by Daniel Caet
The trip was extremely pleasant for me because it gave me the opportunity to spend more time with Liliath. Every minute by her side had become a kind of balm that made my existence bearable and her laughter was able to bring me the greatest joy on the darkest day. Our pilgrimage passed without incident and we arrived at the village on the morning of the third day in time to greet the bride and groom and their families, and for Liliath to dress for the start of the celebrations. She, like all the other unmarried girls from the invited families, would occupy a privileged place at the banquet where everyone could see them and from where they could catch the attention of potential husbands and their families. And precisely that attention so desired by Armesh was the beginning of the end.
From the first moment it was clear that Liliath was the most beautiful girl in the party. Suriath had wisely chosen the colours of the dresses that Liliath would wear with the utmost care to make sure that her daughter's attributes would stand out properly. And she really could not have done better.
The groom's family had prepared a large tent to welcome all the guests during the celebrations. The interior was warm thanks to a stove strategically distributed and that prevented the night chill that blew from the desert reached the interior. Cushions and low tables had been distributed throughout the space and were full of food that sweetened the atmosphere with its smells, and wine jars to brighten the spirits. The floor had been covered with rugs and mats and the servants were aware of any need of the guests while the families of the bride and groom fulfilled their hosting duties. At the back of the tent, a small wooden structure covered with cushions pointed to the place where the girls had to sit next to the bride so that everyone could see them. When Liliath entered the tent that night with her first dress, everyone let out a murmur of exclamation. All the marriageable girls had made the best effort to be beautiful, but none of them even approached the light she gave off. The cobalt blue-embroidered silver dress chosen by Suriath contrasted so much with her red hair that her face seemed to be surrounded by flames. Her eyes painted with Kohl seemed like a deep sea where every man in the room would want to submerge, and her lips were the most desired fruit of all that was in the party. She was a vision full of magic. A magic to which I discovered that I was not immune either.
It soon became obvious that Liliath had caught the attention of the men at the party, particularly the groom’s relatives, a group of eight men, some of them already married and clearly drinking more wine than their bodies could tolerate. I was with Armesh and Suriath at the other end of the tent with the bride’s guests and the situation was making me more and more nervous knowing, how I knew, how low the human being can fall when he gets intoxicated in that way. Suddenly, movement began to take place and my senses shot up in alert. Some of the groom's friends stood in the center of the tent trying to block our view of the side where the girls were sitting. In a second, I watched as one of the groom's friends went to the girls and grabbed Liliath by the arm and lifted her by force of the group where she was. The rest of the girls screamed and Armesh immediately turned to see how the man was trying to drag Liliath outside. The two men who accompanied us drew their swords and tried to reach them, but the other two men who had placed themselves in the middle of the tent managed to stop them. The commotion spread through the space and made everyone try to get away from what was happening making it even harder for us to get to Liliath who was screaming for the man to let her go. The man shouted in his drunken voice that he would let her go when he was done with her, so she could go back to her mother as he dragged her even further towards the back exit. The chaos inside the tent was complete and several fights had started at the same time among the guests, increasing the confusion. Then it happened. In just a few seconds the man flew through the tent until he hit one of the posts not one but three times. When he finally fell to the ground, I could see how Liliath's eyes looked at him with an intense hatred that I had never seen in her, and immediately the man's clothes burned with such intense flames that they turned him into a ball of fire. The man was shaking and screaming in a terrible way as the flames devoured him, but the speed with which they covered his body made all help impossible. In Liliath's face a cold smile like ice was the last thing that both Armesh and I could see.
The fire quickly spread to the rest of the tent and generated a wave of panic that culminated in a stampede of bodies trying to abandon it. In the middle of the chaos I managed to push my way to Liliath. When I got to her, her eyes looked at me without recognising me. Without wasting time, I took her in my arms and went out to the back of the tent just before it collapsed burning on the poor wretches who were still inside.
Once outside, Suriath and Armesh came up to us screaming and asking Liliath if she was okay. Armesh wanted to go back to the people who had been trapped inside the tent, but I retained him because it was now a fireball, and no one inside could have survived. Armesh looked at the tent in horror until, suddenly, he disappeared and returned a few minutes later with his servants.
“We're leaving,” he said very seriously.
“Armesh, we must make sure Liliath is well,” Suriath replied. “Let me at least …”
“If we do not leave right now, someone will want to make Liliath pay for what happened, woman!”
The look that accompanied that sentence was enough for Suriath and myself to understand what he meant. And so, as murderers in the night, we left the wedding back to Uruk.
