OTHNEIL

The Force of God

Chapter Seven

by Richard S. Barnett

CHAPTER SEVEN

Gera, and I walked up to Jerusalem the next morning, leading Gera's men and mine. Caleb had found Rifaz a donkey, and he rode with us. Caleb said he would follow in a day or two after making sure that our people coming from the camp at Gilgal had settled safely into their new homes. He also wanted to make sure that they could protect themselves from loose bands of the Highborn or other leaderless fighters.
Rifaz began to teach us the tongue of the Canaanites as we marched toward Jerusalem. Their tongue resembles Hebrew, unlike the speech of the Egyptians or the Sea Peoples, though it changed from one city to the next. Rifaz taught us their different words and ways of speaking. He made us learn whole phrases rather than single words, and he made us repeat them all the way to the Benjaminite camp. We made a game of chanting the phrases together as we walked, and I think it made the morning go faster.
The Benjaminites had pitched their tents close to En Rogel, but far enough south in the shadows of the Kidron ravine to be out of sight from the Yevusites.
"We Benjaminites like to watch Jerusalem without being seen," Gera told us. "They sacrifice a pig on the wall nearest to us every day. I dare say their priests prophesy against us and curse us, and we don't want to hear their blasphemies. They're as loathsome as they're useless. Moreover, we think that an enemy the Yevusites can't see will sow more fear among them than one they can see."
"That’s only wise when you have so few men," I agreed. "Now let's see about catching these people who think they can come and go as they please."
We met with Matri and the other elders of Benjamin. Matri had already told them how much Caleb welcomed their covenant, and they couldn't wait to start closing the trap on Jerusalem.
"First I want to seize their threshing floor," Gera said. "It sits on that height overlooking their city, and we'll be able to see everyone who comes and goes."
The elders gave that task to Gera and his hundred, telling them to close the ways to all who tried to enter Jerusalem from the north. We agreed that some of my men would go with the Benjaminites so that they could learn the ways of the land. Those staying at the camp would close in around the city walls at nightfall and catch anyone who might try to leave or go in. Rifaz and I would begin our search for the city's weak points.
Rifaz left his donkey with Matri and we went with Gera and his men to the height overlooking Jerusalem. The path to the hill follows a ravine on the west side of the city, but we took another path further to the west and out of sight of the Yevusites. It took us to a trail that led to the hill from the north.
"This is the threshing floor of the Yevusites," Gera told us when we reached the high place, pointing to the chaff and straw left after threshing that year's harvest.
"Indeed, their city takes its name from this place, sir." Rifaz added. "The Egyptians would have built a fortress right here. Behold how much of the world you can see from this spot."
The threshing floor was a bare, rock-floored place that rises so high above the nearby hills that we felt we stood at the top of the world. Looking east, we saw across the Salt Sea to the mountains of Moab, and to the west we saw the Great Sea beyond the foothills and the plains where the Sea Peoples dwell. Far to the south lay the wilderness of Sinai and Egypt, lost in a dusty haze. To the north of the Salt Sea, we looked down into the valley of the Jordan and saw where Jericho once stood amidst its palms. Far to the north, hovering beyond the wooded highlands of Judah and Ephraim, we could see the peak of the White Mountain looming above the city of Chatsor, which we burned after the battle at the waters of Merom.
I had never seen so much of our land from a single high place, and the sight filled me with haste to finish the task before us, claiming Canaan for Israel.
"Praise the Lord," I said. "He has brought us into such a great and wide land and placed it our hands."
"Praise the Lord," Gera agreed. "He has brought us so far and through so many battles."
"Yet Jerusalem is so strong," I said, "and I can see no way to take it. Just look at the thickness of the wall at this end. They could drive a chariot on it."
"Though the walls seem mighty, they're weak, sir," Rifaz pointed out. "Nothing binds the stones. That's why the Canaanites had to build their walls so much thicker at the base than at the top. Within, such walls are nothing but loose rubble that crumbles in an earthquake. They'll come tumbling down when we break away the outer blocks."
"The Yevusites won't stand by and let us do that," Gera warned.
"Perhaps the Lord will show us a way into the city if we search, my brother," I answered. "I'll walk down into the Kidron ravine and search along its east wall for their spring."
"They keep guards on the wall, Othniel. Beware of their stones and arrows!"
"See how the shadows grow long? Night will fall before I get there."
"Take care; the night is deep and wide, Othniel. The Lord be with you!"
