Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith

Author:Seth Grahame-Smith [Grahame-Smith, Seth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Fantasy, Horror, Alternative History, cookie429, Extratorrents, Kat
ISBN: 9781455511211
Google: iT1PMYli5SIC
Amazon: 0446563099
Publisher: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Published: 2012-04-10T05:00:00+00:00

IV

Melchyor and Joseph watered the camels and filled the canteens in the desert stream, while Mary sat on the sand with the child under her robes. Balthazar knelt a ways downstream, cupping handfuls of water—first to his mouth, then over his face and chest, washing away the blood that continued to seep through his stitches.

“This is madness,” said Gaspar, who’d come to kneel beside him. “We have the entire Judean Army after us, yet we play wet nurse to a baby. We could have been halfway to Egypt by now if we were not dragging them with us. It is too dangerous, Balthazar. We must think of ourselves.”

“I am thinking of myself. I was thirsty. We found water. I stopped.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I know,” he said, cupping another handful to his wound. “I also know what I saw in Bethlehem. What all of us saw. You want to leave them to Herod’s men?”

“Yes, I saw. And the same will happen to us if we are captured. I did not escape certain death to throw my life away for strangers.”

“I don’t like it either, okay? But I didn’t go back for that baby just to dump him in the desert to rot. Once we cross the border, we go our separate ways. Until then, we play wet nurse.”

Balthazar stood, shook the water from his hands, and dried them on his robes.

“Why does the Antioch Ghost care if an infant lives or dies?” asked Gaspar.

It was a stupid question, of course. The obvious answer was, “Because I still have a shred of decency,” or “The real question is, why don’t you care?” But Balthazar didn’t say either of these things, because as obvious as those answers were, they weren’t the real answers.

Go on, tell him, Balthazar. Tell him why you care so much. Why you hate so much, kill so much, search so much, as if any of it will bring him—

“Ask yourself,” said Gaspar, shaking Balthazar out of his trance, “would you give your life to protect theirs?”

Balthazar looked back at Joseph and Melchyor wrestling with their camels. At Mary sitting on the ground, feeding the baby beneath her robes.

“Not if I can help it,” he said, and walked away.

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