A smile crept across Aliyah’s face. “Ah, indeed. Perhaps you are the more valuable sacrifice anyway,” she said eagerly. Raising her voice to the crowd, the woman proclaimed, “The betrothed of Horeb has offered herself to the Goddess! A virgin. A girl with a pure heart. The ultimate unselfishness. I am most pleased.”
Hands wrenched Sahmril from my embrace and her scream tore at my heart. Heru, the Egyptian High Priest, pushed me forward. Aliyah planted kisses on both of my cheeks, her fingers like claws on my shoulders while the priests handed Sahmril off to one another taking her farther and farther away from me.
Aliyah’s violet eyes bore into mine when she gripped my shoulders in a vise that hurt. “And now I have everything I want,” she whispered. “It couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. You fell right into my plan, Jayden.”
Before I could scream for help, I was lifted up into the air by four priests, each holding me by an arm or a leg while they carried me to the same altar upon which Aliyah had been standing.
The polished marble stone slipped along my back as the Egyptians laid me down. Hard, cold, and unforgiving. My hands and feet were tied to each of the four corners while Heru pressed a hard hand on top of my chest to keep me from writhing. A shriek rose up my throat, and then died.
I was immobilized, staring upward into the stars, numb and cold. The longing for my mother intensified, my eyes dripping tears. I only hoped that she and my father would know that I’d done everything I could to save my sister. That I’d kept my promise.
My only regret was that I wouldn’t be able to tell Kadesh good-bye.
23
Waves of heat pulsed from the brass statue of Moloch looming beyond the domed pavilion where I lay on the marble altar. I swore my skin was melting from the proximity.
From a great distance, the drumming began again. I could hear Sahmril still crying. “Give my sister to Leila,” I pleaded. “We’re doing exactly what you wanted, so honor your end of the bargain. Promise me Sahmril goes to my father. And that you will never see her again. Vow it, Aliyah!”
I knew I was a fool to trust her, but I had no choice now. There had been no time to steal Sahmril away in the crowd. No time to run hemmed in by guards and soldiers. It was either my baby sister’s death or mine. But soon I would see my mother, and when I thought of that, I knew I’d made the right choice, despite all that I was leaving behind.
Aliyah’s cool hands slid down my waist and upper thigh. “Ah, here it is. Your infamous dagger. It’s no secret that you hide it on your leg.”
I wished I could wipe the triumphant look from her face and shove it down her throat.
“Leila,” Aliyah called, beckoning her to come closer.
My sister’s face floated before me, her long hair soft about her bare shoulders, her slim figure delicate and beautiful. Her eyes gazed into mine, though I wasn’t sure she actually saw me.
Tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes. I was angry at myself for thinking I could whisk Sahmril away before the sacrificial ceremony began.
The Goddess of Sariba held up my knife with its long, thin blade, the one I sharpened each night while my handmaids brushed my hair. “High Priestess Leila,” she said. “You are the one who loves me most. Would you like to do the honor of slicing your sister’s throat?”
I scanned the glittering jewel-like stars. There was no liberating angel to save me. I’d willingly offered myself in exchange for Sahmril’s life.
When I thought of Kadesh, my throat swelled with grief. I would never feel his arms around me again; never hear his voice in my ears, his warm and heavenly lips on mine.
I blinked back the tears and self-pity, and tried to focus on the fact that Sahmril would live—even though she would never know me.
Leila hypnotically stroked my neck, and I shivered under her glassy gaze. “Leila,” I hissed, trying to catch her eyes with mine, forcing her to acknowledge me.
She shook her head. “It will be easier if you don’t speak. I don’t want to cut the wrong blood vessel and have you die instantly.”
“Dear God, Leila, listen to me!”
A rumbling murmur began in the crowd.
My sister finally, reluctantly, looked at me. Fear lurked behind her eyes. She was afraid of acknowledging me. Afraid of defying the Goddess. Aliyah was now standing above me on the same altar of stone, calling to the skies. Shouting platitudes to her followers.
