but humbly seek an audience with the great and holy northern king. With them are several of the priests of the high places waving pots of sweet-smelling smoke and calling out blessings to you and your people."

Dungie calmly asked, "And what of Pharaoh AnahNakaNoah? Was he also there?"

The courier nervously answered, "I did not see him, but General TusuiHisop did say that he was delivering to you a valued treasure belonging to the pharaoh."

Dungie glanced over at ZaphipheRa, who offered a silent nod in answer to his questioning eyes. "Very well," he stood, speaking to the courier, "tell your officer in charge to deliver those people to the courtyard of the camp in front of the council house when the sun reaches its noonday height. Until that time, give them rest in shaded rooms, providing food and drink for their refreshment, and have servant girls bring bowls of water to wash naked feet, and musicians to play lilting tunes. Maintain a heavy guard to ensure our safety, but not so as to create concern. They are our humble guests for the moment and we shall treat them as guests."

When the sun was nearing its noontime crest, General TusuiHisop and his company were ushered into the courtyard adjacent to the council house. On his left in the courtyard could be seen a giant, wheeled war machine filled with fierce-looking bowmen, the machine with its long, imposing tube weapon pointed in the general's direction, smoke drifting up from its stack, indicating a living fire within the bellies of the machine's horses. To the man's front was a raised platform with three chairs placed upon it. Seated in the chairs were King Dungie, High Priest ZaphipheRa to his right, and Nidgha seated to his left. All around and beside them were countless armed guards, many with long firesticks that could release short arrows or pieces of heavy metal.

All too well did General TusuiHisop understand the power of the weapons in Dungie's possession, they being captured from Pharaoh's retreating army. Taking no chances at committing some real or imagined offence, the general bowed low, all in his party doing the same. Then after arriving in front of their seated hosts, he and his people again bowed low, this time waiting upon Dungie's command to rise and be recognized.

Dungie, arrayed in all the splendiferous regalia of a Dodanimian ruler from his burnished armor to his feathered headdress, amulets, wristbands, and other ornamentation, looked down on the people prostrated before him. His father's axe he carried at one side and a short sword on the other. In his hands was the bejeweled staff of Dodanim, long sequestered in the king's chambers at City Dodanim, but now held as a symbol of kingly power.

Looking up toward the sky, Dungie waited until the sun passed its apex and began falling in afternoon descent. Finally, after a priest signaled the event, Dungie told the people to rise, addressing them after they did so. "Brothers, men of the southern worlds, I pray that your arrival here this day is to help our peoples attain a reprieve from this awful war so that all of us may live in peace together."

General TusuiHisop bowed his head. "It is with peace in mind for all our people that I and my companions have come to you this day. For we have been assured that you are a fair and kind man, a man willing to offer pardon to those seeking to appease your face. Has there not already been enough war, enough slaughter of innocent people? Of what benefit is it for us to hold on to false reasonings when such a benevolent and worthy adversary stands our gate to offer my people hope for lasting peace between his people and mine?"

Dungie strummed his fingers on the arms of his high-backed wicker chair, asking, "So what does your pharaoh have to say about this delegation of yours? Does he, too, seek peace on my terms?"

Taking a finely tooled leather sack from a priest's hands, General TusuiHisop answered Dungie's questions. "Pharaoh AnahNakaNoah has conceded his power and glory to you, recognizing you as the great and wondrous potentate. For him, I have delivered the greatest of his treasures as a token of his submission to your godly authority." At that, General TusuiHisop opened the sack, removing the head of Pharaoh AnahNakaNoah from it, holding it high by its hair.

Though a quiet gasp was to be heard coming from a few in the crowded courtyard, Dungie and those with him did not react similarly. No, indeed, this was what he and ZaphipheRa had expected. Dungie leaned forward, motioning to one of ZaphipheRa's assistant priests to go and take the head as he smiled at TusuiHisop. "Thank you. We shall accept the pharaoh's generous gift. Now who has become the mouthpiece for your people so that we may conclude whatever needed business is necessary to bring this war to a finish?"

Stepping forward, General TusuiHisop pointed at himself. "I have become the mouthpiece for my people, consecrated by the very priests of Horus on the high places this very morning in order to do so."

Dungie asked the priest standing near the general if that was true. The priest confirmed it to be so. He then asked, frowning, "Report has come to me that many of your own people have been killed upon the high places only yesterday, their hearts burnt upon flaming altars and the bodies tossed from the city walls. Is such a thing really so?"

Extending his hands outward, palms up in a beseeching manner, the general explained, "Sad it was for some of the people, especially those from the Nubian clans. Revolt was all that filled their hearts to the point of attempting our overthrow. Suppressing the rebellion could not be accomplished as long as one of them remained alive. To the point of bringing my own wife, JuuBandie, down to the pit, was the contest forced before the revolt was quelled. Better for the few to perish than for the whole to go down into destruction."

(Author's note: _TusuiHisop kept secret that his wife, Fooshii, was of Nubian descent, he preserving the woman and her son alive.)_

Dungie agreed, warning, "If you are hoping for peace between your people and mine, then all such peoples the likes of that rabble must not be allowed to remain in this world! Already we have warred against the children of Nubia. A ruthless lot they are at that. If we do come to a peace agreement, you must see to an end of their troublemaking so that secure my people and yours can live in this land."

"It will be done as you wish." General TusuiHisop replied.

"Good! Good!" Dungie excitedly responded, chancing a glance to see ZaphipheRa's approving smile. He then stood, pointing a finger. "For lasting peace, you and your chieftains must do one more little thing for me to prove your honesty in this matter and your loyalty to me."

Looking up at Dungie, TusuiHisop promised he would. After bowing low and standing again, he added, "Whatever our lord and king wishes, I and my people will do."

"Then do this thing for me," Dungie commanded. "Tonight, before the moon rises above the mountains, return to this place dressed in all your finery of state, you and all your chiefs and important leaders. With you must come all your wives, sons, daughters, and your sons' wives and their sons and daughters, and all your brothers and sisters. Fathers and mothers who are with you in the city must come here to this spot before the moon rises above the mountains. Then tonight when the moon is high, we shall celebrate before all the people the binding ritual of our father Noah, the NussoGamos. Then I will know that all you say is honest and truthful."

Uncertain what the ritual of NussoGamos was, and not having been informed by ZaphipheRa of such a requirement, General TusuiHisop hesitated. Dungie's expression darkened and he was about to speak when TusuiHisop promised to return as commanded, his heart filled with trepidation over fearing the worst. Yet what else could he do? Too late now was the hour to turn back the sands of time.

Torchlight burned brightly across the courtyard when TusuiHisop and his people arrived for the binding ritual. A roaring fire blazed in front of the council house where a tall platform with many steps leading to its top had been erected. Atop the platform were several skin robes and brightly colored blankets. Dungie waited to exit the council house until after the music of the drums, fifes, and stringed instruments ended. Then, with TusuiHisop's procession stopped just the other side of the flames, he made his grand entrance into the courtyard.

Lifting his arms high to silence the crowd, he began, "Men, brothers, we have assembled this night to bring our two peoples together, to celebrate in the sharing of the blood to make us one people. With vows and blood we shall accomplish this." He then called out for TusuiHisop's son, a boy appearing to be about twelve years of age, to come before him. TusuiHisop feared for the worst, expecting his eldest son to be slaughtered in sacrifice before his eyes. Seeing no escape, he released the boy and told him to go.

After the boy stopped before Dungie, he was told to extend his hand. "What is your name, boy, son the TusuiHisop?" Dungie asked while examining the boy's opened palm.

Looking into Dungie's face, the frightened boy answered, "KosbeeTusueeHisop."

"Well, KosbeeTusueeHisop," Dungie grinned, "do not be afraid, because tonight you are to bring a great blessing upon your people."

With that, Dungie took a flint and made a small incision across the boy's palm. After doing the same to his, he squeezed the boy's hand together with his. "We, you and me, have now become one blood, one soul. No longer will your name be called 'KosbeeTusueeHisop', but 'ShoShiNoahTusueeHisop' is to be your name, you becoming my son in my house for times indefinite."

Pointing toward the dark opening of the council house, he ordered the boy to depart. Looking up at an astonished TusuiHisop, Dungie casually remarked, "And so the NussoGamos begins."

Dungie then began the 'bonding of the blood', or at least that is what he called it. Although his words spoke to the creation of a blood brotherhood between his people of the North and TusuiHisop's of the South, in reality it was a ritual of humiliation and submission for the southern nations.

First, Dungie took TusuiHisop's eldest wife up to the platform to have ritual sexual relations with her, and then ordered TusuiHisop to do the same after he had released his passions into her. When this act was completed, Dungie had each of his high-ranking officers take a wife of their choosing from among those of the high-ranking officers and dignitaries of TusuiHisop's people, having them do the same round about the blazing fire. Then, when they had finished, the women's husbands were commanded to follow along with the same act in front of the people.

When all these things were accomplished, the priests of ZaphipheRa searched among the children to gather for themselves boys and girls of their choosing to serve in their sanctuaries. At the end, when the bonding of the blood ritual was completed, Dungie ordered TusuiHisop's three remaining wives into the council house, telling the general that if he faithfully obeyed Dungie's final command for the NussoGamos then the two older women would be returned to him at a later time. But for the youngest, she and her child must remain with Dungie as his wife to keep the bond of blood alive between TusuiHisop's and Dungie's people. TusuiHisop had no choice but to agree to all that Dungie demanded.

The following day, the gates of Pharaoh's city were opened and all the men in Dungie's camp who wished entered the city to bed the women of the city, namely all whom they chose. Any woman who might resist or any man attempting to protect wife or daughter, death was their punishment. For seven days, the city was ravaged by men of Dungie's army. Gradually these men left off and returned to their own camps, many taking women back for themselves to serve them as they pleased. All these things TusuiHisop permitted, for he had little other choice, especially if he wished to retain leadership over his people, Dungie promising him the scepter if he faithfully obeyed all his commands.

* * *

The ruse of sending a small contingent of Dragon fighting ships east toward the city of Saranda while the main body, consisting primarily of deep-draft transport vessels, continued on course for the western edge of the isles just south of the Ice Mountains had succeeded better than planned. Fearing an invasion at Saranda, the armies of the MooDecd, meaning 'forgotten ones' in the Dodanimian language, moved their forces away from the northern frontier and into the vicinity of the city.

It was twelve days since Noahashonie's Dragon ships had made landfall and two since the fat, broad-beamed, tall-masted Phoenician trade ships furrowed their sails in the estuary of the River Pete, its waters deep enough to permit the giant ships to tie up next to the shore. Already, thousands of emigrant soldiers and their families along with hundreds of horses and draft animals as well as tonnes of food and supplies were offloaded and hauled up the hills to the hastily built tent city of Durbine. It was here that Noah established the first of the moot halls that would eventually occupy prominence in every village and town throughout Dodanimian territories.

Reports had just arrived from some of the furthest ranging scouts, their news reassuring. Rulers of Saranda were fearing an invasion into their city-state, so had called upon the MooDecd to support them in their defense, intimating that once the Dodanimian armies had overrun Saranda, they would march north and east to conquer the MooDecd. In response, the MooDecd moved a large military host from its more distant lands in the West and North, gathering before the city gates further south. At present, the lands off to the East of Noah's people were greatly depleted of a defending host. Debate then ensued as to what military action should be undertaken at the moment.

At the beginning of the moot, Noah established the rules of war her people were to follow. "No man or woman shall be forced into servitude as to soldiering or hard labor. My husband believed in freedom, its virtues and faults, wondering what good would winning the war be if it were on the backs of slaves that it was accomplished. Of what value is victory into slavery? If only by slavery a people are allowed their existence, then why fight the battle at all, one task master being little different from another. So we fight for freedom as a free people. Only volunteers will fill our warrior ranks.

"This is a profane land, polluted with the filth of evil men. As HuushBonn has been directed, we will cleanse this land from the sea coast upon which we stand to the northbound river flowing into the icy sea. Not a soul is to remain alive north of the Saranda city-state, east to the northbound river, north to the Ice Mountains, and west to these shores. No man, woman, child, or domestic animal is to be allowed to remain alive. It is the word of Iam because of the putrid odor cast skyward by the abominations of these people. He has safely delivered us here and we shall faithfully obey his commands."

Noah warned, shaking a finger, "Do not take for yourselves any living treasure. Burn their cities and pull down all their high places, smash to pieces their pots of clay and burn in the fire all their utensils of wood and cloth. Only the silver, gold, iron and copper may you take for spoil. But should there be any marking upon the metal, then to the smelter's furnace must it go to be refined. Dig up their barrows and burn their bones. This wicked people must become the MooDecd unto time indefinite, even forever, for they have played folly with Iam and their father, Japheth. It is we, their distant kindred, who must cleanse the land of their abhorrent filth. This is all by the word of HuushBonn who has seen in vision all that the Lady has demanded and that Iam commands be done."

With Swalhawena at her side, Noah sat down upon the hard-packed, earthen floor cross-legged, the other clansmen and chieftains in the moot hall doing the same. Far into the night the men and women of Dodanim's house and their allied clans filled the hall with oratory and debate, the smoke of the valley weed hanging in low clouds mixing with the giant hearth blaze. In the end, all the headmen and headwomen representing all the peoples swore an oath to Noahashonie to follow her direction, realizing that one, alone, must be the leader over them, at least until the land was cleansed of the MooDecd. Then, as Noah promised, all the clans would receive a portion in these lands to claim for themselves, by lot or vote, whichever was found pleasing to the people at the time.

After this, BondaBoor stood, HuushBonn at his side, addressing the people. "The visions of Dancing Stones and Tuosolmerica, and the words of the Lady Dragon Queen warn us that few are the days before a great calamity befalls our worlds. Quickly we must prepare for those coming dark days when the seas will boil over and the sun refuses to give its light. There are lands not far to the East that look rich for planting and fields with tall grasses for our beasts of burden. The people are few and have no horses, outlanders for the most part, wild people who live beyond even the laws of the MooDecd."

This began a rather lengthy debate as to what actions should be taken, whether to wait until more of the warriors from the Dragon ships arrived, and how such an attack was to be accomplished. It was finally agreed that it was necessary to take possession of those fields as soon as may be. The season was growing late. Even now, only the hardiest of seeds could be planted with any real hope of a decent fall harvest, the wild nut and fruit trees providing the major sustenance during the coming winter. If they waited any longer, then only seeds producing leafy greens could be planted.

It was also decided that to bring the weight of their military might to bear down upon those outlanders might well expose their ruse to the MooDecd. With a large portion of the army still out to sea, a determined attack by the enemy could lead to disaster. BondaBoor stood again. "Horses are unknown to these people, as are long firesticks and flaming gunns. If we use such battle tactics, the enemy will be bound to know where the real invasion force is located." As at the fords of the Bantoowazzi, BondaBoor then volunteered his night-fighting Riphath warriors to take on the outlanders. "We will again paint our naked bodies with the black pitch and disappear into the darkness. No living man or beast will stand to resist you when entering those lands, nor will report ever reach the MooDecd chieftains except that Hell's devils have risen to bring their people to a finish."

Swalhawena stood, declaring to BondaBoor, "I, too, am going with you. Our days of celebration are not yet complete. You and I are one until then."

BondaBoor protested, "The road we take is very dangerous! My people are experienced warriors, trained in night-fighting and stealth." He went on to argue regarding Swalhawena's youth and his fear for her safety.

Noahashonie stood, raising her hand to speak. "My brother, BondaBoor, all that you say has merit, but allow me please to remind you, Swalhawena is a child of Mounds, and according to our sister, Tuosolmerica, is a descendant of the Dragons who lived in that city long ago. She is also a Gorgon witch as you are witness to. I do not command you to take her with you, but wish to remind you that among your Riphath assassins are several women. Swalhawena is a free person, she having chosen you to bring her into womanhood. Now she requests you deliver her blade to its celebration into Death's blood."

It was not to BondaBoor's liking, but he stopped resisting Swalhawena's request as long as she promised to be obedient to his commands. He then addressed Noahashonie. "My queen, high witch over the worlds of men, I will do this thing, but please be aware of the dangers involved. We move in the blackness of night, painted in the colors of those dark hours. I cannot guarantee the woman-child's safety. Please do not hold me accountable if harm comes upon her."

Noah accepted BondaBoor's request. "Death hunts us all. Should my sister fall, it will be as she has willed it. That fate is of her choosing. Better to allow the fox to run free with the hunter on its heels than to make it languish in safety behind caged bars. Either way, death may come to it. Today, tomorrow, could we not all face the arrow or axe? It is better we find it on the run and not while locked in a cage."

The following morning, an army of Riphath disappeared into the shadowy eastern forest, Swalhawena at BondaBoor's side. Noahashonie bid them goodbye, silently staring into the ancient oaks long after her companions were departed, her heart filled with lonely dread. Oh well, what else was there for it? HuushBonn's visions spoke to Iam's rage against this violent land, and her own dreams pointed to the need of its cleansing if her people were to survive the coming day of wrath. There was no promise that death would not haunt many a soul of her kindred. Only she, witch queen of the Elk Horn, was assured seeing the ending day, her daughter, Hyhoset, the Queen of Darkness the same. A chill sent a shudder down Noah's back contemplating what that all might mean. Pulling her fur tight, she turned and hurried back toward camp.

A cheerful voice suddenly broke the morning quiet as Rae came bounding up the hillock, his eyes meeting Noah's as she cast her gaze down at him. Catching the girl up in a bear hug, Rae planted a huge kiss on her lips then crooned, "Oh, my sweet, cherished woman, why do you look so sad when it is such a glorious day! Come quickly to my tent and share your love with me before I depart upon the seas of Destiny. Many may be the days before your milk I shall taste again and your thighs excite me."

Noah could not hide her surprise at Rae's mention of leaving. After being released from the boy's passionate embrace, she asked, concerned, "Why do you speak of departure? My two closest companions are just now gone toward danger and possible death. I was expecting your heart to keep me warm during these chilly nights, and your excited breath to refresh my spirit. Are you, too, leaving me in this lonely hour?"

Rae laughed, "Have you not heard the news? My uncle, RafeTomassie, arrived late in the night and already his clan is preparing a raiding party to journey north, inviting my ship and crew to join him. We will sail north until reaching the floating ice islands, and then set ashore along the coastlands. As he goes exploring those northern shores, I intend to take a scouting party inland to discover what lies there."

Noah began to complain. "Your uncle, ZemerTomassie, has a ship of his own. He can go along with his brother," she smiled coyly, "and then you can stay here with me."

Rae said not so. "As you already know, my uncle, Zemer, and Dresden's husband, RubiconFredericka, are sailing up the River Pete to the lower rapids. There they will disembark, portage the rapids, and then build small rowing craft to explore to the river's headwaters. For everyone's safety, we are in need to know who opposes us in the North. BondaBoor will secure our eastern front, lessening danger of surprise attack from that direction. But the unknown numbers of MooDecd in the North still pose a risk."

He squeezed Noah's upper arms. "As was discussed at the moot hall, it is felt that the people living in these wild lands are among the vilest of all the MooDecd, considering that for the most part the MooDecd desire to live in cities walled with high palisades, earthen mounds, and moats. I believe, as do many of the others, it is for protection from raiding bands of their own kind."

Pouting, Noah harrumphed, "Then I should be leading the army north, being its queen and all. Why has no one asked me to do this?"

Rae laughed, "Two babies suckle at your breasts, and such a new mother you are. Even Dresden is remaining behind with her child, yes, and has offered her milk to that ever-hungry babe, Meric."

Noah continued to fuss until Rae put an end to it. "Look, if you wish to share a moment of delights with this fellow, you must come with me now. Little is the time remaining before we set sail, and I must be about my duties long before then. So, if you wish for my lips to caress your body and to feel my heated ardor, come quickly." He winked, squeezing one of Noah's breasts. "And I would like to refresh my palate with some more of your elixir before I leave."

Noah took Rae by the hand. "Quickly, then, to my tent! It is cold and empty, in need of warmth. There the scent of our lovemaking will long linger after you have departed, so that in my lonely solitude I can remember your touch and sweet embrace."

* * *

BondaBoor returned with a beaming report some seventeen suns after his departure. "There stands no village or council house for over forty leagues to our east. Few were the people and tiny the towns we encountered. What survivors there might be that escaped - and I believe that number very small for we made our attacks in the middle of the night - have run away, spreading tales of demons and monsters risen from the swamps and caves to haunt their lands. Not one of the hundreds of my people setting out with me received death or major injury."

He turned to Swalhawena, who stood at his side. "A witch this woman-child truly is, and well has she earned the title 'Dragon Daughter of the Gorgons'. Never once did she flinch in carrying out her duty even in the face of death. Head chief and priest of a large river village took shelter by hiding in a shed. This woman accidentally came upon him while all alone, slaying him and his entire family hiding with him. My people no longer call her 'Swalhawena' but 'DrakonOdous' - 'Dragon Fangs' - for silent like a serpent she is on the move and her blade strikes quicker than that of an adder."

Swalhawena silently bowed her head ever so slightly, her countenance somber, only a single tear revealing a troubled heart. As soon as opportunity availed itself, the girl snuck away into Noah's tent. Only later that evening while snuggled in Noah's arms was she able to release those pent-up emotions, revealing events to her trusted companion that forever took from her any remaining childhood and turned her into the beast she was destined to become. From that day forward, Swalhawena was called 'Drakonous' or 'Drakous', meaning 'Woman Serpent', her fame spreading like the rising tide among the Dodanimians.

BondaBoor's additional news was also excitedly welcomed. Several of the MooDecd villagers were farmers tending well kept orchards and fields already green with crops, the Riphath leaving them undisturbed while killing off all flesh and burning their towns. They were delighted with the discovery of bronze plows the MooDecd used to turn over the sod. "So much better than the wood and stone machines our people have farmed with," BondaBoor declared. Also vast were the meadowlands, offering excellent grazing for cattle and horses.

So it was that the first summer of the invasion quickly passed. The Tomassie clan returned with report, and soon the armies of Noah were streaming north to cleanse those lands, BondaBoor and Drakonous leading their army of black-painted Riphath in league with the other clans to bring ruination to the inhabitants of the northern territories. In the meantime, thousands of immigrants flooded the quays on River Pete, passing up the hill through Durbine to points east and north. Every day Noah's army grew in strength and power. Come the following spring, it was believed their numbers would be strong enough to begin the campaign against the main population of the MooDecd.

It was in the days of the late harvest that a great surprise met the people when waking to the chilly drizzle of an overcast autumn morning. Down in the harbor on the River Pete were anchored over a dozen giant Atlantician merchant ships flying the colors of Dodanim. In the bow of the lead ship stood generals AbramNeufeld and DavidRhine with over three hundred frontline, battle-hardened infantry soldiers, each of the other anchored vessels carrying the same complement from the Dodanimian and Atlantician armies. In the outer estuary at the river's mouth were another dozen Phoenician tall ships with over a thousand more soldiers, including five hundred of Javan's fighting, heavy-armored horse lancers. Not one of these men had bent a knee to Hormax, having abandoned Dungie over his wanton butchery of the Nubians in the Southlands. In the ships' holds were foodstuffs and supplies to feed this army for the entire winter.

The two generals, Abram and David, accompanied by two Dragons who had journeyed with them, made their way to the moot hall for an audience with Noahashonie and other clan chieftains. Prostrating themselves in front of the witch queen, they pledged their allegiance to her and cause, giving to Meric the axe of Javan they stole from Dungie before retreating north and absconding with a dozen Atlantician ships to make their escape. It was also reported that upon hearing the news, Baalath secretly sent couriers north to warn the families of the deserters to make haste fleeing into the eastern coastlands beyond the mountains. There the scent of the Dragons was still strong so that even the Hormaxian priests dared not enter those lands.

It was decided to permit the Atlantician ships whose headmen had been forced to deliver the deserting army to these islets to make their way south to Saranda, there to winter over before departing for Atlanticia the following spring, this with the understanding that the MooDecd chieftains would soon realize where the major threat to them was located. Still, those seafarers had been tricked into transporting these escapees here, and it was only fair to permit them their leave now that their work was finished, and with due compensation. So with gold and silver taken from the MooDecd were the headmen paid, they quickly departing south before the ice islands would block the channels for their passage.

The headmen of the Phoenician tall ships, for the most part, decided to winter over, the sandy beaches of the outer estuary excellent for building slips for pulling their ships ashore, and the nearby forest of hardwoods handy for making repairs. The same was also done with many of the Dragon longships, except for the few that journeyed south with the Atlantician and half dozen or so Phoenician ships choosing to winter in southern waters. While the others would harbor at Saranda, the Dragon longships were hoping to travel on to the Straits of Hercules, called by the locals the 'Straits of Hermanum', named after a great Dragon chieftain felled on the high bluffs overlooking the straits to the South in a battle long ago. There they would winter over at the port city of Colosuim, returning north to Durbine in the spring.

(Author's note: _For much of Phoenician sailing history until the fall of Tyre to Alexander the Great, a ship flying Phoenician trading colors was welcomed at any seaport. It was said that Egyptian, Babylonian, Ethiopian, Easterner, and Hebrew could all travel together on a Phoenician merchantman and fear no dread while on its decks. After the fall of Atlantis, most of the surviving Atlanticians along with their shipping fleets joined with the Phoenicians, eventually being absorbed into their culture._

_By the time of Hiram the Great, king over Tyre during the reign of Solomon, the Mariner clan had risen to become the princes of navigation, eventually building a secretive guild protecting their trade routes, so much so that when the Romans destroyed Carthage, the lands to the west of the Great Sea sank into oblivion, being forgotten by the people in the East until the rise of European powers centuries later._ )

Some headmen argued against permitting the Atlanticians to depart until the following spring, but the counter argument won out, especially when AbramNeufeld warned the others about the danger of engendering King Narduke's wrath. "The city of Atlanticia has enough fighting ships to deliver over thirty thousand warriors to our shores before the winter storms will protect us. True, the passage would be dangerous for them, but remember that an enraged ruler cares more for revenge than the welfare of his men. Trust me, news of our deceit will soon reach Narduke. Safe release of his ships and full payment for passage will go a long way to swage the man's anger."

It was concluded by the chieftains that little was to be feared from King Narduke, seeing he was not yet hostile to those departing the Western lands, and Dungie was far too busy in the South to execute his revenge over the desertion of his head captains. Reasoning that the MooDecd might decide on a winter campaign with hope of driving the Dodanimians into the sea before spring delivered reinforcements to these shores, the horse soldiers were sent east beyond the new settlements. There, before winter snows closed the roads, Noah joined the company of Javan's Templar cavalry at the village of DandumRow.

* * *

When news of his generals' treachery reached Dungie's ears, the man went into a furious rage, sending couriers in haste to tell King Narduke of the betrayal and to have him send a fleet of Atlantician war galleys to apprehend the renegades and return them for judgment. By the time Dungie's soldiers delivered the request to King Narduke, Tuosolmerica had already informed him regarding the Atlantician ships the Dodanimians had absconded with, she having received news from the Dragons at the rebuilt Temple Owhar in the hills above Durbine. Narduke had been mollified regarding any upset when hearing about the rich payment made to the headmen for the unconsented use of his ships, and was in no mood to begin a distant war with former allies at the moment.

It had not been that difficult to swage the king's anger, Dungie's pogrom to exterminate the Nubians already not setting well with him. When he understood what Dungie's intentions were, he sent orders to his Atlantician headmen patrolling off the eastern coast along the Southlands to permit passage of Nubian escapees, and cease stopping merchant ships for search and seizure of contraband. Any Nubian warships were to be apprehended and commandeered if possible, engaging in combat only if their opponent was hostile. Otherwise the disarmed soldiers were to be allowed to take passage on other ships heading east.

It was several weeks before Dungie heard of Narduke's decision not to pursue hostilities toward his deserters. By now there was nothing that could be done regarding that treasonous lot, the northern sea routes all awash with massive ice floes until late spring. What made matters worse was the Atlantician king's carefree willingness to continue permitting sojourners from the hinterlands of Dodanim and beyond to depart Atlanticia's ports for points east.

Although Narduke's refusal to unleash his military machine against Dungie's two former generals and the cowardly renegades joining them had put Dungie in a pout, the southern campaign was going better than expected. General TusuiHisop was a formidable leader, excellent tactician, and greatly respected by his people...both good and bad qualities. Already most of the Nubian kingdoms were in shambles. What few fighting forces remaining intact were slowly surrendering the fields, acting as little more than a rearguard to slow down his advance. In a few months, whatever surviving Nubians there were would be pushed into the sea. Yes, General TusuiHisop was an outstanding leader...too outstanding.

(Author's note: _In a sad turn of events, General TusuiHisop met with an untimely accident just days before accomplishing his mission and being set up as vassal king over his people. It was a fate Dungie publicly mourned, commanding a great funerary celebration, he also taking the man's wives into his own home to see to their needs_.)

There were also the brothers Thornbirge along with their western clans who did not disappoint. To them, all southerners were evil and despicable. It had taken a great deal of talking to convince the Thornbirge men to keep them from slaughtering the remainder of Pharaoh AnahNakaNoah's people after their surrender and, even at that, Dungie believed they halfheartedly accepted his request. The number of abandoned towns and desolate farms were noticeably higher in territories controlled by the Thornbirge clans. Still, the Thornbirges were outstanding allies, and pushed the war all the way to its end. Unlike the Dodanimian clans, the Thornbirges were willing to drive all the Nubians in these southern worlds to extinction.

Dungie knew, too, there would be no safe harbor for any Nubian attempting escape to the West. Commander SouJuoi's SinoAlSian Confederacy controlled the entire western seaboard and all its cities and ports. They showed no mercy to anyone fleeing the hinterlands and attempting escape by way of the western expanse. When this current campaign was completed, SouJuoi was returning home to his island nation of SinoSamuori to take up the ruling scepter over all the Samuori clans.

(Author's note: _Samuori was the founding father of the Sino clan and son of Elishah, son of Javan the Elder, son of Japheth, son of Noah. Samuori was nephew to Dodanim, Elishah being Dodanim's brother. Samuori and his father, Elishah, were great Dragons, both men dying in the Aphrodite Wars_.)

Just three days before, SouJuoi and Dungie had shaken hands with the celebration of the blood grip, forming an eternal alliance between the Samuori clans and Dodanimian clans, Dungie becoming head spokesman over them all, expanding his influence far across the western ocean to the isles beyond. And even though King Narduke had not acknowledged Dungie's stalwart leadership qualities by submitting to his former request, the Atlantician army under his direct command did, at least in quiet adoration. General Nuefange conferred with Dungie on every major issue before giving his orders to the Atlantician army. The other Atlantician senior officers often treated him with reverential respect to the point of calling him 'Commander'.

All of this adoration should have filled Dungie's heart with jubilation. But no, it had just the opposite effect when he compared them to his Dodanimian clans, people of his own blood. Here he was, closest living kinsman to Dodanim in these lands - the man's very grandson - yet even the clan that carried Dodanim's very name offered lip service at best. Already many thousands were off following that witch-whore, Noahashonie, with countless hundreds more preparing to leave. Even his loyal Dodanimian soldiers were halfhearted in their pursuit of the enemy, the man having to depend on forces from other clans to carry on the contest.

The very thought of these things put Dungie in a sour mood as he lay there before the crackling blaze on newly acquired jungle furs, Nidgha snuggled up at his side, her naked beauty ignored because of the man's upset.

Sitting, Dungie cursed, "Damn that Iam and all his followers! A ruin he makes for me because of the evil of Dancing Stones and the other witches of that obscene cult."

Nidgha quietly sat up beside Dungie, disappointment from his lack of affection revealed on her face. Tenderly playing her fingers across his skin she asked, troubled, "Why does my lord despair? Have the gods not blessed him with so many treasures, spoils of gold, silver, and iron, men and woman servants beyond number, great glory and power and...and little Nidgha to be at his side?"

Dungie began to softly rub Nidgha's shoulders and back, lamenting, whining, "What is it of any good at all when my very people ostracize me with their willful neglect, constantly tearing down towers to Horus and the bull, and even speaking of you with rude and uncouth speech? Everywhere in the land where the stench of the Dragon breath is strong, the people revolt against me. Oh yes, they give me lip service, confessing my kingship. But secretly, behind closed doors they foment rebellion, saying to one another to flee to the East and abandon their king."

He sighed in surrender, "In my own land, the land of my people, my blood, my city, does the foul stench of the Dragons smell the worst, and I powerless to rid the land of it. For I fear that should I lift a hand up against that blasphemous house, the people, themselves, would stand up against me to bring me to ruin, so corrupted have their hearts become because of the wicked machinations of the Dragons."

Nidgha looked down at her hand, firelight dancing on roving fingers. "I'm sure there is something my lord can do about this problem. After all, you are their king, they publicly declaring you to be so."

Dungie sputtered, "No, my kingship hangs upon a thread. That woman Dragon, Tuosolmerica, casts a spell over the people with her witchery. She holds sway over all the northern clans and, I believe, her magic has smitten your husband, clouding his mind so that he does not see the danger lurking across his northern borders. I fear that, at any moment, the immigrants gathering along the coasts in those northern kingdoms are being gathered there for a far more sinister purpose than has been reported. It is quite possible that the Dragons are massing an army, eventually leading it south to the conquest of Atlanticia. When they have been successful, they will move south into these lands in order to bring to a finish all the sons of Horus and dethrone me."

Softly stroking Dungie's face, Nidgha cooed reassuringly, "It has been said that those fleeing your lands run away hurriedly and in confusion, abandoning city and farm and taking up life in tents while waiting for rescue to their new world by transport aboard the hastily built, untested ships of Tarshish and Kittim."

Dungie disagreed. "Those clans do not build flimsy ships. Reports about the battles waged outside the walls of Atlanticia point to the excellent seamanship of those people. Their vessels take on the largest Egyptian fighting warships, the contest often ending in the enemy's defeat. And those people are vicious fighters, fearless and resolute! Indeed, it was with great loss to this army when those clans abandoned it after the surrender at TittenShobontii." He muttered angrily, "HiramRabshak and EricTomassie both betrayed me through their desertion. Now they stand at my back, two very powerful headmen over a people loyal to that bitch-child, Noahashonie!"

Softly pawing at Dungie as does a kitten seeking attention, Nidgha quietly argued, "But those men stand all alone against you, or so I've heard from whispering walls. There is no power left in the North to assault you, at least in leaders."

Dungie stared at Nidgha, curious. "What are you about? What birdie has been singing in your ear?"

Nidgha grinned impishly, her eyes revealing hidden knowledge. "Not only do walls have ears, they also have mouths and, if one listens closely enough, many secrets may well be revealed. Now, my Lord and King, here is what little I do know. KroTonkinBSondie and the sons of Tiras and Elishah have rewarded you richly with the treasures of the northern wilderness. With gold, copper, and iron they pay you in tribute for passage across Lake Tecatucutan to the port city of TittenShobontii. From his people you also receive mercury and green powder that the priests of Horus say will make great thunder weapons. True, he does not send warriors to assist you, but the man respects your kingship, calling you 'the son of Dodanim'.

"And what of Baalath? Even though he walked in the Dragon witch's funerary march and passed through the consuming fire, the man still flies the banner of your kingdom high upon the towers of moot in Ogallala. Word comes to us that he has not spoken any word of treason against you at all, but holds the people to stand fast for their king. True, his fondness for the Dragons, and his penchant for Iam do place a mark upon the man, but his loyalty to the kingdom of Dodanim, and the man who rightfully sits the throne... you... is unquestioned. If pressed, he may falter in action, but he will never stand up against you. You need not fear him at all."

She sat back, holding Dungie's arm, cooing, "As for Cothath and his Mozerathas clans, already great hordes of them have fled to eastern lands. No power remains in northern lands to resist you, their magic departed this world. As for the witch Dragon, Tuosolmerica, it has been said that she and any of her ilk following will not resist you in any way as long as you do not restrain the people, leaving them unmolested to escape to other worlds. I believe it is true because aged she is, oldest of all living mankind other than for Aphrodite, who stands with ever-eyes watching over that witch. It would be unwise to raise the wrath of the Mother goddess for her powers are nearly as great as Lord Samyaza's."

Kissing Dungie on the cheek, Nidgha reassured him, "HiramRabshak and EricTomassie are themselves men in flight, having drawn close to their coastal cities for early escape in the coming year. Already many of their mighty men have retreated from these shores. Eric's son, Rae, has been in such a rut for that witch-child, Noahashonie, that he has already abandoned his father and followed her along with his two uncles."

Placing a finger to Dungie's lips, Nidgha cautioned, "The sons of Tarshish and Kittim are thick in the blood with the Phoenicians, EricTomassie being headman over the Mariner clan. We depend heavily upon the tall ships, especially since Pharaoh TitanAmactony withdrew his support from AnahNakaNoah. It has been said that his Hebrew chief of state has declared Egypt a neutral nation, refusing any mercenary support to anyone."

Shocked by Nidgha's knowledge, Dungie blurted out, "How do you know all these things? Even my viziers have revealed less to me than what you tell."

Nidgha laughed coyly, sliding her fingers down his arm until they played in the boy's opened palm, "As I said, the wall also has mouths. Your little Nidgha has ears that listen to whispers, her eyes always searching the shadows for secrets." She began to hum a sensual tune.

Dungie's heart was still uneasy. "What you say may all be well and good, but I am concerned about your husband. He panders to those... those Dragon lovers. Tuosolmerica may leave us unmolested, but her loyal guard of Templars and Dragons has made no such promise regarding me. What if they persuade Narduke to their side? Then I might lose the fighting core of my army should he choose to withdraw his Atlanticians. Even worse, what if he should turn against me?"

Nidgha was tiring of Dungie's fantasy fears. Her smile melted into an angry frown as large, black, opaque orbs bore into his eyes, sending a shiver up the man's back. It appeared as though the woman was momentarily lost in a struggle of some sort. Her lips quivered in an attempt to form words that a mouth refused to unleash. Then, like a tiny, dark cloud on a windy day, the darkness passed. The woman's seductive smile grew again, her eyes twinkling suggestively.

Nidgha looked down at a hand she was lovingly squeezing. "If it would please my lord, my father is a magistrate on the high council of the king. I will send messages to him seeking his assistance. He is very good at persuasion, and has the ear of my husband. You will have no need to fear anything at all. My father will see to that if that is what my lord wishes."

Dungie stroked Nidgha's long locks, softly kissing her on the forehead. "That would please me very much, setting my heart at ease to know for sure that no enemy stands with power at my back."

Before pressing her lips to his, Nidgha promised it would be done. She purred while motioning to someone hiding beyond the curtains, "My Lord, lover sublime, you have so many needs this night, too many for this one child to satisfy. Come, relax upon these silky furs. Allow my servant girl to join us in love's rhapsody."

Sabrina stepped out into the open room, her naked flesh wet with scented oil, glistening in the firelight. "My Lord and King," she softly spoke, "it has been so long since we have tasted each other's love."

Dungie grinned in anticipation, beckoning, "Please! Please come and join us."

* * *

Fall quickly closed, bringing winter, bitter winds driving down from the Ice Mountains colliding with the irresistible southern winds pushing up from Lake Tecatucutan, filling the passes deep with drifts. Had Dungie wished to visit himself upon Castle Dodanim, there would have been little chance of his succeeding. Even the Bantoowazzi flexed its muscles by overflowing ice-choked banks, making travel even on the Eastern Road nearly impossible. Atlanticia itself would have been marooned, at the mercies of the winter snows had it not been for the city's ocean ports that never froze over.

For the remaining peoples hunkered down in the scattered cities and villages of the northern lands, it was a winter not unlike that of countless others. These were hardy tribes used to cold and drifting snow. Stout barns and houses of oak, maple, pine, and hemlock barricaded the chill winds from entry into humble abodes, and larders filled to overflowing made the weather much less extreme. Why, there were even times set aside for feasting and celebration for those still residing on the western side of the mountains.

For the great host collected along the eastern shores awaiting transport to new worlds across the Eastern Sea, things were little different. The Sons of Kittim and Tarshish were a generous lot, opening up home and stable for the weary travelers who had not been able to build lodgings in the countless shanty towns springing up all about. Food, too, was aplenty here. The forest trees were weighed down beyond measure with every delightful form of nut, the oaks especially so to the point of limbs loaded with untold amounts of acorns peeling away from the trees, crashing noisily to the forest floor. The woodlands were filled with squirrels, turkey, and every fur-bearing animal. Fields saw no end to quail, partridge, pheasant, and rabbit, while in deep valleys roamed numberless herds of deer, elk, and wild cattle.

The sea also surrendered its treasures up to the inhabitants of the land. Clams of two handbreadths literally covered the shores. Lobsters and crabs of giant proportions were trapped by the boatload, fishes beyond size and number nearly jumped into the trolling boats, and the great, smooth-skinned giant fish that provided oil and fat filled the bays and estuaries all along the coastline. It was as one old-timer confessed concerning those days, 'All one needed to do for food was open their mouth and face the breeze'.

Indeed, reports came in that throughout the entire earth the richness of the forests and fields were filling storehouses to overflowing. Troubadours singing tales of Egypt's pharaoh and the prophetic warning of seven good and bad years were beginning to reach the ears of all the nations. But few paid any heed to them, believing them to be little more than fanciful musings other than the account of TitanAmactony's plans for some great building project and his willingness to purchase any extra of the fine grains, oils, and wines that anyone might wish to sell him. Greedy so many of the other kings were, they went to the point of stripping their own lands of the finest of these products to deliver into the hand of Zaphenathpaneah, pharaoh's chief of state, during the seven fruitful years.

The bounty of the land was truly great, Tuosol and her faithful servants managing to convince many of the people who did not intend to depart the land of Javan to gather their surplus to the high caves of the Genesee Mountains.

(Author's note: _The Genesee Mountains stretched south from the land of the Gihon, through ObebBailSoar, off to the east of Ogallala, continuing southward, separating the Megiddo Plains from Atlantician Territories. It is also sad to note that many of the inhabitants of these northern lands chose to return to their inland homes because of the very 'fatness of the earth', especially those who waited until the later years to depart those worlds. This proved to be disastrous for unnumbered multitudes_.)

It was during a break in the winter storming that Baalath and a small guard from Ogallala made their way up the North Pike to join Tuosol and her band of Templars and Dragons on their trek to ObebBailSoar to celebrate the anniversary of Dancing Stones' funeral. Their journey took them through Castle Dodanim where, at the invitation of Chuphoe and Juliet, the company stayed over for several days to feast and renew old acquaintances.

It was on the evening before their departure that Chuphoe gathered the guests to the kingly chambers just off the greens for a private celebration. Chuphoe wished to go along with the others but could not, his duties keeping him in the city. Juliet and Odethbethel, along with a dozen of Chuphoe's trusted guards, were going to make the journey as well as several of the city folk wanting to pay their respects to the queen of their city. It might be several weeks before the party would return to Castle Dodanim again, and Chuphoe wanted to have the memories of this parting celebration on those lonely nights waiting for Juliet's return.

Across the northern, ice-choked Eastern Sea, Noahashonie peacefully slept, cuddled close in the arms of Swalhawena, Hyhoset snuggled in between them. They were both women now, having shared...sharing in a man's romance, both with BondaBoor and Rae and others. In the quiet of evening before the sleepy time steals away wakefulness, the two would often excite each other's hearts by singing tales of love's sweet intrigues, keeping no secrets at all between them.

They had also become women warriors, both having made their blades shed tears of blood. Noah was a fearless leader, trusted and respected by the people. She already displayed the military prowess of a person of far more years, at least as a tactical strategist. In coming months, Noah would begin to gain the reputation of a ferocious fighter, eventually acquiring the name 'Black Angel'. Swalhawena lived up to her name given her by the Riphath, 'DrakonOdous'...'Dragon Fangs'. Riding a short-legged, stout mountain horse, wearing little more than a fur cape and a leather girdle holding an assassin's blade and two throwing points, her body wildly painted, and hefting a short-bladed cutting lance, the girl's very presence could chill the heart of any opponent. Stealthily she stalked her prey, and silently she dispatched her adversary, many of her victims never knowing death was near.

Wind whistled about the tiny log hut, wisps of snow twirling under the flapping bearskin door, the dying fire flickering in the breezy draft. Noah roused with a shiver, waking long enough to pull the heavy robe up over her head. Hyhoset wiggled with joy as she suckled upon her mother's breast while Swalhawena quietly moaned as she rolled over and reached across the baby to rest a hand on Noah. Soon all was again quiet as the three slept in carefree slumber.

Yes, the winter was harsh, but with a bounty of stores and fresh meat, the immigrants in this new world relaxed in secure comfort. The mounted armies of the Dodanimians and their allied clans hunkered down upon the western shores of the River Peel, just to the east of DandumRow, guarding the peoples from attack on their frontier, while the Sons of Tarshish and Kittim along with their allied clans reworked their ships and guarded the ice-choked waters against surprise attack. None need have worried, though.

When the MooDecd received news from the Atlantician sailors concerning the invaders' location, they refused to believe them, still feeling the coming attack was going to arrive from the South upon the spring tide. It would not be until the spring rains had passed, permitting the Dodanimian army to advance east upon the dried roads, that the MooDecd would begin to understand their peril.

Battle plans were already made for that coming day. Noah was not waiting for all her army to be up. If Iam wished this land to be cleansed of its evil, then better it would be to act upon his desire. His hand was powerful, Noah witnessing that power at the Bantoowazzi River. She trusted his hand would be with them if she and her people faithfully obeyed his request. War was coming to this land, total war with no quarter, but that was tomorrow.

Tonight was time to rest in peace, to hold close the ones you love. Life was fleeting, no guarantee it will be yours on the morrow. So cherish it tonight, breathe in its richness, hold tight to every second of it.

Noah cuddled Hyhoset, switching breasts for the child to feed. She reached over, stroking Swalhawena's thick, brunette hair. When the girl woke, Noah leaned forward, kissing her on her lips. In just above a whisper, she crooned, "I love you."

* * *

Dungie was roused from a drunken sleep by an incessant knocking upon his chamber door. A sentry cried out from the other side, "My Lord! My Lord! It is most urgent! It is most urgent!"

After thoroughly cursing out the guard with vile threats and oaths should his intrusion be considered unnecessary. Dungy slowly sat up in bed, nudging Sabrina to get up and see to the door while gently pushing Nidgha off his arm. In a moment he, too, was up, having hurriedly wrapped himself in a robe while slowly making his way into the main reception room. Holding a hand to an aching head, he nearly stumbled when hit by the sun's glaring rays flooding through the opened windows.

He smiled through the pain, thinking of the wild celebration the night before. Reports had arrived that the last Nubian stronghold had fallen. What few survivors there were had been rounded up and taken to the high temples to be sacrificed to Samyaza (Zeus) for giving Dungie's people a swift victory. Everything now would merely be a cleanup operation. True, a small number of Nubians had fled far to the cold south, but winter was growing in those lands of ever-ice. When spring finally arrived, he would send out patrols to finish off any who made it alive through the coming harsh, bitter months.

It had been quite an evening of abandon, what with the hypnotic, raucous music, rivers of wine and hard drink, and the dancers... both men and women. Oh yes, the dancers! Never had Dungie seen two people in a copulation dance before. The arousal generated by those musical moves was explosively exciting, creating an orgy of festivities among those watching. Why even Dungie had taken Sabrina on the floor in front of the entire assembly when he was overcome by her erotic gyrations as she led the women in the passion dance. Soon after, while the festivities were still growing in intensity, he escaped with Nidgha to his private chambers (later to be joined by Sabrina) wanting to take the woman so badly that he ached. But being the queen-wife of another man, he was forced to use discretion.

Eventually Dungie sat and motioned for Sabrina to open the chamber door. A young man of possibly twenty years hurried in, his face filled with the excitement of someone carrying important news. Quickly bowing onto a knee, he looked up, waiting for permission to speak. "My Lord King, just now I have come from the Atlantician camp with news that General Nuefange will be arriving immediately with an urgent report. I have been hurried along before him so that you will be prepared for his visit."

Leaning forward, Dungie squinted, asking, "Do you have any information that is of some use to me?"

Surprised and unprepared for the question, the young man stammered at making reply, finally answering, "I was not informed, other than the general said he must see you right away. My ears did hear his officers excitedly talking about a recently arrived courier with news from Atlanticia."

Before Dungie could respond, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from beyond the door. Not waiting for an invitation, General Nuefange stepped into the room and past the guard, addressing Dungie directly. "There is news from Atlanticia, most troubling. The older men of the Atlantician city council inform me of a very unfortunate event that threatens the alliance between your people and mine."

Dungie was stunned, shocked by Nuefange's pronouncement. The Atlantician-Dodanimian alliance was ancient, the oldest of confederacies. Founded by Japheth, son of Noah, and named after his oldest daughter, Atlanticiana, sister-wife of Javan the Elder, father of Dodanim, Atlanticia and Dodanim remained as though but one kingdom until long after the death of Javan the Elder during the Aphrodite Wars. Atlanticus, grandson of Atlanticiana, took up rule over the kingdom of Atlanticia at that time, his father too enfeebled to rule because of long existing war injuries. Yet it remained little more than a symbolic kingdom until after the passing of Japheth, father of all the clans of men to be found in these isles north of the lands of Ham.

With the death of Japheth, the isles were eventually divided up among the leading clans of the sons of Japheth, Dodanim and Atlanticia being the two greatest kingdoms. Although now separated by the rulership of two different headmen, the people and clans saw themselves as kinsmen, and long resided as a standing brotherhood. This vast confederacy was held together by a common set of rules ('laws' is too harsh a word to use); a non-priestly religion based upon one god, Iam, who was neither male nor female, yet was both; a host people to the Dragons who flourished in that land, and very importantly, blood loyalty to their founding father, Japheth. This was strengthened by the will of Atlanticiana, a great Daughter Dragon who lived far into the age, past the lives of both Atlanticus and Dodanim.

Javan the Younger, Dungie's father, and King Philip had long carried on the tradition of the confederacy, acting more like brothers than distant cousins. King Narduke and Dungie had taken up that tradition also, Narduke trusting his southern army to him, leaving Nidgha with him as a token gift of their friendship. So what now was the threat to their alliance? Could the Dragons have conspired with Narduke to turn against him? The Dragons were still powerful, but few remained in these isles, and his ever watchful spies had delivered no report of Tuosolmerica's attempt to visit herself upon the Atlantician king. Indeed, it was said that Tuosol had wintered over in ObebBailSoar and had not yet returned to her city of Ausalmerica.

Dungie excitedly stood, motioning for General Nuefange to follow. "Come, my friend, with me for a private conference, and tell me all there is to be told." The two men retired to a secluded chamber, to later be joined by Dungie's personal counselor, ZaphipheRa. Together the three men conferred throughout the early morning hours.

The gist of the matter was this: King Narduke, his wife and family were returning from an extended outing on Orion Island, about a league east of the main city island, when their kingly barge suddenly erupted in flame, catching everyone in their sleep. None of the family escaped the conflagration, either dying in their beds or drowning in the black waters, that is, all except for Narduke's eldest daughter, Carthage, who jumped into the chill waters, her clothing all aflame. Other than for some burning on her left arm and shoulder, and the young woman's long, luxuriant hair having been charred so badly that it had to be shorn, Carthage suffered little other damage and was well enough to take up rulership in her father's stead, for the moment.

The Atlantician council would not long tolerate Carthage's rule over them, she being so young and also a woman, yet she was the closest remaining blood kin to King Philip in Atlanticia. Out of respect for Good King Philip, the council wanted to keep a child of his lineage ruling upon the throne. It was decided that if Carthage would accept to marry someone of the council's choosing to bear the people a son to rule as king over them, then Carthage could remain as queen in standing beside her husband, the surrogate king, until her son was old enough to hold up the scepter.

The kingly candidates were eventually narrowed down to DungieDodanim and GishopHigamie, great grand-nephew of King Philip, his closest blood kin able and willing to make this marriage alliance. After a bitter debate, the power of the council fell to Gishop, a choice that did not bode well for the Dodanimians or sons of Horus.

Gishop was not friendly to Dungie, believing the rumors that the man murdered his own father, and later did the same to Dancing Stones, a woman Gishop nearly venerated. To make matters worse, the man was also great, great, great grandson of Tuosolmerica, a woman he adored almost to the point of worship. If Gishop became surrogate king, there would, could be no peaceful alliance between Atlanticia and Dodanim as long as Dungie remained their king.

General Nuefange and ZaphipheRa both agreed that Dungie must hurry away to Atlanticia to present his case in an attempt to persuade the council to choose him before Gishop could arrive from Colosuim. Fearing that the witches of the Talking Stones might have already delivered a message to Colosuim, there being a Temple Owhar upon the high peaks of the northern Pillars of Hercules, it was suggested that Dungie waste no time, taking a sky ship north that very day, accompanied by General Nuefange, ZaphipheRa and Nidgha.

In the stillness of the late morning, a giant sky ship with Admiral KufiSauntooh standing the helm took to flight. The heavy machine slowly lumbered along the packed earthen roadway until it laboriously rose into the air. Even with this flying wonder of Hormax, it would take days to reach Atlanticia. Dungie fretted that his efforts would be all in vain. ZaphipheRa was reassuring, telling him not to worry...things would work out.

Yes, things would work out... must. Hands were busy building an empire that would eventually encompass the globe. Dungie being established as king over Atlanticia was the beginning of its construction. Aphrodite had blundered when she revealed the enemy's timetable to that Hebrew. Seven years there were to prepare, to put all their players on the board, and only six were remaining. Atlantis must rise to consume the world in its grip so that whatever Iam might be planning would be thwarted. Yes, for if the world were controlled by one New Order kingdom then how could Iam bring it to ruin without breaking his promise to Noah with the rainbow. No, the world of men must be conquered, and quickly.

* * *

The glow of a flickering lantern lit up the street when the tavern door opened into the midnight blackness. Two men gingerly stepped out onto the weathered cobblestones, waving to others inside while wishing them a good night. Ale had flowed freely, showing in the carefree, staggering walk of the men as they headed down toward the harbor. A soft breeze drifting in from the sea bathed Verdai Island in its refreshing warmth, the city of Tolaphas quietly sleeping under the twinkling stars. Oh, what a pleasant night! At first light of day, the ship would be sailing on an ebbing tide, a mountain breeze filling the sails while the helmsman steered for Atlanticia.

The two men turned down a narrow street toward the docks only to see three shadowy figures barring their path. Surprised and fearing the worst, the men stumbled backward, turning to escape, only to find more shadowy figures blocking their retreat.

A tall, hooded, shadowy figure standing between two other cloaked figures commanded, "Halt and you will not be harmed."

One of the two men threw up his arms in surrender. "We've little gold, but it's yours for the taking."

The hooded figure snarled, "Keep your gold. We seek a man. Are you GishopHigamie?"

Shocked by the question, the man wondered aloud, "Why do you want to know?"

The hooded figures behind the two men suddenly seized hold of them, the tall figure stepping forward, placing a hand on the man's shoulder. "Your very speech has betrayed who you are. If you wish to live, I suggest you remain silent and come with us...both of you."

Gishop and his companion were hurried away down another street that led into a narrow, deserted alley that took the men to a dilapidated, unused quay behind the fish market. There they forced the men into a catch box in the hold of an old fishing lugger, threatening them to remain quiet. With muffled oars, the cloaked figures slipped into the shallow estuary and out into the harbor just as the tide reached its zenith.

Gishop looked out through a crack from under the box lid. Although the night was nearly pitch black, he could see shapes of giant merchant ships moored in the harbor, their crews fast asleep. He could hear the heaving breath of the oarsman sitting next to the box as he put his weight into rowing the boat through the still waters. Other than the quiet splashing of the oars and the labored breathing of the oarsmen as they struggled with the unwieldy craft, it was deathly quiet. The young man ached with a desire to scream for help, but knew that death could come swiftly if he did, long before any rescue might arrive.

The lugger grudgingly labored toward the harbor entrance, slowly approaching a set of stern lights burning brightly on two Atlantician warships at the mouth of the harbor. The tall, hooded man motioned, whispering for the others to stay in the middle of the channel by making passage between the ships, keeping about a bowshot away from either of them. The lugger was not yet half way past the giant warships when a sentinel shouted out from the deck of one of the ships, "Who goes there? Halt! Who goes there?"

After the sentry shouted his command the second time, the tall, hooded headman angrily rebuked the fellow in the crass voice of a simple fisherman. "Oh, shut up your arse! You're scaring all the fish! Dumb arse!"

The sentinel quickly sank back into the darkness, bothering them no more. In another half hour, the lugger was well past the warships and rounding the rocks of the harbor mouth. Out ahead, three black shapes loomed up before them, longships with the crosstrees lowered on their masts. Gishop heard the tall, hooded headman direct the others to make for the ships. Staring out through the crack under the hatch, Gishop watched as they neared, becoming puzzled when he saw that the bow-posts of the ships were carved in the shape of Dragon heads.

In a few minutes, Gishop and his companion were hustled aboard one of the craft and taken below into a cluttered storage compartment. The clamor of activities and grunts of men heaving hawsers and lines could be heard in their windowless, dark prison. Who were these people and what was happening? Why had he been kidnapped, for a ransom? It was the only answer that made sense. News of his coming marriage was no secret, making him a valuable candidate for such intrigues. Still, why risk added trouble by keeping his companion alive?

The pitching of the ship and splashing of oars told Gishop that they were underway. No waiting for a tide breeze to assist these people. And three ships? At least three... No known band of pirates could muster that multitude of fast warships. The voice of the tall, hooded man could be heard above the others as he gave orders to the ship's crew. He spoke in a language not understood, but with a ring of familiarity. Of course! It was the language of the Western Sea People, the sons of Kittim. That speech was often heard in the streets and taverns of Colosuim. Had some of those miscreants learned of his marriage and followed him to Tolaphas to kidnap him for ransom?

Suddenly the hatch was lifted away with the ghostly light of early dawning flooding the compartment Gishop and his fellow were imprisoned in. Strong hands reached down to pull the men up and onto the deck. In seconds, Gishop was feeling the salty breeze in his face and the sight of Verdai Island shrinking off toward the southern horizon. Gone were the long, hooded robes of his captors, the men dressed in the leather and furs of strange northern beasts.

A tall, handsome, bearded fellow, blue-eyed with blonde hair appearing to be somewhere in his middle years approached from the bow of the ship. Smiling and extending a hand, he spoke in the common tongue of the traders, his voice betraying him to be the hooded leader over his kidnappers. "Welcome aboard my humble ship, GishopHigamie, king of Atlanticia."

Gishop did not respond in like manner. "Who are you and why have you stolen me away? Do you believe my value is truly worth the risk taken? What good will a ransom of even a thousand gold shekels do you when the navies of Colosuim and Atlanticia are pursuing your soul?"

The tall man laughed, lowering his hand. "The treasure I sought has already been delivered into my hand. Your soul, my friend - cousin - alive and well has been my reward. As for the navies you speak about, I doubt they will search for you. Those Atlantician warships guarding the harbor were not arrived to give you escort." He laughed again. "No, no, I'm quite afraid that not all those residing in that city were eager to welcome you as their new king. There was already a reception committee aboard your ship awaiting your return this last night, and they would not have kidnapped you."

Gishop was shocked speechless by this revelation.

The tall man continued, "No navy will be looking for you, assuming that you have already met your end, and I intend to keep it that way at least for the moment." He paused, extending his hand again. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am RafeTomassie, brother of EricTomassie, headman over the Mariner clans, and loyal servant of Noahashonie, queen witch over all the western tribes of Dodanim and the Phoenician clans. My nephew, RaeTomassie, son of EricTomassie, and pallbearer for our Dragon goddess, Dancing Stones, he standing in the midst of the blazing light of consuming flames, sails his ship along with us off to our starboard."

Gishop stared in wonder across the waves at the distant Dragon ship, the red and golden banner of EricTomassie flying high atop the mast. He turned back to Rafe, astonishment filling his face. "I have heard reports in Colosuim of your great exodus from the lands of Javan. Rumors abound that your people have become pirates and scoundrels, invading the lands of innocent people. They say that every ruthless and good-for-nothing man is gathering to your queen's banner."

Rafe reached out and slapped Gishop on the shoulder, roaring with laughter. "And she has just increased her loyal following by two more!"

Gishop's face paled. "I... I cannot!"

Patting his arm, grinning, Rafe exclaimed, "You have no choice! You're headed north with us pirate scoundrels, and that is at the request of our queen." He swept his arm toward the south, Verdi Island little more than a dark shadow on the horizon. "We will not be chasing the shoreline on this voyage, but staying to the open sea. So I suggest that if you don't wish to be our guest, take your leave right now. You might get lucky and find a fishing scow to rescue you before you drown."

Upset, Gishop angrily asked, "You have me at a disadvantage, at least for the moment, but I still demand an answer to why you kidnapped my companion and me. If bounty is not what you wish for, what then?"

Rafe frowned, asking in return, "Is not saving your lives reason good enough? We risked a great deal to do that for you...for your people. Several of us have prices on our heads, I and my nephew Rae included - I, for protecting our queen, Noahashonie, and Rae for bedding the girl. You see my friend, King Dungie has not taken well to the fact that his little darling has abandoned him, and still maintains that she is his wife exclusively, owned by him and subject to do his bidding alone, a practice promulgated by the priests of Horus. Well, Rae has very publicly shown his affection for Noah, she reciprocating those feelings very publicly also. He is often to be found in her tent and she in his.

"Women live free in our world, choosing when and with whom they will share their romance, which bed they will sleep in, and whose child they will bear. This does not set well with priests and rulers who teach that women must be owned and that bloodlines must remain pure. Our people care not for entitlements or deeds through blood. We wish for no more land than what is necessary to plant our feet upon, and we enslave no person, be it man or woman. To Iam do all things belong, the earth, wind, and sea and all the worlds within them. We are merely squatters permitted an hour to journey through those worlds, and then we are no more. It is for Iam to decide who will come after us to possess those things, also for only an hour - not our decision, but his."

Rafe shrugged. "So whose child is sired by which man matters little to us. We know the mother of the child, and she knows the father. That is good enough for us. For the father only delivers the breath of life while the mother, though, delivers both life and blood. So the mother rules supreme in this matter. It is for her to decide if she shall publicly declare who the father is or not. My wife has three sons and a daughter. Am I their father? I do not know, because she has not declared it to be so or not. Yet my children they are to me my blood, my clan's blood. All the children belong to the clan.

"For us, it is the blood and life of the clan that is more important than that of the individual. Iam gave to the clans the land to divide up among themselves. Forever it is his gift to them, an inheritance for eternity as declared to us through our father, Noah, and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. It is true then, for me and my household, that we remain loyal to and stand in defense of the clan as long as the clan remains loyal to Iam, the god of Noah, the founder of the clans."

A sudden, strong breeze picked up in the South, reaching for the northern horizon. Rafe ordered the mast hoisted to catch it. While men scurried to raise the tackle, others hustled about quickly securing the oars and trimming the sails to make speed before the wind. All the while, the other two Dragon ships were doing the same. In short order, all three longships were chasing the wind off toward the north.

When those tasks were completed, sails set, and the ship underway, Rafe turned his attention back to Gishop, staring into the man's face. "You are also of our clan, son of Tarshish, child of the Great Daughter Dragon, Tuosolmerica, and a prince in your city of Colosuim. You are our kin, a son of the Elkhorn. Iam has given you a destiny that we shall assist you in fulfilling, that is if you wish for our assistance."

"Wish for your assistance?" Gishop exclaimed in wonder. "I am to marry Carthage, or was to, to honor to Good King Philip by producing a son to rule upon his throne. From me you are taking that, and now promising to assist me in some other destiny that Iam is choosing."

Rafe interrupted, "No, I am not taking you from that... at least your marriage, that is if we are successful. Carthage is very fond of you and persuaded the council to choose you over DungieDodanim to sire the new heir to sit the throne of Atlanticia. Had we not kidnapped you and your companion this last morning, you'd both be crabmeat right now. Either way, our kidnapping or through your murder, Dungie would soon be ruling over the kingdom of Atlanticia."

His heart filling with dread, Gishop asked, "Then what of Carthage, my betrothed?"

Rafe replied sourly, "When Dungie discovers how much Carthage loathes the man, the girl will become much to be pitied. Her new husband-king will rape and torture her, possibly murder her... an accident, of course... once he has secured the throne. Then he will set Queen Nidgha up to bear the heir of the kingdom, arguing that she was wife of Narduke and already recognized as queen over the people. The evil of Hormax will see to it that the Atlantician council accepts this argument, leaving no secure place for Carthage. That girl, if she still lives, being but of sixteen years, will suffer greatly when she is no longer of value to the kingdom."

"I still live!" Gishop contended. "If you are true to your word, then turn to face the West, and we shall attempt a rescue of Carthage before all this evil overtakes her."

Rafe shook his head resolutely. "No. We are fulfilling our part by going north. Many are the fingers playing in the pudding, mine but a few of them. Atlanticia is but a fool's dream, its years numbered, yet the blood of Good King Philip is eternal, a promise given him by the Lady long ago. We - my people - intend to see that promise kept, and you play a large part in it. First, we have secured your life. Next will come Carthage's rescue if that is at all possible. Then, if she wishes, you may take her for a wife. We must wait and trust in others to accomplish this feat. If you wish to help the girl, seek the face of Iam, asking him for success."

Rafe then smiled, asking, "Now then, will you take my hand in friendship, seeing we seek the same good?"

Gishop smiled, but his mood remained serious. He extended his hand, gripping Rafe's, shaking it heartily. "Yes, friend, I will trust to your will and the kindness of this Witch Queen Noahashonie to see to my wellbeing and that of Carthage. Should you prove successful in all the things you have said and if you are able to deliver Carthage safely to me, then, whether she chooses to become my wife or not, I shall promise an eternal alliance between your sons and mine."

Rafe laughed. "Then so be it! So be it!"

* * *

Lights in the council chamber cast their gentle glow across the seven people gathered deep within the bowels of Eden. Lady Tizrela co-chaired the meeting along with Lord PalaHar, they being representatives of Iam, thus spokesmen for the Maker of Worlds. Lady Sodasonie and Lady Michael, the head chieftains of the military, were also at the table. Zadar sat beside his companion, Aphrodite, as her escort this day, and a newly chosen replacement for EpiphanOida since her untimely death, Tuosolmerica, sat at Aphrodite's other side, nervously fidgeting with her fingers, this being her first visit into the worlds beyond men.

"Eden? Oh, Eden!" Tuosol cried in dismay when Aphrodite and Zadar appeared at her doorstep, inviting the woman to join them. "I am not fit to tie your sandals! And you expect me to join you in company with the gods?"

Then there was the journey to Eden. Never had Tuosol even traveled in a sky machine the likes of which had battled AnahNakaNoah's air navy above the Bantoowazzi plain. The flight in Zadar's wingless disk of shiny metal - a 'space auto', he called it - had terrified the woman so that she still shook inside at the very thought of the way the machine skimmed the mountains and waters with blinding speed. So upset she was when arriving in Eden that sedatives were given her as well as needed time to rest before tending to business.

After a brief introduction and some timely updates, Tizrela came to the reason for this very important meeting. "The world of men is changing...has changed. It has become quite obvious that both as above and so below, the wickedness of men must run its course to the finish in order to clear the name of the Maker of Worlds."

She turned her attention to Tuosol. "Now for our newcomer, I will reveal this: the children of the Upper Realms have a special name for the one giving us life, the one you call the 'Mother Goddess in the Whispering Waters' or the 'Woman in the Whispering Waters', 'Wenonah'...'Lowenah' we call her. Lowenah is to us our mother, she having formed each of us deep within her belly the same as a woman of your kind grows a seedling within her own inward parts. For us, her children, what you call sexual feelings are also commonplace among us as well as the practice of sexual romance. But it is for the enjoyment of the touch and the dreams we share that it is practiced, for we do not produce any progeny of our own, your race only being blessed with such fertility."

Frowning sadly, Tizrela explained, "For this reason, some of our siblings took for themselves bodies in which to dwell with the men of your kind, to have intercourse with the women in order to produce offspring for themselves. Many fell away to this obscene practice, it not being the will of Lowenah for our kind to produce offspring for ourselves, at least at this time. Those of my kind who surrendered their flesh up to these fornications revealed, apostatized themselves, encouraging others of my kind to join them, something that is still going on down to this day.

"Although agreeing no longer to take on bodies of flesh to produce children for themselves, these miscreants continue to take up with your kind. Bodies of flesh they do sometimes appear in despite their promise not to, they claiming that a body without reproductive ability does not constitute a violation of the agreement made between them and Lowenah, though even at this they lie. As Sodasonie can attest to, these wicked interlopers are very tricksy in word and deed - an important lesson you must remember.

"Yet it is not their physical presence that is most dangerous for your kind. Samyaza has established a powerful religion that is sweeping the world of men. To the leaders of this religion he has given uncanny abilities, including that of bringing forth new and strange life by mixing the secrets of nature's blood with that of the divine - the human - in order to produce mutations of giants and grotesque beast-men. The giants who were destroyed at the Bantoowazzi fords were creations of these wicked priests, and yet there are even more and worse to come.

"Samyaza is attempting to build a global empire by using his uncanny knowledge," Tizrela wagged a finger, "a knowledge that we shall also teach to you and the other Haudenosaunez to use against his machinations."

Tuosol's mouth dropped open, aghast. "My Lord, how shall creatures of clay wield the glory of the gods?"

Tizrela responded, "It was by the power of the gods that Aphrodite and the Dragons defeated the wicked host on the Bantoowazzi plain these many centuries ago now. Indeed, 'Bantoowazzi' is a word found in our common tongue to describe the all-consuming fire that swept the Megiddo fields, your Aphrodite nearly being devoured by it. Evil it is, bringing sickness to those who survive the contest otherwise unscathed, as it did to you, I personally cradling you in my arms many days as my healing songs slowly drew the blistering fever from your body."

Shocked by this revelation, Tuosol attempted to make reply.

Tizrela stopped her. "Your Dragon tattoo covers the last remaining scar that I was not able to cure, it being the location where my hand drew the fiery sickness from you. And now you know, my daughter divine, how you acquired that mark upon your flesh, I personally painting it with ink and needle upon you while in my bed you slept, deathlike, through your healing hours. The uncanny powers of my people and their many inventions saved your life and that of so many others after that terrible, warring day. Yet there were many more who did not survive such evils, entire cites burnt up in the fiery infernos unleashed by Samyaza and his Hormaxian servants."

Tizrela leaned forward. "Now I will tell you why such a tattoo has been gifted. Ordained by the Lady on that ghastly field long ago you were to become the Keeper of the Eden Stones until he who has the right shall receive them so that all the world may be cleansed of the Worm's evil."

Tuosol exclaimed, wondering, "But the Stones were held in the possession of Dancing Stones and have not been discovered since her demise. Your servant girl knows not where they are hidden."

Tizrela looked at Aphrodite, saying not a word other than, "Iam has appointed a bearer of the Stones. Secret that person is to but a very few, I myself not being privy to their hiding place. I trust, though, it to be a good one. In the straits of time they shall come into your possession."

She then returned to earlier discussion. "You ask how men of clay can possess the power of the gods and not destroy themselves. Truth is, they cannot, at least until the sin of Adam is cleansed from them. We, too, are men of clay, your brothers in flesh and spirit, but not with the curse of Adam. The blood of our kind flows in your veins."

Pointing toward Mihai, she explained, "This woman's essence saves you from Adam's damnation...will save you. Already you are our kindred, yet I have more to tell. More like us you are to become, you and those who stood upon Dancing Stones' funeral pyre."

Extending her hands toward Tuosol, Tizrela explained, "Noahashonie is queen over the Haudenosaunez, but you are their seer, Kue Shandii, High Warlock, a star-child borne from the blood of angels and men, Eden's daughter - or shall it be after this night is finished. This night you shall be reborn, a child both of Heaven and Earth."

"But how can this be?" Tuosol cried in disbelief.

Tizrela shrugged, a sly smile spreading across her face. "Well, if Samyaza can stretch law to manifest his creation, we should be able to do the same. Instead of mixing the blood of beastly creatures with that of your kind, though, we shall mix our own with yours. A child of both worlds you will become. A gift or a curse, well..." She pointed at Sodasonie. "See your mother."

Sodasonie cast her gaze toward the table, frowning sadly. "Death can be a gift, it shrouding the soul in blissful sleep while the madness rages on to its end. We do not force the curse of life upon you. It is a choice for you to make. Remember well that the woman sitting beside you did not, does not have the heart to bear the burden we are asking you to. Even Dancing Stones could not carry such a load, but chose a martyr's death instead."

Tuosol was confused. "But to Noahashonie was the burden passed on to. By your own mouth such a thing was uttered that very night of Dancing Stones' burning. Noah shall see to the End of Days, and Hyhoset shall, too. As for the rest of us, life was to hang upon chance and fate. Why, I have even taken to a road with little hope, remaining in the lands of Dodanim with the goal of preserving whoever I might of those unable or unwilling to leave their homes."

Sodasonie nodded in agreement. "True, you have chosen a very dangerous road, but whether by wisdom or foolishness, the choice was yours to make. There are many players in the game, and not all are eager to show their hand. The Whispering Voices tell me what I need to know, and also you, whether by dream or vision, or just a feeling that gnaws at your gut. For this reason, I do not know if the Whispering Voices are leading you on to such a destiny, or if it is little more than personal whimsy on your part."

Then regarding their purpose for Tuosol, Sodasonie explained, "What you say concerning Noah and her daughter are true, their adventure about to begin. But never was it intended for the child to carry such a heavy burden as you have been requested to carry. You see, Dancing Stones possessed within her flesh the Two, and the Twelve she carried upon the necklace of finely woven hair. You were supposed to receive from her those Eden Stones, but alas, she died before you arrived. The Stones... well, the Stones went missing, falling into the hands of one so unlikely to carry them. They are safe for the moment...for the moment because the enemy would never believe who Lowenah has entrusted them to. At the instant you picked up the banner of Hilgiha, the Whispering Voices declared to me that you were to carry the Eden Stones should your mother, Aphrodite, refuse to do so."

For some time Sodasonie, Tuosol and the others busied themselves in deep discussion, not finishing until all of Tuosol's questions and concerns were addressed. Tizrela finally ended matters by asking Tuosol, "So, you have heard all there is to tell, your future journey, should you accept it, explained as well as may be. Now I ask you, will you accept this cup of bitter wine, or do we pass this also to another?"

Tuosol looked down at her hands, her fingers nervously fidgeting. Finally, with tears streaming down her cheeks, searching first Aphrodite's eyes, then Sodasonie's and finally Tizrela's, she answered, "These Whispering Voices I do not know, so cannot say a word about them, but Iam... Lowenah, the Woman in the Whispering Waters I have come to love and trust. For Iam, I will take to this road, believing he will give me the strength to carry such a burden on to the finish. Whatever is his will..."

At that, the meeting was ended, the party gathering again when Tuosol was able to rejoin them. Sodasonie took Tuosol's hand and the two departed to chambers where technicians were waiting. Mihai, PalaHar and Tizrela excused themselves, leaving Aphrodite and Zadar alone in the conference room.

Aphrodite turned to Zadar, tears welling up in distraught eyes. "Zadar," she lamented, "I am so ashamed. My daughter, one who has also seen so much bitterness, accepts the very curse that I cast away. What a wicked creature I have become, to seek the sleep of death so that I might not have to witness what I have damned another to do. How can you or any of the others of your kind have anything but contempt for me?"

Zadar took Aphrodite's hands, smiling, "When God wove you in your mother's belly, the children in the heavens sang praises. For look, a child so handsome in heart, soul, and body was created on that day. I have fallen in love with you, wishing our company never to end, so wonderful a person you are. Well we can understand your bitterness over the evil that has ruined your world, and more so the loss in death of all the children you have borne. Should I be able to do as well if our roles were reversed?"

He then made an observation. "You still live, have not taken yet to the road of death. Your child, Tuosol, soon will be transformed into a new creation of sorts with the promise that she will not die. There are also Noahashonie and her daughter, Hyhoset, both promised the same by the Lady. Maybe it's time to reconsider your death wish. After all, the Lady healed you of any sickness. Mihai's future sacrifice has repurchased you from Adam's evil. You have also been changed into a star-child by the Lady's blood. What a blessing and help you could be to the burden-bearers during their long journeys across this evil age. And then there's me. I so much will miss you should you decide to take the long sleep of Enoch."

After kissing her on the lips in tender passion, Zadar waxed poetic. "Oh, how I would miss your winsome smile, gentle touch and loving caress. Your breasts refresh my soul and lift my heart in rapturous song. Your warm breath is like a gentle breeze upon my face, your voice more haunting than an angelic choir. The flowers of your fields excite me like no other, your bed a place in which I dream to lie. Stay with me, please. For my selfish heart, remain beside me until my wanted longing is satisfied."

Aphrodite swooned, answering softly, "Whether tomorrow I shall live or shall die is of so little importance at this moment, for in your arms I must rest this night, secured in my heartfelt dreams. Whatever is mine is yours to take, but oh, please, take me, for I shall die if you do not. And of what good is life tomorrow if my pining heart should die this night?"

Laughing, Zadar scooped Aphrodite up in his arms and carried her away to more private places.

Eden, oh Eden, you cast your spell upon all innocent hearts! What place shall the world become when you envelop it with your bewitching song?

### * * *

The tiny caravel (Gr., _'karavos'_ , meaning 'small ship') silently sailed out of the harbor past the giant Atlantician galley guarding the harbor's mouth. As it passed the giant warship, the headman hailed the helmsman of the caravel as to why it was up so early and running against the tide in its hasty departure.

The helmsman laughed, shouting back as he pointed toward a makeshift tent cabin in the caravel's bow. "Gold drives us onward, my good man. Some people have way too much of it and cannot stand life unless they are parting with it. The fellow says to go and so we leave now. A big fish he wishes to catch and we shall find him one. So it will be a big fish for him, and a bigger one for us."

Both men laughed. The helmsman called as he neared the stern of the warship, "If we can net us a catch of fries, then I shall save a bucket-full for you on our returning."

"So very kind!" the headman shouted back. "I will have some wine waiting. We shall feast together on such delights." The helmsman responded, shouting his approval, waving as the departing tiny ship slipped out through the harbor mouth and turned off to the North, keeping the western shore in sight as it picked up a light southern breeze.

By sunrise, the caravel was little more than a distant speck on the horizon, some four leagues northeast of Atlanticia's Rockland Light Tower at Rockland Point, Atlanticia's easternmost harbor fortifications. The helmsman turned his tiller over to another and strode toward the ship's bow, an auburn-haired mistress and young girl accompanying him. Pulling back the leather flap of the tent cabin, he excused the guard within and quietly entered, the woman and girl quickly following.

Lying on a bed of fur robes, another woman slept in a drugged stupor, her shorn blonde locks hiding a beautiful face of light brown-olive hue. The mistress kneeled down beside the sleeping woman, reaching into a girdle purse and removing a small vial. Pulling out the stopper, she waved the vial under the woman's nose. A sudden shudder racked the woman's body followed by a hacking cough as she gasped for breath. Eyes flew open in surprise as the woman struggled to fill starving lungs with air.

With a cry, she endeavored to sit, the mistress cautioning her to remain in the bed. "My Lady Carthage, please allow the medicine time to wake your senses. It will take just a little while. Then all your questions we will answer." After the young woman settled back in the bed, the mistress introduced herself. "I am JulietDalmatia, your servant. With me are my companions, Tosombabanna and EricTomassie. We welcome you to our world."

### * * *

The inhabitants of Atlanticia were in an excited uproar over Carthage's disappearance when Dungy arrived in the city. For three days, the people had searched everywhere, the young woman last seen when she retired for an evening's rest, her upset obvious over lack of news regarding Gishop, making her ill. Now the council was all in a tizzy, fearing the worst. Had Carthage gone off and harmed herself? Was she still alive?

ZaphipheRa wasted little time taking advantage of the tumult and confusion. He immediately gathered the trusted members of the city council, including Nidgha's father, ZeeBoam. As their spokesman, ZeeBoam moved quickly to persuade the remaining council members to declare that Nidgha should stand in as queen, seeing that she was the wife of Narduke and was the last surviving member of the royal family except for Carthage. Of course, this with the promise that should Narduke's daughter be found alive and well, she would take the throne as rightful queen. Considering the necessity of the moment to calm the anxious crowds, and with a little friendly arm-twisting, the majority of the Atlantician council accepted ZeeBoam's proposal. This was immediately followed by the approval to have DungieDodanim marry Nidgha in public ceremony and with great fanfare.

From there, things moved rapidly. ZaphipheRa, anxious to expand on the empire-building that had been stalled when AnahNakaNoah was defeated by Javan and his allies on the plains of Megiddo, moved to make up for lost time. Already news of the seven good years was the buzz among his fellow Hormaxian priests. The only hope of their thwarting Iam's evil plan to heap famine upon the planet was to build an empire so large and powerful that even this greatest of usurping gods would not have the ability to defeat it. As Egypt was doing, so must they build up storehouses filled with grains and foodstuffs enough to weather any storm brought against them, and little was the time remaining to force its success. Atlantis must rise, its glory to grow until all the nations bowed low before it.

So it was that ZaphipheRa and other priests from the three houses of Hormax gathered in Atlanticia for the first covenant, the beginning of an annual ritual that was to remain unbroken far into the final Age of the Nations. Secret to all except the headman over the Gray Hearts, the House of Divination, and the headman over the White Warlocks, the House of Runes, ZaphipheRa, the headman over the Black Warlocks, the House of the Father-God, appointed so by Samyaza after the demise of ZambbalbaNubie, used his position influencing the coven priests to gather their strength behind Atlantis, the new global order.

### * * *

ChuphoeTobanahazz slowly strode down the long hallway of the queens' house past the many private royal chambers until reaching the Grand Room, a spacious common room for the women in the king's house. A lone figure sat at a window, staring down upon the gardens below. When the woman at the window saw Chuphoe approaching, she extended a hand, smiling, "What a sweet surprise to have your presence gifted upon me at such an early hour." She stood, taking Chuphoe's hands and offering a tender kiss in greeting. "Has my lord any news regarding our child, Juliet? If so, I do hope it is good."

Chuphoe smiled sadly in return. "My lady, just this very last eve there was delivered into my hand a message from the witch, Tuosolmerica, telling me that the quest of our Valkyrie has been a success. She is already on the road west from LockBour with Tosombabanna, hoping to reach Castle Dodanim before the next new moon."

The woman reached up, softly stroking Chuphoe's cheek, puzzling, "Then why does my lord look so gloomy? Your child is only a few days distant. In the meantime, your sister, Odethbethel, will continue to warm your heart as she has done so many nights during the girl's absence."

Chuphoe lifted Odethbethel's hand to his lips, softly kissing it. "My lady, I do not pine for want of love. True, I do long to see my Juliet, but not to satisfy any passion. Delightful have my nights been spent with you, in your arms. No other woman has excited this heart more than you have done. I have grown very fond of you, your touch. Indeed, it is because of my feelings for you that I am filled with sadness."

Offering a reassuring smile, Odethbethel asked, curious, "Tell me, my handsome lord, what fear concerning me should burden you down so with dismay? I will not abandon you when your girl returns to your arms, that is, unless you wish. I am not the jealous kind. Your manly love is powerful enough to satisfy us both."

Chuphoe did not smile, answering, "It is not for my soul that I lament the hour, but for you I am weary and disheartened."

Stepping back, concerned, Odethbethel asked, "Tell me then, my good sir, what tale of gloom has reached your ears that should bring a plague upon my soul?"

Surrendering to the moment, Chuphoe sighed, resigned, "This very hour, a courier arrived up the South Road carrying a script written in the hand of King DungieDodanim and sealed with his ring. He says I am to make haste for Atlanticia and bring with me his wives and servants."

Looking away as her arms dropped to her sides, Odethbethel attempted to be ambivalent in her reply. "Well, Atlanticia is a pleasant place to be. The sea breeze refreshes the spirit, the winters are mild, and the ocean's dainties titillate the palate."

Chuphoe bemoaned, "My lady, King Dungie mentioned you specifically by name. He wishes you to sit beside him in celebration when the kingdoms of Dodanim and Atlanticia are united into one nation, the New Atlanticia, Atlantis."

Odethbethel stiffened, remembering well her role in previous celebrations of her son. And then there was the murder of her unborn child. Now she could see her provocative dancing in front of the crowds followed by Dungie's humping rape, this possibly repeated over the course of several days. The woman groaned in resignation. Should she refuse to go, Chuphoe would be forced to bind Odethbethel and take her as prisoner or his own life would be forfeit. No, the man would never force her to go against her will. Then Chuphoe would suffer the wrath of Dungie. That she would never allow.

She moaned in distress, "I will not resist such a demand. After all, he is my husband-king by my own public declaration."

Chuphoe offered her escape. "Lady Tuosol would hide you away. Dungie will not dare seeking your capture while you reside under the protective roof of that witch."

Odethbethel would not hear of it. "The man might not attempt my capture, but he would satisfy his humiliation over my revolt by executing his rage against you and possibly my sister-wives. No, I am the queenly mother-wife of King Dungie. I shall act as such."

Squeezing Odethbethel's hands, Chuphoe lamented, "If only I had the power, I would save you from this fate."

"That is a thing you cannot do, nor do I expect it from you." Odethbethel declared. She sadly peered into Chuphoe's eyes. "But you can salve my heart in my hour of distress. Hold me please, this night and every night until we stand before the walls of Atlanticia. Your touch will help me forget my coming tribulation, my rape being softened by the memory of our loving."

The journey to Atlanticia was done in haste, but not in desperation. Chuphoe permitted Odethbethel a day and a night to pay a parting visit to Tuosolmerica at the city of Ausalmerica. It was while the company waited upon the Southern Pike for Odethbethel's return that Juliet and Tosombabanna arrived in the camp along with a dozen of Chuphoe's trusted guard. Chuphoe feared for Juliet's life should she come with him to Atlanticia, believing that possibly someone might recognize her, knowing her part in the abduction of Carthage. He attempted to persuade the woman to remain in Ausalmerica with Tuosol until he was sure it was safe for her there.

Juliet would have none of it. "What I and my companions did was in the strictest secrecy, the palace guards having only shadow-visions to remember me by. The voice of a foreigner is all they heard and my face they did not see, for I wore the veiled clothing of the eastern women. Besides, the drug they were given in the sweet wine fogs the memory, so I doubt they would remember a thing had they looked upon more than my charms."

Chuphoe lamented, "Why do you still sell yourself, even if it is to accomplish a valiant deed? You are a free woman and do not need to act like a chattel maid."

Juliet eyes bored into Chuphoe's, her voice tempered but threatening. "Being a chattel maid is honest work, especially when done by a free woman...you, yourself, paying the chattel price many a time to satisfy an ache. By your very words and acts, you have made me a free woman. A free woman I am, and also a warrior priestess of the Lady. Tell me, is the taking of another's life by the blade for a righteous purpose somehow holier than should I accomplish the same deed by bedding the man and allowing his soul to live? I use the weapons I have become skilled in, the same as you use the weapons you have become skilled in. If it is the flesh of my soul, or the drugged wine, the poison, or the assassin's blade that I must use to accomplish the Lady's purpose, I will do so...with or without the support of my companion. I am a free woman."

She looked up into the distraught face of a man fearing this woman might leave him. She smiled mischievously, tenderly stroking Chuphoe's arm. "Now should my companion wish for my chattel acts as well as any others that might suit my fancy to be carried out discreetly, I suggest he announce to the company this very night that I am become his wife, and to take me to Atlanticia as such." She winked, "Otherwise I may have to set up business upon entering the city so that the people know I am not a destitute, begging vagabond."

Chuphoe's face at first became contorted in puzzlement, pondering what Juliet was saying. When the meaning finally sank in, he grinned, sweeping the woman up in his arms. "Yes! Yes, I will shout out to the whole world that you are my wife, my chosen companion. Do whatever you wish with the other fellows, but make my bed your home."

Taking her hand and pulling the woman from the tent, he cried out to those nearby to quickly gather the others. "Tonight! Tonight we celebrate my marriage to this beautiful ewe, JulietDalmatia! Quickly, break out the wine, roast some round cakes and slaughter a yearling so that we all may feast in celebration!"

That very night, Chuphoe sent two couriers riding hard to announce to Juliet's father and mother the news of their daughter's marriage to a counselor of the king, and to prepare for them as they passed on the way to Atlanticia and, upon arrival, they would celebrate again with them.

Still being true to his word, after Odethbethel's returning from Ausalmerica, Chuphoe took her into his tent after the darkness of evening shadows, she departing before the sun broke over the hills in morning, doing so until the day that Atlanticia's walls came into view some three weeks after her arrival back from Ausalmerica.

When Dungie received news that the entourage was nearing the city, he departed with his chieftains and several older men, meeting Chuphoe's company at High Pass, Atlanticia's western-most walled outpost. With great fanfare, he led the procession into the city, Nidgha riding a horse decked out in gold on his right and Odethbethel doing the same on his left.

For the next seven nights, the people of Atlanticia joyously celebrated the uniting of two powerful nations, bringing to birth the kingdom of New Atlanticia. Odethbethel's fears became reality, but not hers alone. Once again, each of Javan's former wives renewed her fealty to King Dungie in a manner similar to when he first celebrated his kingship...except for Odethbethel. Her declaration of undying fealty was only the beginning of her ordeal. As before, Dungie had to show off his prowess during the wild festivities with his invited grandees by taking selected wives and concubines during or after they had performed their provocative dances. This included Nidgha and Sabrina as well as Odethbethel. But for Odethbethel, it was a nightly requirement for her to dance before the partiers because her erotic moves were so mesmerizing, the crowd demanding her continued, repeated performances.

It was at a late morning brunch during one of the festive days that Dungie took opportunity to make the acquaintance of Chuphoe's new wife, Juliet. Upon his introduction, Juliet bowed low on bended knee, offering her salutation. "My king, your servant girl, JulietDalmatiaTobanahazz. My husband has spoken so highly regarding your kindness to his people, and how well you treated the soldiers that once served under his command."

Dungie smiled at the woman's gracious words, all the while studying her with passionate curiosity. Juliet was attired in the style of the Atlantician gentry, a long, flowing ankle-length half-sleeve dress with an open bodice that exposed her round, firm breasts, hair done up in dozens of bouncing ringlets bedecked with jewelry, and her seductive lips and mesmerizing green eyes fashionably painted. As he looked into her face, the Atlantician king brushed Juliet's left breast with the back of his fingers, musing, "Such a handsome woman to grace my presence."

Juliet closed her eyes, bowing her head, thanking Dungie for such a generous compliment. "My husband has spared no expense to present his bride in such a way that will please my king and his court."

Dungie puzzled, wondering as he studied Juliet's face, "I cannot help but feel that we have met before. Tell me, could that be so?"

Juliet became troubled, but kept it concealed behind a gracious smile. She remembered well Chuphoe's warning to never speak untruth to Dungie. 'He is often temperate with those who are honest with him, even should they have faltered in some way. But there comes no mercy from his hand if he finds a lying tongue and deceit in the words one confesses to him.'

Bowing again so gracefully, Juliet answered honestly, "Yes, my king, I danced for you and your grandees at a banquet this winter passed." She stood, motioning toward Chuphoe, who was across the room in conversation with ZeeBoam. "That man purchased me from my owner shortly after that, eventually taking me for his wife during this last new moon."

A look of puzzlement at first filled Dungie's face, it quickly clouding with his recollection of the dancing, green-eyed beauty. He had not bedded the woman, she being part of the entertainment for his officers that evening. True, drinking from the same watering hole was of little concern to the man, and taking Juliet for his pleasure this night, even if it might be against her or Chuphoe's will mattered little to him, but not under these current circumstances. If he recalled who the woman was, so might others of his deputies. He was king, and it would not do well to be seen fraternizing with a former prostitute. Former? Prostitution was an honest trade practiced publicly among some of the Atlantician clans in the city since the death of King Philip. Might this woman still be plying her trade on the side? He dared not touch a prostitute if he wished to keep the Dodanimian loyalty, it being an abhorrent trade to the common people of those tribes.

Dungie quickly regained his polite composure, his smile instantly returning while the lust faded from his eyes. "Well, yes, I do recall you now. I am pleased that my counselor has finally found someone to share his... his life with." He politely excused himself, calling to Nidgha to join him in private counsel in other chambers.

Juliet breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, she would have bedded Dungie had he requested it, she believing it a safer thing to do than resist. Still, her skin crawled at the thought of being with him. She wanted nothing at all to do with the man if possible. Even his touch made her feel unclean. Looking across the room with longing, the woman wished she and her husband could secret themselves away at this moment so that her soul could be refreshed, but it was not possible. Indeed, long would she have to wait for his embrace.

Odethbethel had sought Chuphoe's company after each evening spent performing with Dungie. "A refreshing bath to cleanse the body and your loving arms to refresh the soul," she had heard Odethbethel tell Chuphoe the first night the woman had come seeking the man's comfort. Juliet, understanding her sister's plight, quietly took her leave until the following morning after Odethbethel's departure, but spending the night alone was not easy for her. Now just the thought of being with Dungie disquieted her so she began feeling guilty over her selfish desires to have Chuphoe to herself.

The following evening, as before, Dungie drank the drugged wine that aroused his manhood so that he could perform with his wives as he had done on previous nights. Chuphoe and Juliet were not forced to be entertained by such activities, those festivities reserved primarily for visiting royalty and local chieftains. This still did not afford opportunity for Juliet and her husband to spend time privately together. Indeed, it was late in the evening by the time Chuphoe was finished with his duties, Odethbethel already waiting for him in his private chambers.

The following days passed quickly. Soon the royal families had departed from Atlanticia upon the seas, or traveled homeward bound on the highways. Satisfied that his kingship was now secure, Dungie hurried about at the business of building New Atlanticia. Still, he had time to tend to other concerns. Knowing that it was often the smallest detail overlooked that unraveled the best laid plans, he sought information on everyone surrounding him. This included finding out more about this Juliet person.

Several days after the city's celebrations were ended, Dungie called Chuphoe to his kingly chambers for a private meeting. The morning was chilly, a cold drizzle having swept the city the night before, when Chuphoe nervously stood at Dungie's door. He was surprised to see the new king sitting alone by the brazier, staring into its flickering blaze, no ZaphipheRa, no one else at all.

"Your servant," Chuphoe softly announced, bowing his head as he did.

Upon seeing Chuphoe, Dungie called the man over to sit in a chair across from him. Thanking him for his promptness and also the man's loyal service, he explained the reason for requesting his visit. "Allow me, please, to come right to the point. This Juliet wife of yours has been a curiosity to me. As you know, I do not like surprises, so it was a little unsettling for me when I became aware that we had met before at a private affair for my closest officers and counselors, she being one of the whore dancers hired to entertain that night. Were you aware of all this?"

Ignoring Dungie's comment concerning Juliet, Chuphoe honestly and forthrightly answered, "Yes, my Lord, I was the last of her customers that night. So it was that I found her asleep in my chambers when I awoke late the following morning. We lingered a while, I probing the woman with questions to find out more about her."

Dungie casually confessed, grinning, "I'm sure you probed her only with questions. She must have been an outstanding cock ride to hold your company throughout the morning. Tell me, how empty did she make your purse buying her, or did you steal the woman from her tradesman?"

Chuphoe mused, smiling, "The woman is truly beautiful, I do declare, but still inexperienced in the ways of mature love, a delightful vessel for receiving a man's passion, yet untrained in doing little more. I was smitten, though, by her inner beauty, and I do admit it was accompanied by a little pity when she revealed that she had not become a whore-maiden by choice, but was stolen as a child into the trade."

Leaning back in the chair as he placed his hands behind his head, Dungie asked, "So did you steal her from her master? Go on. I wish to know all there is about this person."

"No, my Lord!" Chuphoe instantly answering, "With gold and silver I purchased her."

He went on to explain how Juliet was acquired. "I discovered that her birth name is 'JulietDalmatia', 'Cherry' being her dancing name because of the woman's enticing, dark-reddish nipples. She had been absconded with under false pretenses when but a youngling without breasts. When convinced Juliet was speaking truth to me, I decided I would attempt to purchase her, I having no one to comfort me on cold nights and to tend to my other household needs. Before departing to search out the tradesman, it fell upon my ears that he had cheated the Court by charging for twelve dancers, yet delivering only ten. Now I was determined to set matters right, but..." he looked sheepishly at Dungie, "I hoped my newfound knowledge might provide me with a weightier bargaining chip to obtain the woman.

"I did go to the man when finding out he had cheated you. That I would have done anyway, because justice demanded it. But I also sought him out for selfish reasons because I had become smitten with this Juliet. The tradesman was belligerent and a fool, wanting a king's ransom for the woman. I held my sword of knowledge over his head, threatening to deliver him up to the king of the land for his wicked deeds. He begged for mercy. I took from him Juliet and when I saw the sorry state of two young girls, took them also, paying the man in silver and gold a fair slave's price, he giving me a sealed script of sale. Upon my return, I went to the treasurer of the court, paying from my purse the value of monies stolen by the man, plus interest.

"I did not bring the man in for judgment, attempting to act as merciful as I believed you would have, the thievery having been corrected. I also believed you would not want to have a public spectacle made of the tradesman, realizing the attitude many of your people have regarding prostitution. A man of his disposition has already sealed his fate with the Kriggerman. Only death awaits him down the road."

Sober-faced, Chuphoe somberly admitted, "If I have acted ruinously against my master, it was done without intent. True, my heart selfishly wanted this woman and I used the tools available to me in attaining my goal, but I believe I acted within the authority of my station in regards to the circumstances."

Dungy waved him off. "I can understand your actions. It was a small matter. I would expect any of my counselors to act as you did. After all, a man of your station also carries the rod of life or death upon his belt. I do not question your decisions made in this instance. You, though, are a strange fellow, choosing a whore for a wife." He shrugged, "But it is through the eyes of my people that I judge the woman. They do not tolerate that trade, but your kind, well... it matters little to me who you choose to wed."

Standing, Dungie extended his hands over the tiny blaze, and then took to rubbing his arms with warm hands. "I do miss the Southland weather. Here, even the summers can chill the bone."

He turned his back to the brazier, continuing to rub his arms as he spoke. "I cannot tolerate a whore standing up in public assembly with one of my counselors. This Juliet wife of yours is not to be found at any of the official functions of the king or his council. That includes any official festivities. Please do not test me out regarding this. Carry the woman on your arm open in the city or in common celebration. Shout out to the world that she is your wife. I care not about that. But do not allow her presence in formal assembly or celebration here unless I have personally requested it. Is that well understood? A whore found in my royal court just will not do."

Chuphoe smiled acknowledgment. "You are a very generous ruler. It was with innocent intent that I requested Juliet accompany me to earlier festivities. I will make sure that it does not happen again."

Dungie sat back down. "Good! Now for other business..."

Chuphoe asked, bowing his head, "Yes, my Lord?"

Resting his hands on the arms of the chair, Dungie stated, "For a fact I do know that my mother has been sharing your bed." Before Chuphoe could make reply, Dungie waved his hand. "I did give you permission as you recall. Indeed, I have been informed that certain of Javan's other wives have sought out your company on lonely nights. It was primarily for this reason that I requested a private conference with you this morning."

Looking Chuphoe in the face, he explained, "My mother hates me. I can see it in her eyes. Please do not think I enjoy taking that woman. Indeed, I must drink the drug to grow my passion for her, yet I have little choice but to display our acts of intercourse so publicly. She is a head Witch Dragon, one of the last of her order. Also she is the former wife of my father, Javan, having sworn her fealty to me. She binds my people to my kingship, and although I detest this Iam with a passion, many of the people remain worshippers of him. My mother holds their loyalty to me because it is her religion also."

He sighed sadly, staring at the floor. "So it is that at times I must exhaust my passion on her to prove the strength of our marriage bonds." Looking back at Chuphoe, he added, "She tolerates our acts of intercourse so much more, performing with greater energy, after she has found solace in the arms of another man the night before."

Chuphoe was surprised. "My Lord?"

Dungie laughed, "Do not pretend with me. Report has come to me that my mother has sought out your chambers each of the past several nights, lingering there until the sun peeks over the Eastern Sea. Fear not, I harbor you no ill will. Indeed, it serves my purpose well, making my mother a better game hen when I must pluck her feathers."

He leaned forward, shaking a finger, "Now for you I have an offer, a request you might say."

Chuphoe extended a hand. "Whatever my lord wishes, your servant will do as I promised to your father. My word is true."

"Good! Good!" Dungie grinned. "My mother must remain pacified, her nature soothed, so that she will continue to play the part of the royal queen. So it will be you are to act as my surrogate with her and any of Javan's former wives who wish comforting. As for royal affairs and official events, you shall be my mother's escort, staying by her side to discourage other suitors. It will not do well to have my wives bedded by usurpers and strangers."

He warned, "This must be done discreetly, no public affection displayed where unwanted eyes might see it. No more sneaking about in the late night shadows for the women of my royal house. For that reason, if you agree to my offer, I am setting you up in new living quarters in the eastern palace below the queens' chambers. There are hidden stairways connecting you to the royal rooms, the rooms being reserved only for the former wives of my father. My other wives reside at the other end of the palace beside the king's chambers."

Before Chuphoe could ask, Dungie answered his question. "You will find your accommodations quite sufficient to bring your charges with you. Yes, Juliet is welcome to live with you in the palace as long as she obeys the commands I've given you."

Dungie stood, stretching while looking out the window into the chilly drizzle. "So do we have an agreement?"

Chuphoe stood, bowing his head in respect. "As my lord wishes, I will do to the best of my ability."

Rocking on his heels while clasping his hands behind his back, Dungie replied approvingly, "I desire your move to be done before the week is finished. If your servants are insufficient to accomplish the work so quickly, then call upon the palace steward to assist. Whatever your needs are, let him know."

Chuphoe bowed low, thanking Dungie for his kindness.

Dungie raised his hand. "One more thing... You are to receive the wages of a chief counselor. I will make arrangements with the treasurer for your salary. The palace is open to your convenience except for the kingly chambers. And yes, your wife is free to do the same as long as she remembers the rules. I am serious about this."

He turned and looked at Chuphoe. "The comely form of that woman is hard to forget. I do not wish to bed her because she is your wife. But I warn you, you warn her, if the mood is upon me and should I find her alone wandering the shadowy halls, I may not be able to restrain my manly desires. Now I have warned you. Be aware."

Chuphoe bowed low again, clasping his hands together. "My Lord..." He then quickly took his leave.

### * * *

A smoky pall hung heavy upon the sordid field, drifting off toward the East as a harbinger of things to come. The flower of the MooDecd armies lay scattered across the shattered plain for as far as the eye could see. Noahashonie sat MaraMonte, looking down at the city of Saranda, disappointed that four of the enemy kings had successfully made their escape from the battle and were now hiding behind the city walls. Although frustrating, the battle was an outstanding success, leaving the eastern MooDecd lands open to invasion.

The choice of the eight king confederacy to gather their combined armies together on the plains above Saranda to bring their power against the western invaders proved their undoing. Noah's horse cavalry swept in behind the enemy camp while her battle-hardened, veteran infantry slammed headlong into the front and flank of a poorly disciplined army, many of whom still lingered in their camps. Though outnumbering their opponents two to one, the MooDecd's cohesion rapidly fell apart, shattering any resistance against the overpowering onslaught. Their destruction was nearly complete, the few survivors scattering to the winds. Already the Riphath were on the chase, hunting them down.

As Noah watched the city with Cothath and SchroGarthTho mounted on camels at her side, General DavidRhine galloped up on his horse from the battle plain below. Stopping up quickly, he announced, "The field has been secured and the enemy dispatched," then sadly added, "while few have been our casualties...a dozen or so of our Dodanimian kindred, another dozen from our brother clans."

Noah reached out, resting a hand on his. "Death takes us all, and we have seen countless numbers of our brothers and sisters fall to the arrow or the blade, but even for the loss of one it still hurts. Thank you. Give me their names and I shall make report to their kin."

The general asked, "Shall I gather the army and prepare to lay siege to the city if it refuses to surrender up to us the enemy hiding within?"

Noah looked away toward the North and East. "No, I wish for you to take your cavalry and go on the chase. What little that's left of the MooDecd army is in disarray and scattering in wild confusion. We must drive our enemy now. Find General Neufeld and tell him to advance his infantry toward the East, burning everything in his path. Our people shall move onward by the light of blazing farms and villages. Keep up the march through the night and into the following day. Rest and deploy, rest and deploy, always having feet marching forward."

She looked south toward Saranda. "I have no fight I wish to pick with those people, they not being of any MooDecd clan. Friendly they have not been, that is true, but understandably, fearing us as they must do. In a few days, when the smoke of burning cities fills horizon's skies, we shall ask to have our enemy hiding behind their walls handed over to us."

Noah thought a moment, considering possible outcomes, and then issued additional commands. "I will not trust our backs to those people. Cowards they may be, but possibly becoming emboldened when they see empty fields with only the weak, old, and defenseless, there no army to protect them. Here's what we must do: two companies of General Rhine's armored horse lancers will guard these hills, keeping a bold presence. HiramRabshak and his Mariner Bantoowazzi veteran army is not far. I will have him lend support to the lancers. That will give us over seven hundred warriors to watch our backs while the remainder of our forces goes in pursuit of the enemy."

Turning to two couriers, she ordered, "ZemerTomassie and RubiconFredericka are harbored at Hannah Inlet not many leagues from here. Tell them to move their Dragon ships and longships threateningly toward Saranda, but not to engage even if provoked. Tell them I wish for our dread to remain upon the inhabitants of the city so they will not embolden themselves to attack us."

Scanning the sky, Noah addressed Cothath, "Tomorrow morning we shall move our camp toward the East to keep up with the advancing army. Please inform Javan's Templar Guard to prepare for early departure. I shall not worry about the MooDecd escapees hiding behind the yonder walls. They're going nowhere, have nowhere to go. We shall destroy and burn their world. When finished, the king of Saranda will have no reason to harbor them. Indeed, he may well want to sue for peace with us by handing them over."

The young woman, wearing only a leather girdle and short skirt, along with leather booting and helm grimaced, reaching up and tenderly touching a bare breast. "I'm full to aching and squirt when my horse trots. All day I have been on the move, and now must return to my child. Hopefully she will be hungry and not yet fed. If Dresden has satisfied her appetite, I must find relief another way or I shall burst."

Everyone laughed, SchroGarthTho telling her to hurry away, not wishing to see the girl explode. In short order, Noah was sitting upon some furs inside her tent satisfying a famished Hyhoset while sighing in satisfied relief.

Noah's eyes were drifting closed when a guard shouted that someone was riding hard into camp. The young woman quickly placed Hyhoset onto the comfy furs and hurried outside. Reigning in his mount, a naked man carrying a hemp bag strapped over his shoulder leaped to the ground, calling out for the witch queen. Identifying herself, the man gingerly stepped up to her, smiling, while reaching into his bag and pulling out a wax-sealed velum script. Handing it to her, he declared, "Headman Rae arrived at Durbine with his uncle. He wishes to tell you that their mission has been successful. At finding out that you had moved the army so far south, he sent me ahead to tell you that he will sail to Hannah Inlet and deliver his charge to you after his arrival."

Her eyes twinkling in the firelight, Noah mused, "I do hope your Headman Rae also intends a visit."

The messenger confirmed it so, not reacting to the longing tone in Noah's voice. "Yes, my queen, our ship is in need of some refitting after a recent storm. Headman Rae is pulling it ashore at Hanna Inlet so that needed repairs can be made. While the work is being done, he is bringing a company of warriors with him to join up with you in the fight at least until repairs are finished."

Noah was pleased to hear that Rae was going to join her, but warned the messenger, "Tell your headman to travel light if he wishes to catch up with me. My camp moves east in the early morning light. I plan on chasing the crow until it tires from the flight. He may have many more leagues to cover before finding us. Tell him to follow the smoke, for somewhere beyond it to the East is where my feet will be found."

She called to an attendant, "Find this fellow some hot food. Curry his beast so that he may take a rest." Turning to the messenger, she requested he spend the night in camp, leaving at morning light. When the man accepted the invitation, she had the attendant provide him with a robe and bedding. Thanking Noah, the man went off with the attendant.

As the sun broke over the eastern hills, the sound of horse hoofs pounding hard upon the trail was heard as the messenger departed for Hannah Inlet to meet up with Rae. An hour later, Noah was moving east with Javan's Templars, Hyhoset secured in a sling, happily nursing as MaraMonte slowly trotted along. Dresden Frederica remained behind, assisting with taking down the tents as well as taking care of her children and Meric. Although Noah had taken Meric to raise as her own son, Dresden obsessed over the boy. Rarely were the two separated from each other unless he was with Noah.

Noah's army had been on the move since the spring thaw. It was now well past midsummer and her people were still pressing on. It was hoped that the MooDecd would have been vanquished before the winter snows forced a halt to their advance, but bad weather coupled with the overwhelming numbers immigrating from across the Eastern Sea created crippling delays. Had the MooDecd kings continued their determined resistance instead of gathering their might above Saranda, it was doubtful the invaders would have progressed little more than another dozen leagues beyond that city before the late fall rains would have stalled the invasion. Now they were moving forward with little resistance to slow them, and Noah was not going to waste the moment.

As the young queen rode away toward the East with her loyal guard, she thought only of HuushBonn's visions and Iam's command. The girl saw herself merely as a servant doing her master's will. Cleansing the land of this wicked foe was an obligation given to her, so it must be done, and then she and her people could take their rest. Not everyone, though, saw matters that way. Already the world was beginning to hear about a witch queen leading a great invading army. Far and wide, Phoenician traders were spreading tales of the Black Angel and her holy war against evil men. Eventually word of Noah's deeds reached the ears of the prime minister of Egypt.

### * * *

Juufet bowed low before the feet of Egypt's prime minister, Zaphenathpaneah, awaiting recognition before rising to speak. Only recently had he, along with his family, relatives, and several of his former villagers arrived in the city of the pharaoh, having trekked endless miles across arid deserts after reaching the western isles of Cush in their escape from Dungie's murderous genocide. It was hoped that the ruler over the Nile regions would show mercy to this homeless lot and permit settlement somewhere within the river's basin. For three days, they had waited nervously for an audience, and now the moment was finally arrived.

Waving his staff above the prostrated crowd, the prime minister told Juufet and the others to rise. "So..." Zaphenathpaneah spoke in a commanding voice, "I have been informed that you are Juufet, son of Quwnfet, son of Chofufet, and that your tribe, the children of HummTonn, sojourner to the far western lands and son of Nubia, has appointed you to speak to me for them about an urgent matter regarding their wellbeing. You are such a young man. Why do you stand and speak for this people when your father and grandfather are beside you?"

Juufet humbly acknowledged that he was the person so named, and then addressed the question asked of him. "I speak for the HummTonn people, children of Nubia, for gifted with knowledge and wisdom I have become, having also seen into the face of the angel of Iam while sharing in the spirit smoke from the funeral pyre of the Witch Dragon, Dancing Stones, daughter of Aphrodite, I being among the chosen ones who carried her flesh to its final glory. This same Iam has delivered my people here this day before you so that you may show loving kindness to these fugitives from evil... the very Iam who delivered you to this place and lifted you up for the appointed time in order to rescue all mankind from death."

Zaphenathpaneah sat upright in surprise, carefully studying the young man. After a great deal of thought, he asked for him to explain more regarding this Dancing Stones, the evil from which they fled, and all that must be explained about the circumstances surrounding their fated delivery upon his doorstep.

Juufet faithfully went on to tell his tale of his servitude under Pharaoh AnahNakaNoah and his ordeal at the battle of the Bantoowazzi, his capture and kindness received from another Witch Dragon, Noahashonie, former wife of Javan who was later taken for wife by his son, Dungie, and the girl's eventual rise to queen over the invading western clans who were to rid the northern world of the MooDecd because of the evil they had committed against Iam.

Zaphenathpaneah already knew a great deal about the western wars, of Javan and his son, Dungie, and the demise of AnahNakaNoah, Egypt being a vassal kingdom of that pharaoh during the time of Zaphenathpaneah's arrival in that land, and the subsequent current rise of Atlanticia. But the information regarding Noahashonie, her holy war, and especially the young woman's influence over the Phoenician and Kittim clans especially intrigued the man, considering the great importance the Egyptians placed on their trade with them.

At length, when the day was well along and many hours had passed, Zaphenathpaneah sent Juufet and his tribe away, telling them to return in seven days. Upon their return, he would declare his decision as to what he would do with them. This was found to be good in the eyes of Juufet's people, so they retired to wait the seven days for an answer to their request to be given refuge in the land of Egypt.

At the completion of seven days, Juufet and his people returned to see the face of Zaphenathpaneah. After greeting them kindly, he offered to have the older men sit as he and his grandees also proceeded to do. Together the men sat upon the sand, water and bread being passed out freely as he and Juufet spoke in conference with one another, each one conferring occasionally with other chieftains or advisors.

Zaphenathpaneah began, "The report regarding you is a very good one. Honest and trustworthy you are said to be, rescuer of your people, wise and discreet for being such a young fellow. The great pharaoh, TitanAmactony, has agreed to strike a bargain between him and his people and you and your people. He will do for you, giving your people land within his kingdom if you will do for him this very important thing."

Juufet bowed forward, hands clasped in respect. "What does my lord request of me to do? For up to the point that my heart and soul will permit, I will it do for you."

Zaphenathpaneah grinned, "I expected no less. First allow me to tell you what is offered to you and your people. To the South is a territory rich in water, with good lands to farm and desert hills to hunt. Forests and lakes, rivers and wilderness rich in fish and game, but also tricksy and harsh it is. Few are the people living in that land, sons of Cush, wanderers who journeyed in from the Southlands. Room there is for many to settle those lands, and free to live as one chooses is the offer. If you do for me then all the land I have spoken to you about is yours and all the sons of Nubia to possess to time indefinite, for as long as you recognize the pharaoh of Egypt as your king and remain submissive to his laws, as do all the subjects of Egypt."

The children of HummTonn spoke to one another, and what Zaphenathpaneah offered them sounded good to their ears. So Juufet returned to the ruler over the land of Egypt and spoke all the words given him to speak into the ears of Zaphenathpaneah, then requested to hear what he must do to have the ruler over Egypt carry out all that he had promised.

Zaphenathpaneah stood, spreading his arms as he spoke. "Your enemy is also no ally of ours. True, the power of Hormax is strong in this land, his temples and sanctuaries being many. It is also true that the law allows not for a word to be publicly spoken against this religion, or its priests, or its holy places. Still there are those who quietly follow the ways of Iam, and his great name remains carved upon the stones along our public ways and at the gates of our cities. Many are the gods worshiped in this land by permission of our great lord. So it is the priests of Hormax in this land are not like the priests of Hormax that may be found in others.

"Still, when the power of Pharaoh AnahNakaNoah was broken by the hand of Javan, the people of Egypt threw off the yoke of the western kingdom. As Javan's son, Dungie, came to sit the throne, the expectation was that we would again submit to the powers in the West. So it is that as the might of the New Atlanticia grows in the West, its shadow ever reaches eastward so that Egypt is continually seeking allies and partners who will not bend a knee to the king of Atlanticia and his growing host."

Pointing toward the North, Zaphenathpaneah explained, "The traders of Phoenicia and Kittim have whispered stories of a witch woman who leads her kinsmen far beyond the Great Inland Sea who is a wife of King Dungie, the woman now a sworn enemy of Dungie but also mother to a daughter of Javan. It is also said of her that the power of the gods rests in her bosom and a nursing mother she is to a boy named 'Meric', a true son of Javan, but also a child of the witch, Dancing Stones. It is also reported to me that this woman, Queen Noahashonie, commands a great host of fierce warriors, the very ones who defeated AnahNakaNoah at the battle of the Bantoowazzi River, and also the sons of Kittim and the Mariner clans prowl the seas in their Dragon longships under her banner. And yet more, I do know that the Phoenician traders have vowed to do no harm to the woman or her people."

He pointed at Juufet. "You and she have walked together through the funeral fires of Dancing Stones. You she trusts because it is said that you and she have shared together in the ritual of the blood over the death celebration of that same Dancing Stones."

Pausing, Zaphenathpaneah stepped forward so that he stood little more than arm's length from Juufet. "I wish to send you, along with a contingent of Pharaoh TitanAmactony's loyal servants, to this faraway land of Queen Noahashonie to speak good words in her ears with regards to building a lasting bond of friendship between her people and mine. Along with you will go treasures and gifts, even slaves to tend to the young queen's needs. Will you do these things for the pharaoh of the land of Egypt in exchange for a lasting home for your people?"

Juufet bowed low, then standing, replied, "I will do as you have requested of me, but please, first listen. The Dragon queen and her people care not for gold or silver, not practicing the rituals of death like your people do. Also, they do not build towers or walled cities to flaunt their power or wealth. Indeed, Queen Noahashonie and her Dragon sisters care not for riches at all. As for slaves, there are no slaves in her world. Every man and woman is a free person, choosing life and death and love as each person fancies. If you wish only to set slaves free, you can do that here, saving those people the ordeal of a long, dangerous sea voyage.

"My Lord, may your servant recommend that gifts of iron, copper, tin and cloth be considered as worthy items to woo the heart of the witch queen. Might my lord also consider delivering into her hands weapons for her many people who arrive in that world with only axes and sickles. Swords and spears, some of your excellent bows and arrows, possibly a chariot or two - for the people of the queen are already highly skilled horsemen and camel riders - would be wonderful gifts. It is your choice, my Lord, only the observations of your servant."

Zaphenathpaneah was surprised by Juufet's revelations, but pleased with his suggestions. Already gold and silver were diminishing in the land because of the great quantities of foodstuffs being purchased. Now with the rumors that the king of New Atlanticia was making plans to build granaries across his expanding empire, the price of foodstuffs was only bound to increase. "So it shall be!" he exclaimed, clasping Juufet's shoulders as he did.

In less than a fortnight, seven Egyptian trading ships, accompanied by three war galleys piloted by men of the clans of Mariners pulled away from the harbor past the tower lights, leaving Egypt as the sun slowly woke from beyond the eastern desert. Off to the South, many hundreds of Juufet's kinsmen loaded down with supplies and goods boarded river barges for the long ride up the Nile to their new home. Zaphenathpaneah stood watch upon the city wall, his heart relieved with the hope that Egypt did not stand alone against the growing power in the west.

### * * *

Winter arrived with a suddenness often found in the lands of the Ice Mountains. As in the isles of the West, the Ice Mountains ruled the former territories of the MooDecd. True, there had been a progressive withdrawal of their presence over the past hundreds of years, but the mountains' influence over the weather was changed little. Old timers spoke of a gradual rise of the waters at river mouths as well as countless harbors and inlets along the seaboard of what the children of the West called the 'Eastern Sea', commonly called the 'Western Sea' by those living in eastern lands, but few attributed such rise to the retreat of the Ice Mountains.

Bitter winds carried a heavy snow that swept in from the sea to fall upon the city encampment of TuurgBerrny where Noahashonie had chosen to place her standard until the spring thaws. Located little less than two leagues from Hannah Inlet, it was a strategic location from which to oversee her ever-growing empire. Hers? No, she saw it not as a land over which to rule, but the home of her many different clansmen, a land where they could once again set up a homestead and live a life of their choosing. One more year and she could lay her sword to rest, or at least she believed it to be so. Already settlers were taking to the land, the clan of Rhein (Rhine) having reached the last eastern river in MooDecd territory. Spring would bring the final drive to remove those disgusting people from the earth.

Noah slept peacefully, snuggled up beside BondaBoor, the hearth fire's flickering glow dancing off the thick log walls of the cozy little cabin. It felt so delightful for the girl to have her lonely arms wrapped about the man she so deeply loved, indeed to have someone at all to cuddle in love's nest with. Many had the nights been since Rae pulled his Dragon ship onto the beach to await spring, Noah having received little more than a fleeting night or two of romance from the fellow before Swalhawena stole him away to her bed. True, Noah could have taken for herself many different suitors to warm her heart and her bed, and some did find their way to snuggle beneath her robes when the mood was upon her, but until BondaBoor had arrived some few days before, the girl's heart ached for loss of a true comforter.

Swalhawena did not abandon Noah, and in future days she would again play love's songs in her companion's bed, but for now she rested peacefully in Rae's arms. True to her promise, Rae was to become father to the girl's first child. Already her belly was swelling from the new life growing within. Rae doted over Swalhawena in the manner that any good father would. The winter was his to devote entirely to her, intending to remain ashore until after the birthing of his child.

Noah had no such aspirations, her life already filled with two wiggly, inquisitive children who either mischievously worked in league together to keep her constantly on the run or were warring against each other over the rich, creamy larder Noah had to offer. Oh yes, Dresden Fredericka pampered Meric with a great deal of attention. Her and her husband's stout winter home was not far away, but Dresden already cared for a large family and she had another child on the way. The woman's time was limited, leaving Noah with the burden of raising both her own daughter and Meric most of the time.

Besides the children taxing her energies, the summer campaigns had been exhausting. War was not to Noah's liking, the girl finding no pleasure in the pursuit and death of even her enemy. And when the contest led to the injury or death of companion or kindred, the taste of victory was bitter upon her heart. Yet death was often the fated road when war was chosen. Still, what better way was there to die than fighting for a holy cause? After all, death came in many ways, a winter cough that only worsened into fatal sickness, a childbirth gone wrong, a boat that failed to return from fishing or the hunt, a trade ship foundering upon the rocks, and oh so many other ways to die. Dying old and satisfied in years was the dream of many, but the fate of only a few. It still hurt to lose those you loved to an untimely demise.

Then there had been responsibilities of queenly rule that weighed upon her, draining the girl's energies. Old she felt at times, knowing that every decision made could bring a blessing or a curse upon her people. Noah did not wish for such glory, but the very Fates had demanded it. Queen-wife of Javan she was, mother of his child, Hyhoset, chosen Daughter Dragon of Wenonah, witch, healer, seer, appointed avenger of blood against the MooDecd by the mouth of Iam, and much more. Who better qualified was there to lead this people? If that was not enough, Tuosolmerica had declared to the people that the Lady called Noah to be queen over all the sons of Dodanim.

So it was that when Juufet and the Egyptian ambassadors arrived, Noah was unquestionably expected to lead in moot with them. The gifts delivered were deeply appreciated, just as Juufet believed they would be. In return, Noah sent her guests away with holds filled with planks of fir, oak, and elm, baleen and refined oil taken from the great sea beasts, furs of bear, beaver, and mink, honey, dried fruits, and reindeer cheese, and spun wool made from the hair of wild northern ponies. Along with them went Noah's emissaries including Cothath, Hilga Tomassie and brother-in-law, Rafe Tomassie, who commanded four Dragon ships that departed with the Egyptians. Remaining behind with the Dodanimians to show good faith were one Egyptian war galley and two trade ships, now pulled up on the beach at Hannah Inlet, along with one hundred servants and officials of pharaoh's court.

Juufet and Noah enjoyed the weeks spent together before the whispers of coming fall forced the people to part and go their separate ways. When time permitted, the two would spend carefree hours wandering along the banks of quiet streams or meandering through fields of tall grasses and wild flowers. They drew very close over that time, evening often finding them lying in thick, downy grasses staring up wistfully into the gathering darkness. It was with a great deal of weeping and bittersweet embracing that the two parted on the banks of Hanna Inlet when Juufet finally took his leave, promising to return soon should the ruler of Egypt allow him the honor.

Although trade was often the discussion when speaking about a possible alliance, Noah and the other chieftains believed the issue of confederacy was more upon the mind of the Egyptian emissaries. Zaphenathpaneah was well aware just how vulnerable and alone Egypt was. The tribes of Cush to the South and Sheba to the West were not enemies, but also not allies, caring little for the fate of their neighbor. Although taken to several gods, many of the inhabitants followed the religion of Horus and feared his priests. The Canaanites, Assyrians, and Babylonians, along with the numerous smaller tribes to the East and North were often enemies warring with Egypt's outer colonies.

Zaphenathpaneah did not fear the welfare of Egypt succumbing to these powers, the military strength of pharaoh great enough to withstand any threat they might offer. It was the growing supremacy of New Atlantis that concerned him. Already there were rumors that Dungie was determined to eventually bring the flower of the Great Inland Sea under his control, his right since the overthrow of AnahNakaNoah. Other kingdoms and city states were seeking the face of Atlantis' new king, hoping to form alliances with him, or were silently waiting to see what the future would hold. Egypt saw itself as a lone island in the middle of a very dangerous sea. It needed an ally that it could depend on even if that ally was an ocean away.

Queen Noah and her people were sworn enemies of Dungie and ZaphipheRa, but harbored no grudge against the Atlanticians. They were also still allied with many of the remaining Dodanimian clans residing in the western lands, leaving King Dungie wary concerning the loyalty of his very kinsmen. Then there was the Witch Dragon, Tuosolmerica, oldest living descendant of their mother goddess, Aphrodite. When TitanAmactony discovered that the Witch Queen Noahashonie was bonded to Tuosol through the death celebration of Dancing Stones, Aphrodite's favorite granddaughter, he held back no expense in order to woo this young Dragon queen to Egypt's side.

Should Zaphenathpaneah be able to win Noah's allegiance, if only in trade and word, the news would spread across the sea to Dungie's ears forcing the man to reconsider any hostilities he might wish to pursue, fearing possible reprisal from Noah or even his own people. And if the witch queen were to make a treaty of friendship and alliance with the pharaoh, it would likely seal the good will and support of the Phoenicians and their fellow clans, guaranteeing continual trade and possible naval support. The king of Atlantis would likely think twice before waging war against Egypt if he realized the warlords of the North might send their navies against him, they being of equal size to those of Atlanticia.

Yes, so much rode on the outcome of his negotiations with the kingdom in the North. Pharaoh's emissaries were soon to return and then he would know if there was hope for success. For Noah, she saw little advantage to her people by forming an alliance with Egypt concerning any future war. Egypt was not only far away, but Noah felt little need for military support from an ally. The warring with the MooDecd was soon to come to a finish, after which it was hoped her people could lay down their weapons and begin settling down upon the new lands. She and they had no desire for war, being a simple people with few needs and even fewer wants.

Oh, yes, there was also another event that occurred in late summer that would cost Dungie some sleep when news reached his ears and might also bind an even stronger alliance between the Egyptians, Noah, and the Phoenicians should Zaphenathpaneah play well the part of a diplomat. Prince Gishop and Princess Carthage were secretly married at TuurgBerrny just before they departed with RafeTomassie and the Egyptian return fleet. Their final destination was a Minoan island, Thera, north of Crete, where lived related clansmen of both Carthage and Gishop. But first they intended to pay a visit upon Egypt's prime minister, and possibly obtain an audience with the pharaoh, himself.

The children quietly slept, allowing Noah freedom to enjoy to the full the arms of the man sharing her bed this night. BondaBoor would be in her company for at least another week, possibly a fortnight, before returning to his people in the North with supplies to hold them over the rest of winter. Noah relished that thought, wishing he could spend the winter with her. Waking to the sounds of the crackling blaze, she roused the man beside her, teasing fingers shouting out the girl's silent thoughts, begging for his attention. BondaBoor's eyes eventually opened, the man smiling sleepily at Noah.

Noah sensually cooed as her fingers played their music upon BondaBoor's skin, "Take me again, my knightly lord. It is far too early in the evening to surrender the night to sleep."

Crawling atop an aroused BondaBoor, Noah began to make the sweet, seductive music taught her by the Dragon lovers of Javan. Soon the room was filled with romancing love songs that echoed off the cabin wall long into the night. Outside, the winds gradually tired while snow continued to gently fall upon the sleeping city. Tomorrow war would again call out to the sons of Dodanim and their clans, but tonight peace was assured. Tomorrow would come soon enough. Tonight was set aside to rest and renew one's spirit, heart, and soul. Tonight... how wonderful if it would never end...

