Warring Desires (The Herod Chronicles Book 3)

by Wanda Ann Thomas

  Gabriel took the sword from Leonidas and passed it to Herod.

  “Kneel, traitor,” Herod ordered.

  “I lied about Joseph,” Rahm cried. “I never saw Joseph. I spied for Hasmond, but—”

  Herod cracked the hilt of the sword against Rahm’s temple. “Kneel, or I’ll gut you.”

  Reeling and whimpering, Rahm dropped to his knees and shot her a pleading look. “Shoshana, convince Herod and Gabriel to give me a second chance. I was going to divorce you. I truly was.”

  Shoshana pressed her knuckles to her mouth. Rahm might be telling the truth or he might be lying. She doubted he knew where the truth ended and the lies began.

  “Don’t listen to him,” Gabriel said.

  Rahm glared at Gabriel. “I know who took the scarlet cloth from your door!”

  Shoshana gasped. Gabriel had shared his anguish over the red flag that went missing during the Parthian invasion of Jerusalem, leading to Talitha’s tragic death.

  Gabriel flinched. “What?”

  The sword arched upward. “Wait,” Gabriel called, putting his hand on Herod’s shoulder. “Let him speak.”

  A maniacal laugh spilled from Rahm. “Simeon Onias paid a slave to take the red flag.”

  “Simeon Onias,” Gabriel repeated, pale-faced.

  Heart aching for Gabriel, Shoshana stepped forward and took his hand. “It could be more lies.”

  “It’s true,” Rahm said spittle flying. “And Simeon is going to do it again. Your whole family is going to be slaughtered. Simeon promised a small fortune to a handful of rogue Roman soldiers who will use the chaos of battle to do Simeon’s dirty work.”

  “I won’t allow that to happen,” Herod promised with eerie calm.

  A mountain of rigid muscles, Gabriel glared at Rahm.

  Herod shook off Gabriel. “Move back, Gabriel.”

  Leonidas interceded. “You and I will reach Mother and Elizabeth and Helen first. We will protect them with our lives.”

  “Save me and I will lead you to the rogue soldiers,” Rahm promised.

  Shoshana squeezed Gabriel’s hand. “Rahm will say anything to save his life.”

  A long moment passed, then Gabriel exhaled a heavy breath and ran his thumb over her knuckles. “At least this time I know what I’m up against.”

  His cause lost with Gabriel, Rahm held his hands out toward her grandfather. “Noach, speak for me. One word!”

  Her grandfather put his arm around Jacob’s slim shoulder, gave Rahm a final sad look, then turned his back.

  “Shoshana...Noach!” Rahm cried.

  If there was any justice, it was that Rahm was dying as John the Beggar. The smug boastful man that was Rahm was nowhere to be seen.

  Gabriel led her to her grandfather and Jacob. Arms wrapped around each other, the three adults formed a circle around Jacob.

  “Spare me,” Rahm begged, blubbering like a baby.

  She squeezed her eyes shut.

  A moment later Rahm’s pleas ceased and the sickly sweet smell of blood filled the air.

  She peered over the top Gabriel’s arm. Blood trickled across the floor in muddy rivulets. A soft breeze blew through the shop, lifting the thin strands of hair covering Rahm’s decapitated head. His mouth was twisted in a grimace.

  Gabriel squeezed her hand. “He got what he deserved.”

  “I know,” she whispered.

  Herod wiped the sword clean on his tunic and handed the sword back to Leonidas, who was ashen-faced. “Put his head on a pike and place it in the middle of the camp.”

  Shoshana heard that Joseph’s body had been desecrated in a similar manner. A fitting end for Rahm, as he always aspired to fame and to have his name spoken among the elite.

  Tunic splattered with blood, Herod paused in the doorway. “Take your brave-hearted woman and her family to my tent until we find better accommodations for them.”

  Herod’s words registered past her shock.

  Rahm was dead. She was free to marry again.

  CHAPTER 36

  The next evening Gabriel shepherded Jacob through the Roman camp abounding in leather, sweat, muscles, and male bravado, searching for men who might have accepted a bribe from Simeon Onias to do harm to Gabriel’s family.

  The allegation might just be another one of Rahm’s lies, but Gabriel couldn’t risk it. The hunt through the two Roman legions amassed alongside Herod’s army had proved fruitless so far, but it provided an opportunity to develop a closer bond with Jacob.