Rifaz and I made our way down into the Kidron ravine, still keeping out of sight of the city. We crept in the shadows and began our search along the east wall of Jerusalem. We both jumped when something leapt out of the shadows and ran off snarling.
"A wild dog," Rifaz said. "They live off the scraps and refuse that the Yevusites toss over their walls, and they warn them of strangers. They hide by day, run in packs at night, and attack lone strangers."
A chorus of angry barking broke out as a pack of dogs rushed at us. Seeing their pale shapes in the dusk, I let Rifaz hold my spear while I made a sling out of my headband. I'm no slinger, but two quick stones sent one running off with a yelp. The rest kept coming in a din of barking and yelping that made my hair bristle. I grabbed my spear and Rifaz backed up against a boulder brandishing his club.
"Watch out for your legs," he shouted.
The lead dog jumped at me while a second tried to sneak behind me. I rammed my spear into the leader and dropped it when I couldn't free it. I barely stepped aside in time to pull my knife and strike at the second before it could bite my ankles. I missed and the beast dodged my next stroke and ran back to the pack. They surged forward again but backed away whenever I raised my knife. I ran forward far enough to kill their wounded leader and jerk my spear free of its ribs. The dogs charged again the moment I started to move back to Rifaz, but one jab of my spear changed their minds and they ran off yelping. Dogs within the city answered by howling, and I heard stones bouncing off the rocks behind us. The Yevusites couldn't see us but were throwing wildly into the darkness.
Rifaz saw my hands shaking when he came to my side. "Never show wild curs your back, sir," he warned me. "They always give way when you go after them, and they attack anything that tries to flee."
"Do you mean the dogs or the Yevusites, my friend?" I laughed. "We might as well light a fire now," I said, "and let the Yevusites know where we are."
We could no longer see anything in the shadows at the foot of the hillside, so we walked back towards the camp of the Benjaminites, following a clear path along the floor of the Kidron ravine. The dogs kept barking and followed us although they stayed well away.
"If the Yevusites really have a flowing spring of living water, shouldn't we find signs of running water somewhere along here?" I asked Rifaz.
"Sir, the Yevusites guard their secrets as jealously as a dog its bone. I suspect they have hidden their spring by cutting a channel in the hillside to carry its water within the city walls. Observe how the wall dips close to the foot of the hill near the south end."
Even in the dark we could see that the south end of the city walls no longer grew from the shoulder of the ridge, but plunged almost to the floor of the ravine. If the Yevusites had a pool, I knew that it had to be in that low part of their city.
"Does it pass through a gate in the wall?" I asked.
"No sir, their gates are all on the west side of the city."
"There must be a passage through the wall somewhere, even if it's hidden?"
"True, sir. Shall we come back and search for signs at daybreak?"
"The Yevusites won't send any messengers over the walls so long as they know that we are here. How can we get rid of these dogs?" I asked.
"If we feed them and make friends with them, they might bark at the Canaanites instead. Why shouldn't they keep watch for us?"
"Because they are unclean and would kill our sheep, my friend. Besides, they eat all sorts of filth, just like pigs, and they're as bloodthirsty as wolves."
"We could teach them to keep watch over our flocks, sir."
"A likely tale, Rifaz! Well, let's at least try to lure them away from here with a few scraps. Perhaps we'll even trap one for you and see what you can teach it."
The pack kept pace with us while we walked on down the Kidron ravine. They hung back but barked more than ever as we drew near to the campfires. We gathered a basket of scraps from a slaughter, and took five of Matri's men with us. I left my spear with Matri and borrowed a club, and we walked back toward Jerusalem with the dogs following in full voice (interchange the word voice with something more animal like). As we approached the city walls again, Rifaz tossed a scrap of offal toward the pack. The dogs pounced on it and began fighting over it with so much yelping and growling you would think they were devouring each other. Rifaz told the Benjaminites to keep tossing scraps to the dogs while they drew them off to the east and we stayed behind.
"Dogs can't count, you know," Rifaz told the men. "They'll follow your offal and never miss us."
We stood still in the shadows until the Benjaminites had drawn the dogs well away from the Kidron ravine. We then crept closer to the city walls and waited where we could see and hear the guards. A young moon had long since followed the sun to his resting place, and no one could see us from above. Mists had begun to gather in the ravine when at last we heard a slithering noise from the wall. The Yevusites had cast a rope over the wall and were lowering someone--three men!
