Caleb Vigilant (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (25 page)

Inside the arena, Joshua continued to stare at Talmai’s swaying cobra-like neck. He remembered something Caleb had taught him long ago:
Knowing your enemy’s weakness is better than facing his strength
.

Joshua could never best Talmai on strength. He had already calculated the giant’s height and weight as dwarfing his own. His six-fingered hands that could squash Joshua in their grip. And he could see that Talmai was a bonfire of fury.

Joshua had already concluded that he did not have a chance.

All he had was a prayer.

And a simple lesson from Caleb he had learned several years ago.

It was that scrap of Karabu training he needed.

Without warning, Joshua ran directly at Talmai and jumped up into his arms.

The giant could not believe this puny little wart would do such a stupid thing. He welcomed Joshua into his
bear-crushing hug and squeezed the life out of him.

As Joshua was passing
out, he could barely hear the sound of a distant shouting voice from outside the Pit.

It was Caleb. He was shouting, “Joshua! Joshua, we are here!”

• • • • •

Outside the walls, Caleb noticed that Talmai stopped taunting Joshua. He was most likely fighting him now.

He knew Joshua was no match for the titan.

He knew he
would not stand fifteen seconds in the ring with the crazy son of Arba.

F
ifteen seconds passed in silence.

Then he heard a crack echo through the empty stadium.

He cinched his eyes in pain. It sounded like the cracking of a human’s spinal column in half.

Caleb started to pound uselessly on the door.

NO, NO, NO, NO! JOSHUA!”

Caleb sunk to his knees in defeat.

Othniel filled with rising rage. He knew there was nothing he could do to help Caleb.

The other soldiers arrived back at the gates with sorrowful eyes and no intelligence of a way in.

Caleb knelt there wondering why would Yahweh allow such a thing? Why allow him to get so close to helping his commander and friend, only to snatch the opportunity from his hands? Was Yahweh a cruel god after all?

Suddenly, the
clinking of chains followed the sound of oxen grunting behind the gates.

The arena gat
es began to open. It was an ox-driven gate mechanism.

Caleb shouted, “Prepare
to back me up, soldiers! But I want this Anakite for myself!”

The soldiers lifted shields and
prepared weapons. They lined up phalanx style behind Caleb, all one hundred of them, long spears in front, archers behind.

Othniel stood beside his brother and commander with drawn sword.

Caleb unfurled Rahab as the gate opened wide.

But they were not aware that there were six Anakim warriors guarding the duel inside. And those six were lined up shoulder to shoulder blocking the entrance to
Joshua’s body.

The six of them gave a unified war cry.

Only to have their bodies punctured like pin cushions by a dozen arrows each, launched by the elite archers.

The Anakim were stunned. But not dead.
It took more than a few needles to take down these giants.

It took
the long spears to take them down, piercing their hearts, lungs, and vital organs. The phalanx had moved in synchronized precision with the archers. The bodies of the Anakim guards fell and Caleb could now see the inner arena.

In the center of
that arena lay a corpse.

A lone figure walked toward Caleb.

It was stooped over and stumbling.

But it
was not a giant.

Caleb yelled, “
Joshua!”

He ran to him.

Othniel stayed protectively close behind.

Caleb
tried to embrace Joshua, but Joshua groaned. Caleb pulled back.

“Sorry, Caleb. I am a little crunched.”

“My Commander, you are alive.”

“My
loyal friend,” said Joshua, “it was you who saved me.”

“What?”

Joshua replied, “It was you who told me a small amount of faith can move a mountain. So a small amount of pressure can topple the mightiest gibborim.”

“How did you do it?”

Joshua recalled the technique that Caleb had taught him years ago.

After he had foolishly jumped into the muscle
-bound arms of Talmai, and just before he passed out from being crushed, he thrust his thumbs into each side of the long neck of his adversary, hitting the pressure point near the carotid artery.

Before Talmai could do anything with his massive strength, his eyes turned upward, his knees buckled, and he fell to the ground like a sack of dead meat.

But he was not dead, he was unconscious.

Joshua then pulled himself out of the lifeless arms. He grabbed the giant’s head and jerked it with a hard twist, snapping the spine and paralyzing Talmai instantly.

That was the crack that Caleb and his men had heard resounding through the arena.

The fight was over before it had begun.

