Carpathian: An Event Group Thriller (Event Group Thrillers) Read online

“The fears of women and children do not concern me, brother Joshua. You and the Deliverer before you have perpetrated the falsity of my tribe to the others, thus necessitating their fears. We are nothing but butchers and witches—nothing more than a tribe of magicians and tricksters to them. And it has been three years, two months, and eighteen days since the Jeddah have joined with other men of Israel.”

  Joshua gestured for his guest to sit. Kale refused. When offered bread, another refusal.

  “I will break bread with my people tonight,” Kale said. “The Jeddah have been on the march since the turning of the season. The treasure wagons are still months behind.”

  Joshua finally removed his shroud and then shook his head.

  “I am the most tired man on God’s great earth, brother Kale. We heard of your battle against the Canaanite charioteers near the plain of Deeab.” Joshua noticed the lowered head of his oldest friend and the greatest warrior he had ever seen in action for the Egyptians, or against them. “Did you lose many warriors of the tribe of Jeddah?”

  “All told since the Great Exodus, the Jeddah have been sacrificed to the count of one thousand soldiers.”

  The tent was silent as Joshua bowed his head in a silent prayer. He slowly raised his face to the highest part of his tent as if he were seeking wisdom from the highest of sources. Joshua took a deep breath.

  “A heavy toll, brother, but a necessary one I fear, just as the task ahead will also take a heavy toll on the chosen,” he hesitated momentarily, “and of the Golia. Thirty-six years of wandering, Kale. Of never finding the home promised by our Lord. We need your soldiers and your animals this one last time.”

  “We have lost all but twelve of the Golia. And there are only two females left to continue the breed. The remainder cannot be risked.” Kale softened his voice when he saw that Joshua was actually pained by not only the loss of the soldiers of the Jeddah tribe, but also because of the battle deaths of the magnificent animals that made their Exodus from the land of Pharaoh possible. The special breed of beast were slowly being killed off nearly to extinction for the benefit of the other tribes. “The Golia alone broke the son of Ramesses at the Sea of Reeds while the Hebrew army escaped and crossed the wetlands. An escape made possible by the loss of twenty of the most prized male Golia. And then last month on the plain of Deeab, eight more males and three of the remaining females were lost when they attacked the enemy of Israel as they lay in ambush of the relief army you sent searching for us—or more to the point, the people’s spoils from the conquests of Egypt and Canaan.”

  “Old friend, we owe the Lord’s greatest creation our very existence. Without the Golia, we never would have escaped the two lands—”

  “As Moses promised me many years ago and you agreed, Joshua, I am taking the Golia and the tribe of Jeddah out of this land God has given unto the people. I am taking them to the far-off lands of the north where the Golia and the tribe of Jeddah can once again grow strong.” Kale looked his old friend in the eyes. “We have done the bidding of the Deliverer, and that of our Lord God. We have done what was said could not be done. We have died for the people of Israel and we have been their host of war. It is time to allow the Golia to live free once more.”

  Joshua touched the shoulder of the much larger man. “You have taken the Jeddah and camped far from the other tribes this night. I had prayed that you would be among the children of Israel after your long journey into the land of Canaan. You have not broken bread with the other tribes since the Exodus from the land of Pharaoh.”

  “You and the prophet before you know the many reasons why the Jeddah cannot live among the people. It has been this way since the days of Joseph, and before that, Abraham. They too found it a matter of convenience to hide us and the animals away until needed.”

  “Your people, your tribe—are they not part of the chosen? Are they not a part of the plan of Moses, and therefore of God? In essence the Jeddah are God’s people … therefore, my people!”

  “Do not overstep your bounds, Joshua. Moses found himself punished and banned from this land for far less arrogance. The Lord God of Hosts did not mean for us to kill off his greatest creation outside of man, the Golia.”

  “Enough, Kale, I am not Moses! I do not have the gift of divine intervention. I am but a man—a very tired and worn man at that. No prophet.” He lowered his eyes, unable to meet those of Kale. “Some would even say no war general,” Joshua finished ashamedly as he finally looked up into the face of his greatest soldier. “We … no, I have need for the Jeddah and your—your very special kinship with the Golia one last time.”