They reached the ground and began walking south in single file. Rifaz and I stole after them until we had gone well away from the walls. I slipped up behind the last man, tripped him with my foot, and clubbed him on the back of the neck, knocking him senseless. The others heard him fall and they ran. I caught one immediately but the other got away. I gagged and bound the man with his own clothing while Rifaz did the same with the first.
"The watchers on the walls heard nothing, sir," he told me.
"The Lord is with us! Let's get this pair back to the camp." The first one was only a youth, and I heaved him over my shoulder while Rifaz led the other to the Benjaminite camp. It was still dark when we walked in and surprised the men on watch.
"It's no wonder people can come and go from the city, Othniel," Matri said when I told him about the man who got away. "Not one of our guards saw or heard a thing. We must keep a closer watch at night."
"Caleb has sent word by a runner," he added. "He and the hosts of Judah and Simeon will arrive by midday. You had better rest and get ready for battle."
He sent for food and water before he joined us at the campfire. "Now, what will you do with your captives?" he asked.
"Rifaz has a way with all kinds of beasts and he knows their tongue, sir," I told him. "He'll make this pair coo like doves."
The youth I had knocked out still lay unconscious. The second was another youth, not much younger than myself. Their slim bodies and small stature told me that both were Yevusites rather than sons of the Highborn.
"Sir, they’re not warriors but runners bearing messages," Rifaz said. "They will talk."
Rifaz spoke in Canaanite to the second, pointing to me and the bone I was gnawing. I understood only a word or two, but I saw how fearful he became.
"I have promised that we won't feed him alive to the wild dogs of Jerusalem,” Rifaz said. "Now I'll tell him to give us his message."
Rifaz translated the message for me:
"Thus says my master, Shikha, Prince of Lightning, King of Summit City, Beloved of He who mounts the storms:
"To the lord Haddek, son of Hoham, son of Arbah, King of Arbah City, and Beloved of Anath: greetings! May all the gods smile upon you.

"The Hebrews are upon us, my brother, and they trouble our land. Have not our fathers fallen before them like wheat before the sickle? They have taken Summit City and shed blood on the high place of the Sun. They have shut me up in Jerusalem like a caged bird. May the god of the Hebrews bear their sins upon his head!

"So we ask you, brother, to stretch forth your hand and send forth your lightning upon the Hebrews. Yes, do that and send us silver and gold so that we may pay the men of the plains and the Sea People to fight for us before the Hebrews come upon you and burn your sacred groves and cast down the statues of your gods. If Jerusalem should fall, they will lust all the more for the riches of Arbah City. Shall it be said, O king, that the Hebrews took Arbah City because you feared to help your brother?"

"So it's Shikha who's sending for help--not the king of Jerusalem? How does this come to pass?" I asked Rifaz.
"The captive says that Ravisu, the new Adonai Tsedek, is fat and fearful of heart. He fears Shikha more than us. I have seen with my own eyes, how Shikha lays curses on his enemies and then plots to kill them. Such a man as Shikha would gladly turn the Yevusites against their own king to get his way."
"But the man's curses and threats are empty talk," I argued. "He has lost all his wealth and power."
"Curses have more power than you know, my son," Matri warned.
"Even so, the only power in Shikha's curses comes from fear. He has no power over evil spirits."
"Yet the Yevusites don't know that, sir." Rifaz said. "They have seen how far his curses reach and they live in awe of him. He often makes an image of an enemy out of clay or dung, and he works in some of the man's hair or threads of his clothing, if he can get them. He then chants bloodcurdling curses while he sprinkles the blood of a sacrifice on the image and smashes it on the altar of Anath. He can make strong men die of fright.”
"Did he threaten the king of Arbah City?" I asked Rifaz.
He spoke briefly to the captive before answering, "No, sir. Shikha never needs to make an open threat for anyone to sense one."
"Where did he send the other two runners?" I asked.
"To Lachish and Eglon, sir."
"Ah, those are the other cities of the five kings whom we defeated in the battle of Aijalon," Matri said.
"Yes, sir. Blood binds all these cities of the Highborn. The founder of Arbah City made his four sons kings of Jerusalem, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. Shikha has also sent other runners to Debir, Libnah, and Gaza."
"He won't send out any more," Matri promised.
"Rifaz," I said, "will you ask what this fellow knows about the spring and how the city gets its water?"
