The Warrior (The Herod Chronicles Book 1)

by Wanda Ann Thomas

  A fat raindrop struck her forehead. Lex wiped it away. “I wanted to assure Lydia that help is on the way.”

  James’s nose wrinkled. “Nathan has been hunting for Judas for months with nothing to show for it. And Father would rather spend his money on an army than waste it on a ransom.”

  Lydia blinked repeatedly. “Has Father found someone to lead his army?”

  “Not that I know of,” Lex answered. “He wanted my husband to do it, but Nathan refused. Emphatically.” She wanted to tell Lydia all about Nathan. The sweet communion of pouring their hearts out, sister to sister, had always been a source of solace and strength to them both. A vast chasm yawned between them now. Sadness wrapped itself around Alexandra’s heart.

  The full moon disappeared behind black-rimmed clouds. Light rain fell around them.

  Lydia gripped her arm. “We have to get a message to Father. Convince him Judas is the right man to head his army. Convince him to talk to Judas again.”

  Alexandra blinked. “What do you mean...talk to Judas, again?” The truth dawned as sickeningly as maggots blooming on rotting flesh. Father hadn’t come to Galilee those many months ago to secure a religious artifact. No. He’d come to make a deal with Judas the Zealot. Her stomach soured. How could you, Father? How could you?

  James slapped the boulder. “Rot him! Rot him! He slapped the huge rock again. “Father tried to make a bargain with Satan. Am I right?” He scowled at Lydia. “But then Father came to Galilee, met Judas, realized he was dealing with a madman, and took back the offer. And, with his usual arrogance, Father insulted a crazed man. Of course, Judas, who is as unhinged as they get, took offense and attacked us.” His voice grew louder and more hysterical. “Hasn’t Father done enough damage? Apparently not, because here he is running around Galilee stirring up more trouble, while we sit here waiting for a demented zealot to defile Lex and to slice me into pieces!”

  Alexandra’s toes curled in her sandals and she shivered with dread. The moon parted the clouds. Lydia moaned and closed her eyes.

  Judas came charging around the boulder.

  Lex and James jumped back.

  “You sneaky dogs!” Judas yelled. He shoved Lydia in the direction of the cave. “Go ready yourself for the strap.”

  Lex grabbed onto Judas’s tunic. “Punish me,” she begged, sick that she’d gotten her sister into trouble.

  Judas twisted around, fisted his hand in her hair and forced her to her knees. “Go!” He bellowed at Lydia. “Go to the cave and stay there. Disobey me and I will beat you twice over.”

  “Leave her alone,” Alexandra cried.

  Lydia cast her a sorrowful look and fled to the cave.

  Judas yanked Alexandra up by the hair. She clasped her stinging scalp. “Let go!”

  He dragged her against his chest and jerked her head back. He reeked of wine and sweat. His wiry beard raked her neck. “Silence, woman!”

  Gagging on her fear, she said, “Nathan will hunt you down and kill you if you hurt any of us.”

  “Do not speak his name!” Judas roared. “You are mine now.”

  She fought to remain calm. “I have a husband.”

  “Nathan of Rumah has forsaken his people and committed adultery with Rome. He is not worthy to call a daughter of Israel his wife.” His voice turned pious. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, moving me to claim the daughters of Simeon Onias. I must obey his call.”

  Alexandra suppressed an hysterical laugh. Moved by the spirit? Judas was a madman that’s what he was. “What about the wedding contract?” she asked, desperate to distract the drunken man. “You will need to speak with my father.”

  Judas yanked her head back. “Contracts are Roman gibberish. Adam did not need a contract to marry Eve. The Lord commanded him to leave his mother and father, and to cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”

  Lex’s skin crawled at the thought of this man touching her as Nathan did. She blurt out a lie. “I’m with child.”

  Judas let go of her hair, grabbed her by the shoulders, and turned her to face him. What if she was carrying Nathan’s child and didn’t know it? She shuddered.

  Judas’ hot, sour breath spilled over her. “When the bastard comes it will be sold into slavery.”

  “Moses’ Law forbids it,” she argued, and immediately knew it was a mistake. Judas backhanded her across the face. Her eyes watered.

  He smiled nastily. “I see you need a lesson in obedience.”

  The hair on the back of her neck stood up.

  Judas saw her fear and laughed. “When I speak, you are to say ‘as you will, husband.’ And nothing else.” He raised his brows expectantly.

