The Eighth Veil (15 page)

“Really? Why? I had no idea. I am sorry, Agon, but the exigencies of the situation do not…never mind. I’m sorry. Now take a look at this box and its contents and tell me what you think.”

He handed the box to the jeweler who turned it over, held it close to his eye, and ran a finger over its surface. He inspected the clasp and then opened the box. He removed the seal and placed it on the counter without also inspecting it and turned his attention instead to its interior. Satisfied nothing more would be learned from the box, he picked up the seal and scrutinized it with the same care. Finally he returned the seal to its container, closed and re-engaged the clasp and replaced it on the counter.

“So, am I to tell you what you have already deduced, or is this a mystery to you? I doubt it, but I give you the choice.”

“I wish an independent appraisal. I hope you will confirm what I suspect. The covering is familiar, is it not?”

“Yes, of course, it is the same material as the pendant. I suspect they were both disguised by the same artist and at the same time and presumably for the same reason. Will you tell me what this is all about now?”

Gamaliel held up his hand. “Patience, my friend. What do you make of the seal?”

“It belongs to a very important person. I would wager it is the property of someone close to, or a member of royalty. Have I got it right?”

“I think so, yes. Male or female?”

“Ah, that is hard to guess as the box is covered. If there were a name on it, we should have to remove it. Shall we?”

“I don’t know. I was hoping to extract this object’s identity without having to do so. Give me your best guess.”

“It is unusual for a woman to have a seal this heavy. I know because I have made them for the wives of some of this city’s more prosperous men. I would say this is a man’s seal.”

“And yet we find it in the possession of a young girl. How is that possible?”

“A gift from her father, or an uncle. Possibly she stole it. Who can say?”

“Suppose there was some urgency. Say, he knew something dire might happen. There is no time to run to his Agon to make an appropriate seal, so he gives her this one as he packs her off to wherever she was going.”

“May I know where?”

“I cannot be sure but I think to the court of the late Philip, Tetrarch of Gaulanitis and half brother to our king.”

“Ah. And then she arrives in this city, or in the palace, I should say, in the company of Queen Herodias and her daughter, the princess, yes?”

“Very good. Yes, it would seem so. Now the box.”

“As I said, there is not much I can learn from the exterior. I can tell you that some writing on the inside has been removed some time ago. And there is a design, perhaps a name on the surface. I must remove the covering to tell you which, but I warn you, I cannot reproduce this box as I did the pendant.”

“There will be no need. It seems I am the only one who cares about the box enough to want to discover its secrets. Peel away the cover.”

Agon worked with the studied hands of a master craftsman. Gamaliel had to hold his tongue, frustrated at the time he took. Finally the exposed surface of the lid appeared.

“There you are, Rabban, it is writing, as you can see. I cannot read it. Tell me what it says.”

Gamaliel narrowed his eyes and read the inscription. He looked up to the ceiling for a moment and then back down again.

“I might have guessed.” He said, more to himself than to the jeweler. He ran his finger across the surface, his mind turning over possibilities and probabilities. “Agon, when you were in the service of Rome, you spent time in the north. Do I remember that correctly?”

“Ah, yes. I was in a cohort of one of the
auxillae.
As you know, the troops composed of volunteers not having Roman citizenship are not as selective of their membership as the Italian Legions. Even a suspect Jew was welcome if he were willing to die for the emperor and fight on Shabbat. And then there were those other Jews who had been forced by Tiberius to leave Rome and into the military assigned to Sardinia. A very strange man, our emperor.”

“Strange barely covers it. And I take it you were not sent to Sardinia but were you willing?”

“Willing to take his money and my chances? I was. I served in Cilicia for a time, also Cappadocia, Galatia, and Iconium. I would have been to Bithynia except for the leg.”

“You were wounded?”

“On the road between Caesarea and Tarsus, some bandits attacked a caravan. You know cohorts of legionnaires are regularly rotated out to secure the roads. A band of brigands surprised some travelers on the road. There were only four of us on post at the time and we drove them off but not before one almost hacked my leg from my body. It was Shabbat, I think. Do you suppose the Lord punished me because I did not keep Shabbat?”

“I think I am supposed to say yes, but I will not. The Lord, in my view, does not punish folks who act in the face of limited choices. How he feels about those with many and who still stray, is another matter.”

“That is reassuring—if you are right. Either way, I cannot do anything about it now.”

“So, you were wounded and then retired.”

“Released as in ‘of no more use’ without pension or compassion, more like, yes.”

“But you landed on your feet, so to speak. Now, what can you tell me about Cappadocia?”

Chapter XX

“Cappadocia? What is there to tell? It is a very strange place, Rabban. Stranger even than this land. Archelaus, one of Herod’s spawn, I think, but maybe not, was its king for a while, but no more. His position depended on Rome’s willingness to have him serve as a client king. As long as he behaved and paid his taxes, he sat on his throne. But like so many men enthralled with power, he took it into his head to seize more of it or maybe it was territory he sought. I can’t remember which, but for his overreaching, the emperor had him arrested and put on a boat to Brundisium.”

“He has a successor?”

“A Pretender, you mean. What king doesn’t? There were many, but none that were given his place. The sons of his daughter Glaphyra were the noisiest. There were others but it makes no difference now. Caesar declared it a province and appointed a governor.”

“I see. These sons of Glaphyra, they were by her marriage to Alexander. Is that right?”

“I never could unravel the lines in the royal families. I suppose they were, if you say so. Plotting and conspiring seems to be the chief occupation of those born into royalty and sorting out the who and why of them is beyond my poor abilities.”

“Yes. How many sons were there?”

