I shook my head. “They have lookouts on the hilltops. They’re watching the valleys as well as the roads.”
Ovadia groaned. “You see, Batya, a craftsman can have the finest tools, but he’s an oaf without a plan.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “Perhaps at night?”
I recalled our flight from the soldiers two nights before and shuddered. To reach Shomron in the dark, on footpaths, would take three nights at least. That meant finding hiding places during the days on top of the hardship of the night trekking. “Even if we could make it, we’d never get into the city. The Queen’s soldiers watch the gates.”
“The cave is not in the city. He will not have to pass the gates.”
I didn’t like the plan, but what choice did we have? “All right. If we can convince Master Uriel, we’ll try at night.”
“No, you won’t.” Batya stood, hands on her hips. “You’ll go during the day.”
This was too much. Hadn’t she been listening? “The valleys are watched.”
“You won’t walk the valleys. You’ll take the King’s Road.”
Ovadia gaped at his wife. “How will they do that?”
A flush rose in Batya’s cheeks. “With the crowd returning from the festival.”
The edges of her husband’s lips curved up in a smile. “Brilliant.”
I stared back and forth between them. “What’s brilliant?”
“The annual festival of the Calf is in five days.” Ovadia slapped one hand into the other. “The King will be there, along with all the nobility of Shomron.”
“But if the King is there,” Yonaton said, “There are sure to be soldiers as well.”
“The King’s guard will escort him, but he moves much faster than his subjects. Besides, those are Israelite soldiers—the Queen’s guard won’t dare attack while they’re around. Once the King rides past, Uriel and Shimon can mingle in with the crowd.”
“He won’t agree.”
“I told you, Lev, your master must reach that cave. And I have known him far longer than you have. I do not believe that he wants to die.”
I bristled. “If you know my master so well, then you must know his loathing of the Calf. He hasn’t even set foot in Beit El for sixty years. Even if he agrees to hide, he won’t do it by pretending to be a Calf worshiper.”
“It’s the only plan we have.” Ovadia reached across the table to seize my shoulders. “The Holy One has chosen you to serve your master. Now you must save him. Whatever you need to do, you do.” His grip tightened. “Swear to me that you will get Uriel here alive!”
“He’s my master, I’m not his.”
“I am offering to save his life. Now swear.”
Ovadia’s eyes locked on mine, sapping my power to resist. “All right, I swear.” How would I stand up to a navi when I couldn’t even stand up to Ovadia?
“But we’ll still have to get past the Queen’s soldiers on the road,” Yonaton protested.
“Yes.”
“But how?”
Ovadia released my shoulders and turned to Yonaton. “Once I was traveling the hills of the Bashon alone, on a mission for the King. Just at sunset, I came upon a pack of wild dogs.”
I wondered what this had to do with saving my master. Yonaton asked, “What did you do?”
“I sat down in their midst.”
Yonaton’s eyes grew large. “Weren’t you scared?”
“Terrified.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“If you run from a dog, it will give chase. But if you act like its master, it will grovel. You are not going to run from the Queen’s soldiers, nor will you hide. You will pass them in the middle of the day, in a crowd returning from a festival for the Golden Calf.”
My stomach rumbled, and though I knew the navi was tired, I also knew the wise never left their questions unasked. “I have one more, Master.”
“One more then.”
I could tell from the direction of his voice that my master was lying down. Suddenly my curiosity felt out of place, and I struggled for the right words. “It’s about food.”
“The righteous eat to satisfy the soul.”
“Is that why the prophets don’t cook their greens properly?” I almost said “didn’t cook their greens properly,” but caught myself. Just because it had been months since any prophet I knew had tasted a vegetable didn’t mean they’d given up hope.
I rarely heard my master’s laugh these days, though its dry rattle didn’t convey much humor. “What did you notice about the meals in Emek HaAsefa?”
Despite the total darkness, I closed my eyes to summon up an image of the gathering. “The vegetables were barely cooked; their colors were very bright.”
“You saw well. Of all creation, it is only man that cooks his food. The colors tell us when it is ready to be eaten. Leave it on the fire and the color fades, because its vital force is sapped.”
