Carpathian (3 page)

“You may not speak with God, but you truly speak for the people of God. If they discover you have given away the greatest gifts God has bestowed upon the people, they will curse your name, brother. You give the Golia and the Jeddah the gifts from God to hide among the rocks and ice of the north and you will be cursed.”

Joshua laughed for the first time in what seemed like years.

“What could be worse than the gift of leadership that was bestowed upon me by Moses? No, my friend, I will not be killing my people off to protect treasure and heritage when it could all just vanish with you and yours into the night. The people fear the Golia, they will not follow. Build me my temple in the great stone mountains in the land of snow and frost and bury the treasure forever.”

“I will instruct the Golia. I will inform you of the plan of attack. After this night Jericho will fall, Brother Joshua. Then I will take my people and the Golia and leave this place of death forever.”

Joshua nodded. The deal had been struck and the Jeddah would do God’s bidding one last time. He gestured for Kale to look upon the map of the great city and he pointed out his plan for the final battle of the Golia for God’s chosen people.

In less than an hour Kale had summoned his two finest warriors for the casting of the spell and the link with the Golia.

*   *   *

The two guards in the south tower watched as the Hebrew army marched and demonstrated outside the city walls, their many thousand torches blazing a path of its march around their walls. The trumpets had started at sundown as they had every night since the four-month siege had started. One guard turned away and lifted a cloth from a bowl. He reached down and took a large chunk of stale bread, tore it in two, and tossed the smaller half to his companion. “Music makes me want food and drink.” He shook his head at the moldy bread in his hand. “But I guess rock-hard bread will have to do.”

The second tower guard accepted the bread and then turned to watch the drummers and the trumpeters, followed by sixty spear- and shield-wielding Hebrew soldiers continuing their march around the city walls.

“Those trumpets are maddening. They even invade my sleep.” The guard looked at the bread in his hand and then tossed it over the side. “They even steal the taste right from your mouth,” he said as he watched the bread sail over the edge of the tower and into the darkness below. “When will they attack?”

Chewing the bread with a look of disgust, the first guard paced the few feet to his companion and then tossed his own bread over the wall.

“They haven’t enough soldiers to do anything but lay siege. They will move on when they see that the walls of Jericho cannot be breached.”

*   *   *

The second chunk of five-day-old bread hit the rocks at the base of the six-foot-thick wall and rolled to the base of a small pomegranate tree. It was ignored by the large snout of the beast as its nostrils sought out other smells beyond that of the rotten food. As the bread came to rest only inches from the nose of the beast, the yellow eyes opened wider and the long muzzle of the wolf rose into the air and sniffed. The male could smell two men of Canaan. They were a hundred feet above the hidden male as it waited for the trumpets and drums to pass. In the darkness of the night the male slowly came to all fours directly under the guard tower. It sat and waited, smelled, making sure there were only the two men at this post. The beast sniffed the air once more and then turned its massive head to stare out at the small hills surrounding Jericho. At that moment two more of the Golia males slipped from hiding and with two great strides made it to the base of the wall.

Kale watched from a hidden location a mile away from the south wall. He saw the first animal as it watched its two male companions run past. Then the first beast raised his right paw upward and examined its padded foot. Slowly, methodically the Golia saw the clawed appendages coming from the knuckle just above the running pad, then the long fingers of the beast, which had been curled into a fist when not in use, extended until the long, slim, but powerful digits extended. The eight-inch black and purple claws were shining brightly in the moonlight on this, the last night in the history of the city of Jericho.

Kale looked back at the small fire and the two female attendants who watched over the two male warriors of the Jeddah as they sat silently and with eyes closed around the small fire. The women wiped sweat from their brows and dampened their mouths with water-soaked swatches. Both men of the Jeddah lay in a trance delivered from the spell and didn’t move except for the rising and falling of their chests as they breathed. The Golia were in control of the two men and would not relinquish that hold until their mission had been completed. Kale concentrated on the third animal at the base of the wall—the alpha male of the pack.

