“I have killed all those who would harm the children of Abraham and Sarah in this city,” it said. The ground rumbled at the creature stepped toward Jethro. “To protect those across the sea, I need what you possess.” The creature grabbed Jethro by his robes, bringing him up so they could look at each other eye-to-eyeless-socket. With its other hand, the creature brought up Jethro’s right wrist, indicating the ring on his middle finger. “This,” it said with a lipless smile.
An explosion echoed down from the heavens, as if the sky itself had cracked open and everything around them suddenly became shrouded in a blinding green light. Jethro screamed as he felt every atom in his body ripped apart one by one.
A moment later both he and the creature were gone, as if they had never been there.
Chapter 10
THE TABLET OF REVELATIONS
Jean was thrown back against a bookshelf, ancient tomes raining down. A blinding green light enveloped the room. She could hear the air pop as vacant space was instantaneously filled, warm air gushed past, stealing the breath from her lungs. Somewhere deep inside her, within the recesses of her mind, she sensed something terrifyingly familiar. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw it standing above her, the creature from the factory, Rabbi Brickman’s golem. At its feet, to her horror, lay the Green Lama, bloody and broken, near death. His head rolled limply to face her. His eye lids were bruised and swollen and, though they were open, she could barely see his irises.
“Ne-tso-hbum …” he whispered in relief, a pained smile on his bloodied lips. “You’re okay…”
Her stomach twisted. “Tulku… Oh, God… Tulku.” She wanted more than anything to run to him, but fear pinned her down.
Across the room, Ken cowered with his back against the Rabbi’s desk, his eyes wide and skin pale from fright. “Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap,” he chattered breathlessly.
Rabbi Brickman, who now looked minuscule against the towering golem, was the only one still standing. Stepping forward, he began speaking to the golem in what Jean now recognized as Hebrew. She could see that despite the Rabbi’s arched back and stern intonation, his hands were shaking. The creature whispered back in its dark sandpaper voice. The Rabbi glanced down at the Green Lama and frowned in understanding, saying his name aloud.
Jean found the courage inside her to force herself back to her feet, but was unable to move any closer. “What is it saying?” she whispered.
The Rabbi turned and considered Jean, as if he had forgotten she was there. He sighed deeply and left his gaze fall to the floor. “He says that his task here is finished. But he needs this one,” he said, indicating the Green Lama, “if he is to continue his mission elsewhere. The Green Lama, yes, I’ve heard so much about you. You are a good man. Now you will help us avenge the children of Abraham and Sarah across the ocean.”
Jean’s brow furrowed. “Avenge? This is about vengeance?”
The Rabbi’s shoulders sagged. “In a way.”
“It is or it isn’t,” Jean said incredulously. “There ain’t no in-between here, padre. You created this thing for revenge? Against who? The Germans? For what? You had it kill hundreds of innocent—“
“Don’t you dare call them that!” the Rabbi shouted, his face red and eyes blazing. He thrust a finger at her as if he were accusing her of a heinous transgression. “Don’t presume to comprehend the circumstances of this creature’s existence. It is not as black and white as it may appear. Every single person the golem killed at that consulate was or will be guilty of the greatest crime ever committed.”
“What are you talking about? What crime? Look, no one’s denying the Nazis are a bunch of goose-stepping fascists, but—“
“Six million!” the Rabbi screamed, spittle tracing his lips. “Six million of my people will be sentenced to death, suffering horrors unimaginable before the end! Men, women… children, all will fall victim to these… monsters! Firing squads, starvation… gas chambers… crematoriums filled with children’s screams as they are burned alive. There was no innocence there!”
Jean found herself pressed against the wall, her eyes wide in terror. “How… How do you know all this?” she whispered.
The Rabbi backed away, tears streaming down his wool-covered cheeks. Jean could tell he was fighting back sobs.
