Chapter 27 - Fire
Flames swirled around the base of the Father Tree, licking its limbs, as it cut a path straight up the trunk toward the billowing canopy. The men, roused from their sleep at the sound of the ram’s horn, formed a line from the River Gihon to the tree’s base, tossing buckets of water from man to man until it dashed the Nesh Pa Nel barracks and storehouse with a steamy fizzle. Hopeless.
“Curse that bloody fool!” one of the scouts shouted, coughing and covered in ash.
“Rafas will pay and his tribe!” another Nesh Pa Nel yelled.
“Zohar got his due,” the pack leader shouted, “and when these flames die, so will the Tribe of Cain!”
“Yah!” the scouts screamed their rallying cry.
“Save your anger for the flames,” Enoch’s voice was terse as he threw another bucket into the fire. “By the Ancient’s grace, if we focus, we may be able to spare it yet.”
“Spare me the prayer, Bearer,” the first scout said, “we will die in these flames! Where is our Hidden Father when we need Him? You called down fire. Can you not call forth water and save the alroue?”
“I’ll not toss another bucket, Enoch,” a man said, dropping his pail. “My back is aching and my throat burns. The boy is right. Use the One Mind and end this if you are the Bearer.”
“Aye!” more men joined the bitter complaint. “End this now, Bearer—”
Other scouts followed suit. Pails hit the ground with a thud down the line. Even, the blaze seemed to rebel as it surged higher up the trunk.
Enoch waxed hot. “Fools! The Ancient One does not do our bidding. We do His.” Enoch grabbed his whip and slashed it toward the instigator, striking his hand.
The man went to his knees.
“Our greed started this fire and by our hands we must extinguish it.”
“You will pick up your buckets this instant,” Enoch said, shining brighter than the flames surrounding him. “and get to work!” The sky lit up, at the sound of his voice, and a bolt of lightning struck the discarded pail, charing it completely.
“Do as the Bearer says!” Father Jared shouted. The elders came to the front of the line and surrounded the base of the tree.
All work resumed.
“We must not stop until the mist rises at sun’s birth!” Enoch commanded.
Something tugged the back of his cloak.
“What now!” Enoch shouted.
Two of his childling sons held their little cups out. They jumped, jostling the water.
“Papa, we want to help put out the fire, but we cannot find Dani,” the oldest one said, trying to hold back his tears.
He sighed and dropped to his knees. “Go to your mother,” Enoch wiped the sweat from his brow and hugged them. “I am sure he is with her.”
“But, we—” the childling sobbed, “we decided to spend the night in the tree house with Methu. We woke up when we heard mama yelling and then there was smoke every where. The fire was coming. We ran and ran all the way down and hid in the woods. We thought—”
“Hush,” Enoch said, “Your mama is coming now. Dani is with her I am sure.”
Medici Dinah ran toward the elders and dropped a pot of manta at their feet. “Here are the last of our stores. You can use the rocks to form a trench, stop it from spreading—”
“Aye, good thinking woman!” Father Jared set the men to work, digging a barrier. Tiph’arah and the rest of the Medici followed Dinah dumping their loads of manta into a pile.
“Boys!” Medici Dinah ran toward Enoch and her sons, “Thank the Light, where were you? Are you well?” She grabbed each one, hugging and kissing them. “I was looking all over for you. Where is Dani?”
“We thought he was in front of us and now we can’t find him. We want to help put the fire out so we can find Dani.” The boys cried as they dipped their cups into Enoch’s bucket and tossed water into the inferno.
“What are you saying?” Enoch yelled, shaking the older son. “Is Dani in the tree-house?”
A heavy branch engulfed in flames, snapped from midway up the Father Tree and fell to the ground, setting off a fresh round of sparks near the water line.
The boy sobbed uncontrollably.
“My son!” Medici Dinah fell to her knees and covered her head with her hands, “My Dani is inside. Father help us!”
Enoch clutched his gut; it was on fire.
The men nearby paused as a shout went down the line. “There’s a childling inside the barracks!”
Enoch grabbed Father Jared. “Take over. I am going in.”
Methuselah rushed to Enoch’s side. “I know all his hiding places. I can find him.”
“No, Methuselah. It is too dangerous,” Enoch protested. The burning in the pit of his stomach returned. The Voice was soft and clear. “Send Methuselah.”
