Seventh Dimension - The King - Book 2, A Young Adult Fantasy (28 page)

I grimaced. “I don’t know.”

“Here,” she said. “Let me help you.”

She squatted
down beside me and I draped my arm over her shoulder.

“Just walk slowly,” she encouraged me. “No need to
rush.”

Once I stood
on my feet, some strength returned. Leaning on her as I limped
along, she took me to a beautiful apartment on the water, not far
from my own apartment. Fortunately, it was very close to the
hippodrome.

The
picturesque dwelling overlooked the Mediterranean. We walked around
to the back of the apartment instead of going inside. Did she have
a key or did she just want to see the sunset? Red streaks filled
the horizon.

“Is this your place?” I asked.

“No. I asked the owners if we could borrow it for
tonight.”

“I remember you said you lived with your
family.”

“Yeah. Well,
I started thinking you may not want to go to a Gentile’s house so I
brought you here instead. The view is beautiful and the place
restful.”

“So whose
apartment is this?”

“A friend. It’s no big deal. They won’t mind if we
hang out here for a few hours.”

I leaned on the rail overlooking the sea. Hungry sea
gulls darted about in the rocky dunes looking for whatever sea
gulls ate.

“Do you mind if I lie down?” I asked.

“Sure. You can lie down on this low table and I’ll
massage your shoulders.”

I stretched out and dozed while Cynisca went inside.
She soon returned carrying a drink, large towel, and tray with
heated stones. She set the tray on the table, along with the towel.
The aroma from the stones reminded me of Martha’s mint tea.

Cynisca lit the torches on the portico as darkness
fell. The lights flickered and I let my mind wander.

She walked over and sat beside me. “How are you
feeling?”

“Better.” I reached out and touched her arm.

Cynisca
appeared uncharacteristically edgy. Maybe she felt uncomfortable
away from the stables and the racetrack. She studied my face as she
clasped the drink with both hands. She smiled and rubbed her hand
along my forehead. “What is that mark?” she asked.

I reached up and touched it. “A scar from a long
time ago. I don’t remember how I received it.”

She smiled.
“It looks like a seal.”

“What do you mean? It’s just a scar.”

“Like what the Roman use for important
documents.”

I had recently heard that word, but I couldn’t
remember where.

“If you turn
over, I can start on your back first.”

I turned over
on my stomach and Cynisca covered me with the towel. She applied
the lotion and her expert hands rubbed the oil deep into my pores.
The hot stones on my sore shoulder muscles felt
heavenly.

My mind
retraced the race as if it were a dream. Who was the mysterious
person in the chariot? What happened? My life had been spared—but
why? Then I remembered the words, “You have been sealed—remain pure
and undefiled.” That was where I had heard the word, during the
accident. But what did it mean?

I must have dozed without realizing it. When I
opened my eyes, Cynisca was crying.

I sat up
startled. She was beside me with her arms wrapped around her legs,
head down, as if she didn’t want me to see her face.

I reached out
and touched her on the arm. “Cynisca, what’s wrong?”

She lifted her
head with tears streaming down her cheeks. “I can’t do it and I
don’t want to tell you.”

“Do what? Why are you crying?”

She turned
away. Something or someone had stripped away her confidence and
exuberance.

I scooted up closer and touched her arm again.
“What? Tell me what you are talking about.”

If she didn’t tell me soon, I was going to read her
mind.

“Daniel, I need to tell you some things. I’m
afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

She sniffled. “Hold on, let me get a handkerchief.
I’ll be right back.”

Cynisca walked back inside the house as I sat and
waited. I reached for the drink she had brought me earlier. I
lifted it to my mouth to take a sip when she screamed, “No, don’t
drink that.”

She ran over
and slapped it out of my hand. The contents splattered on the
table, the stone slab, and me.

“What did you
do, spike it?” I took the towel and wiped off the liquid. The mood
had gone from romantic to irksomeness.