He questioned the youth for a while. The spring flowed into a pool just inside the south end of the city wall, our captive admitted, but he didn't know how it passed through the wall. One of the king's storehouses hid that part of the wall and the captive had never seen inside.
"The storehouse guards the secret of the spring," Matri said. "We'll just have to take the city to learn its secret."
"So we shall, sir," I agreed. "Does the boy know how many men the king has to defend the city?"
Rifaz spoke to the youth again. He made signs for five hundreds.
"No more than we have," Matri said.
"Jerusalem isn’t big enough to hold thousands of men, sir," Rifaz added, "and they have already lost many in battle. Unless Shikha sends them out to attack us before Caleb comes, we have trapped them. Shikha might succeed where Ravisu was too fearful to try."
"Then we'll keep them too busy to try. Do your men know how to shoot fire-arrows, sir?" I asked Matri.
He laughed until he shook. "Does the sun know where to rise in the morning, my son? Yes, but our arrows won't fly far enough over those high walls to burn the city."
"Not from here, perhaps, but your men could rain arrows down inside the walls from the north."
Matri sent for the other leaders of the Benjaminites. They decided that everyone would begin making fire-arrows for a noonday attack. Gera's men would march close enough to the north wall to send showers of fire-arrows into the city while the rest of the troops would stay along the west wall until Caleb brought the men of Judah and Simeon. They would try to lure the Yevusites out by burning the gateways and shooting at the men on the walls.
"When they come out after us, Othniel," Matri said, "I'll sound a horn and you and Gera will lead your hundreds over the north wall. While we draw the Yevusites out into the arms of Caleb and his troops, you will burn their city."
"What if the Yevusites won't go out after you, sir? Shikha knows about our traps."
"They don't know about Caleb, my son, and they still think they are more than a match for us. You will go in over the north wall whether they come out or not. That will draw enough men away from the gateways in the west wall so we can open them for Caleb."
We all began getting ready for the attack. I left Rifaz with Matri and led my men to join Gera on the height above Jerusalem. I tried to take a nap while our men kept out of sight, made fire-arrows, and cut down six stout pine trees for logs to breach the north wall. Although I had been awake for most of a day and a night, I could hardly close my eyes in my eagerness to begin the attack. (Use a more dramatic sentence to describe your mental state)
The next thing I knew, Gera was shaking me. "Othniel," he said, "are you going to sleep all day?"
Gera's men had already begun shooting fire-arrows onto the roofs at the north end of Jerusalem and other Benjaminites were shooting fire-arrows over the west wall. Afternoon breezes from the Great Sea carried smoke from burning gateways and roofs across the city and into the eyes of the Yevusites. I could hear shouting and horns but I had no idea which was Matri's signal.
As we ran down the hill, I asked, "Has anyone seen Caleb yet?"
"That's their dust down the Kidron ravine, beyond our camp," Gera pointed.
"The Yevusites will see it too," I said. "We'll never lure them out today, so let's go over the wall after them!"
"My bowmen will clear the wall for you," Gera shouted as he ran to his men.
I joined a dozen of mine who were carrying a great pine log and took a place at the front. I halted them a hundred paces away from the wall and brought the other men with logs to help us. "The wall’s too high to climb," I shouted. "Lay aside your spears so we can batter a hole. Don't spread out. Take your turns and aim for the same point-- Now!"
We charged down the last of the slope and hurled our log against the wall. The first blow seemed feeble, but the next loosened stones at the top of the wall. The rough fieldstone of the outer stonework shifted under our pounding. We took turns with more men on two logs making shorter runs, and the top of the wall began to crumble.
Yevusites tried to defend their wall but Gera's bowmen forced them away while we kept battering. Two more blows made a piece of wall fall free. More blocks slid loose, and a whole wedge of inner wall came sliding down with a rumble and clouds of dust, leaving a deep notch in the wall.
"Get those logs into the gap," I shouted. We hoisted the logs into the gap to make a ramp, and I scrambled up and had nearly crossed the ruined wall before I remembered to use my spear. I don't know what I shouted as I struck a spear aside and speared the man holding it. My troops pushed past me and charged at the Yevusites before us while Gera's bowmen and slingers climbed up on the walls and shot down at them. The Yevusites fell back in disorder.
I glanced around to see what to do next.
The roof of a storeroom had fallen in where we had battered through the wall, and we had broken into a level space between the walls and buildings of the city. I saw that it led to the west wall.
"Come on! We'll attack them from the back," I shouted to my men, and Gera and his men followed on the wall.
