"We fly in planes and s.p.a.ceships."

"What?"

The nephihm did not know everything. Sandy said, "We have machines that fly."

"Can you leave the planet?"

"We have gone to the moon. We fly among the stars."

"You?"

"I am too young," Sandy said. "My father has made several s.p.a.ce flights."

"Did El send you to torment us?"

"What do you think?" Sandy asked.

"You are not of us, the nephilim. Neither are you, I think, of the seraphim."

"No. We are human beings."

"Mortals?"

"Yes."

"Then why have you come?"

"It was a mistake," Sandy said again.

"Would you like me to take you out of this place, this little tent?"

"No."

"They will come and kill you."

"Perhaps."

"Noah is unwilling to give up his vineyards."

"He is quite right. One does not give in to terrorists."

"You are foolish. I could give him a message, if you like. If you ask him, I think he will give up the vineyards."

"I wouldn"t ask him."

"Then you will die."

"You"d like that, wouldn"t you?" Sandy asked. "Perhaps you"d like to kill me yourself?"

"I will leave you. You are insolent."

"Why don"t you like us, my brother and me?"

"You do not belong to our world. You will cause trouble. I think you have been sent to cause trouble to the nephilim." Rofocale rose. Energy crackled in the air, so that Sandy"s skin p.r.i.c.kled, and a mosquito flew away.

In a few minutes. Tiglah came in. "Did he tell you?" She was giggling. In the light slanting from outside, the dimple in her chin seemed a cleft.

"That your father and brother plan to kill me, yes, he told me."

"Not that." She was consumed with laughter.

He saw nothing funny. "What, then?"

"About Noah."

"He said that Noah is unwilling to give up his vineyards."

"No, no, not that, either."

"What, then?" He was irritated at her giggles.

"Noah is building a boat. A boat!" Her laughter peeled out.

Sandy sat up. Asked, carefully, "Why is he building a boat?"

"An ark, he says." Her laughter was derisive. "The nearest sea or river is moons away."

"Then why is he doing it?" Sandy asked.

"Who knows."

"Is he building it by himself?"

"Oh, no, it"s a very big boat. I mean, hugely big. His sons are helping him. He says it is going to rain!" Her laughter jarred against Sandy"s ears. "We have rain only in the spring, and then not much. He is the laughingstock of the oasis."

Sandy sat, alert, watching her.

"Rofocale thinks he may be building it to get rid of you. A boat where there is no water is silly."

"I"m hungry," Sandy said.

"Oh, I"ve brought you more food."

"Then just leave it with me."

She pouted. "You don"t want me to sit and talk with you while you eat? I"ll unbind your hands and feet."

"I"ll manage." Sandy flexed his muscles so that the thongs looked tight. "I need to think."

"About the silly ark?"

"About a lot of things."

"Well ... all right." She left the tent, returned with a bowl of stew. "You"re sure you don"t want me to stay?"

Sandy was firm. "Quite sure. Give up, Tiglah. Go."

Pouting, she went.

He sniffed at the stew- Ugh. It was spoiling. He pushed it aside, worked his hands out of the thongs, unbound his feet. If Noah was already building the ark, there was no time to wait. Dangerous or not, as soon as it got dark, Sandy would leave the tent, head for the desert, try to find out where on the oasis he was being held, and head for whichever was nearer, Grandfather Lamech"s tent or Noah"s. Then he lay down to rest and wait for nightfall.

"They have gone too far," Noah said, "taking our Sand."

The family was gathered back in the tent, retreating from the heat of the sun.

Ham said, "You"re certainly not going to give them the vineyards!"

Noah shook his head. "I told them that I would not. But now-I have already turned one of the older vineyards that needed replanting into a lumberyard. What difference will the vineyards make if they are all covered with water?"

Ham said, "We are helping you with this idiocy, Father, because you have asked us to. But surely you don"t believe that there will be that much rain?"

"That is what I have been told."

