The Bronze Bow Read online

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  Copyright © 1961 by Elizabeth George Speare

  Copyright © renewed 1989 by Elizabeth George Speare

  All rights reserved. For information about permission

  to reproduce selections from this book, write to

  Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue

  South, New York, New York 10003.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG NUMBER: 61-10640

  ISBN: 0-395-13719-5 Sandpiper edition

  ISBN: 0-395-87769-5 cloth edition

  Printed in the U.S.A

  QUM 59 58 57

  1

  A BOY STOOD on the path of the mountain overlooking the sea. He was a tall boy, with little trace of youth in his lean, hard body. At eighteen Daniel bar Jamin was unmistakably a Galilean, with the bold features of his countrymen, the sun-browned skin, and the brilliant dark eyes that could light with fierce patriotism and blacken with swift anger. A proud race, the Galileans, violent and restless, unreconciled that Palestine was a conquered nation, refusing to acknowledge as their lord the Emperor Tiberius in far-off Rome.

  Looking down into the valley, the boy could see the silver-gray terraces of olive trees splashed with burgeoning thickets of oleander. He remembered that in the brown, mud-roofed town every clump of earth, every cranny in a stone wall, would have burst into springtime flower. Remembering, he scowled up against the hot noonday sun.

  He was waiting for two figures to reappear among the boulders that tumbled on either side of the path just above him. He was puzzled and uneasy, at odds with himself. Who were these two who had been so foolhardy as to climb the mountain? He was resentful that they had reminded him of the village, fearful that they might look back and discover him, yet unwilling to let them out of his sight. Why was he so bent on following them, when all he had wanted for five years was to forget that other world in the valley?

  He glimpsed the boy again, some distance up, then the girl. Some memory nagged at him. Brother and sister, that was evident. They moved alike, with a sort of free, swinging ease. They had the same high cheekbones and dark ruddy complexions. Their voices were sharp in the clean air. Daniel could see the girl clearly. She had stopped to snatch a cluster of pink flax blossoms and she stood now, poised on a rock, her face lifted, her yellow head covering slipped back off her dark hair.

  "Look, Joel!" she cried, her voice coming down to him distinctly. "How blue the lake is! You can see the tetrarch's palace in Tiberias."

  Daniel's black brows drew together fiercely. Now he recognized the boy. He was Joel bar Hezron, the redcheeked boy who used to come to the synagogue school, the scribe's son, the one the rabbi held up for an example, the one they used to tease because his twin sister always waited outside to walk home with him. She had an odd name—Malthace. Five years ago that was, and Daniel could still feel the hurt of seeing her waiting there outside the school, while his own sister—

  "We're almost there!" the boy's voice rang out. The girl sprang down from the rock. The two flicked out of sight, sending a quick hail of pebbles bounding down the path. Daniel moved forward with the caution of an animal stalking its prey.

  He reached the top just as the girl, flushed and out of breath, flung herself down on the patch of grass where Joel waited. She snatched the head covering clear off, letting the wind pull at her hair. Daniel could see them pointing out to each other the landmarks below.

  From where he crouched he could not see the valley, but he knew the sight of it well enough. How many times had he sat where those two sat now, looking down on the village of Ketzah that had been his home? Not so often these last years, but at first, before he had got used to life in the cave. Sometimes he had climbed up and sat here till dark, straining his eyes to catch the specks of light, picturing Leah and his grandmother at their evening meal, wondering if he would ever see them again. He never had, and he had stopped remembering and wondering—until today.

  Now that Joel and his sister were no longer shouting, the wind hid their voices. He stared at them, disappointed and baffled. He had to hear them. More than that, he was fighting back a longing to speak to them. His own people—after five years! He looked down at his bare calloused feet, at the goatskin tunic bound with a thong around his waist. What would they think of him, those two in their clean robes and leather sandals? Suppose he should risk his freedom for nothing? But he could not help himself. Like an animal lured out of hiding, he edged slowly from behind the rock.

  Instantly the boy was on his feet, the girl swiftly up beside him. He might have known they would be off at the sight of him. To his astonishment, they stood still. He saw Joel's hands clench; the boy was no coward. Daniel stood on the trail, his heart pounding. If they ran from him now he could not bear it. He fumbled for the remembered greeting.

  "Peace be with you," he said.

  Joel did not relax his guard. "Peace," he said shortly; then, "What do you want?"

  "No harm, Joel bar Hezron," said Daniel.

  "How do you know me?"

  "I heard your sister call you. I am Daniel bar Jamin."

  Joel stared, remembrance suddenly livening his face. "The apprentice who ran away from the blacksmith?"

  Daniel scowled.

  "No one blamed you," said Joel quickly. "Everyone knows how Amalek treats his boys."

  "I care nothing for Amalek," Daniel said. "Can you tell me about my grandmother and my sister?"

  Joel frowned and shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't. Do you know them, Thace?"

  The girl had been frightened, and her breath was still uneven, but she spoke with a frankness like Joel's.

  "There is an old woman who comes to the well in the morning," she said. "She lives in a house behind the Street of the Cheesemakers."

  "Yes," Daniel said hungrily.