We turned the corner from the north to the west wall and met the fighting. The Yevusites had placed most of their men on the west side of the city. Matri's bowmen had charged through the burning gateway but couldn't fight their way any further inside. Yevusite bowmen held the wall while well-armed Highborn soldiers fought our lightly armed bowmen.
Gera's bowmen and slingers began to clear the wall of Yevusites while I attacked the soldiers on the ground. We caught them by surprise but the Highborn didn't give up as easily as Yevusites. They fought back with sword and shield, moving in close ranks that pushed us back, but they were too few to hold the gate.
The noise of shouting and horns at the gateway grew louder as more and more Hebrews forced their way into Jerusalem and began to spread out. Caleb himself led the new attack that broke the ranks of the Highborn soldiers. He killed their leader and the last small groups of soldiers fell or ran.
Caleb made sure that his men controlled the gateway before he turned south toward the next. We herded the leaderless Yevusite and Highborn soldiers into the south end of the city, where they gave up their fight while the sun still stood high in the sky.
"Where is the king of Jerusalem?" Caleb shouted. "Bring him to me!"
Ravisu, the Adonai Tsedek wasn't with his soldiers, and neither was Shikha.
"Let them be found!" Caleb ordered. "Spread out and search the whole city."
We searched everywhere and looked at every corpse before casting it out of the city, but not a sign of the two kings did we find.
"They mean to trouble us another day, sir," Rifaz warned me. "I think we can guess how they got away--through the spring."
We found Caleb and asked him to walk with us to learn the spring's secret. We found the pool at the south end of the city and looked inside the storeroom built into the city wall. A second pool filled the storeroom, and a channel through the nearest wall fed the outer pool. We sent for torches to light the pool, but when they came we couldn't see how water flowed into the inner pool.
"The builders hid the mouth of the channel behind one of these walls," Rifaz said. "It must flow into this chamber through an opening below the surface."
"If a lame man could escape through here, surely we can follow," I said. "I might as well have a look."
I gave Rifaz my spear, leather jerkin, and sandals but kept my knife in my girdle. Caleb held a torch while I lowered myself into the pool. The water was hip deep and so cold I shivered. I felt around the left wall to the back. A fine ooze filled the bottom, and I had to take care not to slip. I felt a faint stirring as I neared the back wall.
"There's a current," I called back to Rifaz and Caleb.
"Good! Keep going, my son," Caleb answered.
The current grew stronger in the corner but weakened again when I passed the corner.
"It's coming from this corner," I said as I groped below the surface of the water. "Yes, I've found a big hole down here! I'll see if I can get through."
"If you find a passage, my son, come back and tell us before you try to go through it," Caleb answered. "We’ll meet you on the other side of the wall."
I agreed, and Caleb and Rifaz blessed me and told me to be careful.
I thought of nothing else. I dreaded the way the chill of that dark water numbed my body, but I took a deep breath, reached down for the rim of the hole, and pulled myself down and through. I stood up on the other side and found myself in what seemed to be a small chamber barely high enough for me to stand. I felt a solid rock roof just above my head and rock walls within an arm's length on either side. I couldn't see a thing but heard a quiet trickle of water into the pool. A passage of some kind waited within reach.
Much as I wanted to go forward and get out of that water before it completely numbed me, I forced myself to go back through the hole and tell Caleb and Rifaz what I had found.
"We'll keep watch at both ends," Caleb promised. "We'll follow you if we have to. If you don't find the way out before nightfall, I'll tear down these walls myself."
I plunged through the hole again into the dark chamber, and I felt my way toward the trickling water. It came from a hole cut into solid rock at a level above the water surface. I reached inside and found it wide enough to enter. When I pulled myself out of the pool and climbed into the hole, I could not stand up. I had to crawl ahead through a stream of running water. It was shallow after the dry summer, and running water had smoothed the bottom of the channel.
I lost count of the number of little pools I had to crawl through. They kept me soaked and shivering without the least chance to dry out and warm myself. I saw tiny beams of light here and there after I had passed three bends in the tunnel. I felt around and found that the roof of the tunnel was no longer solid rock but a covering of rock slabs. The light came through narrow gaps between the slabs. I heard splashing and slithering ahead of me. The passage itself grew steeper and its builders had cut steps into the floor. As I fumbled my way further up, the ripple of the water took on a different tune. I heard a bubbling somewhere told me I must be close to the spring. ( maybe you can break this sentence into two sentences…I heard a bubbling close-by. I sensed I was close to the spring)
I almost fell into another pool. The passage leveled off abruptly and opened into another chamber high enough for me to stand up. The spring filled the chamber with its quiet song, but it was darker than ever. There seemed to be no way out.
