5Z

5Z

After two days' march Dathan was come within sight of the great host that was arrayed against him, and he came forward with a small party carrying the Ark as a peace offering.

But when Mastema learned the Ark of God carried only an ordinary flat stone the order to give battle was sounded. The army of the Saiph League made quick work of Dathan and his forces.

Then it came to pass Mastema marched up the coast to Suhar where he put to the sword the small force of men Dathan had left behind and plundered the city, yet the Tablet was not found within the walls of Suhar. Twelve survivors among the men who had been left to guard the city were put to torment by whips, even to the death, yet of the whereabouts of the Table of the Covenant they knew nothing save they had seen Dathan take the Ark with him on the march to the south.

In the wake of this atrocity the invading army commanded by Abbadon departed to return home to Toturo, only to meet their own utter destruction at the hands of the king of Alodra. In his wrath the king had arrayed the army at Melak to lie in wait and avenge the annihilation of his border guard. Never again in the whole history of Kemen did mercenaries from the Saiph League assail the Roshites at the command of Elyon or Chemah.

The Tablet was safe in the possession of the faithful who went north from Suhar with Boel, for Bat-El himself had forewarned him of the apostasy of Dathan and commanded the deception. Boel's group traveled with the Tablet up the coast of Thalury as far as Suhar was from Melak. There was found an unnamed river that was exceedingling fair to behold.

On the southern bank the Director on the cover of the Ark began to spin. The people saw how the river emerged swift and clean from the hills, then slowed to a more stately pace to wind through rich bottomland. Boel's group no longer had the cuttings from the grain stalks that had kept them alive in Suhar, but they had much seed, and here they found a land well suited for planting. Boel named it the valley of the River Menkal, and he decreed the people of the Remnant should cease all their wanderings in Kemen.

For all the days of Boel there was peace on the fertile banks of the Menkal River. From season to season the harvests never failed and the flocks multiplied to fulfill the needs of all the Roshites. In the midst of this bounty Boel founded the city of Akamar on the shores of the bay where the River Menkal flowed into the Great Sea.