Cain (6 page)

The
insistent, probing touch of the women's hands provoked
in him an
erection he could do nothing to repress, always
supposing such a thing is
possible. They laughed and, in
response, redoubled their efforts
on his erect organ, which,
amidst much laughter, they
referred to as a silent flute, and
which suddenly leapt from their
hands, as supple as a snake.
The result, given the
circumstances, was all too predictable,
the man suddenly ejaculated, in
several spurts, which the
slaves, kneeling down as they
were, received on their faces
and in their mouths. Cain
experienced a sudden flash of
insight, this was why they had
come to fetch him from the
treading pit, but not to give
pleasure to mere slave-women,
who must enjoy satisfactions more
appropriate to their
station. The overseer's prudent
warning had gone unheeded,
cain had walked straight into the
trap towards which the
owner of the palace had been
gently, unhurriedly propelling
him, as if unintentionally, as if
distracted by a passing cloud
and with her mind on other
things. She had deliberately
delayed delivering the final blow
in order to allow time for
the seed cast apparently at
random on the ground to germinate and flower. As for the fruit, it was clear
that he would
not
have to wait long to be picked. The slave-women
appeared to be in no hurry and
were concentrating now on
extracting the last drops from
cain's penis, which they took
turns to raise greedily to their
lips with the tip of one finger.
Everything has an end, however,
everything has its conclusion,
a freshly washed tunic now
covered the man's nakedness,
and the hour, a most
anachronistic word in this biblical
story, has come for him to be led
into the presence of the
owner of the palace, who will
tell him what is to be done
with him. The envoy was waiting
in the hallway, and one
look was enough for him to guess
what had gone on in that
bathroom, not that he was
shocked, well, in the course of
their work, envoys see so many
things that nothing can
surprise them. Besides, people
knew then as they do now
that the flesh is supinely weak,
which is not entirely its fault,
for the spirit, whose duty, in
principle, should be to raise a
barrier against all temptations,
is always the first to give in
and wave the white flag of
surrender. The envoy knew where
he was taking the mud treader
abel, where and why, but he
didn't envy him, although he did
envy him that lubricious
episode with the slave-women,
which had stirred his blood.
This time, they entered the
palace by the main door, because
here nothing is done in secret,
if lilith has found herself a
new lover, then it's best that
people should know about it
right away, to avoid all the
whispering and the rumours, all
the giggles and the gossip, as
would, of course, happen in
other cultures and civilisations.
The envoy said to a slave-woman waiting outside the antechamber, Go and tell
your
mistress
that we're here. The slave duly went and returned
with a message, Come with me, she
said to cain, and then,
to the envoy, You can go, you're
not needed now. That's the
way things are, never feel
flattered at being entrusted with
a delicate mission, for once the
work is done, you will
inevitably be told, You can go,
you're not needed now, as
envoys know all too well. Lilith
was sitting on a carved
wooden stool, she was wearing a
robe that must have cost
a fortune, a dress with a d
é
colletage that revealed, with a
minimum of
modesty, the initial curve of her breasts, leaving
the rest to
the viewer's imagination. The slave-woman had
withdrawn, they were alone.