Talmai’s massive bulk of muscle and power was incapacitated by a small little thrust of two thumbs.

How the mighty are fallen.

Talmai had come back to consciousness just in time to look up at the victor as his lungs and heart ceased to function from his spinal cord injury.

He suffocated to death.

Caleb smiled and repeated the proverb, “A small amount of pressure and a small amount of faith.”

So this was the irony of faith.

This was the revelation that victory could not be won against their mighty enemies by might or by strength, but by Yahweh’s Spirit and deliverance.

Joshua said, “I want you to teach me some more of that Karabu training. I think I
am warming to it.”

Caleb smiled.

But then he turned serious.

He said, “The battle is over. But the killing will go on into the
evening. This city is under the ban of
herem
.”

“And your family,” said Joshua, “are they well?”

“They are safely guarded in my war tent behind the lines. Rahab will be happy to see you.”

But Caleb was wrong. Rahab was not safe. The entire platoon of gibborim warriors that had been ordered to protect her were circumvented by one mysterious spy.

When the final thrust of Caleb’s operation launched on the city, there were only a few hundred soldiers left guarding the camp.

The fifty guards watching Rahab were dutiful to their mission, but were all itching to be out in the battlefield killing giants. Half of them had gone to the edge of the camp to watch what fighting they could see. Most of the other soldiers kept watch on the perimeter for any Anakim spies or saboteurs leaving the city.

But no Anakim spies made it out alive that night.

The spy that had slipped into the camp undiscovered was not a giant, it was
something else—something from Rahab’s past.

And it took the most inopportune time to strike.

Rahab had several midwives with her in her tent prepared for delivery. She had felt the birth pangs coming earlier but had made sure that the guards would not know about it. She did not want Caleb’s attention distracted from his military mission. It could cost him his life.

Rahab and Achsah had grown close to each other through these difficult times, and Rahab considered Achsah her best friend. Though she was technically her stepmother, their closeness of age allowed a closeness of relationship Achsah could not have had with her birth mother.

She had told the guards that she wanted them to keep their distance this evening as she and Achsah were going to have a long bath in her tent, and she wanted privacy.

Two wooden tubs hand crafted by Philistine artisans were the one luxury Caleb had allowed Rahab in this otherwise rough existence. The guards obliged them by pulling away to eat some dinner a couple tents away.

But Rahab was not being entirely untruthful. They
were indeed going to have a bath this evening, but for a different purpose. Rahab had learned one interesting technique from the Snake Clan of Gilgal Rephaim: Water birth. They would deliver their children into the water pool as a transition between the womb and the real world. It also made them less likely to cry too loud because there was less of a shock to their system.

So Rahab forced Achsah to join her by bathing in the second tub.
She wanted Achsah to relax since there was not much she could do.

Achsah was a bit
uncomfortable with it, but she obeyed, in order to please her stepmother.

By the time the birth pangs were climaxing and the midwives were delivering, Rahab had managed to gag herself on a towel so as not to draw attention.

Achsah’s silent eyes teared with delight when a midwife pulled up a baby boy out of the water and cut the umbilical cord.

Rahab whispered with delight, “Welcome, little Boaz.”

It was the most quiet celebration of ecstatic joy that any of the women had ever experienced. They were crying without sound and moving their arms around without making noise. They almost blew their cover by laughing at themselves.

Rahab handed the baby to Achs
ah to wash in her own bath.

It was an honor that made her
heart full. She gently washed the afterbirth that was still clinging to the baby’s skin.

A midwife took the
boy and wrapped him in swaddling clothes. The women prepared to get out of their baths.

That was when the spy
completely smashed their celebration.

He was virtually invisible to the surrounding soldiers. He blended into the night and the forest as if he was a part of nature itself.

He was in fact
a master of nature.

H
e slipped into the tent, and snuck up behind the two women in the wooden tubs next to each other.

Everyone’s focus was on the
man-child in one of the midwives’ arms.

By the time
the spy showed himself, he was already upon Achsah with a dagger at her throat.

“Do not scream
or I will kill you.”

Rahab saw the hair and the horns. She recognized his face from many years ago.

He was a satyr.

“Xizmat.”

“Arisha. Or should I call you Rahab? It has been quite a task tracking you around all of Canaan with your different identities.”

She gestured to the two midwives not to move.