  She sealed her lips tight together. She couldn’t call him husband. She wouldn’t. The flat of his hand smacked her face. Her head snapped to the side. “Say it!” he yelled.

  She clutched her burning cheek.

  “Let her be,” someone ordered.

  Judas dragged her against his chest. “Stay away,” he warned.

  Lex glanced around. Judas’s men had formed a circled around them. They parted, and the long-faced raider named Silas walked toward them. Lex didn’t know whether to feel relieved or afraid.

  Silas pulled a knife.

  Judas shoved her.

  She crashed into the dour raider, knocking his knife from his hand as she fell face-first into the dirt. Confused shouts came from all directions. Caked in mud, she rolled over and sat up.

  Silas’s body landed on her lap. She recoiled with a strangled cry. Blood foamed from his mouth. He gasped once and went limp.

  Judas pulled the dead man off of her and dragged her to her feet. She swayed on unsteady legs. Judas pointed with the bloody knife. “Go down on your knees, wife, and say ‘as you will, husband.’”

  Sweet angels in heaven, he’d just killed a man, yet he meant to keep tormenting her? She shook her head.

  Judas slashed the air with the bloody knife. A violent tremble rocked her. His mouth curved with a smile. “We’ll see how brave you are, wife, when I make your brother throw the dice.”

  She glanced over at James. He sat next to the big boulder, hugging his knees and rocking. “Do as he says, Alexandra. Do as he says,” he pleaded. Elizabeth’s arms were circled about Mary. Tears poured down their frightened faces.

  Judas lunged for her. She jumped backwards, tripped, and fell. He seized her sandal and dragged her behind him. Her tunic rode up, exposing her bare legs. She pushed frantically at her skirt while her head and bottom bumped and scraped over sharp rocks.

  Raving drunkenly, Judas continued to pull her toward one of the blazing campfires.

  “Lord, save me,” she prayed, writhing and kicking.

  Two men came leaping over the fire.

  CHAPTER 27

  Alexandra shook with relief as Nathan tackled Judas to the ground.

  Kadar drew his sword. His blond hair flying and his massive arms bulging, he fought off a half dozen men.

  She scrambled to her feet and jumped back. Judas’s knife lay in her path, like a snake ready to strike. She hesitated. Stop acting like a frightened, old woman. Just pick it up! She took a deep breath, grabbed up the wicked weapon, and raced to the cave.

  Welcomed with hugs and tears, she gathered her brood around her. Men shouted and cried out to one another. A scream pierced the dark. Kadar pulled his bloody sword out of a man’s chest, and using two hands, slashed the blade through another’s man neck. The bodies dropped one behind the other.

  Nathan and Judas rolled through the cook fire. Yellow embers shot upwards, crackled and popped. Lex cried out and leaped forward. They broke apart, jumped to their feet, and beat at their smoldering tunics. She froze in place.

  Nathan drew his sword. His chest heaved. Hate lined his face. Judas held his hands up in surrender. Lex’s mind screamed. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him.

  The raiders clashing with Kadar fell back. The giant shook his head. Sweat flew from his blond hair. “Should I spare the rest?�
�

  The muscles in Nathan’s jaw and neck flexed. His dark, intent eyes flicked over the men and came to a rest on her.

  Lex shivered.

  “Wife,” Nathan said. “Did they harm you or the girls?”

  “No...We...we weren’t defiled.”

  “Nathan, watch out!” Mary screamed.

  Lex’s heart lodged in her throat. Judas held a knife high over his head. What? How could that be? She glanced down at the weapon in her hand. The knife had belonged to Silas, not Judas. A blood-curdling roar stopped her breath. Judas plunged the knife down. Nathan jerked to the side. The blade slid past his chest and buried in his shoulder. His sleeve turned red.

  Kadar dove for Judas and tackled him flat.

  Lex cried out and ran toward Nathan. One of the raiders grabbed her and she jabbed her elbow at him. “Let go!”

  The raider wrapped her in his arms. Cold metal pressed against her throat. “I’ll kill her,” he bellowed.

  Nathan banged Kadar’s arm. “Whoa...whoa...”

  The giant rolled off of Judas and jumped up.

  Judas climbed to his feet. “Throw down your weapons,” he ordered.