“Leila!” I said sharply. “Promise me that after my death you will run with Sahmril. I’ve given myself so that Aliyah cannot have her. Take her to the palace. Father is there, and Lady Naomi will care for her.”
Leila shot a glance upward. “I can’t defy the Goddess. I promised to follow her, to obey her in everything.”
“If you don’t take Sahmril away from here tonight, she’ll sacrifice me and her both. How will you explain to Father that he lost two of his daughters tonight?”
She clapped her hands against her ears, shaking her head in agony. “No more, don’t say anything else!”
The commotion was rising. I twisted my neck to see, but the writhing bodies, dripping candles, and the endless screeches of the crowd’s bloodlust were too confusing.
“Where is the Queen of Sheba?” I suddenly screamed. I’d lost sight of her when I fell to the ground with Sahmril. Then I saw that she was being held captive in the arms of three towering priests.
Her eyes were wide, her expression grim. “No, Jayden!” she called out to me. “Don’t do this!”
I couldn’t shout to make myself heard above the roaring crowd. I could only move my lips in a whisper and hope she understood. “I made a promise to my mother and I want to be able to face her after this life is over.”
“Sacrifice her!” came the shuddering shouts again. I tried to squirm under the rope, but I couldn’t feel my legs any longer.
Aliyah prodded Leila with her golden staff, a cluster of diamonds and emeralds forming the head of it. “Do it!” she screamed. “The Goddess is waiting!”
“Promise me, Leila!” I whimpered one last time, wishing I could hold her, my beloved older sister, one last time before I died. Above me, Leila raised the dagger, and then the Queen of Sheba was there, fumbling at the rope knots. “Let me be the sacrifice, Aliyah,” she screamed.
“You’re offering yourself to me?” Aliyah said, a smile floating over her mouth. “I had no idea it would be this easy. Two queens. Two powerful sacrifices in one. The Goddess is most pleased.” She paused to look at each of us in turn. “How ironic that we are all sisters. Sisters are supposed to love each other, aren’t they? Even when they keep secrets and husbands from the Goddess—as you both have done to me.”
“No, it’s ironic that the Goddess has taken our sisters from us,” I said bitterly. “A sacrifice means nothing when the person is not a willing subject.”
“You know nothing!” Aliyah snapped. “After tonight, neither one of you will have your kingdoms any longer. They will belong to me, as well as your husbands to do with as I wish.”
Aliyah wrenched the knife from Leila’s hand and, instead of coming for me, she raised the dagger up in the air for a single, terrible instant and then plunged the weapon straight into the queen’s throat.
The Queen of Sheba’s eyes widened in shock. Frantic words gurgled as she tried to speak. Her hand lifted to press against Aliyah’s shoulders in a feeble attempt to push her away.
Aliyah’s expression was cold and impassive while blood gushed from the queen’s neck. The queen’s eyes rolled back, her arms went limp, and then her body slumped over mine still tied to the altar.
“My queen,” I screamed. “Stay with me! Leila, help her!”
My stomach heaved when Aliyah slipped the dagger from her sister’s neck. She stared at the power she had wielded while spots of blood dripped along the front of her white gown. And then handed the knife to Leila.
I turned my head, weeping a thousand tears. “My queen,” I whimpered, hoping there was a chance she still lived.
I stretched my fingers to fumble for her cold fingers lying across my thighs. Holding her hand tight, I cried for the true friend she had become. A champion for Kadesh and me.
With her death, the southern countries and the Frankincense Trail would be in disarray.
“Go in peace, my queen,” I whispered to the night sky.
With the Queen of Sheba’s death, my murder was next. I shook the tears from my eyes as a priest of Ba’al picked up the body of the queen and carried her off into the darkness. “Stop,” I screamed. How dare they take her away? At that very moment, Leila turned to stare over her shoulder, her eyes flashing with new horror.
A stream of Edomite soldiers came into view. They cleared the crowd, pushing their way through the temple followers. People went sprawling, shouting drunken slurs, drinks shattering to the stone courtyard.
The priests of Ba’al and Egypt surged forward in an attempt to charge the Edomites, but they went down almost instantly, afraid of the large number of fierce desert soldiers.