I knew that I hadn't missed another passage, so the way out had to lie ahead somewhere. I probed around the wall of the chamber from top to bottom with hands and feet.
I found a place at the far end where the wall felt different. It joined the bedrock of the mountain in a corner with an overhanging ledge. The ledge made a hollow at the base of the wall, and the stones in the hollow felt smaller and smoother than rest of the wall, and they were looser! I found one that I could pull out, and a dim light told me I had at last found the secret way out of the spring.
I tore away all the stones and found the entry to another passage. I crawled into it and found its far end blocked. I had come too close to freedom to let that stop me, so I pushed and dragged more stones away until I came to a huge boulder that I couldn't shift. Daylight shone around it, but I couldn't quite see around it to tell where I was.
I was trapped. The escaping Amorites must have rolled the boulder into the hole to close it and hide their secret passage into the city.
I felt too cold and tired to think of turning back, but I couldn't dig myself out. If I could only light a fire, I thought the smoke might bring someone before dark, but my clothes were soaked and I had nothing else to burn. I could do nothing but shout and hope that someone would hear me.
"Rifaz!" I shouted. I shouted again after a pause, and kept shouting until I grew hoarse and thirsty. I croaked with laughter to think how close I had been to water that afternoon without drinking, and now I could die of thirst. I tried banging a pair of stones together between shouts, but all that happened was the fading of the daylight.
"Lord," I asked, "Lord, have you brought your servant this far only to perish? Hear, O, Lord, and be gracious unto me. Deliver your servant!"
I renewed my banging and shouting only to hear thunder. It meant the first rains had come and runoff from the mountain could flood my hole!
I shouted again, and at last I heard an answer. I could have wept for joy if I had not been so desperate.
"Othniel! Where are you?" It was Rifaz.
"Down here, Rifaz. Down here!"
I heard him scrambling around above me, and he shouted, "Here he is! I've found Othniel."
Others joined him. I could hear Matri and Caleb among them. I heard them lifting loose stones to get closer to the boulder. A trickle of small pieces and dust made me draw back.
"Othniel," Caleb shouted down to me, "listen to me. This great stone is too big and slippery for us to lift out. We'll have to widen the pit to get around it, and it will take days because it's all solid rock. Did you find another place where we can break through?"
"Yes, sir," I croaked. "I saw cracks in the roof of the passage below the spring, but I've no way to show you. Can you push a long rod around this great stone? You'll need to cut me a green withe that will bend."
"We'll do that, my son. I'll stay here with you while they cut one."
I explained to Caleb how I had gone through the passage to the spring and then found this hole blocked. "They wanted to keep their secret safe," I told him. "They mean to come back this way some time."
"Then they'll have to find another way. We'll raise a great heap of stones over this place once we get you out."
Rifaz brought me a green rod from a thorn tree. They had stripped off the bark and thorns for me, and Caleb pushed it down the hole. I pulled it through, crawled back out of the hole, and groped my way back to the channel that fed the pools. I had to sit in the water to ease myself down the steps of the slippery passage. I couldn't see the cracks in the roof because it had grown dark outside, but I came to a place where rainwater trickled through and I poked my rod into it. It passed through freely, and I pushed it as far as I could and tried to shake and wave it.
"Here I am!" I shouted.
The answering shouts came quickly. The stonework of the roof muffled the shouts, but someone pulled the rod through and pushed it back three times to show he had found me. I heard noises of work above me and stone chips began to sift through the cracks. I moved out of the way. The people outside must have had a layer or two of loose rock to clear before they came to the slabs that covered the passage. They began to bang and hammer until a slab cracked and fell into the passage with a great thud and a lot of loose falling stones.
The glare of torches nearly blinded me after so long in the dark. I squinted and saw hands reaching to me. "Thank you, Lord," I mumbled as I clutched the hands. They hauled me out and helped to steady me.
I saw Caleb and Matri waiting for me, but I don't know whom else because there was Acsah, holding out a dry mantle for me. I must have looked a fright because I was shaking with cold and weariness and all covered in red mud, but something in her malachite eyes told me she was glad to see me. She didn't have to say a word because simply seeing her so warmed me that I felt that no cold could ever touch me again.