The return trip was horrible for everyone. The fear of being pursued made Armesh force us to travel night and day, without rest, trying to make our way back to Uruk's safety as quickly as possible. In the short breaks that Armesh allowed us, he sent his servants to nearby villages trying to collect news that would indicate if a group had been sent in our pursuit. The news had spread as fast as the fire in a dry field. In all the villages there were rumours of what had happened near Ur. The story was very similar everywhere, a witch had broken into a wedding killing all the guests. Sometimes, the witch was replaced by a woman-shaped demon that had attracted men with their sexual games to finally kill all the guests in a big fire. Some people even swore to have been there and seen the devil walking out of the flames. Fortunately, the name of Liliath or her family seemed not to be part of the story yet, although I knew it would not be long before a guest at the wedding pointed her finger in the direction of the culprit.
Meanwhile, Liliath seemed not to be affected by what happened. She remained impassive during the whole trip, without saying a word and on more than one occasion I found her alone, watching at dusk and with a smile on her mouth that for some reason froze my blood. Everything changed when we arrived at Armesh's house. Suddenly, it was as if what had happened at the wedding had never taken place, and as soon as she set foot in her house Liliath smiled again and was herself again to Suriath's relief.
Unfortunately, it was not the same for Armesh. The night of our arrival, he passed it completely awake and the next morning I found him in the patio, sitting in the same place where I had seen him last night before going to bed. His face was serious, so much so that I did not dare bother him even though I knew what must be going through his head. To the incomprehension of what happened and the fear that it would be repeated, it was added the dilemma of his responsibility. As a city council member, Armesh was required to report any situation or person that could pose a risk to Uruk, even if that person was his own daughter. Failing to do so, he risked having the council discover it in another way and, in that case, not only could he not guarantee Liliath's safety, but that of Suriath's and his own. I could only imagine how hard that moment must be for him. There was no right decision, no matter the path that he took, the damage to his family was irremediable. So Armesh took the only possible decision.
One of the servants came to my room that night just before I turned off my light to tell me that Armesh wanted to talk to me urgently in the garden’s farthest area. Despite the strangeness of the request, I dressed immediately to go to him. Whe
n I arrived at the place he had chosen, he was waiting for me with only a small candle.
“Follow me, son,” he said, using the word he had never used before with me.
I followed him without saying a word to one of the walls of the garden. There, Armesh put his hand behind one of the bushes and I could hear the sound of a lock opening.
“Come in, please,” he whispered, turning away to let me pass.
Behind the door, there were stairs that plunged into the earth and led to a room where someone had lit two or three candles. The room was small and had only one table and a couple of stools. On the table, there was a large empty bowl and, on the wall, a large polished bronze mirror.
“This is Suriath's lair, or at least that's how I like to call it,” he said with a slight smile. “Suriath says she uses it to prepare her healing potions, but I know that it is actually the place where she practiced her vision with Sadith. But do not tell her I know” he added, smiling again.
“Armesh, why all this? What is so serious that we cannot speak in full light and in the house?”
“My good friend, since you arrived at this house we have welcomed you as one of our own. I myself have begun to see in you the son I could never have, and I trust that you will feel for us the same love that we have for you.”
“I cannot be more grateful for everything you and your family have done for me, Armesh. Without you I would be dead,” I said, trying not to bring back to my mind the images of my fall.
“Everything we have done for you we have done with all our affection, but I am afraid that now it is me who needs your help, my son.”
His eyes filled for a moment with tears and seeing that man, who for me had meant the same expression of strength, serenity and all the good that a human can be, on the verge of collapsing made my eyes flooded too.
“Just tell me what you need, Armesh,” I said, putting my hand over his.
He stared at me for a few seconds until finally he could speak.
“I want you to take Liliath as far away from here as possible.” The request left me speechless. Seeing my indecision Armesh continued talking. “You know as well as I do that sooner or later the news of what happened at the wedding will reach Uruk and the ears of Gilgamesh and the council. It will be a perfect opportunity for certain council members to get rid of me and seize everything I have with the excuse that I have hidden something that could be a risk to the city and its inhabitants. But, that is not what worries me, but what they will do to her. If accused of witchcraft, they will try to use it as a demonstration of the power of Gilgamesh and punish her publicly. Do you know what that means?”
He did not need to say. For hundreds of years I had seen terrible examples of what the human being can do with what he does not understand and fears. Witches, sorcerers, seers. All of them were tolerated while someone needed them. Until they became a real or imagined threat to someone. Then, fear fuelled the worst of human nature, cruelty, and turned family, friends, neighbours into creatures capable of the most terrible actions to eliminate the source of that fear.
“I can organise a caravan to the west. Using my contacts, it will not be difficult for me to make it credible. If you join that caravan, in a few days you will be out of reach of the council. Once you reach your destination you will not wish for anything, you will carry letters of credit in my own handwriting that will allow you to live comfortably.”
