Jesus Is the Bridge Ministries

Bantal did better than get me into the servants who attended the banquets; he got me installed as a female attendant for Tacitus himself. Other than the striking feature of his eyes, Tacitus bore little physical resemblance to his father. Where Bantal was tall and handsome, of moderate weight, Tacitus was short, stocky, and markedly ugly. In my new role as bath attendant, I quickly discovered just how ugly he was, though I would rather not have found out quite so much.

He was short in talk, too, to the point of rudeness. His response to requests or questions was usually a grunt. For the first week I was with him, he spoke barely a dozen words to me, mostly consisting of monosyllable commands such as “Come,” or “Go.” I dared not risk starting a conversation with him, much less try to witness about Christ. One evening, everything changed.

The Great Bear was holding one of the numerous banquets he held for those closest to him, including the chief priests, top military officers, top ministers, and the great lords of estates. I would be one of those responsible for serving at the table occupied by Tacitus and others of the priests. It was considered a great honor, and I suspected the choice of a brand new servant to fill the role again reflected the hand of Bantal.

I saw Bantal and Maritsa enter. He caught my eye, nodded slightly, and quickly looked away. Maritsa was busily engaged in filling her role as charming wife of a major dignitary, and did not look around. The last thing we wanted was for attention to be drawn to me in particular.

When one of the guests approached the priests’ table, my heart turned to ice within me. I had hoped never to see Rechab again, and seeing him here had been my greatest fear. He wore the same perpetual scowl, but there was also an evil gleam of anticipation in his eyes. I prayed that the Lord would blind his eyes, so that he might not see me. He ignored me totally, along with the other attendants around the long table. It was as if we did not exist, or that we were beneath contempt. Knowing him, it was probably a bit of both. We only mattered if he knew we were Christians; otherwise, he could care less if we lived or died.

I remembered the routine from years before. The other servants and I scurried about bringing food and drink, and carrying away empty dishes, until the time came for the Bear himself to make his appearance. When the trumpets sounded, we all knelt with our faces to the floor until the Great Bear took his seat, and the trumpets sounded again. He wore his mask of state, the semblance of the creature whose name he bore. This made eating a difficult chore, so all eating and drinking were done before the Bear appeared. This part of the banquet was a time for pomp and ceremony, with endless speeches extolling the virtues of the Bear, and the glories of his realm.

Then came a ceremony I never knew about, and which Bantal failed to mention because it had never occurred before. The hands of the priests, and particularly of the Truth Police, were obviously in it. Silence fell on the room, as no one spoke unless bidden by the Bear, and then the Great Bear himself spoke, introducing, we thought, the next empty tribute.

“We have noted the rise of a heresy in our realm in recent years, a false religion that claims to worship a false god who is no god, one Jesus. We have appointed an army of the faithful called the Truth Police to stamp out this abominable practice, but it still persists. We know that there are false believes even here in our very midst, among those pledged to serve and protect our person and our faith. I call now on Rechab, an official of the Truth Police, to tell what we have learned.”

Once more my heart died within me. I was certain that my name was about to be called, before I ever had a chance to accomplish what the Lord had called me to do. The next instant, though, I knew the Lord was still in control, and a great peace settled over me.

Rechab rose to his feet, and bowed his head toward the Bear until he was told to proceed. The look on his face was triumphant, and the scowl for once was gone. “Great and illustrious Bear, may you live and reign forever. It is with great sorrow and pain that I must share with these your subjects the names of three traitors you have revealed to us in your wisdom.”

No sorrow was evident in either his voice or his face, but he paused for effect. After a moment, he raised his arm dramatically, and turned until he focused on Bantal and Maritsa. “That man, most glorious Bear, your own trusted librarian and counselor, is one the accused Way, as they call it, and so is his wife.”

A gasp of horror swept over the room. Rechab stopped to revel in the moment, then lowered his arm and walked over to where Bantal sat, unmoving and unmoved to all outward appearance. The priest stopped directly across from the table from Bantal and Maritsa, then shouted in a voice that squeaked with the effort, “Do you deny this, Librarian?”

Bantal stood proudly to his feet, and said in a voice that rang out loud and clear, “Never will I deny my Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, and neither will my wife.”

Rechab turned toward the Bear, amidst a chorus of catcalls and hisses. “Silence!” roared the Bear, and the noise ceased immediately.

Rechab resumed. “You have heard the confession, O mighty Bear. What is your judgment?”

“They shall both surely die,” said the Bear in his most officious tones. “We will not tolerate heresy, especially among those we have blessed with honor and riches and power. There is yet one other to name.”

This surely meant me, I thought, but Rechab once more ignored me as he walked back to the priests’ table. Instead he stopped across from Tacitus, and again raised his arm and pointed.

“This man,” he said, his voice dripping with even more malice than before, “is the bastard son of the same Bantal your majesty has been denounced.”

Tacitus leapt to his feet. “You lie, son of a jackal,” he shouted, and lunged across the table toward Rechab. Hands reached out to restrain him, and he was forced back into his seat.