“Because I… I saw it. I saw it all… I was on a pilgrimage in Jerusalem several years ago, hoping to learn more of the Talmud and Kabbalah. While there I chanced upon an archeological dig at an ancient temple. I always had an interest in archeology…” The Rabbi wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve. “I wandered off into the ruins. I should have expected the wood to be weakened after so many centuries… Falling through, I found myself in an antechamber… a trophy room for the ancient Hebrews, spoils of war. There were so many… beautiful things.” The Rabbi allowed himself a small grin at the corner of his mouth. “On the walls I saw images of the Ark of the Covenant, the Staff of Ra! There were crystal skulls and gold plated sarcophagi of the pharaohs…!” Rabbi Brickman’s face turned dark, his eyes never the leaving the floor. Each breath he took was shorter than the last; it was as if he were still there, in the darkness of the lost antechamber, fear rattling his bones. “But at the far corner… Hidden in the shadows… Hashem, save me… The most terrifying thing I have ever laid eyes on. It was… a statue of a… creature… an ancient and forgotten god. It was hideous, but I couldn’t look away. All those amazing things and I found myself drawn to that horror… As I drew closer I realized it wasn’t carved… not etched or chiseled… but grown, like coral. At the base, I still remember, it had the same phrase written over and over in almost every ancient language.” Tears were streaming down the Rabbi’s face, soaking his beard. He shuddered. “‘Cthulhu fhtagn,’” he whispered. “‘Cthulhu waits…’”
Jean shivered. Gooseflesh covered her arms and her hairs stood on end. Why did she know that phrase?
They all stood in silence; even the golem seemed smaller somehow. The whole room seemed to have grown cold. The shadows seemed deeper, the colors faded, as if every single thing in the world were suddenly afraid.
“Ka… Kuh… Kuhchooloo?” Ken stammered, swallowing a sizable lump in his throat.
“But that wasn’t all you found, was it?” Jean asked, her voice uncharacteristically hoarse. “There was something else.”
Rabbi Brickman eyed Jean suspiciously. “Yes. Yes, there was. The statue kept pulling me forward, like I was tied to some invisible leash. I’m not sure I would have been able to stop had I not tripped over it.”
“Over what? The Kuhchooloo statue?” Ken breathed. He remained on the ground, with skin as pale as ever, yet his eyes were enraptured.
“Cthulhu,” the Rabbi corrected before continuing. “It was resting just beneath the statue, as if it had fallen off of that horrendous thing. It was a solid piece of stone, unlike anything I had ever seen before, glowing in the darkness. Hieroglyphics covered both sides, and when I lifted it off the ground, I was, in an instant, like the prophet Elijah. I saw what was to come. Clear as day, I witnessed the horrors that will befall the Diaspora. I felt every death as if it were my own; I felt the snowflakes of ash that were once my people’s lives. Six million lives… I saw it all because of this tablet of jade.”
The Green Lama’s eyes went wide, as if waking from a terrible dream. “The Jade Tablet,” he breathed. “No! That’s impossible.” He began to push himself off the ground, but not before the golem pinned him down with its foot. Jean thought she heard something snap inside him, but if the Green Lama felt any pain, he refused to show it. “You can’t—couldn’t have… There is only one…” the Green Lama struggled against the foot of the golem. “I have the Jade Tablet!”
“Do you, now?” the Rabbi knelt down to face the Green Lama directly. “Did you really think that such power could be contained in only one object?”
The Green Lama’s face fell in stunned silence.
“I stole away with the Tablet,” the Rabbi said as he stoo
d up, “easily hiding it on my person. I told no one of the antechamber or its contents. I often wonder if others ever found it... Though, no, I suppose they wouldn’t, they were not meant to… I immediately returned to America and, knowing what I knew then, I decided that I couldn’t sit idle, waiting for this new pogrom. I had to act now, I had to protect… avenge my people.” The Rabbi gazed up at the monstrosity of clay, laying a hand on its chest. “I needed something indestructible, unstoppable. I decided to create a golem, just as Rabbi Loew did so many centuries ago.”
“But you couldn’t do it,” Jean said, not understanding how she could know this. It felt as though someone were whispering to her from the back of her mind, telling her everything.
