On the world ofKi-ertu was the first city, simply known as Alu. It existed long before Charn. Sharur lived in the wilderness with Shurpu, his monstrous bride. Shurpu begot Lilith and the other Dalkhu (1). The very last of Lilith's descendants, Jadis, the witch queen, would die in distant Narnia. This short story stands alone or as part 1 of my Charn sequence.
.
.
LILITH, DAUGHTER OF SHARUR
HUNTER OF MEN
.
.
Introduction
.
The first men had dwelt by the river in the valley of Dugtush (2) for many generations.They walked in the way of the righteous truth and communed with Ilu (3). They were blessed for their faithfulness.
One day Lirum (4) said to his father, "My people will keep the holy Me of Ilu (by which he meant the laws of God) but we shall go east of Dugtush and find lands of our own." The old man was grieved yet gave his son a third part of his flocks and blessed his endeavours.
Lirum and his followers walked beside the river Ab (5) until they came to a large fertile plain where they settled in tents. After six generations their tents filled the plain as far as the eye could see. Some of the people grew fractious and said "Why must we live in tents and all atop each other like bees in a hive?"
Mubbirum (6)went to the leader, who was named Lirum after his ancestor. He spoke on behalf of the malcontents and said "We are leaving and you must not stop us or there will be strife". Although a great remnant remained on the plain, a mighty host went with Mubbirum.
The wanderers came to a green place near a pool and said, "Here we will settle". There they built the first city, which they called Alu (7). They dedicated it to Ilu but were proud of their works.
SOURCE: Alu tablet pc/hist/iv/2016
.
.
The ambush
.
Legend said that the children of the Urbarra (Wolf) were descendents of Mubbirum's second son. He had quarrelled with his father, taking his household into the wilderness rather than settle in Alu. Whatever the truth of the matter, they were bandits and sworn enemies of the city. Man living in organized community soon learns to fear the chaos of the wilder world.
A cave, amongst some hills above a pool, was just one of many hiding places for the Urbarraz. It was ten days hard march to Alu and so way beyond the jurisdiction of the Sarum (8). Interestingly, it was just one days ride to the site that would (in centuries to come) become the fledgling city of Charn.
Three bandits had stayed overnight at the cave, intending to spy out a lonely farm in the morning. They expected to be joined later by a number of other thieves. Long after dawn, the first man arose and left the cave. Standing behind a tree he gazed out into the distance and saw a solitary figure. Hurrying back to his compatriots he said, "There is an old man approaching, from the east. Be quick!"
The robbers got onto their donkeys and took up a position half way down the slope. "He's coming the same way we did," said the eldest of the brothers. In fact he even began to climb the very hill on which they stood.
The traveller walked briskly enough but with bent back and head. He seemed to be aged yet active. After all, he was on foot not mounted. "Halt there; do not resist," he was warned. The stranger stopped, registered no surprise, but just stared down at the ground. The youngest wolf-cub was a cruel, impatient sort and knew no mercy. Without warning his arm jerked back and he let fly a javelin, straight and true, at the old man's chest.
Nobody saw him move, yet the traveller's arm flew up and he easily caught the dart. The three robbers stepped back in amazement; such speed was surely not human. There was a further blur and the javelin lodged in its owner's heart and the young man fell back, dead. "What the…" exclaimed the middle brother. It was the last thing he said. The apparently old man leapt forward, covering a dozen yards with one impossible leap. One wicked knife severed a throat and another found a home in a heart.
Sharur (9) stepped back and admired his handiwork. He always enjoyed an ambush.
.
.
The supreme hunter
.
Sharur was one of many of his kind that had heeded Chimer-u. When Ilu created Ki-ertu ('the world underneath') Chimer-u had been filled with envy. "Why should I not rule Ki-ertu," he asked. "Am I not the brightest of His righteous ones?"
When Chimer-u saw that Ilu had created mortal man he was filled with loathing. "Ilu loves mankind and so cannot love me," he declared, wrongly. "Am I not more than man; should I not be their prince?" He dropped his poison into the ears of many and some, such as Sharur, foolishly agreed.
Finally, Chimer-u accused Ilu of injustice, before His own throne. The perfect justice of Ilu knew Chimer-u to be wrong and war ensued. Chimer-u and his supporters – a third of the whole host – were cast down to Ki-ertu.
As he fell to earth, Sharur screamed in pain at the bitter cold and the apparent ageing of his body. After a seemingly endless descent he landed, senseless, on the bare ground. He was separated from his fellow conspirators. Chimer-u plummeted as a great dragon and landed on the very spot where, in an age to come, Jadis would declare the Deplorable Word.
Sharur could not bear the fact that his body was now as ugly as his soul. The inner being was reflected in the outer creature. It is rare; but it can happen. Like many of us, he wouldn't blame his own failings for his situation. It was far more comforting to transfer the blame for his fall onto mankind. Thereafter, he lived to hunt them.
.
.
Nest of vipers
.
