two Sumerians without fear. Gilgamesh plucked one from Enkidu’s shoulders and hurled it far to the rear, and Enkidu, turning, sliced one free of Gilgamesh’s leg, at which it was tugging in an attempt to topple him.
“Back to back, brother!” Enkidu cried.
Gilgamesh nodded. They swung about and pressed close against each other, forming themselves into a single strange being with eight limbs and two furious swords. Neither needed to give the other any further cue; they moved with one accord, now this way, now that, slashing, skewering, slaughtering. Within moments half a dozen of the ugly attackers lay dead, and the rest were circling uneasily, mewling and hissing as they looked for some way of breaking through the defenses of the two men.
Then the sun cleared the ridge entirely and its full light burst upon the scene; and the surviving creatures, making no attempt at seizing their dead, turned and went racing off toward the west as though afraid of being scalded by the newborn brightness of the day. One turned to glare back at them. Gilgamesh saw a cruel parody of humankind, a broad low dark forehead, a pair of glowering red eyes, claw-tipped hands wide outspread. He shook his fist at it and shouted in the old tongue of the Land, ordering it and all its kind to be gone. The creature fled, snuffling and hissing. The others ran beyond it, scrambling across the broken land and vanishing one by one into burrows and fissures.
Enkidu stared at the corpses that lay strewn about. With a shudder he said, “By Enlil, brother, it’s a foul land that spawns such hideous beasts as those.”
“Demons, do you think?”
“Mere apes, so it seems to me.”
Shrugging, Gilgamesh said, “Apes or demons, it makes no difference. I would rather find myself among such creatures than in the company of fools.”
“And which fools do you mean, brother?”
Gilgamesh jerked his thumb fiercely backward, over his shoulder. “Fools such as dwell in the cities that lie behind us.”
“Ah. Ah. Prester John, you mean?”
“He is less of a fool than most. No, I mean such cities as Nova Roma, and the other ones of the distant east –”
“Elektrograd, do you mean? Guillotine? The cities of the Later Dead?”
Gilgamesh nodded. “Those are the ones, yes. My only purpose now is to keep myself far from those places where the little squabbling grasping ones are, the ones who yearn to be king of this, and emperor of that, and – what is the word? – president? Yes, president. Sultan, kaiser, tsar. Shah. I intend to put half the Afterworld, or more, between myself and all such people, and all such cities.”
Enkidu laughed. “And to think that while I was wandering in far and lonely places I imagined that you were still living the soft life in Nova Roma, dining one night with Bismarck and the next with Cromwell, and then with Esarhaddon or Nefertiti –”
“Nova Roma!” Gilgamesh scowled. “I hated the place. I couldn’t wait to be quit of it. If I never see Nova Roma again, or Bismarck, and Cromwell, and Lenin – or hear so much as their names, even –” He shook his head. “No, brother, that’s a phase of my life that’s over and done with. The simple huntsman’s way, that’s what I crave. I’ll keep myself far from all the capitals where the Later Dead may lurk. Elektrograd, Guillotine, Smoketown, Hypoluxo, High Versailles –I loathe their very names! No, Enkidu, it’s the Outback for me, now and forever.”
“And for me also,” said Enkidu. And they embraced on it.
It would have pleased Gilgamesh to spend an eternity and a half, and then an eternity more, roaming these wild unfriendly lands with no companion but Enkidu. Like hand and glove they fitted one another, so that there was scarcely any need for them to speak, but each knew the other’s mind. To march on, day after day under the harsh red sun, pitting themselves against the nightmare beasts of this cruel terrain, testing eye and hand and strength of arm
“Back to back, brother!” Enkidu cried.
Gilgamesh nodded. They swung about and pressed close against each other, forming themselves into a single strange being with eight limbs and two furious swords. Neither needed to give the other any further cue; they moved with one accord, now this way, now that, slashing, skewering, slaughtering. Within moments half a dozen of the ugly attackers lay dead, and the rest were circling uneasily, mewling and hissing as they looked for some way of breaking through the defenses of the two men.
Then the sun cleared the ridge entirely and its full light burst upon the scene; and the surviving creatures, making no attempt at seizing their dead, turned and went racing off toward the west as though afraid of being scalded by the newborn brightness of the day. One turned to glare back at them. Gilgamesh saw a cruel parody of humankind, a broad low dark forehead, a pair of glowering red eyes, claw-tipped hands wide outspread. He shook his fist at it and shouted in the old tongue of the Land, ordering it and all its kind to be gone. The creature fled, snuffling and hissing. The others ran beyond it, scrambling across the broken land and vanishing one by one into burrows and fissures.
Enkidu stared at the corpses that lay strewn about. With a shudder he said, “By Enlil, brother, it’s a foul land that spawns such hideous beasts as those.”
“Demons, do you think?”
“Mere apes, so it seems to me.”
Shrugging, Gilgamesh said, “Apes or demons, it makes no difference. I would rather find myself among such creatures than in the company of fools.”
“And which fools do you mean, brother?”
Gilgamesh jerked his thumb fiercely backward, over his shoulder. “Fools such as dwell in the cities that lie behind us.”
“Ah. Ah. Prester John, you mean?”
“He is less of a fool than most. No, I mean such cities as Nova Roma, and the other ones of the distant east –”
“Elektrograd, do you mean? Guillotine? The cities of the Later Dead?”
Gilgamesh nodded. “Those are the ones, yes. My only purpose now is to keep myself far from those places where the little squabbling grasping ones are, the ones who yearn to be king of this, and emperor of that, and – what is the word? – president? Yes, president. Sultan, kaiser, tsar. Shah. I intend to put half the Afterworld, or more, between myself and all such people, and all such cities.”
Enkidu laughed. “And to think that while I was wandering in far and lonely places I imagined that you were still living the soft life in Nova Roma, dining one night with Bismarck and the next with Cromwell, and then with Esarhaddon or Nefertiti –”
“Nova Roma!” Gilgamesh scowled. “I hated the place. I couldn’t wait to be quit of it. If I never see Nova Roma again, or Bismarck, and Cromwell, and Lenin – or hear so much as their names, even –” He shook his head. “No, brother, that’s a phase of my life that’s over and done with. The simple huntsman’s way, that’s what I crave. I’ll keep myself far from all the capitals where the Later Dead may lurk. Elektrograd, Guillotine, Smoketown, Hypoluxo, High Versailles –I loathe their very names! No, Enkidu, it’s the Outback for me, now and forever.”
“And for me also,” said Enkidu. And they embraced on it.
It would have pleased Gilgamesh to spend an eternity and a half, and then an eternity more, roaming these wild unfriendly lands with no companion but Enkidu. Like hand and glove they fitted one another, so that there was scarcely any need for them to speak, but each knew the other’s mind. To march on, day after day under the harsh red sun, pitting themselves against the nightmare beasts of this cruel terrain, testing eye and hand and strength of arm
Similar Books
