Naomi gazed at me affectionately. “It’s going to be a marvelous wedding day, Jayden. One to remember for the rest of your life.”
After the bath, I pulled on a silk robe and Naomi instructed me to lie down on a soft mattress. “We have the henna ready. My women are experts at painting beautiful symbols of the Sariba lands.”
The feathery paintbrushes were like butterfly wings on my skin. Lady Naomi had one of her musicians play the harp to soothe me. Other servants brought lunch and delicacies as well as fresh fruit and ice-cold water, which soothed my feverish nerves.
By late afternoon my makeup was done. My lashes were brought to life using the exotic thick kohl, my eyebrows plucked, and the juice of red pomegranate stained my lips. I sat in the chair for the curling of my hair. Jewels were added and a light sprinkling of gold flakes as the final adornment.
At dusk, I slipped into the cream-and-gold bridal gown. My hair fell in thick curls down my back. Shimmering tiny jewels had been woven throughout the ringlets.
Naomi had me stand before the mirror while the lamps were lit. Golden light glowed around me. As if I had become the sun and all light radiated from me. “Kadesh couldn’t have chosen a more beautiful girl to be his queen.”
“Thank you so much for all you’ve done for me,” I told her, kissing her cheeks.
“Don’t spoil your makeup, dear girl. Are you ready to meet your husband?”
Her personal servants flung open the doors of the suite while an array of palace servants flanked the wide hallways to watch me walk through to the wedding pavilion.
Just outside the door Uncle Josiah stood next to my father, who took my arm. “You look like a vision, Jayden,” he said. “Just like your mother on our wedding day.”
“I do? Then I am completely and utterly happy.”
“There’s great joy in your eyes. Kadesh is a fine man, a fine prince, and has great intelligence to outwit his enemies. I’ve spent the past several days watching him prepare and I’m impressed. But for now, forget the rest of the world exists. This is your time.”
When we stepped into the gardens, the real world seemed to drop away when I entered a fairyland of lights. Frankincense wafted through the air, and tables were loaded with exquisite delicacies. The laughter and chatter of guests, friends, and family, including Sariba dignitaries and council members, filled the night with a warm happiness.
My father escorted me through the crowd. The guests bowed to me in their party finery, murmuring congratulations. I heard whispers of approval and comments on my beauty. I lowered my head to hide my nervous smile.
The pavilion was enchanting, bursting with flowers and delicately crafted columns. Tinkling fountains and carpeted paths. I turned my head this way and that as if I was eight years old again and I’d been granted permission to stay up all night at the grandest party of my life.
Naomi was on my other side, in position as my surrogate mother. “Try not to look so deliciously happy, my dear girl. Decorum must still be in attendance. We are the royal family, after all.”
She squeezed my hand playfully and I smothered down a laugh. Naria, Naomi’s daughter, stood close with a basket of rose petals. She bounced on her toes, eager to spread the flowers over me and Kadesh by practicing on a few guests.
I pasted a solemn, royal expression on my face and then—suddenly—there was the wedding party standing at the dais. Chemish and Asher and King Ephrem on his throne. Chemish grinned broadly with a fatherly look while Asher’s eyes drank me up. I purposely let my gaze sweep past him, a twinge of guilt at ignoring the boy, but searching for Leila in the crowd of guests. I hadn’t received any response from the invitation I’d sent. If that was her doing or if Aliyah had intercepted my letter I’d probably never know, but the thought of my sister not being here to see me married left an empty spot inside. We’d been torn apart by so many circumstances this past year, and the gulf between us was wide.
Of course, there were Edomite soldiers bordering the wedding procession. Men who had come such a long way for me and Kadesh. Men who had forsaken their families to fight alongside the Sariba army. Gratitude filled me. An abundance of blessings had surely followed our trials and hardships.
Finally, my gaze settled on Kadesh. His stare was piercing, sober, and filled with love. My soul wanted to take flight and soar into the heavens with him. I imagined us later tonight, locked in each other’s arms while the world dropped away. Royal guards already surrounded the marriage tent so we wouldn’t be disturbed.
