Ur
“You must have a plan, Terah,” Ikuppi said.
“That depends on gender. A daughter I would present to the king straightaway.”
“We both know no danger lies there.”
Terah nodded miserably. “Should the gods curse us with a son, the three of us must flee.”
Ikuppi shook his head. “Flee the king?”
“I will not sacrifice my own flesh and blood to him.”
“Yet you yourself say a manchild would be accursed.”
“And so I should offer him up? Belessunu would never forgive me.”
Ikuppi appeared to measure his next comment and find himself unable to utter it.
“Speak!” Terah said. “Something troubles you.”
The man stood and paced. Finally he said, “When I delivered your message to King Nimrod this morning, he called in his stargazers. He asked whether if Belessunu bore a son, it would portend the end of his reign.”
“And?”
“They were unanimous that your son would not only depose him but would cost him his life. They said everything pointed to this as a decision of the gods. He railed that he too was a god but had not foreseen this. Now he wants to test the gods themselves!”
“What does that mean, Ikuppi?”
“He would trick them with a substitute king. The imposter would dress in the king’s robes, be assigned a queen, and live in the palace—even occupy the throne while Nimrod and his family go into hiding.”
“To what end?”
“That the gods would mistake the substitute for the real king, strike him dead, the peril to Nimrod would disappear, and your son would not have to be slain.”
“But knowing that,” Terah said, “what madman would agree to become the substitute king?”
“King Nimrod was hoping you would.”
“Ha! That’s insane!”
“There is a strange logic to it, Terah.”
“How can you say that, as my friend?”
“I’m not suggesting you consider such a thing,” Ikuppi said. “I’m just saying that Nimrod would view such a choice as sacrificial. You would give up your own life for the sake of your son. Otherwise, he will ask that you show your eternal loyalty to him by willingly offering your son to him to be eliminated.”
“You must help me, Ikuppi.”
“What can I do?”
“Help me kneel and then bow with me before my gods. And when we have prayed to all of them, help me outside to kneel before Utu, who rides high in the sky even now.”
“But are not all these the same gods Nimrod is plotting to trick?”
“We must expose to them his evil plan and beseech them with all our might for a daughter.”