Everyone had plenty to eat and plenty of beef as things got back to normal, except Risah sat with the children for the rest of the evening, something unheard of. The beef left over from the tables, got promptly worked by the cooks to preserve for lunch on the following day, but Dantu would not let Risah get up and help.

At the head table, the travelers were fascinated by the entertainment. Anenki sat between Bashte and Gagrena and had a hard time staying straight in the middle. He wanted to lean in Bashte’s direction and away from the woman who would not leave him alone.

Gagrena focused all her attention on Anenki. She spoke cold and civil words to Lili, clearly despised Niudim and ignored Nanna because Nanna was not hers. The rest might as well have been invisible. The woman fawned on Anenki. She kept touching him, his hand, his arm, like they were lovers of old. Everyone figured she wanted the best deal she could get for her city, Uruk, and she willingly used her looks and sex to get it.

Anenki tried to be polite, but he could not always help himself. Gagrena’s ego appeared boundless, so perhaps she did not notice that whenever she touched him, Anenki turned up his nose. When asked, Gagrena admitted she had not dedicated her city to any particular god. She was a woman who believed that the purpose of everyone in the world was to serve her so after that, it did not really matter. Boston acted surprised she had not built a temple to herself and later regretted that she put the idea in the woman’s mind.

“Nanna.” Bashte finally spoke into the void. Nanna started yawning again. “Let’s go check and see that the children are in bed.” Anenki grabbed Bashte’s hand, but Bashte simply said, “You will be fine,” and she let go. Everyone paused to watch them go and then Gagrena spoke.

“We finally got rid of the nursemaid.”

“Not at all,” Anenki responded. He had just about reached his limit of politeness. “She is my good wife, my living wife as opposed to my dead one.” Back when Gagrena first left Anenki, he counted her as dead. He had not mentioned it in many years but just then he could not help himself. Gagrena did not look put off.

“Anenki, I worry about you. You are not as strong as you think. You need a woman beside you, a real woman.”

“I have one, thank you.”

Gagrena frowned ever so slightly as she took his hand and tried to catch his eyes. “I just wanted you to know that I am here for you, just like we were meant to be from the beginning. I would hate to see you all alone; I mean if something should ever happen to young Bashte.”

Lincoln, Lockhart, Katie and Mingus all sat up straight. Anenki looked at them, looked at Gagrena and jumped out of his chair. “Bashte!” He ran for the stairs. The others followed. Lockhart pulled the pistol he wore at his side. Captain Decker brought the rifle that never got out of his reach. Lincoln grabbed the wicked looking knife with which he had cut the big servings of beef. Roland pulled his sword as they ran.

The children were huddled in one bed, crying. Gagrena’s little army of seven men were all there in the big room. Bashte was there too, down on the floor. She did not appear to be bleeding or unconscious, but her hand went to the back of her head where she got struck. Nanna had her hands up, and that made a small shield against the men. She could easily deflect a spear, but she had no confidence of holding the men if they decided to rush her all at once.  No one said, wait or what are you doing, or let’s talk about this. Lockhart and Captain Decker simply fired. Lincoln threw his knife and put his man down—a talent no one knew he had. Roland also put his man down easily with the sword. The other five went down just as fast. Captain Decker got three to Lockhart’s two.

The children screamed at the noise. Nanna dropped her hands and her jaw. Doctor Mishka spoke up from the floor because Anenki had gone away, and the good doctor had taken his place to make sure Bashte did not have a concussion.

“Men and guns. How sick I am of such things,” Mishka said. “Nanna, help your Mama to walk over to the children.”

“Yes, Doctor,” Nanna said, to what was obviously a familiar face. She helped Bashte stand as the rest of the crew piled into the room, which suddenly did not seem so big. Doctor Mishka immediately took Alexis to see which of the men might be saved. She instructed Boston and Katie to staunch the bleeding on the two who only looked wounded while she quickly checked the two who were clearly dead. They saved the other five, though the one with the shattered knee would never walk well again.

