The Tarnished Pendant

By John Smalldridge

The thrilling second novel from John Smalldridge in the Tarnished Series.The Tarnished Pendant is story of a prealuvian priest. It portrays the world before the flood and depicts the reason why the church of today can turn a blind eye to sin in its ranks. A mixture of characters, views, religion, trials and tribulations, love and war make this book a compelling read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: GA&P ePublishing
• Release date: Jul 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781849893619

Book preview

adventure.

Chapter 1

As he stepped out of his study the heat enshrouded him like someone had thrown a thick down filled blanket over his head. The shock of the sudden heat almost knocked him back into the much cooler room he was leaving. It was early morning and already too hot to be comfortable anywhere except in the shade next to the buildings lining the street. By mid afternoon with the sun directly overhead, it would be too hot even there. The heat radiating from the stone walls gave the city a shimmering quality that only a city of this size could possess. It made the solid, stationary buildings that had been there for centuries seem alive with a kind of shimmering vibrancy.

The harvest season was quickly coming to an end and the rains should have started weeks ago. The city, with its teeming population, was covered with unstable, swirling dust. Every step created little puffs of dry dust that covered the hems of a man’s robe. His sandal straps and the exposed portions of his feet were covered with this reddish tan soot. Swarms of flying insects were drawn to the perspiration on his face. This sweat was both cooling and stifling at the same time.

He had to shield his eyes from the glaring light that shrouded everything in sight with a bright orange glow. It was as if the whole world had been painted with a brush dipped into the sun. The eerie color was probably exaggerated by the shimmering heat.

The six primary wells of the city had not produced water for some time now and most of the women had to make a daily trek to draw water from the mighty Tigris River, which divided the city. Jalad couldn’t remember when it had been this hot and this dry for so long. This city really needed rain. Well it wasn’t just this city, the whole country around Chanoch needed rain. For all he knew, the whole world needed rain. The mighty Tigris was lower than anyone could ever remember before. The larger boats that plied the river were still down on the great sea awaiting rain to swell the river to a depth that would allow them to make the trip up river to Chanoch.

He had just come from his daily morning devotions, a habit acquired while attending the seminary. This was a comforting habit that he hadn’t felt he needed to change since leaving. He started each day before the sun came up by lighting the incense candles, which was so much a part of his personal devotion to the one true God, Jehovah. Once the heady, sweet, pungent aroma filled the room he would start the incantations he had learned word for word, tone for tone, at the seminary. These incantations lasted for an hour or more depending on his own personal need or the needs of his congregation. As a priest with the responsibility of a large congregation in this city, often called the city of sin, these morning devotions were essential for his own spiritual well being. This was a ritual required by the supreme council. He would have continued to have these morning devotions even if the council hadn’t prescribed the incantations. This was the one duty that he had that was personal, and it was during this time that he came the closest to actually knowing God.

As he walked through this city, his city, Jalad the priest’s city, he could feel a sense of pride that bordered on ownership. He had been born and raised here, in the oldest of all cities. Chanoch was a sprawling city of 700,000 people nestled along the mighty Tigris River. It was divided into four boroughs, each with is own government and police force. Each of these boroughs was answerable to the elected officials of the greater City of Chanoch.

The northernmost borough, usually called the Old City, was surrounded on three sides by the Tigris, which makes a horseshoe bend at that point. This portion of the city was nearly 2200 years old and remains mostly unchanged from those early beginnings. Cain was the original builder of that portion of the city and in those early days it had been called Enoch after Cain’s eldest son. Most of the inhabitants of this northern portion of the city were Cain’s descendants and were commonly called Cainites. Like their forefather, the Cainites were a ruthless people who were hard to control. The streets were not laid out in any conceivably organized manner. They were narrow, meandering, and very dangerous.

These Cainites were very different from the rest of the population of Chanoch. They were a short stocky people, which contrasted drastically with the taller, more slender general population. Their skin was darker and more ruddy looking than the general population of Chanoch. This dark skin was very similar to the nomadic peoples of the south and the west who live in the harsh elements of the desert. While the language was the same, the Cainites spoke with a slower slurred manner that set them apart further from the rest of the city. These physical differences coupled with the differences of their life style segregated the northern borough from all the rest.

