The Haunting of Guaritori Diolco, Part 5
The Haunting of Guaritori Diolco, Part 5
Golems
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“Perhaps you are spies, after all,” said Alksandar, looked at us as if he might decree our death at any moment.
“Majesty, may I speak?” said Mateo in the tone he reserved for situations requiring a high level of diplomatic finesse. The pharaoh gave him a stiff-necked nod but kept his eyes focused on me.
“We did not come here to learn the secret of how you provided bodies to the former gods, and we will not reveal what we have seen here. But the existence of golems is hardly a secret.”
“Isn’t it?” asked Alksandar, finally turning his attention away from me for a moment. “It is not as if every Jewish community has one, and news of those that do arrives in the form of rumors, which may or may not be true. Even today, there are some items from myths and folktales that do not actually exist.”
“Of course, you are right,” said Mateo, nodding vigorously. “But knowing that golems exist does not endow someone with the ability to create them. Is it not true that only a rabbi has that ability?”
“It is,” said a newcomer I took to be the chief rabbi, even though he was wearing a business suit much like pharaoh’s. It was blue instead of the pharaoh’s desert tan, but the two suits could easily have been made by the same tailor. Only a silver star of David around the rabbi’s neck and a blue yarmulke on his head made the religious distinction between him and Alksandar clear.
“Ah, Rabbi, I’m glad you arrived so quickly,” said the pharaoh. “Thoth has been badly injured. Is there anything you can do? But before you begin, guards, please take our…guests to their quarters.”
I should have been willing to accept the adult equivalent of being sent to my room without supper—but Alksandar’s eagerness to assume the worst about us irritated me like sand under my eyelids.
“Perhaps we can be of some help,” I said. “I have…acquired some of the wisdom of Hermes. It certainly doesn’t extend to making golems—”
“Silence!” The pharaoh’s tone left no room for argument. “Any attempt on your part to stay here makes you seem even more like a spy.”
“We have no reason to suspect them of being spies in the first place,” said Ptah.
Alksandar looked at the former god as if he were a fly in his soup. “Ptah, I need you to go to where you found Thoth and see if you can pick up the attacker’s trail. It’s very important that whoever did this not get away with it.”
Ptah looked as if he were caught between two conflicting imperatives that I was familiar with because of the knowledge Hermes had given me. God had allowed him and his kin onto this plane to help humans. Helping might not mean bowing to Pharaoh’s wishes if the ruler was doing the wrong thing. But God had also enjoined the former gods to do their job in a spirit of humility. Arguing with the pharaoh could be the first step down a very slippery slope.
“I will do as you request,” said the former god of Memphis. “But you have already accepted these people as your guests. If they do no wrong, you must not harm them.”
Ptah moved so quickly out of the room that he appeared to have vanished, leaving Alksandar to glare at empty air.
“Majesty,” said the rabbi in a quiet voice. “Aside from the blessing of God, golem creation requires rabbinical ordination and an especially sophisticated knowledge of Hebrew. By design, it is not a power that can be called upon easily, even by those who know of its existence.
“Repair, however, is another matter. The damage to Thoth’s body appears to be extensive, and, as you know, creating a new body from scratch is time-consuming. It may be that these newcomers might be able to offer some advice on that subject.”
Alksandar’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure there is no way they could analyze a golem to determine how it is made?”
“A seer might be able to tell how it is made,” said the rabbi. “But that would not enable the seer to duplicate the process. Only those allowed by God could do that.”
Alksander turned back to me. His tight-lipped expression wasn’t encouraging, but he gestured toward the rabbi.
Breathing a little easier, I walked over, with the other three following me. Mateo made a point of bowing to the pharaoh as he passed.
“Elijah Agion, Chief Rabbi of Alexandria” said the rabbi, offering me his hand, which I shook. “You may call me Elijah.”
“Guaritori Diolco—Garth,” I said, after which I introduced the others.
“It is a pleasure to have you here,” said Elijah. I could feel the pharaoh’s eyes watching me and knew he saw our visit much differently. But I’d dealt with distrust before.
Elijah was taller, younger, and slenderer than the pharaoh, but he was also paler and unscarred, suggesting that he spent little time outdoors and wasn’t normally involved in combat. That meant Alexandria had been a safe place for some time. However, Elijah had guts even if he’d never seen combat. His willingness to stand up to Pharaoh made that much clear. His brown hair had only a little gray, but his face had almost as many worry lines as the pharaoh’s. Despite his lack of scars, his life had not been an easy one.
“Before we attempt repair, we should examine the body to see if we can tell what could have caused these wounds. Mundane weapons shouldn’t be able to scratch it, let alone gouge it this way.”
“Isn’t there some need for haste?” asked the pharaoh, his voice sharp.
“It’s not as if he’s going to bleed out,” said Elijah. “Thoth is still within the clay and will stay there, unless we see fit to remove him. But if we can determine what caused the wounds, that may provide you with a valuable clue about who your enemy might be.”
I could hear Alksandar grumbling, but he didn’t seem inclined to continue the argument.
