Forbidden

by Kimberley Griffiths Little

  Kadesh whipped around another corner and pressed me into a tight doorway just as a company of soldiers on horseback clattered down the street in full gear. They were headed for the palace, and I found myself praying that Thomas and Zarah and Sahmril had made it out safely.

  Burying my face into Kadesh’s chest, I tried to become just a shapeless mass in the darkness of the doorway. No torches were lit in this poorer part of the city, and we stood still and utterly silent, barely breathing. This close to Kadesh, I could hear his heart beating beneath his tunic as he closed his cloak around me and kept us from the soldier’s view.

  “We’re safe,” he finally whispered as the street quieted. Quickly, we stole down the street, racing toward safety. Our footsteps were muffled by the sounds of the chaos in the city, and at last, I could see Nalla’s doorway. I breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully, we would be out of Mari within the hour.

  Just beyond the tiny house, I spotted a large grouping of camels standing saddled in the darkness. Dozens of men were talking, their voices bouncing off the walls and doorways so that it was hard to tell exactly how many there were.

  “Are those soldiers?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so, but they may be men of Mari in the process of being forced to fight. I don’t want to get caught in it. If they grab me and force me to join them, hide with Nalla until you can escape back to Tadmur.”

  “No!” I cried softly. “Don’t say that!”

  The night grew colder and I shivered as we made our way down the street, slithering around door frames so we wouldn’t be spotted. But my broken heart yearned for Sahmril. I never once considered that I wouldn’t be able to buy her back. Now that we were back at Dinah’s doorstep, the night felt surreal, as if I was moving in a trance.

  Under cover of darkness, Kadesh pulled me to the doorway. Finally, we were safe. I just wanted to collapse before the fire. Kadesh pushed open the door, shoved us both inside, and slammed it behind him.

  The room went eerily silent as I realized that Nalla and Dinah were not in the sleeping room in the back as I expected. Instead, they were sitting upright and stiff in chairs as Kadesh and I rushed through the door with breaths of relief.

  The remains of a fire smoldered in the grate. A man stood leaning against the hearth, and at first I thought it must be Shem stealing a moment with his wife and daughter.

  But when he turned around, I almost died when I saw that evil grin and those sinister eyes.

  Horeb was standing before us.

  25

  Kadesh grabbed my hand and shoved his shoulder into the door to escape back into the street, but we were instantly surrounded by the very men we’d seen earlier. Not Mari soldiers or King Hammurabi soldiers at all, but Horeb’s men, my tribal brothers.

  “Welcome, please come in,” Horeb said with an eerie smile as I was forced back into the house.

  “What are you doing here?” I burst out, and then stopped, coughing. My throat had gone raw from the acrid smoke of the fires around the city.

  Horeb gave me a scornful stare, but he didn’t move from the hearth. He didn’t have to; his men were keeping me enclosed in a tight circle in the center of the room, which now smelled of sweat and fear. “My raids brought me north to the wonderful city of Mari, where my men and I have joined with King Hammurabi to secure the city.”

  “The Babylonian is not king yet,” Kadesh said.

  “Oh, he will be. Have no worries there, stranger.” Horeb laughed, sending chills down my spine. The hard-edged planes of his face in the firelight made me want to crawl into a hole and never come out. “The royal family of Zimrilim is probably dead by now. Zimrilim was a weak king and didn’t deserve such a fine city.”

  Kadesh studied him coldly. “I question Hammurabi’s intelligence if he burns the very city he wants to rule.”

  “Cities can be rebuilt. Practically overnight.” Horeb snapped his fingers and drew closer, his bulk threatening as he laughed at Kadesh. “You must not understand how to conquer and rule a kingdom. It’s a good thing no one is looking to you for help or direction.”

  Kadesh didn’t respond to Horeb’s taunting, but his men loved it, laughing and snorting behind me.

  “Why would you want to help Hammurabi conquer Mari? Aren’t you needed as leader of your own tribe?”

  Horeb curled his lips. “I’ve had a busy couple of months destroying and then negotiating with the Maachathites, as well as hunting you both down, but the council of Nephish elders awaits my return. With my bride. It seems I’m not officially their leader or king until I’m a married man. The wedding ceremony is planned for the night I get back with Jayden.”

