Enmity

by Paul J Fowler

  Mica, who had been sitting quietly wishing he was in another place, was startled by a shriek of delight. The prostitute, whose name was Elia, rushed from her room to the waiting area. She had wiped the garish make-up from her face and had a small bag of belongings in her hand. Now fully clothed, and clean-faced, she drew a stark contrast with the other girls who were waiting for customers.

  The proprietor, a brusque and surly character, entered the room to angrily protest her leaving. Elia’s face turned white with fear at his appearance. Lethan rose to his full height and stepped between the man and the young girl. Lethan’s confident glare stopped the man in his tracks. Mica immediately moved to secure the entrance to the house. The man wisely decided against fighting the tall visitor, but unwisely continued his loud complaints. One blow was delivered, and seconds later, the man was bound, gagged, and hidden in one of the back rooms of the brothel. No chances could be taken that would endanger Elia or Mica and the Twins as they left Khazin. Doubtless, he would soon complain to the City Guard if not detained

  Elia hugged Mica and Lethan, kissing their cheeks and thanking them profusely. Turning to Loran again, she now wept openly and attempted to drop to her knees and kiss his feet. Loran would not allow it and drew her to her feet. She embraced him warmly and kissed his cheeks, alternately wiping tears and joyfully crying out. Seconds later, she had disappeared into the bustling city.

  Seth watched Adam’s face soften as he heard Loran finish relaying the events of their visit to the brothel. Loran’s kindness to a prostitute touched everyone in the party. Seth was glad to see Adam’s anger fade, if only for a few moments.

  Before Elia left, she asked Loran a question.

  “She said – you’re not really a merchant, are you?” Loran explained. “No. And you are no longer a prostitute if you will heed my words.”

  Loran told her she should, for her safety, leave the city. She should find her family or go south with Adan’s caravan. Elia was welcome to join her life to Adam’s people in Har Shalem. He had given her a significant amount of silver and told her she was now ransomed by the One God. His mercy had visited her, but it was her choice to embrace His path. Then the joyful shrieking started.

  “Fathers,” Loran now spoke cautiously. “We passed their plaza, their royal crier talked of war against Jeru-Adamah. Do they mean our Salem? They talked about claiming the daughters of the earth. Do they mean our people’s daughters?”

  Seth and Adam looked at each other again, concern rising. Three cities would soon go to war against them. The term used in the plaza literally meant “city of the earth” but could also mean “city of Adam.” The expression “daughters of the earth” in common speech could mean any human female. Since they used the term in connection to Adam’s city, Seth and his father had no doubt their people’s daughters were the objective. Adam’s suspicions that their people were being targeted were confirmed.

  “I locked eyes with the priest the soldier spoke of,” Lethan said. “I saw him in the plaza near the king’s crier. His stare – he’s not human. He was suspicious of us.”

  “Perhaps a Fallen,” Seth pondered aloud. “Perhaps the son of a Watcher – not all children of Fallen angels become giants. Probably an emissary of the Watcher Prince these kings make offerings to.”

  “We must hurry. We must destroy the high place before they arrive to offer sacrifices,” Adam stated urgently.

  The hunters quickly readied themselves for the journey. Mica, Loran, and Lethan discarded their clothing, replacing it with their customary gear. Seth equipped himself with two javelins and retained his brace of swords as well as his war club. Despite the additional armor they had worn the last two days, they could still travel quickly. Seth and Adam took the lead position.

  “That noise again!” Adam suddenly said, frustrated and looking about. He looked at Seth, hopeful he heard it as well. Seth, with some chagrin, shook his head negatively.

  “I’m sorry, Seth. Lead us, Son,” Adam stated.

  “Aye, Father,” Seth replied.

  Seth set a brisk pace, the fastest his hunters had yet undertaken. The springs were north. He was confident they could make it by late afternoon. They headed east, away from the city, and forded the great river. Once they were out of sight of Khazin, they turned due north. They followed the lesser used paths, traveling north, hugging the base of the hills that formed the east side of the river valley.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Abominations

  “Adam, where are you?” Seth called out. “Father!”

