The Pursuit of
Shugat-Nergal
A story set in Ancient Sumer
by James W. Bell © 2002 - 2004
40
“We’d better stop for a bit,” Mulim said.
“Why?” Shugat asked. “What’s the matter?”
“It’s my eyes, they’re starting to burn. We’re nearing sunlight.”
“But it’s still black as pitch.”
“Believe me, mortal, we’ll see sunlight at the next turn.”
“Then I’m going on ahead,” Shugat said. “I’m thirsty. I’ve had nothing to drink since leaving the palace.” He groped his way forward in the darkness and soon saw light, the mouth of the cavern he realized.
He ran to the entrance, and stopped - barely - in the nick of time. The cave opened out on a precipice. Shugat looked past his feet and felt lightheaded. The river was far below, at the bottom of a deep gorge, at least a thousand feet straight down. “By Nin!”
Gingerly, he stepped back from the edge and viewed the landscape. Layer upon layer of mountains loomed as far as he could see, barren limestone ridges, one after the other, heavily eroded with rock-strewn ravines. “We’re in the mountainlands,” he shouted back to Mulim.
The shade came up beside him, shielding his albino eyes from the sunlight with one arm. “See,” Shugat pointed at the gorge below, “we’re stuck up here.”
“Not me.” The shade stepped off the ledge and floated outside the mouth of the cave. “Just step out and ride the air.”
“By the gods, Mulim, if I tried that, I’d drop like a stone to my death.”
“Oh, I forgot … you mortals suffer severe disabilities. Even gods can float.”
“That’s a fine thing to say. Aren’t you going to help me?”
“It’s the other way round, I believe. Weren’t you the one who propositioned me?”
“Well, I hope you’re not going to float off somewhere and leave me here.”
“We’ve reached the Great Above as promised. You’re a fine one to start making new demands.”
“You gave me no warning. I might have run out the entrance and plunged to my death in the abyss below! I tell you, Mulim, you’re making me a very unhappy man.”
“I’m beginning to appreciate the value of solitude.”
“Don’t start philosophizing with me!”
“You seem to lack patience.”
“I intensely dislike being taken advantage of.”
“When we were in the Underworld, it was you who begged me to show you the way up. You pleaded with me to come with you. Now, are you claiming I misled you?”
“Because of you, I now find myself in an impossible position.”
“My eyes are getting sunburned while you lecture me. I can feel them.”
“Look at me, trapped in the mouth of this stupid cave.”
“Oh, my eyes!” the shade said. He rubbed them and vanished.
Shugat looked around in sudden panic. “Mulim, where are you?”
A voice came from out of thin air. “Right here.”
“I can’t see you.”
“I’m still here … haven’t moved.”
“You’ve become invisible.”
There was a moment of silence. “So I have,” the shade said. “I wish I’d found out I could do this the first time I came up.”
“Hey,” Shugat said, “we really are going to make a great team! I can tell.”
“Well, I’m not going to stay up here with you forever.”
“Can you move around?”
“Of course I can. Look at me ride the air current.”
“Dumb ox, I can’t see you. But ride around and see if you can find me a way down. My throat’s parched. I’ll die of thirst if I don’t get something to drink soon.”
“Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
* * *
Shugat-Nergal was dreaming about cool water when he heard a voice in his ear. It startled him and he jolted upright. “What?”
“It’s me,” the shade said. “I’ve found a way you can get down.”
Shugat glanced out the cave. “It’s late afternoon. We’d better get started.”
“If we waited till night, I’d be able to see better.”
“No, Mulim, I’m the one going down. It is I who needs vision. Besides, I’m as thirsty as kur. We’ll leave now.”
“As you will,” the shade said. “Come over here, Shugat. See that outcropping to your right? There’s barely enough room for your foot. Step out there. Then work your way along the ledge. It has a steep slope. Watch it; it’s narrow. Move carefully.”
Shugat stepped on the protuberance, carefully placing one foot. He slipped once but regained his balance. Slowly, he worked his way along the narrow shelf, moving down, step by step, as the sun sank and darkened the gorge below.
As shadows moved up the canyon wall, Mulim said, “I warn you, Shugat, there’s a ravine ahead filled with loose rock that you’ll have to cross. It’s going to be tricky. I think we should stop and wait till night when I have better sight.”
