Angels at the Gate by T. K. Thorne

Author:T. K. Thorne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cappuccino Books Publishing
Published: 2015-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

32

Take in your hand large stones and hide them.…

—Book of Jeremiah 43:9

WITH TREPIDATION, I APPROACH THE mud-and-reed hut that sits among many in this marshy area south of the city. My beloved is there. I can feel my heart a prisoner in my chest, perhaps in sympathy to his enslavement. No ready words are in my mind to say to him, but the chance has arisen to see him and I must seize it.

A guard bars my way, but I lift my arm for him to see the white cloth tied to it with the imprint of Ishtar’s priestess on it. He examines it for a moment and then steps aside. None of the other huts, I note, have guards for the slaves who live within them.

It is dim inside, with only a reed mat for a bed, a clay bowl, and a pot in the corner. The smell is not too bad, and I presume working on the irrigation canals gives Raph opportunity to cleanse himself of sweat and do most of his elimination outside the hut.

He is sitting on his reed mat when I enter, and rises with that warrior grace and wariness I remember. He looks the same, except he has a rough beard and his hair is longer and ill kept. He wears only the short skirt of a slave. His broad chest is deeply tanned. I imagine his light skin has burned and peeled many times before protecting itself by darkening. With relief, I see his arm has not been burned with a slave’s brand.

The guard leaves us. For a long moment, I can say nothing, and he is also silent. Then I step toward him.

“Who are you?” he asks.

I stop. I never imagined he would not know me. “Raph, do you not recognize me?”

He narrows his eyes, the blue of them darkened almost to black in the shadows. “You seem familiar, Lady, but—”

Across a desert I have sought him, my mind picturing our reunion a thousand ways, but never in any of those imaginings did he not know me. “I am Adir from the tribe of Abram.”

His eyes widen. “Adir?”

I lift my chin. “Adira now.”

“How—” He swallows. “My brother, is he safe? Why are you here?”

I move closer, wanting him to embrace me. My skin cries for his touch. “We followed you across the desert.” My mouth is dry. “Mika is safe. He is inside the city.”

With a sweep of his arms, Raph gathers me to him, crushing me against his chest, then kissing first my left cheek, then my right, and then my left again. It is the kiss of family and not what I have hoped for, but at least I am in his arms.

But to my disappointment, he releases me. “I cannot believe you are here. Why did you come?”

“For you, of course.”

He begins to pace within the confines of the hut. “My brother is not safe here.”

“What do they want of you?”

He stops and looks at me. “Babylonia is threatened on all sides.

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