"We got up at once, wiped our faces, and then we went into the courtyard.
"Remath was standing there, and as soon as I saw him, I did remember him as my father had said. I had never spoken much with him as he was a real malcontent; I mean he hated Nabonidus beyond belief for not giving Marduk's temple what it should have, but he also hated everybody else. He usually stood around the palace and the temple, doing nothing. But he was clever. I knew that. And he was very restless. He was young and smart.
"He studied us now, his eyes very deep set and seemingly better sculpted in his white skin, and his long thin nose gave him a disdainful look. All the rest was the usual mass of curly black hair . . . and priestly robes very fine, down to his jeweled sandals, and then he drew near my father and he said, 'Did Asenath give it to you?'
" 'Yes,' said my father. 'But that does not mean that I will give it to you.'
" 'You're stupid not to. Your son goes into the earth otherwise. What good is that?'
" 'Don't call me names, you heathen,' my father said. 'Let's get on with it. Let's go.'
"In the anteroom stood other priests waiting for us, and as we went outside, we found that there were brightly adorned litters for us and we were taken to the palace, each alone in his own litter, and I lay back trying to figure this out.
" 'Marduk, are you going to help me?' I whispered.
"Marduk answered, 'I don't know what to tell you, Azriel. I don't. I can see what is bound to happen. I don't know! I know this, that when it is over, one way or another, I will still be here. I will be walking the streets of Babylon in search of eyes that can see me, and prayers and incense that can arouse me. But where will you be, Azriel?'
" 'They're going to kill me. Why?'
" 'They'll tell you. You'll see it all. But I can assure you of this much. If you refuse to do what they want, they'll kill you anyway. And they'll probably kill your father, because he knows the plot.'
" 'I see. I should have realized that. They need my cooperation and if I don't give it, well, then it would have been better for me had I never been asked.'
"There came only silence from him but I could feel his breath and I knew he was close. He wasn't material, but it didn't matter; we were even closer in the darkness of this litter, being carried with the curtains drawn through Babylon's hollow paved streets.
" 'Marduk, can you help me get out of this?' I asked.
" 'I have been thinking of that for hours and hours, hours since your prophet spewed out all his filth at me. I have been asking myself, "Marduk, what can you do?" But you see, Azriel, without your strength, I cannot do what I want to do. I can't. I can be the gold god on his throne and that is all. I can be the standing statue carried in procession. Those objects or encasements they already have. And if I were to run with you ... if we were to escape, where would we go?'
"A strange sound filled the little curtained compartment. He was weeping. Then suddenly, 'Azriel, tell them no! Refuse their filthy designs. Refuse them. Don't do it, not for Israel, not for Abraham, not for Yahweh. Refuse.'
" 'And die.'
"He didn't answer.
" 'Well, either way I shall die, no?'
" 'There's a third way,' he said.
" 'You're speaking of Asenath and the tablet.'
" 'Yes, but it is terrible, Azriel. It's terrible. And I don't know if there's truth in it. It is older than I am. It is older than Marduk and older than Babylon, that tablet; it came from the city of Uruk. Maybe from before. It is very old. What can I tell you? Know your own mind. Take your chance!'
" 'Marduk, don't leave me,' I said. 'Please.'
" 'I won't, Azriel, you are the dearest friend of my heart that I have ever had. I won't leave you. Make me appear if you need me to frighten them or stop them. Make me appear and I will try. But I won't leave you, I am your god, your own god, your god, and I'll be with you.'