The Sacred Stone

by The Medieval Murderers

  Hard against the bridge, a small wooden jetty projected out from the bank into deeper water to enable the boats to unload their cargoes when the river was low. Someone was standing on that jetty muttering to himself in a slow rhythmic chant, as if he was breathing every syllable. Ha-Sh-em. Ha-Sh-em.

  ‘Isaac, no, don’t. Please don’t try to conjure it,’ Judith whispered, trying to make him hear without her voice carrying to the two guards at the far end of the bridge.

  Startled, the man whipped around, but it was not Isaac’s face she saw staring at her in alarm, but Benedict’s. His hands were trembling.

  ‘Go home, Judith. You shouldn’t be here. This is too dangerous. I don’t want you to get caught.’

  ‘But what are you doing here? I thought you were looking for Isaac at the church.’

  Benedict sighed. ‘I couldn’t tell you, because I wanted to keep you safe. Isaac doesn’t have the stone. I do. It was me who wrote those lists of words. Aaron was right: we have to stand up for ourselves. We have to show them that we can fight back. The Eternal One is supposed to defend the innocent, but where was He the day they hanged my father in front of a jeering crowd? I learned something that day. Heaven will not send down fire to slay our enemies or part the water to save us unless we first do something for ourselves. We must fight for our own survival. If we fight, He will give us victory, but if we simply sit there praying and wailing, He will not hear us.’

  ‘So you mean to conjure up a spirit to destroy your father’s murderers?’ Judith asked.

  He shook his head impatiently. ‘I am no more skilled than Isaac, as I told you. Even if I did possess Aaron’s ability to call up a spirit, what good would it be if I couldn’t control it? The stone was a sign, a sign that we had to rise up and take matters into our own hands. HaShem, The Name, the title the Eternal One used of Himself when He delivered us from slavery in Egypt. Our people had to force the pharaoh to let them go. They had to start walking before the Red Sea parted. Now we must do the same. The stone has told me what to do; there can be no mistake – the crossing of gold, the burned offering. It is so clear, Judith.’ Benedict’s eyes glittered in the lanternlight.

  As he moved, Judith noticed three small barrels behind him on the jetty, stacked against the arch of the bridge. Benedict pulled the wooden bung out of one of the barrels. A thin stream of black powder began to trickle out across the wooden jetty under the bridge. It looked like the same powder that Judith had seen him dusting from his hands that afternoon.

  ‘What is that?’ Judith asked fearfully. ‘Is it a dried herb?’

  ‘It’s a mixture of substances; a little charcoal and sulphur, but mainly saltpetre, scraped from the walls of cellars. My father taught me to make it to treat running sores and cankers of the skin. Alchemists say it’s an elixir of life and will remove corruption from metals. But a few weeks ago I discovered in a book a list of recipes for making different kinds of fire. It was written that if the correct proportions are mixed, when a flame is touched to it, it will burn more fiercely than a blacksmith’s fire. And more than that: for the fire ignites so suddenly and with such force that it can bring walls crashing down. They say it is like a mighty thunderclap and flash of lightning together.’

  For a moment Judith couldn’t grasp what he was saying; such a thing sounded impossible. Then she looked again at the three barrels stacked against the pillar of the bridge.

  ‘You mean to start such a terrible fire now, don’t you, and cause this bridge to tumble into the river?’

  ‘Yes, yes! Imagine it. Oh, they will rebuild it in time, but it will take a very long time, and think of the money the Church will lose. Think of the terror they will be in, knowing that we have such power. They will not dare lift their hands against us again, for this weapon will strike such fear into them, just as did the plagues of Egypt. And I want to hurt them, Judith, hurt them in the only way they will understand. Make them pay for what they did to my father and the others. All these years they have been bleeding us dry. Now they will know what it feels like to have what they value torn from them.’

  ‘And do you mean to smite the firstborn, too?’ Judith said furiously. ‘What of the innocent men, women and children crossing the bridge when you unleash this plague on them? Do you intend to drown them in the river like the pharaoh’s soldiers?’

