Page 42 of Sacrifice

Eve screwed up her eyes and tried to remember. “Go on, it might come back to me.”

“The nature of humanity was Ishtar’s strength and her weakness. She watched the people of Babylonia and found that she identified with them more and more until one day she met a mortal man named Elham.” Lucien shrugged. “He was all the things the gods of Akkadia were not: modest, kind and giving, and utterly enamored with her.

“Elham inspired her to embrace the gentle side of her psyche and she fell in love with him. Of course she did. The supreme beings of the Akkadian council, however, did not appreciate the inevitability of it.

“They told Ishtar that she was not to sully the bloodline of the gods with any kind of physical interaction with a mortal man. The gods control. They do not surrender themselves to love, to physical union. To do so would risk relinquishing the supreme power and the council would never allow that. They demanded that she give up her lover and cease all contact immediately.”

“What did she do?” asked Eve.

Lucien ran a finger along Eve’s jawline and she felt a kind of electricity pass through her. “The force of love is hard to deny. The very opposite. Ishtar was a champion of free choice and love. She refused to be told what to do.”

Lucien’s face went stiff and his hand clenched into a fist. Eve’s stomach dropped and an irrational wave of fear rushed through her body. She could imagine how she’d feel if anyone told her to give Lucien up.

“The council’s patience was short. They quickly grew tired of Ishtar's insubordination and principalities were dispatched to Babylon to capture Elham and cast him down into the underworld for eternity.

“Ishtar learned of this when she was brought before the council. They attempted to convince her it was all for the best, compensating her for her pain with jewels and treasures. The trappings of the gods.” Lucien waved a dismissive hand. “They should have known that Ishtar would not take this well. The goddess of love stripped of Elham turned to all that was now left to her; war.

“She threw the gifts from the gods back at them in a fury and returned to Babylon to the house of Elham to find it ransacked and burned. The last unsullied thing: a single flower remained in the trampled garden. She plucked it and tucked it inside her tunic, to have something of him close to her heart. Then she attacked.

“Ishtar became a living storm of retribution. Her rage-fueled power tore through Babylon. She summoned dark clouds to veil the sky and swept the land with torrents of rain. She rampaged, destroying all in her path until eventually her torment led her to the gates of the underworld. But the Akkadians had anticipated this, and the gates were barred against her.

“She called to the planets, to her mother, Venus and to Shamash, the god of the sun, and bent them to her will. When the stars aligned, it channeled to her the power of her ancestry and Ishtar’s anger became unstoppable. Her sword danced through demons and angels alike, the sparks from her blade lighting up the darkness. Just the timbre of her voice shook the gates from their fixings, and she marched on Queen Ereshkigal and demanded Elham be returned to her.

Either Lucien believed this story entirely, or he was a really great actor. Viens popped at his temples as he recounted the tale and anger scored lines at his mouth. Eve wanted to step back away from him, but he held her there, ensnared.

“Ishtar, Queen of the Heavens, and Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, were evenly matched, but Elham was brought up from the fiery depths to stand before them, just as Ishtar had requested. Ereshkigal was not about to let him go. Elham was bloodied and bruised and cried out in torment at the sight of Ishtar, but Ereshkigal would not permit them to be close enough to touch, nor would she let him hear her words.

“It was torture. Ishtar could not allow the mortal man she loved to take the punishment of the gods in her stead. She pleaded with Ereshkigal to let him go home, but Ereshkigal refused. She reasoned a mortal could not cross the boundary between the underworld and Babylon, only a god could do that, but, if Ishtar was willing to sacrifice her own power to do so, to give that power to Elham, Ereshkigal would make it possible for Elham to go home.

“Ishtar agreed to the deal. Elham would be saved, even if it meant she herself could not cross the boundary to the mortal world to be with him. Ereshkigal took a dagger from her belt and cut an eight-pointed star first into Elham's chest and then into Ishtar's, the symbol of Ishtar's power, then granted them one last embrace.

Lucien pressed his hand over Eve's heart, and she felt the wild thump of her pulse in her veins. He lowered his voice and spoke directly into her eyes.

“Ishtar and Elham threw their arms around each other and, rune to rune, the power of the gods passed between them. Then Elham was gone.”

Lucien let his hand fall, and Eve experienced a sudden, deep emptiness. She felt the absence of his touch all the way to her bones.

“Gone? She never saw him again?”

“Well, Ereshkigal went a little soft on her. Seeing how painful it all was, she relented to say that when the stars aligned again, she'd have her chance to visit Elham. What she didn't mention was; that was only once in every 243 years. The Transit of Venus across the sun might be regular, but it’s far from frequent.”

Lucien grinned and Eve spluttered out, “Bloody hell. Elham wasn’t going to be looking so good after that amount of time. I’m assuming he’d have been dead by then.”

Lucien laughed. “Well, quite, but this is where the story gets interesting. Ereshkigal promised that the essence of Elham would pass down through the firstborn males in his bloodline so that a version of him would exist for all time.”

Eve sighed. “That is kind of romantic, if you’re really, really patient.”

Lucien sighed. “Patience is a necessity, yes.”

They both lulled into a silence, lost in their own thoughts.

Lucien snapped out of it first. “So, on to my purpose, then. You hold in your hands the mythical Crown of Ishtar. I have many artefacts, collected over the years, but I don’t want to overwhelm the exhibition with my obsession. I’d like us to choose three pieces to go with the crown. What do you think?”

Eve turned to examine the cabinet. There were a lot of items to choose from.

“I tell you what, why don’t we free up your hands?” Lucien took the crown and placed it on Eve’s head. Immediately, her vision swam.

The firelight flickered and licked in her peripheral vision. Lucien’s form grew dark and out of focus, the light from the fire illuminating him from behind. An aura of darkness enveloped him and two figures large and unfocused formed at his back. No, on his back. Eve squeezed her eyes closed and shook her head. When she opened them again, Lucien was staring at her. He laughed.

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