Strangers in the Land

by Stant Litore

  Hurriya’s eyes closed, and Devora could hear her body fighting to breathe now, in little gasps.

  “Hurriya,” the navi whispered, but the girl didn’t open her eyes. With a shock she realized Hurriya’s eyes would only open again if she rose from the dead.

  Her chest tight, Devora hummed the first few notes of Hurriya’s song, in a desperate hope that hearing it, she might come back. But she didn’t. Instead, her breaths grew shallower and shallower. Lifting her hand from the bit of dress she’d pressed uselessly over the wound, Devora took the girl’s hands gently in hers, feeling their warmth. She held them a while. They were so small, like a child’s.

  “Sleep, then,” Devora whispered, sniffing back tears. “You sleep now, daughter. Sleep.”

  One last, small breath. Then Hurriya’s chest no longer moved. She was still. Devora held the girl’s hands fiercely, but there was no longer any pulse in them. A quiet, keening noise rose in her throat. Hurriya was gone. Her daughter was gone.

  Shaking, Devora folded the young woman’s hands over her breast, then reached and caressed her hair softly, tucking it behind her ears and laying it smoothly about her shoulders. Her tears cooled on her cheeks. “No,” she kept whispering. “No, no.”

  She bent low over Hurriya’s body and kissed her lips, gently. Hurriya’s lips were soft but dry. Devora kissed the girl again, and a third time, and felt that if she were to try and stand and leave the girl’s side, she would break apart, frail as clay.

  Yet she had to. She glanced at the knife Heber had left on the floor. There wasn’t much time. Still she gazed down at Hurriya’s still body. On an impulse she unwound from about her own waist the scarlet cord that she had used there as a sash, the same cord that had once held the furs wrapped about Mishpat and that had come with her all this way into the north.

  Gently Devora wound that faded scarlet cord about Hurriya’s wrist. The cord looked lovely on her, even in its lack of color—as though Hurriya had been wearing it like a bracelet for years, while she gleaned in the fields or picked olives from the branches of the orchard by which she’d lived. As though she’d carried it with her all the way from the north, then all the way back again. It was weathered; it had endured, even as she had. And like a cairn, the cord was a covenant, a promise. The cord bound them both to each other. Like her iron blade, that cord had a history. It had belonged to the navi before her, who had been given it by Rahab herself, the Canaanite girl who had preserved the lives of two Hebrew spies during the taking of the land and who had then hung the scarlet cord from her window, a sign that her house was inviolate and sheltered when the Hebrew raiders burst at last through the walls of that settlement.

  It was not only that the cord had bound Rahab to the People and brought her into the tribe; it also bound the People to her. So that their men would know that Rahab was one of theirs, not to be harmed, and to be treated as a woman of their own People might be treated. A sign that the People had a responsibility now to those women who had survived the falling of their towns’ walls. Devora had a responsibility. Hurriya had tried to tell her that, tried to show her.

  “Unseeing,” Devora whispered, “I permitted injustices.” She had sat in decision so many years with the Law at her back and the People before her, both Hebrew and heathen; perhaps she had not looked often enough over her shoulder at the Law, and so had forgotten what to look for when she gazed out on the People. She had forgotten to look for justice for the strangers in the land. Though it was the Hebrews who possessed the land, a land of promise, a land they held to be theirs and held as theirs, yet the Lawgiver had declared that there must be one Law alike for the stranger and for those born in the tents of the People. Shelter the stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Kemet.

  Yet her People had not done so. How many women had been left unsheltered, with only a salmah to clothe them? How many?

  But Devora had no more room for thought or for anything but the deep, wrenching grief that assailed her. The house had darkened until she sat beside Hurriya’s body in deep shadow.

  She caressed Hurriya’s hair once more, whispering her name. Then reached for Heber’s knife.

  The evening light outside the house seemed bright and harsh to her after the dimness inside, though in fact the sun had now slid behind the ridge to the west and dusk was upon them. Barak stood there talking with Omri in a low voice, and he turned at her footsteps.

  “Navi,” Barak said.