  Seth had just drunk deeply of the spring water. The whole group had been pushed to near exhaustion, including the horses. They had traveled at the fastest possible pace for over five hours after they left Khazin. To force them further without rest invited trouble. Mistakes are made when soldiers get tired, deep in Nephilim territory, mistakes could be deadly.

  Curiously, the youngest among them, Dinak and Jathan, seemed the most taxed. They had the least amount of field experience, while the older soldiers had learned to pace themselves from multiple excursions. But even Seth felt the urge to sit and regain his breath. He resisted and instead remained upright, stretching his limbs and taking deep breathes.

  The Great River was to their left, perhaps a thousand paces. The river valley had grown more rugged as they progressed north. The group had hugged the base of the mountains, keeping their presence obscured by the trees and brush there. Fortunately, the edge of the valley floor offered enough level ground for them to maintain the speed Seth required. The riverside was better for travel but would also feature encampments and other travelers, and Seth had no allowance for distractions.

  Now deeper into Nephilim territory, they found no human villages. The hunters had earlier passed two vacant cities that had been decimated and burned. They had no time to investigate them, but from a distance, Seth surmised one to be human, and one had been a city of giants. The Nephilim, when not terrorizing humanity, had a tendency to fight amongst themselves.

  As Seth scanned the area for Adam, he felt pounding in his temples as his body demanded more blood and oxygen to recover itself from the hours of running. As his breathing began returning to normal, Seth became conscious of another sound. Did he hear it or feel it? An unnerving, near-constant hum could be heard. Seth strained to listen, he began to feel the vibration in his bones. Puzzled, Seth then overheard a rumbling noise and what seemed to be the movement of earth and stone. Perhaps nearby, it was difficult to determine distances by sound among the mountains. Seth looked eastward in the direction of the noise and saw Adam in the distance, walking up a steep hill alone.

  “Ready yourselves!” Seth commanded the hunting party, his demeanor visibly alarmed.

  As he ran, Seth instructed Mica to stay with the horses while the twins took their bows and set a perimeter. Seth motioned for Jathan and Dinak to position themselves twenty paces beyond Adam when Seth reached him. The two young men, with Seepha in tow, began running to their position.

  His father was near the top of the hill when Seth caught him. Seth found him wide-eyed with nervous energy, angrily glancing about as he marched. Adam, clearly obsessed by the noise, simply continued forward, ignoring any effort to slow him.

  “Abominations!” Adam repeated several times as he struggled to move to the top of the hill, slowed by Seth’s arms on his shoulders. Adam shook off Seth’s grip and resumed climbing the knoll.

  The vibration was unsettling, a relentless assault on the senses, and growing louder as they neared the top of the hill. Seth needed to contain Adam as something threatening was likely beyond the next hill. Seth needed his father in his right mind, not blindly charging forward in bloodlust. Seth wrapped his arms around Adam’s waist and clung to him, using his body as a dead weight to slow him.

  “Let me go, Son! Judgment must come upon them!” Adam cried out in anger. “I have heard it spoken in heaven, I have s
een His face set against them...”

  Adam continued voicing apocalyptic warnings as he ignored Seth’s demand to stop walking. Suddenly Adam seized Seth’s wrists and broke his son’s hold. Adam spun quickly and with a sudden heave, sent Seth into the air and tumbling backward into the earth.

  Almost as quickly as he found the ground, Seth kicked his legs out, pushing his body upward and regained his standing position.

  “Not a second time, Father!” Seth vowed quietly as he rapidly closed the distance between himself and Adam.

  Adam had resumed walking to the crest of the hill, his back to Seth. When his son’s hands grabbed his waist, Adam turned again to repel his son’s efforts to restrain him.