“Did you drink any?” she asked. “I don’t know what
spiked means.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“The drink had something in it that would make
you—desire me.”

“You mean like Viagra?”

“Like what?”

“Never mind.
You go from giving me a massage to crying. None of this makes
sense.”

“It’s not what you think. Let me explain. We need to
hurry, though.”

“Hurry?”

“Let me explain.”

I threw the towel on the table. “Go ahead.”

“When the two Naser brothers heard your name at the
first race, they threatened me.”

I stared at Cynisca. “They what?”

“Tariq said
you had something they wanted, a scroll or something. I didn’t
recognize the word they used. Neither brother told me exactly what
it was. They just knew you had it, or they thought you had it. They
wanted me to find out where you lived so they could search your
apartment.”

The only
scrolls I knew about were the scrolls in Brutus’s house.

Cynisca rubbed
her eyes. “Tariq said if I didn’t find out where you lived, he and
his brother would sabotage your chariot, or poison the horses, or
do something bad to you.”

Cynisca choked
up, unable to say more.

I shook my head. I couldn’t believe this.

She cleared
her throat. “I was afraid. I tried to find out where you lived, but
you wouldn’t tell me, and I’d tried to follow you home several
times, but I always lost you.”

“I’ve never told anyone where I lived.”

Cynisca continued. “This is where it gets
creepy.”

I kept listening.

She sniffled
and dabbed her eyes. “An old woman came around a few times after
you started racing. I didn’t think anything about her until she
came up to me and said she knew where you lived.

“I mean, I
thought it was strange that some old woman would know, and even if
she did, why would she tell me that, unless she knew that I wanted
to know, or she knew about the Naser brothers trying to get it out
of me, or heard me ask. Look, I don’t know, but she gave me the
creeps. More than that, she scared me.”

I remained silent.

“Do you know who I’m talking about?”

I nodded. “Keep going.”

“She said she
would tell me, but I had to lie with you.”

“Lie with
me?” I repeated.

“I told her I
wasn’t that kind of a girl, and—and with you, I mean—” Cynisca
averted her eyes. “I’m attracted to you, but—” she swallowed hard
before continuing.

“I was afraid
that Nidal and Tariq would carry out what they said, and I didn’t
want you hurt, or the horses. I mean, I love the horses and I care
about you.”

I
nodded.

Cynisca wiped
her reddened face with her hand. “I told the old woman that I
couldn’t. She handed me something and said, ‘Put this in a glass of
water, mix in a little wine, and it will cast a spell.’”

I looked at the drink that now covered the patio
rocks.

Cynisca
sniffled and dabbed her eyes again. “I told her no, that I couldn’t
do that, that it would be wrong. She told me where I could find her
if I changed my mind.”

“Why? Why
would she do that?”

Cynisca stared
at me. “Daniel, everyone is out to get you. That happens when you
become famous. People want to ruin you, destroy your reputation,
take what’s yours.”

I closed my
eyes and remembered—had God been protecting me all along and I
didn’t even realize it? How else could I explain all the ways I
could have been hurt and escaped misfortune? I had been blaming God
for my tribulations when I should have been thanking him for his
protection.

Cynisca wiped
her eyes again. “When you were injured tonight in the race, I
panicked. I thought you had died. The brothers had continued to ask
about you—they were becoming more aggressive. You and the horses
are what I care about.”

I stared at
the ocean—what about my money?

Clearing her
throat, she continued. “I found the old woman and she made me
promise—” Cynisca blushed. “You know what I mean, and I went and
told the brothers where you lived. We are in their
apartment.”

“The brothers
are at my apartment now? Is that why you brought me
here?”

Cynisca
nodded.

“I don’t know what scroll they are talking about,
but they will rob me. I must go, hurry back.” I got up, but too
quickly and fell.

“Here, let me
help you. I don’t think they want your money.”