  “Don’t do it,” Alexandra said. “Judas wants to kill you.” Her stomach roiled at the thought of death stilling her beautiful, strong husband.

  The raider shook her. “Silence woman.”

  Nathan pointed his sword at her attacker. “Harm her and I promise you’ll be dead before you hit the dirt.”

  The raider slackened his hold on her and shifted in place.

  “Alexandra,” Nathan soothed. “Leave me to deal with Judas. Can you do that?” Though his eyes were red-rimmed from lack of sleep and he still had a knife sticking out of his shoulder, her warrior husband exuded confidence and ability.

  She nodded.

  “Throw down your weapons,” Judas repeated.

  Nathan pulled the bloody blade out of his arm as casually as removing a loose hair and tossed it at Judas’ feet. His sword and knife followed. “Do as he says, Kadar.”

  The big man snarled, but surrendered his arms to a smiling raider.

  Judas walked over to Alexandra. His dry, rough hand clamped onto her wrist. He narrowed his eyes at Nathan “You should have joined us, olive farmer. We could have the Romans on the run by now.”

  “I’d sooner lick Julius Caesar’s feet,” Nathan said.

  Judas crowed. “You are an amusing fellow, Nathan.”

  Lex ground her teeth and clenched her fists. The fingers of her right hand curled tighter around smooth steel. Her breath caught. She still had the knife. She’d forgotten all about it in the confusion. She pressed the blade deeper into the folds of her skirt.

  Judas’s smile faded. He snapped his fingers. Over a dozen raiders surrounded Kadar and Nathan. Judas yanked her up against his side. His hot breath spilled down her neck. “As you take your last breath, olive farmer, know that I will be taking my new wife to bed.” She struggled against him.

  Nathan’s eyes flashed like lightening. “You devil,” he roared, plowing through the man directly in front of him while Kadar knocked down the men to either side of him.

  Lex drew her arm back. Using all her strength, she drove the knife into Judas’ belly. The blade sliced through cloth and flesh more easily than she would have supposed. Wet warmth oozed over her knuckles.

  Judas sucked in his gut and doubled over, ripping the dagger from her hand.

  Nathan knocked the rebel leader over and pulled her to his chest. Before she had time to hug him back, he turned her around and gave her a firm shove. “Go watch over the others.”

  The smell of blood following her, she ran back to Lydia, James, Mary, and Elizabeth. Spinning around, she pushed her hair out of her face.

  Judas gained his feet and slashed at Nathan with his knife. Kadar tossed a sword to Nathan. He caught it, swung it in a wide arc, and struck Judas. The outlaw’s guts spilled out and he fell over dead.

  Lydia collapsed. Alexandra hurried to her side, knelt and held her sisters hand, and stroked her hair.

  Outraged raiders swarmed Nathan. Alexandra’s heart slammed against her chest. It was all she could do not to run to him.

  Blades flashed and metal clanged. Nathan’s sword appeared and disappeared again and again. Kadar slashed his way toward Nathan. Meeting in the middle, the two warriors fought back to back. Cast in the orange glow from the firelight, they shone like avenging spirits sent from the throne of God.

  Nathan moved with ease and grace, belying the bloody nature of his work. Though he’d insisted he was a natural-born warrior, Alexandra hadn’t believed it because he was ashamed of it. But he’d never looked more magnificent.

  Men screamed and dropped dead until finally the remaining bandits fell back. Nathan’s eyes flicked toward her.

  She put her hand to her constricted throat. “We’re safe,” she said, and heard a crazed cry. A handful of raiders charged past Nathan. Hate-filled faces closed in on her. She moaned and leaned over Lydia, covering her sister’s back.

  She caught glimpses of Nathan behind the sea of grimy tunics rushing toward her. Nathan raised his sword over his head and chopped down. Blood spurted from the mouth of a raider, and the man went down. Sword gone, Nathan unsheathed his knife, grabbed the next raider around the chest, slit the man’s throat. Eye blazing and mouth hard, Nathan charged ahead—the angel of death in all his wrathful glory.

  The raiders closed on her and she braced for the worst and focused on Nathan, wanting his face to be the last thing she saw in this life.

  Nathan dove headfirst, upending one of the men.

  Then a loud roar sounded, and the big raider named Bear came out of nowhere and cut down two of his fellow outlaws. Lex hadn’t recovered from her shock when Kadar came leaping over a dead body. The giant puffed out his chest and stood between Nathan and a pair raiders regaining their feet. The men looked Kadar up and down, shook their heads, and turned and fled.

