Chapter 22: The Might of Babylon

I WAS ONCE AGAIN at the pool when Nebuchadnezzar strolled up to me and began to chat. He was feeling quite full of himself, but Morpheus had visited me again and I knew something was on his mind.

“Isn’t this a wonderful place? I built this,” he said. “I made Babylon the center of the world. I rule over all that is known to man. I will build ever bigger and greater works, so that all the world will come to see Babylon.”

“Shh. Your Majesty, be aware of the dream,” I whispered.

He immediately blanched, remembering what he had dreamed just the night before.

“What does it mean, Bob? I dreamt my mouth was full of grass. What does it mean?” he asked. Well, just having a dream about eating grass wasn’t adequate to make a good story, so I elaborated.

“You, sire, are a great tree. You can be seen from the ends of the earth. Your branches spread protectively over all who look to you for their very sustenance and you provide for them well. But you lack the humility to honor the gods for your greatness. Such is hubris that they cannot overlook. This dream is a warning that if you do not honor the gods for your greatness, it will be taken from you. The tree shall be cut to the ground and you will wander like a beast of the field, eating the grasses you have dreamed of.”

“Is this true? Can a man’s sanity be taken from him so quickly? I charge you, Bob,” he said, beckoning a scribe closer. “If my sanity is taken from me for a period of time, my son Belchadnezzar shall rule in my stead. He shall have dominion over all save my harem. I hand my harem into the care of Bob. He will have knowledge of it and will guard it until the day of my return.”

Well, shit. That wouldn’t make Miriam happy. I just hoped the warning the gods had provided would take root in Nebuchadnezzar and I would never have to worry about it. Wishful thinking, I knew.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR WAS a good king and generally a nice guy. He often sent me on an errand to discuss a matter with the ruler of a neighboring country or with community leaders around Babylon. On one such trip—I don’t remember if it was before or after the dreams; I just thought of it now—I was sent to a small city up the river from Babylon to discuss the petition of the magistrate to help improve their water source. It seemed the river flowed warm at this point and encouraged the growth of green scum.

I talked to the magistrate and decided to go upstream a little farther to see if I could find what was causing the heated water. I found a most amazing thing. There was a point in the mountains where the water flowing out of a spring was hot. Someone had created a bathing pool around the spring and the channel that would carry the water out to the desert had been blocked. The pool overflowed and broke a new channel that led to the river, raising the temperature of the river.

I was alone, so it did not take long for me to unblock the desert channel and shore up the dam on the river channel. The problem of the city was solved and they paid a tax to the king for clearing their water supply.

That was not the amazing thing I saw. I’d seen hot springs before. The amazing thing was a bronze statue of a lovely woman that graced the pool. I had seen bronze statuary before, as well, but this was near life size! In fact, if she was not a large woman, she might walk right out of the bronze. The detail was amazing, and while there was a green patina over most of the statue, her left breast had been touched by bathers so frequently that it shone golden.

Yes, the temptation was far too great for a mere demon like me to resist. I stroked the golden breast as well. And then I paused and stroked it again. Some miracle of having her feet in the hot spring warmed the statue and the breast was as warm as flesh. What’s more, I paused with my sensitive fingers on the golden skin and was certain I could feel a heartbeat beneath the bronze.

I spent a long time looking at the statue. It had incredible detail. The folds and curves of her flesh looked so real one might make love to her if the bronze were not so unyielding. I looked into her eyes and thought I could see intelligence and life.

I was not a great sorcerer, though Circe had told me I had a natural ability to work magic. I did not want to bring a bronze statue to life, but I did want to free a person if one was trapped there. I sought guidance from my books in the infinity room and came across the spell I had used once long ago to turn three girls into stone statues for a day so they would watch the fun we had and be unable to participate. The spell had a time limit when I cast it. The next day, when I pushed them into the infinity room, they ceased being stone and became flesh again. There was, however, a spell I had never used that would reverse the enchantment and turn a person who had become stone into flesh once more.

I wondered if that was what happened to Pygmalion’s Ivory Lady. Of course, My Lady Goddess could have created life from nothing, just as she had turned the Propoetides to stone. I wondered if the spell would work to turn a bronze lady into flesh. I studied the spell, laid my hands on the statue, and began to chant the rather involved spell.