  The girl hesitated. "They say she has a little girl who never goes out of the house."

  Still? He had thought perhaps in all this time—"That is my sister Leah," he said. He wished he had not asked. It had been better not knowing.

  "No one has ever seen her," the girl went on. "But I know that she's there. I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you more."

  Daniel hesitated, embarrassed, but unwilling to give up.

  "There was a boy named Simon," he said. "Six or seven years older. He was bound to Amalek too."

  "You must mean Simon the Zealot," said Joel.

  "You know him?"

  "I've heard of him. He has his own shop now. They say he gets more business than Amalek."

  "He used to help me," said Daniel.

  "He has a reputation for being a good man—and a good patriot."

  "Would you give him a message for me? Would you tell him I'm up here? I'd like him to know."

  Joel looked surprised. "You mean you live up here?"

  "Yes."

  "Alone? Is it safe? I mean—they say the mountain is full of robbers."

  Daniel said nothing.

  "Aren't you lonely?"

  "I don't live alone," said Daniel.

  "Oh." Joel was baffled. "Don't you ever come back to the village?"

  "I'd just get dragged back to Amalek's shop."

  "I suppose so. Yes, I'
ll tell Simon, of course. How long since you ran away?"

  "Five years, about. Simon will remember me, though."

  The girl spoke, in a straightforward voice that matched the look in her eyes. "Five years! Do you mean your grandmother hasn't known where you were in all this time?"

  Daniel looked at the ground, his lips tightening.

  "Tomorrow, when she comes to the well, can I tell her I've seen you?"

  Daniel looked back at her with resentment. He had long since managed to quiet his conscience, and he did not like having it stirred up again. "If you like," he said. He felt angry at himself now, and disappointed. Why had he given himself away after all these years? What had he expected? There was nothing more to stay for.

  "You'd better go back," he said, turning away. "You shouldn't have come up here."

  "Why not?" asked Joel, looking not at all alarmed.

  "I'm warning you. After this, stay in the village." He walked away from them.

  "Wait," called Joel. He looked at his sister with a swift question, and she nodded. "We—we brought our lunch. Will you eat it with us?"

  The blood rushed up into Daniel's face. He had not asked for their charity.

  "It's not much," Joel said. "But we'd like to talk to you some more."

  Was it possible this boy had made the offer in friendship? Slowly, like a wary animal, Daniel took a few steps back and let himself down on the grass. From the pocket of the wide striped girdle that bound her waist, the girl pulled a neatly wrapped bundle. Joel produced a small flask which he handed to his sister, then sat down and solemnly held out his hands. With astonishment Daniel watched the girl pour a little stream of water over her brother's hands. Hand-washing before a meal—he hadn't given a thought to it for five years. He wouldn't have imagined that even a scribe's son would carry water all the way up the mountain just to observe the law. Then the girl turned toward him. He saw the question in her eyes and the slight shrinking, and a stubborn pride stiffened him. He was a Jew, wasn't he? He held out his hands, and watched the drops trickle over his blackened knuckles, embarrassed, thinking how the men in the cave would hoot if they could see him.

  The girl unwrapped the bundle and made three small piles, equal piles, he noticed, not skimping herself the way his mother used to do. Then Joel spoke a blessing and they handed Daniel his share, a few olives, a flat little loaf of wheat bread, and a small honey cake whose taste his tongue suddenly remembered from childhood. For the first time Daniel felt his tight muscles begin to relax. His eyes met Joel's, and the two boys studied each other without hostility.

  "Why did you come up here?" Joel asked, wiping the last crumbs of cake off his chin.

  In some way the food had made it easier to speak. "I knew there were caves up here," Daniel answered. "All I wanted was a place to hide where Amalek couldn't catch me. But I couldn't find any caves, and I wandered around for three days, and then—a man found me."

  He thought of how Rosh had found him lying flat on his face, starving, half frozen, his back still raw from the last flogging. How could he tell this boy what that night had been like? He remembered the terrible moment when he had seen the man bending over him, and how Rosh had reached out a hand, not to strike him but to help him to his feet, and then, when he had flopped over, how Rosh had picked him up and carried him like a baby all the way to the cave.

  "A robber?" Joel questioned.

  "A good man," said Daniel fiercely. "He took me to live with him."

  "What's it like up here? What do you do all the time?"

  "Hunt. Wolves and jackals, even panthers. Sometimes we hunt as far north as Merom. I work at my trade too. I made a forge to work on."

  Joel looked impressed. Even the girl was listening with dark eyes as lively as her brother's. Daniel looked at the other boy with curiosity. He had been trying to find a distinguishing mark about Joel. "What is your trade?" he asked.

  "I'm still at school," said Joel. "I'm going to go on to be a rabbi, probably. But I studied sandal-making too. I could earn my living at it, but I'm sorry for the man who has to wear my sandals."

  Daniel nodded. Of course Joel would be a rabbi. He had always been the smartest boy in the school. But even a rabbi must learn a trade, like any other man.

  "Why did you come today?" he asked. "No one comes up here from the village."

  The girl laughed. "We'll be skinned alive if anyone finds out we've come," she said.