  “No!” Kale said loudly as he took a step back. “We have fought for the people since we fled Egypt. Now there are but two hundred men, women, and children left in the tribe of Jeddah, and half of those will not make it to see another summer.”

  “It is your animals that are needed. The walls of Jericho must fall tonight.”

  “The Golia are dying, dying for the tribes of Israel. They are dying, being killed off by the enemies of the chosen people. And what is the reward we offer them for their service to God and all of Israel? You offer the one thing the animals have come to hate, Joshua. They hate death. They hate their dishonor. They are sickened by what they have been asked to do against our brother man. You offer yet more carnage and then and only then can the Golia’s days of peace commence for an animal we turned warlike in nature. Only there will not be one animal left to cherish that peace, and their caretakers, my Jeddah, will not be far behind them in death.”

  Joshua’s anger was legendary, but Kale did not flinch as the new leader of the Hebrews bound to his feet. The only movement Kale made was to lightly touch the bronze sword just under the folds of his large robe.

  “Jericho must fall … it must fall tonight!”

  “Then you had better marshal all your soldiers, old friend, because you take the city without the Jeddah and absent the Golia. I will not risk one more man of my tribe and not one more of the remaining animals will ever do murder for the people again.”

  “Is it murder to kill for the sake of seeking a home for all of the children of Israel?”

  “Find a home, but live among the people of this new land. Soldiers of the enemy may need to die, but not their women and children—a murderous task you have become rather adept at, Joshua.”

  “Kale, after this night you and the Jeddah are free. The Golia will make the sojourn to the north with you. Take them and go as brothers.”

  Kale stopped at the tent’s entrance but dared not ask the price of this surrender by Joshua.

  “If you allow the Golia to accede to my battle plan, this city will fall tonight. After the walls of Jericho fall and the city burns you will be tasked with an even greater mission for the people of Israel.”

  Kale allowed his shoulders to slump as he was now informed of Joshua’s true intent. The leader of the Jeddah knew Joshua as the most knowledgeable of men. Far more clever than even the prophet Moses when it came to the long-term plans of the children of Israel. Kale waited for the truth of his visit.

  “After the fighting has finished in this land awash with water, tree, and fruit,” Joshua explained, “I fear the people will never have true peace even then. I fear it was not meant to be so.” Joshua went to Kale and touched the large man’s shoulder and the Jeddah leader turned to face his old friend. “The people’s treachery against God at Sinai has angered the Lord of Hosts and his punishment against his people for arrogance will be centuries of battle against the people and tribes of Canaan.” Joshua looked at Kale with pleading eyes. “Only two of the Golia will be risked for the chance at not only life for God’s beasts, but life for the Jeddah and a lasting chance for the people to have their heritage saved for them. In future battles we could lose our greatest treasures to the peoples of this land. After the fall of the city you will take that heritage with you and you will allow no man of any land and also no man of the chosen to ever know where our heritage lies hidden. That is your
task. Leave us for your great stone mountains and I swear no man shall follow the Golia and the Jeddah. Two Golia and the casting of the spell—that is what I ask of the great Kale.”

  “You swear on the stone tablets that you and the chosen will not follow my people and the Golia to the north?”

  “After this night the Jeddah are free to take the Golia and Pharaoh’s artisans and engineers to erect the greatest temple in all of creation for the heritage of the people. Hide it well and you will never come to harm from the people of Israel.”

  “What are you doing, brother? You are giving away king’s ransoms and our greatest gifts from God for what? So they will not be taken from the people when other greater armies come for you in the land of Canaan?” Kale stepped up to his old friend. “You lie to me, brother, why?”

  Joshua turned away from Kale and removed his sword and then looked at it in the weak light cast from the oil lamps. “Because if we don’t hide away forever that which has been taken as spoils in battle and the gifts from God himself, the people will never become one with the land and we will be fighting the Canaanites for a thousand years to keep this land. As long as the riches of Egypt and the gifts from God remain with the people we will forever be fighting to protect that which is not important for life.”

