The Pursuit of
Shugat-Nergal
A story set in Ancient Sumer
by James W. Bell © 2002 - 2004
37
Ereshkigal cursed, grabbed the bell cord and yanked it to summon her son. Namtar came quickly, outfitted in his cloak of black wool. When he saw his mother in uncourtly dress, his eyes widened. “Mother, what happened to your clothes?”
“At the moment, Namtar, that’s beside the point. I’ve something for you to do.”
“I’m dressed, ready to return to the Great Above.”
“No, this pertains to here. Do you recall that damned mortal your father brought down without giving you leave to first properly cover him with your Cloak of Death?”
“Do I?” Namtar scowled. “By the gods, my father allowed the man to take the place of two beautiful females, women I had already prepared. That’s my father. Thinking only of himself, like a jackal. It’s always more work for me and no reward.”
“I know.” Ereshkigal stroked her son’s arm lightly. “Some day, my dear, all that’s going to change.”
“Mother, I can’t wait. I want to go back up and get those women.”
“Maybe later, Namtar. We have more important business down here first.”
“Bones! This place is dead. It’s frozen for eternity. What is it that can’t wait?”
“Do you remember Magir-Sin?”
Namtar gritted his teeth. “The one that caught us by surprise? So what? He’s gone back to the Great Above. Those two women are ready and waiting to be brought below.”
“Haven’t you noticed?” Ereshkigal put up her hands in front of his face to show him her fingers. “Have you not noticed a lack of rings on your mother’s fingers? And a necklace that is no longer at your mother’s throat?” She patted her neck. “Shugat-Nergal, that no-good your father brought down, stole them all, including my personal seal.”
“Bless Bes, mother, is that what happened to your clothing too? How did the mortal manage to take away everything you had on?”
“Hush, my son. You mustn’t ask your mother questions like that. So we’re not going to talk about it anymore or, especially, mention it to your father.”
“What if the old goat should ask?”
Ereshkigal arched an eyebrow. “He doesn’t deserve to know,” she said. “He was out on the porch drinking at the time. He’s sleeping it off now. There’s no need to get him involved this late.”
“But, mother –”
“Enough is enough, Namtar. That dreadful mortal, a thief, has already humiliated your father by drinking him under the table. However much you resent the arrogance of your father, don’t hurt him more. This is not a good time to show your anger.”
“But what if my father asks me what happened to the man he brought down?”
“Yes. With your help, my son, we will be able to tell your father that we caught Shugat-Nergal and put him to a proper death for his thievery.”
“I like that.” Namtar smiled. “It’s a good ending. Where is he now?”
The Queen of the Underworld waved out the window, her hand pointing at the dark homes of the deceased that filled the city. “Somewhere out there, probably hiding among mausoleums. In spite of my best efforts, he escaped from the palace—went racing out the front door.”
“So, the villain, after stealing your jewelry, is now defiling our sanctified places of eternal rest. It’s a big necropolis out there. He may be hard to find.”
“I’ve devised a plan, Namtar. We’ll need to call upon the gallas. There must be a thousand thousand of them. Those little demons, with their pointy heads, if they march across the city in lines, they’ll surely flush out Shugat and bring him to ground.”
Namtar gave his mother an evil smile. “I must admit, for their size, gallas are the most effective of all demons. Their appearance is deceptive and innocent, looking like broken reeds, not much more than the stubble that’s left in a field. Mortals have never realized how many we’ve placed in the Great Above.”
“Yes. They suffer horrendously from their stabs but give their painful experiences names like gout or arthritis. They never guess the source. They must be puzzled as to why some are sorely afflicted while others are left untouched.”
“From what I hear,” Namtar said, “they ascribe it to the will of the gods.”
“In the case of Shugat-Nergal, it damn well will be the will of the gods … my will. Namtar, I want you to send for the gallas. Order them to assemble in front of the palace on the processional way. When they’re here, I’ll come out and take command. We’ll lead them on a sweep through the city and catch Shugat-Nergal.”
“Mother, all shall be as you wish.” With a flourish of his cape, Namtar charged off to find the gallas.
* * *
An hour later, the Queen of the Underworld heard a swishing sound outside, as if wind were blowing through the cavern housing the World of the Dead. The gallas are here! She hurried downstairs and onto the palace portico. There, in front of the steps, stood Namtar with a tremendous horde of the demons, a mass of broken reeds that extended in every direction as far as her eye could see.