The giant beast felt Kale’s presence in its large brain. The leader of the tribe of Jeddah was reaching out to it. The beast shook its massive head, slinging the long, upright ears to the left and to the right. Saliva flew from its open muzzle as Kale came unbidden to its mind.

One of the attending women used a small cloth and dabbed at the spittle that flew from the Jeddah soldier closest to the fire.

The beast at the base of the wall stopped and listened, tilting its head first right and then left as Kale’s words struck its mind in picture form. The animal used the raised right hand to push itself up higher until it was balanced on its two hind legs. Again the toes of the beast uncurled—it would not need the running pads on its feet for what needed doing this night of nights. The foot looked far more human than it had a moment before. The giant beast tested its footing on the loose shale beneath the wall. The eyes narrowed and the orders it had been given came clear to its thoughts. The animal, which now stood as tall as two men upon one another, raised its long powerful muzzle to the night sky, and then just before it shattered the night with the howl it wanted to loose upon the sky, it was bidden to hide once more from the man thoughts in its mind. There would be no howling, no fight before the walls were taken. Instead it lowered its head and then fell to all fours once more.

The two animals to the left and right of the alpha male sat at the base of the wall and both Golia knew what had to be done from the link with the two soldiers sitting a mile away from the walls of Jericho. The first wolf sank its claws into the clay and stone wall. Then it raised its powerful hand once more and sank the second set of claws deep into the wall. Then it started to climb, quickly followed by the second Golia. The same was happening on the other darkened walls of Jericho. The black-on-black movement of the beasts was undetectable on the moonless night. Joshua had only requested two Golia for the attack, but Kale had used five. This would end tonight.

The drums and trumpets became even louder as the Golia struck the guard towers with a fierceness the men of Canaan were not capable of withstanding. The attack on Jericho had started and now there was no stopping the Golia from opening the rear gates of the city of Jericho. The magic was happening again, just as it had on a thousand different nights when the Golia fought for their brothers.

*   *   *

Joshua stood upon the rise three miles from the burning city. As the screams and sounds of fighting came to his ears he collapsed to his knees. The leader of the people pulled the shroud of his robe over his head and prayed forgiveness for the carnage he had set loose in the city of Jericho. The screams of the women and children and the shouts of his own soldiers could clearly be heard across the River Jordan.

“Lord God, forgive my weak use of your words. The needs of the people have driven my mind to madness. I need guidance to—”

“He is not listening to you this night of nights, Joshua.”

His prayer interrupted, Joshua froze as he recognized the voice. It was Kale.

“I cannot stop the screaming in my head.”

“The voices of the children of Jericho will forever haunt your mind. That is your price, Joshua,” Kale said and then added, “as it is my own.”

“Our losses?” Joshua asked as he pulled the shroud from his head.

Kale looked up and across the River Jordan. The flames were now a thousand feet high in the center of the large city. As he watched, a great watchtower along the southern wall collapsed into the streets below, sending a fresh wave of screaming and shouting into the night sky.

“The tribes have lost no more than three hundred in the attack. The Jeddah have lost eight soldiers, and we have…” His voice trailed off to nothing as his eyes saw another section of the great northern wall fall and even more of the Hebrew army charge over the smoking ruin of rubble.

“You have lost Golia?”

Kale was silent as Joshua rose to his feet.

“Two males were near the southern wall when it collapsed. After they silenced the guards in the tower, it was they who opened the smaller southern gate for your soldiers. They were near there when the wall fell, crushing the life from their bodies.” Kale gestured behind him and Joshua turned to see two men being carried by other Jeddah soldiers and the two attending women, who cried into their veils as they left Joshua’s encampment. They had died, just slumped over and fell dead the moment the lives of the two Golia were crushed from the falling stone of the walls. Their faces and bodies were covered but Joshua could see an arm, mangled and broken, as it fell from the side of the dead soldier.

