Read Online Among the Gods by Lynn Austin - Free Book Online

be Dinah. She was the only prize he coveted. But Hadad would never tell King Manasseh the truth. Dinah had once been the king’s concubine.
    “Revenge,” he said quietly. “Same as you. I want to watch Joshua die.”
    “If you know where he is, then why don’t you kill him yourself?”
    Indeed, why not? Joshua wasn’t surrounded by dozens of guards, as Manasseh was. Hadad could easily slip onto the island after dark and kill both Joshua and Amariah while they slept, then escape with Dinah. Instead, he had come to Jerusalem.
    “Because it would be too easy, too merciful to kill him myself,” Hadad finally replied. Anger and passion made his voice quiver. “You’ll make him suffer, King Manasseh. Joshua hates you with every ounce of strength he has. The knowledge that you won, that he died by your hands, will torture him more than I ever could.” Hadad curled his hands into fists. He felt the guards tighten their grip on his arms as his muscles flexed.
    “Why do you hate Joshua?” Manasseh asked.
    “He stole something that belonged to me.”
    “What did he take?”
    Hadad clenched his jaw, remembering. “Do you want me to deliver him to you, or don’t you?”
    “What about my concubine? He has Dinah, too, doesn’t he? I want her back, as well.”
    Hadad hadn’t expected Manasseh to ask for Dinah. According to Hadad’s plan, Joshua and Amariah would both die and he would escape somewhere—maybe back to Moab—to live with Dinah on his grandfather’s gold. He swallowed hard.
    “Dinah is dead. She died of a fever when Joshua was hiding in the swampland near Gaza.”
    Several emotions played across Manasseh’s face, but sorrow wasn’t one of them. He turned to his administrator. “What do you think, Zerah?”
    Hadad tried not to flinch under Zerah’s intense scrutiny. Hadad knew nothing about the man, but the look in Zerah’s eyes told him that he was perversely wicked, without conscience.
    “I think you should lock Hadad in prison until we find out whether or not he is telling the truth,” Zerah said.
    Manasseh nodded to the four guards surrounding Hadad. “Can you beat the truth out of him?”
    “Yes, Your Majesty.”
    “Do it.”

    Hadad’s first whiff of the airless hole made him gag. He had time for only a fleeting glimpse of his fellow prisoners in the palace dungeon before the guards disappeared up the stairs with the torches and left the prison in total darkness. He thought he had counted about five other men crowded into the tiny cell, some shackled hand and foot, others unfettered like himself.
    The guards had stripped Hadad of his outer robe and sandals, and the sodden straw felt warm and mushy beneath his bare feet. He leaned against the barred door, determined he would collapse from exhaustion before he would sit in his own filth, much less lie down in it.
    Someone in the corner on his right was moaning in agony. The sound was continuous, unending. Hadad waited for his eyes to adjust to the gloom, but it never happened. The darkness in the cell was total. He sensed someone standing very close to him, felt the moisture of breath on his face.
    “Who are you?” a voice rasped. “Who did you kill?”
    “No one,” Hadad mumbled. “Get away from me.”
    “Where shall I go? Through the bars? Or maybe I can float up near the ceiling for a while.” His laughter had the timbre of insanity.
    “You want space?” another voice in the darkness asked. “Why don’t you put that old man over there out of his misery and take his space?”
    “What’s wrong with him?” Hadad asked. He heard several people chuckle.
    “You’ll find out soon enough,” the voice nearby said. “They torture everyone in this cell sooner or later.”
    “Yeah, sooner or later.” The voice came from someone sitting near Hadad’s feet. “If you confess, you’ll die sooner. If you don’t confess, you’ll die later.” Everyone but Hadad laughed.
    For the first time, Hadad realized that he might die in this