People of Babel (Ark Chronicles 3) by Vaughn Heppner

She wanted Canaan to join them. Yet, at times, Babel troubled her, and she couldn’t understand why. It was most odd, and she wondered if it had anything to do with the angel of the sun.
     

28.
     
    Hardwood beams that had been floated down the Euphrates lined the ceiling. Tapestries on the walls of hunt scenes added color, as did stuffed animal heads of lions, wolves, elephants and crocodiles, and crossed spears and dragon shields. Torches flickered, and a huge fireplace roared. The feasters sat at a long table, devouring pork, fish and date-palm honey cakes and quaffing dark ale. Later, the Hunters chanted songs, the last one as they pounded the tables with their fists.
    Nimrod rose near the head of the table, with a golden cup in hand . “Hail, Canaan!”
    “ Hail, Canaan!” the Hunters roared.
    Everyone toasted.
    As they did, Nimrod strode near the largest tapestry, made from threads of various colors and textures, all of them cunningly woven together to form pictures of creatures, men and forts, rocks and trees. Each of the scenes had been divided into frames, some telling a running story. There were frames of a dragon, a dragon and a sprinting youth, a chariot driven by a patriarch and then a white-bearded smith hammering bronze arrows. Nimrod indicated the frames of a gate smashed by a dragon, a kicking onager and a dragon on fire.
    “ Who shot the onager that day?” Nimrod asked. “Do any of you remember?”
    Zidon leaned back in his chair, with a sardonic smile on his lips.
    “ Zidon, wasn’t it you who first built and then shot the onager?” Nimrod asked.
    Zidon dipped his head, and in a voice full of sarcasm said, “Indeed, Mighty Hunter.”
    Nimrod ’s hearty grin slipped, and for a moment fire seemed to burn in his eyes. Then he shouted, slapping the tapestry. “I can well imagine the moment. The gate exploding and there standing the dragon, roaring, ready to devour everyone. Alone, Zidon stood between the dragon and disaster. Coolly he lit the fuse, pulled the lanyard and sent a ball of brimstone smashing into the monster’s face.”
    The Hunters howled approval, causing Zidon to lift his eyebrows.
    Nimrod strode to his cousin as chairs scraped back and the Hunters stood. One by one, the elders also stood, and Ham. Zidon rose.
    “ That was nobly done, Zidon,” Nimrod said. “I salute a brave warrior.”
    The Hunters banged their cups and brayed like drunken donkeys, “Zidon! Zidon! Zidon!”
    Nimrod slipped the dragon tooth from his neck and put the leather cord over his cousin ’s head. “We are the dragon-slayers, you and I, both of the blood of heroes.”
    Zidon frowned as he fingered the tooth, and the room grew quiet as men held their breath . “You leave me at a loss for words, Mighty Hunter.”
    “ Then do me this favor,” Nimrod said.
    Zidon cocked an eyebrow.
    “Take my hand in friendship.” Nimrod thrust out a meaty paw. A lone ring, a band of shiny metal, circled the middle finger.
    Zidon pursed his lips, as the room grew even quieter . Some fool clattered a fork, so it rang until another man put his hand over it. As Nimrod held out his palm the moment stretched, becoming embarrassing and then awkward and finally tense.
    “ Do it, Zidon,” someone hissed.
    The pressure mounted unbearably, until Zidon clasped Nimrod ’s hand, saying, “You are not the man I once knew.”
    A cheer arose . More table pounding.
    “ No,” whispered Zidon, leaning near so only Nimrod heard. “You’ve become crafty like a serpent, cunning before a mob.”
    Nimrod laughed as if Zidon had spoken encouraging words, and he gripped his cousin ’s arm.
    Ham plopped onto his chair, everyone else soon doing likewise . Youths then took platters away and poured more date-palm wine and barley ale, while the feasters leaned back, loosening their belts.
    “ You spoke earlier about baked bricks, my brother,” Canaan said. “Perhaps before we’re all uselessly drunk, you should explain what you