### * * *

With encouragement and support from ZaphipheRa, Dungie wasted little time turning Atlanticia into the world's most powerful and prestigious city, a place of such renown that poets thousands of years in the future would praise its wonders and magnificence. Indeed, Atlanticia, known to history as 'Atlantis', which was, in reality, the name given to the empire that the city was capital of, was to become even grander than the fabled poets wrote of it. Into this thriving metropolis were gathered all the wise men of that age. Hormaxian priests established their primary institutions and developed their arts of science and magic. Wondrous machines, works of art, inventions, construction, and education were developed there to the full, not to be rivaled until far into the last evil age of empires. Atlanticia eventually acquired the title 'city of Zeus', Samyaza personally visiting it at the height of its glory, the last city of men to receive such a distinction before Samyaza's banishment.

From the Southlands and across the sea, Dungie acquired countless slaves and laborers to construct the new Atlantician capital city. Royal palaces, government buildings, and harbor districts of Atlanticia sat upon an island surrounded by a chain of smaller islands built up with a series of connecting seawalls that created a shallow inner harbor works. Beyond these at about another mile's distance was an outer ring of rocky isles that encircled the entire area. Besides the outstanding beauty of the region, Atlanticia was also known for its countless hot springs and steaming fountains. Although unknown to the people of that day, children of later times would recognize that Atlanticia sat upon the remains of an ancient volcanic caldera that had collapsed into the sea.

A rocky peninsula of land over a mile wide in places jutted out some two leagues from the mainland to the west toward the island city, a causeway of some three hundred furlongs connecting to it. Upon this outcropping of sand and rock, the main city of Atlanticia was situated. Stretching beyond it to the West for dozens of leagues was a plain of well-watered, rich, black soil for growing crops and grains, the valleys cutting through this land filled will forests of cedar and hardwood of every kind. With its strategic location, being well protected and easily defended, readily quarried stone for building natural harbors with a large navigable river entering to its south, Atlanticia was well suited to become the capital of the empire of Atlantis, the unfulfilled dream of Hormax for world domination.

Dungie wasted no time in fulfilling the exhaustive three year project to turn Atlanticia into a city that would rival every other one that had existed or did exist. Gold, silver, and other riches were pouring in from across the planet as other city-states and smaller kingdoms came to appreciate the value of partnering with this rising power in the West. Craftsmen and artisans flocked to Atlantis to offer their knowledge and skills in accomplishing this greatest of building works yet known to man. Marvels and miracles of this new age of intellect were to be reflected here, and anyone who was anyone wanted to be part of it, where every invention of the necromancers of Hormax would be on display.

Already the SouJuoi SinoAlSian Confederacy was paying huge dividends. SouJuoi's Samuori and kindred clans had invaded lands off to their west, taking countless prisoners and hordes of treasure. Some of these spoils along with thousands of newly acquired slaves he delivered to the western coastal cities, bringing this wealth to Atlanticia via overland roads. As SouJuoi pushed further west, he drove Aryan people ahead of him, uprooting nations and creating panicked confusion among the masses, eventually filling the valley of Indus with escaping refugees.

With the Southlands completely under his control, the SinoAlSian's supporting him, and several eastern nations wooing him, Dungie had already amassed an empire the likes of no other that had ever existed since the days of Great Flood, but this satisfied neither him nor ZaphipheRa. Total world domination was their goal with Atlantis eventually spreading its fingers across the entire planet. Before this could be accomplished, the Dragons must be brought to their finish. But Dungie feared their power, believing that the priests of Hormax were not yet capable of defeating the witches of Iam. Plus he also feared his own people should the power of Atlantis be wielded against Tuosolmerica and her loyal followers. Still, something must be done to show that he dominated the land of Dodanim.

So it was that news reached Baalath's ears to have the walls and government buildings as well as the king's houses and all other dominant stone structures in the land of Dodanim torn down and those stones delivered to Atlanticia...that is all except for the King's Tower, the place of Dancing Stones' death. Dungie wanted nothing to do with that place, declaring, 'Not one chip of one stone from there is to enter this city (Atlanticia).' He also decreed that five thousand conscripted laborers were to be delivered to the city from the territories of Dodanim, and were to remain under such bondage for one year, at which time another five thousand young men were to be delivered to the city. A tax of foodstuffs along with other goods including hides, dried fish, bone, antler, and flint by the amount called for was to be delivered yearly to the city.

Baalath sat at the table in Tuosol's humble house, relating all the decrees of King Dungie. When finished, he sighed in dismay, "What can I do? If I do not obey these commands, Dungie will surely send an army of invasion in upon us. Your power is great, and his host may well be defeated, but at what cost to this people? You cannot save everyone in such a contest. Many empty hovels will stand dark through the winter nights. Empty wombs and forlorn lovers will fill this land. What do I do?"

Tuosol leaned forward, resting a hand on Baalath's arm, smiling sadly, "You are the Beowulf, leader over the LukusAner, high necromancer in the northern house of Thor, your grandfather. Thor's hammer you shall resurrect, the children of your children wielding it against the Hormaxian tide in future days. But that is for a later time, gleaned from visions received by HuushBonn as he lay upon the floor in the Temple Owhar in this city, Ausalmerica, and given to you before he departed with our sister, Noahashonie, for eastern lands... lands, says he, that your very children will one day dominate for times and a season. Yet you know all these things."

She paused a moment, the reflection of Baalath's disquiet showing in her eyes. "My friend, you are the guardian of our southern border, keeping the clans of Japheth free from Hormaxian invaders. We...I need you to hold those borders secure so that my...our work of saving many can go on to its finish."

Retrieving a cup of fired clay from a post, Tuosol poured steaming tea into it. Returning to the table, she sat, placing it in front of Baalath. "What do you see? This vessel made of clay formed by my hands does for me my bidding. Into it I place what I wish, be it food for the soul or excrement to be cast into the pit. It is my vessel and is made to do my bidding. My friend, as long as you stand guard-royal for the king, you are his vessel for him to do with as he chooses. As long as you remain in this land, it shall be that way.

"Now listen, please, and understand. What has been demanded of you is no more than what any king has the right to demand. Only in worship and violence against one's fellow man does Iam hold a person accountable for his or her actions. The destruction of stone and brick will come eventually, if not by men then by storm, wind, heat, or even time. Nothing is forever. You save lives and people from torment, slavery and death. By obeying King Dungie, you will satisfy his need to show the world that his father's people are obedient and loyal. He will find no reason to invade this land and punish the people for insubordination. You will save many lives as well as the people's dignity and much of their wealth. I, for my part, will be able to finish the work I have set out to do before the great and fear inspiring day when all things are brought to nothing."

Gripping Tuosol's hand, Baalath promised, "My sister in the blood, I will do all these things you have recommended so that lives can be saved, but it tears apart my heart to see the works of Dodanim and Dancing Stones be cast into the sea to make barriers for turbulent waters."

Tuosol reminded Baalath, "The Lady has warned us as you well know that Castle Dodanim and all its cities will go to the sea, or the sea will come to them. Not a stone upon a stone will remain in this land. Forgotten until the End of Days will the works of this world become."

She looked off toward the East. "Atlantis must rise so that all the glory of Hormax may be gathered to it. Then it shall sink forever beneath the roaring sea, swallowing up all the machinations of the demon horde so that this world may have rest for another hour. And then... then" the woman lowered her head as if in pain, "it shall have rest for an hour."

Shaking her head in sadness, Tuosol lamented, "This victory is not won by fighting only one battle or one evil king. Like the helmsman standing the deck of a ship tossed by an eastern tempest, each wave cast against him is but one of countless stormy attempts to sink the craft. Each wave, each gust of freezing wind, the helmsmen must struggle to combat, all the while preparing for the next destructive blast from an ever angry sea. We, my friend, you and I, and our fellows at arms must learn to weather the many tempests that will come along before the evil of Hormax passes away into the abyss of nothingness. We cannot waste all our energy on but one little wave."

Baalath slowly nodded as he pondered Tuosol's words. "Alright, I will play this your way. It makes little sense to me, but then nothing does anymore. My king is our enemy, but I must do his will because it is what is expected of me. My heralds are prepared to leave by morning light to declare Dungie's proclamation to the people. I will have them gather the first five thousand conscripted laborers to Castle Dodanim. We will start the demolition of the city so that when the roads are passable in the spring, we can begin hauling the stones to Atlanticia."

Tuosol agreed. "It is better to do this quickly. Don't mourn, my friend. Dodanim and Dancing Stones will be remembered. The King's Tower is a holy place for the people. They will remember. Dungie and all he has done to this people will be remembered. You and I, my friend, will soon shrink back into the shadows. We will not be remembered - at least until the Ending Days when the sons of the gods again walk in power and glory upon the surface of the earth. Then a prophet shall arise who will gather us to his side when mortal men become immortal. Until that hour, well, we must do as we must do."

Squeezing Tuosol's hand, Baalath looked into the woman's face. "You've changed since our last meeting. Knowledge with an edge you have, as if the gods themselves have given you visions of future days. BondaBoor told me that Dancing Stones had traveled to the hidden worlds of the gods, that she and Javan had seen the world of men before time, witnessing the magic of life. He said that our mother goddess, Aphrodite, dwells at times in the world of the gods, and that she loves a man from those worlds...a man, Zadar, who gave, also, dreams to Dancing Stones. You confuse me, and I'm not sure what to do."

Tuosol closed her eyes. "Eden...Eden is the place that Dancing Stones and Javan visited. It is also a place I have been delivered to."

Baalath sat back, surprised.

Tuosol released Baalath's hand and stood, facing the blazing hearth. "I have passed through the fires of the refiner's forge, redeemed by future sacrifice. I have seen through the dreams of the Lady the future of all mankind, of all the universe. It is a knife's edge that we walk upon. The gods have appointed me Kue Shandii, High Warlock over the worlds of men, and have filled my head with dreams both beautiful and terrifying."

Turning about, tears streamed down Tuosol's face. Quietly weeping, she continued, "Dungie and his escapades are little more than a gentle breeze preceding the coming storm of future days. Wars in both the heavens and in this world shall rent this universe apart unless we, those of us who stood before the Lady upon Dancing Stones' memorial tower, hold back evil winds. We must change times and seasons so that the plans of the Lord of Darkness will come to naught. We must hold back those winds so that the prophet may come and deliver mankind from destruction. This we must do at all cost."

After Tuosol sat, Baalath asked what must be done. "No guidance have I been given. Powerless I am to stop the coming storm. Do you have any answers for me as to what I am to do?"

Tuosol answered, "Alone I am, Tosombabanna my only confidant. I have tried to share my dreams with her, but the child is too young to grasp the secrets the Lady planted in my mind. You, though, maybe you will be able to gain understanding from the confusing visions I have received. Maybe you will find answers to your many questions in those worlds. Maybe it will drive you mad as I feel it may do with me."

"Maybe I can soothe your soul," Baalath declared. "Is it possible that the gods intended to have you share with your fellow warlocks the many dreams given to you? I am your servant and friend. If you desire my assistance, I will do what I can."

Tuosol stared into Baalath's eyes, tears falling freely as she smiled relief. "Yes! Yes, I desire your assistance. Spend this night with me and allow me the freedom to fill your mind with my dreams. Tell me, please, if there is hope for my sanity. Tell me what you see when my visions become yours."

By practicing his best diplomacy, and with Tuosol's kind support, Baalath managed to swage the people to follow Dungie's demands without revolt. By the time the spring roads were passable, there would be hundreds of carts filled with the brick and stones of Castle Dodanim and other supplies to be sent to Atlanticia. The first complement of laborers would be marching along in the train, serving a year before the walls of the city then returning home the following spring when another five thousand young men would replace them. All the next summer and far into the fall, the squeak of wagon wheels accompanied by the cursing of teamsters would ever be heard as more and more of the treasures of Dodanim's people were hauled away toward Atlanticia.

It was true that the glory of past ages gradually parted from the land, along with the gold, silver, and many valuable goods. But just as Tuosol had predicted, Dungie did little more harm, seeing that the servants of his father were obediently carrying out his orders. Wealth the people now had little of, but freedom abounded in the land. The priests of Hormax were too busy fleecing the countless new arrivals at Atlanticia to bother coming north where little existed to be plundered. And the sight of monies pouring into their palms was a far grander thing than to make a few poor converts.

As Baalath patiently waited for the spring thaw, he spent a great many idle hours in Tuosol's humble home in Ausalmerica. Life was quiet and peaceful in that city as well as in ObebBailSoar. Dungie, wishing not to push the contest and risk the wrath of the Dragon Witch, permitted those two cities to be left alone, leaving the Temples Owhar intact - a foolish decision if he had understood their true value. All through the years of plenty and beyond, the Temples Owhar transmitted messages far across the sea, reassuring Noah that her companion had withstood the storm and waited the returning of her people.

### * * *

Dungie was livid when he heard news that Carthage and Gishop were not only alive but married, and that they had helped cement a trade alliance between Pharaoh of Egypt and the tribes of Phoenicia, Kittim, and Tarshish, signing lucrative contracts that would assure Egypt's ability to obtain vast amounts of foodstuff for their many storehouses. His fears of a revolt from the Atlanticians, though, were soon quelled, the people being fonder of the wealth pouring into their city than who might be ruling over them. Eventually the new king took his ease and began partaking of opportunities that were afforded a man of his station.

As winter waned and warm southern breezes swept up across the city, Dungie took to wandering the palace in the evening moonlight. Many a night he had stood in the upper shadows, watching the courtyard below as Chuphoe and Juliet would cavort in innocent love-play, the woman's sweet laughter echoing upon his ears. There was something special about that woman, a carefree guilelessness...no, naivety that he did not see in the other women in his house. Many a night he returned to his kingly chambers taking Nidgha in his arms, but imagining love's embrace with Juliet.

A night finally came, an opportunity arising while Chuphoe was away on king's business, and the mood was so heavy upon Dungie that he sent a guard to have Juliet appear before him, bathed and in evening finery. As he waited for the woman's arrival, he made excuse for what he intended to do. He liked Chuphoe and didn't want to hurt the man, but this was a matter of great urgency. After all, how could he faithfully carry out his kingly duties when that woman clouded his mind? Besides, he had warned Chuphoe of his passions for the creature. The man would surely understand, that is if Juliet ever revealed the affair to him. Who knew? This night might possibly only be the beginning of a long, sensual relationship. Chuphoe was doing his wives. Shouldn't he have the right to play the same game?

In time, Juliet arrived alone at the king's chambers. She was dressed in all her finery, attired in the same open-bosom dress worn when she and Dungie first met. The man jumped from his chair and hurried over to greet her, taking Juliet's hand as he led her into the room near the fireplace. Looking at her through greedy eyes, he marveled at the woman's comeliness, unable to refrain from stroking first one and then the other of her breasts. He grinned, exclaiming, "You are truly a creature divine, the most beautiful of womankind that has graced my path in many long days."

Nervous as Juliet was, the very thought of the man's touch making her skin crawl, the woman revealed no hint of her personal feelings. She knew this man wanted her, and she would attempt to please him as best as may be. Should she fail, then his wrath might well come down on her husband and the others in her care. Her death she feared little for, this not the first time seeing the shadowy reaper lurking near. She smiled sweetly and curtsied, "My king, your servant girl."

Dungie undid the clasps holding the dress about Juliet's shoulders, letting it fall gracefully to the floor. He stood back nearly aghast, marveling, "There is none other in my kingdom with greater beauty than I behold! You are like a goddess standing amongst men. How has a treasure like you been able to hide so long from my eyes?"

His ardor erupted in passionate power. No longer able to contain his emotions, he took Juliet's hand and pulled her toward the bedchamber at the far end of the room. Just before they passed through the doorway, a voice called out to Dungie, asking what he was doing. Stopping up short, he and Juliet turned to see Nidgha approaching.

When she came close enough to recognize who was with Dungie, Nidgha's face clouded in anger, "Why have you brought this... this... this abomination into my world?"

She glared at Juliet, their eyes locking as if in mortal combat. Nidgha's face went ashen as a voice from deep within her soul seethed curses in a language ancient and strange to the ears of men. To Juliet, she cried, "Go back to the ashes of Hell, whore-servant of the Dragon masters. Lucifer shall wormwood of you make!"

Juliet did not step back in shock and fear as Nidgha expected, leaning forward, threatening, snarling defiantly at Nidgha, replying in the same forgotten ancient language, "Iam curse you, Zaelock queen of the damned! Your day of birthing shall your very ending be!"

Nidgha howled in rage, frothing at the mouth. She lunged for Juliet, grabbing her arm to knock the woman away, but fell back in screeching agony, clutching her hand as if it was burned in a heated blaze. She began to hiss like a cat trapped by a wild dog, clawing the air menacingly.

As sweat beaded on her face and tears rolled down her cheeks, Nidgha begged Dungy in a voice little above a choking whisper, "Make it go away! Make it go away! Never bring it here again...again. Never touch it...it again...again. So unholy it is...unholy..."

Dungie's hands shook in fearful disquiet, his face pale white. Never had he witnessed such an unnatural confrontation. Sweat-like blood dripped from Nidgha's face and fingertips while Juliet's eyes silently bore into her antagonist as though her passionate stare was slowly dissolving the very flesh of his queenly wife.

"Enough!" Dungie cried out, terrified, timidly commanding, "Be off with you and do not seek my face again!"

Juliet lowered her eyes, backing up and offering a slight bow. "As you wish, my king."

Nidgha fell upon Dungie as if released from a spell, gripping his arm in desperation.

After Juliet retrieved her dress, not waiting to put it on, she turned to leave. Dungie called out hesitantly, "Please mention this to no one. This night did not happen, do you understand?"

Juliet bowed at the knee. "As you wish, my king. Whatever is your desire. I shall now go."

As soon as Juliet had departed the king's chamber, Nidgha sprang back to life, bubbly and happy as if nothing had happened. Surprised, Dungie asked what had transpired. Nidgha laughed, saying she didn't know at all what her husband was talking about, not even mentioning Juliet. With twinkling eyes, she swooned seductively, making Dungie forget his troubles, taking her in his arms.

Dungie dutifully obeyed, but his heart troubled him greatly. What had he just now witnessed? Surely it must have been some battle between the gods! Were Juliet and Nidgha goddesses taking on human form, or were the gods channeling their powers through them? Whatever might be the case, he did not wish to have such a confrontation visited upon him again. Leave that woman, Juliet, be. Let Chuphoe have her to the full. He wanted no part of that woman whatsoever. Never again, for as long as Juliet and Chuphoe lived in the king's palace, did Juliet have to worry about Dungie's uninvited attention. No, indeed, Dungie made sure to always keep a safe distance between himself and that child of the gods.

### * * *

It was a pleasant reunion for Cothath when meeting up with his former traveling companions, LumdonDuridshemion and SusannahKiabottam. The three had rejoined at the harbor city of PoSchiea on Thera, Susannah on her way east toward the Indus with her kindred who planned to join forces with the Aryans, their distant relation through the house of Gomer, through his grandson, HazzelGomer, in their war against the SouJuoi SinoAlSian Confederacy. Lumdon was uncertain where he was going. Most of his kindred were traveling south beyond the Great Inland Sea above the High Falls, the remainder spreading out amongst the inhabitants of regional territories.

During the weeks the party was held over, waiting for the winter sea storms to subside, Cothath managed to convince Lumdon to join him in his return journey north. So with his wife, Thanet, two sons, Thames and Thorne, and four daughters, Brigh, Saffron, Herne, and Reiga, Lumdon prepared to leave his other clansmen behind to join Noah in her campaign against the MooDecd.

As for the Mozerathas, the children of the western clans journeyed with Noahashonie into the northern lands, many being blood descendents of the Aryan kin of HazzelGomer, Noah's closest kindred. Several hundred of the western clans also joined Susannah in her campaign against SouJuoi's confederacy. It was from the clans in the West that the camel riders of renown came, many of their descendants settling in the desert lands north and east of the Chaldeans, their blood eventually absorbed into the local tribes of that region.

The children of the eastern Mozerathas clans settled the southern regions of the Nile and beyond the great inland lake above the High Falls, they being closer descendants of the daughters of Cush through FazathTaval. A large portion of these Mozerathas clans took up residence among the clans of Nubia. From among these people came the later seafarers serving upon Egyptian merchant ships that traveled east into distant seas searching for riches. Trading with and exploring eastern nations did not compete with the Phoenician trading circles, thus the Egyptian eastern travels. These people eventually helped colonize a distant territory of Egypt. They along with other people from Egypt, including those from the clans of Cush and Nubia, melded into the race of Aborigines who populated those isles.

Lumdon was a child of the eastern clans, his mother from the city of Missisaugwah and his father a child of the northern SchuuGhonnie clan. But Lumdon's wife, Thanet, was of the far western clans, being raised up along the vast plains east of the high mountains that marked the furthermost reaches of Mozerathas territories. Thanet was blond-haired and blue-eyed, as was her son Thorne, sired by her cousin, ThorneGerhardt, and daughters Saffron and Herne, both children of other western clansmen. So with Cothath's friendly badgering and Thanet's gentle persuasion, Lumdon conceded to travel into northern lands, there to give support to the ridding of the MooDecd from those worlds.

As the sun lazily drifted into the West on the eve of the summer solstice, the convoy of Dragon ships and Egyptian trading ships from Thera sighted landfall off Hannah Inlet. The ships soon hove to in a narrow estuary outside the main channel, eventually being warped up a shallow rivulet until reaching the floating quays anchored along the shore. After being unloaded, the ships were pulled up greased ways onto flat, sandy beaches further up the bourn, there to be examined for damage and have any needed repairs made for the long return journey. The Dragon ships anchored in the main harbor, having been thoroughly refitted at Thera the winter before while awaiting the Egyptian trading fleet set to arrive in the spring.

It took little time for Lumdon to get reacquainted with friends and relatives, but the cheerful reuniting of kin and clansmen was not the reason the man had journeyed these many thousands of miles to this land. In less than a week, he was on the roads east to join up with Noah's army as it battled the final holdouts of the MooDecd and their few allies. Along with his two youngest siblings, Herne and Reiga, Thorne, a young man just past his middle teens, remained at TuurgBerrny to secure family lodging for the following winter. Lumdon believed it was still early enough in the season to grow a few staples for the family's needs. With his two sisters of seven and twelve years, Thorne should manage to produce a garden of foods to meet their needs. To speed matters up, Lumdon made arrangements to obtain some property three miles north of the city to set up a homestead already containing several abandoned MooDecd fields.

With his wife at his side, along with son, Thames, and daughters, Brigh and Saffron, Lumdon took to the eastern roads in search of Noah's army. Already recognized as a leader among his clansmen, Lumdon would emerge from this year's campaigns as chieftain over several clan houses, his son, Thames, also becoming one of the men of fame among the children of the Northlands. Lumdon's wife, Thanet, was severely wounded during a siege attack upon a MooDecd city just beyond what was now being called the 'River Rhein' due to the heavy presence of the Rhein clan along its western banks. She would suffer a long convalescence at TuurgBerrny before rejoining Lumdon near the end of the Atlantician Wars, she and her daughter, Brigh, winning renown at the Battle of Lavount Hill, just beyond the walls of Saranda.

By the time Lumdon arrived upon the scene, Noah and her main army were pushing off to the East beyond the River Rhein. Instead of driving the MooDecd into oblivion as anticipated, she was finding growing resistance because of other eastern clans allying themselves with the MooDecd, fearing an invasion of their own territories should the MooDecd be defeated. Reassurances and promises had done nothing to swage the dread held by the eastern clans, so now Noah was facing the growing armies of the Wendland, Rugland, Goppingen, Tubingen, and other smaller eastern clans, these clans having married into and adopting many of the customs of the MooDecd.

Noah was faced with no other choice than invasion of these lands beyond the MooDecd territories and two more years of heavy fighting before a treaty could be agreed to, with Noah's people pulling back to former MooDecd territory. Although costly in lives wasted, the warring against these eastern clans led to the total annihilation of the MooDecd as a race of people, the MooDecd family names even being chiseled from the memorial tombs found in these eastern territories.

It had been out of necessity that these eastern clans sued for peace with the 'Children of Dodanim', the current name given to Noah's armies. Every year they had gone on decreasing, their forces repeatedly smashed by Noah's superior ones including her outstanding cavalry of horse and camel riders. All the while, tens of thousands of new immigrant soldiers arrived from the West along with their families and kinsmen to reinforce Noah's ranks. With this came the military trade goods from Egypt, new iron (carbon steel), copper, tin, bronze spears, swords, axes, and chariots. But most important were the laminated bows that could fling arrows more accurately over greater distances than conventional bows. In the third year of trade with Egypt, over one hundred trade ships arrived with their precious cargos, the Children of Dodanim returning these ships to Egypt filled with items such as before, including vast amounts of seal skins taken from the northern islands below the Ice Mountains.

The Children of Dodanim wasted little time with building impressive cities, instead filling the land with countless un-walled humble villages, concentrating on construction of great stone towers to store foodstuffs for future days, and turning over the soil to plant huge fields of grains. Mountains of foods were dried and stored in sealed wicker jars overlaid with clay and burnt in fires to set the clay. Other than in the land of Egypt, there were no other people able to survive the coming cataclysm as were the Children of Dodanim. Because of her hidden knowledge, Noah commanded that all food storage was to be built high up in the hills and away from the coastal waters - a command that Noah's people dutifully obeyed.

So it came to be that by the end of the fourth year of self-exile, the peoples of the Western lands were firmly established. Noah had forced a peace in the North, her people spreading out in the land, she maintaining a small army in the South, still fearing an offensive campaign from Saranda, it having allied itself with Atlantis. Now her people could focus on the preparations needed to survive the coming years of desolation. Few understood the reality of what would really happen, and fewer still would have believed the extent of the calamity coming upon the earth. But they trusted their Dragon queen and faithfully obeyed her wise instructions.

Swalhawena survived her birthing with little more than intense pains, delivering a beautiful dark-eyed girl into her life. When her child was able to travel, Swalhawena joined Noah in the East, meeting up with BondaBoor and his clansmen later that fall. She accompanied the Riphath winter war parties against the MooDecd, giving those people no rest at all. With her child cradled in furs while nursing at her breasts, this Drakous witch was often seen riding her stout pony across the frozen wastelands with the Riphath, moving ever further into MooDecd territories.

Rae had remained with Swalhawena until she departed to join up with Noah in the East. He then took to the sea, hunting the great blowing fish in the northern waters. With decks and holds filled with baleen and blubber, he returned to Hannah Inlet before the winter ice closed the harbor. When he was not at the inlet rendering the blubber or preserving the fish meat, Rae was to be found at TuurgBerrny with Noahashonie, who had returned late in the fall from warring in the East. Hyhoset and Meric were good-natured, mischievous children who were rarely separated from each other, even sleeping together...and getting into trouble together. Their one contention was that of fighting over Noah's dwindling milk supply, their confrontations becoming physical at times.

One evening, after a somewhat turbulent confrontation, Rae suggested that maybe he and Noah should assist the children by making another baby together. Noah frowned, squeezing a rather sensitive part on Rae's body. Rae winced in pain as he begged her to stop. Laughing, Noah exclaimed, "My birth pangs were far greater than the little touch I gave you. If you wish for me to suffer such agony again, I expect you to stay and raise the child up with me so that my burden will be light. When you promise to remain with me for two summers and winters, leaving your ship to others or beached, then I will make a baby for you. Until then, well, the children will just have to fight over what little I can give them." She sat up, wagging a finger. "There would be far more if you didn't steal it away when I sleep."

Rae feigned ignorance.

Noah poked him good-naturedly. "Don't pretend with me. Your suck is much harder than the others, and you have not learned to keep your teeth from biting." She then crooned, drawing her breasts close to his face, "I do think I have a little remaining that might refresh your spirit."

Rae did not hesitate taking up Noah's invitation for a sweet, creamy treat. She suddenly stopped him. "Your manliness I desire, but this does not mean I've changed my mind about making a baby with you. As I've said, when you're ready to promise upon my request, then I will think about it."

They both laughed, Rae promising nothing other than to deliver his manliness with passion. That winter would be filled with such conversations followed by sensual, frolicking romance. Noah managed to produce enough milk to satisfy the needs if not the desires of all.

Far to the South and West, the children of Atlantis busied themselves for coming campaigns. With the building of Atlanticia nearly complete, it was time to concentrate on consolidation and expansion of the Atlantis Empire. Spring would be arriving soon, and with it the unleashing of the juggernaut.

### * * *

### Section 32

Breathe in the Dragons

Susannah lay writhing on the ground, blood oozing from her eyes and ears. She had been down in a small gully when a blinding light flashed across the landscape. Hearing nearby cries of distress, the woman hurried up the side of the draw just in time to be hit by such a destructive blast that she was pitched off her feet and thrown back down into the rocks below. The sight of roiling crimson clouds boiling into the sky just before the blast hit burned into her brain, searing there forever the unfathomable vision of seeing an entire metropolis dissolve into nothing, taking with it countless lives of innocent men, women, and children.

A week earlier, Susannah and her troop of camel soldiers had been patrolling up to the north when far off in the distance they witnessed dark, swirling clouds mushrooming into the sky. Two days later, news came to them of a great fire that fell from Heaven, devouring an entire city. Susannah and the others refused to believe the reports, feeling them to be little more than confused imaginations overreacting to dramatic events. Now there was no doubt about it. Their enemy possessed a weapon of greater destructive glory than what was unleashed at the battle of the Bantoowazzi.

Cries of distress gradually faded as Susannah drifted off into unconsciousness. Several hours later she awoke to an eerie silence pressing down upon her. A sickly-gray pall hung over the land, its suffocating specter the stench of death and desolation. Slowly and painfully, she managed to stand, struggling up the draw until she stood upon a ridge overlooking the broad plain below. Off in the distance fires raged among the ruins of what was once a vibrant city with shops and businesses, people hurrying about their daily lives. Now there was nothing but devastation confronting her. Even where the woman stood, over a league from the city, trees were torn and broken. What unholy agent of Death had been delivered upon them?

As her eyes began to focus on the surroundings, Susannah started to realize she was not alone. All about her were dozens of other people dumbly looking at the total ruin enveloping them. Many others lay upon the ground, broken and bleeding, some to never rise up again, others to carry wounds for the remainder of their lives. Nearer the city or exposed to the blast out more in the open lay some with terrible injuries too evil to describe... charred skin peeling from their flesh, with eyes melted in their sockets, walking among them the dazed and shocked survivors.

It felt so eerie! Susannah saw all this destruction but could hear nothing. Her world was silent, making the horror of the moment more profound. She could only stare at the nightmare. Like a bad dream, she could merely helplessly watch the madness, unable to do anything about it.

### * * *

Mihai was in a rage as she slammed her fist on the table. "I care not that the bastard claims our involvement at the Bantoowazzi justifies his intrusion against the Indus people! He had his fighters at the river that day and could have used them but the coward ran away to save his own ass! We agreed to save the people of that world harmless, leaving them to their own devices."

Gabrielle agreed, but argued, "We have called for negotiations, asking Legion to desist from activities until after we meet to discuss this. He has consented to sit down with us."

Mihai huffed angrily, "He stalls for time! Already six cities burn with countless innocents murdered. By the time we assemble at the table, there will be nothing left of the Indus or any other resistance for that matter! The time is to act now, counter his aggression with that of our own!"

That was too bitter a pill for Gabrielle. "We have only settled on an armistice some months ago. Our people are not prepared to go again to war so soon. Besides, the promised destruction is but three years hence. Then the power of Hormax will be broken, and their push for global domination will diminish."

Mihai sputtered, frustrated, "If we do nothing, there will be no need to bring the promised destruction! There will be no one left worth saving! Even Egypt will fall to the might of Atlantis, especially if we allow Legion a free hand in assisting them." She sat back, waving a fist. "We must hit him fast and hit him hard! Point our big guns at him to show him we mean business. No shots across his bow! Straight into the magazine, I say! Punch him in the heart."

Gabrielle contended, "We cannot afford another war... not now."

Mihai quickly countered, "This will not be a war but only a police action which needs no declaration to implement. Chrusion will not interfere as long as we keep him out of it. Indeed, it amuses the miscreant to see his own lieutenants spar with one another. I do believe he will enjoy watching this show if he feels no threat to himself."

Frowning, Gabrielle shot back, "We cannot risk it at the moment!"

Mihai slammed her fist down again. "Damn it! If we don't stop this travesty now, there will be nothing left to save in those realms. Should Egypt fall, the world will perish. Noah and her fellow Haudenosaunez cannot hold back the might of Atlantis by themselves. Even now our Susannah rests quietly in the bowels of Eden, convalescing from her injuries caused by the weapons of Legion, her hour of test not even yet arrived. Had it not been for our scouting party accidentally finding the woman above the blistered plain, I doubt she would have survived her ordeal at all."

Gabrielle was not convinced that war...a police action...was the answer, but she chose to defer to the opinion of the council. Tizrela, PalaHar, Planetee, and Terey sided with Mihai and with a great deal of effort, convinced the remainder of the council to support the police action. Although being pontifex maximus (lit. _greatest bridge builder_ ) over the military machine, Gabrielle acquiesced to the council's decision.

Sadly nodding her approval, she addressed Mihai. "I agree, a coup de force is the only way to succeed. I will call up the Navy and Marines. Tomorrow a fleet will depart from the Middle Realms. It should be on deck three days hence. You will take command of the fighter wing. PalaHar will command the big ships, Tizrela his second in command."

She turned to PalaHar. "Blow 'em to Hell! Hold nothing back. If we don't knock Legion out of the fight quickly enough, Chrusion may decide to lend him support. I don't want another war. We cannot afford it right now."

Engagements over the following weeks, although violently destructive and costing hundreds of lives of those from the First Realm and thousands from the Second, have warranted little more than a footnote in the history of the children's wars. Yet for the people of the earth, it was the most profound of battles, accounts of vicious confrontations where men and angels fought side by side being told and retold far into the Ending Age. Air war the likes of that seen in those ensuing battles would not be witnessed again until the men of Earth contested for the skies in one of their greatest world wars near the end of that evil age.

Mihai's fighter squadrons played 'tit for tat' against Legion's intrigues, breaking up one after another of the SinoAlSian invading armies. He was eventually forced to the table, ordering cessations of conflict by narrowing his direct support solely to the Atlantis campaign. Although energy weapons were occasionally used in future combat, Legion's clandestine attacks against some of Noahashonie's fortresses during the Atlantician Wars a prime example, for the most part, the children from the Upper Realms remained aloof, staying out of direct involvement in coming conflicts during the years preceding the Great Cataclysm.

After Legion withdrew his tactical support, Aryan armies in the Indus region rallied to hold off the SinoAlSian invasion there, forcing Commander SouJuoi to pull back his armies into western India to the Ajmer-Udiapur regions, thwarting his middle-eastern invasion plans. Although leaving a standing army in India, SouJuoi eventually made an uneasy peace with the Aryan people of the Indus after realizing his ambitions for capturing the Asian and middle-eastern empires were beyond his reach, maintaining an invading army in waiting far too costly. He soon turned his attention to the southeast in an attempt to take the great southern peninsular nations of Sumatra.

Susannah rejoined her Mozerathas kindred in the Harut Basin on their westward journey from the Indus. With the SinoAlSian armies pulling away toward the East and a treaty of peace agreed upon, the Mozerathas warriors believed their duty to their Aryan brothers completed. They were now in search of a new home where they could settle down to raise up their little ones and resume normal life. This was no easy task. The world they were now residing in was already filled with peoples possessing the land, it being their inheritance. Newcomers were not always welcomed, especially in these lands where forests were few, rain rare, and farmlands ferociously protected. For the time being, the Mozerathas found themselves to be wanderers in a strange and unfamiliar land. True, they found few hostile to them, but also very few friends. Until things could change, they would keep their feet trekking the steppes and mountains of this depressing world as nomads without a land of their own.

After witnessing the strange and wonderful world of Eden, Susannah quickly tired of the endless monotony she found in this desert wilderness. With her son, Rechab, and daughter, Marah, Susannah departed from her clansmen and took off for the land of Egypt, wandering for several years in the wilderness of Paran. Rechab and Marah both married into the family of Kenites, Rechab eventually becoming a chieftain among its people and Marah a priestess of renown. In time, Susannah would reunite with Juliet, working in league together against the machinations of Hormax, but that would be in the far distant future. As for Susannah, after the marriage of her children, the woman eventually moved north from the wilderness, in time taking up with descendants of Shem, changing her name to 'Serah'.

### * * *

While Susannah was making her way south toward the wilderness of Paran, Dungie was completing the reconstruction of Atlanticia. It was becoming a most resplendent city, filled with all the wealth and knowledge of the world of that day. Great temples of education and science were located throughout the vast complex of palaces, gymnasiums, public buildings and government offices, and oh, yes, estates of the rich and powerful.

To live in Atlanticia proper, one had to be wealthy, very wealthy, or somewhere high up in the Order of Horus and/or of a prominent political station, that is, except for the countless slaves in the city or poor laborers working the warehouses and docks. Only tradesmen and merchants tending to the needs of the elitist citizenry were permitted to set up shop on the main island.

A paved broadway of some six rods' width was located along the center of the narrow peninsula of land leading to the mainland. In the middle of this broadway were two sets of railed tracks that led from the mainland into the very center of the city. Machines powered by engines similar to those used in the wheeled battlements ponderously made their way to and from the city that no longer slept, it having 'eternal lights' as its inhabitants referred to them. Street lamps burned bright throughout the evening hours, while the brilliant glow of blazing globes shone from countless windows and doorways. Yet there were so many other wonders to experience here that time does not permit their mention. Yes, the magic of Hormax was on display for the entire world to see, that is if one could afford the visit.

The city of Atlanticia - known to the world of men as 'Atlantis' because of it being the capital city of that world power - was a splendid city filled with all the marvels of Hormax. Yet, at the same time, it betrayed the world of mankind that surrounded it. Its glory was so wondrous and its military might so intimidating, no other nation could compete with it, and no nation attempted. Indeed, who would dare try? Dungie crushed any opposition to his world dominance. This led to a great paradox that was not wasted on future generations of Hormaxian leaders. Without competition, there is little need for invention in order to gain dominance over one's adversary. Without that need, the world will remain always stuck in the past, its rulers satisfied with their personal desires being fulfilled. Rare will be the king encouraging invention if there is no need for invention. Why, if you hold a spear of flint and your enemy only a wooden club, should you waste your precious wealth to craft a better spear?

So it was with Atlantis. Other than the ambitious desire to create small airships to combat the ones used by the Dragons during the Bantoowazzi campaign, the Hormaxian priests were not eager to reveal newer inventions other that those given to Pharaoh AnahNakaNoah. The wheeled battlements and giant lumbering airships impressed visiting rulers, filling their hearts with a dread of falling into disfavor with the young king of this growing empire. The sight of handheld long gunns belching smoke and hitting targets hundreds of feet away, and the explosive report of big wheeled gunns blowing geysers of dirt or old wooden wagons high into the air terrified the first-time observer. Just the threat of these weapons being delivered against their nation convinced many a ruler to make treaty with Atlantis.

The reality was that the weapons of the Hormaxian priests possessed by Dungie and the growing Atlantean empire were far too cumbersome and unwieldy to be easily transported for use in other theaters of war. The four score of huge sky ships had an extended range of little more than a hundred leagues in perfect weather, could not take off or land in little more than a breeze, and hungrily consumed rivers of smelly, distilled fuel that was costly to produce. Besides this there was need to have long, wide, flat fields groomed and fitted to support the heavy-winged vessels, as well as giant buildings to protect them from the weather and countless workers to keep them operational.

The same was true of the wheeled fortresses in regards to fuel, but in other respects they were even less useful in real combat. The machines needed highly trained crews just to keep their powerful horses in operation. They were unwieldy in soft soil, requiring teams of construction engineers to accompany them when traveling off road. Their ponderous size also made them difficult to transport, requiring specially built ships or barges to haul them over water.

On the rare occasion, the powers of Atlantis, when having to display their military might in force against an adversary, would deliver one or two disassembled sky ships and wheeled fortresses upon their opponent's doorstep and assemble them in the darkness of night so that in the early dawning, the enemy could gaze out from their citadels upon the terrifying sight of these strange and intimidating weapons. Thus, for the most part, Atlantis stuck to the old ways of making war.

This keeping to the old ways held true for the Atlantician Navy as well. Other than a few specially equipped fighting ships carrying a thunder gunn or two, the Navy was satisfied with the typically modern weaponry of the day. General Nuefange, now supreme military commander over all of Atlantis' armies and navies, decided to build and maintain a large fleet of battleships. These were gigantic, oared, seagoing vessels having one to three masts, carrying square and lateen sails. Being between ninety and one-hundred fifty long cubits and carrying from two hundred to six hundred sailor and/or soldiers, a fleet of one hundred or more of these ocean-going galleys appearing over the horizon tended to quickly dissolve any resistance facing it.

Harbored in circular dry docks surrounding the inner bay of Atlanticia were over four hundred of these huge battleships, and this contingent was only the spearhead of the Navy's might. There were well over one thousand smaller fighting galleys accompanied by thousands of support ships from skiff size to three and four-masted transports with a capacity of drafting over one-thousand tonnes. Many ships of this giant armada were moored within two ring-shaped harbors surrounding the city, still leaving room for the countless trade ships that passed into and out of them on a regular basis.

A person might ask why Phoenician shipping remained so important to the Atlanticians when they possessed such an immense naval presence. The answer is somewhat complex. First, the Phoenicians were well-established mariners with set trade routes and contract customers. Second, the Phoenicians flew the trade colors of the Western Maritime Guild Council, a court established some two hundred years before the set-out sea law. The Atlanticians and Hormaxians had been strong proponents of the Western Maritime Guild Council and played a large part in the execution of its laws. Needless to say, there was a great deal of wealth that passed through the hands of the people running that court and they did not wish to have that wealth threatened. Third, at the founding of the Western Maritime Guild Council, certain chosen members of the Tarshish, Kittim, and Mariner clans had partnered together to form a navigator's guild in order to protect their trade routes. Without a guild navigator directing the ship's helm, many passages and channels were nearly impassable, and the guild did not pilot Atlantician ships.

Why? There were several reasons. Keeping the trade under their control was certainly one, but there were others. Currently EricTomassie chaired the order, his Mariner clan being such outstanding navigators that the clan's name became identified with the guild, it eventually becoming synonymous with all adventurous sailors. Eric was no friend of Dungie, that king having put a price on his son Rae's, and brother Rafe's heads. Eric refused to allow his fellow clansmen to have any dealings with the Atlanticians as long as Dungie remained hostile to his family. Out of respect for Eric and to maintain solidarity, the other guild members of Tarshish and Kittim also refused to ship aboard with the Atlanticians.

This was not to say that the Phoenicians held a future place in the Hormaxian New World Order structure. No, indeed! Once Atlantis gained control of enough of the ocean-bordering city-states, it would tighten the noose around any and all remaining opposition, including Egypt, all the Phoenician clans, and especially the rising kingdom of Noahashonie - especially Noah. Dungie dreamed of the day when he would bring his former wife back to Atlanticia in chains, envisioning all the torture he would mete out to that wayward little bitch girl. Oh no, he would not kill the young woman. But keep his promise to ZaphipheRa he would, and give her up to the Hormaxian high priest to toy with her as he saw fit. Then, when all other peoples had been placed under his feet, Dungie would gather all the forces of Atlantis against Tuosolmerica and bring her to nothing.

For the moment, Dungie dreamed... dreamed of a global world under his domination, passing on from father to son to times indefinite. Yes, contrary to his mother's impotent threats, ZaphipheRa promised him a long life and lasting kingdom down to the hundredth generation. The day would come soon when a child of his own... no, children would fill his house with sweet laughter. It was not long after this that Dungie called ChuphoeTobanahazz to his private chambers.

The two men stood in the king's chambers, looking down at the courtyard. Dungie pointed out a young man practicing boxing. "That is TusuiHisop's boy, ShoShiNoahTusueeHisop. He's quite the young man, takes to his studies well, and is quick of wit and highly skilled with the sword and bow. I like the boy. In many ways he reminds me of me when I was his age."

Chuphoe nodded, acknowledging, "He is a handsome young fellow, and quick on his feet, too." He watched as the boy dodged a fast left hook, instantly returning one of his own.

Smiling, Dungie turned his attention to Chuphoe. "I need your assistance with ShoShi, if you're willing to help me."

Curious, Chuphoe answered, "I know not what I can give that your powers cannot do better, but whatever you wish, I will attempt to do."

"Good! Good!" Dungie exclaimed. "This is what I need." He directed Chuphoe to sit. "You have a way about you that is rare. You have learned to play by the rules of diplomacy, and do it quite well, may I add, all the while keeping yourself above the rot and slime that swallows up most men who have power. I want ShoShi to learn that skill, and you are the only man alive that I know who can teach him."

"But how?" Chuphoe asked, perplexed.

Dungie looked back toward the window. "Only you have that answer. If it were an easy matter, I would handle it myself... that is, if I had the time." Turning back, he pointed, "I will give you some tools that might prove beneficial. The boy loves his mother, FooShii, with a passion I've seen few sons have. For me she has little feeling, though I've tried to provide for her needs since the untimely death of her husband, TusuiHisop. I believe the NussoGamos celebration I performed with her did not set well. I try to show her my affection for the boy's sake, and she attempts to respond to my touch, but she is cold and frigid and...and she is an older woman. Her breasts sag some...you know, she shows her years. Well, I want you to take FooShii as a wife. We'll make a grand thing of it. It'll help the boy draw close to you if his mother is given such a good man as yourself for a husband, and it will go a long way in healing up old wounds with the southern people."

Before an astonished Chuphoe could make reply, Dungie waved him off, adding, "Not to worry. The arrangement we have will remain the same as before and your other wife, uh...uh, Juliet, I believe...well, if you do as I ask, I will allow her more freedom in regards to royal affairs, even permitting her to hang on your arm at certain public gatherings."

Chuphoe half choked out the words, "M... my...my Lord..." He paused, realizing the pleasant drone of the bee pollinating the sweet flower carried poison in its stinger. "Whatever is your wish, my Lord."

Dungie thanked him. "Good! Good! I will make announcement just this very day, and will celebrate your wedding before the new harvest festivals. In the meantime, I wish for you to take ShoShi under your wing. Tomorrow night you shall dine at a banquet arranged to present FooShii and announce your betrothal."

Closing his eyes and politely bowing his head, Chuphoe thanked Dungie for his kindness, promising that he would do his best.

Dungie jumped up, grinning, "You will do great...just great! Now, allow me please to introduce my boy to you. You will like the fellow, I assure you."

The two men hurried from the chambers and quickly made their way to the courtyard below. In short order, the boy was carrying on an animated conversation, taking quickly to Chuphoe's pleasant, inviting nature.

### * * *

As Zaphenathpaneah hurried toward the steps to Pharaoh's palace, he met his father-in-law, Potiphera, slowly making his way down the wide stairs leading to the opened courtyard. Stopping quickly and bowing in respect in the manner a son would do with his father, Zaphenathpaneah wished Potiphera well, offering a blessing on him with a long life and good health.

Potiphera did not smile, his earlier discussion with TitanAmactony having soured his mood. He politely informed Zaphenathpaneah, "You have great sway with the pharaoh so that he insists on listening to your voice, alone, in all matters. I have supported you in this wild dream of yours because it has been told me that the mother goddess herself spoke words to the king about you. That is all fine and good, but I'm being pressed by my fellow priests about the matter because the treasuries are being emptied. If you continue purchasing the foodstuffs at the rate you are, there will be no gold left in the land in a fortnight."

Zaphenathpaneah placed his hand on Potiphera's shoulder, acknowledging his concerns. "Yes, yes, my father, I am well aware of your anxiety over this matter, but I do have very good reasons for my actions."

"Reasons?" Potiphera asked, frowning. "Already the land is overflowing with grains and dried foodstuffs to the point that the people pile it up in mountains beside the full storage towers. There is enough food in the land of Egypt to feed the world for years to come. Why waste any more of our precious gold on such things? Soon I will have to stop construction of our grand temples at On. The priests are becoming restless, the seductive influence of the western priesthood threatening to steal their hearts away. Atlantis' shadow grows ever darker upon this land."

Zaphenathpaneah smiled reassuringly, "Father, there are forces at work here that are far more powerful than the trickster priests of that wasted land. Trust me, for a word in the pharaoh's ear I must speak first, and then you will see that your concerns will be addressed to the full. Look, promised you were that On would become the shining jewel of Horus and that you, yourself, in your old age would become chief priest over all the sons of Horus. It was by the mouth of the mother goddess that this promise was made."

He looked toward the ground, and then up at Potiphera, grinning as one does when hiding a secret. "Be patient with your son for just a little while longer. Look, I must continue to purchase goods delivered by the Phoenicians in order to bind them to our contract. When hard times come, we will sell these goods for ten times what we have paid, charging even more to those who have opposed us. Trust me, please, with this."

Potiphera was not happy, but promised he would wait a little while longer before pressing the matter in the courts. Zaphenathpaneah patted his father-in-law on the shoulder, excusing himself because of his appointment with TitanAmactony. As he bounded up the steps, he shouted back, "Keep up the work on your temple. You'll have everything you need to finish it!"

Zaphenathpaneah found Titan relaxing in the shade of a curtained room, servants fanning him as he and his son played a child's game of sticks and dice. At seeing his chief of state, he stood, extending a hand in salutation, beckoning Zaphenathpaneah to come forward.

Taking his hand and squeezing it, he remarked, "Potiphera only recently departed me. He is not at all happy, afraid that we will run out of gold soon. Are you sure it is wise to continue with the purchase of all these grains? Don't we already have enough to feed multitudes for years to come? I hear that neighboring kingdoms are beginning to wonder if we may have lost our senses."

Zaphenathpaneah bowed low before replying. Standing, he answered, "My Lord Pharaoh, the hand of Iam does act strangely at times, but not foolishly. First allow me to explain what is being done, and then hear me out, please, to the finish when your heart will rejoice beyond rejoicing.

"We must fulfill the contract with the Phoenicians. It is no longer for the delivery of the foodstuffs, but to help keep the power of Atlantis in check. Time is our friend, for we do not have to push against them forever. Every homer measure of grain we buy from the Phoenicians forces King Dungie to pay three times as much for what he obtains. Even now he competes with us, building granaries throughout his empire in preparation for coming days. Every shekel of gold spent on foodstuff is a shekel not spent on his military. We slow his advance toward world domination.

"Also, our friendship with the Phoenicians bonds us ever closer to the kingdom of Noahashonie, the 'Black Angel' as her people call her. Noah has gathered an army of renown to her side. It has been told me that the military strength of Javan in his contest against AnahNakaNoah stands with her. Some say over sixty thousand young men trained in the use of the axe and sword march with her, and a cavalry of horse and camel riders carries her flanks. It is also told me that the women, from young virgin to nursing mother, are skilled in the use of the blade and pike. Reports come from Atlanticia that King Dungie's eyes are always focused in that direction, the man fearing and hating Noah and those with her, his attention drawn to her keeps his eyes off us for the time being."

Titan spoke approvingly regarding all the things Zaphenathpaneah revealed, but then expressed his concerns. "This is all fine and good, but the gold in the treasury is dwindling rapidly. Soon we shall have empty vaults. Then what will we do?"

"Oh yes, that..." Zaphenathpaneah rubbed his chin in thought. "I did want to talk with you about it."

Titan scowled.

Zaphenathpaneah smiled, "I think I might have the solution, or should I say I think the solution may have come to us."

Titan had many questions. As the two men stood there, Zaphenathpaneah quietly answered them, expressing his replies more in riddles than giving specific information. Titan attempted to contain his impatience, knowing that when his prime minister toyed this way with words, he often carried on with a purpose that led to pleasant surprises. He certainly hoped that today's outcome would result in the same reward.

While they stood conversing, the house overseer entered the room, a palace guard with him. After politely bowing, the overseer addressed Titan. "My Pharaoh, visitors from the eastern desert beyond the sea have arrived and wish to have an audience with you. They say it is of great importance. By word of your prime minister, Zaphenathpaneah, they have been escorted through the city by his personal bodyguards, and are presently waiting for you in the courtyard.

Puzzled, Titan eyed Zaphenathpaneah. His prime minister grinned, offering, "Come let us see what this people wants. I tell you, there may well be more than one happy surprise waiting outside these walls."

Filled with curiosity, Titan follow Zaphenathpaneah out of the palace, stopping up short in amazement after stepping into the blazing sun above the courtyard. Down below, about twenty heavy, two-wheeled carts each pulled by two giant oxen filled the courtyard, hooded attendants hiding faces and hands, holding lead ropes, standing beside the beasts of burden. Encouraging him forward, the two men started down the steps toward a lone hooded figure standing at their base.

When Titan's feet touched upon the courtyard flagstones, the lone hooded figure spoke out, "My son, does it go well with you?"

Surprised at being addressed this way, the man halted, wondering who might be speaking to him. Lifting a hand, the person pulled back their hood, revealing a blonde-haired woman of splendid appearance. Titan immediately fell to his knees, crying out fearfully, "Forgive your slave for looking upon a god's face! I am already as good as a dead man for such insubordination!"

The woman leaned forward, extending her hand. "Stand up, for I have come to speak with the king of this land, not some beggarly servant. Now stand so that this ambassador of Iam may have a word with you."

When Titan fell to his knees, Zaphenathpaneah and all those of Pharaoh's house with him prostrated themselves before the woman. Titan hesitantly reached out, taking the woman's hand and began to slowly stand. "My queen, Aphrodite, mother of all men living, may you live forever."

Aphrodite did not smile, but quietly replied as she assisted Titan to stand, "My son, forever is much longer a time than you might imagine. A blessing or a curse in this evil world may such a destiny be. Give thanks that your days will eventually come for your long rest. Far more peaceful are the dark hours of a tempestuous night when one sleeps through the storm than for the sentry standing the midnight watch." She then told everyone to rise before her.

Stepping back and looking about at Titan and the others with him, Aphrodite pointed toward the sky. "Iam has not been sleeping, but to the test he has been putting you and all with you. Faithful is the man doing Iam's will, not when his larder is full to overflowing, but when empty is the purse and hungry is his belly. You have emptied your vaults on the word of Iam, continuing to carry on his business even when the treasury has becomes empty. Happy is Iam because you have not faltered in doing his will."

She then pointed toward Titan. "Because you have listened to the word of Iam..." she pointed at Zaphenathpaneah "and obeyed all that Iam has had him speak in your ears, your dread of the axis lords will be salved. Not one soul of one foot of the armies of Atlantis will be set upon your soil. Do not fear them, and do not go out to meet them in battle. Keep yourself and your people safe and flee the waters when you see their ships upon the horizon. You must abandon your harbor cities and flee into the wilderness and hills in order to survive, because in that hour the seas will become agitated and in their rage and will swallow up both the great and the small. Fear the sea, for it will show no mercy."

Titan did not understand at all what Aphrodite was talking about, but he promised to obey and spread the word to his people. Aphrodite smiled, continuing to point at Zaphenathpaneah. "Keep listening to your priestly son, for by dreams and the reading of omens he learns the secrets of Iam. Should you listen to this man, and it does not go well with you, Iam's anger you will not receive because you listened faithfully to this man's voice. Upon him and his people will the curse fall if he acts ruinously against Iam."

Titan looked over at Zaphenathpaneah, bowing his head, accepting Aphrodite's pronouncement. "All these things your son will do and more, if only you request it."

Acknowledging his reply, Aphrodite added, "Then I say this: to you it has been granted to save the world of mankind. Move from the low plain all your storehouses of grains and foodstuffs, and in all the lower lands of Goshen remove all those residing, bringing them out of the land of Goshen. Even the land of Upper Goshen must be abandoned. During the remaining days of peace they will farm the land residing in tents, but homes and cities they must build high up the valley beyond the lands of Goshen, and there their wives and children will reside."

Titan did not understand, but promised to obey everything told him by Aphrodite. Taking Titan's hand, Aphrodite then drew him toward one of the heavy, wheeled carts. "So that you might continue to do all the work that Iam has required of you, it has been decided to give these gifts to you and your people." Then eyeing both Titan and Zaphenathpaneah, she cautioned, "Remember the open handedness of Iam and how he gave without penalty this wonderful gift. Become like Iam in the coming days of distress."

Both men bowed their heads, promising to do just so. Aphrodite nodded to a cloaked and hooded man standing beside the cart, he pulling a heavy canvas off the secrets hiding within the cargo box. Titan gasped in surprise as the blinding glint of gold and silver exploded before his eyes. Inside the box were ten talents of gold and ten of silver. Thousands of round, flat discs each a shekel in weight laid neatly stacked in smaller wooden boxes of five-hundred discs each. It was soon revealed that in each of the twenty carts was an equal amount of gold and silver, all discs of a shekel in weight.

Aphrodite reached over the edge of the cargo box and withdrew a gold disc, handing it to a very astonished Titan. "Remember," she warned, "an honest day's pay for an honest day's work. Every man deserves an honest day's reward for an honest day's work. Your father, as he stood in the Garden, was not set to forced labor, but as a free man he cultivated the Garden. Yet in the Garden were all things owned by Iam and still he gave it all to Adam." She said nothing more about the matter.

After handing all the wagons containing the treasures of gold and silver over to Titan, Aphrodite bid her leave. Titan begged her and all the people with her to remain for at least a meal, but she refused. Before departing, she walked up close to Titan and slipped into his hand a crystal vial. With tears in her eyes, she sadly looked into the man's face. "Here, take this... just in case you run low. Keep the boy comfortable and continue to enjoy his remaining days with you. This way he will come to his rest in peace."

Titan broke down and taking Aphrodite in his arms began to weep profusely. Aphrodite did not resist, but continued to pat his shoulder until the weeping subsided. When all was in order, she took her leave. As she made her way from the city into the desert, her heart could only think of being with the one person who could soothe her soul in that hour.

"My lady..." A hooded man strode up beside Aphrodite, taking her by the hand.

Looking into the shadows under the hood, Aphrodite grinned, nearly squealing in delight, "My savior prince! You do know how to rescue a distraught heart!"

They hurriedly walked on together, following closely behind the other hooded members of their party. At length, when the city and all of its people were far beyond the drifting dunes, Aphrodite turned to Zadar, pulling his hood back and giving him a passionate kiss. After a lengthy embrace, she looked up at the world around her. "I have had a busy day and I am tired of this place. Please take me home, for an hour at least. For an hour, take me home to Eden so that my soul can find some rest from this awful world."

Zadar grinned, still gripping Aphrodite's arms. "Is it for but only an hour? Why, I have prepared a banquet for you this night." He winked seductively. "And not just of foods and fine wine... Do you wish for only an hour?"

Aphrodite blushed at Zadar's suggestive reply. It was such a good feeling to be with this man. Always, he treated her like a queen. Why did he act this way toward an inexperienced little waif who continually bemoaned her lot in life? He had the choice of any and all of the dazzlingly beautiful women from his world and still he doted over her like she was the only woman to have shared his romance.

She wrapped her arms about him, squeezing him in delight. "Oh, my prince, take me with you for as long as you wish. Take me with you forever."

### * * *

Sabrina merrily danced into Nidgha's chambers, carrying a lilting song on her lips. Stopping at the window, she pushed open the shutters so that the morning sun could flood in across the room. Turning about, the woman leaned against the wall, resting her hands on the window sill, looking up toward the ceiling, crooning her merry little tune while Nidgha struggled to shake the effects of late-night celebrating from an aching head. Finally surrendering to the sicky-sweet cheerfulness of her companion, she sat up, rubbing swollen eyes.

"What is my little darling so happy about this early in the morning?" Nidgha sputtered in a coarse, raspy voice.

Sabrina ran to the bed, grabbing Nidgha's hands as she sat down next to her, the woman's face beaming. "Oh it's a wonderful, wonderful, day! I just had to let you know my little secret. I had to tell someone."

Nidgha grumped, perturbed, having been waked from a drunken sleep. "Couldn't this wait until I was up and about? Come back later and let me rest."

Sabrina would hear none of that. "No! No! I kept this secret long enough, not wanting to tell a soul until after Chuphoe's marriage to FooShii so as not to spoil their special moment. Now I must tell someone or I will burst. Tomorrow... tomorrow I will tell my king. But first I wished to have my darling companion know my secret."

Shaking the fog from her mind, Nidgha asked with sleepy curiosity, "What do you have that is so secret that it couldn't wait until a more reasonable time?"

Laughing, Sabrina shook Nidgha's arm. "Please, I wanted you to know first. We've done everything together since we were little children. I've kept no secrets from you nor have you from me. You are my dearest companion. I just had to tell you first."

Rubbing her aching head, Nidgha agreed, "Yes, yes...never have we kept secrets from each other. I for you and you for me, that is how it has always been." She forced a sleepy smile. "Tell your companion what is pressing so upon you."

Excitedly fidgeting to the point of lightly bouncing as she sat upon the bed, Sabrina squeezed Nidgha's hands, nearly squealing with joy, "I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant with the king's child!"

Nidgha's eyes popped open wide, her headache suddenly disappearing as she choked out, aghast, "You're what?"

"I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant!" Sabrina cried. "I'd believed it might be so a month ago, but waited to say anything until I was certain. I am! I am!" She hopped up and paraded around the room, declaring, "A child of the king I carry... I carry. Oh how happy he will be to hear his mother's curse is a lie." Stopping in mid-stride, Sabrina turned toward Nidgha, grinning. "Maybe Dungie will take me for a wife when he finds out I carry his child."

Strutting about, Sabrina mused aloud, "Queen Sabrina. Queen Sabrina. Oh, it sounds so wonderful!" She looked at Nidgha, her face beaming. "You and I can be queens together, walking along on each side of our kingly husband, hanging tightly upon his arms. Oh, how wonderful that would be! Just like when you and I walked along with your grandfather, holding onto his hands as we strolled through the colorful fields of flowers."

Nidgha's face instantly went ashen, her eyes flashing in rage. Just as quickly regaining her composure, she replied sweetly, "Yes, it sounds so wonderful."

Inside, Nidgha seethed with anger. No one was going to share her glory! She had been so careful to make sure that would not happen. For some time, the other wives and concubines of her king had been drinking poison to prevent conception. Until Nidgha birthed a child for Dungie, a son, no woman in the king's house would carry a child to term. ZaphipheRa had promised her it was to be that way, and she had made sure that it would happen as he said...that is, except for Sabrina. Never had it occurred to her that Sabrina might become pregnant. The woman had been taught the witching ways the same as she. Sabrina's conception would not have happened by accident or in a careless moment.

Just under her breath Nidgha hissed, "It is not innocent. Usurper..." Extending her hands, Nidgha stood to embrace her companion. As they wrapped themselves in each other's arms, she extolled her joy over Sabrina's good fortune. "Oh, my little darling, what a wonderful surprise! What a wonderful surprise!" Placing her hand on Sabrina's belly, Nidgha asked innocently, "Sooo...are you sure you're with child?"

Sabrina grinned, "Oh yes! Oh yes! I waited until I knew for sure. I can feel it already wiggle within me. I believe it's a boy. I want so much for it to be a boy."

"Yes," Nidgha agreed, "it is a boy." She stood back smiling, "You are quite the girl, so lucky to catch the moment and make a male child for the king. You're so lucky. So lucky..."

Sabrina was giddy with joy. "Yes! Oh yes! I have so much wanted a child of my own."

"Well, well, we must celebrate this special occasion." Nidgha cooed, taking Sabrina's hands and leaning close, giving her a gentle kiss. She invited Sabrina to sit then hurried away to dig out a cruet of wine hidden in a corner of her room. Returning to her companion, she also sat, pouring the drink into two golden cups.

As she placed the stopper in the cruet, Nidgha chatted on about the wine. "I have been saving this for so long, just for a special occasion like this." She had really been saving it to celebrate the day of her own pregnancy, but now it mattered little.

Handing a cup to Sabrina, Nidgha lifted hers and offered Sabrina a drink from it, Sabrina doing the same for Nidgha. Both women giggled like two little girls, recalling the first time so many years before when they started to practice this little ritual. After each woman took a sip from her companion's cup, they were raised before drinking down the remainder. Nidgha laughed just as she extended her cup toward Sabrina's, accidentally hitting the woman's cup. Slipping from her fingers, the cup crashed to the table, spilling its contents as the cup tumbled to the floor.

Nidgha frowned, bemoaning the mess she had made. Quickly picking up a cloth, she proceeded to dab at the spill, taking her cup up, and after wiping it down, filled it up once more. The two women tapped the vessels again and drank down the wine. Nidgha then took Sabrina's hands, her eyes twinkling. "My little daring, it has been done. What a celebration will be made tomorrow when our king discovers our little secret. I just know that he will fawn over you so."

The two women went on through the morning chatting about little things, Sabrina fantasizing about future days and how she and Dungie would raise up their little one. At length, the morning passed into the afternoon hour. Eventually Sabrina rose, telling Nidgha of her need to nap before the evening banquet. "Oh, yes," Nidgha replied, "a woman in your condition needs to consider getting proper rest."

At that, Sabrina excused herself, yawning as she stood. After another hug and kiss, she departed for her chambers. Once there, she undressed and crawled under her silken covers and fell into a deep, long sleep, dreaming about her queenly morrow before drifting into forgetful nothingness.

### * * *

Nidgha was inconsolable when news reached her that Sabrina had died in her sleep. As bad as Dungie felt concerning the woman's passing, for he had come to also care deeply for her, he concentrated his attention on his queenly wife, Nidgha, providing whatever solace he could. She finally took to a sick bed, famished, after refusing food for many days. Eventually, Dungie convinced her to take a little refreshment and when she had the strength to walk again, delivered her to his bedchambers until she had fully recuperated. By the time the winters snows were retreating north, Nidgha was back on her feet, the color returned to her cheeks.

It was in this season, in the midst of a cold morning drizzle that ZaphipheRa, along with his aides, Zike and Rebottah, joined Dungie in his chambers to discuss the upcoming Atlantis campaign. The windows were shuttered tight to keep out the bone-chilling breeze while the braziers burned high, casting their glow about the room, the hidden ceiling lights having been dimmed low. In this world of dancing shadows, ZaphipheRa explained and laid out his recommendations for world conquest.

"So well you have done in dealing with the peoples of the nations round about." ZaphipheRa smiled approvingly as he addressed Dungie. "Indeed, how much better a king have you proved to be than any of us could have imagined! Under your rulership, New Atlantis has grown great in the world, but as great as your empire has become, it is but a shadow of what Destiny has promised it to be. Now listen, please, to the strategy of the priests of Horus so that to the fullness of success you will bring to this greatest of all empires. Time is short, but two years remaining before Iam descends with evil intent upon the world of men. When that hour arrives, Atlantis must be prepared to weather the storm so as to defeat Iam's great evil."

Dungie bowed his head, placing an opened hand over his heart. "My father, my success has come by following the word of your mouth, so I wait here this day on what wisdom you will offer concerning the coming campaign."

ZaphipheRa smiled, displaying the humble countenance of a man wishing to appear modest, but whose ego sees adulation as the least praise deserved. Indeed, no amount of aggrandizement would ever be sufficient. "I am pleased you have chosen to listen to my counsel. Your generals have displayed their expertise with limited knowledge, thus their recommendation to move north to secure the coastal towns of Javan, son of Japheth, is premature."

Dungie puzzled, "What would be the harm of such a move? The Navigator Guild has relocated its base of operation into eastern lands to the city of Colosuim, beyond the Straits of Hermanum in the Shemion Sea, abandoning their territories to our north to the Fates, believing the ranting of that crazy witch-woman, Tuosolmerica, about this world's destruction. Once those cities come under our banner, we can control all trade to the interior, and... and we can establish a base to move on our enemy in the East."

From a strategic standpoint, Dungie's plan was a sound one. Nailing down the coastal cities along the mainland north of Atlanticia would give Dungie control of the entire seacoast from the Ice Mountains in the North to the Ice Mountains in the South, thus securing the two great isles for Atlantis' domination. Any trade with the interior territories would then be subject to Atlantis' oversight, forcing the lucrative copper, gold, and iron trade of the MadaiGomerShon confederacy, with KroTonkinBSondie, the council head, to come under Dungie's regulation. This would bring more monies into Atlanticia's coffers, seeing that KroTonkin had convinced his clansmen to haul their treasures east over the mountains to seaports in the northern territories rather than transport them down the river into Lake Tecatucutan to the city of TittenShobontii, thus avoiding heavy tariffs Atlantis was charging on their goods there.

And this spring was a good time to carry out a campaign into the North, while some riches still remained for the taking and few warriors stood guard over those treasures. TaraHesbonie, chieftain over the house of the Genesee, the northern most Javanian tribe, along with a majority of his clansmen, had departed across the Eastern Sea to join up with Noah and her people. Few of KroTonkin's people remained either, mostly miners and transporters, their wives and children waiting for available ships to take them away. It was said that great stores of smelted iron and copper waited at seaport wharfs to be shipped east. Atlantis could seize all that wealth if its army moved quickly in the spring. Since the campaign would be to the North, Dungie could use his airpower to quickly defeat his adversary, and, with any real resistance gone in the West, he could prepare to take on Noah while she remained busy with the MooDecd, forcing her to fight a war on two fronts.

Yes, these proposals made good strategic sense, but ZaphipheRa would have none of it. He was determined to drive Egypt into subjugation as soon as possible. Potiphera, the high priest of Horus in Egypt, was becoming powerful, his popularity growing with his wealth. The House of Hormax was slowly being divided, with the priests of Babylon and Assyria leaning in support of lifting Potiphera up in glory, while the priests in western lands were choosing ZaphipheRa as their leader. There was no time to lose. Egypt must be forced to capitulate to Atlantis' rule, and return to being a subjugated nation. This could only be accomplished if Atlantis took control of the Shemion Sea. Taking Colosuim, just beyond the Straits of Hermanum, was the first necessary step, giving control of all sea traffic through those straits to Atlantis.

ZaphipheRa did not explain these matters to Dungie in this way, but appealed to his desire to gain control over the Phoenician shipping in that region, seeing that he was jealous of their lucrative trade and angry over their alliance with Noah. "Once you have taken Colosuim and Thera, the Phoenicians will have little choice other than to submit to your demands, else they will not be allowed to trade peacefully in those waters. Trust me, it will take only a few fat merchantmen sinking beneath the waves to convince them that it is wisdom to sail under our banner. Then you can force them to abandon Noah and her rebels, leaving only a few flimsy Dragon ships to defend her coasts."

So that was the battle plan. General Nuefange would take a major portion of Atlantis' armada past the Straits of Hermanum (Hercules) and, along with an army of thirty thousand soldiers, force the surrender of Colosuim. Then he would move east threateningly until taking Thera. From there he would move on Cyprus and eventually arrive at Egypt's doorstep, bringing the entire Shemion Sea region under Atlantician control. With speed, this could all be accomplished before the following winter, that is, if they moved soon enough. This meant setting sail before the spring rains were finished...a risky move, but with rich reward if it proved successful.

Dungie finally agreed to send the Atlantician navy into the Shemion Sea, but first he was determined to establish bases in the Verdi Islands as jump-off points for the eastern invasion beyond the Straits of Hermanum. This proved much more difficult than ZaphipheRa had told him it would be.

Such an undertaking as planned by the Atlantician military was impossible to keep secret. By the time General Nuefange set sail under the spring season westerly winds, Eric Tomassie had departed Colosuim for Tolaphas with the Navigator Guild and forty Dragon ships that had wintered over inside the straits, and Witch Dragon Queen Asterzoni had gathered the armies of the Verdi Isles together to defend their cities and harbors.

Upon reaching the Verdi Islands, General Nuefange found he was confronted by a formidable host, including over one hundred of the newly arrived Dragon ships from the northern territories, their archers equipped with the fearsome Egyptian composite bows. Not wishing to engage in battle while still west of the Straits of Hermanum, Nuefange sailed on toward the East, establishing a staging area for the Atlantician invasion in the Northern Verdi region, isles just off the coast of Spain, which were already allied with Atlantis.

(Author's note _: the Verdi, or the Isles of Verdi, was at that time the name given to all the islands stretching west from the Straits of Hermanum into the Eastern Sea. Tolaphas, located on the long-forgotten island of Verdai, was on a direct route between Atlanticia and the Straits of Hermanum_.)

The Tolaphas region was allied with Egypt, it being the home of ZigalAmactony, governor of Verdai Island, the home island that Tolaphas was on. He was also third cousin and close companion of TitanAmactony. Witch Dragon Queen Asterzoni maintained the Temple Swalaharah up in the hills overlooking Tolaphas Bay. The woman was ancient, nearly the age of Tuosolmerica, being born shortly after the Aphrodite Wars. She had grown up around the heroes of old, even remembering Noah, her father journeying with his family to Ararat when she was a young girl. The loyalty of the Verdai people to their queen was unquestioned, making any hostile contest for the island group a very costly one.

General Nuefange was in the lead element of over six hundred Atlantician invasion ships, King Dungie following within a month commanding the second fleet of some five hundred ships with an additional twenty thousand soldiers and sailors. Nuefange did not want to risk a confrontation that might jeopardize the Shemion Sea operations. To reduce the threat of a Verdai war, he arranged a personal diplomatic visit with the governor and Queen Asterzoni, offering his assurances to respect Verdai territories. In a show of trustworthiness and good faith, he had his oldest son, Yurlic Nuefange, remain with the governor as guarantee of his peaceful intent.

Eric Tomassie set up the Navigators' Guild at Tolaphas, wishing not to lose control of the Eastern Sea routes should the Atlantician fleets close the straits to unrestrained shipping. The Casluhim ruler, King AaHam, was already currying favor with King Dungie, having made an early peace with him after learning of his rise to power over Atlanticia. He controlled all the lands to the South of the straits and as his navy was quite formidable, had offered to support General Nuefange in the upcoming campaign. ShumonuamKasbar, king of Spain, had already allied himself with Atlantis, and was making preparation to war against the Gibir peoples to his south so as to take the fortress stronghold, the Mount of Hercules, guarding the northern flank of the straits.

Before leaving Colosuim, the Navigators' Guild gathered to discuss the creation of eastern and western divisions of their guild, the initial reason being that should Atlantis force a blockade of the straits, the two separate councils could manage uninterrupted control of the Phoenician fleets and their trading routes. HiramTiras, great nephew of TarshishPhilipTiras, better known as 'Wise King Philip', the former ruler of Atlanticia, was appointed head of the Eastern Guild Council. It was believed that being related to the much-beloved king might ease tensions between the eastern Phoenician fleets and the invading Atlanticians.

A large contingent of the Dragon fleet remained on patrol in the Verdi Isles throughout the summer months, setting up bases among the scattered islands in the northern region. The Atlanticians often found their ships being shadowed from a distance as they navigated waters surrounding the Verdai, but they were not confronted by any direct threats. Occasional Atlantician transports and trading ships were even permitted entry to Tolaphas Harbor to weather storms or carry on trade.

Dungie could not afford to retain a strong presence in the Eastern Sea if he was to achieve a rapid success with his Shemion Sea invasion, thus forcing him to act with restraint concerning the eastern Phoenician shipping in the hopes that war would not come to his back. Besides, he had plans for the following year if things went well this year. If that future campaign was successful, there would be no more threat to his north, and what Phoenicians remained would sail under the banner of Atlantis. First he must take the Shemion.

### * * *

ZaphipheRa sat back, folding his hands up against his chest. Throughout the morning, he had been entertaining the southern Hormaxian leadership. He was greatly pleased with how rapidly their construction projects were proceeding. RapadiesKaahn, high priest over the Southlands explained, "The gods, personal agents of our High Lord Zeussah, have been very helpful. With the use of their machines, stones are quarried and transported quickly and set in place even faster. In months, we are able to construct a tower of Speaking Stones. Why, entire cities rise from the jungle as if overnight! The rich land is pregnant with grains and other fruitage as are the women, providing us with limitless sacrifices for our High Lord."

Strumming his fingers together, ZaphipheRa asked, "Tell me, do the Servants, the Sky Children of the High Lord have a word from Zeussah for your northern brethren? Is he pleased with what has been accomplished?"

Rapadies grinned, "Yes, he does. The Servants tell us our High Lord is very pleased." His grin faded into a cunning smile. "But he does feel that things are running a bit slow as far as activities in the North."

Leaning forward while frowning, his hands gripping the carved, clawed ends of the chair arms, ZaphipheRa bristled. "Later I will discuss other, more private matters with you, but let this suffice for the moment. There is a power risen in the lands of that Witch Dragon woman that cloaks her world with impassable darkness so that even our eyes cannot pass beyond Ogallala. Uncanny is that woman, Tuosolmerica, to the point our divination cannot touch her. And in the Northlands, the peoples still flee to the East to gather to arms with Noahashonie, the Black Angel. Reports are that this woman and even some of the others with her have power over the demons, and that every inspired spell cast against her is thrown back seven times upon the one making it. I can no longer find a priest in those lands who will contest against the woman...indeed, against any of her people."

Tipping his head in acknowledgment, Rapadies gave sanction to ZaphipheRa's comments. "All that you say is true. Why, even the Servants of Zeussah speak about this matter with understanding." He lifted a hand, extending a finger. "Nevertheless, they say that the High Lord is not pleased and, should he have to handle the matter himself...well our...your position as chief priest over this land might be in question." Rapadies did not mention but implied that ZaphipheRa's role in the House of Hormax might be in jeopardy, he privately believing that ZaphipheRa was chief lord over the Black Warlocks, thus head of the Three Houses, having surmised this.

Although disturbed by Rapadies' revelations, ZaphipheRa could not divulge his personal concerns. He offered a smiling snarl, "I will keep pressing the matter. I do know the evil that Dragon Witch did to our High Lord. Look! Already the murderer of his bodyguard has been vanquished unto death. Should her standard bearer receive any less? No! The woman must die. But as I have spoken already, there exists no power in the hands of the priestly servants of Zeussah to accomplish this deed. More magic is what must be delivered into our hands if we are to succeed at this task."

Truth be told, both ZaphipheRa and Rapadies questioned Zeussah's ability to bring down the house of Tuosolmerica, feeling that if he had the power to do so, he would have long ago destroyed the woman and all her ilk. They believed that he hoped to clandestinely deliver the death blow to her and the other Dragons. It had succeeded in the Southlands through AnahNakaNoah's pogroms against Tuosol's kindred. The Northlands were different though, for a reason long known to the Hormaxians.

On the day of the burning, when Dancing Stones beseeched Iam to preserve this foolish people alive, and Iam answered by consuming the blaze and speaking through the thunders, Noah, the father of all mankind, declared the Northlands holy to times indefinite, even forever. He spoke through a glowing spirit that, 'Should any lord of darkness seek the pollution of these lands, the very earth will open its mouth and bring him and all those with him down to nothing.' Already ZaphipheRa and his fellow priests had witnessed the consuming of AnahNakaNoah's armies and also five hundred of Dungie's knights when the ire of the North was raised.

Even now, these Hormaxian men sat in a city that was upon holy ground. They could feel the growing, heated rage boiling up underneath them, carrying with it unease that often robbed one of sleep, but yet they could not understand the reason for their unease. With every row of blocks built upon the foundation of Horus' tower being constructed beside the palace, the uneasiness grew, every temple in the city dedicated to another of the gods chilling the bones that much more. Indeed, the anxiety was so great that even the Servants of the High Lord in the Southlands feigned excuse when request was made of them to journey into the Northlands.

Although secretly wishing to see the downfall of ZaphipheRa, with hopes of attaining his position, Rapadies replied reassuringly, "I will address your concerns with the Servants of the High Lord, explaining our...your needs." He smiled, "I'm sure they will listen to our...your pleas."

ZaphipheRa leaned back in his chair, taking again to strumming his fingers together. He did not trust Rapadies, knowing the man had cajoled and murdered his way into the position he now held. No man - for women held no place of real power in the Hormaxian House - attained to glory in the House of Hormax if he did not usurp it for himself through murder and intrigue. Still, ZaphipheRa was not overly fearful. The spy network he maintained over all the members of the Hormaxian House worked well at keeping people under his domination. And then there were his loyal Zaelocks numbering into the many dozens. They had infiltrated into every political and religious enclave that fell under his influence, their hypnotic powers keeping many kings and priests in check.

(Authors Note _: Knowing well the seductive power of a Zaelock, up to the day of his fateful encounter with Tuosolmerica, when he lost his manly abilities, ZaphipheRa would only have relations with his personally created Zaelocks or youths he, alone, possessed and had taken when virgins_.)

Rapadies was believed easily controlled, but still needed to be watched closely. By his very statements, ZaphipheRa could see the hunger in the younger priest's eyes, and should the opportunity arise to betray his Black Warlock master to gain the position for himself? Now was the moment to remind Rapadies that his glory, too, hung in the balance, depending upon the pleasure Zeussah found in him, to remind him of that without appearing menacing. That was the art of diplomacy well learnt by a man like ZaphipheRa, a reason for his long survival in the Hormaxian priesthood.

Smiling coyly, ZaphipheRa thanked Rapadies, adding, "Yes, and while you're at it, may I suggest that you explain the loss of our...your Anoofimnihe (called 'Anakim' by the northern people) at the Bantoowazzi fords. I have heard whispers of discontent over the loss of those gifts given us...you by the very hand of the Servants of our High Lord with his personal consent. I believe that upon your returning it would be a good time to salve any hurt feelings regarding the loss of those wonderful creations."

Rapadies' eyes flashed with anger, recognizing the attempted intimidation concealed in ZaphipheRa's kindly suggestion. He had not been at the fords when the Anoofimnihe were slaughtered wholesale by the fires and enemy archers. But upon ZaphipheRa's personal request of him, he had earlier gone to the Servants of the High Lord, asking for their release to Pharaoh's army. Now the dice were rolled against him. Should the head of the Black Warlocks feel threatened in any way, he might bring up the matter at some very inconvenient time, which would not bode well at all for Rapadies.

In a voice filled with sweet repose, Rapadies responded, "A suggestion well taken." He abruptly changed the subject. "Is there any other business to attend to here, or do we wish to press on to more private consultation?"

There were a few other less significant matters that needed tending to after which ZaphipheRa suggested they take a break for some refreshment. It was past the noon hour when he and a very small group of priests gathered for a more private conference. Zike and Rebottah were departed with the Atlantician invasion fleets, leaving ZaphipheRa with but two priestly Servants, one known only as 'Troubadour, the mouthpiece and herald'. The other man was a highly trusted secretary in the order of the Black Warlocks. Rapadies had with him one priestly servant from the House of the White Warlocks. There was one other man present, GulandRosser, ZaphipheRa knowing him to be counsel to the chief priest over the House of Gray Hearts.

The discussion soon turned to the biologic life forms being created in the temples, laboratories of the Southlands. Rapadies explained, "With the aid of the Servants, we are developing a new form of Anoofimnihe, one that will be able to eventually blend in with human society and even reproduce sexually with them. Oh yes, the beast-men that have been created by mixing the blood-code with men and animals has succeeded in producing a race of strange and wonderful beings, some even possessing degrees of human intelligence. But their use is limited, and they cannot reproduce sexually."

Rapadies lifted his hands, spreading them. "Of course, the Servants of the High Lord do have strange creatures that have greater abilities, some even superior to humans. The little gray beings and lizard-like, two-legged creatures are said to be very intelligent - the lizard people especially cunning. I was informed by a headman Servant that they were made by mixing the blood-code of humans and various different beasts as well as their own blood-code. Still, they must be built one at a time and, being extreme hybrids, they have no fully developed sexual organs."

Curious, ZaphipheRa asked, "So how does this new Anoofimnihe differ from the earlier human Anoofimnihe experiments? The boy, ShoShiNoahTusueeHisop, is one of our...my creations, I removing and impregnating one of his mother's eggs with a special blood-code sperm, and then replanting it in her uterus." He smiled sinisterly, "Abduction dreams work well. Keeps most of our subjects silent out of fear of not being believed."

He turned his attention back to ShoShi. "The boy is bright and cunning, with extraordinary wit, even displaying a degree of telepathy. I do believe he even has a soul, you know, the spirit of a human, the spark that separates the human from the animal, unlike those intelligent animals developed before this age. The proof of this is the boy's ability to procreate. Even though his blood-code has been mixed with that of the gods, I have found the boy to be growing active, healthy sperm. I plan to test out his reproductive powers in the near future."

Rapadies agreed then countered, "All that you say is true. For the very facts, though, that you state, the boy is inferior. He's too human. From the dissections and examinations of others of his blood-code, the Servants tell us those creatures have many degenerative weaknesses that make interbreeding impracticable, a rapid breakdown of their bodies expected. It is also believed that cross-breeding with Noadic humans will quickly soon eliminate the hybrid qualities because the added blood-code is recessive by its very nature. For these reasons, the Servants are not at all happy with these half-human inventions."

He lifted a hand again, shaking a finger. "And there are physical peculiarities about these creatures that make it impossible for them to blend in with human society. In ShoShi's case, it's his facial features and elongated skull that make the boy stand out among the people. With others, it may be their extreme stature, either big or small. Some of our blood-code experiments had led to tiny people who stand no higher than knee-height when fully mature while others may be as tall as a standing mountain bear."

ZaphipheRa politely scoffed, "These things take not away from the outstanding qualities these creatures have! Kings and priests over the peoples they can become, the humans bowing down to them as if they were gods. Why, this has already been the case."

Rapadies secretly harbored the same desires for these human hybrids, but for his personal benefit. He wanted ZaphipheRa's attention focused away from them and on to other matters, thus offering him opportunity to advance these creatures into the political and religious circles of men. Intimating that the Servants of the High Lord were unhappy with the inventions that ZaphipheRa played such a large part in developing might be the key to getting the project abandoned so that he could secretly pick it up at a future time. To do this required he be coy and not subversive or derogatory.

"Well, yes, all that you say is very true," Rapadies casually replied, "and I'm sure they will prove effective in the manner you state." He hesitated. "But I do believe I sensed a substantial deal of disappointment in the Servants when they witnessed the outstanding physical differences betrayed by the lengthy experiments. They stated the need for more clandestine creatures, ones that could blend in completely with the humans while carrying the father blood-code, their ultimate goal."

ZaphipheRa bolted upright in the chair, a startled look filling his face. The father blood-code? Lucifer's own genetics? Was it even possible?

(Author's Note: _What ZaphipheRa did not know was that the father blood-code already existed within humans. It was the very essence of humans, Adam being filled with it. The Servants needed only find a way to refine it, enhance it so that Asotos' (Lucifer's) traits would rule supreme in the hearts of men. The goal of the Servants, angelic followers of Asotos from the First Realm or Heaven, was to eliminate the blood-code of Mihai that contaminated the pure blood of their king, and replace it with Azazel's, thus producing a race of creatures that would better reflect his nature._ )

Rapadies smiled. This was the effect he had hoped for. ZaphipheRa was taken by surprise, his spies failing to inform him about these recent events. Now, if he played it right, the oversight of the ongoing Anoofimnihe project might be handed over to him, permitting ZaphipheRa more time to concentrate on other, more important matters. "Yes, the Servants are tiring of these strange creatures we are inventing in our temples, using the machines they have so generously provided. Not that they wish to have us discontinue our work, but feeling there needs to be a refocusing of importance more to reflect their goals."

Rubbing his chin, ZaphipheRa pondered the issue confronting him. If he were to leave Atlanticia to take up the temple experiments, his timeline of world conquest might well falter, something that would prove quite disastrous. If he remained in Atlanticia, assigning others the responsibility of code-mixing, he could very well lose his seat of power to the person making the breakthrough. This was something he could not risk, not risk at all.

Snapping his fingers, ZaphipheRa exclaimed, "I have no other choice than to bring those machines here to this city. We will do our experimenting here. That way I can retain the needed oversight while continuing the pursuit of conquest that must be accomplished. I will have the sky ships prepare for departure while you return to the Southlands and collect the machines for shipping."

Rapadies asked, curious, "So do you wish to bring the entire creation project to Atlanticia? The machines fill many temples and the people needed to operate them are not few."

ZaphipheRa waved him off. "Of course not! Of course not! Only our newest and best machines and most highly skilled workers need be delivered here. My interest is in the father blood-code experiments. To that I must devote my full attention. You are quite intelligent in the ways of the Anoofimnihe. Continue advancing those experiments, keeping me informed. I will take charge here."

He sat back again, sighing, contented, "That should keep the Servants satisfied for a while. Maybe they will even pay a visit upon this city once the temple is up and active."

The meeting was quickly concluded. Rapadies was on a sky-ship headed south that next morning, dozens of other ships to follow soon. In a few days he would be busy in the Southlands gathering the machines to ship north. Looking out at the landscape below, he mused over the ease of wresting the Anoofimnihe prize from ZaphipheRa. Nothing at all might come from those father blood-code experiments. His conversations with the Servants led him to that conclusion, but they had been desirous to have the Hormaxian priests attempt it. This, of course, ZaphipheRa did not know, and Rapadies intended to keep it that way.

Things had actually worked out better than Rapadies had expected. He went to Atlanticia not sure of the game or how it might play out. Now he had a free hand to work unmolested in the Southland temples to develop his army of kings, priests, and warriors that would eventually deliver him up to ruling glory over the three houses. 'Patience my friend, patience.' he thought to himself. Iam had something up his sleeve. That, the leaders in Hormax' house knew, but what exactly it was, no one was fully aware of.

He looked off toward the East. Egypt was the key to knowing the future. What was done in Egypt should be followed elsewhere. Rumors from his spies told him that more than buying foodstuffs was going on, something regarding the sea. "Stay alert, old fellow," he said aloud to himself. "The smell of death hangs on the breeze, yet with it opportunity for the person catching the wind. Look to the sunrise and follow the gull. A new world of opportunity awaits you beyond its nesting place."

### * * *

While ZaphipheRa immersed himself in constructing his crowning achievement, the New Atlantis was busy expanding its sphere of influence over the eastern world. Colosuim quickly negotiated a peace treaty upon assurance that should they do so, Atlantis would allow them to retain their own governmental officers and their trading centers. General Nuefange chose not to pursue a campaign against the Eastern Phoenician Trading Guild, but instead offered to bring them to the negotiating table in hopes of staying on peaceful terms with them, at least for the moment.

NoahhaTarshishson, former chief over the allied southern fleet during the war against AnahNakaNoah was now admiral over General Nuefange's bireme flotilla. It consisted primarily of the about four dozens light-duty, shallow-draft, wolf-hunter war galleys, sixty single and double-masted converted cargo ships called 'mariners', a dozen-shallow draft trireme battleships, and a smattering of other fast, lateen-rigged raiders. It was ordered east to Thera to obtain a peaceful capitulation of that city, Noahha being a descendent of Tarshish and also related to GishopHigamie, husband of Carthage.

Admiral Noahha did not make it to Thera before being confronted by the Athenian fleet off the isles of Greece. After a short, heated engagement in which Noahha lost three wolf-hunter war galleys, holed and abandoned, and a half dozen mariners captured, their crews slaughtered, Noahha made a hasty retreat to the South and West. Later, harassing fleets out of Syracuse contributed to the sinking and capture of another eight of the admiral's mariners.

Upon receiving news of the attacks on his eastern flotilla, General Nuefange gathered up the bulk of his armada to move east, leaving the western Shemion to Dungie's fleet that had recently passed through the Straits of Hermanum and were now negotiating Shemion waters. With crushing effect, Nuefange came down on Syracuse and its neighboring harbor cities, burning old Syracuse to the ground after slaughtering all its inhabitants and tearing down its surrounding walls. He also ordered the sinking of every boat and ship, and the destruction of every coastal city found within the federation of Syracuse city-states.

While these mop-up operations were being implemented, the general moved on toward Athens, burning and destroying every harbor city from Kithira north to Athens. He engaged the Athenian fleet in the Straits of Thermia, its shattered remnants retreating to safe harbors below Athens, where the surviving Athenian ships were later scuttled and burned. General Nuefange then moved upon the city of Athens, itself, laying siege to the upper fortress and burning the lower city.

With the Shemion Sea cleared of any real threats to Atlantician influence, Admiral Noahha moved on with a freshly equipped armada to Thera, seeking a bloodless capitulation. To his surprise, the people of Thera welcomed the Atlanticians as kindred, opening up their cities and estates to their brothers. Although being primarily of descent from the northern clans of Javan the Elder, the son of Japheth, a large portion of the populace was directly related to the Atlanticians, also sharing a great deal of culture. And with King Gishop and Queen Carthage seeking a peaceful settlement with Atlantis, a friendly alliance was quickly established.

Crete was another story. Although having family and cultural connections with Thera and the Atlanticians, King Muxuim, ruler of Crete, did not quickly submit to General Nuefange's offers of capitulation. Crete had a fleet of over one hundred war galleys manned by free Cretans as well as nearly two hundred masted cargo ships which could be converted quickly for war. To his south, riding upon open seas, an Egyptian fleet of nearly three hundred deep-water two and three-masted ships presented a show of force. These were supported by a contingent of over sixty Egyptian new galleys with bronze rams. Added to this navy were nearly three score of Noah's Dragon ships that had fled to the East from Colosuim territories after General Nuefange sailed into the Straits of Hermanum.

Although the Egyptian admiral was under orders not to provoke or engage the enemy, but to retreat if pressed, he was to push the threat of attack to the limit in hopes of dissuading the Atlantician advance.

Crews manning the Dragon ships in the eastern Shemion were a far different matter. Being primarily of the clans Skotfane and other lesser clans of Kittim and Dodanim, and loyal supporters of Noahashonie as well as many being descended from Dancing Stones and even Tuosolmerica, they were at open war with Dungie and his Atlantis Confederation, giving no quarter and taking no prisoners. Throughout that summer, the Dragon ships had harassed Nuefange's flanks, forcing him to dispatch several of the smaller war galleys to patrol the shipping routes to protect his transport ships.

Problems with Crete's and Egypt's naval threats were troubling enough, Nuefange considering the Dragon ships little more than a painful nuisance, similar to the pirates from the northern Aegean. But when news reached the general's ears that Cypress was busy building a fleet of warships and raising an army to thwart an Atlantician invasion, he chose to halt his eastern invasion for the year. He reasoned the winter season was approaching quickly, the siege on Athens was stalled, and the fleet was in need of refitting and repairs. Leaving Admiral NoahhaTarshishson's battle fleet at Thera, he withdrew the bulk of his armadas to Malta, sending an additional six thousand soldiers and forty ships to harbor below Athens.

King Dungie was not pleased with his general's decisions to not attack Crete, being in hopes of forcing a battle with the Egyptians before winter. But after consultation with his other commanders, he accepted Nuefange's decision as being the only realistic one under the circumstances. He decided to send two hundred of his war galleys to Malta, bolstering Nuefange, leaving King AaHam of Casluhim to patrol the straits and western Shemion. After receiving reports that a new fleet of over one thousand war galleys and battle ships had been built or were under construction for preparation for the upcoming spring campaigns, Dungie returned to Atlantis to wait out winter there, leaving another one hundred of his ships in the Verdi.

Plans were now begun for the upcoming spring campaigns. Of course, Dungie was intent on his northern invasion, using his new navy to deliver a crushing blow to any Dragon sea forces barring his path. When they had been swept away, he would land his countless thousands of highly trained soldiers on the beaches in front of Noahashonie's encampments. Along with other allied armies advancing overland from southern territories, Noah and her traitorous rabble would quickly be destroyed. Those he did not kill would be returned to Atlanticia to be properly punished, and Noah would finally be turned over to the priests of Hormax to receive her just due.

ZaphipheRa did not openly oppose Dungie's plans but did push as well for the invasion of Egypt. To this Dungie agreed, offering to renew his offensive on the eastern Shemion as soon as weather permitted, delivering his Verdi fleet and King AaHam's armadas to General Nuefange for reinforcement. ShumonuamKasbar, king of Spain, would supply twenty thousand warriors that AaHam would transport to Egypt along with his forces, bringing a total of over one hundred thousand men from the allied Atlantis Confederation carrying shield or bow to the Egyptian shores, excluding many thousands of sailors who could be pressed into soldiering if deemed necessary.

It was believed that Crete and Cyprus would quickly capitulate when presented with Atlantis' outstanding military might. Dungie loudly declared, "They shall quail before us, submitting quickly to our demands! By the time of the summer solstice, we will be landed upon Egypt's shores." The only problem with that was no one had bothered to inform the Cretans of Dungie's expectations. Yet winter had not even arrived before the best laid plans of men would be tossed to the winds.

It was about the time of the fall equinox that Admiral NoahhaTarshishson was taking an evening stroll along the harbor, looking out toward the open sea and his flotilla of ships nestled safely behind the harbor breakwater. The weather was unseasonably pleasant and the sky filled with a light haze that was producing a spectacular sunset.

As he stood admiring the military might under his command, watching the countless campfires burning along the surrounding beaches, he felt a rumbling vibration coming up through his feet. Soon the ground was shaking so badly, the man fell, unable to stand. In horror, he watched helpless as ships in the harbor began to dance about like tiny corks on a troubled pond. Buildings shuddered and groaned about him, a few collapsing into the streets. His ears were assaulted with cries, howls and shrieks of panicking people and animals attempting escape from the chaos.

For what felt like a hundred lifetimes, the ground shook and the waters raged. When all finally quieted, Noahha lay there stunned, arms splayed wide, clutching the pavement stones. As his senses gradually returned, the admiral struggled to his feet on wobbly legs, staring around in disbelief at the destruction wrought. He finally turned his gaze toward the harbor, astounded. Where only minutes ago water gently lapped against the quays, the now wet, silted bottom of the harbor sat exposed in the dying sunlight. Dozens upon dozens of anchored ships slanted lazily to their sides upon keels resting on muddy sandbars.

The following day, Noahha and his leading commanders took an accounting of the destruction caused by the earthquake. From a military standpoint, the biggest dilemma facing Noahha was damage to the harbor, especially the many ships now stranded on dry ground where waters had been only the day before. Many of the anchored vessels had sustained other damage as well, and several sailors and soldiers had been injured. But deaths were very few and destroyed ships rare. Overall, the major task set before Noahha was how to get his navy back in the water.

The entire land mass that Thera sat upon had risen nearly three fathoms out of the sea, leaving a large portion of Admiral Noahha's navy high and dry. Reports from across the island indicated that other Atlantician navy flotillas preparing to winter over fared little better or even worse, depending on the depth of the harbors. The good news was that nearly half the fleet was not yet settled into winter quarters, so were still in deeper waters. After assessing the damage to his military machine and beginning the salvage work of digging canals and slips to rescue his ships, the admiral turned his attention to the city. Sparing as many men as he felt could be afforded, he went about assisting Thera's residents with necessary rescue and clearing rubble-filled streets.

It was shortly after this that an aged Dragon hobbled down from the upper hills, warning the island inhabitants of impending doom. Pointing west to the bubbling waters in a nearby bay and wisps of smoke rising along the mountain peak to its east, the old man declared, "The anger of Iam is waking! He has sent a message in the sign of a shaking to warn this people to flee before his rage engulfs the world. Take to the ships and escape to the West. Beyond Malta is where you are to flee if you wish to live."

In a rant, the aged Dragon continued until the entire island was in an uproar. King Gishop finally called the old man to stand before him to hear what this was all about. The man did not bow, but shaking a finger, warned, "The woman who dances upon the stones saw this day afar off and to me sent visions of times to come. Because of her love for this people, she revealed events to me, saying, 'When the mountain shakes and the waters drain into the sea, go quickly and tell the people they must leave this land if they wish to live, for Iam has set a day of judgment for evil men. But rescue he has given this people if they will listen to this old Dragon's voice and certainly flee to distant lands.'"

The old man lowered his gaze, tears filling his eyes. "And then she was no more...gone and murdered by evil men."

King Gishop did not hesitate, but took the old man at his word. He asked, concerned, "You say we must flee now, but it is coming on toward winter. The sea will be unkind to us and we...me and my people well may drown in the foaming winter tempest! What say you should we do?"

The aged Dragon stood erect. "Should you listen to my voice and faithfully obey all that you have been commanded to do, then Iam will becalm the seas so that you and all who go with you will get away safe." then cautioned, "Do not wait for the summer breeze, for time will not be kind to you should you wait. Look and see! Dark and foreboding are the coming days. Should you be found upon the sea and not in distant safe harbor...well, then your blood will be upon your own heads. Iam will be innocent in that case."

King Gishop immediately went to Admiral Noahha, begging that he assist the inhabitants wishing to leave Thera and surrounding villages on the island in escaping the certain, coming destruction. Admiral Noahha was a man taken to many gods, but he looked at Iam as the greatest among them, and he revered the Dragons, almost worshiping Dancing Stones. So it was that he sent fast packets to Malta, informing General Nuefange of what had occurred and requesting permission to assist the people of Thera in making their escape. In the meantime, he began readying his available transports to be put at Gishop's disposal.

About this time, a large Phoenician fleet of cargo ships, lightly laden, arrived at Thera in hopes of wintering over there after delivering the last of the grain harvest to Egypt. Trusting that the aged Dragon was speaking truth, and always out to gain added wealth, they contracted to make a winter journey across the Shemion Sea past Malta, delivering Gishop's people to the northern shores far to the west of Egypt. Gishop and Carthage, along with their families, took the lead, displaying faith in the old man's words, departing on the first wave of ships leaving Thera.

The winter proved to be the mildest in memory, the Shemion Sea washed with warm, gentle breezes that made for excellent sailing. Gradually Thera and the surrounding island villages emptied, leaving Admiral Noahha and his remaining army as he continued his salvage work. Although General Nuefange approved Noahha's decision to assist Gishop and his people, he insisted that Atlantis must keep a strong military presence on the island, at least until after the spring campaigns.

So it came about that the admiral set to work having his soldiers make repairs to some of the less damaged buildings on Thera, to not only house his men but also make preparations for Nuefange's soldiers in the spring. Most of the island's inhabitants were already departed except for some local merchants eager to cash in on the soldiers' wages, and for a rather healthy prostitution trade that Thera had a reputation for. There were also many hundreds of the poor or newly released slaves who remained behind to bask in their newfound wealth. Larders filled with foods of every kind as well as abandoned mansions were far too alluring for many of these people who had labored for so little for so long. They would trust to the gods that the aged Dragon had too much sun on the brain and the island's poor were now being rewarded with the much deserved riches so long withheld from them.

### * * *

Off to the west of Atlanticia, Baalath was stumbling sleepily toward the door after being roused from a sound rest. Opening it, the man stood, mouth agape, at seeing Tuosolmerica standing on the other side, all but her eyes wrapped up in flaxen and furs. After stepping into Baalath's house and apologizing for such a late night intrusion, Tuosol shook dry flakes of snow off her wrappings. Pulling off her woolen scarf revealed the rosy red cheeks of a woman who had journeyed many long hours in the cold. Smiling, she mused, "Winter has come early to us this year, but I see this storm as little more than the Ice Mountains flexing their muscle with a warning of coming tidings. I feel a maiden's coming summer breath upon my neck after this storm leaves us a few days hence."

Taking Tuosol's outer garments, Baalath encouraged the woman to sit as he hurried to stir the fire and place over it a pot of water. "Tea will fix you up fine and chase that chill from your bones." He stood up erect, eyes wide, turning to Tuosol, asking, "You would like some tea?"

Tuosol nodded heartily, "It's been a long ride from Ausalmerica and I've stopped but once or twice at some lonely farmhouse to rest up a bit. Tea is good for the soul, and it wakes a numb mind up to the business at hand."

Baalath wrinkled up his face in thought, slowly pulling on his beard before making reply. "You do not come from the mountains on a whimsical fancy, especially when King Dungie has put a price on your head should you be found here in this city south of the Eastern Pike. You should have sent for me instead of delivering yourself here."

Tuosol was about to make reply when a chattering commotion filled the house. Three excited girls from the ages of six to fifteen hurried into the room, all in a tizzy over what might be going on at this late hour. At the same moment, a sleepy-eyed woman dressed in a woolen night shirt stepped hesitantly from Baalath's bedroom into the firelight. The woman looked at Tuosol, then quickly at Baalath, and then back at Tuosol.

Tuosol smiled. "Hello, Corith. Have you been doing well?"

Corith was a woman of sandy-brown hair and naturally pale skin, showing the age and wear of a person who had birthed many children and labored hard to provide for her ever-needy family. The stress of the past few years had aged her even more, from the loss of her mother and two oldest daughters at the battle of Ogallala, her own violent rape at the hands of those same invaders, to the loss of her father and a son at the battle of Mounds, and to the raising up of a granddaughter. Corith's family all dead, the woman had struggled doggedly to keep what remained of her family together. Seeing who the person was greeting her distressed the woman.

Corith frowned, not in anger but dismay. "You walk under a shadow moon in a mist filled with death and despair. A messenger of gloom and foreboding you are, witch of distress and bad tidings. Should your feet find the Kriggerman's door, he would quail in fear at your very presence. I fear your visit upon us this night is little better."

Baalath began to make reply to Corith but Tuosol stopped him. "Corith is right to see me as a bad omen, for often I deliver news that is unwelcome and distressful." She looked at the woman. "I do not come to deliver a message of doom, but to take counsel with your husband... and with you, if you so choose."

"Mighty important must the counsel be for you to take such risks with the weather and all. As I said..." Baalath started.

Tuosol interrupted, lifting a hand. She looked at the children and then at Corith. "What I say is important, but..."

Inquisitively, the youngest girl asked, "Who is the woman, Mother? Is she a friend or foe?"

Calling the girl over and wrapping an arm about her, Corith replied, "The woman is just a friend of the family who is in need of a cup of tea just a friend." She then sent the children off to bed, closing the door behind them.

Corith took a stool beside Tuosol, Baalath sitting after placing three cups on the table and filling them with steaming tea. In the flickering hearth light, Baalath asked, "So what brings you out on this cold, snowy night?"

Tuosol reached out and took Baalath's hand. "You, my friend, must not pay any more visits upon me or my city unless it is on official patrol with your soldiers. Indeed, do not take to the North Road unless it is on king's business. Your life may well depend upon it."

Surprised, Baalath asked what the trouble was.

Glancing back and forth into the others' eyes, Tuosol answered in a hush, "News has reached my ears that Dungie has sent spies into the western and northern lands...good for nothing men and women who care only for gold and glory. He seeks news of traitors in his camps. Any who speak with fondness of Dragons or even offer public praise to his father are at risk."

A chill ran down Corith's back as she stared into Baalath's face. Reaching out and patting her hand, Baalath looked at Tuosol, concerned. "But my people are loyal, holding fast to the ways of Dodanim and being faithful to Iam."

Tuosol cautioned, "For the moment...for the moment... Yet should every child of Ogallala remain true to word and deed, how can one put trust in all, every merchant coming up the South Pike, every new soldier arriving for duty, every friendly visitor from across the eastern mountains. Dare you trust your life to their friendly smile or hearty handshake when deceit and betrayal ride upon the breeze?"

Baalath argued, "But the king trusts me with his own army here, in this city, I holding the line between him and you, the man fearing your intrusion into his lands."

Tuosol sadly confessed, "Many are the allies you have, my friend. But also are there many enemies you have made, especially due to your loyalty to me. How do I know the things about which I speak? Allow me this: not all in the king's house are as loyal to him as they are to Dancing Stones and her kind. At great peril they have delivered these messages to me, telling me that your name has been bandied about in the council chambers by jealous and good-for-nothing men."

"So what are we to do?" Corith asked, desperation growing in her voice. "Winter is already upon us, so flight to the East is beyond our reach until spring. Yet if my husband is already a marked man, how will we get away safe?"

"How you will escape to your final destiny, I do not know. But eventually from this land you must take your leave." Tuosol answered. "Food we have in the mountains to feed many people, but I do not know if we shall even survive the rage of Iam in his hour of revenge. If, in the end, you must flee to the mountains, I will have a resting place provided there for you and all that are yours. But over the mountains to the sea is where you should go. It will be a much safer place for you."

Putting her empty cup on the table, Tuosol explained, "For now I must become a foul-smelling thing to you and all who are yours." Then looking at Baalath, she declared, "You must stand against me in the gate, condemning me in front of all the men in this city. This will save not only your life, but the lives of many of your loyal kinsmen. Should all the city hate me, then no harm will be delivered to it by the hand of Dungie. He will leave you alone and be about other business, joyous over your conversion."

Baalath refused to be part of such a treasonous act. Tuosol was adamant and insistent, replying, "There is no other way! Promise me that you will speak with loathing about me in the streets so that any stranger or listening ear will hear so as to deliver to King Dungie's ears that you have become my enemy. It is not a request."

Baalath finally surrendered to Tuosol's demands then asked, "What foul deed do I declare into the ears of the townspeople? You have done no harm to any of us. What would be so wicked an act to make you quickly evil?"

Leaning forward, Tuosol explained in little above a whisper, "Your youngest, your granddaughter, Tara...when all the children are asleep, you are to rouse her and bring her to me along with her personal things. With me the child must go into the mountains, to Ausalmerica. Safe I will keep her there until we can meet up in future days. But to the townspeople you will say that I came in the darkness of night and stole the child from you as payment for a debt not owed. Say that I cast a spell on you so that you could not move, warning you not to follow or else I should send fire down from the skies and burn to nothing you and any in your band."

Tuosol leaned back, sighing sadly, "In this way, all the people will come to hate me, yet also be in fear of me. Trust me, my friend, many lives will be saved if you will do this thing."

Baalath frowned, rubbing his head in anguish. "Rather would I face a dozen Anakim with no shield or blade than to betray a dear companion in such a way, for everyone here will certainly hate you should I say that you have done such a thing."

Tuosol countered, "The survival of your wife and children, kinsmen, and all your loyal clansmen in this city depends on you doing this thing. It is for just a little while before all things are set right."

Baalath argued, "But the people..."

Tuosol interrupted, glaring toward the door as if seeing into the city, "Let them breathe in the Dragons. Have them choose their sides."

Baalath and Corith looked into each other's distraught eyes, finally agreeing to do just so. When the gray light of morning dawned cold over Ogallala, a plaintive cry rose into the sky as Baalath woke to find his cherished granddaughter missing, stolen by the vengeful witch queen, Tuosolmerica. The city rose in tumult at hearing the evil done to their chieftain, 'Tuosolmerica' becoming a word for cursing and oath making.

### * * *

The news was ominous for Noahashonie's people. Egyptian supplies had slowed to little more than a trickle over the past summer because of Atlantis' invasion of the Shemion Sea. Phoenician traders had been reluctant to or even outright prohibited from making passage through the Straits of Hermanum with any goods bound for northern ports outside the sphere of Atlantis' influence. It was also reported that King ShumonuamKasbar of Spain was forming alliances with other southern tribes to make a march on Noah's people in the spring, this to coincide with Dungie's thousand ship invasion from the sea. While it was true that a vast crowd of westerners were settled here and many of them were willing to take up the battle, Noah's army of veteran soldiers was outnumbered by five to one if all the Atlantician alliances held together.

There were some bright spots in all this gloom, though. The clans of Kittim and Tarshish from the western lands had joined forces with their brothers across the sea. With them came hundreds of trading ships and fast-oared boats of similar design to the Dragon ships. Added to this were hundreds of new coastal and deep-draft fighting ships, square and lateen rigged, and fitted out for rowing. They were sleek and fast, being of a new design that made them almost skip over the water. Added to the ships' defenses was the 'new bow', a fixed, mounted weapon that could shoot a flaming arrow as tall as a man over twenty furlongs with deadly accuracy.

The eastern Germanic tribes, fearing an intrusion from the advancing SinoAlSian armies, had allied themselves with Noah, allowing her to pull a greater portion of her armies to the South. The Talking Stones told her that Crete and Cyprus were not submitting to General Nuefange's threats, and were preparing for military action this upcoming spring. Also, they spoke of the stance that Queen Asterzoni and Governor ZigalAmactony of Verdai Island had taken to defend their territories against Atlantician intrusion.

One other bit of good news from the Talking Stones was that TaraHesbonie, chieftain over the House of the Genesee, had closed down his mining operation and was departing western lands with the remainder of his people in the early spring, ahead of any Atlantician attack. This pleased Noah. The clans of the Genesee were hardened miners and outdoorsmen. They had proved themselves to be fearsome warriors at the battle for the fords, and Noah expected little less from them now.

Still, Noah was dismayed. Other than the few allies noted, she and her people stood alone against the greatest powers on Earth. Egypt was a stalwart ally, but it was so very far away and it had problems of its own, cut off from providing assistance because of the Atlantician navy barring its path. It was true that Noah's people had built strongholds in the hills, but they were defensive positions only good for as long as the food supply lasts. Noah understood that good defensive positions would only prolong any war with Atlantis, resulting in defeat in the end. With those thoughts in mind, she took counsel with her chieftains and older men.

At length, HuushBonn stood and addressed the council. "My brothers, wisdom abounds here, and many wise words have been spoken. I have listened carefully and have come to agree with our Queen Noahashonie and this council. When war comes to us, we will be hard-pressed to hold all the territories taken from the MooDecd." He lifted his hands flat, slowly bringing them together. "Compressing our holdings will enable us to carry a more compact battle line, but if we are to retain our alliance with the tribes to the East, we must remain firmly established there as well. And I also agree that fighting a defensive war is very dangerous, yet no answer have I heard to show how it can be different." He raised a finger, shaking it. "Allow me then, please, to offer these simple suggestions and explain why I believe them to be effective."

Heads nodded around the council house, its fire blazing bright midst the wafting smoke of scented pipe-weed.

"Good!" HuushBonn grinned, continuing, "I am a Great Dragon and many a war has this Dragon seen. True, I am but a spark in life compared to Tuosolmerica and our beloved Dancing Stones, but nonetheless I am aged by many years beyond the lifetime of the common man. Now I will tell you, not all the Dragons have departed this world. Those of us who still do live and breathe stand at your side in this coming hour of decision. Your fate is our fate. With us are machines of war gifted us by the Sky Children, the air ship, the gunn, and the fire-stone. There are also those taught in the ways of the long, smoking tube that shoots fire and rage. So it is, anything that the demon priests have to use against us, we have an answer in return."

The aged Dragon began to slowly pace. "Our people do not hide in holes or cower behind walls of stone. Should we do such a thing then all hope will be lost, for our hearts cannot survive such captivity. So then, we must go on the offense. To make an offensive campaign successful, it is wise to know the land upon which one fights. For us, we have not advanced beyond the territories of the MooDecd, and do not know the lay of the land beyond those borders. So it is that we must prepare our offense to come after we have compressed our holdings so that the enemy finds itself in unfamiliar territory, land that we have come to already know well."

He pointed toward the sea. "On the other hand, our seafarers have built ships that can find home in the dark of night and in the middle of a blizzard snow. They laugh at the tempest and charge the frothing sea. Lone wolves they are, hunting by themselves or in packs, devouring the weak and afraid. Send out our raiders, not in armadas such as the enemy does, but alone and in packs. Send them out to hunt down and harass any who dare intrude into our waters. The ships of Atlantis need to fight together en mass as they seek to bring their forces down upon us as if being one giant cave bear. They hem in their foe, trapping him in cramped and narrow places.

"May I suggest this? Send a hundred winter raiders to attack the enemy as they sleep in their winter quarters while waiting for spring. Burn their ships as they sit helpless in their cradles. Destroy their sea ports and docks. Raise the ire of the king of Atlanticia so that he will begin his campaign prematurely. Then we shall meet him upon the open sea where the wind and storm are our friends. There we will not engage the herd, but scatter them, picking off the weak and slow. There we shall fight them in the storm, the wind, and the tempest."

Looking toward the South, HuushBonn added, "We have many allies in the Verdi. Have them begin their war with Atlantis now, this winter. Tomassie rules over a hundred Dragon ships in that arena. This is not the time for him to think of trade goods and business deals. It is the time for us to strike like a viper before it has been heard. Our brothers, the Phoenicians, must surely know their days are numbered if Atlantis continues to rule. They must pick up the bow and the blade and join us. It is also for their very survival, too." At that, HuushBonn quietly returned to his place and sat.

The council house suddenly filled with quiet debate and discussion, everyone talking to the other all at the same time. For some, HuushBonn's recommendations were good and wise, but to others it was like the crackle of burning thorns. A house divided the people were becoming.

Suddenly a gust of wind blew open the heavy door flap, catching the fire up in an angry vortex, sending flames racing up through the hole in the council house roof. When the blaze had returned to its glory, why there to everyone's shock stood the Lady all wrapped in the furs of the mountain wolves. Some of the people fell upon their faces, while others were upon their knees, looking up, clasping hands in reverential speech.

Noah stood and approached the Lady, taking her hands. Looking up into the Lady's eyes, the woman cooed sweetly, "Sodasonie, my queen, I have missed you so."

Sodasonie bent forward, kissing Noah on the forehead. She then asked her to sit for short was the time and important were the matters to be discussed. Spreading her arms wide to silence the crowd, Sodasonie addressed the gathered company. "Men, my brothers, my sisters, it is not with good tidings that I have arrived this night. Foul is the air and putrid is the water that rises from the South. A thousand hearts burn on the altars of Atlanticia this eve, to give to the lord of the demons a blessing because he has made an appearance in that very city."

The Lady's face shone grave, her jaw set. "No longer is it time for debate. But for this very hour were you born, to hold back the blackness for but a moment until the rage of Iam sweeps this world clean. Your time is short to prepare for this coming darkness when death kisses death, and hope flees us all. But it is for only a heartbeat that this is expected of you."

Sweeping her hand about, she declared, "Iam has given you an army to defeat this coming foe, and come it will. Upon your fields, in your villages and towns, all about you, is a people with steeled hearts and willing hands. Now is the time to use them, every man, woman and child of them. Make weapons for yourselves of wood, iron, and stone, the sling and the spear, axes of copper, whatever is in your hand. Prepare your people to fight! Rest not this winter before warm hearths, but prepare for war. Teach the virgin how to kill, the child how to murder, the mother how to destroy. Throw fear away and build hearts of hatred for a demon enemy that is bent upon your destruction. By doing this you will live."

She raised a hand high. "Look! The hour of Iam is coming like a panting beast! It will crush and devour all living things. See and listen, for Iam has said, 'To the king of Egypt I do give the glory to preserve peoples' souls alive, but to sons of the Cave Bear and all allied with them, I give the glory to keep freedom alive.'"

Then pointing a finger at the crowd, Sodasonie confessed, "If but just one of you should remain alive, standing against this demon horde to its defeat, then shall Iam's word prove true, and the world will not fall into darkness and slavery, and a returning to your world left behind will your sons and daughters see."

The Lady lifted her hand toward the opening in the roof. "My people fight a never-ending war against all these forces of evil, but for you it is asked that you fight for only an hour. We, for our part, will not abandon you so that the hand of demon host will come against you. Then please do not abandon us, so that we might bring our fight to its finish..."

A commotion arose in the moot hall to the point that those in the surrounding houses came to see what the matter was all about. Then, as if with one voice, all the people in the council house promised unto death to do all the things the Lady requested from them. Gradually those in attendance settled down, allowing Sodasonie to conclude. She called Noahashonie to her side, Hyhoset tagging along with her mother. She then admonished the people, "Listen to all the words this woman speaks to you regarding this matter. The 'Black Angel' is not called thus merely because of her prowess in battle and insight in war. No, also she is called an 'angel' because the blood of the Sky Children is strong within her. Yet, too, she carries the blood of the god over the demons, giving her power to discern all things good and evil."

The people were stunned silent.

Before they came to their senses, Sodasonie pointed toward Hyhoset. "See Hyhoset, slayer of demons! Do not fear the enemy at your gate, for even the gods will quail in dread because of this child. Power beyond normal belongs to these two women. Mountains will shake and seas will flee in fright. Nations will rise and nations will fall at only a word spoken by them and their kind."

And their kind? What was this all about? Were the gods, themselves, walking among men of clay? How could this be? Noah and Hyhoset were born of flesh - Hyhoset upon a wind-tossed sea, and was not Noah's family living among them? And what of their kind? Were there truly others with power to overthrow even demons?

Sodasonie did not answer any of these questions, leaving things well enough said for the moment. The important matter was settled. The children of Javan, the son of Japheth, were resolute in standing against Atlantis and its demonic priests and gods. For only an hour must they stand the storm... an hour. The spirit was willing. Now the Lady must instruct their leader in all the ways of the North.

Lifting a hand, Sodasonie again hushed the crowd. "More you will learn in coming days. Enough have you seen to carry you through the future storm. I am an angel of light and glory sent here to teach wisdom to the one leading you. Now I must take counsel with her so that the wisdom of the North will lead you on to victory."

When she was finished speaking, many were the people who rushed in upon Sodasonie to look into her glorious face and touch her flesh. The Lady did not enjoy such adoration, but felt it necessary at this time. The sons of this troubled hour needed to know that the one standing before them was not an apparition or fleeting spirit but a real person, a divine mistress, a Sister of the Bloodwind, a fellow being with a heart, soul, and flesh. For these people, the Realms Above were not some mystical world filled with shadow ghosts and wispy visions. No, indeed, to them the Realms Above were worlds filled with creatures much like themselves, with hopes and desires such as theirs, filled with love, hate, and passions such as their own. These were the gods of this people, not to be worshipped, but to be revered and looked up to.

Gradually the council members departed for home and hearth. Finally, Noah turned to Sodasonie, asking that the two take their leave. With twinkling eyes, Noah asked, "So does the Lady wish to take her ease in my humble cabin this night? The room is cozy, the hearth fire warm, and furs aplenty. Allow me to bathe you in a scented bath and then we can share some quiet moments together. Is this something that my lord will do?"

Sodasonie smiled approvingly, "I had hoped for as much. Many are the things I must share with you before the dawning...but also I do remember your kisses that night outside the tiny hut. Will you allow me to share another kiss with you this evening, possibly even a dream or two?"

Laughing, Noah took Sodasonie by the hand, Hyhoset by the other, and departed the council house. Exiting the house, Noah looked up into the star-filled night sky, asking as she mused, "Do you think that I may find a home up there one day...with you and your kind, I mean? After all, you say I have your blood within me."

Sodasonie grinned, "One day... if that is what you wish for at that time."

The two women laughed as they hurried off to Noah's tiny cabin.

### * * *

Dungie angrily crumpled up the parchment and threw it on the floor. Staring into the flaming brazier, he cursed under his breath, his face filled with consternation. What had begun as a glorious winter was now turning into a foul, foreboding season filled with helpless frustration. Little could the man do until the spring breezes swept away the winter chill and he could set his armada afloat to bring this rabble to a finish. Noah would pay for the atrocities being committed against the innocent and helpless citizens of Atlantis...pay dearly!

The winter season had begun with festive celebration. On the day the sun was reborn, Zeussah, the principle magistrate over all the earth, High Lord counselor to King Lucifer, himself, had paid a visit to this resplendent city, giving his blessing to all that was being accomplished to his and his king's glory. As gifts he had delivered into his priests' hands the magic to build more powerful machines for war to the point of teaching them how to harness the secret energy hidden within yellow rocks buried in the western mountains.

For twelve glorious days, the people had celebrated before the tower of Horus that stood beside the royal palace, offering hundreds of sacrifices up to their high god and his angelic grandees. On the twelfth day, the most resplendent of all celebrations took place, with Zeussah sitting the center throne, Dungie seated to his right and ZaphipheRa stationed on his left. From the rising of the winter sun until its falling behind the western hills, three thousand maidens were sacrificed to the gods upon twelve great stones surrounding the tower's uppermost platform, each child ceremonially drugged and then raped before having her heart torn from her chest to be burned on the altar that was placed in the center of the high platform in front of Zeussah and the other honored guests. From morning until night, this was done. All the while, the crowds below feasted on the child-maidens' roasted flesh while drinking wine mixed with their blood. For Dungie, this was acceptable, especially considering the source from where the children had been gathered. Otherwise he chose not to indulge in the blood feast except in the opening ritual.

On the day following, Zeussah took Dungie and ZaphipheRa into his sky ship, taking them so high up that they could see the circle of the earth. As Dungie stared in wonder at the world far below, Zeussah approached, placing a hand on his shoulder. Dungie turned and saw Zeussah, his hood pulled back, standing there in radiant glory. Oh, so very handsome he was, majestic in beauty! Dungie swooned at his handsomeness.

"My son," Zeussah began, a fatherly smile growing on his face, "you have become a despicable thing in the eyes of Iam. That is a good thing, for it lifts you up in the eyes of my people. You have become someone notable to the one who sits on the high throne over this world, the Shining One, Lucifer himself, the light of the world."

Looking Dungie in the face, Zeussah lifted a finger. "There is just one other thing that the Shining One requests of you so that he will know for a certainty that you are a loyal, trustworthy servant of his."

Staring with eager anticipation into Zeussah's face, Dungie anxiously asked, "What, my father, is requested of me? Whatever you may ask, I will do."

Smiling, Zeussah slowly took a step back. "It is such a little thing. My son, do this one little thing for your lord and all that you see before you" he swept his hand wide, presenting the world to Dungie, "will become yours. Just this one little thing...you are to bow down before me and do an act of worship... uh, through me to the light of the world. This one thing..."

Dungie did not hesitate, falling to the floor and prostrating himself before Zeussah and promising his lasting fealty. Zeussah looked down grinning, "Good! Good!" He then turned away and sat, pulling his hood back over his head. "Less than a year you have to conquer the host Iam has sent to defeat you. Egypt must fall and the children of the Elkhorn must be crushed, and the sons of the Cave Bear must be wiped from off the surface of the earth, their atrocities against my creation in the eastern lands revenged. Swear to me that you will do these things and a kingdom to times indefinite I will give to you."

"I will do it! I will do it!" Dungie exclaimed. "Your enemy is my enemy, your foe mine. Not a soul of theirs will I allow to survive."

With this oath, Dungie disowned his very heritage, he being among the sons of the Cave Bear. It pleased Zeussah to hear the man declare it so. How easy it was to get people to betray their very birth line. A little power and glory and poof! ...a greedy man will deny his own soul. At that, the High Lord ordered the sky ship returned to Atlanticia. Stepping onto the palace courtyard, he again reminded Dungie of his oath, Dungie again promising to do what was demanded of him.

(Author's Note _: Had Dungie not been filled with so must lust for power and glory, he might have wondered why a sky god asked a man to carry out such a task when all the might of the Heavens he possessed in his machines of war. Had he pondered matters, his heart might have filled with dread, realizing that Zeussah feared contesting against the demon chasers who walked about in the flesh of men. Aphrodite, Noahashonie and Tuosolmerica already had power over wicked angels, and Zeussah could sense that same power growing in others as well. An arrow might pierce the heart, or a blade extinguish the life of these people, but he had no weapon to wield against them and yet live. So it was humans must do his dirty work_.)

While Dungie basked in his kingly glory, overseeing preparations for the upcoming spring campaign, Nidgha revealed to him more astounding news. Around mid-winter she declared her pregnancy. Even though Nidgha's unborn was a girl, Dungie declared the curse of Odethbethel broken, and he wasted little time tormenting his mother with heaps of verbal abuses and sexual assaults, this time delivering her up to certain royal grandees and courtiers for their enjoyment and entertainment. All these things his chief counselor had not been forced to witness. Dungie had sent Chuphoe and his wives, Juliet and FooShii, and her son, ShoShi, off to TittenShobontii in the days before Samyaza's arrival, fearing that the man or possibly more so Juliet might create an unpleasant situation for him. A good thing, for the High Lord would have for a certainty realized who Juliet was. Chuphoe would not be returning to Atlanticia again until just before Dungie was already standing upon the heaving deck of an Atlantician battle galley, Dungie having lifted him up to keeper over the royal treasury.

