The Apocalypse Script (25 page)

President Gives Speech to
Association of High School Principals
was
the title of the article. He read through it, seeing nothing of
interest, until he reached the bottom of the print:

The president told the assembled
principals, “I am not here to say what has already been said a
million times by past presidents. I do not believe problems with
our education system can be resolved with token initiatives or
catchy slogans.” He then joked, “Of course, if it were in my power,
I would have the FCC install jammers on every campus to stop smart
phones from sending or receiving messages. Perhaps then our young
people might look at their instructors on occasion instead of the
phones concealed beneath their desks.”

Ben let his own phone drop from his hand to the
floor.

That was it, then. Lilian had made
her point. She had put almost his exact words, the ones he had
spoken at the Ziggurat just the night before, into the mouth of the
president of the United States.

The Nisirtu were not psychic. They
didn’t need to be. What is the value in foretelling the future if
you controlled it?

He’d confirm the quote in the
newspapers tomorrow, of course, but he had no doubt that the print
media would validate what the internet already showed him. He knew
that he could find a video of the president speaking the exact
words in the article.

But he didn’t need to. The final
switch had been thrown in Ben’s mind.

The Delphic Order of the Nisirtu was real.

It controlled the world.

The world was soon to be
ash.

Ben was prepared for a long and
detailed discussion about the Delphic Order of the Nisirtu and
man’s destiny. There were many things to be said and many questions
to be asked now that he accepted the reality that had been thrust
upon him. The researcher planned on spending the rest of the
evening quizzing Lilian, Ridley, and even Fiela about not only the
Nisirtu, but also his own role in the events to come.

Yet this plan evaporated the
moment he opened the door to his bedroom. Inside, Lilian and Fiela
stood beside one another at the foot of the bed, nude except for
thin, foot-long silk cloths that dangled on gold chains beneath
their navels, and shimmering broad collars that were as wide as
their shoulders and extended from their necks to the swell of their
breasts.

Lilian’s collar consisted of
brilliant, glowing gold rods that radiated from her neck like rays
of the sun, with pearls, diamonds, and other precious stones
dotting the bars like orbiting planets. The collar around Fiela’s
neck was slightly smaller, and silver, but far more intricate, like
a luminous spider web. Rubies flowed from her neck to her chest
like streams of blood.

Both women had applied thick black
eyeliner and around that an additional layer some kind of black
makeup. It was a look he’d seen many times before in movies set in
ancient Egypt.
Cleopatras
, he thought, while
doubting that the fabled beauty of the ancient Greek queen could
match that of either of the two women in front of him.

The room was illuminated by dozens
of candles and the women stood barefoot on a mat of woven palm
leaves upon which glitter had been liberally sprinkled. No, not
glitter.
Gold dust.
An odd but pleasant scent, earthy and sweet, permeated the
air.

“
Mutu,” said
Lilian, lifting Fiela’s right breast with her nearest hand, “behold
your wife and serretu, Fiela,
Nocte
Sicarius
, Peth of the Fifth Kingdom,
Protector of the Nisirtu, and Vanquisher of the Maqtu.”

Ben opened his mouth to say something super witty,
but Fiela spoke first.

“
Mutu,” she
said, smiling and reaching out to cup and lift Lilian’s left
breast, “behold your asatu, Lilitu of Sargon,
Regis Filia
, Rightful
Annasa of the Fifth Kingdom, Dominus of the Ardoon, Savior of the
Nisirtu, and Vanquisher of the Maqtu.” She was playfully flicking
Lilian’s nipple with her thumb as she recited the titles, which was
apparently unscripted given Lilian’s sideways glance at
her.

Ben saw the area below Lilian’s
navel was decorated by series of tiny scarlet tattoos.
Cuneiform-Nouveau
, he
thought, though he couldn’t be sure in the dim light.

He took a step forward. “Am I
supposed to say or do something here?”

“
Oh yes, Mutu, you’re supposed to
do something,” replied Fiela. “A couple of things,
actually.”

Lilian took a step forward so that
Fiela could move behind her and unclasp the golden broad collar.
“This was the collar of Queen Nebu,” the princess said, lifting her
hair in the back. “It has not been worn for three thousand years.
Fiela’s collar once belonged to Queen Veradil. The Ardoon experts
claim other pedigrees for both collars, but they are wrong, as
usual.”

Ben said, “They’re both impressive but nothing
compared to either of you.”

The women merely smiled, because,
he knew, they were aware of their own beauty. In fact, they were
both so perfect that he was unsure who to compare them to. Movie
stars? Models? No, that would be like comparing the diamonds around
Lilian’s neck to shards of glass. He’d never seen any woman in any
medium as gorgeous as either Lilian or Fiela at that moment, though
the two had distinctive body types. Lilian was perhaps two inches
taller than Fiela, and curvier. Fiela sported a swimmer’s build,
though her shoulders were not as broad or accentuated as an
Olympian’s. The muscles in her arms, legs, and stomach were visible
but only barely so. The dim light concealed the faded scars of
battle he had once spied on her flesh.

Fiela took Lilian’s collar to a
wooden box that had been placed on a dresser. After carefully
placing the artifact inside its case and closing the lid she moved
to a giant four-poster bed and turned down the covers. Lilian
walked toward it and Fiela returned with a golden cup in her hand,
which she handed to Ben.

From the bed, Lilian said, “The
cup is the cup of my father, King Sargon. It and the ring are all I
have of his. It is tradition that we should share wine from the
same cup when a union between Nisirtu is established.”

Ben studied the vessel in the
candlelight. Unlike the ring, it seemed a fairly simple affair,
with a few cuneiform markings around the rim but no other
inscriptions. He shrugged, took a sip of the wine and handed it
back to Fiela. The girl accepted it and drank deeply from it before
taking the cup to Lilian, who swirled her finger in the wine before
drinking it and setting the cup on a nightstand.