  Lex sat up.

  Nathan and the last raider wrestled in the dirt, rolling over and over. They came to a stop at her knees, kicking and spraying dirt.

  Molars grinding over grit, she fisted her hands in the raider’s coarse tunic and tugged and tugged. Her effort allowed the man room to work his knife free from his belt. She cried out in dismay and let go of his tunic.

  Before she could go after the knife, Nathan flipped the man to his belly, locked his arm around the man’s head and pulled back. The raider’s neck broke with a loud snap, and Nathan released his hold and rolled to his feet.

  The dead man’s face hit the ground with a thud and lay canted grotesquely to one side. Lex’s stomach pitched and she twisted away and vomited. Sickened by the thick smell of blood and her own rank fear, she heaved and gagged long after her belly was empty. Weary to the bone and shaking, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve and looked up.

  Nathan’s hands were braced on his knees. He was heaving for breath and watching her out of dark and haunted eyes. She ached for him. He hated his past. Hated that he had killed his fellow Israelites. Hated the name angel of death. And now more blood stained his hands—blood belonging to his neighbors and men he’d called friends.

  Lex exhaled and rose on shaky legs. She stepped toward Nathan, needing and wanting the closeness of him.

  He stopped her with an upraised hand.

  “Nathan?” she whispered.

  “Go take care of James and Mary.”

  His cold voice broke her heart.

  CHAPTER 28

  Nathan walked about the decimated rebel camp in a daze. Although he was the one who had ordered the surviving raiders to move the dead into the cave, he still felt it was a better burial than they deserved. Mark the Younger’s lifeless eyes stared up at him. They used to be fairly good friends. Now Mark’s head was canted at an unnatural angle because Nathan had snapped his neck, a vicious act Lex had witnessed close up. One that had sickened her.

  He couldn’t glance her way without remembering the lo
ok of revulsion that had crossed her face as she stared up at him after he’d killed Mark. Then she’d proceeded to vomit her stomach up. How was he supposed to meet her eyes again?

  Nathan moved to the edge of the camp and called Mary over.

  She rushed to him and hugged him. “I knew you would find a way to save us.”

  He patted her back. “I have a favor to ask of you, sweet lamb.”

  “I’ll do anything. I’m so glad you are here.” His sister hugged him again.

  “Alexandra will want to wash before we leave.” Judas the Zealot’s blood stained his wife’s hands. Some of the blood might be her own, from having been dragged over the ground by the mad man. Her lip was split. Bruises circled her neck. The injuries made Nathan want to kill the crazed man all over again.

  He uncurled his fisted fingers and squeezed Mary’s shoulder. “Could you find some water and a rag and take them to Alexandra?”

  The raider named Bear approached. Unusually somber, the bushy-bearded man pulled on his collar and cleared his throat. “Nathan. May I ask after your father?”

  The blood drained from Nathan’s head.

  Mary burst into tears. “Father is dead, isn’t he?” She buried her face in his chest.

  Nathan’s anger boiled to the surface.

  Bear looked completely shaken.

  Nathan saw Lex hurrying toward them. He squeezed his eyes closed.

  His wife arrived breathless. “What’s the matter, dear?”

  Nathan felt Lex’s eyes on him. He looked at the boulder beyond her. “My father never woke up. I buried—” his voice broke.

  Mary’s sobs turned violent.

  Lex’s hand settled on his arm. “I’m so sorry,”

  Another blast of fury surged through him. “Mary needs you,” he said through gritted teeth. Not wanting his hate to sully Lex anymore than it already had, he left Mary to her care and walked away, taking Bear with him. They joined the others in moving the last of the dead bodies into the cave.

  ***

  They left the rebel camp behind and walked through the rain and the dark for an hour before stopping for the night. Alexandra couldn’t remember ever feeling so tired. Nathan volunteered to take the first watch. She offered to join him, but he walked away without acknowledging her. Shivering under a thin blanket, she fought to stay awake, but sleep quickly claimed her. Rising at dawn to cloudy skies, they pushed on. The trip home ought to have held a measure of joy, but the news of Joseph’s death and the blood and violence behind them had left everyone quiet and subdued. Early afternoon found them resting beside a brook.