  “You may not speak with God, but you truly speak for the people of God. If they discover you have given away the greatest gifts God has bestowed upon the people, they will curse your name, brother. You give the Golia and the Jeddah the gifts from God to hide among the rocks and ice of the north and you will be cursed.”

  Joshua laughed for the first time in what seemed like years.

  “What could be worse than the gift of leadership that was bestowed upon me by Moses? No, my friend, I will not be killing my people off to protect treasure and heritage when it could all just vanish with you and yours into the night. The people fear the Golia, they will not follow. Build me my temple in the great stone mountains in the land of snow and frost and bury the treasure forever.”

  “I will instruct the Golia. I will inform you of the plan of attack. After this night Jericho will fall, Brother Joshua. Then I will take my people and the Golia and leave this place of death forever.”

  Joshua nodded. The deal had been struck and the Jeddah would do God’s bidding one last time. He gestured for Kale to look upon the map of the great city and he pointed out his plan for the final battle of the Golia for God’s chosen people.

  In less than an hour Kale had summoned his two finest warriors for the casting of the spell and the link with the Golia.

  * * *

  The two guards in the south tower watched as the Hebrew army marched and demonstrated outside the city walls, their many thousand torches blazing a path of its march around their walls. The trumpets had started at sundown as they had every night since the four-month siege had started. One guard turned away and lifted a cloth from a bowl. He reached down and took a large chunk of stale bread, tore it in two, and tossed the smaller half to his companion. “Music makes me want food and drink.” He shook his head at the moldy bread in his hand. “But I guess rock-hard bread will have to do.”

  The second tower guard accepted the bread and then turned to watch the drummers and the trumpeters, followed by sixty spear- and shield-wielding Hebrew soldiers continuing their march around the city walls.

  “Those trumpets are maddening. They even invade my sleep.” The guard looked at the bread in his hand and then tossed it over the side. “They even steal the taste right from your mouth,” he said as he watched the bread sail over the edge of the tower and into the darkness below. “When will they attack?”

  Chewing the bread with a look of disgust, the first guard paced the few feet to his companion and then tossed his own bread over the wall.

  “They haven’t enough soldiers to do anything but lay siege. They will move on when they see that the walls of Jericho cannot be breached.”

  * * *

  The second chunk of five-day-old bread hit the rocks at the base of the six-foot-thick wall and rolled to the base of a small pomegranate tree. It was ignored by the large snout of the beast as its nostrils sought out other smells beyond that of the rotten food. As the bread came to rest only inches from the nose of the beast, the yellow eyes opened wider and the long muzzle of the wolf rose into the air and sniffed. The male could smell two men of Canaan. They were a hundred feet above the hidden male as it waited for the trumpets and drums to pass. In the darkness of the night the male slowly came to all fours directly under the guard tower. It sat and waited, smelled, making sure there were only the two men at this post. The beast sniffed the air once more and then turned its massive head to stare out at the small hills surrounding Jericho. At that moment two more of the Golia males slipped from hiding and with two great strides made it to the base of the wall.

  Kale watched from a hidden location a mile away from the south wall. He saw the first animal as it watched its two male companions run past. Then the first beast raised his right paw upward and examined its padded foot. Slowly, methodically the Golia saw the clawed appendages coming from the knuckle just above the running pad, then the long fingers of the beast, which had been curled into a fist when not in use, extended until the long, slim, but powerful digits extended. The eight-inch black and purple claws were shining brightly in the moonlight on this, the last night in the history of the city of Jericho.

  Kale looked back at the small fire and the two female attendants who watched over the two male warriors of the Jeddah as they sat silently and with eyes closed around the small fire. The women wiped sweat from their brows and dampened their mouths with water-soaked swatches. Both men of the Jeddah lay in a trance delivered from the spell and didn’t move except for the rising and falling of their chests as they breathed. The Golia were in control of the two men and would not relinquish that hold until their mission had been completed. Kale concentrated on the third animal at the base of the wall—the alpha male of the pack.