“Stop them,” Aliyah screamed. “Or the Goddess will curse you all!”
Her cries were in vain. The Edomites clearly outnumbered her guards and the Egyptians, circling them instantly.
As soon as the temple guards and priests were contained, a second company of Edomites marched straight up the pathway. At the head of the formation strode Asher and my father.
Leila dropped the dagger and staggered behind the altar.
“I’m here!” I screamed, straining at the ropes at the sight of Kadesh’s beloved Edomites.
Asher had almost reached me when Aliyah jumped down from the altar. She stabbed a finger into the young man’s chest. “Don’t take another step or I will have you all sacrificed!”
She flicked a finger and the Egyptians sprang to life with their magical staves. All at once, the lamps and candles began to fly overhead, circling the gardens and fountains. Asher and his men ducked, narrowly missing a spray of sparks.
With both fists, my father crashed his staff to the ground. A sound like an earthquake rose from the depths of the earth. Leila was on her knees wailing when I caught sight of Sahmril, held by one of the other priestesses. The little girl had been squirming and finally pulled away from the woman and tried to run toward the parapet. “Stop your tears, Leila!” I ordered. “Get Sahmril before she gets hurt or lost!”
Remarkably, my sister obeyed, hurrying off just as Asher appeared before my eyes. “Jayden, are you hurt?”
“Just get the knife, it fell to the ground. My dagger! Hurry!”
He dropped to his knees to search at the same moment the Egyptians began to light their staves, preparing to throw flaming darts at the Edomites.
“I’ve got it,” Asher grunted, sawing at the rope around my wrists and ankles. As soon as they loosened, I rolled off the stone altar and tried to stand but immediately sank to the ground. All my strength was gone, my legs turning to liquid.
Asher lifted me into his arms and carried me away just seconds before Heru, the High Priest, crashed his staff onto the altar where I had been laying.
The stone table split in half, and I marveled at the strengths the man possessed.
“Get Sahmril first,” I choked out while the entire pavilion turned into a confusion of Moloch’s roiling heat, torches, and screaming people fleeing the chaos.
I wobbled on the cool grass, wishing I could lie down while Asher rushed to retrieve Sahmril. He herded Leila over to where I finally sank, rubbing at my raw wrists.
I shoved my dagger back into the strap on my thigh, then pulled Sahmril into my arms, holding her close while she cried. “You’re safe, sweet baby. I’m going to take care of you.”
She put her face into my neck and sobbed, “I want my mama and papa.”
A sharp pang came over me knowing whom she was referring to. “Leila, come with us to the palace.”
The masked aura of the High Priestess washed over her like a facade. “You ruined everything with your Edomites. Sariba would have been safe if you hadn’t stopped the sacrifice.”
My heart stuttered at what she was inferring. “You would have killed me?”
She gazed upon Aliyah who was rallying her followers and screaming at the priests and magicians to reorganize. “Sacrifice is for the greater good. We need the goddesses’ blessings.”
“Then why doesn’t one of the priestesses offer herself?” I snapped.
“Jayden,” my father said, appearing out of the chaos. “We need to leave before Aliyah rallies her priests and finds another child to offer. Where’s Leila?”
“She’s right here,” I said, whipping my head about, but my older sister was nowhere to be seen. Heru had obviously swept her away when the Edomites showed up.
“Oh, Father,” I said. “I’m not sure we’ll ever have her back again.”
My father turned away while sorrow hunched his shoulders, but Asher heard my words and sent me a look of empathy.
“Leila made her choice long ago,” I said quietly. “The temple is her home and we belong to a past life she cares nothing for any longer.”
Asher gazed past the balconies to the foothills of the mountains. I followed his eyes and frowned. The lights of Horeb’s camps were different somehow.
“It appears our enemy is on the move,” he muttered.
“You mean they’re coming to the city? Right now?”
He shook his head. “They wouldn’t attack at night, especially when they don’t know the city, but we’d better return to the palace right away.”
