“Jericho commands the plain here, that I can see.”
“Jericho commands the entire region. He who holds Jericho holds all of Canaan,” he said. “That is why we must take the city. That is why you must help us.”
“We are only two dozen men.”
“Two dozen Hittite soldiers,” Joshua said. “The same Hittites who razed Ugarit. Soldiers who are expert at siege warfare.”
“But with so few…”
Joshua’s eyes blazed at me. “You have been sent by God to help us. To refuse would mean refusing the God of Israel. That would be an extremely unwise thing to do.”
I smiled back at him. “It would be impolite of me to refuse your request, after the hospitality you have shown us.”
“You will help us, then?” Despite himself, he leaned forward eagerly.
“My men and I will do what we can,” I said, realizing that I was dealing with a fanatic and there was no way out.
They all smiled and nodded their heads and murmured about the will of God.
But I added, “Once Jericho falls, we will be on our way to Egypt.”
“Egypt!” The word went around the table as if it were a blasphemy.
“Egypt is our destination,” I said calmly. “We will help you in your siege of Jericho, and then go on our way to that land.”
Joshua smiled thinly. “After Jericho falls, you can go to Egypt or anywhere else you choose.” He made it sound as if he were saying, You can go to hell, for all I care.
Chapter 28
“THIS is madness,” Lukka said.
We stood in the rising heat of morning, at the edge of the Israelite camp, studying the triple walls of Jericho. At sunrise we had ridden completely around the besieged city, as close as a bowshot. The walls were enormous, much higher than Troy’s and undoubtedly much thicker. To make things worse, a deep trench had been carved out of the bedrock in front of the main length of the wall. A drawbridge crossed it, although the bridge was pulled up tight against the city gate now. The trench was partially filled with garbage and debris, but still it was steep-walled and an obstacle that looked all but impassable.
“We’ll never be able to get siege towers against those walls,” Lukka told me. I reluctantly agreed with him. Jericho stood atop a low hill, its main wall slanting from the bedrock floor of the valley plain up along the crest of the hill. Where the wall was set at the floor of the plain, the trench protected it. Where it wound up along the crest, smaller retaining walls stood before it, making a triple set of barriers. The hillside itself was too steep to roll siege towers up its sides, and the walls were studded with strong round towers from which archers and slingers could pelt an attacker with arrows and stones.
“No wonder Joshua needs help,” I grumbled.
Lukka squinted against the sun glare. “The people of Jericho have had a hundred generations to perfect their defenses. No wandering band of nomads is going to bring those walls down.”
I grinned at him. “That’s why Joshua so kindly invited us to stay with him — until those walls do come down.”
“We will be here a long time, then.”
Through the morning we rode the circuit of the walls several times, looking for a weakness that simply was not there. The only thing I noticed was that some sections of the walls seemed older than others, their bricks grayer and less evenly aligned.
“Earthquakes,” said Lukka. “The walls are made of mud bricks. Once they dry they become as hard as stone. But an earthquake can tumble them.”
An earthquake. The glimmer of an idea stirred in the back of my mind.
Lukka was pointing. “See how the wall is built in sections, with timbers dividing one section from the next? That way, even when an earthquake damages one section of the wall, the rest can remain standing.”
I nodded, but my mind was elsewhere.
That night, as we lay down together in my tent, Helen asked, “How long will we have to stay among these awful people?”
“Until they take the city,” I answered.
“But they may never…”
I silenced her with a kiss. We made love, and she drifted to sleep.
I closed my eyes too, and willed myself to that other realm where the so-called gods played their games with destiny. Concentrating every particle of my being, I crossed the gulf of space-time that divided my world from theirs.
Once again I stood in that golden aura. But I could see their city through the shining mist, its towers and spires seemed clearer to me than ever before.
“Ahriman,” I called, with my mind as well as my voice. “Ahriman, my one-time enemy, where are you?”
“Not here, creature.”
I turned and saw the haughty one I thought of as Hera. She wore a golden gown that left one shoulder bare, gathered at her waist by a chain of glittering jewels. Her dark hair hung in ringlets, her dark eyes probed me. With a smile that seemed almost menacing, she said: “At least you are dressed better than the last time we met.”
I made a slight bow. My makeshift uniform of tunic and leather vest was somewhat better than the rags I had worn at Ilium.
“Are you here to draw more of my blood?” I asked.
Her smile widened slightly. “Not really. Perhaps I can save the blood that’s still in your body. Our golden Apollo has gone quite mad, you know.”
“He no longer calls himself Apollo.”
She shrugged. “Names are not important here. I speak only so that your pitifully limited mind can understand.”
“I am grateful for such kindness,” I said. “The Golden One has found a tribe that worships him as their only god.”
“Yes. And he seeks to eliminate the rest of us. And,” she added, with an arch of her brows, “he is using you to help him.”
I stood silently, digesting this news.
“Isn’t he?” she demanded.
“I am helping the Israelites to conquer Jericho,” I admitted. “Or, at least, I’m trying to…”
“That’s part of his plan, I’m sure of it!”
“But I didn’t know he is attempting to…” I recalled the word she had used, “…to eliminate you.”
“You know now!”
“Does that mean he wants to kill you?”
She almost snarled at me. “He would if he could. But he’ll never get that chance. We’ll crush him — and you, too, if you continue to aid him in any way.”
“But…”
Leveling an accusing finger at me, she warned, “There is no neutral ground, Orion. Either you cease your aid to him or you are our enemy. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” I said.
“Then consider carefully the consequences of your actions.”
“The one they call Athene,” I said. “He promised me that…”
“His promises cannot be trusted. You know that.”
“I want to revive her, to bring her back to life,” I said.
“And he’s offered you her life in exchange for your obedience.” Hera shook her head angrily. “Leave your dead goddess to us, Orion. She is one of us, and not for the likes of you.”
“Can she be revived?”
“That’s not…”
“Can she be revived?” I shouted.
Her eyes widened, whether with anger or fear or something else, I could not tell. She took a deep breath, then replied calmly, evenly, “Such a thing is — possible. Just barely within the realm of possibility. But it’s not for you to even dream of!”
“I do dream of it, I dream of nothing else.”
“Orion, you poor worm, even if she could be revived, she would have nothing more to do with you. She is one of us, so far beyond you that…”