It was not many days after that the young king received the disappointing news written on the crumpled parchment. A previous morning's report was made that winter ice floes were extra heavy this year and found much further south than expected, bringing into question the timing of the spring campaign against the northern isles. Then there was news that the Eastern Sea Phoenician trading fleets had abruptly abandoned their safe harbors in the Verdi and disappeared into northern waters. Then he had been told that Queen Asterzoni and Governor ZigalAmactony had filled ships with stone and sunk them in at the entrance of Tolaphas Harbor, then had burned its works including the city's public buildings and warehouses, moving its people and supplies into the surrounding hills. News was that the same was being done in all the Verdai territories.

Now report had arrived that raids were being made on Verdi coastal towns and harbors by Dragon ships from the North. Some of these raids had even been carried out against his own military encampments, with harbor docks and ships being set ablaze. Most disconcerting was the number of war galleys destroyed sitting in their slips. Several of the warships sent out to hunt down the Dragon ships did not return, forcing General Nuefange to increase the size of the patrols. Nuefange also placed the army on alert, sending several companies to guard his important Verdai harbor towns.

Dungie clenched his jaw in anger. What was it with that little whore? An ocean away and she was making a mockery of him! He should have strangled the life from her the first night he bedded the creature. Well, he would teach her a lesson or two, the man smiling as he envisioned the woman's screams as he watched ZaphipheRa slowly work her with his wonderful torture tools. He slammed his fist into an opened hand in an explosive show of contempt for Noah and those abandoning him in support for her, seething, "I will crush them, destroy them all! No grave or memorial tomb will be found for any betraying me!"

There was one glimmer of good news that brightened Dungie's day. That Dragon witch, Tuosolmerica, had finally stepped over the line and turned the people against her by kidnapping Baalath's granddaughter on a pretense of his indebtedness to her over some trivial matter. From Ogallala south to the Bantoowazzi and east to the mountains, the people were raising up a cry, denouncing her. Even Baalath, a man whose loyalties Dungie was beginning to question, declared the Dragon woman an enemy of Atlanticia and the king over the house of Dodanim, Dungie. At least he could now take his ease concerning the peoples to his west and not fear a revolt coming from them.

"My Lord and King..." ZaphipheRa's clear, cheerful voice interrupted the moment. Stepping into the chamber, hands humbly clasped and wearing a huge smile, the priest offered additional salutations, finally asking, "Does it go well with the new father this day? The gods have been graciously kind in the many gifts they have bestowed upon their loyal son. Is he pleased with his presents?"

Frowning politely, Dungie answered, "With the hearts and blood of maidens and men I have purchased those things, they not being gifts at all, but payment made nearly to the level of extortion! I do not wish to give you more firstlings of my flock for you to immerse in your blood sport with gods and beasts. Has the price been paid already not enough?"

ZaphipheRa's countenance did not change, the man cheerfully answering in return, "The High Lord's royal visit necessitated such celebration. But he has long departed and, for the moment, those few who remain penned in the prison holes will serve our purposes." He cautioned, "The great fanged and horned behemoths must be fed. It is wiser to use a few of the prison population to tend to their needs than to waste fresh cattle that are more fit for the peoples' tables. Besides, the sport of the fight in the public arenas makes for a satisfied populace, especially when winter snows and chill winds make for idle hands."

Dungie agreed. "You're right, of course. The Southland beasts fair poorly here in this foul weather anyway. Keeping them well fed and active makes for vibrant creatures, and they are a favorite at the games. Still, what I was meaning is that I, too, have paid for this honor bestowed upon me. I have worked diligently to build this city...this empire. Atlantis has not become the crown jewel of the world by itself. My hand has been busy making it so. Look! In only a few short years, it has gone from a dwelling for the denizens of Iam worshipers to a city born of the light for Horus and his father, Lucifer. I wish to take some credit for that."

ZaphipheRa did not falter, knowing the need to satisfy a proud heart. 'Do not crush the spirit of a vain man, so that his pride turns not to hate.' Wise words of Zeussah when he departed ZaphipheRa's company some time ago. He bowed ever so slightly. "Who in your kingdom would disagree with such a humble statement? So much more you have done to make this city so resplendent. No, no, your servant has come to you with no such request for more children for our altars. I have come to inform you that Zike and Rebottah have risked the winter seas to make an early return to you, in order to lend their support for the upcoming campaign."

Dungie raised an eyebrow, wondering, "Has the need for the company of your most distinguished counselors become greater than the needs my lieutenants have in the East? What possibly could be of such importance as to make those brave souls risk the winter storms to make such a dangerous passage back to Atlanticia?"

ZaphipheRa ignored Dungie's slight. After all, it was commonly accepted by many that the priests of Horus somehow always managed to avoid truly dangerous situations. And since AnahNakaNoah's trouncing at the Bantoowazzi, survivors of that order had been extra cautious at keeping out of danger's way. Still smiling, he answered, "My Lord, many are the servants of Horus who reside with the eastern armies of Atlantis. But Zike and Rebottah are needed here at this time, to be with my king and to journey with him when he leads his army against the evil men in the North."

Dungie was surprised. "I believed that my most trusted counselor was to come with me. Have you chosen differently than I have understood?"

Putting on the most penitent of appearances, ZaphipheRa begged Dungie's indulgence in this one small matter, explaining, "Necessity has been placed upon me by the High Lord, himself, to continue my work on his new... uh... experiments to which he gives the highest priority." He lied. Zeussah cared little about it. It was a priority of the Hormaxians. "It is because of my personal involvement that I must remain behind in Atlanticia to continue on with the project."

He lied again, maintaining oversight of the project, but not having the depth of scientific understanding to carry out the temple experiments. His real concerns were fearing that a breakthrough might be made while he was absent, the overseeing priest when that occurred gaining importance in the eyes of his fellow priests, and possibly threatening ZaphipheRa's power.

This did not set well with Dungie. "My expectation was to have you at my side to personally deliver the magic of your coven against the enemy. I would think that you would want to be there when that Dragon witch wife of mine is taken prisoner. And you seemed extremely eager especially when I offered to also hand over her child, Hyhoset. Is this not important to you anymore?"

"Oh, yes!" ZaphipheRa exclaimed. "Rather would I be with you. Your mission is of greatest importance to our High Lord. So it was that when I was directed to work on our temple project, I politely protested. Zeussah would not hear a word of it, but ordered me to stay in the city with the work assigned me."

Dungie harrumphed, "It is the wind that ever drives the storm clouds, but the cold defeating the heated day that creates the wind. Your people are well practiced at bringing the cold darkness so that the invisible winds obey your commands." He shrugged, resigned. "Choose it as you will. I will attempt to hold your treasures promised safe and deliver them back to you. Without your guidance, I'll do the best I can."

This reply rankled ZaphipheRa, knowing it to be a veiled threat that should things go badly, Dungie might not make good on his promise to hand over Noah and Hyhoset to him. Dungie smiled, his comment having the desired effect. He faced ZaphipheRa. "It is a bargain that you and I have struck. What is good for me is also good for you. Do not think my memory short. You stood beside AnahNakaNoah as long as it remained convenient for you. Somehow he and you managed escape. Then, when it became obvious that your king's days were numbered, you chose to abandon him to the Fates."

Tossing a few pieces of pitch-covered wood on the blaze, the flame jumping to life, he turned his gaze back to ZaphipheRa. "I am not AnahNakaNoah. As my kingdom goes, so does your power and glory. We are brothers joined at the hip, our fate the same. Zeussah will skin us both if we fail him, neither of us getting out alive. So I suggest you rethink any foolish idea that, should I fail, you will suddenly stand in my glory. Remember, there were but two royal thrones placed atop the temple to Horus. You were permitted to stand beside your master that day while I shared in his glory."

Lifting a finger and shaking it toward a very surprised Hormaxian head priest, Dungie warned, "Remember the words of our god-lord, Zeussah, 'You have but a year to defeat the schemes of Iam.' If I fail, do you believe for one second that he will not lift up others to replace us both? Already your rival priest in the South curries my favor, offering to accompany me in my coming conquests. Should he also receive the gifts promised you if I come off victorious?"

The shock on ZaphipheRa's face revealed his surprise at the reckless boldness of this young upstart. What was this all about? Had Dungie's glory gone to his head? If so, he should quickly be put in his place. If that was the case, Dungie gave the old priest little time to contemplate it.

"Well!" Dungie eyed ZaphipheRa haughtily, understanding the man's greatest weakness...the power of Iam. "If you insist on remaining behind in the city, I will not only bring Rapadies along," he smiled sinisterly, "I will deliver into your presence a certain Juliet to stand by your side as your assistant until I return. I'm sure you and she will have a great many pleasant conversations."

ZaphipheRa was not personally acquainted with Juliet, but did know enough through Nidgha's haunted whispers that that woman had hidden powers greater than his cherished Zaelock. Rumors abounded regarding a new race of witches raised up after the death of Dancing Stones. Could Juliet possibly be one of them? He did not want to take that chance, not right now, not with Rapadies nosing in on his territory and Zeussah pressing the hour.

The old priest then began to study Dungie. He had overlooked something about the boy. Suddenly it came to him. Then he noticed it, the glint in the eye and the stance. Javan stood before him, son of the Cave Bear, king over the peoples of Dodanim. So it was not just by the power of Iam that Javan stood the throne. It was in the very blood of this family. Evil or good, the majesty and glory could not be denied. Here stood the king of kings over this world.

At that moment, understanding flooded ZaphipheRa's mind. He had not sought this boy out because he would be easily manipulated and controlled, but that the High Lord had destined he go to him. Here stood Desmond, the son of Lucifer, and he just the servant to deliver him up to his destiny. Though still a youngling, Dungie was the chosen one and ZaphipheRa only the mentor to bring the boy into his manhood. Should anyone bring harm to this person, the penalty would be far worse than the torments of Tuosol, and Dungie, somehow, understood it to be so.

At this revelation, ZaphipheRa politely clasped his hands and bowed toward Dungie. "No, no my Lord. I do believe that I will be able to work something out so that the bridge I will be able to stand with you. Give your servant, please, a day to make arrangements and he will return to make confirmation."

Dungie clasped his hands behind him, slowly strutting about the brazier. "Yes, please do that. Yet, also, when you return," he stopped and looked into ZaphipheRa's distraught face, "I am in a hurry to finish with the construction of my ships and equipping of my army. So please deliver into the hands of my officers the needed magic and machinery to make it happen. I must have the power to make the night into daylight and machines to cut and drill needed planks, spars and masts, plus weaponry necessary to mount upon the decks of my ships in order to defeat the enemy. Can you do this?" It was not a question.

ZaphipheRa bowed. "Yes, my Lord. All this can be done. I will take my leave to see to it myself." Without receiving permission to go, the priest hurried away, a feeling of morbid dread growing in his heart, the snigger of the Kriggerman echoing in the back of his head.

### * * *

Bitter winds whipped about outside the narrow entrance of the cave, driving swirling blizzard snows into the light of a blazing fire tucked off in a small alcove away from the bone-chilling draft. Noah patted Hyhoset's arm as the child's head nestled on her mother's lap. With a sigh, she leaned back against the cave wall, satisfied with their successful journey, arriving here in late morning in time to gather a huge pile of firewood before the blinding blizzard roared in upon them.

Noah glanced to her left. In the far corners of the cave where the firelight struggled to reveal secrets were sprawled a dozen or more mountain bears deep in sleepy hibernation, she and Hyhoset's intrusions into their world never even rousing them. She smiled. The power of her people must still be strong within her for stories of this kind were common among them. But, for her, it was the first time practicing the animal arts since she departed with Javan just after her marriage to him, and then it was only as a searching child. Noah was now turned eighteen winters old. She was a woman and her powers were now grown within her.

So true it was, Noah was no longer the youngling woman-child who had married the king over the Dodanimians so many lifetimes ago. She was now matured into a stunning beauty both in spirit and flesh. Taller than many men, and stronger, having taken on more of the appearance of Dancing Stones except not quite her stature, with steely eyes and set jaw, she was quite the sight when seen standing tall in her chariot wearing a fanged silver and fur helmet similar to Dancing Stones' while wrapped in a leopard skin cape, a gift from Rae, and little else. She was now queen over the Iamrussians, meaning 'God's People of the West', the name the western invaders were coming to be known by, a name fitting and being accepted by those people.

Noah and her people had changed, were changing. The longer they remained in this world, the greater that change was evident. Oh yes, in combat one would find many helms and shields with armor aplenty. But for the younger ones who had reached adulthood here, the blade and sheath were clothing enough for war, other than the occasional wild painting of the body. Yes, the naked beauty of the human flesh was prized by Noah's people, and rarely was clothing worn other than for protection from the elements.

Though forbidden in the rites of ceremony and religious worship, public expression of love through conjugal romance was commonly practiced. And marriage? Yes, marriage existed, but rather as a contractual agreement to share parts of one's life with another. No man or woman was owned, all people being equal in the eyes of their fellows. Rae had finally taken a wife for himself, an Egyptian maiden who caught his eye during his visit there just two summers before. But he still found time to make his way into Noah's tent as well as the occasional flirt with Swalhawena when he visited her and his daughter, Vechte. For both Noah and Swalhawena, marriage was little imagined. They desired to remain free women with no chains to ever bind them. Married to each other they were, as strongly as any man to a woman might be.

Noah closed her eyes to doze, Hyhoset wiggling about to nurse. Soon the whistling of the blizzard wind across the cave's mouth was the only sound to be heard.

Hyhoset was just beginning to drift off to sleep when a sudden disturbance in the wind caught Noah's ear, she bolting upright and wide-eyed. There, standing in the entrance to the cave was a woman of great stature dressed in strange garments. Though never having met the woman, Noah knew from Dancing Stones' visions that here before her was the mother goddess of humankind, Aphrodite. Wide awake now, Hyhoset sat up, staring in surprise at this newcomer.

Noah got upon her knees, bowing so that her elbows with hands outstretched touched the cave floor. "Oh, Mother of all mankind, may you live forever! Your servant girl..."

Aphrodite smiled, extending a hand. "Rise, please, my daughter of the night. Sisters of the Bloodwind you and I are. Stand please and come to your sister."

After affectionate embraces and terms of endearment, the two women sat on their knees beside the dancing blaze. Noah placed a hand on Aphrodite's arm. "I have come to this place with my child, just as you have requested me to do in my dreams. Obedient I have been, but full of wonder. Why to such a desolate place hidden so deep within the mountains of rock and ice?"

"It is a good question," Aphrodite quietly replied. She took a stick, stirring the fire before adding more fuel. "So great the moot and profound the tales to be told that I have, I could not risk another soul's intrusion. To you must the knowledge of the history of this world be given so that you will understand the reasons for what must arrive upon the sons of men, why blood of demon-men must again mix with that of Canaan and Hormax through a child of the gods, so the scent of Lucifer will be strong within the killing seed. The son of the Cave Bear must rule over the houses of Heaven, men, and Hell. It is a fate sealed with a promise by the very Maker of blood, the Woman in the Whispering Waters."

Softly touching Noah's cheek, Aphrodite mused, "First I will spin a tale that will tingle the ears of even Tuosolmerica, for she knows few of the things I will reveal to you. Secret you must keep my words until the ending hour when all things are revealed. When I am finished, we must celebrate again the birth of the Haudenosaunez."

Noah did not understand at all but promised she would do everything requested of her. And what of Hyhoset? Aphrodite offered the girl a sweet drink to savor while the women talked. It was not long before the child lay curled up on a fur, sound asleep. So began Aphrodite's tale.

"Many are the stories bantered about regarding Noah, his wife, and his three sons. To be honest, they are mostly true...mostly, depending on what level you expect truth to be. 'Truth as needed to be known' I suppose is the best answer, for the betterment of mankind, I'd say. Now I will tell you the truth as it really was, for to the innocent and the guilty no harm or good can come anymore, seeing they're all gone to their resting time. And who would believe what I say now is truth when from Noah and Shem's own mouths other stories have been delivered? Still, for the ending hour must all truth be revealed.

"You see, as you have been already told long ago, I am Noah's second wife, taken as his virgin wife after my father attempted my death and sacrifice to demon gods. It was through Noah's wife that many children were born to the man. None save Noah's youngest son listened to his warning about the ending hour of those days. So it was that Ham was born to Naamah, Noah's first wife, she passing into death at his birthing."

Noahashonie was shocked, her ears burning from Aphrodite's revelations. Yet this was but a harbinger of news to come.

Aphrodite continued, "None knew at all tales revealed to me through the spirits in Eden, but here is the truth. Naamah's mother, Sabreda, was a child of fornication through the Watchers and women of that day, the woman raped in her sleep and returned to her husband's side while he also slept. Naamah grew up unknowing concerning the truth regarding her conception, Azazel, her father, dying shortly after Sabreda's conceiving. Unlike the others of her kindred, Sabreda was not barren but birthed several children. So it was that Ham carried within his blood the very blood of demons from his grandfather, Azazel. Even Wenonah, the Woman in the Whispering Waters, did not comprehend this to be the case until in the days after the Deluge.

"I, a child of Cain, gave to Noah three children, Shem and Japheth, and a girl, Sumiduu. Now for wives, Shem and Japheth took for themselves close kin of mine. But for Ham, he took for himself my daughter as a wife, feeling that she would assure him the right to Adam's robe, establishing him as chieftain over the house of his brothers in future days."

She waved a hand. "Now the story has been told that I received a rupture in my reproductive parts and could bear no more children after birthing the three boys, which you already know was not the case. The truth is I have born several sons and daughters. I will explain this later. I must not get ahead of myself.

"It was after the Deluge when men began to grow again upon the surface of the earth that Ham attempted to exert his birthright over his brothers. Noah would have none of it, his heart being wrapped up with Shem, he offering the robe of Adam to him upon Noah's death. When Ham and Sumiduu appealed to me to intercede in his behalf and I refused, foolishly revealing private words that Noah believed the blood of Cain and Seth must rule in equality to be fair for the world of men, Ham began to plot a scheme to make that so through his own bloodline.

"So it came about on a festive day when the grape harvest was matured into wine, Ham delivered as a gift the finest of the grape from his cellars to Noah and me. While the wine was heavy upon us and Noah slept as though in death, Ham seduced me when I was sleepily drunk with the fruits of the vine, us taking to Noah's bed in passionate romance. Little did I remember the hour, it being only a foggy memory of a drugged-up mind.

"Well, as soon as Ham had released his manly seed into me, he went out to his brothers bragging about his conquest and how, should his seed take root, a son of equal blood he would raise up to rule over all mankind. Shocked and ashamed, because Ham had earlier revealed his desire to sire a child through me, but believing it to only be empty speech, they did nor said nothing about it. Shem and Japheth took a long garment and backed into the tent and, covering me over, took me to their wives to have my flesh bathed before returning me to Noah's bed. When Noah awoke from his stupor, my sons said nothing to their father about the matter, hoping no conception would come of the encounter.

"When I announced my pregnancy, believing Noah was the father, my sons remained silent concerning this and went to Ham, warning him also to say nothing and let the matter go, which he did do until the day of Canaan's birthing. Sneaking first into Noah's house to steal Adam's robe, he then came in among the celebrators and announced that he was the father of Canaan, producing a decorative cloth belonging to me that was stained with the testimony of our sexual encounter.

"The entire gathering fell into a frantic turmoil when Ham announced that now there was born from the oldest of Noah's sons a child of equal blood from both Seth and Cain, demanding before Noah and the others present that his son, Canaan, should receive the gift of firstborn so that he could rule over his brothers. Noah went in to a rage, attempting at first to destroy the life of the boy. Only by the strength of might of Shem, he standing close to his father when Noah's anger exploded, was the child's murder prevented.

"When Noah was calmed of his violent outburst to the point that he did not threaten the life of Canaan anymore, he turned to Ham, violently shaking a finger at him. Then it was that he cursed Canaan, declaring that no ruler would he be, but a slave in his brothers' house to times indefinite. Then, because Shem had risked his own life by preventing his father from committing murder against an innocent babe... and because he was Noah's favorite... Noah pronounced a blessing on Shem."

Aphrodite's gaze fell toward the floor, her silent tears becoming many. "Noah, my husband, walked away from me that day, never to have relations with me again. Oh, he tried. He really tried, but never managed to arouse his manhood with me again. After Ham's death, Sumiduu, my daughter returned to the lands of Ararat, remaining with Noah until the ending of his days. It was told me that she gave to him two more daughters and a son, but of them I know very little."

She looked into Noah's face. "I secretly took to the sons of men, birthing many sons and daughters, all in secret, my birthlings not even knowing who their mother was. I guess it was in hope that if I produced enough seed by other men I could somehow cleanse my flesh of the sin for returning such evil into the world. From Canaan came so many of the ruthless kings and rulers that pollute our world down to this day. And when the demon Watchers smelled the scent of their offspring growing within a man of such pure blood as Canaan, they were encouraged to take up again the blood experiments practiced before the Deluge, thus the giant Anakim of our day, many carrying my very blood within them."

She cried, weeping, "So it is I, Pandora, opening her legs to deliver upon the world of men all the evil that ensnares us down to this day! Oh yes, men speak of such a woman in tales of mystical times. But the story is little more than a perverted truth concerning me that Noah and my sons kept secret down to their deaths."

Looking up, Aphrodite squeezed Noah's hand. "Please do not harbor any hatred against the evil of Ham. He did not violate me out of wanton disrespect or prurient desires. True, his motives were not righteously pure, but to a degree he was within his rights. Never would he have attempted such a revolt if I had not forced him into it. He was a good man, and showed it by his bravery in fighting the forces of Hormax down to his very death. I did love Ham greatly, still do. He did what he believed he must do to receive what he felt was rightfully his, not understanding that the day of the patriarch was hopefully over, Noah attempting it to become that way. Sadly that did not happen."

Aphrodite sighed. "The smell of the demon seed must be strong in the son of Lucifer. It is by that very scent that we will deliver the Son of Light into the Devil's house...the only way. For that to be, the blood of Cain must overpower the blood of Seth, covering up Eve's scent." She looked at Hyhoset, her shoulders slumping, resigned, "The child is rich enough with the blood of Cain to fool even the nose of Samyaza, possibly even Lucifer. But the life force is found not in the female of your kind, only in the male."

Noah asked, confused, "How could that be so? I am not of pure blood of Cain, am I? Cannot be, for Noah the father of Japheth is my ancestor, is he not?"

"But also Ham, through Cush..." Aphrodite added. "Indeed, you are rich in the blood of Cain more so than many of your kindred. Yet that is not all."

"So what is it?" Noah asked. "The child's father was a son of Japheth and Shem. So how is my child so filled with the blood of Cain?"

Aphrodite hesitated, finally answering, "No, Javan's blood is rich with that of Cain, over half pure it was."

"How?" Noah puzzled, excited.

"Well," it took a while before Aphrodite began to explain, "it is very true that blood changes over time, a father's and mother's blood melding into something a little different in the offspring produced. Only with inbreeding will the blood remain pure, and that even weakening over time unless the blood is quite pure. The Servants of Lucifer and priests of Hormax have labored diligently to maintain the purity of Cain's line by seeking out those rich in Cain's blood, they not understanding such power of blood comes from the proximity of descendance to me. So it is, the closer to me through ancestry, the stronger the blood."

Aphrodite looked into Noah's face. "You see, uh, the smell of Cain is strong upon Hyhoset because...well...uh..." She groaned sadly, slowly shaking her head, staring at the floor. Lifting her gaze and looking into Noah's eyes, the woman confessed, "Hyhoset is my granddaughter."

Noah cried in desperate bewilderment, "My daughter is your grandchild? How can that be?"

Casting her eyes toward the cave floor, Aphrodite confessed, "RehabAboni, wife of Dodanim, was my granddaughter, and..."

"And what?" Noah touched Aphrodite's arm.

Aphrodite looked up at Noah, distress showing in her eyes.

"And what?" Noah pleaded, "Please tell your child... and what?"

Aphrodite took Noah's hand. "And Javan, your husband was really not RehabAboni's son but mine."

Noah nearly fainted at the revelation, swooning dizzily.

After waiting upon the moment, Aphrodite explained, "I seduced Dodanim when the wine was heavy upon him, having the need to feel like a woman, I guess. Well, I guess because the wine was strong upon me also, I released my womanly powers to the full. When I realized I was with child, I went to Rehab and confessed my lascivious acts. She conspired with me to claim the child as hers. So I whisked the woman away to the house of Dancing Stones at ObebBailSoar until I birthed Javan. In the following weeks, Rehab returned to Castle Dodanim presenting the boy to Dodanim as their child.

"Dancing Stones always kept an eye out for my boy through his growing up years, using her witching ways to bring him into manhood shortly after the death of his father, thus assuring the boy's desire for her, enabling her to keep a watchful eye on him. Javan was rich with my blood. Now he is no more, and Hyhoset, because you are her mother, is his child with the needed blood to fool the evil Serpent. But a female she is, unfit to be the needed seed, and too young to produce one."

"Wait..." Noah was more than confused, "why Hyhoset? Javan has several surviving children and grandchildren with his blood."

Aphrodite agreed that Javan had many sons then confessed, "But only one lives with a defiling blood rich enough to disguise the blood of Eve. It was through the blood of Odethbethel and Javan, the same as through your blood and Hyhoset's, that the power of Cain still lives strong in the souls of men."

Noah argued, "But the blood of Cain is strong in many men, especially those of the Nubian and Cushite clans."

Aphrodite looked away, speaking in a guilty hush, "The blood of Cain is but the carrier. It is the blood of Azazel that is rich in the youngest son of Javan, that being the smell the Servants of Lucifer are searching for. We speak not of it at all, fearing the enemy will discover our knowledge of it, so only the mention of Cain."

Noah eyed Aphrodite suspiciously. "So what are you saying, that the demon son of Javan carries the seed needed to create the son of light... and..." Noah's face clouded with disgust, "and I, too, carry that befouled odor because a child of Ham and Hormax I am?"

Aphrodite blurted out, "True, yes, but I ask nothing at all of you, speaking only the truth of matters. Rich with the blood of Azazel is the witch queen of the Haudenosaunez. Should she produce a son with the same glory of his blood as was found in Javan, the Serpent king would never know the ruse being played upon him. That is all I am saying." She quietly looked away. "I am asking for nothing, only providing information to a fellow Sister of the Bloodwind."

Reality sank in and Noah's countenance fell as her anger grew. "Why now?" she spit, her voice cold, her wrath increasing. "Why did you wait upon this day, this hour, to bring despair and ruin to me? Have I not already done the service of the Order to the full? Was my rape and murder of soul not enough of a price to pay for your precious seed? Look," she pointed at sleeping Hyhoset, "did I not already give you a seed, and has that gift not become a curse to me this very day? Had I an empty womb when that... that monster violated my soul and body, then a son for him I would have already produced. Why do you place this evil at my feet now?"

Aphrodite bowed her head in remorse. "Justified you are to hate me and my Order. But do not charge any evil to Iam, for he is innocent in regards to this matter. Please allow your servant girl to explain things so that you will understand that our failure to achieve a cure has led us to your door. You have become our last desperate hope to achieve our goal long sought. So many times was victory within our grasp, yet we allowed it to slip ever so quickly through our fingers.

"First this..." Aphrodite lifted a hand, spreading her fingers wide as she talked. "Many are the words hidden within the blood so that never is the same message delivered twice in the writing of a child's conception. It is not until the infant does exist in its mother's womb that the message in the blood can be read. And even then the message may not be clear until formed in all its parts the child is. With many conceptions we had hope, but alas, they all came to nothing.

"Your future husband, Javan, the Lady took to mend in body, soul, and mind, so that he and Dancing Stones might produce our needed seed, but the words written in Meric were more from the blood of Dancing Stones than Javan, her blood being very strong because she, too, was changed in Eden's hour, something we had not expected to happen. Then you were chosen by the Lady, and with Wenonah's blessing, you were delivered up to become Javan's wife. Only you produced a woman-child, fit to carry the power of life but not the progenitor of it. Then there was Odethbethel. She carried a true seed of Desmond, but we failed in her safe rescue when accomplishing yours, not comprehending how quickly the evil of Hormax was spreading in the heart of a weak-minded man.

"Then our hopes were revived when news came to us from Juliet that Sabrina was pregnant with a son, the woman strong with the scent of Azazel. Maybe this would be the child. Sabrina's untimely death ended that hope. Our Juliet almost succeeded, she having been an excellent and willing candidate for carrying the evil seed. Nidgha's unexpected arrival before Juliet could obtain Desmond's needed elixir was most inopportune. Then it came down to Nidgha, herself. She would have served us nearly as well, we hoped - not as strong as Odethbethel's blood, but strong, nonetheless. Lo, she is become pregnant, but with a woman-child."

Noah asked in desperation, "What of Odethbethel? She still resides under the roof of that... that man. Why not use her again?"

Aphrodite sadly replied, "Yes, she was given consideration anew, but alas it is not to be. True, Dungie was taking her from time to time, yet the hour was not right or the woman's heart too unwilling for the power of life to catch within her. Since her final raping and humiliation, her son even handing her over to the men of his court to toy with, she has gone to taking the poison in order to extinguish any life that may befoul her soul."

With tears in her eyes, Aphrodite glanced over at Hyhoset. "The Lady and I have attempted many intrigues and contrived many schemes, but alas, like many plans of mice and men, it all has come to naught. Because we mice have failed, it must now become the choice of the last able man to take up this quest or not. That choice is not ours to make, but that man's. We can provide the way, but that man must will it to be."

Noah moaned, distraught, "You ask too much of this man. My belly still aches remembering the rueful acts he committed against me, my flesh being touched by those filthy hands that murdered my husband. And then he violated his father's hidden sanctum, my secret worlds, extinguishing his manly prowess within a room reserved for the man he murdered! And in the very presence of Javan's daughter, his sister, he did these things. My heart and soul he destroyed, my very life he consumed in an hour, a moment! Have his endless fornications practiced within my very soul not been enough to satisfy the gods? Must I pollute my flesh again with his staff of abomination and then carry his bastard filth within my private chamber to its birthing hour to make them happy? Is that what it takes to please these gods?"

A sudden gust of wind roared through the cave's entrance, nearly extinguishing the fire with hard-driven snow. When the blaze regained its strength, why, there stood the Lady in all her radiant glory.

Before Sodasonie could utter a word, Noah stood on her feet, fists clenched, crying, "Has your child not already given enough to the gods to satisfy their lust for blood? What of your great magic? Is it so impotent that even you must murder an innocent soul to obtain a cure for your own incompetence?"

Sodasonie was stung by Noah's caustic rebukes, her heart rent with pain at hearing a voice filled with anguish and loathing over feelings of betrayal. It was not she who had murdered a heart, doing only what must be done to preserve a universe alive. But guilt is a perceived thing, the innocent also often suffering the whip. Yet, was she innocent? No time to debate this issue, not this night. So many things she could do or say to teach this insolent child a lesson worth learning, put her in her place, but no, it wouldn't do. Sodasonie believed she deserved the child's wrath. Noah should have been brought in on this at a much earlier time, gradually, so that her heart could adjust to things.

Holding back her own tears and keeping her temperament in check, Sodasonie looked deeply in Noah's distraught face, saying nothing. She could see the welling anxiety of a tortured heart experiencing anew the ravage and rape of a nightmare wished forgotten. But there was something else that could be seen in the girl's eyes, something that gave pause. A fire burned there revealing that Noah feared not the gods or demons or even Iam. Noah stood glaring at Sodasonie as a peer, a sister, a fellow being whose honesty of heart and soul spoke truth to valor. There was no false pretense here, no haughty self-righteousness. Noah's heart was crying out, 'I have done the best I can! I have no more to give, else I will die!'

Sodasonie lowered her gaze, apologizing, "I have failed you, but not for trying. The blood of my brothers and sisters cries out from the Silent Tombs in my defense, our defense. The Fates have chosen to blind our eyes, too. The future I could attempt, but never grant with a guarantee. Not all knowing am I, my mind and heart the same as yours. It is but the flesh of spirit that separates us from being of one kind. Should the power be mine, I would surrender myself up for you so that no burden at all would ever confront my darling sister again."

Like a caring mother who sees the wounded look upon her naughty child, Noah could not hold back her tears as she listened to the Lady's penitent reply. Spreading her arms wide, she approached Sodasonie, clasping her in an iron embrace, crying, "I cannot do it! I cannot do it! No strength do I have remaining to carry out your request, no energy at all..." She began to sob.

Sodasonie hugged Noah, softly rubbing her back as she quietly cooed, "Then you shall not have to do such a thing at all. We will find another way. There is still time to find another way. I will talk again to Juliet, maybe she..."

Noah stared up into Sodasonie's face, her eyes filled with anxious excitement. "No! No! You must not do such a thing! Too much has the woman already suffered at the hands of vile men!"

Pulling herself away from Sodasonie, Noah turned toward the fire, looking over at her sleeping child, Javan's child. Wiping a finger across her nose as she sniffled, Noah quietly spoke, "The yoke is heaviest upon the strongest beast. To the one that the most is given, the most is to be expected. It is I who must carry this burden to its finish. I must succeed where others have not. To no other must this cup be passed."

A tear-stained faced turned back to Sodasonie, reddened eyes staring into smoky gray orbs. In little above a choking whisper, Noah asked, "What must I do to gain this victory in battle?"

Sodasonie could barely speak. What kind of creatures were these men of clay? Brash, foolhardy, and often arrogant to a fault, yet brave, so very, very, brave... and this woman, Noah? Return to the lions' den she would, to save a dream, to mend the heart of someone she did not even really know.

She looked over at Aphrodite. After a nod, the Lady answered, "We will deliver you the hour. You must calculate the moment. If we fail you in that hour, then do not consider yourself remiss if in that moment you are not successful."

Reaching out a hand and lifting Noah's face so that their gaze met, Sodasonie promised, "The seed will come to you not through rape this time, but you will ride the horn of despair by choice and with command. This time it will be to force the seed, because it will not be given freely. Steal the seed from the unwilling host and you will win the contest by defeating the unholy worm."

Smiling through her tears, Noah asked, "Should I collect the unholy seed for you and bring his life to the full, will you hold me in your purity until my sin is birthed so that my flesh may feel clean to its finish?"

Stroking Noah's hair, Sodasonie could little more than whisper. "By your side I would stay forever if the Fates allowed me that honor. Your request I cannot guarantee, for I do not spin that fickle wheel. Still..."

Aphrodite approached, arms spread. The three women hugged one another and took to such mournful weeping that the sound was like that of women suddenly bereft of their children, Hyhoset roused by their lament. Sitting up, she stared in fright at seeing her mother wailing so in grief. Rubbing her eyes, the child began to cry.

Noah broke away from the others and hurried to Hyhoset, taking her in her arms and offering reassurance that everything was all right. As Aphrodite and Sodasonie came near, Noah looked up at them through tear-filled eyes, exhausted, asking, "Must we continue this night, or can some rest be taken first? My soul is so weary within me, I don't know if it has the strength to carry on until a little rest I give it."

Sodasonie smiled, she, too, exhausted from the emotional interchanges. "May I suggest something even better? Let us all take our leave and journey to a much more pleasant place to finish our business. There we may find some rest and refreshment. A little food and drink is in order. Shall I summon my chariot so that we may be on our way?"

While the blizzard snows attempted a coup on the dying blaze, and the mountain bears peacefully slept, dreaming of coming spring, the muffled cry of the Eagle Spirits in the hushed whining of engines disturbed the night outside the cave. Noah stared out a portal, wide-eyed in wonder seeing the mountain as Sodasonie's chariot slowly lifted out of the valley, heading for the mystical land of Eden, a land promised that she would see one day when she stood beside her loving mentor on the night the Haudenosaunez were born. Soon, in the depths of that holy abyss, Hyhoset would receive the gifts held in trust by her mother so that she, too, would finally stand up beside the others as a gorgon queen, the Slayer of Dragons.

### * * *

Dungie was incensed over recent raids carried out by Noah's Dragon ships, their latest against the Atlantean harbor town of Astwise on one of the outer islands less then fifteen leagues east of Atlanticia. The town had been sacked and burned, the harbor destroyed with its wintered ships towed to the harbor mouth and sunk. Any resistance was crushed and the Hormaxian priests at the garrison had been slaughtered after it had surrendered. Although several prisoners were taken, there had been no rape or torture allowed by the headmen leading the raiding parties, something that mattered little to Dungie. Indeed, his army used such devices as reward for their soldiers and to keep the defeated in submission.

This most recent attack had led Dungie to make the fateful decision to launch his armadas against Noah and her Iamrussians before the warm southern spring breezes pushed the chill winter winds away to the North. Less than three weeks after the vernal equinox, only a little over a month since the beginning of spring, the king of Atlantis sailed his warships out of Atlanticia in hopes of an early invasion of the Northlands. As he stood upon the fighting deck of his capital ship, NidghaSonna, his heart welled with exuberance watching his invincible juggernaut ponderously moving off toward the northeast, the city of Atlanticia shimmering in the morning glow of a brilliant sunrise.

A juggernaut it was, too. Over a thousand new ships of battle comprising ocean galleys, double and triple-oared, with as many as four masts to drive them before the wind led the way, along with over five hundred older, oared battleships and cruisers of earlier design. This older fleet had been promised to General Nuefange for his summer eastern Shemion campaign. Now he would have to make do with whatever he had. Supporting these armadas was a vast host of cargo, transport and lesser packets and fighting ships, most depending on sail. With the allegiance of a few of the coastal clans of Kittim and Tarshish who had refused to depart the western shores, Dungie had also acquired about three score raider-type ships similar to the Dragon ships sailed by the Iamrussians. These were in the vanguard and on the northwestern flank to help protect against attacks from those quarters.

The war council's original plans were to sail north along the coast of the Westlands, capturing the northernmost trade cities of Umbent and Arenberg, where KroTonkinBSondie and his remaining Genesee and MadaiGomerShon confederates had wintered over and were preparing to depart on the early summer western breeze. This would have been an easy objective to attain with a spring campaign, Dungie's armadas hugging the shore, staying close to safe harbor if the weather should turn nasty. This would also destroy any lingering threat of an enemy attack from KroTonkin's leather and oaken fighting boats...a nuisance, true, but a nuisance nonetheless. It would also allow the Atlanticians to capture any stores of iron, copper, and gold that still remained in the hands of those westerners...rich reward for little cost.

After the attack on Astwise, Dungie changed those plans to make a direct charge across what was now commonly called the 'Atlantean Sea' and hit the eastern coast south of Saranda, disembarking his armies there, invading Iamrussia from the south while allied armies attacked along the southeast and eastern fronts. Although done hastily, the Atlantician king's moves were carried out cautiously, the oracles of Horus being consulted before invasion plans were finalized. With their blessings, Dungie cast all hesitation aside and set out to complete his conquest.

Unbeknown to Dungie, his grand scheme of conquest was already unraveling. The Hormaxian communication system, similar to the Dragon's Talking Stones, was not fully up and functioning, sending messages that at times were confusing and garbled, while replies often did not arrive. This led to costly delays in troop preparation and movement. ZaphipheRa neglected to inform Dungie of this. To make matters worse, the Dragons were able to decipher coded messages that did come through, enabling them to learn the enemy's intentions.

General Nuefange was forced to begin his campaign early, originally intending to advance his Verdi task force along with his added reinforcements through the Straits of Hermanum about the time the Atlantician fleet was securing Umbent and Arenberg. Now he was needing to abandon the Verdi to local allies and a contingent of King AaHam's Casluhim navy - a weak proposal at best, knowing the cowardice of that man. Under equipped and undermanned, General Nuefange passed through the straits and into the Shemion Sea, gathering to himself the strength of his scattered navy as he pushed on to Malta.

Commander SouJuoi had hurried an army north at Dungie's request to attack the Iamrussians and their allies from the East. His endeavor had been fraught with difficulties, the army stalled for weeks because of late winter storms that clogged western passes with ice and snow. Warm southern winds arrived with heavy rain, melting deep snows so rapidly that rivers and streams flooded beyond their banks. It would take weeks for SouJuoi to get his beleaguered armies across the mountains and into Germanic territories. And finally, King ShumonuamKasbar of Spain had been in no great hurry to move on Noahashonie that spring. When he eventually put his armies on the road, Dungie was far out to sea, struggling with the fickle forces of nature.

By the fourth day under sail, Dungie was beginning to realize the foolishness of his attempt to cross the Atlantean Sea by direct route this time of year. The least of the obstacles to contend with were the cold, unpredictable winds. Constantly changing directions, north to south, northeast to southwest, northwest to southeast, they kept the crews struggling with the sails throughout the day, forcing them to be furrowed at night for fear of drifting into nearby ships. Those at the oars, all freemen soldiers, were exhausted from the continual rowing necessitated by this weather. Then there were sudden cold squalls that often struck without notice, leaving the lightly dressed soldiers and crews shivering from the soaking.

An unrelenting surge of restless seas brought with it constant seasickness. The vast majority of those aboard the ships were landsmen, few having been hardened to sea life. At times, so many of the crew might be unable to tend to duties that only one tier of oars on a trireme ocean galley could be put to use, the remainder of the men unable to lift an oar. And for the smaller fighting ships the situation was more troubling, being tossed about more violently by the never-ending waves.

Every warship reeked with the foul odors of vomit, urine, and defecation, so many of the men unable to even stand when nature called upon them. One old hardened seaman assigned to a small, fast packet later summed up the state of affairs during this part of the transit, remarking, "The stench was so bad, you could smell it a mile downwind of one of those big galleys."

Harassing attacks by the Dragon ships only made matters worse. They would often sail to just within bowshot range, unleash a flaming arrow or two, and then drift back into the distance. Dungie had few ships able to outpace these swift, shallow-draft vessels. When sails were filled with a following wind, they could almost fly across the waters and, if pressed, their crews would take to the oar to escape. The alliance of Kittim and Tarshish western clans was not working out well, either. More often than not, when confronted by a determined Dragon ship onslaught, they would take to the oar and make for safety, knowing that their enemy took no prisoners.

By the end of the first week, things were becoming desperate. Men were succumbing to the evils of the sea, some dying from incessant shakes and weakness. Things would only get worse for the advancing armada. By the time the fleet had reached landfall south of Saranda, over five thousand soldiers and sailors had been buried at sea because of the impossible conditions aboard the ships. Another twenty thousand were so ruined by the voyage, they were not able to participate in the following campaign. This destruction of life and health did not include the constant warring Dungie was forced to contend with, the enemy ever vigilant in its harassing attacks.

Near the beginning of their third week at sea, the winds died and a smothering fog bank rolled over the flotilla. Waters became like glass, accentuating every sound and carrying it far upon the chill air. It was soon discovered that great, floating ice mountains hid in the dense, blanketing shroud of blinding mist, forcing the armada to inch its way along. Since the fleet must remain constantly on the move, lantern boats were rowed out ahead of the fleet as beacons for the others to follow...a very hazardous duty, indeed!

Although the floating ice mountains were a constant threat, what was far worse for these pilot boats was that the enemy hid in the fog, sitting motionless, watching the brightly lit vessels as they approached in the darkness. The headmen of the war galleys, following a short distance behind, would suddenly hear shouts and cries piercing the blackness and then see the guiding light of the boat disappear from sight. There was little more that could be done other than send out another crew in a small boat with lanterns to guide them, hoping this time the skulking wolf had moved on, searching out other prey.

This was frustrating and costly, but what unnerved the soldiers and crews of the bigger ships more were the seemingly random streams of arrows flying out of the blackness of night or the impenetrable gloom of fog during the day. All would be deathly quiet, the gentle splash of the oars all that could be heard, though many later said the sound of one's own breathing was often unbearably loud, when unexpectedly, out of the darkness a swish of arrows would pierce that quiet, then a cry or two followed by the thud of someone falling on the deck or the loud splash of a body hitting the water. And then there was nothing, the muffled sound of oars cutting through the water all that was to be heard. Every day and night for two weeks, Dungie's armadas labored through the great ice ocean as these silent attacks continued, driving some to insanity. How did this happen?

The Dragon ships were piloted by experienced, highly skilled seamen who were already acquiring the title 'mariner', because so many of them were from the Mariner clan. These men, and a few women, possessed magic metal that always pointed north and crystals that could reveal location even on the cloudiest of days. But greatest of all, they understood the arts of the silver bell.

Every Dragon ship piloted by a Mariner carried a small silver bell attached to the fore-post. Horns of hammered silver would be held up to the ear and the bell rung. At times, more than one horn would be available for use. The person holding the horn would listen for a ping, the echo of the bell bouncing off a hardened object. A practiced listener was able to detect the distance and size of the object being pinged as well as whether it might be ice, wood, or metal that the echo bounced off of. Should the pilot hear the sound of another bell, it would often respond with a coded message identifying itself as a friendly ship. These devices and their uses remained secret only to the Mariners, leaving even the others aboard the Dragon ships ignorant of their designs, other than that of the purpose of the bells. Dungie's people were at a total loss as to how the enemy managed to keep their bearings in these conditions, imagining the bells to be little more than part of the enemy's mind games.

This was not to say that the Hormaxian priests accompanying Dungie on this voyage were without any navigation systems. The ability to keep the Atlantis flotilla on a steady course was relatively easy to do as far as direction was concerned, and when the sun would be seen in the sky or the stars shone brightly, finding location on an endless ocean was a minor matter. But when the gloom of fog hid sky and water from sight, little there was to do but inch forward blindly in the general direction desired. After eight days of frustrating terror, the winds picked up, driving the fog away. Still having to dodge the floating ice mountains, the armada was now able to put again to sail.

During dead calms, Dungie had pushed ahead with his oared warships, leaving a contingent behind to assist the sailing vessels to manage as best they could. By attaching ropes to either the oared galleys or putting out small boats to tow the large transports, a dozen or so leagues might be made in a day. Very slow was the progress, the two separate fleets rapidly distancing themselves. Yet this was not the worst of it.

As the slower ships drifted apart, the enemy began picking off stragglers. Before the winds returned, well over sixty of Dungie's transports - especially the lightly armed, heavily laden cargo vessels - had been captured or destroyed and their crews forever lost. Altogether, the constantly running sea battle that lasted for the entire voyage cost Dungie over one hundred ships, mostly support vessels, and nearly three thousand sailors and soldiers, this before Noah's armies were even engaged in battle.

Dungie's decision came at a high cost not only in lives and supplies, but also in time. The overwhelming numbers of the floating ice mountains, never-ending fog, and incessant enemy harassment forced Dungie to turn his armadas off to the East prematurely. Upon reaching landfall, he hugged the coast, traveling north for nearly two hundred leagues before disembarking his forces south of Saranda. It took nearly ten days to gather the bulk of his forces and another two weeks for them to recuperate from the arduous journey and prepare for the march against the Iamrussians. All told, Dungie's direct tack across the Atlantean Sea cost the king two extra weeks as opposed to a northward advance along the eastern coast of the land of Dodanim north of Atlanticia, taking the city-ports of Umbent and Arenberg, waiting upon the late spring westerlies, and then taking a direct route across the sea.

To make matters worse, he had not neutralized KroTonkin and his allied clansmen. This was a far more dangerous matter than the young king of Atlantis comprehended. He was not aware that by this time his western Kittim and Tarshish alliance had melted away, the raiding Dragon ships having driven what remained of their fighting force back to safe harbors. Not only did ZaphipheRa fail to offer any solutions for these sorry developments, but was reprehensibly delinquent in regard to providing Dungie with tactical information he had concerning the KroTonkin threat, leaving Dungie unaware of the dangers lurking behind.

Even if the Hormaxian priests were without knowledge of Noah's battle plans, they were well aware of the Dragons' Talking Stones at ObebBailSoar and Ausalmerica, and undoubtedly understood that Noahashonie had access to a Temple Owhar. Though currently unable to intercept and decipher the Dragons' communications, ZaphipheRa knew that the Stones had been active all winter and that Dragon messengers had been constantly traveling over the mountains between ObebBailSoar and Umbent. Spies had also informed the old priest that a large Phoenician fleet had gathered to the northern ports along the eastern coast, their fast transports being readied to join the leather and oaken fighting ships of KroTonkin preparing to soon set sail against Dungie's armadas.

What possessed the old priest to withhold this priceless knowledge from his king, other than his crestfallen pride at being lectured by him, no records remain to inform us. What is known is that ZaphipheRa understood that the failure of the Atlantis mission to crush the Iamrussians and capture Noahashonie and her daughter would also lead to personal disaster. So why he withheld vital information is a subject to ponder.

By the time Dungie came ashore below Saranda, KroTonkin was already closing in upon some of the Atlantician slow transports. The large Phoenician and allied round ships and transports not with KroTonkin's flotilla were slowly making their way toward safe harbor north of Hanna Inlet, upon arrival contributing another eight thousand warriors to the ranks of Noah's army. Later, many of those same ships would engage the advancing Atlantician navy in close combat, or be turned into fire ships filled with pitch, oil, and black missile powder, to be sailed into massed enemy galleys.

Dungie wasted little time implementing his battle plan. He had learned that a quick strike often offsets other deficiencies and weaknesses in one's military machine. Pressure needed to be put on the Iamrussians so that they would not dare gather their strength. And if they did, he wanted to be prepared to exploit any opening in their defensive line. To do this, Dungie needed to divide his limited forces.

Like his father, Dungie depended heavily upon cavalry to cover his flanks to protect his infantry. The sea voyage had cost him dearly in this regard. The Thornbirge brothers were not yet arrived with their camel cavalry when the Atlantician army was put on the road to Saranda, and only a third of Dungie's horse cavalry was up and able to move. In all, a full half of the horses boarded at Atlanticia either did not survive the trip or were so badly ruined by it they proved to be useless for this campaign. At best, the Atlantician king had fewer than eight hundred mounted cavalry at his disposal when his invasion began.

Knowing the enemy would be watching, he divided his already depleted forces by sending three hundred galleys north with the intent of putting an invasion force of ten thousand soldiers ashore at Hanna Inlet while the fleet would continue north to capture the remaining harbor towns south of the Ice Mountains. Commanding this army was HudshonThornbirge, son of StobattanThornbirge, a cousin and trusted companion of Dungie. Although he was just over thirty years of age, the man had proved himself an able leader during the Atlantician southern campaign. Admiral SethHakenpol, an experienced Atlantician headman who commanded a flotilla of war galleys in the previous year's Shemion campaign, oversaw the naval aspect of this northern push. He was a cautious commander, but willing to commit to the battle when the opening arose.

Admiral Hakenpol was already at a disadvantage, being undermanned and commanding the older ships originally planned for refitting in the Verdi before joining General Nuefange's armadas that summer. Though in need of substantial maintenance, it was concluded that a coastal run would not be that stressful on his ships and, should difficulties arise, there were many places to put ashore to make repairs. This was a tactically reasonable move on Dungie's part considering that many of Admiral Hakenpol's sailors were veterans of the previous year's sea campaigns and were still relatively healthy. The Atlantician king beached the majority of his other war galleys, impressing all the remaining able-bodied sailors into his army to bring it back up to size.

Having stripped so many sailors from the ranks to build up his army, beaches were littered with war galleys for twenty leagues along the coast south of Saranda, those ships awaiting the return of their crews. Of the war galleys patrolling and guarding the incoming transport ships at harbor, most were undermanned, with few soldiers walking the decks. This was not an innocent oversight, it being felt that under the conditions, there was no immediate threat from enemies at sea and soon many of the seamen recuperating ashore would be able to return to duty, bringing the ships' crews back up to strength.

These decisions were not entirely unreasonable given the circumstances Dungie was faced with. He needed to quickly bolster his land forces while displaying his military might against Noah's harbor towns, forcing the nuisance Dragon ships away from harassing his remaining convoys. This would also make Noah split her land army to protect her coastal towns or abandon them to consolidate her army. With a third of his army still far out to sea, the only quick way to do this was empty many of his war galleys and put those men into the army ranks.

When report reached his ears that the king of Spain's lead elements were finally arrived, Dungie put his army on the roads north. Not waiting for report of SouJuoi's whereabouts, assuming the overlord of the SinoAlSian Confederacy was closing on the eastern Germanic front, the Atlantis army advanced toward the frontier, the king of Saranda together with the five MooDecd kings and all their remaining armies joining up with it as it marched north beyond the city.

King Dungie rode in all his glory as he led his countless military throngs toward his greatest victory. Never again would Iam plague this world with his intrusive indulgences, forcing a free people to submit to his evil passions! Down would fall the Dragons, one and all, bringing peace to the world at last! Then the Hormaxian god-lord would deliver his very presence to the earth to restore the world that once existed but was destroyed by the evil of Iam. A smile grew on Dungie's face as he pondered what wonderful magic Zeussah might just use to bring Noah and her rabble to ruin.

"Make haste!" Dungie shouted, lifting his sword high. "The hour is short and reward great! Tomorrow we will boil our supper in the helmets of our foes, and roast our meat upon their shields!"

### * * *

Mihai paced back and forth, contemplating the report just received regarding Samyaza's (Legion's) preparations to move on the Second Realm with a large military force. Gabrielle stared down at the long council table, her face ashen, understanding the outcome should Samyaza be permitted his intrusions into the Atlantis campaign. Lowenah sat quietly at the head of the table, eyes closed, her face reflecting no emotion.

PalaHar finally broke the silence. Pushing back so that his chair rested on two legs, he looked up, speaking to no one in particular. "This comes as no surprise to any of us. Tell me, did we truly expect the miscreant to keep his word? Besides, Chrusion would have interceded had he not, forcing Samyaza to act anyway. The question is how to protect our Dragon queen. By our very laws, we cannot interfere directly or we will open the door, legally, for Chrusion to unleash his armies against Noahashonie."

Planetee spoke up. "Even now, Chasileah and her company stand beside Noah, willing to fight to the death. Does that not already break the agreement we established with the Evil Worm?"

PalaHar answered, "Not so, for Samayza has embedded his own spies within the Atlantician ranks. As long as the witchery of our Realm is not used by either side in those worlds, there are no laws broken... technically. For now, it is that understanding that we must ascribe to. The weapons previously used in the Battle of the Bantoowazzi or currently in the possession of earthly men are no longer considered to be our intruding witchery... at least technically. Their use by either our people or Noah's should not be interpreted to be breaking any treaty."

Terey asked, "If that is the case, why did the Atlanticians not bring their many thunder wagons and sky ships with them? A few thunder gunns they have delivered, but little else in the way of Hormaxian witchery. Why so?"

Gabrielle spoke up. "I believe it's so because they anticipated Samyaza's intervention from the start, something we have overlooked completely in our foolishness. The signs were there, our spies keeping us aware of the Atlantician activities, but we slept, not wishing to see the treachery of our brother." She groaned sadly, "Will we ever stop dreaming of the past so as to truly see our present... our future, if we still have one?"

Lowenah finally spoke up, looking first at Gabrielle and finally at each of the others gathered in the chambers. "Do not toy with ignorance in an attempt to protect my feelings! You all know what must be done. You made a promise to the sons of men, telling them that if they will do their part, then success will become theirs. Noah has surrendered everything in an attempt to carry out your will... yes, I say, your will, because none of you sought my counsel on matters. Do you think that I cannot produce a seed if that is my will? Why, I can make the very stones birth a mighty Cherub if I wish. It would be such a little matter for me to make a male child that would stand up as savior for the world of men or to be filled with the stink of Chrusion's and Azazel's scent."

She frowned, her words bitter and chastising. "Always thinking past me you are... always! I brought the Deluge upon a distressed world because you thought past me, forcing me to act on laws that you invented without consulting me. When the ruin became so great so as to threaten life on Earth, I could not fix things because of your laws that tied my hands. An extinction event I was then forced to commit against my own creation. Now your laws, made without my consultation, have done the same to me again."

Sighing, Lowenah stood. "By your very mouths, you have changed times and seasons so that a child of the Elkhorn must sacrifice her soul and spirit to produce an abomination to her heart so that justice might prevail... your justice! This I cannot stop or I should make you all the fools before the face of the Wicked One. No... a house divided will not stand. I am not your overlord! You are a free people, and as such must accept this burden you have created as a free people. Truth must your words remain or all faith will the sons of dust lose in our promises."

She turned, staring into Gabrielle's face, her eyes ablaze, asking, "What are you going to do about it?"

Gabrielle slowly stood, leaning forward, with her hands on the table, tears growing in her eyes. "Sorry, Mother, we have failed you. Little are we worth. Fix this we will with our blood - not only ours but with many of your sons and daughters must this be done."

She looked into Lowenah's eyes, seeking forgiveness for her own foolishness. "Samyaza must be stopped from interfering with the sons of men, so this is what shall be done..."

Gabrielle paused to gather her words. "We... we..." Her voice faded to little more than a pitiful whisper. "We shall march on Samyaza's city, Memphis, and lay siege to it, forcing Samyaza to reconsider any forays into the Realms Below."

An audible gasp filled the room.

Mihai threw her hands up, exclaiming, "Memphis? We will lose half our army if we attempt such a travesty!"

Gabrielle stared into Lowenah's eyes. "It is better to lose it all than for one promise to go unfulfilled. As goes the crow, so goes the raven... one word... one truth."

PalaHar stood, not waiting for an audience. "I will ready the army. We must move immediately if we are to hold back the Serpent's breath."

Gabrielle nodded sadly. "I will gather whatever of the fleet I have here at my disposal. The remainder will be notified to make for Memphis." Looking at Mihai, she asked, "Do I have your support in this?"

Mihai was desperate, but understood the gravity of the matter. Looking first at Lowenah, who remained expressionless, she addressed Gabrielle, "My fighter squadrons are at your disposal." She then lifted a hand, shaking a finger. "But, do not hold back from allowing me to take to the ground when the time is right."

Slowly shaking her head, Gabrielle softly replied, "You are a free woman. Serve where you will... Die how you wish..."

Lowenah squeezed Gabrielle's hand. "Child, my spirit goes with you on this. Remember, the children are mine, their sacrifice is to me. Do not burden your heart with their loss, for they would do this even without you."

Gabrielle could make no reply for too choked up she was to do so. Turning on shaky legs, she slowly made her way from the council chamber into her private rooms, hiding away so that the others might not witness the sorrowful weeping coming from a distraught heart.

### * * *

The Shemion Sea campaign was underway by the time Dungie reached the western shores below Saranda. General Nuefange's hands were full keeping his war machine focused on its primary objective. Few supplies and virtually no reinforcements had arrived from Atlanticia, having been redirected to Dungie's northern campaign.

Trusting his own Atlantician forces over his untested allies, Nuefange pulled most of the Atlantician ships out of the Verdi region and into the Shemion, leaving the ships of Colosuim and lesser allied city-states to protect Atlantis' holdings there. He also withdrew a large portion of the army laying siege to Athens, adding them and most of the harbored flotilla at Athens to his armada.

Nuefange put everything he could afford into his eastern Shemion campaign, gathering his scattered military strength to Malta while sending his Athenian flotilla on to Thera where Admiral NoahhaTarshishson was readying his battle fleet for action. It was planned to have Admiral Noahha move his armada to the East and South, threatening the combined fleets of Cyprus and Crete, while Nuefange sailed along the northern shores of Africa, skirting Crete far to the South.

Plans were changed when news reached Nuefange's ears that Zarephath, high warlord over the armies of Sidon, was threatening war against Atlantis after hearing reports of Dungie's mistreatment of Zarephath's cousin, Odethbethel. This combined with news that members of the Shemion Sea Phoenician Guild were equally disturbed over the matter as well as taking offense over Dungie's official pronouncements against the Eastern Sea Phoenician Guild forced Nuefange to change his plans. He immediately put to sea toward Thera to join up with Admiral Noahha. Cyprus and Crete must be put in their place quickly to quell any notion of Zarephath or the Phoenicians allying themselves with them. Egypt would have to wait until this current dilemma was resolved.

This did not mean that Egypt slept. TitanAmactony ordered his chief officer of the military, General AnakPhonieSeka, to put forth a threatening presence in open waters between Egypt and Crete. Forays were also to be made by extended elements into the sea west and north of Crete. This action again forced General Nuefange to change his battle plans. Ordering Admiral Noahha to take his armada and move east toward Cyprus in hopes of splitting the Cyprus-Crete naval fleets, Nuefange sailed directly for the western end of Crete. Crete hurried its navy west to defend against invasion, engaging Nuefange in the Andikithira Straits, thus beginning the second Atlantician Shemion Sea Wars.

### * * *

Noahashonie held up the eyepiece given Javan by Dancing Stones, scanning the southern horizon, groaning in dismay. The enemy swarmed ever onward like fire ants searching for a new home. This time there was no river standing between her people and them, only a thin curtain of cavalry to slow their onslaught. Sweeping her gaze from west to east, the witch queen wondered where Dungie's cavalry was. She had studied his southern battle tactics and well understood the man's use of the fleet-footed horse and camel, but the woman saw nary a trace of them in his advancing lines other than leading scout elements.

Noah offered the eyepiece to Chasileah. "You have come to rescue our souls, but I fear you tempt your own demise. They come like the numberless hordes from Hell's gate, we standing but a spit in the breeze against them."

Chasileah furrowed her brow, laughing bitterly, "A rescuer and preserver of souls? I come as an ally to lift swords up beside my Sister of the Bloodwind. Together we live or die."

'Rescuer and preserver of souls'... In the common tongue of Noah's people, those words were pronounced phonetically 'Sus-que-han-na', the same tongue Chasileah and Noah were conversing in. Hyhoset was standing beside her mother, listening to this conversation, understanding little of the speech she and Chasileah were using. Thinking what she heard to be Chasileah's name, the child reached up tugging on Chasileah's arm. Eyes wide with wonder, she exclaimed, "Susquehanna will save us this day! The Dragon goddess, Susquehanna, will deliver us from evil, yes?"

Bending forward and taking Hyhoset's hand, Chasileah stared into the girl's anxious face. What could she say? This was not the hour to be honest and tell a troubled little child that she, too, expected to die on the bloodied field before these battles were ended. Smiling, Chasileah replied, "Susquehanna? Susquehanna will try."

Hyhoset grinned, her eyes sparkling. "Susquehanna will! Susquehanna will save us!" She let go of Chasileah's hand and hurried off, telling everyone she met that the great Dragon goddess, Susquehanna, was going to save them from the approaching evil.

Noah apologized, "Sorry. I will go fetch her so this does not spread."

Chasileah stopped Noah. "Let the child go. It may lift their spirits for the moment. Death will come to many whether we should win or lose. It is easier to face that death believing in victory than to stand the line seeing only defeat. Maybe the child does us a favor."

The subject quickly changed back to battle strategy. Cothath and the older kindred remained with Noah's army to aid in its defense while SchroGarthTho and the younger Mozerathas men and women went with BondaBoor and a contingent of Germanic allies into an ancient forest at the edge of the eastern frontier with giant oaks and evergreens that produced an eerie ever-twilight, consuming the land for over five hundred leagues. Home of the cave bear, black wolf and every other kind of ravenous beast, this forest was a fearsome place for the timid wanderer. Of the brave few who entered there, fewer ever returned. But for the Mozerathas it was like a journey home. It took little time to reacquaint their spirits with those of the wild beasts hiding in that majestic darkness.

Her daughter at her side, Swalhawena, 'DrakonOdous' to the Riphath peoples, led an army from those clans into the frontiers to the South and Southeast of Iamrussia, there to harass the rear guard and camps of ShumonuamKasbar, the king of Spain. Fighting by night and hiding by day, Swalhawena hoped to terrorize the Spanish army so badly that its soldiers would become disheartened for any more war. Her plan was simple: slaughter every man, woman, and child following along in the unprotected camps. This was war, the enemy intending to annihilate all her people, so she was going to deliver upon them that same gift. When Chasileah was informed, she remained silent, thinking of PalaHar's cold statement, 'If war is not to your liking, don't start one.'

The sound of pounding hoofs drew the attention of Noah's company. Riding hard from the North, a strangely dressed courier charged toward those gathered on the ridge. Pulling in tightly on the horse's reins, the rider managed to stop before bowling anyone over.

"Commander," the courier shouted, looking at Chasileah as he jumped down from his mount, "message from Captain Joleck... Her sky ship is just back from Hanna Inlet." He hurriedly handed Chasileah a scribbled note, the others standing about, puzzling at his appearance. The fellow wore what appeared to be heavy wool trousers, a dark brown leather coat with brass fasteners of sorts, a peculiar-looking leather-brimmed cap, and sporting some kind of device about his neck that appeared to be worn over the eyes when in use.

As Chasileah read the message, she turned to Noah. "There's a large Atlantician fleet less than a day south of the inlet. Message says hundreds of galleys under full oar are coming fast. Says here that KroTonkin's Phoenicians made harbor just this morning, landing about eight thousand of the Genesee and their clansmen to bolster defenses there."

Noah sighed in despair, "That still only gives us about twelve thousand to defend the entire region. We'll be outnumbered three to one should they land their army at Hanna Inlet. But there are six other harbor towns within easy reach of the enemy's ships. If they sail past the inlet to attack further north, we'll never get to those places in time to defend them."

Chasileah looked down at the note. "There's more on the other side. It says that the Phoenicians are joining up with headman Tomassie to confront the enemy on the morrow. Tomassie says there's a strong westerner brewing and hopes to use the winds to drive the enemy. Says that many of the Phoenician transports are taking on pitch and thunder powder to make fire ships of them. It also says that several companies of Geneseeans have long thunder-sticks with them, and a half dozen smaller thunder gunns taken during the Bantoowazzi campaign. Joleck says they're eager for a fight. She then asks if you wish her sky ships to engage the enemy fleet."

Noah softly placed a hand on Chasileah's arm. "Thank you. Please tell your Captain Joleck that I would ask her to hold her sky ships at the ready for the moment. I do not wish for the enemy to know we have that kind of weaponry just yet." She turned and looked off toward the South. "I wish not to hold this line but to draw the enemy deep into our territory, forty leagues possibly. At Kornary Ridge we will make our stand. There we will win or lose. There we will live or die. But should we win, I want that murdering bastard set so deep in our trap that he cannot escape until I have my way with him!"

Turning back to Chasileah, Noah asked her to send Captain Joleck a message. "Please ask her to deliver this to all the captains and headmen facing the southern host: 'Drive the enemy with all the power within you. But remember, please, only yesterday these very men were your brothers at arms. May they one day become that again.'"

Receiving the eye piece back from Chasileah, Noah scanned her southern battle lines. "So tell me, my Lord Chasileah, what you think of this plan? The cavalry already is forcing the enemy to slow and bunch up. It will take some time for them to break ranks and form battle lines. The lay of the land holds secrets that our cavalry hides from prying eyes."

She pointed forward toward endless windrows of dried grasses, broken in places to permit passage. "When the enemy presses us, our cavalry will slowly give way, staying just out of bowshot range, but close enough to draw the enemy in. They will have no choice but to follow. Their ranks are swelling up behind them, forcing the forward lines to advance. When the signal is given, those grasses, filled with pitch and oil, will be set ablaze and the cavalry will melt away, taking station, dismounted, behind the blaze." She quietly mused, "The wind gods serve us well this day." Then Noah added, "I have over two thousand archers concealed behind those walls of grasses, all well schooled in the use of the Egyptian bow, their arrows tipped with poison. On my command, they will rise, showering the enemy with a storm of them."

Chasileah asked, surprised, "Poison?"

Noah calmly answered, "I have learned well the arts of war, doing as my husband, Javan, did by studying that art taught through earlier wars of men. It is often not the blade or the bow that delivers victory or defeat upon the army, but sickness that robs it of life and health."

She turned to look at Chasileah, a sad disgust showing on her face. "The septic filth of the waste pit I smear on all my weapons. Wounds need not be fatal to destroy your opponent if the battle should last many days and conditions are foul as one finds in a crowded camp. Pits need not to be dug deep if the short spikes create infectious wounds when the enemy steps upon them. A soldier lying sick in his tent, delirious with the fever, is as good for his opponent as if he were cut down in battle, possibly better. I fight this war to win it by death or sickness, murder or deceit, trickery or magic. I care little how it's done, but win it we must or all is lost forever."

Chasileah's shock turned to pondering. These people played by no rules such as they did. War in all its evil destruction was practiced here, ugly and contemptible in its majestic insanity. There should be standards, conditions, expectations, so that the combatants would understand how the game was played. A jolt raced through Chasileah's body as realization of her own thoughts sank in. For so long, her people had played the game of life. Always flirting with the way one must become victor, they had not learned how to deal with the game of death. For them, victory gained while playing outside the rules of conduct of war was no victory because the battle had been won through treachery and deceit. Both sides must know the rules so that the battle could be fought fairly. You must murder your enemy honestly, this being the argument when sitting at the negotiating table with... Wait! Were the rules of war not Chrusion's suggestion, a way to keep orderliness, the fair way to do things?

She looked at Noah, who stood quietly waiting for a reply. These people saw not the game but the outcome, the result of their actions, caring not how they were achieved. If only her own people could see things this way and not fear the morning, waking filled with guilt for not playing by the rules. If they only could, only had, would their world have been consumed by its current madness, or would Chrusion's staked body been drying in the breeze long ago? A troubling thought, indeed!

Chasileah frowned, not from Noah's revelations, but because of her own self-righteous attitude. 'Better a live dog than a dead lion.' She must remember that statement.

She took Noah's hand, squeezing it. "My Lady, queen of the Dragons, I perceive your wisdom greater than mine in this instance, for you think with a simple eye, the goal set clearly in mind. The aged tree has much to learn from the sapling. Today it hopes to begin."

Although not understanding the true meaning of Chasileah's reply, Noah thanked her. Leaning forward, she kissed Chasileah on the cheek then asked, "My Lord Susquehanna, will you accept my offer to ride with me in my chariot this day? I must go forward now, to be with my people when the hour becomes hot. So good would it be to have you at my side."

Chasileah smiled her acceptance. Calling Hyhoset to join her, Noah climbed into her chariot after Chasileah. Wearing only a helm, leather sandals, and a sword slung across her back, she called to the horses, starting them on a gallop down the slope toward the Fates waiting below. Today war would begin. But for Noah, it would not end until the Devil's seed dwelt deep within her belly.

### * * *

The young king of Atlantis quietly surveyed the battlefield. Night was falling but the black, oily fires from the windrows were still smoldering. Hundreds of dead were hurriedly buried to prevent sickness from sweeping the army, while hundreds more wounded were tended to in makeshift camps where surgeons worked feverishly to save them, many so badly broken Dungie did not want the men seen by the remainder of his soldiers.

Ghastly those injuries were, too. When the battle became heavy and his men maneuvered beyond the front wall of flaming grasses, arrows rained down on them, many ablaze. The front lines stalled from the onslaught, the rear lines pressing in upon them, bunching so that they became compressed. Before Dungie's army could move forward, the ground erupted in geysers of black, smoky filth as scores of thunderstones hidden below the soil rent the sky in their madness, propelling jagged shards of rock into the compact ranks, tearing limbs from bodies while tossing the shattered masses high into the air. In the ensuing panic, many soldiers attempting to rush through the flames to escape suffered horrendous burns while others fell victim to countless pits filled with sharpened spikes.

The Atlantician battle lines had stretched for nearly a league, the center thrust almost a mile wide. They had been blocked everywhere, taking heavy losses, while the enemy, appearing to be few in number, flitted around from place to place on fast horses and camels or shot arrows from fast chariots. Suddenly, at the very height of the battle, the enemy melted away, taking their dead and wounded with them. The enemy's strategic defense was brilliant, Dungie only knowing about such prowess through the writings of other warrior chiefs.

This had to be the handiwork of his traitorous lieutenants, AbramNeufeld and DavidRhine! Who else could have developed such an impressive battle plan? Noah, his rebellious, misfit wife? Never! They would pay dearly for their fornications against him, dragged back to Atlanticia and forced to watch their wives and children sacrificed to the gods and then ever so slowly have their own lives drained from them in torturous ways!

For ten leagues he had marched his army into Iamrussian territory, enemy cavalry always shadowing them but never attacking. This day, since morning light, hundreds of those cavalry advanced as thought attacking, forcing Dungie to draw up his infantry into battle formation, his own cavalry too scattered to engage offensively. When the enemy cavalry did not attack but remained threateningly close just out of bowshot range, Dungie's infantry advanced, the enemy cavalry slowly withdrawing in battle formation, keeping the same distance between the two lines. If Dungie's infantry should pause, the enemy would charge forward, unleashing a volley of arrows before pulling back out of range again.

This went on throughout the long morning. Dungie's soldiers were forced to advance in battle formation for two leagues to this broad valley plain filled from horizon to horizon with countless windrows of dry grasses. At some given signal, the enemy cavalry passed through the grasses, withdrawing from sight over the knolls and hillocks. After this, when his exhausted soldiers had reached the first of the windrows, archers jumped up from hidden positions while others took torches and lit the windrows ablaze. In short order confusion reigned, especially for those making it past the first burning windrows, there to be consumed in death and destruction by those wretched thunderstones. Then the enemy withdrew, their cavalry taking up picket duty in the northern hills a half a league away.

Now the evening sky was filled with the smoke from a score of villages all ablaze. No great, walled cities had Noah's people built, no centers of worship or government, only squatters' shacks befouling the land to raise their bastard brood. The enemy held no place sacred, only their flesh and spirit, the gift of Iam, and that could be carried afar on foot. The thought that these squatters fought to preserve the right to live and die a free people subject to no master - be it god or human - was too incomprehensible for Dungie and other despots like him to understand. These were a free people, following their queen out of love for her and what she stood for. It was their Dragon queen's wisdom that gave them hope for victory, but their passion for freedom that would drive them to it. They were willing to deliver everything to ruin to remain that way.

What Dungie did not yet realize was that his army had entered a world of desolation. The only spoil to be found were water sources filled with rotting animals and human waste, poisoned food supplies, booby traps and death at every turn, and ever-watchful eyes always peering out at them from the hills and forest, waiting only for a moment's carelessness or forgetfulness. This was the land of a vengeful enemy, and no one with hostile intent entering here should forget that.

Dungie cursed while slowly riding along the front line where the battle had been fiercest. All day northern breezes pushed south, smothering his army in the blinding stench of pitch and oil that often made one sick smelling it. Now the breezes were shifted from the west, filled with the oppressive heat and humidity of an approaching tempest. His army would make camp here this night. In the morning, sappers would be sent out to make the way safe. In the meantime he would place a heavy guard out ahead just in case the enemy had any plans for a night attack.

After sending couriers out to locate and make contact with his allied chieftains, Dungie decided to pay a visit upon the wounded. It raised the spirits of the soldiers to know their commander cared for them, and Dungie did. The man loved his army nearly as much as he did Nidgha. He fawned over it like a loving parent does a newborn child. His soldiers could feel this, cementing their loyalty to him.

Noah understood this as well. "Cut the favorite son and the father will bleed. I shall cut his child with a thousand strokes! He shall come to me in a rage so blind as to not see I drag him here by hooks set deep in his jaws!"

The king of Atlantis did not know that he faced the queen of the Dragons, Noahashonie, and that she had divided her army into three main sections, placing them under different command. DavidRhine was leading the combined eastern allied forces facing the Spanish and their allies while AbramNeufeld was general over all the coastal forces to the West, with Noah in command of the center army. What he did not understand was that he faced the greatest military strategist he had ever confronted, the power of the Haudenosaunez strong within Noah.

"Like a bull led to its slaughter, I bring thee into the land of dismay. Come feast! Devour your own manhood."

(Author's note: _Though no mention is made of Noahashonie's prowess in current historical accounts, Sun Tzu's manual, The Art of War, borrows liberally from the scrolls of ChummCheeSuun, an easterner who witnessed firsthand the battle tactics of this woman. I describe few of the details of the lengthy campaigning of the Iamrussians during the final Atlantician War, highlighting only the events used to flesh out this account. Throughout the ages, this woman lifted her commander's staff against ungodly foes, crushing armies and changing history while confounding Hormaxian intrigues._

" _The only other woman to have surpassed the Black Angel – first of the Eagle Spirits - in outsmarting and dumbfounding her enemies through battle and diplomacy was her daughter, Hyhoset, who down past the days of god-kings and sky lords managed to humiliate every prince who dared stand up to seize world domination._

_For over a thousand years, Hyhoset and her husband Meric so terrorized the hearts of the southern Hormaxian kings, those nations paid a yearly tribute for the assurance they would not invade the Southern lands." Translated from 'Cry of the Eagle Spirits', penned by Haudenosaunez_.)

### * * *

Admiral SethHakenpol had anchored his ships in a large, crescent-shaped bay when evening darkness fell over his fleet. He had fought strong northerlies as he journeyed up the eastern coast and was now uncomfortably studying the western breeze. Warm as that breeze was, he feared it boded ill, choosing not to pursue a night move, putting off their arrival at Hanna Inlet until later the following day. Considering that those constant northerly winds might have driven any remaining floating ice mountains further south, he dared not risk his ships and men on this moonless night.

Returning fast packets arriving at the dinner hour lifted Hakenpol's spirits with news that the Dragon and Phoenician ships harbored at Hanna Inlet and beyond departed toward the West the day before, leaving only a few ships to patrol along the coast and a small contingent of sailors and soldiers to protect from invasion. Land patrols and spies reported there to be less than ten thousand infantry gathered in any proximity to defend from invasion. No mention was made of the local farmers, fishers, and townspeople, no one considering the possibility of a trained citizen army awaiting them.

Admiral Hakenpol conferred with General HudshonThornbirge after receiving this news. It was decided to advance lead elements of the fleet past Hanna Inlet, keeping far enough out to sea to make the enemy believe they were going to strike further north, forcing them to send their army away from the inlet. Then at the appropriate time, the remainder of the fleet, with the admiral's ship in the lead, would race into the inlet. General Thornbirge would then press his soldiers forward, capturing the harbor before the enemy could return. When that was done, Thornbirge would move his army north while the forward fleet would disembark its army further up the coast and move south, trapping the enemy in the middle...an excellent plan, if all went well. Things did not go well.

That westerly breeze turned into a tempest after midnight, lashing the harbored vessels with gale-force winds as anchors dragged and ships collided, driving the fleet toward the rocky shore. Lookouts soon spotted chunks of bobbing ice, their numbers increasing as the storm raged. Fearing giant, floating mountains of ice might ride the thundering waves, crushing their ships, several headmen cut anchors free, attempting to row out of the harbor only to be spun about and flung into moored ships.

When the cloudy gloom of morning light cast its pall down on the fleet, those floating ice mountains were nowhere to be seen. Several dozen of the admiral's warships were either being pounded to pieces on the rocky shores or hopelessly jumbled together. What came into Hakenpol's sight next chilled his heart even more. Appearing like gray ghosts riding high on the frothing brine, the man spied scores upon scores of Dragon ships, sails full, dancing upon the roaring swells as if rising from the depths of an angry sea. Taking his breath away, spellbound, not believing his eyes, the admiral could only wonder at the insanity of this wild people. Here his fleet was foundering in the storm and these madmen were riding the gale, sails unfurled, as they drove in to attack!

A watchman shouted down from the center mast, "Fire ships! Fire ships!"

Admiral Hakenpol stared in disbelief as several giant Phoenician round ships, riding low at the bow, winds tearing at their opened sails, lumbered out of the distant squalls, smoke boiling up from their holds. About a mile away, the crews of those ships having tied down the rudders dove into the roiling waters. While smaller oaken and leather ketches picked up the Phoenician sailors, the fire ships closed on Hakenpol's anchored fleet, careening into ships further out in the harbor.

Before his headmen could cut themselves free of the tangle, the fire ships erupted in explosive anger, blasting men from the decks as flaming planks and timbers mixed with a rain of burning pitch crashed down upon oarsmen sitting below, out in the open. In a panicked rush, dozens of headmen ordered their mooring ropes cut in hopes of escaping the ever-growing catastrophic inferno. Although some of these ships made it past the point to the south of the bay, many could not hold the line, losing control of their rudders, drifting toward the rocky shores or other anchored craft.

Midst this dizzying confusion and mayhem, the Dragon ships attacked, driving hard upon Atlantician ships. Dropping their crosstrees at the last minute while taking to the oar, the Dragon ships would come in close, releasing volley after volley of arrows into the ranks of exposed soldiers and sailors. At times, several Dragon ships would attack one galley, throwing grappling hooks and boarding, engaging in vicious hand-to-hand combat.

During the height of the battle, the slower Phoenician warships entered the contest. These were hybrid vessels of peculiar design developed by the Eastern Sea Mariners Guild and built over the winter from the sturdy oaks surrounding Umbent and Arenberg. A cross between a galley and trireme, with high fore and aft sections for archers or mounted catapults, and fighting rams built into reinforced bows, these ships ranged from 450 to 1,000 tonnes and carried a complement of up to five hundred combatants. Though few in numbers, they made an imposing sight, their masts made from trees of western virgin fir, filled with sails towering high over the Atlantician galleys. They drifted in to attack while furling their sails, smashing along the sides of escaping enemy ships, splintering oars, spreading mayhem and destruction among the rowing crews, then taking to the oar, themselves, to press the battle.

About an hour into the contest, one of the disabled galleys crashed into Admiral SethHakenpol's flagship, causing his vessel to drag its anchor so that it was driven onto the rocks along the shore, forcing the admiral to abandon ship. Having to swim through treacherous waters before reaching the safety of the steep, low, chalk cliffs, few of Hakenpol's men had weapons to defend themselves with. By the time they reached shore there was little fight left in the people anyway. Indeed, the angry ocean swallowed many a sailor and soldier that day, caring not for rank or importance.

Strong hands pulled Admiral Hakenpol and General HudshonThornbirge from the tempestuous waters and to safety. They, along with the other survivors of shipwreck, were taken prisoner and marched off to Port Hanna where their fate would be determined by High Command. Wet and shivering, Admiral Hakenpol fell into line with other survivors and began to trudge off to the North, wondering what destiny awaited him.

Winds eased by midmorning, allowing surviving war galleys to take to the oar and begin driving the enemy. Being no match for these floating fortresses when unchained and on the loose, the Dragon ships soon surrendered the fight and after covering the retreating Phoenician ships, slipped off toward the North. The new commanding headman did not pursue them but chose to gather what remained of the fleet and return to safe harbor south of Saranda. Of the three hundred war galleys that began the invasion north, over half were lost to the weather and ensuing battle.

Although not a crippling defeat for Dungie, he was unable to carry out his plans for a coastal invasion. There would be other armadas that would attempt a northward invasion, but most would be half-hearted forays. Even with the loss of several fire ships, the Phoenicians acquired over forty Atlantician galleys that were repaired and refitted. Along with their Dragon ship allies, the armada facing the Atlanticians was too powerful for them to pose a serious threat, thus allowing General Neufeld to extend activities further to his east, easing the pressure on Noah's limited resources.

While the remainder of Admiral Hakenpol's fleet limped back to home base, another catastrophe was in the making for Dungie's rear elements.

KroTonkin was already far out in the Atlantean Sea when a storm struck his fleet. The skin and oaken boats of the northern islet people were small and shallow draft with no keels, making them unwieldy when holding against aggressive gales. Instead of fighting the weather, the headmen opened their sails and let their boats take to the wind. Powerful westerly winds soon drove the boats far away toward the East. By the time the tempest had subsided, these headmen found their boats at far too great a distance to rejoin KroTonkin, yet less than one hundred leagues from the coast north of Spain. So, after gathering their might, they decided to turn north and east in search of making some coastal mischief.

The Atlantean Sea storm had whipped the shores all along the coast for the better part of two days, forcing many camps to move further inland to avoid the pounding mist and gusting winds. When the boats of the islets arrived along the coast, they discovered miles of beached ships mostly abandoned, their sailors either resting in distant compounds or off with the army. Sea patrols were almost nonexistent, the Atlantician headmen having taking their galleys further off toward the South beyond reach of the storm's fury.

The islets people discovered that hundreds of giant battle war galleys were scattered all along the coast awaiting the return of their crews. Natural harbors were few along this area of coastline, but sandy beaches were common. Many ships had been abandoned, their crews having been absorbed into the infantry, and the few available harbors were far too inadequate for beaching the many giant galleys. Other than the harbor encampments where the transport and cargo ships were off-loading supplies and reinforcements, there were few guard stations protecting the hundreds of beached warships.

Coming ashore in the dark of a new moon, the islet warriors dispatched any guards and then went about setting what ships they could ablaze. For many leagues along the western coast of Greater Iberia the night sky was set aglow, Dungie's new Atlantician battleships consumed in raging fires. In some places the galleys had been bunched so close to each other that the inferno spread from one onto the next until several would be burning together.

Caught by surprise, it took a great deal of time for the Atlanticians to respond to the emergency. Eventually army units arrived to drive the enemy away, but there was little could be done against the raging fires. There were too few people to drag undamaged ships out of harm's way and other than the scant, determined bucket brigades, there was nothing to do but salvage whatever supplies lay in the ships' holds before fire consumed them. The following day revealed that sixty warships had been destroyed while double that number were severely damaged.

To have the greatest military force up to that time receive two such blows only days apart was humiliating and troubling, but was not catastrophic or debilitating. True, Dungie was forced to change his battle plans, sending an army up along the coast west of Saranda toward Hanna Inlet, there to be faced with a prolonged siege war, but otherwise the battle strategy remained much the same. Every day reinforcements were being added to his advancing army, and the enemy attacks on his own shipping a timely nuisance, but not crippling. In the end, the battle would be won or lost in the center, where the king of Atlantis had placed his banner. Here he would face victory or defeat but, most assuredly, victory.

### * * *

The dry heat of high summer found the king of Atlantis advanced some twenty-five leagues into Iamrussian territories. There had been constant skirmishes but few major engagements. The enemy continued to stall for time, using every underhanded and treacherous trick in doing so: ambushes, spiked pits, poisoned food and water just to mention a few, and, oh yes, desolation...total and complete desolation for as far as the eye could see. Dungie also wondered over the fact that there were no fields of growing foodstuffs, farms abandoned after last season's harvest as if the people intended it to be that way.

And the people? Never in the annals of history could anyone find records of such utter depopulation. It was as if the ground had swallowed up the inhabitants and all other life, leaving only creeping things and silent trees remain. Yes, even wild animals including the deer, boar, rabbit and fox...all life had gone and vanished, but why? As troubling as those things might be, Dungie could not allow them to distract him from his objective. Food was sufficient if not plentiful and varied. Grain in adequate quantities had been harvested and stored in allied Atlantean coastal cities to sustain his entire army indefinitely. Food for man and beast was bountiful even if it was costly in time and manpower to deliver it far into Iamrussian territories.

News from Overlord SouJuoi was not yet forthcoming, a concern and puzzlement for Dungie. By now it was believed that reports of the SinoAlSian army's actions against the Germanic people should be reaching the king's ears, but nothing more had arrived since reports from ZaphipheRa some months ago that SouJuoi was advancing into the forest. SouJuoi and his army, estimated to be about sixty-thousand, had just disappeared.

There were no accurate maps available to Dungie and his allies detailing the vast regions of Iamrussia and eastward at the time of the Atlantean campaign. Although knowledge of the deep, foreboding forest was commonplace, its desolate vastness was not comprehended. SouJuoi had entered that forest, expecting to cover it in a week to ten days. By the time he began to grasp its depth, he was hopelessly mired in a never-ending tangle of old forest growth, deep gorges, and swift rivers, all the while fending off attacks from the ghosts and goblins that inhabited that ever-dark world.

Without SouJuoi's interference in the East, the allied Germanic people were acting more aggressively than expected toward the Spanish and their eastern allies. Already King ShumonuamKasbar was faltering, constant terrifying attacks against his unprotected rear only adding to his trepidation. To bolster the king's morale, Dungie had been forced to extend his army further east, weakening the striking power of General PhilipNardukeTarshish, second cousin to the older and former king of Atlanticia, Prince Narduke. If not for the timely arrival of StobattanThornbirge and six-hundred of his camel cavalry, this would have been impossible. Retaining Stobattan's forces with him, Dungie sent six companies of his horse cavalry to join General Tarshish.

Shortly after the arrival of Stobattan's camel cavalry, Dungie's army came upon a valley overlooking a wide, well-watered plain that gradually faded into the West. A watercourse tumbling down from the rugged hills to the southeast turned into a deep, serpentine river that meandered through the middle of the valley on its journey to the distant sea. Patrols reported to Dungie that at the apex where the river gradually turned in a great crescent shape from its northwestward course to the southwest, Noahashonie had positioned a large military force on the south side of the river. It was also told him that his father's battle colors could be seen fluttering in the middle of the enemy camp.

The Atlantician king grinned in delight, "The fool has trapped herself on this side of the river with no practical way of escape other than back to the South and West, right into my flanking army!"

General Tarshish was some thirty leagues or so to the East, moving northward through hill country on his slow, steady march toward New Paris, still over forty leagues away. Dungie was less than twenty leagues from the city, with the bulk of Noah's army standing between it and his army. The region around New Paris was his target area - rumor being that was where the Iamrussians had escaped along with all their riches, food, and livestock.

Expecting a hard-won contest to attain the city, and not anticipating his adversary making such a foolish blunder as to place her army with an un-fordable river to its back while leaving only one other tenuous escape route to its west, Dungie spread his army out along the invasion route. If he was to take advantage of his enemy's foolhardy mistake, he would have to engage with less than his full strength, but this was too great an opportunity to miss! He must move now, while the gods still favored him with the enemy apparently blind to the extreme danger they were in. 'Move swiftly and hit hard!' That was the motto that had often won the battle for him.

King Dungie first moved to block off any routes of escape. He ordered the remainder of his horse cavalry off toward the northeast to secure the valley and move down the river toward the enemy while sending a division of his infantry on the double-quick to the northwest toward the river to prevent any escape down the valley in that direction. He then advanced his two remaining infantry divisions in two battle lines, three ranks deep, directly north toward the enemy position, while calling up his rear elements to advance as rapidly as possible.

Riding near the head of his lead divisions, Dungie eventually discovered several continuous lines of brown, grassy windrows filled with dried brush and broken trees. Upon seeing this, he halted his front lines and ordered Thornbirge's camel cavalry to charge forward, clearing out any enemy combatants and securing the field. From his vantage point, the Atlantician king could see the enemy's battle lines over a mile away, mostly infantry with a smattering of Egyptian chariots and horse and camel cavalry. There looked to be little more than six to eight thousand of them, certainly not the number he had anticipated the queen of the Iamrussians to force the battle with. Maybe she had been caught up short, not expecting his quick arrival, or... or maybe the remainder of her army was across the river somewhere, waylaid while attempting to ford the deep waters. Whatever the case, she was where he wanted her and he must strike now, allowing the woman no escape!

The skirmish over the windrows was short-lived, most of the enemy scurrying away as soon as Thornbirge's cavalry came charging into view. Thornbirge continued to pursue them to within two furlongs of Noah's lines. There he halted, holding his cavalry in place as Dungie ordered his infantry to continue their advance.

Dungie stopped just to the south of the first and largest of the grassy windrows while his infantry forged on, struggling through the oil-smeared obstructions and into the open field beyond. The field was clear for miles. Other than thick, brushy woods along the river, one could see the entire battle plain.

Oh, how such pageantry stirred the heart, making one wish for battle and war! With triumphant determination, Dungie's lead divisions of over twelve thousand men marched forward, banners held high and horns blasting. The young king's heart burst with admiration for his soldiers... his children...at this impressive spectacle. The man sat his mount, beaming with fatherly pride.

The infantry was coming up behind Thornbirge's cavalry when a lone chariot moved out from the enemy ranks, two women and a child standing in the machine. Lifting a hand, the charioteer came to a sudden stop. Even from this distance, Dungie could see that the chariot horses had no reins to guide them. Taking out an eyepiece that had once been AnahNakaNoah's, Dungie peered at the occupants in the chariot. Shocked he was at seeing for the first time the appearance of his wife since her escape so many years before. Beautiful beyond breath she now was, but fearsome in countenance and glory.

The young child beside Noah, Dungie paid little attention to, assuming it to be Javan's bastard child, he permitting it to live, thinking it was his own. The woman to Noah's right puzzled him. She was dressed as no other person he had ever seen. Her stature told him that she was an able military veteran and that she held important rank, but who she was or where she was from was a mystery. Why had his priests not informed him of such a person?

Suddenly a smoky missile shot skyward from the chariot, exploding with a tumultuous rumble high above the army. A cry rent the air, then another and another, until hundreds could be heard as score after score of enemy combatants hiding in concealed pits leaped out of the ground. Before taking to the sword or the bow, these people grabbed torches and lit the grasses ablaze. As soon as the fires roared to life, another missile flew heavenward, erupting into another thunderous roar.

From the deep grasses and trees of the woods a great tumult arose as countless numbers of giant, four-wheeled chariots of Sumerian design pulled by teams of wild bulls rumbled onto the open plain, Noah's infantry scattering out of the way as they passed them by. Upon seeing these chariots, Thornbirge ordered his cavalry about, taking off toward the East away from the burning windrows just as those chariots thundered forward.

As the cavalry retreated, Dungie's infantry, waiting for orders to attack, stood watching in horror as this row of chariots with iron scythes over a cubit's length mounted to the hubs of their front wheels drove straight for them, tearing into their panicked ranks. Noah's infantry charged forward into the lead elements of Dungie's infantry, stopping up short so as to not become victims of their own war machines.

After smashing through the ranks of Dungie's fleeing infantry, tearing apart and trampling those unable to escape the onslaught, the chariots halted to pick up Noah's soldiers standing the line at the fire walls before turning back into the Iamrussian ranks. Driven by Mozerathas warriors, the wild bulls did not falter as their masters hooted and cried commands to them, smashing through their enemies like reapers through ripe grain. In only minutes, the field was consumed by masses of Dungie's terrorized soldiers fleeing helter-skelter in total disarray. Trapped between Noah's defenders at their front and the fiery cataclysm behind with charging chariots running amok among them, many of the Atlantician soldiers attempted to escape by retreating back through the inferno, leading to greater calamity. A large number became smeared with oily filth when they struggled through the windrows as they advanced toward the enemy. Now those oily garments were all ablaze, the men screaming in agony as they attempted to tear off their flaming clothing. A newly arrived division just aligned into battle formation was unable to lend support to their comrades, and could only stand and watch.

Dungie was beside himself with anguish as he helplessly watched his 'children' slaughtered before his eyes. In desperation, he sent couriers off toward the northwest with orders for his western infantry division to move up the valley on the double-quick to drive the enemy. He also ordered the newly arrived division to hurry to the east, past and around the inferno and charge the enemy from the east.

Before the two wings of Dungie's army could maneuver into position, Noah's forces began melting into the brushy woodlands in front of the river. Black clouds still rose from the fires as Noah's chariot could be seen moving toward her front lines. Holding up a ram's horn, the woman sounded recall and then remained there waiting until most of her infantry retired the field and was passing into the woods. Noah then looked south across the bloodied field toward her mortal adversary. Lifting Javan's standard high and brandishing it, she shouted out a curse against Dungie before turning and also disappearing into the woods.

By the time Dungie's reinforcements gained the field north of the fires, there was no more of the enemy on the southern shore of the river. What Dungie did not know was that several pontoon bridges had been assembled earlier, permitting Noah's entire army escape to the safety of the northern bank of the river. The pontoons were then cut free and later disassembled before being pulled onto the shores and loaded in large wagons to be hauled away. The young king of Atlantis could only shake his fist while screaming oaths of damnation against the Iamrussians as he stared across the turbulent waters of this nameless river.

What later came to be called the 'Battle of the Loire River' was now over, its implications only beginning to be understood. The Atlanticians suffered over nine thousands casualties, almost five thousand killed in battle, another four thousand with burns and ghastly wounds from which many would soon die. At best, the enemy lost only a few hundred people in this confrontation, men and women alike holding the line against the best of the Atlantician army. Once again, Dungie had been allowed the field in an empty victory, the enemy disappearing into the wilderness beyond his reach.

Dungie fumed, pounding a fist into an opened hand while uttering a curse against Noah and her gods. He turned to ZaphipheRa, screaming in his ear, "When will the gods deliver what they have promised? Today another victory won at the cost of my brave men! Where are Zeussah and his wonderful sky ships?"

ZaphipheRa was equally puzzled over Zeussah's absence when he personally assured the Atlantician king and the high priest of Hormax that he would intercede with the might of his sky people. This he could not tell Dungie for fear of losing favor. Already his counsel concerning battle strategy was in question. Oh yes, ground had been gained, but always at extreme cost to Dungie's army, his army. One time, in the heat of anger, the young king had even asked the Hormaxian priest what good he was. It was dangerous at this moment to reveal that he, too, was perplexed over Zeussah's lack of support.

"My Lord," ZaphipheRa bowed ever so humbly, addressing Dungie, "as you know, our High Lord does not view matters like mere mortals do. So many times he tests out the heart loyalty of his chosen ones. From Pharaoh, Zeussah demanded his most cherished possession... his son. For you, what might it be...your cherished army? This, my Lord, I do not know, but shall cry out to the gods this very night to find answers that may satisfy your heart."

Dungie spit, "Little good it did AnahNakaNoah! Dead he is along with his son and all his dreams for power and glory. You saw to that yourself, didn't you? So what secret gain is my failure to you?"

ZaphipheRa's lips quivered in anger. How dare this young upstart speak so disrespectfully to him! Subduing his righteous wrath, the old priest humbly replied, "To my High Lord and his anointed king do I give all my loyalty. By his own voice, I sought you out, being told that you were the promised seed to return righteous rule to this world with the resurrection of Atlantis from the depths of the raging flood. My service to AnahNakaNoah was only to hurry your day of glory."

"Bullshit!" Dungie fumed. "You have always done for ZaphipheRa and no one else! Now listen, old man, I have tolerated your pandering up to this limit, but will not tolerate it any longer!"

Dungie motioned to some of his personal guard to come near. Pointing at ZaphipheRa, Dungie commanded, "Have your soldiers keep a heavy guard on this man day and night! He is a slippery one, so even when he goes to relieve himself, do not allow him out of your sight. Chain him to a post if necessary. Should he attempt to run away, shoot him down and bring his head to me."

He then stared into ZaphipheRa's astonished face. "You are to stand beside me in the battle line from this moment on. If you attempt to flee from my side, my attendants will cut you down and feed your body to the crows. Damn you and all your worthless gods! Am I not also a god... the god-ruler of Atlantis? Bow down and do an act of worship to me or die on this very spot!"

Filled with growing fear, ZaphipheRa slowly fell to his knees, prostrating himself in an act of obedience to Dungie. "Oh, my Lord, god of Atlantis...your servant."

Dungie leaned close, hissing, "And don't forget it! Now get up!"

After the high priest stood, Dungie shook a finger in ZaphipheRa's face, warning, "You had better find some magic for me if you have to pull it out of your ass! Let me down again and I'll skewer you myself and place you on a way-sign of your own making!"

Cowering, the old priest promised he would do all in his power to summon the secret magic of Horus for Dungie. "I will summon the gods with my incantations so that they will..."

Dungie angrily waved ZaphipheRa off. "Don't waste my time calling to your worthless gods. Save that for the ignorant fools. You and I both know there are but two gods to be dreaded...Iam and Lucifer. The others, if they are real at all, are only pawns on their game board, being moved about at their whim. The Lady is Iam's pawn and my bitch-wife her pawn. Zeussah is Lucifer's pawn, and I am Zeussah's to do with as he wishes, and...and you are my pawn... a little, worthless pawn to be moved about on the board as I please or..." Dungie stomped on a dried clump of dirt, grinding it to dust, "or to be tossed from the board and crushed under my feet."

He grabbed hold of ZaphipheRa's robe at the neck, pulling him up close until his spittle spattered the old priest's face. "Do you think yourself immortal? You are as worthless a piece of shit as I, having long ago sold your soul for treasures of little more worth than mine. You and I have surrendered up everything decent for shadow-dreams that will bring only death and damnation. Yet that road is now our fate to be shared together...or alone, if I so will it."

Looking toward the field of slaughtered souls, he confessed, "There lay the true men of honest heart, men moved by simple loyalty and integrity for a cause, a belief, surrendering all because the scum and filth of the earth request it. We...you and I are the scum and filth of the earth, the maggots eating away the flesh of all things pure, the living dead ever consuming and giving nothing back."

Releasing ZaphipheRa, Dungie glanced off to the North. "We have chosen to serve Lucifer, Prince of the Damned. Through simple tricks and treachery he buys his servants. We have accepted his offer and now it is our lot to do his will. We have fated it to be so. Our blood rests upon our own shoulders."

He pointed northward. "Noah serves the Prince of Light. She fights for a cause that Darkness can no longer comprehend... that you and I can no longer comprehend. We shall never win this war against her, even should we be victorious in all the battles clear to her end, for that woman will become a spirit of glory while we will fade into the dark nothingness." Dungie sighed, resigned, turning to look at ZaphipheRa. "But this is the road we have taken, and now it must be taken all the way to its end...your end and mine."

ZaphipheRa was at a loss to comprehend Dungie's philosophizing. What future? At best, all men were merely part of the great living Cosmos that gave life for the moment and after stealing it back, used that energy to create new life, be it animal, human, a god or possibly even a tree. The living Cosmos cared not for good or bad, kindness or evil, or even life itself. Why, life was only the result of the Cosmos casting off its energy as it readjusted the clockwork of the universe. Lucifer was its gatekeeper, playing games with life's energy as the Cosmos shook its energy off. To man he could give or take away, but only in this life, nothing more.

Iam...Iam? Iam was the trickster who purchased man's loyalty by offering empty promises, there being no future where mind and heart survived beyond the body. Lucifer gave to his loyal followers wealth, power, and glory so that they could pass through this tribulation of misery called 'life' a little more comfortably than the poor fools who believed in some future reward, until being absorbed back into the living Cosmos to be reborn in some other miserable little life. Dungie was a fool if he believed in a moral conscience...a very dangerous fool, nonetheless! So for now, the old priest would tread lightly around this man until he either came back to his senses or...or opportunity afforded itself to... Well, he would watch and see.

### * * *

Rae drew in a breath of the early morning breeze as his crew pressed the sea with muffled oars, pulling behind them heavy ropes holding fast a two-masted felucca, its lateen sails furled and masts removed to keep its silhouette low on the horizon. The Verdi was a dangerous place to be if one wished to avoid a confrontation with the enemy, especially when one's mission was to abscond with several of the Verdi merchants' large, fast, trading ships. Yes, several it was, for another dozen Dragon ships were rowing along in Rae's wake, pulling equally valuable prizes.

Rae had been in his uncle Rafe's raiding party of over a dozen Dragon ships when flashing fire signals could be seen high in the hills above the ruins of Tolaphas. Risking it being a trap, RafeTomassie put ashore with his lone ship to investigate. He was met by Queen Asterzoni with an urgent plea. The Talking Stones warned of the nearing doom of Atlantis and that a certain 'Baalath' and his loyal kinsmen guarding the western door were with no reasonable way to escape the coming storm. So a plan had been hatched that, with Rafe's help, might just manage a rescue of Baalath and the others before that destruction overtook them.

Rafe and his raiders were to make for Chornie on the eastern coast, a hundred leagues north of Atlanticia, the southernmost harbor city still in the possession of the Dodanimian Alliance. There Rafe would supply his ships and prepare for transporting several hundred of Baalath's people safely to the lands of the Iamrussians. But first there was the little matter of having ships enough to carry that multitude of people seeing that few remained in any of those eastern harbors outside the districts of Atlantis. Being that the Dragon ships already had full complements of crew, there was little room for rescue aboard those ships, leaving the only other option of 'borrowing' a few stout, seaworthy vessels for the cause. Thus the reason for muffled oars and silent rowing as Rae scanned the horizon for any signs of possible trouble.

Beside him stood the headman and owner of the felucca being towed out to sea, the worried look on his face revealing the man's uncertainty and trepidation over his predicament. Rae reached out, taking the man by the arm. "I assure you that unless the enemy sinks us, your ship will be returned to you when our quest is finished, and in your hand a substantial reward to pay for your services. I regret the lack of negotiations, but time is pressing us to quickly finish our business. We will fulfill our contract with you...uh, when one is made and signed, that is."

The headman could only sadly nod. Already they were several leagues from safe harbor with him standing the deck of this Dragon ship, a 'guest' of its headman, while some of the Dragon ship's crew ran the decks of his ship. "Better that way..." Rae had said, "Let's my men get to know the ship and for your people and mine to become acquainted." Well, maybe all that was told the headman by Rae was so. After all, had these men been true pirates, they would possess his ship and he and the others with him would be taking the long swim.

This was much the same with the other captured ships taken. In many cases, the ships had been anchored in shallow bays awaiting daylight hours to resume their travels. For the most part, these vessels were fast cargo carriers of two masts and lateen rigged, being of sixty to ninety tonnes and shallow draft. They had been designed for short runs of a few days to a week or so, and to manage harbors of little more than a fathom's depth. Since they were built to sail the islands of the Verdi where sudden violent storms were all too common, they were also stout, seaworthy craft that could easily take on such tempests. In other words, they were ideal for their upcoming tasks.

This season of the year, winds in this oceanic region were often not friendly to ships passing to the West and North. Strong westerlies often made for extreme tacking, and even with the Dragon ships having rigged for lateen-style sailing, the passage would be tedious, and this was if the winds held. Oftentimes a sailing vessel might find itself in the doldrums for days or possibly weeks. If this was the case, then they would have to take again to the oar, with the feluccas in tow.

By pressing every advantage, Rafe hoped to arrive at Chornie in thirty to forty days. But it might take them as many as sixty if things went against them. Oh well, Rafe and his other headmen promised Queen Asterzoni they would fulfill their part of the plan, Iam willing, and they would carry out that promise. Now it was up to the queen and her co-conspirators to get Baalath and his people to Chornie in time.

### * * *

### Section 33

Behold the Beast

It had been an arduous summer for General Nuefange. The wining of the Battle of the Andikithira Straits against the Cretan navy was the precursor of a long-running sea war only recently brought to a finish with Crete's capitulation. Victory had come at great cost to Atlantis in terms of loss of ships, soldiers and time. Here it was well past high summer and the Egyptian campaign not yet begun. Oh yes, there had been some sparring with the combined fleets of Egyptian and Phoenician warships off to the South and West of the Cretan isles, done mainly for containment of the enemy to the southern waters. Although action had remained light, it had taken a disproportionate number from Nuefange's navy to protect his flank while he warred with Crete.

Now, even with Crete subjected to Atlantician will, the general could not swing his navy off toward Egypt. He must first move toward Cyprus and assist Admiral Noahha with his ongoing campaign against that island nation along with its confederates, most notably Sidon. High Warlord Zarephath of Sidon and his Phoenician cousins had been constantly pressing Admiral Noahha from the South while Cyprus pushed him from the East. After two major engagements, with the Atlanticians suffering unacceptable losses for the victories gained, Noahha continued to keep up the pressure on Cyprus while avoiding major actions.

With Crete subjugated, Nuefange felt comfortable moving a sizable portion of his battle fleets past Crete to the East, adding to Admiral Noahha's naval forces. The battle for Cyprus expanded into a knockdown, drag-out fight, the entire Shemion rising up in convulsive agitation, forcing General Nuefange to fight his war on many fronts.

Although TitanAmactony attempted to maintain a non-engagement policy, it became increasingly difficult to avoid direct combat after the allied forces of Misratah, Phoenicia, and the Dragon longships of Petheria - their crews filled with the sons of Nubia - pushed an all-out attack on Nuefange's western navy, even reaching out to make raids on Malta. For the most part, General AnakPhonieSeka managed to keep the bulk of the Egyptian navy back from general engagements, except for the chieftains of Etheptra, Egypt's westernmost principality, a rather independent lot, to say the least, who mixed it up against Atlantis by calling no quarter.

Shortly after this, the Athenians made a breakout from their prolonged siege. Allied armies from the Sterea mountainous regions in the West marched to Athens' aid while pirate fleets from Skiros and Lesbos threatened to cut off the Atlanticians by sea. Under this pressure, the Atlantician commander had no choice but to abandon his siege of Athens and withdraw his forces back toward Malta.

Nuefange again had to split his navy fleet, sending one hundred battle galleys west to bolster his naval forces there. All the while, the general was forced to maintain an intimidating presence in Crete lest they might rejoin the fight. Summer was waning before the superior might of Atlanticia finally forced Cyprus to accept an uneasy truce. Although refusing to make official peace with the 'pale-skinned, western devils,' Zarephath withdrew from hostilities after Cyprus departed the contest with Atlantis. With the eastern Shemion contained, it took little time for western alliances to withdraw from the conflict.

Now was provided an opportunity for General Nuefange to open an early fall campaign against Egypt, but first he needed to quickly refit his fleet, battle stress being heavy upon his many war galleys. He turned the greater portion of his navy toward Thera where there were several deep harbors and a good supply of naval stores. The two or three weeks needed to repair his ships and rest his soldiers would speed up the contest against Egypt in the long run. It was a short passage across the currently favorable seas to Egypt's delta cities. If Nuefange took the delta, it would only be a short time before TitanAmactony would be forced to capitulate.

General Nuefange moved quickly now that he had attained the upper hand. What he was soon to learn was that the Shemion cared little for victor or vanquished. Neptune did not rest, never had. Always he harbored resentment against the lands beyond his reach, the birds that stole his fish flying up beyond his frothing seas, and men whose flimsy ships of wood danced upon the foamy brine ever seeking prizes of the deep while never acknowledging the giver of those gifts. The old man was becoming angry regarding the insolence of those creatures. They must be taught a lesson! Now that the wrath of humanity against humanity had calmed, it was time for the Old Sea Master to deliver a little wrath of his own...

### * * *

Dungie was pleased to receive news from ZaphipheRa of General Nuefange's successes in the Shemion. Soon Egypt would fall, satisfying the desire of his high priest. As for the Atlantician king? Iamrussia was also about to be defeated. He had fought a bitter contest against Noah and her rabble, but managed to gain ground with every battle fought. Looking north from the hill where he had his command post, Dungie could see a red haze on the evening sky from the countless camps of helpless refugees huddling in the shadows of New Paris. Spies reported there appeared to be well nigh a million people gathered along the river and surrounding the city...a tent city of its own that stretched on for miles.

Dungie laughed, slapping his hands together. By gathering her people to one place, the slaughter of those wretched creatures was going to be much quicker than had his army been forced to hunt them down in every little squalid village and hovel. It would not be long now before he broke the back of Noah's beleaguered army. Then he would march his forces over the ridges to where she was and bring to a finish what Zeussah had requested...'extinguish the name of Iam from this world of men'. Never again would that name be permitted to be spoken, upon penalty of death.

With General PhilipNardukeTarshish's support, the king of Spain, ShumonuamKasbar had persevered against the wild Germanic hordes. These people were brave to a fault but lacked battlefield discipline of a unified army. Although many hundreds of camp followers had fallen to the blades of Swalhawena's people, enough provisions continued to get through to the king's army so that it remained adequately supplied. The Spanish king and his army were now some forty leagues to the East, pressing the cause with hopes of soon moving off toward the West to close on New Paris.

There was a stalemate in the West, but it held the enemy at bay so that it dared not lend support to Noah's main army which appeared to be faltering, possibly from all the retreating it had done. No army can sustain its morale when repeatedly it is defeated upon the field. True, in battle, Dungie lost three or four to one of the enemy. But spies' reports of mass desertions were continually reaching the Atlantician king's ears.

Then there was his navy. Most of the soldiers sickened by the journey were well and returned to duty. In a few days another armada was going to make its way north to attack the enemy's ports and harbors. The Phoenicians had seemed to tire of the contest and were no longer to be found. Without their allies, the Dragon ships were no longer harassing his fleets. It looked to be that his war against Iamrussia was nearly over.

It was while Dungie was watching the evening sun sinking beyond the horizon, pondering coming days, when StobattanThornbirge came riding up the hill toward the king's camp. Sliding from his camel, he approached Dungie for a word.

Extending a hand and gripping Dungie's forearm, the young king doing the same, Stobattan politely addressed his concerns. "My brother, I have only now come from a moot with my fellow kinsmen, and our camp has become divided. I for my part have sided with my older brethren. Many are the men who ride in my van with blood kindred opposing us. ThorneGerhardt, my own cousin, has sired a son and two daughters who stand beside their mother, ThanetDuridshemion, who stand the battle against us. The clans of the Mozerathas are blood clans to our western clans.

"My brother, even this day I have received word that my son, HudshonThornbirge, and all those delivered up from the sea with Admiral SethHakenpol have been taken up to far northern encampments and put to forced labor until hostilities have ended. By the voice of the admiral's own messenger was this news delivered to us through the will of the Iamrussian queen, she writing in script that her people wish no harm to us, seeing that we are all one people and one blood."

Looking off toward the North and then back at Dungie, Stobattan explained, "So we took council this very day to discuss what must be done. The younger ones among us and those from beyond the western mountains have chosen to follow whatever you direct them to do. For the older ones who remember well the blood shared by the Mozerathas and other eastern clans, it is unthinkable on their part to bring an extermination to all the souls of these people, being of the same land and blood as they. To conquer them and subject them to slave labor in the name of Atlantis my people have accepted as a deserved fate, but they will not, they say, 'murder their own blood kin'.

"So has gone the debate for these many long hours this day until it was decided to seek out an audience with you, king of Atlantis, so that from your own mouth we could find wisdom regarding this debate. Upon you, our king, we wait for an answer so that we may finish our moot."

Dungie was visibly angry, but controlled his reaction. He and StobattanThornbirge went back many years. When Dungie was but a lad, he journeyed into western lands, there to be entertained and taught by the Thornbirge families, Stobattan's sister-wife, Sabaneiah, delivering him into manhood. Dungie's first wife, Tawawah, was the woman's daughter, sired by a western kinsman.

(Author's note _: It was the yearning memory of Tawawah, the woman-child dying during childbirth and Dungie never recovering from her loss, that led Dungie to covet his father's Mozerathas wife, Noah_.)

Putting a hand on Stobattan's shoulder, Dungie quietly addressed the matter. "More like a brother you have been to me than my own flesh. Beside me you have stood in dangers and in good times. Without your mighty arm, how could I have won the contest against the evil of AnahNakaNoah and his wicked hordes? You and I believed that once evil was driven from the lands to the South, we would be free to return to home and hearth in celebration to live out the remainder of our lives in peace and security."

He bemoaned, "But alas, it was not to be. Despite our loyal efforts to show our honor for Iam's wishes, he still rose up against us, declaring that just seven more years and he was bringing a fiery destruction upon the very peoples who sacrificed all to do his will. So it was that High Prince Zeussah has come to our aid to defeat Iam's machinations against us. It is the treachery of Iam that has caused a division between our peoples so that brother has turned against brother and father against son so that now we, the children of the Elkhorn and the Cave Bear, stand against one another in this terrible contest."

The young king waved a hand, pointing toward the North. "So it has come to this. To thwart Iam's wicked machinations, to prevent the devastation that evil god wishes to deliver upon the very children of Japheth - annihilation such as already taken place with the children of the MooDecd - we are forced to war against our own blood."

He looked at Stobattan, asking, "Were the MooDecd not also children of Japheth? Yes, they were. And by who was their murder perpetrated? By their very brothers, also sons of Japheth...

"Iam is a treasonous trickster, making one eat his own flesh while believing he is performing a holy service for the gods. High Prince Zeussah has revealed to us a way to defeat Iam, thwarting his hand so that our lands are not decimated and our wives and children are not slaughtered before our eyes. For our part, we must bring Egypt and...and that bitch-queen, Noah and all who follow her to their finish. We are now in the seventh year of promise. Little is the time left to complete our task. Should we succeed then, by the word of the High Prince Zeussah, Lucifer will lift up a hand to prevent Iam from accomplishing his evil purpose."

Dungie's voice filled with remorse as he placed a hand over his heart. "It is with great sorrow that I carry out the requests of Zeussah, but there is nothing else for it. Our kindred in the North choose to follow that witch Dragon queen who has betrayed all that is good. It has become our duty...our test of faith...to cleanse this land of that wicked horde and to restore the remnant of MooDecd back to their estate. It is the righteous thing to do. Then once we have cleansed the land, Zeussah will deliver his war chariots against the armies of Iam to cast that god down to the pit, there to reside for a thousand years in darkness and agony. We, then, will return to our homes and family and our lands to rest in peace and watch our children and their children dwell in happy security for all our remaining days."

Stobattan's face reflected no emotion as he silently pondered what he had heard. Finally he beckoned his two fellow kinsmen while making a reply. "We shall present your words to our council so that they will do the judging as to what is good or bad for this people."

Bowing in respect, the man and his companions took their leave, disappearing into the evening darkness as they descended into the valley's shadows. Dungie watched them, pleased with the arguments he had provided. The Thornbirge brothers were good, honest men, respected by all those in Dungie's army. On the morrow, he would send a courier to deliver a public proclamation of Stobattan's value to this cause.

On that morrow, while Dungie was preparing to put his army on the road north, the smell of coming battle growing by the hour, the king's courier was arriving at Stobattan's camp. To his surprise he found it nearly abandoned, with only one hundred or so of the Westerner's camel cavalry. Stobattan and his remaining clansmen had drifted into the dark morning hours, their destination a mystery.

### * * *

Noah stopped up short when she saw Chasileah hobbling out of her tent with two of her kindred at her side, exclaiming, "My Lady, you are not fit to be out of your sick bed, your bleeding wound not yet healed!"

Grimacing as she smiled while holding her right side, the woman's white uniform shirt and pantaloons stained red with blood, Chasileah softly replied, "In the saddle with my knights is my place this day. If Death takes me, it will have to wait upon the coming battle. Lucifer will see that my people keep their word and do not flee when danger is nigh."

"I do not want the charge of my sister's death to be on my shoulders, attempting an explanation to the Lady should you fall to your injuries in today's heated contest." Noah was justified with her concerns. Several days earlier, Chasileah had been struck in her side by an enemy arrow, tumbling from Noah's chariot onto her face then trampled by a following cavalry horse, its rider unable to rein in her mount to step out of the way. Knocked senseless, it was at first believed Chasileah was dead, but she quickly revived, being carried from the field by another charioteer.

Chasileah grinned, waving Noah off, "I, too, am a free woman. The Lady has no hold on me. I and those with me are here by choice. Whether for death or life, it is ours to decide."

Noah drew close, tears streaming down her face, kissing Chasileah on the cheek. "My sister, the day will not be gentle to us. I must draw the fox into the trap...a dangerous move at best. If you should fall, I may not be able to help you. Trust me, the enemy will not be kind to you, especially if spies have informed the priests of Horus about you. Should you fall, I will be forced to expend my people to attempt a rescue."

Placing a hand on Noah's forearm, Chasileah begged Noah not to do that. "Your battle plan is a sound one, and it must be carried out to its completion. I have my company of kinsmen knights who will not allow my desecration upon the field, should it even require a breach in diplomatic laws. The Snake and his ilk must see the Lady's banner flying high upon the field. If I do not finish this race, then another of my kind will."

Looking into Chasileah's face, her lips quivering, Noah moaned in sadness, "So many of our kindred - yours and mine - have fallen in this war. I cannot afford your loss! Promise me that you will stay safe."

Stroking Noah's hair, Chasileah mused, "You are our hope. You must succeed in your quest if it takes all the lives of our kindred, mine included. You are the Dragon Queen over Heaven, men, and Hell. You must carry the day...this day."

Noah looked away toward the South. "No longer am I the 'Gift of God', Noahashonie, the 'Bringer of Peace', but Ophelia I am become, 'Dark Dragon Mother' over the harlots and demon beasts of Heaven and Hell. Within my belly must the Destroyer be conceived and nurtured until he bursts forth upon the world of men to bring them salvation or damnation!"

She stared into Chasileah's shocked face, her eyes pleading, "Tell me, please, oh great witch maiden from the worlds beyond, do you know what the beast that I must carry within my inward parts and nurse at my breasts is? Do you know whether god or demon he will become? Tell me, if you know. Will he bring to this world salvation...or damnation?"

Chasileah's face clouded with concern and doubt, her eyes tearing up. "My queen, you ask me something that only the Fates may know, and they do no tell. Even Iam, in all his glory, has no answer for you regarding this, the certainty of the final outcome being trusted to the heart and soul of an untested man. But this is for certain. If Damien does not come, then Shiloh will not, and should Shiloh fail to appear, then Elijah will not come...and then..." Her voice trailed off.

"And then what?" Noah demanded. "Then what?"

Chasileah looked away, distressed, answering in little above a choking whisper, "Then... then all our worlds will come to nothing, for in Iam's anguish, both Heaven and Earth will pass away in fire and rage."

Noah's face paled with Chasileah's revelations. She closed her eyes. "We ride upon a midnight fleece of fire, beasts, and hounds. So shall the Gorgons feast upon the flesh of men until their cherished manhood drowns."

Gazing into Chasileah's face until their tear-filled eyes peered deeply into each other's souls, Noah, hands gently hugging her companion's neck, through quiet sobs whispered, "We are Sisters of the Bloodwind, daughters you and I, from the worlds of Heaven, men, and Hell. I do not live by code, honor, or creed, but for my sister's soul. I take what I will, when I wish, and how I want, for my sister's soul. Unto death shall I serve my sister dear, for we are Sisters of the Bloodwind."

The two women embraced each other, consumed in weeping and mournful wailing, those near them in the camp silently watching this ritual celebration of passing from death into life. Like maidens bereft of their virginity through violation by treacherous companions, Chasileah and Noah held each other in anguish's desperate passion. All things had changed forever.

For Chasileah, never could she abandon these strange and wonderful creatures alone to their struggles. Her very breath and life she gave over to them...to Noah and the other Haudenosaunez with her, to save if at all possible this mixed-up world of confused, troubled, broken, and... and oh so wonderful people of the earth. Forever in their debt would she be to them and ever grateful for Noah's sacrifice, not even aware that a future child born through Damien's seed would save her soul and return life to her distraught heart.

For Noah, this woman-child was only beginning to understand why Aphrodite and Dancing Stones rejected the road offered to them. Through the fires of Hell on Earth, Noah was destined to walk until all the souls of men, good and evil, crumbled to dust beneath her feet... all her lovers and friends, children and kindred. On to the world's ending she must trod with only Hope to guide her path.

Certainty? There was no certainty except for the ignorant and childlike. They would be given the certain hope, a belief that everything would turn out right in the end, and it was her responsibility to make sure that blind hope remained ablaze within the hearts of these children of Iam, especially when the world offered them nothing but darkness. How she was to do this, the woman did not know, but try she would. Today that attempt would begin. Where it ended? Where it ended...

After their tears subsided, Noah took Chasileah's hand. "Come, my sister, strategy must be discussed, for quickly does our enemy advance upon us and little is the time to debate our greetings for him. The sun is already risen above the hills and we must make haste to reach the valley below Kornary Ridge. There we shall meet our fate, for good or ill. I must confer with my generals to gauge the field and conclude our strategy."

Noah stood over the parchment, examining a carefully drawn map of the region south of New Paris. "There..." she pointed to a place off to their east, "our message towers speak to us the dangers of the day. General Tarshish marches up this valley as I speak, a heavy contingent of cavalry in his van. Infantry will not be able to hold him. He must be held, stalled but not necessarily defeated...not yet. To increase our odds of success, I have dispersed those of our cavalry units we can spare off to the East to support General DavidRhine's mounted soldiers."

Looking around at her commanders, Noah frowned. "This is depleting our own cavalry units, and I must reduce them even more." She moved her fingers across the map toward the West. "Already our infantry is on the road up the Rose Valley. Soon we shall follow, passing them by and taking up the lead. After we have exited the Rose, my chariots will turn toward the South, moving up the Kornary Valley against the enemy. I am leaving our remaining four companies of cavalry behind at the end of Rose Valley to protect our flank and rear.

"The Atlanticians will undoubtedly sweep over the southern hills to take possession of the Rose in order to prevent our retreat, King Dungie hoping to push us back down the Kornary Valley past the Rose, trapping us between Kornary Ridge on the east and Rose Ridge on the west, the rapids of the Snakepol River blocking our retreat further north. Hopefully our cavalry will be able to hold the enemy in the valley until we can accomplish our retreat to the North past the Rose."

Spreading her hands wide while looking down at the map, Noah sighed. "We have only forty swift chariots remaining to face the forces of the king of Atlantis. The battles have taken their toll on horse and machine, but saved the lives of thousands of our infantry who have been held back from combat. Nevertheless, our losses are evident, and this Dungie will see for himself as he moves his hordes against us today."

She peered down the road they were soon to take. "Besides the chariots, I will have in my van two hundred of my Templar Knights and General Susquehanna's eighty. It is a small number, but I believe the many different banners fluttering in the breeze will draw the fox into our trap." The woman wryly commented, "So easy it would be for him to march on New Paris, the road nearly open except for our tiny force. I believe he will take the bait to seek our destruction first. This is my plan. This is what must be accomplished no matter the cost to us in the lead elements. The king of Atlantis must pursue us into the valley."

The Dragon queen looked up at General AbramNeufeld, newly arrived from the West with a veteran army of two thousand infantry, asking, "Are your people prepared for their part? The victory will hinge upon their fierce bravery this day."

General Neufeld grinned, replying, "My people are tough. They know what is at stake and have prepared well for this day. They will not disappoint."

Noah nodded in thought. "At the appropriate time, the signal will be given. My goal is to bring that fox into my trap. If we are successful, we will have victory by nightfall. Remember, it is not the destruction of the Atlantician army that we seek, but its defeat. If we must destroy it to defeat it, then that is what we will do. But if they will surrender to us, it will save lives...theirs and ours. The fox is the key. Take out the fox and the game will be over."

Noah entertained some questions then mounted her chariot. Cothath hurried over, taking the woman's hand. "Do be careful, my child! I cannot be at your side this day to protect you."

Noah smiled, closing her other hand over his. "I need you elsewhere this day. If success comes our way, then again we shall meet before the sun fades in the West. Iam does not disappoint. Victory is certain. If it cost us our lives, has it not been worth it? If we do not live to see the coming moon, then we shall walk together again in future worlds at journey's end."

Returning the woman's smile, Cothath squeezed Noah's hand reassuringly. "The one who dances upon the stones gave back to me a youthful life. For no little reason was it given, and not just to support your husband in his hour of need. We stood together upon her burning pyre when the Lady came to us, telling of days long yet to come when the world will need us all the more than today. It was to you and your daughter, Hyhoset, that life was promised, to live through to those ending days. My ending hour may be then..." he shrugged, "or today."

Cothath leaned closer, standing on his toes while Noah bent low, kissing her on the cheek. "Do be careful, for death will not bring you peace should the battle go against us this day. Keep your child safe from harm...you, too."

Noah promised she would be cautious in the coming warfare, secretly wondering how one could be cautious during the confusion of combat. She then called to her horses, starting them off at a trot. In seconds, her chariot was hidden in the dust being kicked up by her following army. Cothath quietly stood, watching until the road was empty. How this day would end, the man did not know, but he trusted Noah and her lieutenants. If victory could be won, that woman was the one who could cause it to happen!

With that thought, Cothath turned and hurried to his heavy, four-wheeled chariot. Calling out strange commands to the four wild bulls harnessed to the machine, the Mozerathas chieftain headed toward Rose Valley. Upon reaching it, he turned his chariot to the West. There, hidden in the deep woods, another one hundred war machines sat beneath the ancient forest foliage, waiting their signal.

The courier jumped down from his mount and hurried over to Dungie as he stood conversing with his officers. Breathless, the man delivered his message. "My king, the witch queen comes up the western valley this very moment. Small is the army she commands, a few thousand at best. Spies report that many of her people have run away to be with their families, having lost all hope in her rescuing them from destruction."

Dungie was delighted. He turned to his lieutenants. "The main road to New Paris lies off to the East and is defended by a few companies of infantry and a smattering of cavalry. Too late has our enemy discovered their error, not grasping our night march and rapid deployment. Now they are hustling to bring in reinforcements from their encampment down the western valley."

"Fools!" he derisively laughed, "The only way to reach that road is to pass south for three miles or better after exiting the western valley before being able to turn off to the east to make for the road." Moving to the battle tent with his officers, Dungie examined charcoaled lines on a hastily drawn map and then began giving orders.