“Armesh …” I interrupted him. “Does she know?”
The man slowly raised his head and the sadness in his eyes was absolute.
“No, she does not know. And she should not know.”
“But she will never agree. As soon as she discovers what is happening, she will try to return here.”
“Suriath will take care of it, giving her a sleeping potion. When she wakes up you will be too far away to try to return. From that moment you will be responsible for her welfare.” He approached me and holding my hands he stared into my eyes. “My friend, Suriath and I are in the autumn of our lives. Our daughters have just begun to live, and we cannot allow anything to happen to them. We need you to protect Liliath, even from herself if necessary.”
The grief I felt for that man and that woman at that moment was enormous. They had not chosen that situation and yet, life forced them to make the maximum sacrifice for the good of those they loved. Armesh did not need to tell me that both of them would not see their daughters again and that was something they were aware of. Once the council discovered that Liliath had disappeared, Gilgamesh would turn his anger on those who were left behind.
“Armesh, come with us. There is no reason why we cannot all run away together.”
“No lad, we both know that cannot be. Once the caravan has left I will appear before the council and I will convince them that I want to deliver Liliath to them, but that I need to bring her back from the place where she is hiding. That will give you at least a couple of days of margin.”
“I see you have everything planned, but ... can I ask you why me?”
Armesh got up and looked in the copper mirror with his back to me. His voice changed when he spoke to me again.
“It's no use denying what we both saw at the wedding, Helel. Liliath has great power, one that she is not capable of controlling, and that power can be a blessing or just the opposite. Liliath is my daughter and I would give my life for her, but we both know that what happened to that man was not an accident. It was Liliath who provoked it, consciously, and I'm afraid to think that ... she enjoyed it. I do not know what took hold of her at that moment, but I cannot erase her smile while the man shouted in agony from my mind,” he said putting his face in his hands. He turned to stare at me before continuing. “My daughter is a powerful creature who finds herself in a situation that she cannot control and can barely understand. Only a creature of equal power that is in the same situation can help her.”
Those words paralysed me. His eyes fixed on me, but there was no anger in them, only comprehension and a great need for help. I tried to speak, but Armesh would not let me.
“No, do not say anything! It is not necessary. I guess you're wondering how I've known. The blessings of my family are great, Helel. Your arrival in this house was never unexpected. Sadith predicted in her dreams days before we found you in the desert that the power of heaven would come to our house. When the servants found you, I had no doubt that it was you and that our destiny, that of my whole family, was to welcome you and help you. To the best of my ability, that is exactly what I have tried to do. Today I am the one who needs you, my son.”
Armesh had done much more than helping me. If I was alive, even in a human body, it was thanks to him and his family but also, to his love and affection that had given a meaning to a life that did not have any. From his words I deduced that Liliath had never told him the details of her vision and that Sadith's vision, as Liliath had told me, was only partial, but I did not believe that would have made a difference. The man's heart was so big and so selfless that for a moment I could not doubt that, even if he had known exactly what power of heaven Sadith was referring to in her vision, he would have welcomed me and helped me in the same way. I, who had been abandoned by my family and expelled from my home, had found a home and unconditional love in Armesh's family and that was something that I now had the opportunity to pay.
“I'll do whatever it takes to help you, Armesh, ... father,” I said without hesitation, and Armesh hugged me tightly crying in my arms.
We agreed that we would leave the following night and that he would arrange everything necessary for our departure and talk to Suriath to make sure that Liliath took the sedative without suspecting anything. Back in my room I could not sleep for several hours. The idea of spending more time alone with Liliath made me enormously happy and, given the circumstances, I felt bad about it, but I could not stop thinking about her eyes and her hair, red as the flames that burned that man in the wedding. And with the image of that intense fire, I finally fell asleep although my dream
did not last.
I was awakened by screaming in the house. I got up as fast as I could and ran to the source of the sound. I found Suriath and two of the maids in the house in the courtyard, by the fountain, crying inconsolably. I guess I knew what was happening before they told me.
“What happened?”
“Gilgamesh’s soldiers came this morning at dawn, they have taken Armesh and Liliath. Someone has reported what happened at the wedding. The council wants to question both of them.”
I felt a part of me collapse, the escape that Armesh had prepared so hard had a reason to be after all, but had come too late.
“Where have they been taken, Suriath? I will go after them, we cannot leave them alone, the council will understand if we explain what happened. We can go as witnesses.”
“That would only make things worse, Helel. The city council is almighty. Only Gilgamesh is above them. They will not let you enter the interrogation room and it is even possible that they will arrest you along with them. As much as it hurts me to say this, we must wait. Armesh will know how to defend himself and defend our daughter before the council and we should trust him.”