  Dinah stared at me stonily, but Nalla shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

  “I will never marry you, Horeb,” I told him, my voice shaky. “The contract is broken. After all, your own father is dead.”

  His smile was sinister. “Actually, the contract stands stronger than ever. Abimelech’s death sealed it with his blood, never to be broken. I also have a written decree from Pharez to bring you back with me. It’s legal and binding and will not be seen as kidnapping. You’re an unmarried girl and I’m acting on your father’s behalf in your best interest. He and I also have an understanding upon our return that all your father plundered during the Maachathite raid will be mine. His payment for bringing you back home. The tribe’s leadership needs to be settled, and you play a key role, Jayden, as my queen.”

  I wavered on my feet and I felt Kadesh silently standing behind me, giving me strength as Horeb ranted on.

  “When I arrived in Mari and learned that Shem was a soldier in Hammurabi’s army, it made it easy to learn where his wife and daughter were living. I came to pay a visit to the members of my tribe, and you drop right into my hands. I don’t have to search any longer. You’ve made it so easy.”

  He started to laugh, and there were chuckles around the room from the rest of his men. My only consolation was knowing that my father was still alive. And that he must have brought back more camels—many camels—if he could offer them to Horeb.

  “Haven’t you been hunting me or Kadesh all this time?” I shot back.

  “True,” Horeb admitted, “but you always knew you couldn’t get away from me. We’re tied together for life, and my reward for patience is you running straight into my arms once again.”

  I shuddered at his words. Kadesh and I should never have returned to Nalla’s house. It was the biggest mistake of our lives.

  “You will have the most envied life of every girl in the tribe, Jayden. As an ally to King Hammurabi and with the other tribal alliances I’m forging, we will be wealthy and secure. I can offer you a better life than this wandering stranger.”

  “Except love and honesty,” I whispered to myself, but Horeb heard me, and my face burned as the room broke into amused laughter. Even Dinah narrowed her eyes, a sneer on her lips. Only Nalla looked miserable and helpless as she sat unmoving by the fire hearth.

  “Who needs love when you have power and wealth and status?” Horeb said, challenging me. “As well as the admiration of all you meet.”

  “Subjugation, you mean,” I said, despising him.

  “There’s only one problem, Horeb,” Kadesh spoke up. “I won’t let Jayden go.”

  Horeb put his hands on his hips. “You’re surrounded! You don’t have a choice. I’ve outwitted and outnumbered you.” He paused. “But if you’d like to fight me for her, I’d welcome the sport of another sword contest. Then she will have no choice but to go with the winner. There are many witnesses here to attest to it.”

  “We’ll duel at dawn,” Kadesh told him, stepping in front of me. “Alone.”

  “I’m ready to fight you right now. I’m taking Jayden tonight, stranger. You must die so that her standing in the tribe can be repaired. You see? There’s no decision or choice here. You have to die. And I am the one who must do it. With the help of my men, if needed.”

  “You need your men to help you win your battles
?” Kadesh said evenly.

  Horeb advanced across the room, his face dark. “I will kill you. Make no mistake about that. And if a sword thrust into your heart helps make that happen, so be it. Shall we begin now instead of waiting?”

  The next instant, Horeb’s long sword came out of his belt and he slashed it through the air. I reared back, but the sharp tip sliced down the front of my dress in a clean, swift tear, and I screamed, backing up into the door and crashing into Kadesh.

  “Get out of my house!” Nalla screamed at Horeb, leaping from her chair. “There will be no blood spilled in my house. Get out, or I will have Shem report this to his captain.”

  Before I could move again, Kadesh had unsheathed his own blade and clashed it against Horeb’s weapon.

  “No, no, no!” I screamed at them. In the tiny house, Horeb’s sword barely missed my head and I fell to the ground, cowering, sweat streaming down my neck.

  Their swords whipped against each other, and the clang of steel rattled my teeth. Nalla braced herself against the stone hearth and I crawled away as Horeb sliced the air, inches from Kadesh’s face. Kadesh struck again at Horeb’s blade, so hard Horeb nearly fell over, but he fought to stay upright. The two men were face-to-face, grunting as their swords braced against each other in a momentary deadlock, keeping the other from advancing or being able to strike a fatal blow.

