Read Online People of Babel (Ark Chronicles 3) by Vaughn Heppner - Free Book Online Page A

of Semiramis’s dark hair hidden under Beor’s straw mattress. Other items of hers, a comb, a pin or a buckle from an old belt, Hilda had seen her father late at night when he thought she was asleep. He sat in his chair in front of the fireplace and, with his thumb, rubbed the pin or comb, with his eyes unfocused, as if he saw into another, happier time.
    Hilda pitied her father, for she knew that Semiramis was cruel and vindictive . Oh, how her stepmother had terrified her as a child. Nimrod and Semiramis deserved each other.
     

18.
     
    Chin and his companions departed and life went on in Javan Village. As Rahab had suspected, the amber necklace wove a spell over Hilda. She often took it out, wearing it in her room, gazing at herself in her slate mirror. She finally went to Tarshish, the father of Semiramis, and in his house wheedled a gown from one of his daughters. In her room, Hilda wore the gown with the necklace, moving about and practicing walking like a woman. A month before spring, she waltzed into the main room for supper. Eyebrows rose and her father smiled.
    “ From which cloud did you descend, my fair princess?” Beor asked.
    “ Father,” she chided. But she sat at the table, delighted. It gave her the boldness the next day to go outside in the dress. Heads turned. It was caused as much from her loveliness as the treasure hanging from her neck.
    Beor warned her two weeks later . “People are gossiping. I’ve heard it, and so have the others. You must put the necklace away and only wear it on special occasions.”
    “ The other girls wear nice things,” Hilda said.
    “ Certainly,” Beor said. “I’m not against that. The amber necklace, however, isn’t just a nice thing. It’s the greatest treasure in Japheth Land. That makes people jealous. Remember, we’re guests here.”
    “ Guests, Father? After all these years? We’re no longer just guests.”
    “ That isn’t how people think,” Beor said.
    “ Many of the Japhethites have married Hamite women,” Hilda argued. “They’re not just guests.”
    “ It’s different for women, Hilda. A woman and man become one flesh. She becomes like a Japhethite, just as a woman from here, married to a son of Ham, becomes a Hamite. For me and the Scouts, however, it’s different.”
    “ Javan has welcomed you with open arms,” Hilda said. “He’s said so many times.”
    “ That’s what he said, I agree,” Beor told her. “But at times, they still resent us.”
    “ They ask you and the Scouts to lead the most dangerous hunts and to help them make the most intricate bronze-work.”
    “ Another reason not to like us,” Beor said. “Because they need us.”
    “ That doesn’t make sense.”
    “ True. But that’s human nature nonetheless. So I want you to put the necklace away and only wear it for Festival.”
    “ Yes, Father.”
    Beor patted her on the cheek, no doubt thinking the problem solved.
    Hilda, however, wore the necklace whenever he took a Scout as his charioteer instead of letting her drive. Those days, she donned the dress and proudly wore the necklace, turning heads and making others jealous.
    Some of the most spiteful women went to Minos, the younger brother of Semiramis. He was a lanky fellow with curly, dark hair and handsome, olive-skinned features. He was the most handsome man in the village. He wore fine clothes, with linen undergarments and golden rings on his fingers. He disdained stone weapons and tools and wore on his belt a silver dagger, one of his many vanities and joys.
    He listened to the harping of the jealous women: that a daughter of Beor should show them up and strut about their village as if she were its queen.
    “ Your sister was driven to distraction by Hilda. Surely, if Semiramis learned that you taught Hilda the price of arrogance, it would warm her days and cause her to remember you even more fondly than she does.”
    Minos pondered that, and he saw that although Hilda was young, under age, that she