Lilith gave the man an appreciative look, appeared to like what she saw and
said, You
will
be here in this antechamber, day and night, there is
your bed and
a bench to sit on, you will, until I decide otherwise, be my guard and allow
no one, whoever they may be,
to enter my room, apart from the
slave-women who come
to clean and tidy. Whoever they
may be, madam, asked cain
with apparent innocence, You have
a quick mind, I see, if
you're thinking of my husband,
no, he is not authorised to
enter either, but he knows that
already, so there's no need
for you to tell him, And what if
he were to try to force his
way in, You're a strong man,
you'll be able to stop him, But
I can't restrain with force
someone who, being the lord of
the city, is also lord of my
life, You can if I order you to,
Sooner or later I will have to
pay for the consequences, Well,
that, my young friend, is
something no one in this world
can avoid, but if you're a
coward, if you feel unsure or afraid,
the remedy is easy, you can go
straight back to the mud,
Well, I never considered treading
mud to be my destiny, And
I can't promise that you will
always be a guard at lilith's
bedroom door, It's enough that I
am your guard for the
moment, madam, Well said, you
deserve a kiss for those
words. Cain did not respond, he
was listening to the voice
of the overseer, Be careful, they
say she's a witch, that she
can drive a man mad with her
spells. What are you thinking,
asked lilith, Oh, nothing, madam,
in your presence I am
incapable of thought, I look at
you and am amazed, Perhaps
you deserve a second kiss, I am
here, madam, But I am not,
guard. She got up and smoothed
her dress, slowly running
her hands over her body, as if
caressing, first, her breasts,
then her belly, and finally her
thighs, where her hands
lingered, and while she did this
she stared hard at the man,
her face as expressionless as a
statue's. The slave-women,
free of moral constraints, had
laughed in pure contentment,
almost innocence, while they were
amusing themselves
manipulating
the man's body, they had taken part in an
erotic game of which they knew
all the rules and regulations, whereas here, in this antechamber where no
sound
from
outside can penetrate, lilith and cain are like two
swordsmen
sharpening their blades for a duel to the death.
Lilith was no longer there, she
had gone into her bedroom
and closed the door, cain looked
around him and his only
refuge was the bench reserved for
him. He sat down, suddenly
frightened by what the next few
days might hold. He felt
like a prisoner, and she herself
had said, You will be here
day and night, although she had
not added, You will, when
I so decide, be my bull to cover
me, a term that would seem
not just vulgar but
inappropriate, since covering is something that quadrupeds do, not human
beings, but in a way
it's very apt, because we human
beings were quadrupeds
once, and we know that what we
now call arms and legs
were, for a long time, only legs,
until someone thought to
say to those men-to-be, It's time
you stood up. Cain is
wondering if he shouldn't run
away before it's too late, but
what's the point, he knows
perfectly well that he won't run
away, inside that room is a woman
who appears to enjoy
giving him the brush-off, but who
will one day say to him,
Enter, and he will and in doing
so, he will pass from one
prison to another. I wasn't born
for this, thinks cain. He
wasn't born to kill his own
brother, and yet he had left abel's
corpse in the middle of the field
with his eyes and mouth
covered in flies, a fate for
which abel had not been born
either. Cain considers life and
can find no explanation for
it, there is that woman, who
although clearly sick with desire,
is enjoying postponing the moment
of surrender, which is
not at all the right word,
because lilith, when she does finally
open her legs to allow herself to
be penetrated, will not be
surrendering, but trying to
devour the man to whom she
said, Enter.

Cain
has now done as ordered and slept in lilith's bed and,
incredible
though it may seem, it was precisely his lack of
sexual experience that saved him
from drowning in the
vortex of lust that gripped the
woman and, in an instant,
made her explode into screams
like one possessed. She
ground her teeth, bit the pillow
and then his shoulder, even
drinking his blood. Cain laboured
determinedly away on
top of her, bewildered by her
wild, brazen movements and
cries, but, at the same time,
another cain who was not him
was observing the scene
curiously, almost coldly, the flailing
limbs, the bodily contortions,
the postures that copulation
itself demanded or imposed until
the acme of orgasm was
reached. The two lovers did not
sleep much on that first
night. Nor on the second or third
or all the other nights that
followed. Lilith was as
insatiable as cain was inexhaustible,
the interval between two
erections and their respective
ejaculations insignificant,
almost non-existent, you might
even say that they had both
reached the future paradise of
allah. On one such night, noah,
the lord of the city and
lilith's husband, entered the
antechamber, having been
informed by a trusted slave that
something extraordinary was going on. This was not the first time he had done
so.