  Adam was stronger than his son, but Seth was faster than his father. As Adam attempted to push Seth into the earth again, Seth pulled back while gripping Adam’s right forearm. Aided by Adam’s forward motion, Seth used his father’s weight against him. Twisting inward and drawing Adam’s arm over his shoulder, Seth lowered his frame and rose up forcefully with his powerful legs, flipping Adam’s body over his own. Adam, feet flying over his head, landed with a crash. Now Seth was uphill from Adam, blocking his path. Without a word, Adam was back on his feet and moving upward.

  Smack!

  Seth’s open hand stung Adam’s face.

  Adam stopped, bearing a puzzled expression of anger and unbelief.

  The rest of the hunting party watched from a distance, shocked at what they were seeing. Seepha strained against her leash with angry whimpers while Jathan restrained her.

  “I gave Eve my word!” Seth declared forcefully, still blocking Adam’s way. “I told Mother – we would get them home,” Seth stated, pointing at Jathan and Dinak.

  “Eve...my Eve,” Adam echoed her name as he glanced at Jathan. Adam’s posture changed. The distant expression was fading as Adam started returning to the urgency of the moment.

  Seth knew his Mother’s name was likely the only thing that would alter his Father’s frame of mind. Father had fixated on the mysterious noise long before anyone else had. Clearly, Adam heard God’s voice or had another vision. Something had ignited this prophetic state.

  “What have you seen, Father?” Seth asked, slowly and quietly.

  “The children of Watchers are near - I can smell them! I have seen His judgment!” Adam replied urgently. “They have defiled man and creation...mixing their fallen nature with what God has declared to be good. He is angry, His mind will not be changed...”

  Adam struggled to find words. Suddenly he knew he could not fully voice what was churning within him. As Adam looked at Seth’s face, he knew he did not need to.

  “Something evil is beyond this hill, Father,” Seth implored in a calm, measured voice. “We cannot go forward without a plan. Father, I need you.”

  There were a few moments of silence. Adam’s expression then changed, and his posture softened. Anger had given way to peace.

  “Lead us, Son,” Adam stated calmly.

  “Aye, Father,” Seth said.

  Seth signaled to his men to stay in place. Adam followed his son to the crest of the ridge. An uneven plateau needed to be crossed before the hill dropped into a valley. The source of the unearthly vibration had to be in the valley below. The sound of earth and rocks shifting was heard as well as an occasional grunt from something substantial.

  Quietly Seth and Adam crossed the plateau, crawling on their stomachs until they reached a group of boulders at the edge of the hill. From the cover provided by the stones, the two men peered into the valley below.

  It’s hard to provide an unusual sight to men who have lived for centuries. Nevertheless, Seth and Adam exchanged curious glances as they surveyed the events below them.

  Two Nephilim were in the valley below, well over one hundred paces to the left of Seth and Adam’s position. The rugged land before them was an intersection of rocky hills. Seth and Adam were now facing north, peering into a broad ravine that briefly extended west to east before it narrowed into mountain paths. To the west, the valley ultimately tapered into a single trail, eastward it divided into two rugged trails.

  The two gargantuan giants were digging into the side of the opposite hill across the valley floor, moving enormous quantities of brown, sandy dirt to unearth boulders. Slabs of massive white limestone were in heaps near their excavation. The towering giants were the height of four or five ordinary men, top-heavy like forest simians, their shoulders and arms disproportionately large in relation to their body. They wore simple clothing, a tunic that stretched over one shoulder and dropping below their waist to cover their mid-section, bound with a woven belt. Their large, clumsy hands had three gnarled fingers, instead of four, opposing a stout thumb. No sandals covered their large, awkward feet. They wore no armor and carried no weapons, though one was digging into the earth with a felled cedar tree tipped with a metal, spade-like head. The other monstrosity was slowly wrenching enormous stones from a vein of limestone his partner had unearthed.

