Servant of the Bones Page 0,48

floated to the top, and the pot boiled and boiled and boiled and the room grew denser and denser with steam.

"Asenath was choking. She could not breathe, and she fell forward on her face. Remath stood staring at the pot. And Marduk merely

looked up at me with wonder.

"At last the pot was empty save what was left of me. Remath kicked and poked at the fire to put it out. He drew as close as he could to the hot metal and he looked down at the heap of golden bones that lay in the bottom of the pot. The cloth was gone, it had dissolved, the flesh was gone, it had dissolved, the liquid was gone, it had dissolved. Only the bones were left and in this sealed chamber all the fumes and particles of what had been my body. And the bones

were all gold.

" 'Call it to you, spirit,' said Remath. 'Call the flesh to you, call it to you now from all the world, call it from the depth of the bones and from the air to which it has tried to flee, call it.'

"I moved downwards and stood on my feet. In the thick torturous steam, I saw I had a body. It was vapor. But it was mine, and then it grew denser and denser.

"Marduk took a step backwards, shaking his head.

" 'What is it? Why do you do that?' I asked.

" 'Oh gods of old, Remath,' said Marduk, 'what have you and the witch wrought?'

'Remath roared, 'You are mine, Servant of the Bones, for I am the Master of the Bones. You will obey me. You will obey.'

"Marduk backed up against the wall, staring at me in perfect fear. 'Remath grabbed a heavy bunch of cloth from the couch to protect his hands and with this he managed to throw over the cauldron.

The bones spilled out and what did not spill he reached for, hurt by the heat until he had all the bones on the floor.

" 'Wake up, old woman!' he screamed. 'Wake up! What do I do now!'

"I stood beside him. My body was dense as if it were living. It was pinkish and vivid as his body, but it wasn't real. It didn't feel real. It had no heart, no lungs, no soul, no blood; it had only the shape that my spirit gave to it, down to the last detail.

" 'Look, fool,' I said, 'Asenath is dead. If you want to know what to do, you'd better bring that tablet to me, I am the only one here who can read the old Canaanite words.' "

Part I Chapter 8

8

Remath did not move. He was far too frightened to move. He even let go of the bones. They lay gleaming on the glazed floor. Scattered, hideous, teeth among them, and the tiny bones of my hands and feet like pebbles.

"Marduk remained still.

"There was a low howling sound gathering round us. I could hear it as if a wind moved through the rest of the palace and temple, slowly, corridor by corridor, alcove by alcove, and then I looked up and saw -the dense world of spirits as I had never seen it before.

"The walls and the ceiling of this cell were gone. The whole of the world was the lost mumbling souls staring and pointing and leaping towards me with grasping hands, yet afraid.

" 'Get away!' I roared. And at once the entire cloud dispersed, but the howling pierced my ears and hurt me, and when I looked again I saw that Marduk's face was alien to me, and no longer afraid, but neither trusting nor gentle as always before.

"I turned, walking easily and light as a man would walk to the body of the fallen Asenath, and I took from her the tablet. The text wasn't easy for me. It was a form of Hebrew, yes, but a dialect from the time before my time. I stood reading to myself.

"I turned around. The priest had withdrawn to the farthest corner and the god merely stared. I, read the words as best I could:

" 'And having seen his death, and having seen the fluids of his body, and the flesh and the spirit and soul boiled into the bones, and sealed in the bones in gold forever, let him be called down into the bones, made to enter them, and made to remain in them, until his Master should call him forth.'

" 'Do it,' Remath cried. 'Go into the bones.'

"I looked

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