“Over the Baal?”
“Yes.”
“You see Batya, I knew it. The Queen is proud. Eliyahu standing against the King must have prompted her to act before she was ready.”
“Ready for what?” Yonaton asked.
“It was clear at the wedding she intended to draw the people after the Baal—Yambalya wouldn’t have coerced the guests to bow down except on her orders. Her influence has only grown stronger since then. Much stronger. But not enough to strike against the prophets. In her rage, she acted rashly. If we can reach Uriel, the resistance will have the leader it lacks. Under him, the surviving prophets can rouse the people to throw off Izevel’s yoke.”
“And the King’s?” Yonaton asked.
Ovadia shook his head. “The King is more dedicated to the people than he is to the Queen. Even rebuilding Jericho and marrying Izevel were, in his mind, done for them. If the people rise against the Queen, I believe he won’t stand in their way.”
Ovadia studied my face with sharp eyes until I began to shift in my seat. “To think that I brought you into my home because you were some innocent boy who knew nothing of the Kingdom or the court! You’re finding yourself in the middle of too many events for it to all be chance. There is more to you than you are sharing, Lev, more perhaps than you know yourself.”
My hand went to the bulge in my tunic where it covered my father’s knife. Ovadia was correct that I was holding something back. He need not know that I am a kohen, though. It has nothing to do with what we face right now.
Ovadia broke into a sudden smile. “Uriel would never have led the resistance on his own. He would have put off war as long as possible, allowing Izevel to grow stronger and stronger. But now that Eliyahu has forced his hand, he will have to lead us.”
Ovadia stroked his trim beard. “Unless Eliyahu expects to lead—he started this fight. Lev, did it sound to you as though he was planning to lead the people against the Queen? Tell me exactly what he said.”
Blood pulsed in my neck, heating my cheeks. I pronounced his words firmly, with only a trace of the fire that had filled Eliyahu’s voice at Jericho. “As the Holy One, the Lord of Israel, before whom I stand, lives…there will not be dew nor rain during these years except by my word.”
Batya gasped.
Ovadia staggered back against the hearth. “He tried to stop the rains?”
I nodded.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing. Can he do that?”
“According to Master Uriel, the Holy One indeed gave him the Key of Rain. The heavens are sealed until Eliyahu relents.”
“The Holy One gave him the key? That must be why the Queen summoned Yambalya. He would know if Eliyahu spoke the truth—the dark priest is filled with wisdom of their abominations.”
Ovadia’s eyes closed in, tightening his brow. “What you said didn’t sound like prophecy though. It sounded more like an oath. Or…”
“…a curse,” I finished.
Silence fell over the room.
I asked Ovadia, “You said Eliyahu wasn’t one of the prophets. He is, though. I saw him receiving prophecy after he left Hiel’s house. Was he not known as a prophet before?”
“I do not know. In his youth, he was among the last disciples of Achia, Uriel’s master. I do not know if he ever achieved prophecy before. I have known him only at the court. He has always been respectful of the monarchy there. Did anything happen in Jericho before he spoke?”
I shifted uncomfortably on my stool. “The King told Hiel that he blamed himself for Seguv’s death.”
“As he should.” Ovadia planted himself opposite me. “To hire a man to rebuild a cursed city…. Of course, Hiel himself is also responsible for agreeing to do it. Did he say anything else?”
“The King thought it strange that the curse of Joshua would work.”
“Why did he think that strange? Few prophets were as great as Joshua.”
“Because Moses said that if the people worshipped other gods, there would be no rain.”
“What does that have to do with Joshua?”
“The King said that the people have turned after the Baal, yet he could never remember having so much rain. He wondered why the curse of Joshua would work when the curse of his master failed.”
“What!” Ovadia leapt to his feet again. He drew his hand across his clammy forehead. When he spoke, his voice trembled. “Eliyahu invoked the curse of Moses?”
I remembered Uriel saying that Moses’s words were not quite a curse, but they certainly seemed like it to me. “Yes.”
All eyes were on Ovadia as he paced the room. “I had it all wrong. This is not a battle—it is a siege.”
Yonaton looked confused. “But the battle has already begun.”
“By the Queen, yes. But Eliyahu brought a drought. It may take years for its effects to be fully felt.” He turned to Batya. “This changes everything—our plan will not work. We need to think of something else.”
“But this should make our resistance even stronger!” Batya said.
Ovadia shook his head. “It cannot be done.”
“Batya is right.” I rose to my feet. “The Holy One gave Eliyahu the Key of Rain! What better weapon could we have? As you said, the Queen acted too soon—the people are still more loyal to the prophets than they are to the Baal. Why change the plan now?”
Ovadia shook his head. “Because the Holy One did not give Eliyahu the Key of Rain to fight Izevel.”
“Then what is it for?”