“Release Achsah. We will not scream.”

She gestured to the midwives
be quiet. They obeyed.

He pulled back his blade.

“Rahab. The name of the sea dragon. I like it. A feisty name for a feisty woman. Get up and put on your clothes.”

“I just gave birth, Xizmat.”

“I do not care, quim. Get up. Not you,” he said to Achsah. She stayed in the water.

When Rahab got out of the water,
Xismat gleamed. “You are still beautiful at your age and even after birth. This is good.”

Rahab dried off and put on her clothes.
She was moving slowly from her labor.

“
How did you find me?”

“I do not know how you disposed of Izbaxl’s body back in Banias, but you left
behind the evidence that condemned you of the crime of murdering my brother.”

“What evidence? That was over twenty years ago.”

“Do you not remember what you shamefully cut off and left in your hospital room?”

Achsah was having a hard time following,
but realization flooded over Rahab like the Deluge.

She had cut off
Izbaxl’s offending member. The extension of his violation of her being.

“Now you remember, I see,” he said.
“I could find no other evidence of both your whereabouts so I told no one. The whole incident would have dissolved into an unsolved mystery. But then many years later, your family was redeemed from Banias by a mysterious benefactor in Jericho. I never forgot they were your family, so I had spies follow them.”

He stood up. Achsah could now see his lower body with goat legs and hooves.
And his eyes were wet with rage.

“
My Izbaxl was so loving and giving. He saved my life. You murdered him.”

“
He was eaten by dire wolves, and he deserved it.”

Xismat
held back his fury. “He was my brother, you bitch. And rest assured, I have elaborate plans for retribution.”

Rahab backed up.

“Oh, I am not going to kill you. That would be anti-climactic. I am going to bring you back to Banias, and you will return to what you always were and always will be, a worthless harlot of Azazel.”

Achsah
gasped.

Xizmat pointed his finger at her to shut up. His face was full of fury.

“I will go with you quietly on one condition,” said Rahab. “You kill no one in this tent, and you leave my child with Achsah.”

Achsah’s eyes went wide. She had been so intent upon understanding what was going on in front of her that she did not stop to consider
what this goat demon beside her would do to her or baby Boaz. A chill went down her spine.

“Granted,” said Xizmat.

Achsah knew that Rahab had just saved their lives from this despicable smelly chimera.

Now it was her turn.

She got up from the tub to dry herself. She noticed Xizmat was distracted by her form. It disgusted her, but she would use it.

“
Hmm. Of course I did not exclude rapine.”

“No,”
countered Rahab. “Only me.”

He knew it
would be too difficult to engage in his lusts without the danger of others escaping and sounding the alarm.

Xizmat looked around. “I need some rope and a gag. I do not want you alerting anyone until we are far away.”

He bent down to pick up a sash from a pile of clothes. It would be good enough.

“As for the child…”

But when he turned back toward Achsah, he saw her standing naked and aiming a notched bow and arrow at him.

“You little twat,” he said.

She was shaking.

He
was about eight feet away from her. Close enough for one leap with his strong goat legs.

Then h
e smirked. And took one step closer.

“You have never killed anyone before, have you?”

She did not answer.

Rahab only said, “Achsah.” She
was not sure if Achsah had it in her. And if she did not, she would surely be dead in seconds. And maybe even her son as well.

Xizmat
looked deep into Achsah’s eyes and said, “You cannot do it, little girl. Killing someone is a very gruesome thing. And you are too young and innocent. And beautiful.”

He had a hypnotic effect on her.
He was manipulating her. She did not notice he had taken one more step closer.

She continued to tremble. Her aim was faltering.

Xizmat’s legs were imperceptibly lowering, preparing to spring.

Then Achsah said, “I tried to kil
l a monster before, but I could not.” She was referring to the Anakite who kidnapped her from the camp at Gilgal.

Xizmat said, “Well, then…” and he jumped. He
attacked her in the middle of his sentence in order to take her completely by surprise.

But
the moment before he did, she had already released the arrow, which found its target and entered his left eye, penetrating into his brain.

He jerked backward and fell to the floor in a seizure.

The last thought that was in the dirty old goat’s mind was what supple breasts Achsah had.

And then he died.

Rahab gasped.

Achsah said, “I promised
my father I would never let it happen again.”