Read Online Secret Magdalene by Ki Longfellow - Free Book Online

does nothing but stand by the tent opening and watch him. Salome does nothing but grumble, but I watch Seth. How is it that he is near by night and by day, and yet we scarcely know it?
    Nothing is said as Addai builds his fire, but when it is done, he looks to Seth, asking, “How long before our people erupt? This year? Next year?”
    Shrugging, Seth seats himself. “These are the End Times, and if they are not, more and more men believe them to be so.”
    I ask, “Do you believe them to be so?”
    Seth turns his regard full on me. “The Queen Bee speaks.” Why does he call me Queen Bee? What does it mean? “And I answer her like this, the Poor claim the days are come when Good and Evil contend one with the other. They say it is now that Evil will bring the greatest misery to humanity, and more than misery to the Chosen of God. It is the time foretold for the coming of the Messiah.”
    I ask again, “Do you believe this?”
    “God has chosen and set aside one nation of all the nations of the world, neither numerous nor powerful, to be the recipient of his laws—”
    “The Jews,” sighs the Samaritan Addai.
    “And by observing them, to offer an example, a witnessing to all nations.” Seth raises sparks with a stick. “But it seems a whole people cannot be expected to carry such a burden, so it has come down to an elect to provide this obedience. But of these elect, there begin to be those who are zealous and who look for a messiah in the form of a warrior king. In this they prepare for a war between Light and Dark.”
    Addai raises a brow. “This night they prepare by practicing on one another.”
    Seth allows himself a smile. I, who have never seen him smile, am dazzled. “But we are the Nazorean, and we do not prepare for a war between Light and Dark. Nor do we look for a warrior king.”
    Salome plants her feet in the dirt before Seth. “Tell me what you mean by Nazorean or I will go mad.”
    I did not think Seth of Damascus could laugh! When he is finished laughing, he says, “I would not see you mad, Simon who is called by Addai ‘magician.’ Therefore, calm yourself, and listen. The people of Israel became one under the messenger Moses. But after the long and terrible exile in Babylon there was sent to the Israelites not one, but two further messengers: first Ezra, then Issa.”
    I say, “Issa? The Loud Voice said, ‘Did Issa not walk with me?’”
    If Seth has heard me, he makes no sign, but continues, “Ezra chose certain writings and said these were the holiest writings, the only writings. These were Torah. Ezra’s followers became the Jews. But Issa did not believe in the choices Ezra made, and those who thought as Issa thought became the Nazoreans. It is the belief of the Nazorean that it is they who are the true Israelites.”
    Salome, an Egyptian, is amused, but I as a Jew am shocked. “You mean Father and Nicodemus and Caiaphas are Jews, but to you this is not the same thing as true Israelites?”
    Seth answers me most solemnly. “Ezra was then as the high priest Caiaphas is today. Caiaphas takes his power from Rome; Ezra took his from Persia. It was Persia, not God, who walked behind Ezra. Do you think the people of Moses would smile on Persia, and now on Rome? Would they see who serves the Temple and be content?”
    Salome laughs. “I would not tell the father of Mariamne such a thing.”
    “But he
is
told,” interrupts Addai, “as is the high priest, as are the Pharisee and the Sadducee. Many among the Nazorean have grown weary in their telling and become impatient,
more
than impatient. They begin to think of themselves as the soldiers of god. There are only a few of us left who do not see blood as an answer.”
    I stiffen in understanding. “The daggermen. These are Nazorean?”
    Seth moves away from the fire. I can no longer see his face as he speaks from the shadows. “The Queen Bee asks if they are Nazorean? Only insofar as they attach themselves to the teaching and teachers