  The giant beast felt Kale’s presence in its large brain. The leader of the tribe of Jeddah was reaching out to it. The beast shook its massive head, slinging the long, upright ears to the left and to the right. Saliva flew from its open muzzle as Kale came unbidden to its mind.

  One of the attending women used a small cloth and dabbed at the spittle that flew from the Jeddah soldier closest to the fire.

  The beast at the base of the wall stopped and listened, tilting its head first right and then left as Kale’s words struck its mind in picture form. The animal used the raised right hand to push itself up higher until it was balanced on its two hind legs. Again the toes of the beast uncurled—it would not need the running pads on its feet for what needed doing this night of nights. The foot looked far more human than it had a moment before. The giant beast tested its footing on the loose shale beneath the wall. The eyes narrowed and the orders it had been given came clear to its thoughts. The animal, which now stood as tall as two men upon one another, raised its long powerful muzzle to the night sky, and then just before it shattered the night with the howl it wanted to loose upon the sky, it was bidden to hide once more from the man thoughts in its mind. There would be no howling, no fight before the walls were taken. Instead it lowered its head and then fell to all fours once more.

  The two animals to the left and right of the alpha male sat at the base of the wall and both Golia knew what had to be done from the link with the two soldiers sitting a mile away from the walls of Jericho. The first wolf sank its claws into the clay and stone wall. Then it raised its powerful hand once more and sank the second set of claws deep into the wall. Then it started to climb, quickly followed by the second Golia. The same was happening on the other darkened walls of Jericho. The black-on-black movement of the beasts was undetectable on the moonless night. Joshua had only requested two Golia for the attack, but Kale had used five. This would end tonight.

  The drums and trumpets became even louder as the Golia struck the guard towers
with a fierceness the men of Canaan were not capable of withstanding. The attack on Jericho had started and now there was no stopping the Golia from opening the rear gates of the city of Jericho. The magic was happening again, just as it had on a thousand different nights when the Golia fought for their brothers.

  * * *

  Joshua stood upon the rise three miles from the burning city. As the screams and sounds of fighting came to his ears he collapsed to his knees. The leader of the people pulled the shroud of his robe over his head and prayed forgiveness for the carnage he had set loose in the city of Jericho. The screams of the women and children and the shouts of his own soldiers could clearly be heard across the River Jordan.

  “Lord God, forgive my weak use of your words. The needs of the people have driven my mind to madness. I need guidance to—”

  “He is not listening to you this night of nights, Joshua.”

  His prayer interrupted, Joshua froze as he recognized the voice. It was Kale.

  “I cannot stop the screaming in my head.”

  “The voices of the children of Jericho will forever haunt your mind. That is your price, Joshua,” Kale said and then added, “as it is my own.”

  “Our losses?” Joshua asked as he pulled the shroud from his head.

  Kale looked up and across the River Jordan. The flames were now a thousand feet high in the center of the large city. As he watched, a great watchtower along the southern wall collapsed into the streets below, sending a fresh wave of screaming and shouting into the night sky.

  “The tribes have lost no more than three hundred in the attack. The Jeddah have lost eight soldiers, and we have…” His voice trailed off to nothing as his eyes saw another section of the great northern wall fall and even more of the Hebrew army charge over the smoking ruin of rubble.

  “You have lost Golia?”

  Kale was silent as Joshua rose to his feet.

  “Two males were near the southern wall when it collapsed. After they silenced the guards in the tower, it was they who opened the smaller southern gate for your soldiers. They were near there when the wall fell, crushing the life from their bodies.” Kale gestured behind him and Joshua turned to see two men being carried by other Jeddah soldiers and the two attending women, who cried into their veils as they left Joshua’s encampment. They had died, just slumped over and fell dead the moment the lives of the two Golia were crushed from the falling stone of the walls. Their faces and bodies were covered but Joshua could see an arm, mangled and broken, as it fell from the side of the dead soldier.