“Old friend, the task has been done. Take the treasures and spoils of the chosen and go—”

“We have already taken that which was offered by the people.” Kale leaned close to Joshua so he could see the elder’s eyes. “Only we have taken one more item that was not offered. One that will ensure you never come north to find my tribe or the Golia. We will destroy the very heritage of the people if any attempt is made. Your charade against Israel after the death of Moses will destroy the people if known. Come for us and we will give you a war the likes of which you have only seen in minority. Come for us and the Jeddah will release the Golia among the chosen.” Kale turned and started walking away. “Leave us be, Joshua, and send no soldiers to find us. This land of milk and honey has been closely won with the blood of the Golia … and your own people.”

“What have you taken?” Joshua shouted. “Kale!” He gestured his five-man guard to stop the much larger Kale from walking away.

Kale smiled as he continued to walk. The sun had just started to rise above the far eastern mountains when the guard came within a spear tip of reaching Kale. Suddenly the five men in braided leather and rope armor saw the three animals sitting on the top of the small ridge. They had risen out of the ground fog that had slowly moved in from the Jordan. The black animal in the middle slowly rose to all fours, and then to Joshua’s and the five-man guard’s amazement the beast actually stood on its hind feet. The long and powerful arms were stretched out along its side and the clawed fingers opened and closed. In the early morning light they could see the blood-soaked muzzle of the animal after its night’s work inside the fallen walls of Jericho. The beast was the alpha male that had linked with Kale outside the walls of the city. The other two beasts stayed on all fours and remained unmoving, but their menacing glare never wavered from Joshua and his guard. Kale finally stopped and turned.

“Use us no more, Joshua. We are free of Pharaoh. We are free of the chosen people. Come for us and I will send what remains of the Golia south once more.”

Joshua watched as Kale vanished over the small rise followed by the two beasts on all fours while the third remained. The yellow, glowing eyes moved from the armed men to settle on Joshua.

Joshua swallowed back the rising bile in his throat, as this was the first time he had seen one of the male Golia up close. His wife, Lilith, took hold of his arm as she too saw the wolf for the first time. As the great beast stared at him, Joshua saw the lip curl up over eight-inch-long canines as a low growl issued from its throat. It suddenly went to all fours and in one great leap jumped over the rise and vanished. The warning had been delivered.

Joshua was ill. He had never felt the fear he had when the animal looked upon him. He then remembered the words of Kale and then angrily tore free of his wife and ran for the largest of the tents a hundred yards away. As the city of Jericho burned below on the other side of the River Jordan, Joshua, leader of the chosen people, ran past the twenty-man guard and into the tent. His eyes went to the center and his heart fell. It was gone. The one item he could never lose had now been taken. His eyes roamed to the far side of the tent and that was when he saw the massive tear in the rough-hewn fabric. He then spied the massive claw prints in the sand. The Golia had gotten in past the twenty-man guard and stolen the one object that could bring down the trust of the chosen people and the love they had of him as a successor to the Deliverer.

“Joshua, what is it?” Lilith, wife of fifty-two years, asked as he collapsed to the sand. Then her eyes widened when she realized what was missing from the tent that held the Hebrews’ greatest religious objects. “What do we tell the people?” Lilith asked as she turned away from the empty space where the gilded box had lain. “The covenant is still here. Why, my husband, would the Jeddah take not the Ark of the Covenant, but take the—”

“The people must never know what was taken. Never.”

“What will you do, my husband?”

In the distance the sound came. It was loud enough that it filled the early morning sky and even drowned out the sound of butchery across the river in Jericho. The sound echoed off distant hills and was not absorbed by the fog as sounds often are. The roar of the beast was a challenge to the world—the Golia were now free and they would never follow the death words of men again.

“I pray that Kale builds my temple and lays to rest for all time the heritage of the people; to be locked away behind stone and earth. If he does this he will never have fear from me or mine. Let him travel to the stone mountains, let Kale and the Jeddah be. Let the Golia be.”