“No,” the Rabbi said with a sigh. “I couldn’t. The methods of Rabbi Loew were lost to me. I had everything I needed. Clay untouched by human hands, the Sefer Yetzirah. I knew every prayer, every incantation. But, even then… I couldn’t… I wasn’t holy enough. Nothing I could do would bring the hunk of clay to life until...”
“Until, finally, you placed the Tablet inside the clay and the golem came to life,” Jean finished for him.
“Yes…” the Rabbi eyed her. “How can you possibly know that?”
Jean stared into the golem’s vacant eyes. She closed her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks as she shook her head, sobbing. “I don’t know. Goddammit, I don’t know.”
The Rabbi nodded mournfully, as if he understood. “I sent the golem to the German consulate, as a test. He would look into the souls of everyone there and see if they would be guilty of the genocide. All but one was.” The Rabbi allowed himself a soft laugh. “He was Jewish. Heh... The boy didn’t even know it.”
“And the burning clay,” the Green Lama said. “It was the effects of the Tablet. The clay becomes toxic to human skin once it’s removed from the golem’s body.”
The Rabbi nodded as he turned back to the Green Lama. “One of the many mysteries of the Tablet, yes? It readily breathes life into the inert and acts as poison to the living.”
“Rabbi…” the Green Lama said. “You don’t know what you’ve unleashed…”
“Son, I want you to understand I never meant to harm you—any of you,” the Rabbi said, sneaking a glance over at Jean before turning back to the Green Lama.
“And what of all the other innocents killed along way, Rabbi?” the Green Lama asked. “Because of your golem, dozens of people lost their lives tonight, perhaps more.”
The Rabbi sighed heavily. “This is war, Lama, against a darkness we have not known before. We were lucky at the embassy, but if I am to save my people, innocent lives will be lost. Such is the price of justice. But the hour grows late; the drums have begun to roll. I need your Tablet; it is the only way my golem will be able to stop that monster in Germany.”
“The sound of thunder… The green light… Teleporting…” the Green Lama breathed.
“Yes, another unexpected side effect of the Tablet. It is limited now, but once we remove the Tablet from you,” he said, tapping the Green Lama’s ring with his pistol, “and place it on him, he will be able to take our war to Hitler’s door.” The Rabbi leaned in closer to the Green Lama and whispered. “We both know there is only one way to remove the Tablet from you... Please know that I do not make this decision lightly. But think of it. Through your sacrifice, millions will be saved.”
“There has to be another way…” the Green Lama struggled to say.
The Rabbi grimaced, visibly torn. “I’m so sorry, son. I’ve seen the future... there isn’t.” He stood up and nodded to the golem, whispering to it in Hebrew. Turning to Ken and Jean, he said, “I would look away. This will not be pleasant.”
The golem picked up the Green Lama like he was a rag doll, his arms and legs hanging limp.
Oh, God no… Jean thought, realizing the truth. Whatever this Jade Tablet was, the only way to remove it from the Green Lama was to kill him. The golem placed its massive hand around the Green Lama’s skull, ready to squeeze it like a ripe grape.
Suddenly, a voice whispered from somewhere at once within and without her: Now, Jean, your only chance! Without thinking, Jean charged at the golem, launching herself off the side of the Rabbi’s desk and wrapping her arms around the creature’s head.
“Get off him!” Rabbi Brickman shouted. He aimed his pistol and fired, grazing Jean’s back.
Jean cried out in pain, but refused to lose her grip, all the while the words Truth and Death echoing from the back of her mind. The golem thrashed, trying to throw her off, screaming as if she were burning it. It tried to reach behind to grab her, but thankfully, to no avail. All the while the Green Lama, too weak to fight, sagged in the creature’s hand.
She could stop it, she could save him—she had to.
Truth. Death. Over and over again.
The Rabbi kept firing, the bullets going wild, some even hitting the golem, until Jean heard the telltale clicks of empty chambers.
“No!” the Rabbi roared. “Golem, kill them both!”
The golem slammed her against the wall, rattling the foundation of the building.
“Jean!” Ken shouted. “Jean!”