  “I will camp here tonight,” Devora said numbly.

  After a moment Barak nodded. “I’ll set a watch and tell the men to keep silence.” He looked as though he wanted to say something more but could not find the words he needed.

  Devora simply stepped past him, ignoring his gaze on her and the lustful gaze of Omri the Zebulunite. She had no time or space in her heart for either.

  Walking as though asleep, she moved to the place at the edge of the field where the men were raising the cairns. Laban was there; he took one glance at the navi and then turned grimly toward the house. As he left, Devora sank to her knees by the cairns, her face drained of life. The other men glanced at her but did not disturb her.

  Devora gazed out over the blighted field.

  “She was the navi,” Devora whispered to God. “Your navi. How could you.”

  No answer came to her out of the withered vines or the wide sky, and Devora knew in that moment that none ever would. Even if God were to show her a hundred visions more, there would never be any vision that would give a reason for Hurriya’s death. Devora’s eyes glistened, but her grief was too sharp for any moisture to wash it out. Her breast felt tight and it hurt almost to breathe. She watched dully as Laban came out of Barak’s cedar house carrying Hurriya’s body in his arms, tightly wrapped and shrouded in a blanket, neither face nor feet visible. Devora saw a red area in the cloth where her head must be and knew it for blood from the knife wound she had inflicted. The navi moaned softly and covered her face with her hands.

  Devora worked the men hard, raising Hurriya’s cairn. She made it the highest one in that line of silent promises to the dead. When Laban lifted the last stone, it clacked into place nearly level with his head. The other cairns were already done, and only a few men remained there to see if the navi needed help. The other men had left quickly, not wanting to spend longer than they must in the presence of the dead.

  “Go,” Devora whispered. “All of you.”

  Laban hesitated, one hand resting on the top of the cairn. “She was not of the People,” he said.

  “She is of my tribe,” Devora said softly. “I accept her as one of my tribe. Please go.”

  Laban looked at her another moment, then turned without a word and began walking away through the dead field.

  Devora leaned on the cairn, her eyes cold as a winter sea. Then she lifted her voice.

  Though hoarse, she sang with such beauty that men raising tents in the field stopped and stood still, turning to face the cairn and the navi beside it.

  As the darkness fell, Devora sang her farewell to a woman of her People.

  Barak offered a room in his house to her, but Devora could not bear the thought of sleeping there. She staggered out into the withered vines in the dark, moving toward where the other war-leaders had set up their tents with hers nearby. The tent Laban had offered her. She wondered a moment if Mishpat and her saddle and her waterskin were there in the tent and whether Shomar had been well cared for, but her mind was too weary to hold the thought. It was dark now, but she did not walk with any alertness. She felt like a vessel with its oil poured out and left to dry in the dust.

  Walking so, she nearly collided with a man, and he called out sharply in the dark. Looking up wearily, she saw Heber’s hard face in the starlight.

  “Covenant and Law, woman,” he growled, “watch yourself.”

  “I am sorry,” Devora said. Her gaze took in the man—he had a bundle on his shoulders and a waterskin slung at his hip. “You’re leaving,” she murmured
.

  “I’ll not stay to wait for the dead,” he said.

  “There are five hundred men here, Heber,” Devora said. “The land will be clean in a few days, and there will be rebuilding and replanting. Raider or no, a man with a strong back will be honored here.”

  “Clean?” he said. He looked at her intently, then laughed, hard, a laughter eerily like Barak’s when the chieftain had knelt in the ruin of his vineyard. A laughter devoid of any joy, just mirth at the savage futility he saw. The Kenite wiped tears from his face, wheezing with laughter. “You don’t. You don’t understand.” His sides shook. “I’ve been hurrying south for weeks. Weeks, woman. After raiding in White Cedars. There are thousands. Thousands in White Cedars.”

  All sound left the world, everything but the beat of Devora’s heart. She just stared at Heber, the night terribly dark around them.

  His mouth was still moving, but it was several moments before she could focus on his words. Then: “All of them moaning and staggering toward us, every last one of those heathen corpses. These you’re seeing are just the first. The first few.”