“My friends,” she addressed the fiends in a loud voice, “this is your chance to show your demonic skills and prove your mastery of the dark arts. A living mortal, a thief by the name of Shugat-Nergal, has made his way down into the Land of No Return by trickery and deceit. He recently fled the palace after stealing the royal jewels. He is now loose somewhere in this city. As Queen of the Underworld, I have judged him and found him guilty. I hereby pronounce the sentence of death upon him. I leave it to you, my friends, to find him and put him to death in the most horrible and excruciating manner possible.”
Ereshkigal could sense the gallas becoming excited. Even as she spoke, they started rustling. Soon they were trembling, rattling their brittle stems against each other and causing a considerable din.
“In a few minutes, we will start our search for this treacherous mortal. Be prepared. When we find him, strike him hard. Then I want him put to death immediately!”
There was an increase in the tempo of the noise. Ereshkigal went down the palace steps with Namtar following close behind. She carefully picked her way through quivering rows of imps. After she made her way past the last galla, she turned back and said, “This way, my friends – follow me. Form a line across the city. Search every nook and cranny as we pass. To the demon who finds the mortal goes the reward of personally putting him to death.” She raised her arm to motion them forward. “Kill!” she shouted. “Kill!”
The gallas made high-pitched sounds like reed flutes. “Kill!” they whistled by the thousands of thousands as they marched behind her, battalion after battalion, rustling and shrilling in their high-pitched voices. “Kill! Kill!”.
38
Having fled with the queen’s jewelry and clothing, Shugat-Nergal stopped among the mausoleums while still within sight of the palace, seeking some place to hide. He briefly considered going inside one of the tombs, but the marble was ice cold to the touch and the inside was pitch black. So he stayed outside and followed the limestone slabs that formed a walk between the monumental vaults.
It was difficult to see in the dim blue light that fluoresced from the ceiling of the cavern. Dark shapes that appeared to be trees and bushes were spaced around some of the larger domiciles of death. He reached out and touched what seemed to be a stately poplar, but the leaves tinkled like the copper rings of a tambourine and the trunk felt petrified and long dead.
Behind him, he heard distant shouts of “Kill! Kill!” and the strident responses that echoed that sentiment. The eeriness caused Shugat to shudder. The harsh noise continued, ever growing in loudness. He looked around and, to his right, made out the city wall. Surely, he thought, there must be a way out other than through the gate and across the Lake of Death. Then he remembered Magir-Sin’s claim to have found a cave that led up to the Great Above. He clutched the queen’s clothing more tightly under his arm and wended his way across the vast monumental graveyard, moving parallel to the wall.
The incessant whistles of “Kill, kill” drove him ever onward. In the pale blue light, he repeatedly stumbled over small bushes that jingled as their sharp branches pricked his shins. By the gods, he told himself, I’ll be lucky if I get out of this place alive and luckier still if I don’t go mad. Only after working his way across most of the cemetery did he catch sight of an orange glow ahead, a flickering light that sporadically lit what might be the far wall of the cavern that contained the city. He hurried towards it.
When close enough to make out details, Shugat saw the black mouth of a cave in the rock face, accessible only by a narrow bridge over a vent cut in the floor, a slit that allowed light from the fierce flames of the Underworld below. He saw also, in silhouette, a watchman guarding the bridge. Up closer, he made out the man’s leather tunic and short spear.
What the kur. In his life in the Great Above, Shugat had prided himself on being a quick-change artist and a master of disguise. Down here, in pale cerulean light from overhead and the sputtering glow from the Underworld, the ruse should be all the easier. He drew out Ereshkigal’s long, flowing gown and pulled it down over his own clothes. Then, folding up everything else and tucking it under his arm, he walked out into the flickering orange light, and with mincing steps like a woman, he shouted in a high falsetto voice that he hoped somewhat emulated Ereshkigal’s, “Kill! Kill!”
When the watcher stepped forward to challenge him, Shugat shouted “Kill!” at the sentry and pulled on the queen’s necklace to hold out her personal seal for inspection. As the guard leaned close to study it, Shugat kneed him, causing him to fall to the ground, howling with pain. Before the watchman could recover, Shugat dashed across the bridge and entered the darkness of the cave beyond.
