Vorenus sheathed his gladius. That answered one question, at least. Kush was the kingdom south of Egypt, the land just beyond the cataracts. With so many of the Roman legions away in Arabia, this would be the perfect time for them to come down the Nile and make an assault on Egypt’s riches. He reached down to lift the heavy wooden beam that would bar the door.
Madhukar’s hand fell upon his shoulder. “No, my friend. We must leave. They will burn the town.”
Vorenus froze. “Burn it?”
The Therapeutan nodded vigorously. “It is their way. We have boats on the other side of the island. We’ll sail for the western shore.”
Pullo had come up, having barred the other doors. “Boats?”
“Yes. Enough for you all.”
Vorenus looked back toward the shrine, toward Hannah and the Ark. Where was Caesarion? “We can’t leave.”
“To stay is to burn,” Madhukar implored.
“But we can’t leave it,” Vorenus said, but even as he spoke he found himself looking between them. It was a foolish thought he was having. They were three older men. She was one very young and very pregnant girl. But Pullo, even crippled as he was, might well be stronger than any other two men on the island. And his own bones … maybe he had enough in him for one last push.
“Can’t leave what?” Madhukar asked, but already Vorenus was running back to the shrine. Pullo was running after him, and when Vorenus glanced back he saw that the big man seemed to have guessed his plan. He was beaming through the scars on his tattered face when he caught the eye of Vorenus. “We’ve done crazier things.” He laughed.
The plans to leave Elephantine had been set in motion earlier in the night, so it hadn’t taken Hannah long to put the last of her things into a sack that was already filled with books and clothes. She turned when Vorenus burst in, and she didn’t need to speak the question that was so clearly written on her face.
Vorenus shook his head. “He’s not back yet.”
Her face fell with despair. “How are we going to—”
“My God,” Madhukar whispered as he came up behind them.
Vorenus didn’t look back. “Pretty much.”
“Is that—?”
“The Ark of the Covenant,” Pullo said, pushing his way past them all and hulking into the shrine. The space seemed at once smaller for his presence.
“I didn’t know,” the monk said. “I’d heard the stories in your books, but I didn’t—”
“Now you do,” Vorenus said, and he hurried forward to join Pullo in retrieving the Ark’s smooth carrying poles from their places at the side of the room. They began to thread them carefully through the metal rings affixed to its sides.
Madhukar just stared. “What are you doing with it?”
“They’re going to try to move it,” Hannah said, the disbelief clear in her voice.
Vorenus got his pole situated, stared at the beauty of the Ark for a heartbeat, and then fetched a heavy canvas sheet that he threw over the top of it. “That’s right,” he said. “And we need you to help.”
“Us?” Madhukar sounded incredulous.
From the other side of the Ark, Pullo spread his big arms, taking a wide grip on the pole there. Vorenus took a position at the back of his own side. “Just you, Madhukar,” he said. “My side. Let’s start with a few steps.”
“You’re mad,” Hannah whispered.
Maybe, Vorenus thought with a shrug. “Hurry, my friend. To stay is to burn, remember?”
The Therapeutan hurried forward, looked between the two former legionnaires, and then took position where Vorenus pointed. “Only a few steps at first. We don’t have to get it far. Just outside. Then onto a cart. Then the boats. Then safety.”
Hannah was right. It was, as he heard himself say it, utter madness. But he simply didn’t know what else to do. They couldn’t leave the Ark, and he was certain that the old monk was right. If they stayed, they died. As good as he and Pullo were, they surely couldn’t hold off a Nubian army forever.
“On the count of three,” Pullo said. “One. Two. Three.”
The men strained, and the Ark lifted high enough that they were able to shuffle it forward a few feet before Madhukar had to set his end down. “I just need to change my grip,” he said.
Vorenus adjusted his own, smiling over at Pullo, a man who never ceased to amaze him. Then, when Madhukar was ready, they lifted it and went a little farther, getting it just past the low, broken wall between the two chambers of the shrine.
“Good,” Vorenus said when they paused for breath. He glanced up to say something to Hannah, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“On three again,” Pullo said. The scars on his face were hot with blood.
Again they lifted together, and this time they made it to the door. Just as they set it down there, Hannah appeared in the frame. She was panting, her face flushed, and she was holding her belly protectively, but she was smiling. “A cart,” she said. “I found a cart.”
She had indeed. They could see it in the courtyard, a four-wheeled wagon littered with hay, sitting perhaps halfway between the doorway and the altar. It was a battered, rough-looking thing, but it appeared big enough to hold the Ark. “There we go,” Vorenus said. “We’re going to make it.”
That he could smell smoke in the air, that he could hear distant screams, he didn’t say.
Foot by foot, grunt by grunt, they stepped the Ark out of the doorway and into the open air. Minutes passed, but they brought it up behind the cart, lining it up as best they could before they set it down. Madhukar was panting, and he’d begun to say little prayers beneath his breath, though Vorenus did not understand them.
The sounds of battle were pressing close.
Up to now they had only lifted the Ark a few inches from the ground while shuffling alongside it. Standing beside the cart, Vorenus could see that the bottom of it was easily as high as his aching hip.
A horrific scream echoed up from the Khnum temple, and they all instinctively looked in that direction. It was, as they listened, just one scream of many in the town. And when Vorenus saw how the sky was growing brighter he didn’t know if it was the rising sun or the burning of homes, of goods, of people. He swallowed hard, tasting the acrid smoke, and forced himself to look away, back to the Ark. There was no other choice, was there?
Pullo, he saw, was smiling at him as they once had in battle. “Just one more lift,” he said.
Vorenus nodded. Madhukar took his position, and with a heave they raised it a foot, then nearly to Vorenus’ knees, before Pullo groaned and they began to lower it. The Ark came to the ground and the big man let out his breath in a sob. “I can’t.” When their eyes met, Vorenus could see his eyes were red, and he was freely weeping. “Maybe once … I’m not what I was. I’m sorry, Vorenus. Gods, I’m sorry. I can’t do it alone.”
“Then not alone,” Hannah said. She pushed herself up beside him, gripping the pole tight.
“Hannah,” Vorenus said, “You shouldn’t—”
In reply she took one hand and pulled free the necklace she had around her neck. The emblem upon it was the same that was upon the side of the Ark. All the keepers had one. “My family won’t fail. Not while I live,” she said.
The door of the temple that faced the Khnum temple shook as someone tried to open it. There were angry shouts coming over the wall in a language that Vorenus did not know. It was now or never. “On three,” he said.
Pullo repositioned himself, and Madhukar, even gasping for air as he was, counted them down.
They lifted as one, and they were just inches away from getting the bottom edge of the Ark up and over the lip of the cart, when Hannah screamed in pain.
“Back down!” Vorenus urged, and they were able to get the Ark back to the ground before Hannah had to let go of it. She gasped, then doubled over, gripping her stomach in agony.