To his eastern divisions' commander he directed, "Hold you lines here, just to the south before those woods. I do not want your position revealed to the enemy. Let them believe they have time to run the valley south and then make off to the east. Look!" Dungie drew his finger further up the map over the north-south valley, "North of the western valley there is a convergence of two ridges, low but steep, and beyond them the waters run too swiftly for man or beast to cross. There will be little chance of escape once Noah's people are pressed into that valley north beyond the western valley."

He then addressed the commander over his western divisions. "I need that western valley exit blocked so that no one can escape that way. Take two of your infantry divisions over the low hills to your front and into the western valley, holding it until receiving orders to move east upon the enemy. Hold the remainder of your divisions in reserve. When this battle is finished, I expect you to move your army off toward the western fords so that your men can prevent any escape from New Paris in that direction."

Scratching his chin grinning, Dungie mused, "That woman is a tricksy bitch. Just in case she's trying a sucker-punch, I've planned a little surprise for her." He pointed at his western commander. "Be prepared to act sooner if I need you to move into the north-south valley to block the enemy's retreat back up that valley. Get engineers up on that hill as soon as may be, so they can set up message towers. Maintain communications with them so that you will be able to quickly move upon my orders."

The commander promised to do just so.

Dungie stood back. "I will move my center divisions forward, my remaining cavalry in the lead. They shall be halted in the woods just beyond the north-south valley opening. There I shall place my standard and wait for the moment when our enemy is in position for us to strike."

After ordering his western division commander to make haste, Dungie turned back to his eastern division commander. "General Tarshish is rapidly advancing down the eastern roads toward New Paris. Send couriers quickly to him. I want the two of you to make a coordinated attack upon the enemy to utterly crush any remaining resistance, but..." he lifted a hand, extending a finger for emphasis, "your attack is not to commence until I have my bitch-wife and her bastard ilk securely in my trap. Make your arrangements with General Tarshish and then wait upon my signal. Use the message towers if possible. It will make the operation go more smoothly."

Dungie ordered his officers away then turned to ZaphipheRa, asking, "So, what has the high prince offered to help us with this day? Do you have a word for me?"

ZaphipheRa nervously answered, not telling Dungie that Zeussah's Sky Servants had quietly slipped away during the night, "My king, the great high prince has promised to deliver assistance to you in the needed hour, but for now trusts in your outstanding wisdom."

Dungie spat, "Fool and all his monkeys have run off to hide, haven't they? Leave me here on the hook if things go bad this day." He eyed ZaphipheRa. "Well, don't think you're running off on me..."

Motioning to his bodyguard, Dungie ordered, "Take this fellow here and all his other kind and gather them to me. Today they share the fate of their king. To death or life we ride. If anyone attempts to flee, do not hesitate to kill him."

Soon Dungie's entire army was on the move, some twenty thousand strong in his eastern wing, nearly thirty thousand infantry and fifteen hundred cavalry directly under his command, and twenty thousand more in the western divisions, some four thousand heading north to capture the Rose Valley. General Tarshish also marched toward New Paris with an additional six thousand cavalry and fifteen thousand infantry.

Noah had at best twenty thousand veteran infantry and cavalry to defend the city against over ninety thousand. From a tactical standpoint, her people were already defeated. That was at least how it appeared, and that was the way the Dragon Queen wanted it to seem. While she was preparing to set the hooks in her enemy's jaw in the fields south of New Paris, the world of war was already ablaze in lands to the east and west.

Commander SouJuoi and his army had long ago melted away into the dark, foreboding forest. Only three thousand of his grand army ever found their way out of those dismal woods. SouJuoi was not one of them.

With SouJuoi's army no longer a threat, BondaBoor had gathered the bulk of his military strength to the side of the Germanic tribes who had been holding back, waiting for the right time to hit the enemy. On the very morning Dungie was preparing his final attack on Noah's Iamrussians, the Spanish army was smashed into just as the sun rose in the eastern sky. At that same moment, BondaBoor led his people down the hills toward King ShumonuamKasbar's camp while Swalhawena led her army of over two thousand against the rear elements of that army.

In less than an hour, the entire Spanish army was shattered and scattering into the hills toward the west. King ShumonuamKasbar attempted to flee with a detachment of cavalry but was overtaken on the road and killed in the ensuing battle. The rout continued throughout the day and into the night with over half of the Spanish army slaughtered on the field or while in flight. The following day, ShumonuamKasbar the Younger, son of the fallen king, surrendered what remained of his army, waiting whatever the Fates might deliver to them.

Far to the west, things went little better. The Phoenicians had not run away but were gathering their might to attack Dungie's navy along the coast. While BondaBoor was engaging the Spanish, the Dragon ships landed in the morning darkness below enemy fortifications south of Hanna Inlet, hitting their encampments as the sun rose above the hills. The armed inhabitants of the surrounding port towns moved in concert with General AbramNeufeld's remaining veteran forces at Port Hanna, attacking the Atlantician lines to their south. The Atlanticians were quickly overwhelmed and were forced to surrender.

Further to the south, the Phoenician fleet smashed into the Atlantician fleet that was preparing another northern invasion. After a fierce contest, the Atlanticians retreated down the coast, leaving the harbors south of Saranda unprotected. A sizable Phoenician army marched on the city of Saranda and laid siege to it.

These things Dungie did not know when he set his plans in motion that morning. The sky was clear with a warm breeze drifting through the trees as he moved his infantry into the woods south of Kornary Valley, there to wait for his signal to advance. He ordered his cavalry forward, stopping them just inside the woods facing north. There the Atlantician king would wait for his adversary, pouncing just before she exited the valley and took to the east to gain the New Paris Road.

### * * *

An explosion lifted Sirion off her feet, tossing her over a jagged boulder and face down in the dirt, possibly saving her life. Covering her ears with her hands as stones pummeled her body, the woman gritted her teeth as a thunderous artillery bombardment tore her regiment's ranks apart while screeching of the incoming missiles mingled with the insane cacophony of screams and cries of the wounded and dying. Crawling along the shattered ground, Sirion made her way further into the rocky outcropping, instinctively attempting to survive a hopeless situation.

As she struggled to escape this intense barrage, Sirion had little time to contemplate the trap her regiment had walked into. She was in the second unit, some two hundred yards behind the first, that group having already crossed a stream at the bottom of a shallow ravine and pushed into a thorny tangle of scrub trees and vine-covered brush, working their way along the granite outcropping to the northeast of Memphis' outer works. Their intention had been to move stealthily along the hills in the early morning darkness to get behind the enemy holding those works and wait for a general advance upon the enemy's front. They would then attack the enemy from the rear.

Everything had gone well enough at the beginning even though the march was behind schedule. The first unit of the regiment made it past the rise and down through the draw unnoticed, the sun not yet having broken over the distant hills. Things did not turn out the same for the second unit. It had just begun down the far side of the rise toward the draw when the sun awoke with a blinding brilliance, revealing their exposed position. Artillery spotters quickly noticed them and soon every gunn within range was pummeling the whole hillside with explosive ordnance.

Sirion and her company were on the left in the second unit, made up of four companies, and Sirion was on the left in her company. She and a few other members of her platoon found themselves taking refuge in jagged rock formations, hiding deep in the cracks and crevices found there. Finding the field untenable, the remainder of the second unit, taking heavy losses, withdrew back over the ridge toward their earlier works where the third unit had already retreated.

As bombardment eased, Sirion crawled up through a wide fracture in the rock face until she could see off toward the south past the ravine in the direction of the regimental first unit. It had been impossible for them to retreat back toward their lines because of continuous heavy shelling this side of the draw. Trapped too far forward to make escape or be reinforced, the four companies of the first unit hunkered down in the ruins of older, abandoned earthworks until escape could be made or help might arrive, both of which were impossibilities.

After the barrage subsided, the enemy took to the field, attacking the first unit. Seeing overwhelming forces opposing them, survivors of the first unit quickly surrendered, those able being marched off to Fortress Memphis while the dying and grievously wounded were dispatched where they lay. Enemy soldiers also attempted to move north toward the rise, but were driven back by heavy fire after coming into view at the crest, saving the wounded from the second unit the fate of the first. Still, like those with Sirion, they were stranded out in a no man's land with little hope of escape.

Morning wore away into afternoon. Fighting along the front had died down, any attempted advance on the Memphis positions stalled. It was about that time horns began blowing inside the outer walls of the city. Soon a large procession of female prisoners from the first unit, stripped naked, bound and shackled with their hands behind their backs were being marched along the open parapet of the upper fortifications by several companies of enemy soldiers. From the way the women stumbled along, it appeared that many had been viciously brutalized.

The prisoners were lined up along the face of the wall, forced to stand in the insufferable heat looking up at the sun in a cloudless sky. Time seemed to come to a standstill for Sirion, watching helplessly, hiding in the rocks some two furlongs away. If one of the prisoners should lower her head or stumble, enemy guards would strike the woman savagely with the club ends of their weapons until she got back up or was beaten into unconsciousness.

After what seemed an eternity, Sirion saw a group of neatly dressed officers walk onto the parapet, quickly followed by three wheeled derricks each having a tall, vertical pole with what appeared to be some sort of hoist mounted at its top. Immediately, three of the nearest female prisoners were hauled over to the derricks, their bonds hooked fast to cables and hoisted up until they were left dangling. Even from this distance, Sirion could hear the screams of her sisters, or believed she could as the weight of their bodies rent tendons asunder as arms were torn from their sockets.

Three of the neatly dressed officers came forward, carrying objects in their hands. Soon it was obvious to Sirion they had whips of some kind. The men began to savagely scourge the women all about their faces and bodies until it appeared to Sirion that her sisters were soaked in their own blood. When the beatings were finished, they were lowered and dragged toward the parapet, unceremoniously tossed over the wall into heavy thickets called 'ravens' rooks', some thirty feet below. The guards would then take another three prisoners to the derricks, and the process repeated.

Tears streamed down Sirion's face as she cursed the evil done to her sisters, but she could do nothing from where she was. The fall rarely killed people being pitched from the wall. They would crash through the woody briers of hooked thorns, being caught up in them very much alive, like a fly might be in a spider's web. These thorns not only pierced the body, but their curved barbs were like hooks that tore at the flesh with the slightest move, their anticoagulant properties slowly bleeding their victim to death.

Unable to tolerate it any longer, Sirion crawled back down the rocky crevice in hopes of finding someone in possession of a long gun. A certain Corporal SchulaMae and a wounded comrade from a rifle company had also taken safety in the rocks with the survivors from Sirion's platoon. Handing Sirion a scoped rifle, the two women crawled off through the rocky escarpment in an attempt to get closer to the enemy. After a great deal of struggle, they made it to within a furlong of the fortress wall.

By this time, dozens of women had been beaten, whipped and thrown into the ravens' rooks. From this distance, Sirion could hear the moans and cries of those trapped in the thorny brush, along with the pitiable screams of those being scourged. Through her rifle scope, she could see they were being tortured with woven whips of the same rook thorns, literally tearing the flesh off these women, leaving ghastly wounds of hanging skin and muscle.

Recognizing Legion as he stood there with his officers, Sirion took aim to bring him down. Just as she squeezed the trigger, another officer stepped in front of Legion, the man's disintegrating skull splattering Legion's face with blood and gore. Falling back in shock, Legion turned to flee. Sirion shot a second time on the fly, the bullet missing its killing mark, but hitting the man just under the elbow, shattering his arm. Before she could get off another shot, Legion had disappeared from sight. Other officers with him were not quite so fortunate.

Corporal Schula was now up in firing position. Together, she and Sirion took out the three officers who had been whipping the prisoners along with two of the guards. By this time, the remaining guards with long guns were down on deck returning fire. This drew the attention of command at the forward observation post. Gabrielle had been watching the desecration of her sisters throughout the day, unable to deliver any aid to them. She was now come to the conclusion there was but one thing to do. She ordered gun crews manning the 0.8 inch long-range automatic rifles to "Clear the wall!"

Half a dozen heavy caliber machine guns opened up from nearly a mile's distance, blasting away at the parapet for several minutes. From Sirion's vantage point, the upper wall suddenly disappeared into explosive clouds of smoky gray and misty red as thousands of metallic bullets destroyed the upper parapets and everything on them. Splintered wood and shattered stones flew high into the air, while anyone remaining on the wall was torn to pieces by the oppressive gun fire. Sirion lay there, hidden in the rocks, stunned by what she was witnessing. Never in her life had the woman seen her own people intentionally killed by friendly fire.

She looked down at the thorny rooks near the base of the fortress wall where several dozen of her sisters were caught up in those briers with no hope of survival, only the promise of a slow, agonizing death. The rise above the ravine hid this from the gunners. What was she to do, just watch and do nothing? What was the merciful thing to do? If she were there, what would she consider merciful?

Motioning to Corporal Schula, Sirion pointed down at the ravens' rooks. Then taking aim, she began to systematically dispatch the women caught up in them. Slowly and methodically, Sirion placed her crosshairs on each target, attempting to make a head shot if possible, Corporal Schula doing the same. Twenty-six times, Sirion fired her rifle then dropped it, weeping, leaving dozens more trapped in the rook's briers to die in horrendous agony. She had run out of bullets...

### * * *

The Kornary Valley was nearly two miles wide at its southern opening, tapering in width toward the north until it was less than two furlongs between the ridges on the east and west where the fast-flowing river cut across the valley. The valley floor was rough, filled with small, wandering streams that coursed north, creating countless ravines and gravel washes where the waters sped along, producing swampy fields where they meandered. Scattered throughout this watery wilderness were groves of gnarled oak and heavy brush filled with brier patches. It was easy enough to maneuver infantry in and reasonably good ground for cavalry, but chariots found it difficult territory to traverse. To make matters worse, there was a choke point about a half-mile from the valley's southern opening that forced the chariots to remain on a narrow roadway that passed through some swampy fields. Noah knew that she had to navigate this part of the valley if she was to draw Dungie out.

Dungie also knew that to reinforce her eastern defenders, she would have to pass through this choke point. He had set a trap should his enemy be bold enough to make that passage. Off to the west of the swampy fields the valley fell away into a heavily wooded glen before rising up onto the Rose plateau. There he had stationed two hundred of his precious cavalry and eight hundred light infantry during the early, dark morning hours. Noah had played him too many times for the Atlantician king not to be wary of some kind of a trick the woman might be intending this time. If she moved her chariots and cavalry through the choke point before sending in her infantry, Dungie would charge his army hiding in the woods behind her, splitting the woman's contingent in two, and then he would advance the cavalry under his direct command, catching her up between his two battle groups.

Noah did not know about the enemy hiding in the wooded glen, but had expected there might be some mischief to deal with. Dungie had been in control of the southern hills beyond the Rose Valley since last nightfall, preventing the Iamrussians from reconnoitering the southern Kornary this morning. Noah was riding blind into a possible trap, but she believed there was little else for it. If the goal was only to destroy her enemy, then another strategy might be employed, but the Black Angel was on a quest that warranted such risk-taking.

Dungie must be captured alive this day, no matter the cost to her people. He must not be allowed any way of escape. For this reason, Noah must draw the Atlantician king into her web by making him believe he had the upper hand...that the Witch Queen had over-reached. She knew he would not enter unwarily into her trap. The man was a brilliant strategist and a quick learner, not falling more than once for any of the tricks Noah had attempted to play during this defensive war. If Dungie was not convinced that Noah was acting in desperation, he would not be drawn into a contest with her in Kornary Valley, and that he must do or all might be lost. True, Noah had many surprises remaining, but Dungie had over one hundred thousand veteran troops on her doorstep. A determined, coordinated attack from his army and the game would be over, her people not strong enough to hold against such a powerful, massed onslaught.

So it was that Noah found herself leading a band of a few thousand warriors down the Rose Valley in a march that appeared to be a mission to reinforce the road south of New Paris. She must make her advance in haste, keeping to the road with her army. Dungie would have scouts out watching her movements. They were probably watching her now. If anything were to make this move appear to be more than a reinforcement mission, then her plan might well fall apart. The king of Atlantis must be allowed to believe the prize was within his grasp in order to make him move quickly.

Trepidation continued growing in Noah's heart the further her troop went down Rose Valley. There was no time to deploy flankers, a wise tactic for protecting an army on the move. True, scouts were screening the advance, but they would have little time to discover danger and report it back to the main body. The woman was confident that the enemy would not greet them before exiting into the valley beyond and probably until after passing the swampy fields further south. The northern half of the Kornary remained under the control of Noah's forces. If the enemy held a presence north of the swamps, she should have been informed. It was what might lie south of those heavily wooded swamps that troubled the woman. She had prepared as best she could. But without daring to use her sky ships... just yet... there was no positive way to have a clear picture of what might await there.

Glancing down at her daughter, Noah pondered the wisdom of bringing the child along. True, Hyhoset had accompanied her mother on every foray she had been engaged in, and it would look suspicious if the child was not here now. Still, Noah could not help but worry, even with the earlier strategic plans that had been made. Understanding the dangers created by the swamps, steps had been taken to get her people back up the valley if things went awry.

Though risky, the plan was a sound one considering the circumstances. Although nearly impassable for the chariots, and very difficult for a battle-line formation of military to navigate, companies of infantry or small contingents of cavalry could make their way through the barrier swamps with reasonable ease. If Noah's army was pressed too quickly, or should they be taken by surprise upon the road, the chariots would be abandoned at the edge of the swamps while those within them would take to flight, the cavalry acting as rearguard for the other fighting units, holding the line until all those on foot made their escape. When north of the swamps, the infantry would form up ranks in defensive line of battle and slowly make their way north, drawing Dungie into the further end of the valley past the Rose.

Noah realized the dangers such a plan entailed. To burden anyone other than hardened and well-trained soldiers with such maneuvers might easily prove disastrous. For this reason, an elite body of warriors had been put on the road with her this day. Besides her personal Templar bodyguard and Chasileah's Sky Children cavalry, the division of infantry and companies of cavalry accompanying her were experienced veterans who once fought under Javan's command during the Bantoowazzi War. These soldiers had served at her side ever since their arrival here in the first waves of ships coming from the west. They were also loyal to a fault, each man and woman willing to die for this cause. But death she wished for none of them this day...or any day.

A worried look crossed Noah's face as she thought about Hyhoset. Sure, the Fates had promised a bright future for the child, but the road to that future was shrouded in darkness. Would those Fates allow Hyhoset to be brutalized like she had been? Noah did not know, and it was that lack of knowledge that troubled her so. Why should she and her daughter be saved from suffering such devastation when her Sky Children companions were not assured any rescue? Already three of Chasileah's people had died on the bloodied fields in this war, and Chasileah nearly lost her own life. What made Noah and Hyhoset worthy of special consideration? Still, whatever the cost, she would do all in her power to keep Hyhoset safe.

Noah had exited Rose Valley and moved about two furlongs up the Kornary when a wave of unease swept over her. Calling a halt, she lifted her head high, sniffing the breeze, a chill of bewilderment sweeping down her back. Chasileah came riding up beside Noah's chariot to see what the matter might be.

Sniffing the breeze again while searching the southern reaches of the valley, Noah revealed her concerns. "Something is amiss. The birds tell me so and... and I can almost smell it, the stink of foreboding creeping ever nearer."

"What is your wish, then?" Chasileah asked, concerned. "Do we continue or attempt another strategy?"

Looking back down the line of soldiers, Noah quietly answered, "We must stick to our objective, but..." Ordering a short halt to rest the army, Noah changed her battle plan a bit. The entire body of the cavalry was to stay with her, leaving, instead, three companies of infantry to guard Rose Valley. "I do not expect you to hold them long if you are pressed," she said to the captain in charge. "I hope that your presence, alone, will slow the enemy down. If you find that retreat is the only option, then send the signal into the sky so that we will know what is happening. Withdraw as slowly as possible. Help should be on its way."

While the others rested, Noah ordered a company of cavalry to ride south beyond the swamps to secure the road there and to scout the area beyond the choke point. "Don't wander far beyond the wooded swamps. I don't want this to look like more than a simple advance scouting party. If there's a problem, then send report back to us. Otherwise, stay to the road after doing a quick reconnaissance."

Regrouping her infantry into a more compact marching unit, Noah again started up the road toward the south.

Signalmen on the hills south of the east-west valley let Dungie know when infantry descended into it. They also informed him of his adversary's progress up the north-south valley. He quickly conferred with his immediate commanding officers, making sure that everything would be at the ready when the signal was given. He quietly paced near his mount, attempting to hide a growing excitement in his heart. In an hour or so it should be over, that bitch-wife in his hands and his army on the move to bring an annihilation to the Iamrussians! He could already see in his mind's eye the glorious victory parades through Atlanticia and hear Zeussah's praiseworthy commendation for his successes.

A messenger approached, riding up hard, delivering news that enemy chariots were on the road south of the wooded swamp. Dungie quickly mounted, ordering the rider to go forward and deliver back to him news when his soldiers in the west woods were engaged with the enemy. He then motioned to ZaphipheRa, "We will move up for a closer look. I want to be in the van when the charge is made. Stay close to me. I may be in need of your counsel."

Urging his horse forward, Dungie and his company moved off toward the edge of the forest. Soon he and the others were peering out from the tall grasses toward the north, waiting for news of the enemy's arrival.

Infantry following behind the remainder of the cavalry companies was emerging along the road south of the swamp when sounding of horns shattered the quiet off toward the west. In only seconds, horses could be seen charging out of the woods just to the south of the swamplands in an apparent attempt to cut Noah's lead elements off from their supporting infantry. At that same moment, charging infantry came bounding from the western woods along a wide battle front.

Although taken by surprise with these unexpected events, Noah's soldiers quickly reacted to the onslaught. Without halting, the rear echelon of infantry gingerly stepped from the road, formed short battle lines, and went charging off through the swamp to engage the oncoming enemy cavalry. Instead of fleeing, Noah's chariots turned on their flanks and charged toward the enemy infantry, the cavalry either moving with them in that attack or turning to face the attacking cavalry. While all this was taking place, a messenger was high-tailing it back south toward Dungie's lines with word of the engagement.

When the Atlantician infantry saw the massed chariots, their line temporarily faltered, the chariots sweeping to within bowshot range and unleashing their volley of arrows. Not slowing their pace, the charioteers followed the cavalry in, plowing through the infantry line before circling back and reaching the road in preparation for making another daring charge. Before Noah gave the order to charge again, a larger massed contingent of infantry reserves marched from the woods.

Chasileah shouted to Noah, "Make your escape! We'll hold them 'til you do. Get! We'll be all right."

The ear-splitting sound of horns to the south heralded Dungie's coming assault. Over a thousand mounted soldiers could be seen charging into the valley from that direction. There was no time for Noah to argue with Chasileah. She could not allow Dungie this victory. He must be drawn down the valley. Noah was the prize. If she remained here, then all would be lost. Putting her horses into a maddening run, she turned toward the wooded swamplands to make escape.

Tears were streaming down Noah's face as she made for safety. What chance did the others have, holding back the enemy hordes so that she could make escape? A coward! That's what she was, a coward! So much the woman wanted to turn her chariot about to lead her people into battle, but no! She must run away. It had been the decision of the council the night before. Noah was the bait, the north end of Kornary Valley the trap. She must make her escape there.

Noah was little more than a bowshot away from the brushy swamplands when she was caught up short at the sight of hundreds of camel cavalry charging out the eastern wooded swamps - the camel riders of the Thornbirge clans no doubt. The woman's heart sank. There was no escape now. So much like their Mozerathas kindred they were, uncannily stealthy, one with their animal, and absolutely deadly with the weapons they wielded so that Noah had not even felt their presence until seeing them rise from the trees.

Commanding the horses to a stop, Noah waited for the approaching storm. Little else could she do other than allow her and Hyhoset to be taken prisoners. How foolish she had been to think her battle plan would succeed! Attempting to capture Dungie alive was risky enough, but to place her people in such a vulnerable position beyond foolish. It had been stupid.

The camel cavalry rushed up to and past an astonished Noah, charging off toward the advancing Atlantician infantry. Amidst this confusion, a rider stopped up short, shouting at Noah while pointing toward another rider leading several camels, "Hurry, my queen, make your escape! We will hold them as best we can."

Noah finally recognized the man speaking with her to be Stobattan Thornbirge. Without hesitation, she jumped from the chariot with Hyhoset, the other rider having gotten down, assisting the two onto the camel. Reaching out and gripping his forearm, Noah thanked Stobattan as her tears flowed freely.

Cupping his hand over her hand, Stobattan replied, "This is for your husband, Javan... and for the kindness you have displayed toward my son."

He called to his camel and rode off swiftly to join the battle, the other rider following him. Noah took a quick look over her shoulder and darted for the swamp to finish her escape. Emerging from the swamp on the northern side, Noah made for the road to gather her infantry, placing four companies in line of battle while putting the remainder of those not engaged on the road north. She told the captain, "You will hold this line until the remainder of those on foot who can have passed through your line and are on the road. Then form up ranks and pull back along the road in a defensive retreat."

Much against her personal desire, Noah turned her mount toward the north to make haste. If the enemy breached the defenses in Rose Valley before she had passed its mouth, then all might be lost anyway. She must not waste the opportunity of escape given her.

Fighting south of the swamp was short-lived but intense. Chasileah took command, leading two more cavalry charges against the Atlantician infantry. About a thousand of Noah's infantry managed their way through the tangled brush in the swamp to help push back the Atlantician cavalry, opening the road temporarily for escape. Stobattan Thornbirge and his camel cavalry of about five hundred charged Dungie's cavalry line, momentarily stalling its advance.

The Thornbirge's fellow clansmen were well known for their use of the sling and stone, and this day lived up to their reputation. Had it not been for the contemptuous rage Dungie flew into when seeing his former friend and ally standing against him, he might well have called a halt to his attack until more of his army was on the field. As it was, the Atlantician king was forced to wait until his front line of infantry arrived before continuing his attack.

With his overwhelming numbers, Dungie continued to drive the opposing forces. When report was made that the road north was open, Chasileah ordered the chariots to withdraw, taking as many wounded with them as possible. Nearly a score managed to make their escape north, each loaded down with wounded comrades. Chasileah then attempted to disengage what forces she could so they could also make escape. While nursing an arrow wound through her thigh, she, along with her fellow Sky Children and their Dragon brethren held the front line, slowly pulling back toward the roadway.

Looking about the bloodied field above the din of battle, Chasileah realized that to save the infantry she and those with her must make a last stand. At that, she ordered the infantry to withdraw, commanding the remaining cavalry to follow close behind, telling her second in command, "I will hold them for as long as possible. Save however many you can and get them up the road as fast as may be."

The man acknowledged her orders and hurried off to carry them out.

Stobattan Thornbirge rode over to Chasileah. Seeing her condition, he told her to leave the field. "This is not your day for death. Get your people out of here. It is I who helped deliver tribulation to these shores and my people will assist in stemming its tides. Be off! We will buy you some time."

Chasileah could not argue. Already she was becoming faint from blood loss. She needed medical help soon or would bleed to death. Thanking Stobattan, she turned to her captains, telling them to retire the field. Stobattan's camel riders, half their number already fallen, again dressed their line. Looking back at Chasileah as she slowly followed the others toward the road, Stobattan called out the battle charge for one last time. With whoops and yells, his tiny band of brave warriors plunged headlong into the enemy's ranks.

Noah's retreating infantry arrived at the head of Rose Valley just in time to prevent the enemy from breaking out into Kornary Valley. Company after company of infantry charged up the Rose to reinforce their beleaguered comrades, stalling enemy lines. Fierce hand to hand fighting ensued, neither side having archers on the field. With sword, pike, and axe, both armies slugged it out, gaining victories and taking losses. The retreating cavalry turned up the Rose to lend support to the battle, breaking up the enemy's ranks and driving them back long enough to allow the infantry to withdraw back down the valley and join the remainder of the army in the northern Kornary.

By the time Noah's cavalry had retreated back down the Rose and rejoined the army, Dungie was pushed past the swamps and was redressing his lines to make a general advance. The man was nearly in a blind rage, having lost so many treasures. There had been his 'no-good wife', her child Hyhoset, many Dragons and Templar warriors and, more importantly, as he discovered from ZaphipheRa, a Sky Child of great renown. All this bounty had escaped him because of the traitorous acts of that Stobattan Thornbirge and his conspiring clansmen! Any of Thornbirge's company found wounded on the field was mercilessly executed. The heads of Stobattan and his captains were driven upon pikes and carried at the front of Dungie's advancing army.

Heedless of obstacles in their path, Dungie marched his soldiers forward on the double quick. He would not permit any more mistakes. Today he would crush this rabble and take for himself the prizes waiting to be had. Today he would make himself king of the world, bringing down not only the house of Iamrussia, but a prince of the Sky Children as well. "Forward!" he shouted. "Revenge the loss of your brothers and the treachery of those kissing your cheek!"

No matter the outcome of future contests, the Atlantician War was over for Chasileah. Too badly damaged she was to continue leading her soldiers. Captain JoleckTosumie was placed in command as Chasileah was hurried away to be given medical attention, the woman demanding to receive whatever was available to the other wounded. Noah put a stop to the woman's tantrums by knocking her out with a heavy sedative and then sending her away to be cared for in one of the Sky Children's ships.

The loss beyond the swamps had been staggering for Noah's people. Most who fell had been personal acquaintances of hers - friends and even lovers. Now they lay dead upon the field, and for what? A valley weed induced dream for success, a tricksy ploy to capture a moment? Not permitting time to grieve the loss, Noah pushed her heartache aside and began placing her army across the upper Kornary Valley. Dungie must be fully engaged before sending the signal. He must be captured alive or all the death and destruction this day had already delivered would be in vain.

Horns sounded the battle as Dungie's infantry gathered its might, compressing ranks when two divisions of soldiers coming in from Rose Valley joined up with other lead elements. The first wave of soldiers was three ranks deep, the middle rank made up of archers where available. Dungie and his mounted company were just behind the third rank of infantry. To the rear of him another dozen ranks of soldiers followed. From his vantage point, the young king could see the ragged lines of opposing forces ahead. There looked to be fewer than four thousand total standing the line against him. He carried a host of five times that number marching down this valley alone.

Noah smiled grimly. This was Dungie's first major mistake of the day, the valley here little more than three furlongs wide. Although greatly outnumbered, the front lines on both sides were about equal, and what few reserves Noah had could easily be moved about the field where they were needed the most. As the Atlantician army continued to move down the valley, their forces would become more compressed, reducing maneuvering space, a blunder easily made by inexperienced commanders.

Dungie was not inexperienced, and would have been aware of the dangerous compaction of his army had the man remained alert and kept his battle senses about him. Instead he had surrendered to the greatest of all enemies one can face upon the field of battle - a blinding obsession to destroy his adversary. Noah understood this well and intended to capitalize on it by keeping the man distracted.

Taking her station in one of the remaining chariots, Noah, with Hyhoset at her side, moved onto the field, raising her colors just behind her front line facing Dungie. Captain Joleck soon joined her, raising the Lady's colors, a silver banner with a white swan surrounded by seven golden stars in the middle. Upon catching sight of her antagonist, Noah began making obscene gestures with her hands while shouting curses at Dungie.

Although unable to hear her, Dungie understood by Noah's gestures what she was saying. His face white with rage, screaming rebukes, he waved his arm forward, pointing his sword at Noah, shouting to his lieutenants, "Attack! Attack! Attack! Drive them! Drive them! Drive them!"

Trumpeters all across the line played the call for a running charge. With shouts and cries, the Atlantician soldiers lifted high their weapons, charging Noah's line on the run. The Dragon queen lifted a battle horn, sounding it in reply, her buglers echoing the signal. As if one person, the soldiers in the front ranks dropped to their knees, picking up large shields and long pikes, taking up a position as if defending against a cavalry charge. Behind them, hundreds of archers stood at the ready.

When the Atlantician onslaught was within range, Noah called for arrows to be released, her archers continuing to unleash their storm upon the charging enemy. Sandwiched between two ranks of running infantry, the Atlantician archers could not use their bows, many slipping them over their shoulders and taking up the short swords they carried. Spurring his mount forward, Dungie motioned for his troop to follow, telling his captains to bring the rest of his army up at the double quick.

Dungie's three leading ranks had melted into little more than a tightly packed mob when they collided with the front line of Noah's army. Many of the men in the lead were impaled upon the pikes, unable to break stride or move out of the way, being shoved forward by others behind them. Confusion and mayhem spread all across the battle line, the front piled up against the enemy line like an ocean wave against a sea wall while men in the ranks behind continued to push forward.

A signalman above Rose Ridge waved his flags, sending a message that the bulk of the Atlantician army was north of Rose Valley. Noah lifted her banner, waving it back and forth several times. Moments later, a fiery missile was racing skyward, a brilliant, green explosion filling the western sky.

When the enemy infantry advanced into Kornary Valley, Cothath and his cavalry had started down Rose Valley, stopping just beyond sight of the Kornary to wait for Noah's signal. Seeing the green smoke, he put the team of wild bulls pulling his chariot into a maddening run. In only minutes, he and the other charioteers were slamming into the rear elements of Dungie's army. Panic ensued and discipline collapsed as hundreds of terrified men fled down the valley in Dungie's direction.

While Cothath blocked any retreat in the rear, and Noah's army held the enemy in check in the front, the Black Angel delivered two more blows to Dungie's army. Out of the sky, over a dozen small-winged airships dropped down upon the Atlanticians, hurtling scores of small, black, exploding stones on the enemy below. At the same time, better than a dozen short, squat, thunder gunns on Kornary Ridge opened up a tempestuous fire on the tightly packed Atlantician forces.

By now, the entire Atlantician army in the valley was fallen into total confusion. Dungie's front lines were disintegrating, Noah's soldiers pushing them back. Rear lines behind Dungie were in complete chaos, Cothath's giant chariots running amok among them. All this happened so fast that the king of Atlantis was only beginning to realize the dilemma he was in. He immediately started barking orders to pull this disaster out of the fire. Before any action could be taken, Noah dropped the hammer.

Suddenly the gunns went quiet. Dungie looked up toward the ridge to see what might be happening. His jaw dropped in shock, seeing that ridge filled with thousands of people carrying wooden shields and long, stone spears. In the center of this throng, a company of horses stood, a banner fluttering high by one of the riders. Taking his eyepiece, Dungie focused on the rider with the banner and cried out in despair at seeing Javan's colors and his father's horse, MaraMonte. The rider was only a young lad but nearly as tall as the mounted soldiers about him.

The boy pointed the banner toward the ground, charging MaraMonte over the ridge and down the steep slope toward the valley floor, mounted soldiers following him at a gallop. At that instant, the entire Kornary Ridge convulsed as a heaving mass of tens of thousands of screaming men and women raised their spears high and plunged down the sides of the ridge. A sudden cry off to his left alerted Dungie to happenings in that direction as a multitude of people raced down the slopes of Rose Ridge. Like giant, tempestuous waves, they collided with the flanks of the Atlantician army.

At the same time the Iamrussians were storming down the ridges against Dungie's army, over one hundred thousand citizen-soldiers were sweeping across Rose Valley, moving south to engage the left wing of the Atlantician army. On the eastern side, the situation was little different as nearly two hundred thousand people came flooding down New Paris Road and out of the surrounding forest, surprising and overrunning lead elements of the Atlantician right wing. The commander on the right attempted to rally his rear elements, but was struck down early in the contest. That battle soon ended in a rout, the Iamrussians taking up the pursuit.

General Tarshish and his troops did not suffer the same fate that Dungie's army did. There had been a delay in bringing up the citizen army, providing time for the general to receive report of what was happening off to the west. Tarshish gathered his forces together into strong defensive positions, successfully driving back three attacks of the Iamrussian citizen-soldiers. General Rhine called off the attacks, seeing the heavy losses his people were taking while gaining no advantage. After night fell, Tarshish pulled his army out of line and marched it away in an orderly withdrawal toward the south.

For Dungie, there was no escape. Instinctively, the Atlanticians slowly gave ground. But since they were completely surrounded, this action gradually squeezed the army until it could no longer offer any reasonable defense against it attackers.

The Atlantician king helplessly watched his army rapidly being decimated, most of his soldiers unable to protect themselves against the enemy's assaults. Seeing how hopeless it was becoming, he broke his banner staff in two, holding up the pieces in separate hands indicating his surrender.

Upon seeing Dungie's surrender offer, Noah called her captains to bring a halt to the fighting. It took a great deal of time before the battle ended. When the tally was taken, fewer than six thousand of the twenty-four who followed Dungie into the valley, and the three thousand that entered from Rose Valley survived the day. This did not mean the end of the Atlantician army. There were several heated contests across Iamrussian territories as the retreating Atlanticians attempted to escape to the sea. The last engagement was the Battle of Lavount Hill.

Noah refused to accept Dungie's surrender, giving the honor instead to Javan's son, Meric, the boy on MaraMonte. For a child only in his seventh year, Meric's stature was outstanding. Nearly as tall as a man, the boy could have easily been mistaken for someone twice his age. He was also extremely intelligent and had been well taught in all the ways of his people. With General AbramNeufeld at his side as advisor, after accepting the king of Atlantis' surrender, Dungie being divested of weapons and battle gear, Meric and General Neufeld mounted their horses and, without binding him, marched Dungie off on foot toward New Paris, the remainder of the guard also walking while leading their mounts along.

Noah now rode her chariot to the front of her soldiers, facing the vanquished foe. She commanded that all enemy officers of any rank were to be brought forward, nearly three hundred alive and able to obey being that number. As with Dungie, they were stripped of all their battle gear and weapons, and then sent off under heavy guard to a camp up Rose Valley. When this was accomplished, Noah ordered that all the Hormaxian priests be gathered before her, from high priest to servant apprentice and any domestic, male or female, who might be from that house, the number amounting to three hundred eighty-two.

After a thorough search was made, ZaphipheRa was discovered hidden away in the carcass of a dead horse, having scooped out its entrails in hopes of later stealing away in the night. Half a dozen male Dragons marched the fellow through the crowd of Hormaxians, stopping in front of the chariot horses. All the while this was taking place, the Iamrussians were pillaging the battlefield after having stripped the living of their weapons and armor and, at times, other trinkets of value. The defeated were then made to sit upon the ground with their hands on their heads, except for the wounded who were receiving care.

Noah pointed her sword at ZaphipheRa, scowling, "So the maker of whore-maidens has finally arrived to gather his prize! Well, here I am. What do you wish to do with me, make me into one of your Zaelock slaves? Now is your opportunity, whore-master, to use you uncanny powers to make me bend to your will."

ZaphipheRa stood, silently glaring up at the Dragon Queen, anger on his face reflecting his impotence.

Growing impatient with the man's prolonged silence, Noah mockingly asked, "Does the great wizard over the House of Hormax wait for his god to return from the privy?" She shook her sword. "Not only has war swept our world, but blood has also been shed in the Heavens! Your god-prince does not come to you because he nurses his own misery. Memphis burns as armies collide, Zeussah holed up in his fortress, having forgotten about your petty issues."

Noah pointed at Captain Joleck. "My God does not abandon his people. Even in war, his promises are not forgotten. This day the blood of my people and hers have mixed upon this holy ground because a promise they have kept."

She shouted at ZaphipheRa, demanding, "Get on your knees and give honor to the rulers over the Heavens! Denounce your worthless god before these people or die where you stand!"

At first the old priest did nothing. Noah was not long with patience. "Then you choose to die?" She called to her guard for a spear, grinning garishly, "Prepare to die, but it will not be with ease...giving you time to contemplate your life."

ZaphipheRa's hands flew up. "No! Wait!" Slowly he got down on his knees, bowing low before Joleck, acknowledging her people as the rightful gods of the Heavens. He lifted his face toward the sky, declaring Horus to be no god at all, but only a man born of woman. His lips quivered in fear when he denounced Zeussah for failing to live up to his promises.

The Atlantician soldiers watched and listened as their priestly leader declared their gods to be meaningless, their shock too great for them to fully comprehend what they were witnessing. This war...all their wars, the sacrifices of so many souls on the altars of Horus, the death of their friends and companions, separation from their wives and families had all been done for the honor and glory of Horus. Now their hearts burned at witnessing their priestly leader denounce the very reasons for all their sacrifices. Many a brave, valiant soldier quietly wept over these devastating revelations, their faith being revealed as little more than empty illusions.

ZaphipheRa was pulled on to his feet by the guards, stripped of his garments, bound with his hands behind him, and a lead rope tied about his neck. Noah's eyes blazed contempt. "I guess you have chosen to live. Fear me not, for not by my word will your soul come to ruin, but by the creation of your own hands shall your finish arrive!"

ZaphipheRa's two chief assistant priests, Zike and Rebottah, were also stripped of their clothes and bound then brought to the rear of Noah's chariot. Glaring down at them, the Black Angel voiced her disdain. "Demons of darkness you are, doing the will of an evil lord! For his blessing, you torture little children to make them twisted creatures of damnation. There are no words in Heaven or Hell that can describe the evil you have done to the hearts, souls, and minds of these innocent babes. A thousand deaths is not a fitting retribution for your wicked deeds!"

She took Hyhoset by the hand, drawing the girl up close so that she stood in front of the two men. "So it is that by a babe will life or death be chosen for you this day..."

Hyhoset looked up at her mother, the child's eyes searching Noah's.

Noah placed a hand on Hyhoset's shoulder. "My child, the Lady gave to you your name, 'Hyhoset, Slayer of Demons'. Choose for yourself the day of its birth. Life or death is placed in your hands this day. You are judge in this matter."

Hyhoset closed her eyes in thought. After a moment, she responded, "Does the fire not burn the forest down? So shall I hunt all those who serve as priests of Beelzebub." At that, the child drew the short sword sheathed at her side and pulled it free so that it was held in both her hands. Looking at Zike and then Rebottah, the child swore an oath, "I deliver you to the mercy of my God."

Lifting her sword high, Hyhoset swept the blade down swiftly, repeating her action once again. Zike and Rebottah both fell to the ground, their innards spilling out of them. As the two men lay there, wallowing in mortal agony, the girl turned to her mother, "They must all die for the evil sickness they carry."

Noah looked over at a stunned ZaphipheRa, asking, "Do you now see the world's ending that you have helped birth? Ever shall this child hunt the jackal, and ever shall he be in search of her. The oceans will fill with blood because of the relentless warring between them."

At that, Noah ordered those remaining of the House of Hormax to be stripped naked and taken to the high place above Rose Ridge. There they were slaughtered in front of all the eyes of the people watching from the valley below, their bodies left unburied for the crow and vulture to devour.

During this time, the Iamrussians had been searching the battlefields for their slain kindred. Stobattan and his clansmen were buried in the fields they defended. A great mound was raised with over five hundred stones placed around it...one for each brave warrior. As for the others of Noah's people who died that day, for those whose families did not come and take them away, mounds were heaped up over the dead and stone markers were carved as remembrances for them.

Joleck gathered her people up to the sky ships to celebrate the ritual of death as was the custom of her kind. Six had fallen in the battle south of the swamp and three more in this final battle... four men and five women. "There is a place we shall deliver my kind to, so they can rest until the final trumpet," Joleck announced to Noah, tears streaming down her face as she watched the last of the wrapped bodies being taken toward a waiting ship.

And for the vanquished, they were allowed to bury their dead, but not in mounds. Small graves with wooden markers were all that was permitted. When all this was finally finished, the Atlantician prisoners were divided up into smaller companies and marched off to do forced labor until hostilities were ended.

### * * *

As Dungie followed along behind Meric, he finally began to understand the fool he had allowed himself to be played for. This was driven home when the people came to one of three stout bridges that had been constructed across the river rapids north of the valley. Each was wide enough to accommodate a battle chariot or several soldiers crossing abreast. He also observed that the bridge supports were rigged with barrels of thunder powder, so that had Noah's people been forced to retreat, they could have easily destroyed the bridges before his army could have crossed them.

The king of Atlantis was unceremoniously taken to a heavily guarded, windowless log building and locked away in a tiny cell, his only light coming from an oil lamp hanging in the guard chamber outside the cell. Here he was to await his fate, in the lone solitude of his own thoughts and ponderings. The guards spoke little to him, leaving the man pretty much alone, except for seeing to his daily needs. Food, water, and other items were passed back and forth through a small opening near the base of the heavy oaken door.

On the fifth day of his captivity, Dungie was taken out of his prison, bathed, and then taken at night to another windowless building not far away. Five Templar guards ushered him into a large room, two lit candles and a small hearth fire providing the only light. Otherwise the room was empty except for a big, thick animal fur on the ground. At the four cardinal points of the fur there were large iron bars with heavy rings that had been driven into the earthen floor. Dungie was stripped naked and placed face up on the fur, his arms and legs spread and the man bound to the four post rings by his ankles and wrists.

When finished binding Dungie, one of the guards took a ladle of hot liquid and, while the others restrained him, forced their prisoner to drink it. A hemp sack was then pulled down over Dungie's head, a cord gathering it secure about his neck so that he could not shake it free. Saying not a word, the guards gathered up the man's clothes and quietly departed.

The liquid burned as it coursed down Dungie's throat and it made his stomach churn with bitter unease. In a little while the man began to feel heat in his groin. Soon his manliness was aroused to the point of bursting from its erect hardness. It was at this moment that he heard the door slowly open and close, followed by the sound of naked footfall as someone approached.

The person who entered the room quietly knelt beside the man, reaching out and touching him in ways that excited his ardor all the more, causing an ache to grow within his manhood to the point he moaned in agony. At that, the person slowly straddled him and gradually enveloped his manliness into her until the woman's weight rested upon his hips.

Shrouded in a heavy, hooded crimson robe, Noah rested her hands on Dungie's chest while she slowly rocked her pelvis back and forth. The robe not only hid the woman from the man's gaze should the sack fall from his head, but it helped her to isolate this experience to only an act of intercourse. Noah was only an observer this night. Another woman, a priestess dressed in a blood-red robe, was only borrowing Noah's body to perform a sacred ritual. The Dragon queen was only the vessel into which the sacrifice was being deposited.

The agonizing pain accompanying this coition was the likes Dungie had never experienced. Instead of diminishing his arousal, it only raised it all the more, to the point that the man believed his male member would rupture. Yet as distressing as the physical act was, the horrid visions that erupted inside the man's head led to his crying out in fearful dismay.

When Dungie's manly elixir finally burst forth, it felt to him like liquid fire as it surged through his manly parts, quickly followed by a torment like that of his testicles suddenly being violently pulled from his body, an excruciatingly nauseous pain racing up through his belly that refused to ease until long after Dungie's erection subsided, and the drug he ingested was in no hurry to loosen its powerful spell over him.

Noah did not break her stride after Dungie climaxed. No, indeed... The elixir released within her was the catalyst that permitted the melding of their minds. She and this man were now connected in body, soul, mind and spirit. The time had arrived for her to deliver her witch's dream into his mind with all the malice her heart could muster. With a vengeance, she tore into his thoughts, forcing every abominable vision she could imagine to be conjured up in the form of malignant and twisted memories, Dungie unable to separate reality from sick delusion.

As he reeled from the woman's venomous onslaught, he began to hear a chiding voice in his head, mocking him in derision, "How does a mortal dare toy with the daughters of the gods? Nidgha gave to you sweet, succulent dreams filled with leaded wine so that you came to hate everything good to the point of murdering your own father so that his wife could yours become. The daughters of demons gave you that sweet poison for you to see what they wanted you to see. The daughter of light will burn away your blind stupor, so that naked you will become in the light of truth."

Dungie believed his very brains were being sucked out of his head through his eyes and ears as power to control his own thoughts was taken over by another mind filled with angry malice. His heart pounded in panicked trepidation as a burning, ghostly demon pulled his spirit away from this erstwhile life into a netherworld of silent, radiant nothingness filled with the whispers from a bodiless being having taken possession of his innermost world. Trapped and powerless, Dungie could do nothing at all other than wait upon the mercy of this beast controlling his mind.

The beast laughed in derision, knowing Dungie's very thoughts. "So it has come down to this. Do you see now the game that has been played...is being played? I show you openly what others have been doing to you in secret while you slept in copulating ecstasy. The woman you love is but the toy of the great whore-master, your most trusted counselor, made by his fornicating malevolence so that control over you he exercises. Because of your passionate desire for power and glory, you opened the doors of your soul to him. With her help, he walked through your door of wanton desire into a room empty and void of moral sense to take possession of you until his servant you have become."

Lurid visions of every unspeakable horror rolled through Dungie's mind, the man unable to close his eyes to the abominable sights because it was not by sight through his eyes that the visions were arriving. He would have screamed in fright, begging for mercy, except for the fact that his mouth was unable to speak.

The haunting whispers began anew. "So you have become the defiler of all that was good, a whore-maiden to the whore-maiden of Zeussah, accepting the intercourse of his manly powers, and into your impotent womb he has deposited a dying seed that has taken control of your very being. In order to take control of you as I am controlling you, this has all been done... except I reveal my intent openly to you."

Heinous laughter once more reverberated through Dungie's head. "King of Atlantis? What a fool you are to believe that such an aged wizard as ZaphipheRa would offer a mere boy a throne with such power and glory. Through your Zaelock raping, he used you as his tool to become the power behind that throne, and through Zeussah's raping of him that power was delivered up to the god of the hour. So it is that you are nothing more than a toy for much smarter and tricksier powers to trifle with."

The beast departed Dungie's head, gradually returning his mental powers to him. The woman silently stood and quietly left the room. Later in the morning, the Templar guards entered, taking Dungie back to his cell until the coming night. Then again he was returned to the room where he experienced the same as he had the night before.

For ten nights, the man suffered the torments of the woman's witching touch, each night the agony and visions becoming more intense and terrifying as her power increased over his body and mind. By the seventh day, he blubbered like a little child when the guards tied him down to the posts. By the tenth day, he had to be carried to the room, his body and mind weak and devastated. After the tenth night, the witch did not visit herself on Dungie again, allowing him a peaceful respite in the quiet solitude of his tiny cell. Whether it was from this experience or only circumstances, Dungy did not seek out sexual intercourse for the remainder of his life.

### * * *

The Battle of Lavount Hill was a long and bloody one. On the morning of the last day's fighting, General Narduke Tarshish and what remained of the Atlantician army were in possession of the two remaining redoubts of the once sprawling fortifications north of Saranda. The city itself was smoldering ruins, its outer walls long ago breached and its valuables looted. The Dragons had managed to prevent widespread murder and rape of Saranda's inhabitants by the German tribes that had joined BondaBoor's Riphathian warriors in pursuing the enemy west. Only through the promises from BondaBoor and Lumdon that all the treasure found in the city could be theirs if they did not harm the people were such atrocities prevented. As it was, the king of Saranda and many of his soldiers garrisoned in the city were not granted such pardon.

Just the day before, Lumdon had led a massive assault against Narduke's western fortifications on the upper slopes of that part of Lavount Hill. The hand to hand combat was fought in the extreme, a small creek running along the palisade flowing red from the thousands slain of both friend and foe filling the narrow valley that it ran through. It was during this heavy fighting that Lumdon's wife, Thanet, led a charge of her women warriors against the northwest tower, breaching its wall and storming that tower, forcing the Atlanticians to abandon their works and escape to fortifications on the hills further to the east.

General Tarshish was an able commander and garnered the respect of those under his command. He had proved his prowess over the weeks since withdrawing from New Paris by keeping his army an intact fighting unit. There had been several costly engagements as he retreated south, that cost often falling upon the Iamrussians. News of the Atlantician navy's defeats did not reach the man's ears until shortly before his arrival on the hills overlooking Saranda. Upon finding the city under siege, and with his escape route to the sea blocked, he hastily built a series of wooden palisades anchored at the corners by huge battle towers along a series of low hills, the name of the battle taken from the most prominent of them, Lavount Hill.

In the days following his arrival, General Tarshish had watched Saranda's capture and destruction, and had defended his fortifications against several determined assaults. Looking along his parapet at his tired, half-starved soldiers, he prepared for the next assault that was soon to come...probably the last assault. The enemy was relentless and vicious. For every one of the enemy his soldiers put down, another three took the person's place. He possibly had seven thousand able-bodied men remaining. The enemy by now must have ten times that number. No, today would be the last day of fighting. It would not, could not go on. At least they would die as warriors, not slaughtered like King Dungie and his surrendered soldiers had been.

By midmorning, the Iamrussian army had gathered for its final assault. All around, the enemy was assembled, thousands upon thousands of battle-hardened warriors standing the front lines, milling bands of citizen-soldiers filling the ranks behind. General Tarshish looked down from the battlement. Strange...it was so quiet. They were so quiet, not the typical noise made when building up nervous willpower for an attack. It was as if the Iamrussian army was standing at the ready, waiting for something.

A sudden stir off to the west drew the general's attention. A group of riders slowly worked their way through the crowd toward the front of the lines. It took a moment for Narduke to recognize the banner held high on a staff by a young boy mounted on a giant warhorse. He gasped when he realized it to be the colors of the house of Dodanim, Javan's battle colors. The boy was surrounded by a complement of his Templar guards and hooded advisors...Dragons, no doubt. The troop moved forward until they were within hailing distance.

Expecting to be requested to surrender, General Tarshish was preparing to make retort when, instead, the boy motioned to someone behind him. Slowly, another hooded man on horseback came up and stopped at the front of the party. Pulling his hood back to be recognized, the man called out the general's name. Shocked, Narduke could not believe his eyes at seeing his king alive and well, sitting a horse, speaking to him. After the initial shock, the two men struck up a conversation, Dungie explaining that he and his soldiers were in good health and had been treated properly and, if Narduke and his army would surrender, they would be treated the same. At length, the general and his leading officers opened the gate and came out to relinquish command of the Atlantician army to Meric Dodanim.

The surrender of the Atlantician army went smoothly but was executed with certain conditions that could not be negotiated. The same as was the case earlier with Dungie's army, there was a separation made of the people, the MooDecd and Hormaxians taken away to await their fate. General Tarshish and the Atlantician officers were marched off to a separate camp while the common soldiers were set to forced labor, burying the dead and tearing down the fortifications at Lavount Hill.

On the eighth day after the final battle of Lavount Hill, the main body of soldiers was put on the road toward Hannah Inlet, the wounded placed in large two-wheeled carts for the journey. Those too severely injured or too sickly were offered leave to remain behind until able to safely make the arduous trip to the sea, being permitted enough Atlantician surgeons and attendants to care for their needs. Following the army's departure, the next day the Atlantician officers were set out on the road west. Dungie and General Tarshish did not leave until the day following, riding in company with Meric and his contingent. Meric did not speak with Dungie at all, but used General Neufeld to convey any messages that needed to be delivered to his half brother.

Eventually, the defeated army reached Hannah Inlet. There awaiting them were the needed transports manned by newly released Atlantician sailors ready to deliver them back to their homes. Scores of stout, fat, round ships able to carry hundreds of people crowded the harbor. Before boarding the people, an aged Dragon, HuushBonn, stood upon a raised platform in the midst of the throng, lifting his hands high in declaration.

"Men... my brothers..." he began. "Listen, please, to all this old man has to tell you, and then choose for yourselves as to whether his words are wise or not. We of the house of Javan the Elder are not your enemy, and we wish for no more animosity to exist between us. Yet death and destruction does rest upon your doorstep, but not by our hands."

He pointed toward the sky. "War among the gods has played out in the stars above us in ages past, before your fathers were birthed. The evil of that war destroyed many luminaries in the heavens above us. From that war come the flaming missiles that light up the cloudless nights. But they are just the glowing sparks of a consuming fire soon coming. Long ago was that war waged. Only now has its evil madness come to us, and soon it will rage against all the northern lands of this world to a lesser or greater extent. Your home, the land of Atlantis, will suffer greatly. That is why orders came from the Sky Children for us to abandon that world and flee to a place where some safety might be found."

HuushBonn gazed out toward the Western Sea. "Time there is not for you to reach home and hearth before this storm of destruction casts itself down upon the earth. Too late it is for those residing in Western lands unless they make escape now. Alas, but the priests of Horus have blinded the minds of the people so that they have not listened to the counsel of the Dragons. Few any longer seek escape. Many will die, some by fire and rage, others by flood and pestilence, but die they will... friend, lover, wife, child, mother and father, sibling. Yes, many of those you hold so dear will die in this coming storm."

Spreading his arms wide, he looked back upon the crowd. "There is nothing you can do to bring rescue. The journey is too far and the hour too late for your returning to help make escape for them, so saving yourselves is the only wise choice remaining. The hour of the crow is upon you, upon the entire world of mankind. There is no escaping it, but a possibility of surviving it. Iam has already made preparations to preserve alive many people, and today he sends his prophets to you to declare an hour of salvation for you. Take for yourselves the journey to the south and join with your kindred who reside in the Shemion Sea. Take, anew, wives for yourselves from among those people and rebuild a world of men destined to rule those oceans for one hundred generations. Preserve the seed that resides within your upper thighs so that a blessing you will give to the future worlds of men."

HuushBonn turned and slowly made his way down the platform's steps, disappearing into the silent crowd. Some men quietly wept while others conversed with their companions in little more than a whisper. Others merely stood, staring forlornly out toward the sea and waiting ships. Waiting for what? This senseless war had robbed them of time and life that could have been spent with loved ones they might never see again. Oh yes, most believed the old Dragon's words.

The sons of Hormax were usurpers, having driven out the Dragons that once ruled Atlanticia and surrounding lands, and not so long before. Wise King Philip had been a great Dragon, and yet his counsel had been rejected by the people when the priests of Horus had offered them riches, power and glory. Now here they were, in a land strange to them, defeated and bereft of all except for the future life hidden within their loins. Still there was hope. Maybe if the winds carried them fast enough homeward, there might be time to rescue loved ones before the world's ending. A wild hope, yes, but still a hope.

So it was that a great parting occurred on that day. Men who wished to return to Atlanticia boarded ships that would take them home. Those seeking new lands and lives took to ships going south. It is safe to say that the numbers often were divided between the men with lovers and families choosing to return to Atlantis, while single men with little purpose chose to journey into southern lands. As soon as a ship was prepared, it set sail, waiting not for a gathering of the fleet. Needless to say, there was an organized stampede to attain berths on the ships departing earlier.

It took nearly a fortnight before the entire Atlantician army was departed from Hanna Inlet, ships going south being loaded last. A few Atlanticians having close kindred among the Iamrussians were permitted to remain if they wished. Most notable among them was Stobattan Thornbirge's son, Hudshon, and Admiral SethHakenpol, who was closely related to many seafarers from the northern clans. General Tarshish took to the southern seas with his sister-wife who had accompanied him, their son having died during the retreat from New Paris. All in all, of Dungie's overwhelming invasion force of nearly one hundred sixty-thousand soldiers and conscripted laborers, only about thirty-five thousand left the Iamrussian shores for other adventures.

Noahashonie and Hyhoset remained in New Paris when Meric and Dungie departed for southern territories, wishing to prepare the people for coming events. Having been informed of the day and hour, and having ascertained the approximate path of the greatest destruction, Noah and her fellow Dragons had hurried about the land to warn their clansmen and fellow allies of the impending doom and how best to survive it.

Already entire villages were on the move toward the southern mountains to make escape, while others chose to stay behind and seek places of protection. It was fortuitous that most of the granaries of foodstuffs collected during the earlier good years were built on high hills or stored within the very caves the people sought shelter in. The upcoming winter would not loosen its grip for several long seasons to come. For many, the stored grains and frozen carcasses of wild animals would be their only food during those trying times.

Noah chose to weather the coming storm in the hills around New Paris, encouraging any who stayed to move out of the valleys to higher elevations. Some of the people took to tunneling into the hills, being from the copper mining clans, trusting to the protection the underworld could provide. It was in one of these shelters that Noah took up dwelling along with her daughter, Hyhoset, later joined there by Meric and BondaBoor along with his family and several clansmen.

Those from the clans of Kittim and Tarshish as well as lesser clans like the Mariners took to the sea and headed south, Eric and Hilga Tomassie, along with many Mariner clansmen included. They hoped to winter over in the Southlands and return in the spring, not aware circumstances would prevent it for a very long time. By then, many of the people from those clans would have made new homes for themselves among the peoples of the Shemion Sea, their descendants forgetting the culture and traditions of that older age.

(Author's note _: Rae did return to the northern lands a year and a half following his trekking journey beginning in northern Spain. So much so the man wanted to see his and Swalhawena's child as well as to make good a two year promise to Noah._ )

It was late on the afternoon of a dreary fall day, fat, wet snowflakes mixing with the chilling drizzle when Swalhawena arrived at New Paris from her warring far off to the south. With her daughter at her side, she pulled open the heavy bearskin curtain of Noah's cozy compartment not far from the entrance of one of the miners' tunnels cut into the low cliffs just to the east of the nearly abandoned city in the valley below. Noah was doubled over on her knees, clutching her belly as relentless heaves racked the woman with contorted seizures.

Gradually the nauseous bout subsided, leaving a sick and distraught Noah gasping for breath while supporting her upper weight with her hands on the floor for fear of fainting. Eventually she turned her gaze to the new arrivals. With half glazed over eyes and vomit dribbling from her mouth, the woman placed a hand on her belly and angrily sputtered, "Behold the beast!"

(Author's note: _The wealth of riches in iron, copper, and other precious metals surrendered by the Atlanticians to the Iamrussians was so plentiful that the use of stone tools was quickly discontinued. Knapping guilds soon disappeared, replaced by the metal-working guilds. It was true that a few scattered tribes continued for a while to make some weapons from stone, creating crude examples of the skillfully crafted earlier pieces. But after a generation or two, even most of these people switched over to metal._

_When resettlement came to the western isles, the rapid expansion of newly arrived clans led to a revival of stone tools and weapons, the materials readily available and implements easily manufactured. There was no attempt to bring back the knapping guilds, so tool design remained more fundamental and basic but still deadly efficient. It was not until the invasion of the eastern kingdoms millennia later that the making of stone tools and weapons again became a forgotten art._ )

### * * *

General Nuefange did not know of the Atlanticians' humiliating defeat in the northern lands. If the priests accompanying him had knowledge of it, they said nothing, the conquest of Egypt still a necessary priority for the western Hormaxians. The season was getting late for beginning a major campaign, but there was no other option. Egypt's capitulation to Atlantis was to be accomplished at any and all cost. Nuefange feared that it might prove impossible to force TitanAmactony's surrender before winter, but establishing a beachhead on the delta would open the Nile to his war galleys, permitting his army to move up the river quickly. If the northern campaign was on track, there should be thousands of reinforcements joining Nuefange's army in the spring, hurrying his Egyptian conquest.

This delayed timing did not set well with the general, his planned invasion, of necessity, taking place by late summer then pushed back to early fall, that being a daring enough move. Now he was past mid-fall because of countless delays and miserable weather that had plagued the general's fleets. One violent tempest after another swept down upon the waters surrounding Thera and Crete, damaging ships and destroying docks. Then there was that continual shaking across Thera, with steam and smoke occasionally rising from the waters of the island's largest harbor. Should there be another earthquake the likes that shook Thera the year before, the Atlantician navy might never be able to put to sea in force. Now was the time to move or not at all.

Stepping aboard his flagship, General Nuefange gave orders for the fleet to heave off lines and hoist sails. In his armada were over three hundred war galleys with another one hundred support vessels. Crammed aboard these ships were nearly seventy thousand sailors and soldiers, and this was only the first wave. Stationed in reserve at Thera were an additional thirty thousand soldiers awaiting transport to Egyptian shores.

The plan was simple enough. After smashing the Egyptian fleet into surrender or destruction, the Atlanticians would establish a beachhead at or along the Nile River, sending a fleet of galleys up the Nile to wreak havoc along it. TitanAmactony would not know where the main thrust was coming from, thus being forced to divide his defenses up in hopes of containing an attack from any invasion point.

With his fast galleys running amok in the Nile, terrorizing the people all along the river, not only would Egypt be cut in two but hysteria would become rampant in threatened cities, creating mass confusion and a breakdown in law and order. As Pharaoh attempted to regain control of his people while positioning his army to defend the country, Nuefange would land his main contingent and then send his transports back to Thera to pick up the remainder of his military there and deliver it to him. Once they had departed Thera, it could be abandoned to the Fates, Crete no longer being an issue of concern. This would free up Admiral Noahha's protective fleet of forty galleys and numerous support ships as well as his thousands of sailors and soldiers that could now be added to Nuefange's invading forces.

As the ship's captain opened the giant sail to the breeze, General Nuefange sucked in a breath of sweet, salty air. This looked to be a good day, the weather fair, the winds at their back and a gentle sea.

In the depths below, Neptune smiled sinisterly, "Do not forget, good general, I still command the oceans and decide the fate of those who risk playing upon them! The heat of my wrath you have not yet witnessed, my power and fiery rage having remained hidden deep within the womb of the seas. Soon the world of men will learn to respect me as never have they done before. Ice and fire, water and fury - yes, I will play my part in that game as well." He sank down into the darkness of the chill depths, laughing in derision at the works of these puny humans.

### * * *

Hormaxian priest, Rapadies, stood near the boarding ladder of a giant sky ship, smiling with pleasure at the progress being made loading the blood-code machines. Rumors of a great Atlantician defeat at the hands of Noahashonie's Iamrussians and their allies had been delivered to his ears by the Speaking Stones. This news combined with whispers concerning Atlantis' coming doom spurred Rapadies to make haste with his plans to abandon the city for lands far to the south.

Rapadies was looking forward to leaving this place for reasons other than already mentioned. Before departing for the war, ZaphipheRa, with Dungie's approval, had appointed ChuphoeTobanahazz headman over Atlantis' treasury, which included all financing given to the city's temples. The man was a pestering snoop, diligently carrying out his job and unwilling to consider a bribe. To make matters worse, ZaphipheRa managed to get King Dungie's approval to make Chuphoe's wife, JulietTobanahazz, Rapadies' personal household overseer during the man's stay at the palace, saying the woman's uncanny witching powers might prove helpful with his daily administration of affairs.

Juliet was uncanny all right, but in a creepy sort of way, something that ZaphipheRa must have known. It was a feeling of great relief when the woman would depart for her chambers late in the evening, but also one of trepidation knowing that her cheerful voice waking him would be the first thing heard come the following morning. The only bright side to all this was that the woman never requested to have relations with him, a common courtesy he would have felt required to accept, forcing a pollution of soul and mind with the creature. No matter, anyway... He had managed to keep the monies coming from Chuphoe while keeping secret the true nature of his work and, despite ZaphipheRa's attempts at sabotage, been able to forge ahead successfully with his experiments.

While he watched the last of the crated materials being loaded aboard the sky ship, Priest NuhmaBuddapar, Rapadies' chief assistant, joined him, offering his greetings. "My Master, it gives me great pleasure to inform you that the last of your materials has been delivered here and will be loaded shortly."

Rapadies grinned, taking the man's forearm in salutation. "Excellent! Excellent! The fleet will be departing before the sun reaches the high of noon." He looked across the field at over two dozen giant sky ships where crews were busy preparing the machines for flight. "Arrangements have been made to refuel in TittenShobontii and then cross over the eastern end of Lake Tecatucutan the following day to FraidiSoBomba, weather permitting, then to... well, you have the route already given you that will return you to ZeussahRomath. There we will reinstall the machines in the temples and continue on with our work."

Leaning back while resting hands on hips, he looked up and along the giant wings of the sky ship, sighing with pleasure. "Wonderful machines they are, aren't they? Still, they are only the beginning. Soon we will master greater secrets - energy engines that will free us of this earth, power that will light our dwellings as if by magic, Speaking Stones that we can use as freely across great distances as easily as I am talking to you, and..." he laughed, "Why am I telling all this to you, secrets you already know of?"

Looking back at NuhmaBuddapar, Rapadies remarked, "My expectations are that you will soon be following me with the remainder of our equipment. Admiral KufiSauntooh has assured me that he's on schedule to leave in the next few days."

One way a person held power in the Hormaxian Order was to provide information to fellow members on a need to know basis. Rapadies had not attained his position by disregarding that axiom. Waving a hand, he shook his extended finger, "It is imperative that you stick to the schedule I've given you if you wish to share in upcoming discoveries with me." He did not tell Nuhma that news had reached his ears of ZaphipheRa surviving the war with the Iamrussians while most of the Hormaxian priests who accompanied the Atlanticians had died, and that he was on board a ship returning to Atlanticia. If his chief assistant was not long departed from here, he might well strike up a deal with the old priest to work for him, something that would not bode well for Rapadies.

Nuhma's reply was a little too casual for Rapadies. Apparently the fellow had not grasped the serious tone that carried his words. He must emphasize the urgency of sticking to the timetable without giving away any valuable secrets that his chief assistant might capitalize on for personal benefit. He looked into the sky, musing as if to himself, "Yes, yes I do believe it will come like the Speaking Stones have told me. Well...what must be, must be."

Shooting a glance out of the corner of his eye, Rapadies could see a look of curiosity growing on Nuhma's face. He turned to his assistant, apologizing, "Oh, I'm sorry, just mumbling to myself. But since I've stirred up concern in my brother's mind by speaking aloud matters whispered to me in secret, I'd better explain myself."

Nuhma was all ears for this bone that Rapadies was tossing him. Starved for knowledge he was, always having to grovel for every tidbit of information. It was by this method he had managed to wiggle his way past other, more complacent priests to make his way up the ladder. Realizing that any word spoken by those of higher rank might reveal another clue to secrets well hidden, giving him another piece to add to his growing puzzle of Hormaxian wisdom, the man carefully treasured anything offered him by people like Rapadies.

His eyes twinkling with delight, Nuhma nodded vigorously, "Thank you, Master, for your kindness! Yes! Yes! I was wondering what it was all about, but dared not to ask."

Good! Rapadies had the man hooked! Now to pull him in... "Well...maybe you should know, seeing the great responsibility resting on your shoulders. The Servants of the High Lord have delivered visionary messages to me through holy incantations and sacred smoke. There is trouble brewing in the worlds deep beneath this resplendent city, the uncertainty of matters great enough to have those same Servants warn me to move the blood machines given us by the gods to a safer place."

He cast his gaze toward the ground. "The visions warn of possible coming war between the armies of the underworld, their battling possibly putting the lands of Atlantis at risk. I have been warned about this possible turmoil in order to save the machines gifted us. The Servants have told me there is only a small window of opportunity to make safe escape before trouble might arrive on our doorstep. That is one of the reasons I have been pressed to act with such swiftness to remove these treasures from this place, and why you must make sure to stick to the schedule I've given you."

Nuhma was not one of the ignorant masses who would gullibly believe the drivel pouring from Rapadies' mouth. He politely listened to it, understanding that the man was so used to delivering his speeches to the superstitious and unlettered that the older priest could not break out of such rhetoric when conversing with his subordinates. He also comprehended that the dumber the audience pretended to be, the more hidden knowledge might well be revealed. The art of it was to find the sweet spot where one remained attentive as if receiving great understanding while maintaining a stare of mild bewilderment.

He looked away, wide-eyed and wondering. "Lord ZeussahReaboahm has placed his blessing on this land. How could danger find us here?"

Rapadies frowned, speaking in a hush, "Our High Lord Zeussah has many, many matters to concern himself with. Remember, we are but a small part of his vast kingdom, and being such, we must wait on him to set his priorities. In the meantime, I believe it prudent that these machines be returned to the home from which they came, far from any risk of danger." He went on again about the need to make haste, citing things like the lateness of the season and the good weather required for the sky ships, the desire to get the machines quickly up and running. But never once did he mention ZaphipheRa or King Dungie.

Nuhma nodded with understanding, reassuring Rapadies that he would make certain that schedules were held to. They talked a bit longer before the two parted, Rapadies hurrying off to speak with the chief headman over the sky ships and Nuhma to finish readying the remaining items for transport and to mull over the startling tidbits of important news that Rapadies had allowed to slip from his vault of secretiveness.

The business of underworld wars and the like was the prattle offered to the foolish and ignorant. This did not mean that Atlanticia faced no danger. Indeed, there might be some evil brewing beneath that could well spell possible doom for the city. Other cities had fallen prey to such evil, and even now Thera was shaking because of disturbances under it. Yet there was more to this than some possible natural disaster below their feet. Rapadies wanted to be clear of the entire area, and quickly. Yes, everything the older priest had been doing was in haste, he declaring the need to move back to ZeussahRomath suddenly revealed at the priestly council only two weeks before.

Then there was the news regarding the war with the Iamrussians - or should it be said the lack of it. Not a word from ZaphipheRa for over a month. Even when the Speaking Stones performed poorly, there had been snippets of information that seeped through to the ears of the Hormaxian priests. Then there had been the untimely demise of the old sagely priest, PheaBor, only three weeks before, leaving Rapadies the only other priest able to interpret the Speaking Stones. True, the fellow was along in years, being well into his nineties, but he had been healthy and active right up to his death, the man passing in his sleep. He had also been a close confidant of ZaphipheRa, traveling north with him from TittenShobontii after Dungie's rise to power.

What might all these things imply? If there had been news that the high priest over Atlantis was dead, announcement would surely have been made, Rapadies immediately seeking that station. And if King Dungie was victorious over the Witch Queen, Noahashonie, that news would have been spread rapidly also. The only conclusion that Nuhma could reach was that ZaphipheRa was still alive and that Dungie was either stalled or defeated in his warring with the Iamrussians. That might also explain why Zeussah had been silent concerning the city's future, he having lost interest in it.

All this made sense to Nuhma now, all the hush, hush and such. After all, Rapadies was quite generous in revealing information concerning General Nuefange's activities in the Shemion Sea. The Speaking Stones must be working well enough to receive those updates. That is they were working well enough until recently. Among the materials delivered to the sky ships this day were the workings of the Speaking Stones, Rapadies personally disassembling the machine before packing it away in stout wooden crates. The pieces too large or unimportant enough to be taken were removed from the temple tower and dumped into the sea just outside Atlanticia's outer harbor.

Nuhma began to believe that Rapadies was preparing a coup of sorts, robbing a defeated ZaphipheRa of any treasures he might find in Atlanticia, that is, should the old priest be returning to the city. By taking the Speaking Stones, there would be no immediate way for him to gather or send information to the other Hormaxian covens, nor could he receive any news of preceding events. On the other hand, Rapadies would be able to remain in communication across the globe, receiving updates of events and spreading his own personal propaganda while attempting to gather allies to his side. If this scenario was true, how could Nuhma benefit from it?

Let's see...the remaining machines and equipment were of little value to Nuhma, other than to show his faithfulness in making delivery of them to Rapadies. On this matter he remained safe, for should ZaphipheRa be able to gather the might of the Hormaxian order against Rapadies for stealing away these things from Atlanticia, Nuhma could claim that Rapadies said that ZaphipheRa had ordered it through the Speaking Stones... one man's word against another's. Although that might save his neck if such a thing should happen, it would not gain him favor or position. Something else must be done to assure him his deserved reward.

He smiled. There was the answer. Nuhma's father once said, while hefting several gold discs, payment for removing some nescient ruler who was preventing incursions of Hormaxian influence in his kingdom, "Gold is the devil's tool. Even when the world is crashing about you and all men are perishing, gold will buy you passage to safety. Gold will help you keep your head on your shoulders when others wish to remove it. The man with the gold rules."

What Nuhma needed was gold, a rather large quantity of it, enough to buy off any potential risk and to gain a loyal following. Where to get it? Rapadies had cleaned out the temple treasuries, all that wealth already loaded aboard the soon departing sky ships. There was only one other immediate source in Atlanticia, and that was the city treasury. He frowned. Chuphoe was charged with its safekeeping, and no matter the bribe or gift offered, the man would not surrender one shekel of its silver or gold if he did not believe it was for the wellbeing of state and king.

Let's see... yes! There was one person who could open the vaults to the treasury so that the gold would flow freely out of it. The governor, Thaladies Nuefange, older brother of General Tibur Nuefange, commander over the Atlantician forces in the Shemion Sea, held reign over Atlanticia in Dungie's absence, at the request of the city council. Unlike his brother, Tibur, Thaladies had few loyalties and fewer scruples, being a con man at best and a deceitful murderer when the need arose. Thaladies had wormed his way into the council after the death of Wise King Philip by pimping himself off to Prince Narduke after returning from the war in the south.

There were those who questioned Thaladies' possible involvement in Narduke's untimely death, but any such gossip quickly stopped after the newly installed king, Dungie, lifted him up to chairman of the Atlantician Council, and governor over Atlantician public works. Thaladies was not well-liked, the fate of his power and glory resting on Dungie's ability to retain his own kingship. For this main reason, Dungie had seen to Thaladies receiving authority over Atlanticia in his absence, the man unable to find enough support for a coup, thus willing at all cost to keep his king on the throne.

With Chuphoe in charge of the treasury, Thaladies would never attempt to steal from it, knowing that Chuphoe would make a full report of any and all monies going in or out of the treasury vaults. Nuhma understood this well, and was devising a plan that just might convince Thaladies that robbing the till was a risk worth taking. As he pondered upon a scheme, the priest smiled to himself, wondering why Rapadies had not thought of it. Maybe the old man was slower of wit than anticipated...or maybe he was in too much of a rush to think of lesser matters. Could the older priest's intent have been to abscond with the most valuable treasures, leaving Nuhma behind to be caught in the act of stealing the remainder of the machines - the less important ones, to be sure \- and have him hanged by Dungie and ZaphipheRa for treason? Should that be the case, there might be very little time to lose. He would make haste to get away safe, but not empty-handed. Tonight he would pay a visit upon the Atlantician governor to discuss some very important business.

### * * *

Juliet was so tired that all she wished to do was go to bed. For months she had been forced to cater to that old fat man, making sure that his apartment was kept neat and clean, that his sensitive palate was properly titillated, and seeing to all his other special needs and desires. Thankfully she had not been assigned the responsibility of obtaining the steady stream of young boys and girls for the almost nightly parties he threw for his fellow Hormaxian priests. And fortunately she had not been forced to remain for those festivals of debauchery. The following morning cleanup was disgusting enough, servants often finding filth and blood spattered about, and at times a nearly dead child who needed the surgeon's immediate attention. She also breathed a sigh of relief to have not been required to bed this slovenly, obese creature.

So happy the woman was to finally have riddance of him from the palace. On tired limbs, she crawled into the large, empty bed that was often shared with Chuphoe. Many nights she enjoyed her husband's attention, even when exhausted. More than one romantic interlude would end with her falling into a deep sleep while love's game was still being played upon her. This night was different. Chuphoe was busy with late night business, the governor having made arrangements to see him on important matters. That was fine with Juliet. All she wanted to do was go to sleep, but that was not to be. No matter how she tried, even flopping about this way and that to find a comfortable position, restful repose refused to come.

After what seemed to be an eternal struggle, Juliet surrendered to her fate and got out of bed. Staring into the darkness, she pondered what to do. It had been several weeks since she had played with the Talking Stones that were hidden away in the upper tower above the queen's chambers. It was such a bother to use them, though, with all the work and effort of setting the blaze and then tuning the stones with special metal forks. Oh well, her mind refused to rest...might as well amuse it with another lesson at practicing the art of reading the stones.

As Juliet quietly made her way down the hall toward the tower stairs, she passed Odethbethel's opened door. A lamp still burned in the room, the sounds of shuffling feet echoing from it. Stopping, Juliet softly called Odethbethel's name, a cheerful voice replying. Stepping inside the room, Juliet asked if things were all right.

Odethbethel looked weak and sickly but she was chipper having been saved further humiliation and abuse at the hands of Dungie's grandees since his departure. This was in part due to Chuphoe's suggestion that Odethbethel was still Dungie's wife, and that taking a king's wife while in his absence might possibly be construed by some that the throne was in question. Dungie had agreed not to risk such a possibility and had declared his mother's punishment over, returning her to the queen's chambers. Still, the poisons she had taken to prevent conception along with the physical and emotional abuse she received at the hands of often drunk and violent, uncouth admirers had taken a toll on her health. Intercourse she had not had since being released from Dungie's tortures, the woman only seeking the arms of Chuphoe, Juliet or some of Dungie's other wives to comfort a lonely heart.

Kissing Juliet softly on the cheek, Odethbethel repeated that she was fine, but that she could not get to sleep. Taking her hands, Juliet asked Odethbethel if she would like to accompany her to the tower and play some with the Talking Stones, seeing that restful bliss was also not her possession. Soon there were the sounds of two sets of naked feet scampering off down the hallway toward the upper tower.

A charcoal blaze bathed the small tower chamber in a warm, greenish-red glow. Juliet sat in the center of a circle of granite obelisks in front of the fire, legs crossed and facing toward the opened north window. Sweat ran down the woman's naked body as she rested outstretched hands on opposing stone obelisks at her sides. With eyes closed, she silently listened to the harmonic musical tones playing upon her ears while her fingers searched to find the sensitive vibrations dancing up and down the heated stones. Suddenly the tones would stop. Juliet would sit silent for a moment, turn her head in the direction of one particular obelisk or another and then begin sounding musical tones of her own.

Odethbethel quietly sat just outside the circle of stones listening carefully, and occasionally whispering something as she helped mentor her companion. Sitting naked the same as Juliet, she attempted to hear what the obelisks were speaking, and then would assist Juliet with deciphering the message delivered. When one of the several obelisks began to vibrate, it changing hue from gray to reddish-green, she would gently take Juliet's hand and place it over the stone. As excitement grew within it, the obelisk would become warm to the touch.

Softly sliding her fingers across the top of Juliet's hand, Odethbethel crooned along with the musical tune playing upon the air. "The words are hidden in the touch, the feel, the heat, and the sound. You must master them all if the message is to be clearly understood." Leaning so close that their bodies touched, Odethbethel's warm breath bathed the side of Juliet's face as she whispered in her ear, "It is a secret that the Hormaxian priests have not discovered. That is why the Dragons can speak freely even should the enemy be listening. Yet all their innermost thoughts we come to know."

Her haunting voice became an enchanting siren's song, blending as one with the harmonic tunes playing upon the stones. "Empty your soul and feel passion's heat upon your flesh. Make love to the stones with your touch, your mind, and listen to their echoing songs of sensual endearment. Tip your head back and allow the orgasm to build within you. Embrace their excited power until in rapture your heart is entwined with their mightiness. Become one with them until you live through their souls, and they live through yours. Empty your mind of all things but the message echoing up from your heart into your waking visions. Remember, it is not words that you are searching for but feelings and emotions. The message is to be found in language between spirit and spirit. Free your spirit of its flesh and surrender to the songs of the Spirit Stones..." she sensuously stroked Juliet's face, "and then their message you will hear."

Tipping her head back, Juliet attempted to absorb the harmonics of the heated obelisks while her ears listened to the haunting refrains drifting upon the air. It was difficult for her to accept that she was not attempting to have a sexual interlude with these stones, but that much as the body, heart, and mind respond to the soft gentle touches of a romancing lover, those same emotions roused within the heart and soul of someone listening to the stones would open their mind to hidden messages.

Time after time, Juliet would attempt surrendering to the sensual music of the stones, only to resist the passionate tingle that would begin at her thighs and up through her loins and belly, and then her breasts, the feeling like that of ten thousands fingers tenderly caressing her in intimate ways. Odethbethel finally began to play her fingers across Juliet's skin, making the woman groan with sexual delight. Slowly, Juliet turned her head until she was staring into Odethbethel's eyes, their lips nearly touching.

Odethbethel sensually cooed, "Now pretend that my fingers are playing their tune upon your flesh, and surrender to the touch. Become lost in the feeling and open your mind and heart to what the stones will deliver to you."

A feeling of disappointment swept over Juliet as she promised to focus her passionate desires away from Odethbethel and to more earthly elements. As she again leaned back, head up and eyes closed in an attempt to become lost in the sensual music of the stones, Odethbethel softly whispered, "Good. Good. Now take your wanton desire for my touch and reach out to the stones with it, seeking their loving touches. Bathe yourself in their heated romance of haunting songs as their warm breath fills you up with the ecstasy of want for lack of fulfilled dreams. Make your moaning music to call that lover to you."

Juliet began singing her own music of passion's heights, suddenly wavering, the woman's music ceasing while her face filled with questioning wonder. Odethbethel touched her arm. "When one is not focused on the task at hand, when she is but searching for a voice in the stones, often her visions will delivered strange and bewildering sights to the mind. It has been said, and I do so believe it is true, that the Woman in the Whispering Waters may pay upon you her visit and deliver her loving touch to those she loves. Should that be the case for you, accept her loving touches. It is a sure sign that you will be rewarded with success this night."

It appeared to Juliet that Odethbethel was reading her mind, for surely this must be the Woman in the Whispering Waters who she was seeing before closed eyes. Naked and beautiful was the person, flawless in every way to the point of making Juliet's heart pine away for passionate death. But dying she was not, only filling to bursting with the desire to be taken by this dancing sprite forever to her world and leave for eternity this erstwhile home of winsome mortality.

Quickly the vision passed, and Juliet found her heightened senses being pummeled by the music of the stones. Suddenly she began to hear things, see things... no, comprehend things. She understood thoughts of another person who somewhere sat in the world of the stones at this very moment, someone reaching out to her or at least to others playing upon the stones as she was also doing, delivering to her mind what appeared to be random thoughts, emotions, and visions that were rapidly coalescing into one discernible message.

Juliet's eyes popped open as she cried, "It's the witch queen of Ausalmerica, Tuosolmerica! She sends urgent news of gloom and despair. The...the kings of Kittim and Tarshish who have allied themselves with Atlantis have blocked the roads east over the mountains from Ogallala and Ausalmerica for any seeking escape to the sea, and are even now assembling an army to march over the mountains to take those Western lands for themselves. Also they are collecting their ships in preparation for the invasion, to move north and block the harbors further up the coast so that no escape might be found there."

She gripped Odethbethel's hand. "Baalath has held a line against any intrusion with his garrisoned army, but fears a possible revolt from them because they see it in Atlantis' best interest to war against the Western lands of the Dragons and Dodanimians, feeling them to be enemies of Atlantis. Now Baalath and his few loyal servants have no escape to flee to waiting ships at Chornie, the road east from Castle Dodanim being the southernmost road still opened to the sea. There is no time left to escape that way."

Her face clouding with concern, Odethbethel asked in a hush, "Does Tuosol say how late the hour is or offer us any other information?"

"I..." Juliet hesitantly answered, "I don't know. I didn't think to wait upon the remainder of the message after understanding that the witch queen was seeking our help. I must speak to my husband, and now! He can do something...I hope."

Odethbethel did not argue. "You go quickly to your husband. I will stay here to seek more answers from the stones." She assisted Juliet up, wrapping a shawl about her shoulders. "I will tell you if I learn anything more. Do what you must. Far away we are from Ogallala and what can be done to save Baalath is beyond me. Chuphoe may have an answer. Hurry! Go quickly!"

Golden firelight danced across the faces of the two men sitting, deep in conversation, steam from an iron kettle setting on the hearth wafting into the warm, late evening air. Chuphoe slowly stirred his dark, rich brew made of crushed, roasted beans imported from distant lands, frowning in displeasure. "Governor Thaladies, as I have said, I do not question the integrity of your informant nor do I doubt the accuracy of the information he shared with you. I just don't believe that it warrants the removal of the gold and silver from the treasury at this moment. It will take little time to deliver it to one of the king's ships should a critical hour arise."

Governor Thaladies lifted a hand, shaking a finger vigorously. "Look, Lord Chuphoe, I ask you not to risk the security of the kingdom's wealth needlessly. But if the gods do go to war under this city, I believe it prudent that we are prepared to leave on a moment's notice. Remember, it is the gold of the kingdom that makes it legitimate... makes its ruling class legitimate." He argued, "Even should the city be lost in some war of the gods, well...think how thankful our king will be, knowing his throne has been saved."

Chuphoe was about to make reply when Juliet burst into the chambers, not knowing the governor was there. Startled, the men looked up at the woman who was staring at them in shocked silence, too afraid to either speak or run away.

Sizing up the moment, Chuphoe stood, extending his hand while calling Juliet to his side. Taking Juliet's hand, he turned his attention back to his guest. "Governor Thaladies, have you met the woman who has changed my life so? My wife, Juliet..." he laughed, "She it was who proposed to this old man. Well, what could I say?"

Juliet bowed low, extending her hand while casting her eyes toward the floor. "My Lord Governor, I am sorry to interrupt. I did not know my husband was occupied. Forgive him, please, for my intrusion."

Governor Thaladies stood politely. Yes, who in the king's house had not heard of Juliet? Oh sweet, beautiful Juliet! So many times he had allowed his eyes to wander over the woman's comely form, her bouncing breasts as she walked beside her husband, her enchanting face. This was the woman so many men fantasized over...he fantasized about, hoping that one day he might seduce her into his bed.

Thaladies smiled, bowing his head in salutation. "Lady Tobanahazz, it is my pleasure to meet you in person, though I must admit I have watched you many times from afar."

Juliet smiled nervously. "Thank...thank you, my lord. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She looked at Chuphoe, concern on her face speaking volumes. "Excuse me, please. I am sorry to have intruded."

Chuphoe stopped her from going, knowing his wife had something of great importance to reveal to him. He turned to the governor. "The hour is late. It has been a busy day. If this matter can wait until morning, it will provide me the night to sleep on it. You have presented concerns to me that I had not considered and...and you are the governor standing in our king's stead. I deeply respect your opinion and wish to discuss this with you on the morrow...over breakfast, possibly?"

"Yes! Yes! That would be fine." Thaladies grinned. "I will be expecting you then." He stepped forward, taking Juliet's hand and lifting it to his lips, placing a kiss upon it. "Lady Tobanahazz, it has been a pleasure." The man quickly departed Chuphoe's chambers.

Juliet wasted no time telling Chuphoe about the messages delivered to her through the Talking Stones. It was not long before Odethbethel joined them with additional information. Chuphoe was always intrigued when hearing tales about the Talking Stones and the messages they could deliver from distances so very far away. When he had once asked if he could attempt their use, Odethbethel politely explained the difficulties men had with the stones, that even the great, aged male Dragons often struggled with them. "Takes such a sensitive touch," she had said. Only once he had been permitted to observe Odethbethel as she communicated through the stones, the evening's messages being lost to the spontaneous expressions of passionate love-making.

There was a tone of excitement in Odethbethel's voice as she related the tale delivered her by the stones. "So much there is to tell. Where to start? Where to start? First, this...the Atlanticians have been defeated in the eastern lands, those few surviving returning across the sea as I speak. Dungie lives and High Priest ZaphipheRa, but all the others from the House of Hormax are no more. Fear not the king's wrath, for gone we should be from this land before his arrival."

She went on to tell about the nearing gloom that was going to envelop their world, the day and the hour, the reasons for the rumblings that shook Atlanticia from time to time, and the dilemma Baalath was in. She reached out, taking Chuphoe's hand. "My Lord, HuushBonn has warned the returning army of this coming doom. When news reaches the ears of the people, the city will go mad with panic and possible violence. Escape to the south will be no escape at all, the priests of Hormax enslaving any and all residing there. So by sea must escape be made, but sooner than later, or impossible it will be to find a ship that will take us away from here."

She cast her eyes toward the floor. "I mean, should you wish to make escape from here, it would be wise to leave sooner than later."

Chuphoe squeezed Odethbethel's hand, his voice filled with incredulity. "Do you think I could leave you behind to face this coming madness, you or any other of Javan's wives who wish to leave this hellhole? No! It will be all or nothing. We all go or we all stay!"

He pulled at his bearded whiskers in thought. "It is not our salvation alone that concerns me, though. Baalath has proved his loyalty to Javan's house and to the Dragons. My wife is very fond of the fellow and will never forgive me if I do not attempt his rescue also. How that can be done, I have not yet figured out. Indeed, how we can manage our own escape from here without raising suspicion, I have not begun to consider. But rest assured, if I fail you and Baalath, it will not be from lack of trying."

The stinging sharpness of late night frost filled Chuphoe's nostrils as he hurried along the stone path leading up to Admiral KufiSauntooh's estate door. He paid little attention to the decorative statues surrounded by a scattering of children's playthings, or to the ornate carvings on the pillars of the grand porch leading to the double doors of the main entrance to this palatial lodge. Although home to the admiral and his family, it was really the main building of the newly formed sky wing of Dungie's army, KufiSauntooh residing on the second level in the front apartments. The rear apartments were occupied by some of Kufi's junior officers and their families.

Chuphoe quietly made his way through the unlocked front doors, up the staircase to the second floor, and along the hallway to the front apartment door, softly rapping upon it several times before someone finally was roused to answer. In a little while, a blaze was burning in the fireplace and Chuphoe and Kufi were quietly conversing while Kufi's wife, Kanturia, busied herself preparing some morning brew for the men.

Kufi looked into the dancing flames as he talked. "My friend, I do not doubt a word you say, even though you refuse to tell me how you've come about such startling information. I have feared the gods' revenge ever since the temples to Horus rose above the walls of Atlanticia, the city of Dragon King Philip. Yet I'm at a total loss as to what service I might be to you. They call me 'admiral'," he laughed, "but it's only out of respect, I guess. The Atlantician army runs things around here, I taking my orders from them. Less than six hundred men are under my control, and most of them are the wizards who keep the sky ships operational. Other than the essential people needed to work the sky ships' horses and fly the machines, the army provides the remainder of the sky crews, most of them being Atlanticians. Indeed, a growing number of those taking the helm are from Atlantician ranks."

He looked over at Chuphoe. "And that's not the worst of it. I've had those snoopy priests poking their noses around here for weeks. No sooner do I get rid of one than the other one, Nuhma, comes by, pestering me even more. Just tonight he stopped by, telling me to push my departure date up a week. I'm supposed to leave only six days from now. I asked him why the rush. The only answer I got was that he and the governor had decided there was a need to hurry matters, and I was to do what I was told, no questions."

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, Chuphoe asked, "You say that the governor is mixed up in this?

Kufi nodded. "Sure sounded like it. Why he's so interested in helping those priests out is beyond me. He and Rapadies were out here together on several occasions, but I paid little heed to it at the time. Then suddenly one day about two weeks ago, Rapadies came to me with a script with Governor Thaladies Nuefange's seal on it, giving the old priest permission to commandeer my fleet of sky ships. I had to hustle about just to get the two flights of twenty four sky ships ready for his departure, he demanding I get the others ready as soon as may be. So, in six days I'm to take the remaining dozen - the last of my able ships - and follow Rapadies off to ZeussahRomath." He shuddered. "An awful place it is now, to say the least."

Chuphoe puzzled. "So what about the governor and that priest, NuhmaBuddapar? You say that Nuhma told you the governor's involved in his early departure?"

"Yes, he did." Kufi answered. "And I'm perplexed. Already the deliveries of needed sky ship machine parts have been halted from our southern construction locations, leaving us to scrounge for materials to keep these sky ships flying. I also don't understand why the governor would want to abandon Atlanticia of its sky wing."

"Abandon?" Chuphoe asked curiously.

"Abandon..." Kufi confirmed. "Yes, I believe so, because I have received no direction on scheduling my return flights, which requires a great deal of advanced planning, what with preparations needing to be made for refueling and making necessary repairs, provisions for the sky crews, studying future weather patterns, and so much more. None of this have I been asked to do. My only conclusion is that there has been an oversight concerning this or... or there is no intention to have the ships returned to this sky field."

"And you say that you're supposed to be headman for this upcoming journey south?" Chuphoe asked innocently.

"Why, yes." Kufi answered, a look of puzzlement crossing his face. "In the script from the governor, it said I was to make sure to lead the last flight and to take with me my head sky ship wizards, helmsmen, and other important members of the ships' crews. I didn't think much about it at the time, though it doesn't make a lot of sense now that I consider it. There are several ships at this sky field waiting refit as I speak and, with my most experienced craftsmen going with me, the work won't get done. True, winter's coming on and maybe the governor wants to keep the sky ships in the south until spring, but still doesn't make sense."

Kufi stared over at Kanturia, who was busy mixing some flour dough for the upcoming breakfast. She looked up, smiling. "Just thought I'd catch up on the day, seeing we're all up and about anyway."

The man looked back at Chuphoe, growing uncertainty showing on his face. He lowered his voice so his wife would not hear. "If something bad is coming, what is to be done? I can't take my family along... my wife maybe. But I have my widowed daughter and her three little ones living with us. There wouldn't be enough space, not with all the luggage Nuhma and his horde of priests are bringing with them. Even if I hurried, it'd take weeks before I could return. My ships may be fast, but they need a lot of tender care, and are real fussy about having proper flying weather. This late in the year, it sometimes takes days to get a safe flying window."

Chuphoe leaned forward, clasping his hands together as he rested elbows on his legs. "My friend, I believe we both have something to offer each other. Let's see... you leave six days from now, correct?"

Kufi confirmed it so.

"Hmmm..." Chuphoe looked into the dancing fire. "I have some other business yet to conduct that might prove beneficial to the both of us. I should have a good idea about what's going on in a day or two."

"Well, then..." Chuphoe leaned back in his chair. "Oh yes, I nearly forgot another important reason for my visit. I intend to hold a gala fall festival event the evening after next. It will be grand indeed, and I would like your company then. And yes, bring your whole family. There will be festivities for the children as well. I suggest you prepare them to bring provision to stay to visit a bit with us. It will free you up to finish business here, and I'm sure the children would love to see the king's palace. Can't be done at a party, you know."

"So you won't be staying for breakfast, General?" Kanturia asked, as she rolled out the dough to make some sweet cakes. "I've made plenty for us all."

Chuphoe stood, thanking Kanturia for the invitation. "You make the best breads I've ever tasted...well, almost the best. I can't let news get to my Juliet's ears about me praising another person's cooking over hers." They all laughed. "I'm sorry, but I have other business to conclude this morning. Breakfast will have to wait a bit." He gripped Kufi's wrist while hugging his shoulder, and then kissed Kanturia on the cheek. "I must be off for now. See you all soon."

### * * *

Breakfast was delightful as well as extravagant with the best of imported wines and cheeses, roasted wild pheasant, fancy sweet breads, creamery buttermilk, and honey-glazed, baked apples. This of course was served by a host of servants who waited upon every need of the two men sitting at the one end of the banquet table. Picking up a morsel of the roasted pheasant and slipping it between his lips, Chuphoe politely commented on the great amount of effort the governor had gone to for such a humble guest as himself.

Thaladies motioned it off as nothing at all. "No! No indeed, my friend. As honored a guest such as yourself deserves a great deal more than what your humble host has provided. In fact," he leaned closer, "if you should wish additional entertainment at even this early hour, should the mood take you, any of these youthful servant girls or boys of mine are at your disposal. You never know when the mood might strike, and I like to be prepared just in case." He reached up and drew the naked servant girl standing near his side close, kissing her on the mouth while fondling her tiny breast.

After shooing her away, he reached for another morsel of food, casually commenting as his eyes followed the child from the room, "So firm and tight when they're not fully ripe, I say. You should give her a try...not over eleven summers and just broken in. She can get quite noisy when you ride her hard."

Chuphoe said nothing, only nodding his recognition of the offer.

Focusing his attention back on his guest, Thaladies continued, "Stop by anytime you wish if the mood for a good ride comes over you." He laughed, "Though I imagine that little filly of yours can give you a good show. Lucky man... There are many men here in the king's court that would pay a talent of gold to slide their horn into those fields of lilies that you luxuriate in. How did you ever manage such a sweet treasure as that to become your wife? A beauty like that giving up the whore trade to share one man's bed is beyond me. Why, her weight in gold the woman could acquire in a month in this city if she still plied her trade. You are a poor fellow in comparison to that." He grinned. "It wasn't love, was it?" The little tart loves you?"

Chuphoe was annoyed by the way this conversation was going, but he was a smart enough man to understand the reason and Thaladies' motive. He did not want to spoil any plan he was cooking up, so he went along with him. "She may have ridden many a horn, but still inexperienced she is in comparison to more mature women. But she is a looker. She's a witch, you know. Never been with anyone like her, messes with my head when the heats on her."

Thaladies leaned forward, his eyes greedy with lust.

Looking away while searching for just the right piece of cheese, Chuphoe casually continued, "She's my wife, but I don't own her. A free woman she is, does what she wants. I stay out of her business. She warms my bed at night because she loves me, and that's good enough for me. She doesn't complain when I find myself in another's arms. Why should I complain about what she chooses to do? When you own the loaf, how can one slice of bread be missed?"

Chancing a glance out of the corner of his eye, Chuphoe watched the hungry expression growing on Thaladies' face. Good! Twist the fellow's prurient desires against him. Now when business was discussed, the man would be more amiable to Chuphoe's suggestions, not wishing to risk his chance to play in Juliet's coveted field of lilies. And by telling this caitiff that Juliet is a free woman who chooses love's passions for herself might well save Chuphoe a possible knife in the ribs should Thaladies become desperate to take the woman. Chuphoe's greatest fear was that the governor might attempt to take her by force, though he felt his wife had a good handle on dealing with men like that.

The conversation turned to more mundane matters, Chuphoe politely allowing Thaladies to wander where he wished as he went on about the daily drudgery of governorship, asking appropriate questions to keep Thaladies on the talking end of things while Chuphoe carefully searched for tidbits of enlightening information that might serve him in coming days. At length, the subject came around to the treasury.

"So," Chuphoe's fingers played with a chewed bird bone, tapping it slowly on his finely decorated plate, "why do you believe that hiding Atlanticia's wealth aboard a ship will serve our king better than the vaulted treasury with its thick walls and heavy doors? Not that I'm against your recommendation to do so, but I'm a little nervous about the whole thing."

Taken aback, Thaladies paused to think before answering. "Well...it's as I have already stated. If the gods do go to war such as my sources have informed me, the city might well be laid to ruin quite rapidly. Weapons they possess that can burn cities in an instant. It happened far off in eastern lands just over a year or so ago. So sad it was! No one had any warning until fire came down from the sky. So many innocent people died, so many..."

Acting surprised at Thaladies' revelations, though long ago the Talking Stones had delivered the report, Chuphoe sat up, dropping the bone, asking, concerned, "Is that really so? I mean, instant fire from the sky?"

Excitedly, Thaladies answered, "Yes! It is just as I have said, and the people had received no warning."

Scratching his beard in thought, Chuphoe asked, "How does moving the wealth of the treasury from the vaults to a ship give any warning to the citizens of Atlanticia? Personally, I would think it not wise for the peoples to know our kingdom's gold is stashed aboard some ship in the harbor no matter the number of soldiers I had protecting it."

Thaladies could see why King Dungie had appointed this foreigner to watch over his treasury, and his wives and other personal property in his absence. The man was not only loyal to a fault, but he was also shrewd, his mind perspicacious. If the governor was going to gain the man's trust, he would have to bring him in on the deal - a risky maneuver but, if twisted right, it might just work.

"So correct you are, my friend, so correct. Wisdom doesn't play you the fool." Thaladies leaned forward. "Here's the dilemma as was told me by, er... High Priest Rapadies just before he departed for southern lands aboard sky ships I...loaned him for his journey. Now here's what matters are all about, but you must swear to keep what I tell you secret, for should the people find this out just yet, the entire countryside would erupt in panicked tumult and no escape could be made at all."

Chuphoe promised.

"Good. Well, as you have probably already heard whispers of, seeing that King Dungie's mother-wife, Odethbethel, is a Daughter Dragon and, well, I'm sure you've had a round or two with her...I'm also sure she's told you about the seven years prophecy."

Chuphoe began to quietly fuss, not wishing to reveal private matters that Dungie had discussed earlier with him regarding his queenly wives.

Thaladies politely brushed him off, grinning mischievously. "Few are the secrets that the palace can keep from me. Look, no one cares about your relationship with those old women Dungie took for wives, and how he asked you to service them when the need is upon them. Hey, I've poked Odethbethel a time or two, myself. Just doing the king's will, you know. She's a pretty good lay, I must say, even when the mood isn't on her. I wouldn't mind doing the same with some of his other wives if opportunity afforded it." He winked, "Just between you and me..."

Although disgusted by Thaladies' demeaning remarks concerning Odethbethel and Javan's other former wives, Chuphoe having great fondness for them all, and caring deeply for the well-being of each, his response was casual. "As your spies should have already informed you, I do not rule over the women of the king's house. I care for their needs as only a good servant should. What they do otherwise is not my business, but between them and their husband."

Thaladies laughed. "Slick you are, slick I say. A weasel has nothing on you. Slipped out of that one better than most I know, but you won't throw me off topic. As I said, you should already know about the seven years prophecy spoken by EpiphanOida before her death and declared by the seers at her funeral. Indeed, I believe you know much more than is common knowledge. I know for a fact that your wife was there on the tower at that witch's burning, and that is how she became a witch herself."

This took Chuphoe completely by surprise. Even Dungie and his spies did not know that Juliet had been at ObebBailSoar High Pass to celebrate Dancing Stones' funeral rites. Thaladies knew, and he was now telling Chuphoe that any secrets he revealed came at a price... but Thaladies had already paid a higher price. So much so he wanted to bed Juliet, the man revealed his greatest secret of all...his spy network. Chuphoe could use this to his advantage.

Unable to cover his surprise, Chuphoe coyly smiled. "And you call me slick... Master at it you are. So tell me, please, why is it you want to keep your little secret between you and me, at least for the moment? Juliet thinks she has fooled me into believing she is...was a simple whore-maiden. But I know that she and Odethbethel have something going on. I have reasons of my own for letting that woman lead me along...gives me a heads up on things here and there. She talks in her sleep and bleeds off her vision-dreams to me at times when her guard is down or the mood is heavy upon her."

"What kind of things has she told you?" Thaladies asked, more than curious.

So, Thaladies knew only of Juliet's presence at ObebBailSoar, nothing else, nothing about her rescue of Noahashonie. That would have been kingly news worth a mighty ransom! Apparently the governor believed the news he received concerning Juliet was of greater value to him personally than to King Dungie, unless he did not receive that news until after Dungie departed for war, possibly only days ago... hmmm, from Rapadies or more likely Nuhma and was now attempting to capitalize on it as best he could. It was becoming apparent to Chuphoe that the governor's ring of spies was centered more around what news the Hormaxian priests were willing provide the governor, for a price, of course. At best, the man could only piece together the tidbits of information rationed out to him, otherwise he would never trouble himself with the game he was now playing with Chuphoe.

What did this fool already know? Picking up the bird bone to play with it again, Chuphoe casually answered, "The seven years, remember? You were going to tell me something about them. Business first as business does. I believe that if we are to get into bed together, we should be sharing the same vision-dream."

The king's counselor was beginning to come around. True, Thaladies' knowledge about Juliet was no threat to Chuphoe at the moment, but when King Dungie returned in all his glory, the tables might quickly turn on him. What he had to do was convince Chuphoe of his need to leave the city before the king returned.

"All right, all right..." Thaladies clasped his hands, resting his elbows on the table. "Those seven years have passed along. Fall's here of the seventh and winter's on the hoof soon to come, so the beginning of the next seven years prophesied is nearly upon us. I didn't think too much about those seven other years, what with all the foodstuffs saved up and all the gold and riches Atlantis has to purchase more foodstuffs with, if necessary. Then there is my brother and his campaign against Egypt. Why with all its stored-up foods, we'd be able to survive twenty or thirty hard years of famine. Then there came the news to my ears about this city and the curse laid upon it by that witch Dragon, Tuosolmerica, and her telling everyone to up and leave this world for western lands."

He shrugged. "Well, it wasn't her curses directly. That's old news. You know that. But when... er... the old priest, Rapadies, confirmed that something bad might happen, the gods warring and all, I put the pieces together and decided something needed to be done, and quickly. What struck me was that we needed to be ready to abandon the city at a moment's notice, head off to southern lands where Rapadies was going. I...uh...figured that should King Dungie return here before disaster came, he would be pleased to see that we were attempting to preserve his throne just in case bad things did happen. And if he didn't arrive before a catastrophe hit, he would reward us for saving for him the kingdom's might and glory off in southern lands."

Chuphoe frowned. "So, you were going to snooker me into delivering up the city's riches to your ships, abscond with my Juliet in the dark of night by whimsical intrigue or force, if necessary and leave my ass out here to dry as the city burns? Don't play innocent with me! I can see your passionate desire to not only poke my wife, but to possess her for your own... and to possibly take Odethbethel and Dungie's other wives along with you, for more dubious reasons than to have a poke or two with them. Tell me it's not true."

Red-faced, Thaladies grimaced as he grinned sheepishly, "You are a real snake, you are! I like you. I should have made your intimate acquaintance long ago. What we could have done together as a team... still could. Look, er...Rapadies and I, well, we get along, understand each other and can work together. King Dungie has ZaphipheRa at his side, and he and Rapadies don't hit it off well, if you catch my drift."

He leaned back in his chair, playing with his fingers. "Seasons change, come and go, so to speak. I believe there's a change coming in the weather, and I'm not referring to the approaching winter. Whispers are that things may not be going as well as may be in the east, that King Dungie might not fulfill the Great ZeussahReaboahm's command to destroy the Iamrussians and his little bitch-wife, Noahashonie. If that is the case, then Zeussah's promise to protect Atlanticia might not come to fruition, and Dungie... well, you can imagine what might happen if Zeussah is displeased.

"So yes, I'm taking precautions just in case things turn against our k... er... this city. No, I had not included you in my initial plan, thinking you to be only a simple man loyal to king and country. True, I did...still do want to play your little game hen, still want to have a try at her since you say she can choose for herself. But I won't attempt her kidnapping, nor is your life in any danger concerning my horning desires to have her, now that I know the game is on with your good graces. I do have your good graces, correct?"

At that moment, the young servant girl returned to the room with a tray of fresh, hot breads and jam. Chuphoe looked up in thought. Oh, how the serpent sees not the net in the brightness of daylight. "Well, yes, you do have my good graces, but not without conditions, of course." He reached up, brushing the girl's outer thigh as she walked past. "After all, it is a game being played here as I see it. I want my Juliet returned to me... if she chooses to come to you of her free will...undamaged. As surety, I would like to take you up on your earlier offer to me, but with a slight change."

He motioned for the servant girl to come and stand beside him. "She's quite a treasure, isn't she? Warms your bed often, I can tell."

Thaladies frowned, curious, but said nothing.

Looking up at the child, Chuphoe asked sweetly, "What's your name, little one?"

The girl looked at him through troubled eyes, nervously answering, "Tasimbha."

Placing an arm about the girl's waist, Chuphoe continued, "I wish to take Tasimbha home with me this day. I'll keep her there safe and undamaged until our game of hens is played out. If you will do this one thing, then I will give you an opened hand to woo my Juliet to the full, where and when you wish...only no rape or doping drugs, understood?"

Thaladies' face soured. "I don't rape free women or drug them up either. It takes the fun out of the game."

Chuphoe smiled his satisfaction at Thaladies, believing it to be an honest answer. "Good! Let me sweetened the pot then. The night after next, I'm having a gala event to celebrate a fall moon festival, or so I'm telling everyone invited. My real intent is to announce the engagement of my stepchild, Jewel, to ShoShiNoahTusueeHisop, TusuiHisop's son and Dungie's special ward, I marrying the boy's mother, FooShii, at Dungie's request in hopes that the boy would draw close to me for mentoring." Chuphoe grinned. "Well I guess he drew close all right. Took quite a liking to my Jewel and now they want to marry." He winked, quipping, "I think there's one in the oven as I speak.

"My intention this day was to personally offer you an invitation to this festive event, but now I offer even more. I will place your seat next to my wife's at the grand table while I sit discreetly at some distance with FooShii at my one side, and my Jewel and ShoShi at my other. Play your game of charms as you will with Juliet, seduce her if you can. The woman has her own inner chambers, and I will not intrude should I see the two of you disappear into the darkness."

Chuphoe slapped his hands on the table. "So there it is. I offer the game to you. I keep this little treasure here," he stroked Tasimbha's leg, "until you either win my wife's affection and her field of sweet, scented lilies or until you surrender up the game and confess the heifer has escaped your barn. If you win, I will return this fine trophy of yours untouched. If you lose... well then, I do believe a poke or two might well be in order before returning it."

Thaladies roared with laughter. "Poke her all you wish, my friend! It won't hurt the merchandise a bit. Indeed, the little scamper might learn a thing or two from you that would be worth showing me. You are a gamer, aren't you? You're on! Why don't we sweeten the pot all the more? Let's throw a shekel of gold into the mix. If I win your filly's bed, you pay me. If I don't, then I..." His overconfidence was getting the best of him, "If I don't, then you keep my fine trophy here as your prize. She's worth far more than a gold shekel."

This was absurd, to wage bets over Juliet's willingness to romance Thaladies, but Chuphoe knew the stakes were much higher than a slice or a poke. He took Tasimbha and turned her about, examining her closely, finally asking, "Do you think she's really worth a shekel of gold? After all, I would have to feed and care for her needs even if she is pleasing me in the bed. Remember, this child would not be the only field I have to play in." He eyed Thaladies suspiciously. "You have no intention of stealing my Juliet away from me, do you?"

Laughing heartily, Thaladies answered, "Only if she wants to stay..." He grabbed his crotch. "Maybe the prize she finds will be too grand for her to desire a returning to your humble bed."

Chuphoe scowled.

Still laughing, Thaladies added, "No worry, my friend. I wish not to have a possible Dragon witch living under my roof...not where I intend to be going. I just believe your lady might be a little disappointed with her current offerings after experiencing the gift I have to give." He looked at Chuphoe with furrowed brow. "But if I do win this contest, then I expect you to leave the door to Juliet's sweet delights open to me when I desire them...with her willing consent, of course."

Chuphoe smiled, pretending to be absorbed with dreamily studying Tasimbha. "I did say that Juliet is a free woman, being my wife but a formality for as long as she wishes. I have many a cock roost to fly away to. A piece of sweet delights taken every now and then from a well-stocked pantry will not even be noticed missing."

"Brothers of the flesh we will be!" Thaladies exclaimed. "If this works out well, maybe I'll let you into my henhouse to have some gaming with my other womenfolk. Marta has a curiosity about you southern men, moans a lot when the heat's on her and she's being worked right. We'll see...a bet for another day."

Chuphoe told Tasimbha to gather some of her things for an overnight and come back quickly with them, patting the girl on the behind as she turned to leave, the smile fading from his face. "Enough with the fun and games. Now on with important business. So what exactly do you intend to do, or should I say what deal have you struck up with this Rapadies? Has he made a deal with you over or about the throne of a possible New Atlantis? Do you see a kingship in this, that is, if the fates of fortune turn against Dungie and ZaphipheRa?"

Thaladies nearly coughed. "You do get right to the point, don't you? Well, I will say that the possibility does exist. After all, Dungie has no blood heir to place on the throne except, that is, for Queen Nidgha's child, and rumor already has it that she carries a female in her belly. I stand as good a chance as the next fellow for taking the throne should some calamity overcome our dear king...better than most, I must say."

He grinned, pointing a finger at Chuphoe. "You're quite the fellow, I must admit. Lived through the destruction of pharaoh's army, came out smelling like a rose with Javan, and later took up as high counselor to his son. Then you got all of Javan's wives, including Odethbethel, to have at your beck and call, and then that Juliet..." He sighed, "What can I say? You're the goddamn-dist, luckiest person I've ever met. I sure could use some of that luck of yours to rub off on me if I become king of New Atlantis."

Chuphoe thoughtfully pulled on his chin whiskers. "So the one with the gold becomes the power behind the throne, or the power sitting upon it? The gold is the life-blood of the kingdom. As long as its gold exists, the kingdom lives. We must save the gold to save the kingdom so that it does not die, the seat of power merely moving to another location in that kingdom."

Thaladies grinned as he took another slice of sweetbread. "You amaze me! Only a man filled with astounding wisdom could grasp the picture as you have. When Zeussah sees that we have managed to preserve the heart and soul of Atlantis, his chosen vessel to gain world domination, he will offer us whatever our hearts desire. Power and glory beyond our wildest dreams will be ours for the taking."

Resting his chin in his hand, he leaned forward thinking aloud. "Yes, that is the answer. The gold is the key. The future of the world rests in what happens to the gold. We must do whatever it takes to keep the gold from falling into the wrong hands."

Thaladies reached out and slapped Chuphoe on the knee. "A man after my heart! We must protect the gold at all cost."

Chuphoe agreed. "Yes, at any and all cost. The future of the world depends on it. Without it, even Zeussah will be at a loss to retain control over the multitudes of people in his kingdom."

"Yes! Yes! Just think of the rich reward he will give to the person... persons... protecting the gold for him!" Thaladies laughed. "And between you and me, we can make it happen, save the gold for our High Lord." His eyes sparkled with the thought of coming power and glory just waiting for the taking.

Sitting back, Chuphoe asked, "So tell me, what are your plans for the gold? To get it away from here safely, I mean, that is, if it becomes necessary?"

Glancing about the room for fear someone might be listening, Thaladies answered in a hush, "The battle galley, Shark Tooth, sits in the quay, only recently refitted and ready to go back into service. I've a trusted headman with a handpicked crew to man it. The ship's plenty big enough to carry all the gold and possibly even the silver, plus, of course, all of us and our important belongings.

"Then, if or when the time arrives for us to depart this city, I have already made arrangements for a dozen war galleys to accompany us down to the Southlands. Once there, the priests of Horus will assist us in transporting our gold overland to ZeussahRomath. Then the rest will be history. New Atlantis will come to power in the Southlands and, with any luck, yours truly will be its new king, and you will be standing at his side."

Chuphoe laughed to soften his suspicious words. "Just because you have promised not to stick a knife in my back doesn't guarantee me a seat in your boat," he responded not wanting to sound too knowledgeable concerning ships of the sea. "We are not friends yet, at least trustworthy ones. There is no price on true friendship, and that girl, Tasimbha, and my wife, Juliet, both have had values placed on them, the gold has also. My friend, I need to protect my assets, just in case the bonds of our friendship should weaken somewhere along the way. I don't want to be stuck in this place, watching your sails fade into the sunset."

Thaladies was taken aback, but quickly recovered, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "My! My! Wisdom didn't leave you in the dust! I guess I'd feel the same way myself. What then do you suggest be done so that both our investments are protected?"

There was little hesitation in Chuphoe's response. "Here's what must be done if you want my full support and sealed lips. First, we shall both pick for ourselves trusted people to crate up and transport the wealth of the treasury to Shark Tooth, and then we will place a mutually picked guard over the treasure. Second, I have a man who is charged with the inner harbor works, PooHatten being the man's name. You're the acting lord over this city; your authority's unlimited outside the king's palace. Make PooHatten the harbor master over all the district of Atlanticia. I don't want your goons pestering him or snooping into his business. I have my goons, too, and they will be watching. Don't worry, PooHatten doesn't need to have authority over the navy. You can keep that for your own comfort."

Lifting a hand, he concluded, "One more thing...the frigate, Ashbriery, is to be put under my command. I want it stationed near Shark Tooth, with my own chosen people on it. That's just to keep your schedule honest so that I and my family can get away safely with you and the gold. I'm still head of the treasury and, until we have proof that a new king ascends the throne, I wish to protect it for King Dungie...safety measure you and I might both want to have just in case the rumors about his problems in the east prove false."

Chuphoe waved a hand. "I am not movable on these stipulations. You will still have your needed guard under your command. My people are small in number in comparison to all those serving you, plus" he grinned, "you have your spies to keep me in check. How can I play tricksy with you when you hold most of the cards?"

Already visions of ravishing Juliet were fogging Thaladies' mind. Indeed, he was beginning to ponder a way to get rid of this troublesome nuisance so that he could take her forever as his own. What better way than to have the poor fellow fall prey to some unfortunate mishap after they had departed port? Sure, that was the way to do it. Keep Chuphoe around for now and once out to sea, he would be at the mercy of the Fates where Thaladies might be of some assistance in guiding those Fates.

Thaladies smiled, nodding his acceptance of Chuphoe's terms, under one condition. "I need good faith monies to make this scheme of ours work. Rapadies is expecting needed funds to secure the city for our arrival. His assistant priest, Nuhma, is to transport the token gold to him by way of the last flight of sky ships that will be departing Atlanticia in a few days."

So, it was true that Nuhma and Thaladies had been cooking up a deal to steal the kingdom. Chuphoe chuckled to himself. Rapadies was seeking the power, leaving his assistant behind to clean up the pieces, he being in a hurry to establish his authority in ZeussahRomath in order to bring down ZaphipheRa. And while his back was turned, Nuhma was making plans to do the same to him, with the governor's assistance.

Chuphoe almost laughed out loud, wondering how many other miscreants hid in the shadows plotting the overthrow of king and kingdom. In his mind, he cautioned himself, 'Wait! Calm down! You're having too much fun with this! It's far too dangerous a game being played here to forget how deadly it really is...'

Cocking his head, Chuphoe asked, suspiciously, "How much gold does it take to pay this bastard off?"

Shocked at first, Thaladies smiled. "You're too much! We could have made a real good team if only we'd met long ago. Oh, I believe a talent will do, maybe two."

Chuphoe sat up straight, extending a finger. "A talent is all the fool gets! If you think I don't trust you with all this wealth, what makes you think that I would trust a murdering liar who eats the afterbirth of his own children? One talent, and not a shekel more or the deal is off!"

Thaladies threw up his hands. He had already managed to get more than Nuhma had requested, giving him a small reward for all his efforts. "Fine! Fine! If that's the way you're going to be, I'll have to live with that. When can I get it?"

"We can finalize the time at my upcoming banquet, that is, if you can keep from holing my woman long enough for us to conclude our business. I have people I wish to talk to, and I want to see my demands put in order before you get even one half shekel of copper. PooHatten will be at my little gathering. He had better have some good news for me or the deal's off, got it?" He grinned, picking up a chalice of wine. "To our success! Let the horse race begin."

Thaladies roared with laughter. "Never have I enjoyed sparring with anyone as much as I have with you! So sad that this cannot last forever." He also lifted his drink. "To our success and the ending of the world!"

### * * *

Chuphoe had lied to Thaladies about his having goons and spies. It was for this very reason, actually, that the man had been able to keep his secrets for so long. True, he had his private body of guards and servants, their loyalty not being bought with monies but with trust and honesty. So many were the things the man was attempting to accomplish before the coming destruction of Atlanticia. So many were the rescues he had to make, a large crowd to somehow save if possible and so little time. He needed a free hand to do so, something that was now nearly impossible. Thaladies' spies would be watching him every minute, knowing where he went and who he spoke to.

The first matter that needed to be cared for was the predicament Chuphoe had put Juliet in. So that night's pillow talk and dream shares were filled with revelations and contemplations. Chuphoe did not want his wife bedding Thaladies or any other man for that matter, even admitting to being a little jealous over her. He found it so repulsive to only suggest she lead the governor on a bit, to keep the fellow's mind so focused on her that he paid little attention to what others around him were doing.

Juliet lay there next to Chuphoe, listening to his heavy breathing after his explosive, climactic release. She reached over and stroked his face, a yearning to sleep sweeping the man's body. Before his eyes closed, she softly whispered in his ear, "Do my inner chambers excite my master's passion as they have done for him so many times in the past? Are my fields of lilies still as fresh as the day we first made love together?"

Surprised, Chuphoe rolled over, laying his arm across Juliet's breasts. "My love, you are as sweet a flower as you were the first day we met. Your touch, your comely form, your sweetly scented inner chambers have sent this man to Heaven's gates and beyond, still do."

Cooing seductively, Juliet asked, "Do you really speak truth to me concerning this? My secret estate excited you as much that first night as it has done for you this eve?"

Curious, Chuphoe answered, "Yes. Yes it did." He then asked, "Is there a problem or concern that you have about how I feel about your touch or your sweet romancing?" He rose up on an elbow. "I tell you, never has a woman excited my flesh and spirit more than you have done. Truth be said... and you must speak to no one about this... often when I'm in the arms of another, I am thinking about you and your witching ways. Why do you ask?"

Juliet slid over close and began playing her fingers magically upon Chuphoe's skin. In only seconds, the man could feel his body responding once more. Juliet laughed, "You are a man well past his fiftieth summer, yet four times I have roused your manhood to take me this night, and now I have managed to draw from you a fifth. Do you find delight in taking your servant girl more than once in the night? Does my field of lilies still excite you after it has shared in so many adventures already this evening?"

Chuphoe confessed, his heart beating faster as his passions grew to take Juliet again, "You only become better for the many journeys I have taken beyond your vaulted gates and through your fields of lilies this night. Should I manage the power to have you one hundred times in an eve, the last would only be better than the rest."

Juliet did not hold back from satisfying her husband's growing passion to take her again. Later, when the heat had passed and Chuphoe lay panting with weariness, Juliet rolled over and rested against his shoulder while softly caressing his face. "Now, my Lord, allow me to tell a tale to you, so that you will not concern yourself about your little doe and her fields of delights. Twenty men had me that night long ago before I came into your arms, and yet you have confessed to me that our lovemaking was as sweet to you then as it is now. Five times you have taken me this night, and just now, by your very actions, I see that it was better for you than the ones before. And I confess, I believe if I roused you to take me for a sixth time... that is if you did not die from a stroke... you would confess to me that experience was greater than the last."

Chuphoe kissed Juliet on the cheek. "This might be so, but what does it have to do with our earlier conversation?"

"This..." Juliet cooed in Chuphoe's ear, her hot breath exciting his skin, "My treasure chambers are made for the taking of rich men's gold. From whom the gold comes makes little difference, for only richer and more alluring does the treasure house become the more its doors are opened to receive rich men's wealth. You are a very rich man and have passed through into my treasure house many times, yet so have many other rich men. I hold the treasures of them all, and none complain, because my treasure house is ever seducing them for want of them seeking it again and again. It becomes my power of passion I have over them... over you."

"So what do you mean by all this?" Chuphoe asked, pondering.

Juliet slid a finger down her husband's chest. "You have said I am a free woman and you are a free man. You give your golden treasures to many a doe, yet do I not find an ample supply of your gold to fill my treasure house when you come to me? If you have an itch, you find someone to scratch it, and I also know that many a stranger has come to you with an itch, and you have satisfied that itch only to have them go away in the morning and never return. And I have also witnessed your ardor grow strong for the old and haggard women in Javan's house who have a lonely itch that needs satisfying, a duty of love that you believe you are under obligation to provide. Yes, indeed, I know for a fact many times you have forced your ardor to come alive so that the lonely heart of an aged, wrinkled woman could be satisfied. You have done those things out of love, and that's one reason that I love you so.

"Now for me, I am also free, a free woman. If I have an itch, or should another man or woman have an itch that I am willing to satisfy, what of it? I am a free woman. Men I have had by threat or force - that is true. Thousands upon thousands, up to one hundred a night I have opened the doors of my treasure house to. And many other men have I offered my treasures to willingly or out of passion's need, yet ruined or worn out my treasure house has not become. Indeed, by your own volition, you have said it is so. So if out of need, want or love, I decide to open the doors of my treasure rooms to a stranger or lover, or even a villainous tyrant, what of it? Should you know all the secrets of this witch, you would surely die."

She softly kissed Chuphoe on the lips, while her fingers played love's game anew. "Still will my love and raging passion be for you, my husband. And you, for your part, should not care about the other rich men who have visited my treasure rooms, because always sweet my flowers and opened my vaulted doors will be for the man I do love more than any other."

Chuphoe pulled Juliet over top of him. As they began anew the musical game of love, he smiled as he fondled her charms. "And should my heart burst in passion's delight while holding you close, then let it be. What sweeter way would there be than to die in a witch's enchanting embrace?"

### * * *

The gala fall moon festival event was grand indeed. Chuphoe spared no expense on his invited guests, obtaining the large ballroom near the eastern queen's chambers and paying to have the palace servants prepare food for the feast and decorating for the party. For entertainment, a twelve piece orchestra sat the raised center stage near the main banquet table. Then there were clowns, jugglers, magicians, and other merrymakers. The guests' children were even taken into consideration with a separate area provided not far from the main ballroom supervised by nannies and servants so their mothers could enjoy these festivities to the full.

