Chapter 37 November – 3,390 BC Earth: Village of Assur SHAHLA "The Uruk are desperate for our flax-cloth," Shahla's father's voice drifted up from the main living quarters below. "Their weavers don't know how to retch the flax to make the fibers thin and soft. Their emissary gave us two epahs of einkorn for the measure I sent to them and promised another twenty in two weeks if we can bring them a bolt. "Twenty epahs?" her mother squealed. "Twenty epahs? For one bolt of cloth? That's enough grain to feed a family through the winter!" "We have enough grain already for our own family," her father said. "I shall hold this credit against the communal granary until the end of the rainy season, when those too stupid to store enough grain run out and become desperate, and then sell that for