“Nonsense,” Shugat replied. “I have to get something to drink.” He reached the edge of the wash and saw the scree in it. “Loose gravel. I’m going to sit and ride it down.” Shugat scrunched down and wiggled out onto the loose gravel. The pebbles gave way beneath him and he went sliding into the ravine.
“Hey, wait for me!” Mulim shouted as Shugat disappeared into the dark depths of the gorge.
41
Once again, Shugat-Nergal heard a voice in his ear. “Are you still alive?” it asked.
Shugat opened an eye. It was night and he saw Mulim’s gray form bent over him. “Yes,” he groaned. His butt hurt and his throat was parched. His voice was cracked and sounded strange. He was acutely aware he could hardly speak. “Water.”
“The river’s at hand, only a hundred feet more.”
Shugat crawled on all fours to the bank and dunked his head into the cold water of the fast-flowing mountain stream. Then he splashed water on his face and pulled back, collapsing on the bank.
“I thought you’d killed yourself sliding down those rocks,” Mulim said. “I fully expected to find you covered with Namtar’s Cloak of Death.”
“Watch over me,” Shugat croaked. “Please.” Then he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
* * *
In the middle of the moonlit night, a band of hunters working their way downstream stumbled upon the prostrate form of Shugat-Nergal. “Halt,” the chief called to his band. He knelt and felt the body in the moonlight. “He’s alive. Aha! I think I feel a moneybag.”
“Let’s take it and kill him,” one of his hunters suggested.
“Why not?” the chief agreed. “Only, let’s kill him first.” He hefted his spear.
A deep voice boomed out of thin air. “Beware, proud chief! The man on the ground is the Great Shugat-Nergal.”
“Who?” The chief lowered his spear and looked around but saw no one.
“I said the Great Shugat-Nergal,” the invisible voice repeated. “Beware.”
“If he’s so great,” the chief asked, “why do we find him lying sprawled here on the riverbank, fast asleep?”
“He is a creature of the daytime and sleeps when the daytime gods sleep,” the voice answered. “I am his nighttime manifestation. I stand guard over him at night.”
Using his spear, the chief started jabbing the air around him.
The voice broke out in a gale of laughter. “You cannot kill us, chief. But your presence disturbs our sleep. Would you not prefer to bring your hunt to a successful end? Do you not want fresh meat to take home to your women and children?”
The chief lowered his spear and rested it on the ground. “We would welcome fresh meat.”
“Ahead, mighty chief,” the invisible voice said, “are three mountain goats. The Great Shugat-Nergal has placed them there for you. Send a hunter up that outcropping. It is a full moon. If he looks in the hollow beyond, he will see our gift.”
The chief motioned for one of his hunters to go up on the crag. Within minutes, the man returned. “I saw the goats. There are three, as the Great Shugat-Nergal’s voice said.”
The chief looked confused.
“Give thanks to the Great Shugat-Nergal,” the voice spoke again. “Then go and claim the animals he has so generously given you.”
The chief hesitated. Finally, he laid down his spear, got down on his knees, and bowed to the sleeping form of Shugat-Nergal. “O Great One, we give you thanks.” Then he picked up his weapon and led his hunters over the outcropping.
As they departed, Mulim materialized again and settled down beside Shugat. “I see you are learning wisdom, Shugat-Nergal,” he said to the sleeping man. “It’s the rare mortal who can keep his mouth shut.”
Shugat stirred, but the shade said, “Sleep. Morning will come soon enough.”
Shugat followed the shade’s advice.
42
When Shugat woke at dawn, he seemed alone. The shade was nowhere in sight so he called out, “Mulim.” His throat hurt and his voice was still hoarse.
“I’m here.” Mulim’s voice came out of thin air. “I had to dematerialize. My eyes are badly sunburned from yesterday. How are you this morning?”
“I’ll live,” Shugat replied and crawled to the river to get a drink. “I’m hungry.”
“Have you a spear? Or a knife?”
“A spear? Where could I have concealed either? Because I’m a thief, I’m careful not to carry a weapon of any type. I don’t want to be mistaken for a killer.”
“Then, my friend, you’re going to have a problem up here in the mountainlands.”
“Because I can’t defend myself?”
“Look around you, Shugat-Nergal. What do you see? There are no cities. No farms. For a mortal to exist in the mountainlands, he must hunt to eat.”