A rush of longing ran up my legs and into my belly, filling me with devotion and passion for this beautiful man who finally belonged to me.
A heartbeat later I was at his side. He grasped my hands, pulling me close. “Hello, my darling Jayden.”
Whispering into his ear, I teased, “Is that all you can say to your bride?”
A small sound of emotion escaped his mouth. “There are no words to describe your exquisite loveliness. I love you.”
Impulsively, I wrapped my arms around him. “Oh, Kadesh, I love you with all my heart.”
The crowd laughed at our unexpected exuberance, indulging us.
My father walked up the steps of the dais to join King Ephrem, who also held the title of High Priest of Sariba of the order of Abraham. Commissioned to pronounce Kadesh king of Sariba when the time came. Soon we would all sign the final covenant, signaling our marriage was sealed forever.
Two stewards were in position as court witnesses. The king motioned to us and then Kadesh and I stepped to the table where the contract papers were laid. Chemish and Asher stood beside us as personal witnesses. Celebratory wine had already been poured into gold-rimmed goblets.
The wedding party raised our glasses to one another and then took a single sip of the pungent juice. When the contract was signed, we would face the wedding guests, lift the goblets high, and then drain them in a final gesture before the crowd exploded into shouts and cheers. A bevy of trumpeters stood ready to blast a chorus of rejoicing and triumph for the future king and queen of Sariba.
Speaking in a low voice, Uncle Ephrem said, “Now is the time to express any doubts or any concerns.” Up close, the king’s demeanor was pale and his hands trembled. He was not well. He’d risen from his sickbed only to see us married.
I bent across the table and kissed his wrinkled cheek. “Thank you, King Ephrem, for welcoming me into your home and into your family. I will honor you for all my life and with all my heart.”
His hooded eyes were sly as he winked at me. My breath caught. In that moment, I saw the image of my grandmother in his countenance. I glanced up at the heavens, knowledge washing over me that my grandmother and dear mother were there beside me on this happiest of days.
Ephrem’s face broke into a hearty grin. “I take it neither of you has any concerns nor wish to withdraw, then?”
Kadesh gripped my hand in his, his eyes fastened to mine. “I don’t think anybody has anything to say, my king.”
With tremulous fingers, King Ephrem picked up the stencil and dipped it into the pot of ink to sign the official marriage scroll, but the safe cocoon of my wedding suddenly turned surreal, as though I’d been thrust into a dream.
The world around me shattered.
Shouting broke out behind us and high-pitched screams rang through the crowd. Swells of commotion filled the air, rising in my ears, turning reality into a nightmare.
Not a second later, Chemish gave a gasp, lurched forward, and then crumpled to the earth.
“Chemish!” Kadesh cried, dropping to his knees beside the Edomite leader.
I reared back, my chest exploding with shock. An arrow was lodged in Chemish’s back. His eyes were closed and he was lying very, very still.
“Father!” Asher screamed.
Kadesh glanced up at me, his expression one of horror. The next moment he yelled, “Get down, Jayden!” He pushed me under cover of the dais just as a second arrow whistled over our heads and punctured the backdrop of the platform.
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Screams filled my head while wedding guests and servants scattered. I watched our friends and family dart under awnings and race down the terrace steps of the tiered gardens. Scrambling for their lives. I tried to find my father but he’d disappeared.
“Assyrians!” a soldier yelled above the fray. “Maachathites!”
“What’s happening?” I choked out. Under the dais table, I crouched on my knees, my wedding dress draped about me while I stared at Chemish. The end of a foreign arrow protruded from his back. It couldn’t be real. This wasn’t happening.
Asher broke off the arrow and rolled his father over, heaving as he panicked and felt for a pulse.
Kadesh’s face was wild. “Are you all right, Jayden?”
I nodded without speaking while we crouched together, watching in a daze while the people of Sariba were running about the palace grounds and shouting.
My face was numb, my limbs heavy with a crushing weight. I wished I had my dagger, my sword, anything. The royal guards were somewhere in the commotion, but who was the enemy? Which direction were they coming from? It was too hard to tell in the twilight.