“Father, you are needed here. I will get him,” Methuselah began dousing his clothes with water. He dipped lengths of rope into the water and wrapped them around his waist. “I can find him Papa.”
“I am going with you,” Tiph’arah insisted, dousing her clothes as well. “First one to the top goes in—”
“Don’t be a fool, girl,” Medici Dinah grabbed Tiph’arah’s arm, “Let the men handle it. The tree is on fire!”
“Not that one,” Tiph’arah pointed to the neighboring tree. “We will scale it, cross over and search from the top to the bottom.”
“Aye,” Methuselah agreed, “You circle the perimeter and I will go inside the upper decks and check each level.”
“But how will you get him down?” Medici Dinah was screaming now. “The tree is on fire!”
“Free-fall!” Tiph’arah said, already running to the base of the next tree, “Not too far—”
“—not too close,” Methuselah joined in the chant, remembering the childhood game, “and we land just right.”
(“What do you say, Captain?” Onami asked Azam. “Shall I assist?”)
###
Methuselah surprised himself and made it to the top of the neighboring Father Tree first. He whistled at Tiph’arah who arrived only moments later. She had already secured her line and was swinging around the top deck calling out Dani’s name.
She whistled back—once short burst. “Clear!”
Methuselah swung through the narrow opening in the tree and landed in the middle of the top platform. He gazed down the shaft, coughing as smoke blew up the hollow tunnel. He whistled twice. “All clear!”
He extended his line and swung straight down to the second level. “Dani!” He did a quick circular sweep. Tiph’arah passed by the second level window, checking the deck. She whistled once, again “Clear!”
Methuselah repeated the protocol on the third level, already in rhythm with Tiph’arah making her round. He whistled twice, but before he could give the “all clear” he gagged on smoke—the dark fumes were much thicker as he descended.
“Methu!” Tiph’arah yelled. She landed next to him on the third platform and before he could protest, she tied a new line around him and pushed him out the opening.
“Breathe!” she yelled. “Let’s rotate.”
Methuselah nodded, whistled once, and sucked in as much air as he could. He heard Tiph’arah whistle twice. The fresh air cleared his mind and he remembered. Dani is afraid of heights! Though Dani would never admit that to his older brothers and followed them wherever they went, but alone—he would never venture this high in the watchtower. “Tiph’arah!” he called out. “I know where he is.”
In a moment, Tiph’arah was by his side, coughing and covered in ash.
He held three fingers up and pointed down. On the count of three they extended their lines, stepped off the limb and fell with arms crossed over their chest three levels down. They landed in unison midway up the tower. The flames were just below. Tiph’arah’s eyes were grim. “Together!” She masked her face with a wet skin held two fingers up. Methuselah imitated the move. Simultaneously they swung through the narrow opening and landed on the center platform. Piles of alroue burned all around them. The aroma offset the toxic fumes.
“Dani!” Methuselah yelled, tears streaming down his face. Inside the tower’s pulley shelf, sat his youngest brother, curled up like a ball with his face buried in a bag of alroue. The blaze surrounded him. “Dani!”
Suddenly fire surged up the center shelf just underneath Dani.
“Bounce and kick!” Tiph’arah yelled, she threw her long dagger into the shelf above Dani’s head and leaped into the flames before Methuselah could stop her. Using the dagger’s handle as leverage, she grabbed Dani with her free arm.
Methuselah prepared himself for impact, knowing she would kick away from the center support and bounce back to him.
She barged into Methuselah with force, knocking the wind out of him, just as he kicked away from the landing and through the lookout with Tiph’arah and Dani in his arms.
A gust of wind rushed through the tree’s canopy, setting the branches on fire. Limbs from the upper level caught fire and snapped, as another strong breeze scattered the flames in every direction. “Cut the line!” Tiph’arah yelled, clutching Dani even tighter.
“On two—” Methuselah said, wrapping his wet cloak around them. “Not too close, not too far.” He sliced the rope and leaned back, “And we land—”
They tumbled against the tips of the branches in the neighboring Father Tree, avoiding most of the flames, until their free-fall ended with a tumble and roll onto the ground.
“—just right.” Tiph’arah ended the rhyme.
“Dani!” Medici Dinah cried, snatching the boy from Tiph’arah’s arms, as Enoch dumped a barrel of water over them.
Tiph’arah lay flat on her back, heaving.
Methuselah coughed, still choking from the smoke.
