Robert Silverberg - Gilgamesh the King

Rise, now, Gilgamesh! Get you to the sea's surface! My errand was achieved; and I realized now for the first time that my breath was all but exhausted.

I cut myself free of the stones that were tied to my feet and rose like an arrow through the water, scattering the startled fishes. Brightness enfolded me. I burst through into the air and felt the blessed warmth of the sun. Laughing, splashing, lurching about, I flung myself onto the bosom of the sea and it sped me toward the shore. In moments I reached a place where the water was shallow enough for me to stand; and I went running onward until I was on dry land once again.

I held out my hand toward Lu-Ninmarka, showing him the gray uncouth thing I held. Blood still ran from the cuts it had made in my flesh and I felt the salt of the sea stinging in them; but that did not matter. "Is this it?" I cried. "Is this the right one?"

"Let me see," he murmured. "Give me your knife."

He took it from me and deftly slipped the blade of the knife between the two stony leaves. With a strength I did not think he had the old priest split the leaves apart and turned them back. Within I beheld something strange, a pulsing pink furrowed thing as soft and intricate and mysterious as a woman's most secret inner place. But that was of no concern to Lu-Ninmarka; he prowled with his fingers in its folds and crevices and after a moment cried out and pulled forth something round and smooth and gleaming, the pearl that is the fruit of the plant Grow-Young-Again.

"This is what we seek," he said. Carelessly he tossed aside the stony leaves and the pinkness they contained; a bird swooped down at once to feed on that tender meat. But he held the pearl cradled in the palm of his hand, beaming at it as though it were the dearest child of his bosom. In the warm sunlight it seemed to glow with an inner radiance; and its color was rich and fine, with a blush of blue mingled with the creamy pink. He touched it lightly with the tip of his finger, rolling it about, taking the greatest of delight in it. Then after a few moments he placed it in my hand and folded my bloodied fingers about it. "Put it in your pouch," he said, "and keep it as you would the greatest of your treasures. Carry it with you to Uruk of the high ramparts, and store it in your strongbox. And when you feel your years weighing heavy upon you, Gilgamesh, take it out, grind it to fine powder, mix it with good strong wine, drink it down in a single draught. That is all. Your eyes will grow clear again, your breath will come in deep gusts, your strength will be the strength of the slayer of lions you once had been. That is our gift to you, Gilgamesh of Uruk."

I stared at the pearl with wide eyes. "I could have asked for nothing finer."

"Come, now. The boatman awaits you."

SOUR AND sullen and silent as always, Sursunabu the boatman took me across in the afternoon to the greater island nearby. Once more I found lodgings in the main city of Dilmun for a few days, until I could buy passage aboard a ship bound for the Land. Idly I wandered about the steep streets, past the open-fronted shops of brick and timber where the craftsmen in gold and copper and precious stones plied their skills, and looked down toward the beach and its ships, and past it to the broad blue sheet of the sea and the little sandy island. I thought of the Ziusudra who was not Ziusudra, and of the priests and priestesses who served him in the mysteries of their cult, and of the true tale they had told of the coming of the Flood, so different from what is told in the Land; and I thought also of the stony fruit of the plant Grow-Young-Again which swung in a little pouch about my neck and blazed against my breastbone like a sphere of flame. So at last my quest was ending. I was going home; and if I had not found what! had come seeking, I had at least attained some part of it, some means of fending off the fate I abhorred. So be it. Now to Uruk!

There was a trading-ship of Meluhha in the port, nearly done with its business. It would go northward now as far as Eridu and Ur to sell its goods for the merchandise of the Land; and then when it was laden it would make its way back down into the Sea of the Rising Sun and sail off to the distant and mysterious place in the east from which it had come. This I learned from a merchant of Lagash who stayed at my hostelry.

I went down into the port and found the master of the Meluhhan ship. He was a small and delicate-looking man with skin dark as ebony and fine proud sharp features; he understood my language well enough, and said he would carry me as a passenger. I told him to name his price, and he named it: I judge it was half what his whole ship was worth. He stared up at me with eyes like polished onyx and smiled. Was he expecting me to bargain with him? How could I do that? I am king of Uruk; I cannot bargain. Perhaps he knew that and took advantage of me. Or perhaps he thought I was just a great hulking fool, with more silver than wit about me. Well, it was a steep price; he took from me nearly all my remaining silver. But it was no great matter. I had been away from the Land far too long; I would pay that much and more with a glad heart, if only he would carry me toward my home.

We made our departure, then. On a day when the sky was as fiat and hot as an anvil the little dark-skinned men of Meluhha hoisted their sail and leaped to their oars and we headed out northward into the sea.

The cargo was timber of several kinds from their own land, which they stored in bundles on the deck, and chests that held gold ingots, ivory combs and figurines, carnelian and lapis lazuli. The captain said he had made his voyage fifty times and meant to make it fifty more before he died. I asked him to tell me about the countries that lie between Meluhha and the Land. I wanted to know the shape of the coasts, the color of the air, the scent of the blossoms, and a thousand other things; but he only shrugged and said, "Why is that of interest? The world is much the same everywhere." I had great pity for him, hearing that.

Among these Meluhhans I fel› like a colossus. I have long been accustomed to the way I tower over the men of the Land, head and shoulders and breast; but on this voyage my shipmates came scarcely more than belly-high to me, and scampered about almost as if they were little apes. By Enlil, I must have seemed a monstrous thing to them! Yet they showed no fear of me nor any awe; to them I was merely a barbaric curiosity, I suppose, something that they would weave into their mariners' tales when they reached their homeland. "Believe it if you will, we had a passenger between Dilmun and Eridu, and his stature was like that of an elephant! As stupid as an elephant, too, and as heavy-footed-we took good care to keep out of his way, or he might have trampled us flat without so much as noticing we were there!" In truth, they made me feel like an oaf, so little and agile were they; but in my defense I will say that the ship was crafted to fit men of a smaller size than mine. It was hardly my fault I had to go about in a crouch with my arms at my side, barely able to move without knocking into something.

The sun was white-hot and the cloudless sky was merciless. There was little wind; but so cunning were these seamen that they kept their vessel moving forward under the merest of breezes. I watched them in admiration. They worked as if they had a single mind; each carried out his role in the enterprise without need of command, laboring quickly and silently in the sweltering heat. If they had asked me to do some task I would have done it, but they left me by myself. Did they know I was a king? Did they care? They are an incurious race, I think; but they work very hard.

At dusk, when they gathered for their meal, they shyly invited me to join them. What they ate each night was a stew of meat or fish so fiery in its flavor that I thought it would burn my lips, and a soft'of porridge that tasted of soured milk. After eating they sang, a strange music indeed, the voices roaming and twining to fashion eerie twanging melodies that coiled like serpents. And so the voyage went. I was glad to be apart from them, alone inside myself, for I was weary and had much on my mind. Now and again I touched the pearl of Grow-Young-Again that hung about my throat; and I thought often of Uruk and what awaited me there.