The Making of the Lamb (40 page)

Esmeralda signaled to her man at arms that she was ready.

“People of Ynys Witrin and the Tor, draw nigh and give your attention,” the attendant cried out. “Hear now the terrible judgment of the druidess. Let all men, women, and children take heed and obey the gods and their laws!”

Esmeralda raised her voice. “The prisoner admits he is an outlander who drew arms within this sacred precinct. Under the law he is guilty of brigandry, and the penalty is death!”

A stunned silence fell upon the crowd. Then there arose sounds of shock and dismay.

Esmeralda turned to the sun and clasped her hands in silent prayer.
Oh, how I wish I could make it so. If only it was so easy to rid myself of these outlanders, but I am a druid without a council, and I cannot impose a sentence of death on my own. I must do better than that. If I summon a council, Elsigar will come. He will want to punish Jesus, but then he will convince the council to spare that outlander’s life.

“On the other hand…” Esmeralda paused for dramatic effect and feigned a benevolent smile. “The ways of the druid are also the ways of compassion and mercy. The sentence of death is commuted. I banish Jesus bar Joseph from Ynys Witrin until the new moon and confine him to Pilton Hollow for the duration.”

“But Pilton Hollow is infested by lepers,” Grengan cried out. “You condemn him to a miserable fate!”

“I give him the chance for life.” Esmeralda smirked. She raised her palms in a gesture of offering. “His fate is now in the hands of the gods.” With that, Esmeralda descended the Tor with her men at arms bringing Jesus along bound behind her.

Esmeralda walked slowly to the gate used to gain entrance to Pilton Hollow.
I dare not enter here.
Most of the children still appeared healthy, but they scurried back, away from the gate in fear of her approach. The disfigured townspeople stared at her. Their suffering was plain to see. She picked out men and women with faces and limbs that bore the telltale lesions and boils. In some of the advanced cases, the boils had erupted over the victim’s entire face. She saw men and women lying about, overcome by the numbness and fatigue brought on by the disease.

But the fear was even worse than the effect of the disease. A victim could live with leprosy for years. Even after the boils or lesions broke out, it took years before the numbness and fatigue rendered the victim helpless. The druidess shuddered to look at the disfigured people. They were so pathetic and miserable. No wonder people claimed the disease caused limbs to drop off.

The elder of the village came forward to greet her at the gate. He was an old man, but he still bore no outward sign of disfigurement. Nonetheless, he approached slowly, in evident distress. His belly gave away the cause of his infirmity. It was distended from hunger, as were the bellies of all the villagers.

Esmeralda did her best to smile when the elder reached the gate.

“Are you reading the auguries today?”

“I will do that anon, after I take care of something else with you,” she answered.
Why does the fool bother to ask for the auguries? The village is dying. No trader will sell them food, and they have nothing to buy it with. They are too weak to work their own fields. No other village will even accept their children as slaves.

Esmeralda waved to Jesus, who sat in a caged cart, bound and gagged. “I am leaving this man with you. His family will bring his food and drink to the gate, and you are to take it to him. Do not let him come to the gate himself.”
This will force Jesus to take his food and drink from the lepers.
“He has been sentenced to confinement in this village, and must not leave until I come to release him at the next new moon.”
But once he eats from the hands of a leper, he will be confined as a leper himself until the auguries for the whole village turn good.

“Why do you treat this man in this way?” asked the elder.

“He is an outlander who took up arms within the precinct of the Tor and Ynys Witrin. His fate must serve to deter others.”

“It would have been more merciful for him to suffer a quick death.”

“Do not question my judgments. I did what I must to keep the peace in this precinct.”
I must also act to prevent the spread of blasphemy. Jesus talks of love for our fellow man and denounces our magical arts as superstition. If the people come to believe that, then they will have no need of druids.

The guard released Jesus and brought him to the elder. Jesus remained silent.

Esmeralda prepared to take the auguries. She took a dove from its cage and held it close to her breast as she chanted the incantations. With a cut of her knife she took its life, and handed the carcass to her attendant. She continued her incantations as the henchman separated the entrails and spread the meat in a sacrifice to the gods over a fire.

The attendant returned the entrails on a plate, shaking his head in disappointment.

It took only a moment for Esmeralda to confirm the reading. The corruption of the entrails was unmistakable. “The auguries are poor. I must still warn the people of the danger that awaits them in Pilton Hollow.”

“Papa, you can’t leave us!” Daniel barked.

A week had passed since Jesus’s trial before the druid.

“I have prayed about this every day and night,” said Joseph. “I thought Jesus would live in peace and turn from the path of war. Now I see how wrong I was. He will not change, and I love him too much to watch him continue on this path. Mary will not leave his side. You must choose whether to come with me or stay in Britain with Jesus.”

“We can’t continue without you!”

“You and Jesus are now men. You have found a rich lode, and I have shown you how to refine the ore. Traders come through Ynys Witrin all the time. Sell your silver to them. Sell them the lead, too.” Joseph paused as Mary came in, returning from her daily trip to bring food to Jesus. “Selling your silver to strangers here will not be as profitable as if I took it to the Romans, but you can prosper. You could also trade with the Romans through Kendrick if you hire him.”

“But Jesus is still held among the lepers.”

“God will protect him,” said Mary.

Daniel grabbed his collar as if to rend his garment. Then he dropped his hands and blew out his breath in a huff.

“I will send Kendrick back to you with a supply of Roman coin once I reach Armorica. I have been putting aside a share of our earnings for you and Jesus,” said Joseph. “It is really your money—yours and Jesus’s. Anyway, if we stayed, Kendrick and I would just be more mouths to feed. The Sabbath begins tonight, so I must get aboard the ship today. It would not be fair to delay Kendrick.”