“Anenki?” Gagrena straggled in at the end of the line. It took her a moment to realize what happened.

“Here,” Mishka said. She did not have time to play games.

“Where?” Gagrena wondered, before she looked twice at the doctor. This was not the first time she had seen Anenki become a different person, and not even the first time she saw him become a woman. “I am glad you are all right.”

“Bull.” Mishka got in her face. “Anenki is too polite. Let me tell you something. On your own, you are a danger to yourself and to others. You know, in the Soviet days we lock up people like you for your own protection and for ours.”

“What if she had someone to watch over her?” A voice spoke up near the bed where the children had quieted in Bashte and Nanna’s arms. A woman’s voice spoke, one that could only be described as perfect, and it turned every head in the room. Most that could, including the travelers, went straight to their knees at this vision of holy beauty. Gagrena became terribly frightened and fell to her face.

“Inmama.” Little Nippur called and reached out, and Innan picked up the child, kissed her, and held her for a moment on her hip.

“Someone to watch over her might work,” Mishka said. “It would be a headache though.” She went straight back to work on the wounded. That was what she was there for.

Innan appeared to shrug. She raised her free hand and the bullets all extracted themselves. “I believe these are yours,” she said, as the bullets set themselves in front of Lockhart and Captain Decker.

“Yes, er, thank you.”

“That was remarkable to watch.” Innan looked over the dead and wounded and clicked her tongue.

 “Yes.” Mishka poked her head up once more. “You can tell Enki and Enlil that in the future, the human race becomes very efficient at war and killing. That should help them since they have now been given oversight for war. And you…” But it is too early in the game for a rogue city, and maybe a war. “Let us get closer to a dozen cities, get trade going and all that first, I think.”

“Wise as always,” Innan said. She handed Nippur back to her Mama, gave Bashte a sisterly kiss on the cheek and stepped up to Gagrena who trembled and dared not look up from the floor. Mishka noticed before she went back to work. It sometimes felt hard for the Kairos to remember just what the fear of the gods could do to a person. It could transform them, though she doubted anything would transform Gagrena in the long term.

“I will take your city of Uruk,” Innan said. “I am sure Anenki will help us get things on the right foot. Meanwhile, a temple would be nice. Enlil and Enki both say there is nothing like it.” Innan put her finger to her cheek to think. “And now I have to ask.” She stepped up to Lockhart. “Why are you here? You don’t belong here.”

Lockhart’s tongue refused to work in the presence of the goddess of desire. Fortunately, Mingus and Roland were most respectful, but being spiritual creatures themselves, they were not affected by the goddess in quite the same way as the humans.

“We are travelers through time,” Roland offered a more thorough description than Lockhart usually offered. “We will be moving on in a day or two.”

“And this one?” Innan snapped her finger and a ghoul appeared beside her. The ghoul’s face looked expressionless. It appeared unable to move or speak. “He also does not belong. I don’t suppose this is one of yours.”

“Not ours, Lady” Mingus answered. “But I believe he may have been the source of the poison, earlier.”

Innan smiled which just about caused several people to faint from her beauty. “The elder elf is wise. I think we need not retain this one.” She waved in the ghoul’s direction and the ghoul skipped the dying part. He turned straight to a misty green smoke and left only a green smudge on the floor. “And now, my children.” Innan clapped her hands and she, Gagrena and the seven dead and wounded from the floor all vanished.

“Hey!” Only Doctor Mishka protested. “I wasn’t finished with that one yet.”

“A ghoul scout.” Mingus shook his head. “That means there are nine more out there.”

“Eighty-nine,” Boston corrected.

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MONDAY

The Elders, another 4-part episode so another Thursday post. Be prepared and read as the Travelers from Avalon find spaceships on Malta and people who are there who threaten history and plan to ruin the future. Until Monday, Happy Reading

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The travelers gathered early for supper, full of guarded praise for Anenki’s little city. “A bit too communal for my tastes,” Captain Decker summed up the consensus of the freedom-loving Americans.