Chuphoe had advertised this as a family event, masking the real reason for the lack of provocative dancers and house paid prostitutes, he personally not wanting this festive celebration turning into a wild night filled with drunkenness and open debauchery. This does not mean that behavior was totally absent from the partying. So deeply had this become ingrained in Atlantician society, Chuphoe saw need to provide secluded rooms for the anticipated discreet encounters. Throughout the evening hours, couples who had been quietly conversing or silently watching each other from a distance would slip away to the privacy of quieter rooms.

For the children of the northern lands of Dodanim and the clans of Tarshish and Kittim, open sexual encounters were often practiced during celebrations, a husband at times offering his wife... with her willing consent, of course... to another man to share their acts of intercourse together as a public display of men's close friendship. Sexual relations were practiced between a husband and his wife while the children slept in the bed beside them, the mother possibly nursing a little one during the act. Yes, in the Northlands, sex was as much a part of life as was eating, drinking, or even breathing.

But the world of the Atlanticians was in a flux of change, rapidly shedding the culture of their northern heritage for the eastern and southern virtues to be found in the patriarchal and slave societies influenced by Hormaxian teaching. Prudery concerning sexual intimacies was growing quickly, especially within the culture of the socially elite. In the years since the death of Wise King Philip, people had become torn between the wildly free exuberance of their northern forefathers and the rigid control of the patriarchal, self-righteous southern and eastern views, creating a confused state of affairs, catching the Atlanticians somewhere between the good and evil of open lust and chaste pomposity.

For the common laborer, often anything went, prostitution practiced in open-air booths in the marketplace to advertise to potential customers the prostitute's sexual prowess while the gentry and wealthy comported themselves much differently. A wife would never allow another man to touch her in public, saving such interludes for candle-lit inner chambers far from prying eyes. Husbands would find it uncouth to openly request sexual relations with a woman married to another man, flirting coyly with her instead from a distance, and then secreting her away when no one was looking. Even flirting was considered taboo with a widow or maiden, the man having to find even more subtle ways of seduction with them.

As for the slave, the majority of Atlanticia's high society did not see sexual relations with a slave even to be an act of intercourse, a slave being no different than one's fingers or hand. Unless the master of the slave had announced a prohibition upon such activities, it was considered up to the male guest whether to take a slave whenever and wherever he might choose. This was done at times by some men as a seductive tease for the observing married women, to see the fellow's prowess or manly endowment.

The wife, on the other hand, had to practice greater discretion. She could never display openly her sexual arts with a slave, or even be seen alone in public with one for fear that should she ever become pregnant, the accusation might be made the offspring was not her husband's but that of a slave. This did not mean that Atlantician wives refrained from such sexual intrigues. No, indeed, many wives retained kept servants to satisfy their needs, often with the tacit approval of their husbands, they, themselves, playing in the pleasure fields of other men's wives and lovers.

Chuphoe saw all this as outlandish hypocrisy, saying that few of the children he observed with the sanctimonious mothers of Atlanticia's affluent looked like their fair-skinned, blue-eyed fathers, but more often like the Easterner or Ethiopian sojourner. Still, the man understood well the need to play the current game if one wished to remain respected by others in his social circles. Chuphoe had found a few rather innocent ways to curb these licentious activities. Making this gala ball more of a family event reduced the risk of the wild performances that were often seen.

Thaladies sat beside Juliet, quietly chatting about unimportant matters that he believed would relax the woman and make her more at ease. The meal was beyond magnificent with offerings of meats, shellfish, lobster, an endless variety of cheeses, spiced soups, sauces, and other titillating delights, including strong drink and wine. Throughout the evening, palace servants scurried about the many banquet tables to deliver food and drink, keeping platters and bowls heaped to overflowing. It appeared that everyone of importance in Atlanticia was there. Nidgha had even made a showing earlier in the evening, making excuse for a quick departure.

Eventually the music was paused so that Chuphoe could announce the real reason for the grand party. After introducing the newly engaged couple, he stood there, holding his wine glass high. "My friends and fellow countrymen, this night I wish to celebrate the world's ending with you."

Silence! Everyone stared at their host, wondering what he was all about.

Chuphoe laughed, "It is said by the seers that but one day is any man granted, and that is his birth. After that, it is merely the roll of the dice as to how many more he shall get. Since we all have but one roll of the dice made so long ago..." He looked toward a well known, aged Atlantician warrior, "at least for some of us."

The aged man slowly stood and tipped a hand toward the audience, doing a little ditty dance. Everyone laughed. The man sat back down.

Chuphoe grinned, making a toast, "My friends! Let us drink to the lucky roll for ourselves and our lovers..." He paused and winked, "and a very unlucky one for those lower down on our list."

Laughter again filled the room, everyone standing and shouting. During the commotion, Juliet turned to Thaladies. "Enough of this silly banter! I have other, more private matters I wish to discuss. I will be in the hallway if you would wish to join me there." Without waiting for a reply, she turned and slowly strolled for the shadowy exit at the far end of the ballroom.

As the others sat back down at their tables, Thaladies excused himself and sauntered off in Juliet's direction. Entering the darkened hallway that led off toward Chuphoe's private apartments, Thaladies saw Juliet standing under the golden glow of a crystalline lamp, leaning against a column while staring up at the ceiling. As he approached, she turned, a frown growing on her face.

Taken aback for fear that the woman might attack him verbally, Thaladies was about to offer his leave when Juliet stopped him. Taking his hand, she pulled him closer so that she could speak in little above a whisper. "My husband is a fool! Do not toy with me this night, for I know that I have become a cock bet in a horse race."

Thaladies attempted to apologize, offering a lame excuse for their actions. Juliet hushed him. "I am not disgusted with you. It's that deceiving bastard husband of mine, thinking I can be bet on like a slave in the marketplace!"

She put her arms about his neck, smiling seductively. "He told me it would be worth a gold shekel to me if I resisted your charms." She purred in his ear, "I'm worth a lot more than a gold shekel..."

Juliet pressed her body close to his, the woman's firm breasts squeezing against his chest. Looking into his eyes, she cooed, "At first I thought I would teach you both a lesson by taking that old warrior right at the table, saying he was preferable to a couple of uncouth gamecocks, but then thought better of it. I decided not to make a scene, so politely allowed you to sit beside me. Well, what a charmer you proved to be, to the point the heat is growing upon me."

Thaladies was caught totally by surprise, his head swirling from the woman's intoxicating, warm, sweet breath and the haunting scent of her perfume. Taking the man's hand, Juliet directed it to her belly and down under her loosened girdle until fingers rested over the moist, heavenly softness of her inner thigh.

Pressing her body against his, she slowly rubbed her spread legs up and down on his thigh. "My husband told me that you said I was a witch. Is that really so?"

Thaladies' heart was pounding with his growing arousal, sweat beading up on his forehead. He stuttered, "Y... ye... yes... I did tell him that."

Juliet purred, working Thaladies' hand up and down against her, "Not only a witch I am, but one taught love's secrets in the arms of the Greatest Witch, the Silent Thunder Woman." Looking into Thaladies' shocked face, she smiled. "In the very haunts of Eden it was, there I being changed into a Witch Divine, being shown the very gates of Heaven. My husband tells no one, fearing that other men will discover my passionate powers."

Her fingers began working his. "Please, touch me deeply, far into my treasure room, and see if I do not speak truth to you. Like a thousand stroking fingers, I can play my music upon your manliness."

Thaladies heart was palpitating with excitement, so consumed in passion's trance, he could not make reply. Now, Juliet slid her hand under Thaladies' skirted robe, her fingers playing upon his manly pride. The woman's eyes grew wide as his manly erection came to its full. "Oh, so great is the bull! How shall a woman consume such grandness? But try I must. I must have you, and cannot wait any longer."

Juliet slowly stepped back until the two parted. Taking Thaladies' hand while placing a finger to his lips, she whispered, "To my private chambers where we shall not be bothered... Quickly, follow me."

After a long, passionate kiss, Juliet slowly closed the inner bedroom door of her private chambers. As Thaladies began to paw at her clothes, she quietly laughed, gently pushing him away. "Wait, my Lord. Sexual intercourse is for the simple-minded. Wait upon this child so that a witch's vision she can give."

Panting from heated desire, Thaladies slowly stepped back. "Hurry! Hurry or I shall surely be consumed by my need to have you!"

Juliet reached out, twisting on a large, glowing knob protruding from the wall. Three golden, crystalline globes hanging from the ceiling gradually took on a reddish blaze, casting their haunting brilliance across the room. "You're in my world now, at my mercy. I have offered you a heavenly dream worth a king's ransom. Now allow your servant girl to set the mood, and see if I have spoken truth or not to you."

Barely able to contain his ravenous desires, Thaladies silently stood, waiting with bated breath as his eyes hungrily devoured the unfolding scene before him. While Juliet ever so slowly undid her long, flowing gown before letting it fall from her shoulders, revealing all her resplendent beauty, she crooned, "Death comes to us all in hours future, or days gone by. We ride upon a golden fleece of fire, beasts, and hounds, until all men's cherished manhood drowns." She laughed wickedly as her garment drifted to the floor.

Thaladies gasped at seeing for the first time the woman clad only in her perfect beauty of form and grace, Juliet's skin flawless in every way, with not a blemish or mark upon it. As he reached out to touch such beauty, she caught his hand. "No, my Lord, you must wait upon the moment. Allow your servant girl time to perform her magic."

Shuddering with excitement, his heart feeling as though it was about to burst with passion denied, Thaladies cried out mournfully, "Do restrain my desires or I will surely die!"

Holding his hand ever so gently, Juliet smiled seductively. "Yes...death comes to all deserving souls, but not this night... only the desire to see Heaven's door and beyond. Now be patient as your child will set our sails so that the journey may begin."

She gracefully stepped across the room and picked up a box sitting on the mantle. Lifting its lid, the woman reached in and began playing with something inside. In seconds, a sweet, seductive music was wafting through the air, so hypnotizing it was, making one swoon at only hearing it. Setting the box down, Juliet turned back to Thaladies, her eyes betraying a burning anger hidden behind her shining orbs.

Lifting a hand, the enchanting witch placed an oath upon Thaladies' lips. "Tonight I give to my lover only the shadow's glimpse of Heaven's door. But to go beyond it, he must swear to me that to my husband he will not brag of this conquest, or never shall the demon vision be revealed to him. Both Heaven and Hell I offer to my lord should he promise me this. The horse race must run on this night until the moon's enchanting hour that is yet to come."

Thaladies was nearly beside himself, trembling with lustful excitement, declaring that should the world end in fire and storm on the morrow, he would silent remain regarding all she demanded.

Slowly coming near, Juliet reached out and began to unfasten the hasps on the man's robe, crooning ever so softly, "Let your spirit relax in my sweet caress. Allow it to wander upon my breath so that it finds love's delight in quiet repose." She began to stroke his naked arms as the robe fell away. "Love comes to all who wait. Through life or death, it rides upon a midnight's dream until in the jackal's lair it will reside. Learn to be patient and permit my sweet love to come to you while my lover's eyes wander my fields of dreams... while my lover yet lives."

As the remainder of Thaladies' garments drifted away, Juliet began an accompanying tune to the music with dancing fingers, the man groaning from feelings he had never experienced. Kneeling down, Juliet looked up at him, her flirting eyes shining in the crimson light. "How magnificent it is, my Lord, your beauty beyond words. My lips crave to drink your potion so pure; my tongue longing for your salty-sweet delights, but this night it must wait, for my treasure rooms are crying out for your love." She began tenderly kissing his manliness, her fingers slowly stroking his hardness while her lips and tongue made love to his hanging delights of male power.

With a skilled touch, Juliet held back the floodgates of Thaladies' explosive ejaculations until his testicles ached with the desire for passion's release. She mischievously laughed, "No, my Lord, that is the reward saved for my treasure house."

"Then let it be done before I burst apart!" Thaladies cried, the sweet agony of the woman's touches driving the man into madness.

Standing up, Juliet took Thaladies' hands and led him to a bed covered by the sweet smell of petals from the winter rose. "Lie down, my Lord, so that your servant girl may gaze down into your enchanting eyes while she rides softly upon your great horn of manliness, and you play with my swinging baubles and drink from them my maiden's milk."

Just as Juliet promised, the ride of a thousand fingers played upon Thaladies' erect ardor. When his explosive heat finally erupted from him, Juliet did not allow the moment to end, keeping the surging passions raging long after there was any more elixir to give to her. Again and again, Thaladies' convulsing ardor reached deeply into his aching testicles, sucking from them any elixir that might be resisting this witch's siren call, until they screamed out in delicious agony. How could such unimagined pain be so seductively wonderful that he wished it never to cease?

Gradually, the orgasmic torment came to an end, but Juliet refused to permit the man's rock-hard erection to subside, her magical treasure room and seductive cooing preventing its demise. Looking down into Thaladies' face as she slowly rocked her pelvis back and forth, Juliet began a haunting tease, "Do not think this is the witch's dream I promised to my lord, and do not think that I shall so easily release a stud horse like you. We have only just lapped the track. The race is not yet finished."

Through halted breath, Thaladies wondered what she was about. "How can there be more than this? Never have I had an adventure such as you have just provided."

Tipping her head back in sweet laughter, Juliet cooed with delight, "Your cock fills this woman up to heights extreme. It makes me wish to keep you ever within me, your manliness stretching my house to the limit. Oh how good it feels. As for your adventure..."

Juliet looked back in Thaladies' face as she leaned forward, confessing, "Only this far has that no-good husband of mine been taken, I doing it once in my innocence, seducing him to take me as his wife, hoping his selling of me would come to an end."

She frowned. "Do you believe now that I am worth a shekel of gold?"

Thaladies exclaimed, "A thousand shekels is not enough payment for the gifts you offer! A thousand!"

Juliet's face soured. "Your King Dungie believed it to be so. I nearly had him that night, and then I would have become his queen over that Zaelock bitch-woman, Nidgha, she ruining it all for me when I nearly had my way with our king."

"What?" Thaladies asked, confused.

Juliet acted surprised. "Do you really believe my husband is the dream of my dreams? True, I naively believed my rescuer had arrived when he bought me from that fat pig-master of mine. But no! When I revealed my witching ways, he saw a world of riches and profit to be made, marrying me and setting me up in the good life so that afraid I would be to depart the opulence he offered."

She spat, "The delights I have given you this night others have paid five golden shekels for. Just a month ago, a prince of Madagascar paid ten shekels for less of a ride, and then he offered me my weight in gold should I wish to steal away with him - an offer I turned down, knowing the trickery of his people."

Thaladies nearly gasped. "Ten gold shekels?!"

Juliet nodded, her face filling with anger. "And that bastard husband of mine took them all from me, saying that he needed those monies to pay for tonight's festive ball. I argued that it was my treasure box that bought that gold for him and I deserved a portion. He only laughed and told me to take up the issue with the courts."

A sudden, dry climactic rush swept over Thaladies, his crying moans making Juliet laugh wickedly as she continued to work her magic of a thousand fingers with a squeezing pulse that rippled up and down along the man's swollen horn. A moment later, those same explosive passions again tore through the very fabric of the Thaladies' soul, and then again, and again. "Never... Never have I..."

Juliet cut him off. "It is a witch's spell that I am giving you, a priceless gift. Not that you necessarily deserve it, but to satisfy my body and spirit, I am doing this." Anger grew again in her voice. "My husband does not me fulfill, saying he is too tired to give to me the heated release that I am receiving from my Lord. He wishes only to hump me until his desires are satisfied, and when finished, he rolls over and goes to sleep... or worse, he quietly sneaks from the room to give another hen his cock, disregarding my needs."

Another orgasmic rush slammed Thaladies, Juliet never slowing her libidinous movements, ignoring Thaladies' moaning groans as she continued to work her magic upon him, all the while carrying on about her troubles. "Come to think of it, I do believe the man likes the old and haggard over a tight and youthful doe like me. I have seen him take to Javan's aged wife, Debora, as if she was a young sprite, riding her throughout the night while his little Juliet had only her fingers to make love to. An old woman she is, too, over one hundred summers. Flat-breasted and wrinkled like a prune she is. Yet I have listened at her door while he works her, his outcries of excitement and endearment the likes of which I would love to hear from him when he rides me."

She fussed, complaining, "You would think the man would understand my needs, my desires. No! I must stand in line waiting my turn, behind the likes of Debora and FooShii, and all the other hens my husband has taken a fancy to."

"What of Odethbethel?" Thaladies panted. "I... believed you and she..."

Juliet bent low, cooing as she smiled, "I love Odethbethel. She understands me, my needs. It was from her that I have learned the arts of the fingers and tongue. Together, she and I have whiled away many a lonely hour. The woman is a Daughter Dragon, one of the last of her order, taught in the arms of the great witches Dancing Stones and Tuosolmerica. And, if it is to be believed, even our very mother goddess, Aphrodite, has shared the bed with her, bringing her into womanhood. It is said that she even seduced Japheth when he last visited these worlds."

Thaladies wheezed, "How can that be? They say that was well over forty years ago... little... after... my birthing."

"The woman appears so young, doesn't she?" Juliet sighed, closing her eyes and rolling her head as love's sensual music played in it. "The years have been kind to her. Nearly seventy winters she is and still fertile so that she takes the poison to avoid making another bastard youngling for her no-good son. Like a child she is with her loving touches and gentle kisses. I nearly faint just thinking of our moments together. Should you have done more than just give her a hump-ride, she might well have taken you into the world of dreams."

"What?" Thaladies cried in surprise. "Odethbethel is..."

"Odethbethel is a Dragon Witch with uncanny powers. Why do you think King Dungie keeps taking her when public celebration is in order? He knows she will play her powers upon him because she has sworn an oath to release her passions when with him. Did you think he pokes his mother only because of kingly duties? He has that Zaelock witch, Nidgha, yet she cannot satisfy him as Odethbethel does."

"What of a Zaelock witch? You have spoken of this earlier, but not explained yourself." Thaladies again cried out as another wave of emotion surged over him.

Leaning back while resting her hands on Thaladies' chest, Juliet moaned with delight, "Oh, I've needed an evening such as I am having for a long time. You're such a strong, handsome fellow, and your manly strength is something to have song made of. What woman would not swoon over your powerful glory? Most of the men my husband delivers to me are older, fat, bald, and slovenly. Oh yes, rich they are. But what a waste it is for a beauty such as I am to have to bed those decrepit creatures."

The woman sighed, "Well, I at least get a cock rub from them, and they do pay well." She put a finger to her lips. "Shhh... he does not get it all. I have a little stash. When the time is right, I might just take my leave and find another who will appreciate me the way I deserve." She looked down at Thaladies. "Oh, my leaving will not be from a weak cock rub, I assure you. My husband is nearly as proud a man as you are, his horn exciting me into a wild heat... that is, when I can get him to give it to me."

Resting her weight upon his chest, Juliet began to slowly lift and then lower her pelvis as she continued to rock back and forth to the melodious tune playing, repeatedly doing so until Thaladies lay there writhing in ecstatic delight. Stopping suddenly, the woman placed her hands on his shoulders as she leaned close to kiss his lips. Looking deeply into the man's eyes, she whispered softly, "You ask me about the Zaelock witches. What I have given to you thus far is what one could call is a Zaelock's touch, but I have not attempted to steal your soul from you as a Zaelock does. From their lovers, Zaelocks take more than gold and riches. Into their minds they crawl until a slave the man becomes to the wiles of the she-devil. I have given to you freely the witch's touch, without taking from you your self-will."

Resting her weight again on Thaladies, Juliet cooed seductively, "My powers are far greater than those of a lowly Zaelock witch and for that I must receive some reward. The Dragon's Kiss does not come for free."

Surprised at what he was hearing, Thaladies asked, wanting so desperately to be taken to newer heights, but fearful his purse was far too small this eve to gain them, "What is the price, my lady? I have not come with ten talents of gold if that is what you demand from me."

Juliet's eyes narrowed with displeasure. "I spoke not of gold or silver. A whoring life is not of my choosing, but that of my no-good husband. Just a poor girl am I. I do have cravings for jewelry and baubles that my husband refuses to purchase for me. So only for a little gift do I ask from you...a token of your appreciation is all, so that I can see my worth in your eyes, to receive..."

"To receive? What?" Thaladies nearly begged for the answer.

"Hmmm...should we tell him?" Juliet asked aloud, as if speaking to another person in the room. She smiled. "We shall... To receive the Angel's Caress, to take my master to Heaven's gate. Such a journey does not come for free. I must have some small reward for all my efforts to take you there. Your generous gifting me for the Dragon's Kiss will tell me if I wish to reveal deeper secrets to you. I do not lie when I have said that in Eden I have romanced the gods, been changed, myself, through the fires of Dancing Stones' funeral pyre into a goddess divine. Do you believe me?"

Another surge of excitement raced through Thaladies' body. He reached up, fondling Juliet's swaying breasts. "Yes! Oh yes! I do!"

Juliet's voice cast a chill on the air. "Then I expect a treasure in my palm this night or Heaven's gate will be lost to you forever. After all, business is business. I must care for my needs."

It is said that the Dragon's Kiss must be experienced, for there are no words to accurately describe its explosive wonders. Not only was Thaladies' body driven to mad delights, but into his mind Juliet cast dreams of profound fantasy that never had the man ever imagined could exist. When finished, he lay on the bed, dead exhausted, as if drugged by a powerful opiate.

As he slept, Juliet slid off from the man and gathered up a cloth and basin of water, carefully bathing him. Then with ever so gentle a touch, she gingerly removed Thaladies' signet ring. After making several wax impressions, she washed and then returned the ring to its proper place.

When Thaladies awoke, it was as if from coming out of a deep stupor. How long he had slept - an hour or a lifetime - he did not know. Folded neatly on the bed near him were his evening clothes, his sandals placed beside the bed on the floor. Juliet sat in front of a silver wall mirror, brushing her luxuriant, long, wavy hair, after which she began primping with redoing her makeup.

Thaladies slowly rose, looking over with wonder at this other-worldly creature, recalling the magical games she had played upon him not so long ago. Juliet sat there, dressed again in all her finery, carefully painting her eyes. As she busied herself at the task, the woman told Thaladies to get up, her voice cold and distant. "Only an hour has passed since our entering my sanctuary. Now we must leave before we are missed."

Standing, she walked to the bed, looking down at the man. "You and I have struck a bargain for future nights... if I find your value of my love is of great enough worth. Should I accept your offer for a future reward, then it shall be several days from now before your manhood can pass through my vaulted doors again. Tomorrow I leave for RootHarrow to gather my family to safety. My husband cares not to take my mother and father or the others who I have affection for with us, saying there is no room aboard the ships for them. Now I do know that a word from my Lord will find them passage. What do you say?"

Thaladies acted incredulous, asking, "Did your husband really say that the world's ending was soon coming?"

Juliet looked away, busying herself with primping in the wall mirror. "My husband says many things when no other ears are around. Secrets of the king he has spoken to me often, thinking I am too simple a creature to understand political intrigues." She snapped her head about, the woman's eyes boring into the governor's. "It is I, a Dragon Witch of the holy order of the Gorgon Queens, who even the Zaelock witches and their whoremaster priests fear. It is I who informed my husband long ago that the world's doom was soon arrived upon this place and when. It is my husband who is playing you. Do be careful."

As she went back to studying herself in the mirror, making sure her appearance was just so, Juliet casually added, "I also do know for a fact that our King Dungie has been soundly defeated and is returning home with his tail tucked between his legs." She laughed wickedly. "That is, if the fellow still has a tail to tuck. A lesson the man has been taught that he will not soon forget. And, oh yes, the throne is up for grabs to someone who plays the game shrewdly enough."

Any sleepiness was fully departed from Thaladies' eyes, his head spinning with questions. He asked, as though in shock, "Is all this really so?"

Juliet looked down, playing with one of her ringlets. "That, and so much more I could tell you, but it must wait for a further day. I first need to find my prince who will rescue me along with my family."

Thaladies reassured Juliet, "Fear not, I will make sure there is ample room for all you choose to save."

Juliet stepped up so close that her breasts swayed before Thaladies' face as he leaned forward while sitting on the edge of the bed. Patting his shoulder, the woman cautioned, frowning, "Good! That is worth many shekels of gold. Now I must get back to the party. Get dressed and come along soon. Remember, not a word of this to anyone, especially my husband. If even a hinted whisper reaches his ears, then no more cock rides for you. I will be in touch with you when I return if I feel you value my love highly enough."

Saying not another word, Juliet quickly turned and exited the room.

### * * *

Chuphoe stood in front of the giant, walled tapestry depicting AnahNakaNoah's defeat at the Battle of the Bantoowazzi, showing King Dungie and his gallant warriors charging their horses through a panicked mass of terrified charioteers, followed by armies of raging, tusked animals and other giant wild beasts. This was one of several tapestries that filled the banquet hall with visual accounts of Atlanticia's victorious battles over the southern kingdoms, Dungie's fighting prowess prominently displayed in each of them.

Shortly after Juliet departed, Chuphoe struck up a casual conversation with Thaladies' wife, Marta. For some time she had lingered seemingly for little other reason than for him to describe his life growing up in Egypt and in later years in the Southlands, the woman hanging on every word, her hazel eyes filled with childlike, excited wonder at the man's tales. Finally she excused herself, joining some of the other women on the dance floor in front of the orchestra.

Marta was soon performing a slow, romantic portrayal of a dying swan in the arms of its hunter-lover, her seductive dance moves always visible to the evening's kindly host. Chuphoe did enjoy watching the woman gracefully float about the floor as she made the story come alive with delightfully sweet sadness. Marta was around forty winters, the woman's appearance reflecting the stature of a mother who had birthed and nursed several children, but who had also worked laboriously to maintain her youthfulness. Although her full breasts lacked a maiden's firmness, and her face reflected her years, Marta's laughing eyes and sensuous moves still drew the attention of many of the men watching her hypnotic dancing, and not always the older ones.

Chuphoe was absorbed in the show, Marta chancing a flirting glance in his direction on occasion, when Juliet returned. Watching Marta as she approached her husband, Juliet quietly commented when she drew close, "I would offer my tongue and lips to her should she ask to sail upon my bed of dreams."

Putting his arm around Juliet's waist, Chuphoe asked, his eyes still following Marta, "So should I believe that my sweet swan has flown away from the hunter's dart, and that passion withheld stirs her yearning heart for love's release? Is that why you look upon that princely woman for hopeful satisfaction?"

Juliet smiled sweetly, "The hours are too short for my lover to hear all the tales of my adventures. To be truthful, I have lingered this evening for my wanton desires did not permit my departing. Even now I ache with inner longing for another manly ride as I have had this night, my treasure house still all aflutter."

Chuphoe frowned, feeling his manly prowess threatened. "Then he does..."

Quietly laughing, Juliet chided him, "All men are the same. Who is the better cock in the henhouse, or should I say who has the better cock in the henhouse?"

Attempting to deny it was so, Chuphoe made excuse. "You know I trouble over you and other men. I just worry that..."

Squeezing his hand, Juliet asked, "What? That I might find you inadequate, and this is my reason I willingly take other men to my bed?" She leaned close. "You are my god and king. If you asked that I share my love only with you, I would cage my desires forever and never touch another man or woman. Your manliness is but the frosting on the cake, your heart satisfying my craving soul to its full.

"My love, that said, allow me to assure you, men I take for pleasure into my inner chambers when your prowess is busy elsewhere, but it is only for a need and not out of lack of love. Now as for the governor, the man does fill my treasure rooms to the full, and he does know many of the arts of making love. Bragging rights he certainly does possess, and... and if he wasn't such a callously evil man, I'd place him on my list of romantic suitors."

She squeezed Chuphoe's thigh. "You are my lord for many reasons. Is your manly ardor the greatest this woman has been gifted with? No. I have had men who made me ache with delight, others who just made me ache in discomfort, yet you delight me as no other man. Thaladies filled me up, but, oh, never have I been able to consume your wealth. Like an oaken beam you are, on a tall-masted sailing ship. Even in your deepest sleep, I feel your manliness residing within me. Why do you think Javan's wives continue to find excuse to seek your bed? Yet there is more..."

Chuphoe asked, wondering, "More?"

"Men!" Juliet fussed, "Why is it so difficult for your kind to understand? Look, Thaladies has a fine tool to plow the fields with, but he has no heart to love the ewe he takes in rut. Women want to be loved, cared for, desired for who they are, not for what is found between their thighs. When I seek a man's touch, it is to satisfy an itch. But when I reach out to my husband, it is to have my heart comforted with his love. I seek that from no other man, only you, because you satisfy all my heart's needs."

She looked at Marta as the woman began a provocative part of her dance. "Yes, Thaladies has had me this night, more than once. I gave to him the Dragon's Kiss."

"Whew!" Chuphoe nearly whistled in surprise. "Is the fellow still alive?"

"I had to..." Juliet confessed, "Yes, he's still quite alive, but..." She handed Chuphoe a cube of beeswax wrapped in a cut piece of parchment, "It was not all pleasure tonight. I had business to attend to, the Dragon's Kiss assisting me. The old silversmith, Dwinehardt, is waiting on that wax, keeping his furnace at the ready. I also took the liberty to probe the governor's thoughts as we shared in the mind kiss, the fellow blathering on and on about every matter I should request his knowledge of. That parchment contains several names of people who came to his mind when I asked about his spies."

She pointed toward a young, princely man casually standing across the room. "That's Zhadrehaudous, an aide to his lordship and one of his leading spies."

Juliet sighed, "So much I need you this night, but business first." She cooed sweetly with desire, "This coming morning I leave to gather up my family and return them to this city. Thaladies has promised to place several coaches at my disposal. From you I need a hard ride before I depart, like the storming tempest waves crashing upon the shore, so that Heaven's stars I see in the back of my head as a fainting swoon comes over me. That I must have from you before I leave, so that my heart will be satisfied until my returning."

Chuphoe promised he would attempt that.

Juliet thanked him, and then warned, "The game has been set, but not finished. I placed Thaladies under oath to remain silent about tonight, telling him that you must believe that I have so far refused his advances, or the game will be over, and no more rides will I give him. Trust me with this. I need you to carry the ruse to the full, and to add a little insult to it."

"How?" Chuphoe asked. "I can tease him and make jest, but other than that..."

Just then the music stopped. Juliet looked over to see Marta staring in her and Chuphoe's direction. Juliet motioned Marta over, she whispering to Chuphoe while waiting for her arrival, "The woman wants you. Take her and show the woman your heart. That's why the women swoon over you. Trust me, when you brag to Thaladies regarding your conquest, the man will chew his tongue to remain silent concerning me, and Marta you will give a gift to that she so longs for, to be loved a little bit. Trust me, she will only smile when confronted by her husband, remembering your care over your superior manliness."

"My Lady and Lord Tobanahazz..." Marta dipped her head as she politely curtsied.

Juliet took Marta's hand, staring into her eyes with sensual longing. "My Lady Nuefange, the music does not give honor to your dance. If the hour only permitted, I would love to spend it in a sweet interlude, learning from you those delightful moves so flawlessly performed."

Marta blushed. "May the hour come another time then, hopefully soon..."

Juliet then placed Marta's hand in Chuphoe's. "The palace is so beautiful a place to explore. May I suggest you allow my husband opportunity to serve as your guide on such an adventure this eve? I assure you that he will not disappoint you at all."

Marta stuttered hesitantly, "I... I..."

Juliet kissed her on the cheek, whispering in her ear, "Please, it is my gift to you. Enjoy once, an evening's love that does not leave a heart wanting. Please, with my blessing."

"Thank...thank you." Marta smiled sheepishly. "It would be my pleasure, that is, if this gentleman is willing."

Chuphoe squeezed Marta's hand. "Whatever is your pleasure, I am your servant in all that it might be."

Marta's hand began to tremble, her eyes filling with eager longing, the woman nearly begging for want of love, "Please, I am your humble guest in this lordly house. Lead and I will follow."

The two quietly walked into the shadows while Juliet strolled across the grand hall toward the handsome young fellow quietly watching Chuphoe and Marta out of the corner of his eye. It took the woman little time before the two of them were also disappearing into the shadows in search of a place to have a more private conversation.

It was late in the night when Thaladies finally arrived back at the ballroom. By that time, the majority of guests were long departed, leaving only a few of the more determined partiers remaining. On still wobbly legs, the governor made his way to the banquet table where Juliet, Chuphoe, and Marta sat in quiet conversation. Marta's rosy face betrayed an evening's fling, and the way Chuphoe acted, convinced Thaladies he was the culprit.

Juliet looked up, smiling coyly, "My dear governor, we were about to call the servants to go searching for you, fearing you had fallen into some calamity, seeing you have been missing a greater part of this evening. I do hope all is well with you."

Thaladies could make no reply other than say that all was fine, he fearing to give away any hint of his and Juliet's romantic interludes that evening, his ardor already beginning to ache anew for another round with the woman. Clutching the perfumed parchment hidden in a fold of his robes, he breathed a sigh of relief over thinking of the future promises so seductively written in the hand of the woman he was becoming smitten with. Another six days must pass before Juliet would be returned to the city, and that was if everything remained on schedule. Oh, six days! How could he survive that long before gathering her up into his arms again? In the meantime, he must remain mum about this night for fear of the woman's rejection. He secretly hoped that the gift left in her room would be sufficient. He must have her again.

After motioning to his two other wives that they were to be going, Thaladies turned to Chuphoe, his voice shaky, "I hope you have found everything as you have requested?"

Chuphoe looked at Juliet, indicating she leave the men alone to discuss business. Juliet took Marta's hand and offered to assist her in gathering up her smaller children for their return home. As the two women walked away, Chuphoe grinned at Thaladies while grabbing his own crotch. "She was as good as you said she'd be alright. Gave her something to really delight in, poked her twice, she moaned into passing out the second time. A good ride, a real good ride, says she can't wait to have more."

Thaladies was so flustered, he could not laugh as he often did regarding such horseplay, the man usually the perpetrator of it. Chuphoe then asked, "So, what of my Juliet? Did she take a poking from you? Is the game over? Do I lose the horse race, or do I still get a poke at your little house girl after my Juliet is gone down the road?"

Thaladies composed himself, but did not smile. "Goddamn you! I didn't say you could poke my wife, and... and..." he sputtered, "I'll get your little filly yet, and when I do, I'll get more than a gold shekel out of it."

Chuphoe laughed, "You are a piece of work, I tell you. Your other women folk were in and out of here all night with the handsome lads, you gone off and disappearing on them. I was expecting you were working my woman all this time, so I figured a little shaking the tree would be quite appropriate, especially after your filly told me how little you shake her tree anymore. Besides, with that giant tool of yours, and my Juliet already pissed off at me, us having a little argument earlier, I figured she'd hump you just to get even with me. Can be a little spiteful at times, yes she can."

Sitting down on a divan beside Chuphoe, the governor asked, incredulously, "How do you keep your little filly with you, seeing the way you whore her out the way you do?"

Chuphoe frowned. "Be careful, my friend. That little girl will empty your purse and give you nothing in return if you're not watchful. She's a hot one, and will give it away for free when the mood's on her. Well, I don't want every cock rub in the city beating down the doors to get to her. Looks bad for the king's chief counselor to have a wild woman for a wife. So I put a price high enough on her so that the riff-raff stays away. She still gets a cock rub and I get a little gold. But she won't take a man for any amount of money if it doesn't tickle her fancy. I guess you... and that powerful tool of yours... didn't quite suit her fancy."

Disgusted, Thaladies spat, "You're a fool! Tonight was only the teaser. She'll come around! Just wait and see, and soon, too. When I do poke her, she'll never want your cock again."

Chuphoe shook a finger at Thaladies, "Sounds to me she told you that she knows a game is on. Made it clear to me that she didn't like being bet on, got pretty pissed off, threatened to ruin my party tonight. Surprised she didn't ride you just to get even. She didn't ride you, did she?"

Thaladies wanted to scream out his conquest, but so desired another encounter with Juliet, he dared not even imply such a thing. "I'll get her yet! Then we'll see who's laughing."

Slapping Thaladies on the shoulder, Chuphoe grinned, "I wish we'd met years ago. What fun we could have had. Now on with business..."

Chuphoe then frowned, cautioning, "I tell you this because you're my friend... and business partner. I cannot afford to lose your services at the moment. Allow me to warn you, when you go after that woman, you're playing with fire. A witch she is, her charms cosmic delights. But also her witching speech she fills with deceitfulness...lies in truth and truth in lies, never an answer unless it is couched in betraying riddles. Should she offer you the Dragon's Kiss, do be careful, for crippled many a weak mind it has. And please reject the Angel's Caress should you wish for your sanity or even your life. More than one man have I had secretly returned on a homebound ship filled with delirium because her kiss in anger was given him."

Believing this to be another ruse to scare the governor away or get him to forfeit his bet, and because Juliet had already delivered the Dragon's Kiss to him and he remained quite sane and healthy, Thaladies retorted, threatening, "Don't toy with me, counselor. Well I can take care of myself, and I don't need your words of wisdom to assist me. Your Juliet h... will deliver all that I ask! And your kindly warnings that are hiding a jealous desire to keep the woman for yourself will not succeed."

Chuphoe threw up his hands. "Have it your way if you wish, but the woman is tricksy to the limit. Earlier this night, after you and she had disappeared long into the darkness, she came to me describing in great detail the manly ride she received from you, the reason I later took Marta for one myself, believing you would arrive demanding the bet be paid in full while taking your property back, at my total loss. Now you have told me that this did not happen, and I believe you. So why would my wife tell me such a falsehood other than to anger my spirit so that I would act harshly with you? I only say it is the way she is."

Thaladies paused in thought at this revelation. What was Juliet all about? While pondering the matter, he reached into the fold of his robe, mindlessly fondling the perfumed parchment left him by Juliet. Suddenly recalling the woman's enduring passionate prose written by her own hand, and not aware of the powerful drug the parchment had been soaked in that clouded the mind with her scent, the governor quietly replied, "Fear not, you can keep that servant child of mine... and Marta too, if you wish, whether I win or not. But win I will, not only the bet, but your Juliet's hand, leaving you empty and begging again for her magical touch."

Chuphoe shrugged. "As you wish... I trust you to your word on this. Yes, I do want the woman for my own. Tomorrow bring Marta and what belongs to her and I shall take her into my house. And sign a parchment with your seal ring giving me Tasimbha, since she is property belonging to you. Then, for my bet, if you do win my Juliet so that as a free woman she no longer wishes to be my wife, twenty gold shekels I will deliver into your hand on that very day. Is it a deal?"

Thaladies beamed with delight, never having expected that Chuphoe would take him up on his offer. And of his loss? Long ago he had tired of Marta, her appearance bringing him little delight. And her children were sickly and morose, probably not his anyway. What of that youngling servant child? He had a household of boys and girls to fun with. She would not even be missed. Oh, but Juliet! That woman was a prize worth a hundred times a king's weight in gold! He smiled thinking how much sweeter it would be to keep Chuphoe alive for the man to ever watch Thaladies play his charms in the intoxicating gardens that had once been opened to him.

Extending a hand to seal the bargain while a devilish grin grew on his face, Thaladies heartily replied, "It's a deal! I'll bring Marta and all her brats with me on the morrow. She will carry in her hand a script of ownership for that servant of mine."

Chuphoe smiled, grasping Thaladies' hand. "A better race I have not played in."

Both men agreed, and then began to discuss the needed business of the night.

### * * *

The next morning, while the captain of Thaladies' spy network slept in dreams of erotic visions, Chuphoe went about the necessary business of securing the lives of so many deserving people. He and Juliet had only a few fleeting hours together before she departed to gather her family up to safety. Now he stood near the palace gatehouse, waiting Thaladies' arrival. It was not long before a procession from the governor's house appeared, slowly approaching down a city street.

A covered carriage soon stopped beside where Chuphoe stood. Thaladies hopped down, turning and extending a hand to someone inside. That someone refused to take his hand, instead attempting on her own to make a graceful, dignified descent to the ground while dressed in all the finery of a wedded bride. Ignoring her husband, Marta's swollen eyes and reddened face turned toward Chuphoe, she extended a hand in salutation while struggling to hold back another torrent of tears. "Lord Chuphoe Tobanahazz, your servant girl."

Chuphoe understood how distraught Marta must be, and the shame she felt for being so easily cast aside by her lifelong husband. Thaladies was cruel to a fault and had probably informed his wife of her new fate after plucking her feathers this morning. At least that was the way Chuphoe imagined it to have occurred, possibly while she was still gathered up in his arms.

Feeling wretched over his part played in this game, but seeing no other recourse to attain its success, Chuphoe reached out and kissed Marta's hand then looked into her distraught face. "My Lady Nuefange, I am honored to have your acquaintance."

He chanced a glance at Thaladies and then returned his gaze to Marta. "My Lady, it is I who bow before you as your humble servant. A free woman you are, as should all women be. If you wish, I so much would enjoy your company at my table in my house, rooms for you and all who are with you already prepared for your stay, but only if you wish. My Lady, I do not hold any man or woman against their will. Should you desire to remain with your husband or to make other arrangements, then I hold no ill feeling against you. Do as you may wish."

Marta broke down and began to weep. "Already the bastard has given me a writ of divorce. I have no home that is not under your roof." She handed him a folded parchment with Thaladies' seal upon it. "It is all in order as he has promised, everything you have asked for, and also a paper declaring your ownership of me to be a servant in your house."

Chuphoe eyed Thaladies.

The governor smiled innocently. "I believed you would need this to keep the little filly in your stable, especially when you begin whoring her out to the common folk."

Tears gushed from Marta's eyes as a feeling of hopeless betrayal swept over her.

Chuphoe was not at all pleased. "You are a bastard, aren't you?"

Thaladies could only laugh. "She was always curious about southern men. Now I guess the little lady will have better opportunity to find out. The creature's worth a poke or two from time to time, as you already know. She was good enough this morning." He smacked his lips. "This morning..."

Turning to Marta, Chuphoe explained, "I speak this in front of your husband's ears. I did not ask him to indenture you to me in any way. A servant you are not in my household, but a lady free as are all the other women residing there." He turned to Thaladies, demanding, "Now tell her it is as I have said."

Grinning, Thaladies replied, "Do as you wish with her. A writ of ownership approved by the city council I have given you. Whore her out or kill her. I care not. No longer is she a citizen of this city. You are to do with her as you see fit."

Chuphoe handed the parchments to an attendant. "Take Lady Nuefange and her children to her quarters. See that she receives whatever she may desire." He addressed Marta, "You and I will pick up this discussion when it is more convenient. In the meantime, consider my home yours. If you need anything at all, do not hesitate to make request."

Marta looked for one last time upon the face of her former husband as she spoke to Chuphoe. "Please, never call me 'Lady Nuefange' again."

Chuphoe bowed politely. "As you wish, but you are still my lady."

As the two carriages containing Marta, her children, and all their earthly possessions passed through the palace gate and disappeared into the drizzling rain, Chuphoe stared, helpless, guilt of the moment growing in his heart. So much he felt the bitterness of betrayal his own wife had accosted him with those years seemingly so long ago. Would Marta ever forgive him for the role he had played in her deception? Would she ever understand his reasons for it? Only the future would answer those questions. At least the woman would still live to contemplate the evil done to her.

Chuphoe sighed sadly. He could not save every innocent soul from the coming destruction. Juliet's visions burned into his mind the horrendous events that would soon consume the world of men, he seeing the city of Atlanticia dissolving in fire and rain. So many were the slaves, servants, children, and wives who had no choice in the matter. True, the Dragons had attempted to warn them, their proclamations to flee being declared years ago. The Hormaxian priests had quashed the Dragons' words through false prophecies of their own. Now those same priests were fleeing the city, leaving their believing masses to suffer the coming catastrophe.

Clenching his teeth, Chuphoe silently swore an oath. If Iam would grant him the power, he would save all the innocents he could, no matter his personal cost. As soon as business was finished with Thaladies, he had other concerns to attend to. Through deceit, Marta and her children might get away safe. Now for some other deceptive games... His next stop would be the old silversmith to conclude business with him, and then on to paying visits upon some trusted friends.

Thaladies refused to believe that Chuphoe's chivalry was anything more than a practiced veneer to fool the ignorant into believing the man's facade was real. As they walked toward the treasury, he confessed, "If only I could manage the act to the level you do, I would have been king long ago. How do you do it...I mean, with such an honest face and practiced speech?"

Chuphoe retorted, barely able to contain his temper, "It is because I am an honest man."

Roaring with laughter, Thaladies slapped Chuphoe on the back. "Oh, you are beautiful! Just beautiful! If only I could master your skills. You must teach me one day." He winked. "If you do a really fine job of it, I might let you have a little poke at that former wife of yours when she's come over to my side. What do you think? Do we have a deal?"

Chuphoe looked him in the eye. "Must I warn you again? Only once does a man look beyond Heaven's Gate...only once. Juliet can take you there, but only once."

Thaladies ignored what he said. "On with business... We have a busy day, you and I. I certainly hope everything is in order."

Chuphoe replied only with puzzling, cryptic verse, "Behold the Beast! The day of the vulture is over, followed quickly by the hour of the crow. The jackal's lair awaits us all." then laughed sardonically, "We are Desmond's lost orphans, the forgotten children of the Bloodwind."

### * * *

Admiral Kufi carefully studied the script. Giving it to his junior officer, he offhandedly commented, "I would not dally. That fellow might counter those orders at any time. Get everything that will fly into the air as soon after I depart as may be. It's the one chance you have to take your families along with you. General Chuphoe set this up for us. Now let's not disappoint him."

The officer tipped his head. "We will have eight on the roadway before the noon sun reaches it height."

Kufi smiled his satisfaction. "Tell the others who have decided to head south to take to the roads as soon as you are in the sky. They will have to hurry if they are to get away safely. TittenShobontii is several days' hard march and with their wives and little ones, the journey will even take longer. Time is not on our side. Pachakanuunah is closer by several days, but I cannot assure you that any ships will be remaining to take them south. Have them choose their own fated roads, south through RootHarrow to TittenShobontii or southwest past Mounds and then south to Pachakanuunah. Either way is fraught with danger, each with potential reward."

He looked up to see the Hormaxian priest, Nuhma, approaching. Eyeing the man, he warned his junior officer, "PooHatten saved you and your family once. Now it's yours to return the favor. Your boy is assistant helmsman aboard my ship. I'll keep him safe. You take care of the others going with you. If someone is determined to stop you, run him through." He snarled, "They all rides for free! Got it?"

The officer grinned, "Got it..."

After dismissing his junior officer, Kufi extended a hand in greeting to Nuhma. "Welcome, your majestic lordship. The horses have been fueled and will begin warming up on your signal."

Looking into the clear, autumn sky, Nuhma smiled, "Then I suggest you have your wizards warm up the horses. The day is wasting away and I wish to be gone from this wretched place sooner than later."

Holding the ladder to his giant sky ship, Kufi invited Nuhma and his fellow priests and attendants to board. "Make yourselves comfortable. But may I suggest that you refrain from food or wine at least until you discover how your stomachs will behave in these turbulent machines."

Nuhma scowled, "I'm sure you will provide us smooth sailing. That being the case, such a warning need not be offered." He gripped the ladder rung and began struggling, huffing and puffing until he finally reached the ship's entrance.

After making his final rounds of the other sky ships, Kufi scurried up the ladder, drawing it into the ship after him. Walking to his forward command station, he called to his helmsman, "Cast off and take to the channel." As his sky ship lumbered down the wide, paved roadway, one by one, the remainder of his fleet slowly pulled onto that runway, following closely behind.

When they reached the end of the channel and turned for open sea, Kufi called, "Release the horses and hold the line for the harbor mouth!"

Instantly, the deafening roar of the mighty horses flooded the cabin as the winged monster grudgingly responded to their thrusting screams. Faster and faster the giant machine rolled down the roadway, the helmsman and his assistant pulling back on the rudders with all their might. Kufi stood the command rail, clutching fast his hold while watching the channel's end rapidly approaching. Nuhma and his fellow priests paled as they watched the world speeding quickly past them. A shudder ran along the deck just before the sky ship reached critical speed. Then suddenly, without warning, the winged beast slipped into the sky, skimming above the hilltops by several double cubits. After slowly circling the fields until all the sky ships were aloft, Kufi's signalman directed the fleet to follow, all of them drifting off toward the south and west.

The other airships were no more than in the sky when the junior officer ordered the engines fired up and the ships on the ground loaded, dozens upon dozens of women, children, and aged people hurrying to board the remaining craft waiting them. Before the Atlantician guard was aware of a thing, eight heavily laden sky ships slowly rose into the sky, laboriously heading south before eventually turning and ponderously making their way north for the seaport city of Chornie.

### * * *

Nuhma looked through the opened window of the sky ship, studying the wide Bantoowazzi River as it snaked off to the west and north. Kufi approached, asking if the priest was enjoying the flight. "I've ordered the helmsman to take it easy so that it may remain a pleasant day for you and our other guests."

Scowling, Nuhma stared at Kufi suspiciously. "We long ago passed RootHarrow. Why do you stay to the river?"

Kufi smiled, "Your orders from the governor with his seal upon them..."

"My orders?" the priest asked, confused. Taking the parchment from Kufi's hand, Nuhma stared dumbly at Thaladies' orders then shouted in a rage, "I countermand those orders! The man is a fool! Now do as I say!"

Kufi refused. "My Majestic Lord, by your very edict concerning the authority of the governor in the king's absence, I cannot disobey this order."

"Then I shall relieve you of command!" Nuhma screamed. "Now step aside or trouble you will find when we make TittenShobontii this night!"

Kufi motioned to some of his officers. As they approached, he handed another parchment to Nuhma. "It is from the king's chief counselor, General Chuphoe. He asked me to give this to you should occasion arise."

Nuhma angrily tore the sealed parchment open, his eyes bulging in disbelief as he read the short note from Chuphoe... 'Usurper of the king, go to Hell!'

He looked up in time to see Kufi and his officers take hold of him, push him to the rail and pitch him over it, Nuhma falling to the river below. A signalman waved a flag to the other ships. In seconds, the sky was filled with score upon score of dark-robed Hormaxian priests and attendants tumbling through the skies, following their leader down into the river's churning waters. In short order, all the baggage and crated equipment met the same fate...all, that is, except for the treasure of gold Nuhma had secretly hoarded away.

Brushing his hands as if cleaning them after a job well done, Kufi turned to his helmsman. "Tell the wizards to charge the horses to the full and set our course to the north and west for the city of Ogallala. We have unfinished business there."

Below, a parchment with the governor's seal upon it floated in the swirling waters of the wide Bantoowazzi, the note written inside to Nuhma having but one word... 'Jump!'

### * * *

Godenn slowly strode into the healing chambers and quietly sat down. Legion continued to study his damaged arm, the shattered bones only beginning to heal. Not bothering to look up, he cautioned, "I'm a long way from dead! If you are contemplating acquiring my crown, you'd better be prepared to pay the same price other dreamers have paid." He turned, staring at Godenn, threatening, "Remember, you still live because I stand between you and him. He's still pissed off with you because of your last escapades. It is I who keep you alive."

Godenn grimaced and then grinned, "Me want your throne? Never! Never! I am your loyal servant...loyal servant."

"Bullshit!" Legion looked down and began picking at a small, itchy scab. "You'd stick me as to look at me if there was another free meal in it for you! Fat little bastard!"

Rocking back in surprise as if offended, Godenn frowned, amused, "It talks loud when crippled up and defenseless it is. And a woman doing it to him, too..." he sniggered, "A little bitch-creature woman."

Legion whipped about, wincing in pain from shaking his arm, angrily snarling, "Damned liar you are! Ought to cut out your tongue for lying to me like that!"

"Ain't lying!" Godenn vigorously shook his head in denial. "Ain't lying at all! That little bitch-woman, SirionSandevar, took you down. News has spread throughout the army. Almost got you good with her first shot, except General Vulcancee got his brains blown out cause he stepped in front of you. Rotten luck for him..." Looking into the face of an astonished Legion, Godenn slapped his knees, smiling, "Yep! Just two little worthless bitch-women took out the Great Prince Zeussah, killed the chief over his Gestapo, General Vulcancee, and his two top aides, along with an assortment of lesser guards and officers. Pretty good for a couple worthless bitch-women, I'd say."

Red-faced, Legion began screaming abuses at his second in command.

Throwing up his hands as if warding off a blow, Godenn decried the attack. "Hey! Hey! I'm only the messenger, bringing you the latest news. Thought you'd want to know, that's all."

Legion roared, "What I want are those women dead, and the sooner the better! Get me my revenge!"

Godenn looked down at the floor. "If dead's all you want, then there's only one to worry over. Got report that SirionSandevar's the only one left, the other, a Corporal SchulaMae, got killed in the fighting just before Gabrielle lifted the siege of the city."

Rubbing his chin in thought, Legion began to reconsider Sirion's fate. "No, you're right. Death is far too good a gift to give that creature for all the suffering she's caused me. Let's give it a rest until a more appropriate time. I'm a patient man. The day will come when I will not only get my revenge, but may well benefit from it in some way. Let the bitch live for the moment, but do not forget her. She has things she cares for, people she loves. Make her suffer loss, wondering why so much misfortune happens to her. Then, when the time is right..."

Godenn pretended to clear his throat. "Now that we, er...you, have that settled, what about Atlantis?"

"What about it?" Legion asked unconcerned, going back to examining his arm.

"Well..." Godenn clasped his hands, resting his forearms on his legs as he leaned forward, "there's still time to salvage that world if we hurry. The fleet's up. It would take little time to clear the skies of Earth's coming destruction."

Legion angrily rebuked Godenn, "Damn fool! Why should I save Atlantis? Its king has failed me. Its priests have let me down. I took those listless fools into the heavens to stare down upon the world of men that I promised to gift them, and still they have failed me! That child of the Elkhorn, Noahashonie, still rules in eastern lands, my wonderful MooDecd creation all gone and murdered, and still the Son of the Cave Bear lives. I lost my bet with Chrusion already. I've got nothing to gain with Atlantis' rescue."

Godenn began to argue to the contrary, "If Atlantis falls, then the world will suffer the long, dark night, with no dominant power to rule over it. It..."

Legion leaned his head back. "It matters not. Let it sink into the abyss of despair and darkness. Already our day has passed. The carcass lies at the gate. Let the jackdaws have their hour." He closed his eyes, tired. "Tomorrow a new power will rise that will consume the universe in its glory. Until then, let the dead bury their dead. We shall wait for that coming day to stand upon glory's throne again."

Godenn knew there was no need to argue the case any longer. Legion was sliding into one of his sullen, melancholy moods. Atlantis would die, and with it the promise of world domination. As Legion had said, until some distant, future time, no kingdom would attain to its glory. There was nothing to do now but wait until that distant day. In the meantime, Godenn was determined that future kingdom would remain safe. He would raise up the priests of Hormax to protect the beast's heart until again it would rule the world of men.

As Legion drifted off to sleep, Godenn quietly stood and departed the chambers. Tomorrow... until tomorrow. Well, even if Legion cared not, he did. There was one man of the earth who would willingly assist him with his future visions. When the time was right, he would pay a little visit on the new, rising star of the Hormaxian Order. Rapadies was an excellent choice to take charge, submerging Destiny's hour in the underworld of hidden powers. He would not let the heart of the beast die.

### * * *

The governor's black-robed security guards arrived at Ogallala the previous night, riding up the South Pike in haste, demanding an audience with Baalath. The following day found the man at the head of a long column of wagons filled with his loyal officers, soldiers, and fellow citizens, as well as their families on the road toward JabbanRock, a small city about ten miles south of Ogallala. Baalath's orders were simple: at dawn he was to board one of the several wagons that were departing Ogallala, leaving behind everything including his personal effects and weapons, other than his headman's uniform and a small leather shoulder pouch containing a few private treasures. The same commands were given to all those joining him.

Fifty helmed, black-robed riders wearing the red cross emblems of Thaladies' elite combat police were scattered throughout the wagon train as it slowly made its way down the muddy street of the city, the street that not so long ago Baalath had followed Javan down on his march to war. Although the crowds watching them leave stood jeering and shouting obscenities at the passing lines of wagons, the fear of that guard checked their hands, preventing them from committing any violence against those aboard the wagons. Indeed, just a stern look from the commander sitting beside Baalath was enough to silence the people when the two men rode by.

It was midmorning when they passed through JabbanRock, heading toward a military encampment alongside the newly constructed sky field. Last night's cold rains had evaporated quickly in the warm heat of a bright autumn day, the horses soon kicking up dust as they trotted along. The company eventually turned off the roadway and headed down a lane and through an opened gate in front of the company parade grounds, the guards nervously stepping back, watching the black-robed security police as they silently rode along. Other than the company commander who had to stand his post as the people passed, the remainder of the company guard attempted to avoid any visible contact with Thaladies' private army, not desiring to find out if rumors regarding them were true.

Across the parade grounds sat a dozen sky ships, their horses warming up. Baalath's wagon stopped beside the lead sky ship, the other wagons being directed further along the line of ships. Getting down from the wagon, Baalath was greeted by a flight officer. Extending his hand, the man shouted above the noise of the powerful horses, "Get your people aboard on the double! Admiral KufiSauntooh at your service, Headman Baalath, chieftain over the house of Ogallala. It is good to finally meet your acquaintance. I have been told so much about you."

As the others were hurried aboard the ship, Kufi led Baalath under the ship to the far side of a small field near a wooded patch. "Little is the time to speak. We must be leaving quickly before they become wise to us. There is someone here who wishes to meet you."

Baalath looked up to see a tall woman shrouded in gray step out of the trees, a young girl with her being led by the hand. "Papa!" the little girl cried upon seeing Baalath.

Bending low and scooping the girl up in his arms, Baalath gushed tears of joy. "Tara! My sweet, sweet, Tara! How I've missed you so. I never thought I would see you again!"

Stepping up to Baalath, Kufi took Tara's hand after she had been put down. "I'll get her aboard. Hurry along as quick as may be. Little is the time left to spare."

Running over to the trees, Baalath caught Tuosol up in a giant bear hug, giving the woman a long, passionate kiss on her lips. "Thank you! Thank you so much. How can I... we ever repay you for your kindness?"

Tuosol stepped back, gripping Baalath's arms, tears in her eyes. "May you fly upon the wings of Cherubs, my dear, sweet friend. Tomorrow, if Iam is willing, we shall meet again, and then, for you, a bed of cherry blossoms shall I make for us. If Iam is willing..." She quickly stepped away, disappearing into the trees.

Baalath watched Tuosol's shadow vanish into the dark woods before turning and hurrying to the ship. He was greeted by Kufi who tossed away the hanging ladder after they had boarded. The over-laden sky ship's horses were soon screaming in protest as the machine labored onto the channel and for open sky. As the ship slowly began to pick up speed, the black-robed guards began tossing away their swords and armor along with helms and outer garments.

Kufi shouted at a white-knuckled Baalath who was standing the bridge beside him, "Too much weight with all these people. I was afraid of that." He grinned. "We don't need that stuff anymore anyway."

With the helmsmen pulling back on the controls with all their might, the giant, winged monster gradually lifted up from the ground, circling the field until all the other birds were aloft. When the covey was gathered, the air fleet made one more low sweep over the field before turning toward the northeast and disappearing over the distant hills, the company commander dumbly staring at the littered roadways and fields, still holding the parchment with the governor's seal, which read: 'Give Admiral Kufi whatever he wants and do not interfere.'

Before nightfall, the air fleet had safely landed on some large fields just to the west of Chornie and, by the following day, the harbor was empty of the Dragon ships and their borrowed feluccas, the wind at their backs. Baalath sat on the open deck with his wife and family at his side, Kufi sitting there as well, staring off toward the distant horizon, thinking of his family while hoping in Chuphoe's ability to rescue them. On another ship, a young officer huddled close with his family, discussing with his son their recent adventures.

### * * *

The journey had been tiring. Juliet was exhausted. Hour after tedious hour for the better part of two nights and days, the tiny caravan of carriages had kept to the road, stopping only to cook meals or rest the horses. When news reached the woman's ears of the Hormaxian bodies washing up on the shores of the Bantoowazzi River, Juliet determined there was no time to waste in returning home. That very night, she and her family departed RootHarrow in hopes of beating the news back to Atlanticia.

As she watched the last of the luggage being removed from the carriages and taken into the palace, Zhadrehaudous quietly stepped from the shadows. "My Lady Tobanahazz, it is such a pleasure seeing that you have safely returned to us."

The very sound of Zhadrehaudous' voice sent chills up Juliet's back. She had not expected seeing him again, having anticipated only a one night stand with the fellow. Putting on a smile as he approached, she turned to greet him, taking on an air of polite disinterest. "Has news of our arrival already reached the governor's ears? Please be kind enough to inform him that I shall pay a visit in due time, but must take a little rest and a warm bath first."

Zhadrehaudous grasped Juliet's arm, pulling her toward him, his lips curling into a sinister grin as he quietly crooned, "I come not for the governor, but for the prize."

Attempting to pull away from his iron grip, Juliet angrily asked, "What are you all about?"

"This!" Zhadrehaudous pulled a parchment from his pocket. "It was taken from Priest Nuhma's clasped hand when his body was pulled from the river. Looks to me that your dear husband has been up to some mischief."

Hiding her dread, Juliet asked, appearing unconcerned, "What does this have to do with my husband? He's been here waiting for my return all this time. He writes lots of notes. If that old priest was up to no good, maybe there was a reason my husband wrote that."

Zhadrehaudous hissed, "Thaladies had a deal going on with that priest. He would have never permitted the man's death, nor would he ever have written this." He pulled another parchment from his robe and shoved it into Juliet's hand.

Staring at the parchment and then looking at the governor's seal, Juliet asked curiously, "What does this have to do with my husband? This has the governor's official seal on it. It must have been from him." She eyed Zhadrehaudous, "Maybe he had a game going that he didn't bother his little spy boy with, or maybe he didn't trust him with the information."

Zhadrehaudous was taken aback, not realizing Juliet knew he was the governor's spy. He quickly recovered. "Well, this can be settled in short order. We'll just go over to the governor's house right now and ask him. I have other news I wish to share with him anyway...all those sky ships flying off toward the northwest after tossing the priests overboard, Admiral Kufi commanding them. Isn't he one of your husband's old comrades, indeed, one of his close friends?"

Juliet stopped struggling. Carrying a tone of subdued defeat on her words, she looked into Zhadrehaudous' face. "Obviously telling the governor would bring you little reward in comparison to the prize you're speaking about. What do you want?"

Zhadrehaudous released Juliet. "I want you, and if you wish to preserve the lives of your husband and those you love, you will make it happen."

Juliet sighed, "You needn't threaten me. When would you like my company?"

Shaking his head, Zhadrehaudous replied, "You misunderstand. I want you to come with me tonight aboard Shark Tooth, when I depart this city with my trusted guard. This is no request. If you wish for your family to live, then I expect you to take me up on my offer. I need a queen by my side when I take up rulership of New Atlantis in the Southlands."

Juliet paused, staring in wonder. "Your queen?"

Reaching out a hand and grasping Juliet's face, squeezing it, he warned, "Don't think too much of yourself! I need a good cock tease. You're the best I've ever had and, from what your governor says, you have more to offer than what you have already given me. He speaks of the Angel's Caress. You give me your cock tease and I'll make you queen...true, a slave queen, but a queen nonetheless."

Juliet glanced down, pondering aloud, "A queen? A queen?" She smiled coyly. "You must allow me a little time this evening to prepare. I still need a bath because I stink from the trip."

Putting her arms about Zhadrehaudous' neck, she cooed, "I need to have my handsome king before we depart, that is if he would like to receive the Angel's Caress. I cannot give that to him on a rocking ship."

Zhadrehaudous did not want Juliet to leave, wishing to take her with him then. He relented after her warning that he would have to wait until they reached landfall again before she would be able to perform her arts to the full upon him.

"All right, I will give you until after the late dinner hour to come to me." He warned threateningly, "If you do not come, I will pay a little visit upon the governor. If you desire to keep your husband and those you love alive, you will not be late."

Juliet promised she would come quickly, passionately kissing Zhadrehaudous on his lips. She then hurried off to gather up a few of her personal belongings and prepare herself for the performance of her lifetime.

### * * *

Chuphoe sat near the fireplace, a worried look on his face growing into desperation. Juliet sat beside him, resting her hands clasped over his, quietly explaining earlier events. "My love, I did not seek out Thaladies' spymaster, Zhadrehaudous, but found him skulking about the palace entrance when we arrived back in the city late this day. My heart told me mischief was afoot, but what it might be or who its intended victim was, I could not tell. The wanton lust in the man's eyes convinces me this is no game being played. Zhadrehaudous is attempting to steal the throne of Atlantis, and will kill anyone standing in his way to get it or me. I have no other choice than to keep my appointment with him tonight."

Chuphoe squeezed Juliet's hand. "This is far too dangerous a thing for you to do! Whatever evil lies there in wait for you can only be guessed at. Thaladies wishes to steal you away from me and make you his wife, but he wants to rub my nose in his victory. With Zhadrehaudous, your kidnapping or rape should be something wished for if what I have learned about this man is true. Murder of the most pitiless and violent kind may well await you beyond his door. He revels in other people's agony. If you go, he will undoubtedly have us all gathered up and murdered before your eyes anyway, just for a lark."

Looking into Chuphoe's face, hopeless determination reflected in her green eyes, Juliet conceded, "Then there is nothing else for it. If I do not go, we all die this night, and Atlantis will live again in southern lands. If I go to him, there is a chance we will be able to kill the beast. Whatever the case may be, this night is ours to attempt a coup on the world of men and gods. Tomorrow will be too late."

Chuphoe still did not like matters, attempting to find another way to escape the road the Fates had placed them on.

Odethbethel was sitting across from Chuphoe and Juliet, having recently delivered the latest messages from the Talking Stones. She leaned forward, putting a hand over Juliet's. "Our sister, Noahashonie, defeated the greatest power on this earth by wisdom, deceit, and cunning, her enemy deserving no parley or mercy. We face such an enemy now, our hoped for victory having an even more profound effect on the world of men. Fail we might, but try we must."

She stood, gazing into the fire, slowly rubbing her arms, silently reminiscing over the last hours she had spent with Javan. Closing her eyes in painful thought, she advised, "My dear little sister, war is fought on many fronts. Tonight the horns call you to battle. No choice do you have but to destroy your enemy... and I shall destroy mine."

Turning, Chuphoe and Juliet saw tears running down Odethbethel's cheeks, their reflection glistening in the firelight as she smiled sadly. "We have the advantage. The enemy is unaware of the power held in our hands or of the knowledge we have of their battle strategy. They do not see into the darkness beyond the pits of the righteous damned. They do not know what holy evil awaits them in Heaven's Abyss."

As a fire grew in Odethbethel's eyes, Chuphoe asked, "What does my queen wish for her servant to do? Mountains I shall move if only you should ask me."

Odethbethel clasped Juliet's hand. "May the power of Cherubs go with you. Call no quarter and ask for no parley. Death upon Heaven's fields shall be played out this eve. Tonight there shall be blood on the moon. May your sword weep its tears, and I shall mine. Be quickly about your business. Fear not the men robed in black this night."

She then answered Chuphoe, "You have trusted friends conspiring with you. Gather them to your side this hour, General. Pharaoh's chariot rides again this day. Attempt to save all that you may. The gold of Atlantis must never reach the southern shores. It must either be buried deep within the ocean's waters or hidden far away in foreign lands. The Obelisk of Zeussah, the Holy Grail of lustful power must be stolen from the king's throne room and hidden away from before the eyes of those lusting over it until the Seven Ages of Men pass by. In the soul of Damnation you must hide it until, in the final hour, Lucifer's seed, the son of the Cave Bear, shall lift it up to glory once more."

Odethbethel stood back, rubbing her arms as if chilled. "Death may come to us all this day, but let it find us with our swords buried deep within our enemies' bellies! We are the chosen ones ordained to sound Atlantis' death knell..."

Chuphoe slowly stood, taking Juliet's hand, assisting her up. After kissing both her and Odethbethel, he recommended they get on with business. "We must be in open waters before the sun rises. Iam willing, we shall all watch its birthing glory over the Eastern Sea. Iam willing...."

A soft rapping came on Zhadrehaudous' door. Hurriedly, the man rushed to open it, dragging Juliet inside the room. With unbridled passion, the man ripped the woman's clothes off, throwing her naked onto the bed. "I must have you now!" he shouted as he dove atop her, pulling at his own clothing with one hand as he pawed at her breasts with his other.

A fire exploded in Juliet's eyes, she violently pushing Zhadrehaudous away so that he nearly tumbled onto the floor. Leaping up, she hissed contemptuously, "Fool! A witch I am! In my world you now stand. Your donkey cock I don't accept in rape!"

The bolt on the apartment door suddenly slammed shut, the lights flickering as flames leaped to life in the fireplace. Bewildered, Zhadrehaudous stood amazed at what he was witnessing. His eyes suddenly beheld the vision of a fiery, demonic beast standing before him, its cackling laughter echoing hauntingly off the walls. "It has said an Angel's Caress it wishes to receive, and an Angel's Caress it shall receive. 'Murder! Murder!' it cries out in its heart, to this witch's husband and family. Fool! Already the souls of your mighty men go to their doom. Better a master you would have been to them should you have killed them at dinner this eve."

The beast pointed toward the door. "Did you not wonder why your guards' voices were silent in heralding my presence this night?"

Following the beast's hand, Zhadrehaudous looked toward the door, gasping, seeing blood pooled on the floor, slowly oozing into the room from under the door. "No!" he cried, throwing his hands over his face, "Impossible! Go away! Go away!"

The beast reached out, tearing away Zhadrehaudous' robe. "My passion is up" the beast hissed, "and you will satisfy my heated rush!"

At that, the beast grabbed hold of the man, tossing him onto his back on the bed, and diving on its knees beside him. With violent strokes, the beast worked up the man's ardor until he cried out in pain, the beast then climbing atop him. It continued its hideous laughter. "Oh rape! How lovely the rape! How many a maiden has your horn given such a torture to? Raped to death, many you have, they begging for mercy while your manliness erupted and your hands choked the life from them. Tonight a raping I shall give you along with my Angel's Caress."

Paralyzed with fear, Zhadrehaudous whimpered, begging for mercy, tears streaming down his cheeks.

The beast raged contemptuously, "Mercy? Mercy it begs for, like the little child did as it tore her up with its manliness. Mercy, yes mercy I will give it. The mercy of Vesuvius I shall give it!"

At that moment, Zhadrehaudous' ejaculation erupted from him, tearing at the very fabric of his testicles so that blood mixed with semen gushed forth.

The beast cried in hideous laughter, "The gift of Eden I shall now give to my master! Behold the Angel's Caress! Allow me to take you past Heaven's Gate!"

A vision of indescribable power engulfed Zhadrehaudous' mind. Instead of ghastly sights of Evil's invention, indescribable beauty of another world untouched by disease, death, or sickness flooded the man's senses. Soon the hauntingly sensual sounds of whispering voices drifted from a mist that hid the shapeliest form of feminine beauty the man had ever beheld. This womanly shadow slowly, suggestively danced so that Zhadrehaudous' erection stiffened to the point of agonizing torture. Still the man dare not look away from such hypnotic beauty presented before his eyes...could not.

The beast rested its weight upon Zhadrehaudous' chest, whispering in his ear, "Now feel the Angel's Caress..."

At that, a hand reached out from the mist, the veil of secrecy hiding the woman's seductive beauty slowly lifting. As the vision became clear, Zhadrehaudous cried out in joyful agony, his heart pounding tempestuously within his chest. No words could he find to express his emotions, but only with orgasmic outcries convey the passionate feeling charging through him.

The woman who had reached out to Zhadrehaudous now took him by the hand. "Come, my Lord, and we shall pass through Heaven's Gate. To the Woman in the Whispering Waters I shall lead you."

After wandering through fields scented with jasmine and hemlock down, Zhadrehaudous eventually found himself standing beside a wide, flowing pool with a gentle waterfall splashing its merry tune of welcome. As he stood there, why look, bubbles gradually began rising to the surface of the waters. Slowly, as if by magic, a woman with golden hair and unspeakable beauty stepped out of the pool and approached the man, reaching out and taking his hand.

The woman whispered hauntingly, "I am come..."

Looking into the woman's face, Zhadrehaudous cried aloud, gasping, and spoke no more.

Never had Juliet unleashed the vision of the Woman in the Whispering Waters outside the walls of Eden. At the same moment Zhadrehaudous cried out, his heart exploding in his chest and his manly ardor erupting in blood and fire as it ripped asunder inside her vaulted rooms, Juliet's heart screamed out with such agonizing delight that she, too, believed she was dying. The world spun into black nothingness as she collapsed onto Zhadrehaudous' chest.

Chuphoe quietly made his way through the palace toward the throne room. Already he had paid his visits upon PooHatten and others of his fellow conspirators. Now he hurried to carry out the greatest of his duties, to capture the Obelisk of Zeussah for the preserving of its glory for future days. He worried so. The man may well have allowed Juliet to go to her death, Odethbethel possibly the same, and now he might face it also. What of it? They might all be dead by the morning light, but try they must, each to accomplish their part to be played in this warring of the gods.

'Strange...' he puzzled, as the man stealthily made his way along the dimly lit corridors, the palace being so empty of guards and servants. Something was not right. He could feel it in his bones. A sense of foreboding was ever growing, as if someone was waiting in anticipation of this moment, of his arrival, of his purpose. Coming to the grand portico before the throne room, Chuphoe gathered up his courage and slowly passed beyond the opened gold-leaved doors into the chamber of the king's sanctuary.

Chuphoe had not walked ten paces when he was stopped up by someone speaking his name. Sitting upon the king's chair in all her resplendent glory of gold and purple and wearing her queenly crown of burnished gold and rubies, Nidgha raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You I was not expecting. So why does the chief counsel to my husband seek these chambers this night? Whose will are you serving at this hour?"

A quick glance told Chuphoe that alone he and Nidgha were, no guards or servants. So strange and bewildering it was. Stepping closer, the man bowed low. "My Queen, I come as a man of his own free will. No servant am I to another except you and your husband."

Sitting up in the royal chair, Nidgha asked, "Then what brings you, my servant and that of the king, into these chambers?"

This was not time to practice deceit and treachery against the man he had sworn fealty to these many years ago. "My Queen," he bowed his head, "a wife of your husband, former wife of Javan, Odethbethel, has made request of me to pay my presence upon this place this night. Of my own free will, I have come here to gather up the power of Atlantis so that its glory will not die, but be preserved until future days when another king shall return the northern kingdom to its rightful place."

Nidgha gazed questioningly into Chuphoe's face. "Yes?"

"My Queen," Chuphoe continued, "the Hour of the Crow is upon the world of men, the gods bringing men into the darkening age. I am come to steal away Atlantis' glory until that age has ended, so that no man can take for himself what the gods have demanded belongs to another, a brother-son of your husband, a child of damnation and light, Desmond, the son of the gods. If Atlantis is to rise again in future's hour, its heart must be preserved until that day. Soon, by fire and ice, this world will suffer destruction, and Atlantis must sink beneath the waters and become forgotten by men. It is the will of the gods, its fate not being denied."

Nidgha stood, a blade of obsidian held in her hand. "These things I know, my own visions having warned me of such." She stepped up close to Chuphoe, her warm, sweet breath bathing his face as she spoke. "An honest man you are, are you?" Peering deeply into his eyes, Nidgha sighed with resigned satisfaction. "Yes, it is so. You seek not the throne for yourself, but desire it to be hidden away as you have spoken."

As if being forced to submit to another's will, Nidgha's hand grudgingly went to her swollen belly, the woman's eyes suddenly glazing over. In a voice filled with evil and malice, she hissed, "It has been with that witch of the damned, Juliet. We can smell her on its flesh. Bedded she has been by it. Kill it! We must kill it now, before it destroys us. Liar it is! It seeks our death."

Nidgha's hand began to shake as if struggling with someone attempting to control her to do its bidding. Chuphoe stood silent, expecting at any moment to feel the might of the obsidian knife being plunged into his heart. Gradually, as if fighting a great internal battle, Nidgha pulled her hand away. Looking down at her belly with contempt, she cast the knife to the floor, the blade shattering to pieces, she cursing it in a tongue strange to Chuphoe's ears.

Reaching up and cupping Chuphoe's face in her hands, Nidgha began to passionately kiss the man, begging, "Hold me, please. I so need to be comforted in the arms of an honest man one time in my life." Chuphoe wrapped his arms about Nidgha, the two standing there in silence as the sands of the hourglass trickled into forgotten dreams.

Looking up into the Chuphoe's eyes, Nidgha smiled, her eyes reflecting a lifetime of lonely desire. "Juliet is so lucky to have a man like you. So much I wish I could have been your Juliet, and bore a child for you like she is." She began to quietly weep.

At length, while he swaddled the woman in his arms, Chuphoe confessed, offering, "My ship departs upon the morning tide. If my Queen wishes to, there is room aboard for her."

Nidgha laughed, releasing Chuphoe and stepping back. "No. No. It must not be." She pointed at her belly. "This abomination must be birthed here, in this unholy city, to be swept up in the ocean's fury along with all the other degenerate filth that haunts these worlds. A ruin I shall make the machinations of the necromancer who made me what I am."

She touched Chuphoe's face with her fingers, her face filled with longing and sadness. "We, you and me... ah, well, maybe after the world's ending there will be a day that you and I... maybe there exists somewhere rich fields of clover and honeysuckle-rose where you and I shall taste life as it was supposed to be."

Taking Chuphoe's hand, she begged him to follow. "The treasure that you search for is not what is seen by men who seek their own selfish longing."

The two walked up to a small crystal sarcophagus that sat upon a short pillar beside the king's seat. Inside Chuphoe could see a beautifully crafted golden obelisk, delicately engraved with the finest of ancient script and encrusted with jewels. "Isn't it wondrous?" she laughed. "Men of evil intent would only win an empty nest should they attempt to steal the Heart of Atlantis."

She pushed the sarcophagus from the pillar, it crashing into a thousand pieces upon hitting the polished floor, the obelisk also shattering. Chuphoe stared in disbelief, barely able to comprehend what Nidgha had just done. She looked into his face, her eyes dancing with mischief. "And so goes the soul of Atlantis, glitter and plaster...nothing more than glitter and plaster. That is all that evil men would ever attain should they attempt to steal the glory of this kingdom...an empty soul of glitter and plaster."

Very carefully, Nidgha lifted the top from the pillar. Hiding within it was a small wooden box made of teak and juniper. Setting the pillar's top aside, she reached down and picked up the box, placing it upon the seat of the king's throne. After twisting a small hasp and opening the box's lid, she revealed to Chuphoe a dull gray obelisk little more than a handbreadth in length. Smiling, she offered, "Here, my princely man, for you. Stolen from the very depths of Eden in ages long past, the Heart of Atlantis, a treasure beyond a treasure, the very gods wishing to possess this, but are ever afraid to even touch it. So fearful of it Zeussah was that he left it here, daring not to put it in his sky ship when he departed these worlds. Not even my kingly husband knows of this treasure, Zeussah revealing this secret to me in a raping vision just before he went away."

Nidgha closed the box, reworking the hasp. Picking it up, she handed it to Chuphoe. "Take this and leave me with my pleasant memories. I will sleep tonight in your arms and forget for an hour the world in which I really live." The woman warned, "I feared your Juliet dead, but she is not. Still you must deliver her soul to safety, for she is powerless to do that for herself. Now please leave me before I change my mind and you become my slave until the world does end."

She kissed Chuphoe on the cheek and then handed him a script with her royal seal upon it. "This will buy you freedom's gate. Now be gone."

Chuphoe bowed low. "My Queen, I shall never forget you." He turned and hurried away.

The governor's palace was on a high bluff about a half mile outside the city proper, located upon the peninsula connecting Atlanticia to the mainland. Thaladies sat in front of a dancing hearth fire, a goblet of wine in his hand, chatting happily with Odethbethel who sat across from him, delighting also in the rich, red fruit of the vine.

Casually looking into his glass, Thaladies asked so innocently, "My queenly lady, you have teased me with simple chatter this eve. Please, you have not traveled such a great distance this night to speak of trivial matters. Has Chuphoe sent you to me? Has he brought you into his little scheme so that I should lose both that birdie of his and the gold he has promised me if I win her bed?"

Odethbethel blushed, innocently coy. "Scheming? Well, yes, there is scheming, but not regarding your little bet with him. No indeed, there is a scheming because of it by me..."

Thaladies leaned forward, wondering, "What are you about? Speak now, please. Do not keep silly secrets from me."

"Well... I thought... hoped..." Odethbethel's shawl slid from her shoulder, exposing a bare breast. She pulled it up quickly. "Allow me to be honest with you."

Thaladies sat back, the memory of the woman's comely charms dancing in his mind. "Please do tell."

"Well" Odethbethel confessed, "I do know that you and... and Juliet, have played in the roses, she unable to keep such a secret from me. The girl has gone on and on about her adventures to the point I found myself getting wet with passion. True, I did not care for your treatment of me when you took me before, it angering me greatly. But I have learned from Juliet that you were only doing your kingly duty as commanded by that bastard husband-son of mine. After listening to her romantic prose describing the loving you delivered to her, the woman playing her fingers upon me while singing sweet melodies concerning you... well, all I can say is that I have lusted for your touch in my dreams every night since."

She reached out, resting a hand on Thaladies' knee. "When that woman returned in the late hour of this eve, I knew that tomorrow, after a long sleep and refreshing bath she would your arms envelop, and I might not find the sweet romance I dearly need from you for many days if ever." The shawl fell again from her shoulder, Odethbethel not attempting to cover her shapely form this time.

Placing his wine on the table, Thaladies leaned forward, removing Odethbethel's shawl and letting it fall to the floor. Studying her beauty, he asked, "Juliet said that you are a Dragon Witch, taught in the beds of the greatest of the Dragon Witches, including Aphrodite. Is that really so?"

Odethbethel's eyes twinkled with passionate delight, purring so seductively, "It is so. The girl I have taught in the arts of the lips and tongue. Yet many are the secrets of pleasing a man that I have not taught her, saving them for the pleasure of my lord so that he desires this mature woman over the younger heifers in the field. True, the beauty of that woman is unquestioned, and I am sure that the contest you will win with her. But for this one night, allow me to compete for your sweet manliness, and see if I do speak truth to you or not."

Thaladies took Odethbethel's hands, they both standing. Squeezing her breasts in cupped hands, while Odethbethel played her fingers up and down his arms, the man moaned with growing desire. After a long, passionate kiss, he went to the door, commanding his servants standing outside the room that he was not to be bothered on the penalty of death. In only moments, he was sitting back in his ornately fashioned armchair, legs spread, as Odethbethel pleasured him to the point of sexual intoxication.

As evening passed into nighttime, the moon sailing across the sky toward the morning hour, the two found themselves celebrating the game of love upon the governor's high-posted bed, Odethbethel skillfully delivering the Dragon's Kiss, Thaladies crying out that even Juliet did not take him to such heights. For hours, she worked the man's passions until beyond dead asleep he had become. And yet, even in his sleep, she gave to him the witching dreams, so that as if in death he lay on the bed, his manly vigor finally losing its power to the night.

Odethbethel slowly crawled from the bed and quickly dressed in a thin, black coverlet, stashing her other clothes in the shoulder purse she brought with her that evening. Taking a long rope from the purse, she looped it about the bedpost before tossing the ends out the window facing the northern estuary. In only moments, she was out of the room and down on the ground, the rope coiled in her hand, scurrying through the trees and across the palace's open courtyard where a carriage awaited her return. In a little while, the only sound to be heard was the clip-clop of distant horses' hooves and... and Thaladies' heavy snoring. On a nearby table were stacked twenty gold shekels along with a scribbled note from Chuphoe that read, 'You win.'

PooHatten stood beside the headman on the bridge of Shark Tooth, watching the changing of the guard, newly arrived black-robed soldiers taking their stations upon the deck of the ship when cry of "Fire!" brought everyone's attention to nearby navy docks. An orange glow was coming from one of the distant warehouses. Someone shouted, "If it goes up, we'll lose the docks!"

The sound of running feet soon filled the air as every able-bodied man within earshot went running toward the blaze to help prevent the destruction of the entire harbor district. The headman over Shark Tooth finally ordered his sailors off to assist with the fire-fighting. Soon only the headman, his two chief officers and the half dozen black-robed guards stood the deck beside PooHatten.

The headman turned to PooHatten. "I trust you are a man of your word."

PooHatten squeezed the headman's arm. "Be at your duties. The hour pants on quickly and the devil's work is yet to be done."

Taking his officers along with him, the headman rushed off to finish needed business. After the men had departed, PooHatten waved a hand to someone in the darkness. Soon Ashbriery drifted up alongside Shark Tooth. In only minutes, the black-robed guards were busy passing crates of gold and silver over to sailors on Ashbriery while other sailors worked in the ship's hold bringing the gold topside to be transferred.

PooHatten stood upon the poop deck, nervously looking up the street. Chuphoe should have been here by now and he still needed to finish his other duties. Already the Phoenician sailors had been released from the city's prison and were readying three giant tall ships that had long sat anchored at the southern quays, victims of the politics of war. With an offer of their release, the Phoenician headmen promised to help Chuphoe's people make escape, taking them to Eastern lands along one of their secret trade routes. PooHatten was anxious to return to those ships to see that operations were on schedule.

A carriage suddenly rounded a street corner leading to the quays, its horses at a running trot, the coachman quickly drawing up the team next to Shark Tooth. The door flew open, Odethbethel scrambling out of the carriage and down to the dock. She looked up at PooHatten, hoping for good news. PooHatten looked down, shaking his head. He signaled a sailor to assist Odethbethel. Soon she was standing beside PooHatten, waiting anxiously, her eyes searching the darkness for signs of Chuphoe's coming.

With the sound of a smashing crunch and splintering wood, the door to Zhadrehaudous' private room burst open. Chuphoe entered, fearing the worst as he spied the crimson-soaked bed and two people collapsed upon it. Juliet looked a fright, covered in the man's blood from head to toe, hair singed and fingertips burned. At first he believed the woman to be dead, but a weak, painful groan coming from swollen lips when she was moved convinced him otherwise. There was no time to even bathe Juliet or check her injuries if they were to make escape. Wrapping her in a clean blanket, he had two of his trusted guards take the woman to a waiting carriage.

Looking around, Chuphoe ordered, pointing toward the body on the bed, "He and all that mess must come with us. Take the others and deliver them to my palace quarters. Toss their bodies about as though there was a violent fight. Smash the place up a bit. Make sure everyone in my household, including your own, has made escape and then join me at the docks."

Chuphoe quickly departed for the carriage. "Whip the horses if need be, but make haste!" he called up to the coachman.

By now the hour was getting late, those to be found awake in the city down at the docks, watching the growing inferno. The carriage bounced and shook as it raced along the city streets, few eyes bothering to look up to see the stampeding horses and the mad coachman shouting obscenities while snapping his whip high above the animals' heads.

PooHatten and Odethbethel looked up, hearing the sound of rattling wheels and horses' hooves pounding the cobblestone pavement. Chuphoe's carriage soon appeared out of the early morning darkness. It was not long before Juliet was resting quietly in the forward hold of the frigate, Ashbriery, Odethbethel and Marta bathing and mending the sleeping woman. Taking one of the horses from Chuphoe's carriage team, PooHatten quickly departed for the Phoenician ships, agreeing to meeting somewhere off to the east, beyond Atlanticia's outer seawall.

The headman and his officers, recently returned with their families, stood upon the deck of Ashbriery staring over at Shark Tooth. Puzzled, the headman asked, "Are my eyes playing tricks on me? The ship looks like its setting low at the stern."

Chuphoe rested his hand on the headman's shoulder. "I'm afraid that in all the rush a careless workman accidentally poked a little hole in the bottom of your boat."

Wrinkling his brow, the headman glanced at Chuphoe and then began to laugh.

The ship's full complement finally arrived and, with muffled oars, Ashbriery silently made its way toward the harbor's mouth, soon putting out to sea on the ebbing tide, Zhadrehaudous's body being unceremoniously dumped into the foaming brine after passing the outer seawalls. Far behind in the distance one could see an orange glow from the fires raging along the docks, the entire city waking to the confusing excitement, that is, except for the governor. In a deep, dreamy sleep, the man floated along with fantasy's visions until far into the following day, the guards at his door refusing to have the man disturbed.

### * * *

Smoke from the recent dock fires was still drifting skyward when the first of Dungie's transport ships sailed onto the horizon. Only a few short hours hence, news of HuushBonn's warnings of Atlantis' destruction had spread across the city and into the nearby countryside. By the time Thaladies had managed to work his way through the panicking crowds into the city proper, streets were already filled with confusion and mayhem. Looters were everywhere, smashing into businesses and homes, stealing whatever they could lay their hands on. Desperate mobs were gathering along the quays and canals seeking passage on any ship or barge willing to take them away from Atlanticia. Already the occasional body of either an innocent victim or criminal villain lay sprawled across some doorway, sounds of screams and cursing filling the afternoon breeze.

Chuphoe's chilling words kept spinning around in Thaladies' head as he began to comprehend their possible meaning. 'Behold the beast! The jackal's lair awaits us all.' The king's chief counselor tried to warn him about this day in his own cryptic way, about the world's ending...at least Atlantis' ending. 'The day of the vulture is over, so quickly comes the hour of the crow.' If not for his mounted police forcing the road and protecting his carriage, Thaladies doubted for his own safety.

At length, Thaladies' party made it through the riotous mayhem and down to the smoldering ruins of the warehouse district. Despite the terrible destruction, there was still some semblance of order here, seeing this area was primarily controlled by the military. Stepping down from his carriage, Thaladies stared in dismay at the half-submerged battle galley, Shark Tooth, a few of its sailors aimlessly standing about waiting for direction, others already having abandoned the harbor, seeking their own escape.

Eventually Thaladies found an officer attempting to salvage order out of this insane chaos. "Yes, your Lordship," the officer explained, "the damage to Shark Tooth is not great. With enough people, it could be fixed up in a day or two, that is once we can empty the ship of its cargo and ballast and get her afloat again. The problem is that I no longer have work crews available to do the repairs."

Thaladies stared into the litter-filled water swirling around in the ship's hold. "So what of the cargo? Is it still intact...undamaged?"

The officer shrugged. "Don't know... When the fires started, the crew was sent away to fight it. No one has been able to find its headman or officers to ask them. When the sailors returned, all they found was their ship sitting in the mud, its decks all awash. If I can find a diver, I'll send him down to examine the hull. What are you looking for that you wish him to find for you?"

Thaladies dared not tell the officer about the wealth of the city's treasury that was stored in the ship's hold. Long-faced, he turned away, resigned to his loss. "No, do the best you can. If you are able find the work crews, try to get the ship afloat as quickly as possible. It may be needed soon."

Ordering his carriage up, he left the navy wharf and headed across the city for the palace docks, taking the high street that looked out over the northern bay east across the outer harbor above the business district where most of the rioting was occurring. Already people were mobbing the quays, attempting to find passage aboard any ship, scow, or barge that was willing to offer them escape. Here and there, smoke billowed into the sky from buildings that had been set ablaze by the looting rioters seeking whatever treasures they could find. In an instant of time, this beautiful, resplendent city offering every pleasure and delight that could interest the soul and heart of the wealthy and educated, had dissolved into a madman's hellhole of murder and mayhem.

Dropping down onto the coastal road, Thaladies breathed a sigh of relief, spying the palace guards still at their posts, protecting the king's wharf and buildings. Passing through the gate, after identifying himself as the governor, Thaladies made his way to the giant structures that housed the king's personal fleet of ships. The contrast between the tumultuous insanity found beyond these gates and the world here that remained quiet and orderly was profound. Soldiers and workers continued about their business as if this was just another ordinary work day. The scene was surreal, Thaladies whistling superstitiously.

After departing his carriage, the governor slowly walked toward one of the huge boathouses where, hopefully, a small ship or two might still be moored. As he walked along, he mulled over news recently reaching his ears. Had the man taken time to carefully consider all the facts, a clearer picture of events might have crystallized in his mind, sending him down a far different future road. Though powerful and cunning, Thaladies was a simple-minded man when it came to intrigue, using brute force and threats to accomplish his purposes when sweet-talk and charm failed. So this day he thought through the information delivered to him by his officers in a simple, straightforward way.

What he had was this: Chuphoe knew the hour of flight and had chosen not to inform the governor of it, in fact, sending Odethbethel around to pay a visit to occupy him as Chuphoe went about his business to get his people away. Before he had managed his escape, Zhadrehaudous stepped into the picture, apparently taking Juliet - either willingly or by force - along with him, so it looked. Juliet's fancy gown was found crumpled on the floor of Zhadrehaudous' room, and there had been some kind of a struggle outside his chambers that left several people injured or dead.

Thaladies feared that Zhadrehaudous had kidnapped Juliet and that Chuphoe attempted her rescue, or he followed Zhadrehaudous back to his place after Zhadrehaudous attacked him at the palace. From there, things got rather murky, Thaladies believing that Zhadrehaudous released the Phoenician prisoners and boarded their ships with his captives from the palace, heading south to make his escape after starting the harbor fires and stealing what gold he could from Shark Tooth and then sinking it. From eyewitness accounts, it was clear that Chuphoe was still alive in the early yester-morning, his carriage being seen driven madly along the streets toward the wharves. Apparently unaware that the frigate, Ashbriery, was moored further down the dock, Zhadrehaudous left that ship unharmed. Upon reaching the docks, Chuphoe had PooHatten call up the crew and sailed off in hot pursuit of his assailant. Well, at least that was how it made sense to Thaladies.

With the loss of Atlantis' gold, Juliet missing, and that traitorous Zhadrehaudous making haste to the south in hopes of securing a kingship for himself, there was little that Thaladies could hope for other than make escape for himself and his family unless...

First he needed to secure a ship. Pulling open a door to the king's boathouse, Thaladies breathed a sigh of relief. Still untouched were all the king's private barges and yachts, peacefully resting in their dry-dock bays. Off to his right, the king's party barge, Nidgha, was moored alongside its quay. The king had taken a special liking to the ship, rebuilding the razee, Drifter, a converted frigate, into his favorite cruise ship, it often being seen in the evening hours traveling around the northern bay, sounds of music and laughter coming from its crowded deck. Nidgha was the only ship available to immediately be taken out to sea. Thaladies grinned. As confused as everything currently was, it should be an easy matter to sneak Nidgha out of the harbor before she would be missed.

He turned to an officer. "Bring a half dozen of your men and return with me to my palace. There we will gather up the people and what necessary things that will be needed. The other men of yours are to remain here to secure Nidgha and prepare the crew for our departure."

It was well past dark by the time the governor's wagons and carriages made their way through the gates to the palace harbor. By now, even the palace guards had abandoned their posts, leaving the harbor grounds to Thaladies' guards. After seeing to necessary business there, the governor took again to the trail with some of his men. True, Atlantis' gold was beyond his reach, but there was still one other item of great value that might win him the throne if he should be able to obtain it... the Obelisk of Zeussah.

Taking three of his trusted guards along with him, Thaladies hurried his way across the greens that separated the boathouses from the king's palace, which sat on a low promontory about two furlongs' distance. Making their way up the wide, carved stone steps that rose from the greens to the palace's north portico, the party soon found themselves hastening toward the grand staircase that led up to the king's throne room.

The palace was deathly quiet, not a soul to be seen anywhere, no guards, no servants, no one. Artificial lighting revealed that it had apparently been ransacked, not by the wild crowds from the city below, but by servants and slaves after the guards had abandoned the place. Litter and broken statuary along with discarded items tossed aside by the looters were scattered all about. Yet for the most part, little other damage had been done. The palace was now a royal example of the city itself, that is, had the peoples of Atlanticia been able to make escape as easily from it as had those done from the palace. Even at this late hour, the chaotic tumult from the city streets below echoed across the palace's empty rooms.

Nearly afraid to speak aloud for fear that the spirits might hear, Thaladies motioned for his guards to follow him as he proceeded up the royal staircase and into the great hall, the grand waiting room where those who wished to have a word with the king would gather and wait for an audience. Stopping at the top of the stairs, the governor looked about, seeing no guards or servants and, except for the cold, dim glow of the artificial lights burning high in the ceiling, no blazing torches or crackling flames in the huge fireplaces that usually warmed the hall and chased away ghostly shadows.

The foreboding darkness of the grand hall drew their attention to the dancing, golden glow of burning blazes coming from the throne room. Someone must still be in the palace to keep those fires burning, but whom? At a word, Thaladies and his guards slowly made their way to the opened, double-leaved doors that would deliver them to their destination.

Nidgha sat quietly upon the king's throne, a smile of satisfaction on her face. She was queen of Atlantis, ruler over all the world, or might as well be. Alone she was, commanding her private universe, void of usurpers and intruders. Her evil siblings were now hidden away in the abomination growing within her. She would soon settle accounts with them for good. No longer could they torture her with their vile threats, nor could they force the woman to act in debased and evil ways, for as long as she did not touch her belly, they could not reach her mind. At last only she, Nidgha, the little child who only wanted to be loved, was a free woman to do as she pleased, with no husband, necromancer or wicked sisters able to control her.

The palace was empty, or nearly so. After Nidgha relieved the guards of their duties, the house servants and slaves soon took to the streets, seeking escape from the city's coming wrath, absconding with whatever treasures they could easily carry away. Nidgha cared not. She could see the coming doom in her mind as clearly as the Dragons had in theirs. It mattered little where one fled if by ship they could not make hasty escape. Those who took to the roads toward the south or west were already as good as dead. In her mind, she watched the nearing destruction of this world as though it had already happened.

Nidgha closed her eyes, satisfied. She saw herself not the evil monster that Isabella was. She had not perpetrated those murders and crimes against so many innocent souls! It was Isabella and her conspiring sisters who had murdered Sabrina, Nidgha's dearest companion, and it was Isabella who made Nidgha do all those other terrible things that hurt her and others so badly. Now Nidgha, the good little child, sat the throne of Atlantis. She would be the wise and kindly ruler over its people, already had done so.

By order of the queen, all of Dungie's household, his secondary wives, concubines, and domestics, had been sent away to escape with Chuphoe and his people, Nidgha's queenly written authority keeping his road of escape open. It made her feel good, happy, having made the man provost general over all of Atlantis' holdings and peoples throughout the worlds of men, acting in the king's stead until his return, and then binding its legality with her queenly seal. She smiled in satisfaction. The man had the gold of Atlantis, the Obelisk of Zeussah, King Dungie's wives, and now the binding authority to deliver to the world New Atlantis. But he would not... not Chuphoe. He would stay true to his word and allow the kingdom to wither away into forgotten nothingness.

The man also had Juliet. Nidgha's heart ached with the desire to have been Chuphoe's Juliet. She would have willingly suffered a thousand times what Juliet had at the hands of her tyrannical masters to have been able to trade places with the woman. Ha! A thousand times the torture and abuse would have been nothing compared to the obscene maltreatment she had received from her guardians, those who were supposed to love and care for her, but instead had torn her soul, body and spirit asunder to satisfy the cravings of their own flesh. She laughed. Her father, ZeeBoam, would harm no other child or ever again surrender up one born of his own flesh to another for sadistic rape and torture. The fish should make a good meal of him. That is, if the fish could stomach the man...

Noisy footfall of hardened shoes on polished stone drew Nidgha's attention to the double doors of the throne room. The woman looked over to see a shocked Thaladies staring at her. She grinned, summoning the man forward. "Why, Governor, you I was expecting, but not this night, for it was yester-eve that my visions told me of your coming." She laughed, "Was a humping ride given you by a witch an acceptable price to pay for the loss of a kingdom grand?"

Confused and fearful, not knowing if a guard might be hiding close by, Thaladies bowed low, extending his hands, palms up, in humble salutation. "My Queen, your servant, I..."

Nidgha interrupted Thaladies, her words cold and harsh. "I know why you are here and what you seek to steal from me. Should you have come this last eve, either by force or by smooth words, you might well have succeeded in attaining your treasures. Look and see..." she pointed toward the shattered sarcophagus, "Someone else has your treasure sought, and gotten it ahead of you."

Without thinking, Thaladies rushed over and bent low, staring at the ruined sarcophagus and the broken obelisk. Reaching down and picking up some of the shattered pieces on the floor, he held them close to his breast, looking up at Nidgha with distraught eyes. "My Queen, is all hope now lost? Is the hour of the crow truly upon us? Or can this be mended and set right again?"

Laughing aloud, Nidgha chided Thaladies, "What you see is the empty soul of the kingdom. The man who tread these chambers this last eve has taken for his own pleasure the heart, gold, and royal authority of this kingdom, I being forced to place in his hand a sealed script declaring him provost general, serving in the king's stead. Should his ship ever reach its fated shores, then he will choose as he wishes the future of this world.

Thaladies cried out forlorn, "Then Zhadrehaudous was here this yester-eve?"

Nidgha looked up as though in thought. "Zhadrehaudous? Hmmm? Zhadrehaudous was a real schemer, wasn't he, always wishing to steal what was his not to possess. He attempted to steal that Juliet away, you know, caring not for your desires. She did escape from him in the end, her husband being quite jealous over her. Let me warn you, the old general does not play well when his dander is up, and someone threatening his trophy girl will quickly raise his ire. Oh well, Zhadrehaudous did manage to get to sea. Where he is now is beyond my vision."

Thaladies began to quietly mourn the loss of his treasures as well as a growing feeling of despair for never again being able to bask in the sweet romance of either of the witch Dragons, Juliet or Odethbethel.

Nidgha leaned back in the king's seat, closing her eyes in quiet repose. "Take for yourself whatever you might find remaining here as payment for your service to the king." Sitting up, she reached for a sealed parchment, commanding Thaladies to take it. "I am sure you will find this all in order, should anyone request of you the reason for possessing the king's property."

With trembling hands, Thaladies carefully broke the seal and opened the parchment. Written inside, by the queen's own hand, was authorization giving the governor legal title to the king's pleasure ship, Nidgha. In surprised wonder, the man looked up at his queen.

Nidgha smiled sadly. "A wicked man you are, and have always been, but death on this wretched island is not mine to mete out to you. May the gods choose your future fate... Remember this night, for undeserved kindness has been shown to a vile, pitiable miscreant who deserves far less than the gifts he has dispensed to the weak and innocent."

She pointed toward the northern window. "Only one favor do I ask of you, and that is to return the ship's name, Drifter, to it before you depart this world, as you will find described in your legal script. I wish that other name to be ever forgotten by the worlds of men, so that as a stranger my soul may one day wander the nether-regions in blissful innocence, absolved of all the evil Nidgha has committed."

Thaladies bowed low in reverential respect. "My queenly lady..."

Nidgha closed her eyes, resting her head on the back of the king's chair. "Now, quickly, be at your business and leave me. I am tired and need my rest."

Thaladies dutifully obeyed, he and his guards hurriedly scooping up pieces of the broken obelisk and whatever other items of value that were easily carried away. In a little while they were scampering across the greens, arms laden down with sacks of priceless treasures from the throne room. Obedient to the queen's final request, the governor ordered the ship's name changed while others readied it for sea. In little over an hour, the renamed ship, Drifter, was sailing toward the northern bay's harbor mouth.

As he stood on the ship's deck, Thaladies pondered where he should set sail for. If Zhadrehaudous did make the Southlands' shores, it would certainly not be a wise choice to follow him there, not when he possessed all the powers and treasures of Atlantis. Better it would be for him to seek the southern lands beyond the isles of Africa and the glory of Egypt. Madagascar might serve him well. It was a prosperous land, filled with wine, song, and beautiful women. He shook his head in disappointment thinking about the loss of his two favorite enchantresses, but he still had a barn full of heifers and younglings to enjoy. It was also said that the women of Madagascar were among the most beautiful and alluring in all the lands of men.

'Well,' he thought, smiling, 'They just might make due in a pinch.' He reached into the pocket of his robe, jingling the twenty gold shekels left him by Odethbethel for winning his bet with that fox, Chuphoe, his face saddening. "True, but will I ever again find another woman worth this much gold?"

### * * *

Please forgive this spinner of tales as he wanders from adventure's path. And should the reader choose to pass this story by, in no way will it affect the overall substance of the Haudenosaunez account.

Other than for a possible mention or two in passing, ChuphoeTobanahazz fades from history's light, his part in this adventure over, or possibly so. True, his indirect influence over men and nations continues on down to this day...possibly. One son, born of Tasimbha in Chuphoe's later years, eventually made his way to the early home of his father in Egypt, in time marrying into the Hebrew clan. That is a tale to share at a later time. Yet what history has failed to preserve about this man, Chuphoe, is well worth telling. So attempt it I will.

Chuphoe eventually made his way into the lands of the Phoenicians, to a Theranian city ruled over by GishopHigamie and his wife, CarthageTarshish, the city later renamed in memory of Gishop's wife. There he remained with his family and greater household until the birthing of his and Juliet's daughter, they naming the girl 'SuNidghaSungSei' meaning 'Nidgha's rescue'.

From there he departed with his people to Malta at the behest of Gishop to barter a treaty with the Atlantician navy harbored there. Chuphoe remained on Malta after completion of the treaty of alliance which absorbed the Atlantician and Phoenician peoples into one nation by creating a new sovereign state in the Shemion Sea. The Phoenician clans controlling the Atlantean Sea, although allying themselves with this new state, retained their own, more western-style sovereign identity, dialects, and customs, serving as Gishop's ambassador until the seven years of famine came to their end.

From there, Chuphoe made his way to Cyprus where he eventually built a palatial residence in the hills overlooking its northern coast, settling down for the remainder of his days, raising the children born to him by his many wives and lovers.

Chuphoe would not tolerate any form of servitude or ownership of others, including concubinage or forced marriage. All the people working on his estate were paid servants and free to leave if they so chose. Marriage was a legal act that Chuphoe cared little about, but granted to women he desired to have in his life if they so wished it. Chuphoe also continued to care for the wives of Javan and Dungie who wanted to remain with him.

Several children were born to Chuphoe over the following years, some growing up to be princes and mighty men and women, others becoming scalawags and scoundrels, more than one at the end of a hangman's noose for foul deeds committed. Whatever they might have become, each and every one of them loved their father and he loved them.

This is a list of the children born to Chuphoe after his leaving Atlanticia. Juliet bore him three sons and two daughters. Odethbethel bore him two sons and a daughter, the woman being over one hundred summers at the time of her final birthing. Marta gave to him four daughters. FooShii birthed for Chuphoe a son and a daughter. Tasimbha bore two sons and two daughters to him in his later years. Star gave him a son. From Dungie's former wives and concubines there were born eight sons and twelve daughters. Other relationships produced another eight children. And from Noahashonie, in the man's advanced years, a daughter was born. All these were the children of Chuphoe, whose blood runs in the veins of countless progeny down to this day.

Generous and open was the hand of Chuphoe during his residence in Cyprus. The man lived a simple life, for a rich man that is. It was said that the entire populace of the island suffered no poverty during his lifetime. No honest man was ever turned away from Chuphoe's table and no war veteran seeking his face, whichever side he fought on, ever departed his company without receiving a generous gift from him. It was also told that the king of Cyprus held Chuphoe in great esteem and sought his advice on several matters.

Rumor also has it that a great deal of wealth managed to make its way from Chuphoe's hand into King Gishop's, thus strengthening the power of the Phoenicians and forcing a tacit peace between many of the other seafaring nations. Whatever the case, the wealth of Egypt and the Phoenicians grew rapidly during this time. Chuphoe invested heavily in Phoenician trade, paying for the construction of several merchant ships, even investing in the Atlantician shipping guilds. Indeed, it was said that Rae Tomassie and Chuphoe eventually entered into a trade agreement creating a secret guild called the 'House of Mariner' that clandestinely operates down to this day.

Chuphoe lived far into his nineties, his vitality not diminished before taking sick with a fever and passing quickly. The king of Cyprus ordered a day of mourning when news of Chuphoe's death reached his ears. The man's funeral celebration lasted for thirty days, his wives, children, and close acquaintances going about the countryside naked and covered in ashes for the entire time. Juliet took her husband's death harder than most, being inconsolable for months. So deep was her love for this man that by her intimate companions she is still addressed as 'Lady Tobanahazz' in greeting.

As news of Chuphoe's death spread throughout the region of the Shemion, kings and dignitaries made the long journey to Cyprus to pay their respects. Then there were the hundreds of veterans who served under Chuphoe's command that traveled to offer their condolences, tell their stories, and leave a token gift at their former general's memorial.

One day, three aged men slowly made their way up the rise to the memorial mound of their former general and friend, to lay a wreath upon his tomb. Long they had journeyed, one coming from as far away as Spain. Together they sang their praises and laments. As the sun slowly sank behind the distant mountains, PooHatten, Kufi, and a former young army officer stood in silence, staring at words written upon the stone placed outside the tomb's entrance. Together, the three men turned, retracing their steps, each man reliving personal memories from a time long ago and a place far away when the general had changed forever his life. Tomorrow they, too, would journey upon their captain's road. But today they would lift the glass in celebration of the future he had given to them.

On another, later day, an old man hobbled up the hill to pay his respects, his travels having brought him here all the way from the distant island of Madagascar. Curiosity grew on his face when long-forgotten memories awoke in the old man's mind, as he read the message carved upon Chuphoe's tombstone:

' _Chuphoe Tobanahazz,_

General over the grand army of Pharaoh AnahNakaNoah,

Chief counselor to the king

And by order of the queen, provost general,

The last king of Atlantis'

The old man began to laugh. He reached into his robe, placing twenty shekels of gold in front of the tombstone, chuckling, "No, my friend, I think you have won in the end."

### * * *

A gentle morning breeze wafted across the bow of General Nuefange's battle galley, the commander of the Atlantician fleet staring south toward the Egyptian shore little more than two leagues away. For years he had waited for this day, fought bloody battles to make this day happen, had surrendered up his son to the witch Dragon queen, Asterzoni, to make this day possible. Now he pondered the value of all his efforts, the loss of life of so many thousands of brave, loyal soldiers and sailors, seeing that this mighty fleet of formidable warships might be the last remnant of Atlantis' great empire.

News had only just arrived concerning King Dungie's defeat at the hands of the great Dragon witch, Noahashonie, and her faithful Iamrussians, his fate not yet known to the general. This was accompanied by reports of uprisings across the empire by vassal kingdoms that had grudgingly joined the Atlantician Alliance. News was also that ShumonuamKasbar, king of Spain, was killed in warring, and the ruler over Casluhim, King AaHam, had been overthrown in a coup, and that the new ruler was withdrawing his naval support. Indeed, it was believed he had already sent emissaries north to curry favor with the Black Angel, her ruthless exploits already chilling the bones of many of the woman's former antagonists.

General Nuefange realized that even should he force a successful bridgehead on Egyptian soil, armies now under his command would be the only ones available to complete his conquest.

Then there was the blackening pall that hung over the northern skies. Thera was already smoking when the general's fleet departed. Now it appeared that the dark mass in the north was not an approaching early winter storm, but Hades' fires set aflame on the island belching Hell's smoke high into the sky. There were several thousand military personnel stationed there, all trapped if someone did not come to their rescue. He could not trust for sure where Admiral Noahha might be at the moment, so he must attempt that rescue himself.

Looking with resigned dismay at the Egyptian shores, he turned to his headman, ordering the ship about and to signal the fleet to do likewise. Malta was heavily secured by the Atlantician military. It would be a safe haven should the world turn against him. First he must make an attempt to rescue his people from Thera, should the sea demons decide to unleash their fury against it. Sending his sailors west to make for Malta, the general ordered the galleys up, with sails full and men bending the oars to make haste for Thera. By late afternoon, the last of the Atlantician ships had disappeared over the horizon, leaving the seas in front of Egypt empty of their presence.

Zaphenathpaneah and Pharaoh TitanAmactony stood along the battlement of the coastal lighthouse, staring out to sea. Titan finally broke the silence. "In all my days, I would have never believed this would really happen. Had the words not come from the goddess queen mother, Aphrodite, I doubt I would even believe it now."

Zaphenathpaneah quietly agreed, his wonder at seeing the Atlantician fleet withdraw from these shores nearly as great as Pharaoh's.

Looking around, Titan spoke in a hush, "Well, I guess it's time to give the signal."

Zaphenathpaneah could only nod his assent.

Throughout the coastal cities and the entire land of Lower Goshen, people took to the roads in their loaded carts or on foot, leaving forever their lifelong homes, believing the words of Aphrodite that the sea would soon swallow up the worlds of men, and the oceans would eat up their wonderful works until satisfied they had become in their growing pains. Today the ocean before them was called the Shemion Sea. Tomorrow men would rename it the 'Great Sea'. Far in the depths below, Neptune laughed in derision at the puniness of men and all their wonderful creations.

### * * *

By the time General Nuefange arrived at Thera, Admiral Noahha was already busy with an evacuation. When one of his ships was filled and made ready to depart, he would send it away, not wanting to risk unnecessary lives should conditions deteriorate unexpectedly. After conferring with General Nuefange, it was determined that Noahha should continue with his rescue operations as planned and then depart with the last of his fleet. Nuefange would be doing the same as Noahha by sending away his ships piecemeal in order to reduce risk to the fleet and save lives, remaining behind, taking charge until the last of the military and any civilians wishing to leave Thera were safely on board his ships.

Throughout the day and late into the evening the admiral hurried people from the smaller lighters and dinghies to the decks of his battle galleys. Ever vigilant the work crews were, clearing the drifting, snow-like gray ash from the ships. Already several feet of heavy, pumice-like flakes had fallen in some places, crushing roofs of island structures and sinking or overturning untended boats. Visibility was down to little over half a mile and at times even less. Noahha had stationed boats with lanterns off to the west for several miles to provide direction to the helmsmen as they navigated their ships and passengers away from this growing disaster.

Finally, at just before midnight, Noahha shook hands with General Nuefange, departing for his battle galley, King Philip, wishing him the blessing of the gods. By the beginning of the morning watch the admiral was sailing past the lighted ships as he attempted to make a night crossing into the Shemion Sea in the thick, ash-filled breeze. "Put your backs into it or the fish may have us for breakfast!" Noahha shouted to the rowing crews. "There are no sails until we're out of this mess. The faster we move, the sooner you get to rest."

It was long after daybreak before the oarsmen could lean back and take some sleep, Noahha ordering up the giant sails on his three-masted galley. The man looked around with satisfaction at the hundreds of soot-covered crew and passengers sitting the decks. If the winds held, they might well make twenty more leagues by nightfall, and another thirty before tomorrow's sunrise. Off to the east the sky hung heavy with ominous gray clouds, streaks of lightning shooting in and out of frightening angry masses rising up to the heavens. Behind him, near the horizon, the admiral could see two more ships, possibly three. Hoping there were many more closely following them, he silently said a little prayer to his gods, asking for their mercy to be shown his fellow countrymen still attempting escape from Hell's furnace.

### * * *

Noahashonie crouched down beside the low bed, gently swabbing HuushBonn's forehead with a wet cloth. Saddened she was to see that the old man had chosen this day to depart their world. She told him how greatly he was to be missed, his counsel at the moot hall fires being sorely longed for.

HuushBonn smiled weakly as he looked about at his family and close acquaintances, and then finally at Noah. "My child, Iam has chosen a day for me that is filled with peace and tranquility, something I have so wished for, to leave this world in peace. The war against evil you have won for us, and the saving of our people you have seen to. Tomorrow...hmmm... tomorrow is for the young to struggle with, for you to struggle with. Tempestuous it will be, full of dread and woe, even for the righteous. Remember those coming times well, so that you can relate them to me when we sit by future fires in the after days." He gripped Noah's hand and coughed then spoke no more.

The funeral procession was great as countless mourners followed HuushBonn's wrapped body up into the mountains above the people's dwelling caves. There would be no burning this day, the old Dragon requesting no grand celebration into his death. 'Life...' he often said, 'is the celebration worth remembering, death merely the road all must take if future's journey is to be later found. Live your life to the full with joyous celebration, but allow your death to pass into the shadows unannounced and with little fanfare.'

With loving, tender care, Noah and the people laid HuushBonn's body so that he faced toward the west, the homeland of his birth and life. After saying a few words of adoration over him, Noah laid a large stone beside the man's body and walked away, permitting another to do the same. Throughout the day, people great and small delivered to the gravesite stones of differing hues and size until a huge mound covered the remains of the old Dragon. Last of his kind he was, few remaining to carry on his ways. Oh, yes, there were some who stood beside Noah that were still called 'Dragons', but none with the powers that HuushBonn had, and none who could conjure up dreams and visions like he could.

Noah held Swalhawena tight in her arms, the women standing naked throughout the day as other mourners paid their respects to a man they so dearly loved and revered. Already Noah's pregnancy was visible but none spoke of it, rumors having spread that this was a cursed child carried by the will of their queen to deliver a blessing to a future people at a far distant time. Even now the name 'Desmond' was whispered in hushed conversations in the quiet by evening's hearth fires, or when men with their lovers cuddled under heavy fur robes. The people silently wondered and feared what the birth of this child might well bode for them. Noah, too, wondered.

Yet this day there were other more pressing issues that drew attention away from Noah and her future birthing. Off to the north, hanging low on the horizon, a light could be seen, its brightness greater than that of the harvest moon and ever-growing in power by the hour. What exactly it was, no one knew, but a harbinger of coming destruction they were sure it was. Noah was aware of the exact hour of its arrival and had sent heralds out across the land warning the people to hide themselves from it. "Do not be caught outside in the open when it strikes, for like a raging inferno of ash and fire it may well sweep past you. Survive you may if deep within the earth and pits you hide until it passes you by."

Come nightfall, the celebration into HuushBonn's death was finished. Many of the people making this cave their home now sat about in the evening air, looking to the star-filled sky as meals were prepared in small fire-pits. It was a pleasantly warm evening for late fall, early snows long melted, driven away by strong southern breezes. Noah sat cross-legged beside Swalhawena, both women allowing their daughters to refresh themselves with milk that still flowed from full breasts. Even Meric, when the mood was upon him, would seek out Noah or Dresden should opportunity permit, neither woman fussing when he requested to suckle. Indeed, for many men of these clans during this age, the milk of cattle was for sours and cheeses, drinking only from their lovers' wells that same fresh liquid refreshment...nature's elixir.

As the two women quietly sat, Noah's mother, Zambiadoo, and younger siblings were preparing the family dinner. Noah looked off toward the west, her voice filled with concern. "My visions tell me that great will be the destruction in the lands that I and my people currently reside in, but lives shall be spared because we have heeded the warning of our mother, Aphrodite, and done the will of Iam. Yet it is not here where the power of the gods shall be exhausted, but in the world of our sister, Tuosolmerica, and those who have remained behind in that land. Should it be so bad here that we will fear for our lives, how will our sister fare when Heaven's wrath is hurled upon her?"

Swalhawena took Noah's hand. "My sister, I do not know, but trust in the power of Iam I must. He has saved this people from certain destruction. He rescued me from the wrath of Dungie when you made escape into the north, and he has blessed us with knowledge and wisdom so that we and our people might continue to live. I trust that he will do the same for our Sister of the Blood. Is she not more deserving than either you or I to have the Woman in the Whispering Waters care for her?" She peered into Noah's eyes. "In our visions this night, let us dream of our sister's rescue so that the Woman in the Whispering Waters will listen to our pleas to have her saved alive through this coming darkness and into future days. Let us dream that our passion is to be again in her arms so that we may soften the Woman's face, and it might come to be so."

Noah smiled, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Yes, let it be as you have said. Tonight, when our young ones sleep, we... you and me... shall go back up the mountain and lie beside HuushBonn's memorial to dream dreams and offer visions to the Woman in the Whispering Waters, begging her to save our sisters from the approaching wrath. Maybe she will listen to our voices and rescue our sister, Tuosol, and your sister, Tosombabanna, alive and well."

Far across the Atlantean Sea, high up in the hills overlooking Ausalmerica, Tuosolmerica gazed into the northern sky. From here she could see the glow of the fast-approaching light. Soon, very soon it would arrive, unleashing all its destructive fury upon the hills and valleys of this land far to the south and even further into the north past the Ice Mountains. The messengers she had sent out at the end of summer were finally returning, often bringing back dismal reports.

Long had been the years of plenty, and those not taking to the Eastern Sea soon forgot Tuosol's warnings, desiring to listen to the whimsical prattle of the Hormaxian priests. They preached that the evil god Iam was a jealous god, and wished to destroy the works of men, as he had done once in the distant past, but Zeussah and his faithful Hormaxian priesthood had thwarted Iam's plans by building such an empire that even Iam could not bring it down. Why, over the entire inhabited earth, the power of Atlantis reigned. Rumors of King Dungie's defeat in the east were just that - rumors to scare the weak-minded into abandoning their true ruler, Zeussah.

Then there were the others who still gave lip service to the God of their forefathers, Noah and Japheth, but were too busy enjoying the good life to bother with some pronouncement of coming doom. Dancing Stones had died many years before and nothing yet had happened. The land had overflowed with every good thing, and the forests and valleys teemed with game. The rivers ran wild with every form of fish, clams, and creeping crayfish. It was still a time of plenty, every mouth being satisfied to the limit. They would keep a weather eye out for bad times, but otherwise...

Some of the people from the army who marched into southern lands with Dungie had returned home with Hormaxian teachings that there were many gods, demons, and spirits that demanded to be worshiped. So to carved images and to the revering of stones and trees many people had fallen, their belief in One Being to be worshiped forgotten. So, for many the name 'Iam' meant nothing, other than for a story to tell the little ones at bedtime. As this evil had grown among men, so had the violence among them, and also abuse of women, many men forcing their wives into little more than servant roles. It was true that even some of the people who had labored to store foodstuffs in the high mountain caves chose not to leave the comfortable dwellings and countless possessions for the protection of those 'cold, drafty, caverns'.

On the last day before departing for her mountain sanctuary, her assistants already walling up the cave's entrance in preparation for the coming storm, Tuosol approached the older men of the city of Ausalmerica, begging them to encourage the remaining inhabitants of that city to flee away with her to the mountain hideaways. Pointing toward the north, she warned, "Even now death and destruction approaches this world! We must escape and hide ourselves away in our innermost rooms until that hour has passed. The light you see is a harbinger of death, and it will soon be upon us all."

With rude and obscene speech, the people told her to go up to her God and leave them be, some of the people even threatening violence if she did not leave, the older men shouting, "The light is our High Lord Zeussah come to deliver us into his glory. Be off with you, you despoiler of virgins and slayer of innocent souls!"

Sadly, with only a handful of people who listened to Tuosol's warnings, she and Tosombabanna led them from the city and high up into one of the mountain caves and caverns that had been prepared to save multitudes. So discouraged the woman was to see how few believed her, listening instead to the sweet refrains of the Serpent's host.

As she stood at the narrow entrance of the deep cave that led far into the mountain, Tosombabanna approached, taking her hand. "Come," she pleaded, gently stroking Tuosol's arm, "please, my Queen. Our queen, does not the faithful devotion of us few make your heart rejoice to overflowing? By your own mouth you told me that if but one person might gain life through your sacrifice, blessed you would be. Look! Many are the caves and sanctuaries that have been constructed in these mountains. Without number are the souls who have listened to your voice. Come and take refreshment with those who love what you have done for them, and leave the fools to wallow in their own excrement."

Tuosol smiled, kissing Tosombabanna on the lips. "Such a loyal companion you have proved to be these many long years, keeping my bed warm at night and singing lilting songs for my heart when the morose mood comes upon me. Yes, yes, you're so right. Blessed I have become by the many who have entered into my house of rescue. Let us hope that Iam will remember us in this coming evil hour."

Hand in hand, the two women stepped back into the ghostly shadows of a lamp-lit cavern, men waiting at the entrance, hurrying to stop up the passage until only a crawlspace remained for outer access. There the women huddled along with the others beside small fires deep within the bowels of the lonely mountain, waiting for the world's ending, with hope of seeing the morning sunrise at its new birthing.

### * * *

Atlanticia was nearly unrecognizable when Dungie's tall ship ponderously slid past the ruins of what once was the city's outer harbor works. Several smaller earthquakes had shaken the weaker stone and brick structures, collapsing them into the harbor. Fires created during the numerous riots had also burned up countless dwellings, warehouses, and public buildings across the city. Entire neighborhoods were now little more than smoldering rubble. Mobs still rampaged through the city, stealing and destroying everything and anything that remained to be taken or looted. There were even several half-submerged ships still tied up along the quays, angry mobs refusing to allow anyone passage if they were denied it. There were a few ships still afloat, their sails filled in an attempt to escape the city, Dungie's ship the only one going the other way.

Bypassing the main harbors, Dungie ordered his ship into the northern estuary, making for the king's docks. It soon became obvious that even the king's property had not escaped the violent storm that had swept the city. Burned to the water were boat docks and whatever boats and ships that may have been secured within. Litter and destruction were everywhere, statues smashed, trash strewn about, walls tumbled and gates torn from their posts. There were even dead bodies left to decompose out on the greens.

Bringing the ship up to the stony remains of the burned-out docks, the headman hove to with lines, tying the ship to the shore. While Dungie took care of official business, ZaphipheRa hurried off toward the great Hormaxian temple that stood just off to the east of the palace. There was little time to lose if he wished to make escape before this city and all with it went up in fire and smoke. There was no doubt that all the gold and silver remaining in the treasury and temples had already been looted, and that bastard, Rapadies, was long departed, absconding with any valuables that he could carry off. But there was still one treasure hidden in this city that could promise ZaphipheRa lasting power and glory.

A clue came to him when Tripshaddies, his apprentice priest, had delivered Isabella just before his departure with Dungie these many months ago. A cryptic message that he had at first paid little attention to hinted that another person had reached down into Nidgha's soul to hide secrets in her. 'So who is my master that I should reveal the Heart of Atlantis to?'

It was only later when ZaphipheRa was far across the Atlantean Sea that he realized only Zeussah would have had the key to unlock Isabella from her prison without ZaphipheRa's knowledge and permission. Why? The Heart of Atlantis? Then it had finally dawned on him. The obelisk in the crystal sarcophagus was a counterfeit, the real one hidden secretly, and only Isabella being given knowledge of its true whereabouts. Now he must find Tripshaddies in hopes the young priest was still in the city. He should be, having been promised escape aboard ZaphipheRa's private sky-ship that was securely housed on the mainland just beyond Atlanticia's walls. He hoped that his secret message sent by the Speaking Stones before Rapadies stole it made it to the right ears. He need not have feared.

Suddenly the ground began to shake, the temblor lasting only a few seconds and causing little damage. Looking up toward the promontory, ZaphipheRa saw a robed man waving at him. Tripshaddies had been watching Dungie's ship slowly make its way against the wind as it struggled toward the king's docks. Standing beside the young apprentice were two black-robed, priestly guards. As he watched his old mentor climb up the hillock toward the east palace steps, he ran forward to offer an enthusiastic embrace.

Holding ZaphipheRa by the arms, Tripshaddies grinned, "My Lord, I had feared the worst for you, but continued my vigil in hopes that you might yet arrive on this day's tide. Now I see my reward has come to its full."

ZaphipheRa smiled, thanking his servant for his faithfulness. Pulling him toward the palace, he asked about the sky-ship. "Do we still have a means of escape from this awful place?"

Tripshaddies answered reassuringly, "Oh yes, my master. I have taken liberty to move your sky-ship to its docking pad. All you must do is re-fire the sparking drive and open the doors beneath the temple so that we may take our leave."

Still pulling Tripshaddies along, ZaphipheRa complimented the man for his forethought. Then ordering the guards to stand the doors, he hurried his faithful apprentice into the palace. "We have business first to attend to. Take this." He handed him a crystalline pill. "We have no time to gather your arousal through charming endearments. You must be ready at any moment."

Tripshaddies faithfully took the pill, swallowing it quickly. ZaphipheRa went on praising the young man for all his faithful service. "So good and loyal a soldier you have been. This one last deed shall your greatest be for me."