  Benedict looked shocked. ‘No. You know I would never kill anyone. The sign was clear – daybreak, dawn. The fire will be lit as the first rays of the sun light up the sky, long before the bridge is open. No one will die, I swear to you.’

  ‘But we will die, Benedict. Do you think they will allow you or me or any of us to live if they discover we possess such power and pose such a threat? There will be such an outcry in this land that the Christians will not rest until every Jew in England is burning. And what then, Benedict? What if they let you live to watch me burn on a bonfire and our neighbours and our friends, the old women and little children, too? If they let you live to witness that, how will you take revenge then for those innocent lives?

  ‘Your father went to the gallows still believing in justice; would he have wanted you to take revenge? Old Jacob gave all he had for a stone that he thought would bring peace and hope to all of us. He would be appalled at the thought of you using this stone to bring more destruction and misery.’ She abruptly halted in her tirade as an even more terrible thought flashed into her head. ‘The stone . . . If Isaac doesn’t have it and you do, then you must be the one who killed Nathan for it.’

  Benedict threw his arms over his head. ‘Judith, how could you think that of me?’

  ‘You are standing there threatening to bring a bridge crashing into the river, and you ask me how I could think that you were a murderer. What else should I think?’

  ‘But I didn’t kill him! I discovered Nathan’s body in the chamber, but I heard someone in the synagogue, so I slipped away and hid. Then I saw you enter the chamber and come running out. Like you, I assumed Aaron had killed Nathan for the stone. You know how hot-tempered he is, and he was convinced he was meant to interpret the letters. I knew that if the authorities learned of a body in the synagogue they’d start arresting Jews for the murder. They didn’t bother for Jacob, because they guessed his killer was a Christian, but if they thought they could pin a murder on a Jew they wouldn’t hesitate to hang half the synagogue and claim we’d all had a hand in it, so that the Crown could claim all our property, just like they did when they hanged my father. I hid the body, Judith, to protect Aaron and the rest of us, but I am no murderer.’

  ‘And that’s why you’ll never have the guts to go through with this,’ a voice behind them sneered.

  Judith spun around. A tall, muscular woman was leaning against the wall of the bridge, her arms folded over her pendulous breasts as if she was trying to keep them from straying.

  ‘He’s right, lady. He didn’t kill your friend; I did. My boys had been keeping a watch on this Nathan, but I told them to fetch me when they were sure he was alone. They’d already lost the stone once when they gave that old Jew a hammering, so I wasn’t going to trust them again. If you want something done properly, you need a woman to do it.

  ‘But young Nathan insisted he didn’t have the stone, even when I half throttled him with a piece of cord, so I finished the job and searched the room. As it turns out, the stinking piece of worm-meat was telling the truth; it wasn’t there. But I figured that if I left the body in the room, the stone would come to me. Your lover there knows what would have happened right enough. They’d have rounded up every Jew in Norwich and thrown them in the castle keep until they could decide how many to hang. The stone had to be in one of your houses, so all I had to do was wait, then send my lads round to search while you lot were rattling your chains and begging for mercy. But you had to go and move the little runt’s body, didn’t you? Still, no matter.’

  Magote suddenly unclasped her arms and, too late, Judith saw the flash of metal. With the agility of a cat, Magote sprang forward an
d in one practised movement had grabbed Judith’s arm and spun her around to face Benedict, twisting the arm behind her back. Judith felt the point of a dagger pressing up between her ribs.

  ‘Now, lad, you give me that stone and I might just be persuaded to let your little sweeting live.’

  ‘I’ll . . . I’ll give it to you. Wait. Don’t hurt her, I beg of you,’ Benedict pleaded.

  With shaking hands he struggled to pull the heavy stone from his scrip. After what seemed to Judith like a lifetime, he finally placed it on the wooden jetty next to his lantern so that it was in plain sight.

  Holding Judith tightly in front of her, Magote pressed back against the wall. ‘Now, my pretty lad, you walk past me nice and slow and climb up the bank. When I have the stone safe I’ll let her come to you. But you try and make a grab for her and this dagger will be in her body up to the hilt afore you can bless yourself.’