  The Giants’ features were grotesque, devoid of any human grace, and almost expressionless. Their equivalent size and mannerisms suggested they must be related, brothers, or perhaps cousins. Thin, frizzy brown hair was atop their heads. Their arms and legs were hairy as well. The similarities did end, as one turned its head, Seth and Adam observed the giant who employed the tool had a single enormous eye. A single horn protruded from its head, curving slightly backward. His companion had two eyes and two, horn-like ridges flowing from his forehead towards the rear of his cranium. Though they were over one hundred paces away, Adam and Seth recoiled from their stench. A slight breeze carried their musky odor downwind to the hunters.

  While they carried a horrific odor, Seth was grateful to be downwind from their enemy. Immediately below them, approximately fifty paces downhill stood four Fallen. Angels have remarkable senses and would have detected them had the wind been at Seth’s back.

  At last, the source of the humming was discovered. Three winged Fallen were standing in a rough circle around a massive, rectangular limestone block. They were holding curious devices that emanated the otherworldly vibration. The winged angels wore long white tunics, bound at the waist with a dark belt. A fourth Fallen, tall and wingless, stood near them, holding an exquisitely crafted staff.

  The massive stone was suspended in the air, floating perhaps three feet off the ground. The limestone block was the length of three elephants and probably the weight of several more. The three, winged angels held what appeared to be slender silver trumpets into which they blew intermittently, though the hum continued after their lips left the mouthpiece. All three instruments faced the stone in a rough circle as they emanated their humming sound. The trumpets were straight with a single loop at approximately a third of its length nearest to the mouthpiece. Crystals were attached between the mouthpiece and the loop. There also appeared to be letters and symbols inscribed on the instrument. Silver discs, the size of a small plate, were located on the ground beneath the slab. The discs shimmered and vibrated in conjunction with the trumpet’s sonic issuance.

  The wingless Fallen, clad in dark clothing, would occasionally prod the stone with his staff, moving or spinning the boulder almost effortlessly. The four were appraising the stone quite intensely from several angles. Suddenly the four began chanting in a language Adam and Seth knew was not human. One of the winged angels blew into his trumpet for a moment then held the instrument in his left hand. The angel then walked closer to one end of the stone. The four resumed their chant, and suddenly a shining blade appeared in the angel’s right hand. The angel brought the fiery pulsing tool down on the end of the stone. There was a crack like electricity when the impact was made. The blade disappeared before a shorn chunk of limestone hit the ground. The angels seemed satisfied at the adjustment, and they resumed their inspection of the massive rock.

  Seth quickly formed a plan of attack. He lo
oked back to the edge of the previous hill they had crossed. Using hand signals, Seth motioned for Jathan to alert the twins. After Jathan relayed his message, Seth pointed to his right. Quietly, the younger men and Seepha moved over the hill and across the short plateau, forty paces to Seth’s right. Loran and Lethan were soon positioned with Seth and Adam.

  Loran bravely tried to mask his concern when he peered over the crest of the hill and saw the Nephilim. Even Lethan looked apprehensive when he saw them. Most of the giants the twins had seen were approximately twice a typical man’s height, some taller and some less so.

  Adam, noting their concern, spoke quietly and confidently to them.

  “Mindless drones,” Adam whispered. “Simpletons – leave them to me. I will contain them.”

  Lethan, eyes raised, nodded apprehensively at Adam’s words.

  “Trust me,” Adam said without humor.

  “Trust us, Son,” Seth said with a grin. Lethan unsuccessfully attempted to return his smile, leaving Seth surprised that he could find humor where his son could not.

  “Just hit your marks, archers,” Seth whispered. “If you fail me, you will have to drag my dead body home and explain this incident to your mother.”

  Lethan’s expression hardened, uncertainty gone. Seth knew a challenge to his skill would sharpen his resolve. The twins pulled arrows from their quivers, laying them at the ready.

  Final instructions were given by whisper and gestures. Seth prayed the war prayer of his people, gripped a javelin in each hand, and readied himself to launch the attack.

  Thrones of the Watchers

  Enmity Part III

  Giants and Monsters

  The angels defiled their women, who begot giants and monsters. The entire earth was corrupted by this blood and by the hands of these giants who devoured much flesh. What the giants did not eat the monsters attacked.