“Thoughts?” asked Elijah, a reminder that I’d just been standing there, preoccupied with Pharaoh’s irritability.
Neither my Hermetic senses nor the Philosopher’s Stone could tell me what the golem body was made of. I could see the skin was blue, just as Ptah’s was green, but that told me nothing about its composition. However, I did feel familiar magic in the wounds.
“These were caused by adamantine weapons, or something very like them,” I said.
“You’re sure?” asked Elijah. “I’ve read the myths, of course. A lot of the gods’ weapons in Greek mythology were made from adamant. But it’s rare on this plane, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Someone would need a connection to the Olympian plane to obtain a supply large enough to make a significant number of weapons.”
“You’re sure that’s what it is?” asked Elijah.
“Other pantheons no doubt have metals hard enough to do the same thing. But I’ve…felt the nature of adamantine weapons firsthand. What I feel in the wounds is definitely the same.”
“Is it not true that your ruler, Medea, has access to that plane?” asked Pharaoh in an accusatory tone.
“In theory,” I said. “In practice, she stays away from it, as far as I can tell. Certainly, she’s not sitting on a huge stockpile of such metal.”
The pharaoh stared at me but said nothing. He seemed determined to mistrust us. It was a good thing that—
Just as I had thought of Apep, he appeared as if I had summoned him. “Ah,” he said, pleased to see us, no doubt, so that he could torment us further. “Majesty, I can interrogate these intruders if you like.”
Pharaoh looked back and forth between us and Apep. “You do not trust them? Ptah seems to think they mean no harm.”
“Do not believe it,” said Apep. “They are up to no good. I have an instinct for such things.”
“Majesty, I do not wish to interrupt,” said Elijah.
“And yet you are,” said Alksander. Was it my imagination, or could I see a vein pulsing in his forehead?
“A necessary interruption,” said the rabbi. “Though Apep has been useful—at times—he is too eager to achieve his ends by violence.”
“These are violent times,” said Pharaoh.
“They can be,” conceded Elijah. “But are also times when we must be careful, lest we take the word of a possible enemy over that of a possible friend.”
“I am the friend of Alexandria, not its enemy,” said Apep, glaring at the rabbi even more ferociously than Alksandar was glaring at me.
Elijah turned toward Apep, made a few careful gestures in his direction, and chanted a few syllables in Hebrew. In response, Apep fell to the ground. His power was still within the golem body, but it seemed dormant.
“What have you done?” yelled Alksandar, his face reddening, his eyes wide.
“Don’t worry,” said Elijah. “I just turned him off. He can be reactivated whenever I wish.”
“Do so immediately!” said Pharaoh. “This is my command!”
The guards raised their spears and advanced on us a couple of steps.
“Majesty, if you recall the agreement you made with me and my community, you may order the beings who inhabit the golems to do certain things, but ultimate management of the golems themselves belongs to me—and me alone. The power given to me by God will not work if I am forced to use it against my will.
“Apep might have obstructed my work. Therefore, he is deactivated until I see fit to reactivate him.”
I had no idea how the government of Alexandria was organized, but evidently, Alksandar had agreed to leave management of the golems to the chief rabbi. The pharaoh’s clenched fists, stiff posture, and silence admitted as much.
However, he didn’t tell the guards to stand down, and they continued to point their spears at Elijah—and us.
“I suggest you instruct your intelligence service to locate possible sources of adamant among your local enemies,” said Elijah as if Alksandar didn’t look ready to kill someone. Turning back to us as if the spears pointed our way were of no importance, he asked, “Anything else you can get from examining the body?”
“The gouges are deep,” said Mateo, who had considerable experience as a healer. “They would have killed a normal human body. But since the golem wasn’t chopped to pieces, I assume the purpose of the attack was to immobilize rather than destroy.”
Elijah nodded. “That makes sense. The attacker would certainly have time to do more damage if that had been the objective. That would suggest Thoth stumbled upon someone in Hermopolis who was doing something both secret and evil.”
“Beyond the ruins, there’s nothing there,” said Alksandar stiffly.
“Ancient sites can retain residual power,” I said, drawing on the knowledge of Hermes. “The place was a major center of Thoth’s worship, and by Hellenistic times, the Greeks in the area worshipped Hermes there. Since both gods were associated with magic, it wouldn’t be a big stretch to assume whoever attacked Thoth was looking for a magic artifact or text.”
I glanced at Alksandar, who was looking at me, his face deliberately emotionless.
“Only Thoth would know what that might be,” said Elijah. “Do any of you see a way of repairing the body?”
“I see two kinds of power in it,” I said. “Spirit—presumably because of the power of God—and the alchemical element of earth. The latter makes the golem tough, but that very same magic might also make it difficult to repair—unless we can find a way to force the earth magic to remember its original form.”
I immediately realized I’d said too much. Alksandar’s eyes narrowed, and his mouth became a thin line. I couldn’t entirely blame him. If I could tell that much at a glance, how much more could I tell after detailed study? Enough to make a golem myself, despite what Elijah had said?
“As far as astrological influences go, I see lunar power,” said Lian, moving closer to get a better look.
