The Bronze Bow - Elizabeth George Speare [68]
"Have you thought, Daniel, of taking Leah to Jesus?"
"Yes, I've thought of it. But I don't see how I could get her to Capernaum without frightening her to death. She asked once if Jesus would ever come to our village. But I don't suppose she would really have the courage."
"When he comes, if she will not go to him, then you must ask him to come to your house with you. He often goes with people, you know."
"To the centurion's house, or to some rich man's."
"Do you really think that would make the slightest difference to Jesus?"
"No. No, I guess it wouldn't. But somehow I wonder. It's the same as the lame man. It's not much of a world, is it? Is it worth trying to bring Leah back into it?"
Thacia stood still in the road. "Yes!" she cried, and Daniel was astounded to see that tears had sprung into her eyes. "Oh Daniel—yes! If only I could make you see, somehow, that it is!"
"All this—" she exclaimed, the sweep of her arm including the deepening blue of the sky, the shining lake in the distance, the snow-covered mountain far to the north. "So much! You must look at it all, Daniel, not just at the unhappy things." Suddenly she reached out and touched his hand. "Look!" she whispered.
He lifted his head and followed her gaze. Overhead, barely discernible against the blue of the sky, a long gray shadow hung suspended. Cranes, hundreds of them, were passing in a great phalanx. They wheeled and caught the sun, flashing light from banks of white feathers, with 3 shimmering like the snow on the mountain. Motionless, the two watched till the line slowly melted into the distant air.
Thacia let out her breath. "How beautiful!" She sighed. "It is beautiful just to be alive in Galilee!"
Daniel looked down at her. Her head was still thrown back, her lips parted. He could see the pulse beating under the smooth ivory skin, and somehow the line of her throat was one with the long slow arc of the birds in flight.
She was aware all at once of his look, and then that then hands were joined. Red surged up into the smooth cheeks, and she drew her hand away. For a moment neither of them moved, and then they both began to hurry, almost to run.
At the junction of the road they passed two more Roman sentries, but this time the men did not speak or even take notice of two dusty boys. For once Daniel felt almost grateful to a Roman. Tonight he could not have borne to watch Thacia shoulder a pack.
17
THIS TIME," the villagers said, as Daniel halted the blows of his hammer, "Rosh has gone too far."
"How do you know it was Rosh?" Daniel inquired, keeping his eyes on the ax he was mending.
"Is there any other man in Galilee who would dare such a thing? Five of the wealthiest houses in the city robbed last night! But how would he find out? That's what I can't see. How would he know, off there on the mountain, that Mattathias was giving a banquet? Or which men would have taken half their slaves to make a showing? None of the rest of us even knew the tetrarch was coming."
"Then how can you think it was Rosh?"
"I don't have to think. The legionaries found out. Rosh might have got away with it, if he'd been satisfied with the loot from the houses. But no, he had to make a night of it."
Daniel started. Was there more to the story that had not yet reached him? Hand on the bellows, he waited.
"They tried the house of the centurion himself. He might have known the centurion wouldn't leave his house unguarded. Most likely the cutthroats got careless when they found the other houses such easy picking. Two of them were captured—both escaped convicts anyway, they say. One died as soon as they started to question him, but the other told, before they finally made an end of him."
Which? Daniel wondered sickly. Which of the men he had lived with side by side in the cave?
"I say they deserved what they got. Nothing but a pack of thieves up there, for all the fine talk we used to hear."
Not for a moment could Daniel let