With a heavy heart, Joseph embraced Mary and set out for the curragh with his son. Kendrick and his ship awaited them at the Lake Village quay. A thousand emotions raced through Joseph’s heart as he embraced Daniel.
Will this be the last time I ever see my beloved son?

Despite his status as village elder, Yeager took a turn bringing Jesus his food. “A woman brought you this. She said she was your mother.”

“Your people hunger much more than I do. Feed it to them.”

“Sooner or later you must take the food from our hands, and then you will be branded as a leper, too.”

“That is not the reason. I can fast another day. Your people are hungry.”

“You do not fear the leprosy?”

“God, my Father, will protect me.”

“You only have one god? And he is your father?

“Yes.”

“You seem confident in your one god—as if you take it for granted that he will protect you. We have hundreds of gods—gods for everything you can think of—but they offer us no hope.”

“I do not take him for granted. I am eternally grateful, and I offer my thanksgivings every day. I know that the one true God of my people loves me beyond measure and that all things are possible to him, so I have no fear.”

“Are you sure you do not want this? It is good food, and it is yours, not ours.”

“I am sure,” said Jesus. The elder started to turn. “Hold on. There is only so much. Feed it to the ones who are most hungry, but not to those afflicted with the leprosy. Let us talk some more once you do that.”

Yeager soon returned.

Jesus restarted the conversation. “I was struck by something you said before. Among all your gods, none give you hope.”

The elder nodded.

“But there is always hope if you turn to the one true God and obey his laws.”

“Obey what laws? We try to be good and honest men.”

“I know, but there is something else I remember about this. It is in a book of our Scripture called Leviticus.”

“Do you mean to say that your people actually write down the teachings of your god? That is something that even our druids dare not do. It is most strange for you, a brigand, to talk to me of the law.”

“I bring to you the only law you can turn to with hope. Your own laws offer you none, and you are the one who has said it.”

It took some time for Jesus to teach the elder the law of Leviticus for diagnosing the true cases of leprosy. It depended upon the type of lesion, whether it was depressed below the layer of the skin, whether hair grew in it and, if so, what color. In some cases the law called for victims to be isolated for a period of seven days to see if the condition was spreading.

“This is the hard part,” Jesus continued. “When a man or woman is pronounced unclean with leprosy, you must turn them out of the village. They must live alone for the rest of their days, unless they are cleaned by God in his mercy.”

“That is so heartless. Are we to abandon our mothers and fathers and children?”

“Yes, you must abandon the unclean. They will die anyway. All of the village will die soon of hunger if you do not cleanse it of the leprosy. You cannot save everyone, but you can save those who are clean. That is the law of Leviticus.”

Jesus awoke from a restless night with a chill. A mysterious flame appeared in the air in front of his face, but it illuminated nothing. Before he could speak, his Father revealed himself. “For someone confined among lepers, you seem in good spirits, my Son.”

“How could I not be, Father, when God is with me?”

“I am always with you.”

“I feel your protection all the time. As the psalm says, I can walk through the Valley of Death and fear no evil because you are with me. That is why I come to this place without fear. But it is so special when we really talk.”

“These times are special to me, too. But there will come a time when we will be so united in purpose that we will know each other’s hearts, minds, and wisdom without a word exchanged between us. You will see me in the godhead across all time and space, just as I see you now, for that is our divine nature. You will know my every thought and every desire—every one I have now, every one that I have had, and every one that I shall have in the future. While you share my divine substance, your human nature struggles with it. When your human nature and your divine nature become truly reconciled, you will know my heart at all times.”

“Have I done your will, Father? Was I rash to pursue the bandits? Joseph thinks so. Was it right for me to share the laws of Leviticus with the elder, even though some here will truly suffer so the rest may live?”

“Do not let your heart be troubled, my Son. It is enough that you fulfill your destiny.”

“You do not answer my question. I want to know if I am doing your will.”

“That is something your human nature must struggle with, as all men must from time to time when they seek to do the will of their God. But there is something else I must lay before you now. It will be a mission that you may choose to accept or not.”

“You already know that I will do as you ask.”

“I knew across all time and space from the beginning of the world that this moment would come. I know the choice you will make, but it is your choice. You have free will as much as any man. Now, I am commissioning you to go on a mission. The druid festival of Imbolc will take place in a few weeks. Elsigar will be at the Tor.”

“I told him at Samhain I might meet him there.”

“You must do so. He will invite you to the school at Bangor and the island of Ynys Môn. It is the center of druid learning. Elsigar will tell you more of this. You will have many opportunities to teach the druids, but in that teaching you will learn the most.”

“That will leave Daniel alone with Mary. Uncle Joseph has left us. They will need my help to carry on.”

“Daniel too must have his struggles. He may survive without you or he may not, but he has his own life to live,. You must leave for Ynys Môn as soon as Elsigar makes arrangements for you. On the way you will befriend a companion who will guide you across Cymru to Bangor, which is on the mainland, and across a strait of the sea to the island of Ynys Môn.”

“It will grieve Mother for me to leave her so soon after she arrived here, but I suppose you know that, too.”

“There is one thing more. While you are with the druids, there will come a time for you to leave your studies to go further. On the west side of Ynys Môn you will cross another strait to a smaller island called Holy Island. Another whom you will meet but not befriend on the way to Ynys Môn will help you across. On the west side of Holy Island is yet another strait of the sea. That one is very narrow but the most treacherous of all. You will cross that strait to the small island of Ynys Lawd. You must make that final crossing alone. Inside a cave on Ynys Lawd you will find a hermit, and he will teach you much. You will stay with him until he releases you. That is my will, my Son, but you have your free will, as much as any man. Will you do mine?”