When Kadesh rose to his feet I pulled at his fingers, but they slipped from mine. “Kadesh, no, they’re going to kill you!”
No sooner had the words left my mouth than a horde of men on horseback surged through the wedding pavilion. I sat frozen while they hacked down the canopy tent poles with long sabers. Tables were upended, throwing plates and goblets and cutlery all over the grass. The food tents fell in heaps. Screams and shouts spun a web of haze over the last images of my wedding day.
In the midst of the commotion, I heard Naomi’s voice screaming, “Naria! Naria!”
Across the stone pathway, the young girl stood in terror among the fleeing people who were knocking over chairs to get to the safety of the palace. Scrambling to my feet, I raced for her, scooting behind an overturned table just as one of the attackers galloped past on his horse. I stared at him: a man with long, black hair and a foreign head cloth dangling over his face. Even when the lamplight grazed his profile, I didn’t recognize him. I didn’t know any of them.
Crawling across the pathway seemed to take an eternity. Finally, I reached Naria and pulled her down to the grass, covering her with my body, just as Asher had covered mine during the stoning at Tadmur.
Over my shoulder, I watched Asher trying desperately to waken Chemish. Tears streamed down his face as he flung the arrow’s broken end across the brick pathway. The horsemen were closing in from the perimeter. Would they shoot Asher next? Was Chemish dead? None of us were safe out here in the open.
I’d lost sight of both my father and the king. All was a chaotic crush.
“Naomi!” I shouted. I could see the woman stumbling about under the shadowy pavilion, frantic to find her daughter. “I’m over here!”
No more than a minute had passed since the first arrow struck Chemish, but the Edomites were already fighting. They slashed at the invaders with their swords, trying to bring them down off their horses. One horseman fell off with a thud to the stones, and his horse screamed. A second horseman was pulled off his steed while another table laden with wedding dinner crashed to the ground. My ears were ringing.
The world had erupted into madness.
Staggering to my feet, I stepped on the hem of my wedding gown. “Naomi! Here!” I scooped up Naria’s wriggling body and thrust her into her mother’s arms. “Go! Back to the palace!”
Thankfully, she didn’t question my order, just disappeared into the confusion, and I ducked again, hiding under the same table when a third foreign rider galloped by. Thoughts tumbled about while I watched the scene. The intruders didn’t seem to be trying to kill any of the guests. Just creating havoc and destruction. Only Chemish had been shot. Why had he been singled out?
Instantly, the answer came. Chemish had been standing next to Kadesh. They weren’t aiming for Chemish. They had been aiming at Kadesh. The attackers didn’t appear to be Nephish or Maachathite, or Assyrian, either. Was this chaos the work of King Hammurabi, the ruler of Babylon? He was a master at toppling kingdoms and regimes by taking out their kings in a single decisive move.
I tried to gauge my luck at getting back to the dais to help escort King Ephrem to safety. Surely he was cowering as I was, unable to escape.
But before I could get up and run, the backdrop behind the table parted. A girl in wedding finery with a mane of manicured black hair rose to her feet behind Ephrem’s throne. A moment later, she slipped through the rear panels. I sucked in a breath when I recognized Aliyah.
The Sariba priestess glanced about to make sure the path was clear. Then, with quick, sure steps she ran down a set of garden stairs into the shadows of the night.
I slumped back on my heels. Had Aliyah ordered this reign of terror? To destroy our wedding? To kill Kadesh so she could take the throne? But that made no sense. It served her interests better if she could get rid of me and then seduce Kadesh with her hallucinating potions, so she could reign with him. Her powerful tools of potions and persuasion would eventually create a puppet king to do her bidding.
With Aliyah on the throne, the legitimate King of Sariba would fall under her spell and ultimately be rendered useless.
The scheme unfolded before my eyes: Aliyah getting rid of Uncle Ephrem and then Kadesh, too. But this attack couldn’t be attributed to the High Priestess. The traitorous plot worked best with Kadesh alive, not dead. At least until they were married and an heir safely planted in her womb. She had secretly attended my wedding tonight for some other reason.