Through the blur of motion she saw Ken standing again, though his Pali costume seemed thoroughly soiled.
“Little busy, right now, Ken!”
“Jean, the symbols!”
“What?!”
“The symbols on the creature’s head! You have to get rid of the alef! Get rid of the first symbol to the right!”
“No!” the Rabbi shouted, diving at Ken.
Jean reached up with her left hand and brought it up against the golem’s forehead, feeling the burning of its eyes against her palm. She dug her nails into the creature’s clay skin and pulled.
The clay suddenly scalded Jean, making her feel as if her hand was on fire. She fell to the floor, screaming. The golem let out a blood-curdling shriek, letting the Green Lama drop from its grip before letting loose a blinding green light out of its eye sockets. For an instant the room was once again enveloped in a terrifying green hue. A howling wind came down upon them as if they were suddenly sucked into the vortex of a hurricane. Beneath it Jean thought she heard eerily familiar voices, but couldn’t make out the words.
One thing was for certain: They weren’t human.
And then, all was silent.
• • •
The green light disappeared in an instant and the room came back into focus. Everything was in shambles: the desk, chairs, and bookshelves. Bodies were scattered around the room, like dolls tossed about by an angry child. Ken was working at pushing aside a chair that had fallen atop him. Jean stumbled forward, clutching the clump of clay in one hand, while holding her head with the other. The Rabbi lay on the ground unconscious, his forehead bleeding.
Jethro, however, felt as though he had been ripped apart from within. His robes were in tatters, his body bruised and broken. Smoke smoldered off his shoulders, and yet despite all his injuries he was forcing himself to stand up, his eyes focused on one thing. At the center of the room, where the golem had once stood, was the Second Jade Tablet sitting atop a pile of powdered clay.
Another Tablet, he thought. How could that be possible? He took a step forward, feeling the energy radiate out from within the Tablet, mixing with the one he wore on his finger. Though there were known forgeries, everything he knew about the Jade Tablet had only ever indicated that it was singular in existence. Did you really think that such power could be contained in only one object? What if the power was singular but the access to it plural, like electrical outlets tied into a central grid? That was why he had awoken several days ago feeling as though reality had been thrown off balance, why he became so weak around the golem, and why his powers drained so quickly. Now, with the golem defeated, the power was no longer being divided—what would it mean if he were to have both Tablets?
But his legs could no longer support him. He was beginning to collapse in front of the Tablet when Jean
ran caught him just in time.
“You okay, Tulku?” she whispered.
Jethro looked into her eyes, his blurred vision unable to diminish her beauty. Despite the Tablet, he remembered the real reason he had fought so hard. “Ne-tso-hbum,” he said with a bloody smile. “You saved the day.”
“Yeah,” she said with a small, tired chuckle, “a bit of a change from the usual, I know. I’ll try not to let it happen again.”
They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, breaking away when they heard Ken shouting. Before Jean looked away, Jethro thought he saw her cheeks starting to flush red.
“Holey moley!” Ken clamored, as he broke free of the chair. “What the hell was that all about?!”
“That… was the power of the Jade Tablet, unleashed in a single instant,” Jethro said as he slowly knelt to pick up the flat green stone, measuring the markings across its face, soaking in the power of the Second Tablet.
“And you wear that on your finger?” Ken ventured. “Remind me to never piss you off.”
Jethro shook his head as he read over the Second Tablet. The markings were similar to the original, and yet slightly different, altering the meaning of the words and phrases completely. Whereas the original held the secret to creating the radioactive salts, this Tablet hinted at darker, more dangerous powers. “This is impossible.”
“What?”
“This is the Jade Tablet, only… different. Not a copy, or a forgery. A separate artifact, a stone in this instance, tied into the same power… I don’t believe this.”
“A whole lot of hocus pocus,” Jean interjected.
“A whole lot,” Ken agreed as he knelt beside them. “Can you see the future?” he asked tentatively.
Jethro shook his head. “If this Tablet truly grants that ability, it has not revealed it to me yet.”
The Green Lama: Horror in Clay (The Green Lama Legacy Book 2) Page 10