Central Chanoch contained the financial and retail districts. The main bazaar, commonly called the square, was in the center of the city as well as being the hub of the central borough. Most of the wealthy residents of the city lived in this sector. The government council chambers as well as all three seminaries were in this borough. All of the larger buildings were in this borough. There was a sense of wealth and accomplishment in the central part of the city. When an outsider came to the central portion of the city, he couldn’t help but be impressed with the brilliance of man’s abilities to achieve great things.

The southern borough was made up primarily of agriculturally related business ventures. It also contained a sprawling suburban community of single homes and multi family apartment buildings. The smell of livestock, grain and hay, coupled with the presence of hoards of children playing on the streets gave this sector of the city a homey, lived in feeling. With the exception of a few docks and warehouses farther to the north, most of the commerce along the river was in this borough. It was not unusual to smell the aroma of exotic spices and teas before they went from the docks to the stalls and indoor stores of the central borough. Precious metals also came into this borough prior to being taken by wagon across the river to the craftsmen who make beautiful objects out of them.

Another large enterprise in this borough was Reba’s horses. Reba had been one of Cain’s daughters. It had been she who had first captured and then trained the horse. She had been the first rider and had startled all of her brethren when she came into camp unexpectedly on the back of a horse she had saved from a great cat shortly after Cain had been kicked out of his fathers presence. She had only been eleven years old at the time but eventually her talent with animals made her into the largest horse trainer and trader in the world. Even today, her ancestors raised and sold more horses than all the other traders combined.

The western borough was considered by many to be a separate city. As the original city grew it spilled over the river and became known as West Enoch and then West Chanoch. About two hundred years ago it had been incorporated into Chanoch proper and became a borough of the city. It contained roughly one third of the city’s population. Many of the best craftsmen and their shops were on the West Side. There were three bridges connecting the West Side to Chanoch proper, only one of which was large enough for a horse drawn wagon. This one bridge was the busiest thoroughfare in the city. On a busy day it was not uncommon to see wagons backed up waiting to cross this bridge. Jalad avoided this bridge as much as possible, as it could be a dangerous journey since there was not much more room on the bridge than for two horse drawn wagons passing each other. For that reason it was one of the other two bridges that he was crossing this morning on his way to have breakfast with his closest friends.

Once a week he met with his two best friends, Rammi and Tubal. He had known these two since they were children. They grew up together. Most adults who know them were amazed with the closeness of their friendship. They had always been so totally different. Jalad seemed to pick up things easily and was earmarked for the clergy from a very early age. Rammi was short, strong, and not too bright. He was always the protector of the group. Nobody bothered any one of the three, knowing that they would incur the immediate wrath of Rammi. Tubal on the other hand was tall with very delicate features. His slender body gave the impression of a very tall girl, but there was something quite masculine about him. You immediately sensed that he was in complete control of every thing around him. The three of them maintained their close friendship even while they each started their training in different professions.

Rammi went to work for his uncle who owned a grain store and storage facility on the east bank in the southern district. Because of his strength he was well suited to do all the heavy work associated with handling grain.

Tubal’s ancestors, down to his grandfather, were makers of precision musical instruments, especially the harp and the flute. His grandfather had shown a keen adeptness at the fine silver work required for the inlays on the harps. He had branched out into silver-smithing, and Tubal was becoming one of the city’s finest craftsmen since becoming apprenticed to his grandfather in his early teens. The shop where Tubal worked with his grandfather was a little over a block from the café where Jalad was now headed to have breakfast with his friends.

Even the intensely confining program of the seminary hadn’t kept him from seeing his two friends as often as possible. He had never found anyone at the seminary that he felt he could be close to, at least not as close as he was with Rammi and Tubal. His mother had moved to a city far to the west, and his two sisters had married and had lives of their own. They were both quite a bit older than he had been so they were never very close when he was a child. So naturally he had grown even closer to his two friends.

He had felt lost and completely alone during the four years he had spent as a priest to two small towns several days journey to the east and north of Chanoch away from his city and his two friends. Meeting and eventually marrying Lenna had taken much of the loneliness away, but during that time he still missed his friends and wanted to be back in the city which he considered his own. Then about eighteen months ago, Abner, his mentor at the seminary, had convinced the Supreme Council to bring him back to Chanoch to care for a congregation in the heart of the city. It was a troubled congregation and the responsibility was vast, but at last he was home. For the last year he had been meeting these two friends for breakfast once a week. It was the highlight of his busy week.

