Authors: Janet Morris,Chris Morris
“He goes back to his godly seat in Emeslam and rules there until he is needed to bring his pestilence and mayhem once more. You have seen what we do, Eshi. We hide nothing. If Ki-gal ever were threatened, we Sibitti would gladly fight by your sides, if Erra would allow.”
“Would you fight against us, if Erra said? If he commanded you?”
Kur’s wings went up in surprise and he forced them down. Eshi’s wings went higher and stayed high.
“Yes,” said the second, son of heaven and earth. “If Erra so commanded. We would. We would have no choice.”
“Then you are no friends to the Kigali. You are no friend to me.”
“Eshi…” Kur touched Eshi’s pinion. “He is honest with you, as friends are honest with one another.”
Tread lightly, Eshi, with this peerless warrior.
“I am only a weapon, Eshi. Not a man. Not a dead soul. Not a Kigali. I can be no more than what I am. But I am your friend. You can call me and I will aid you if the gods allow. Someday you will understand. You Kigali, you can be whatever you wish. I admire you.”
Eshi said nothing. Wary, defiant, suspicious and hurt, he stared at the second of the Sibitti.
The second of the Seven rose to his feet. “I must go down. Erra and my brothers are looking this way. They will ask me what was said. I must tell them, Almighty Kur, what they want to know.” This weapon was discomfited. His molten eyes held clouds like the sulphur billowing down from the mountain peak. Shrouded.
“I know,” Kur told him.
“You have raised a great one, Almighty Kur. You can be proud.”
“I am still raising him.” Kur took Eshi under his left wing.
They watched in silence as the second of the Sibitti made his way down the slope to his fellows. All eight put their heads together and then looked upslope, where Kur sat with Eshi in the embers of the day.
“Almighty Kur?”
“Yes, Eshi.”
“They are not good, these Sibitti.”
“No, they are not. But they are not evil either. They are firm in their purpose. As are we.”
“Do you trust him, this weapon?”
“I trust him to be a weapon. As I trust you to be full of questions. Now come with me into the sulphur pool: the waters will soothe your skin. And you can soothe my skin. It has been a long day for the ‘prince’ of Ki-gal.”
“Prince? If I am a prince, then you are my king, great Kur, forever and ever.”
Eshi threw himself upon Kur then, in a rush of legs and wings and arms, and grabbed Kur about the neck, and buried his head in Kur’s breast.
They sat that way until Eshi’s stiff body relaxed. Kur stroked Eshi’s downy spine and his shivers eased. Eshi started to hum.
Then Kur got to his feet with Eshi in his arms and waded into the warmth of the sulphur pool. And it seemed to him then, holding young Eshi in his arms, that nothing could ever be more perfect than this night in Ki-gal under the smoldering vault above, with the tribe fluttering down to join the feast below.