  Months ago, Kadesh had won the sparring match in front of my family, but I could tell that Horeb had been practicing. He was better now, more forceful and surer with his thrusts, although still not as light and swift on his feet as Kadesh. The power behind Horeb’s arms and chest made me shudder as I watched them circle each other.

  A split second later, Kadesh threw Horeb off, spun around, and raised his sword to cut Horeb sideways across his chest, but Horeb managed to nick Kadesh in the arm first, sending him hard against the wall. Blood trickled down in spurts, turning his hands red. Horeb’s men roared with the thrill of the brawl, and the din was unbearable.

  “No!” I screamed, lunging toward Horeb with my dagger so he couldn’t plunge his sword into Kadesh while he was down.

  Kadesh jerked to his feet, shouting, “No, Jayden, no!”

  Horeb’s sword cut through the air as he knocked his body against mine, throwing me off just as I’d been about to shove my knife into his side. My dagger went skittering off into a dark corner.

  Before I could go after it, the front door swung wide open. Horeb’s men had grabbed Kadesh and were dragging him into the dark streets. He fought hard, legs and feet thrashing, but he didn’t have a chance with so many of them. Quickly, two of the men wrenched Kadesh’s sword from his hand as they dumped him on the gravel road.

  The dreary night was black as pitch, choking smoke swirling through the air from the palace fire on the other side of the city.

  I ran screaming into the road. “Kadesh!”

  All I could see was his form being yanked over the rocks, a dark river of blood running down his tunic and fingers, the flash of silver from so many swords pointed down at the boy I loved.

  Surrounding me on all sides were Horeb’s men, the men of my tribe and my youth. They were loyal only to Horeb, who would be tribal chief and make them clan leaders, for the rest of their lives. They would kill for him—and die for him. Anything I said would mean absolutely nothing. I was Horeb’s possession and he could do what he wanted with me.

  “Stay back, Jayden!” Kadesh yelled at me. “No matter the outcome, you already know what to do.”

  “Kadesh!” I shouted again, not understanding his words. Horeb cut me off, knocking me down as he strode toward Kadesh. My body hit the hard ground, rattling every bone, my head scraping across the wretched gravel.

  “Nalla and Dinah, take her back inside,” Horeb flung over his shoulder, his face indifferent as he gave the order.

  I flinched as the two women grabbed my arms and forced me back into the house. I fought them, hanging on to the door frame and kicking with my legs and feet. I screamed over my shoulder. “This is no fight! It’s a massacre!” I tried to squirm out of the grasp of their hands. “Let me go! You know this is an execution. Get the authorities of Mari!”

  “You fool!” Dinah mocked me as she threw me across the floor of the house and Nalla slammed the door. “There are no city authorities to call upon. Every man is fighting somewhere, either for Zimrilim or for Hammurabi.”

  She was right. There was no order left in this metropolis. We’d become victims of Mari’s destruction as well. The city had gone mad.

  “Open the door!” I shouted. “Don’t you understand? They’re going to kill him!”

  Nalla held me back. “Yes,” she said in a dull, flat voice. “They’re going to kill him. Kadesh is sorely outnumbered, and you and I cannot stop it. There is nothing we can do. We are strangers here, and have no friends. Many of our neighbors have already fled. We only stay because of my husband, Shem, and the hope that he has chosen the right side for our loyalty.”

  My insides heaved. “Then I will kill Horeb myself!” The thought of Kadesh dying within steps of where I was, within moments, was more than I could bear. I began to shake like I had a fever, utterly and completely trapped. “Let me go!” I screamed at Dinah, kicking at her.

  Dinah’s eyes were like flint. “You think you can kill him, with ten of his men right there? Don’t be such an idiot! You are destined to be Horeb’s wife and you don’t deserve it! You understand nothing!”