He was wearing his white robe today because of the heat. It didn’t show the dust that broiled up around his feet any more than the black one did, but it was harder to clean. He hadn’t been a priest long but his gait and mannerisms would have given him away even if he hadn’t been wearing his priests robe. He carried a staff that he used as a walking stick in his right hand and with his left hand he fondled the silver pendant that hung from his neck on a leather thong. This pendant was given to him when he passed from his second year into the third at the seminary. It was a sort of an ordination gift from the central council. It was the sign of his station. It was the most holy symbol he possessed.

When he rounded the corner and the small café came into view his heart felt lighter. He picked up his pace. Even the repressive heat seemed to lessen and his breathing became easier. He felt that free floating feeling which he got nowhere else and with no one else. Nobody could understand how important this weekly meeting was to him. With his two friends, and only with his two friends, could he open up his heart and express his feelings. Rammi and Tubal seemed to feel the same way.

He had never been as popular with the core members of his congregation that made up the local board as he was with the more fringe members. He always felt like he had to put up a false front when around the board members and their families, and was always worried about what they thought of him and his ideas. With his two friends, even though they were now members of his congregation, he could be himself.

The rapid growth of his congregation had come primarily from the young merchants and craftsmen from both sides of the river. As the congregation continued to grow from the fringe inward he felt a greater and greater sense of resentment from the local board. They seemed to feel threatened. After all, they could lose control of the congregation to the growing numbers who were committed to him rather than to the board. Around the members of his congregation he had to be guarded as to what he said and did, but with his friends he could say whatever he felt without fear that it would get back to the board.

As he came into the small café he was hit with the sudden change in temperature. The café, like every other building in Chanoch, was built of stone. This stone was mined in a series of quarries east of the city up towards the Ararat Mountains. It was always cooler in the day and warmer at night inside these stone buildings. The thick rock walls absorbed the heat of the day and radiated it out during the cooler nights. Even with the ovens in the back of the café in full use long before the sun rose, the relentless heat of the early morning was defeated. The ovens were used to bake the flat crisp bread that was the staple for the peoples of the region, and were fired by piles of dried camel dung. The contrast to the heat out on the street made him shiver with the chill. As soon as his eyes adjusted to the darker interior of the small café he spotted his two friends in the back corner table that they always used. They spotted him at about the same time and waved him over. On the way back to their table he picked up several small round loaves of bread. The fruit and honey that completed the meal were already on the table.

As he pulled the chair out and sat down he could see that they were already in deep conversation. They stopped long enough to inquire after Lenna’s health and condition. Lenna was seven months pregnant now and his friends were always genuinely concerned about her. There were the usual questions. Is she getting uncomfortable yet? Is she beginning to really show? Have you picked out names? Neither Rammi nor Tubal was married as yet and they seemed to dote on Lenna and the expected child. He could tell from the expressions on each of their faces and the excitement in the air that they both had something to say that couldn’t wait. It didn’t take long for him to find out what was so exciting.

Tubal’s excitement stemmed from a contract that his grandfather had just acquired to make all the ornamental craft work for the Central Theological Seminary. This was the seminary Jalad had attended. This was a contract he and his grandfather had been working on for many months. This contract included all the silver, brass and copper castings but more importantly they were to do all the fine silver work. This task fell primarily to Tubal.

The silver pendant that each seminary student wore from his second stage on was to be Tubal’s primary work from now on. A task he dearly loved, and as there was a new batch of seminary students reaching this stage each year, he would have his hands full just keeping up. This pendant was solid silver in the shape of a flame and surrounded by a teardrop shaped encasement. It was held in place by a leather cord. It had to be tooled instead of cast. Tubal was one of the few silver craftsmen in the city who could have done the work. As it would turn out this symbol of peace and purity was to impact all three of their lives more than any of them knew.

They also were to make all the incense candle holders and ceremonial goblets for use in the seminary and the various congregations in and around the city. This contract would mean several years of work without the need to try to sell their wares in the open market. Jalad was so proud of Tubal. His grandfather probably would not have gotten the contract without him. Not only was Tubal a fine craftsman but his contact to the seminary through his association with our growing congregation made a big difference.

Jalad was sure there were to be kickbacks given to whoever was responsible for the contract. This would undoubtedly be someone on the supreme council, the ruling body of the largest religious institute in the city, or maybe even Abner. But he doubted it would be Abner; he was as honest as anyone he had ever known. Tubal didn’t mention a kickback, but nothing was ever done in this city without someone making a gain from it. It was a cost of doing business.

