Read Online Devil's Island by John Hagee - Free Book Online Page A

should split up,” Tobias said as they approached the entrance. “I’ll go through the aqueduct and see what I can find outside. You stay here and look.”
    â€œNo, if we part company, I should be the one to go.” Abraham picked his way over the rubble and followed Tobias underground. He had to stoop a bit as they walked through the tunnel but Tobias, who was short and wiry, stood at full height as he led the way.
    â€œIt’s more dangerous for you than for me,” Abraham continued. “I’m a Roman citizen who got trapped in the city, and Titus has promised us safe passage. So if I’m captured, I would have to return home, which means I couldn’t stay to help you and Rivka, but I wouldn’t be killed.”
    He left unspoken his fear that Tobias, if captured, would be crucified in the daily display of terror the Romans conducted for the Zealots’ benefit. Jews caught outside the city were offered a chance to defect; if they refused—which most of them did, fearing what would happen to their families in their absence—they were deemed to be revolutionaries and executed by crucifixion. Dozens met a similar fate every day, and Abraham had watched the rebels drag the families of those being crucified to the top of the city walls to watch the spectacle below. “This is what happens to traitors,” the Zealots warned the terrified citizens. It was an effective recruiting tool; some joined the revolutionaries willingly after that, but a few jumped over the walls and took their chances with the Romans.
    Reaching the spot where the aqueduct emptied out under the wall, Abraham and Tobias stood and looked through the overgrowth to the outside. Dismayed by what they saw, neither one spoke for a long time.
    â€œIt’s too late now,” Tobias finally said. “We should have done this last week.”
    â€œWe weren’t as desperate last week. We still had corn to eat.” Abraham gazed forlornly at the bare hillside. The Romans had cleared several acres when they built their camp; now they had deforested the entire area. Every tree had been cut down, and the grass was completely trampled. There was nothing left to forage.
    â€œThis must be where the timber came from to build the new siege towers.”
    Abraham had seen the movable wooden structures Tobias referred to. The siege towers were immense, seventy-five feet tall, and allowed the Roman archers to shoot at the rebels defending the walls at close range.
    â€œI don’t know how much longer the city can hold out,” Tobias said sadly.
    â€œThe longer it holds out, the more innocent people will die, and the more vengeful the Romans will be when they finally do take it. The rebels have no realistic hope of defeating the Roman legions; they never did.”
    â€œNo, but they will not give up one square inch of the territory they hold—not until the last one of them is dead. And for what purpose? Most of us were content living under Roman rule. It wasn’t always pleasant but it was not usually oppressive. For the most part we paid our taxes and lived in peace.”
    â€œIf the war continues at this rate,” Abraham said, “no one will be left alive to enjoy the peace that follows—whichever side eventually prevails.” He supposed a miracle was possible, but the rebel factions were vastly outnumbered, poorly organized, and prone to fighting among themselves.
    â€œI guess we wouldn’t have gotten far outside the wall today, anyway,” Tobias said. “See how closely the camp is guarded.” He pointed toward the tents of the Tenth Legion, a few hundred yards in the distance. A Roman sentry was posted about every ten feet around the southern perimeter, the part of the camp visible from their vantage point.
    â€œWe’d better head back.” Abraham put a hand on Tobias’s shoulder and urged him to turn around.
    Tobias did not move.