Beaming from his mentor's compliments, Tripshaddies thanked his master for such kindness. ZaphipheRa smiled sadly. It was too bad that the boy must never leave the palace. This treasure he was seeking was far too valuable for another soul to have any knowledge of. Soon they were up the grand staircase and standing in the great hall. Empty the building was, cold and dark, that is except for a golden glow coming from the throne room. The two men cautiously approached, walking up the last of the steps that led to great, leaved doors, giving them entrance.

As they entered, a voice called out to them, "Please, my loving grandfather, come in. Your child awaits you."

ZaphipheRa stepped forward, Tripshaddies staying close by his side. "Nidgha? Is that my darling little Nidgha who calls out to me?"

Nidgha looked up, smiling innocently, her eyes glazed over in passionate thought. "Why...why, yes it might be. Was it someone other than me who you were hoping to have greet you?"

Surprised, ZaphipheRa hesitated. "No...no, my darling child. Who else might I be expecting other than my darling little granddaughter?" He continued to slowly draw closer.

"Why, Grandfather, I thought you might wish to speak to someone other than me." She stood, facing him, her body covered in blood, a blade of polished steel in her hand. Pointing at the queen's chair, she commented, "I had expected you might be seeking the face of my darling sister, Isabella, and the others."

Puzzled at the revelation that Nidgha knew about her alter-egos, ZaphipheRa glanced toward the queen's seat, gasping in shock. There, lying on the blood-soaked chair were the dismembered remains of Nidgha's newborn baby girl.

Nidgha laughed like a woman gone mad. "Isabella always wished to be queen. Now she and her sisters sit the throne of this condemned city..." She pointed at ZaphipheRa and Tripshaddies, "and the court jesters stand before her in all their resplendent glory."

Stepping up close to her grandfather, Nidgha grinned sinisterly, "A gift to the man who made me what I am... Hell waits for us all, but for you, may your journey to the boatman be long and wretched!"

ZaphipheRa saw the knife in Nidgha's hand flash up before his eyes, the next second it being plunged into Tripshaddies' heart. As the man stumbled backward, finally falling dead upon the floor, ZaphipheRa glanced back at Nidgha, an expression of gloating victory on her face.

"What...?" The word was no sooner out of his mouth when ZaphipheRa heard a plop! Looking down, he saw his innards splattered on the floor, the remainder hanging from his belly, then stared at Nidgha in confused bewilderment.

Nidgha laughed maniacally, "May your journey to Hell's boatman be long and consumed in wretchedness!"

Grabbing his belly, the man fell to his knees, unable to speak.

Stepping back, Nidgha exclaimed, "The road to Hell is paved with many evil intentions. May Iam have mercy upon my soul. But for you, may the demons ever consume you and Hades' worms slowly eat up your filth! Gone are your glory, your might, and your power. To another has the Heart of Atlantis gone, and to you belongs only the hopeless never-land of eternity's darkness!"

The woman stepped back and began to turn about. "Now die alone, in the same emptiness that you have left my heart." She walked away, disappearing behind the curtains, her echoing footfall drifting off into the silent shadows.

Rolling ground shocks from the last earthquake created dangerous swells that hammered the docks, threatening Dungie's ship. The headman and crew were forced to heave off lines and pull out into deeper waters. Dungie remained aboard until the ship was safely anchored further out in the harbor then was forced to wait until a dinghy could be rowed out to get him to shore, it taking the turning twice of an hourglass before he disembarked for the palace. Telling the headman to prepare for departure as soon as they returned, Dungie and a few of his trusted guards took to the little boat. After reaching shore, Dungie rushed toward the palace.

Hurrying across the greens, he was nearing the rock-hewn staircase leading up to the north palace entrance when he looked up to see Nidgha standing in the tower above the queens' chambers. Before he could call out to her, a blinding, white light flashed across the sky, quickly followed by a deep rumbling that slammed the air like an angry hammer blow.

Hearing a cry, Dungie looked up in time to see Nidgha falling from the window, pitching headlong into and through the crystal roof of the north portico, crashing face down onto the stone pavement below. Screaming out Nidgha's name, he rushed up the staircase in a panic.

Nidgha lay face down on the stones, her luxuriant hair spread out covering her head, soaking up the blood that was slowly pooling on the pavement. Dressed in her royal finery, the queenly crown still secured upon her, the woman appeared more like a broken doll that had been haphazardly cast aside by a careless child.

Tears streaming down his face, Dungie ran over to Nidgha, dropping onto his knees and scooping her up in his arms. Sobbing Nidgha's name, the king of Atlantis wept a flood of tears as he softly stroked the woman's face. Slowly an eye opened, Nidgha looking up into her husband's eyes. Her lips began to quiver, attempting to speak, but no words could come. With the last of her strength, she reached up, taking Dungie's hand.

It was as if all the world's deeds, past and future, good, bad, and evil, melted together, frozen in this one moment of time, lost forever to all men except the two souls who held each other in love's embrace. Fools may ever judge the guilt or innocence of a man or woman because of the acts committed for wealth, power, and glory. But a wise lawyer would say in a time still future and a place so far away, 'It is because they love, and the evil that has been done was because of love, there is still hope that all is not lost. Because love keeps the soul alive, it hopes all things, and believes all things.'

As Dungie held Nidgha securely in his arms, the ground began to violently shake. In seconds, the entire palace came crashing down around them in a mountain of rubble. Before the astonished headman could order lines cast off, the entire harbor began to rise out of the water, the ocean fleeing in its madness. Those in ships far beyond the harbor watched in horror as the entire island of Atlanticia rose skyward before exploding in a steaming cloud of fiery ash. In seconds, a firestorm was racing ever outward across the sea, consuming everything afloat within twenty leagues of the city in its fiery rage, the explosive rupture heard over a thousand miles away.

The hole blown in the planet by the super volcano was over a mile deep and eight miles wide, sending a wall of water across the sea that was still over eighty cubits high when it reached the shores of Spain. For days, the ocean violently rolled back and forth, continually smashing into distant shores, destroying lives and forever sinking cities and kingdoms in its watery tomb. Neptune roared with laughter at watching the works of puny men being consumed in such a cataclysm. Yet this was but the beginning of the ruin that was to come upon men.

At this very hour, General Nuefange was making his way west from Thera with the last of the survivors of that wasted island. Suddenly, a massive red fire on Thera belched heavenward. At ten leagues away, it appeared as if the entire world was becoming consumed in Hell's contemptuous rage. Then came the dragon's roar, ripping up the sky in deafening glory. In an instant, the breeze died, the world momentarily filled with deathly silence. General Nuefange dumbly stood the bridge, the men around him afraid to even breathe.

It was the lookout who first saw it, calling down to the others that a strange reddish glow was spreading out across the sea to the east. As the men stood there, fixated by the unfolding scene, they watched in wonder at the burning, roiling cloud gathering in power off in the distance. From horizon to horizon it approached, blotting out the very stars as it neared, and chilling the heart as to what it might portend.

Moving at nearly the speed of sound, the burning ash cloud raced across the sea, turning the very water instantly into frothing steam that mixed with the heated blaze. The men standing upon the general's ship did not hear the sound of the dragon's breath until it was nearly upon them. Frozen in place they were when the monster swept over and past them, they and their ship exploding in less than a heartbeat. What was not instantly incinerated blasted into molten dust, caught up in the consuming, onrushing holocaust.

Admiral Noahha stood the deck of his ship, King Philip, watching in amazement as the eastern sky glowed crimson red then slowly died away into the blackness of night. Reports later came to him that any ship within thirty leagues of the inferno did not survive, and that even the northern shores of Crete suffered fiery destruction. Heavy-hearted, he turned to his headman, sighing sadly, "So goes the flower of Atlantis... So goes the world of men..."

A thousand-mile wide plasmatic, debris-filled energy storm struck the planet with a singular force greater than any ever before it, the epicenter located about one hundred leagues to the north and west of ObebBailSoar. As for the countless missiles of rock and ice dragged in its wake, the majority of them fell across a plain centered around and to the north of the epicenter, sparing lands to the south from their explosive effects, crashing instead into the miles-high Ice Mountains. In only moments, the entire mountain range in the vicinity of the storm was blown apart, its impact flinging out giant chunks of ice, hurtling them many hundreds of miles across the southern landscape, nearly as far south and east as Atlanticia, instantly turning portions of those mountains into steam or melting into raging, flooding torrents sweeping over the land clear to the sea.

Of the cosmic storm itself? The heated energy, although inconsistent across the contact area, often snuffed out the lives of the people and animals caught in the open. Countless forests burned to ash while cities and villages were reduced to smoldering rubble. Too, there were the terrible burns and strange sicknesses that plagued survivors caught outside in this cataclysm away from the protective caves and hideaways, developing days or even weeks after the storm had passed.

Most destructive of all was that massive flooding that tore across the land. Tumbling rivers of water, ice, and debris ripped through the valleys, their force so great that even hilltop cities were swept away in the swirling maelstrom. The mountain cities of Ausalmerica and ObebBailSoar suffered total destruction, the flooding storm surging up to the very steps of the Temple Owhars, the highest manmade structures of those cities. The destruction was so great in that day, the very civilizations of the Elkhorn and the Mountain Bear ceased to exist, being wiped from the surface of the earth.

If a person were to study a geographical map of that land even now at this later time, the scars created by those flooding storms are still clearly visible. The great canyons toward the west as well as stripped and torn valleys and plateaus in the eastern regions are after-effects created from the violence unleashed that day long ago. Greatest of all, though, are the many large lakes that spread far across the middle of that land down to this day. The dirt, rock, and debris from their making fills in the entire northern region of Lake Tecatucutan so that its coastline lies over one hundred leagues further south from its original location, turning the former lakebed into a wide, fertile plain.

Although the destruction was cataclysmic in the impact area, the entire world of that day was changed forever. The two great mountain ranges in both the southern and northern isles, as well as other ranges across the globe, were pushed up to new and greater heights. Cities and lakes in the Southlands were lifted, at times, thousands of cubits into the sky. Seaports found themselves high and dry while being many leagues from any ocean. Other cities sank deep into boiling waters filled with sulfur and fire, the memories of their gods drowning along with the people. The Verdi island chain disappeared beneath the rising floods, Queen Asterzoni eventually settling on an island off the coast of the Isle of Cush, taking the name of her old home with her.

The waters released from this cosmic storm rapidly flooded the oceans, submerging coastal cities across the planet and changing the appearance of the world. The Shemion Sea rose to such heights that it flooded over the land to the north, filling a freshwater lake to new levels and turning into a saltwater sea. All these changes also affected the very crust of the planet, waking many old volcanoes and creating new ones. The sky soon turned as dark as evening dusk from the smoke covering the earth. It would take seven years for the planet to heal enough to offer its bounty of foodstuffs to those who survived that terrible day.

(Author's note: _It is not the flood of Noah's day that has long been remembered by the world of men. Through that watery cataclysm, only eight human souls survived, their stories told of pre-flood days, and the destruction of all life except for those escaping in the ark, became little more than bedtimes stories to tell babes who could not sleep at night, it meaning little else to the people. It wasn't until Moses' day that Noah's account was revisited and put in canon for future people to learn about so that proper meaning and understanding could be given it._

_The majority of the great flood accounts stem from the day when Atlantis sank forever beneath the sea. Many people survived to relate their personal experiences so_ _that countless stories have been recorded about this historic event. It was not until certain holy men lifted up the cross to form a world religion that the many flood stories became mixed with those of Noah's flood, thus muddying up the waters of truth and history. Then, with the inventions of the new religions of materialism, science, evolution, and geology that have replaced the accounts of gods and creation, the stories of Atlantis, the great flooding, and seven years of death and famine have become, for this generation, the bedtime stories to be told to little children who cannot sleep at night._

_All I can say to these people are the words of a man who walked this planet long ago, when he warned the world of men in his day, "This one fact escapes them: That at an earlier time there was another world standing compactly out of water... and those people took no note until the flood came and swept them all away._ ")

### * * *

### Section 34

Birthing the Secret Nations

It was nearing high summer in the mountains above New Paris. Alone, far from prying eyes, Noah and Swalhawena hid deep in the back of a small cavern, a tiny fire their only light. Long they had struggled up the mountainside through blizzard snows, fighting mounting drifts and bitter cold to reach this deserted place. Far below in another cavern, clansmen anxiously waited for news concerning Noah's child-birthing, she and Swalhawena departing for the lonely cave as soon as Noah's labor pangs began.

Squeezing Swalhawena's hands in an iron grip, Noah screamed in agony as her muscles contracted, forcing her child into an unwilling birth canal. Again and again, contractions came and went, each time the child refusing to leave its warm, protective home. Finally, in one last terrifyingly hopeless convulsive rush as Noah released an ear-shattering wail, the child's head appeared. With Swalhawena's coaxing, Noah pushed again, the baby boy falling into the nursemaid's hands.

Exhausted and covered in sweat, Noah reached out to take the child, placing it lovingly to her breast. Eyes wide, the boy stared up at his mother as he suckled his first meal. Noah marveled at the child's beauty, his deep hazel eyes and jet-black hair, fat, round face, his delicate, perfect features so enrapturing the woman forgot who the boy's father was. "He's so beautiful..." Noah cried in a weak, tired voice, "so beautiful..." Soon mother and baby had drifted off fast asleep.

Noah awoke to a confusing symphony of quiet, pleasant chatter. She looked up to see Sodasonie and Aphrodite sitting off in a corner near the fire talking with Swalhawena. When the women saw that Noah had waked, they all stood and came over to see mother and baby. For the longest time, the four women huddled together celebrating this special moment of new birth.

As late day shadows drew across the cavern's entrance, Sodasonie slowly stood, rubbing her legs while looking toward the fire, speaking in little above a hush, "Well, the hour is getting late. If you wish to return to your people before dark, you must leave soon."

Noah looked up at this greatest of Dragon witches, her eyes filling with tears, her lips quivering, "So soon? Just a little while longer... Just a few moments more..."

Aphrodite reached out, stroking Noah's arm. "Honey, you knew...have known, even desired it by your very words. Now the time has come. There is little else for it. The crow roosts beside the door and the raven calls the dead to their rest. The son of Azazel must fly home. You have given to us the seed, now we must plant it so that it will grow."

Noah began to weep. "But my blood he is also. Can I not keep him here beside me for just a little while until he is weaned?"

Swalhawena tenderly kissed Noah on the forehead. "It is good that you love the child so, but leave you he must. One day you will see him again and not in so long a time."

Whimpering, Noah argued, "But his mother he will never know! To another he will give that glory."

Swalhawena smiled, tears filling her eyes. "But his new mother you love, and she loves you. What you say is also not so for when the final horn blows, your son will discover the truth of all matters and the part he unknowingly played in the world of men."

Quietly sobbing, Noah agreed, handing the boy to Aphrodite. "Care for my child well, will you?"

Aphrodite promised she would make sure the child was well cared for, wrapping him up snugly in a heavy blanket she had brought with her. With some effort, Noah stood, for the last time softly stroking the boy's face after tenderly kissing him on the cheek. "Be a good little soldier, my cherished child of mine."

With tears in her eyes, Sodasonie stepped up to Noah, hugging her. "It is you who has been a good little soldier. Should our swords ever be raised together in combat, I should be proud to have you stand by my side, my Sister of the Bloodwind. There is an ever-crown reserved for you in the worlds beyond men. In that day we...you and I shall ride the comets together across Heaven's skies, the woes of our old worlds forever forgotten."

After a long embrace, the two women parted. Sodasonie gave to Noah some medicine to help revive her energy, after which she and Aphrodite quickly took to their sky ship. Noah and Swalhawena gathered up their belongings and furs and started their long trek down the snowy mountain trail.

It was nearly dark by the time Noah and Swalhawena arrived back at their cavern home. Excited faces awaiting their mother queen soon turned to somber recognition that something had gone terribly wrong. Noah said nothing, only quietly going to her tiny room and closing the flap behind her. Just as quietly, the others slowly shuffled away, fearing to even breathe should they somehow shatter the gloom filling the night and surrounding their hearts. This year had already been harsh on spirit and soul, and now a hoped for festive night of welcoming a new life into their presence extinguished that small spark of happy excitement growing in their hearts.

Swalhawena walked up to Zambiadoo, taking her hands. Zambiadoo looked into Swalhawena's eyes, the young woman looking back deeply into hers. Squeezing her hands, Zambiadoo closed her eyes, slowly bowing her head in understanding, knowing what had happened. Many sacrifices the woman's witch Dragon daughter-queen had already made for this world of men, was making now. And yet, as a mother, she realized that her daughter was to make many, many more before the darkness of this evil world was ended.

### * * *

"It is not right what this woman has done!" Judah exclaimed. "She has brought shame upon us all by acting unfaithfully before this house with her wicked fornications!" He pointed toward his father's tent. "An act of prostitution she has committed while under your very roof, heaping shame upon us after we took her in, having pity upon her."

Jacob stepped back, frowning, waving a hand in argument. "This woman has committed no wrong against us, speaking not of where this child has come from. You assume it is hers, but she says not a word other than in the wilderness an angel led her to the child."

Anger grew on Judah's face, his brother Reuben stepping up close beside him. "That... that woman left our company thirty days ago and wandered off into the wilderness so that her crime of birthing could be kept secret! And when her child was fit enough to travel, and when her foodstuffs ran out, she returned here to steal our bread and pollute our lodgings!"

Reuben lifted his voice in support of his brother. "It was our loving kindness that permitted that woman to reside with us, the months being long enough to prove that she was not with child when she entered into our camp. You know our law, and the law of our father Isaac. Does she not deserve ostracism or even death for her wicked acts of betrayal and disrespect she has shown us?"

Before Jacob could make reply, the flap of his tent flew open and Susannah, her child nursing at her breast, stepped out, indignant, growing angry. Her eyes boring into Reuben's she demanded, furious, "Who is the boy who calls me wicked when his own father he has raped in public? Speak truth to us all, for not once did you uncover the nakedness of your father before being caught, but for many weeks you had been bringing Bilhah to your bed while your father slept cold and alone after losing his most cherished wifely companion. Tell your father that it is not so!"

Reuben's face went ashen. He looked down at the ground ashamed, unable to speak.

Susannah then unleashed her venom upon Judah. "And you...how disgusting a man you are! You will stone the maiden-wife of your own son for acting like a prostitute while you rove about, cavorting with any foreign woman who will sell to your manhood sanctuary for a night! Hypocrite! The Kenite widow you had relations with this last night and kept her over for tonight's pleasures, too, prostituting her with offers of grain so that she and her little child might not die, will you murder her in the morning sun should you find that pregnant, also, she has become? Or will you hide her in your tent another night and send her away in secret now that all know what you have done?"

She wagged a finger in his face. "Whoring a woman because she is in need so that she spreads her feet out to you to remain alive you have done! Evil man you are, for a daughter of the Most High she is, your sister in spirit. Should you not have pity upon the woman and given freely grain to feed both she and her child so that her love she might give freely? Or better yet, since you have found the woman comely, why not take her as a concubine and give her a place in your house so that the house of your father may grow in size and stature before the nations round about you?"

Shocked dumb by the revelations he believed to be secret, Judah could not make reply.

Susannah now lowered her voice, speaking as one thief does to another. "Tell me please, oh Lord over self-righteous acts, do the twenty silver pieces of the Ishmaelite weigh heavy in your purse? How will you speak when all truth is revealed?"

Judah fell backward as if struck by a fist.

Sweeping her hand wide, Susannah exclaimed, "What was done in secret will be shouted out to the world, and the one striking his brother in jealousy shall bow low, begging for mercy."

At the sound of this commotion, others of Jacob's sons hurried over to see what the matter was all about. Susannah pulled her hood back, revealing her stunning, comely beauty. She eyed Asher and Levi, inquiring, "Are you also hypocrites like these other men?"

Then looking at Jacob, Susannah asked, "Your sons accuse me of fornications I have committed against you, yet whose bed have I warmed these many nights because his own sons did not find him a maiden to comfort him with his loss and help keep the evening chill away?"

Jacob peered at Susannah, answering honestly, "You have done this for me, saying to keep it a secret matter between just you and me."

She then pointed at Asher and others of Jacob's sons. "Twice this man has attempted to seduce me into his bed, seeing my naked beauty in the moonlight after skulking about my tent and then following me as I went off to bathe in a private place far away from the camp! And others among your sons have done little less, my reaching the point of carrying a blade with me when alone for fear of my raping."

With an accusing voice, Susannah commanded, "Tell your father what I say is not so if you are brave enough men to say it!"

No one dared utter a word, their fear of this woman growing by the minute.

Susannah lifted a hand toward the sky, declaring, "The wrath of Sodom waits at your doors unless you turn back to the road upon which your forefather, Abraham, trod. With evil intent you have brought salvation and with falsehood, worlds you have saved, but a price still must be paid for your wanton acts of malcontent and jealousy. The four hundred years promised, you will not escape, nor will your sins remain hidden in secrecy."

Jacob's hands began to shake as he exclaimed, dread filling his face, "I perceive you to be a prophetess, or even an angel come to bring my house to ruin! Please, I beg you, forgive my sons for any wickedness they have committed! I am an old man and cannot bear to lose another of my children."

Tenderly resting a hand on Jacob's arm, Susannah reassured the man she intended to bring no harm to him. "Have I not comforted you these many nights since I have entered your camp? How could I even think of bringing ruin to a man I have drawn so close to?" She then turned to all who were gathered there. "A child born of flesh I was, but have been made new in the secret lands of Eden, being touched by the finger of Iam, and this child I carry at my breast is a holy child born of a Dragon witch and delivered into my arms by the very mother of us all..."

She pointed at herself. "Younger than a virgin maiden I might appear, but older than your mothers I am, being mother of a chieftain and a priestess who dwell among the Kenites. Do not harm those people! From western lands I have come, before those worlds sank into the Abyss. In wars I have lifted my hand, slaughtering both men and demons because the women of my clan take up the sword and axe in battle alongside their men. My greatest skill, though, is with the sling.

"The very angels whom your father saw in visions have bandaged my wounds and tended to my injuries. In the arms of the lord over all the angelic houses have I been held, the taste of those lips more wonderful than the sweetest of any wine, and the love more rapturous than that of any man. And rather would I wish to stay in that world than return to this, but the Fates do not permit it. So, now I stand before you."

She gazed toward the west, and then back at Jacob's sons. "It has not been by chance that I have come to be at your tents, but for the salvation of all mankind has this woman come to be here. What must be done must be done. The race must be seen to the finish."

Looking into astonished and confused faces, she went on. "I do know you men are good at keeping secrets. So allow me please to strike a bargain with you. If you will do this one thing for me, then I shall do this one thing for you."

She looked at Asher while speaking to all the men gathered there, "Declare that this man is my father and I am your sister, and that this child is mine from a stranger who took me as I walked alone in the fields one day. Agree not to attempt to bind me with an oath or to place a yoke upon me, for single I shall always remain and free to act the role of Judah with the men of my choosing I shall always be, for a free Child of the Bloodwind I am. If you agree to do this for me, then I shall do this for you:

"Secret I shall keep your words and deeds committed out of malice and jealousy, and to your house a prophetess I shall act until the one who has the kingly glory is delivered into your land. Truth I shall always speak in your ears and no lie will pass from my lips. Should your works be good, I shall give a blessing to you and no womb of yours will find a miscarriage. But should you abandon Iam, then I shall abandon you until learned the lessons you have and returned to him you have done."

All of Jacob's sons present kneeled before Susannah and promised to do everything requested of them, should she do as she had promised for them. At that time Susannah's name was changed to 'Serah', becoming, as was told by the house of Jacob, the daughter of Asher.

Serah then turned to Jacob, asking, "Does your servant girl still have a place in your tent so that I may warm his bed and care for my master's needs in his old age?"

Jacob grinned, glancing first at his sons for approval. No one spoke a word against their father regarding the matter. Taking Serah's hand, Jacob spoke approvingly, "If it should please you, then my tent is your tent for as many days as you should choose, I raising up your child as if he was my own."

So it came about that Susannah became part of Jacob's family, raising up a seed filled with the scent of Azazel, something that would not go unnoticed by the Hormaxian priests in future days. The woman stayed close to Jacob the remainder of his life, journeying down into Egypt with him the following year, and seeing to all his needs until the man's passing. Jacob's sons eventually developed a deep love and respect for this woman for she treated them like brothers in the blood, protecting and defending them as only a loyal sister could.

### * * *

Rapadies sat at the window overlooking SuPhour, a city of the Southlands that now stood upon the shores of the Eastern Sea. Before the great cataclysm, it had been several days' walk from those same waters. It angered him to see the many Phoenician ships moored up to the newly built docks unloading tonnes of priceless, lifesaving grain while his own ships sat empty and abandoned because no trade could they find to fill their holds, the Phoenician's having locked up the grain shipping contracts and nothing could he do about it.

With all of his schemes to deliver the power of Atlantis here not coming to fruition, he could do little more than watch as King Gishop gained the allegiance of the Atlantician military through the slick dealings of Dungie's former chief counselor, Chuphoe Tobanahazz, placing into the Phoenician's hands hundreds of fast Atlantician war galleys and thousands of sailors and soldiers to man them. No nation dared attempt a coup on the grain trade now, those surviving the ravaging storms too weakened to defy the trade contracts forced upon them. To top this, the only real source for foodstuffs - Egypt - had given exclusive shipping rights to King Gishop, refusing to load one homer measure of grain on a ship not licensed by and flying the colors of the Phoenician Trading Guild.

As Rapadies looked longingly toward the east, his frustration only grew. It was believed that King Dungie and High Priest ZaphipheRa both perished in Atlanticia's destruction. The last report of them was of their departing Hanna Inlet after Atlantis' stunning defeat at the hands of the Iamrussians. That aside, he had heard nothing from his chief assistant, Nuhma, the man never arriving with the remainder of the temple machines. Neither was there word concerning Thaladies, the governor of Atlantis, or any of the grandees or overseers of the city. Nidgha's whereabouts was unknown. Chuphoe and the king's wives with him were the only people in power that Rapadies knew had escaped Atlanticia's fiery destruction. Yet so destitute the man was before becoming the king's ambassador that he needed to beg a converted stable from King Gishop for his and Dungie's households while, for lack of monies, he and his menservants slept aboard the dry-docked ship they had arrived on.

For now, Rapadies had to conclude that all the gold and wealth of Atlantis had forever sunk beneath the sea, leaving him to do the best he could with what wealth existed in the Southlands, which at the moment was rather paltry. True, recent earthquakes that had violated the lands had opened new veins of gold, but the mining and purifying of the metal was tedious and time-consuming work. As for the wealth of the Southlands? So great had the damage been, the entire isle lay in ruins and the hunger of the people so great that little repair had yet been made to the cities.

There was some good news, though. From the Speaking Stones, Rapadies had learned the cold darkness enveloping the Earth was not as great in the southern world...at least not yet. He also knew that the peoples were able to grow certain tubers and greens under these harsh conditions that helped offset the lack of other foodstuffs. Still, there was no escaping the need to buy Egyptian grain, seeing that most of the grain storage facilities in the Southlands had been in the coastal cities that had ceased to exist with the ocean's flooding. And worse yet, any hope of stealing Potiphera's power was only a distant dream, the man having become so great in the eyes of his fellow priests that to the point of a god they had made him.

Well, Rapadies smiled, the blood machines he delivered to the Southlands were undamaged, and soon they would be up and functioning again. True, the people no longer had a pharaoh or king to rule over them, but the collective web of Hormaxian power became stronger by the day. Might it be possible that the priests of Horus could become the rulers over these people, removing the need to hide behind a vassal king?

He grinned, tapping the side of his face, seeing a vision of the new empire growing in his mind. Instead of one master kingdom ruling over this land, the Hormaxians would create a series of city-states or small kingdoms that would constantly vie for prominence. This way, reasonable little wars could be fomented, providing a constant supply of sacrifices from a foreign populace, not threatening the loyalty of the local people because from their enemies the needed humans had been taken. The priests would rule from one house, being a neutral force to bind the people in peace and to act as mediators between the gods and men in times of war.

He stood, leaning out the window while looking at the metropolis below. Why, this could become the test bed for the rest of the world! Instead of recreating Atlantis, a global one-world government, encourage the existence of countless little kingdoms while constantly instigating war among them to keep those nations weak and in subjection to the priestly authorities. Add to this by creating a pantheon of gods and priesthoods to confound and confuse the peoples so that they could not see the real power behind the thrones of men. The Hormaxians then would build their world power up through political, religious, and informational intrigues, rewriting history when it served their purposes, keeping the populace in the dark, superstitious and afraid so that they would dutifully obey any commands coming from them or their political minions.

Rapadies gleefully slapped his hands together. Yes! His plans just might work, and might just win him the high post of Black Warlock, chief head over all the houses of Hormax. Of course, to accomplish the domination of the world as he envisioned it, he must take the glory of Egypt for himself. Yet at the moment, that hope was beyond his reach... its military, political, and religious might too powerful at this time.

His one major concern was that neither Zeussah nor his servants had made any appearance since their departure before the destruction of Atlanticia. If they did not come soon, Rapadies might be forced to take matters into his own hands regarding the leadership over the Hormaxians. After all, a leader was needed. Who better qualified was there than him? Still, he must tread carefully so as to not raise Zeussah's wrath. That he believed he could do.

Nodding, Rapadies accepted the sad facts. For now he must continue to pay the scalper's fees for the grain to feed this people, but for good reason. A healthy people would be able to rebuild the Southlands rapidly, healthy wombs would repopulate the lands quickly, and a satisfied people would happily follow the priestly men who delivered them from despair. Then, when the Great Lord did return, he would be pleased with what he saw and would bestow a blessing upon the man, Rapadies, who had orchestrated all these wonderful things.

Yes! Yes! Today the Southlands, tomorrow the world! Rapadies rested his hands on the windowsill, his head dreamily envisioning his coming Hormaxian paradise... well, a paradise for the Hormaxians. He turned back into the room and lifted a goblet of strong drink mixed with the blood of that morning's child sacrifice, toasting himself to his coming glory, and then emptied the goblet. Who needed Atlantis when such a brilliant mind as his could develop and then execute this marvelous plan for world domination, one in which the world did not even know it was being dominated by a greater power? Putting the cup down, he hurried from the room, anxious to turn his visions into reality.

### * * *

Tuosol sat in front of the newly kindled blaze in the Temple Owhar at Ausalmerica, or on the hill above where Ausalmerica had been. Summer snows whipped down across barren rock masses that had once been covered by rich postdiluvian soils that were home to deep forests, grassy fields, and rich farmlands. Now steep, jagged ravines and deep gorges crisscrossed what had been gently rolling landscapes, flooding storms having ripped away all living things except from the tallest hills, sending them cascading toward the sea, filling the northern depths of Lake Tecatucutan with that debris for a hundred leagues or more.

While snows twirled around the temple, Tuosol carefully worked her fingers across the Stones searching for any Dragon voices that might be dancing upon the evening air. It was extremely difficult concentrating on the task at hand with the woman's mind constantly being distracted by past events. So many things had happened in the months since the last fall harvest...a world being torn asunder, a small gathering of people saved from the destruction, an ever-changed terrain, Atlanticia and every other city and village in this land swept away in flood and fire, and so many other things.

First there was the terrible light that burned away animals and forest, cities and peoples, and then the horrifying shaking that never seemed to end, leaving smoldering ruins that were whisked away by the unbelievable floods. Waters that ripped through the valley below Tuosol's hideaway splashed against the stones just below the cave's entrance, nearly three hundred cubits above the valley floor. Some places flooded less, others more but, whatever the case, the world...her world was forever changed. Afraid the woman had been for those who had taken refuge in other caves and sanctuaries. So badly destroyed the countryside became, and so wicked and cold the stormy weather, it had been impossible to safely send searchers to find out the condition of those other people. It was not until Aphrodite made her appearance, accompanied by her angelic companion, a certain Zadar, that news reached Tuosol concerning their fate.

Tuosol was comforted to know that any of the sanctuaries she had established had remained safe. True, there had been some casualties from the quaking, but all those who stayed inside the hideaways remained alive, the storming floods not having overtaken them. When offered a reprieve in Eden, she had declined, choosing instead to suffer along with her fellow survivors until the days of tribulation were come to their full.

And then there were reports of other survivors who managed to escape the ravages of the cosmic destruction. Already scores of people had endured the horrendous journey through the ravaged lands to make it up the mountain to Tuosol's cave. Starving, bleeding, bruised, burned and broken they had come, some sporting unimaginable injuries. One and all were invited into the life-saving sanctuaries where food, warmth, and caring hands awaited them.

The fact was that so many foodstuffs were collected to these caves before the fiery destruction of their world that many more people could have been fed than ever occupied these caves during those long, harsh years. Indeed, grain was in such quantity that even the domestic animals that had been delivered to the caves were not slaughtered for its lack, the number of those animals actually increasing over the years. In many cases, it was true that even the smaller of the woodland animals survived because of the generous offerings given them from the peoples' granaries.

Suddenly Tuosol's fingers felt vibrations that could only be those of the New Paris Temple Owhar. With tears streaming down her face, she listened with joy as Noahashonie's harmonic voice sent shivers through her. How good it felt to speak again with this dear companion! It made her feel a little less alone, a little less isolated, and a little less tired. Soon she felt another voice, very faint but understandable. Odethbethel had taken the Talking Stones from Atlanticia before its demise, and now she had established a Temple Owhar in her new home. In the following months, additional Temple Owhars came back on line, connecting again the world of the Dragons and Haudenosaunez.

In time, the survivors of this world's destruction would leave their caves and build dwellings for themselves in the languishing nearby mountain forest, staying close until the land began again to produce its fruitage. As for this people, when eventually they and their children spread out to resettle the land, with them would go the tales of destruction and the times when in the mountains they had hidden away for safety. Until well into the age of the Roman Empire there would be no cities established in the broad, fertile valleys, but upon the hilltops would the people build, growing their crops down in the well-watered regions below.

For now, Tuosol quietly wept over the lives she had managed to save and renewed hope in that the world she knew had survived through the madness that brought Atlantis and the Hormaxian dreams of world conquest to an end. Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry about how to rebuild the lives of her clansmen. Today was a time of celebration, that of life and the success of a fool's dream that Iam might overlook a woman's seemingly reckless actions to preserve alive a people unwilling or unable to leave a desperate land. Today was a time to weep with joy to see that she was not forgotten or abandoned.

### * * *

The troubling first year since the destruction of Atlantis was finally come to a finish, and the second year begun. The ever-night blizzards in the Northlands were extremely severe with howling winds piling up mountainous snowdrifts and bone-chilling temperatures, forcing the people to remain in their shelters day after wearisome day. For Tuosol and her fellow survivors there was little to celebrate as spring crept near. As was the year before, so this upcoming spring and summer would be with snow and freezing rain, early frost and dismal evening twilight at high noon.

As depressing as weather conditions were, the overall health of the people remained good. Their great supplies of dried foods were varied and tasty and living conditions encouraged togetherness. Already several of the younger women were pregnant. Come summer there was an expectation that sounds of cooing and crying would be filling the corners of these caverns. There was also a hope that scouts could be sent out to other camps by high summer. Already, on dark, still nights, the occasional signal fire could be seen on distant mountaintops.

Tuosol sang an old child's song as she pampered Tosombabanna with a warm bath then wooing sweetly, "Are you pleased that I bothered to deliver my copper tub from the city before the great storming?"

Tosombabanna laughed, tipping her head back and looking up into Tuosol's face as she rested her hands on a swollen belly. "Better and more tender are your touches than those of any man I have known. Forever I would lie beside you under the furs of the cave bear if only God permitted it, but..."

"But what?" Tuosol demanded. "What prevents you from doing so? I do not ask you to leave my side, do I?"

Reaching up and touching Tuosol's face, Tosombabanna grinned, "I love you so much, but... but the heated passion of a man I have come to crave and... and I needed so to make a child for myself. A child I can only obtain from a man, even your great witching powers unable to deliver one to me."

Tuosol replied, "Speak truthfully to me. My fingers and tongue can no longer excite you in the way a man's horn can. I do believe it was not for a child you went off chasing that young buck, but for a ride that this poor woman could not give you."

Taking Tuosol's hand while peering into her eyes, Tosombabanna crooned, "A manly horn the likes of Ackruun's fills me up to overflowing, but the dreams this woman I see gives to me are of much greater value to my heart. Until the arrival of the lord over the Elkhorn and Cave Bear, must I wait to have both the full treasure room and dreamy visions that flood my heart given me by one person. In the meantime, I must choose my evening hours between a manly rut and your loving, vision-filled witch's caress."

"So," Tuosol asked, curious, "does my little darling choose a witch's touch or a ride on a manly horn this night? Does this aged woman sleep in cold loneliness after providing this refreshing bath or will her bed be warmed with dreams shared?"

Sitting up, Tosombabanna turned to answer, her eyes twinkling, "Oh so much I need to taste your creamy elixir, something that no man can give to your daughter. Will you allow me to drink from your rich fountains of delight this night should I stay in your arms?"

Tuosol laughed, kissing Tosombabanna on the lips, "Oh, my dear one, that and so much more will I give you this night. Tonight I will give you the Dragon's Caress if that should please you."

Excitedly, Tosombabanna answered, "It will please me so, but should I not also attempt to give to you my Dragon's Caress? I have been practicing, you know. Think not that I have only been on the take when in Ackruun's arms. I have offered what I could of such visions, but from you I must continue to learn."

"Then it is agreed!" Tuosol declared.

Having Tosombabanna stand, Tuosol toweled the young woman off. After rekindling the tiny hearth fire, the two settled down under the warm, furry bearskin robe, playing love songs upon each other's skin until the late night hours seduced them into a gentle, sweet sleep. Tomorrow would be filled with its own hardships and sufferings, but for the moment all that could be forgotten while two hearts dreamed visions of forever-love in the arms of the Woman in the Whispering Waters.

### * * *

Across a cold, black sea, Baalath and his family quietly slept peacefully in quarters provided him by King Gishop. When Gishop had heard of the man's arrival at Colosuim after escaping from the west, he sent a ship to bring him to his city. So happy had Gishop been when Baalath arrived, he just made the man accept his invitation to reside in the palace, at least for a while. This would be the beginning of a very interesting adventure for this man. Long would it be before he journeyed north to New Paris to renew old acquaintances with his friend and companion, Noahashonie.

Waking to movement in the bed, Baalath opened his eyes to see Corith staring deeply into his, a gentle sadness on her face. In little over a whisper he asked, tenderly stroking his wife's arm, "What troubles you so that you cannot sleep? Are you feeling all right?"

Corith's eyes filled with tears as her lips quivered, "So young and handsome a man you are, growing in youthful appearance more every day since the witching fire. Like the gods you are in beauty! I, for my part, have become an old woman, barren and saggy-breasted. My hair is turning gray and my face is becoming wrinkled. When we walk together, I feel that strangers look at us as though you are my son and I your aged mother. Why do you still keep me in your bed when any woman in the city would surrender their love up to you should only you ask? Why do you still moan with passion when we make our love, what with my beauty long faded?"

Baalath gently brushed Corith's face with his fingers. "My darling, who is there like you? No woman have I loved as deeply as I do you. Oh yes, Tuosolmerica, Noahashonie, and others I have romanced in my time, as men you have charmed in yours. Oh, but it is your bed I have always sought when the weather is up and the night winds howl, or when the heat of summer chases away the evening sleep."

Pulling himself up so that he rested on his elbow, Baalath allowed his hand to drift back and forth across Corith's body, tenderly squeezing and touching her in all the right places. "I fell in love with you the very first day I saw you arrive at the moot with your father. Only a young girl with no breasts you were, and I a boy not yet in my manhood. Yet I knew you were the ever-mate for me even then." He chuckled, "Remember your father chasing me away with an axe in his hand, threatening my life should I come near his daughter again?"

Corith laughed, "Yes, and I thought he would when he caught you snooping around my tent later the next day. Your were so brave, standing there facing him down, his axe held high over your head and you declaring I was to be your wife, and you would fight him if necessary to gain the prize."

Baalath smiled, remembering, "He later told me that when I stood up to him as I did, he nearly burst out laughing. That was when he made a bargain with me, that should I feel the same in three moot years from then he might consider my request to take you for my wife." He frowned sadly, "Your father was a good man. He fell at my side after we breached the walls at Mounds. Your father was a good man."

Kissing Baalath on the cheek, Corith asked, "Do you still remember our first night together, out in the fields near the forest behind the village? There we were, I so nervous, a child virgin and you little different. So much we learned together that summer so long ago." She touched Baalath's arm. "Am I still as beautiful in your eyes as that first night when we became one in soul, heart and flesh?"

Lying over on his back, Baalath slid his arm under Corith's neck and drew her close in a hugging embrace, kissing the woman on her lips. "How can one forget the taste of Heaven when every dream wished for was fulfilled? Forever I would have been satisfied if that summer had never ended... a carefree woman-child and man-child playing with abandon in the fields of the gods, with not a care or concern."

Corith kissed Baalath, her eyes twinkling. "That taste of Heaven led to me birthing a wonderful baby girl." the woman's voice fading in sadness, "I miss her so, Lawenso. Such a beautiful child she was."

Baalath hugged Corith tight. "She gave Tara to us before her passing. So much like her mother the child is. Makes me feel like I'm holding Lawenso when I take her in my arms." He pushed Corith's nose. "So much like you she looks when I first saw you those many years ago."

Placing a finger over his lips, Corith whispered sweet endearments in Baalath's ear, finishing with a seductive request, "My handsome prince, will you come, please, into my fields of summer delights and linger in love with me this night? The summer sun is asleep and the moon wraps us in its golden light. Come let the flowered clover be our bed with the stars spread out as our blanket covering. Let us be those innocent children again for just a little while. Forget with me, for a moment, who we have become, and let us live again for a little while those long-forgotten times."

Baalath quietly mused, "You need never ask your humble servant for such a request. Forever is it this man's dream to have such a delightful ewe as you by his side. Lead me along, and wherever you go I will follow."

When the morning light found its way through the upper chamber window, it discovered two people wrapped in each other's arms, sleeping soundly, dreaming of green fields filled with clover and honeysuckle as the sun washed over the naked bodies of younglings running through the grasses carefree, hand in hand, the echo of delightful laughter from the woman-child drifting across the warm summer breeze.

### * * *

So, for the Haudenosaunez, Atlantis was sunk beneath the seas. The world they had known in the west was only memories, the roads they were yet to take still unknown. Juliet sat in the chair in the evening shadows staring down into the face of her darling daughter, SuNidghaSungSei, as the baby happily nursed at her mother's breasts, the woman giving little thought to what the future world had in store for her. Unable was she to see the coming fire and storm she would rage upon this planet, lifting kingdoms up while hurtling others into a forgotten abyss, the seduction of kings one of her greatest weapons that would ever change times and seasons.

As he rested beside his wife, Corith, Baalath saw not the man he was yet to become...the Beowulf. What exactly did Tuosol mean when she spoke of him as that? One day his voice would raise the ire of his children's kin, filling the world of men with fear and trepidation. His sword would cleave apart the towers of Hormax and force the heart of Rome to retreat back into dark and shadowy recesses, crushing the enemy's dreams of world domination for an hour, until a new religion in the east would threaten that house's very existence.

Susannah lay there listening to Jacob's quiet breathing, Noah's baby son snuggled in her bosom. Already the woman was gaining a reputation among the children of Jacob as a wise, understanding person who cared for the needs of others above her own. Benjamin had taken to her quickly, the tales of her warring against the evil of Hormax in far distant lands impressing the boy greatly, her lessons with the use of the sling not wasted upon the lad. Susannah - Serah - found that she was gradually falling in love with this family, an affair that would send the woman across time and space into distant and strange lands, becoming a prophetess, warring priestess, and a wise sage until finally she would come face to face with the son of Judah who would forever change the world of men.

Rae Tomassie stood upon the shore as the evening moonlight cast its ghostly shadows across his landed Dragon ship. He had finally given it the name 'Syene' after his Egyptian wife. The woman had given him two beautiful children, dying in childbirth when their daughter, Assuan, was born. The future meant little to him at the moment, loneliness weighing heavily upon his heart. Little could he imagine that one day later generations would shudder in trepidation as his silver ships sailed silently across the skies, 'UFO' being coined by those future people when telling the world what they saw. But that was in the far, distant future. Rae looked off toward the north. He missed his companions Noah, Swalhawena, and BondaBoor so, remembering the exciting times and wild adventures he had shared with them. Then there was also his and Swalhawena's daughter, Sarah. So much he would love to see her again. Soon his ship would be ready and he would chance the turbulent northern storms to make his way back to his friends.

HilgaTomassie sat beside the fire in the tiny hut she and her husband, Eric, had built a little way up the hill from the inlet where Eric's Dragon ship had been pulled up on the shore for the winter. Children huddled about her as she showed them a tiny bug through the piece of crystal Dancing Stones had willed to her in a world the children had only known through stories and bedtime tales. One child, her youngest, was born only weeks before leaving the western lands. The other children were those of Dresden's. In future days, Hilga and Dresden, along with family and clansmen, would return to the lands of the Iamrussians and settle down to make a home for themselves there. Hilga puzzled at her role that was to be played upon future's stage. Meanwhile, she savored the peaceful and carefree times to be shared with these darling little ones.

BondaBoor quietly rested in Swalhawena's arms, the woman nearing the time of her own birthing, this time with his child. He sighed with the satisfaction of knowing his family was with him, safely sheltered away in one of the caves with Noah and his clansmen above New Paris. How little he could possibly understand the role he was to play in the future politics of world governments. From standing beside the king of Babylon to arguing the affairs of state upon the steps of the Acropolis to whispering into the ears of King George news that would lead to the birth of New Atlantis. All this was future, and little more could BondaBoor think of this night than the pleasure he found lying beside this beautiful woman carrying his child.

And of Swalhawena? To Noahashonie she was David's Jonathan, Isaac's Rebecca, the mountain she-bear's cub, the eyeball of God. Swalhawena's love bound tight the tempestuous rage ever present in Noah's heart that once unleashed would drown worlds in fire and destruction. Fettered she held the powers hidden within the bosom of this woman, the fiery spirit of Iam, the black diamond given Noah by Sodasonie upon the burning pyre of Dancing Stones a power so great that even wicked angels feared the woman's wrath. As Swalhawena lived, so would the chains remain that ever restrained that burning rage. Do not think 'Black Angel' to be only a metaphor. The world of men would find it to be a great deal more.

KontinKuken stared up at the clear, night sky holding the hand of his little daughter, Sambuusouni. Soon after his arrival in the lands of Cush with several of his fellow village people, he had taken Sambuujoni, a young woman who had journeyed across the Eastern Sea with him, for a wife. Sambuusouni was born less than a year later, just after their arrival to this great inland sea above the giant falls that crashed into a valley far below, creating the headwaters of the Nile. Already he was recognized as a chieftain among his people, sitting with other older men before the council fires. What his future might yet be he was not sure, but the Woman in the Whispering Waters visited him often in his dreams, filling his mind with knowledge and his heart with wisdom.

LumdonDuridshemion sat by the fire, warming himself after having just returned from a wolf hunt. Already the wolf was becoming the animal of choice from which to obtain furs and meat. Huge packs skulked about, making it dangerous for lone people to journey far from the safety of their dwellings. So it had been that the Mozerathas clansmen had taken to hunt these beasts in order to protect their loved ones and prevent the destruction of the domestic and herding animals.

(Author's note _: It was during this period of time that many children were born with the name 'wolf' included in it, thus the countless surnames in future days carrying the word 'wolf' in them_.)

Already Lumdon and his family were intending to make the western trek when the starving years had passed. There he and his sons and daughters and their families would settle down on what was now become an isle, eventually having many towns and villages named after them. Lumdon would go on to become a wise sage, his uncanny ways leading to a following of priestly men who taught his philosophical concepts to others. One day men would speak of a wizard known as 'Merlin', not realizing who the person truly was.

JuuFet quietly sat by a brazier, carefully examining notes he had taken during the earlier meeting he and the other Nubian chieftains had with Zaphenathpaneah. Little they had come with when fleeing the western Southlands and many were the gifts pharaoh had given them after their arrival here. Even the land that they resided on was a gift. Those truths aside, it was difficult for JuuFet's Nubian brothers to accept the options being offered them.

Even during times of plenty, the lands that JuuFet's people resided in were harsh, better for herding than for growing. The Nile waters there were swift and left little behind to refresh the soil. What surplus of grains the people had produced was traded or sold for large and small cattle to graze upon the rich grass-covered hills surrounding the river basin. Little gold or silver had they acquired, using that wealth to obtain needed goods or to purchase more herding animals. Already some of the Nubians had turned away from such a laborious life, becoming traders and nomads instead, investing their wealth in camels, the ships of the desert.

The past several years had been good to JuuFet's people, the women delivering many healthy babies into this world. Every day their numbers grew, but along with that the need for more good, wholesome foodstuffs. Zaphenathpaneah was a business man, his voice filled with concern for Pharaoh's welfare. Even with the subjects of Egypt, he saw need to drive a bargain and to make a profit for his master. So JuuFet worked at this late hour, attempting to find a way to obtain more edibles with what few resources his people had left remaining.

Already JuuFet had surrendered his own life up to Pharaoh by becoming one of his scribes in the mercantile system, his skillful use of the pen having not gone unnoticed by Zaphenathpaneah and others. Little did he realize how such wisdom would propel him across the globe, to distant lands and to the sides of kings and despots. By the use of his quill and suggestions, he would move dynasties on to glory or bring them down to ruin. That, though, was in the future. Tonight the young prince was only attempting to feed the bellies of the people he so deeply cared for.

Cothath squatted near the fire, peering deeply into the dancing blaze. Wrapped in his freshly tanned wolf pelts, he cared little about the bitter breezes and flitting snow. Noah and his family peacefully rested deep within the recesses of the cave behind him, and that satisfied his heart. But for his spirit, the man chose to stay out in the open as much as possible, the wild forests and steep mountain trails this man loving the most. Often he and SchroGarthTho could be seen leading a hunting party off into the tempestuous blizzard in search of a wolf pack or wild game.

Aged the man was, already older than most in his clan when Dancing Stones revived his body and soul. Then, at her funerary burning he was made new again, to become young and vibrant in health and appearance. Still aged, though, he was in heart and mind. His wives had long since passed away, his children already becoming bent and stooped over with old age. He found little pleasure in the arms of the younger women who attempted to court him with their charms. When asked one day by Noah why he had not taken another wife, Cothath honestly replied, "The old women can no longer chase the morning freshness with me across the hills, and the young women have so much to learn. They are so young. What does a man like me do with the child when my passions are settled? Those children have excitement between their thighs, but nothing between their ears."

Noah had laughed, "Well, my handsome old guardian, not much might I have between my ears either, but warm you can make my bed any time you wish, and I will not attempt to woo you into taking me for a wife. And when the mood is upon me, I might just chase you across the mountainous passes and hills." Her face sober, Noah took his hand. "I need you to stay with me. A wise counselor you have always been to me. So whatever your will is to be, a day, a year, a thousand, I would so much like you to remain at my side. I need you even now when emissaries and ambassadors kneel upon my doorstep to make peace with our people."

So for Cothath, as he stared into the blaze, whatever the will of Noahashonie, whatever her fated road might be, he would stay at her side for as long as she desired, the protector and guardian of her soul and life as he had already done up to this time. He had promised Javan to keep her safe. That promise he would remain true to.

SchroGarthTho's eyes searched the western skies, his heart ever yearning for the home he left behind. Unlike Cothath, he had settled down with a new family after the passing of his wives. Three young wives he had taken for himself, making him the center of some good-natured humor by his fellow clansmen when, as men, they would sit about the fire talking about manly things. One woman was from his clan of the Elkhorn, another a young widow from the sons of Dodanim, and his third wife was the daughter of an Egyptian diplomat, her mother being from the far distant Eastern lands beyond the Indus. Already he had sired several children by these women, and wished to sire several more. He laughed one time, offering a reply when asked about his prowess. "Dancing Stones waked more than just my strength when anew the woman made me."

It had already been determined by the man that upon the hour of Meric's returning to the land of his father, SchroGarthTho and those of his clansmen who wished would return across the sea to resettle the lands of the Elkhorn and Cave Bear. The great role that he and his descendants were to play in the building of new and powerful nations there was yet unknown to the man, SchroGarthTho seeing himself as very unimportant, a feeling that would influence the philosophical ideology of the clans and tribes of those people for ages to come. That race of children that he and his clansmen would father would one day stand up beside Elijah, the son of the Mountain Bear, to reclaim the promise given to them by Sodasonie, also known as White Buffalo Woman, as reward for their determined bravery in warring against Legion and his demonic hordes.

Tosombabanna cuddled up in Tuosol's arms. She smiled with delight feeling the baby wiggling about inside her. Tuosol rested a hand on the young woman's belly, reassuring her of the baby's health, adding, "It is a boy that you carry...a strong one, too. You will make his father so proud to have such a powerful son who will one day stand beside him when on the hunt."

Hugging Tuosol, Tosombabanna spoke words of endearing love to her companion. For the young woman, life was sweet and carefree. Far in forgotten memories were the days of warring at Mounds, and little violence had the girl witnessed since then. True, the tribulation of the storming had been great, and many were the people who had perished in its rage. But for Tosombabanna, it was little more than a bad dream, her companions and lovers having hidden themselves away with her in the safety of these caves.

Little, too, did the woman-child consider what her future fate might be. No man had she ever struck down, no battle had she fought in, no weapon for war did she even possess. Her heart rang with fanciful hope and desire, and a wish for all peoples to enjoy life as she did. So much would these experiences influence this child of peace to the point of changing the hearts of kings and nations. Her haunting whispers in the ears of emperors and despots would soften their hearts to the preserving of lives...lives that would one day change the worlds of men.

These things Tosombabanna could not see or comprehend. Tonight she rested snugly in the arms of the woman she so deeply loved, and tomorrow she would seek out the arms of another romantic, the father of her child. What more could this woman desire than what she already possessed, to be loved by these wonderful people? Tonight was saved for the moment. Tomorrow would be soon enough to ponder the future.

Tuosolmerica lay listening to the gentle breathing of her sleeping companion. How strange it felt to be drawn to someone so young to satisfy the needs of her heart and mind. For hours these two women would quietly talk by themselves, Tuosol never once feeling deprived of mental stimulation. Here she was, hundreds of years older than anyone hidden within these confines, possibly the oldest person remaining alive on this planet except for Aphrodite, and yet this little child lying next to her satisfied her heart, soul and spirit like no other person could.

She frowned, fearing for her charge's safety and wellbeing, and dreading what the future might hold for them. Sodasonie had changed her into a creature of both Heaven and Earth, given her life-unending because of a coming promise of man's redemption, and then had appointed her the future keeper of the twelve and the two. Tuosol feared that approaching day, wondering what was to become of her, holding close that great power and glory within her bosom the way Dancing Stones had, or at least that was the way Javan had explained it to her.

The woman also dreaded her own life, fearing what time might do to her. Long she had suffered deep bouts of depression, her stay in Eden softening but not curing them. At times, the sullen mood made her wish for the sleep of death, but that was not to be. Live she must, for it had been willed for her. So, would it be forever that she must struggle with bouts of melancholy despair? That she did not know, but try she would to continue to put on a positive face to guide these people and to protect them from the ever rising darkness growing again in the Southlands.

One day Tuosol would stand beside Hyhoset in protecting the homeland of her people from Lucifer's destructive intrigues, the combined power of these two women so great that no demonic intrusion could be made into these northern worlds for the entire reign of Meric. Even Legion dared not set foot within the territory belonging to the clans of the Elkhorn and the Cave Bear for as long as that man lived for fear of his very life, the wrath of Tuosol and Hyhoset too threatening.

True, Tuosol's somber moods would little change. But their value would one day become better understood, for the visions she was to receive were better comprehended by a person knowing deep inner sadness. Her execution of deeds against an oppressive foe would be tempered by those same inner feelings. One day - one day that sadness would be removed from her, but for now it served the woman well for the part that she must play on the game board of the gods.

Hyhoset had done as she often did, crawling under Meric's furs to cuddle close to him. The girl loved her big brother, and the boy, her. Little the child thought about the future, her killing of the Hormaxian priests meaning no more to her than the swatting of a nuisance fly. So would be the fate of men in future days, this child of the Elkhorn and Cave Bear doing only what must be done. Hyhoset the Slayer of Demons, Hyhoset the Dark Daughter of the Black Angel...no feeling of compassion could she have for the enemies of the Woman in the Whispering Waters.

Yet love the child did, with a passion few others could muster, and love for Meric she had. In future days she would travel into western lands with her kingly husband, a giant of a man standing over six cubits in height, delivering to him dozens of sons and daughters who would stand in stature like their father. All the days of those sons and daughters would peace fill the northern lands of Javan the Elder, for nearly a hundred generations of ordinary men. Hyhoset would continue to live on long past that age, until finally she would walk onto the scene when a New Atlantis rose in the very lands of her husband Meric and his sons.

Noahashonie pondered little the future as she laid there in the still of the late night darkness, her mother Zambiadoo cuddling her daughter close as she peacefully slept. On several nights since Noah's returning to the cave, bereft of her child, her mother had swaddled her in her arms to comfort the girl. No passion for a man had the woman had since birthing her son, and other than some comforting touches from Swalhawena, she had slept alone, that is until her mother spoke up saying how unwise it was to do so. So, from time to time, Zambiadoo would swaddle her like a little child in her arms, permitting her babe a little refreshment of what milk she might have after feeding her youngest child, thus allowing Noah to forget how greatly the world had changed since her marriage to Javan.

Noah's heart was slowly healing, her excitement gradually growing at news from the Talking Stones that Rae was planning to make a visit this upcoming summer. She had even told her mother that the very thought of her former lover's arrival resurrected a long-forgotten itch. Her mother laughed, warning her daughter of Rae's long ago request should he pay a visit upon her again. Noah only smiled.

Noah wondered if she would truly find a man's love as exciting a thrill as she once had. Well, even the thought of Cothath one day taking her up in his arms and the look of his manly appearance as he bathed by the firelight had made her swoon with growing desire. And Rae? How she loved the man, had missed him so when he went away, and how she had even felt a twinge of jealousy when he once returned to these shores with his new Egyptian wife. Maybe there was hope for her yet. Maybe she would wish for a man's bed again. In a way, she hoped for it, desired it, wanted it. She snuggled up close to her mother, cooing sweet refrains of love to Zambiadoo as she drifted off to sleep.

### * * *

The evening was pleasantly warm and the moon full when Aphrodite and Serah made their way through the empty courtyard in front of the palace mercantile. After passing up a broad staircase through the tall, pillared opening, the women came to the merchants' gallery. The usually busy chambers and business stalls were quiet, Pharaoh's officers and bankers having departed after concluding activities for the day. Things had slowed down considerably from the time when vast crowds of Egyptian peasants and locals would fill the courtyard waiting to barter away their gold and livestock for foodstuffs. Now only sea merchants and caravan traders arrived here to buy Egypt's grain. For this reason, the mercantile could be closed at a more convenient time, permitting workers shorter business hours.

Beyond the merchants' gallery were other more private offices and rooms to do additional business, or where records were kept and monies taken before being given over to the treasury. Aphrodite turned aside to one of these rooms where shadows in the dancing torchlight confessed that someone still lingered at this late hour.

At the sound of footsteps, JuuFet looked up from his tally books and Zaphenathpaneah broke away from his task to see who was paying a visit upon them. Recognizing Aphrodite, Zaphenathpaneah bowed low, addressing the woman in a reverential manner. JuuFet quickly climbed from his chair, also bowing low before the women, saying nothing. Eventually the two men stood, JuuFet eyeing Serah, but revealing no hint of knowing her. In turn, other than a flash of recognition by the glint in her eyes, Serah did the same with JuuFet.

Aphrodite stepped up close to Zaphenathpaneah, asking about his welfare. "Long has it been since my feet have trod this city. Does it go well with you? How is your pharaoh-king?"

Zaphenathpaneah told JuuFet to hurry and bring water and fresh bread for these women while inviting them to sit on some thick, woven reed mats. Accepting his invitation, Aphrodite sat down cross-legged upon the mat, her long robe covering her feet. Serah sat down quietly at her side. It was an interesting sight to say the least, Aphrodite and Serah dressed in the garb of the Hebrews, Zaphenathpaneah and JuuFet in the official skirted silks of Pharaoh's officers and gentry, and the servant women who delivered the food and drink, naked. It was true that at this time all the refined women in Egypt attired themselves in little more than silken coverings, while the common women wore only a short-waisted skirt, if anything at all. But the contrast here of naked women, nearly naked men and two robed women did appear a little odd.

JuuFet quietly went back to tallying up the day's accounts while the others talked. As he busied himself at his work, the young man kept an ear on the ensuing discussion.

After the bread and drink had been passed, Zaphenathpaneah began, "Well I have been, and my family, too. Asenath has just birthed our third child, a son also, his name being ZenathPotiphera, named after his mother's kinsmen. The boy is quite strong, and mother and child are in good health."

He lowered his gaze. "Pharaoh TitanAmactony's son passed away since your last visit, the boy dying after my father came down to Egypt. It was peaceful, as you said it would be. Since that time, I have been handling most of the pharaoh's state business. As for his estate, the land of Egypt is doing well, the treasuries filling up from the grains that are being sold. Kings from far distant lands come and pay tribute to the pharaoh in hopes of making good trade deals with him for needed foodstuffs."

Aphrodite slowly nodded, quietly thinking before asking, "And what of Pharaoh's people, the children of Egypt, how have they been faring through this famine?"

Smiling, Zaphenathpaneah answered, "It was a little difficult at first, what with all the people coming from their tiny, far-flung villages and farms. So it was that after their monies and trade goods were exhausted, I managed to convince them to come into cities prepared for them, there to work on construction projects to honor Pharaoh. Now the people lack not for bread, shelter, or any other thing, they all being part of Pharaoh's household now."

Aphrodite did not smile when she replied. "Pharaoh's household... hmmm. I have heard it spoken of a little differently."

"How so?" Zaphenathpaneah asked, concerned.

"Well," Aphrodite began, "report has come to my ears that the people of the land had sold their grains to Pharaoh for the price agreed upon during the years of plenty, a very reasonable price for your master as I have been told, yes, paid for often in script so that the gold of the land could be used to buy foreign grain."

Zaphenathpaneah smiled, adding, "We have honored all the script, never devaluing it by even one shekel. As is gold, so is the script. We have kept our word regarding it."

"True...true..." Aphrodite agreed, "The value of script the same as gold, that you did." She lifted a finger. "But ten times the price of buying the grain from them you demanded for the resale of the people's own product. So quickly the people ran out of script and then their gold and then their animals. With nothing but paltry foodstuffs were they left, their freedom and hungry bellies all remaining of their livelihood, with no way to rebuild their lives when times improved."

"Yes, all you say is so." Zaphenathpaneah spoke like a caring parent. "When I saw their plight, I offered to care for all their needs until these troubled times come to a finish. Then, when the seven years of famine are completed, the people can return to the land with seed to again start farming, giving twenty percent of their produce to their pharaoh with the remainder to rebuild their lives."

Aphrodite was curious. "So, how many years does this people pay for your gift of foreknowledge that has preserved the world through these dreadful times... seven, or possibly ten? That is a great payment for giving them grain for only a few short years, considering that you have not offered Pharaoh's own people a discount, but charged them the same rate as the Amorite and Philistine, both enemies of your king."

Zaphenathpaneah lifted a hand. "The Amorite and Philistine pay in silver and gold for the grains they obtain from Pharaoh. No other bargain will we make with those nations and the others round about. Only with their silver and gold do they obtain our foodstuffs. As for Pharaoh's people why, freely from our hand are the people fed. Not one hungry Egyptian beggar can you find anywhere in the land of the pharaoh."

Eyeing the man, Aphrodite asked, "So what has been the price for a full belly? How many years must these children of mine suffer under a yoke of servitude to Pharaoh?"

Surprised, Zaphenathpaneah hesitated, "Why...why...there has been no time limit placed upon the people. When they return to their homes and fields, twenty percent of the product of the field and the herd will become Pharaoh's. That is the rule for these people from this day onward."

Her upper lip curling, Aphrodite leaned forward. "And should a man or woman refuse to pay the tribute to Pharaoh, shall you remove them from their field and drive them away from this land?"

Raising his hands wide in question, Zaphenathpaneah asked, bewildered, "How could I drive away the possession of Pharaoh?" He then answered, "Should a man refuse to do the work assigned him then he shall be taken from the land so that another will do the work demanded. And should that man rebel, then under forced labor he and his family would be placed until his lesson he has learned."

Holding her temper in check, Aphrodite inquired, "And what lesson is that?"

Zaphenathpaneah shrugged, "That he is the possession of Pharaoh, bought through the lifesaving grace of the king during these difficult times. No longer does he own himself, but to Pharaoh he sold himself willingly. He and all that is his has become Pharaoh's."

"Allow me to understand you correctly, please." Aphrodite touched the side of her face as though pondering matters. "Through the will of Iam's mercy upon you, you came to stand beside Pharaoh in order to become a savior to the world of men. Out of the prison pit you came, serving an unknown sentence for an act not committed, but charged for. For one act, you were tossed into an everlasting abyss, but Iam lifted you up from the pit, and by my mouth declared you Iam's servant of life to Pharaoh. So, a man knowing slavery and the pit has decided to sell his brothers into slavery out of their need, and to lock the gate upon their freedom to times indefinite? Am I truthful in what I have said?"

Zaphenathpaneah argued, "It is not exactly as you have stated! True, slavery and the pit I have experienced, but it was not the same as has been done with the children of Egypt. When the years of famine have passed, those who wish can return to their old homes and begin anew with rebuilding their lives. No chains will be placed upon them, nor will overlords drive them to work. Only the twenty percent will be demanded from them as repayment for saving them through these difficult times."

Pressing him for clarity, Aphrodite sought a more direct answer. "For how long do you exact the twenty percent from your Egyptian brothers? And should they choose to buy themselves and their families out of this forced servitude, what is the price they must pay to gain their freedom?"

Leaning back, his hands coming up in surprise, Zaphenathpaneah countered, "You speak of servitude as if the children of Egypt were driven into slavery by force of arms! That is not the case at all, but willingly they gave themselves over to their Lord Pharaoh, their life-giver and savior."

Aphrodite's temper was flaring. "Do not sidestep my inquiries, child of my inward parts! I asked you two clear questions. Must I repeat them, or does your memory work well enough to recall them?"

Taken aback, Zaphenathpaneah's eyes flashed anger, the man not being used to such interrogation. "I have told you that these people came to me, accepting with their own free will the gift of life offered them! I set no time limit on their contract of service. As for their land and their cattle... why, already they had sold those stuffs to Pharaoh."

Aphrodite quietly hissed, "Careful, little boy! It was by my hand that Atlantis sank beneath the waters and the ships of Nuefange never reached your shores. If I should choose, the very sands that you sit upon will turn to grain, and all your hoarded gold will turn to dust. Where will you be in that hour, when Pharaoh finds all his works have come to ruin?"

She shook a finger at him. "Should I have only wanted a slave to speak words into your Pharaoh's ears, I would have stripped your body of mind and thought, and like one walking dead would have presented your empty soul to him with my voice talking through a mouth made dumb. Now speak to me civilly or that is all your Pharaoh will witness on the morrow."

Grasping the power hiding behind Aphrodite's smoldering eyes, Zaphenathpaneah clasped his hands together and bowed forward, begging forgiveness for speaking rudely to an angel of Iam. "Mother of all living men, foolish I have been to tempt the anger of the gods. Your son is out of line, I not showing an angel of the Maker of Men the honor she is to have."

Checking her temper, Aphrodite explained, "When a man is standing at the gates of despair and death, he cannot sell himself freely into slavery for already is he a slave to death, and to be repurchased from death is what the man is seeking. So to take the man and give to him escape from death is not buying the man from freedom, but purchasing the man escape from the chains of death. If, then, the man is already a slave to death, how can he surrender freely his soul to you as your slave? There is no honor in saving a man's life for a price, if the power was in your hand to save it freely.

"I ask you, can you buy a man's lifespan? Do you have the wealth to return to a man life when it has been stolen from him? Only the one who has that power has the right to demand that a man become his slave to time indefinite. You are not that man."

"Look!" Aphrodite exclaimed, "If only you have purchased the souls of my Egyptian children from death to death... true, you are adding to their length of life, but still it is death into death... how can you expect the bonds of such charges you have placed upon them to be everlasting? A return of payment to Pharaoh at one-fifth of the produce for ten or twenty, or even thirty years, would be a rewarding investment. Then, with hope, the people would joyously work for Pharaoh, making his nation strong and powerful. A nation free cannot be conquered. Destroyed? Yes, but never conquered."

Zaphenathpaneah bowed his head. "Mother of all men living, your words are filled with wisdom. What is it that you desire for me to do to satisfy your spirit?"

Aphrodite smiled. "Do not enslave these children of mine. Allow them to pass on into death a free people. Abandon your cities and return those people to their landed properties. Let the father give to his son an inheritance that the boy can pass on to his son, so that Egypt may become a shining light to the world of men, that all the nations may see that the power and riches a free people will build are far more than a temple of honor to the king, but will lift up his nation to mountainous heights where all the other mountainous kingdoms will bow low before it in recognition of its power, glory, and might."

"Who is to be found wiser than you?" Zaphenathpaneah clasped his hands bowing before Aphrodite. "So wonderful it would be if the world of men would all listen to these things you have to say."

Smiling hopefully, Aphrodite asked, "Then you will set a time limit to give back to these children of mine their freedom, lands, and possessions?"

Zaphenathpaneah raised an eyebrow in surprise, slowly shaking his head. "This cannot be done! The word of Pharaoh is unchangeable! To the people has the edict been given, and by our law it must be carried out. I cannot change a thing..."

Holding back her wrath, disgusted, Aphrodite stood, Serah doing the same. "I have nothing more to discuss with the prince of Pharaoh."

Zaphenathpaneah arose, offering excuse. "There is nothing I can do at all in this matter! Please understand me regarding this."

Aphrodite angrily rebuked Zaphenathpaneah, "You are the voice of Pharaoh! Whatever comes from your mouth is law to that man. Should you only speak it, it will come to be. No, you are stiff-necked like your people, unwilling to be humbled!"

She stepped up to the man, wagging a finger in his face. "By your own mouth's law you have enslaved your people, for soon from Pharaoh's very slaves will come a ruler who fears me not, cares not for your people, and will not know you for who you are to Pharaoh. In that day, while you still live to see it, he will lift up your edict and declare that even the sons of Jacob are property of the king. You and your people will toil as slaves until the four hundred years have passed and they have paid back to Iam the value of all the gold I placed in Pharaoh's hands from Iam's vaults."

She cast her eyes toward the ground, saddened. "And even then your people will not have humbled themselves..."

Looking into Zaphenathpaneah's troubled face, Aphrodite confessed, distraught over seeing the future of a people her husband, Noah, had loved so deeply, "From you own upper thigh will come a constant warring of brothers - forces of Darkness and of Light that will continue to struggle for Heaven's glory. They will bruise the others in the heel, and the others will bruise them in the head. Yet death does not come to either until Desmond rises to claim the world of men for good or ill. Look, the very child just born to you, ZenathPotiphera, and the one that struggles within your wife's belly as I speak, Absinthe, (Wormwood) will lift up the glory of Hormax against their brothers, the battle lasting down to the End of Days.

"Ever will you and your people find no peace, chased by the nations who will seek your souls or your enslavement. Always hated will your kind become, foul-smelling to the world of men down to the End of Days, when finally the brother of yours who your sons murder will lift up the survivors to glory beside God."

Aphrodite looked away, thoroughly disgusted. "Maybe then you will have learned humility..." She walked away, leaving the mercantile, never to see Zaphenathpaneah's face again.

### * * *

Gradually the desperate years of famine came to a finish. Peoples and nations slowly turned to the task of rebuilding families and worlds. The great turning of the hourglass had forever changed the way men would look at what was once considered normal and acceptable. Small, independent clans were now become a thing of the past, kings and dictators having taken the reins of power, refusing to release freedom back to their subjects. The most successful kingdom to have risen out of the chaos and mayhem was that of Egypt, its sphere of influence expanding across the inhabited earth, its successful example to be emulated by other nations.

Throughout the Great Sea basin, kings appointed taskmasters over the people, creating a small, royal aristocracy that oversaw the welfare of the commoners. Where there had once been quiet villages and towns of a few hundred inhabitants going about their daily business as simple folk do, cities of brick and stone began to rise, the power of the people focused on doing the will of the lord and his grandees. All this seemed natural to the despots, enslaving their own people. After all, were they not the ones who preserved alive the starving population by obtaining for them foodstuffs, this while the world surrounding them slowly faded away in famished starvation?

As the fame of Egypt spread among the nations, and as ambassadors traveled many miles to visit the greatness of this wondrous land, what with its grand temples, memorials, public works, streets 'paved in gold' so to speak, and riches unbounded, who of these foreign emissaries could return home without reports pointing to the need to gather the peoples into cities to build for those emperors the grand estates like Egypt possessed?

So it was that even to the far eastern lands, the enslaving of the common man came to be the practice. Eventually this philosophy where the common people were there only to serve the masters and their royal company, the fate of their lives and properties subject to the whim of the person wearing the crown, encompassed the entire earth - that is, except for the wild Northlands of the children of the western isles.

In the worlds ruled over by the children of the Elkhorn and the Cave Bear, and those allied with them - the Germanic children and those possessing the fathomless Black Forest \- individual freedom was the greatest of possessions. Here the glory of the Haudenosaunez could not be overcome. The witching powers of these leaders forced the will of freedom upon the people to the point that desire to be independently free burned in the heart of every man, woman, and child in those lands. So fierce these people became to protect those individual freedoms, no nation successfully encroached upon those territories until the sixth turning of world domination.

In that age, the glory of Lucifer grew to new heights, eventually becoming so great that it drove the Phoenician from his eastern trading worlds, the few surviving sons sailing off into the western mist to become little more than myths and bedtime tales. Carthage would become a city of ruins, its buildings burned, with the enslaving of its surviving inhabitants. Spain, France, Gaul and the isles of the Brits would fall to the Roman Empire. Only Germany and the Norse would stand against the satanic flood of conquerors who raised the cross of the Roman church high. These valiant warriors would fight against the evil encroachments into their holy lands until, through the deceptiveness of smooth speech and treachery they, too, would eventually fall to the still beating heart of a vanquished Rome.

Not all hope was lost. Far across the Atlantean Sea, the children of the Elkhorn and Cave Bear would hold fast the fate of freedom along with the sons of the Genesee and copper miners of MaNorsanee, Phoenician traders, the sons of Dan, and every other freedom-lover who had escaped to these worlds. In future ages, they would stand up and fight against the evil forces of Hormax in bloody battles that would empty the land of life, the peoples' ruined souls scattered across the fields and hills in defense of that freedom, driving back the armies of Samyaza and his Hormaxian servants. So it would come about that when the last of the kings of Old Rome set their feet upon the land, few people did they find to subject to their will. Yet as wild as the huntsmen and warriors who followed Noahashonie into battle against the Atlantician hordes would these few people still be. Destroyed in future wars many were, yes, but never were they fully conquered.

### * * *

Noah played with her cooing baby girl, the child taking her first steps, arms stretched out toward her father. Rae laughed as he called the girl's name, "Come here my little Catherin. Come to your father." Sweeping the child up in his arms, he walked over to Noah, hugging her in a one-armed embrace. After tenderly kissing, the couple strolled onto the porch overlooking the courtyard of New Paris castle.

Castle? Well, of sorts...a rather humble building made of brick and wood where official business was conducted and foreign visitors were welcomed. Although it must be said that since good times had returned to the worlds of men, few were the ambassadors that arrived to visit from distant lands. Noah could already see the influence of the Iamrussians diminishing on the world scene. When the fear of Noah sending her armies across the lands to conquer the surrounding kingdoms did not materialize, when she did not raise her banner upon the battle galleys and Dragon ships to war against seaport cities, the world quickly began to forget the Black Angel...something that was fine with Noah.

Forests were once again ripe with nut-filled trees and wild game, verdant fields overflowing with aromatic fruits and berries. Deer and elk herded once more in the northern valleys, and the wolf was returned to hunting the wild lands far from the villages and farms of Noah's people. So many were those who had departed the region to begin life elsewhere that the city of New Paris, capital of Iamrussia, could muster only about two thousand inhabitants within its entire district, the city housing fewer than one thousand, and many of them being merchants and business people, the river flowing through the city a major trading route.

This did not mean that Noah had nothing to do when it came to running affairs of state. As soon as conditions permitted, cartographers had spread across the post-Atlantis landscape to draw new maps of Iamrussian territories. The majority of the previous coastal areas and villages were now swallowed up by the sea. Hanna Inlet was only a memory, as were the headwaters of the River Pete. Durbine was now the home to schools of fishes, while the Atlantean Sea's shore now lapped against the ruins of the outer wall of Saranda. So much had changed since Noah's people first set foot upon these shores. Already her adventurous fellow clansmen were hurrying to turn this world into the likeness of the one they had left behind.

It had been decided that a confederacy of sorts should continue to exist among the various clans who made up the Iamrussians. There would be eighteen major houses established, their boundaries placed by the approval of the common moot council, that council being made up of three representatives from each of the eighteen houses and three appointed by Noah and her house of the Haudenosaunez...those of the sixteen from Dancing Stones' funeral who resided within Iamrussian territories. The smaller, less populous family clans were apportioned inheritances within the territories of the eighteen, their voices raised in the district moot halls.

Already accurate maps were being drawn up and official boundaries established. When final approval was made through the common moot council, there would be recordings on parchments to be placed in the Hall of Records, a vast archival library established in caves underneath the castle, it being located on a rise above the city proper of New Paris. The eighteen houses would be a set of independent states, establishing their own rules and customs. Noah would remain their queen, the houses agreeing to certain stipulations concerning their fellow clans.

Should dispute arise between clans that could not be settled by them, they would wait upon the recommendation of the general moot council to establish what must be done. If an outside clansman residing within the territory of another clan was accused of high crimes against the clan of that territory, that man or woman was to be brought before the queen's court and judged there as to innocence or guilt and what punishment if any was to be declared.

There was another item that Noah felt was of prime importance. No clan should have a standing guard or army, any career officials or paid rulers. The moot halls were to be open to all the people in the clan, and the clan leaders were to be appointed by the people. To protect the people as a whole, each house would provide a set number of men and women to serve under the queen's house as an army of the people, their time of obligation being for one year before rotating back to their homes. This way every house would have a large number of experienced people able to defend their territory should need arise, while not being strapped with the cost of maintaining a standing fighting force. Since no taxes were to be collected, Noah depended on the good will of all the clans to support the military and other governmental needs.

Under this confederacy, should war be decided upon by two-thirds or more of the council, any clan voting against the war could opt out of it, except for the yearly conscripted soldiers delivered to the queen's house. For her part, if the queen chose to act against an outside nation by using military force, she need not seek the approval of the council if it was only a military action and not outright war. Thus any standing army that existed was placed under the direct control of the queen and was subject to her. It could not be used in any police or military action against the clans of the confederacy, their disputes to be settled by the general moot council.

This simple consensus held these loosely wedded confederates together for several centuries. During this time, New Paris grew into a rich and prosperous city that the nations outside these territories forgot about, as they also did the Iamrussians. Here freedom ruled the hearts of men, it being of greater worth than any other thing. Noah and her house played a large part in this happening. With seers the likes of Lumdon and Cothath preaching peace, unity, and freewill to the clans, and Noah ever keeping a weather eye against foreign intrusions, the people could grow and prosper in freedom.

To this day, the educated elite believe the lands of the north and west were backward and primitive, but the opposite was so true! There is little room for monuments and grand structures in worlds where free men roam. If one looks at the record of the last Atlantis, the person will see that it was not the old, established populace that built the glory of that nation, but the new immigrant who willingly worked slavishly to deliver the dreams of the robber barons and political despots. There were few immigrants among the Iamrussians, fewer kings and lords, and a large, very independent population. To each clansman did the nation belong, each person a king or queen over his or her own flesh, and with a tenacious fierceness that lordship was maintained. All one needed to do with raised eyes was to lift one's hands up to become a living temple to Iam.

The Hormaxian leaders soon came to learn that the creed preached by the Haudenosaunez was that of freedom, lifting it up to be the greatest gift of God. Each man following that belief strove to attain holy acceptance through his acts done in freedom. Before the Divine Magistrate over the universe these people would willingly stand, accepting whatever judgment chosen for or against them as a free people. Should that One declare that they could not pass through kingdom's gates, they would accept their fate as that of a free people, charging no other man or woman for their failure. These were the peoples of the Iamrussians and their willing leaders, the Haudenosaunez. Heaven could wait if, by decree, these people were obligated to leave this earth to attain it.

It was through this philosophical world that two young lovers walked, their hearts brimming with this wild, independent spirit. In future years, they would take their passionate ideals into the western worlds across the Atlantean Sea where the son of the Cave Bear would set up a kingdom based upon these same laws of freedom and liberty existing in their homeland. One day, in the far distant future, when Atlantis was born anew from its death stroke, a child of the Elkhorn and the Mountain Bear would resurrect that way of thinking and belief until it flooded the earth with its passionate, fiery influence.

Hormax and all his hordes be damned, for freedom shall reign supreme in the end as all their works will come to forgotten ruination!

Meric and Hyhoset came running across the courtyard, hands clasped together, laughing. Noah smiled with pleasure. The two looked quite the sight. Hyhoset was little taller than her mother and Meric was a giant of a man, standing half again as tall as Witch Queen Sodasonie. So deeply in love were these two, always together. This very upcoming new moon when the chieftains assembled for the next general moot council, and so many people from the various clans would be gathered to New Paris, Meric and Hyhoset were going to celebrate their wedding. This would be such a grand event, indeed! Already the city was filling with excited people from all the clans wishing to witness this event.

The territory belonging to the house of the Haudenosaunez encompassed New Paris and its surrounding districts, including the Rose and Kornary Valleys to the south, then into the hills east and west about equal distance, the same being into the north, its boundaries forming the approximate shape of a square. This was what eventually came to be called 'the land of safe-keeping', where tribal laws did not prevail, every person entering here being subject to the queen and her court during their stay. It was within this territory that Meric, the son of the Cave Bear, had chosen to make his and Hyhoset's home, he and his loyal clansmen taking no inheritance in the realms of the Iamrussians, waiting their return to the western worlds.

For the Iamrussians, these times would be the beginning of many peaceful years in this wild and carefree land. For fifty generations they would face no real outside threat, what with Noah and her fellow Haudenosaunez standing guard over the 'kingdom of Camelot'. As for the peoples themselves, long they would listen to the wisdom of their sages and follow the laws of freedom, so as to live without care.

Rae's Dragon ship, Syene, slowly rotted into the river sands as he and Noah cavorted about the hills and valleys surrounding New Paris, watching their children quickly grow up into adulthood and take on families of their own. Cothath finally married a woman who gave to him several children. Swalhawena and BondaBoor eventually took up residence in their old cave of sanctuary that looked down upon the city, raising up sons and daughters for several generations. Lumdon's sons and daughters became chieftains and leaders among their people, establishing cities all along the great Thames River. Tuosol and Tosombabanna took to the Talking Stones, building anew a city that eventually filled the hills surrounding the Temple Owhar. There they, along with their children and their children, waited the returning of Meric and his kindred from across the sea.

Far away in the Realms Above, the children of Lowenah watched in tired satisfaction. There was a pause even in their warring so that a breath of normalcy could be reclaimed for but a moment. The pieces were now placed on the board, the new game just beginning. The first round had gone to Lowenah's victorious children, but at a great cost to them and those in the Realms Below.

Sodasonie and Chasileah's sky ship glided over the hilltops as the women looked down upon the peaceful countryside, thinking about their recent visit paid upon Noahashonie. As they stood there viewing the world below, Chasileah asked, "You have not told the child of future days, have you?"

Sodasonie closed her eyes. "They will come soon enough. The Black Angel will live up to her name yet more, but for now I must allow her a little peace. Sorrow and grief ever circles in the skies. For now, allow her to dream the dream of ever-peace, imagining that this restful time will never end. Tomorrow...tomorrow will be soon enough for her to chase the crow."

The ship slowly rose into the sky until the Earth was little more than a spec in an immense universe. Through her visions, the Woman in the Whispering Waters looked in on her two daughters and smiled sadly. "Let them rest for the moment. For now they need to dream this dream of ever-peace that somehow everything can be made right, just like it was before. Sorrow and grief will come again, soon enough. For now, allow their visions to be filled with blissful hope."

### * * *

JuuFet grinned with delight as he walked down the marble steps onto the river landing, waving toward the Dragon ship flying the brightly colored red and gold banners of the House of Gishop, with the green and silver flag of Ambassador Tobanahazz fluttering from the bowsprit. Waving back from the deck of the ship were Chuphoe and Juliet, warm smiles reflecting their desire to become reacquainted with old friends. Soon the ship was tied up next to the landing with a wide-railed loading ramp secured to the gangway. In minutes, Chuphoe and his party were disembarked and paying official greetings to Pharaoh's welcoming committee.

Chuphoe looked around at the new buildings and grand structures that could be seen from the city's quay, Pharaoh's city. Off in the distance were to be heard sounds of construction as new and even more impressive buildings rapidly rose skyward in what had not so long ago been empty desert. To say the least, Gishop's ambassador was amazed by the changes made to this region since his days here so many years ago.

JuuFet came forward in all his royal finery, nervously welcoming his former commander and now ambassador, stepping up and bowing politely. "General Tobanahazz, my pleasure... JuuFet of the king's 3rd infantry guard and adjunct scribe to the house of Pharaoh TitanAmactony at your service."

Juliet did not return the bow, nor wait for Chuphoe to reply, approaching JuuFet and taking him up in her arms, giving the fellow a giant hug. "Oh it's so good to see you after all these years!" she cried, kissing him softly on the cheek. "So much we have to talk about and so little time there is to accomplish it all."

JuuFet sheepishly glanced over at Chuphoe who stood there grinning back with twinkling eyes. Chuphoe leaned close, placing a hand on his shoulder while whispering in his ear, "I do believe she plans to receive more than a hug from you before our visit is over."

JuuFet coughed, his face waxing crimson with embarrassment.

Juliet laughed, her eyes dancing with mischievous intent. "Noah sends her greetings, telling me that you are quite the intriguing fellow, have become quite the man and should opportunity arise, I must become better acquainted with this ever so handsome servant of Pharaoh."

JuuFet stammered, "My visit with the queen was some years ago, the turning of many seasons, I being little more than a boy at the time. I..."

Juliet interrupted, laughing quietly, "You've only become that much better of a man since the visit then, I would imagine... the more my desire to acquaint myself with you during my time here."

Delivering JuuFet from this awkward moment, Chuphoe introduced him to the other members of his family. A young woman came forward, holding a baby boy of about a year, a girl-child of about nine years or so at her side. Pointing first at the girl and then the baby, Chuphoe began, "This is SuNidghaSungSei and this is Shadrach, named after Juliet's uncle on her mother's side. These are my children born of my queenly wife, Juliet."

He then pointed at the young woman holding Shadrach. This is Tasimbha, my wife of three months, but a woman of my household for several years."

Behind and to his side stood another woman with a young child at her breasts, "This is my wife, FooShii, and our son, Qusasimba, and this..." he motioned to a couple with two little children standing at the other side of FooShii, "is FooShii's son, KosbeeTusueeHisop, my stepson, but also son of the great commander who served both in the southern armies under AnahNakaNoah and later under the king of Atlantis, DungieDodanim...General TusuiHisop."

(Author's Note: ShoShiNoahTusueeHisop had returned to using the name his father gave him, KosbeeTusueeHisop, shortly after the destruction of Atlantis.)

He then pointed toward the dark-skinned woman with hazel eyes. "This is Kosbee's wife, Jewel, my daughter, and their little ones, Tutan and Neferie."

JuuFet hesitated and then politely welcomed Kosbee and Jewel to Egypt.

Noticing, FooShii stepped forward. "My Lord, by your appearance I see that a son of Nubia you are. I, too, am a daughter of Nubia, my grandfather being of the tribe of Shuutan. TusuiHisop, my former husband, saved me and my son from the murder of our people. Whether for good or selfish purposes, he did protect us alive, lying as to my ancestry when the priests of Hormax questioned the man because of my darker skin. My son is of the blood of the Egyptian, Cushite, and Nubian. We have journeyed into your wondrous land so that he might make connections with his ancestors. Please do not charge the actions, good or evil, of my former husband against my son. He is not of that nature, having been taught at the feet of my husband, Chuphoe Tobanahazz, learning honor and justice from that man, his real father."

JuuFet bowed low, apologizing, "My Lady FooShii, I have allowed my face to reveal what was hidden in my heart. The wise woman, Serah, has spoken of the foolish man who judges sons by their father's conduct. My heart is wicked in this regard." He stood, extending a hand to Kosbee, smiling, "Welcome to Egypt, Master KosbeeTusueeHisop. Allow your servant, JuuFet, to make your stay here a pleasant one."

Chuphoe went on to introduce the officers and dignitaries accompanying him. Concluding all the official greetings, JuuFet invited everyone to come along with him to Pharaoh's palace for some rest and refreshment. As they walked, Chuphoe approached JuuFet, wondering, "Juliet has spoken of this woman, Serah, before, and now you refer to her, calling her a wise woman. Who is she, and is there any opportunity that we might make her acquaintance during our visit here?"

JuuFet smiled, "My Lord Tobanahazz, arrangements have already been made for a meeting, Serah requesting such as soon as news of your visit reached her ears. As for who she is, rumor says she is a Hebrew, daughter of Asher, and mother of a son whose father, a stranger, took the woman by force while she walked alone in a field. She resides in the tent of the Hebrew, Jacob, father to TitanAmactony's prime minister, Zaphenathpaneah, and several other sons and daughters. These are the rumors. I suggest that you speak with your wife, Juliet, if further answers you are seeking concerning the woman."

Chuphoe remarked, "This Serah must be an important woman for even the men of this land to give consideration to her voice. It appears to me that such freedom for women is uncommon in Pharaoh's kingdom."

JuuFet agreed. "The woman is a prophetess and priestess, not only among the Hebrew families, but even the Egyptian chieftains and priests give ear to her words, often requesting her private counsel on matters. Indeed, her son, ShiShakShephatiah (lit. Iam has judged), the name given him by his mother, has been delivered up to the house of the priests by the hand of Zaphenathpaneah and the good graces of Pharaoh TitanAmactony to be educated in all the knowledge of Egypt."

He looked into Chuphoe's face. "Yet humble the woman is, keeps to herself unless others make request of her. So it is, has become. When Serah speaks, all the others listen, even Pharaoh, the woman having free access to his palace's inner rooms, the man almost viewing her as a goddess."

Chuphoe puzzled, "It sounds to me that you know this woman quite well. Have you had private conversations with her?"

JuuFet smiled, "As with Lady Tobanahazz am I with Serah. And yes, I have been blessed to have some private conversations with her. After all, I am a personal servant of her brother, Zaphenathpaneah, so do have opportunity to speak with her from time to time."

"Hmmm..." Chuphoe scratched his beard. "I believe this former soldier of mine leaves more unspoken than not. Young you are, but wisdom is not forgotten by you. Should I pursue this conversation with Juliet, or does prudence suggest I leave matters in the clouds?"

JuuFet grinned. "For most men, I would say to leave matters where they are. It is a wiser thing to do. But for you? Do as your heart recommends."

Chuphoe remained in Egypt for a month before setting sail back down the Nile for Cyprus. He was retiring from being ambassador, part of his reason for visiting Egypt. Over the preceding weeks, Pharaoh had been introduced to King Gishop's new administrative body as well as his new ambassador to Egypt. Chuphoe had also conducted some personal trading business with Titan, contracting to go into partnership with the building of new ships for the eastern spice trade, Chuphoe delivering into Pharaoh's hands a generous amount of gold to cover Chuphoe's share of the cost of building and fitting the ships out, this as well as a personal gift of gold and silver in recognition of Titan's loyalty to the Phoenician trading guild.

During his visit, Chuphoe did obtain an audience with Serah, Juliet and JuuFet accompanying him. Ever silent the man remained regarding Serah's true identity, feeling privileged to be given knowledge concerning secrets of the Haudenosaunez covenant. In time the estate of Tobanahazz would become a recognized safe haven for any of the Haudenosaunez seeking temporary asylum from the tumult of the surrounding world. Although New Paris was the official gathering place of these people, it being the home of Queen Noahashonie and protected deep within Iamrussian territory, Cyprus became the home for many Haudenosaunez moots, eventually hosting the early negotiations between Legion and the Hormaxians, and Sodasonie and the Haudenosaunez.

KosbeeTusueeHisop and his family decided to journey further up the Nile to Nubian cities, JuuFet gaining permission to accompany him. As a parting gift, Chuphoe gave to Kosbee and Jewel gold and silver. It was with an air of excited apprehension that Kosbee and Jewel set off from Pharaoh's city aboard an Egyptian barge heading up the river. As they waved goodbye to family and friends from the departing ship, FooShii hugged Chuphoe, fearing for her son's safety and that she might never see him or her grandchildren again.

Chuphoe reassured FooShii of Kosbee and his family's wellbeing. "Our son will be fine. He has the scribe of the king accompanying him. JuuFet is a highly respected chieftain in his Nubian clan. He will make sure Kosbee receives a warm welcome. Besides, your son is a special person, and special people like your son don't go unnoticed. King Dungie saw something special in the boy long ago. That's why he had me take you for a wife," he squeezed FooShii in a gentle hug, "something I'm grateful to the man for. I believe others will... do see something special in him, too."

FooShii slipped her arm around Chuphoe's waist, looking up at him. "So unlike my first husband you are, so kind and caring. Tusui saw me as little more than a piece of property. Did he care for me? Well, he did protect my son and me through the purge, but I feel there was more to it. And the way the old priests continued to pay more than the usual attention to Kosbee? I wonder... Still, a man like you has been worth the wait. You make me feel like I am somebody."

Chuphoe smiled, kissing FooShii on the forehead. "You are a very special somebody."

The headman of the Dragon ship called out to heave off lines. In minutes, the ship with its crew and passengers was drifting with the current toward the middle of the river. Later, Chuphoe and his family along with his few trusted guards would depart the Dragon ship at the mouth of the river and board a recently constructed Phoenician merchantman flying Chuphoe's new trading colors and sail off toward Cyprus. There, on his quiet, landed estates, Chuphoe would contemplate the future and ponder the past with old friends and new companions. There he would watch his children and grandchildren grow up. There he would also witness the intrigues of the Dragon Witches and Haudenosaunez as they vied with the Hormaxians and their demonic overlords to change times and seasons.

### * * *

The gray robed, hooded man slowly walked along the wharf after departing the tall-masted western trading ship that had delivered him to Junu (On). He smiled with pleasant satisfaction at seeing the grand temples and palaces, musing to himself, "Not bad. Not bad. The old fellow did a rather good job turning this place into more that the hovel it was when I visited last. Not quite the magnificence one will find in ZeussahRomath. But how can a person compare the city of the gods to this place? Still, it should do, do quite well."

Another man dressed in similar apparel approached, extending a hand in welcome while speaking in a hush, "My Lord RapadiesKaahn, your Worship, I do hope your journey has been a pleasant one. Long have we been in anticipation of your visit upon this humble house. Gomer, your servant...son of the high priest over the house of Ra and guardian in the house of Horus, I welcome you to Egypt."

Rapadies grasped Gomer's forearm in salutation. "My son, the journey was somewhat tiring, but pleasant nonetheless. The ships of the Southlands again ply these waters now that opportunity for open trade exists in the world again. Please, Master Gomer, have your people made preparation for my visit? It was with a sad heart I took up this journey after hearing of the death of the old priest, Lord Potiphera."

Gomer answered, bowing his head, "Yes. The Speaking Stones told us of your coming, so I and my fellow companions have made preparation for your visit." He frowned, "But I must confess there already is competition growing among the older priests seeking to take Potiphera's staff of power. They hold back, fearing the wrath of Egypt's prime minister, Zaphenathpaneah."

He then motioned toward a two-wheeled carriage, inviting Rapadies to join him for a ride. In a few minutes, a man was leading his donkey, pulling the carriage through the crowded streets of the city. While the men watched the hustle and bustle of the busy shops and open markets, slowly passing them by, Rapadies asked, "Zaphenathpaneah? I have heard of this man in the past, but little has been the news of late concerning him that has reached my ears. Will you tell me more about this fellow?"

"Certainly!" Gomer was pleased to reveal what he knew about current matters in Egypt. "Zaphenathpaneah has been prime minister over Egypt for nearly thirty years, although I believe he stands as more of a figurehead now than when Pharaoh TitanAmactony was alive. Titan's cousin, ZigalAmactony, now sits the throne, but old he is and tired, being nearly eighty-six summers with only a weak, good-for-nothing son, NuephuteeAmactony, to stand the throne when he passes." He smiled, "I believe your arrival at this time has been fortuitous."

Rapadies nodded, thinking to himself how good the timing was. Less than a year before, Gadreel (Godenn) had appeared to him at the high stone gateway above ZeussahRomath, offering the priest glory over the entire House of Hormax. But first he was to finish the conquest of Egypt by setting upon the throne a man more to the liking of the gods, thus the real purpose of Rapadies' visit. He would have to begin by taking over the house of Potiphera and all the other houses of the priests of Egypt.

"So," Rapadies wondered, "do you have people in mind that can be of assistance to us in accomplishing our tasks?"

Gomer said he did. "There are already undercurrents of growing discontent among the populace. It is possible that discontent could lead to revolt should something happen to Zigal, and his son, Nuephutee, ends up taking power."

Rapadies sat back, looking about at the bustling crowds. "I'm listening..."

"Well," Gomer continued, "I think there are some good connections to be made in Pharaoh's city, ambitious men who may wish to assist us. ZenathPotiphera and Absinthe are important young men in Pharaoh's court, and have been educated in all the sciences of the priests. Plus, and more importantly, they are the very sons of Zaphenathpaneah but somewhat estranged from their Hebrew kindred, taking more to the ways of Egypt than to that of herders of cattle. They are also close to their cousin, ShiShak, whose mother is claimed to be a daughter of Zaphenathpaneah's brother, Asher. But I have cause to wonder."

"How so?" Rapadies' attention was now focused on Gomer.

"Well..." Gomer was in a mood now, pleased to have information that Rapadies considered important. "The priests instructing ShiShak found the boy strange, peculiar you might say...smart and savvy, picking up his lessons faster than the other children, finally thinking past many of his instructors. Then there were other things that gave pause to ponder, witching things you might say. True, his mother, Serah, is considered a prophetess and uncannily wise, so that even among the noble leaders she has provided her counsel, yet there was even more."

"More?"

"Yes," Gomer answered, "much more... It was decided that the boy should be examined further. What was discovered was that ShiShak is a Child of the Blood."

Rapadies sat up, surprised. "Of the Blood?"

Gomer confirmed it. "Yes, but not just of the Blood, but rich in it, more so than anyone other than Nimrod, and possibly even him. Azazel lives strong in the blood of that man."

Excitement grew in Rapadies' voice as he wondered in bewilderment, "But how can that be?! The old man, ZaphipheRa, revealed his hopes to me that DungieDodanim and Nidgha might produce such a seed, they both being rich in that blood, Nidgha by transfusion and through her mother at birth. Yet a girl child he intimated to me was what she was carrying in her belly. Hmmm...could it be?"

He strummed his fingers, thinking aloud, "The old man might well have been lying about the sex of Nidgha's unborn. I was given no opportunity to even get close to her the entire time he was there with me, and the Dragon stench from that Juliet creature was so strong I could not clear my senses enough to know at all what was going on with the man's granddaughter after he was gone. How old is this boy, ShiShak?"

Gomer lifted a hand as though counting on his fingers. "Let's see... It was said that he and his mother walked out of the wilderness some months after Atlantis sank beneath the waters. So he should be somewhere around his mid-twenties... give or take a little."

Rapadies' curiosity was growing. "You say this Serah, the boy's mother, came out of the wilderness with the baby?"

Gomer explained, "Well, not exactly out of the wilderness, like suddenly appearing. First, it is very hard to get any information from those Hebrew sons of Jacob. Even though their father has long since passed away, they keep mum about family goings on. What I've learned is that Serah had been warming the bed of Jacob, her grandfather, for some months. I can find no earlier tales told of her. Suddenly she departed from the camp and was gone for thirty days. When she returned, the woman was nursing a little child, saying she had become pregnant by force from a stranger who took her while she walked alone in the fields, and had hidden the pregnancy until the child's time of birthing. Then she went into the wilderness, alone, to deliver the child there in hopes it would die at birth. But upon seeing how beautiful the baby was, she could not abandon it to the vultures."

"What more do you know about this?" Wheels were turning in Rapadies' head. "Be forthright with me and hold nothing back."

Gomer confessed, "Little more there is to tell. My spies have gained some information through their discreet snooping about the Hebrew villages, but the people don't share willingly. Asher is an old man and his memory is failing him. The other brothers act the same way when Serah's name is mentioned."

"And Serah?" Rapadies asked. "Have you learned anything from her, that is, if the woman is still living?"

A smile flashed across Gomer's face, it quickly vanishing. "Serah? Ah, yes. The woman lives, hides in the shadows most of the time, covering herself with a long, hooded robe. Queer one she is, too...smells strange, like something I've never smelled before, Dragonish, but not like a Dragon. And the woman can detect the scent of the sons of Hormax even should they dress inconspicuously. And strangest of all... ah, yes...well I saw her once, just a glimpse, when the woman stepped from her house, her hood down about her shoulders...the most comely of faces I have ever seen, even on a bashful maiden, so strange for a woman her age, having to be at least in her forties.

"There is one thing, though." Gomer lifted his hand, extending a finger. "Our blood machines are not refined like the ones you possess in the western lands, but through tremendous effort, we have discovered that Serah does carry the blood of Azazel and Hormax, yet no blood speech of Jacob have we found in her. True, the sample we obtained of the woman was very small, and our machines need a great deal of blood to work properly. Still, I would think some trace would have been found."

"Does Serah's blood speech match that of the boy, ShiShak?" Rapadies wondered.

Gomer answered, "As I have stated, our blood machines are not refined. Working with what is available, we have found no direct link between mother and son except that both carry the blood of Azazel and Hormax."

Rapadies sat back, not wishing to reveal to Gomer what he was thinking. Was it possible that ZaphipheRa and/or Nidgha had escaped the destruction of Atlantis and somehow arrived in this region of the world? ZaphipheRa did have or said he had a highly advanced sky ship. The secrets of building it, he claimed, came from the Sky People. Was Serah really one of the old priest's Zaelocks, given Nidgha's child, it really being a boy? That might explain the woman's youthful appearance. Then did ZaphipheRa hide the child away with a family of Hebrews, a perfect place if one wished to keep the child secret from others in the House of Hormax?

Why, sure, that was it! The old man planned to raise the boy up to take the throne of Egypt, thus lifting him up over the eastern houses of Hormax. He then arranged to have Jacob delivered to Egypt. When the time was right, he would muster a revolt of the people and overthrow TitanAmactony, lifting the boy up to kingship, ZaphipheRa being the real power behind the throne. Somewhere along the way, the old man's plans fell through, he possibly dying unexpectedly, leaving the boy to grow up in the house of Pharaoh as little more than the Hebrew nephew of Egypt's prime minister.

Gomer spoke up. "There is another person who might be able to serve you even better or in concert with the young fellows I earlier mentioned. Does the name 'KosbeeTusueeHisop' ring a bell with you?"

Rapadies thought a moment and then bolted upright in the carriage. "That's TusuiHisop's boy!"

"Well," Gomer grinned, "Kosbee survived Atlantis, and now lives far up the Nile River with his wives and children."

"Really?" Rapadies also grinned wide. This might be a dream come true, a manufactured blood seed that could...had reproduced its own offspring! And the person was still alive? This was just too good!

There had been a great deal of disappointment on Rapadies' part when he began anew his blood experiments after returning to ZeussahRomath. Without assistance from Zeussah's Servants, he had been unable to obtain more holy, angelic blood to mix with the blood of humans, what little stock he had being contaminated and spoilt for lack of proper cooling on his journey from Atlanticia. Any other possible samples remaining to be shipped with Nuhma never arrived.

Then there had been the experiments, themselves. ZaphipheRa had hit on to some way of transferring procreative powers into the new hybrid human life he created. Although Kosbee was the first successful prototype of this new creation, he had also been the only surviving one. Despite all the genetic weaknesses, the boy's procreative abilities were proved, having made his wife pregnant, if Gomer's statement was correct.

Attempting to cover up his excitement, Rapadies leaned back and began to examine his hand, asking with an air of disinterest, "You say he lives up the Nile, and...and that he has children?"

Gomer eyed Rapadies, quickly grasping the importance of Kosbee's ability to procreate, and that he had knowledge of matters that Rapadies did not. This could be used to his advantage if he acted shrewdly enough. Also leaning back while casting his gaze off toward the shops and crowds, Gomer casually answered, "Well, yes, or at least that is what I have heard be told. Rumor has it that ChuphoeTobanahazz's stepdaughter, Jewel, became pregnant with child before the family left Atlanticia."

He offhandedly replied, "Who knows about rumors? True, his wife, Jewel, is mother to a boy and girl named, uh...let's see...oh, yes, Tutan and Neferie. But anyone could be the father to those children. You know how the northern people are...or were...any bed with any woman."

As though losing interest in the conversation, Gomer quickly commented about other less important matters. "It is such a fine day for travel, isn't it, a gentle breeze and pleasant temperatures? I hope you will be pleased with the accommodations that have been arranged for you."

Rapadies suddenly realized that he may have given away the value he placed upon the son of TusuiHisop. Still, what did Gomer really know about Kosbee, his name meaning 'child of the blue skin'? After all, few other than he and ZaphipheRa were aware of the boy's origins. Even if Gomer might have found the young man strange in appearance, the reasons for it should be unknown to him, thus the genetic value in the man's blood. Wait a minute! How did Gomer know about KosbeeTusueeHisop and his possible value to the Hormaxian House?

Leaning back in the seat, Rapadies sighed, "Time does not permit games. Obviously you've learned some important things that might prove beneficial to my... our mission. How do you know about this Kosbee and what makes you think he can be of any real value to us?"

Gomer grinned, "My Lord Rapadies, my concern has always been for our cause, I believing that you are the most qualified to lead it to success. The world of the Hormaxians is constantly threatened by the dark powers of the North. Rumors abound concerning Dragon Witches that haunt Cyprus, stories that even the Black Angel has paid several visits upon that island. And by sea she does not come but from the sky does she appear. There are ominous shadows that creep ever over those isles that our powers cannot penetrate."

He looked into Rapadies' face. "The shadow crept into that world after a certain Chuphoe Tobanahazz settled down there along with all of King Dungie's wives. With ever-eyes, I have had spies searching that world from a distance. I say 'from a distance' because those agents of mine who get too close do not return with report. So it is that any time I hear Tobanahazz mentioned, I am alert to search the matter out."

Rapadies asked, "So is there much that has been discovered other than this Chuphoe Tobanahazz escaped Atlanticia with Dungie's wives in tow? For the Dragons, I do know that Odethbethel and Juliet are both witches with great powers, but Odethbethel is of the old order and is an aged woman by now, at least one hundred winters I would say. Juliet is a mystery, though. I remember her stench when she attended me during my stay in Atlanticia. Chuphoe is an old man now, too, well up in his eighties, I would imagine."

Gomer shrugged, "Have it your way, if you wish, but I tell you there's funny business when it comes to that fellow! I've studied him well. Even in his old age he is a very influential man. Kings cross his threshold in search of a blessing. Should he ask for any favor at all, the rulers bow low to grant it. The late Pharaoh of Egypt was a man who almost worshiped Chuphoe, calling him 'AphroditeChleoh', 'the Mother goddess' son'. Even after the old fellow retired his ambassadorship, Zaphenathpaneah regularly sent emissaries to Cyprus to confer with the man."

He lifted a hand, explaining, "It was, I believe, Chuphoe who encouraged TitanAmactony to lift up Kosbee to the position of chieftain over Pharaoh's Nubian house that resides in the lands far in southern Egypt. And..." the man smiled slyly, "and there's more, but..."

"But what?" Rapadies asked innocently.

Gomer frowned, "My Lord, younger than you by many years I am, but no child am I. We both know that friendship in power is maintained by mutual necessity. I have information that can gain you added power, and you have information that..."

"That what?" Rapadies lifted an eyebrow. "That what?"

Gomer looked away. "That will give me an edge over the other bloodsuckers seeking power and glory, and that might just make me valuable enough to you so that I will not fall victim to the knife or poison. Yes, my Lord, our trust is mutual. As long as you need me, and I you, we may both live long and prosper. I have information that you need, and you have information that I need."

Rapadies laughed, "Well it is that we understand each other. I shall keep my knife in its sheath and you keep your poison in its bottle and we might just do fine business together. I like you. I think we will work well together. I like a man who knows what he wants and has learned how to bargain to get it. So, tell me please, why do you believe Kosbee will serve us well?"

Gomer replied, "I will tell you but first tell me, why the excitement of Kosbee being a dead general's son? More than the overthrow of Egypt is involved here, or you would not have jumped at hearing his name."

"You are a shrewd one," Rapadies commented wryly. "All right, I will need assistance with this anyway, you having knowledge of the blood machines." He went on to explain that Kosbee was a hybrid offspring with the blood of Azazel and men, his mother also being rich in both Azazel's and Hormax' blood. "The greatest secret of all is that the man can procreate, has done so." He looked at Gomer. "Now tell me what it is that you know about Kosbee that can help us with our overthrow of Egypt."

Although astounded by the information shared with him, Gomer pretended minor interest, realizing Rapadies was certainly keeping secret reasons for his excitement over knowing that Kosbee still lived. "I will tell you this news that might prove helpful to our cause, my Lord Rapadies. Kosbee's son, Tutan, is a close companion to ShiShak, and brothers ZenathPotiphera and Absinthe, the boys becoming acquainted when Zaphenathpaneah's scribe, JuuFet, brought the boy down the river to Pharaoh's city to get some schooling."

The carriage jolted to a stop at a crossroads where a crush of people struggled to pass through the confluence, pack animals and carts also attempting to make their passage across the tangle of traffic and on to their destinations. The driver looked back at his passengers, shrugging helplessly, trying to push his way through the intersection. Gomer motioned the man to press on, indicating that the whip might hurry matters. A few slaps on the mules' rumps managed to get the animals to jolt forward, not stopping, forcing the crowds to separate or be run over. In short order, the team and carriage were through the bottleneck and moving quickly along the lane, gradually leaving the hustle and bustle of the marketplace behind them.

Gomer went on at some length giving Rapadies a history of the four young men, their relationships with one another and what their future value might be to the cause. "The boys... well young men, I would say...they all somewhere in their mid-twenties by now. Very close they have become, spending all their free hours together. ShiShak has taken a shine to Tutan's younger sister, Neferie, the fellow meeting the woman when her father, Kosbee, visited Pharaoh's city. He sends scripted messages south to her on a regular basis, and she in turn sends scripted messages back to him.

"Tutan is a very smart young fellow, having taken up the quill like his mentor, JuuFet, who has taught the boy in the arts of being a diplomatic scribe, a talent that brings a person close to the pharaoh. JuuFet and Kosbee are both chieftains of important rank in the Nubian houses of Egypt, and Tutan's marriage to JuuFet's daughter, Tasooswee, has lifted the boy up in the eyes of the older men of that house.

"As for ZenathPotiphera and Absinthe, the young men have been diligent in the studies of their grandfather and his magic, preferring the pursuit of those arts over marriage at the moment. I believe this is in part to their father's desire to have them marry Hebrew women and gather to the family settlements in Goshen. Their mother, Asenath, wishes for them to marry women of society, especially within her family's people, one of them possibly even taking their younger sister, Saporeth, as a wife. This puts pressure on them, they wanting very much to please both their parents. Staying single eases matters. Either way, I believe the young fellows are excellent candidates and should be brought further into the fold so as to learn more of our secrets."

Gomer lifted a hand, grinning. "Most importantly, I have managed to seduce all four of them into accepting the charms of our temple slave women, the boys frequenting their company quite regularly. It has been arranged - by my orders, of course - that the highly skilled among our Zaelock women entertain them when possible. Arrangements have also been made to bind these fellows together through shared experiences. It is amazing how men will bond when sharing the same woman at the same time. Why, even when the wine is upon them, I have introduced the fellows to the pleasures of young men, though I believe that Zaphenathpaneah's sons take a better liking to it than do the other two."

Looking out at the distant construction, the sound of the machines used for cutting massive stones to shape the giant obelisks and statues droning heavily upon the air, Gomer commented on how swiftly the palaces and other grand structures were being erected. He then returned to the subject. "These men keep secret from their families the things they practice in the shadows. This gives us additional leverage over their potential loyalty to us and our cause. So, by either threat of withdrawing the free use of our prostitutes for their pleasure or by revealing to their kindred what they have been practicing, we will have a great deal of influence and control over what these boys will do for us."

Rapadies nodded, grinning his approval. "You have done extremely well at your assignment. I'm pleased that I chose you for this task, and can see the immense value you will be to our future goals. I do believe these four men are pivotal to our success. There are certain other things that must be accomplished before we can move forward with our primary plans.

"First... and I am depending on you to accomplish this... Tutan must impregnate Neferie before she is corrupted by another man. I need both their bloods to mix in one child. Find a way to make this happen. It is very important. Second, Zaphenathpaneah is becoming aged. He must retire as prime minister so that when Zigal's worthless son, NuephuteeAmactony, takes the throne, a harsh taskmaster can be given the post of prime minister. And third, I will eventually need opportunity to be with that woman, Serah, face to face, at some private, out of the way place where I can examine her clear to her kidneys if necessary. Secrets she holds that I believe may be very important to our cause."

He closed his eyes. "All these things may take some time, and little of it do I wish to waste upon them, seeing that I do not grow younger. Though I drink the blood of virgins, I am still a man already in his seventies with but another thirty years or so with the needed vigor to rule the order. You, Master Gomer, are still young and full of vital energy, and wise, yes, wise but still in need of added knowledge. Should we attain success, you will have several years to learn at my side as my apprentice priest until you take over the order as an older man, training the following leader of the cause, as I am willing to do with you."

Gomer's face beamed, thrilled with Rapadies' offer. It was possible that the old man was only toying with him, enticing him with fair speech to seduce the man into accomplishing his purpose. On the other hand, it was well worth the risk, for never might such an opportunity arise again to be taught Hormaxian secrets at the feet of an aged high priest with the knowledge of someone like Rapadies. Rapadies had been taught by the very gods themselves, had apprenticed under the guiding hand of the great wizard of renown, ZaphipheRa, was learned in all the ways of the western priesthood, and had been influential in establishing the current construct of the three houses. Now he was offering to take Gomer on as his apprentice.

"Oh thank you, my Lord!" Gomer excitedly replied. "If this is truly an offer to learn at your feet, you as a mentor to me, then here is your faithful servant."

"Yes it is." Rapadies patted Gomer on the knee. "You will serve me well, very well. A great priest I will make you, to eventually lead the order as Potiphera did. Indeed, it might well be better for you to take up his staff of power, allowing your mentor to remain hidden in the shadows for now, that is. I can make that happen. There are many things you must learn about the order. When you have, you will understand that as great as Potiphera was, he was little more than a vassal to the real power in this world. It is that real power I am attaining to, and offer as a future gift to you, should you obediently follow my directions."

With that matter of business concluded, the two priests began to conspire in ways to accomplish the overthrow of Egypt and its takeover by the Hormaxian priesthood as had been accomplished in the western Southlands. In time, they came to one of On's Hormaxian palaces built by Potiphera with the wealth of Egypt, the remainder of Rapadies' men and women servants and officer priests, along with the luggage, arriving later in the day. The two men set to work immediately to put into motion all that had been schemed by them. Should they become successful, the entire world would soon be under the control of a unified Hormaxian house, those kingdoms serving to accomplish the will of that house... to bring Lucifer himself to Earth, to set the throne of his kingdom over all the nations of men here, on this planet.

### * * *

Zaphenathpaneah and Asenath stood arm in arm on the deck of the Egyptian river galley, waving to the large gathering of friends and royal well-wishers as their royal barge slowly pulled away from the landing on its journey south from Noph to the city of No in the Upper Egypt river basin. The year before, Asenath had taken to a sickbed with a high fever and delirium. Though the doctor-priests were able to rescue the woman from death with their secret, powerful potions, the woman remained physically weak and plagued with bouts of crippling headaches. It was finally recommended that a change of location might encourage Asenath's recovery, the crowded city of the king combined with the delta floods possibly contributing to her poor health.

So it was that Zaphenathpaneah made arrangements to depart up the Nile to No in hopes that life might be more pleasant for his wife in that distant city. To do this, the old prime minister decided to retire, much to the sad regret of Pharaoh ZigalAmactony, who appointed his son, Nuephutee, to temporarily take up the position until another able, qualified man could be found to replace Zaphenathpaneah.

Oarsmen pushed against the sluggish waters as the galley slowly took to the south channel and into the heart of the river. Thus, Zaphenathpaneah fades from the historical account of the rulers of Egypt, never again taking up a scepter of authority. No other man in the history of Egypt did as much as he did to set Destiny's course for that empire. The laws and dictums that would guide Egypt and, in part, the nations surrounding the Great Sea for the next fifteen hundred years can be traced back to the days when Zaphenathpaneah ruled as prime minister. For good and ill, this one man set the stage for world events that would not come to their finish until Shiloh's age. Even Shiloh, himself, the son of the Mountain Bear, would bow low in recognition of the great deeds and achievements of this former slave who became a world renowned magistrate.

Gomer stood upon the shore waving along with the other well-wishers, satisfied that plans were moving along quite nicely. Nuephutee was an excellent candidate for the position of prime minister and, if all worked well, in not too long a time, Pharaoh over all the land of Egypt. It had taken three years for Gomer and Rapadies to bring their plans this far, but now with their one, greatest obstacle taken away, the rest would move quickly. The four young men - Tutan, ShiShak, and brothers ZenathPotiphera and Absinthe - were becoming quite popular with the servant classes who were tired of their oppressive lives, wishing for the yoke under Pharaoh to be lighter. No greater was this dissatisfaction evidenced than in the lands to the south, the sons of Nubia being the most vocal among them. ZigalAmactony and Zaphenathpaneah had been discussing ways to lessen the burdens of the people when Zaphenathpaneah retired. Whatever was to come of those plans now rested in the hands of a feeble old man and his worthless, good-for-nothing son. Gomer laughed at the thought of the folly those two fools might conjure up.

The young apprentice priest was pleased with his accomplishments. Not only was Zaphenathpaneah retired, thus out of the way, but Gomer had succeeded in getting Kosbee's son, Tutan, to impregnate his sister, Neferie. It took a little drugged trickery, getting the two to have intercourse on the night Neferie and ShiShak announced their upcoming wedding. True, the newlywed couple would believe the child to be ShiShak's, but little that mattered. The priests of Hormax knew the truth and could act accordingly when the proper hour arrived.

As soon as Zaphenathpaneah's barge was a ways up the river, Gomer hurried off in the direction of a recently built Hormaxian temple located some miles from Junu, the compound constructed in an isolated desert valley. He was excited to find out what Rapadies might have learned from Serah, that woman creature having been abducted the day before on her way to the marketplace, and then hurried off to the temple by several Hormaxian guards. Gomer did not have time to remain that morning at Rapadies' side if he was to see the retired prime minister off, something important for the man's sons to see the young priest do.

It was late in the day when Gomer finally reached the temple, the sun falling toward the west. To his surprise, he found no guards standing the entrance gates of the courtyard. More disturbing was that no one was protecting the main entrance either. Something was amiss. This was the Temple of the Blood, the place where many of the blood experiments were being conducted. Rapadies stationed a large Hormaxian guard here because he was extremely protective of the priceless machinery, materials, and temple specimens found beyond the entrance doors. Hairs began to rise on the back of Gomer's neck as fear swept over him. His feet wanted to flee, but his heart wished to know what the matter might be. Slowly he approached the temple entrance, passing through into the shadows beyond.

A rush of cool air greeted the man, carrying upon it an odor sweet like that of honeysuckle rose. How could this be? Only in the mountains to the south did this plant grow, and its season to flower was still months off. Gripping his staff as though it were a weapon, he cautiously crept down the long corridor toward the main chambers, carefully listening for the faintest of sounds that might warn him of lurking danger. Coming to the end of the corridor, he turned, stopping outside the entrance to the blood chamber, the room prepared for specimen work, and the room where Serah was delivered to Rapadies, bound, gagged, and blindfolded. His heart pounding with excited dread, Gomer bent forward and cautiously stepped into the chamber.

There was a flickering blaze in the brazier casting a ghostly glow about the room. At first, Gomer could see little other than eerie, dancing shadows upon the walls. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he began to make out piles of litter scattered about the room. 'Strange...' the man thought. Rapadies was a neat person. The old priest would never allow such clutter in his chambers. Suddenly the man gasped. These were not piles of rubbish but bodies of the temple guards scattered everywhere, torn to pieces!

Gomer was about to cry out in fright when his eyes caught sight of Rapadies sitting at the far end of the chamber at the head of a long examination table, the man's eyes staring out at him. "My... my master, what is this all about?"

The question was no more than asked by Gomer when Rapadies' upper body fell forward, face down into a dish of uneaten foodstuffs on the table. A young woman suddenly stepped from the darkness behind the dead Rapadies. She was naked, her skin all aglow, a ghostly, crimson fire burning in her eyes, the woman's beauty hurting Gomer's eyes while her stare burned his heart with searing anguish. Falling back and crying, Gomer lifted his staff in order to ward off a possible attack from this demon goddess in front of him. Instantly the man's staff burst into flames, ripping from his hands and crashing in an explosive eruption of orange and green fire and sparks against the side wall. Spinning about to retreat from the room, Gomer slammed into an opaque wall of energy blocking his escape. Quailing in fright, he turned and fell to his knees, begging for mercy.

The woman slowly walked around the table and up to the terrified priest. Looking down at him, she sneered, "You appear to be an intelligent young fellow, master Gomer, apprentice to the late High Priest Rapadies. Aren't you curious as to why you remain alive?"

Pale-faced, his hands shaking with fright, Gomer looked up at the woman asking, "Who...who are you? How do you know me?"

The woman laughed in derision, "Fool! Did you believe that Jacob's angel would be unaware of the mischief contrived against the daughter of the Host, Serah? A child reborn in the depths of Eden she is, seeing the very face of God! Her sword has sown fields with the slain since the days of AnahNakaNoah, the woman walking through the demon fire that raged the eastern lands during the days of your nursing. The blood of the Elkhorn flows through her veins, and sister to the Black Angel is her lot through the burning. To threaten Serah is to touch the eyeball of that holy demon chaser."

She pointed a finger at Gomer. "As for you, what is there not to know? Your treacherous mentor, Rapadies, confessed everything to me as I slowly squeezed life from him. Oh yes, master Gomer, treacherous he was with you. Should our paths not have crossed this day, by this time tomorrow you would be feeding the buzzards in yonder sands. That I could not allow. You, master apprentice Gomer, have many other tasks to accomplish before Destiny calls you to the burial crypt.

"Now listen and listen well, for I have little patience to expend on a fool the likes of you! You are to go your way and I mine, but ever will I be watching you from afar. The sons of Jacob who live in Goshen, do not touch with spy or spell. Down to the twentieth generation of your sons this is demanded of you, or I shall reach down into Sheol and deliver your worthless remains to the refiner's kiln to be burned in the fire that never dies. Until the day that Zaphenathpaneah's body leaves this land, I place you under oath to obey my command. Do you swear?"

Gomer bowed low, prostrating himself, crying out in terror, "I swear! I swear! Never will I or my sons, or the sons of my sons call down evil upon the House of Jacob until all that you demand has passed by."

Shaking a finger threateningly, the woman swore an oath, promising, "Should the sons of Hormax stand up in opposition to your vow before the bones of Zaphenathpaneah are removed from here, then ten great plagues will sweep this land, bringing it and all that is in it to ruin. And the firstborn of all your kind, from babe to old man to beast to Pharaoh's son will pass away in a single night, the secrets of Hormax withering into nothingness. In that day, the glory of Egypt will fade, and the rulership over the House of Hormax shall be passed on to another who is a stranger to this land."

Gomer promised he would do everything demanded of him.

"Good! But there is yet more. Conspiracy and deceit are filling this land. By the very hand of your mentor has this been committed. Now it is up to you to finish this work he has started so that every promise that is promised by the Maker of Heaven and Earth is fulfilled. Be about your business quickly and do not dally! Tomorrow... yes, tomorrow your name will be lifted on high and all the priests of Egypt and the entire world will bow low to the king over the Black Warlocks. In this case, the evil you will do will be overlooked in future days when you rise to see how your deeds committed against the true Lord have given life to the sons of men."

Gomer cried in fright, "I will do all that you demand! Please! Please do not harm the soul of this fool!"

The woman growled, "Yes, a fool you are..."

Suddenly the ground began to shake so that stones cracked and tumbled from the walls and ceiling. Gomer fell flat to the floor, covering his head, wailing. When the quaking was finished, the woman was nowhere to be seen. Slowly rising, Gomer stared dumbly about the room. Other than for the dead surrounding him, he would have believed this to have been a very bad dream. Turning about, the man saw the late day light drifting through the entrance. Stumbling as though drunk, he finally managed to make his way to the courtyard porch. Looking out toward the eastern desert, Gomer attempted to come to grips with what had just happened. Night time found him still there, sitting on the steps, silently peering off to the east.

### * * *

The older chieftains over the house of Jacob stood before Pharaoh NuephuteeAmactony, the current ruler of Egypt since his father's untimely death four years before. The spokesmen for the company, Hezron, son of Reuben; Gershon, son of Levi; Shelah, son of Judah; and Manasseh, son of Joseph (Zaphenathpaneah) stood in front of Nuephutee, arguing their right as a free people, stating that they had entered the land of Egypt by invitation of TitanAmactony and had been provided lodging and estate at the hands of Prime Minister Zaphenathpaneah, and given the land of Goshen to reside in as long as the sons of Jacob should choose to remain in Egypt.

Pharaoh Nuephutee would have none of their argument. "By the very decree of your kindred, Prime Minister Zaphenathpaneah, when he stood upon these very steps during the times of famine, all the inhabitants of this land and their offspring were to become servants of Pharaoh in perpetuity as repayment for his showing them loving kindness because he saved them alive through the evil years of desolation. It was not by loving kindness that my father allowed you freedom from care during all these years since the death of my uncle, Titan. Because of feeblemindedness and lack of ambition on his part, it has remained that you have been permitted to live in this land as squatters who have not paid their fair share in support of this great nation."

Nuephutee stood, waving a hand. "As for my father, the man ruled with a rod of woven grasses, driving the people in a kindly way to work, and what good did it bring him? Look and see! The people stood up and resisted him, refusing to pay the tribute, defying the glory of Pharaoh. Soon the very treasury of this great nation was empty so that we became a laughingstock to Assyria and Babylon. So when I became Pharaoh, I stood up and struck down those in rebellion, burning their towns and hanging their leaders. Soon the treasury was growing and the house of Pharaoh prospering."

He pointed a finger, charging, "Out of merciful kindness, I allowed your people to remain unmolested in your lands, and how was I repaid? Your very kindred, sons of Zaphenathpaneah - ZenathPotiphera and Absinthe - conspired against me. Out of my kindness and mercy for the faithful service of Zaphenathpaneah, I did not put these men to death but locked them in prison bonds for their evil, awaiting the tribute promised by their father for their release to him."