“You’re telling me I’m going to stay hungry?”
“Without something to hunt with, you’ll likely starve.”
“Can’t we go down to Sumer?”
“In your condition? It’s a long ways. If there’s no other choice, we’ll have to try.”
“By the gods,” Shugat said, “I’m ready to try.” He rose unsteadily to his feet.
Suddenly, a “Hello,” a soft feminine voice came from behind a boulder upwater.
Shugat turned towards the sound. “Hello,” he responded.
“May I approach the Great Shugat-Nergal?” the voice asked, timid in manner.
Shugat suddenly felt better. He chuckled to himself. “I give you leave to approach.”
A young girl appeared and then came clearly into view, carefully picking her way over tumbled rocks. She was a mountain girl, with a pale face and straight black hair, dressed in a leather tunic and wearing the heavy leather boots of her people. In one hand, she carried a spear. In the other, she held a straw basket. She stopped and smiled.
“I have brought roast goat for the Great Shugat-Nergal,” she said with lowered eyes. “A tithe for giving our hunters the game last night.” She offered him the basket.
Shugat returned her smile and stepped forward to take the basket. “Thank you.”
“It was the least we could do.”
“Have you come by yourself?”
The mountain girl nodded. “No one dared come with me, not during the daytime when the Great Shugat was awake.”
“You are brave.”
“Perhaps.” She giggled. “I am still a maiden.”
“What is your name?”
“I am called Kalama.”
“Kalama, a fitting name for a beautiful woman. I see you have a spear.”
“As everyone does, Great One.” She looked around. “Where is yours?”
“My spear broke …” Shugat hesitated, “… while fighting a dragon.”
“Oh,” the girl oohed. “Then it is you who are the brave one. And handsome too.”
“I’m badly in need of a spear.”
The maiden clutched her spear to her bosom. “This is the only one I have.”
“Listen, Kalama,” Shugat went on, “I will trade you for it.”
“But, Great One, you know a maiden would not be safe without her spear.”
“With me around, Kalama, you’ll need not worry.”
“Oh, are you offering to replace it with a ring?”
“Why, yes,” Shugat said, “that’s exactly what I had in mind.” He opened his moneybag and pulled out one of the rings he’d taken from Ereshkigal. “Look at this.”
The girl’s eyes sparkled. “How beautiful!’ she said. “I’ve never seen the like of it.”
“It’s for you.” Shugat held it out. “I offer you this for your spear.”
“Are you sure, Great One?” Kalama asked.
“I’m certain.”
“Then, in that case …” she said, hesitantly at first but then exuberantly, “I accept!” She handed Shugat her spear in exchange for the ring. Then she took it and slipped it on her finger. “I love you too.”
“What?”
“I said, Great One, that ‘I love you too.’”
For once in his life, Shugat-Nergal found himself dumbfounded … speechless.
Kalama held up her hand. “You’ve given me this ring as brideprice,” she said, “and I have surrendered my spear to you in submission. So, now we are engaged to be married. I know we’ll have many strong sons—all mighty hunters.”
“But, Kalama -”
For a moment, her eyes turned somber. “You’re not married to another, are you?”
“No –”
“Then, I will go tell my people and bring them back so the ceremony can be performed.” She hastily kissed him and said, “I’ll be back soon.”
Shugat-Nergal watched the mountain girl scramble homeward over the rocks.
“Well,” a voice came from out of the air, “you’ve gotten yourself into a fine pickle.”
“It was an accident, Mulim—sheer accident! Why didn’t you do something?”
“I never interfere in the affairs of mortals. A strange chemistry works between mortal men and women. She’ll soon return with her tribe.”
“By the gods, Mulim, we’ve got to get out of here!”
“You haven’t a chance, Shugat-Nergal,” Mulim protested. “You’re still stiff from that slide yesterday and hardly able to move. Besides, they know the terrain.”
“You could haunt them,” Shugat suggested, “slow down their pursuit.”
Shugat heard a scoff.
Then, from the top of the precipice came a shout. “Hello down there!”
Shugat looked up and saw a figure atop the canyon wall, dressed in black. “By the gods, Mulim,” he exclaimed, “look up there! It’s Namtar! He’s found us!”
To Chapter 43
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