  Benedict edged past Judith, his face a mask of fear. Judith heard him trying to scramble up the wet grass, slipping and sliding in a frantic attempt to carry out the woman’s instructions to the letter.

  ‘You’re coming with me, my sweeting,’ Magote hissed in Judith’s ear, ‘just in case your lover there changes his mind and tries something.’

  She slid the dagger around to Judith’s back and, using it as a goad, forced Judith to walk forward on to the slippery boards of the jetty. Without warning, Magote grabbed Judith’s shoulder and pulled her violently sideways. Judith’s feet slid from under her and she crashed into the river. She didn’t have time to take a breath before the icy water closed over her head, as her heavy skirts pulled her down and down into the blackness.

  Free of Judith, Magote reached out for the stone, but she moved too quickly and slipped on the slimy boards. The edge of her gown caught the lantern and sent it crashing over. The candle rolled out on to a thin line of black powder, which instantly flared up like a rearing snake. Magote stared at it. She’d never seen the like of it before. The flame raced along the trail of powder and seemed to leap into the hole in the barrel. For a moment nothing happened, then there was a bang. Magote, screaming in agony, tottered backwards clutching at her face. Her gown, soaked in grease from the fat of the many meals she had cooked at the inn, blazed up like a tallow candle. For a few moments she teetered blindly on the edge of the jetty, flames leaping up around her head, before she toppled over into the river with a great splash and hiss.

  It was the woman’s screams more than the dull bang that woke the guards, for the black powder was too damp and loosely packed to create a loud explosion and the bridge didn’t even tremble. By the time the guards got to their feet there was nothing to be heard but the sound of rushing water. They searched the length of the bridge but, finding nothing amiss, concluded that their duty was done and, yawning, returned to their posts and their dreams.

  Benedict had slid back down the bank as soon as he heard the bang and the cries. But both women had vanished. Only a small blaze on the wooden jetty under the bridge marked what had happened. He knelt by the water’s edge, frantically calling Judith’s name, but there was no sound save for the gurgling of the oily black water.

  With tears blinding his eyes, he desperately ranged up and down the bank, trying to peer through the mist for any sign of life. Then he heard something. At first he thought the sound was merely an echo of his own sobs, but as he held his breath he heard his own name. The sound seemed to be coming from under the arch in the middle of the river. But there was no means of getting to the place by land.

  ‘Judith! Judith, wait, I’m coming.’

  Benedict stripped off his cloak and climbed down off the jetty, shuddering as the icy water crept up his body, and struck out to where he thought he had heard her calling. The noise of his own splashing and the water crashing against the stones drowned out any cries. The mist swirled above the water. He twisted and turned this way and that, trying to find her. Then he spotted something pale against the dark water. An arm, a single arm stretched out above the river, clinging to an iron mooring ring embedded in the stones of the bridge. Even as he struggled against the current to reach her, he could see her fingers slipping from the ring.

  ‘Please hold her up,’ he prayed desperately.

  He must have said the words aloud, for Judith stirred at the sound, reaching out to him with her other hand. He swam towards her, but, as he had almost reached her, Judith’s fingers slid from the iron ring and she sank without a struggle beneath the rushing black water.

  Desperately, Benedict pushed himself downwards, groping around until his fingers closed on some cloth. With a great heave he lifted Judith to the surface. He had enough strength only to reach out again for the iron ring and, with one arm locked tightly through it, he pulled her head on to his shoulder. Her eyes were closed and her skin was frog-cold.

  Benedict pressed his face against hers, holding her tightly against his body, his eyes stinging with water and tears. He cursed himself and prayed in equal measure, begging, almost screaming for a miracle. Then he heard a cough and a gasp, her head moved slightly beneath his chin and, looking down, he saw her eyelids fluttering. Judith, his beloved Judith, was alive.

  Wednesday 29 May,

  the eleventh day of Sivan

  Just after dawn, fishermen pulled Benedict and Judith from the water. The men assumed that the couple had stumbled into the river in the fog, and Benedict did not disabuse them. The fire on the jetty had long since burned itself out, and those who noticed the scorch marks assumed that boys had wantonly lit the fire from mischief or to cook a supper of fish. They grumbled that young lads these days were out of control; they had no respect for property or their elders. And with Magote dead, there was no one to contradict them.