Rechab smiled, his mouth a nasty, ugly slit of yellowed teeth. “We had it from the very mouth of his mother on her deathbed. The truth is in his eyes; they are the very eyes of his father.”

Tacitus’s changed from one of anger to shocked disbelief. He sagged down, his efforts to strangle Rechab forgotten.

Rechab turned again toward the Bear’s raised dais. “You are all truth, great and mighty Bear. Nothing is hidden from you. What is your judgment?”

“He is the corrupt offspring of a corrupt sire. Let him put to death as well, that the palace may be pure once more.”

Pandemonium ensued once more, and this time the Bear made no effort to restrain it. As palace guards approached to take Tacitus away, and others did the same with Bantal and Maritsa, I managed to slip away from the table, and out a servants’ entrance nearby. I almost ran into a woman I recognized as one of the chief stewards of the banquet.

“Lysia,” she gasped, grabbing me by both arms, “there’s no time to explain. They will be taken to the dungeon used by the Truth Police. The men who work there are animals, and they enjoy inflicting pain. Nothing will happen until Rechab arrives, though, and he won’t come until after the banquet finishes. Come with me.”

She took a torch off the wall, and led me down a maze of corridors and stairways I never knew existed, until we stopped in front of what looked like a blank wall. From the must smell and the oppressive feel of the place, I judged we must be somewhere underneath the palace. When the woman placed her hand on a certain stone, and pushed, a portion of the wall slid aside, to be replaced by a wall of darkness beyond. We walked inside, and I saw yet another wall of stone beyond us. After turning to close the door behind us, the steward did the same thing with this new wall as with the last, and we entered this time into a dimly lit hallway, with cells stretching away from us on either side.

My stomach turned. Here was the smell of human feces, and rotting food, but, most of all, the smell of pain and hideous death. My guide turned toward me.

“Remember this well. For each of the walls we came through, count down ten stones from the top of the wall, and then over four. These will open the doors. I must return to my duties, for I will be missed. I’ll cover for you. There’s a small hole in this wall, here.” She pointed it out to me; I never would have noticed myself, though it should be obvious enough from the other side.

“Watch for the guards to come, and wait until they leave. I don’t know how much longer the banquet will last, but you must act as soon as you’re sure they’re gone.” She removed a key from a loop hanging from her belt. “This key will open all of the cells. They don’t stay occupied very long, so there’s no one else to worry about. There will be no chains yet; Rechab likes to supervise when they’re attached. Now I must go; wait between the two walls until someone comes for you. May God be with you, and with us all.”

I followed her back inside the little chamber between the false walls, and the guards entered only minutes later with their three prisoners. They threw all three of them, literally, into the same cell, and slammed and locked the door. Laughing among themselves as at some great joke, they tramped down the hallway, and closed the door at the end. As soon as I heard the key turn in the lock, and their footsteps recede, I came out from my hiding place.

“Lysia!” gasped Maritsa when I approached the cell. “Where did you come from? How…?”

“Hush, wife,” Bantal said quickly. “I’ll explain later.”

Tacitus was still looking dazed. Bantal shook him as I opened the door. “Tacitus! If you want to live, come with us.”

He shook off his father’s hand angrily, and said, “Why should I want to live? Everything I’ve ever lived for or hoped for all of my life has been destroyed. And you – you’re the cause of it all. It would have been better if I had never been born. My mother always was a whore; I just never realized she would go this far.”

The Lord gave me a word of knowledge just then. “Tacitus,” I said, “do you remember when you were a boy, and had a dream about a flowing stream that seemed to spring up from nowhere? Do you remember the man you saw there, who said he would call on you one day, to follow him? Well, he’s calling you now.”

His astonishment was immediate and boundless. “What? How could you ever know that? I’ve never shared that dream with anyone!”

I smiled, and walked across the cell to take his hand. “The man told me. His name is Jesus, whom we all serve. Come with me, and I’ll introduce you to the Man, who will fill you with streams of living water.”

He said nothing else, but a look of wonder replaced the astonishment, and he rose willingly to his feet at my urging. We were soon inside the hiding place, and settled down to wait in the cramped space; we dared not light a torch, or talk except in whispers. I don’t know how long it was before the guards returned with Rechab, but the shouts of rage and disbelief could be heard even through the small hole in the stone. Looking through the hole, I recognized Rechab himself, along with some other priests, and a group of men far different from the palace guards who had delivered the prisoners. I’m sure if Talitha were there she would have seen a multitude of demons around, because there was more pure, concentrated evil in those faces than I had ever seen in one place before.

After much shouting, cursing, and gesticulating, the whole group finally left. Bantal whispered in my ear, “God has delivered us, my child. This is Satan’s stronghold.”

Silence returned, and so did the waiting. I lost all concept of time, and I’m sure the others did as well. When at last the door slid open on the far side of the cell, the glare of the torch blinded us at first. The first face I saw after my eyes adjusted to the light was a familiar one; my mother smiled, and reached her hand for mine.

Chapter 24

;