People of Babel (Ark Chronicles 3) Read Online Free PDF

bride.”
    The three Hunters glanced at the visible reefs below.
    “Coral is sharp,” Ham said. “A touch can make you bleed. If that happens, we must leave.”
    “ Why?” Anu asked, a handsome lad with a quick smile, the best loved among them.
    “ Sharks.” Ham grinned at their discomfort and outlined the plan.
    Soon thereafter , each Hunter stripped down to a loincloth, dagger and a goat-hair bag tied around his waist. Each tied a rock to a foot, took a deep breath and slipped overboard. Visibility was excellent as Ham watched them descend ten, twenty, twenty-five feet to the sea floor. There, each drew his dagger and pried and cut oysters free. Each soon slipped his foot from the rock and shot to the surface, gasping.
    An afternoon of it exhausted them. Ham dragged the lads aboard and threw cloaks over each as they shivered.
    “ Those are treasure?” Enlil asked dubiously, eyeing the gray shells littering the boat.
    “ Perhaps,” Ham said.
    “ Only perhaps?” Anu asked.
    Ham took out a dagger and pried open the first oyster, a mollusk . He cut out the meat, throwing it into a clay pot. The rest of the shell he threw overboard.
    “ Where’s the treasure?” Gilgamesh asked past chattering teeth.
    “ There wasn’t any this time,” Ham explained. He showed them how to open the shell, and oyster after oyster fell to their blades. Each time, they found nothing but meat.
    “ You tricked us,” Enlil said later.
    “ No,” Ham said. “I remember—”
    “ Look at this!” Gilgamesh shouted. “Is this what you’re talking about?” He held up a smooth round gem with a creamy color, a strange luster.
    “ Ah,” Ham said, as Enlil and Anu sucked in their breath. “Yes. You’ve found a fish-eye.”
    “ A what?” Enlil asked.
    “ A fish-eye,” Ham said, “one of the most precious of gems.”
    “ It’s beautiful,” Gilgamesh whispered.
    Anu shook his head . “Gems are rocks. So what is this doing in an oyster? How did it get there?”
    “ Fish-eyes are formed when dew drops filled with moonlight fall into the sea and are swallowed by the oyster,” Ham said.
    Anu looked at him , openmouthed.
    Ham laughed, patting him on the back . “I don’t really know how they get there, but isn’t my explanation as good as any?”
    For an answer , the three young men resumed prying open oysters.
     

7.
     
    They ate oysters that night, Ham first promising an ivory figurine to Enlil and Anu for their help. Both took an oath to keep secret the fish-eyes in Gilgamesh’s possession. The lean Hunter wrapped them in a cloth, stuffing the cloth in a leather pouch tied by thong to his throat.
    “ If you’re wise, you’ll keep the pouch under your tunic until the end of the trip,” Ham said. “Wait until you’re back in Babel to gloat.”
    As Ham ladled oysters out of a boiling pot, Nimrod asked how they ’d found all this meat.
    Enlil, Anu and Gilgamesh burst out laughing.
    Covering for them, Ham explained the rock-to-foot procedure for diving.
    The next day , Uruk wished to see where they had dove. Everyone clumped to the boat and Anu pointed out to sea.
    “ I envy you the experience,” Nimrod said.
    “ Look!” Enlil cried. “What is that?”
    Everyone stared at a dreadful monster . It had a long, sinuous neck and a wedge-shaped head filled with gleaming teeth. It was gray-colored and sleek like a seal. The creature roared. It had a bulky body with flippers to the sides.
    “ A sea-dragon,” Nimrod whispered.
    “ The neck must be twenty feet long,” Gilgamesh said.
    The monster hissed as it swam toward them.
    “Back!” shouted Ham. “Run upslope, away from the leviathan.”
    They scrambled out of the sand, over grass and behind scattered rocks.
    The beast stopped before reaching shore, hissing, swiveling a head that had to be as large as a donkey. Abruptly, the monster headed out to sea. It submerged, disappearing beneath the waves.
    The Hunters glanced at one another in dread.
    Nimrod asked Ham,