Exhaustion dug channels behind his eyes, revolted at the humiliating beating by the High Priest's servants. His mind reached
into the dark calm night of Passover to wake those aligned under the meek Nazarene's banner. As day woke the birds of Jerusalem
fear made him a coward, robbing him of speech. He could not defend the blameless man and had nothing left to offer the humbled
rebbe except his nearness and his shame. " It couldn't get worse" He thought after the silent man in the
dungeon was stripped, and tied to a whipping post. Until the prophet's youngest sister stood in the doorway, eyes wide with
horror. She flung herself in front of the weeping man.
" Princess? What are you doing here? "
Slowly
her senses returned. Ahava looked up, his hands shockingly hot in the clammy air. he was a part of her older brother's life
before this nightmare began. Sobbing, she clung to him while other soldiers laughed and talked casually in familiar territory.
Machba`nel attempted to pry her fingers loose. She struggled against him violently as he picked up and carried her back into
the maze of tunnels under the Praetoriam. She screamed the worst words she knew until his sobs thickened. She'd never heard
a man cry like that! His soul being twisted and tortured; pulled out of him, one lash, one cry of pain at a time.
" He wants us to
go to safety, Beloved. To get help, free him, bring him home? "
" Yes, of course. get help; bring him home! " Dazed and tiny.
Midway down the water dampened stone walk men's
voices came and went as the workday began in earnest for those troops that were taking over from their nighttime counterparts.
" Don't try
to make me hate you! I already do! I'll never surrender! "
Machba`nel paused, watching the sunshine a few cubit's away. Where could he take her? His mother's estate on the Italian peninsula?
Would Rome look for them there? Or even care? He lowered his head to the hair freed of the filthy cloak of disguise.
" I already have,
Beloved. To you. To Him. Were circumstances different, I'd have spent my whole life happily loving you. "
It was a
dismissal, a release she'd longed for moments ago-hours ago? But now it chilled to the division of marrow and bone, sinew
and soul!
" So this is how you repay my years of selfless devotion to you and your mother, Marcus? " There was a fierce rage
in the old soldier's voice. " Would you have me killed? Would you die as a traitor to Rome for harboring this fugitive
and her wretched brother? " Xavier demanded, discovering them. " Take the woman out to the campfires and release
her. "
Obedient to the sound of authority Machba`nel stood at attention. Some innate sense of fairness flickered, seeing his adopted
son's response.
" Are they done in there yet? " Xavier tried to sound bored. The sudden look of sadness and loss
that swept his face raised the old man's hand part way in sympathy, but they were committed to honor Pilate's command.
" They're
already done more harm than twelve lifetimes could redeem, Abba. " Machba`nel spoke it as a simple but profound
truth; as if relieved to shed all images and speak only as a man among other men.
Xavier turneed on his heel, expecting to
be obeyed but Machba`nel's voice stopped him; a cold hand squeezed against his struggling heart; a sense of his mortality
like a thunderbolt but he dared not show weakness. They would live on no matter what happened here today!
" No
Abba. I can't do that. "
Xavier stepped around, bis body rigid.
" Heed me! Drag him if you must, Pilate will see the man Jesus! "
" No, Abba. Not this
time. " He answered quietly, almost conversationally as he yielded up any life other than the better one the Master
spoke of with such authority.
" You'll do as I say! I've had enough! We both have a job to do. The sooner over the better! "
He warned, losing patience.
Machba`nel's hand reached instinctively for his dagger but he withdrew it. " Sir, I can not. I am in service to the true
King of Israel. Join us! All I know of right, honor, and justice I learned from you! "
Xavier turned on his heel and motioned
toward his Optimo.
" Take the prisoner to Pilate, and kill the traitor! "
" Sir! No sir! I won't! " The older man recoiled in horror and disgust.
" Then let the dead serve
the dead king of the Jews! " His father's hand gripped his shoulder, steadying him to allow the knife to probe
deeper, rising such pain that a scream came out of his mouth in the form of blood! Machba`nel's hands reached automatically,
seizing the hurting pain of the searing metal but the old man's shoulder knocked him backwards, striking stars and sparks
before his dazed eyes as his skull crackled on the hardened limestone. Rage kept hammering the blood int he old man's ears
as he thrust the knife a second time, twisting it as much as he could in the slickness of blood and intestinal fluid. But
the anger melted like snow at the shriek of agony as the younger man slid down the wettened wall., leaving a path wiped clean
of green scum! A strange mixture of violets and wild Scarlet lilies assailed Machba`nel's nostrils and he looked over the
old man's shoulder, wondering where such a lovely mixture arose? It was his long dead wife's favorite scent and he tried to
push his way past the stunned soldier. Perhaps she was just on the other side of the growing light t the end of the tunnel?
The light went out and he fell backwards under the growing weight of the screaming man. He heard the words but he couldn't
understand them.
Xavier wiped the blood from his gladius and tried to shake loose the tears clinging to his skin as if it were sweat.
He looked up, impaled by the gentle eyes that squinted between purpling bruises. There was neither defeat nor resignation
in jesus' eyes. Only an awareness that caused Xavier to pull away from the lifeless body.
" Death to all who would betray Rome!
Hail Caesar. "
" What do you want us to do with this body, sir? " A familiar face asked from far over his head, shaking
Xavier from his daze. He pushed at the lifeless and unresisting body whose head was in his lap, but it had no connection to
the vibrant man he had known and admired so deeply, even in their worst arguments.
" Bury it in a shallow grave. I'll tell his mother later. "
.
♣
.
As the sounds of "It is finished!"
touched the ether, Machba`nel 'woke' with a start, wondering at the closeness and darkness as he found the air had hardened
unaccountably around him. Why was he lying in a shallow ditch, covered by a tanned hide and a light coating of dirt and grass
roots? He and Apulio must have been very drunk last night! He'd had a terrible nightmare, he thought to himself as he pushed
past the loose clots of dirt, to lie down on the barely warmed soil. the the truth struck him and he feared to raise his head.
remembering wasn't the same as understanding as evening drew near!
As
he approached the disgruntled soilder hearding the women together to access the stony hill with all three men dead. There
was a terrible silnce lingering with the summer storm. None of the Matser's disciples were there ,save the youngest John,
helping to support Mary of Nazareth.
" Man, you've come? " Said a voice from behind him. he turned, facing the face he feared only slightly
less than the Master's. The face of the old carpenter who'd been there the riverbank the day Jesus healed
his rotting feet two and a half years ago! " But we heard you were dead, Marcus! Ahava? Child, come and see! Not
everything has been lost today! " Hilkiah called, harsh with recent weeping. The dusty soldier wanted to stop him, for fear the girl he secretly prized for her innocence would turn
on him with the loathing locked inside his being!
Pushing the speckled dog away from her lap, she rose to her feet shakily and seemed to draw some semblance of comfort at seeing
him that he couldn't fathom. Had there been more between them, than the chaste conversation he seemed to remember?
" I know why
you have come, Marcus. He called you! "
" Yes. He called me. And I have answered! "
Shyly they clasped hands and turned to face the loss of the sun, sensing the darkness could not last forever.
.
.
