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speak with
them in a dialect with which Semerket was unfamiliar. After much
animated conversation, Marduk returned to where Semerket waited.
    “Give me a gold piece,” he said peremptorily.
    “Why?” asked Semerket, surprised.
    “I’ve bought us a boat so we can take the
river down into Babylon. It’s safer than the roads, and faster.”
    Semerket dutifully handed over the gold
piece, again admitting to himself that Marduk’s plan was a good one.
    “It was a fortunate day when we met,”
Semerket said aloud. “When I think what might have happened to us if
you hadn’t been able to speak Elamite…” He shuddered.
    Marduk’s brow lifted in surprise. “What are
you talking about? I don’t speak Elamite,” he said.
    Semerket looked at him without
comprehension. “But, in the kitchen last night — how could you know
that the soldiers meant to kill me today?”
    “I never said that.”
    “You did!”
    “No, lord. I told you that the commander
said you were not destined to reach Babylon. However, upon reflection,
he may have said something entirely different.”
    Semerket could only sputter, but Marduk held
up his hand in an imperious gesture, silencing his protests.
    “I said nothing other than what I had to,”
the slave said easily. “The rest you told yourself. But let us forget
this misunderstanding and bless the Golden One whose name I bear, for
now I have a new master and all is well.”
    Semerket glared at Marduk with narrowed
eyes. “I could have had an armed escort all the way into Babylon.”
    “But now you have me. Moreover, I’m
certainly far cleverer than they are. You won’t regret it, lord. You’ll
see. I’ll keep you safer than any Elamite.”
    As Marduk moved off to confer once again
with the villagers, Semerket told himself that here indeed was a
trickster race. Never again would he trust anyone in the land of
Babylon — particularly those slaves who made such fools of their
masters.
----
    Book Two

The Gate
of God
----
    MARDUK, IN
REALITY, HAD NOT PURCHASED A boat; he
had merely hired one. Semerket learned of the deception the next
morning when Marduk introduced him to a merchant at the river’s edge.
The man, a wineseller, had agreed to escort them all the way to
Babylon, Marduk told him.
    “And here is our transport,” he announced
with a flourish, indicating a vessel floating a few cubits away in the
stagnant marsh water.
    Semerket’s eyes widened.
    The thing — it could hardly be called a boat
— was made of skins stretched over branches. Perfectly round,
possessing no stern or bow, it resembled nothing so much as a gigantic
floating disc. Straw covered its insides, on top of which the merchant
had piled hundreds of clay wine jars. Its other occupant was a donkey,
delicately nibbling the straw.
    “You don’t mean that this
thing
is
what I paid good gold to sail in?” said Semerket.
    Marduk fixed him with a flat eye. “What’s
wrong with it?”
    “There’s an ass in it, for one thing!”
    “My lord,” Marduk said, taking him aside and
whispering, “when you’re in a foreign country, it’s very rude to mock
the local customs.”
    “You’re saying my refusal to sail with an
ass is rude?” Semerket’s voice was loud in the morning air.
    “I’m saying, my lord,” said Marduk, “that on
the Euphrates the traffic goes only from north to south —
with
the current. When this man and his son reach Babylon, they’ll dismantle
the boat and sell its hides. How do you suppose they’ll return to their
village if they’ve no donkey?”
    Semerket breathed deeply before he answered.
“I don’t mock the custom,” he said carefully. “I’m only saying that I
think we should purchase our own boat — one that doesn’t include any
livestock.”
    Marduk brushed away Semerket’s words.
“Absurd,” he said emphatically. “I don’t know anything about navigating
a river. Do you?”
    Semerket took another deep breath. “No,” he
admitted.
    Sighing dismally,