Christ the Lord - Anne Rice [88]
I came up behind the little figure who was swaying with the thump of the distant drums.
“Hannah!” I said.
She started. She turned around. She looked at me, and then her eyes moved in all directions, up to the birds in the tree branches above her, to the doves chortling on the tiled roof. She stared at the house, still so full of light and movement and noise, lovely insistent rhythmic noise.
“Hannah,” I said again and I smiled at her. I put my hand to my chest. “Yeshua,” I said. I opened my hand and pressed it to my heart. “Yeshua.”
I placed my hand gently on her throat.
She struggled, eyes wide, and then she whispered it:
“Yeshua!” She was pale with shock. “Yeshua!” she said hoarsely. Then loudly. “Yeshua.” Yeshua, Yeshua, Yeshua.
“Listen to me,” I said as I put my hand on her ear and then on my heart—the old gestures. “ ‘Hear O Israel,’ ” I said, “ ‘the Lord Our God is One.’ ”
She started to say it. I repeated it, this time with the gestures she'd seen us make for her as we prayed it every day. I repeated it once more and then the third time she spoke the words with me.
Hear O Israel. The Lord Our God is One.
I held her in my arms.
And then I turned to join the others.
And we started for the road.
ALSO BY ANNE RICE
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
Interview with the Vampire
The Feast of All Saints
Cry to Heaven
The Vampire Lestat
The Queen of the Damned
The Mummy
The Witching Hour
The Tale of the Body Thief
Lasher
Taltos
Memnoch the Devil
Servant of the Bones
Violin
Pandora
The Vampire Armand
Vittorio, The Vampire
Merrick
Blood and Gold
Blackwood Farm
Blood Canticle
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A . KNOPF
AND ALFRED A . KNOPF CANADA
Copyright © 2008 by Anne O'Brien Rice
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, a division of Random House of Canada, Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
www.randomhouse.ca
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Knopf Canada and colophon are trademarks.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rice, Anne, [date]
Christ the Lord : the road to Cana : a novel / by Anne Rice.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Jesus Christ—Fiction. 2. Bible. N.T.—History of Biblical events—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3568.1265C48 2005
813'.54—dc22 2005044077
Library and Archives Canada Cataloging in Publication
Rice, Anne, [date]
Christ the Lord : the road to Cana / Anne Rice.
1. Jesus Christ—Fiction. 2. Bible. N.T.—History of Biblical events—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3568.122C473 2008 813'.54 C2007-905100-6
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
eISBN: 978-0-307-26874-7
v3.0