The thought of
robbery filled me with unimaginable grief. “I’ve got to
hurry.”

Unholy
thoughts went through my mind as I remembered the demon and the day
she saw me enter the apartment.

Cynisca helped me as we hurried through the square.
I couldn’t run, which made it all seem worse. I rushed as much as I
could. When we arrived at the apartment, no one was in the
lobby.

We dashed down
the hall and found the door ajar. The room was dark and Cynisca lit
the lamp. Clothes were scattered on the floor, some personal items
I had bought, as well as the few possessions I owned.

I scrambled
over to my bed and reached inside the covers. I groped all over and
finally ripped everything off the bed. All my shekels were gone. I
collapsed on the floor. I didn’t recognize my voice—anguished
stirrings spewed forth from my soul.

Cynisca put her arm around me and laid her head on
my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Daniel. It’s my fault, all my
fault.”

I don’t know
how long we sat on the floor. I didn’t care that I looked like a
fool. Three years I couldn’t have back. I had nothing to show for
my time here. My dreams of medical school faded.

Maybe I was
supposed to take over the family business. Maybe—maybe God was
punishing me. I couldn’t quit crying. Every shekel I had saved for
the last three years was gone.

Anger rose within me. The brothers—how could they do
that? And what stupid scroll did they think I have? I knew nothing
about a scroll.

I could go back to the brothers’ flat and wait for
them. They’d have to return sometime, even if not tonight. I could
hide inside and confront them when they returned. I looked around
the room. My only possession of value was the laurel wreath the
young Jewish girl had given me, and my clothes.

Cynisca stroked my arm. “Daniel, you can still run
in more races and win more money.”

I pushed her away. “Cynisca, I will never race
again.”

She stared. “What about the contract? You’ve got
another four or five months left.”

I looked away. “I can’t.”

Cynisca shook her head. “I don’t understand. How can
you walk away now? Don’t you want another chance to win more
money?”

“I’m going to Jerusalem, to the Passover.”

“What about me?” she asked. “I—I’m afraid to stay
here. If the old woman finds me and somehow learns that I—that we
didn’t, what might she do to me? I mean, I know you are going to
think I sound weird, but—I’m afraid of her.”

How could
everything have become so complicated? What could I do to extricate
myself from the agreement I had made with Dominus? How could I
protect Cynisca? Would I ever be able to escape the demonic woman
who had followed me everywhere? How could I give the Naser brothers
something I didn’t have?

All my money
had been stolen and I had run away from the only girl I’d ever
loved, and I was stuck in a world thousands of years removed from
my home. I had abandoned God for a pagan world and embraced the
idolization by adoring fans rather than worshipping the God I once
knew. A supernatural being in a chariot of fire had rescued me from
certain death and sealed me for a purpose I didn’t
understand.

I bowed my
head in mournful silence, wishing I had made better choices. Why
didn’t I listen to Simon, the leper? I glanced across the room at
the laurel crown given to me by the young Hebrew girl. It glowed
with an unnatural light—a light that reminded me of the Merkebah.
Hope sprung forth. All was not lost.

While things
seemed bad, events could have turned out much worse. I should have
died during the race. I could have become drunk with an evil potion
and laid with Cynisca. And what did that mysterious man say to
me—not to profane my body? I touched the mark on my head. What was
the seal he spoke of? I could have gotten Cynisca pregnant. I
couldn’t endanger her life. Why did I ever make a pact with that
witch? She had to be a demon.

I shook my
head as the sobering thoughts rattled my soul. Had God sent an
angel to spare my life? What had I done to deserve his mercy after
turning my back on him? How else could I explain all the things
that had happened? I shuddered.

Cynisca’s
voice cracked. “Are you well? You look like you’ve seen a
ghost.”

I turned to her. “We both could be in danger.” I
knew what I needed to do, but what about her? Cynisca couldn’t go
with me and she couldn’t stay here. I’d never forgive myself if
something happened to her.