Carpathian Read Free

short of the tent’s opening and refused entrance into the house of the man who had replaced Moses the Deliverer. The new leader of the chosen saw the fear in the women’s faces as they finally spied just who their guest was. When their eyes saw the robed figure next to their husband and father, they scurried from the tent, not waiting long enough to serve the master of the house. The women, with eyes lowered, were all careful to skirt past Joshua with heads bowed, but even more so in deference to the hooded figure next to him.
    “Forgive them, old friend. Old fears never leave us, they just settle in like mud between your toes and harden like the hearts of men. And even if you remove that mud the stain of filth is still there.”
    “The fears of women and children do not concern me, brother Joshua. You and the Deliverer before you have perpetrated the falsity of my tribe to the others, thus necessitating their fears. We are nothing but butchers and witches—nothing more than a tribe of magicians and tricksters to them. And it has been three years, two months, and eighteen days since the Jeddah have joined with other men of Israel.”
    Joshua gestured for his guest to sit. Kale refused. When offered bread, another refusal.
    “I will break bread with my people tonight,” Kale said. “The Jeddah have been on the march since the turning of the season. The treasure wagons are still months behind.”
    Joshua finally removed his shroud and then shook his head.
    “I am the most tired man on God’s great earth, brother Kale. We heard of your battle against the Canaanite charioteers near the plain of Deeab.” Joshua noticed the lowered head of his oldest friend and the greatest warrior he had ever seen in action for the Egyptians, or against them. “Did you lose many warriors of the tribe of Jeddah?”
    “All told since the Great Exodus, the Jeddah have been sacrificed to the count of one thousand soldiers.”
    The tent was silent as Joshua bowed his head in a silent prayer. He slowly raised his face to the highest part of his tent as if he were seeking wisdom from the highest of sources. Joshua took a deep breath.
    “A heavy toll, brother, but a necessary one I fear, just as the task ahead will also take a heavy toll on the chosen,” he hesitated momentarily, “and of the Golia. Thirty-six years of wandering, Kale. Of never finding the home promised by our Lord. We need your soldiers and your animals this one last time.”
    “We have lost all but twelve of the Golia. And there are only two females left to continue the breed. The remainder cannot be risked.” Kale softened his voice when he saw that Joshua was actually pained by not only the loss of the soldiers of the Jeddah tribe, but also because of the battle deaths of the magnificent animals that made their Exodus from the land of Pharaoh possible. The special breed of beast were slowly being killed off nearly to extinction for the benefit of the other tribes. “The Golia alone broke the son of Ramesses at the Sea of Reeds while the Hebrew army escaped and crossed the wetlands. An escape made possible by the loss of twenty of the most prized male Golia. And then last month on the plain of Deeab, eight more males and three of the remaining females were lost when they attacked the enemy of Israel as they lay in ambush of the relief army you sent searching for us—or more to the point, the people’s spoils from the conquests of Egypt and Canaan.”
    “Old friend, we owe the Lord’s greatest creation our very existence. Without the Golia, we never would have escaped the two lands—”
    “As Moses promised me many years ago and you agreed, Joshua, I am taking the Golia and the tribe of Jeddah out of this land God has given unto the people. I am taking them to the far-off lands of the north where the Golia and the tribe of Jeddah can once again grow strong.” Kale looked his old friend in the eyes. “We have done the bidding of the Deliverer, and that of our