  "We always planned to," Joel explained. "Ever since we were children. We weren't allowed to because it's supposed to be dangerous. Today's a holiday, and we just decided to come without telling anyone. It was our last chance. We're leaving the village and going to live in Capernaum."

  His sister frowned at him. "I don't see why you always have to sound so dismal about it," she protested. "I think Capernaum is going to be wonderful."

  Joel's face looked suddenly closed. His fingers snapped the tops off the red blossoms, one after another. It was plain to Daniel that this was an old argument between them.

  "What more do you want?" she demanded, forgetting Daniel in her insistence. "A big house to live in, shops, and people, and a school with the best teachers in Galilee!"

  Joel went on snipping the blossoms savagely. "Father doesn't want to go," he said. "He's only going to please Mother."

  "Well," she answered, "Mother left it all to please him once. It hasn't been easy for her, living in Ketzah. Why shouldn't she go back, now that Grandfather's left his house to her? It doesn't really matter to Father where he is, so long as he has his books."

  Daniel listened, shut out again from the clean, safe world that they shared. But all at once his attention was diverted. Far down the mountain, on the narrow ribbon of road, he spotted a moving line that threw off reddish flashes of metal in the sunlight. Legionaries. At the sight, black hatred churned up in him. Out of habit he spat violently. The shocked attention of the two jerked back to him, and they followed his savage gaze, leaning to peer at the moving line.

  "Romans!" snorted Joel. Daniel liked the way he said the word. He spat again for good measure.

  "You hate them too," said Joel, his voice low.

  Daniel closed his teeth on a familiar oath. "I curse the air they breathe," he muttered.

  "I envy you," said Joel. "Up here you're free."

  "No one is free," said Daniel. "So long as the land is cursed by the Romans."

  "No. But at least you don't have to look at them. There's a fortress at Capernaum. I'll have to watch them all the time, strutting around the streets."

  "Oh, Joel!" the girl protested. "Do they have to bother us?"

  "Bother us? Bother—!" The boy's voice broke. "I should think even a girl could see—"

  "Of course I see!" She was stung almost to tears by her brother's contempt. "But what use is it to be always making yourself miserable? The Romans won't be here forever. We know that deliverance will come."

  "You're talking like Father!"

  "But he's right! The Jews have been worse off before. There have always been conquerors—and there was always deliverance, Joel."

  Joel was not listening. He had caught Daniel's eye, and the two boys were studying each other, each asking a silent question.

  Malthace sprang to her feet, recognizing well enough that this time it was she who was shut out. "I'm not going to have my holiday spoiled by those soldiers," she said, with the trace of a childish pout. "We've climbed all the way up here and you've scarcely looked at the things we came to see."

  Joel turned back to her good-naturedly. "We've seen something we didn't expect," he said. "Daniel."

  She tossed her head. "What about the places we used to talk about? The plain where Joshua marched out against the heathen kings?"

  Joel shaded his eyes, taking his bearings. Just below them the village clung to the rocky slope, the dark block of the synagogue showing clearly among the clustering flat-roofed houses. Around it circled the gray-green olive orchards and the fresh, clear green fields of grai
n, banded by purple iris and shining yellow daffodils. To the south lay the lake, intensely blue. To the north, beyond the line of hills, through the shimmering, misty green of the valley, the silver thread of the Jordan wound up to the shining little jewel that was the Lake of Merom. Suddenly bold, Daniel got to his feet.

  "There," he pointed out. "On that plain. Horses and chariots drawn up against him, and a great host of men like the sands of the shore. And Joshua fell on them and drove them as far as the Great Sea."

  He saw surprise on their faces. They thought he was an ignorant savage. The girl did, anyway. This was something he knew. Five years ago, that first morning, when he was warm and fed and slept out, Rosh had brought him up here, and stood with an arm across his shoulders, and pointed to the plain in the distance, and told him how a few brave men had dared to go out against a great army, and how they had won a great victory for Israel. Up here, in the clean sunlight, Daniel bar Jamin, orphan, runaway slave, had found something to live for.

  "All the mighty ones," he said, remembering Rosh's very words. "Joshua, Gideon, David, all of them fought on the soil of Galilee. No one could stand against them. It will be so again."

  "Yes," breathed Joel. "It will be so again. God will send us another David." His eyes glistened, as though he too could see the shadow of a vast army moving on the distant plain.

  "You mean the Messiah!" Malthace cried. "Oh Joel, do you remember? We always thought that up here we'd see him."

  "I was sure," said Joel. "I knew that if we could only climb up here, that would be the day he would come. I believed it so hard, it seemed to me I could make it happen."

  "So did I. And we would be the ones to rush down the mountain and tell them. And all the people in the village would drop their work and follow him. Do all children have such wild imaginations?"

  Joel was instantly sober. "The Messiah is not imagination. It's the truth. It is promised."

  "But straining our eyes at every cloud in the distance, and thinking we would be the first ones—"

  "I still want to be!" cried Joel, so passionately that the other two were startled. "Call it childish if you like. That's why I don't want to go to Capernaum."

  "But it may be years!"