Dalil: Part Five of the Late Bronze Age Stories

By Joan H Parks

After their adventures in the land of the one river, the kin set out to return to their families. Along the Great Green Sea, they shelter in a valley from a sudden storm and come upon a fever ridden traveler, who under Dalils care survives and regains her heath. A band of rough men arrive intent on capturing her, for reasons that are mysterious. She needs protection but finds it hard to trust the people whom she has fallen among. They protect her time and time again from those who would seize her. She gradually comes to trust Dalil and to see that she must tell him and all their companions why she is being hunted. The girl tells them of her past and her name. Knowing her story and why she is in danger, the kin devise strategies to insure her safety. If she wishes to remain with them, they vow to protect her. Dalil discovers that she is the true partner in his craft of story telling and that she, like he, can change her appearance and speech into that of another. On the journey to Ugarit and then on to where the kin reside on the ancient trade route, they develop their story telling gifts. The rest of the kin look at them with wonder, and then appreciation. Petros and Kaliq, the protectors, plot how their emerging gifts can be of use to the kin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491762530

Joan H Parks

Joan H Parks lives in Chicago, IL, and after a career in clinical research refreshed her life by becoming a fiction writer. Her undergraduate degree was from the University of Rochester in Non-Western Civilizations, her MBA from the University of Chicago. She studies poetry, including Yeats and the Canterbury Tales (in Middle English); has an interest in the ancient world which she has gratified by studying at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; is an aficianado of The Tales of Genji which she rereads every year or so. Her family regards these activities with amusement, for she also listens to Willie Nelson and Dierks Bentley.

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Copyright © 2015 Joan H. Parks.

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-6252-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-6253-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015903577

iUniverse rev. date: 03/09/2015

Contents

Historical Note

Chapter 1 Another Journey Begins

Chapter 2 Complications

Chapter 3 Visitors

Chapter 4 The Girl

Chapter 5 Petros Knows All

Chapter 6 They Leave The Valley

Chapter 7 Another Day’s Journey

Chapter 8 Raid

Chapter 9 The Girl Thinks

Chapter 10 They Travel Along the Great Green Sea

Chapter 11 Her Story

Chapter 12 Her Journey Continues

Chapter 13 The Bedouin Tells Part of His Story

Chapter 14 She Remembers

Chapter 15 Ugarit

Chapter 16 The Travelers Rejoin Us

Chapter 17 Dalil Speaks To Me Again

Chapter 18 The Bedouin

Chapter 19 Dalil Returns

Chapter 20 Petros The Wise Takes Over

Chapter 21 Dalil and The Little One

Chapter 22 Dalil the Teller of Stories

Chapter 23 We Journey Towards the Kin

Chapter 24 Another Day On The Trail

Chapter 25 The Bedouin Rides With Me

Chapter 26 Along The Trail

Chapter 27 Petros the Wise

Cast Of Characters

Glossary

Historical Note

The sea peoples menaced the eastern coast of the Mediterranean during the late Bronze Age. The movement of tribes and peoples has left a confusing and scant archeological record. The palace cultures of Minos, and most of the cities along the Mediterranean were destroyed—by whom is still a matter of conjecture. Egypt barely escaped and the destruction did not extend to Mesopotamia. Ugarit, a port city (present day Syria) where the trade routes for Crete, Cyprus, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Afghanistan converged, was destroyed in 1190 BCE and never rebuilt. The remains were found by accident in 1929 and archeological excavations have continued except when interrupted by war, so that maps of the city now exist. Cuneiform tablets were found in the oven during excavations. Whether it was internal corruption, changing climate that provoked tribes to move, or technological advances in weaponry that caused the destruction is still hotly argued in books and articles.

Chapter 1

Another Journey Begins

You and yours are welcome here in all times, good and bad. Bakiri gives his hand to Petros the Wise as they clasp each other warmly. These two wise leaders of their peoples recognize that they have the same problems to solve for those under their protection. They have forged a bond that will persist despite the passage of time and the great distances that may prevent their meeting ever again. We will keep Alimah safe while she learns the arts of dance and music that are new to her.