  “Thousands?” It came out in a whisper.

  “Or tens of thousands. Even God has never seen so many dead.” Heber laughed again, shaking his head. The sound chilled her. “I’m going to keep moving, navi. I don’t plan to stay with your camp. You’re dead already. All of you. You just haven’t stopped breathing yet.” He glanced away to the south, his mirth dying out, the haunted look returning to his eyes. “Make for Kemet, most likely. Get a vast river between me and those walking dead.”

  “Kemet!” Devora was struggling to collect her thoughts, still the racing of panic inside her. “But this is the land of promise. Kemet—our fathers were slaves there!”

  “Your fathers. What should I care? They feed laborers well in the dark land. Here, we’ll be free and eaten. God keep you, navi.” And he walked away into the shadows. After a few steps he called back without stopping: “If you reach my camp upriver and my slaves haven’t been eaten, you’re welcome to them.”

  Then he was gone.

  Devora stared after him into the night.

  Thousands.

  “Merciful God,” she whispered. “Cover us. Let the malakh hamavet pass over us.”

  Pale as a corpse, Devora made her way back to her tent, which Laban had pitched for her a little apart from the others, for she was kadosh, and apparently to him at least that still meant something. The tent was just barely within earshot of the others, and now Devora looked over the night wasteland of the withered field and drew in her breath sharply. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea for her tent to stand apart. No nazarite stood watch outside the tent’s door. If the dead came lurching across the field, only a thin wall of canvas and the possible protection of God’s hand would stand between her and their grasping hunger.

  Thousands.

  She shivered in the dark.

  Shomar was tethered just outside her tent, sleeping on his feet. Devora saw that someone had placed a basin of water within the gelding’s reach and that he’d drunk half of it. A little relief touched her; her alarm at Heber’s words had cracked the numbness about her heart like the shell of an egg, and for just a moment she stood leaning against her horse, putting her arms about his powerful neck, breathing in his scent. This had been a hard journey for him too. And he was a little part of her husband, here with her. The two of them strangers together in a strange camp. She rested against her horse, not letting herself think of Hurriya or Zadok. There was moisture on her cheek, and she rubbed it away against his sleek hair. She permitted herself no more tears than that, and after a bit she straightened, knowing that if she did not go into her tent now, she would fall asleep right there, standing on her feet like a horse herself.

  She didn’t know what nightmares she would endure tonight with neither Lappidoth nor Zadok beside her, nor what the next morning might bring. The refugees they’d been pursuing might have been eaten already, or not. Barak might stand and lead the men, or he might crumble in his own grief. God might protect them, or not. She didn’t know. She couldn’t even find the strength to care. She wanted only sleep.

  Drawing aside the door flap of her tent, she stepped in where it was dark and warm.

  She had the briefest sensation of not being alone—then someone grabbed her, a powerful arm pulled her back, crushing her against a firm body. Her eyes flew wide as she felt naked skin against her, breathed in a man’s sweat scent. Even as she sucked in a breath to scream, a hand, rough and calloused, covered her mouth. Smothering her cry.

  A fierce whisper in her ear. “I don’t see any nazarite dog heeling you here.”

  ALL FALLING APART

  DEVORA BREATHED in desperate little gasps, through her nose. Omri’s breath was hot on her throat. His lips brushed her neck and she jerked in his arms.

  “Shhh, hush, woman,” he growled in her ear, his hand pressing down more cruelly over her mouth, bruising her lips. “Hush now.”

  Fury and fear pounded through her, like fire and ice. Every inch of her body wildly alert. She could feel his rough palm against her lips, his belly pressed into her back, and something swollen pressed to her hip. He couldn’t be doing this—she was kadosh, not to be touched! She was married. She was unclean, though she had yet to tell the camp that. This couldn’t be happening.

  She tried to bite his palm, and he jerked her head back hard against his shoulder, his mouth moist on her throat. Kissing her. He was kissing her. He did it roughly, bruising her neck. She screamed again into his palm and twisted in his arms, but his arm crushed hers to her sides. She dug her nails into the skin of his hips, but he only breathed louder by her ear.

