The Fifth Mountain Page 0,53

whoever tried to humiliate him.

"Like this city, I too was destroyed," he told the boy. "But also like this city, I have not yet completed my mission."

The boy smiled.

"You're talking the way you used to," he said.

"Don't be fooled by words. Before, I had the objective of removing Jezebel from the throne and turning Israel back to the Lord; now that He has forgotten us, we must forget Him. My mission is to do what you have asked of me."

The boy looked at him warily.

"Without God, my mother will not come back from the dead."

Elijah ran his hand over the boy's hair.

"Only your mother's body has gone away. She is still among us, and as she told us, she is Akbar. We must help her recover her beauty."

THE CITY was almost deserted. Old people, women, and children were walking aimlessly through its streets, in a repetition of the scene he had witnessed the night of the invasion. They seemed uncertain of what to do next.

Each time Elijah's path crossed that of someone else, the boy saw him grip the handle of his sword. But the people displayed indifference; most recognized the prophet from Israel, some nodded at him, but none directed a single word to him, not even one of hatred.

"They've lost even the sense of rage," he thought, looking toward the top of the Fifth Mountain, the summit of which was covered as always by its eternal clouds. Then he recalled the Lord's words:

"I will cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring the land into desolation.

"And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall fall when none pursueth."

"BEHOLD, O LORD, WHAT THOU HAST WROUGHT: THOU hast kept Thy promise, and the living dead still walk the earth. And Akbar is the city chosen to shelter them."

Elijah and the boy continued to the main square, where they sat and rested on pieces of rubble while they surveyed their surroundings. The destruction seemed more severe and unrelenting than he had thought; the roofs of most of the houses had collapsed; filth and insects had taken over everything.

"The dead must be removed," he said. "Or plague will enter the city through the main gate."

The boy kept his eyes downward.

"Raise your head," Elijah said. "We have much work to do, so your mother can be content."

But the boy did not obey; he was beginning to understand: somewhere among the ruins was the body that had brought him into life, and that body was in a condition similar to all the others scattered on every side.

Elijah did not insist. He rose, lifted a corpse to his shoulders, and carried it to the middle of the square. He could not remember the Lord's recommendations about burying the dead; what he must do was prevent the coming of plague, and the only solution was to burn them.

He worked the entire morning. The boy did not stir from his place, nor did he raise his eyes for an instant, but he kept his promise to his mother: no tear dropped to Akbar's soil.

A woman stopped and stood for a time observing Elijah's efforts.

"The man who solved the problems of the living now puts in order the bodies of the dead," she commented.

"Where are the men of Akbar?" Elijah asked.

"They left, and they took with them the little that remained. There is nothing left worth staying for. The only ones who haven't deserted the city are those incapable of leaving: the old, widows, and orphans."

"But they were here for generations. They can't give up so easily."

"Try to explain that to someone who has lost everything."

"Help me," said Elijah, taking another corpse onto his shoulders and placing it on the pile. "We're going to burn them, so that the plague god will not come to visit us. He is horrified by the smell of burning flesh."

"Let the plague god come," said the woman. "And may he take us all, as soon as possible."

Elijah went on with his task. The woman sat down beside the boy and watched what he was doing. After a time, she approached him again.

"Why do you want to save this wretched city?"

"If I stop to reflect on it, I'll conclude I'm incapable of accomplishing what I desire," he answered.
Chapter 10
The old shepherd was right: the only solution