Sharur lived for the hunting trail, only returning home when sated with killing. Where was 'home'; where could such a thing as Sharur live? It's something I occasionally think about when watching films or television. Could a monster or demon truly live in a darkened hall, permanently seated on a throne of skulls? The sheer banality of evil suggests that it requires something else. Sharur in fact lived in a roughly hewn wooden hall, in a dense forest not yet penetrated by man. He had a bed of straw mattresses, furs to cover him in winter, a fire for warmth and all of the other trivial things domesticated folk require. It was there that his bride, Shurpu (10), lived and brought up their offspring.
Shurpu was a giantess and yet, of her kind, was not excessively tall at eleven feet. Her features lacked the rather stupid expression that most of the giants had. It was clear to her spouse that she had some human blood but she had such antipathy to the children of Ilu that he found himself able to overlook it. She was actually rather striking and that first caught her husband's eye. Her expression was however habitually cold which rather suited Sharur's twisted taste. Now, when I referred earlier to Shurpu as monstrous it wasn't because of her giant blood. It was because she was as evil as Sharur. Twelve of their brood had already left the hall to make their own way in the world. The last, youngest child was called Lilith. She was twelve years of age and already a little over six feet tall. Of all her offspring, Lilith was the most like Shurpu in looks and personality.
"You could clean this place up," said Sharur moodily, as he sat on the great chest in which he kept the tools of his trade. It was a fortnight after he had slain the three brothers and he was getting bored.
Shurpu gave her husband an icy smile. "I'm sorry it isn't the palace that Your Highness is used to."
The hunter looked sullenly at his spouse. "You have no idea". He stood up and opened the box to rummage inside. He pulled out a whetstone and a long dagger.
"You're getting bored," Shurpu observed dispassionately. "Go and kill something."
"Two-legged game is what I've a fancy for," said her husband with an unpleasant smile.
Shurpu looked at her daughter sat placidly by the fire. "Take Lilith with you," she suggested.
"Are you mad? I can't take the child hunting long-pigs." (11)
"She is old enough," said the giantess. "She is adept at some small magic. She needs to be blooded." This was an initiation rite whereby a novice hunter at his or her first 'kill' is marked on the cheek with the victim's blood.
The hunter looked doubtfully at the girl. Lilith, holding her breath, tried not to betray her excitement. "Would you come hunting men with me, child?"
"Yes father," she said dutifully, with a gleam in her eye.
.
.
The hero
.
One of the most revered figures on Ki-ertu was the ursang. The ursang was a young warrior; a hero. He was brave, skilled and honourable. The perfect ursang carried the Holy Me written on his heart. Think Galahad and you have the general idea.
Anunngal of Alu was the king's younger son and cherished hopes of being the ultimate ursang. His father permitted him to scout out the lands beyond their borders. They had hopes of expanding the city's area of influence which were never realised. It would be many centuries before the city of Charn arose and began to devour all of the available land like the locust. Lacking such foreknowledge, Anunngal rode hopefully across the wilderness with his companions and troop of soldiers.
The scouts were the first to die. Riding through a thicket, some miles from a great and unknown forest, they trigged an unseen cord. A sharpened timber contraption, like giant wooden teeth, sprang up and pierced all four of them.
The rest of the troop advanced warily; even the map-maker put away his wax tablets and carried a spear. It was an arrow, loosed from an incredible distance, which did for him.
Four troopers on their shaggy haired ponies went left of the main body, and another four to the right. Neither group returned. They were later found pinned to the ground by javelins.
Fearing to venture closer to the forest, the soldiers diverted to avoid it. Sadly there were still plenty of trees from which to launch an ambush. A hail of arrows, shot from afar, took out the front rank.
The nightmare continued as the unseen enemy picked the troopers off one by one. Finally, whether by design or coincidence, only the Prince was left. Still unharmed he abandoned his pony and took cover. It was time to prove that he was an ursang.
.
.
The chase
.
Sharur and Lilith were the hunters; the girl had the guile of a fox and the cunning of a wolf. She revelled in the kill as did her father. Lilith had been brought up to scorn men and regarded them as naught. She liked the fact that her cheeks were smeared with blood.
"Save me from the erim and the hulngals (12), Lord Elu" prayed Anunngal as he ducked, crawled and picked his way through the wilderness. Elu heard his desperate prayers and knew him as a man of faith. He blessed him in his hour of need.
"Curse this long-pig," muttered Sharur as he lost the trail.
"We'll find him father, and gut him," Lilith promised.
Anunngal briefly stopped to catch his breath against a tree and then burst into another sprint. A brace of arrows quivered in the trunk where his head had just rested.
Thirty minutes later Anunngal sat up a Banunu tree; perched ready to drop and fight if necessary. He could go no further. An old man and young girl stealthily entered the thicket but the Prince was not fooled. Their movements were furtive and every instinct told him that there was something terribly wrong about them. They must be the ones who sought him. Elu dulled the hunters' senses, making their vision hazy and stopping their hearing. They looked about them wildly as if sure that they'd missed something but, try as they might, they could not see their quarry just above them. Eventually the old fellow tapped the girl on the shoulder and gestured that they should continue to their right. When they were out of sight, Anunngal dropped to the ground and began to follow their tracks. The hunters had become the hunted.