  They passed under the shadows of the quiet war engines and siege towers. The setting sun cast a golden gleam over the maze of wood, metal and rope. The Roman soldiers standing guard inspected Gabriel and Jacob, but quickly lost interest and returned to grumbling about the food and heat.

  Jacob gazed upward, his face somber. “Isaac will be jealous when he hears of the wonders I’ve seen.”

  “I am anxious to reunite with my brother Andrew,” Gabriel said.

  “If he smiles and laughs like Leonidas, I am sure to like him.”

  Gabriel didn’t take offense at Jacob’s continued coolness toward him, remembering the difficulty and confusion of being trapped between boyhood and manhood. “Your aunt’s marriage to me will mean more work for you and your family,” Gabriel said, worried how the Ehuds would get along without Shoshana.

  Jacob’s lips pinched. “I will work hardest of everyone. I’m going to take good care of my family.”

  “You handle the mules expertly and kindly.”

  “Will you allow Aunt Shosha to come to Samaria and visit us?”

  The prospect of marrying Shoshana was a dazzling ray of sunshine amid the worry for Helen and Elizabeth and the rest of his family. “What do you think your aunt would do if I tried to keep her away from you and Samaria?”

  Jacob grinned. “She would go find her wooden club.”

  Gabriel smiled at the image, then put his hand on Jacob’s thin shoulder. “I will be a good husband to your aunt. I promise to love and care for her and your family as I do my own family.”

  “I was foolish to believe Rahm’s lies.”

  Gabriel felt no remorse over Rahm’s death. He had been conscienceless, selfish and greedy, and he would have gone on tormenting the Ehuds and shamelessly hurting and using those Gabriel loved. “You are not a fool. You made a mistake.”

  Jacob hung his head. “You would never betray your family.”

  “I’ve made other mistakes.” Gabriel touched his hand to the handle of his sword, the curves and smooth finish as familiar as the soft curls on Helen’s head. When the army surrounding Jerusalem invaded the city a short time from now, he wouldn’t be sitting inside his home whispering hollow assurances while sick to his stomach with fright. Not this time. Now he had the training to defend his family with his sword and his very life.

  “You don’t hold your sword like a girl anymore,” Jacob said amiably.

  Gabriel welcomed the change. “Mules obey me most of the time too.”

  Jacob walked to a pile of boulders next to the catapult. “Who lifts those? The look heavy as—”

  Shouts of alarm erupted. Gabriel swung around, searching for the danger. Flaming arrows whizzed overhead. Most fell short of the war engines, but two struck home, burying in the forward siege tower and catapult. The wood burst into flames.

  Gabriel captured Jacob’s arm and pulled him back while Roman soldiers rushed to put out the flames. The Jewish fighters lining the top of the wall that had guarded Jerusalem since the days of Ezra and Nehemiah watched with satisfaction.

  “Why did the Romans push the war engines so close to the wall?” Jacob asked.

  Gabriel couldn’t help but admire the tenacity and ingenuity of his countrymen. “It’s been a week since High Priest Hasmond’s men have fired arrows. Hasmond’s fighters must have contrived to make more arrows. And ones that flew true, too.”

  A burly Roman soldier rumbled by, shaking his fist at the fighters on the wall. “By Jupiter’s eyes, I will rape your
daughters and kill your sons while you watch.” Snarling like dogs, the rest of the Romans heaped insults and shouted threats at Hasmond’s men.

  Jacob crowded close to Gabriel. “Why are they so angry?”

  “The men are very frustrated,” Gabriel said, uneasy about what kinds of revenge the Romans would exact when they finally breached Jerusalem. A stab of fear struck at the added jeopardy a legion of enraged Roman soldiers posed to his family.

  CHAPTER 37

  Early the following day Gabriel, Leonidas, and eighteen other hand chosen soldiers crouched under their shields a short distance from Jerusalem’s towering outer wall. Like the giants of mythical stories, long-armed catapults guarded their backs. Gabriel prayed Herod’s bold new tactic to breach the city walls meant he would soon be reunited with his family.

  A volley of boulders flew overhead and crashed into the wall. The reverberations shuddered through the soles of Gabriel’s sandals and up his legs.

  “For the Lord!” Herod shouted.