Shem had returned from hunting, and was sitting on a pile of skins with Selah next to him. "You"re sure it was the voice of El?"

"I am sure."

Elisheba suggested, "It couldn"t, maybe, have been the voice of a nephil?"

"I know the voice of El from that of a nephil."

"They mimic very cleverly."

"El is El. If one of the nephilim tried to sound like El, then El would tell me that."

Matred looked up from her stewpot. "When will the rain start?"

"When the ark is ready."

Shem said, "What about our misters and their husbands and their children?"

Noah wiped his hands across his beard- "I am to make a window in the ark, and set a door in the side, with lower, second, and third stories. El told me that I am to bring in animals of every kind, and my wife, my sons, and their wives."

Oholibamah"s voice was sharp. "What about Yalith?"

Noah shook his head sorrowfully.

Shem protested, "But it"s going to be a big boat, Father! Surely there"s room for more than just the eight of us."

"Animals," Noah repeated, "of every kind, so that, when the flood waters abate, there will be both animal and human beings to repopulate the earth."

"I don"t believe any of this," Ham said. "But if it should come to pa.s.s, I will give my place on the ark to Yalith."

Oholibamah looked at him in grateful surprise.

"Nonsense," Anah said. "When you build this ark, and nothing happens, how are you going to face everybody?"

Noah stroked his beard. "I obey El."

"And our twins?" Oholibamah asked. "What about them?"

"And where is the Sand?" Elisheba asked.

"j.a.pheth and the Den will surely find him," Noah said. Selah raised her trunk and bugled. "And if they do not return with the Sand by sunrise, I will change my mind. I will give them the vineyards. When the flood waters abate, I will plant new vines."

Ham said, wonderingly, "You really believe that there is going to be a flood! We don"t have enough rain, even in the spring, to be any use. If it weren"t for our wells, there would be no oasis "

Shem asked, "Has our father ever made a fool of himself before?"

"No," Anah replied. "But there"s always a first time."

Admael the white camel crossed the length of the oasis to where Sandy was imprisoned. It was at the farthest end of the oasis, as far from Noah"s tent in one direction as was Grandfather Lamech"s in the other. Admael did not go up to the tent, but folded himself down on the ground a few yards away, to wait.

Adnachiel the giraffe grazed on some tender leaves, stretching his long, golden neck. High up in the tree, sleeping during the daylight hours, sat Akatriel the owl, his head hunched into his feathers.

Together they waited.

j.a.pheth and Dennys followed Higgaion, who trotted, zigzagging back and forth, from the outlying edges of the oasis to the desert, scenting, shaking his head so that the heightening sun glinted against his curved tusks, scenting. Back and forth. Into the oasis. Onto the desert.

"The sun is high," j.a.pheth said. "You must find shade, Den."

Dennys shook his head, stubbornly. His body gleamed with sweat.

j.a.pheth looked at him with concern. "We"re not far from Grandfather Lamech"s tent. Perhaps we"ll find Adnarel there, and we could ask him for help."

Relieved, Dennys panted, "Fine." Higgaion was staggering with exhaustion. There had been no sign of Sandy.

Higgaion led the way back to the oasis, his energy renewed now that they had a destination. j.a.pheth was untired, jogging along, breathing easily. Dennys was grateful for his own long legs; without them, he would not have been able to keep up.

As they approached Grandfather Lamech"s groves and could see the dark shadow of his tent, Higgaion trumpeted and quickened his pace, so that j.a.pheth was running., When they reached the tent, the heat seemed to intensify and their shadows were dark and squat. Higgaion paused, pointing with his trunk to light flashing off something hall buried in the sand by the tent flap.

"Adnarel!" Dennys cried. "Oh, Adnarel!"

j.a.pheth bent down and lifted the scarab beetle out of the sand, stroked it gently with one finger, and it seemed to burst from his hand, and Adnarel stood before them, blazing gold.