Hezron lifted his hands in defense. "My Lord and King, Pharaoh over all this land, the two men of whom you speak are kindred only by blood, they taking to the way of the priests of Egypt and abandoning the sons of Jacob residing in Goshen." He motioned to Manasseh. "See, their very brother stands beside us in testimony of their rejection of us and our ways. Please do not hold any wicked deed committed by them against those who are innocent of such things."

Nuephutee became angry. "Do not blame this revolt on the priests of Egypt! By their own confession when being examined, it was told me that the voice in your camp has been that of contempt for Pharaoh and his house, they only listening to those conspiring voices." This was a false rumor and Pharaoh knew it to be so.

Hezron again began to speak up in his people's defense.

Pharaoh Nuephutee cut him off. "With a whip of ropes my father drove the slaves of this land to work, but rods of iron shall his son use to drive them! Now do this for your Pharaoh or the army of the king will enter your land and bring any person urinating against the wall to ruin, and your wives and daughters will all be delivered to the house of the harlots to serve the priests of Horus until the name of your people is forgotten. Bring to your pharaoh all the men in your household twenty years upward to fifty so that they might serve Pharaoh as he sees fit. And bring to Pharaoh, by lot, twenty virgin maidservants to tend to the needs of Pharaoh's household. For a season they will serve the needs of Pharaoh and then they will return to your people, to be replaced by another twenty maidservants."

This was foul-smelling to the older men of the house of Jacob, their grumbling being excessive. At this, Pharaoh Nuephutee became incensed. He commanded his soldiers to take Hezron, Gershon, Shelah, and Manasseh and strip them naked, tying them to the pillars upon the steps of the palace in front of the courtyard. He then ordered the men to be whipped with reed whips for sixty strokes each before having them cut down and returned to the older men watching in the courtyard.

When this was finished, Pharaoh Nuephutee threatened the older men, declaring, "If my commands are not met before the next new moon, I shall do to you all that I have promised to do! And because of your rebelliousness this day, you are to make a repayment to your Pharaoh of seven times all the grain you consumed during the time of famine. The measure and the tax you are to deliver at the end of each harvest using what means you have in the camp. My agents will calculate the amount. Do not be even one homer measure shy of the amount demanded!" With that, he drove the older men of Jacob away, flogging them as they retreated from the courtyard.

### * * *

A warm, westerly breeze wafted across the water, filling the sails of both the north and south-bound ships departing the king's city. Juufet waved to ZenathPotiphera; Absinthe and his wife, Saporeth; ShiShak and his wife, Neferie; and Tutan and his wife, Juufet's daughter, Tasooswee, as the giant Egyptian river galley slowly pulled away up river to the south, while he, his new wife, Snunit, and youngest son, Humtoptra, drifted on the current toward the Great Sea aboard a swift Dragon ship. Baalath's son, YureLonge, headman over the Dragon ship, stood beside his father, watching the parting of the long-time companions, each and all going their separate ways and toward separate destinies.

Just the night before, Juufet had spent the late evening hours entertained in Serah's arms, the two having become very fond of one another over their many years in Egypt. It had been an emotional time, both Juufet and Serah shedding many tears. Juufet had offered to remain in Egypt, arguing that Pharaoh posed no threat to him, the ruler of the land having found him a trustworthy servant. "True, true..." Serah replied. "It is not this pharaoh you should fear, but the coming storm that shall sweep this land that might well cleanse away anyone who is found in Pharaoh's house."

As the morning hour arrived for Juufet to leave, Serah called her youngest daughter, Snunit, to her. Slipping the girl's hand into Juufet's, Serah looked into her child's eyes. "See, your husband." She then looked into Juufet's face. "Please, for the loss of your wife, and so that a part of my soul may go with you, see your wife. Warm may she keep you on lonely nights. May her breasts and loving charms remind you of our sweet lovemaking on the warm, moonlit nights beside the Nile."

As tears flowed freely, Juufet said he would care for Snunit as though she were the woman standing before him. "We part for the moment, but days will come when together you and I shall be again. Close I will hold this treasure of yours, and children I will give to her that will make you proud for their great deeds."

Serah closed her hand over theirs, shutting her eyes. "Please do not promise what one cannot. Even the Woman in the Whispering Waters could not make such a promise. Still, it soothes my heart to think you hold me in such high esteem."

Juufet pulled Snunit close, looking down into her hazel eyes. The girl was in her fifteenth summer, a child of Serah by Ashbel, son of Benjamin. She smiled, her eyes meeting his. "My Lord, please forgive your servant girl for her trickery, but it was I who asked mother to offer me to you. I have watched the way you have made your love to her and knew that should you act with me the same, a very happy woman I would be."

Grinning, Juufet replied, "So much like your mother you are! I believe that even some of her witching ways might be found in you. But, please, do not call me 'lord' again. I am your husband and as I am with your mother, I shall be with you. You are a free woman with no bonds. My bed is yours for your choosing, but I do not bind you to it with an oath or promise. For my part, I promise to keep you close in my house for as long as you wish, and when you should choose to warm my bed, I will not turn you away."

Snunit blushed, squeezing Juufet's hand. "Then your bed will be warmed by my company for many days."

Baalath suddenly slapped JuuFet on the shoulder, gazing up the river. "Life is such a queer thing, my friend. Here we are, standing the deck of my son's ship, flying the flag of Tomassie, the boy having been tutored in the ways of the sea by Lord Rae Tomassie himself, and now he is headman of a ship of his own building. And here he is, delivering us to the great moot hall on Cyprus to stand before gods and demons, I a lowly chieftain from a long-forgotten village, and you a boy soldier who wished only for his mother's hearth."

JuuFet looked back up the river at the city he had for so long called his home. "Yes, it seems like only yesterday that you and I sat in the house of Tuosolmerica, sipping hearty herb tea and munching mint cakes. Was it really so long ago that all those things happened?"

He looked about, studying the small ship and its busy crew. "You know, I recall the day... it seems like only yesterday... that the Nile was filled with Dragon trading ships, but it was such a long time ago. Years it has been since a ship like this has made it presence known upon these shores, even the Phoenician tall ships having become rare since Egypt has build its own trading fleets."

Squeezing JuuFet's shoulder, Baalath laughed, "Then you should journey with me into the Atlantean Sea. There giant Phoenician tall ships rule the oceans, and Dragon ships tarry in the northern waters and shallow rivers. I have been told that Noah misses her Egyptian lover, those long, carefree romps through the meadows along bubbling streams. She pines for his touch."

JuuFet's heart jumped as he thought of Noah, asking excitedly, "Have you seen her... Noah, I mean? It's been so many years. Oh, how I miss those innocent days shared with her and the others as we sat about Tuosol's table playing silly rhyme games as I learned the language of your people."

Baalath looked out across the water. "Hmmm... Well, yes I have had the pleasure to share her company only a year ago past, when I journeyed into the northern lands with my son, YureLonge. More beautiful she is now than at our last meeting, and charming, too." He turned to JuuFet. "Yet not far off from us will she be when the shores of Cyprus we make. Rumor has it that the woman will be at our upcoming moot, that even the Lady and some of her kindred will be there also."

The journey from the king's city to Kyrenia on Cyprus took less than ten days. Two days following, JuuFet and Baalath along with their traveling companions were being entertained by Juliet and Odethbethel at Chuphoe's estate. It was a pleasantly somber occasion, what with all the renewing of old acquaintances, but also remembering with fondness their dear friend and companion, Chuphoe, who had passed away only the year before. Juliet still wept over her loss, missing her husband so that the tears flowed freely when she spoke of him. It was true of the Haudenosaunez that most had suffered the deaths of cherished lovers and companions, it having been many long years since they stood upon Dancing Stones' flaming tower. Still, for Juliet, the death of Chuphoe had been crushing.

Later that evening, when the sun was settling in the west, Baalath, Odethbethel, JuuFet, and Juliet quietly made their way up to Chuphoe's memorial mound. Heroes of greater reputation there may well have been, but to these people no others could compare to this man.

JuuFet sighed wistfully, "The greatest military strategist next to our Lady Noahashonie I have ever known! Even though we stood as enemies against Javan, to this day I feel proud to have served under his command." He faced Baalath, who stood holding Odethbethel's' hand. "Had he remained general in charge, you would have been hard pressed, possibly being driven from the Megiddo Plain. He would not have waited until your Mozerathas army arrived to have forced the attack." He smiled, "I am pleased that AnahNakaNoah dismissed him when he did, for all our sakes."

Baalath slowly nodded as he looked down at Chuphoe's memorial stone. "He saved my life, our lives. Indeed, I believe he saved the world. Had he not stolen the power and glory of Atlantis, it may well have fallen into the hands of evil despots and that wicked empire would have continued to rule over men down to this day, spreading that bloodthirsty religion of the western Hormaxians across the planet. How many times have I told you the tale of our dramatic rescue from Ogallala? My dear wife, Corith, had great affection for Chuphoe, sending him gifts of appreciation every year up until her passing." He became silent, reaching up and wiping a tear from his eye.

Odethbethel and Juliet began telling the tale of their last days in Atlanticia and how Chuphoe orchestrated the great deception, his encounter with Nidgha, Juliet's rescue from Zhadrehaudous, Thaladies, and so many other stories that tingled the ears of the men listening. Juliet smiled, recalling, "Because of his sincere honesty, Nidgha gave to him the Heart of Atlantis. It now resides in secure places, waiting the day when a New Atlantis will arise upon those very shores so that prophecy may be fulfilled. In that day, the true King of the North shall be revealed."

Baalath looked into Odethbethel's eyes, asking, "Has it really been over two score of years since those adventures occurred? It seems as only yesterday that I helped Corith up the ladder into the sky ship to make our escape."

Odethbethel laughed, "Certainly the time tells on me. An old woman I am, well over one hundred years, and over a decade into my second century."

Baalath grinned, squeezing Odethbethel's hand. "As a spring maiden you are in my eyes, No, more beautiful you are than the first night we made sweet romance together so many days ago. Even now your touch excites me, rekindling old memories and...and desires."

Odethbethel blushed, "It was always said that the men of Ogallala were untamed and rather wild. Of the others I do not know, but you?"

As the fading glow of the setting sun slowly gave way to a star-filled night sky, Baalath and Odethbethel quietly departed the hill, leaving JuuFet and Juliet alone in front of Chuphoe's mound. JuuFet took Juliet's hand. "My Lady Tobanahazz, the sadness of loss fills your eyes to the point that my heart hurts for you. Is there anything your servant can do for you?"

With tear-filled eyes, Juliet answered, "Yes, please hold me for a little while. Tomorrow I need you to rekindle my forgotten passions, that I will remember the joy of our last meeting along the Nile long ago so that my days of mourning may come to an end. But for tonight, please, just hold me."

Together the two sat down in front of Chuphoe's memorial stone, Juliet cuddling up in JuuFet's embrace. The morning sun found JuuFet and Juliet snuggled up close, leaning back against the tombstone, fast asleep.

### * * *

It was the first of its kind since the founding of the universe, so profound that it has remained secreted from the world of men until this day. Yet it was only the first of countless others that continued on down until the last hour ended its need. There are those who will condemn its existence, wondering how a loving and caring God could have permitted it, while others will celebrate it, comprehending its need in a universe torn asunder by civil war and strife. Truth be told, as long as an enemy is allowed the power and authority to rule over others, then one must recognize its sovereignty for as long as it is permitted to exist. When Gabrielle declared a future warring between Lowenah's and Lucifer's seed to Adam in the Garden of Eden, the worlds of Heaven, Men, and Hell were bonded by an unyielding destiny whose song had to be played out to the full.

So it was, on an insignificant island, beneath the estate of the last king of Atlantis, in catacombs that were chiseled out of the granite by Cherub's hands and protected by those same forces, there arrived for the first moot the very representatives from those worlds who sat in conference to decide the fate of those worlds. Only by understanding that such a necessity existed can one begin to fathom the need for human troubadours given powers beyond normal, so that they might see to the end what began on the shores of the Bantoowazzi River so many millennia ago.

One battle does not define a war, one kingdom does not explain an empire, nor one prophecy an oracle make. That being the case, when the war last for ages, the empire is ever changing and the prophecies are many.

Clearly can a person see the need for the Haudenosaunez only when he or she considers what truly was at stake and the ages it would take to settle the issue of who had the right to rule the universe. By his very acts, Lucifer gathered the world of humans into a Heavenly conflict. Now, for good or ill, humans must be permitted a voice at the negotiation table, whether one liked it or not. And those humans must be allowed to stand before the gods, possessing their same powers, abilities and life spans. So came the birth of the human necromancers, the Lukus Aner and Gorgons, to stand face to face with and against the very powers of the Heavens.

A person might ask about the human forces used by Lucifer's angelic agents, "Why were they not given endless life and powers beyond normal like those of the Haudenosaunez?" The answer is quite simple. Lowenah felt no need on her part to assist the enemy with their battle designs. Lucifer had great powers. Many of them he could have shared with his human servants, which included length of days and supernatural abilities. But he despised humans, seeing them as little more than intelligent animals. At times he would provide or allowed others to give humans extra powers, it being done to satisfy selfish purposes. Being the suspicious miscreant he was, the man dared not trust humans with too much power, fearing their usurping his authority through rebellion.

For several hundred years, the Council of HETH gathered in these chambers to debate and settle disputes over the fate of worlds. Eventually, because of complaints from the houses of Hormax, the location was moved to Greece, high up on Mount Olympus, and later to other strategic locations, its final meeting destination hidden deep in the bowels below an international conference building in a western city called 'New York'.

Making his way along a rock-hewn narrow corridor, following closely behind the hooded, black-robed Servants of Zeussah, a pale-faced Gomer stared out wide-eyed with wonder. The preceding morning he had been busy working in the temple with the blood machines when two of Zeussah's lieges arrived, telling him that he was to leave with them. He recalled stepping into the early darkness, staring dumbly at a glowing object floating above the ground in the courtyard, a slight humming noise filling the still air. He soon found himself seated beside two other Hormaxian priests streaking above the desert sands, all the men robed in black, their faces hidden and voices distorted by machines so that he could not recognize who they might be, nor they him. In short order, they were arrived at a small compound somewhere on the island of Cyprus, the lieges' sky ship settling down in its courtyard.

Stepping from the ship, Gomer and his fellow priests were hustled into one of the buildings off the courtyard. As he was hurried along, the man could see dozens of fear-inspiring static fires surrounding the compound. Later he learned that those fires were called 'Cherubs', the lieges and the rebellious angelic sons having great fear and disdain for them. Gomer was ushered into a private room, remaining there until the following day when he and the other priests were taken down into the belly of the earth and along this corridor that he was in.

The party eventually came to a rather large room with a hewn granite table and twelve chairs, six on one side and six on the other, the two lieges taking up stations in the back of the room against the wall. The table was split in two, with a three inch gap between the edges. Already there were six hooded, red-robed people sitting on the far side of the table. A black-robed man motioned for Gomer and the other priests to sit, he and his fellow Servants of Zeussah doing the same. The lighting gradually increased in the ceiling until the entire room was well lit. It quickly became evident to Gomer that there was some kind of a thick crystal barrier separating the two parties, one that did not impede sight or sound, but prevented any personal contact.

After the longest silence, one of black-robed men began to speak, the person's reluctance reflected by the grudging hesitance in his voice. Gomer was surprised to hear the language of the Egyptian common tongue echoing in his ears. More surprising was that the entire moot was conducted in this same common language. What he discovered later was that every hood not only carried a speaking device that disguised one's voice, but there was a machine in each hood that instantly altered the words being heard into language familiar to the listener. What he also learned later was that there were three distinctive groups on his side of the room, distinguished by the color of the sashes they wore about their necks. White was worn by the angelic sons, grey by creatures called 'lieges', and black by the three human priests.

As Gomer continued to observe - for he was not permitted to speak freely at this moot - he came to discern different voice inflections unique to each individual so that eventually he could denote which person was speaking by the pitch and tone of the harmonics being heard. He also came to comprehend a difference between a male and female speaker, eventually realizing there were no women on his side of the table, but sitting across from him, four of the six were women.

There was also another outstanding difference between the two groups sitting at this table. On Gomer's side, only the three angelic sons spoke, the three Hormaxian priests remaining silent unless directly requested to comment by one of those speaking, and that was usually only by replying with a 'yes' or a 'no'. Also, it appeared there was a headman among them that rigidly controlled proceedings. On the other hand, the six people opposing them had a great deal of freedom to speak, as well as use body language, which at times seemed to him rather crude and inappropriate for such an official meeting. True, there appeared to be one person among them who chaired the group and would bring the conversation back on subject if necessary, but no rigid control over the others was displayed.

Another point Gomer gleaned was that of the six opposing members at the table, only two were from among the angelic children, the others being of the earth. He did finally manage to discern that one of them was no other than Aphrodite, herself. There was no hiding her personality from Gomer and the others with him, her reputation widely known among the Hormaxians. She was a woman to be feared by the Hormaxians, and from Gomer's observation of body language, by the angelic sons also. When the woman's dander was up, often slamming a fist on the table as her voice rose in anger, the angelic sons would instinctively lean back in their seats as if in danger.

So proceedings went throughout the day, no breaks taken until all necessary business was finished. After their conclusion, Gomer and his fellow priests were returned to their individual secluded rooms until the following morning when they were whisked away to their separate residences.

Over the years, little would change in the way these moots were conducted. From time to time, some of those assembled would differ, most notably with the angelic sons. As for their opponents, only three remained constant during the years of Gomer's life, one of them a nameless goddess, then Aphrodite, and another woman of the earth who always remained secret to him. Nearly as fear-inspiring as Aphrodite she was, her hatred for the rebellious angelic sons and Hormaxians quite evident in her speech and body language. Gomer believed those sons knew who she was, but they never revealed it to him.

The intention for forming the Council of HETH was to establish a neutral ground for opposing parties when need arose to communicate with each other over diplomatic policies involving the politics pertaining to the earthly realm. More often than not, the moots would degenerate into bombastic venting affairs with screaming and cursing combined with a great deal of rude and uncouth gesticulating, this being perpetrated by both sides, but more often than not by the women opposing Gomer's side, especially from Aphrodite and one of her unnamed companions. Gomer came to dread these exchanges because those women's curses and oaths were not mere threats, but often couched real intentions and purposes.

(Author's note _: Future priests of Hormax came to learn that this companion of Aphrodite's was none other than the Black Angel, Noahashonie, the terror of this woman becoming renowned among them_.)

That first moot accomplished little, as was the case with most future moots. Significant was that the angelic children of the Heavens were not to directly interfere with the political intrigues of Egypt or other lands surrounding the Great Sea, that the human governments were to be allowed to decide their own fates there. It was also agreed that the Southlands to the west and the Northlands to the west were not to be encroached upon by opposing sides, be it earthly or angelic. The lands to the south, below the demarcation lines would remain in the power of the rebellious angelic sons and the humans of their choosing, while north, above the demarcation line, would continue under the oversight of the Lady and Haudenosaunez...whoever they might be. Neither side was to interfere with the other.

It was late in the evening when Gomer was ushered from his room and across the courtyard into another room, there to be seated at a table in front of several large viewing windows that allowed him to see into the rooms of the two other Hormaxian priests. Two of the lieges sat down near Gomer. Still wearing their hooded robes to hide their identity, the headman began speaking in Gomer's common tongue through the machine in his hood.

"Since it has been agreed upon for the moment that men will choose their own destiny in your lands and the lands all about you, it has been decided that your House of Hormax must be strengthened so that power beyond what is normal can be wielded by it. Although Lucifer and his lieutenants have agreed not to directly interfere in the affairs of men, it is believed that it still remains legal to guide our faithful servants through visions and incantations, doing this with you and some others so that our intentions will become known.

"As for you, the House of Hormax must be reinvented to serve our current purposes. No longer can it be used to directly or clandestinely rule over nations. To have a controlling influence over nations is now our goal. The House of Hormax is to allow the kings of your world to rule as they see fit, under your guiding hand, of course. For this reason, we need you to make the proper changes to the House of Hormax so that its influence reaches into every part of the lives of men."

The liege pointed at the windows showing the two other Hormaxian priests. After telling Gomer their names, he explained, "These are the chief priests of the House of Hormax, the first man being head over the Gray Hearts, the House of Divination, and the second man being head over the White Warlocks, the House of Runes. You, for your part have been chosen to become head over the Black Warlocks, the House of the Father God, thus making you chief priest over all the House of Hormax. You must keep secret your identity from all other priests of Hormax. Never can they learn who the head of the order is lest you shall forfeit your life because of its revelation.

"Only to you will the other high priests of this Holy Order be known. Even the heads over the first two houses do not know who the other is. For the time being, Egypt is a safe haven for you to develop your strategy for controlling the world of men. Through our skillful negotiations, this very day we have secured a promise that our enemy will not interfere with the rulers of Egypt for several hundred years, should the sons of Jacob remain free of your harassment.... a small price to pay seeing that you can find other, less direct ways to keep those people in check. So it is that the House of Hormax will have rest all around to accomplish its needed assignments."

Gomer was shocked, but remained silent about the demon witch-woman who spoke of his becoming head over the House of Hormax and the threat given him. Confused and bewildered the man was, but he dared not reveal it to these lieges of Zeussah, fearing reprisals should they find out how he truly felt. True, Gomer developed the framework for Hormaxian society, arranging the three houses in their respective roles, and the appointment of leaders over the houses that remained in practice down to the ending day. He also faithfully continued the blood experiments, even to the degree of mixing the blood of men and animals, as earlier priests had done, and he advanced the hybrid experiments to the point of setting up rulers of their kind in several of the kingdoms under his control. Yet Gomer never sank to the levels that his predecessors did, or his successors would, nor did he indulge in the rituals and human sacrifices of his western brethren.

There always remained a bit of doubt and wonder in the man's heart as to who these gods really were and what their intended purposes portended for the men of Earth. Who really were the good and evil among them? On which side did he serve, and to what purpose? Those questions haunted the man for the remainder of his days. It was partly for this reason that Gomer developed a more monastic, simple lifestyle eventually adopted by the leadership of the Hormaxian Order. In time, those who attained highest ranks within that order were secretly inducted into it when mere lads, often orphans more than likely. They were to grow up being nameless and faceless shadows lurking quietly in the background, ever separating their mind from their soul, so that their deeds were not controlled by their inner feelings. Gomer's counsel to his apprentices was, "Yes, learn to do what one is told, not reflecting on matters other than it is the will of the gods, and you are their servant."

What Gomer was beginning to comprehend as he listened to the liege explain matters to him was that these angelic sons were not superior in spirit and heart to earthly men. Oh yes, they possessed great powers and had apparently lived long lives, but they were as human as he was in thought, mind, and disposition. Like Rapadies and other priestly and political leaders he had observed, they were bullies to be feared and not toyed with. If they liked you, or you were useful to them, you might be treated kindly. But should they tire of you? He recalled the demon woman's remarks regarding his coming demise at Rapadies' hands.

Immediately following his meeting with Zeussah's lieges, Gomer and the other priests were ushered aboard the shiny sky ship and whisked away to their homes. Gomer began setting up the House of Hormax to better accomplish its assigned tasks. Within a year, the first council gathering of the Hormaxian House had taken place. Plans were made on how to take over the education, religions, sciences, and politics of the world of men, and how to successfully implement them. Over the following years, more councils gathered, the Hormaxian web growing ever stronger over the people of Earth with each gathering.

### * * *

The harbor was filled with hundreds of Phoenician and Dragon ships as thousands of adventurers lined the quays waiting their turns to board, while thousands who had already done so searched out berths for the long, upcoming voyage back to the world of the Elkhorn and the Mountain Bear. Many of the people were young, having grown up hearing tales of intrigues in a strange and wonderful land to the west. Others were middle-aged, having been children when escape was made from that world. Others were gray-hairs, some of them having stood the battle line with Javan when he crossed the Bantoowazzi River to drive AnahNakaNoah and his army from their lands. At times entire clans from little baby to aged man and woman took to the ships to make the return trip home.

In only hours, Meric's ship, JavanHoshoni, would set sail for the distant lands in the west, Meric, the son of Javan the Younger, standing the deck as he led his people home.

Noah held her little grandson, Fazath, Hyhoset's youngest, named after one of her ancestors from Mozerathas legend, the woman playing with the child's fingers. She smiled, tears filling her eyes. "I will miss you, little one, will miss your nuzzling my breasts, suckling my sweet milk."

Hyhoset kissed her mother on the cheek. "We are not so far away that you will never see us again. Someday soon, after we're settled, I will return to pay you a visit, or you can come to us."

Noah agreed, knowing well that the sky machine given her by Zadar and Aphrodite could deliver her to any place on the planet in a short amount of time. Still, she understood that the world was now changing, and even though they might only be parted a few short hours by sky ship, things would not be the same when they were reunited. It would not be an easy matter for a witch queen even with Hyhoset's powers to keep the world of Meric free of Hormaxian influence. Noah did not trust the promises of Samyaza (Zeussah) and his lieutenants, expecting that her daughter and husband, Meric, would have their hands full keeping the Hormaxian riffraff and their religion out of Meric's kingdom. Besides that, Noah would have little free time, considering her need to keep a watchful eye over lands governed by her at New Paris, and the constant vigil she must keep regarding agreements reached at the Council of HETH. Yes, it might well be some time before Noah would see Hyhoset and her grandchildren again.

Noah reached out an arm, pulling her daughter close. "I will still miss you so, you being my intimate soul mate and friend over these many years." She looked around at the crowds, a feeling of loneliness growing in her. So many dear companions who had journeyed across the seas with her into these lands were now at peace in their great rest, Noah's heart aching at the thought of the empty rooms in the palace where only days before were heard the sounds of lovers and chattering babies. The surviving warriors and Templar Knights who stood beside her when battling Dungie and the Atlanticians were now aged, their children being older folks. Why, even Dresden was too feeble to make the journey to be here to say goodbye to her children and grandchildren departing this land.

A nursemaid came up and took Fazath from Noah's arms, Noah kissing the boy as they parted. After the woman left, she turned to Hyhoset, giving her a loving hug, reminding her, "The Heart of Atlantis you carry in your bosom so that it may be hidden well in the lands of the North until the rightful ruler lifts Atlantis up from the ashes. Keep it safe...keep it secret."

Hyhoset promised she would do just so. Noah then asked that Hyhoset personally deliver the gifts from her to Tuosolmerica and Tosombabanna. This her daughter assured her mother she would do. "Mother, the Lady has given us life to the ending times so that prophecy can be fulfilled. I will let neither you nor her down."

The women were interrupted by Cothath approaching, carrying Noah's youngest daughter, Chuphunee, child from a union between Chuphoe and Noah a few years before. After kissing Hyhoset on the cheek, he turned to Noah. "This little one says mother has not fed her today, something this fellow cannot do." Laughing, he handed Chuphunee over to Noah so that the girl could nurse.

Noah sat down cross-legged on the old wooden dock, Chuphunee snuggling up close to her mother to suckle. Hyhoset bent low, cooing in her mother's ear, "I shall miss your warm elixir the most! Many a breast has refreshed my palate, but none can compare to such succulent sweetness as yours has been upon my tongue. I will miss you so much, Mother..."

Tears streamed down Noah's face as she took Hyhoset's hand, squeezing it, "You are the child of my virginity, daughter of Javan, son of the Cave Bear or Mountain Bear, depending upon which tribesman you speak to. Your father was a wonderful man, most cherished of all my lovers, making you the most cherished of all my children. The Lady laid her hands upon you before your birthing. Now you leave me to fulfill your destiny. Please, child of mine, remember your nuzzling at my breasts, and when your feet find their way to my door in future days remember to refresh your spirit with my milk again."

Meric called down to Hyhoset from the stern of JavanHoshoni, "Hey, Beautiful, are you coming with your lover, or have you decided to abandon me to other romantics? Your little one's hungry and I've no way of feeding him. Do I send him back to his mother, or does his mother decide to come with me?"

Hyhoset stood, waving Meric off. "Ah, take him with you and leave me be! He sucks me almost as dry as his father does! Have to eat a cow just to keep up the flow for you both. And you both bite, makin' my teats hurt. Think I might stay here and rest my juggers up a bit."

Meric feigned a frown. "Have it your way. But where're you gonna find another bull with my vigor when the heat comes on you?"

Hyhoset retorted, "There's plenty of bucks all about who will be willing to satisfy this doe's needs when the heat's upon her. Remember, it isn't the size of the tree that excites the senses, but the sweetness of the fruit in the way it's presented that makes one swoon for its delights. Practiced you are in many of the manly arts... enough to make the inexperienced maiden swoon... but so much more you yet need to learn to satisfy to the full a mature doe like me."

Extending a hand, Meric asked, "Well, must I always seek the maiden so that my manliness can feel adequate, or will you come along with me so that I may learn more of your witching ways? Speak up quickly, woman, for I have a growing ache pestering me, and must soon find some relief. A maiden will do, and there's plenty on board willing to provide for my needs, but I seek a more mature woman to help me. Do you know a mature woman willing to provide relief for my ache?"

"Oh, be off with you!" Hyhoset sputtered, laughing. "Is your rut ever out of season? If I don't go with you, the poor lasses aboard would never get any rest from you, and bow-legged from your rutting they'd all be before reaching the distant shore. Your destiny is not to populate the world by yourself. Now keep it under your kilt until the torches light our way this night and I'll give you an experience worth remembering."

Meric roared with laughter, his and Hyhoset's adult children standing around their father doing the same. He swept his arm about at their sons and daughters. "You've given me many an experience worth remembering!"

He then blew a kiss to Noah, who was now standing beside Hyhoset. "The fire of the North burns hot in that daughter of yours. Keeps me in line, she does."

Chuphunee hugged her mother's leg as Noah and Hyhoset embraced. "I love you so much!" Noah cried, "May the spirit of the North go with you in everything you do."

After a parting kiss, Hyhoset hurried up the gangplank to the waiting arms of her husband. Lines were cast off as the sails unfurled, catching the afternoon shore breeze. JavanHoshoni slowly moved through the harbor and into open waters, the rest of the fleet gradually doing the same until all but tiny specks were to be seen on the distant horizon. Noah remained standing on the docks far into the evening hour, searching the seas until the crimson of the evening sun faded into the blackness of night.

### * * *

Far across the Atlantean Sea to the west, Tuosolmerica scanned the ocean waters from cliffs high above the crashing waves. Long she had waited for this day, and as soon as the Talking Stones revealed the fleet's departure from the lands of the Iamrussians, she and Tosombabanna had departed for the eastern shores beyond the mountains. Now she stood above the harbor where a dozen or so Phoenician ships rested at anchor. Soon, the streets of the tiny port village of New Chornie would be overflowing with eager pilgrims seeking adventure and a new life in the world of their parents.

Meric's voyage home was the first of many mass migrations that would occur over the next several decades, but his were not the first of the peoples to return to these old lands. Shortly after the destruction of Atlantis, the Phoenician Trading Guild delivered hardy explorers back to these worlds. The clansmen of the Genesee sought to reestablish the copper trade, but were thwarted by the worldwide depression following the fall of Atlantis. It was estimated that over two thirds of the earth's population perished because of the destructive violence during Atlantis' ruin and the following famine. For years, little trade existed for the shipping guilds other than foodstuffs, something that was not needed in the northern lands in the west.

Needless to say, the Atlantean trade in the north suffered greatly, many of those first adventurous clansmen returning to Iamrussia. There were a few, though, who decided to remain in the Northlands of the west, and over time they established small port towns where lumber, furs, whale oil, herring and other dried fish were exported to distant lands in the east in exchange for tools of iron and bronze, seeing the metal guilds were not yet established in these lands. By the time Tuosol arrived at the coast, several major trade routes had been established far into the interior country, either over the eastern mountains or by navigating the countless rivers and lakes. The sons of KroTonkin eventually made their way into what was now called the 'Gulf of Tecatucutan' and up the Aosolagessa River, in time rediscovering the copper mines of the BSondie and Genesee clans.

Tosombabanna approached Tuosolmerica, softly stroking her lower arm. "The people from the village below tell me that when the gulls fly out against the morning breeze their fisher folk are riding the tide toward home, and that their sails will rise over the ocean's crest with the sun. Look, the gulls lift their wings up against the morning breeze as sun wakes beyond the ocean's crest. Do they see what our eyes cannot yet behold?"

Picking up her grandson, Shuomun, Tosombabanna mourned softly, "Ackrunn so much looked forward to this day, to see his kindred again, but alas the winter was not kind to him. Had he lived a few more months, a season maybe, then here he might well be standing as we search together the sea for our returning clansmen."

While Shuomun played with Tosombabanna's long, dark, glistening ringlets, Tuosolmerica looked down into the boy's cooing face, frowning sadly, "There is a curse that haunts the oaths we have made, one that chills to the bones, eventually causing the person to sleep alone for fear of falling in love, knowing that like the morning moth all love must die. It is better to seek passion's romance in the darkness of the night and to leave the stranger's bed before the sun rises than to risk the torment of an aching heart. Even this child you must watch grow into manhood and on into old age and death before the ending of the great and evil day. I believe a barren womb is a greater gift than one full of child."

Tosombabanna peered into Tuosol's sad eyes, seeing a deep melancholy mood sweeping over the woman. So many were the lovers and companions, children and husbands that this person had held close, only to watch their lives slowly escape them. Though she never spoke about it, Tosombabanna knew that secretly Tuosol still mourned the death of Javan, never fully recovering from his loss. Taking her hand, Tosombabanna gently replied, "My days are little more than a mist upon a morning field compared to the days of your life, yet is it not true that when we make our sweet love, it is not with the future in mind but for the moment so that we may dream as do the gods who do not live by the sun or the season, but for each and every moment?"

Tuosol puzzled, "What is the witch's potion you are brewing, so sweet the drug that might lull my heart into forgetful repose? Your seductive song of smooth words seeks to entrap me, but for what purpose do you sing them?"

Tosombabanna looked out toward the distant horizon. "The gull seeks not the fisherman when it lifts its wings to the breeze, but only the hope for a full belly from the bounty it smells being carried in the holds of the approaching ships. Love and hate it knows not, so never can it gain in wisdom through passion or pain. So today, driven by the desire to fill an empty belly, it again takes to flight, for it smells the heat of sweating men heaving to the sail and pulling upon the oar."

She looked into Tuosol's eyes. "We, though, cast our eyes toward the sea not because of a hungry belly or for some other carnal need. No. Wisdom attained through joyous celebration and bitter sadness drives us to stand these hills in hopes of seeing again, for a moment, those we have loved and who have loved us. It is not the hope of eternal togetherness that has delivered us to this place, but the hope of the momentary gratification of the heart.

"My love, we can only ponder the past, possibly long for it, and dream of the future. But only in the moment has the Woman in the Whispering Waters given us to live. When with a man I make sweet love, it is but momentary. For as soon as his heated rush is finished and he has parted my soul, even should he remain in my arms, has our love making not already become a thing of the past, to become a memory and nothing more? And should I care deeply for the man, or should he have been highly experienced in the arts of romance, I might well remember with fondness the time spent in love's embrace with him. Whatever the case, the moment is over, forever, and can never be returned. Only in my mind and heart can it survive."

She reached up and brushed a tear from Tuosol's cheek. "My love, what is forever? Do we have it? Is it guaranteed to us? Can the Woman in the Whispering Waters truly give it to us absolute if she has not yet lived it? Learn again to love in the moment, for that is all that even the Lady can assure. So I say, do not waste that moment by lamenting the past or by fearing the future. Yes, your heart may break again, again, and again, but also filled to overflowing with joy will it become again, again and again, it growing ever stronger with each experience, good or bad, until like the gods you will see the wonders of the universe."

Tuosol smiled, tears growing in her eyes. "Child of few years? Possibly, but eternity I see in your wisdom. So what cure does this doctor suggest for a curmudgeon like me?"

Stroking Tuosol's arm, Tosombabanna crooned, "There is a joy that a child gives that no man or woman can deliver to a restless soul. I know for a fact that a man rides high upon the ocean's crest who carries the passion of his father in his heart. A cure, my love for what might ail you can be found in his arms. Seduce the son of Javan into giving you a child, so that in your dreams you can hold close your king again. I know Meric will not hesitate to do a single thing for you. Call your son 'JavanJuno', the 'Cave Bear Reborn'. Make him into a great nation so that for you there will come to be an inheritance in this land, so that always the sons of your son will give honor and glory to their mother, and she will never feel alone again."

Tosombabanna's words played a rapturous melody upon Tuosol's heart, the woman listening with earnest to this oracle of magic prose. A year hence, she sat in a cave high up in the hills above New Ausalmerica nursing a tiny infant boy, singing the sweetest of songs that spoke about the brave deeds of a great warrior king and his battling against the gods and demons of the Hormaxian worlds.

### * * *

JuuFet slowly got up from the table and walked to the window, looking toward Chuphoe's burial mound. As he pondered Sodasonie's recommendations, the man quietly spoke. "My entire life has been spent in that nation, serving as a scribe and counselor to the king and his grandees. Aside from this place, no other home do I remember having. When the Servants of Lucifer promised to stay out of Egypt's business, I had hopes of returning to that land and taking up again my service to the kingdom. Now, I don't know. I don't know what to do."

Sodasonie looked over at Odethbethel, speaking to JuuFet. "Never trust the words of a serpent. The Servants of Lucifer speak what suits their fancy at the moment. It is only our promised retribution that checks their hand. Trust me, they are busy at this hour scheming to find ways around the restrictions they have agreed to. It will not be long before Egypt erupts in violence, the sons of Nubia growing more restless for revolt by the day.

"If you return to Egypt, your life will be in greater danger now than before, especially since your visit here over these past several months, the sons of Hormax knowing where you have been residing since arriving here. Remember, too, your young friends who once served Pharaoh ZigalAmactony have fled up the river to the south. The priests of Horus who now serve his son, Pharaoh Nuephutee, won't take risks with you, assuming you a threat to their power. Already your youthful appearance has been a subject of curiosity in pharaoh's house. Your sudden return after this long absence will only heighten their suspicion of you."

JuuFet turned, facing Sodasonie. "If that is the case, then it is even more important that I return to Egypt. I am a chieftain in the Nubian house. My people will listen to my counsel to remain subject to pharaoh in order to preserve them alive. They are no match for the armies of Egypt and will surely be slaughtered if they rise up against Pharaoh Nuephutee."

Sodasonie disagreed, warning, "The House of Nubia has tired of the pharaoh's oppression. They will not listen to your voice, but will stone you should you preach words of reconciliation. As for the armies of Egypt, rescue comes from the Southlands - a great warrior prince who will gather the strength of Cush to crush the might of Egypt. Angry the people have become who live above the High Falls of the Nile, Pharaoh's tariffs on their Nile trade creating great hardship for them. So it is that ShiShak and Tutan, along with the two sons of Zaphenathpaneah, ZenathPotiphera and Absinthe, have conspired with KontinKuken to form an alliance between their peoples."

"KontinKuken!" JuuFet cried. "Has the sun eaten away his senses? Chariots and flaming arrows against shields of woven mats and stone spears? Does he not see the calamity that awaits his people should war be chosen against the king of Egypt?"

Sodasonie motioned, standing, "Master JuuFet, there comes a time when war is the only answer. Now listen, please. Kontin knows well the danger, but is sadly aware that greater is the risk to the lives of his kindred and yours if the people of the southern worlds of Cush do not rise up and lend support to their brethren to the north."

After encouraging JuuFet to sit and doing the same herself, Sodasonie explained, "A tyrant remains in power only as long as he can keep his subjects distracted and his generals occupied. Pharaoh Nuephutee has increased the size of his military to strengthen his power over the slaves in his land, raising up military commanders cruel enough to quash any resistance through murder, rape, and destruction. It will not be long before the glory of pharaoh's armies will... must move against the Nubians in Egypt's southern territories."

Looking down at clasped hands, she continued, "Your people in those territories will be crushed, those not killed being led off in chains to work in quarries and mines until death consumes them, while the women and maidens will be sent to the temples to be prostituted or sold off to old fat men for their pleasure. Either way, what Dungie began against the Nubians in the Southlands, Nuephutee will finish in Egypt, but not just in Egypt."

She looked up at JuuFet. "A despot's army is ever hungry and must be continually fed, or it shall eat the master in famished desperation. When the revolts within Egypt are contained, for his own safety, Nuephutee must search for fodder beyond his boundaries. The Assyrians, Hittites, and Babylonians are formidable foes, Egypt not willing to risk a confrontation with them at the moment. It leaves, then, either the fearsome desert nations to the west or the lands of Cush to the south. Cush is made up of many independent tribes, easy to conquer piecemeal, and the land is fat with cattle, gold, and beautiful women for the slave trade."

JuuFet interrupted, "So Kontin is taking up the sword to save his people? Strange, so very strange... To live in peace, one must lift up the dirge of war and slaughter. To retain one's inheritance, he must invade that of another. I do not understand these things at all."

Odethbethel placed a hand over JuuFet's. "My Lord, it is for this very reason that we have suggested that you take your leave and journey to TobathisiahMegiddo. NoahDodanim is a man of peace, a prince over the monastic House of Nahor, now being known as 'TobathaShinar'. Tobatha is in need of a scribe with your talents, and wishes to meet you. He looks forward to your...to our visit. You would not want to disappoint a son of Javan, would you?"

JuuFet pondered a moment in thought, and then excitedly asked, "Our visit? Do I hear that you intend to travel to TobathisiahMegiddo should I go?"

Odethbethel grinned, "I intend to pay a visit upon that city should you choose to go or not. But I was in hopes of your company for the trip, desiring the warmth of your tent...that is if you can spare me a corner of it. Though my milk no longer flows to refresh a hungry palate, I can still sing lullabies to Susanna, yours and Snunit's little one."

A smile broke across JuuFet's face. "No, not at all will your sleep be in a corner of my tent unless that is what you wish. But under my blankets beside us you will rest, singing to us all your rapturous lullabies."

Sodasonie tipped her head to the side. "So, does this mean that you are willing to go to pay a visit upon TobathaShinar and assist him in teaching his servants in the letters of writing and prose?"

At that, preparations were begun for JuuFet and his family, along with Odethbethel and her two youngest children, a son and daughter, Mushku and Sapphira, to depart for the lands of NoahDodanim. When JuuFet finally set sail for Tyre with his companions, Odethbethel was just turned one hundred twenty summers. Old she did not look, but only like a woman in her middle years, wisps of gray in her hair and some laugh lines around her eyes the only telling signs of age. Still, many men a third her years attempted to woo her during her stay at Megiddo. The woman chose instead, to remain beside JuuFet until far into future times when she returned to the west, the home of her birth, and JuuFet, with his wife, Snunit, departed Megiddo for Babylon. It is said of Snunit that her life was long and beauty extreme far into her old age, the woman living for over two hundred years.

### * * *

The latest reports reaching Gomer's ears pleased the priest greatly. Pharaoh NuephuteeAmactony had been eager to carry out his counselor's recommendations and invade the rebellious southern region of the Nubian rabble after receiving word of their refusal to pay the tax and tribute of grain and conscription to Pharaoh. So it was that Nuephutee marched his army south, burning and despoiling his way through Nubian territories. As the Nubian peoples fled further into the south, Nuephutee charged his cavalry and chariots ever forward in pursuit. The Nubian warriors were no match for the pharaoh's war machine, their resistance melting away in panic and disorder.

Had Nuephutee followed up his successes, using his infantry to pursue those swift victories by occupying first the western banks of the Nile River and, after being secured, moving the bulk of his military across to eastern shores, he might well have brought the Nubian uprising to a quick finish. Instead, the pharaoh ordered three hundred of his sea war galleys up the river with thirty thousand of his crack infantry, past Syene into what was commonly called 'Ethiopian territories' while he gathered a fleet of barges to transfer his cavalry and chariots across the river at Syene. This took the infantry far up, away from the support of the remainder of Pharaoh's army.

The river channel gradually became narrower and more treacherous the further south the army flotilla went, forcing the long, unwieldy, deep draft war galleys to hold to the middle of the river until the ships stretched out in an extended line two to three vessels wide, several miles long. Tired of the dust and jarring of his chariot, Pharaoh Nuephutee had taken to the ships for his continuing pursuit of the fleeing Nubians. The morning light of the fourth day out from Syene found the man sitting aboard his flagship some four miles north of the head of the fleet. He just sat down with his commanding generals to discuss the deployment of the army when report came that the southern elements of the fleet were under attack.

Unable to maneuver the galleys into fighting position, and not knowing the extent of the attacks, Nuephutee ordered the army offloaded onto the eastern shore, an arduous process at best considering that the men needed to be ferried from the ships through shallower waters to the shore in small boats, their number limited. The orders gradually went up and down the line, ships offloading soldiers as soon as the command reached the ears of their headmen, forcing the army to make for shore piecemeal. It would take some time before the little boats could accomplish their task, leaving small groups of soldiers stranded on the shore while the boats returned for more troops.

The first of the companies had only begun to set up pickets when a Nubian army under the command of General ShiShak rose up as if from nowhere and filled the air with countless arrows shot from Cushite longbows. Quickly decimating the defenders on the shore, the Nubians charged through the few survivors still putting up any resistance and attacked the filled boats in open water. Soon those boats that could were retreating back toward the galleys, which were themselves within range of the Nubian longbows. Although losing several hundred soldiers to the Nubian attack, the crews on the ships were in little danger other than the whizzing arrows filling the air, they also returning the shots. Up the river, it was a far different story.

KontinKuken had gathered over one thousand war canoes filled with twenty thousand warriors, charging them down the river into Pharaoh's lead elements at first light. Overwhelming the frontline ships like swarming ants, the attackers boarded the galleys, engaging the enemy in fierce, close quarter hand-to-hand combat, quickly overpowering their opponents by their sheer numbers. One after another, the giant galleys were consumed by this ever hungry army.

At seeing the coming destruction, some of the headmen put their crews to the oar, attempting to maneuver their war galleys down river to escape the ensuing battle only to become entangled with other vessels attempting the same. Soon there was a morass of confusion with dozens of war galleys either blocking the river or stuck soundly in the mud. Many of the crew and soldiers dove overboard seeking the safety of the river's shores only to be met with the spears and arrows of KontinKuken's land forces, a combined army of nearly sixty thousand men from the hinterlands above the High Falls.

When news of the ongoing disaster reached Nuephutee's ears, he took to a small, fast boat, skedaddling down the river, keeping close to the western shore for safety. By the time he reached the rear elements of his naval fleet, chances of escape by water were becoming slim. Tutan was already busy sinking barges and snag logs across the river channel to block escape. Driving hard and fast down the river, Nuephutee managed to flee through the obstructions along with another dozen war galleys. The rest of the Egyptian river war machine remained stranded above the blockade and at the mercy of the advancing enemy. All that Pharaoh could hope for now was that his cavalry might soon arrive to help pull this disaster out of the fire.

What Nuephutee did not know was at that very moment there were over five hundred Cushite war chariots racing southward along the eastern side of the Nile. They slammed into two lead brigades of Egyptian horse soldiers that were making their way up the eastern low road along the river. The cavalry riders being caught by surprise and unable to form defensive ranks were quickly scattered off toward the north. Six miles further north, the Cushites engaged a regiment of Egyptian chariots blocking way to Syene. Smashing into front and flank of the two hundred chariot defenders, the Cushite army rolled over and past them, moving quickly on toward the city.

By the time Pharaoh Nuephutee reached Syene, the city was all ablaze and the river filled with sunken barges, galleys, and numerous other ships and transports. Seeing his escape blocked, Nuephutee took to the western shore and made away with a company of charioteers, eventually retreating back to his city. In the following days, Nuephutee would attempt to take flight west across the desert when news reached his ears that the Nubians, commanding over one hundred Egyptian war galleys, were sailing down the Nile and would soon reach his city.

Stories tell that the pharaoh was killed by his own disgruntled soldiers far out in the desert, or that he died in a massive dust storm. Still others say that he made escape to southern lands far across the Atlantean Sea, there to while away his life in sullen solitude. Whatever the case, the man was never heard from again. Gomer whistled with delight upon hearing the news, hurrying quickly to welcome the Nubian victors as they marched into Pharaoh's fair city.

Gomer had long been conspiring with Tutan, ShiShak, and the two sons of Zaphenathpaneah, ZenathPotiphera and Absinthe, to overthrow NuephuteeAmactony. For this reason, the Hormaxian priestly advisors to Nuephutee did not flee along with their pharaoh and other officials in the old Egyptian government. Though it had originally been planned to place ShiShak upon the throne, it was decided that Tutan should take up the scepter as Pharaoh, seeing that ShiShak had been gravely wounded in earlier combat, it being deemed imperative that a new government be implemented immediately. After nearly a year's convalescing, ShiShak was finally able to take up the role as Egypt's prime minister, a post he retained for the remainder of his life.

Under Gomer's direction, the new rulers of Egypt quickly set about returning peace to the nation. Although Tutan took for himself the wives of Nuephutee and turned the former pharaoh's daughters over to the temple priests, Tutan did not execute the grandees and other Egyptian officials and officers, but either dismissed them, occasionally imprisoning someone for crimes against the people, removed them to other duties in distant cities, or banished them as he did with Nuephutee's sons and other male relations. Tutan also went about quickly mending fences with neighboring nations, especially the Phoenicians. Within a month of taking power, he sent Absinthe to the city of Santara, later to be called 'Carthage', to renew old contracts with King Huram, son of the late King GishopHigamie, and husband of Queen SuNidghaSungSei, the woman still appearing nearly as youthful as her widowed mother, Juliet.

Tutan lifted the yoke off the slaves in Egypt, the Nubians being released from the demands placed upon them by Zaphenathpaneah and returning to those people their lands and dwellings as an inheritance. As for the Hebrews, Tutan, while not freeing them from their slavery, removed the tax on their grain and reduced the years of conscription upon their men to ten years, from twenty to thirty years of age. The charge for twenty virgin maidservants being delivered to Pharaoh's house to serve a six month season was not lifted, it remaining in force down to the day Moses removed the Hebrews from the land of Goshen. Many were the sons and daughters born to these Hebrew women whose fathers were Egyptian, thus filling the camp of Jacob with children of mixed blood.

ShiShak survived many long years, down past the last of Tutan's ruling dynasty, the man living over one hundred ninety seven winters. It was said of him that he held Tutan's dynasty together, standing between it and any in opposition to it. During ShiShak's lifetime, Egypt regained its former glory and reached beyond it in wealth, military might and achievements, building construction, and renown. Though his name is not mentioned directly in the annals of Egyptian history, his influence is still evident down to this day, witnessed to by the many fabulous ruins that are scattered across the length of the Nile River basin. During his lifetime, the man's strength did not wane, nor did his keen eyesight or male vitality fail, the man filling the land with his offspring.

After the death of Zaphenathpaneah and all of Jacob's other sons and daughters, ShiShak took to bringing the conscripted Hebrew maidens of his choosing into concubinage for the duration of their six month servitude, returning many of them to their people pregnant. Though this practice of taking their maiden sisters and 'acting abhorrently' with them was protested strongly by the Hebrew older men, it was continued by ShiShak and the other Egyptian and Nubian overlords. In this way, the families of the Hebrew people became filled with the children of the nations, Egyptian, Nubian and Cushite (Ethiopian), Phoenician, and others and, yes, the children of the Elkhorn and the Mountain Bear, ShiShak being the son of Noahashonie and DungieDodanim. This was not all. The power of the Mozerathas was also made strong in the peoples of Jacob.

Not only did Serah birth many sons and daughters to Hebrew men, especially among the families of Dan and Benjamin, she took to the bed of ShiShak when the man was in his aged years and did not recognize Serah, his supposed mother. To him she gave dreams and visions, revealing to the man his birthing and parents so that the man went away into his rest knowing the truth about himself and the role he played in bringing future prophecy to its finish.

(Author's note _: It was rumored that Noah bestowed her presence upon him when he lay on his death bed, holding his hand with hers as the man passed into dreamless sleep_ ).

From ShiShak, Serah took a seed so that she became pregnant and birthed a daughter given the name 'Jochebed', who became ancestress to another woman named 'Jochebed', mother to Moses. By these means, the nation of the Hebrews became filled with the blood of Cush and Hormax through Noahashonie and Susannah - both pure bloods of the Mozerathas - and also with the blood of Japheth, the Mountain Bear, through DungieDodanim, grandson of Aphrodite.

Absinthe eventually became ambassador to the Phoenician King Huram, his daughter Ithithis, in her fourteenth year, marrying Huram's son, Hiram, on the boy's fifteenth birthday. Ithithis' mother, Brit, was a Hebrew, daughter from the family of Judah, and grandmother through Ithithis of Briton, a famous Atlantean Ocean Phoenician headman who eventually settled in the Western Isles off the Iamrussian coast and married into the Lumdon clan, becoming a chieftain among those people. Brit was taken as a wife by Absinthe to appease the man's father, in Zaphenathpaneah's old age.

After his father's death, Absinthe followed along in his grandfather Potiphera's traditions. Over the years, he established temples to Horus throughout the nations across the Great Sea. Even the Phoenicians gradually accepted the pluralistic religion taught by Absinthe and the other priests of Hormax, leading in time to the creation of a pantheon of Phoenician gods. This infectious spread of Hormaxian religion to the Atlantean Phoenicians was slowed because of the trade arrangements that had been made between the Great Sea and Atlantean Phoenician Trade Guilds and from the stalwart resistance of Rae Tomassie and his loyal kindred who openly resisted it.

ZenathPotiphera became a chief counselor to Tutan and an apprentice to Gomer, who eventually taught Zenath in all secret ways of Hormax. His rejection by Ephraim and Manasseh when their father died, the two older sons hiding Zaphenathpaneah's body away after being embalmed, led to a schism between the brothers, a rupture that was never healed. Zenath went on to become high priest over the secret order of the Gray Hearts, the man never learning that Gomer was chief over the house of Black Warlocks, high priest over the Hormaxian Order, and that Gomer was the one who chose Zenath to become chief over the Gray Hearts. Gomer and Zenath developed the tradition of passing the secrets of divination and occult sciences from firstborn to firstborn, so that only by the firstborn of the priesthood were all the secrets of the Servants of Zeussah kept.

ZenathPotiphera's son, Phoenix, and Absinthe's daughter, Selena, eventually married, the union producing a son named 'Pusan'. With the support of his grandfathers, Pusan began a pilgrimage to spread the religion of Egypt far into Eastern lands, mixing the local beliefs with Gomer's version of Hormaxian teaching. His efforts helped develop the Indian, Chinese, Tibetan, and sub-Asian religions that influenced the world down to the ending of that age.

The firstborn son of Phoenix and Selena, Sebastian, eventually took up his station as chief counselor to future kings of Egypt. Several of Sebastian's descendants also became priests and counselors to the ruling pharaohs of their day. The last of his lineage to stand beside Pharaoh were Jannes and Jambres, Jannes being firstborn, dying the night the Hebrews left Egypt and Jambres perishing when the waters collapsed back upon pharaoh and his army as Moses' people escaped through the Red Sea.

KontinKuken remained for some time in the king's city as an ambassador for the Southern Cushite-Ethiopian Alliance, a confederation of nations in the lands south of the High Falls above the Nile, something KontinKuken had been instrumental in creating. History would reveal that such an alliance would one day threaten the greatest of the powers in the Middle Eastern world. But during the years under Kontin's guidance, an age of peace arose among these peoples of that alliance that lasted many hundreds of years.

Kontin was also instrumental in revitalizing Egypt's Eastern Sea trade, an open territory for expansion seeing that the Phoenicians had little interest in eastern ocean expansion. Taking a page from the Phoenicians' playbook, Kontin helped establish navigation guilds that gathered large numbers of private ship owners under the Egyptian banner by offering them lucrative trade deals.

The Egyptian monopoly that soon existed over the major trade routes permitted the establishing of standard shipping rates, reducing the cutthroat competition that often ruined many a smaller ship owner. Sailing under the guilds' colors guaranteed a ship owner a set rate for the tonnage and bulk freight he carried regardless of the products being shipped. As more monies flowed through the hands of the shipping owners, more landed investors became interested in risking capital on building new ships to replace the aging fleet that had been neglected by NuephuteeAmactony.

Development of the Eastern Trade Guilds encouraged Tutan to return part of his growing wealth from tariffs acquired back into the system. To offset the threat of pirates that were often encountered along many of the trade routes, under Kontin's guidance, Tutan built an ocean-going navy to patrol the most treacherous waters passed through. In time, Egyptian military ports were established throughout the eastern world, colonization soon following. This desire to find new sources of wealth by colonizing distant isles led to exploration across the Sumatran Sea, eventually far beyond the lands of China and India.

In time, the ocean south of India and what might be called the 'Oriental Coastlands and Islets' came under the dominion of Egypt, the local inhabitants melding with the Egyptian colonists. Later, a new eastern world power arose, the people expanding on the technological developments of the Egyptians so that even larger and more impressive ships were soon plying the Sumatran Seas. These peoples, the descendants of colonists and locals, developed a culture that ruled over that part of the world for nearly three thousand years, not to be rivaled until facing the great capital ships of the Western Empires during that age of expansion.

KontinKuken understood that if the new Egyptian Shipping Guild was going to prove successful, it must be guided by a set of rules that would be as equally binding on the large fleet moguls as it would be upon the small ship owners. This required the formation of an international shipping cartel that would act independently of any kingdom and yet be recognized by all trading nations as having the authority to make binding rules and accept decisions made by its executive members when disputes arose between shippers and member nations.

Kontin knew that to make this a real success, he would eventually have to win over the hearts and minds of the Phoenician Shipping Guilds. To do this, he must prove that an international shipping cartel that oversaw all sea trade could not only be successful but also profitable to purse and trade alike. The opportunity existed to showcase the advantages of such a cartel through the Egyptian Shipping Guild. The Sumatran Seas were open territory for the Egyptians, the only other organized shipping body, the Phoenicians, having no current desire to expand into those territories. If Kontin could prove that an independent lawmaking body could be respected by Egypt and other member nations, and the decisions made by their governing body recognized and obeyed, then the Phoenician Trading Guilds might be willing to join.

On a cold, rainy winter day, KontinKuken found himself sitting at a long, wide table in the secluded mansion on the Tobanahazz Estate in conference with RaeTomassie, BondaBoor, JulietTobanahazz, and Noahashonie, along with several influential non-Haudenosaunez chieftains and dignitaries. This was the third of such meetings that had been assembled to discuss the creation of a world shipping cartel, the previous meetings concluding with the decision that for such an endeavor to be truly successful, all the world's major players needed to come on board with the idea, making for some very unexpected, prospective business partners at this third meeting.

Also seated at the table were ShiShak, ZenathPotiphera, and Gomer, High Lord over the House of Hormax. Although many had earlier protested that to involve any of the followers of Samyaza was insanity, Kontin, with Rae's support, convinced the others that no legitimate cartel could ever become successful unless all the powers of the earth were in agreement with it. After rigorous and heated debate which Noah walked out on several times, often swearing oaths of damnation and destruction against all the priests of Hormax, a consensus was reached as to who should be included in the next meeting. It was actually because of the counsel of Aphrodite, who was present during the second meeting, that Noah finally capitulated, permitting what she called 'the evil scum' an audience. But she demanded it be held at the Tobanahazz Estate on Cyprus so that she could keep a close eye on the miscreants.

Another person present was more of a scoundrel and scallywag, deserving the hangman's noose over a seat at this table. Prince Herbart Tobanahazz, son of Chuphoe and FooShii, was overlord of the second largest trading (in reality, pirate...) fleet in the Sumatran Sea next to Egypt. Escaping the Phoenician authorities after they had tired of his shenanigans in the Great Sea, Herbart had made his way south into Egypt, taking up with a band of seafaring hooligans who made their way into the Sumatran Sea by absconding with two of Pharaoh Nuephutee's new giant trading ships, that is after he had also managed to steal away with Nuephutee's daughter, Muushendoo, and two of her Hebrew handmaidens, whom he promptly deflowered after unceremoniously taking them as concubines.

After several colorful escapades involving cunning, bravery, and a great deal of luck, Herbart made his way to the east, establishing a city for his growing 'trade' fleet on the island of Sumatra, eventually expanding his empire to encompass a vast expanse of the southern seas. The man's power was great enough to force a tribute to be paid him by the Egyptians to safely sail the trade routes through those waters. Kontin believed that Herbart had to be included in the development of the shipping guild, the cost of warring against him far too prohibitive, time consuming and expensive for Egypt to alone undertake. Yet if Herbart continued his pirate activities against the sea trade, any infant shipping cartel would soon collapse.

There were other advantages to bringing Herbart Tobanahazz into the fold. His escapades against Pharaoh NuephuteeAmactony made him a local folk hero with the general Egyptian population. He was also a favorite sibling of the current pharaoh, Tutan, the man spending many summers with Tutan along the banks of the southern Nile during his growing up years. Being the son of a Nubian princess, FooShii, and a villain to Nuephutee, the Nubian peoples both above and below the High Falls celebrated the man.

So it came to pass from this most unlikely combination of odd fellows that ever sat down together at a negotiating table that the most powerful and long-lasting of international organizations came into existence, the Egyptian Maritime Court. To it the national sea powers would come to settle disagreements, accepting that court's final decisions. The power of the court became so great that it could muster nations to go to war against any maritime power that refused to follow its demands. Although created for both honorable and dubious reasons, it remained down to the End of Days as man's greatest achievement at creating a fair and just system that ruled over the lives of men.

Egypt's desire to set up this cartel was obvious. It made them the greatest sea power next to the Phoenicians, a crown it possessed for over three hundred years. For Gomer and the House of Hormax, it not only led to its greater sphere of influence across the world, bringing vast amounts of wealth into its coffers, it allowed the Hormaxians insight into lands that they personally dared not infiltrate. For the Haudenosaunez, it provided a way to keep the oceans free from national domination. International waters were forced upon the sea power nations, allowing unrestricted travel and commerce across the vast oceans.

To guarantee that the court would not dissolve into wanton corruption, KontinKuken, RaeTomassie, Gomer and a person of his choosing were given seats on the executive council in perpetuity for them and their heirs, Gomer not realizing what 'permanent' truly meant for Kontin and Rae. Although the eleven other seats were won through election by an executive body made up of sixty members chosen from the general body of approximately three hundred-forty members, the number varying up and down over the centuries, the four permanently seated members remained the controlling influence up through the Ending Days.

Gomer never realized that Rae and Kontin were of the secret order of the Haudenosaunez, although they knew who he was. This held true across the ages regarding the Hormaxian leadership. The real secret was that the Haudenosaunez maintained spies in the Hormaxian organization throughout its existence, a secret the Hormaxians never discovered. So it was that the clandestine activities of the Hormaxians were not quite as clandestine as they believed.

With Nubian and Cushite powers rising in New Egypt, the peoples of the Mozerathas began migrating down from beyond the High Falls and north into Egypt proper. The southern Mozerathas were an uncanny lot, their animal senses not diminishing as their sons and daughters took to the high-masted merchant ships that sailed far into the uncharted waters of the Sumatran Sea. Wanderlust was as strong within them as it had been in their forefathers who braved the Atlantean Sea to find the famous black-skinned Cushite beauties of myth who lived far above the High Falls at the end of the Great River where Heaven meets Earth.

Eventually the descendants of those Mozerathas who departed their homes in the country of the Ice Mountains and the Genesee became hungry for a home of their own, a place they could once again become their own people and live by the laws and customs of their own choosing. To them one day came a great chieftain from the northern worlds beyond Greece who would deliver them to a new world where their hopes and dreams could be fulfilled. SumaRae, a high lord in the Phoenician Shipping Guild and first of his clansmen to join with the Egyptian Shipping Guild, son of RaeTomassie and Noahashonie, lifted up his banner to lead his Mozerathas brothers in search of that new home.

In time, SumaRae discovered a land strange and wonderful, abandoned by the world of men because of the uncanny ways of that world. Establishing a small colony there under the Egyptian Maritime banner, SumaRae convinced many of the sons of Nubia, Cush and other Egyptian clans to join with his Mozerathas brothers in this exotic, wild country where all men and women were free to become whatever they chose to be. Under this man's guidance, and with the Support of Tutan's dynastic rule, the inhabitants in the land down under the world flourished, the banner of Egypt flying high over its capital city, New Missisaugwah. It was said that even the prime minister, ShiShak, paid several visits to New Missisaugwah over his lifetime, the city becoming Egypt's eastern most trading center.

Shortly after the death of ShiShak, the Tutan dynasty collapsed and a new pharaoh stood up to rule the peoples of the lands of Egypt. His arrogance and cruel treatment of the inhabitants of those territories under his control were unrivaled by any other dynasty, his hand of unquestioned domination sweeping through the land, enslaving all the people who were not of his kindred tribes. Clear to above and beyond the High Falls he extended his dominion, brutally murdering any who resisted and oppressing all who peacefully surrendered. Entire clans and tribes were exterminated by him until the ground cried out in its desolation. If it had not been for the uncanny powers of KontinKuken and the clandestine actions of his Haudenosaunez companion, Serah, the entire land of Cush would have fallen to the powers of Egypt. Although Pharaoh's hand was checked in the south, the clansmen in the east, including the territories controlled by New Missisaugwah, could not escape this man's tyrannical grasp.

Eventually, the pharaoh set up garrisons across his vast territories, not only demanding tribute in recognition of the protection he was providing, but also conscripting young men and women into slavish service. The New Missisaugwah territories were vast, filled with endless deserts and savannahs. Many of the inhabitants fled from the coastlands to escape Pharaoh's armies, joining with what Mozerathas clans already occupied those inner territories. When the powers of Egypt collapsed after the great Hebrew exodus, the Egyptian military abandoned its outposts. Those few, mostly of noble birth, priests, and other highly educated people able to find passage, departed the colonies on what ships were available, leaving behind their slaves and common, unlettered people.

When news reached the ears of escapees hiding from the armies of Pharaoh in the desert that the powers of Egypt had abandoned the territories of New Missisaugwah, they rose up in war against servants of Egypt remaining in the land. Many thousands of the people were slaughtered and their cities burned. If not for the voice of SumaRae's great, great, grandson, HuShuHeeSuma, standing up in the crowd, begging that mercy be shown to their enemy, the massacre would have been made complete. Soon the war ended between the peoples of the hinterlands and the coastlands, bringing peace to those people.

The outside world eventually forgot the land of New Missisaugwah. Other than the occasional seafarer from local islands, rare was the merchant ship that cast its gaze upon that land, leaving its people alone to choose their own fated path. In time the old ways were forgotten, each man doing what appeared good in his own eyes. At seeing each man going his separate way, and fearing that it might again lead to war should the people become so divided, HuShuHeeSuma gathered all the older men of the scattering tribes together for a great moot. From it came the tribal wise men, shamans who became teachers of history and law, holy men who were to be listened to and obeyed up to death.

Every year the shamans gathered together to speak history and law to one another so that all the wise men would talk with one tongue to all the people. By the mouth of HuShuHeeSuma, the law and the history of mankind, the gods, the worlds of Heaven and Earth, and all other knowledge was given, and every shaman was taught to speak to the others of his tribe the words exactly as he had heard them. So it was that in time all the people became one people in mind and thought. Peace came to rule their world so that even any word for 'hate' or 'violence' against a fellowman was lost from the people's language. Eventually, through the mixing in marriage, an entire new race of peoples came into existence, a race that gradually forgot its past, living simply as hunters and gatherers, becoming one with the land as it was with them.

During the reign of Dungie, the Atlantician king, TitanAmactony and his people and Noahashonie with her people, the Iamrussians, entered an alliance with one another. After the demise of Atlantis, Titan established two colonial city-states in Iamrussian territories, one on the mainland and the other on isles off the coast to its west. In due course, these colonies attracted many Egyptian settlers including members of the royal families. It became common for marriage alliances to be made between them and some of the more influential families in the Iamrussian clans. The colonies thrived down through the end of the Tutan Dynasty, the kingdoms of Egypt and Iamrussia retaining close bonds formed in the days of Atlantis.

After the Tutan dynasty was come to its finish and a new pharaonic power rose up in the land, many of the old dynasty's former officials and people of royal descent fled to Egypt's two colonies in Iamrussia. The pharaoh reached out with military forces of over forty thousand soldiers and sailors on two hundred war galleys to go in pursuit of them. His intent was to also establish an imposing military presence with hopes of extending his political control in this region. A sudden storm off the coast of what came to be called 'Brittany' decimated Pharaoh's navy along with hope of any conquest. With over half of his armada sunk or smashed against the coastal shores, and the remainder of his fleet scattered across hundreds of miles of ocean, Pharaoh's army was now at the mercy of Noah's people.

Shortly after the storm, hundreds of Dragon longships gathered in the straits between the mainland and western isles, forcing the Egyptians to withdraw or surrender. There were no hostilities displayed by either side at this time. Noah even sent emissaries to Pharaoh with gifts of lament for the loss of so many of his brave men in an attempt to salve the man's spirit. She then went on to politely warn Pharaoh that Egyptian people occupying the lands of Iamrussia were their guests and lived under the rules and laws of her people. Other than local constables, those Egyptian colonies were under the protection of Noah and the Iamrussian military. She would not permit any foreign military force to occupy Iamrussian land, a condition that Pharaoh must accept if he wished to retain the unbroken friendship and peace the two kingdoms had long enjoyed.

Noah detested the wicked actions of this new pharaoh, but chose not to establish sanctions against him unless forced to. The Egyptian Maritime Court was gradually gaining favor throughout the commercial shipping world and the leading coastal nations. Noah wished to do nothing that might threaten its growing influence. Because of this, she extended an olive branch to Pharaoh by offering a lucrative trade agreement with Egypt, as long as he respected her demands concerning military presence. Although Pharaoh stormed and threatened, his greed for the northern wealth convinced him to accept Noah's offer, saving many a recent refugee from torture, murder, and/or deportation back to Egypt to face Pharaoh's kangaroo courts.

Although trade gradually diminished between the two kingdoms over time, they remained on peaceful terms with one another during that and future dynastic reigns of Egypt's rulers. Pharaoh, though, did pass laws forbidding any new settlers from emigrating to any Egyptian colonies without his direct permission. It was decreed that, should someone attempt or make escape from Egypt, then their entire family was to be sold into slavery or publicly executed by being fed to the Nile crocodiles. Emigration virtually ceased from that time forward.

Gradually, many of the Egyptian immigrants married into the surrounding Iamrussian clans, taking up more and more of the local customs and culture with each passing generation. After Egypt's collapse following the days of Hebrew exodus, the kingdom's shipping cartel rapidly lost its influence, the Phoenicians taking over much of their trade in the West and China doing the same in the East. Across the shipping world, Egypt's colonies were abandoned to the Fates. Those people with the desire, money, and transport often took passage back to Egypt, abandoning the many colonies to those poor and unlettered. As for the colonists in Iamrussian territories, few attempted a return to Egypt, many already viewing themselves more as Iamrussian than Egyptian.

No longer having any outside Egyptian influence, and never dealing with a direct Hormaxian priestly presence among them, the former Egyptian colonists in Iamrussia were eventually absorbed into that culture. After a while, the people's Egyptian heritage was forgotten by most, leaving what knowledge remaining to the scribes and tale tellers, who so mixed history with folklore that within a few generations all the knowledge that remained of Egypt's grand colonies was riddled with mystical legends. Many of the descendants of these Egyptian-Iamrussian marriages migrated into the lands ruled over by Meric, bringing a touch of their unique culture into that land. The Western world truly did become a melting pot of the nations of men.

Thus came to the end an era that began when the man, Noah, stepped from the ark into a new and different world than he had departed from. Fulfilled now was the command given him by Lowenah through the mouth of Sodasonie to spread out and fill the earth and become many. Countless millions of people were now scattered all about the planet, developing new and exotic customs and cultures while forgetting their colorful pasts. Few remembered tales of mighty gods and wars waged with weapons of unspeakable powers. Stories of the great conflagration that came from the sky, consuming the whole world in fire, flood, and famine would become little more than stories told to restless children on sleepless nights. The men and women of fame, the founders and great heroes and villains of that post-deluge world were now moldering in forgotten graves.

Even the resting place of the ark was becoming little more than a shrine for the sanctimonious pilgrim, to gather himself to the grass-covered mound that had once been that great ship. The world of men was quickly forgetting its past while not yet comprehending its future. The present was all that the majority of mankind lived for, not even wondering what the Fates might be planning for later days. Still, there were eyes ever watching. The Hormaxians and Haudenosaunez were always searching for Future's road, either attempting to deliver the storm, or working to hold it back.

There were also other eyes that searched from afar, knowing that the Heart of Atlantis was not destroyed, but lay hidden in the bosom of the planet somewhere. The man searching through those eyes must find it if he was ever to gain the might to become the ruler of the universe. Only by its power could he dare attempt a coup on his older brother and take the throne for himself. That prize was so desirable, but the risk of being found out so great that he could tell no one the reasons for his search or that he was even seeking it. These things Aphrodite also knew, and choosing not the fate of her long sleep, she became ever vigilant to prevent this man from obtaining his desired treasure while at the same time teasing him with its glory.

### * * *

### Section 35

Shall All the Children Cry

Moses brought the curtain down on the Age of Atlantis the night he led the Hebrews out of Goshen and into the wilderness. It was true that the kingdom itself lasted only a few short years, but the age it introduced held on for hundreds of years more. The dream begun by the Hormaxian priests was brought to a finish with the death of the firstborn of Egypt, their most sacred hidden knowledge taken to the grave by those who died through the tenth plague delivered upon the people of that land. Although kingdoms would continue to reach out to dominate the world, the very forms of government practiced prevented such achievements.

This did not mean that the Hormaxian hierarchy gave up on world domination. No, indeed. One nation after another they brought to power in hopes that through it the world could be subjected under their feet, including the lands of Meric and the Iamrussians. Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and countless other attempts were made to bring world domination through one superpower, but to little avail. The primary reasons for this sprang from the Hormaxians themselves, the ideology between the Western and Eastern mindsets of the chieftains within that cult.

High Priest Rapadies had envisioned a world of countless little city-states clandestinely controlled by the Hormaxian hierarchy. His reason for relocating to Egypt had not been to turn that kingdom into a superpower but to make it the hub of the world from which Hormaxian religion and influence could be easily spread throughout the earth. His plan for this had been conceived while living in Atlanticia, serving as an under-priest to ZaphipheRa. Observing the complexities, expense and priestly manpower needed to grow a kingdom into a world dominating force, and then to witness how fragile and tenuous a Hormaxian alliance might be with a despotic ruler, Rapadies believed 'properly controlled', smaller kingdoms were better. Religion, alone, worked only on the masses, the intelligentsia often needing other more costly forms of persuasion.

Rapadies had not included Gomer in on his grandiose plan. Gomer was a useful tool, a willing subject playing his little part in Rapadies' grand scheme of things, but was too simple a man to be brought into the fold, so to speak. After Rapadies' demise at the hands of Serah, little more could Gomer do than to advance the accepted narrative, to bring Atlantis back to life through the kingdom of Egypt, it being the only nation with enough wealth and power to accomplish such a global task. It was for this reason that Gomer was willing to support the formation of the Egyptian Maritime Court, feeling that it would help advance his dreamed of new world order through the power of Egypt.

There were others in the Hormaxian House who secretly resisted Gomer, supporting Rapadies' plan to achieve his dream of Hormaxian world domination through multiple little nations existing under the shadow of three houses of Hormax. These men continued working clandestinely within the Hormaxian House to undermine any attempt to create a single world-dominating empire. They saw the western Southlands beyond the Atlantean Sea as an outstanding test-bed for the remainder of the world. There the kingdoms were in a constant state of war and upheaval while the people all blindly worshiped at the feet of the priests, who 'humbly' shunned the warring of lowly men, sacrificing everything and enduring anything just to please their bloodthirsty gods. All of this came at very little expense to the priests. Indeed! They were permitted to practice every form of debauchery - rape, murder, torture, and any other unspeakable, loathsome practice - while collecting all the riches of the land to themselves in the name of their gods.

Gomer worked tirelessly to bring his New Atlantis to fruition, never knowing that forces within his own house were acting against him. In the end, the man died having unknowingly accomplished the first part of Rapadies' plan. Egypt had become the center of religious and intellectual wisdom for the entire world. The majority of learned men and eventual leaders of the surrounding nations journeyed there to be taught at the feet of the wise men of science, history, religion, and political thought clear up through the days of Greece and into the age of Rome. Egypt's political and military glory ebbed and flowed during the following centuries, but until the final burning of the library at Alexandria, it retained its heritage as being the seat of the world's knowledge and wisdom.

Atlantician theology did not pass away with Gomer. It still burned hot in the hearts of many priests. Throughout history, they searched for one able leader to resurrect it from the depths to ensnare the world again in a web of globalism. They found many willing candidates to make the attempt, a few succeeding quite well on a regional level. But, alas, those kings' visions were always too small, or the lives of those dictators too short to accomplish the priests' grand purpose.

The successful road to bring a rebirth to Atlantis lay not in religion, dictatorship or monarchy, but in a new and untried form of government that had never been attempted on a large scale. Oh yes, small scale versions of it rose to life from time to time. Greece and Rome attempted it, but as the powers of this new form of government grew among the ordinary people, the rulers quickly snatched those powers back for fear that a people ruling themselves would soon find no need for an aristocracy, a class of worthless, blood-sucking ingrates who only took and gave nothing back. Yet without the support of the common people, no kingdom could muster the might to sustain its conquering rulership. In time, its strength would wane, oppressing its subjects with greater taxes and duties as its coffers ran empty, eventually becoming so weak that it fell to an uprising or was conquered by outside forces.

During these ages, there was one man who might have succeeded in bringing forth a global government and a returning to Atlantis. Meric was long-lived, being a child of Eden as was whispered by many from the old clans, the man seeing over one thousand summers. Throughout his days, Hyhoset remained at his side, giving to his rulership the might and glory of the Haudenosaunez. Had Meric only wished it, armies under his dominion would have risen up to conquer the world, crushing all the other mighty nations under their feet. But Meric did not wish for such a thing. Like his father, Javan, and mother, EpiphanOida, the man wished only for a peaceful world in which all men could live as they pleased.

So it was that during the Age of Empires on down to that of Rome, Meric and his descendants... men and women of extremely long life and great stature... passionately forced peace upon the peoples of their domain. By the standards of the surrounding world, Meric was a man of little wealth. No servants did he own, no slavery being allowed at all in his kingdom. No great palaces of landed estates did he possess. A huntsman, fisher and farmer they say he was, working the land with tools of his own making. Nor a standing army did he have, even conscription being outlawed. Those warriors who stood at his side in times of need were free men and women who believed as Meric did, and were willing to die for that belief.

In Meric's kingdom, a multitude of races of men gathered to enjoy the lifestyle that freedom engendered. Along the great rivers and lakes, cities arose for those who desired that kind of life, while other peoples sought only the meat and hides of the wandering grasslands beasts, ever following their migrations. Clans were numerous and moot halls beyond count. Any man or woman was free to search out the good land of Meric, having no dread for self or possession.

One of the most outstanding conditions found in Meric's kingdom was the lack of taxes, titles or deeds. The wandering shamans and wise men sent out to the peoples taught that only the Great One or Great Spirit owned the earth, sky, and waters, and that he permitted each man and woman a time and season to enjoy what he had built.

" _A place to set the sole of your foot,_

and to rest your head,

is all that has been given you.

When you rise from your sleep,

or step from where you are standing,

the land returns to the One who created it."

These were the words spoken in the moot halls and into the ears of all the people of the land.

These same wise men sang also of peace and unity for all the different peoples occupying the Land of Meric.

" _When a stranger you meet upon the road,_

upon seeing Monshe (man or woman), lift your hand high in greeting,

take Monshe's arm as Monshe does yours in passing.

Offer Monshe a smile and a blessing.

Learn the common tongue

so that you may speak to all the people of your world.

When Monshe dances about the fire,

clap your hands along with Monshe's music.

When people sing and you do not know the words,

make humming music with your mouth to accompany them.

Look! The virgin is your sister.

Her mother is your mother.

Care for the virgin and her mother.

To the woman does the man's upper thigh belong.

Do not hold back what the woman wishes from the man.

Let the man restrain himself

until the woman wishes for his attention.

Do not touch her nakedness

unless she requests it.

Save the child who is giving suck.

Let it have its milk until it is satisfied

then partake afterward of the milk that is left.

To the Great One does the woman belong.

Her virginity is his gift to her.

Do not steal her virginity

through smooth words or by force.

Do not bind a woman with an oath.

Her loins are a gift for those she chooses.

The way of the huntsman warrior

is the way of peace.

Do not string the bow or lift the spear

when anger is upon you.

Also to the four-legged people

the land has been given.

The life of all peoples is precious.

So, if you should respect the life of the four-legged people,

how much more so is the worth

of those who stand with you on two?

There is but one Lord over all the earth.

We are the dust under his feet.

Everywhere is the Great One,

in the trees, the wind, the waters, in the beasts.

Do not worship the trees, the wind, the waters or beasts

for they are but our brothers.

Every stranger is a child of the Great One.

Treat every stranger like a brother or sister.

Lift your hands high and give glory to the Great One,

for far above us he does reside.

These were the laws of Meric, to which were added prohibitions against rape, bestiality, murder, torture for any reason, including beatings with whips or rods. Men who had sexual intercourse with other men was also forbidden.

(Author's note: _It was for the reason that the priests of Hormax extensively practiced homosexuality in their control over others and religious rites that Meric issued this law_.)

Those who made others into prostitutes were not tolerated. The building of altars to or sacrificing to the gods of Hormax were abominations to Meric and Hyhoset. Anyone committing these vile acts was subject to the punishment of death.

If an act warranting death was committed by someone in the community, or should the act be committed against someone from another community, the evildoer was to be taken to a village where the person was not known. There the case would be publicly presented to all the elders of that village, the defendant also able to provide witnesses on his or her behalf.

These were the laws of Meric that brought ostracism, banishment from the land, or other punishment:

Theft in any form, even out of necessity, was forbidden. If people were in need, they were to humble themselves and go before the elders in the village to reveal their plight.

Lying of any kind, especially speaking a falsehood intended to harm another or to steal the person's property was not tolerated. Depending upon the seriousness of the offense, a penalty of death might be meted out against someone committing such an act. Again the case was to be heard by elders from a neutral village.

There were also additional laws prohibiting the forbidding any person free passage through their territory; the practice of prostitution; beating a domestic animal with a rod, whip, or staff, from which injury might occur; killing wild beasts for pleasure or sport; taking a virgin and having intercourse with her without the village elders' knowledge and consent; making fraudulent claims; making false oaths; making oneself a king over his brothers; threatening violence against another tribe, clan, village, or person; having intercourse with a woman and then refusing to accept fatherhood of a child she bore from the union should the mother claim the man to be sire of the offspring; forcing one's virgin daughter or young son from one's home, thus making them subject to harm from the evil miscreant lurking in the shadows; not giving the aged father or widowed mother their due. There was to be no mutilation of the flesh, no circumcision of either the male or female, with the exception of a male of Hebrew stock choosing to do so, or if the male was a consenting adult living outside his parents' home.

These were the laws of Meric that would bring punishment to those who violated them. Yet, in any case, should the person claim his or her innocence, or that the act was not done for wantonness but from misunderstanding, ignorance, or attempting to protect oneself or others, or if it was felt by the accused that judgment was being cast prejudicially, the person could demand a hearing before elders of another village. The village elders also had great leeway concerning the punishment such crimes warranted, Meric making no statement concerning them other than to show mercy where mercy could be shown.

These same laws were much in force in the lands ruled over by Noahashonie, at least in principle. The power of the clans was much greater for the Iamrussians, the people selecting chieftains for themselves and making local laws and customs to live under. Still, the people knew Noah's views on matters, her shamans preaching the Queen's Rules throughout the lands, and for the most part acted in ways pleasing to her.

Either forms of government - that of kings and despots or those of Meric's and Noah's - could not bring about the world government attempted by the Atlantis experiment. Freedom and independence of the people alone lacked the control needed to sustain a world order, while any other form of despotic or aristocratic rulership eventually crushed the will of the people, making the institution susceptible to overthrow or conquest. Some new and different kind of rulership must be found if a New World Atlantis was to again arise, one where the freedom and energy of the people were not sapped by ruthless overlords who sought only their own selfish gratification, yet with a strong enough government that could weld the people into doing its will. Finding the propaganda ministers was an easy matter, but to find the right potion that would seduce the people into supporting them, no one at that time could envision.

What they did not know was that the secret lay in the Heart of Atlantis and with the one knowing how to use its magical powers. That person quietly slept in a humble cabin of oak and pine, wrapped in the loving arms of her husband, Meric. The glory of the universe she carried in her bosom yet did not know of its power or how to use it. One day, far, far into the future, she would gift it to another who would learn how to wield its might to create the nation that would make the world shake to its foundations. New Atlantis would rise again, its songs of freedom breathing new life into the hearts of the sons of men, and especially to one man who would forever change that world.

### * * *

Serah sat in front of the blaze, its light reflecting off a rock-face wall to reveal the aged man sitting across from her. Stirring the flames, Serah scolded, "I spoke through you with the voice of Iam, cursing your people to wander in this wilderness for forty years, yet they did not listen to your counsel and went up to do battle with the Amalekites and Canaanites. Now Korah, your own kindred, has raised up some of the older men to bring you to a finish. Yet you run to me, seeking my counsel like a child chased by bees. Moses, when will you stop depending upon another's mouth to speak for you?"

Moses was unprepared for Serah's curtness. His reply reflected his surprise. "I... I only seek wisdom from the wise to lead this stiff-necked people."

Looking up into Moses' face, Serah smiled sadly. "My son, you were chosen to lead this people, not me. Iam did not choose foolishly, did he? No. You have forgotten who you were before becoming a shepherd in the wilderness. Commanding general over the entire southern army of Pharaoh you were, the nation singing your praises of victory in war. Remember why Pharaoh made you general. In those days, your voice was listened to and feared. You demanded to be heard and were. Allow me to reveal secrets to you that are meant for no other ears and then decide what you must do. Tomorrow, go and speak to this rebellious house and whatever your mouth declares, Iam will listen to your voice and do what you have spoken.

"You know the tales told about me by the ancient ones among you, how that I came down into the land of Egypt with your father, Jacob, and have lived among his sons and their sons down to this day. But who I am and who you truly are has remained secret down to this day." At that, Serah revealed to Moses the history of her people, the burning of Dancing Stones and the anointing of the Haudenosaunez by Sodasonie, her journeys that led her to this place, from the land of desolation to Eden and then to Midian and finally to Jacob's tent. She spoke of Atlantis and the wars of Javan and his people, of freedom and love, life and hope, of Aphrodite and her wars with the priests of Hormax. All these things and many more Serah explained to Moses so that he began to understand that he, too, played a much greater part in the destiny of worlds than merely delivering a band of rebellious, stiff-necked former slaves into a promised land.

When the glory of the sun could be seen in the eastern sky and the fire had burned itself to coals and ashes, Serah concluded, "You are my son through your mother, Jochebed, who was descended down from my birth daughter possessing that same name. Your wife, Zipporah, is my child through her father, Reuel, a priest among his people, who was born from the line of my daughter, Marah, a great priestess among the peoples of the Kenites. Not only does the blood of the gods flow through your veins, you are surrounded by the children of those very gods who serve as counselors to you. Now stand up beside them and become the leader Iam has destined you to be."

At that, Serah stood and approached Moses, taking his hand so that he also stood. Giving him a tender kiss upon the cheek, she offered her parting wisdom. "Humble must the man be who leads this rebellious people. But remember what humility truly is. Iam is humble, yet all the nations fear his wrath. Noah was humble, but built an ark amongst evil, vile men to preserve his family and all the landed beasts. Abraham was humble, and still he raised an army that defeated five kings. Moses, humility means to know one's place in the scheme of things. You have been placed a leader over these people. Whatever you speak, Iam has promised to do, be it for good or bad. Now go, my son, and lead."

Moses bowed in respect and slowly departed into the morning shadows. As he disappeared down the rise, a voice in the darkness quietly spoke to Serah. "Humility is such a tricksy thing in the hands of a leader who speaks with the voice of God."

Serah sighed sadly, lamenting, "My Lady Sodasonie, risky it is, true, but little the choice did I have in handing such great authority over to him if the man was to grow in his mightiness. The test of forty years will tax Moses in ways we have not yet anticipated. He must grow to meet the challenge."

Sodasonie somberly agreed. "Your wisdom is not to be questioned. I admit for a fact that you know the hearts of these people better than I. Yet I do believe I know your heart better than its owner. My darling one, you need a break from these frustrations so that sanity may remain in you. Come back to Eden with us for a day or so. Rest your soul for a little while. Sing songs of mirth and joy in carefree abandon as you while away the hours with those who are so fond of you...your touch."

Serah smiled, lowering her head and shaking it. "So much I would like to do this thing you recommend, but ever vigilant I must remain over this people lest they should return to dark thoughts and evil actions and the malediction should be hurled upon them."

Placing a hand on Serah's shoulder, Sodasonie softly replied, "Yes, vigilance is needed. That is true. Still, you shouldn't stand the line alone. The one your kind calls 'Susquehanna' has readied my ship to take you to Eden. Joleck is with her, waiting for your company. Go to them. I will remain here, watching over this unruly people and supporting Moses if need be. Now go and take your leave in order to receive some much needed rest."

Tears welled up in Serah's eyes. She kissed Sodasonie affectionately on the cheek, giving her a warm embrace. "Thank you, my sister. You do know how to show such loving kindness to a soul in need. I shall not linger long before my returning. A day or so in Heaven's womb will so much refresh my spirit. Thank you."

Serah returned from Eden during the second new moon since her absence. It was decided that Susquehanna (Chasileah) should join her there to bolster the woman's spirits during the Hebrews' long forty year trek in the wilderness. Up through those days and into the time of Joshua's taking of Jericho, Serah had the company of Chasileah or Joleck and, on occasion Sodasonie to keep her spirits up. Soon after the crossing of the Jordan River by the armies of the Hebrews, Serah moved her tent next to Joshua's, serving as a counselor and companion to the man for the remainder of his life.

Eventually Serah took up dwelling in the city of Abel-Bethmaacah, to the north of the Sea of Galilee, becoming a judge and prophetess to the twelve tribes. In those days there came to be a proverb regarding Abel-Bethmaacah: "Let them but inquire in Abel, and thus they will certainly end the matter." Legend spoke of a woman living in the city who walked in ages past with the sons of Jacob, stood beside Moses when he parted the waters to provide escape for the Hebrews from Pharaoh, and marched around the walls of Jericho with Joshua. Rumors abounded stating the woman's beauty was so great that should one gaze upon her bathing on a moonlit night, death would follow from an impassioned heart.

Serah, for her part, lived life in the shadows, the people seeing the woman hidden behind long, hooded garments. This does not mean that she lived in celibate isolation. Serah had a few intimate companions, both men and women, who shared in her private life, learning many of the holy arts from her. An order of teachers arose among the common people associated with her, it eventually becoming called the 'Sons of the Prophets'. These men and women, touched by the power of God, acted as messengers, prophets, intercessors, and counselors to the Hebrew people. From them came several prophets of renown: Elijah, Elisha, Nathan, Deborah, Hosea, Isaiah, Daniel and others, many of whom were personally tutored by Serah.

Serah remained dwelling in the city of Abel-Bethmaacah throughout the time of the judges and into the days of the kings until Jeroboam began to introduce the demon gods of Hormax into the land for the people to worship. She then moved south, living for a time in the city of Jerusalem but eventually settling in the wilderness of Judah where she could be alone with her thoughts without the constant interruption of political and social intrigues in that city.

The history of Serah remains a quiet one during this period down to the days of Manasseh. Known as a great prophetess, many were the people over those ages who would seek her counsel and admonition. She also continued to teach the young men and women of the land in the ways of the Sons of the Prophets so that numerous became those people during the age of the Judean kings. The woman distanced herself from personally becoming involved in the activities of those days until the prophet Isaiah, husband of her daughter, Hasbernah, was murdered by King Manasseh. When news reached her ears regarding the evil done to such a holy man, Serah could remain quiet no longer.

### * * *

Juufet sat beside the brazier, quietly reading a letter from his dear companion, written in ancient Edenish script given to the Haudenosaunez by the Children of Iam.

(Author's note _: Edenish is a written language styled in old Sumerian with Cherubic symbols added. Only to the Haudenosaunez and selected Children of Iam were the secrets of this language divulged. Down to the ending hour, that language remained undecipherable, protecting the libraries of those people_.)

Raising the letter high to see it in the blazing firelight, Juufet again read the script penned in Susannah's hand.

My Dearest of Companions,

So much I miss your touch and sweet embrace. May the magic of Eden envelop us in its rapturous melodious magic again soon. Yet that is a dream I dare not wish for at this moment, so great is the pain in my heart concerning the current hour.

The heated wrath of Iam is growing against his people from morning unto morning. Even the Lady fears for the fate of this unruly lot. Times and seasons are being pushed by the demon hordes, they hoping to bring down the house of kings before their assigned day when the nations will rule unbridled over the surface of the earth. My daughter's husband has even fallen victim to the evils of Hormax, the polluted heart of King Manasseh having smitten him unto death.

So it is with great sadness, I filled with grief and a burning in my heart, that I make this request of my loving companion. Great are you in the eyes of King Esar-Haddon. The Assyrian will listen to your smooth speech and winsome words.

Please, my most comely of companions, for Iam and the Lady... and for my heart also, play your music upon the ears of the king so that he may listen to your voice and certainly enter into Judah and take alive this wicked Manasseh into a land foreign to him, placing him in the prison holes of those evil lands so that a lesson may be taught to him and possibly he may humble himself so that the constant feature will remain burning bright into the destined hour.

The Lady sends her tidings, holding you close in her heart as I also do.

Be well...

My kiss until we meet again...

Your Susannah

Juufet frowned, sadly realizing that the Time of the Nations must be close if Susannah (Serah) were making such a request of him.

The sun was peaking above the city's tallest ziggurat, casting the temple's arrow-like shadow across the palace courtyard, shading the king's palace gates from its increasingly oppressive heat when Juufet made his way along the colonnade, up the steps and through the wide double gates leading into the palace portico, guards politely bowing as he passed. Juufet had made quite a name for himself with Esar-Haddon, the king granting him open access to the entire palace except for the king's inner chambers. With carefree confidence, he made his way past the official reception rooms, his quest deep in the bowels of the king's sanctuary.

'Asherpan the younger', the name Juufet was known by during this age, was regarded as the wisest of viziers in the entire Eastern world, a child descended from a long line of wise men, for no one could imagine that there had been but one patriarch with such uncanny powers for these many centuries. So it was that over the ages Juufet had continued to recreate himself into progeny of the great wizard who stood beside the prime minister of Egypt so many centuries before. Asherpan was held in high esteem by all who shared his company, the kings and rulers of this and many surrounding nations seeking him out for counsel.

When Asherpan entered the grand dining hall where the king and his grandees were breakfasting, King Esar-Haddon jumped to his feet upon seeing the man. Spreading his arms wide, he approached with a toothy smile, calling out Juufet's Babylonian name before hugging him in greeting. "My friend, Asherpan, the gods must surely be blessing me this day to have such an honored guest arrive unannounced in my company just as I was sitting down to break bread!"

Esar-Haddon's kindly expressions to Juufet were not just formality. He truly liked and respected the man, one of the few in his kingdom who harbored no desire for power or rulership or his throne. He trusted Juufet, believing the rumors that this man, though appearing young in years, channeled the spirits of his ancestors who stood beside kings and rulers since the days when Egypt held sway over the world of men. Many an hour Esar-Haddon would sit in rapt attention, listening to Asherpan's tales of long ago told with the authority and conviction of someone having personally witnessed them.

Countless scrolls and cuneiform tablets preserving his revelations were written upon by the king's scribes as Asherpan unfolded the history of men before them, one that spoke of a strange, distant, western land before the days of Atlantis, of flying discs and flooding storms, of witch-queens and haunted lands, and of demon warriors and angelic goddesses.

Esar-Haddon still tingled with excited delight recalling similar tales told to him by Asherpan the elder when he was but a little child, and imagined that his own children must feel the same now when this wizard son of the elder man painted such vivid stories upon their minds.

Asherpan clasped his hands and bowed his head slightly. "A blessing upon your house, oh King. I have news from lands afar and answers to questions not yet asked."

Esar-Haddon grinned, laughing, "Was it not my friend who warned me to take to flight when my brothers murdered our father when I saw no threat coming to my life? And did you not show me the way home to my kingdom when my returning hour arrived? Come break bread with me on this fine day. Spin me a tale worth the scribes' stylus." Taking Asherpan's hand, the King led him to a table where his favorite wives and children sat waiting to breakfast.

As the two men approached, servants hurrying about to deliver the food and drink for the meal, Esar-Haddon apologized, "I do hope that my friend is not offended to be asked to dine with women and children, but this has become a little custom my father introduced me to... to occasionally take a festive meal with one's family."

Asherpan was not at all offended. As he was invited to sit down at the table beside Esar-Haddon, the king's daughter, Estatrah, at his other side, the man politely commented, "I recall the custom well, as if I were there the day your father, Sennacherib, began the custom by recommendation of my father, the elder. You were not yet born in those days. I believe it does the heart good to take a meal with kindred. A king who sees life through the eyes of his children may well rule with mercy over the lowly souls of his common subjects, thus bonding him to his people."

Breaking a loaf and handing a piece to Asherpan, Esar-Haddon smiled approvingly. "The wisdom of your sorcerer father has only been surpassed by his son. The gods have blessed me with the companionship of this greatest of magicians of all time."

As Asherpan dipped a morsel of bread in spiced oil, he thanked Esar-Haddon for his kind words, adding, "Allow for me to spin a little tale that might well make your ears tingle with excited intrigue, one told to the father of my fathers by the very mother goddess of all mankind, Aphrodite, as she stood beside that man, Juufet, counsel to the great pharaoh, TitanAmactony, on this very spot where your palace sits, on a day so long ago that only fables now exist of the story, if they do exist at all."

A young boy across the table spoke up excitedly, "Oh please! Tell us please, oh wise vizier, Asherpan, son of Juufet, the god-man born from the burning tower. Please, tell us a story that will make our hearts ache with delight! Tell us of days gone by and ages to come."

Esar-Haddon frowned at his son's impolite outburst, but after glancing over at Asherpan's laughing smile, his face softened. Placing a hand over Asherpan's, he apologized for his son's outburst.

Still grinning, Asherpan motioned Esar-Haddon to not be concerned. He then leaned forward, studying the boy. After sitting back, he spoke to the king. "A great and powerful ruler you are, and yet greater will you become, to the tearing apart of the world and bringing down to the dust the shining light of God."

He then looked into the boy's face. "Yet you, Ashurbanipal, to the edges of the earth will you bring this kingdom, and the light of God you shall return to its place in a later hour. Learn from the tale told to you and grow up into manhood behind your father, for he has many things to teach you and little is the time to learn those things. Just as Juufet did not know his destiny when he stood in the fires of the sky gods on the day of the great burning, the boy having to grow up into manhood before knowing it, you, too, must wait upon the hour of Ashur (god) to reveal all matters that for now lay secret in unreachable worlds."

The boy's eyes grew as large as the breakfast bowls on the table. Staring into his father's astonished face and then into Asherpan's, the child exclaimed, "I will! I promise I will do everything the son of Ashur has told me to do. I promise!"

Asherpan's eyes twinkled. "Yes, I am sure you will. I see a young man taking to the quill and stylus to write down these many tales I have told you, and the many more I've yet to tell."

Noisy chatter grew around the table when Asherpan's statement began to sink in. No Assyrian nobleman had ever learned the secret of the written script before, the priests and scribes keeping such knowledge for themselves. Asherpan nodded acknowledgment concerning it, adding, "I shall teach you, myself, if it is your wish to learn. And should it please young Master Ashurbanipal, I shall reveal to him the hidden language of the wizard priests so that no deceitful action may they take against him."

To say that those listening were filled with boisterous excitement would be an understatement. Finally Esarhaddon turned to Asherpan, gripping his hand. "Should you do this wonderful thing for my son, I will grant you any desire up to half my kingdom." Then looking over at his daughter, he added, "Soon Estatrah will attain to her twelfth birthday. At that time, I am giving her over into your hand to become a wife to you so that you may attain a place at this table as one of my family."

Asherpan smiled approvingly. This is what he had hoped for, to win over the ear of the king so that Esarhaddon might heed additional, more private counsel later. "Your Lordship," Asherpan bowed his head politely, "your offer is beyond generous. But for me, I harbor no desire to be king over a single person." He stared into Estatrah's eyes. "As for your offer to give to me this beautiful youngling as a wife, well...under vow I am, as are all the chosen sons of Ashur Juufet, to never take a woman for a slave, concubine or wife by request or promise without her personal request to become such. So if you choose her to become wife to me, then from her own mouth without persuasion must the offer be made."

Grinning with delight, Estatrah reached out, gripping Asherpan's arm. Glancing at her father and then back at Asherpan, the girl exclaimed, "Who would not wish to be wedded to a son of the gods? To one day bear a child for such a man? Who among my kind have ever had such a blessing?"

Asherpan warned Estatrah, "Child, lonely will your bed be on many nights for far afield this man must wander, and only from time to time will he appear at your door. It is the way of the sons of Juufet. Remember, too, no princely or kingly right will a son of mine ever be able to claim, because forever his soul is given to do the will of Ashur Juufet. It is an oath that all the sons of Ashur Juufet have taken, and must take."

Still grinning, Estatrah looked at her father. "This man I wish to have as a husband to me. I will faithfully wait for his returning with a lighted candle in the window. Yes, this is the man I wish to be my husband and to open my womb with children."

Esarhaddon laughed, slapping Asherpan on the arm. "Then it shall be! I will take counsel with you later, and you will have this youngling for a wife. When the day of her taking vows of womanhood is completed after her twelfth year has begun, then in grand celebration will this marriage take place."

When everyone around the table had quieted and settled down, Esarhaddon lifted his wine goblet and offered a toast to coming days, after which he requested, "Now, please, my dear friend, spin us the tale you have promised to spin."

Asherpan agreed, beginning, "To the East of this palace there stands a great tower that you, oh King, have rebuilt in all its grandeur and dignity. But in long before days there stood upon that very spot another tower built of fired brick and bitumen. To that tower were delivered all the sacred scrolls born of demons before the great flooding in the days of our father, Noah. And to this place were also gathered all the magic-practicing priests well versed in the arts of those days, including Hormax, the chief over all these priests in all the earth.

"Now the anger of the greatest of Ashurs, the Maker of this world and Creator of life and all living things became angry and said to Aphrodite, our mother goddess, that all life was to be brought to nothing because of the evil of all men. Aphrodite fell down naked in the ash heap, and for thirty days entreated the greatest of Ashurs, 'Iam' being his name, to not do such a thing, the woman weeping bitterly over the loss of her children, taking no food or drink for those many days. In time, the Great Ashur lifted Aphrodite up, telling her to go and bring a finish to the evil plot of men that was schemed against him.

"So it was that Aphrodite stood and lifted up her skirt, and like a wild horse unbridled, ran from the lands far to the north until she finally came to stop on this very spot to call down evil upon Hormax and Nimrod, crying out to the heavens for the sons of Damnation to rise and take on the bodies of flying serpents to bring all mankind to ruin so that no longer united in speech would all men be. And the souls of the damned rose from their resting places where the flood had cast them, and bodies of flying serpents they took upon themselves so that redemption for their own wickedness they might attain in the ending hour, and into the world of men they swarmed. For forty days and forty nights they swarmed, the same as the days of the flooding downpours of the Great Deluge. And upon finding a living soul of mankind, they lit down upon the person, from old man to young virgin to those giving suck. Thus the language of all mankind became changed so that mistrust and confusion came into the world of men.

"Hormax, Nimrod, and all the mighty men with them hid deep within the walls of the tower that once stood where yours does now. And when the plague of the serpents had run its course, those men came out from the tower still unchanged, but they did not escape the mother goddess' wrath. She stood, confronting them, calling down curses upon all the men so that some died where they stood. Others she cursed with disease and leprosy. But for Nimrod and Hormax, she saved the greatest curses of all. Nimrod, for his part, was murdered by his own family and his body burned to ashes in a rubble heap. Hormax was stricken not only with leprosy up to ten times that of the others, but to the speech of dead men was he given so that only by symbols could the man communicate down to his dying day."

Asherpan cast his gaze about the table. "To you it has been granted to know the secrets of the gods, and to you has the greatest of all the gods been revealed. To those given much, from them will much be expected. Learn well the lesson taught here this day. Kings must act kingly and men must respect the person of the woman, for by a woman was all flesh saved in that day. And women must honor the power and glory of their men. For by showing such honor to Iam, the greatest of all men, was the world saved from destruction." He then looked at each of the children sitting wide-eyed at the table. "Listen and learn the wisdom of your parents and those older ones teaching you in goodness, so that it may go well with you in later years."

Asherpan's final words of moral wisdom were always the favorite of Esarhaddon and his family. The herald had been on his game this morning, winning over the hearts of all those at the table. In later hours this day, when the sun had passed high noon, after the midday meal had been completed, Esarhaddon and Asherpan would sit down and discuss other matters... the real reason for Asherpan's visit. In those hours, the future fate of the world would be decided. The great storyteller, Asherpan, son of Ashur Juufet, had opened the ears of his audience. Now to sing into those ears the music that would bend the king to doing Serah's will...

Esarhaddon leaned back on his couch, listening intently to all the things Asherpan was telling him. Asherpan slowly paced back and forth in front of the king, stopping from time to time to share some detail, to answer a question or wait upon a comment.

In time, Asherpan took up playing the music of his persuasion. "It is a fine thing for a king such as you to carefully consider the insight of his courtiers and officers on these important matters. And should I have the information as you have, the same conclusions I, too, might well make. But please, first, before making your final decision, hear what I have also to reveal to your ears."

Esarhaddon sat upright on his couch. "Have I not promised to listen to every word you have to offer me? Please, express yourself to the full and I will thoughtfully take to heart every word you say."

After thanking him, Asherpan began, "There is news that I have that may not have reached the ears of your servants, words that may assist you in whatever decisions you are to make. Well I do know the evil intent the kings of western lands foment against you. From Damascus to Tyre, from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, even to the lands east and west you have enemies plotting against you. I know the concern that rests in your heart over the welfare of your kingdom. But more than your kingdom is at stake here. The kingdom of your son is also at risk."

"My son?" Esarhaddon asked fearfully.

"Yes," Asherpan answered firmly, "the decisions you make today will determine whether the gods will do for your son as I have informed you this day." He extended his hand toward the west. "As you have long known, my journeys have taken me to the house of the witch queen of Cyprus. Yes, and even more I will tell you, something secret to all but a few. I have even shared the bed of this woman. Aged she is, rumor having it that beside my forefather, Juufet, she stood in the burning hour, but the appearance of a maiden divine she possesses down to this day, her beauty beyond measure. A liking she has taken to me so that letters of endearment she delivers to me from time to time."

Esarhaddon slowly shook his head in wonder. "This is truly news. To not only be born a child of a god, but to have shared the romance of this goddess? It is beyond my comprehension to fathom such a thing."

Asherpan smiled knowingly. "Comprehend it. The woman has even whispered in my ear that your mother, Naqi'a, is descended from this woman, that the blood of the last king of Atlantis flows in her veins."

The thought that he might actually be descended from the very king of Atlantis made Esarhaddon leap to his feet with excitement. It was one thing to be told that the mythical kingdom of Atlantis was real, but to be informed that he, Esarhaddon, was a descendant of its king, and to have also been born from a child of the goddess queen of Cyprus was nearly too much for the man to take. It took a while for him to calm down enough for Asherpan to continue.

When the time was right, Asherpan went on. "These revelations have been given to you so that my following words will take on added importance. This same woman - in the old tongue she is known among her trusted companions as 'Lady Tobanahazz' - sent to me by sky courier a warning message for your ears should I reach you in time to deliver it."

"For my ears?" Esarhaddon asked in beaming excitement.

"Yes, for your ears, to assist you in decisions you must make," came Asherpan's casual reply. "Queen Tobanahazz requested that I warn you that it is not yet the hour of Tyre's demise, saying that should you move upon that city at this time, you would raise her ire against you, and that the navies of Neptune's depths would take a stand against you, and you would certainly be humiliated, your kingdom being taking away, it going the way of the Hittites who rebelled against their mother goddess, queen over the Gorgons and Werewolves, vanishing as if in one day because of their rebellion.

"Now as for you, the Witch Queen of Cyprus finds you a desirable vessel, a man worth noticing, not like your father whom she came to despise. It was by her will that your father died as he did, and that you were lifted up to glory as you were. She is very fond of you."

"She has really said those things to you?" Esarhaddon asked, almost beseeching in his speech.

Asherpan confirmed it to be so. "I was residing in her house on the very day she sent letters to her servants to have you delivered back from the lands beyond Hanilgalbat to take up rulership over Assyria, telling them to see that the kingdom was secured for you.

"So please, at this time, listen to the words of the Lady Queen that I have for you. Do not fear the rebellious talk of the house of Tyre, but pass it by at this time so that its inhabitants may dwell in security for a little while longer, for their time of discipline is not yet arrived. Go instead to the south, into the lands of Judah and beyond to Ethiopia. There you are to bring the kings of those lands, including Tirhaka and Manasseh, back alive to Babylon to face your justice in this city. If you will do these few little things, then your kingdom will continue to grow in glory far beyond your days."

Raising a hand, Asherpan continued, "Tell your most trusted general, Sha-Nabu-Shu, to bring no harm to the household of Manasseh. After he has secured the city and the capture of that king, he is to search in the wilderness for the woman known as 'Serah', to hear from her mouth what is to be done with the people of Manasseh's house and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. She is a Sister of the Bloodwind to the Gorgon Queen, born to the same clan and from the same fires as was my forefather, Ashur Juufet. Of the matters regarding this woman that I have just informed you, no other soul must you tell them to if you wish not to receive her wrath, the likes of which is coming down upon the head of Manasseh.

"Also tell your general not to touch the gold of the temple or to harm the property of the priests and Levites, but to leave them remain over in the city. Take whatever he wishes of the treasures of the king and his people as reward for doing this thing. Also choose captives from among the people if he wishes, but do not slaughter the inhabitants of the city or bring a ruin to its walls or fortifications. Do not leave the land desolate as was done with the northern kingdom of Samaria."

Esarhaddon bowed his head. "Whatever it is that you may wish, my Lord, for I perceive you to be far more than son of Ashur Juufet, but the great Juufet, himself, cloaked as a child born into later years."

Surprised at first, Asherpan finally replied, "It has not been by your own wisdom that this fact has come to you, but through the revelations of the Maker of all things. Yes, I am Juufet, delivered to you down from the ages. It is a secret that must never be revealed by your lips to any other soul. No god am I, but only a man as yourself, with a destiny to fulfill before the final days, just as you have a destiny to fulfill before your days come to a finish. We, the Children of Light, stand as a bulwark against the machinations of Hormax until the one who will rule both Heaven and Earth does arrive in power and glory. That man will again lift up the glory of Atlantis, but this time to bring in a kingdom that will bless all mankind. If you do listen to these words and do all that has been requested of you, then your blood will this coming king also carry."

Esarhaddon bowed low, promising he would do everything expected of him. The following morning he called General Sha-Nabu-Shu to the palace, telling him to ready the army, and that he would accompany him as far as Damascus, there to wait news of the general's victory over Judah and the capture of Manasseh. Juufet promised to go with the king also as far Damascus, but from there would depart for Cyprus after victory was assured, promising to return after Estatrah's coming of age celebration to take the young woman officially as a wife.

### * * *

Sha-Nabu-Shu and his troop stopped up short in front of a hooded woman standing beside the road tending a small flock of sheep. "You there, tell me where Serah, the witch of Judah, is residing so that I may find her!"

The woman looked up at the general, the shadow of her hood hiding her face, pointing behind her, "That way yonder, about an hour's walk, is where the cave of that woman is. But she is not at her dwelling place at the moment, for I have just come from there."

The general was in a hurry, having little time for polite niceties. "Then tell me, old woman, where might I find her?"

The woman stood upright, staring out from the blackness of her hood, replying in a quiet hiss, "Be careful, little boy, or you might find her sooner than you wish!"

Angered by this woman's contemptuous reply, Sha-Nabu-Shu drew his sword, lifting it high as he prepared to spur his horse forward. "The king of Assyria has shown too much mercy to you rabble! I am not such a man!"

A sudden burst of blinding light flashed from the head of the staff the woman held in her hand. The general's horse whinnied in fright, rearing, pitching the man to the ground, tearing away back down the road. All the while, the mounts of the accompanying soldiers went wild with terror, galloping off in every direction, their riders helpless to control them.

Stunned for a moment after hitting the hard-packed earth, Sha-Nabu-Shu finally gathered his wits about him and managed to crawl onto his hands and knees. Looking up, he found himself staring at a dozen black-haired, snarling demon-wolves, their eyes glowing red like blazing fires, the grazing sheep having disappeared. All alone he was facing this formidable foe, his cavalry having scattered to the winds, unable to rein in their mounts.

The growling beasts quickly surrounded the general, some snapping their jaws as drool dripped from fang-filled mouths. The woman stepped past the animals until she stood directly in front of Sha-Nabu-Shu, he staring up at her, astonishment and dread filling his face. She asked in derision, "Who is your master and god now? Should you have shown the mercy of your king, then maybe you would not have found yourself in such a predicament."

The man lowered his head saying nothing, waiting for the death blow that was certain to come. It did not. The woman growled, "Get up you, little boy, son of Sha-Nassih-Shihue, son of Hidue-shi, son of Hoshon, son of the Kenite, Hazban, son of my son, Prince Rechab, ruler in the house of the Kenites during the reign of TitanAmactony before the demise of Atlantis. Get up and stand as a man before your mother-queen, 'Serah' as I am known today. 'Susannah' is the name given me at my birthing so long ago and in lands so very far away."

Sha-Nabu-Shu slowly rose to his feet, trepidation ever growing in his heart. Who was this witch woman? Dreadful fear gripped him as he finally stood, staring into the shadows of the hood, searching to catch a glimpse of the face hidden there. Suddenly the hood was pulled back, revealing the most handsome of women, light brown skin, darting blue eyes, sharp, strong features of the Western traders who sallied forth from beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and burnt reddish-blonde hair that fell across her shoulders down the woman's back.

The general gasped. "You're so...you're so..."

"Young and beautiful?" the woman asked. "Do not let my appearance fool you. Aged as the mountains I am, having lived in the days when men and gods fought side by side to rid this world of evil. I have witnessed the fires of Hell that were cast upon this earth, been healed in the depths of Eden from those very fires...been romanced in the very arms of those gods. Wars I have waged and kings I have slaughtered, all before your kind even took a breath. You live not because of your greatness but because I need you to do my will, to prevent the changing of times and seasons. Remember that you are my servant and long life will come to you."

The general was too shocked to do anything other than nod.

"Good!" Serah smiled. "Then come along with me and we shall talk."

Turning, she led Sha-Nabu-Shu through the circle of wolves, the animals instantly turning back into a peaceful flock of sheep that obediently followed them from behind. In time, the two made their way to the cave where Serah lived. When the general's men finally gained control of their mounts and had gathered their strength, making their way to Serah's dwelling, they found their commander and Serah sitting at a table near the cave's entrance conversing over a meal of bread and goat cheese. At seeing the men, Serah excused herself, getting up and inviting the soldiers to take food she had set out and recline in the shadows of a rocky crag to eat their meal. She then returned to the general.

"Now then," Serah continued, "we have an understanding. Tirhaka and Manasseh, both powerful kings, have been delivered into your hand. With Tirhaka, do as you wish. But for Manasseh, harm not his soul unto death, nor make for yourself a eunuch of the man. Neither Manasseh's mother, Hephzibah, nor any of her blood kin in her household are you to bind and take into captivity. She is a princess in the house of Tyre and granddaughter of the witch queen of Cyprus. Do not rob her of her gold or servants, but safe leave the woman and it will go well with you."

Sha-Nabu-Shu agreed that all this as well as all the other matters Serah had directed him to do would be done. In conclusion, he asked, "My Mother Queen, do you have a word or tiding for me to deliver to the king of my land?"

Serah answered in the affirmative. "Tell your king: 'Look, days are coming when Ethiopia and Egypt will again stand up threateningly against you. Should you war against them, do not attempt to lift your banner above the High Falls of the Great River Nile, but turn aside and take for spoil all the lands you have captured to the north. If you do this, long life and prosperity will become yours. There resides above the falling waters a god-man born of the house of Nubia who is lord over those peoples and will tolerate no rivalry against his will. Do not put him to the test for should you, oh King, contest against him, then you will certainly fail and be brought down to the dust.' "

Sha-Nabu-Shu slowly stood, Serah doing the same. The man bowed low, then standing erect promised to do all she expected of him. "My Mother Queen, I will act with haste to see to it that all you have commanded me this day I will do." With that, the general and his men mounted up and turned back to the road that ran off toward Jerusalem, the man waving a hand in departure.

After the soldiers had disappeared over the hills, another woman stepped from the darkness of the cave, dressed in the finery of Lowenah's court. Walking up to Serah, who stood looking off in the direction the general had gone, the woman asked, "Is my Lady satisfied now that her work is finished here for the moment, and that a much deserved rest awaits her in the secret hiding places of Eden?"

Serah turned her gaze upon the woman, smiling sadly. "My dear Lady Susquehanna, I have done all that I can to preserve times and seasons. No more sons will Manasseh pass through the fire. But for his willingness to humble himself and give a male offspring up for the throne? That I do not know. Time will tell."

She sighed, tired, taking Susquehanna by the hand. "My work is finished here for now. Your sister is in need of rest, and so much wishes to lie in the bosom of this companion. But do not expect romance to come from a weary heart, for heavy is life upon it at the moment... maybe later... later. Will my companion do this for me? Then we shall go."

Susquehanna smiled, kissing Serah on the cheek. "What more could I desire than to have you rest quietly in my bosom, my breasts your pillows? So renowned you have become among my people that the greatest of womankind you are. In need of rest you and I are, war being waged both here and in the worlds above. Come now, Eden awaits, and I have prepared a special place for you this night. Tomorrow, yes tomorrow, others of your company may arrive to greet you and lift your spirits, but for tonight we shall sleep in each other's arms."

The two women slowly walked into the cave, fading into its cool shadows. In only moments the whirr of servo's sounded, scattering the sheep grazing nearby. A sudden flash of light erupted from the cave, and then came silence. Serah's work was finished here for the moment. When she finally returned, the world would be changed, with Manasseh again sitting his throne, a son born to him. Once more the woman would take up the training of the sons of the prophets, holding to her intended course until she would lift up other men to speak in the faces of the people in Judah's final hour before the Time of the Nations began.

### * * *

Hyhoset kneeled in the grass beside the huge mound that rose in the field overlooking the winding river and its fertile plain, her tears falling like rain as had happened many other times these hundreds of years since Meric's passing. So much the woman's heart ached for the touch of the only man she ever truly loved. Yet what else was there for it, his road leading on to the fate of all men while she must face the curse of ever-life. Only since her husband's passing was she finally able to comprehend the treacherousness of endless life in this wrenched world of evil intent.

A sound of gentle footfall in the grasses behind her roused Hyhoset's attention. Looking about, she saw her mother, Noahashonie, and fellow companion, Tuosolmerica, approaching. Slowly standing, Hyhoset turned to greet them.

Noahashonie reached for her daughter. "My child, we believed you might be here."

Tears flowing freely, Hyhoset looked down, grasping her mother's hands. "Do you recall what day this is? It is the anniversary of Meric's and my wedding, so long ago as to be forgotten myth to our children. But it is only as yesterday to my heart, the maidens' songs of our celebration still ringing loud in my mind."

Noah silently nodded before replying, "A more beautiful couple there has never been! I was so pleased to have the two children I loved so much choose to bind one another together in marriage. Both you and he suckled at my breasts, my blood being fed into each of your souls. Your father would have been so pleased with you. I still ache over him on lonely nights as if our parting was only yesterday."

Releasing her mother's hands, Hyhoset turned and gave Tuosolmerica a gentle hug and tender kiss. She then stepped back, playing upon the woman's extended belly with her fingers. "It is a boy that you carry. This I know though he is but three months along."

Tuosol reached out, cupping Hyhoset's face in her hands. "I fell in love with your father, the man renewing my desire to love a man. Also your husband, Meric, gave a son to me so that Javan could live again in my heart. Many are the arms of the men I have loved that are no more. Even many of my sons and daughters are buried under the sands of time. My children, like my and Meric's son, JavanJuno, were not long-lived like yours and Meric's, though JavanJuno did see over three hundred winters. Even now Meric has sons and daughters who remember their father well. As long as they live, his kingdom will survive."

She tenderly stroked Hyhoset's cheek. "Seeing all my loss of the ones I have loved, still love, you may well wonder why I choose to carry another seed in my belly. Yes, I know that this child, too, I will see grow up and get old, and one day die, while I, his ancient mother who appears to look like little more than a maiden, must keep on going down to the End of Days to complete the destiny of men. I will tell you." Placing her hands on Hyhoset's shoulders, Tuosol leaned close, speaking in little more than a whisper, "When my heart aches with sad yearning for my many lovers lost by me over time, and for the children I can no longer hold at my breast because they are no more...when the morose mood takes from me the desire to live, I find the bed of a man who will warm my heart and fill my belly with life. For it is when I feel a new life growing within me that I become young again, that life chasing away dark visions of lonely, empty nights."

She kissed Hyhoset softly on the lips. "So long has it been since you took a man that you have forgotten the power of his manliness within you, his loving touch upon your skin, and his sweet kisses upon your lips. You must again find a man to take, and when he makes his love to you, close your eyes and dream of the days gone by. See the man you loved so and imagine he is making his passionate love to you. Take from the man his seed so that you, too, will feel new life growing within your inward parts, and for you, too, will the world shine bright again."

Hyhoset smiled sadly. "I will consider your wisdom. I do need to move on with my life. I know that the road is still long before my husband I will see again."

Tuosol frowned. "No. Long enough you have wallowed in your self-pity, hiding away in this valley while the world goes on without you. The hour is getting late, and we need you beside us again. Tonight I will lead you to a man, handsome as he is caring. Make yourself ripe for his seed so that you will forget for the moment your loss and remember the new life you carry."

Looking into Tuosol's face, tears growing anew in her eyes, Hyhoset slowly nodded her acceptance. "Your voice I will obey. Long I have needed a man, but my heart has refused, seeking solace, feeling sorry for myself. Lead and your servant girl will follow. Take me to this man so that I can judge for myself that he is the kind of person you say he is so that I may decide if a child of his I should carry within my soul."

Tuosol and Noah led Hyhoset away to this most desirable man, and for twelve nights Hyhoset lay beside the man until she knew for a certainty that life now grew within her belly. She did find the man to be just as they said, so that over the years she would make a returning from time to time to renew their love. When in future days he, too, was laid to rest in a hidden valley, her tears shed were those of sad joy, their son along with the son's children standing in mourning celebration beside her.

### * * *

Juliet hurried about her palatial estate, checking and rechecking to make sure everything was in order. It had been so many years since the entire council had gathered together, and for such an important reason it had been longer still. The old age of gods and kings was coming to an end, an occasion not witnessed since the Age of Atlantis had ended when Moses brought the Hebrews out of Egypt. Pharaoh Necho having taken Jerusalem after King Josiah was killed in battle against him ushered in a new era: the Time of the Nations. The council needed to decide what role, if any, it was to play during this coming age. Would the Haudenosaunez take a hands-off approach with future events, such as the Sky Children had decided to do, or would they continue to make their presence felt in the same manner as they had during the last age? Truth be told, neither direction would be the choice of the council.

The evening was more festive than Juliet had expected. It had been over one hundred summers since all sixteen of the Haudenosaunez were gathered together in one place. Joining them were several of the Sky Children, including Sodasonie, PalaHar, Susquehanna, and Joleck. Even Aphrodite made an appearance with her long-time companion, Zadar. The carefree celebrating lasted late into the night, no one wishing for festivities to end. The world was changing, that everyone knew, but none could see exactly how or the impact it would make on their lives.

Gentle fingers softly shook Tuosolmerica's arm. With a moan, the woman slowly rolled over, light from the opened window paining her eyes. Before she could speak, Tosombabanna placed a finger over her lips, whispering, "Let the fellow sleep." she winked, grinning, "From the sounds echoing down the hall this last eve, you and Baalath had quite an adventure. We need to talk."

Tuosolmerica groaned quietly, holding her head while struggling to sit. "Why worry about him? I was ridden hard and put away wet, the man never even giving me an after-kiss before he fell asleep atop me, I too weak from the wine to push him off."

Tosombabanna suppressed a laugh. "He wasn't the only stud who rode you hard last eve. Made quite a show for us all you did...you did. I warned you about the wine when the mood is on you, and the mood was on you to the full last eve. I believe the stable hands were the only ones who failed to be given your attention."

After assisting her companion to stand, Tosombabanna led Tuosol over to a basin of warm water and began to bathe her companion with a soapy sponge, casually commenting, "At least I managed to pull Rae away before you got to him. The others? Well...many of our lady companions had to settle for being second fiddle to their lovers' music, or even find romance in each other's arms because of your amorous exploits."

Frowning, Tuosolmerica mumbled sourly, "That explains why more than my head aches this morning. I'm sure that Juliet drugged the wine in my goblet. I haven't felt such a rush of wanton heat overwhelm me in ages like I did this last night. You say I took after them all?"

Tosombabanna smirked, "I do believe things went both ways. You became quite the center of their attention, especially after you disrobed and began your sensuous dancing."

Tuosol puzzled over such a possibility. "I recall others of the womenfolk doing no less, and many are far better dancers than I. Why such attraction to me when the air was filled with the scent of so many flowers of much greater beauty?"

"True, many were the sweetly scented flowers filled with delicious nectar for the hungry bees, but none bursting so with life as are you. Who of us could compete with you when such a ripe to bursting plum danced before us, just begging for its fruit to be plucked?" Tosombabanna gingerly poked Tuosol's belly. "No man can resist the wiles of a woman so full of life and ready to pop. And to offer the lilies of your field so willingly to all? I must say, had I been among your manly admirers, I surely would have also waited my turn to play so carefree in your field of flowers.

"Oh yes!" Tosombabanna grinned wickedly, "As I said, you caught most...or should I say they caught you, setting the mood for the night, putting the entire house into a heated rush. Before the festivities ended, everyone in the company was entangled in love's music. Sodasonie said it reminded her of the old festivals in her world."

Tuosol's face flushed red. "Was the Lady there? Did she see the things you say I did?"

Grinning, Tosombabanna spoke in the affirmative. "Oh yes. It's too bad that you don't remember. I think she may have taken a liking to you after the affection you displayed for her."

Shocked, Tuosol cried. "No! Did I...?"

"Did you?" Tosombabanna chuckled, smiling, "Such passionate kisses I've not seen from you even for the men. And then when you removed the Lady's blouse from off her shoulders and began caressing her beauteous form with lips and fingers? I must say, the Lady did hesitate a bit, almost accepting your invitation for more of an intimate interlude had the people's attention not been drawn to the two of you so. What an enchanting performance! Anyway, the look in her eyes told me that... well, another time when there's less of a crowd around."

Tuosol continued to fuss as Tosombabanna toweled the woman dry and helped her with dressing in a finely embroidered, gaily colored silken skirt that was popular attire among the wealthier circles of the Cypriot population, it being belted low about her hips, leaving her upper body bare.