Noah
was the most indulgent of husbands, and during all
their
so-called life in common, he had been incapable of
getting his
wife with child, and it was his awareness of this
continual failure, and perhaps
also the hope that lilith might
end up becoming pregnant by one
of her occasional lovers
and finally give him a son he
could call his heir, that had
led him to adopt, almost without
realising it, the attitude
of conjugal permissiveness,
which, over time, had become
a comfortable modus vivendi,
disturbed only by the very
rare occasions on which lilith,
moved by what we imagine
must be that much-vaunted thing
female compassion,
decided
to go to her husband's bedroom for a brief, unsatisfactory encounter that
compromised neither of them, for
he then felt under no obligation
to demand more than he
was given and she could not be
accused of denying him his
rights. Lilith, however, never
allowed noah into her own
bedroom. At that precise moment,
and even though the
door
was closed, the vehemence of the two lovers' erotic
enthusiasm
was like a series of slaps in the poor man's face,
giving rise
to a feeling he had not experienced before, an
intense hatred of the horseman
currently mounting the mare
lilith and making her whinny as
never before. I'll kill him,
noah said to himself, without
considering the consequences
of that action, for example, how
lilith would react if her
favourite lover was slain. I'll
kill them both, thought noah,
broadening out his plan, I'll
kill him and her. These were
mere dreams, fantasies,
deliriums, noah will kill no one and
he himself will have the good
fortune to escape death without
having to do a thing to avoid it.
Not a sound emerges from
the room now, but this does not
mean that the corporeal
party is over, the musicians are
merely resting, and the
orchestra will soon launch into
the next dance, the one whose
final violent paroxysm will be
followed by exhaustion, at
least until the following night.
Noah has withdrawn, carrying
with him his plan for vengeance,
which he caresses as if he
were stroking lilith's
inaccessible body. We will see how it
all ends.

Given
what we have described, it's only natural that it
will occur to someone to ask if
cain isn't tired out, squeezed
dry by his insatiable lover. He
is tired out and squeezed dry,
and as pale as death. His pallor
is due simply to a lack of
sunlight and exposure to the
fresh air that makes plants
flourish and people's skin turn
brown. But anyone who had
known this man before he entered
lilith's bedroom, where
his time is divided between the
antechamber and sex, would
be sure unknowingly to repeat the
overseer's words, He's a
ghost, a spectre, as the person
chiefly responsible for his
condition finally realised. You
don't look well, she said, I'm
fine, replied cain, Maybe, but
your face says otherwise, It
doesn't matter, Yes, it does,
from now on you will go for a
walk every day, you can take a
slave with you so that no one
bothers you, I want to see you
with the face you had when
I saw you at the treading pit,
Your wish is my command,
madam. The accompanying slave was
chosen by lilith herself,
what she didn't know, however,
was that he was a double
agent, who took his orders from
noah, even though he was,
for administrative purposes, her
servant. Let us, therefore,
fear the worst. On the first few
occasions, the walks passed
off without incident, the slave
always walking one pace
behind, listening attentively to
whatever cain said and
suggesting what he thought would
be the best route to follow
outside the city walls. There was
no apparent reason for
concern. Then, one day, concern
arrived in the guise of three
men waiting to ambush them and
with whom, as cain quickly
realised, the treacherous slave
was in cahoots. What do you
want, asked cain. The men did not
answer. They were all
armed, the apparent leader with a
sword and the other two
with knives. What do you want,
cain asked again. The answer
came in the form of a sword
suddenly unsheathed and
pointed at his chest, To kill
you, said the man, stepping
forward, Why, asked cain, Because
your time is up, You can't
kill me, said cain, the mark on
my forehead will not allow
you to, What mark, asked the man
who was, it seems, somewhat shortsighted, This one here, said cain, Oh, yes, I
can
see
it now, what I can't see is why a blemish would prevent
me from
killing you, It's not a blemish, it's a mark, And who
put it there,
did you do it yourself, asked the man, No, the
lord put it there, What lord, The
lord god. The man burst
out laughing and the others,
including the unfaithful slave,
provided a gleeful chorus. Better
the last smile than the first
laugh, said cain, and then,
addressing the gang's leader, Do
you have family, he asked, Why do
you want to know, Do you
have children, a wife, a father
and mother still alive, other
relatives, Yes, but, You will not
need to kill me for them to
be punished, said cain,
interrupting him, the sword in your
hand has already condemned them,
the lord's word on it,