  Gabriel and Leonidas hefted a long ladder and sprinted for the base of the wall. They threw the ladder against the wall and climbed. The ladder bowed as Jal leaped on a lower rung.

  More ladders slapped against stone. Men raced upward.

  Shouts came from the other side of the wall. A sword slashed past Gabriel’s face, narrowly missing his head. He peered up at a grizzled face and determined eyes. The man pulled his sword back, preparing to strike again.

  Gabriel raced up two more rungs, feinted left, and flattened his body against the cold stones, forcing the grizzled man to deliver the next blow at an awkward angle. The blade clanged into the wall a hairbreadth from Gabriel’s nose, spraying chips of stone. Sword arm coiled, and hoping the ladder wouldn’t give way, Gabriel surged up and hacked at the grizzled man’s exposed neck. A shower of hot blood rained down.

  Gabriel wiped his sleeve across his face.

  “Go, go!” Leonidas urged, shoving Gabriel’s backside.

  Thighs quivering, Gabriel scrambled over the top of the wall and dropped onto the stone walkway uncontested. More of Herod’s chosen men breached the wall. An enemy fighter wearing a look of surprise on his face charged at them and Gabriel struck him down. Leonidas and Jal joined Gabriel.

  Swords whooshed through the air and clashed. Gabriel’s sword ran red with blood. Nine months ago he’d been serving in the Temple, shedding the blood of sacrificial animals. Yet here he was slaughtering his brethren inside the walls of Jerusalem. A blade nicked his sleeve. Don’t think Gabriel. Fight and kill. Fight and kill. For Helen, for Elizabeth, for Mother and Father.

  Hobnobbed sandals pounded over stone behind them, proof the wave of elite Roman troops assigned to follow them had successfully scaled the wall while Gabriel, Leonidas, and Jal worked together to beat back Hasmond’s fighters.

  Overwhelmed, the enemy dissolved in disarray. Gabriel and Leonidas and Jal ran down a flight of stairs. Hitting the bottom step, they sprinted through the abandoned Upper Market.

  “To the gate,” Jal said, veering left toward the Fish Gate.

  It took all of Gabriel’s self-discipline to follow Jar instead of turning south to his parents’ house. But opening the gates to Herod’s army was vital to bringing the war to an end.

  Ten men guarded the tall stone and wood gates. Sword held at the ready, Gabriel took the point and attacked, driving back the Captain of the Guard. Leonidas and Jal threw themselves into the fray.

  A roaring cheer came from the northeast corner of the city. Gabriel guessed the Sheep Gate had fallen, and was proved correct a few moments later when a tide of red-clad Roman soldiers flooded the fish market and joined them in overwhelming the men guarding the Fish Gate. Bloodied bodies were dragged away and axes hacked at heavy chains.

  The task of breaching the reinforced gates well in hand, Gabriel yanked on Leonidas’s sleeve and sprinted south. The urge to reach his family burned like fire through his veins.

  With Leonidas glued to his side, Gabriel raced past the Temple complex. Hasmond’s fighters were making a valiant final stand.

  The choking smell of smoke filled the air. Screams and death cries rang from the section of the Upper City under siege by the Romans. The frustrated Romans were wreaking revenge despite Herod’s repeated pleas to the Roman commanders, begging them to control their men. Lord have mercy on their souls, Gabriel prayed, heartsick.

  He and Leonidas turned down a narrow lane and a half-naked maiden bolted from a basket weaver’s shop. A grizzled Roman soldier caught her around the waist and dragged her kicking and shrieking back inside.

  Haunted by the echoes of the Parthian invasion and Talitha’s death and Helen’s terrible fright, Gabriel charged into the shop, with Leonidas close on his heels.

  “Leave us!” The Roman cavalrymen growled, lifting an axe. The young maiden sobbed and quivered in a corner.

  Gabriel’s heart beat double time and his mind swirled with images of Roman soldiers bent on revenge swarming through his father’s house. He didn’t have time to talk the man out of rape and murder. Gabriel hefted his sword. “Walk away or you’ll force us to kill you.”

  The cavalryman laughed. “It’ll take more than a pair of rich priests to bring me down.”

  Leonidas lowered his head and charged at the cavalryman, bellowing a war cry. Stunned, the cavalryman swung and missed. Leonidas rammed his shoulder into the man’s midsection, flattening him.