“Of necessity,” Anenki responded. “Before we began it was anarchy. I mean, most people were nice and helped their neighbors when they could, but ultimately it was every man for himself. Now, in order to make the kind of division of labor a city needs, it has to be communal. You want a man to spend his days working in clay, not soil. But he is thinking he has to grow crops and hunt and fish and tend to his goats and oxen to feed his family and have some to trade. That way very little time can be spent on the clay. So we guarantee, as well as we can, that he will receive the food he needs for his family, and the cloth or clothing and whatever else may be necessary so he can concentrate on the clay. We have to be communal to do that. You might call it excessively high taxes.”

“I understand,” Katie Harper spoke up. “It makes sense to me, at least. Sumer was marked with a more communal kind of living than later civilizations.”

“Remember, we are transitioning,” Anenki added. “To be honest, I think Marx got it completely backwards. Communism was really the first step, not the last. Capitalism only developed with a money economy, but that won’t happen for, what, three thousand and some years.”

Several women interrupted by placing trays of fruit and vegetables on all the tables. Some of the people began to come into the banquet hall as well, talking and laughing in their own little groups.

“Tell me about your guest, if you don’t mind.” Lockhart finally asked the question everyone had been avoiding. Anenki glanced at Bashte who encouraged him without a word.

“All right,” he said, and set himself to hold nothing back. “About twelve years ago when we were first starting out, some of the motivation to build a city where people could live safe and secure was because of one man. Nogao had convinced a number of people it was easier to take the labor of others than do the work themselves.”

“Thief,” Lockhart said quietly. Anenki nodded.

“Well, we just got things going and he showed up with more than a hundred followers to try and take over the whole work.”

“Don’t tell me, egged on by Gagrena,” Alexis said.

“Sweetheart,” Lincoln reached for her hand. He imagined she might be wrong accusing the woman.

“Sorry, she just reminds me of the type of personality that I despise in women.”

“You have very good insights,” Bashte said, to confirm the accuracy of the accusation.

“Yeah, they give all women a bad name,” Boston added.

Anenki nodded the whole time, but then they all paused again as two men carried in half a bull for the main table. There were roasts brought in for the other tables as well and the room started filling up.

“Where is Gagrena?” Bashte asked.

“Fashionably late?” Alexis suggested.

“Wanting to make a grand entrance,” Anenki nodded again.

“Anyway,” Lockhart wanted back to the story.

“Anyway, Nogao got killed. I killed him, and his people were left leaderless. My brother Agur took most of them with some well-trained experts in the various disciplines and went north, back to the Tigris where we originally found him. He started a second city, one that Enlil named after our baby, Nippur.”

“We chiefly worship Enki in Eridu,” Bashte said.

Anenki cut off the questions with a simple word. “I flipped a coin, so to speak. Besides, Agur had met Enlil, and the god had always been associated more with the Tigris and Enki with the Euphrates, so it all worked out.”

“Except for Gagrena,” Katie pointed out. “I take it she did not follow your brother.”

“No,” Anenki said the word with an underline. “She was not about to have any man rule over her. Not even Enlil. She took about a third of the group and broke away to build her own place. She calls it Uruk. It is on the Euphrates, but upriver approaching half-way between Eridu and Nippur.” Anenki’s voice trailed off and silence fell only interrupted by Lincoln tapping his knife gently on the table.

“Where is that woman?” Lincoln asked.

“Hungry?”

“That beef smells great.”

“Why not cut yourself a steak?” Captain Decker offered.

“Wait,” Anenki held up his hand. “It is polite to wait. Though maybe I should eat before she gets here. She will just give me indigestion.”

“You don’t like her much,” Boston understated the case.

Anenki countered. “Actually, I feel sorry for her. She has been at me all afternoon about how she misses me, and we really had a good thing and she foolishly let me get away. I would say she is trying to put the moves on me, and she is still rather nice to look at. But you know, now that I am not a teenager with hormones ruining my brain, I can see that she does not lie very well at all.”

“Father,” Lili spoke up. “Maybe I should fetch Mother.”