Alimah and Kaliq say their farewells from which Petros the Wise and Bakiri avert their eyes, but none the less are aware of. Alimah, the graceful singer of songs, stays behind to learn, she says, new ways of dancing and singing that she cannot learn at her home. Kaliq bends towards her, his yearning clear to all who watch. Then, aware of onlookers, he stands straight and brings her slender fingers to his lips. The caress marks his farewell. If Alimah is disturbed at Kaliq’s leaving she conceals it completely. Petros the Wise hopes that Kaliq’s heart is not set on her, for he sees that she appears unmoved as she says good-bye to him. He remembers how his gifted sister Sardow and Lukenow, from the Land of the Bull Dancers, set their hearts on each other when they were much younger than Alimah, and could not, would not conceal their hearts’ desire. Bakiri, wise in the ways of the young, says quietly to Petros the Wise, I do not think that they are meant to be mated. Petros nods his agreement and says, Kaliq has much to keep him busy as he learns more of the arts of leadership. These two good men, so alike physically and in all other ways, clasp hands one more time as they say their farewells.

Salama will be pleased with the linen. Bakiri looks at the laden donkeys. You are wise not to garb yourself in fine linens for your journey.

Petros laughs and says, The war mares will draw enough attention as it is. We do not need more reasons to draw thieves and bandits to us.

Dalil’s face shows nothing of what he may be thinking or feeling. He looks across to his comrade kinsman, Kaliq, wondering how he can leave the Land of the One River so easily, leave Alimah unprotected, leave her where her heart may lead her to another. If she were his, he could not leave her so. But, she is not his. He regrets that but he knows that Alimah and he are not destined to be mated. It is clear to him now, but her delicate beauty still moves him and her memory will be forever in his heart. There will be a woman for him. Somewhere. He trusts she exists: one who fears his inner storms not, but welcomes his great size, welcomes him. He wonders where he will ever find that someone, or even if she exists outside of his yearning dreams.

The golden orb rises in a clear sky, ushering in another day. Birds twitter in the trees intent on their early morning tasks that speak of renewal and loveliness. Goats call to each other, cattle and oxen rumble their way to the life-giving river. Behind fences the war mares thrive, some taking a dust bath on their backs with their slim legs waving in the air; others nurse their young, while some gambol about as their kind are wont to do.

Cooking smells mingle with the fragrant early air. Amid the chatter of the women at their morning rituals, the sounds of the children playing remind the travelers of what they wish to return to. All is well. Order has been restored, if only for a time, for the forces that bring disorder are as strong as ever.

Bathed in the fresh morning air that heralds another day, the diminished band prepares to leave the Land of the One River and their newly known and cherished kin. Serena and Lukenow have already departed, sailing in his tidy craft, to leave the river and the marsh lands, to sail again on the Great Green Sea, where he is so at home.

The Bedouin drops back to talk with Kaliq as Dalil takes his place alongside Petros - Dalil, the son whom Petros has never understood. The son who has not found his place amongst the kin. His looks are those of a warrior, strong and noble, but he learns the warrior craft as he would learn the arts of healing: only as a useful craft, but not as his core desire. Serena says that he has a gift for making stories, that when Dalil has a certain look, as if he is not quite with them, when he has a faraway look, that he is making stories in his head. She is usually right, but what can they do with such a talent? What will Dalil do with such a talent? Dalil, oh Dalil, from the beginning Petros has been puzzled by him. And worried for him, for he cannot advise him as he can the other youngsters among them, who are more like himself.

My son, have you found on this journey what you sought?

Maybe. Dalil thinks of Alimah whom he lost to his kinsman Kaliq. No, he did not lose her to Kaliq for he never had her. Even with all her beauty and grace, she never saw into his heart, and he never saw into hers. It is fitting that she will one day mate with Kaliq, or his thoughts stirring, with someone other than either of them. Something about the farewell between Kaliq and Alimah causes that thought to drift across his mind. Suddenly he knows that Alimah will never leave the Land of the One River, that they have seen the last of her. A chill comes over him, a sadness at the beauty they will never see again. Does he have the far-seeing eye? He shakes off that unwelcome thought and thinks only of what time will bring to him. He knows not what he seeks but knows only that he has yet to find it, and that he must keep searching.

Petros finds it hard to talk with this son who is so unlike him. Maybe? Or maybe not?

Dalil looks at his father and smiles at him, to lessen his concern. He almost reaches out and pats his arm to comfort him but restrains himself. It is not their way. I will find what I need one way or the other. I haven’t yet, but it disturbs me not. In some wonder, Dalil realizes that he has spoken truly: that he will keep searching until he finds his way.

At the look on Dalil’s face, Petros relaxes.

It is as his wise sister, Serena, told him. Dalil, his odd son, is the hardest to see into. Where will his talent for seeming like someone he is not lead him? He can change his way of speaking and his way of being to