am dead, Lord King,' I said. 'And all that is left of me is here in this sack, and covered with gold. Now you must repay me.'
" 'How, Azriel?' he asked.
'Who is the greatest sorcerer in all the world? Surely Cyru knows. Is the strongest and wisest of wise men in Persia? In Ionia? Or he in Lydia? Tell me where he is. I am a horror. I am a horror coven Marduk fears me now! Who is the wisest man, Cyrus, to whom you would trust your own damned soul if you stood here as I do!'
"He sank down on the side of the bed. The harlot meantime had covered herself with the sheets and merely stared. Marduk came silently into the room, and though his face was no longer cold with suspicion it lacked the warmth we'd always shared.
" 'I know who it is,' said Cyrus. 'Of all the wizards ever paraded before me, only this man had true power and simplicity of soul.'
" 'Send me to him. I look human, do I not? I look alive? Send me to him.'
" 'I will,' he said. 'He is in Miletus, where he roams the markets daily, purchasing manuscripts from all the world, he is in the great Greek port city, gathering to himself knowledge. He says the purpose of all life is to know and to love.'
" 'You are saying then that he is a good man?'
" 'Don't you want a good man?'
" 'I hadn't even thought of it,' I said.
" 'What about your own people?'
"The question confused me. In one instant I knew a whole list of names and I could smell skin and hair, and then the identity of these beings was gone. 'My own people? Do I have people?' I tried desperately to backtrack, to recover my memory. How had I come to this room! I could remember the cauldron. I could remember that woman but what was her name, and the priest I'd slain, the god, the good gentle god who stood there, invisible to the King, who was he?
" 'You are Cyrus, King of Persia and Babylonia, King of all the world,' I said. I was horrified that I did not know the names of those I loved, for surely I had only moments ago. And that old woman who had died, I had known her all my life! I turned and looked around the room in confusion. It was filled with offerings, gifts from noble families of all Babylonia. I saw a casket, made of cedar and gold. It wasn't big. I went to it, and opened it.
"The King watched speechless. Inside were plate and goblets.
" 'Take them if you wish,' said Cyrus, very well masking his fear. 'Let me call my Seven Wise Men to me.'
" 'I want the casket only,' said 1.1 emptied out the contents gently, so as not to dent these precious things and then I held the cedar box and I could smell the cedar beneath the red silk padding that lined it. I tore open the poor linen sack and into this casket I first put the tab let with all its writing, including words I hadn't even read aloud yet, and then I laid down gently my bones.
"I wasn't even finished when the beautiful harlot had come, and she put out a golden silk veil. 'Here, to wrap them,' she said. 'To cushion them.' I took it and it wrapped the bones, and she brought me another of deep purple, and I accepted that and wrapped them more securely so that when the casket moved now they wouldn't make any sound. I had scarcely looked at them.
" 'Send me into them, Cyrus,' I said. 'Send me into the bones!'
"Cyrus shook his head.
"Marduk spoke up. 'Azriel, go yourself into them and then come out again, do it now or you will never be able to do it, or you will never know. This is the advice of a spirit, Azriel. Cast aside all the particles that make up your form and seek the darkness and if you cannot come out, I will call you forth.'
"The King who could neither hear nor see Marduk was confused. Once again he mentioned his Seven Wise Men, and indeed, I could hear men outside the chamber, I could hear their whispering.
" 'Don't let them enter, Lord,' I said. 'Wise men are liars; priests are liars; gods are liars!'
" 'I understand you, Azriel,' said Cyrus. 'You are an angel of might or