  With one final burst of strength, I shoved her aside and flung open the door. A half moon appeared behind the red clouds of smoke and I spotted Kadesh lying flat on his back, pinned to the ground by at least eight of Horeb’s men. Standing tall, Horeb straddled Kadesh, his sword raised in a stance reminiscent of mine when I nearly plunged my dagger into Horeb’s chest that terrible night at the oasis pond.

  “No!” I moaned, and all at once, Dinah wrapped her arms around my stomach and pulled me from behind with such force my hands ripped away from the door and we fell together to the floor in a heap. Quickly, I rolled over, kicking at Dinah and screaming at her, but before I could lunge forward again, Nalla slammed the door shut for the final time. Her chest heaved, her face a ghastly pallor.

  “It’s done,” she said, her bloodshot eyes staring past me. “The stranger from the southern lands is no more.”

  A wail rose up from deep inside my belly. “No!” I stared at her wildly, in shock, not wanting to comprehend her words. Screams tore from my throat and I pushed Dinah to the floor, threw over the table and chairs, yanked at the curtains, smashed the dishes lying on a side table, and then fell to the floor in a grief so terrible I thought my soul would flee my body that instant.

  A single moment of silence hung on the air, and then the door to the tiny house opened again. Air rushed in, and boots stamped across the floor to where I lay shivering and sobbing. I looked up through my snarled hair and saw the black, sunken eyes of Horeb glittering in the shadows.

  He stalked toward me, and I crawled backward to get away from him, stumbling into another table and knocking over a ceramic mixing bowl, which fell, breaking into jagged pieces.

  When he reached out a hand, I flinched. “Don’t you dare touch me!” I fumbled for my knife, which was no longer on my thigh, but I couldn’t see clearly where it had been thrown earlier while fighting Horeb, and my hand was slippery with blood.

  “Don’t you want to see the gift I’ve brought you?” Horeb’s voice was deep and obnoxious. Breathing hard, he roughly picked me up and shoved me into a chair so I could see him better. I flinched and jerked backward, the touch of him so despicable I thought I’d be ill.

  Then Horeb pulled a bundle from under his arm and rolled open the cloth, spreading it out full-length so that I was sure to see it clearly.

  The ground under my feet shifted, and I felt myself crumple.

  Horeb held Kadesh’s dark brown cloak. The cloak he was never without. The fine, swirling cloak he had gathered me into when he’d whispered hi
s love to me. The cloak he’d protected me with so many times. I heard myself groan like a wild animal as Horeb tossed the garment to me as though it were a dirty rag.

  My reaction was slow and the heavy cloak fell to the ground before I could get to my knees. Quickly, I snatched it up, afraid that Horeb would take it back, but when I touched the rich, familiar cloth, my strength left me and I slid back to the ground in a heap.

  “It’s proof of his death. I saved it for you. As a wedding gift. Unfortunately, his blood stained the expensive cloth. He was wearing it when I plunged my sword into him. Kadesh screamed until he died. Didn’t you hear him?”

  “You lie,” I moaned. I buried my face into the cloth, tasting the blood of Kadesh, the smell of his skin lingering in the folds. For a fleeting moment I felt Kadesh’s arms around me, heard his voice in my ear.

  I pulled the cloak around my shoulders and staggered to my knees, spotting my dagger just beyond the chair’s legs. Slipping my hand down, I grabbed the dagger and advanced toward Horeb, holding out my arms as if I would embrace him.

  His black eyes glinted. “Now you’ve come to your senses.”

  Nalla shrieked when I raised the knife and lunged at Horeb’s chest. Immediately, he blocked my arm with such force the knife exploded from my fingers and fell back to the floor. Then Horeb twisted my other arm behind my back and I was certain he would snap my bones. But instead, he kicked my dagger off into a dark corner of the house, then laughed and released me. I fell to the floor, banging my knees with an excruciating crunch.

  “Save your passion for our wedding night,” Horeb said with a laugh. “I will come for you in the morning. Have her ready, Nalla.” He strode out the door and I heard his men mount their camels and gallop off.

  I lifted my swollen eyes, the world a haze of pain. The eerily red moon hovering at the horizon seemed to reproach me as it sank below the mountains. Mountains that would have led me home. I belonged to Horeb now, and there was nothing I could do.