.
.
Disaster
.
The Prince had tracked the pair for a mile before they realised that he was behind them. Every fibre of his being screamed caution but, in the excitement of the chase, he moved too quickly and heavily. The snap of twigs underfoot was like a volley of rifle-fire. He was betrayed by his own impulse.
The huntsman turned and dropped a shoulder, a javelin already in his hand. Lilith, unskilled in the arts of war, was slower to face the enemy. Even as Anunngal let go of his own dart, that of Sharrur was already in the air. It took the man squarely in the chest and he fell to the floor dead. All dreams of being the perfect ursang fled.
It must have been Elu himself that directed the Prince's javelin and confounded Sharrur's usually perfect catch. For once the beast misjudged. He couldn't grab it out of the air and it smote him on his hip. Black blood welled up through his robe and began to drip down his leg. "I'm hit," he said in disbelief.
Sharrur stumbled across the undergrowth to plump himself down on a fallen tree. He slit his robe about his waist and pulled out the dart. Blood spurted from the wound and he tried to staunch it by bunching his robe about it. "I… don't know what to do," he said in his incomprehension. He had never taken as much as a blow before.
.
.
The burning light
.
Lilith had borne her father a long way; she had great reserves of strength. Nothing would staunch the bleeding – Sharur's blood simply wouldn't clot – so resting seemed pointless. To reach someone that might help was her hope. Finally though Lilith couldn't support him any further. He was stumbling, weak from the loss of blood. His eyes were almost closed and he couldn't focus. Eventually she had to let his arm slip from her shoulders and he fell heavily to the ground. He was dead. Lilith mourned him as a lost part of her small world even if 'love' wasn't something that came naturally to her. She covered his body with leaves and branches torn from the bushes and went on. His spirit left the mortal clay and went screaming into the void.
It was late afternoon and the sun was still high in the sky. Tiredness and shock had deadened her senses. She was busy deciding where to go: it wasn't worth trying to find her way home just to live alone with her mother. It was then that she came across the great worm laid on a rock in a glade. "Oh!" she said startled.
Lilith knew about the great worms that thrived on Ki-ertu. They were similar to the smaller usums (13) which we call snakes, that she used to capture and torture. She wore a necklace of their fragile skulls about her neck. These huge worms though had embryonic wings that allowed them to launch from modest heights and glide to the ground. They were the ancestors of the dragons that would become prolific in that world. My theory is that they were the spawn of Chimer-u, intended to plague mankind.
The girl knew that the great usums were easily frightened by magic and she cast a simple spell to warn it off. A sharp jolt ran through the worm's body and it shivered. The warning was unnecessary for the serpent was half asleep; in fact it could hardly see having been underground for so long. Even so, it knew pain and could make out Lilith's shape. The proto-dragons were developing quickly; full flight was just ten generations away. A more defensive (and offensive) ability would come first. Unexpectedly, the worm let out its first jet of fire. Perhaps it was the first fire breathed by any dragon on Ki-ertu. To its surprise and satisfaction, the flame burst forth and billowed just before Lilith's face. She gave a terrible scream and stumbled away, her hands to her eyes. The dragon flopped down its neck onto the cold rock; delighted with its new talent. It indulged in a few lazy puffs, letting the smoke rise from its nostrils.
.
Belonging to the night
.
Lilith could never bear the light of day after her encounter with the usum. In fact her name became a byword for one who walks in the dark (13). She haunted the young world and hated the light of the sun upon her. People talked of the thing in womanly shape that walked in the shade and preyed upon the traveller. Some said she was a vampire, some a demon, others a spirit. None were quite right but few were wholly wrong.
Somehow, somewhere, she found a mate and perpetuated her line. All of her firstborn female descendents were called Lilith, long after the first had become but a legend. It wasn't until the last days of Charn, when her descendants ruled the world, that the tradition was broken. The sins of the mothers were replicated in the daughters with disastrous consequences.
.
.
THE END
.
Notes:-
I have used a number of ancient words, mostly Sumerian, due to cultural similarities & difficulties in transliterating the language of Ki-ertu.
Dalkhu: evil spirits
Dugtush: a compound word:- Dug: good Tush:Home (Sumerian)
Ilu: God (Sumerian)
Lirum: Strong, athletic (Sumerian)
Ab: River (Sumerian)
Mubbirum: An accuser (Sumerian)
Alu: City (Sumerian)
Sarum King (Sumerian) – later, Saru in Charn
Sharur: supreme hunter (Sumerian)
Shurpu: Purification by fire (Sumerian)
Long-pig(s): people ARCHAIC (Allegedly used in the pacific islands in a reference to cannibalism)
Erim & hulngals: enemies & evil people (Sumerian)
Lilith: a Babylonian name meaning "Belonging to the night"