has to be done in the old way,' he said, looking at me. 'Explain to him, Priests, don't just stand there. Explain. And you, my brave Azriel, what does Marduk say to you?'
"It was old white-haired Asenath who spoke up, stamping the floor first with her serpent staff to let everybody know they had better shut up for her. 'The god says he will go or stay as he pleases, that the bones inside the statue do not matter to him, they are not his bones, that's what he says!' Then she looked directly at Marduk, 'Well, isn't that what you say, you miserable little god who trembles in the light of Yahweh!'
"The Priests were thoroughly confused. Were they to defend the honor of their Marduk, who wasn't even supposed to be there?
" 'Look, my boy,' said Cyrus, 'become the god. Walk in the procession. You will be delicately covered in gold, though the old formula seems somehow to be ... missing?' He cast a glance at the High Priest. 'You will be alive beneath the covering. You must live long enough to hold my hand, and to raise your other hand to your subjects. And you will live the three days it will take to fight off the forces of chaos, and then return here with me to the Courtyard of Esagila, where I shall be proclaimed King by you. We shall do it faster if we can think of some way to make that acceptable.'
" 'Alive, covered with gold.' I was amazed. 'And then?' "Asenath spoke up. 'By then the gold will have hardened and you will be dead. You will see and hear for a while, but you will die inside, and when they see that your eyes are rotting, they will take out your eyes and replace them with jeweled eyes, and the statue of Marduk will be your shroud.'
"My rather put his face in his hands and then looked up. 'I never saw it done in the old way,' he said quietly. 'But my father's father saw it once, or so he said. And the poison in the gold is what will kill you. You'll die slowly as the gold penetrates, as it reaches your heart and lungs, and then ... as they say, you will at last be at peace.'
" 'This,' said Asenath, 'after you have been carried the full length of the Processional Way, gold and gleaming, raising your hand, even turning your head ever so slightly as the thick coating gets harder and harder.'
" 'And for this!' said Enoch. 'We will return to Jerusalem, all of us, including those in prison, and we will have the means to build the
Lord God's Temple again according to the measurement of King Solomon.'
" 'I see,' I said. 'So in the old days, it was a real man! And when the statue finally crumbles . . .'
" 'You blaspheme!' said the High Priest. 'Those are the bones of Marduk.'
"This was too much for Marduk. Invisible or not, he stood up, throwing over the chair, and with a great thrust of his left hand sent the bones swirling in all directions. They shattered and crumbled against the walls. Everyone cowered. Even I lowered my head. Cyrus did not but stared with wild, childlike eyes, and old Nabonidus put his head down on his arm as if he would go to sleep. The prophet Enoch sneered.
"Then Marduk turned to me. He looked hard at me and then at Asenath. 'I know your wiles, old woman. But tell him everything! Tell him the full truth of it all. You know the dead. What do they say to you when you call them up? Azriel, do what you want to do for your people and your tribe. I will be here afterwards as I am now, and whether you can see me then and give me strength, and whether I can see you and give you strength, no one knows. Whether I can talk to you, no one can say. Your soul will be tested by this grand procession, this fight with chaos, this courtyard coronation, this torment! But this torment will not necessarily give you spiritual life. And you may fade in the mist with all the other weary and wandering dead. The dead of the whole world, regardless of gods or angels or demons or Yahweh. Do what you will as an honorable man, Azriel. For after it is done, I don't know that even I, strong as