Chapter Three
Erdu pulls up a weed from the ground and smells it. He tastes it and spits it out. They have walked all night. Erdu told Nut which stars to follow. The leather sack is heavy, and the boy is exhausted.
“You are lucky I saved you,” says Erdu. “You should give thanks. You would have starved to death in that filthy village. Soon we will have meat and grain and salt.” Erdu clutches the amulet around his neck. “And much more.”
The blind man pulls the boy close. “Now I will tell you about a bush that grows in these hills. You must find it. Then we will go to the citadel at the mountain pass.”
* * *
Erdu sits on the hillside. Nut walks up, out of breath.
“What does it look like?” Erdu asks. “Tell me.”
“It has a high wall made of stones. The gates are guarded. I cannot see inside. Many camels are tied up outside the gates. There are scaffolds for the dead, toward the sunset.
Erdu rolls his vacant eyes. “Yes, many camels, that is good. Scaffolds, good. Is there a ditch beneath the wall? A ditch for their waste?”
“Yes, there is a ditch.”
“Very well,” says Erdu. “Now I will tell you what you must do tonight.”
* * *
That night, after the sun has disappeared behind the crags, Nut slips from roof to roof, wiping the offal from his hands and knees. He lurks in doorways and listens. He slips through the city like a shadow. Just before sunup, he returns to Erdu.
“They speak our tongue,” Nut says. “They believe in many gods. They mark their doorways to keep spirits from entering. They sleep with the bones of their ancestors. But first they take them to the scaffolds to be picked clean.”
“Very good. What else?”
“There is a fat man. He is the one.”
“You have the root?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know what to do.”
“It will be done.”
That night Nut again sneaks into the city.
* * *
Nut and Erdu stand in the morning light, perched on a ledge above the trail that winds from the main gate to the scaffolds. A tall man wearing a black robe leads a procession out through the gate. Behind him, a group of men shoulder a litter bearing a fat corpse. A crowd of mourners follows. They cover their eyes with their hands, beat their chests, tear at their clothes, and murmur like angry birds.
As the procession approaches, Erdu booms in his loudest voice from atop the ledge, spreading his arms to the sky. “BEHOLD, THE END IS UPON US! WOE TO ALL WHO DO NOT BELIEVE!”
The procession shuffles to a halt.
Again Erdu booms, “THE EARTH SHALL BE WRACKED! MOUNTAINS CRUMBLED! He waves his hands wildly over his head and wails, “THE HEAVENS RIPPED ASSUNDER!”
Mourners in the procession look at each other and shrug.
Nut takes the blind man’s hand and leads him down to the trail while Erdu loudly repeats again and again, “WOE TO ALL WHO DO NOT BELIEVE!”
As Nut and Erdu approach the procession, the tall man in the black robe steps forward. “What do you speak?” he demands. “Are you a prophet or a madman?”
Erdu waves his hands over his head. “I SPEAK OF BOILING RIVERS ENGULFING SINNERS! FOR WHO AMONG YOU HAS NOT SINNED?!”
The crowd is hushed. Then someone shouts, “What do you mean by ‘sin’?”
Erdu howls and waves his arms furiously, “THE SUN DARKENED! MOUNTAINS CRUMBLED! THE END IS NEAR! WOE TO ALL WHO DO NOT BELIEVE!” While Erdu rants, Nut slips into the crowd. He sneaks up to the body lying on the litter and stuffs some crumbled leaves into the corpse’s mouth, then he disappears into the throng.
A woman pushes her way forward. She shouts, “How do you know that the end is near?”
Erdu flaps his arms and rolls his head. “KNOWLEDGE OF THAT DAY IS WITH MY GOD ALONE!” He flaps his arms so wildly that he twists his shoulder. He points at the woman, and while grimacing in pain rebukes her, “Can you say that the end is not near!? Well, I can! Or, I mean, I cannot…. NO ONE CAN! What I mean is that THE END IS AT HAND! ETERNAL SUFFERING AWAITS! Erdu pounds his chest with his fists. WILL YOU BE SAVED? OR WILL YOU BE BOILED ALIVE?
Now all eyes are on Erdu. He talks deliberately, while raising his face to the heavens. “If a dead man lives? … Perhaps this dead man? … If this dead man lives … If he rises from the grave … Would you BELIEVE?”
The mourners glance from one to another without speaking. Finally someone shouts, “But that cannot be! He has been dead since last night.”
Erdu cocks his head toward the sky and bellows, “IF THIS MAN LIVES, WOULD YOU BELIEVE?!”
The crowd hushes, with a few murmurings of “Well, maybe…”
Erdu rolls his vacant eyes heavenward. “TAKE ME TO HIM!” Nut grasps Erdu’s hand and ushers him to the litter. The crowd parts before them.
Erdu leans over the body and performs bizarre gestures. He utters strange incantations, and hops around on one leg. He pauses, panting vigorously. Again he hops and utters more gibberish, but soon stops, accompanied by considerable gasping.
The mourners reach down, pick up pebbles, and hurl them at Erdu. He flails his arms to defend himself and screeches “WOE TO ALL WHO DO NOT BELIEVE! WOE TO ALL WHO DO NOT BELIEVE!”
While Erdu is being pelted, the corpse begins to jerk. It flops off the litter and tumbles onto the sand. The dead man’s eyes fly open and his chest heaves. He rolls over and coughs out a gob of leaves.
A woman screams, “HE LIVES!”
People fall wailing to their knees. They beat their chests and pull at their hair. They wail, “HE LIVES!”
Erdu yells above the clamor, exhorting the crowd, “CITIES CRUMBLED! SINNERS ROASTED IN FIRE! MY GOD IS THE ONLY GOD. HE WILL SCORCH THE EARTH! YET THE RIGHTEOUS CAN DRINK FROM THE RIVER OF LIFE!”
“I WILL OBEY!” shrieks a woman. She rushes forward, falls to the ground, and kisses Erdu’s feet. “WHAT MUST I DO?” she pleads. The throng of mourners presses forward, imploring, “WHAT MUST WE DO?”
Erdu raises his arms with great flair. All is quiet.
He clears his throat. “Uh, em, you must... give away that which is of this world. Rings. Bracelets. Those sorts of things. I will offer them to my God.”
The woman crouching at Erdu’s feet looks up. “What? Give away my baubles?
“Well, uh, um…. Yes.”
“Why should I give away my bracelets? My beads? What next? MY SHOES?”
Erdu yells, “WERE YOU NOT FASHIONED TO SERVE THE GODS!!!”
“You are a fool,” snarls the woman. She struts away, shaking her hips.
Erdu yells at her, “WILL YOUR WISDOM SAVE YOU FROM THE SCAFFOLD!?”
Without looking back, she makes a gesture with her fingers.
The fat man, who has been lying in the dirt, sits up. He squints. He points to Erdu. “So, who is this God that you serve?”
Erdu fidgets with the amulet around his neck. “Uh... THE GOD WHOSE NAME IS KEPT SECRET! BUT NO MORE OF THIS! TAKE ME TO THE WELL! TAKE ME TO THE WELL!”
Nut leads Erdu inside the city gate with the throng close on their heels. At the well, Erdu produces a small chunk of shiny black rock for all to see. He tosses it into the well. He then commands: “RAISE THE BUCKET! BEHOLD THE GLORY OF MY GOD!”
The bucket is filled to the brim with shiny black rocks. The people gasp in disbelief. They fall to their knees, proclaiming Erdu their Lord and Savior. They prostrate themselves, arms outreached, smiting the ground with their hands.
Erdu turns to Nut and mutters under his breath, “The Great God provides for those who provide for themselves.”
​
* * *
​