As I said the words, I felt the shoulders rise and fall with her breath. The flesh became supple. As I finished the spell, she fell back into my arms. She was beautiful, breathing, alive. She looked at me with adoration and spread kisses across my chest.

“Thank you! Thank you! Whatever you would have of me, I would give you. You have released me from a curse set a thousand years ago and I cannot thank you enough,” she said.

“Fair lady, tell me your name and your story,” I begged.

“I am Srininx. I was a servant of the Sorcerer Dbossé. Each day I accompanied him to the spring for his bath and he attempted to force his attentions on me. When I refused him, he cursed me to be a statue watching him bathe each day and he caressed my breast each time he came to the spring. He died centuries ago and others have come to the spring, finding my breast irresistible. Just as you did.”

“I apologize for my rudeness, yet it was that caress that let me know you were a living being.”

I took her hand and we stood up. She was nicely shaped and desirable. In only one place did a sign of her captivity remain. Her left breast continued to be the color of bright gold. When she pressed it against me, though, it was fully flesh.

She was insistent on showing her gratitude. Next to the pool where she had watched for centuries, we lay on the rocks and made love. She was inexperienced but enthusiastic and when I suggested she join my ladies in the infinity room she agreed readily. We have enjoyed each other many times and within the harem, caressing her breast is considered a kind of good luck gesture which she welcomes.

I WAS one of the very few intact males allowed near Nebuchadnezzar’s pool with his harem there. He had a few other trusted advisors and scribes there, but the normal business of Babylon was conducted in his throne room. I was at the pool one day when Neb came up to me and started gushing about the treaty he’d just made. Then it was on about his wonderful garden and his beautiful pool, reflecting, as it did, the beauties of his harem. That hadn’t been my thought when I built the pool, but it was a nice way to use it.

“Just look at all this I’ve created,” Neb said. “I’m the greatest king who ever lived. Even the Jews acknowledge me as a king appointed by their god. There has never been such a one as me and I will...” he broke off his soliloquy and suddenly belched a guttural groan like a cow. He then wandered to the garden and began eating the leaves. Nebuchadnezzar had offended the gods one last time and was condemned to eat grass in the fields like an ox.

Well, the palace had been prepared for the possibility of such an event. I think Neb knew he could never keep the offense of pride in his work out of his life. He’d instructed his son, Belchadnezzar, well on how to handle a regency. A field had been planted on the south side of the palace where rich grasses grew and Neb began to browse and eat. It was deemed best at this time—because his son was rather young and inexperienced—to keep the transformation a secret. It was said that Nebuchadnezzar ruled from his bed and did not receive visitors. His son carried on all royal duties in consultation with the nobles and wise men of Babylon. He did fine without me.

However, Nebuchadnezzar’s decree that during his incapacity, I was to be put in charge of his harem was adhered to. You might ask why.

There were a variety of laws—in fact so convoluted as to be almost indecipherable—regarding degrees of incest and penalties for each type. Some of them I recognized from the code of Hammurabi. For example, a woman sleeping with her nephew could be drowned if she was the nephew’s father’s sister, but would be exiled if she were the nephew’s mother’s sister. The nephew went without punishment, of course. A man was forbidden from sleeping with his sister—except if his sister’s husband died and there were no male kin of the husband to take her in, then he could—no must—take her in and make her his wife. But in every instance, it was forbidden that a man should ever sleep with his mother.

The Prince of Babylon interpreted that as meaning that he should just stay out of his father’s harem. Good plan, especially since he had just begun building a harem of his own. So, the prince and nobles and advisors were happy to put the harem in my hands, so to speak. I had to go home and explain that to Miriam. She went home to her mother. I took the infinity room with me and moved into the harem.

It was a long seven years. Ah! You might think I screwed my way through the 114 women in the harem and six eunuchs. No, I did not. It happened that many of the women—maybe thirty or forty—were still virgins. They were trade and surety given by subject kingdoms for their loyalty. It was expected that one day the king would or could have any woman in his harem in his bed, but many were kept chaste so he could use them later as a bargaining chip. Also, some of his ‘wives’ had been given to him in marriage while they were still young girls, six or seven years old. He would not touch them until they had become women. And I was certainly not going to deflower any of the king’s brides or concubines.