  Gabriel rushed forward. Leonidas rolled to the side, and Gabriel slashed down with the sword, burying the blade in the man’s neck. Blood gushed in all directions.

  He yanked his sword free and held his hand out to Leonidas. “Let’s go.”

  Leonidas jumped to his feet.

  Although regretful he didn’t have time to comfort the frightened maiden, Gabriel beckoned to Leonidas and they rushed out the door.

  The siege was fully underway when they descended the road to the Lower Market and found a handful of Roman soldiers rummaging through the deserted stalls.

  Gabriel’s ears roared. Let my family be safe. Let my family be safe.

  They swung down a side street, ran past shuttered homes, and turned the last corner.

  Leonidas pointed at their parents’ house. “The red flag. I see a red flag on the door.”

  A red strip of cloth fluttered from the bronze door knocker, and his father’s house and other nearby homes remained unmolested. No Roman soldiers were in sight.

  “Thank the Lord. Thank the Lord,” Gabriel repeated, not slowing. He hit the stairs of his parent’s home, bounded onto the porch, and rapped on the door, “Father! Mother!”

  Leonidas arrived on Gabriel’s heels and banged the pomegranate-shaped knocker against the dark wood door. “Your sons have returned. Let us in.”

  “They have to be here,” Gabriel said, gasping for breath.

  “Maybe they went to Cousin Simeon’s house, or your house.”

  “No. They wouldn’t—”

  The door cracked open and their father peeked out. “Gabriel? Leonidas?”

  “It’s us, Father,” Leonidas said, a grin splitting his face.

  “Elizabeth, get your mother,” their father shouted over his shoulder, throwing the door open. Hair completely gray and aged ten years, he paused and peered at Gabriel with uncertainty.

  Filled with regret over his hash judgment and bitter words where his father was concerned, Gabriel said, “I can’t tell you how good it is to return home.” And kissed his father on both cheeks.

  His father collapsed sobbing against Gabriel’s breast. “Son, you’ve made a foolish, weak man happy beyond words,”

  Gabriel patted back and shoulders that seemed far frailer than they had been. “How are you and mother and Hel—”

  “Mother,” Leonidas called jubilant, his unruly hair sticking out in all directions from his helmet. He grasped their mother’s hand and gave her a smacking kiss. “Did you miss me?”

  Complexion a healthy pink, she chuckled. “The house has
been too quiet.”

  Gabriel smiled and kissed her other cheek. “I returned Leonidas to you whole and healthy, Mother. But I’m afraid he’s twice the adventurer he was.”

  Then Elizabeth and Helen appeared in the doorway, holding hands.

  Gabriel’s heart jumped with joy. Helen’s rosebud lips quivered and she hid behind Elizabeth.

  “Your weapons and leather armor,” Elizabeth said, compassion filling her eyes. “Soldiers still frighten her.”

  Gabriel glanced at the bloodstained sword gripped in his hand. Mother of mercy. He wanted to scrub his bloody hands clean, strip off the black leather cuirass bulging his chest, and toss away the heavy knife hanging at his side, but he wouldn’t disarm until he was sure his family was out of danger.

  He handed his sword to Leonidas, peeled his leather helmet from his head, raked his hands through his sweaty hair, then he knelt and held out his hand. “Helen, it is Daddy.”

  Turning shy, Helen looked up at Elizabeth, then back at him. “Can I have a hug?”

  “Come here, my beautiful angel,” Gabriel said, eyes moistening. The long months since he held Helen felt like a lifetime.

  Helen ran to him and threw her chubby arms around his neck. “Don’t go away ever again, Daddy.”

  Guilt and love swamping in, he pressed his mouth to her soft curls. “Daddy is home to stay.” The fall of Jerusalem marked the end of his days as a soldier.

  “We’ve got company,” Leonidas announced.

  Muscles tightening, Gabriel scooped up Helen. One hundred soldiers bristling with weapons trotted up the empty road. He passed Helen to Elizabeth. “Take her inside.”

  Elizabeth’s courage didn’t falter. “Andrew was at the Temple when the battle started.”

  Gabriel squeezed her hand. “I’ll go check on him when I know all is well here.”

  His mother and Helen’s questioning voices faded as Elizabeth led them back into the house.

  The company of soldiers fanned out and banged on the doors of the neighboring grand homes. Jal, accompanied by six Idumeans, marched up to his father’s porch.