Scratches stung my hands from crawling across the stone paving. My wedding dress was grass-stained. Jeweled combs tumbled from my hair. But I was dry-eyed as I watched the wild scene unfold in front of me.
Ten Edomites attacked each horseman, hacking them down, their hands and swords dripping with blood. The horses ran like crazed beasts, shredding flower beds and knocking over urns, the whites of their eyes wild.
In the hazy distance I caught sight of a few stable boys trying to trap the horses, calming the creatures with their expertise, the animals adorned in foreign bangles and saddles.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the wedding guests had all retreated to the palace, the fighting stopped, and an eerie silence reigned. The Edomite horsemen regrouped across the pavilion from me.
I rose to my feet, staggering in my gold sandals. I stared across the lawns, the broken pavilion canopies, the overturned tables and smashed flowers and food. I couldn’t seem to take a full breath. My wedding was in utter ruins.
The dead bodies of the invaders littered the beautiful rugs and carpets. Without speaking, riding slowly, their swords still held aloft, the Edomites spread through the gardens and along the walls, securing the perimeter. A few remained standing in the center of the wedding pavilion, their chests heaving after the brief battle.
From the darkness, Kadesh’s face came into focus. With both hands, he wrenched me toward him, lifting me up against him and burying his face into my chest. He held me tight, not speaking, his breath warming my skin.
I held his head in my hands, kissing his hair. “Kadesh! You’re alive!”
His arms crushed me. “You are alive. I thought I’d lost you. I couldn’t find you.”
Slowly, he released me and I slid down along the length of his body, my feet touching the ground again. “I’ve spent most of the time hiding under various tables. How is Chemish?” I had to ask, but I feared the worst.
“He’s badly hurt. The physicians are working on him now.”
“Oh no! Look!” Under the dim light of one of the hanging lamps, I spotted Asher. He was no longer at the dais kneeling over his father, but straddling the body of one of the intruders. His arm reared back, ready to thrust the man’s sword into his chest. I shuddered with a terrible memory. I’d once swayed over Horeb, ready to plunge my dagger into his heart.
We raced across the paving stones, the circle of my wedding gown
dragging through the dirt. I clenched the folds in my fists so I wouldn’t trip.
When we reached Asher, the invader’s eyes were open and he was gasping for air, not dead, not yet.
“I found him, Kadesh,” Asher said, his voice rough with rage. “You’re speaking with the prince of Sariba now. Talk, man, before I cut out your heart.”
Kadesh held up a hand to stop the boy’s impulsiveness. Killing the invader too hastily wasn’t to our advantage. “We’ll spare your life,” he told the man, “if you tell us who ordered this invasion.”
The man gave a hollow grin, his teeth red with blood, words coming out in spurts. “Horeb, king of the Nephish.”
“What is your position in his army?”
“Scout. Surprise chaos.” He choked on his own blood and spit up a mouthful.
I turned away, my stomach dry heaving.
“Are you Maachathite or Assyrian?” Kadesh demanded.
“Neither. I’m Basim, leader of the marauders from the mountains of Sa’ba. Horeb let us out of prison. We helped him with horses and supplies to cross the final desert. Our families will be well paid.”
“Mercenary soldiers!” Asher spat out. “Shall I kill him now, Kadesh?”
“No. Get one of your Edomite brothers to take him to the palace jail on the other side of the compound.”
“Stop,” I said, surprising myself. “Not yet.” The filthy man of Sa’ba glanced up. He laughed when he saw my ruined wedding dress, red dribbling from the corner of his mouth. It was all I could do not to spit at him myself. “Before you get to reside in the fine prison of Sariba, answer my questions. Where is Horeb now? How many days from here?”
The wounded man sneered at me, his eyes raking over my figure as he realized I was the bride. “Are you his betrothed?”
I stared at him coldly.
“Horeb wanted me to tell you that he’ll see you at the full moon.”
His words were chilling. Tonight was the full moon.
“Take him away!” shouted Asher to two of the Edomite soldiers.