“Of Princess Glaphyra? I have no idea. Two or three, I think. I can tell you this, there is talk recently of rebellion in Caesarea. That would be the Caesarea in Cappadocia, not the one from which Pilate governs or the late Philip did. There is not much in the line of originality when it comes to naming either cities or princes. Of course, there is always talk of rebellion in the capitals of kingdoms.”

“How do you know this about Cappadocia?”

“I made many acquaintances in that area when I served and some of my old comrades from the cohort stop by from time to time with news. I am as current as any, I think.”

Gamaliel scratched his chin and studied the jeweler. “Would the captain of the palace guard be one such acquaintance?”

“Oh yes. He drops by regularly. The cohort was disbanded a year or two after I received my release. Geris was luckier than I. He received severance pay and as it happened, he had family in Tiberias. When he traveled there after the cohort’s abolition he heard the king wanted to add numbers to his guard. He was taken on, because of his military training.”

“That was who I saw yesterday entering this shop after I left.”

“Yes, it was.”

“You didn’t say anything about the pendant to him?”

“Oh, no, I daren’t. You said not to speak of it and I didn’t. I think he’d be very interested, though.”

“Yes, I suspect he would. Under no circumstance are you to even hint at it to him, you understand? Not a hint, not a word, a wink, or a nudge. There is always entirely too much gossip in the palace. It would only take one person to say something and the whole entourage would have it by nightfall”

“No sir, nor a peep from me.”

“Good. It is exceedingly important that no one know of this matter. You said you knew Tarsus?”

“Not well, but yes, a bit.”

“I have a student who comes from there.”

“Is that so? It is a very nice city. Sits on the river it does. Boats come there to clean their bottoms in the fresh water, they say. The creatures that attack the planks in the salt sea cannot live in the fresh water so a week or two in Tarsus will kill them and then they sometimes haul the boat ashore and scrape the remains away. They say Cleopatra’s barge sailed in there with Antony. Quite an excitement, to hear it told. Her and him and the little boy they say was bred from Emperor Julius”

“Indeed? It must have been quite a sight.”

“What is his name, your student?”

“Saul. His family manufactures tents, among other things.”

“I could know of them, possibly, if they made leather ones. A good leather tent is a necessity for a soldier. Not so much in these parts but for those heading to Gaul of Britannia where it snows and rains more than here, a good leather tent is worth having even if it makes your pack heavier.”

“I don’t know about leather. Handling hides and animal parts is an occupation requiring special permits from the priests and Saul strikes me as singularly rigorous in his faith. Agon, we will talk more, but now I must return to the palace to continue my probing. Remember, speak of this to no one, you hear?”

But Gamaliel did not go directly to the palace. The sun was still not yet directly overhead and he estimated he had another hour before he needed to return. Instead he took the street that led to the Sheep Gate and to the physician. He didn’t need to talk to Loukas as much as he wanted seclusion and a quiet place where he could think.

Once again he indicated to the servant, Draco, he wished to enter by the courtyard gate, and once again he entered that area and marveled at the way Loukas had carved it from the adjoining hillside. Loukas met him as he stepped through the gate.

“Welcome again, Rabban, you do me honor.”

“I honor you? How is that possible?”

“Tell me, sir, how many people that you believe to be outside your faith have you willingly visited in the past year and then of that number, how many more than twice?”

“Oh, I see. I must be truthful, Physician, as much as I enjoy your occasional company, and please do not repeat that, I am here to relieve my aching brain.”

“Is your pain real or rhetorical? If the former I have a powder that will help. If the latter, how can I serve you.”

“Speak to me about anything but this tiresome murder, political conniving, and Roman rule, rulers, and the Empire. I am weary of the whole business.”

“Very well, I am happy to oblige. I will bring refreshment. You sit.”

He left to give Draco his order and returned and sat across from Gamaliel. A hint of a smile crossed his lips.

“You wish conversation not related to the investigation or anything even peripherally attached to it?”

“I do.”

“Very well, we will attend to your area of expertise. Tell me, Rabban in the Holy Book there is a passage that puzzles me, to wit.

“And in those days there were the giants on the earth, and again afterwards, when the sons of Elohim had come in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children by them. These were the heroes, who of old were men of renown
.

“Can you tell me how I am to understand that passage?”

“You have read Genesis, the first of Moses’ books? How so?”

“I read Greek and consider myself a man of the world. In Alexandria, in the Greek version of The Book. I have had sheets copied out and at my disposal from time to time.”

“You have read from the Septuagint?”

“If that is its name, yes. I suffer from a curious spirit that makes me thirsty for knowledge. I read and I ask questions. I believe it is the only path to truth.”

“The Law is the way and the truth.”

“And the life, for you, yes, I know. But for me, truth devolves from inquiry. I ask about this particular passage because, as you know, those who subscribe, however reluctantly, to a pantheon, read this passage and see something familiar. You speak of giants and mighty men of old. They speak of the Titans. You speak of the sons of your
Elohim
, and the offspring of their union with women. They speak of gods, goddesses, and demigods. In Persia they might say angels. Can you tell me the difference? And if not a difference, how do I reconcile your insistence on one true and indivisible Creator with this passage?”

“Loukas, you are toying with me, I think. The reading of this passage is never clear, but becomes less so if you assume nothing precedes or follows it. But if you continue reading to the end you will find the whole of it blends together and reveals a Creator,
Adonai,
as you say, and a story to follow. In it, then, the reference to sons can be seen as a reflection of an indwelling spirit he bestows on his human creation, his sons and daughters in the broadest sense. And do we not say of one who has accomplished much beyond what we took to be that man’s abilities or capacities, that he is a giant?”