After Tubal had told about the contract, it was Rammis’s turn. However, the excitement on his face was easier to guess. For several weeks, Rammi had had little on his mind beyond Noah’s boat. Noah was a crazy old man who, along with his three sons and all their extended families, lived out in the desert west of the city. He claimed to have had a discussion with God, at which time God told him to build this boat. Nobody believed this religious fanatic except his family. Everyone was sure that they must be as crazy as he was. He claimed God told him that the whole world was totally evil, which was of course absurd. God was going to destroy the entire population of the earth except Noah and his family. You can give this old man some credit though, if what people around here say was true, he had been building the huge boat for over a hundred years.

This excitement in Rammi had first appeared several weeks before when Noah’s three sons first came in to buy grain. They came in every week driving three wagons to take back full of grain. Each week Rammi seemed to get more excited the more he heard from the boys about the boat. Rammi tends to get excited about things, but Jalad just couldn’t understand what was so important about this boat.

Jalad wasn’t aware of it at the time, but this breakfast and this conversation were going to start him on a journey that would change his life. Rammis’s enthusiasm was going to give him much more to worry about than the heat and the drought.

Chapter 2

But I tell you this is different, Rammi was saying as Jalad finally focused on what was being said. He had been thinking about Noah and that big boat of his.

How is this so different, Tubal replied, Rammi sometimes I think you are as addled as your old man out therein the desert. He flipped his thumb over his shoulder as he said this, pointing west.

They were buying grain and Shem, he’s the oldest, said that the boat was finished. The grain is for all the animals.

That doesn’t make any sense. Rammi, they’ve been picking up three wagons of grain a week for several weeks now, no one has that much livestock.

At this point Jalad turned and looked around to see if anyone was listening. He was getting a little nervous. He didn’t like this topic and worried about who might hear this discussion. He was, after all, a priest. He couldn’t have people thinking wrongly of him and his friends. There were two guys getting settled in at the next table but at that point no one seemed to be overly concerned with their discussion.

As he turned his attention back to his friends he heard Rammi say, God told Noah that He would supply all the animals for this boat. He then took a bite from his bread dipped in honey, chewed a bit and then went on. And believe me, if this boat is as big as Shem describes it, it’s got to be the biggest boat in the world and would hold a lot of animals.

It still doesn’t make any sense, Tubal argued, he’s just a crazy old man who’s been out in the desert too long. God isn’t about to appear to some crazy lunatic who has lived his whole life off by himself and then tell him that he’s the only one in the whole world that is pure.

He got a quick retort, But what if he’s right? What if God did talk to him? As if to emphasize his point, Rammi pointed to his friend with the rest of the bread in his hand before dipping it again in the honey.

Tubal turned to Jalad ad asked, what do you think about all this, you’re the religious expert here?

Now it was his turn and he really didn’t want to get into this controversial discussion. He had always enjoyed a good debate but this was one he could never win. He couldn’t disagree with Rammi without making it appear that he thought he was as crazy as old man Noah, nor could he agree with him either, as that would be heresy. As a priest he could never disagree with the council and keep his position and not put his future in jeopardy. And then, after all, if this Noah were right, then the council along with the whole religious community would be wrong. That would make the religious community a part of the whole world that, according to this old man’s claim, was completely evil. That just could not be true.

Besides that, God hadn’t talked to anyone personally since He exiled Cain for killing his brother. The council was supreme and the only, infallible word of God on earth. If God were to decide to talk to a single person, he was sure it wouldn’t be to some crazy old kook who lived his whole life out in the desert, when there are so many religious men who were in His business right here in town. At that point, he had to agree with Tubal.

He had eaten most of his breakfast and put off his answer by placing the last fig in his mouth and chewing slowly. Finally he had to answer. Not willing to answer directly he said, Rammi, who else have you talked to about these things? His answer indicated that he had talked to quite a few people, nearly everyone who came in the granary. The three brothers were so sincere. was his reasoning, that I couldn’t help tell people.

Rammi, please for your own sake, don’t talk to anyone else about these things, you might offend someone, was all he could respond, some very religious people might take these things personally. Before he could respond to Jalad’s request, Jalad gave his reasoning. "Just think Rammi, to accept these words as fact is to condemn everyone else in the world as being wicked. Would you say that I,