Читать книгу The Robber - Bertram Brooker - Страница 18

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Passing the doorway of his own chamber, where Elikah was fuming with impatience, Chuza called along the corridor to a page at the stair-head. The youth came running on tiptoe.

"Go below to the captain of the Gauls," ordered the chief steward. "Tell him to bring up the man Jeshua to my chamber for questioning. With a guard. A strong guard."

Then he went in to a further room where the Chief of the Scribes had spent almost an hour. It was customary to make obeisance to the chief priests, but Chuza's bow was scarcely more than a nod.

"The tetrarch regrets that matters of state will not permit him to grant the Chief of the Scribes an audience until later in the day," he said.

His tone made the delay appear so indefinite that Phanuel Ben-Phabi flushed with resentment. Speaking as though to a person several paces behind the chief steward, he announced that he would send one of the temple guards to await a clearer understanding of when the tetrarch would receive him.

Chuza turned without ceremony and entered his own chamber, a large reverberating room in one of the towers of the palace. He found Elikah, who had the girth of a horse, waddling from one window to another, snorting repeatedly like an old battle-charger. The captain's bejewelled belt, looted from a Seleucid palace forty years before, heaved and shook with every step. On his right hand he wore an enormous ring. It was set with an onyx on which was carved the name of Herod the Great, who had given it to him for bravery at the battle of Kanatha. He often stroked his bristling white beard with the hand bearing this ring, to remind his listeners that he had once been a man of prodigious deeds.

When Chuza entered, his eyes dark with malice at the thought of the humiliation awaiting the pompous captain, Elikah peered at him from under frowning brows.

"What says the Son-of-Nobody?" he demanded at once.

Chuza stood a moment, his wedge-shaped face thrust forward, inwardly gloating over Elikah's anxiety.

"It is well for you," he said, bitingly, "that your ears are not as big as your belly, or you might have heard words that would have flayed you like whips."

"What said the Son-of-Nothing?"

"It would tear my tongue to repeat what he said."

"The sage of the bedchamber is jesting," growled Elikah, his voice resounding against the walls of polished stone.

"I am not jesting."

"Then you are lying."

"I do not lie, Elikah," declared the steward, scornfully, "not even to those who are no more in my sight than a dried millet seed."

"A fig for your sight! Your hearing should be better. It has been sharpened at closed doorways. What message do you bring me from the one we know?"

"I bring no message."

"Give me the message and have done."

"His words were too sharp. I refused to carry them."

"You! You refused?" Elikah sneered.

"I said to him, 'Who am I to carry wrath to the captain of the host?'"

"And what said he to that?"

"He asked me how long I had trembled at the sound of a rumbling cask."

"Enough!" bellowed Elikah, lowering his head like a bull. "When will the Son-of-Less-than-Nothing see me?"

"His day is filled with a multitude of matters, and so is mine," said Chuza. As he spoke he stalked across the chamber, almost brushing against Elikah as he passed him.

Flinging open the door, he glanced impatiently down the corridor. The Gauls had just mounted the stairs and over the heads of the guards who surrounded the tall prisoner, Chuza caught sight of a dark scowling face. He assumed an air of cold scrutiny when Barabbas was marched into the anteroom, and asked loftily what errand had brought him to the palace.

"My message is for the ears of your master," Barabbas said with a grimace of impatience. "Go and tell him that a man has come from one who acknowledges no kingdom on earth."

The speaker was wrapped from head to foot in a gay striped mantle. Seven crimson tassels hung from his girdle. His head-cloth, stiffened with three rings of goat's hair, added to his unusual height. It had been tucked into his tunic, so that the scar was hidden and only the blunt point of his beard could be seen. His body, even his neck, was hidden, yet it was plain that he was built like a gladiator.

"Is this the man Jeshua?" asked Chuza, addressing the captain of the Gauls.

"Who is this scented fellow?" demanded Barabbas, sniffing the odour of spices as Chuza approached him.

"Quiet your tongue!" warned the captain. "You are speaking to the chief steward of the tetrarch."

"What have I to do with stewards?" Barabbas scoffed. "Bring me before the tetrarch immediately, or tell him I have returned whence I came, and that John of Jordan will not send another."

In an attempt to overawe the prisoner, Chuza raised his thin head and looked down his nose at Barabbas.

"Address yourself to me," he said, in his iciest tone. "Are you truly a kinsman of the prophet of Jordan?"

"We are akin," said Barabbas.

"We must have some assurance that you are sent by the prophet," said Chuza, patiently. "Have you any of your own blood in the city who will vouch for you?"

"None."

"Friends?"

"None."

"Not one?"

"I know a man here, an apothecary. But what has he to do with this? I would not call him to vouch for me."

"What is his name?"

"I will not give you his name."

Chuza brought his feet together and continued doggedly. "Do you know no one of rank?" he demanded, folding his arms in his sleeves.

"Yes. A prince," said Barabbas.

"What is his name?"

"Joseph of Arimathea."

"Ek!" exclaimed Chuza, astonished and exasperated. "You know the prince?"

"Yes. But I would not ask him to speak for me. I have come alone from John. If the son of Herod will not admit me, let him say so, and I will return. Does this mighty king fear a man unarmed, surrounded by swordsmen?"

Chuza moved at once toward the corridor to the king's bedchamber. "Why did you not say before that you knew Prince Joseph?" he flung angrily at Barabbas as he passed him.

Barabbas did not answer, and Chuza, with a warning nod to the captain of the Gauls, went in to the king.

He found Antipas not at all amazed that the man from beyond Jordan should know Prince Joseph. He seemed only astonished that the man had come alone to seek audience with him instead of having the prince intercede for him.

Chuza was ordered to send a messenger to Joseph's house, and within an hour the prince arrived at the palace, disturbed by the word brought to him that "a man named Jeshua" had presented himself in the early morning, had resisted all questioning, and had become violent when put under guard.

Conducted at once to the royal bedchamber, Joseph told the already trembling tetrarch what he knew of Jeshua, offering to see him and bring assurance to the king that the man would attempt no harm.

The prince was shown into Chuza's chamber, while Nashash helped to complete the king's robing, and Chuza himself went below to prepare the Hall of Aristobulus for the audience.