  “That’s it, woman, that’s it,” he groaned softly. “I knew you were baiting me that day. Riding here alone with that nazarite and no husband. Did he enjoy you, that dog? You’re going to enjoy this a lot more.”

  He dragged her back, pulling her with him toward the bedding at one side of the tent. She fought him, but he was strong. She kept crying out into his hand, hoping men in the other tents would hear, but the sounds were small and muffled. And she couldn’t get loose. Panic rushed through her like cold water. He was doing as he pleased, and she couldn’t stop him.

  She was forced down onto her back, his weight on her. He pinned her upper arms with his elbows, leaning into the hand he held pressed over her mouth, hurting her. His eyes fierce and dark, just above hers. She struggled but was hardly able to move, unable to get him off her. She cried out as his knee forced her thighs apart.

  “I can smell your cunt,” he breathed, and bit her ear.

  She thrashed under him, shoving at his sides with her hands. She had to get him off of her. Her eyes shot to the door of her tent, but Zadok was not outside. Zadok wasn’t anywhere. Her eyes flicked to the small bundle of her garments and her waterskin, to her left, the length of a man’s body from where she lay. She could see the glint of her blade beneath the clothes.

  She couldn’t get enough air.

  “You hush,” Omri whispered in her ear.

  Devora squirmed, nauseated, as he began thrusting his hips against her, through her dress.

  “You don’t get to talk tonight. You had us all so convinced you were the navi. That you heard God. Well, fuck you. Anyone with eyes can see that the Covenant is falling apart.” The man licked her throat—the animal licked her. She shook with rage and fear. “You saw what happened to Zadok,” Omri whispered to her. “And so many others. You saw the dead. God isn’t in the land anymore. God isn’t here. If he was, he’d have sent the Ark. Do you hear me? He would have sent the fucking Ark. It’s all falling apart. So what should I care?”

  His hand left her lips, then his mouth was on hers and she screamed into his mouth. Felt the grasp of his hand at her hip, gripping her, then tugging her dress up. She kicked, her knees hitting against his hips. She threw herself to the side; his weight held her in place, but she twisted her left arm free and went for his face. Dug her fingers in
to his right eye.

  Omri reeled back with an anguished yowl, his hands lifted to his face. A hard shove with her hip and he was off her. She rolled away across her bedding, reaching. And as quickly as she might draw a breath, she’d swept Mishpat up in her hand and rolled onto her knees. Brought the sword up in one smooth movement even as Omri came at her, and the blade severed his neck as cleanly as though he were made of thin cloth rather than flesh and bone. His head hit the rugs flooring the tent and rolled toward the door; his body fell to one side of her.

  On her knees, holding her bloodied sword to the side, the hilt cold in her hand, Devora screamed in anguish and rage. Panting, gazing down at the headless body. It lay completely still. Devora took in great gulps of air, sobbing for breath. Her heart loud in her breast. She worked her tongue in her mouth a moment, then spat on him. Spat out the taste of his mouth.

  He’d meant to defile her. Use her. As though she were some girl he’d taken in a raid and not the navi and the mother of Israel.

  “The Covenant is falling apart,” she whispered.

  Men were shouting outside, in the other tents. Men who’d heard her cry out. Shaking, Devora forced herself to her feet. Stumbled to the door of her tent, Mishpat bloody in her hand. She glanced to the right, where the head lay faceup, still contorted in that last expression of shocked fury. The eyes already glassy, emptied of life.

  Breathing hard, Devora hurried from her tent. Shomar was still tethered just outside. She leapt astride him, not bothering with saddle or any bags, just laying the blade across her thighs. Men were running toward her. Barak was there. “Navi, what has happened?” he cried.

  For the briefest moment she hesitated. The night around her was strange and dark and there was no moon yet. Behind her in the tent, a slain man, his blood dripping from her sword. Somewhere out there in the blackness over the fields, lurching dead. Thousands.