“Please have your men retrieve the body of the Queen of Sheba,” I told Asher. “One of the priests carried her off, but we can’t leave her behind. She needs to be at the palace so we can mourn her and properly take care of her body.”
Asher’s brows were low as he directed five of his soldiers to find the queen, but he had no sooner uttered the command when Aliyah rose up to the dais once again.
Stretching forth her hands to the crowd, she said, “My people, my worshippers. Bring forth another child to fulfill the sacrifice.”
Cutting through the crowds and commotion, the temple soldiers searched for a child to put on the altar. My stomach heaved. Aliyah was determined to have her solstice sacrifice. To wield her power in a public show.
“With the destruction of this sacred night,” Aliyah shouted to capture their attention again. “I—the Goddess of the great land of Sariba—officially declare war on King Kadesh. We will cut ourselves from the foolish, malignant country of Sariba. King Kadesh is a traitor to bring strangers here to harm us. We will align ourselves with the powerful King of the Nephish and his Assyrian and Maachathite armies. With him we will have our victory!”
The worshippers’ faces were rapt when they bowed to the Sariba Goddess, fearful at the death of the Queen of Sa’ba and the Edomite soldiers storming the ceremony, but hopeful that they would be spared from the horror of war.
It didn’t take long before Asher and the Edomites had me safely enclosed within their ranks, including Sahmril and the body of the Queen of Sheba. We hurried away from the scenes of death, but behind us, the screams of a woman tore through the dismal night. I whipped around to look. A young child had been ripped from its mother’s arms by the priests of Ba’al to fulfill the sacrifice on the burning arms of Moloch.
At the sound of the woman’s ghastly shrieks, I went limp on Asher’s horse. “Don’t faint, Jayden,” he told me. “Stay strong. We’ll be home soon.”
But after the horror of this night and Aliyah’s lies, how would the people of Sariba ever trust Kadesh again?
24
We were a silent company as we rode down the forest path back to the palace. Waves of guilt smothered over me at the thought of being part of an innocent child’s death.
My heart rattled inside my chest. Nausea churned at my belly. All at once, I leaned over my horse and threw up into the bushes.
“Will you be all right, my lady?” Asher asked quietly when I grasped the reins again and nudg
ed at my steed to keep moving.
“Sahmril is alive,” I said, watching my sister in the arms of my father. “That’s all that matters right now.”
My heart wrenched at the sight of my father’s face wet with tears. We were all alive for now, but the queen had been murdered in cold blood. And another mother had lost her child tonight for absolutely nothing.
We rode into the rear gates of the city and up the narrow paths toward the palace in complete blackness.
“Has Kadesh ordered a blackout?” I asked.
Asher nodded, steadying our horses as our large group converged onto the city streets. Not a light to be seen, not a whisper of sound.
“The king gave orders for a nightly blackout until this is over. If Horeb grows bold enough to breach the city walls, Kadesh doesn’t want to make it easy for them to move about.”
When we reached the palace stables, servant boys ushered us in, closing the doors against the eerie night.
We hurried up the staircases to the palace. Once inside, I staggered against a wall, narrowly avoiding a table of fine vases and flowers. I was so tired I could have slept right there in a corner of the giant foyer for two days. But there were still tasks to accomplish before I got to collapse on my pillow.
“Let me inspect the room for your peace of mind,” Asher said, accompanying me to my suite.
“Surely the palace is secure?”
“It’s a precaution so I can assure myself that I’m doing an adequate job as your personal guard.”
After what had happened tonight at the temple, I wondered if Asher was mocking himself. I could hardly blame him. I wished the queen had never come to Sariba. If she hadn’t, she would be safely in Sa’ba with her husband and family. I choked down fresh tears, guilt threatening to swallow me up when the queen had offered herself to replace me as sacrifice.
The first thing I did when we entered was pull the thick draperies across the windows. My handmaids rose from their beds and Jasmine hurried to light a lamp.
After Asher finished inspecting the bathing room, wardrobes, and dressing room, we said goodnight. “Before I leave I’ll make sure a guard is posted at your door. Or I will stand guard myself.”
Returned Page 17