“That’s coming from Thoth,” said Elijah. “He once claimed to be god of the moon.”
“I also feel the power of the earth signs—Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn.”
“That would be consistent with the earth power I’m seeing,” I said.
“Neither astrology nor alchemy plays a role in traditional Jewish thought,” said Elijah. “It is true, however, that some of the rabbis who may have created early golems had studied both. But neither has a direct role in the creation process.”
“But perhaps they could have a role in a healing process,” said Urania. “These and other occult disciplines are all a small part of a larger whole. If we were to study the Hebrew of the creation rituals, we’d probably find connections to other disciplines. After all, the tree of life, as represented in the Kabbalah, connects to the Hebrew alphabet and to the astrological signs and planets.”
“There’s no need to study the ritual,” said Elijah, no doubt trying to calm the now seething Alksander. “I’ll concede that you might be able to heal a golem in a way different from the way one is created. Do we have any way of figuring out how to do that?”
“None of us specializes in earth magic,” said Urania. “But I might be able to get a useful vision through a tarot reading.”
Elijah looked pointedly at Alksander, who gave him a stiff-necked nod.
“Please do what you can,” said the rabbi.
“Join me over here,” said Urania, pointing to a chair at the nearest table. Elijah sat down, and Urania set in the chair next to his. Taking out her tarot deck, she shuffled it and handed it to the rabbi. “Since you are the one making the inquiry, please cut the cards.”
Elijah did so—the most elaborate card cut I’d ever seen. His movements were as precise as his gestures when he had deactivated Apep.
Urania took the deck, closed her eyes for a moment, and drew a card.
“The six of wands,” she said, sounding surprised. “It represents victory and success, among other things—but modern readers also sometimes associate it with golems.”
“That doesn’t sound like a coincidence,” said Lian.
“It isn’t,” said Urania, closing her eyes again. “Usually, I have to do a complete reading to stimulate a vision, but this time, I feel one coming already.”
She froze for a moment, looking almost like a statue. Alksandar coughed impatiently. Otherwise, the room was silent enough for one to hear an ant crawling across the tabletop.
When Urania’s eyes opened, she smiled. “I know how we might be able to fix Thoth’s golem body, but we’ll all need to work together.
“Garth, I need you to invoke the alchemical element of earth while visualizing the golem’s wounds healing. Lian, invoke lunar energy and think about reaching out to Thoth, who may be able to help us through you. I’ll manifest the six of wands to create a higher probability of success. Matteo, you pour every ounce of healing you can muster into the golem. Elijah, pray for our success. Unless my vision has misled me, that should be the right combination of powers to coax the golem into healing.”
For once, Alksandar raised no objection. In fact, despite his reservations about us, he watched our work with fascination.
I used both Hermetic magic and the Philosopher’s Stone to connect myself as thoroughly as I could with the golem’s mangled body. The glow that formed around me was a combination of brown and green, invoking both the soil from which the golem had been shaped and the life force that had animated him. Lian silvered the air around us as she manifested lunar power and reached out to Thoth. Matteo bathed the golem in white light. He also prayed in Spanish. Elijah prayed in Hebrew.
All of this I’d expected. The way Urania manifested the avatar for the six of wands was different from usual, though. At first, the image that formed next to her looked like the design from the tarot deck she used—Rider-Waite, I think it was called. A red cloaked horseman crowned with laurel leaves and riding a horse caparisoned in green sprouted up from the floor. He carried a wand or stave with a second laurel wreath, and around him sprouted men carrying wands from which leaves sprouted along the sides and tip. The image made me think of our own teamwork.
But the image suddenly rippled, then blurred. Gradually, it reformed itself. An earthy-green golem emerged, with six trees sprouting from its head and shoulders. Posed against a purple sky and standing just in front of a star of David carved into the ground, the golem was surrounded by a flaming circle. A summoner, dwarfed by the golem’s sheer size, stood in front of it, arms raised. The image could only have come from another tarot deck I’d never seen.
I not only saw but felt the gouges in the golem begin to close. At the same time, I saw the earth magic within it reaching outward, assisting the process. Beneath that, I sensed the silvery stirring of Thoth himself.
Given the golem’s natural inflexibility, the process took time. But after half an hour, I could see we were nearly done. A minute or two later, the golem’s outer surface was completely unmarked.
“This is incredible,” said Elijah. “Majesty, if our guests can teach us how to replicate this healing process, it will save substantial time and effort I’d have to spend repairing golems—now that we have an enemy capable of damaging them.”
Alksander nodded with something approaching approval. We were going to win him over. I was sure of it.
Thoth opened his eyes, which glowed silver as they reflected Lian’s lingering moonlight. He smiled.
However, that smiled faded when he looked at me. He pointed an accusing finger in my direction.
“This man was somehow involved in the Catastrophe!” he yelled. “Even now, there is something unnatural about him. He is a threat.”
Thoth sat up and raised his hands. His silvery magic swept in my direction like a fast-moving mist. I did what I could to counter it—until one of the over-anxious guards, on edge from pointing a spear at me for so long, plunged its point deep into my side.
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