Read Online The Ironsmith by Nicholas Guild - Free Book Online

was mad. He had buried himself in his madness, too deep to be reached by the usual means—probably by any means.”
    He paused, knowing that on the next throw of the dice he was wagering his life. He glanced about him, and his gaze fell on a little tree, no taller than a man, and he noticed how black its leaves appeared. It occurred to him how beautiful the world was, and how much he would regret leaving it.
    â€œHowever, his disciples were sane enough to run away,” Caleb continued. “I had given orders to arrest them along with the Baptist, but of course the fools allowed them to escape. I will hunt them all down, and we will soon know how widely this conspiracy has spread.”
    For perhaps a quarter of a minute the Tetrarch’s face was expressionless, even vacant. He might not even have been listening.
    Caleb had the uncomfortable feeling that Antipas was already measuring him for his coffin.
    Then the Tetrarch smiled, raised his hand, and placed it on Caleb’s shoulder.
    â€œI always know I can count on you in such matters,” he said.
    Half an hour later, Caleb was sitting in his study in the house that was kept for him against his visits to Tiberias. He was drinking wine to settle his nerves and, as his fear subsided, entertaining himself with regrets about the lie he had told. He had never ordered the disciples’ arrest. It had not occurred to him.
    However, such lies were necessary. Now it would be someone else’s head on the block. The officer at Machaerus, probably—what was his name? In any case, Caleb thought, better him than me.
    Or probably, by morning, the Tetrarch would have forgotten about it.
    Michal sent word that she was detained by the Lady Herodias. Caleb spent an uncomfortable night alone.
    *   *   *
    As soon as he was back in Sepphoris, Caleb directed his attention to the Baptist’s followers. He had long lists of them.
    One name immediately suggested itself—partly because the man might prove useful not as a victim but as a spy, and partly because his arrest would be such an exquisite jest.
    Judah bar Isaac was a Judean living in Tiberias. Caleb had made inquiries and discovered that his instinct had been correct. Judah received his income through a Greek merchant, the money coming from Jerusalem. Judah apparently was in disgrace with his family, but he seemed to be living an agreeable enough life. He was indolent and pleasure loving and enjoyed considerable popularity with an aristocratic set that included both Greeks and Jews.
    It was a familiar pattern, one Caleb himself had followed in his youth. It seemed to run in the family, because Judah was a cousin, the grandson of his mother’s elder sister.
    However, it appeared that not all scapegraces were dismissed on quite the same terms. Caleb’s father had given him a small purse of silver coins and title to a farm in Galilee, where presumably he would scratch a living out of the earth and acquire the virtues of a good peasant. His cousin had means enough to enjoy a leisured existence in Tiberias. Had his sins been so much less?
    Caleb tried to recall if they had ever met. Probably, although he had no memory of this favored youth. Judah, who was five years younger, certainly would have none of him.
    This business would require some care. Judah was a member of one of the leading Levite families, close to the high priesthood in Jerusalem. A common laborer can be arrested, tortured, and killed without risk, but not a Levite. The Temple was sacred, and the Levites were its servants.
    So one had to take care. The arrest had to be managed quietly, so that Judah’s friends in Tiberias would think he had simply fallen off the face of the earth.
    Caleb had just the man for this kind of work.
    Matthias was a palace guard, young, very strong, reasonably intelligent, and utterly without pity. He also drank, so much that he would long since have been dismissed if Caleb had not