39
As soon as he was away from light, Shugat was immediately surrounded by shades, floating pale gray phantasms that were barely visible. He put his head down and tried brushing them away like flies, but they swarmed and clung to him, moaning and groaning. “Listen to me!” he shouted.
For a moment, the whimpering and movement stopped. The pressure lessened and the darkness became quiet. Shugat took advantage of the silence. “I am not the Queen of the Underworld,” he said and stripped off the queen’s gown. “Look at me! I am a living mortal from the Great Above.”
Immediately, the whining recommenced, louder than ever, and the spirits edged closer, the sheer number threatening to overwhelm him. “Stop it!” he shouted. Again, they retreated and their lamentations subsided. “Look, I’m only one mortal. There’s not enough of me to go around. But, listen to all that noise out there.” He pointed towards the mouth of the cave and the shrill sounds of ‘Kill! Kill!’ “Those are thousands of demons coming here,” he said. “There’s more than enough for each of you to claim at least one for your very own.”
The shades oohed and started eddying away, towards the mouth of the cave and the bridge, swirling around each other.
“My friends,” Shugat addressed the shades, “I no longer wish to have anything to do with the demons. I give them to you; they are yours to do with as you wish. But, in return, I ask your help. I’m on my way up to the Great Above and need someone who knows the way up.”
A ghostlike voice came from somewhere within the miasmic mass. “I know.”
“Come forward so I can talk with you.”
A path opened in front of Shugat and a shade of molted color floated up to him. “I know the way out,” it said. “I went up to the Great Above long ago, a most dreadful experience.”
“Dreadful, you say?”
“Indeed. All the abovers who saw me, screamed. As soon as they caught sight of me, they shouted, ‘Ghost!’ Some threw spears and stones at me. They never gave me a chance to speak … to talk to them … to explain. I guess they feared me because of my spectral appearance. I was more alone up there than down here. It’s not that comfortable down here, but at least I have a place. That’s why I came back.”
“You said you knew the way up? Would you show me?”
“I do, but I’d rather stay here and keep you here with me. You’re friendly … you talk to me.”
“My friend, we can talk more on the way, without all the other shades around.”
“But I don’t want to go back up.”
“Listen,” Shugat said, “have you a name?”
“Mulim,” the shade answered. “It was Milum when I was alive but when I died and became a shade, I became a mirror image of what I had been. So my name changed from Milum to Mulim.”
“All right, Mulim, you claim you’re lonely?”
“I’ve been down here for better than five hundred years with no one to talk to except other shades. I’m afraid, like their bodies, their conversation lacks substance. I tried the palace but Ereshkigal and that husband of hers claimed we were always hanging around, pestering them. So they put us away in caves like this and cut slits in the floor of the Netherworld so the hot fires of the Underworld and the guards stationed at the bridges would serve to keep us out. You’re the only person who has spoken to me in five hundred years.”
”Listen, Mulim, there’s no need for you to be lonely anymore. I am Shugat-Nergal, an abover, famous in the Great Above as a master thief. I could use someone like you, if you’d care to come along with me.”
“A tenuous shade like me? Of what use could I be among abovers?”
“My accomplice,” Shugat explained. “I need a lookout, one who stays out of the way while the action is going on, but gives me a warning if someone approaches. As for your appearance, the more tenuous, the better.”
“Oh. A lookout, you say? Yes, I could do that. Would that be helpful to you?”
Shugat nodded. “Definitely. We could make a team, Mulim. Listen, the demons are getting close. If we’re going to get out of here, we need to get moving.”
“Well, I’m not sure –”
“If you don’t like it up there in the Great Above, you can always come back down, like before.”
“Well, if you put it like that,” Mulim said and led Shugat into the black cave.
Shugat followed the barely visible form. “How can you see in this darkness?”
“I told you, a shade is a mirror image of what he was when alive. I can see perfectly well when it’s dark. It’s light, especially sunlight, that blinds me now.”
As Shugat followed Mulim, he glanced back and saw the watchman talking to the demons and motioning toward the cave. He watched as the devilish gallas surged across the narrow bridge and felt a sense of elation as the shades swarmed them.
Mulim interrupted his watching. “It’s a long way up, Shugat-Nergal. We need to keep going …” he paused “… that is, unless you’ve reconsidered.”
“Not in a thousand years, Mulim. I’ve got too many reasons for getting out of here. Lead on, my friend, I’m right behind.”
To Chapter 40
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