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

clean him up,” Manasseh told the warden. “I’m going up to the Temple to make a thank offering. I’ll see him in the secretary’s chambers—his old chambers, where he lived with Shebna—when I’m finished.”
    Manasseh climbed the walkway to the Temple, bursting with praise. The gods had sent Hadad in answer to his prayers. He would finally prevail against his enemy. Manasseh made an extravagant offering in return, and his only petition to the gods was for Joshua’s death.
    When he returned to his palace a few hours later, Manasseh found Hadad sitting stiffly on the window seat, as if in great pain. Manasseh was amazed at how much weight he had lost in two weeks, how changed his appearance was. Hadad’s face was purpled with bruises, his left eye swollen nearly shut, his nose bent where it had recently been broken. He didn’t rise when the king and Zerah entered or try to bow down to them. He appeared too weak to stand. Yet the warden said Hadad had never begged for mercy. Manasseh had remembered Shebna’s grandson as carefree and undisciplined, and he wondered what had happened in his life to produce the man who now sat before him.
    “So, Hadad. You’ve had a taste of my prison; now I offer you a taste of my palace. What would you like first? I’ll send you anything you want … sumptuous food, excellent wine, someone to warm your bed …”
    “I want to watch Joshua die.” Hadad’s speech was slurred as he tried to speak through lips that were cracked and swollen. “Set a trap for him. I’ll make certain he walks into it.”
    Manasseh realized that Hadad’s pain wasn’t caused by his physical condition but by a hatred deeper than his own. Hadad was a driven man, so obsessed with revenge that he had withstood prison and torture and returned to this room not a weakened man but a stronger one. Manasseh felt a ripple of pleasure and fear. He stood in awe of such obsession. “Tell us your plan,” he said.
    Hadad leaned forward, and the hatred in his eyes mesmerized Manasseh. “Announce that you’ll preside over a feast in one of the towns west of Jerusalem. Make sure your procession will have to travel through the narrow mountain pass on the Beth Shemesh Road to get there. I’ll convince Joshua to set up an ambush at the pass. But your forces will infiltrate the area first, surrounding him completely. When he attacks the procession, which will be a decoy, your soldiers will move in, cutting off his escape.”
    “How many men will he have?” Manasseh asked.
    “I can make sure that his army will be small and inexperienced. He’ll probably order them to distract your guards, then retreat. I’m certain that he’ll try to assassinate you himself. If you use a covered sedan chair, with guards waiting inside, you might take him alive.”
    “What about Amariah?”
    Hadad’s eyes glimmered with hatred. “Do you want him dead or alive?”
    Manasseh smiled. “I’ll let you decide, Hadad. You deserve a small reward after surviving my prison.”
    “I’ll deliver what’s left of him to you.”
    “I thought you and my brother were friends. What happened?”
    “He chose to become my enemy.”
    “When would you like this ambush to take place?” Zerah asked.
    Manasseh glanced at his advisor and fought a twinge of jealousy when he saw the greedy way Zerah eyed Hadad. Manasseh understood why. As weak as Hadad was, his hatred gave him an aura of strength and power.
    “I’ll need a month to return to where Joshua is hiding in Egypt and plant the idea in his head,” Hadad said. “Joshua will probably want a few months to make plans and train his men. Why don’t we say the New Moon Festival, four months from now.”
    “How will you convince him to follow your plan?” Manasseh asked. “If you and he are enemies, won’t he suspect that it’s a trap?”
    “Joshua is my enemy. I never said that I was his enemy.”
    Again, Manasseh saw Hadad’s powerful hatred and felt the grip of awe. “What did