She looked at Ben lustily.
“Done.
Come here, Mutu.
”

Later, Ben lay on his side and
watched as Lilian, her eyes closed, mumbled something in Agati. A
prayer? Was she religious, he wondered? Superstitious? He knew
nothing of the religious practices of the Nisirtu, and in fact had
assumed they had none, but at that moment he remembered Fiela
telling him she had glimpsed ‘the underworld.’

Fiela approached the bed, having
somehow removed her own broad collar. The black makeup around her
violet eyes gave her an otherworldly appearance, an effect
magnified by the fact that her eyes literally seemed to glow in the
dark, like a cat’s.

“
Transaction complete?” she
asked.

“
Um, yeah,” said the
man.

The Peth climbed onto the bed and
laid one cheek against Lilian’s stomach so that her face was just
inches from the odd, scarlet tattoos, and she caressed the flesh in
front of her reverently. Only then did Ben see that in addition to
the tattoos beneath Lilian’s navel there were tiny red cuneiform
symbols inked in circles on each breast. He had not seen them
before because of the room’s dim lighting and the urgency of his
lust. The sleeping woman continued to utter words he did not
understand.

“
Lilian, you okay?” he
asked.

“
She cannot answer,” said Fiela.
“She is wandering the ether.”

“
She’s what?”

The girl kissed the woman’s
stomach. “She’s
high
, Mutu. It is her wedding night and she must visit the
invisible planes of the gods. She placed the requisite herbs in her
wine to achieve that purpose. Don’t worry. They are mild and will
only last an hour or so.”

She lifted her eyes to his. “How
many gods do you have, Ben? Shall I make them mine?”

The man, surprised at this line of
questioning, said, “I’ve only got the one, I guess. I’m what you
might call a ‘bad Christian.’ You know, I go through the motions,
but I’ve got more questions than answers and don’t believe half of
what I say I believe.”

“
That is the
same for me,” said Fiela. “I think that is why my gods ignore me
and the underworld rejects me. They’re really beginning to piss me
off. I think I need a new god. Would you like me to be
a
bad Christian?
It does not sound very difficult.”

Ben laughed. “Fiela, I want you to
be whatever you want to be. I’m in no position to dictate your
faith to you, having so little myself. I’m pretty sure what I’m
doing tonight is
verboten
. Anyway,” he said, nodding
at Lilian, “what is the point of this ritual?”

Fiela said, “To seek an unborn soul.”

Ben froze. “Wait,” he said, his
heart skipping a beat, “she’s not on birth control?”

“
Of course not,” answered Fiela,
as if the question surprised her. “You must trust your wife. She is
wise and will find the strongest and bravest soul and will entice
it to return with her. See the rewards she promises?” asked the
Peth, running a finger along the scarlet tattoos. “A warm and
loving womb and milk that is like honey. The milk of royal blood.
The ether is extremely cold. Many souls will plead to return with
her.”

Ben let out an anguished moan and
watched Lilian’s lips move purposefully yet silently. Beneath their
lids, her eyes darted rapidly back and forth. Searching, just as
Fiela said.

What have you done this time, Ben?

Fiela rose to her knees. “You have
met your obligation to my sister, husband. Now you must attend to
me.”

“
Ah,” said Ben, “I’m sorry, Fiela,
but under the circumstances…”

“
The circumstance is that it is
our wedding night, and I am your serretu, and our marriage is not
yet consummated. Mutu, I will not get pregnant. I may not until
Lilian conceives or a year has passed and she consents that I serve
as surrogate. In truth, it is doubtful that Lilian can find the
proper soul tonight. The timing is not good.”

“
What do you mean?” he asked,
spying a ray of hope in the girl’s words.

“
Her cycle
begins this week. Normally a marriage is scheduled to avoid such a
conflict but
circumstances
did not allow it.”

Ben felt the weight of the ancient
world lifted from his shoulders and fell back to the bed. Feeling
grateful, humiliated, idiotic, and guilty, he mumbled, “Thank you,
Fiela. I almost had a heart attack.”

“
Is your mind at ease,
then?”

The man nodded. “I mean it’s not
that I don’t want children. I do. Someday. But, wow…” He looked at
her, ashamed. “I’m ranting, huh?”

Fiela studied him with her glowing
eyes for a long time before letting out a deep breath and rising
from the bed. “Your enthusiasm has left you, husband. I shall wait
until you are ready for me.”

She pulled a blanket over Lilian’s
body and kissed her gently on the shoulder before slipping beneath
the sheets herself. Relieved but also feeling a little guilty, Ben
lay down on the other side of the forbidden princess, who continued
to mumble incoherently.

He said, “Sorry, Fiela,” and
reached over Lilian to stroke the Peth’s cheek. “And, thanks,
really
.
”

The girl managed a brief smile.
“You are welcome, Mutu.
Truly.
”

She shuffled forward and put an
arm around Lilian before scooping Ben’s hand into her own. She
kissed it softly, and they slept.

Ben dreamed.

There was a castle. A glorious and
horrible crystal cathedral that reached miles into the sky, its
walls stained red by the black light of twin suns shining through a
sinister sky of purple fractus clouds. A king sat inside the
castle, a king that had once dreamt of another world, a world much
like Ben’s. A king who thought himself a god.

There was a man with Ben, pointing
out the castle, as if it was great importance, but he only
remembered the man’s outstretched arm and baritone voice. His words
were lost, though Ben felt like they were words of warning.
Something like, “Be careful, he has seen you now,” though not
exactly that. The voice was not Ridley’s, yet he felt Ridley’s
presence.

There was something, too, about a war.

“
Hurry,
”
said the man he could not see.
“
They are coming!
”