“My son!” Dinah sobbed, rocking the limp child in her arms, “Mama is here, my love. Mama is here.”
Enoch hovered over them, praying until sun’s birth turned darkness to light and the mist of Adamah rose from the ground, quenching the flames.
Finally, the men dropped their pails and collapsed.
A scout from Nod emerged from the trail, running full speed. “What in Adamah happened here—” He doubled over, panting and coughing. The scout from Nod surveyed the devastation—only the scorched trunk of the Father Tree remained. He bowed his head and fell at Enoch’s feet when he saw the woman cradling the boy.
“Sorry to trouble thee, Bearer. Please send some alroue—and I will leave you be. We will bring the sacrifice—for Mother Zillah’s sake. We must have it for Naamah!”
###
“How is he?” Methuselah asked.
Enoch sat next to Dani, stroking his head. “He is in the Ancient’s hands now.”
Dani’s pudgy cheeks were flushed. His forehead hot to the touch. “I got the alroue for you papa—” his little voice strained. His breathing was thin and labored, coming fewer and shorter between. “I saved some for you papa—”
“Don’t try to talk, Dani,” Enoch said, choking back bitter tears. “you must rest so you can get well.”
Medici Dinah was pounding a mixture with her little stone hammer in the pot. “He will be good as new. You will see, just a little more alroue is all we need. You will see—” She beat the pot with ferocity.
“But—” Methuselah started.
Enoch held a finger to his lips and shook his head. “Not now.”
Dani was covered in alroue, all that anyone could find.
“Enoch.” A barely audible voice called from the entrance. “May we?”
“Come,” he answered, never taking his eyes off Dani.
The elders filed in behind Mother Eve, their faces somber and kind.
Enoch did not want to see sympathy. He kept his eyes on Dani. “Did Rafas confess?” Enoch’s voice was terse.
“That black-heart showed no remorse,” Father Seth said. “It was all I could do to keep the scouts from killing him on the spot.”
“He was proud of it,” Father Jared added. “He said it served us well. Said it was our due for what happened to Zohar.”
Enoch nodded. Rafas only said what he had been thinking—a son for a son. It was painfully fair.
“What do you say Bearer, shall we have justice for Dani and the alroue?” another Elder said. “We can send the dead back to the Tribe of Cain by sun’s birth.”
“No,” Enoch said quietly.
“What do you mean no?” Medici Dinah demanded. “That snake hurt our Dani!”
“This will make us weak in their eyes—” Father Jared began.
“There will be no more blood on my hands,” Enoch said. “Our Nesh Pa Nel had no sympathy for Zohar when they locked him in the tower for stealing—all he wanted was some fresh alroue for his father, Rafas—and now we know why.”
Father Seth bowed his head.
“When we learned Zohar died from overexposure, did we show sympathy? We knew the air in the vault was risky. Did we take responsibility?”
All the elders lowered their heads, even Mother Eve.
“I remember my exact words,” Enoch said, “‘thieves get their just reward’ and we all agreed, to our shame. So, there will be no revenge. Deliver Rafas to their Seat of Council—let them judge their own.” He grabbed the little sack Dani saved from the fire and pushed it into Father Jared’s hands. “This is what we should have given to Zohar. Escort Chalal and her mother back to the Medici women of Nod with the last of the alroue. May it aid all the sons of Adam.”
Enoch leaned over Dani and brushed the matted hair away from his face, praying silently. The absence of the Voice confirmed his guilt. “This is my fault. I should have—”
Mother Eve placed a hand on his back and knelt by him. “One last gift,” she said.
Something soft and heavy draped across his shoulders.
Enoch touched the familiar fringe, surprised. “But I have made so many errors—”
“The Voice spoke to me,” Eve said. “This belongs to you.”
“Father Adam would be proud,” Father Seth laid his hand on Enoch’s head. “for a man to acknowledge his sin is what pleases the Ancient One most. Let it be so.”
Enoch pulled his arms through the slits and draped the hood over his head. The quest for the alroue, being called the Bearer, wearing Adam’s mantle, was heavy and empty now—
The tiny breaths stopped with a long sigh.
Unable to hold back his grief any longer, Enoch wailed and stretched himself over the lad. Enoch’s tears flowed, running down the boy’s cheeks. Hands were on his back, moaning and praying. Fire traveled down his back, through his arms and to his hands.
“Use your authority,” the Voice said.