Chapter 35
December, 3,390 BC
Earth: Village of Assur
PAREESA
The cold pallor of winter blew down from the Zagros Mountains and clenched its skeletal fingers around the men huddled together on the flat plain just outside the south gate of Assur for warmth. They were an unlikely looking bunch, elite warriors mixed in with old men stooped from decades bent over their fields and women, many not much older than Pareesa. They wore the same dejected, defeated look that she hid; an invisible enemy, unseen, but every bit as palpable as the winter wind.
Siamek met her gaze and nodded. He felt the peculiar melancholy this morning, as well…
"Alright men," Siamek ordered. "Pareesa will lead us for the warm-up."
Even the warrior's groan of complaint was half-hearted. Pareesa glanced down the lin