  As Benedict helped Judith up the street to her home, Isaac came running out of the house towards them. He swept his sister up in his arms and carried her inside, almost sobbing with relief that she was unharmed. He seemed to have aged ten years overnight.

  Isaac told them that the previous evening he had gone to the inn owned by Eleanor’s father. It had occurred to him that if he could discover that Eleanor was also missing, it would confirm his suspicions that Nathan had indeed run off with her and then he would be able to put Judith’s fears to rest.

  Isaac had hung around the inn until late that night trying to pick up any gossip about the girl, for if Eleanor had vanished it would be dangerous for him to be heard asking questions about her. But he’d discovered nothing. Then, just as the inn was closing, Isaac glimpsed Eleanor in the yard throwing out the slops and he knew that wherever Nathan was, he was not with her.

  With a heavy heart, Isaac had returned home, only to find his own house empty and no sign of Judith. Fearing that she, too, had been attacked like Jacob and was lying hurt somewhere or worse, he had spent the rest of the night frantically searching the streets for her, though it had never occurred to him to look under a bridge.

  Judith and Benedict could delay the tragic news no longer. When they finally told him that Nathan’s body had been found, Isaac tore his shirt and cried like a little child in his sister’s arms.

  That same afternoon Benedict returned to the bridge, as soon as he had assured himself that Judith was resting safely, being cosseted by her brother and an endless stream of neighbours bringing nourishing possets and potages to her bedside.

  Just before he left her, Judith seized his hand and whispered, ‘Remember the vow you made in the water last night. You must keep it now, you know.’

  ‘I thought you couldn’t hear me,’ Benedict said in astonishment, blushing furiously as he recalled just what he had been murmuring through that long hour until dawn.

  ‘A woman can always hear what she wants to.’ Judith managed a tired little smile. ‘I love you, Benedict. Though goodness knows why, for you are the most irritating, stubborn, obstinate, foolhardy muttonhead I’ve ever known, save for my own brother. And no other woman would put up with you, so I suppose I must, for you need someone to keep
you from your own folly.’

  Benedict humbly acknowledged the truth of that with a wry smile and quickly slipped away before she could think any more of his faults to add to her list.

  The miraculous stone still lay on the jetty among the charred remains of the barrels. Even if anyone had noticed the dark stone in the shadow of the bridge, no one would have troubled to take such a commonplace thing. What value would it have had to anyone?

  Benedict took the stone straight to the home of Rabbi Elias and placed it on the table in front of him.

  ‘This is what Jacob went to Exeter to fetch.’

  Rabbi Elias lifted it up, his face registering surprise as he felt the weight of it. He turned it over in his hand.

  ‘So Jacob sells everything he values for something that looks like a child’s carving of a bird or maybe he thought it was a boat. But . . .’ A smile of wonderment spread over the rabbi’s face. ‘There is a great sense of peace in this stone, a sweetness, like the moment when the world stops and we pause to light the Shabbat candles.’

  ‘Perhaps in the right hands, rabbi, but mine are not the right hands,’ Benedict said, shuddering, as once more he was overcome by shame at the thought of how close he had come to killing the one person in the world that he truly loved with all his soul.

  ‘There are letters on the stone, rabbi, if you examine it closely.’

  Rabbi Elias nodded. ‘I dare say, but I think sometimes it is better not to examine things too closely. Let us be content with saying it is nothing more than a bird or a boat; after all, it was an ark and a dove that brought us hope once, and it was enough then. May it be so again.’

  ‘Amen,’ Benedict breathed. He grinned bashfully, remembering what Judith had said about holding him to his vow. ‘One thing more, rabbi. I would like to marry Judith just as soon as it can be arranged.’

  The rabbi’s mouth’s split in a broad grin. ‘It’s about time. You’ve waited far too long,’ he said, slapping Benedict firmly on the back. ‘And after a wedding night, we hope, comes the blessing of a new generation. What better memorial to your poor father than that he should have grandchildren and great grandchildren to carry on his name.’