Juliet saw to all of her guests' needs during this visit, even providing the clothing for the occasion. Skirted and bare-breasted was the norm for semiformal events, such as Tosombabanna was doing with Tuosol. For dinner hours and formal evening events, Juliet preferred her guests to dress in the style of the ancient Atlanticians and Minoans with brightly adorned open-bodice gowns for the women and long, flowing, silken robes for the men. In the carefree hours, clothing was optional for all, and rarely worn even by Sodasonie and her Sky Children companions, although men of the earthly realm often chose some form of loin covering, surely out of false modesty, for much could be said of their prowess with the opposite sex when opportunity afforded it. When the council convened, garments of long, red, hooded robes for both the men and women were worn to show the equal status between genders and to also not distract from the important matters being considered.

(Author's note: _The reader should not compare the actions of the Haudenosaunez with their contemporaries at any given time in early human history. More like the sons of Lowenah they were, being free spirits living in human flesh, yet already standing beside the Sky Children in beauty and form, the women flawlessly proportioned and the men handsome and well-endowed in manliness. Their acts of lovemaking were then like those of their Heavenly kindred, filled with exciting and often long-lasting dream shares. In time, these Haudenosaunez became intimate companions with their close association of angelic contemporaries, enjoying their love fests to the full... those interludes of copulative romance often spontaneous and unashamedly public among this cadre of companions. They stood before them as examples of what these two worlds of men and angels would be like when the marriage between the Maker of Worlds was consummated with her earthly children in the morning light of the Eighth Day._

_The author did not originally share the accounts of the romantic interludes regarding these special people and their unearthly lovers to merely excite the senses, though for some of you a little titillating excitement proved beneficial for your prudish souls and spirits. These accounts were recorded in the days when those prudes among you often viewed sexuality as some formal, ritualistically controlled act, to somehow be governed by rules and laws. I said to them, 'Grow up!' and then forced upon them the_ _truth concerning love and worship. In the days before the Rebellion, there existed but one form of worship, and it was practiced openly at all of Lowenah's many festivals, she taking the lead in them during the earlier carefree ages of her children. To come together in innocent abandon and sing love's music upon the heart of another is still the only act of worship that truly warms Lowenah's heart._

_For all those who are yet to see beyond Heaven's Gate, even from afar, understanding and wisdom will one day fill them with knowledge. For those current 'stick-in-the-muds,' no longer will the greatest of gifts from Lowenah be regarded with smug, satanic disdain, but practiced in holy, joyful celebration as the Haudenosaunez learned to do. RosMismar long ago spoke to the wife of Noah when she formed a covenant with his child of light, Zadar, 'To enter Eden is to pass through Heaven's door into unending light. How can laws spoken through the mouths of mortal men hold sway when measured upon the scales of the immortal spirit? The laws of the tongue are for the unruly and godless, while no law exists at all for those with a Cherub's heart'_.)

Tuosolmerica willingly took Tosombabanna's hand as she was led from her chambers, unaware of any special meeting or who might be waiting for her. The two made their way down a winding staircase that delivered them to secret passageways located below the wine cellars. They eventually came to a narrow doorway, the room beyond lit up in a golden glow.

As Tuosol entered there, merrily chatting with her companion, she glanced away from looking at Tosombabanna and about the room. Upon seeing others present and who they were, the smile melted from her face and she cast her gaze toward the floor, embarrassed and ashamed. Unlike most of her Haudenosaunez companions, Tuosol had never been intimate with any of the Sky Children. To her, they will still the unapproachable gods of the universe and she an unclean child of the dust. Her amorous advances toward Sodasonie the previous night had been induced by strong drink and sensual music. Now she stood facing the High Goddess over all the Sky Children, filled with dread over her improprieties.

Susquehanna stood, eyes twinkling, and quickly approached, taking Tuosol's hands in hers and kissing the woman on the cheek. "Thank you for coming so quickly this day. Little is the time before the council gathers and there is a great deal of business to conduct before then."

Sodasonie rose from her chair and came over to the woman. With trembling lips, Tuosol apologized for her wanton actions, explaining that too much wine and carefree music was behind her inappropriate advances.

Tenderly brushing the side of Tuosol's face, Sodasonie gazed into her eyes, crooning, "I had so hoped you were revealing the secret person of the heart held captive by bridled emotions that the drugged wine set free. Your touch has set my heart aflutter for more than only your kisses upon by breasts, making it long for your sweet embrace in more passionate ways. Please, my sister, you have honored me by such underserved attention."

Sodasonie's smile faded, her eyes revealing pressing concerns. Tuosol became troubled, trepidation filling her heart. Taking her hands, Sodasonie looked sadly into the woman's face, her voice belying dread-filled compassion. "Forgive me, my sister, for the evil I cast upon you this hour. But no other choice do I have than to murder soul and spirit on this contemptible day."

Tuosol puzzled, "The Great Sky Goddess gave to me the curse of life unto the Ending Days, and little joy does my spirit already possess. Whatever you may do to your sister in the flesh shall not be such a great curse to me."

Tears filled Sodasonie's eyes as she squeezed Tuosol's hands, her voice halting and filled with despair. "More cursed is my life than yours, for innocence I must destroy to satisfy foolish decisions made with evil arrogance in the ages before your birthing. Now you, by the very music of wicked chance, must be made to suffer from those choices whispered in the Dark Age after the world had been washed clean and before the coming evil times of men and demons was understood."

Tuosol smiled reassuringly, "My Sister, willing am I to do anything that is asked of me. Your faithful servant I am. Was that not what I promised you so long ago upon the burning tower when Dancing Stones was surrendered to the fiery spirits?"

"Yes, what you say is true." Sodasonie's voice carried bitterness upon it. "Yet whether willing or not, your fate of suffrage must occur. So joy I must steal from you and slaughter I must commit so that prophecy... my stupid prophecy will be fulfilled, for the coming king must possess the power and glory of Eden and you must be the one to deliver it to him."

Regaining her composure, Sodasonie encouraged Tuosol to follow along as she and the others departed the room for more secret chambers hidden deep beneath the Tobanahazz estate. In time, they arrived at another room secreted in the rocky caverns below the hills some distance from the stately manor. Tuosol heard the sound of a pulsing humming as she stepped into a chamber awash in multi-colored strobe lighting. As her eyes adjusted to the blinding flashes, the woman saw that some kind of tent-like structure had been erected at the center of the floor, a warm, golden glow shining through its translucent walls. Still holding Sodasonie's hand, Tuosol looked into her face, silent wonder of what this was all about filling hers.

Sodasonie asked Tuosol to remove her clothing, Sodasonie doing the same. She then motioned toward the tent-like structure, directing they enter it. Stepping inside, Tuosol was surprised to see Aphrodite sitting back on her knees, also naked, a cloth of woven gold thread covering something sitting on the floor next to her. Sodasonie entered the enclosure after Tuosol, sealing the opening behind them. Instantly the little room was filled with silence, the humming noise and flashing lights shut out from this tiny world.

Sitting down on her knees like Aphrodite, Sodasonie asked Tuosol to do the same. She then went on to weave a troubled tale filled with sad regret.

"Long ago, when your world was new and untainted, basking in the freshness of being freed from the evil of pre-flood madness and ours was only beginning to wake to wickedness growing within mine, the oldest of our kind, a man whose name I will not speak in this holy place or in any other, came in before the presence of the Most Holy One, the Maker of Worlds, the one your kind have called 'Iam' or the 'Woman in the Whispering Waters'. In his revolt, he took delight in tearing apart the heart of that wonderful person by laying a curse upon her appearance and all her daughters among the Sky Children. Then, after hurling one false accusation after another against this most beautiful of persons, this Evil Worm placed before him a man who had painted his eyes and braided his hair in the way a woman does, to take this man to have intercourse with, not out of love or care, but to insult the very creation of womankind and the one making them. Yes, he acted in this manner to destroy the heart of this person I so dearly love.

"When I saw and understood what the evil miscreant was doing, in my rage I gathered up a buttress pike and drove the girly man through, killing him, while striking the Evil One such a blow that he would not forget. I then called down a curse upon him, casting a spell over him that could not be cured until he had taken seven thousand of what he called his 'abhorrent sister-kind' to have relations with him. These things I did in my anger over what was being done to my Sweet One's heart. These things I carried out, I do not regret..." Sodasonie cast her gaze down and away from Tuosol. "But what I also did at the time makes my heart burn with remorse and shame, because it has brought peril and tribulation to the worlds of men and to those I have come to love."

Sodasonie hesitated, glancing over at Aphrodite. Aphrodite spoke in little over a hush, "It is better if from your lips it comes. Self confession works a wondrous cure."

With closed eyes, Sodasonie slowly nodded, tears trickling down her cheeks. Finally in a halting breath, she confessed, "As...as I stood before that Evil Worm, his manly pride growing in rigid agony, I also uttered a prophecy that by no law or decree can absolution be given for it. Lo, I knew that the glory of Eden, the Stones... the Two and the Twelve, stolen in the beginning days after the Rebellion, had been the tools of power used to drive the world of men in the days before the Great Deluge that bound the men of Earth in chains of servitude to that unholy host. I also knew that the Evil Serpent's greatest desire was to find the Two and the Twelve, they being the engine that drives the thirty-nine stones, a great machine built to drive the universe. With them he could once more take control of the entire inhabited earth. All these things I knew.

"Yes, and with a rueful heart, I flaunted my knowledge declaring that to him never would the Stones come to be his again. I stood, arms and legs spread wide, lifting my eyes toward the sky and calling out in words never before heard in the worlds of the Sky Children, and never uttered since. Thunder crashed upon the ears of all those in the great hall, lightning flashing hot and angry from the pike I still held in my hand, and my appearance became like that of the raging sun. Then I spoke the prophecy I so much regret that my mouth cried out in that tumultuous moment."

Sodasonie reached over and placed a hand on Tuosol's shoulder. "In a voice like that of maddening thunders, I cried, 'A woman born this day shall forever keep from you the prize you so cherish until to Shiloh it is given, and he shall lift himself in glory by use of the very treasure you have lost and covet to regain! She will hold at bay your passion to rule over all the worlds of men. By the very treasures you seek, she shall bring down the wild beast so that only with a sham of an idol of that beast will the Warlock snake-king attempt to subjugate those worlds.'" The woman moaned, "They are words I have come to so deeply regret uttering."

Bowing her head in lament, Sodasonie sighed sadly, "You were the child born that very hour on the day I recklessly betrayed our greatest of secrets, that the Two and the Twelve were not forever lost in the Great Deluge. I also betrayed an innocent, sweet babe, cursing her to the ever-dangers from a desperate host always seeking those Stones."

Tuosol lifted an arm and rested a hand over Sodasonie's, smiling reassuringly, "No, my sister, do not condemn yourself over such a little matter. Did I not offer to take the Stones from the Great Daughter Dragon, EpiphanOida, after she accidentally revealed them to me in our dreams? And was that not the agreement we made before her murder at the hands of DungieDodanim? I feared their loss when I searched the king's tower and could not find them, but I dared not speak of the matter to anyone at all, knowing of the great secrecy surrounding that treasure. To this day, I have wondered about their fate."

Aphrodite spoke up, "Wondered about their fate, maybe, but did not consider why they were not delivered to you at that time, or why your sister, Dancing Stones, chose death over carrying that burden. I, also, stood before this Lady..." she pointed toward Sodasonie, "rejecting with tears her request for me to carry them into future days. Why was it so? You do not know the curse the Two and the Twelve carry when harbored within the flesh of the burden bearer."

Reaching down, Aphrodite removed the golden cloth to reveal two oval disks radiating in brilliant splendor, and twelve small, rectangular gemstones pulsing bright in various colors of the rainbow. Tuosol gasped, unable to find words to describe the Stones' beauty, or the emotional tumult of her heart as she stared, transfixed, at the Stones' hypnotic enchantment. Aphrodite quickly covered the Stones again with the golden cloth.

Tuosol released a troubled sigh, first from the disappointment of having the Stones hidden from her sight, and second from the relief of the burden such mesmerizing splendor was pressing upon her heart. She wheezed through an exhausted breath, "My eyes burn from such visions of glory while my heart aches as though caught in the throes of death! What witchery is there to be found in these jewels of otherworldliness? So are these the machines of lore of which you spoke to me when I was little more than a babe, the weapons that bring both Heaven and Hell upon us, the machinations of the Sky Children that were forged in secret places beyond Eden in days before our birthing?"

Sodasonie spoke up. "'The firelight of days gone by will light the path of times to come. We walk upon a jagged sky, in search of all the reasons why.' Those were the words I heard from a wise sage as I lay burned, bleeding, and broken beside the Cauldron of Teboloone below the cliffs of the Deepening Pits. As my mentor-guide, Ysuah, tended to my injuries, he revealed secrets of future roads, of uncertain destinies, of choices that must be made if the road to rebellion was ever taken. When I was finally mended up enough to continue my journey, while still sitting beside me, the Immortal sage warned, 'The counsel of the wise is not always wisdom. The good may act wickedly. There comes a time when only the heart can shine a light in a dark place. Now is the time to seek the firelight of ages gone by. It will guide your feet across that jagged sky.'

"Well, I continued my journey through the Deepening Pits in search of all the reasons why, passing through trials and tribulations so great and fear-inspiring that even to this day I dare not speak of them for fear of losing my mind to them. It was said to me that though many a brave soul had attempted the journey that I embarked upon, I was the first and only, save one other of all Iam's children to have completed it to its finish." She smiled sadly. "And yet it is only at the end of that quest that this story begins."

Sodasonie took Tuosol's hands. "Today we will confess to you the story."

### * * *

The Lamentations of Tolohe

" _Listen to the wisdom found in dark places," spoke the mind to a troubled, lonely heart._

" _Oh, but for the pain! Must I fade into the nothing-mist?" mourned the broken heart in search of love denied._

" _What good is ever-life when cursed to this anguish I must always possess?" cried a bitter heart seeing no future hope._

" _Trust to Powers that guide your path that it will not be your fate," replied the mind as it attempted to soothe a wretched heart._

" _I cannot bear this burden, for all alone I am in this jaded world," wept the heart in its throes of despair._

" _The burden bearers we are and shall remain. It is ours made by an oath," declared the mind to the heart._

" _Then take it upon yourself, for I reject your rueful neglect of me by that promise!" shouted the heart in retort._

" _The risk is too great should we forget. Ever vigilant we must remain," did the mind caution the heart._

" _Are we not now one of the gods, a gift given us by them? Then a god we must remain or all may be lost," spoke the mind, resigned._

The heart refused to make reply.

### * * *

This tale of the Cherub Stones was recounted by Tuosolmerica to Shiloh in the ending days, as told to her by Sodasonie and Aphrodite. Tuosol remembered well the agony of spirit displayed and Sodasonie weeping countless tears as she revealed long-hidden secrets and deep, troubling memories. It was with this background in mind that Tuosol wished for Shiloh to understand what took place.

Sodasonie began, "'BrounBarraDon Cumb' (pronounced 'coomb') are the 'Deepening Pits' in the common tongue. Yet Deepening Pits does not convey the hopeless distress that resides... lived in that labyrinth of dank, horrid caverns and stinking septic pools of rottenness that greeted any mortal soul braving those black worlds of madness! It was told to me as I stood before the entrance of the Cumb, a man-sized hole sinking down into the depths of the fathomless bowels below the roots of the high pass mountains of Lagandow, that every evil thought and action the mind could imagine in that age or of any past or future dwelt far below. And even should I live to the end of my quest and see the surface worlds of Lagandow again, ever would I be changed, and never would I see life with the innocence as I had before entering there.

"Fearless, I began my journey. Oh, how easy it was for an innocent heart having never dreaded a thing other than all the desert cakes might be consumed if I arrived late at the dining table after having lingered too long in the arms of one of my charming lovers. What evil could exist beyond a sting from an angry insect, scrape from an obtrusive stone or tricksy, thorny branch? So, filled with arrogant foolishness, I began my quest in search of the other side of the universe where all knowledge resided.

"Whether it was a day or a year or a thousand lifetimes of your kind, I do not know, for time did not exist in the Cumb, only hopeless desperation and crippling, nightmarish fear. Why I did not go mad, I do not know...or did I? I'm not sure. Every dreaded contest that I won was always replaced with one that filled me with even greater distress. Many times my spirit or flesh...I do not know which...died in most horrible ways, always returned to life by my guide and mentor, that is, until he departed my company after rescuing my flesh from the Caldron of Teboloone. There he left me to face my greatest trial with but my broken dagger and a crystalline lamp with a faltering wick.

"So, wearily I moved on in the blackness, the flaming, orange-red glow of the caldron fading in the distance. The further I advanced into the darkness, the greater the trepidation grew upon my heart, a loneliness so powerful and sinister that no words exist in Heaven or Hell to describe the strangling desperation that gripped my soul."

(Tuosol added this to her narrative: 'At this time, Sodasonie broke into a wailing weeping so great I thought my own heart would break. In time, the distempering mood passed and the woman continued her tale.')

"It was not the depth of loneliness felt in every fiber of my soul, or the empty rejection tearing at my heart that nearly consumed me into death during those dark and perilous hours or days or lifetimes I spent journeying through those desolate, forlorn lands. It was the constant, whispering voices belittling me and berating me and my very birth. Not just voices, I say, but whispered as though from the very mouths of my most trusted and dearest companions. All these storms of rejection and insult I endured, determined not to fall into the ever-darkness of self-pity, that is until I was confronted by the greatest of all denunciations as I approached the very end of my quest.

"For so long, I had journeyed in that pitch-black world of despair, and so difficult an expedition it had been, I had long ago surrendered up the use of my faltering lamp, it being such a bother to keep alight, leaning instead upon my other keen senses to guide me along my path. And my useless dagger I had tossed away, having no place to carry it upon my naked body except in my hands, me needing their touch to guide me along my dangerous road. How careless to cast aside the tools provided you by the gods no matter how valueless they may appear at the moment!

"In time, I came to a turn in the narrow tunnel I was following that led upward, hopefully toward the surface of the planet. Far, far, off in the distance I saw a golden, inviting glow of comforting light. With a happy sigh, I hurried forward, thinking only of my escape from this dreadful place, my heart filling with the joy of coming release, and my mind thinking only of the ending of this terrible game. At nearly a run, I took off toward the hypnotic light, casting my broken lamp aside in my desire to hurry along. Then, at the very moment when I believed my quest ended, when I was nearly within reach of my coming escape, a blow so crushing came down upon me as to take all my spirit and breath.

"As my feet raced on ever faster, I watched the radiating power of the blazing glory gather in its intensity. There must have been an opening in the mountain, allowing a shaft of morning light to find its way down into this abysmal world, its rays reflecting off golden, mirrored panels that were beginning to cast their captured glory down the tunnel I was making my escape through. My mind began to reel with exuberant joy while my heart raced with jubilation at the very thought of my coming release from the torment of this Hell I had so long journeyed in. My feet fairly few along the path, my voice crying out with delight as my arms reached forward to embrace the golden light. Suddenly, without warning, I found myself being pitched back down into the darkness, my head crashing into the hewn tunnel walls.

"When I finally came to my senses, the light up ahead was already fading into ghostly gray, blackness gathering itself up behind it. With a scream, I struggled to my feet and hurried forward, only to be knocked back onto the rocky floor. Something barred my path. Clear the barrier was, like crystal, but stretchy like a spider's silken web. Standing again, I reached out to touch the invisible wall separating me from the freedom that lay beyond this horrid abyss. I clawed and tore at the barrier with all my strength until the nails of my bleeding fingers were torn away, and still I tried, breaking bones both in foot and hand. It was no use! The invisible barrier would not surrender to my willpower no matter how desperately I tried or loud I screamed for it to release me. I finally sat, exhausted, leaning against the barrier, and began to weep profusely, eventually drifting off into a fitful sleep.

"I awoke to the sound of footsteps slowly approaching from down the tunnel. By this time, the world had returned to a complete blackness so foreboding that I could not even see a thing through my mind. I was totally blind. As those footsteps came nearer, I cried out my father's name, but no one answered. I then called out to Ysuah. Still there was nothing but silence except for the crunch of hard-soled boots on broken stones. I called out the names of the other gods I knew, but still no reply. Suddenly the sound of footfall stopped just outside arms' reach. I waited, breathless, for what might come next.

"Then I heard the sound of a voice, cold and condescending. Contemptuously it spoke to me, quietly at first, just above a whisper, it eventually growing in strength until my ears ached from its concussive blast. No voice of any ghostly stranger was this! No, but that of my dearest companion, the man I loved and trusted more than any other man. I cried out to the man, 'Can you not see, my Lord? It is your servant girl, your lover, the maiden who shares with you in the celebrations of joy at our festivals.'

"The voice rebuked me with vulgar, abhorrent reply. 'I do not know you at all, Whore-maiden. Unfit to even touch my outer garment you are!'

"I reached out in the darkness, seeking the man. 'No! No!' I whimpered, 'It is I, your lover true, the maiden who bathes you and cares for your every need. Remember, please, who kneels here before you.'

"The man unleashed a torrent of venomous curses upon me, his screams of rebuke increasing until my ears could no longer tolerate the din should I go mad. I tore at my ears, attempting to rip them from my head, until bleeding profusely, I fainted and fell upon the stones.

"How long I lay there upon the cold, stone floor of the tunnel, I do not know. I awoke to the incessant roar of the man's violent tongue. But now more than a voice sounded in the darkness. Like ghostly wisps of fog, the man had taken on the glowing shape of the lover I had so long ago given my heart, mind and soul to. My heart raced with pining excitement as I sat up on my knees, reaching out beseechingly to him. 'My Lord, it is I, your servant girl, Tolohe, your Maiden Divine! It is I, the one who first gave her virginity to you. Please, my Lord, my breath, can you not see that it is me, your little Tolohe?'

"The man roared with insidious laughter, 'I know not this deceptive whore, nor do I remember any sweet touch or embrace! Worthless brattling, unfit even for life, an abortion should have been your gift to all living kind!'

"At that instant, another ghostly form grew in shape before my eyes. With joy, I exclaimed, 'Mother, oh my mother! Do you not see me, your cherished little daughter? Mother, have you come to rescue your child from this awful place?'

"But the woman did not even look at me, so smitten with the man she was. Even by my shameless tears and tormented outcries, I could gain no attention from the woman, she tenderly stroking the man's arms as she cooed sweet nothings to him. All the while he continued to belittle and berate me, using the vilest words he could muster. Finally I sat back, surrendering my soul to whatever fate might await it, wishing for the ever-death such as the beasts of the field might attain.

"For how many hours or days or lifetimes of men, I do not know, I lay there in the rubble wishing for death to take me, but it refused to listen. Morning after morning, I would watch and wait for the golden light to fill the room beyond the barrier, and through passionate tears see its glory quickly fade until again in the blackness I remaining, listened anew to the man's insults when the darkness returned. Never had loneliness been greater upon my heart. To beg for death is such a strange thing to do, yet for countless mornings and evenings, I did just that.

"Then, one morn, when the glorious light was on the wane, I decided that I would no longer reside in that desolate world filled with spite and hatred should there be any way of escape. So I began to ponder Ysuah's parting words to me. 'Do not despise the gifts of little worth when it is often the little things that bring refreshment from grief and strife, providing the glimmer of hope that keeps us ever on our quest no matter the trials and tribulations we must suffer to attain it. Remember, the sun is always brighter for the man who has come to know true darkness.'

"I stood and pressed my hands against the barrier. It flexed as I pushed upon it, soft like spider silk. Could it be cut? If only I had a blade to attempt a cut, would it give way to me? I remembered my broken dagger that so long ago I had abandoned far away in the lost caverns. Might I be able to find it and retrieve it? Not without a light to guide me. A light! My lantern that I had so foolishly tossed away, could I repair it? Faulty it was, true, imperfect and fragile, unpredictable and often undependable, but might it do in this moment of need? It must!

"Pushing aside my anguish, I plugged my ears from hearing the man's abusive speech by focusing upon the task at hand. 'I shall do this! This I will do for no man or god being mortal or immortal shall crush my spirit! I am Tolohe, queen of the night and the darkness! Damn all the worlds above and below! A mission I am on, and as long as the breath remains within my breasts, I shall continue it until to its completion I come!'

"So, on hands and knees I crawled back down through the dank blackness in search of my crystal lantern. Through stinking cesspools of slime and filth I crawled, the sound of creeping things and winged demons my constant companions, ever searching for that glimmer of hope that might light my world. In time, I finally found the lantern, now broken, its many parts strewn and scattered about. 'Never will this work!' I cried in despair. But before surrendering to this damnation, I gathered up all the pieces and slowly made my way back up the tunnel to wait for the morning light to chase away the darkness so that I might see if there was any fix to the ruined lamp.

"When the light of morning drifted down through the tunnel, my heart sank. The lantern I believed could be repaired, but what little oil remained in it had been spilt when I cast it aside. My tears gushed as a hopeless feeling swept over me. There was nothing for it now but to surrender to whatever the Fates had chosen for me. I swept a hand across my face to wipe away the tears, the stink of the septic pools stinging my nose. 'Wait!' I shouted, jumping to my feet.

"At that, the man became silent, staring dumbly at me. The woman looked over at me as if seeing me for the first time. 'You have not bested me yet!' I shouted at the man. 'Do not think the battle over, for I am not yet defeated!' At that, the two ghostly figures vanished from sight. In the growing darkness, I hurried back down the tunnel in search of a septic pool that stung my nose with the stink of slime and oil. Yes, oil! Might it be pure enough to give glory to the tricksy wick? My heart leaped in joyful trepidation as I searched again for the small, bubbling pool of goo that I had earlier cursed when slipping and falling because of it.

"Suddenly I slipped and fell again, striking hard upon the slick, stone floor, but so filled with joy and laughter was I that I did not feel any pain. I had found my treasure. Now to see if it would serve my rescue in this crystal light. I dipped the lantern's bowl into the stinking pool, skimming its surface in hopes of obtaining the treasure I was so desperately seeking. When finished, I stumbled through the gloomy blackness to again wait the morning light in hopes of completing my repairs to the lantern.

"With trembling fingers, I feverishly struggled to assemble my lantern before the golden sunlight faded, unable to endure another night of darkness in this horrid place while waiting again for the morning light. I remember crying in frustration when I discovered that the lantern was broken, but yet repairable. If only I had the time to make needed repairs before the light faded away. I needed a cord to bind the wick to the mantle. What was I to do? Finally I tore from my head several strands of my silver locks and took to weaving a fine, strong rope to do the job, my fingers flying in a blur. Whether it was in my mind or whether the sun stood still waiting upon this frantic child, the light did not fade that day until successful I had become.

"The golden light was sliding into darkness when I was finished. With a shaking hand, I hit the striker across the iron ring circling the mantle, its sparks showering the oily wick cloth with blinding light. Oh, how my heart leaped with joy when a sputtering blaze awoke in that wick! With tears of relief, I nurtured that flame until it gradually grew in power, chasing the darkness away, the ghostly visions fading into the nothingness along with the evil, taunting voice that had ever torn at my heart.

"Fitting the crystal globe tight so that no halting breeze could extinguish my flame, I lifted my lantern high, and standing tall, determined to face whatever trials lay before me, retracing my steps back into the darkness of that contemptuous underworld.

"Ever on I wandered into the bowels of that Hell, facing again the very beasts and demons I had earlier bested to win my way to that tunnel of escape. On and on I trod until I believed that part of the mountain deep I was becoming, a living madwoman made of iron and rock, never to see the outer world beyond these caverns again. Cold I became, so cold, but not with a chill. No, from me was the cold coming, a chill that froze my breath, its power frosting the cavern walls and freezing the water that ever dripped through the cracks and fissures of that place. My heart no longer felt love or hate, happiness or sadness, fear or courage. No, but like the unfeeling granite it became, caring for nothing but my mission, my quest.

"How many ages passed before I returned to the depths where I had so long ago cast my broken blade, I do not know. But eventually I entered the caves beyond the catacombs of the dead to spy the light from the lantern flickering off the bright steel of the blade's glistening edge. With an excited cry, I bolted forward to gather up my prize. Only paces from it, I was halted by the deafening roar of a giant, hairy beast ascending from one of the stinking, bubbling pools taking its stand between my treasure and me. 'Away!' it roared. 'Leave this place and I might let you live. If you do not, then on a dinner of you tonight I will feast!'

"No fear could I find in my heart, for no feeling at all did it possess other than anger that this intruder barred it from its quest, its source of escape. In my rage, I swore an oath that made the mountain itself shake and shudder, casting giant stones down upon the cavern in its tumult. I rushed forward, swinging the lantern about in my fury, 'Then death is what you have chosen!' I screamed. 'Death to all the living and the damned, beasts and birds, demons and men who stand the path of my destiny! Be off with you to Hell!' With that, I pitched my lantern like a sling stone at the beast.

"Whether I realized that the stink of the beast was that of the oil that coated it from the bubbling pit from which it crawled, I do not know. But when my lantern smashed against the demon beast's body, it exploded in a sheet of flame that set that oil alight, consuming the monster in smothering fire. The beast stumbled backward before being overcome by the raging inferno, falling over on its back just beyond the blade.

"I hurried forward and scooped up my prize, turning quickly to make my returning to the distant tunnel and my hoped for escape. Not many paces had I gone when I realized that no light did I possess to guide me back to my rescue. Dismayed, I turned to face the burning monster, lamenting my impetuous disposition. How foolish I had been to have pitched my light into the beast, giving no regard to my need for it should I best the monster and retrieve the blade! 'How foolish! How foolish!' I loudly chided myself. 'Now forever trapped in this blazing cavern with a blade to cut my way free but no light to guide me to the door of escape.'

"But my heart did not weep its tears as it had so many ages before when escape appeared so near. Calm and quiet it remained, giving my mind opportunity to ponder the moment. Suddenly it came to me. I again gathered a fistful of my locks and wove a rope wick about the broken blade. When finished, I went to the bubbling pit and skimmed the oil from its surface, soaking the wick, then also soaking the hair on my head with it, so should I need, many more wicks could I make to keep my torch aflame. I then went to the burning beast and lit up my blade, the flame of my oiled hair wick snapping and crackling as its fire leaped to life. I turned and began my journey home anew, my wrath and rage burning for a fight should any beast or demon attempt to slow me from my quest.

"Whether it was because of my disposition or luck, quiet as a tomb that world became, no winged beast or horned demon daring to bar my path, they all remaining in hiding for fear of my angry vengeance. Yes, long was my journey's returning, and very weary I became, but the hopeless and lonely feeling did not revisit me no matter the countless ages I passed in that tiresome place. I must also say, when again I saw the golden light burst down the long, narrow tunnel, my heart did not race with excitement or joy. I had changed, or should I say that dark world had changed me. As black and cold as the mountain I was now, it having become as much a home to me as had once been the bright blue sky and shimmering green forests and fields of the outer world.

"I made my way up the tunnel to the barrier that so long had held me prisoner. Reaching out my hand, I stroked its crystal surface like one might well do a lover. Holding up the blade before it, I was sure that I could feel a shudder run across its surface. No longer did it feel like a formidable evil foe holding me prisoner, but a caring mentor who had held me to my lessons until I learned what I must learn. Now it must release me, for my studies were complete here, and another mentor waited me beyond this world that no longer felt to me as dark and evil as it had for so many ages. Casting my eyes back down the tunnel, I became aware that I had left part of my soul down there in that world and replaced it with a part of the mountain's soul.

"With tears, I extinguished the flame and lifted my blade to cut my path of escape. To my surprise, the crystal barrier fell away, allowing a rush of fresh, sweet air to flood in upon me. Yes, I shed tears at that very moment, but I think not so much for my freedom, but for what I was leaving behind. You see, that evil world of lonely hopelessness was now become part of me, and I could never completely forget how it had changed me...made me better and stronger in so many ways...prepared me for future days...days I could not even yet imagine.

"In a daze, I stumbled from the tunnel into the golden glow of the mirrored room. Gradually coming to my senses, I stared about, searching for the source of the morning light. To my surprise, I discovered that the light coming through the upper opening did not come from the sun, the glow shooting down at me so unnatural and eerie. Slowly I made my way up through the opening, traversing another long tunnel, eventually coming to a chamber even grander that pulsed bright from some hidden light source producing a mild hum. There, in the center of the room, sitting directly under a dome-shaped ceiling that was covered in countless sparkling diamonds were two oval disks about the size of my opened palms, surrounded by twelve multi-faceted gemstones of every kind and hue, all dancing merrily about the two disks.

"As I stared at them in hypnotic amazement, a voice called out to me. I turned to see RosMismar, chief among the Cherubs, my father. Standing beside him were two of my mentors, Ysuah and Gradian.

(It was here that Tuosol interjected more comments into this tale.)

"I could not hold my tongue at hearing Sodasonie reveal such secrets to me. 'My Lady, you say that a Cherub is your father? How is this so, seeing that from the hand of God it is said that your kind came into being?'"

Sodasonie smiled, warning, "No ears beyond this room can hear our speech this day, and from you must no one be told the words spoken here. Save them for the hour of my passing. Then in a vision, deliver all these truths to the man who will stand before the face of God." About this future time she refused to speak.

Sodasonie then went on to explain, "The Woman in the Whispering Waters is the true form chosen by the Maker of Worlds, at least in these universes I have come to know. She possesses greater beauty than all her daughters, but so humble and demure that we often forget who she really is. It was told to me by my father...for RosMismar truly is my father...I was formed in the same way as your father made you that. It was a gift to the Cherubs who resided beside the Maker of Worlds, 'ZoeStethos', being the name they gave to her, when worlds did not yet exist, and even form and shape were still considered nothing at all but for the perfect comeliness of Zoe. When our worlds were created, Zoe took to her bed, the Cherubs having taken on the form of manly men, and took from them a seed to mix with her blood to make all her children, save one. But I shall not speak of that this day."

The Lady cautioned me, "Reveal this to no one, for even my brothers and sisters know not of this. Only the one who also passed to a finish through the Deepening Pits knows these things."

(Tuosol again took up once more, continuing the account as Sodasonie spoke.)

"RosMismar stepped forward, kissing me on the cheek, a smile of great satisfaction on his face. 'I truly believed if any of our children could pass through those worlds to a completion, it would be you. No longer do I call you 'daughter' but 'sister' is what you are to me now, 'ToloheNahosetSodasonie', Silent Thunder Woman, Sodasonie Kue Shandii (translation: female man, female Cherub) High Warlock, chief over the mortal elements.'

"I stood there trembling as a flood of emotions overwhelmed my soul and spirit. Not so many days ago...or at least it felt as such to a heart consumed with such perturbation as was mine...I stood upon the road to the Jahouk Mountain pass that led to the mythical city, EpipHaneia, as a carefree child of innocence, with no greater ambition than to be romanced under the sweetly scented sycamore trees by my most treasured lover. Now I stared into the face of the greatest of magical warlocks in the universe, a man of legend and fantasy, he calling me 'sister' as his eyes were ever declaring his love for me.

"Squeezing my hands, he kissed me again, but this time on the lips. Instantly, as if it had been nothing more than a fitful dream, the dark ages of the Deepening Pits faded away as other, far more wanting desires filled my heart. RosMismar smiled so seductively as to make me swoon with passion for his touch and caress. He then pointed toward the Stones while gazing into my eyes. 'Where I wish to take you in the flesh, my Cherub sister, cannot be done with a mortal body. Yet come with me you must, to complete what has only been begun.'

"At that, he took up the two oval disks, the twelve gemstones drifting up and about, encircling them, placing them in my opened hands. Then closing my fingers about them, RosMismar pressed the stones against my breasts. Stunned speechless, I watched the glowing disks and gemstones begin to shimmer and then slowly sink into my body, quickly disappearing under my flesh. A fire raced through my body, I feel it changing from flesh to flesh until like a flaming torch I stood before my Cherub companions.

"RosMismar grinned, pleased. 'Our sister has become like one of us, a blazing light filled with the glory of the Immortals. Now we shall take our leave.'

"At that, the world about me faded from my sight. Soon I was arrived in a new universe for which there exists no words in Heaven or on Earth that can describe what I witnessed there. Eye has not seen nor ear heard the grand and wonderful things that await those who attain to the immortal worlds of the Cherubs." She looked at both Tuosol and Aphrodite, revealing, "for you two, also."

After permitting time for the excited chatter to subside, Sodasonie went on.

"Whether it was for a day, an age, or a thousand, I do not know, nor did I care to know. Peace beyond peace I experienced, the sweetness of life shared with my mentor companions too great for words to capture. For me, it came to a finish all too soon. Again I found myself looking out over the distant valley plain of Lagandow, lamenting that my journey was now nearly finished and soon I must return to the world I so long ago left behind. I began to weep, resting my head on RosMismar's shoulder. 'I wish to remain here with you, in this world with you and the others. Why must I go back, at least this day or the next?'

"RosMismar stroked my hair, speaking in words both cryptic and mysterious, his words soothing and kind, but honest and pointed. 'Into this world you were not delivered without reason. This you already know. Now return to your world you must, but not without the tools needed to accomplish Future's purpose. Given to you were the Two and Twelve, but not only to journey far off into our world in your own flesh were they given. In the Final Age, when all hope is lost...and I promise that age will come...you will surrender these Cherub Stones up to a child of dust to save the worlds of men from the doom that is to come upon them.'

"In my foolishness, I forgot RosMismar's directive that to one of womankind were the Stones to be delivered until the Ending Hour when to the man deserving would all their glory be given. In time, I did remember, offering these to our sister - your mother, Aphrodite - I believing she was to be the burden bearer. But she declined to carry them on to the finish, seeing afar off the curse and heavy load their possessor must carry. A foolish mistake it was, too, that I made. Not that it did not serve a purpose, but at such a cost, leading down to the evil deed I will soon ask of you. I will come back to this later, but for now, allow me please to continue.

"RosMismar went on, 'Beautiful as they may appear, these stones are really a very powerful machine built of immortal energy and manifest in these material shapes after we transferred them into this universe. Unlike any other machine it is, built by the Cherubs' very hands and containing our wisdom, knowledge and glory within them. One must only have the keys, the words to unlock the power of this greatest of all machines. It will guide your path across those jagged skies on the darkest of evil nights, if only you learn their language.'

"The Cherub reached out and touched my chest. A blazing fire raced from his fingers and tore into my heart. I gasped, feeling the power of death and life to the extreme, and then the raging fire eased within me. RosMismar smiled. 'There! Now all the secrets of the machine have been given you. You are, then, to give them to the one who is to carry them into the Ending Age so that she, too, may pass this knowledge on to her king. To that man will all knowledge be given, so that he will rule over all the worlds above and beneath, hidden and revealed, secret and pronounced, in the wisdom and power of the High Lord and her Cherub servants.'

"He then went on to explain the capabilities of this machine, how that it could produce life, for in its memory system was the very code of life, but not life like I and my fellow kind... and even your kind... for we all are children of a secret web, a forbidden universe, unreachable and hidden from all mortals. Yet of its very essence we all are made. By studying what my kind came to call 'EbenCeruboam', the pondering of higher knowledge, I would eventually discover how to use some of the secret powers of the Stones. He then warned me to use those powers wisely, sparingly, and shrewdly, and to not be eager to reveal the source of those powers to anyone, no matter how beguiling and affectionate they might be.

"'Remember...' RosMismar warned me, 'The Stones are a tool, a willing machine that cares not for master or foe, accomplishing the will of the person wielding them. They will as quickly betray you as they will defend you, caring not for good or bad, for they are like any other mindless machine. Do be careful who you reveal them to, if anyone at all. Do not allow your heart to decide how they will be used, and do not trust the soul of another to them. Speak not of them even to the Maker of Worlds. Although they may well assist you now and in the coming age, they have been given to you to save all mankind when the carefree times pass away and the Age of Discord arrives upon you.'

"I asked, deeply concerned at having received such a great weapon that could serve for good or ill, 'My Lord, why do you give to your slave girl this device that can not only bring good but also damnation to all? I am not fit to carry such a thing, being only a child of the mortal elements.'

"RosMismar looked toward the distant, waning sun and then back at me, patting my shoulder. 'You are our Cherub sister, the first of your kind. The Deepening Pits you have trod, and the immortal universe has become your playground. If you desire to return to us after we have deserted your worlds, when Time turns your heart against you, then the Stones must remain with you. They are the vessel that will journey you back into the immortal skies so that you may return to us during those lonely hours. They are also the immortal treasure that will save your worlds in the Ending Hour. Surely, I believe, if they do not come into the hand of the one ordained to take them, then no life at all will survive the coming darkness.' He would speak no more of the matter.

"So I returned to my world that I had left behind so many long ages ago, and took up again living my life as I had before leaving for the Cherub's world. True, I did preach the 'religion of the Jahouk' - as those who either dared not or refused to enter the smoky cloud mass that blocked the Pass of Korteniaz called it - to any and all who would listen to my voice. Truth be told, even I grew sleepy concerning the warning given to those of us who did enter the cloud mass. In time, in disgust with the children of Lagandow, we forgetting our lessons learned, the Cherubs burned that star system and left our universe to itself. Thus the First Age of carefree innocence ended, and then soon began the anguish of my heart.

"In time, my lover, the firstborn of all the mortal children, openly revealed his disdain for me. During my long absence from the festivals, he had taken up with another woman to be his Maiden Divine who would open and close our festivals in their loving celebration. After my returning, he did not rekindle his spark for me to the point that eventually he was unable to perform the mating ritual with me in front of the celebrating throngs. Indeed, I believe that my preaching about the worlds beyond ours and his unwillingness to pass into the clouds of the Jahouk had much to do with that.

"Finally, in contempt for me, when we alone were together in one of his secluded chambers beneath the palace, he offered to return to me the title of Maiden Divine if I should do just 'one little act before him by having intercourse with his favorite pet dog', his excited ardor growing in strength as he envisioned the coming encounter. So stunned I was by this request, I could not even make reply. The man laughed, saying that his other consort who currently stood before the people as Maiden Divine made no fuss when requested to do such a thing. She would do anything at all that he asked and it did arouse him so to see it done. In anguish and anger, I stormed from his chambers, my heart breaking in distress as if in death.

Sodasonie moaned, distraught with tears, "I never spoke of that incident with my former lover, fearful, I guess, of making accusation against a person my mother loved so dearly. Who would believe me over him anyway? Selfishly, I abandoned the palace and ran off to hide in the seclusion of the ruins of CaLounDunne, an ancient citadel in the wilderness of Oros at the base of the eastern Obeb Mountains. Constructed long ago by the Ones Who Came Before and brought to desolation when Lagandow was burned, I used the Cherubic powers of the Stones to rebuild the citadel, adding a high outer wall with a moat and a parapet. There was but one narrow entrance gate to the citadel that was attained by ascending a long, narrow roadway. Few I would receive except the male child when he would come of age, and that was only because the Woman in the Whispering Waters expected it of me. Even then, I would occasionally send them away to the new Maiden Divine, to be taught by her in the depths of my former lover's secret chambers. What an arrogant, selfish fool I was!

"In time, I tired of my self-inflicted loneliness and used the power of the Stones to journey back into the immortal lands of the Cherubs. My sojourn into those worlds might last for millennia, until my Cherub companions would force me to make a returning. It was far into the Second Age before I finally accepted that I could not run away from the world into which I was born. Indeed, it was with the birthing of a strangely odd and beautiful woman-child that I finally found some peace and fulfillment in my life. The child was spirited and full of love, a strange kind of love. Contagious it was, flooding my world with it. In some way her very presence made life a little more carefree, the gloominess in my heart a little less gloomy. I fell in love with the child.

"I must admit, the presence of this girl in our midst made my entire world grow a bit brighter, I feeling a rebirth to the more light-hearted days. Mother, the Woman in the Whispering Waters, named the child 'Michael', but we older children had other names for her, 'Bright Eyes', 'Firefly', 'Dancing Mischief', and so forth. When spoken in the language of my kind, those names carried an endearing, musical tone.

"Michael grew up tall and comely, more so than many. Her striking, strong facial features, luxuriantly long golden blonde hair, deep, ocean blue eyes, delicious red lips and sensual, curvy form drew the attention of all. So much she reminded me of the oldest of my kind, a female version of the firstborn, I would say. So many times when I dreamed while in her arms, I would think of my former lover, my heart pining in hopeless, romantic bliss, envisioning being in his tender embrace. The woman-child's love for me along with other developing events that occurred during this part of what we children came to call the 'Second Age' helped deliver me from my ever-gloom, rekindling my spirit while diminishing my loneliness.

"As you may recall, I spoke of the gift given me of the Two and the Twelve and some of the powers found within them. Well, shortly after my first returning from the lands of the Cherubs, I decided to use my gift to reduce the complexities and difficulties of exploring our universe, wanting those of my kind to be able to journey with me across the star systems as I was now able to do with the use of the Stones. So I used the knowledge found in the Cherub Stones to invent and build navigational devices that permitted not only the most aged and wisest of Mother's children access to the hidden portals... a spider's web of channels that cut through time and space, connecting our universe to other secret realms beyond... but to any and all who wished to explore our cosmos. In time, with the use of my inventions, other realms were discovered, the oldest being called by us the 'Middle Realm', and your universe called the 'Second Realm'.

"Just like the Woman in the Whispering Waters, my kind has a powerful curiosity, a wanderlust you might say. If there is a dark room yet unexplored, we will go beyond journey's end in search of its hidden treasures. It was not long into the Second Age... countless eons of time by your reckoning, I suppose, but such a little time to us... that we children had established colonies all across the known worlds. Indeed, there are still those of my kind who reside so far out in the universe they have not yet heard of the Rebellion or even your kind, unless Mother has informed them. I have not wandered far from my path because this revealed knowledge is so pivotal to my account.

"It was during this same period in the Second Age when my attention was being drawn to the woman-child, Michael, that a great discovery was made in what was to become your realm. A star system was discovered in your universe that we children believed could be made habitable. As was so common a practice in the First Realm, we children began to gather up life forms and transfer them into your worlds without seeking out the wisdom of Mother, I not even bothering to speak to the Cherubs about the matter. After many, many failures, we came to the understanding that we must transfer only life found in the Middle Realms if we were to be successful, which was still iffy. This universe of yours was young and quite wild. We had to learn many lessons if life was to flourish in those worlds.

"Now I will jump ahead for, should I tell you my whole account even in brevity, I believe that the sun would set upon a thousand seasons before my tale would be finished. In time, we had developed life on many of the planets that orbit about in your solar system, some of which do not exist in your current age. During this period, I had little interest in your universe, being consumed by the growing, carefree spirit found in mine. My former lover - for I will never speak his name again - was often missing from our world. Too busy playing in the worlds beyond he was. While Michael was busy playing in our world, my world, her infectious personality and charming, flirtatious seductions lifted the spirits of all who came to enjoy her intimate company. For me, this came to be my time of freedom from care, a returning to my innocent time, a letting down my guard time."

Sodasonie frowned bitterly. "I came to have a dear companion in those days, someone I had mentored long before, in the beginning time of the First Age. He was such a gentle, caring man, so loving and sweet, his caresses tender and sensual. He made me feel like a woman again. All during my dark years of loneliness, he had gathered his arms about me, consoling me over my loss of love, treating me like the witch queen I had been in my earlier years. This man I gave my heart to, hiding few of my secrets from him, trusting him so. And I do believe he was a loyal, dear companion during those ages. It was the evil darkness of his older brother that eventually drew him onto his wicked road and into the Ever Abyss.

"It was during one of our carefree times, after he and I had led the others in the opening during one of our grand festivals, seeing that my former lover and his consort were unavailable to do so, that the trouble began.

It had been such a wonderful event, the crowds so exuberant and jovial. That witch over the vines, Medeba, had created a late summer wine the likes of which had not existed in centuries. Sweet and intoxicatingly powerful it was. The evening was set ablaze with wild merrymaking, my goblet filled to the brim countless times, until I remembered not the remainder of the night. I awoke wrapped in the arms of my loving companion, he having spent the entire night with me in blissful dreams. So careless I had been, opening my mind to him, unlocking every room in my treasured vault of knowledge and wisdom to him. As I looked into his eyes, I saw a hint of puzzlement cross his face. I knew then that too much had I permitted the man to see in our dreaming visions, but wished to pay no heed to it.

"This loving man who had always been so attentive to me, always catering to my desires, became even more so. I did not notice the subtle changes that took place between us, how his seductive interludes increased and how he always made sure my wineglass was kept full. I paid little attention to the many times that I would awake from a joyous, drunken stupor to find him staring wonderingly into my face. Indeed, I eventually surrendered to the strong, drugged drink he offered me, it heightening the excitement of our romantic interludes. To this day, I do not know to the full what secrets that man stole from me as I spread my mind as wantonly before him as I did my feet. I dreamed so innocently in his arms, surrendering up to him whatever he desired. I do regret that wanton foolishness! I curse my womanly passion, it costing both our worlds so much in the end. This man, Samyaza... 'Zeussah' as he is known today, eventually turned his heart over to the evil darkness of his older brother, conspiring together with him to murder all that was good."

Tuosol could not believe her ears. This man, her mortal enemy, had once been so loving, gentle, and kind? Who in the world of men could be trusted if such a close companion to the Witch Queen Sodasonie had proved untrustworthy and traitorous, and she could not see it?

Sodasonie sadly answered, "The thief does not enter through a bolted door, but waits upon the master's carelessness during freedom from dread. Samyaza did not betray me that day, or for many, many, long ages, his continuous doting over me only growing until I even gave to him a room in CaLounDunne. He and I shared the sweet romance of love's embrace more times than the hours that your kind has been in existence. It was only near the end of the Second Age that the two of us drifted apart, I becoming uncertain over the troubling shadows growing in our dream visions that other diversions had long clouded my senses from seeing.

Sodasonie became sullen, eyes closing as her head drooped. "I am sorry, but the pain that dwells deep within my heart seeks release from the memories that I have stirred up from the telling of this woeful account. Give me a moment, please, to gather my strength so that I may drive these demons back down into my secreted vaults where no breath or feeling exists."

Tuosol reached out, taking Sodasonie's hands. "Allow me please as your sister to help console a troubled heart. Let me know your anguish so that I, too, may help carry your load."

Looking into Tuosol's face through tear-filled eyes, Sodasonie moaned in bitter sadness, "Whether you wish for this burden or not, yours it is going to be...one so great that even your mother goddess who sits beside us this day could not carry it. Can you?"

Tuosol smiled reassuringly, "Whatever my Star Sister needs that I may have to offer her, up to a thousand deaths, I will do for her, because I love her so."

"Love me after I have burdened you down with hopeless despair?" Sodasonie asked bitterly. "Who can love the bringer of misery and heartbreak? Who can love the waif who has brought all the worlds of men and gods to ruin?" Her voice soured. "Yet whether you wish it or not, my burden you will carry to the full! For the one who carries the Two and the Twelve in her bosom shall share in all that lays secreted deep within my troubled mind, soul, and heart... all my evil memories, troubling thoughts, and horrid visions will dwell also within them. Forever they will journey through BrounBarraDon Cumb with me in search of all the reasons why. But should you choose to continue upon this desperate path, it will not be without any hope."

Sodasonie smiled weakly, "There are those you can trust all your coming visions to who will not betray your soul, heart or mind including this woman sitting beside us in this sanctuary. Also, any of the Haudenosaunez you can trust to hold your secrets dear. I know, too, of another who has promised me that she will ever remain close by your side until the burden you bear is given to the one who will rule over both Heaven and Hell. With her you can share your dreams unbridled, trusting that any vision of forlorn dread or secret knowledge will not be betrayed against you. Even now Tosombabanna waits outside this tent for your return to her. She will be the wick lantern, burning bright, who will guide you through those deepening pits."

Shaking her head in remorse, Sodasonie confessed bitterly, "I wish not for you to drink this cup of gall, but by an oath I swore on the day of your birthing, it has to be so! There is no other one to give it to. Still, it is your free choice to do as you will. My evil done to you...not yours to me..."

Tuosol reached up, stroking Sodasonie's face while leaning close. After kissing her tenderly on the lips, she cooed, "We are Sisters of the Bloodwind, are we not? Then how can I refuse anything at all from my sister? How blessed I am among women to become the one who shares my sister's mind, soul, and heart! How blessed I have been, and will yet be more to have been loved by a Sky Child... be loved, to feel her sweet, tender caress upon my skin, her warm breath bathing my neck, and her sensuous, whispering songs playing upon my ear."

Resting her hands on her knees, Tuosol requested that Sodasonie resume her tale of the Two and the Twelve. Sodasonie nodded grimly.

"It was during the height of Samyaza's attentiveness being poured out upon me and my reckless heart becoming so consumed by his love that the most bewildering of things happened, changing my life completely.

"I was alone in the citadel of CaLounDunne, Samyaza having taken his leave some days before to journey to Palace City on business. The ringing of the silver bell down at the gate gradually roused me from a drug-induced dreamy, sleep, I having taken to a stupefyingly strong drink the previous evening to drown the loneliness over my lover's absence. 'Who might that be so early in the morning?' No one was I expecting, nor did I care for any company other than my Samyaza's return. Waving my arm toward the window, I flopped back on the bed. 'Go away!' I called out to the muffling pillow, but the caller was persistent and would not stop creating that awful racket by ringing the bell.

"I finally gathered up my strength and after drinking down another glass of wine to ease a troubled head, I, in all my naked beauty, made...well, half stumbled my way from the citadel and down the path to the gate far below. Prepared to offer a scolding rebuff to the fool who dared interrupt my lascivious visions, I was taken aback in shocked silence.

"'My Lady Divine!' Michael squealed with delight. 'We were so afraid that you were not to be found... and after such a long ride by rail-stage to get here.' She ran forward, hugging me tight while placing a passionate kiss on my lips.

"Yet little did I notice a thing she was doing because of the person standing beside her. I stood there, staring dumbly in disbelief at my former lover with whom I had long ago played Consort Divine at Mother's festivals. Michael released me and went on with a merry chattering regarding the trip and reasons for their visit. But I heard none of it at all, my heart flooding over with so many emotions all at once, both good and bad, I could barely contain it.

"My former lover tipped his head as he made a graceful, polite bow. Lifting up a wrapped package in his hands, he asked ingratiatingly that he and his fellow traveling companion be permitted an audience. I could only silently nod and allow them to pass through and enter my domain. Well, I must say, few were the men of your or my kind or possibly even the Cherubs able to display seductive charm as this man could...still can when he wishes. And his gift, oh, his gift! He gave to me a crystal vial filled with perfume from the pink ghost lilac, its flowery bushes found only in cavernous valleys of the mountains in the Middle Realm, blossoming only on the eve of twin moons waxing full every century or so.

"The man acted so contrite and self-effacing during his visit, refusing to linger for a meal, saying that he had desired to see me for such a long time, to make amends for his rueful behavior. Fearing rejection, he had put it off until his bubbly companion, Bright Eyes, just made him escort her over the Obeb High Pass to Oros Village and up into the mountains to my palatial home, CaLounDunne. He soon took his leave, but not before kissing my hand so softly as to make me swoon. Even then, my heart desired his embrace, it aching for many days after his departure.

"Michael requested that she remain for a short visit that carried on through the fall and winter, and did not end until she passed down the narrow road leading away toward Oros in the late spring when the wild cherry trees are in blossom. My bed she shared for so many of those nights, the child and I singing countless love songs to each other. So much the girl eased my soul, seeing that Samyaza could not make a returning to me before summer. Yet all through those seasons my mind and heart drifted off to that earlier encounter with my former lover. What I did not know was that Michael had long shared the dreams of that man and had been subconsciously prepped so in our lovemaking that man would ever be found hiding in our sweet embrace."

(Author's Note: _It was during those following months after Michael's arrival that she revealed To Tolohe a new name, 'Mihai', long ago given her by JabethHull, kept secret between her and Tolohe until the girl disclosed it to her lover and mentor, Euroaquilo, after the Age of Rebellion [the Third Age] began. Michael was already known as a passionate lover, aggressive and often manlike in her approach to the romantic, a quality she possesses down to this day. It was her aggressive, masculine way of making love that caused Tolohe to start calling Michael 'Mihai'...the masculine form of her given name. It was this same aggressive love-making that stirred forgotten memories in Tolohe regarding her former lover, Chrusion. Michael's probing touches and caresses with fingers and tongue reminded Tolohe so much of her former lover's romancing that she found herself continually thinking of that man when she was in Michael's embrace._

_For Michael, these fleeting months spent in quiet solitude with this Ancient who she admired, adored, and loved so dearly were among the fondest of her memories. When her world came crashing down about her and the dark Third Age enveloped her, she publicly took on the name 'Mihai', explaining to Zadar and Darla, 'Mihai helps me forget things I wish not to remember. It allows me to leave certain memories in the clouds, covering things I wish not to see.' To this day, 'Mihai' is the name Michael prefers to be called by. She says, 'It helps me remember the good reasons for the darkness we had to pass through.'_ )

Sodasonie continued her account. "It was in the early evening dusk of summer's height that Samyaza made his return. Much to my surprise, he was accompanied by my former lover, this time delivering to me a fresh basket of Tucklebow berries, a very rare herb from which a wine is produced that is shared between romancing partners. Again, as before, the man stayed but a little while, acting so much the bashful gentleman. Before parting, he intimated that plans had been made for the gala fall festival to be celebrated in Oros that year, and invited me to be his guest at the head table...that is, if I wished to attend. He quickly added that I should think about it for a bit, seeing that we were only entering high summer.

"His charming smile, piercing, deep ocean blue eyes, and warm, scented breath bathing my face made me nearly swoon, giving me an ache for his love that Samyaza could not satisfy. Well, to make a long story short, I did accept that invitation. What can I say? I shared more than a meal with my former lover that night. Indeed, the next day found me staring down upon the Little Kaissal Sea from the Trangil High Pass Trestle as we passed over from the Obeb Spur Mountain to the Kaissal Mountain Range on the rail stage's descent to the valley below and, finally Palace City, a place I'd not visited for centuries. Once there, my former lover rekindled our relationship, I being made to feel like the Maiden Divine anew.

"I lived in blissful abandon for countless lifetimes of your kind, every day becoming more wonderful than the last. I did not pay a visit back upon CaLounDunne for centuries after, the inner chamber of the Firstborn in the upper palace becoming my home until that dark day when evil shattered our worlds. True, I never did return to the lower chambers beneath the palace and have not since that time I earlier spoke of. I thought little of it all during those carefree years, feeling, hoping, wanting to believe that my former lover had finally passed through his phase of foolish, self-indulgent what you call 'sexual experimentation', a condition that was not unheard of among my kind, usually afflicting younger ones. But still, to a wanting heart like mine, it was easy to make excuse for.

"I acted carefree and content being back in my former lover's arms. Any troubling thoughts that persisted within my heart were shoved far into forgotten shadows. Nothing...no one was going to ruin this perfect world that I had returned to! True, I rarely stood up as Consort Divine at the festivals, but I believed I understood why my former lover hesitated to practice our love-making in front of the crowds. After all, to have the reputation for great prowess and then fail in the act of intercourse on such a public occasion might well be devastating. I accepted such a fate, sharing his bed when he made his presence felt in the upper palace, which in those days was often...very often."

Sodasonie looked up, rolling her eyes as she recalled bittersweet, wistful memories from those long-forgotten ages. "It feels as though it was but an hour, but for more than ten thousand of your lifetimes I romanced...was romanced by that man and his admiring fellows in every form of love-making that was possible between a man and women...men and a woman. My former lover practiced upon me...with me all the arts of sensual interludes known to my people. For that moment in time, I became the Queen of Fantasy again, being loved in so many ways. So much I enjoyed the romantic company of several men at one time, each one focusing his manly attention only upon me that intoxicated with their passionate intimacies I became.

"I must tell you this account, for pivotal it is to the tale of the Two and the Twelve. To have intercourse with a man while in a state of intoxication with the drugged wine makes for the most vivid of dream shares. You have only received a glimpse of their greatness. Your Juliet nearly died so long ago when she forced a waking dream-share upon a threatening scoundrel, raping him with her Angel's Caress. Yet even an Angel's Caress given out of love can drive a creature of dust nearly mad, even one of the Haudenosaunez, if delivered carelessly. I tell you, to have intercourse with a warlock practiced in those very arts is a far grander experience! To be drunk with the drugged wine while in such an act even more so. Yet that is not all.

"My former lover opened up new worlds beyond my imagination by introducing intercourse with multiple men while I floated upon that ocean of wild intoxication. Do not believe that what I am about to tell you is the same as you have experienced when offering your body to more than one man for a feast, although if done with tender caresses can excite the mind and heart into a passionate faint as you well know. For the women of my kind, the dream-share can be enjoyed through many different forms of copulation, the releasing of the man's elixir into the person of his lover making the connection. All then that is needed for the minds to entwine with each other is to continue that connection. Such an experience with multiple partners sharing the dream simultaneously can become profound, reaching orgasmic heights beyond the mortal Heavens.

"As powerful an experience as this might be, to be romanced by the princely son of Cherubs and his magic-practicing warlocks, combined with the drugged wine, even the blood grape wine... well, it was nearly as intense as a journey with my Cherubic lovers into the immortal worlds. Except this man I also loved beyond love, more than any other man before or since, such a powerful aphrodisiac to be added to the mix."

She wagged a finger. "Let me warn you, so addictive it is to share the body and mind with multiple partners at the same moment as I did... still desire to do, the fires of passion's furnace burn away all mortal thought! If one was... is not careful, it can become the all-consuming form of intimacy desired. Just like an opiate, it can reduce a person to wishing only for more, casting all thought, reasoning, and love away. If and when you share your love in such a way, do so sparingly, not as I did, until it became the only way I truly desired to receive my former lover's manliness as a man would do with a man while the others played with me as they wished."

Her tone turned bitter. "What I did not know was my former lover's real intentions for bringing me into this state of emotional addiction. I abandoned my soul to these things for excited love and wanton pleasures. I regret my licentiousness, not for the acts I practiced or desired...still desire but for the evil it unleashed upon our worlds. My former lover did nothing for those reasons, but was always calculating with a purpose and motive in mind. This I chose not to see until ruination came upon us.

"His motive... his motive..." Sodasonie closed her eyes, slowly shaking her head. "Well, it must come to this. His motive was to have me become so bewitched by my carnal obsessions that I would permit his searching of my soul, heart, and mind, he eventually robbing me of every secret thought and memory I possessed.

I was so blindly infatuated with his unrestrained songs of endearment and impassioned touches upon both soul and heart that I did not awake to his treacherous deceit until he attempted the murder of the other jewel in my life, Michael. After rescuing my sister from death's door, I followed that Evil Worm to Eden, passing through the mystic gates in the palace, but I was too late. By the time I arrived, ruination had already come upon your world. All I could do was utter part of the prophecy spoken to me so long ago by my father, RosMismar, 'And at the end of the ages there shall arise a manly seed who will bring to ruin all that is evil. He will crush the unholy and wicked while returning all that is good and righteous.'

"I then drove the first of your kind from Eden's garden and returned to the palace by way of the mystic gate, destroying it in an attempt to prevent my former lover from making a quick returning. To this day, all the Sky Children must find circuitous routes to attain the Lower Realms, the Woman in the Whispering Waters never rebuilding that portal." She rested a trembling hand on Tuosol's leg, her face distraught. "But such a terrible mistake it was...one that your kind has been paying the price for down to this day! For you see, I left behind in Eden's temple rooms a priceless treasure that could deliver both Heaven or Hell to the worlds of men. And by the time I had managed to return to your world to retrieve it, the treasure had been stolen and was far beyond my reach."

Through her tears, Sodasonie went on with her account. "Allow me to explain. As I have told you, everything my former lover ever did - has ever done was carried out with calculated intent and selfish motive. I do believe he was that way from the very start when, as a young maiden, I was delivered up to him to become a helper to him. As I look back on those days so many countless ages ago that I can little fathom the years numbered, I recall it though as if it were only this yester eve. I was little more than a toy for his pleasure, a pet to while away carefree hours with when the man had not much else to do, often being dismissed or forgotten when other interests drew his attention away from genital satisfaction. True, I became well trained in countless acts of love-making by that man. But it is from Mihai I learned the art of love-making with the heart. So it was, when I was returned to favor in my former lover's arms, I opened my inner self to the full, ever searching for the love I believed he must possess within his being, the loving touch I so desperately wanted, needed to receive from him.

"In time, I completely surrendered every fiber of my very being over to him, keeping no secret at all from his probing searches. I wanted so to believe that the man could give me that gift of love, eventually convincing myself that it had become so, substituting his animalistic rutting and smooth, impassioned expressions for the real love song I so yearned for. I do believe that I was not the only one who blindly accepted his lying ways for desired love. He fooled many of us into submitting to whatever his selfish heart craved. He is a master trickster, even now swaying the world to accept his perverted concepts of peace and governance so that your kind rejects freedom of the person for 'protective slavery' under lords and dictators.

"So I, by willingly opening my fleshly and spiritual vaults to my former lover's inquisitive machinations, delivered into his hands all my known secrets of Lagandow from the perils of the BrounBarraDon Cumb to life recalled beyond the mortal Heavens to the greatest of all machines, the Two and the Twelve." Sodasonie breathed a sigh of resigned relief. "The coded knowledge of the Stones remained secreted away from him, I being the only one possessing the power of the music to crack the code, and that in a very restricted way, thus limiting their use. So he, in hopes of attaining the Stones' music, played me with cunning, showering his devotion and attention upon me until, after his revealing to me his knowledge of the Two and the Twelve, I attempted in earnest to gain the hidden wisdom of the Stones for him.

"In time, we... he and I... began to use the revealed power of the Stones to build life in the newly discovered universe that came to be called the 'Second Realm', your universe. Our studies of the mystical truths, called by us 'EbenCeruboam', led to our discovery of how to make life or how life was made, at least in its basic forms. With the witching powers I attained through the use of that Cherubs' machine, my former lover, with my assistance, filled the habitable worlds of your star system with ever-increasing kinds of different life until they just teemed with them.

"But..." she frowned sadly, "but all our work proved to be in vain, for when the great universal clockwork cycled around to its midnight hour all life that was out of tune with its ever-music would fade from existence, forcing us again to rebuild from the beginning all that was lost in hopes that this time we might find the correct musical code in creating our life forms so that they would not fade again at the turning of the great hourglass. This we did over and over, filled with the hope that each time we had found the harmonic music that would be in tune with the great universal clockwork of all living things.

"Eventually, in our frustration, my former lover suggested that I remove from my body... knowing I had the power to do so... the Two and the Twelve and place them within a machine made from the mortal elements of that universe. This I resisted for the longest time until he wore me down with his boyish moping and forlorn sadness. So, I surrendered the Stones up to the 'Thirty Nine', the name of the machine we installed the Two and the Twelve into. Doing that, I turned the glory of the Two and the Twelve over to my former lover, he now having the ability to wield the power of the Stones without my direct assistance.

"At first I had deep concerns about having given up the control of the Stones to another, so I carefully watched over them and their use, but in the straits of time my former lover managed to swage my concerns so that I eventually surrendered up my watchful vigil over them to the point of giving to him the musical keys to unlock additional powers from the machine as I managed to decode them. My former lover played his game to the full with me during those ages, showering me with greater affection while lifting me up higher in glory within his realm of influence. I was so blind, believing that he truly loved me and adored all of my sister-kind. I should have searched out his hidden rooms beneath the palace, but didn't. Had I, well...I didn't.

"The life forms made through the use of the Two and the Twelve finally proved somewhat successful. Some of the creatures invented by us... yes, I remained at my former lover's side inventing life in those worlds... survived the turning of the great clock. We were so excited to have finally succeeded at creating life, not in the spiritual sense, something even I little understood at the time, but in the elemental sense where those life forms could reproduce and survive in the Lower Worlds unaided. We played for countless ages in your star system, building our living creations, but not on your home planet. It yet remained a burning ball of gas and liquid, far too dangerous a place for us to even visit let alone attempt to play with life upon it.

"As our successes with building life increased, the more dissatisfied my former lover became, desiring to use his powers to bring forth not just intelligent life but life that was made in the image of the children in the sense that it, too, would be self-aware. He also wished to make it so that it could reproduce without our interference. My concerns were many. Would such life not also have the right to live if it was intelligent enough to comprehend its own existence? I was not understanding the living laws in the Web of the Minds, a world secret to all other than the Cherubs and the Maker of Worlds at the time. Needless to say, by smooth words, cunning speech, and sensual touches, my former lover convinced me there would be little harm in attempting such a thing."

Sodasonie tenderly rubbed Tuosol's arm. "Remember, please, my darling child, the world of my kind in those times. No laws did we have to guide us, only what you call a 'conscience' and our existing knowledge. We had been created as an experiment, ourselves, and placed in the Maker of Worlds' great temple...laboratory for her own comfort and greater understanding of her heart. She though, fell in love with her creation, remaining in our universe with us down to this day. You see, my kind were... are free to choose for ourselves our own course in life, free to choose good and bad as we saw... see fit, obeying only the silent laws found within our hearts. That is, except for wicked creatures as I, who knew and had seen the final outcome of matters if they were pursued without restraint. I, though, chose to ignore the nagging of my heart for the pleasures found in my former lover's bed.

"Again we began our experiments, but not in Eden, for we did not yet know of its existence. Giant ships we built that floated above the worlds beneath to do our temple work in, transporting our completed creation down to the planets' surface when we were finished. Much I could explain to you about the laws and ways of your universe, but time and years do not permit me the pleasure. Suffice it to say, some of those giant temples still exist down to your day, hidden behind veils of dimensional energy within your own universe, temples from which my former lover can still rain torment down upon your kind.

"So it was that we came to invent intelligent life, but not through the use of the Two and the Twelve and the Thirty Nine alone. Indeed, it was from my wicked mind that the answer for intelligent creation came. One day, after being romanced, I said to my former lover as I rubbed the man's elixir between my fingers, 'So powerful with energy this blood is that a dream vision it can produce when you merely rub it upon my skin. I wonder if it could give visions of self-intelligence to other life as well.' My former lover immediately seized upon my statement and began mixing the blood of our kind with the life forms we had been developing. In time, we gained success, at least regarding the self aware, intelligent part.

"The procreative aspect was less successful. After a great deal of experimentation, we developed a process that did work to a degree, eventually even being able to transfer the self-perpetuating abilities on to our creation. The procreation process was not at all like that of your kind, but more like a spawning type, somewhat like the birthing of life in an insect colony with the making of drones or queens.

"We soon discovered that our intelligent creations possessed no conscience for doing or caring for others of their own kind...'no love', I might call it, or should I say 'no ability to love', to even feel that emotion, no remorse, no fellow feeling, no concern. Super-intelligent animals they were, possessing many of the traits of wild beasts, doing what is best for their own survival, but with the ability to see into the future enough so that they would plan for themselves how to always remain the predator-survivor. I attempted to persuade my former lover to abandon these experiments, so dangerous I believed them to be, but he rejected my counsel, saying that any deficiencies could be fixed in time.

"Well, the deficiencies were fixed in time. At the turning of the Great Clockwork, all those intelligent life forms perished from existence, much to the anger and frustration of my former lover. Again he began anew the quest to create a race of intelligent beings fashioned after his desires. This time I did not join with him in those pursuits. I returned to the First Realm and the palace, only visiting the Second Realm from time to time. My former lover would return often, making his sweet music with me while entreating me to rejoin him in the Lower Worlds, still showering me with tender affection. But I believe it was only a pretense to guarantee my continued decoding of the music of the Stones, which I willingly did.

"My former lover's experiments were pursued unabated until they eventually got so out of hand so that even he could not control them. War broke out in your star system, the intelligent life forms living on different planets having gained the ability of traversing the skies, seeking out one another's destruction. The weapons they had invented were so powerful that entire planets became uninhabitable by having their atmospheres ripped away or turned poisonous. Other planets were torn asunder, their shattered remnants still drifting about your star system, threatening life on your very planet.

"After this cataclysm occurred, the Maker of Worlds stepped in, no longer able to ignore what we had been doing in the Universe Below. Discipline us with severity she could have done, we having acted so recklessly. But no, it is not her way to do such things if at all possible. Innocent she saw us, reckless but innocent. Instead, she took the lead in setting up the worlds of living things within your realm, thus beginning of the history of the earth as you have come to know it.

"Working with her children, Lowenah began the Six Ages of Earth, that last age concluding with the creation of your forebears. My former lover managed to get his way with the Maker of Worlds, she permitting many of his creations a place on your planet, the man working his charming magic on her as he did with his siblings. The secret chambers of the Eden Temple were opened up to us so that in those mystical rooms we could conduct our experiments using machines that had long before been built by the Cherubs and Lowenah. Into this greatest of temples, I and my former lover secretly delivered the Two and the Twelve and the Thirty Nine, I remembering well the warning of my mentor, RosMismar, to not reveal them to the Maker of Worlds. Many a living machine, 'beasts' as you call them, were birthed to life in that temple, we secretly using the power of our machines in the making of many of them.

"Finally the day came. It was during the Sixth Age of your universe Lowenah gathered us all together in her council chambers at the palace to address her intentions for the Lower Realms. Many of her destiny plans shall remain hidden from your ears, it not being the time for their revealing, but this I will tell you: Unlike the intelligent life forms we children had so struggled with to create, she spoke of making beings little different than ourselves. I remember her standing up in our midst, grinning with childlike pleasure, saying, 'The age of experimentation with life has come to an end. Now for the crowning jewel to be placed above all our many creations, to rule over those Worlds Below... Into those worlds, I shall place new beings that I call 'man', because just like us those creatures will become. Let us make that man in our image.'

"Then Lowenah set our ears to tingling with the greatest news of all. Unlike her children in the Upper Worlds, these creatures called 'man' would make for themselves offspring through the acts that we children had long pleasured our companions with, except the elixir coming from the male creatures of earthling man would carry progenitive life and the female creatures would carry within their inner parts eggs to gather the elixir to them, thus creating a new life made from both the male and female man. To do this, she was going to take the blood from one of her sons and one of her daughters as well as from her own flesh, thus making an earthly star-child, giving it the ability to have endless life the same as our kind.

The excitement of the Maker of Worlds was only equaled by that of my former lover. He became consumed in the making of this new, special creature that was to rule over all other life in the Lower Realms. Many of the displays that you have seen in the Hall of Man in Eden's temple were designed and built under the direct oversight of my former lover. He was a craftsman superb, few equaling his skills in those arts."

Sodasonie paused, shaking a finger. "The man has become filled with evil villainy, but I tell you this: the beastly and masculine beauty that you find in your worlds is the work of that man's mind. From tiny creeping things to the giant behemoth, the eagle vulture, the winged, fiery serpent - all were the work of his hands. Yet his fondest of creations before the making of man were those of the serpent kind.

"Excuse me for my wandering from my path. My former lover tolerated the way the female of your kind was created. I say 'tolerated' because he had a much different opinion concerning her appearance and even more so her nature. He wanted the female to be both more masculine in form and more subservient in temperament. That is all I will say about the matter at this time. It was so different for the male of your kind, especially seeing that the Maker of Worlds permitted him to be built in the same manly way as was my former lover.

"Soon all was completed. To mark the ending of the Sixth Age of your earth, Lowenah invited all her children to the grandest of festivals ever seen. Millions upon millions of my siblings gathered for that festival, the Maker of Worlds painting the skies with pictures of the two celebrants as they opened this special event. Surprised we all were when my former lover stood not with his regular consort or even the Maker of Worlds, who at times took to the grand stage for special festivals. Instead, Michael was consort for the event. This of course, created a great deal of suspense...exactly what Mother desired.

"So the festival was opened by these two people, but not closed by them. My former lover claimed an upset, requesting another to stand in for him. Truth be told, his upset was over the gift given to Michael instead of him. You see, Lowenah handed authority and sovereignty over the Lower Realms to her female child of love, Michael, a surprise to us all, but even more so to my former lover, his expectation being that he would rule over those realms, indeed, over all of the known realms. For the first time, he permitted his countenance to slip in front of the Maker of Worlds, being quite vocal in showing his contempt for what she had done in more private quarters after the festival.

"Lowenah could not believe what her oldest child had done, excusing his behavior as a result of the excitement of the moment and a passing burst of emotion. Quickly my former lover masked his feelings, feigning excuse and apologizing for his reaction, something he has become quite adept at doing. Soon things appeared to have returned to normal, my former lover making up with Michael by doting over her and giving her many wonderful presents. Still, Mother remained concerned to the point of giving to her oldest child, my former lover, a special gift that might swage his upset. Because of his rebellion, he does not know of it down to this day. Now you know well of the Rebellion and Michael's attempted murder by my former lover, and also know that he stole the Two and the Twelve along with the Thirty Nine from the depths of Eden. So allow me to reveal this other bit of history you do not know.

"My heart was shattered by the evil acts my former lover committed against Michael in the flesh, but especially against the Maker of Worlds in the spirit. I ran far away, beyond the shadowy mists of the Pass of Korteniaz, through its gates and into of the holy city of EpipHaneia, but no further, the Cherubs refusing me entry into their worlds beyond. RosMismar pointedly declared that without the Two and the Twelve...a gift I had foolishly tossed away...I could not pass into their immortal worlds. Out of their kindness to me, I was permitted to sleep for a time upon the barrow stones in one of the temples in that city.

"While I slept, they changed me in nature and body from the soft, gentle Tolohe into the hardened and stern Gabrielle, only the color of my hair and eyes remaining of my former self. A taller, more muscular and fearsome woman I was when I finally returned to the land of my kind. Only a very few know who this 'Gabrielle' really is. The others? Well, I believe they do not know. For me, the woman, Tolohe, still resides within my bosom, chained in an unreachable prison with all her feelings while the mortal Cherub, Gabrielle, rules her house. She weeps on the inside while the monster without glories in the ruin she brings upon the worlds of living flesh. Best it be that way I guess, at least until this wicked age passes. True, some do find the woman's sanctuary, bringing up her emotions for a moment or two as you, my sweet Tuosol are able to do. Yet so empty does her heart remain, yearning for days long past or yet to come.

"After my returning, I began a quiet warring with my former lover, attempting to retard the evil he was committing against your kind and all other living creatures in your world. Still, I could not stop his great acts of wickedness for he possessed the Two and the Twelve that he used to control the Thirty Nine, scattering them out into thirty nine cities he constructed to keep the world of men under his dominance. From the temples in those cities were spread the abominations of wild and sick life that brought ruin upon your planet. Eventually, the Maker of Worlds decided that all life, save the few who would be preserved in a giant ark, would be swept from your world. Now there is so much that could be told you about those days, but time does not permit it, nor do those tales have a direct affect in telling the account of the Two and the Twelve. So for another hour I will save them.

"Near the end of those days, I managed to steal away the Two and the Twelve from my former lover. Before I could gather the Stones back into my flesh, RosMismar stopped me, preventing it, saying that to do such a thing would destroy me and..." Sodasonie became gloomily silent.

"And what?" Tuosol asked, taking Sodasonie's hand in concern.

Sodasonie sighed, resigned in sadness. "RosMismar said it would destroy your world, too. He told me that the harmonics, the music of that machine by its very existence in the Eden temple had affected all the life forms we designed there, including your forebears. It was told me that the Stones must remain ever in this universe until the turning again of the Great Clockwork at the end of the wicked age. I didn't know what to do. I could not return the Stones to Eden, the Cherubs having closed it off from all the children, and I could find no place on the planet to secret them away because of the coming cataclysm. I was at a loss, a terrible loss. If I could not get the Stones concealed quickly, my former lover would soon discover their location by following their distinctive musical signature.

"The answer came to me through the news of a very brave young girl who defied her family and refused to bend a knee in worship to Samyaza and his evil henchmen. I hurried to MusolEgypt, rescuing the child from a most untimely death. Later I arranged her marriage to the man we had chosen to carry life through the coming cataclysm into the new world."

Sodasonie looked over at Aphrodite. "This woman has saved your race in more ways than one, but not without paying a price for doing so. You see, the Stones will change a person, causing them to see things, feel things, experience things, secrets of the Cherubs' worlds that their minds might not be prepared for. The BrounBarraDon Cumb is neither a good nor evil place to the Cherubs, their hearts so different from ours. It is but one of their many worlds secreted within the Stones that will overburden a mortal's heart. Although knowing these facts, I did not realize the torment one of your kind would suffer with the Two and the Twelve until it was far too late for this child." She pointed toward Aphrodite. "Yet as a stalwart soldier she carried storm's banner far into your age until I removed the Two and the Twelve in the days of Javan and Dancing Stones."

After a long, quiet sigh, Sodasonie concluded, "My part in this tale now fades into the shadows. It is only fitting that my Sister of the Blood should take up the telling of the Two and the Twelve." She then asked Aphrodite to continue with her account.

Aphrodite did not smile, a shudder running down her back as she began. "No one will think you weak or cowardly should you decide to reject this curse after its truth be told to you. First I will start with this: Though this angel saved my life as a child those many years ago" pointing at Sodasonie, "I knew nothing of her existence until about a fortnight before the Deluge when she approached me out of a visionary trance in which I dreamed about the peril of the coming world of men should I not be able to accomplish some ghastly task about to be asked of me. When I awoke, I found that I had walked in that dream and now stood in an open, grassy field, staring into the face of this wondrous creation, the ghostly moonlight dancing off her glistening, gray orbs.

"My mouth attempted to cry out in surprise and dread from the ache welling up in my heart at seeing such fearsome beauty, believing that Death was confronting me, seeking my demise through resplendent deceit. So enraptured I was with this apparition of splendor that I wet myself in excitement, my heart nearly rupturing. It was a good thing that this woman chose to reveal herself to me in the darkness of a moonlit night, or else I would have died for a certainty. Since those days, she has learned to cloak her beauty a bit when she walks among us, except in Eden, something you already know.

"This wondrous woman finally reached out her hand, touching my arm so that her spirit soothed my ache. But, oh how much I wished to make love to her at that very moment! Still, I think it did me good, for in love with her I immediately fell so that little time did she have to spend convincing me of the task she was soon asking me to accomplish."

Aphrodite smiled in the way a mentor does who carries a deep understanding that the student has yet to learn. "Like you, I believed all things, seeing my strength as great enough to endure any trial that might be brought upon it. But, oh for wisdom of knowledge on that day, would I have done any differently?

"The Lady here, though not fully perceiving what evil might befall me, saw no other option, and was determined that I carry the Two and the Twelve through the approaching cataclysm and into the new world beyond. It was true there was my daughter, Sumiduu, but the Lady dreaded her suffering such a plight, fearing the girl's madness should that be done. She nearly begged me to consider that fate for myself.

"'Fear not!' said I, seeing this deed to be done as nothing more than a great blessing. I believed there might have also been a bit of jealous delight in me, considering that my husband had received all the divine attention for saving the world of men up to that time. So, light of heart and without fear of consequences, I accepted the cup of gall offered me.

"That very night, hidden in the shadows of nearby trees, the Lady performed the ritual of the Stones with me and, after a severe, painful faint, returned me to my bed without anyone of my family knowing of it. Indeed! Other than a very select few, not even those of the Sky Children know about this greatest of secrets... the reason for our concealed conversation this day. Why, not even my lover dear, Zadar, knows a thing about what is being revealed to you. Secret it is and secret it must remain.

"I awoke in a sick delirium which did not pass until long after the flood waters swept the earth. My husband, Noah, feared me dying and knew not what to do, sending for the medicine men to assist me with a cure. Nothing could they offer, my condition only growing worse until my family believed that I was to die. It was then that the Lady came to Noah in a dream and spoke consolingly to him, telling him not to fear but to take me aboard the ark so that I could rest in a dark and quiet place. This was seven days before that world ended.

"For me, those weeks of sickness are little more than a terrible blur of horrific visions and retching agony that left me weak and troubled for many months. So bad I was that I feared for my sanity long after my senses returned. To this day, the scars upon my mind have not fully healed, leaving me with depressing sickness and ghastly night visions witnessed by our sister here when she journeyed through the unspeakable abyss of the BrounBarraDon Cumb. All that has been good or bad in her life has become also part of me in mine, from her violent violation of body and spirit by her former lover in his secret lair beneath the palace... she not even realizing at the time that his attack upon her was rape... to her journeys into the immortal worlds of the Cherubs. All of it is now mine. So intense it is at times that I feel my head will explode.

"Gradually I regained my health so that by the time we parted the ark into our new world, I was able to return to a normal way of life. This did not mean that I was cured of the illness delivered to me by the Two and the Twelve. I was not...am not. In time, I even managed to cope quite successfully with the burden I carried secreted in my flesh. I was also sustained through this by the knowledge that as long as I carried them within me, the enemy could not discover their whereabouts through seeking out their musical signature, my own beating heart cloaking it. Still, even after handing over the Two and the Twelve to the Lady in Eden so that to Javan they would be given, I could little contain the grieving anguish they had delivered upon me. For this reason, a star child has stayed near my side to share his dreams so that sanity might remain with me until I heal.

"It was discovered by me that the Two and the Twelve gave me certain powers or abilities. Over time, my mind became more acute in speaking with others without using my mouth. My enemy could no longer hide himself from my awareness of his presence. In combat, I could feel what my opponent was going to do before he could deliver his blow to me. And even though my body often ached from a malady much like aged ones feel within their joints, my living organism gained in strength so that I survived the enemy's energy weapons that made my bones glow in the darkness but killed so many in my company during that fearsome battle we fought so long ago."

She gently rubbed Tuosol's hands. "When the decision was made to deliver the Stones to EpiphanOida, because too far away and out of reach you were at the time, and we also feeling the need to have you remain close to Javan and Noahashonie, it was determined not to give to her the Twelve, but only the two, we fearing with dread what it might do to her unborn. It was planned that for only a brief time would she carry the Two, in short order she giving them to you, a secret EpiphanOida understood well. But, oh what even the two did to her so quickly, making her wish for death so that the visions planted within her mind could be forgotten in blissful ever sleep...a secret she kept from us until it was too late.

"It was about this time that our well-intentioned plans began to unravel. The Lady was forced to leave us and return to her world because of a dire emergency there, and I became distracted with other matters concerning Shem's children far off in Eastern lands. Noahashonie later revealed to us that although my granddaughter, EpiphanOida, knew of our plans, after Javan was murdered by Dungie and we were delayed in coming to her, based on the earlier tricksy visions given her when dreaming with Javan while under the control of the Two, the woman made her fateful decision to force the hour of Meric's birth, she wishing so to hold her child before her death.

"Fearing the worst, EpiphanOida moved ahead the hour of her birthing by having Noah excise the child from her. In that hour, she also gave to the girl the Two to carry within her flesh while wearing the Twelve on a cord of woven hair about her neck, not wishing to risk the welfare of Noah's unborn child. So it was that upon the gathering storm, the Spirits revealed to you the death of your sister, such a troubling thing because you knew already about the Two and the Twelve and your destiny regarding them, the Lady having revealed it to you in a dream soon after Javan's murder. You rode to Castle Dodanim in hopes that your visions were false, but were at a loss when truth was revealed to you. Where the Stones had gone away to, you did not know.

"That was also true for us until the Lady searched the soul of Noahashonie after she saw the Twelve hanging about her neck as you all stood upon EpiphanOida's burning funeral pyre. It was for that reason the Lady gave to Noah the Diamond of Life upon the tower that night, thus preventing the girl's death so that the Stones would remain hidden until their appointed time. Yet that was not even to be. The spirit of the power of life apparently preserved the child's sane health, hiding many of the horrid visions of past and future from her that had afflicted EpiphanOida. But she was changed... still is in many ways. For good or ill, I cannot always comprehend, but watch her closely I do down to this day."

Aphrodite frowned, shaking her head. "It was intended to have Noah carry the Two on to the time when they were to be turned over to you to give them to the Coming One, but those plans were also foiled because of the deeds of demons and men. I must tell you that the Maker of Worlds is not to blame for all the evil that has been cast upon you and your sisters. Truth is that she has become upset at times with the meddling of her children, both in these Realms and those above. Her anger has been revealed more than once, forcing us to find a fix for the troubles we have created." She looked over at Sodasonie who slowly nodded in guilty agreement. "So even now we call the curse down upon you because of decisions we foolishly made without seeking Lowenah's wisdom.

"In time, when Moses was lifted up to deliver prophecy's fulfillment upon the sons of Jacob, we, in council, decided to gather the power of the Two and the Twelve into the hands of a special priesthood within that new nation, thus making some of the power of the Stones available to those people. It was concluded that by building a special machine to counter the Stones' music, the nation could hide the Stones while tapping into some of their glory. So to Moses was the command given to build an ark of wood and gold in which the Lady placed a machine that caused a golden light to pulse music that covered that of the Two and the Twelve. Then, to his brother, Aaron, an ephod was given that contained all the Stones.

With the Stones, the high priest could receive providential direction and insight, as well as release some of the Stones' energy when used with the machine within the ark. They were used as a weapon against the people of Jericho and others when clearing the land of enemy nations. As long as the people acted in concert with the music of the Stones, they prospered. But when discord grew to an extent, then the nation would suffer plague and invasion because of the Stones' reaction to that disharmony. This latter I had not foreseen when, long ago, I played my part in this scheme for coming calamity by retrieving from Noah the Two and the Twelve.

"We did not think it through. I did not think it through, convincing the Lady and the others with strong argument that my son's children could gain the advantage for their survival through the protection the Stones would provide. I was unable... unwilling to comprehend the disaster all this would lead to because of them being such a stiff-necked people. When their nature was finally understood, it was too late to take away from them the power of the Stones. But their glory was diminished by the Lady, weakening the strength of the machine in the ark. In time we saw that even this would not do. So we prepared to deliver the Stones to you in the straits of times, readying you far in advance for that coming hour. That scheme, too, came to naught.

"So now we have come to this. King Josiah refused to listen to our wise counsel and went out to wage war against Pharaoh Necho, dying in battle against him. At great risk to her own life, our sister, Susannah, saved the ark and Stones from capture by the Egyptians after she discovered that the sons of Hormax were with Necho and in search of the hidden treasures contained within the temple in Jerusalem. No longer is there a safe place to hide the Cherub machine if the liege of the Serpent has detected its presence. Long has he searched for it, not sure if it was destroyed in the Great Flood."

Tuosol spoke up, wondering, "But for these many ages of men, he has not found the Two and the Twelve when they have been right under his nose. You say the ark and the Stones were secreted away by Susannah before the sons of Hormax entered the city. What fear do we have concerning their discovery now that they are beyond his reach? Besides, if you have the ark, then shouldn't it be an easy enough matter to keep the machines together so that the music of the ark will continue to hide the Stones?"

Aphrodite shook her head sadly. "My dear one, a liege of the Serpent is not a son of Hormax, but a creature from the Worlds Above, or worse, an intelligent machine built in the form of a man but having no soul. It is only a very intelligent creation that has been made to do its master's will. There was a liege among the sons of Hormax. Only by her keen senses was Susannah able to smell its presence, and only in the nick of time was the woman able to rescue our machines from capture. As for the ark, the Lady disabled the machine within it, and for the Stones, they were delivered here under cover of an uncanny storm.

"As for why we chose not to hide the Stones with the ark, we believe it not a safe thing to do anymore. It is assumed by us that the liege carried some device or other that could detect the music of the ark. If that is truly so, then the Serpent will know the harmonic signature of it and... and may be able to guess what the Two and the Twelve in the priestly ephod really are. Such an easy thing it would be for him to search out that music and find his treasure. It is something we cannot risk."

Pointing at the tent enclosure, Tuosol asked, "Then why not keep it hidden here, safely inside this room? I gather from what you have spoken that it conceals the music within its walls."

Sodasonie agreed, explaining, "Conceals it? Yes, but by creating music of its own to cover over the music of the Stones. It leaves a mark, a signature on the breeze that the Worm will eventually be able to detect and locate. When he discovers the ruse that we have used these many years to hide the Stones from him, he will search out every harmonic tune that is not natural to this planet, eventually even locating this place hidden deep under rock and stone."

She peered forlornly into Tuosol's face. "We may have only hours remaining before he will come in search of this most wonderful and dangerous of machines. The power of the universe resides within the Two and the Twelve, and already his knowledge of the code is great, making them a weapon beyond reckoning should he decide to use it against you and your fellow man. We cannot risk its falling into his hands!"

"Then destroy it!" Tuosol replied.

"We cannot!" Aphrodite exclaimed. "As has been said, all living flesh depends on its existence until the turning of the Great Clockwork when all things will be made new. Besides, I believe it is as indestructible as the immortal Cherubs, making it impossible to be destroyed."

Sodasonie looked into Tuosol's eyes, pleading, "We have run out of time... You must make your decision, no matter the cost to life and soul."

Tuosol slowly bowed her head, placing hands on her distended belly, quietly replying, "Shall all the children cry? Your servant girl..."

### * * *

Tuosol wrapped her arms about herself as she looked down across the deserted beach toward Rae's submarine boat, AssuanSyene, anchored in the harbor. The chill morning breeze sent shivers up the woman's back while she silently mused about her upcoming journey under the sea in that craft, a three week excursion at best, possibly four if the boat went first to PoureaShihon, the Mariners' city located in the vast undersea caverns off the eastern coast of southern Merica. That was a distinct possibility seeing that many of the AssuanSyene's crew had not been home in nearly a year.

'A stopover for a few days would lift their spirits so,' Rae explained to Tuosol and Tosombabanna when they had asked for passage from Cyprus. 'Besides, it would afford the two of you an opportunity to pay a visit upon my humble city.'

Tuosol had at first objected, citing her concerns over arriving after the winter snows had blocked the mountain passes to Ausalmerica, but agreed that Rae's crew needed a visit home. Besides, AssuanSyene was the last vessel belonging to the Haudenosaunez leaving Cyprus before the turning of a new year, the others having departed some time ago. Aphrodite had remained at Tuosol's side during her long convalescing and when Tuosol was again up and about, she offered to deliver her to Ausalmerica, Hyhoset having left for home by her sky ship some months before, the woman wishing to birth her child in that land. Although appreciating the offer, Tuosol accepted Rae's invitation to return her and Tosombabanna home via PoureaShihon, hoping the trip would be soothing to her soul and spirit.

Tuosol's ordeal after consuming the Two and the Twelve into her flesh began with mind-numbing, nauseous headaches followed by chilling fevers, crippling cramps, and uncontrolled seizures. During all this physical tumult, the woman's mind was pummeled with visions and dreams of indescribable torment. On the second day following her acceptance of the Stones, she went into premature labor, the baby boy living only a few short hours after his birth. Tuosol came to her senses long enough to name him 'AchaMahem', meaning 'child of bitter death', quickly falling back into a fitful coma that lasted many days.

It took several weeks before Tuosol was able to get out and about, using a walking stick to assist her as she hobbled around Lady Tobanahazz' estate. Those ghastly nightmares and waking visions lasted far longer, the night hours still troubling her far into the future. She dreaded being alone with her thoughts, seeking the noisy company of others whenever possible. Even now she depended on her close companions to comfort her. Most disconcerting was the intensity of the heat that had come upon her.

As sickly as she was, Tuosol could not help but crave romance, it mattering little the discomfort or partner. This was the other reason she had chosen to journey with Rae on her returning to Merica, there being a plentiful supply of willing romancers to satisfy her fleshly needs. Aphrodite assured Tuosol that the mood would gradually pass as her own inner person regained control over the Stones. 'Your cure should be hurried along if you find release for those passions...something I wasn't afforded during my long convalescence those many months, confined in cramped quarters with a very bashful husband.'

Intercourse eased the desire in the flesh, but did little for the oppressively dark mood that continually haunted Tuosol. She reached out to her companions, Tosombabanna, for her healing support, saying that she was her 'medicine woman' and Rae for his strong, quiet comfort. She hoped that the upcoming weeks submerged in the silent oceanic realms alone with the quiet throb of the boat's horses might help her forget the turbulent worlds above.

It was also true that Sodasonie had encouraged Tuosol to take an undersea voyage home when Rae made his offer to her. If the Worm's liege did find its way to Cyprus, it would have no scent to follow. Unlike the sky ships, Rae's submarine boat would leave no harmonic signature for anyone to detect. Hyhoset and Noahashonie were well known and feared among the sons of Hormax and their god-rulers. It was doubtful that even the Worm would waste a liege to search out those women on the chance of finding hidden treasure. Both women could smell them even at great distances. Slim would be the hope a liege would have of surviving such an adventure, and intelligent liege machines were time-consuming and difficult to build and then train. Tuosol was considered slightly more than a local nuisance by the sons of Hormax in the lands of Meric, the Worm and his henchmen paying little attention to her. Journeying with Rae might keep it that way.

The splashing sounds of the boat's collapsible dinghy hitting the water drew Tuosol's attention back to AssuanSyene in time to see Rae exiting the front turret tower. Looking up past the shore toward the hillock, he smiled and waved. A few moments later, he was seated in the bow of the dinghy as a half dozen of his crew took to the oars, heading for the beach. Tuosol turned to the crunching sound of dried summer grasses, smiling and waving in greeting the person coming up behind her.

Walking up to Tuosol, Aphrodite reached out, taking the woman's hand, kissing her softly on the lips. "How is my darling sister this morning? I missed your company last eve. I hope all is well with my child."

Tuosol squeezed Aphrodite's hand. "I'm fine. I do apologize for disappointing you, seeing that this was our last night together. I do enjoy your touch so much, but I found the mood strong upon me for a manly caress and... well... and Baalath was such a willing host, his embrace so comforting and ardor so powerful, I just found it impossible to leave his company until the sun was high above the hills. Please forgive your sister if she has left your bed cold and you wanting."

Aphrodite shook her head saying it was not so. "Tosombabanna came in search of you during the late evening hours. Not finding you, she chose to cuddle beneath my coverlets and warmed my heart through the night. So I do believe that I have been duly compensated for my loss."

A sudden shout drew the women's attention back up the hill toward the road leading to the Tobanahazz estate. Scurrying off the path and down the rocky knoll toward them was Baalath, carrying a large duffle sack. Following behind him at a bit slower pace were Tosombabanna and Juliet, both carrying duffle sacks. Tuosol laughed aloud watching Baalath's antics as he attempted to skedaddle along with his awkward load.

Extending her arms in greeting, Tuosol called up the hill toward him, "My prince, why do you hurry so? The day is still young and our ride is not arrived yet. Or do you come hither so quickly because my charms you again crave? I fear my cistern is already filled to overflowing from the manly love I received just this early morning last. You must wait a bit until it is ready to receive more of your copious showers."

Huffing for a breath as he neared, Baalath laughed, replying, "My lady, it is not passion's love I seek at the moment, for so empty of its waters is the well that has filled you up that little more than a barren pump did these other ladies receive from me. I run in search of a safe haven until my strength has been restored and I can deliver upon all my promises made."

He stopped up close to Tuosol, giving her a tender kiss on the cheek. Before she could make reply, Tosombabanna caught up with Baalath. "My dear sir, escape from me you cannot, for I, too, ride beneath the waves in this coming hour, and from you I will demand the elixir before another can claim it to be hers." She looked at Tuosol with a mischievous frown. "Your cavorting has emptied this man's golden treasury, leaving only his ever strong ardor, which is of little greater value than a manly pole made of wood. I shall not release my hold on him until he has delivered for me as he has for you."

Laughing, she motioned back at Juliet, "This poor woman shall have to remain bereft of his golden treasure until his returning in future days!"

Tuosol asked curiously, "So this man is coming with us?"

Baalath bowed, "Yes, my Lady, I have rather private business on Corsica, and our dear Captain Rae has offered to deliver me there secretly so my presence will not be announced. The sons of Hormax do not yet have the ability to follow our scent under the seas, so they will not be aware of my arrival. Their underwater vessels are far inferior to ours, being deprived of the knowledge that our Sky Children brothers have shared with us, the demon ilk not trusting their Hormaxian minions with such knowledge."

Tosombabanna wrapped her arms about one of Baalath's. "And this handsome buck is going to spend his time aboard with this doe." She winked at Tuosol. "You have imprisoned this fellow for far too long. Rae and his crew can more than satisfy your needs, seeing that only this one stag do I seek company with."

Aphrodite spoke up, laughing, "Remember, there are also doe in the crew who may well seek to steal your prized trophy away! Do be careful when strutting about too openly with such a choice game cock."

Juliet finally caught up to the others, plopping her heavy sack down beside Baalath. Huffing, she sputtered, "I will be more wary next time you request that I carry the smaller bag for you, especially when my treasure house remains filled only with empty promises for my labors offered. Should I count my silver and gold belongings to see if any are missing before I allow your captain to depart these shores with these troublesome bags?"

Everyone was caught up in the laughter as Baalath attempted some lame excuse for being tricksy. Rae arrived while all this was going on. Stepping up and taking Tuosol's hands, he called out to the others, "Whatever the reason for your merriment, I must call an end to it. The overcast is quickly dissipating and we must be past the shallows if our departure is to be kept secret from searching eyes."

There was some good-natured grumbling while the tiny group gathered up their baggage and followed Rae to the dinghy pulled up on the shore. Rae carried Tuosol's duffle sack, taking her hand as the two proceeded down toward the beach. In short order, the crew and passengers were making way for AssuanSyene, Tuosol, Tosombabanna, Baalath, and Rae waving their goodbyes to Aphrodite and Juliet, the two women remaining on the beach until the submarine's turret towers submerged beneath the waves as the boat slowly made way for deeper waters.

After a long silence, Aphrodite took Juliet's hand, sighing, "I miss them already... surprising seeing that we shall be together again in sooner days."

Juliet agreed, cautioning, "Never take for granted someone who is dear to your heart. The time spent with them is like a warm breeze drifting across a field of scented flowers. But when they are departed, the pining ache of the heart never ceases for their touch."

She peered into Aphrodite's eyes, hers revealing the pain of love lost. "It has been over a thousand winters that my bed has been left cold from my husband's parting, and I still weep over my loss. Chuphoe I loved more than any other man or woman. There are times when the chill winter winds sweep down from the distant mountains that I wish my own life had ended when his did."

Aphrodite understood. "My husband was a good man and, like you, I do miss him even now. I believe it is a curse to have ever-life granted in such an evil world as we are forced to live. I chose death once, to escape this abominable misery of life that I felt trapped in. Then a Sky Child came into my life, my dreams, and revived my spirit so that I decided to stay with the living and not make the long journey into the future in silent dreams."

The mother of all men smiled sadly. "I believe I chose wisely. Even though Zadar has little time for me in these turbulent ages, I find the company of dear companions like you stirs my heart to joy. And the romance is still good...very good, our men folk only becoming better lovers as they acquire years with wisdom."

Juliet's eyes twinkled. "Our women folk have not been idle in developing their arts of romance either. Your gentle touch does more to stir my soul than a dozen of the young men in rut. Oh yes, their wild excitement I do enjoy, especially when I happen upon them secretly as the mystical spirit who haunts their worlds. Still, it is often little more than a passing mood for me, something to chase away the quiet boredom of a lonely night, or when I wish to carry a new life within me that no father can charge ownership over."

Aphrodite slowly nodded. "Yes, the power of the Haudenosaunez has grown since the day of Dancing Stone's funeral burning. Like whispering shadows, they often pass through the worlds of men, hiding in plain sight by singing the music of disguise and intrigue. Even the sons of Hormax find the smell of our scent elusive and confusing. Still, danger ever walks with us. Even if one does escape death... and for most of us there is no guarantee we will do that... rape, violence, imprisonment, and every other form of torture may find our door. It found mine not so many years ago, and I assure you, rape is not pleasant for a woman whatever her age. If it had not been for BondaBoor, I fear a long-lasting imprisonment in a slave temple would have been my fate."

Juliet was surprised by this revelation. "You have not shared this tale with me before. What is this all about and how did you come to be in such straits?"

Aphrodite quietly answered, "The violation of one's soul is never something one wishes to openly reveal, even to close companions, unless there is a purpose in telling it. And yes, I do have a purpose in telling it to you this day. My rape came to me because I allowed my guard down at a very inopportune time, a time when I felt a freedom from care."

Still hand in hand, the two women turned away and started for the estate, Aphrodite continuing on. "The powers given us by Iam and the Sky Children can trick us into feeling a false sense of security. That is what I did, going into forbidden lands without considering the risks and dangers involved. As I say, BondaBoor rescued me from enslavement and possible death, but not from the violence meted out to me by wicked men who saw only pleasure and profit in my capture. It was my own foolish reckoning that placed me in such danger, forgetting that Sky Children have fallen to the violence from men of clay, even one of them having been abused as I was."

Although surprised, Juliet remained silent, allowing Aphrodite to continue. "I tell you this now because of the decision of the council and because of the turning of the hands of fated time. The Second Age of Men is nearing its end. The Third Age will begin soon. The glory of Assyria wanes while the power of its brother, Babylon, increases. Babylon is no friend of your kindred. Its coming king is envious of the Phoenician wealth and will attempt to take the glory of Tyre for himself. How well Cyprus fares in the turbulent coming years can only be guessed at, but threats from that direction may not be as outstanding as will come from the North and West.

The Fourth Age of Men I do not yet clearly see, but I feel it may well come from the wild Easterners, from the kingdoms of Media or Persia...possibly both. What they might do is uncertain, but come they or someone like them will. Babylon's Age of Men will quickly pass into the depths of time, and so will the Fourth Age quickly follow. Then will arrive the Fifth, and that kingdom is even now beginning to flex its muscles. Greece, I believe, will grow mighty in power. If Cyprus has not already fallen by then, it will come under the control of Greece. None of these powers can you trust, yet into their web you must journey."

Juliet agreed. "This I know well, as was discussed at our last council. Juufet and Susannah are to cast their influence in the east, among the Assyrians and Babylonians with Juufet possibly extending his excursions into the land of the Medes. Hilga, BondaBoor, and Baalath will concentrate their efforts along the western coasts of the Great Sea. Rae will work with the Phoenician shipping guilds operating out of Tyre and Carthage, as well as direct operations in the Atlantean Sea. Noahashonie, Cothath, and Lumdon will stand guard in the northern lands. Hyhoset, Tuosolmerica, Tosombabanna, and SchroGarthTho will protect the lands to the west across the Atlantean Sea. KontinKuken has returned to the southern lands beyond Egypt. Swalhawena and I are to set our sights on the eastern regions of the Great Sea, west to Greece. At least that is the plan of the council for the moment."

"You are correct in what you say," Aphrodite cautioned, "but it has been spoken by your mouth far too casually. For the moment, you and Swalhawena may well succeed with your objective. Yet days are coming when the entire power of the eastern Haudenosaunez may be too inadequate a force to contain the Hormaxian hordes. This is why I have told you my own tale of woe, it being so easy to fall prey to the machinations of scoundrels and scallywags who appear innocent or even may ally themselves with you. Swalhawena I fear little for, because she is an assassin by trade. Stealthy and cunning she is. Oh yes, immortal she is not, but sly and tricksy the woman has become, and wary...very wary. That is why we chose her for your companion."

Aphrodite squeezed Juliet's hand. "Two women wandering alone in a strange and formidable land is dangerous in the best of times. In this age, when men often consider women to be little more than hand replacements and sources of revenue, it is always hazardous to journey without a man to protect you."

Juliet reassured Aphrodite, "Fear not. I will not act recklessly. Swalhawena and I will be fine."

Aphrodite disagreed. "I believe it wiser that you go to Greece as Lady Tobanahazz with an entourage of strong and protective servants. Establish your presence there as a widow, a princess with wealth and power until the populace becomes accustomed to you. There will be plenty of time to begin your clandestine activities after you have settled yourself there."

Juliet still believed it unnecessary, secretly wishing to avoid the task assigned her with the hope of finding some other way to accomplish it. Maybe she, too, could learn the assassin's way as Swalhawena had done. The open role of Lady Tobanahazz would only hurry her unwanted fate, the rich and powerful in that world quickly finding their way to her door to woo the comely, wealthy widow-princess.

Aphrodite's countenance became grave. "One need not act recklessly to become the victim of another's evil intent! Tell me, did your father act recklessly when he handed his daughter over to a man who feigned concern over the child's welfare? And did you take to the bed of Zhadrehaudous after romancing Thaladies with frivolous intent, seeking only another carefree donkey ride, disregarding the possible danger?"

Juliet glared at Aphrodite. "My father was a good man. He loved me. Had it not been for the heavy burdens of a large family and unreasonable levies, he would never have surrendered me up to such a vile miscreant! As for Zhadrehaudous, I never would have approached him had I known the depths of depravity the man had sunk to, finding instead another way to deliver the coup."

A whimsical smile grew on Juliet's face. "I did enjoy the ride from Thaladies, possibly more so because I was being contested over. True, I knew the game before entering it, but oh how sweet it was to play it out and see my husband squirm at the thought that his manhood was being threatened. I played Zhadrehaudous for far different reasons. Little did it gain us other than a few extra hours to carry out our deeds without his spying intrusions."

Aphrodite countered, "Still he spied and you nearly died attempting to save your husband and the others, also forcing your dearest companion to service a man she hated so much, his many raping adventures of her still fresh in the woman's mind. Had it not been for Nidgha, you may well have died. My darling Juliet, to this day you like to play the game, often taking risks by not considering to the full the consequences. Your little tryst with Paris, the prince of Troy, set two nations warring and cost the lives of thousands of innocents and nearly cost you yours."

She turned, gripping Juliet's upper arms. "My child, you are one of... no, the most beautiful of womankind I have ever known! Only the Sky Children can compare with your handsomeness. The Lady and I have sequestered you here on this island for these many years to protect a girl who knows not yet just how hypnotically beautiful she truly is. Whether she has come to understand the truth about herself or not, the time has arrived for her to throw off the forlorn child, Cherry, and become JulietDalmatia, Lady Tobanahazz, the wife and mother of kings and lords."

"But Mother," Juliet complained, "I know that I am beautiful. I do not see how my advertising it to the world with pomp and fanfare and arriving as a rich princess will assist in my safety."

Aphrodite was polite but curt. "When you look in the mirror, you see a beautiful woman, but you refuse to believe there is a tremendous power your beauty exercises over others. Even the women who see your face pine for your touch. And when you stand before your companions in all your naked glory, you take our breath away. Why, just thinking of your charms makes me nearly wet myself. You have the ability to drive men mad what with your charms, seductive moves, haunting voice, and mesmerizing gaze. It is your most powerful weapon...our most powerful weapon, but also your greatest enemy. Lady Tobanahazz will keep the riffraff from your door, decreasing your danger.

"Dancing Stones revealed many secrets to the child, Noahashonie, on the day she delivered Meric to her. Of you the woman spoke, seeing into your future as though it was already happened. She informed Noah that you were destined for coming glory from your very birthing, hidden powers having woven you in your mother's womb. When you stood upon the burning tower hidden in the Lady's light, I was hiding in the crowd, wondering what part you were to play in future's wars. After Atlantis died, the Lady and I decided to keep our most powerful weapon secreted from the world of men until the hour when it was to be unleashed upon that world."

Looking up toward the Tobanahazz estate, she frowned. "The hour is soon to arrive when the combined glory of the Haudenosaunez will be needed to contain the coming darkness. In future days, a nation the likes of which the world has never seen shall arise from the shores along this very sea. It shall trample and crush every kingdom across this world of men. From the lands south beyond Egypt to the territories beyond Persia, to the lands of Merlin and the Druid children, these people will plant their banner, enslaving the peoples of the earth, only the Western lands of Meric checking its hand."

She stared deeply into Juliet's eyes. "There is but one weapon we Haudenosaunez have that will check that monster's hand and eventually bring it to bay. That weapon is you, and we cannot afford to needlessly risk it to uncertain fates."

Shocked, Juliet exclaimed, "I am the greatest of weapons? I do not believe this! Noah and Hyhoset have the powers to split the earth and sink cites into eternal darkness, or to cast fire from the heavens to destroy kingdoms. Susannah's uncanny powers could cast a spell upon even the Serpent himself, driving the Worm mad as he races for Hell's Gate. You and Tuosol have torn demons asunder in your rage. Must I go on, also telling tales of the others, the wisdom of Juufet, the might of Cothath, the cunning of Rae, and...and all the wizardry of..."

Aphrodite stopped her. "Yes, we can destroy the beast, but that is not what must be done. Contain it we must, but not destroy it! Child, Nidgha gave to your husband the Heart of Atlantis, and its gold Rae has hidden deep within the bowels of the earth. These truths you already know, but do you not understand? There are reasons for things happening the way they have.

"The Whispering Spirits gave to you an hour to share with your husband, yet it was but only an hour, for your destiny is above the clouds in the immortal heavens. For you, when duty to the Lady has come to its finish, when the final hour is calling all men home, you will rise in the end days to take your place beside the king over Heaven and Earth, and this, too, is not a secret to you. Then who is your husband to become in future days? What is his destiny? It is time that you were informed, for you must help deliver it to him.

"There stood a woman upon the throne of Atlantis who in spirit married your husband when she handed over to him the Heart of Atlantis, wishing that she might have been his 'Juliet'. In that hour, Nidgha lifted that man up to provost general, making him the last king of Atlantis. So to Chuphoe was given the heart, gold, and rulership over Atlantis. In the Ending Age, the coming Shiloh will lift up your former husband from his long rest to sit the throne ordained for him by the mouth of the prophetess who declared him the overlord of that kingdom by the will of the Whispering Spirits.

"And as those same Spirits found something good in you - a thief, a liar, and a harlot - lifting you up from the depths of despair to walk in the company of gods, so in Nidgha they also found something good, showing her mercy and compassion, listening to her heart when she said to your husband, 'So much I wish I could have been your Juliet. Maybe there will come a day where you and I shall taste life as it was supposed to be.' That day shall come at the end of the age when written in life's book she is, and sits beside Chuphoe on his throne in New Atlantis. In your glory, you will give to that woman your scepter so that she may become as you, Chuphoe's 'Juliet', to rule beside him until the days of New Atlantis come to their fulfillment."

Juliet was confused with excitement. "My husband will? Nidgha will? What is this all about? How...how is this so?"

Aphrodite squinted, her eyes twinkling. "Silly child, do you really think that we reside in a world alone and unobserved, that because we have been given self will and forge our own paths, there are not other forces guiding us to do their will as they see fit? Even the Maker of Worlds controls not her own destiny, for she has handed hers and ours over to the Whispering Spirits who cannot falter in accomplishing their final purpose. They see what we cannot, feel what we cannot, understand what we cannot, recall what even the Maker of Worlds chose to forget long ago. Always for the will and well-being of the Maker of Worlds do they serve, knowing the ending from the beginning so that all their purposes will be accomplished.

True, they do not steal your self-will away, but tricksy and cunning they are, making one do their will by convincing them that it was their own choice. If one resists strongly enough, then another they may choose to accomplish their purpose. That you have often witnessed through the rise and fall of many kings down to this day. On the other hand, if one has been sealed to do the will of Iam through a vow or an oath, then to the point of binding one up and tossing him to the fish to accomplish their purpose will these Whispering Spirits do such a thing. Your husband was not a man to be bound up by an oath. He did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. Nidgha was not become evil by a vow or oath, but through the evil works of wicked men was she enslaved to damning acts done.

"Enough of your husband and Nidgha... Now as for you, by the deeds of evil men, a slave to wicked and tricksy works you became, thus allowing the Whispering Spirits to overlook those works so that you were judged innocent concerning them and delivered up a free woman. Then, when they witnessed your selfless acts at saving Noah while risking all yourself, they lifted you up into a future sisterhood as I and the Lady share with them. Later, when upon the burning pyre, you offered yourself a living sacrifice through oaths and blood, those same Spirits bound you to the doing of their will, to accomplishing their purpose of mending the broken heart of the One they hold so dear. To their fated path you are now bound. Whether you choose to do this as a free woman...or chained and fettered as a slave as Joseph was, resisting the voices in his visions telling him to depart for Egypt... is up to you, but accomplish their purpose you will."

Juliet's lips quivered as she asked, "So what is the will of these Whispering Spirits, and how am I become their most powerful of weapons among the Haudenosaunez?"

Aphrodite smiled. "It was not by chance that the heart, gold, and kingly rule of Atlantis was whisked away, stolen you might say, from the powers that wished to enslave all mankind. Atlantis will rise again to fulfill a prophecy shared with the Dragon, Good King Philip, who was promised by the Lady that his kingdom would one day shine its light across the world of honest men, gathering those who love freedom and all good things to it. Your husband and Nidgha will bring that kingdom into its final glory. But first it must come to life again as though through birthing pangs and then allowed to grow up through freedom, fire, and storm so that all men may be tested out to the full.

"Now as for that kingdom's mother...it is the gold and heart and rulership of Atlantis. A child born from your blood and Chuphoe's through your daughter, SuNidghaSungSei, will assist in its birthing. Through her also will come the king who will bring all things to a finish in the Final Age. At that time the king will hand over rulership to your former husband so that he may guide the world of men into their new age, and you will hand over to Nidgha your royal scepter so that her visions may give wisdom to his power. Then beside your king you will be lifted up to the worlds beyond to gather your spirit to the Whispering Voices so that you will be changed into a female Cherub like the Lady long ago became.

"As for the father of the coming New Atlantis...it is for this reason that your soul was allowed to suffer the abuses as a child, so that you would be able to become the person you must become. The sire of the coming Atlantis is to be the most fearsome of beasts that will trample the worlds of men. Something it will be so different from all the other beastly powers, there are no words in the languages of men or angels that can describe it. Terrible and wonderful it will be, lifting the glorious works of men to new heights while sinking the world of men to new depths of depravity. To it shall be given the glory to bring to ruin the most wonderful of treasures gifted to men, yet by doing it will that beast give hope to all mankind.

"Even though this beast will be the most reprehensible and fearsome of all the beasts of field, its ending must not come as does the other beasts preceding it. Though wicked and terrible it truly will be, its power and manly might must remain alive so that it may give life to the seed within the woman who is to deliver Atlantis upon the worlds of men. So, by the mother will come the heart and spirit of Atlantis, and by the father will come its power, glory, and might. Thus will arise a kingdom that cannot not be conquered from the outside or corrupted from within."

Looking into Juliet's eyes, Aphrodite confessed, "You, a most dear child of mine, must see to the taming of this beast down to the days when it is handed over to your former husband at the end of the age. You must become the seductress who ever keeps the beast upon its fated path, its passion for you so great that it does not see it is being driven along with hooks in its jaws. Down into the time of Shiloh, you are to ride this beast so that what you desire it will do, giving life to Atlantis. Then, after all has been accomplished, you will step down from off the beast, seducing instead the manly power of Atlantis down to the days of Shiloh. Then he you will seduce by your comely appearance so that a healing of all the nations he will do willingly out of love and passion for you and your sisters. Like New Atlantis, this Shiloh will be brutish in his might, but tender and caring in his compassion. As for the beast, when you have finished with it another, a fornicating imposter, will climb up and sit its back claiming to be its queen, leading it and her to their final destruction."

Juliet gasped in troubled desperation. "This is impossible madness! How can I, even should I gain the cunning of the Serpent and the wisdom of the Lady, be able to carry out this deception against such a terribly wonderful beast? Might Iam be the only one to pull off such a coup against this imposing foe?"

Shaking her head, Aphrodite answered, "Iam plays not in this game. By the will of the Whispering Voices it is to be accomplished through the efforts of the Sky Children and the Haudenosaunez. Yes, child, although you are our most powerful weapon, you are not our only one. The battle will be a long and tediously dangerous one, covering many generations of men. All alone you are not to be, but still your part in this must be played to the full.

"Why even in the straits of time, daughters yet to be birthed from your own inward parts will rise to assist you with reining in the beast so that the Worm cannot change times and seasons. Their deeds will guide the very destiny of nations, all for the purpose of delivering Atlantis down to Shiloh's day. Even the children of your children will lift their banners high in war and peace, crushing the despot while giving hope to the freedom-loving heart. The Whispering Voices have told me as much. But for us - you and me - we must do our part in this contest so those days may come. It is what we have promised, what we have vowed, the reason we were woven within our mothers' bellies so long ago."

Juliet shook her head, dismayed. "I do not know how to do such a thing! I cannot do this, for I will surely fail!"

Aphrodite denied it to be so, reassuring her, "Alone you are not, even now. Look, the spirit of the Cherubs already resides strong within your person. Do you recall your visit upon Zhadrehaudous, how quickly and swiftly the blade you carried - the blade given you by Dancing Stones as a keepsake - dispatched Zhadrehaudous' guards?"

Juliet admitted she did.

Aphrodite continued, "That blade was forged by the hands of my husband's grandfather, Enoch, in days long before that world's ending and of a metal that does not rust or even tarnish with age. Ever you have carried it with you since the day it was gifted you from Tuosol's hand, but by Dancing Stones' will. Never has that blade betrayed you, delivering its killing strike in the darkest of nights against the greatest of opponents. Have you not yet come to understand that a Cherub dwells within that blade, making your heart strong and hand swift when need arises to use it? An assassin's assassin you have already become with that blade."

Juliet hesitated, glancing down to where Dancing Stone's blade hid beneath her clothing, strapped to her lower leg. "I... I have not considered the matter before."

Aphrodite then asked, "And have you not puzzled at feeling compelled to wear that blade above your ankle when you walk about naked in the coolness of a summer night, or even when you are making love to someone dear to you? Rarely are you to be found without that blade, it even resting upon the stones when you take your baths. Have you not considered the matter as to why? My child, even in the secret person of the heart, you know there is power and cunning in that blade. It speaks to you in the quiet of the morning darkness, warns you of danger should a stranger cross your path, or should a companion scheme something hurtful toward you.

"My lovely one, the blade is only the tool of the Cherub dwelling within you, your weapon to wield for the accomplishment of the Cherub's purpose. You... you are also a tool of the Cherub who resides within your soul, your flesh a servant to do its will, to satisfy its desires. It was a Cherub who made you so beautiful and filled your heart with so much passion so that always in heat you have been, taking one man after another to satisfy your insatiable craving for horn's love. It has served the Cherub's purpose that you have become like this, so that the heart and motive of any man you have come to know by merely watching the gleam in his eye or the look on his face. And the women, too, you have come to have a craving for. This also is no accident. These qualities have made you into a very powerful weapon to serve the Cherub's purpose.

"Remember, also, that you have the power for giving the Dragon's Kiss and the Angel's Caress, formidable weapons for a certainty. How many villains have you taken past Heaven's Gate? More than one, I am sure, since mastering your dreaming powers. Men and women cannot resist your charms. When a dreaming vision to them you give, a willing slave to you they become. Why, so hypnotically enchanting is your loving drug that even I have to fight to keep my senses when in your arms. How this yester-eve Baalath managed to refrain from surrendering to your amorous advances was only out of his deep love for Tuosol and his unwavering desire to care for her needs. If we, your brethren in the Blood, struggle to resist your charming ways, then what hope is there for ordinary men of clay?

"So now has come the hour that will change who you are, from being a girl, expert in the arts of romantic love, to a woman, skilled in all the ways of the seductress. Allow the Cherub to wield you as you have your blade. Nations will rise and nations will fall because of the sweet nothings you will whisper in their king's ears in the quiet after-hours of your passionate intrigues. Fathers will slaughter sons, and sons their fathers just to glimpse your stunning beauty. Wives will murder husbands out of their jealous desires to hold you in their arms. Friends will betray friends just for one look into your eyes, for you to whisper only a word of endearment to them."

Juliet's heart was aching, forlorn. Romantic interludes with handsome, willing partners she had long enjoyed, her libidinous pursuits no secret. The woman believed that conjugal acts of love were not only for the bedroom, but to stir the hearts of others so that they, too, might reach out to another to share a heated moment of passion's delights. Often she had performed her acts of love openly among fellow companions, and rarely did she turn down an honest suitor who desired her flesh for his or her satisfaction. So many were the tales of this vixen goddess, Lady Tobanahazz, among the locals that countless young lads had sought out this haunting witch in the forested shadows of evening, growing into manhood wrapped in her arms as she gave to them the mystic dream, their encounter with her little more than an vivid after-vision of possible realities.

Juliet saw all these sensual encounters as innocent frolicking, feeling that fleshly intercourse was the natural outcome of emotional and physical flirtation between willing companions. After all, God had created men and women in a way that only together in passion's heat could the two truly become one. Juliet believed there was no greater gift a woman could give a man than to offer herself up to him so that he could gather his manhood into her flowery, vaulted chambers. If birthing was all God had purposed such conjugal acts for, then why the constant heat she endured? And if only one mate was the intended reasoning, why did the flirting passion not ebb after coupling with that special partner? These were the things Juliet believed, her conscience not troubled by her indulging in them.

But in Juliet's mind, what Aphrodite was asking her to do was a prostituting of her heart and flesh, a whoring of her soul for the gain of another. Whether it be for gold, glory, or power, it was still a whoring, selling her flesh for a price, spreading her feet so that another might gain something for her labors. All these things that were troubling her heart, Juliet poured out with tears and weeping to Aphrodite.

After listening carefully to the child's laments, Aphrodite quietly replied, "To save your husband and others that you loved, you took to Thaladies' bed, even accepting his gold, feeling only satisfaction at a game well played. Other men you have seduced to your bed for less honorable reasons, and should they offer a gift of gold or silver or wine, or anything at all, you have heartily accepted it, viewing it as little more than a gift for a gift.

What truly is prostitution? Does a woman who marries her flesh to a man so that in his house she may dwell in security not sell her vaulted chambers for treasures of food and comfort? As for the woman who trades her body for a little food and a night's lodging from the winter cold so that she and her child might live another day... is she truly a prostitute or a mother giving up her flesh so that her child might live? Has she not given a great gift to the helpless by the trade offered?

"A wanton prostitute you have never been, always giving so that you and others might live. So it is in this case. Noahashonie rode the horn of despair so that a seed for future days might be hidden within the enemy camp. You rode Zhadrehaudous' horn to protect your husband and others. Odethbethel rode Thaladies' horn so that your family might escape Atlantis. So many of womankind, including those of the Haudenosaunez, have sacrificed their flesh upon horn's altar so that some good might come from it. Why, even many women have accepted rape so that others might be preserved safe. Do you wish to imply all of these women committed evil deeds because they traded what nature endowed them with for the good of others?"

Juliet cried, "No! My sisters who have sacrificed so are innocent of any condemnation, they only doing what was necessary at the moment."

Aphrodite stared sternly into tear-filled eyes, warning, "If you condemn the future actions requested of you to be little more than the wanton prurience of a wicked heart, have you not already passed judgment upon all your sisters who have sacrificed their flesh for the giving to others, those women including even me for acts committed to preserve my children alive? What is the law of marriage but some contrivance of man for domination over another's soul? Without man's law declaring it otherwise, intercourse is only an acted upon agreement between a man and woman. What is man's law other than a writ to enslave the world of men? With Iam, there is no law, only love. Then if an act is done out of that love, that act transcends all of man's laws, thus it cannot be judged before Iam in law, but on the scales of love."

Juliet swept a hand across her eyes to wipe the tears away. She slowly nodded in agreement. "Yes, yes, I do understand. Truly, it has been from selfish motive that I have wept, not wishing to bed the vile, filthy, and contemptible creatures that I must to win this coming battle. For too long I have bathed my spirit in complacency, indulging in every sensual delight my world could offer me. Chuphoe provided well for me, maybe too well. It is time I looked beyond my own gratification to that of reasons why I was also gifted to become a Gorgon among the Haudenosaunez. It is time for the little child to grow up. What do you wish your slave girl to do?"

Aphrodite's eyes filled with tears. "My darling, as I have said, none there are who can compare to you in beauty, or in your arts of love. Now you must learn the art of seduction. With me is my Sky Child companion. Together we shall school you in all those arts until none like you will exist in the worlds of angels or men."

Juliet quietly nodded her acceptance of Future's calling. Together, arm in arm, the two women slowly made their way up the path to the Tobanahazz estate. Upon reaching the portico, they stopped. Juliet gazed longingly at the weathered statue of her husband, the man ever protecting the door from unwanted intruders. Ever so tenderly, she kissed Chuphoe's bronzed face, whispering, "I miss you so..."

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