Anenki did not have time to answer because his sister Dantu came in with Risah in her arms. “Anenki!” She shouted. “Don’t eat the roast!” Risah collapsed to the ground.

Everyone moved, but Alexis got there first. She laid her hands over Risah, and that familiar glow appeared for those who could see it. “She has been poisoned,” Alexis announced in the sudden silence of that big room.

“Keep back, give them room.” Captain Decker and Lockhart had to play police officers.

“Maybe I can draw it out of her,” Alexis suggested. She began to work with her hands. No one saw Gagrena come into the room, but when she realized what was going on, they all heard her.

“You are trying to kill me!”

Bashte jumped. “You are not stupid. If we wanted to harm you, we would not test it out on Anenki’s sister.”

A sudden flash of darkness rose-up and knocked Alexis back on her rump. “Magically protected,” she managed to say as she rushed her hand to her head to fight the dizzy feeling.

“Nanna!” Anenki immediately called for his daughter, the daughter of the goddess Innan.

“Me? Daddy?”

“You can do it. I’m right here, but right now you are the only one who can do it.”

“Daddy?”

“Hurry, please,” Dantu pleaded.

Anenki brought Nanna to Risah and had her kneel. When he let go, Nanna closed her eyes and put her hands out like Alexis. Nanna’s glow looked much richer, much fuller and more golden in color. They saw the darkness come up and push against her hands. Nanna shrieked, but Anenki laid a hand on her shoulder and encouraged her.

“You can do this. You are stronger than any darkness. Get angry.”

Nanna got angry, and the darkness cracked and broke and blew away on the wind.

“Son, your hand,” Mingus said, and Roland gave it. “Concentrate,” Mingus added as he reached down and snatched Alexis’ bone wand. He waved it slowly in the air, twice and then gave it a sharp jerk. A pale blue light popped from the wand, like a globe of light. It began to float around the room, slowly at first before it got up a good head of steam. It went from table to table, separated twice and came back together before it finally lighted on the roast at the head table. The whole roast glowed soft blue before the darkness came out of the roast and swallowed the light.

“Only our roast is poisoned,” Roland said, as Mingus paused to catch his breath.

By then, Alexis had gotten up to coach Nanna. “There it is,” Alexis said. “All gathered in one place. Now raise your hands, slowly.” Nanna did, and a small drop of something came right out of Risah’s body. It followed Nanna’s hands into the air. Nanna squealed.

“I did it. I did it.”

Anenki handed Alexis a cup in which she caught the drop, while Bashte hugged Nanna,

“Mama, I did it!” Nanna hugged her back.

“I’m so proud of you,” Bashte said.

As Risah began to come around, Lili, who had knelt beside Dantu and held Dantu’s hand, looked up at Bashte. Bashte put her other arm around Lili and kissed her cheek as well. “I’m proud of all my children,” she said before she apologized to Dantu. “I’m sorry I don’t have another arm for you.” Dantu looked up and nodded, but her eyes were full of tears, and she had no words.

“And you too.” Bashte let go of Nanna and Lili to give Niudim a big hug. The young man understood enough to know he almost lost his aunt Risah, and he was in tears as well. Nanna and Lili also went to him and joined in a kind of group hug.

“Ah, the power of love,” Anenki said, and turned to face Gagrena. “True love conquers all.” Anenki paused. “Did I just say that?”

“Yes, you did,” Lockhart responded from the table where he and Captain Decker were lifting the roast on its tray. Lincoln and several of the men were there to help. They intended to bury the beast somewhere out of town.

“But I hate clichés,” Anenki finished.

“This far back it probably isn’t a cliché yet.” Katie Harper grinned.

“But father,” Roland turned to Mingus. “Who would do such a thing?” In answer, they heard an angry moan come from beneath their feet. Lockhart and Decker had to shuffle their hands to keep from dropping the roast. It sounded like someone was very frustrated.

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THURSDAY…

Don’t miss tomorrow’s conclusion of the story.

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