I push the pace back towards Jerusalem, and we reach Jericho quickly. The horses are tired, but we need to be back in two days, rather than the three days it took my past-self to do it on a horse that could do little more than trot.
“I hope the Romans will give us the same bed back,” Martha says. “I’m exhausted.”
“Me too,” I say.
I direct my horse off the main road and down a narrow sheep path leading into the hills.
“Where are we going?” Martha asks, as she and Michael follow.
“To a soft bed and hot food.”
After ten minutes, I see a small house, with my old hobbled horse standing outside a small barn structure. The man who saved its life and sold it to me delivered it to Esther after all. I also see four lambs outside the barn and a fifth being held by Esther’s youngest son, Seth. When he sees me, he puts down the sheep and runs towards us.
“Cephas. You must come speak to my uncle. He is very mad at mother, and sent her away with the flock she bought with the money you gave us. He says mother must have sold herself to you to get the money, and she is now dirty. He tried to take her flock, but she and Eli would not let him, so he took the horse you sent. I tried to get away too, but uncle stopped me.”
I look up and see a short but sturdy-looking man come out of the house, followed by a shorter and sturdier-looking woman. They both have ugly looks on their faces.
“I heard all that. Come back for more, did you? She’s not here. She’s in the hills, living on the ground with other dirty things.”
When I get down from the horse, he can see that I’m over a foot taller than he is and he looks frightened. His wife has to push him forward to confront me.
“I’m Cephas. I’m the one who gave Esther, Seth and Eli money and that horse. If you have an accusation to make against me, make it now, to my face.”
“Esther said - well - she said she met a man alone in the hills, and-”
“And what?”
“And you gave her money, so you must have-”
“Be very careful how you finish your sentence. Insult my honor and you’ll die where you stand.”
Seth has a grin on his face, as his uncle begins to shake.
“Seth and Eli found me bleeding beside a pond where the sheep drink, and Esther bound my wound.”
I point to the scar on my neck.
“Esther gave me food and water, nothing more. She showed great kindness to a stranger and I gave her money out of my gratitude.”
“Of course, you could see how I might think-” the uncle stammers.
“Yes. It was just a misunderstanding.”
I soften my voice and my stance.
“And of course, you see how a man such as myself would be insulted to have my generosity repaid by such foul accusations.
“Yes, of course.”
He’s still visibly shaking.
“Now, you will take my horse and find Esther. You will beg her forgiveness and welcome her back into your house. My wife and I will be sleeping in your bed tonight, and your wife will attend to us with a hot meal.”
His eyes go wide - first with surprise, and then with anger.
“For this kindness, I’ll pay you each one piece of gold.”
His eyes turn from anger to greed, and he sets off.
Esther’s sister-in-law prepares us a fine meal, and Martha and I finally get to spend a night as husband and wife in a real bed. All we do is sleep.
****
I awake at dawn to see Martha is watching me sleep again. It looks like she’s been crying.
“I always dreamed of living in a world where I’d be free to pray as I please. I guess it’s true; you need to be careful what you wish for. What do we do now, Cephas? We can’t join the disciples. Do we just find a quiet place to live out our lives, without changing the timeline?”
I start to smile, but I’m interrupted by the sound of the door banging open and Esther yelling, “Cephas.” She blushes and turns around when she sees I’m in bed with Martha.
“It’s good to see you again too, Esther. This is my wife, Martha.”
Esther closes the door as we get dressed.
Her brother-in-law earned his gold coin. He was out all night, getting scratched by bushes as he searched in the dark for Esther and her flock. His wife doesn’t look much better, having slept on a mat on the floor.
When we’ve eaten breakfast, Michael starts to saddle the horses, but I tell him to stop.
“Thank you again, Esther. I’m sure you’ll have a fine and healthy flock. Would a few more horses make them easier to tend?”
The jaw of everyone in the family drops with surprise.
“Eli. You are old enough to own property. I give you these three horses as payment for the staff you gave to me. It saved my life more than once, and may do so again.”
I grab my pack and walk towards the hills, with Martha and Michael in hot pursuit and everyone wondering what just happened here.
“Did you just give away our horses?” Martha asks.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m tired and want a hot shower, followed by a night in a decent bed.”
I’ve been picking up the pace as I walk.
“Cephas, slow down! Where are you going?”
“Me? I’m going home, of course. The arena cave is over that hill and halfway up the next one.”
Martha and Michael stop dead in their tracks.
“You said you couldn’t allow us to be pulled forward in time. You said it was too risky,” Michael says.
“No. I said I couldn’t allow Henry to pull us forward in time. Being pulled forward by Four - that’s different.”
“The message you sent to Albert in the ointment jar under the Sphinx!” Martha says.
I shrug and try my best to look innocent.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Martha asks.
She swats me gently in the arm.
“It all came together piece by piece. When we got word the time travel device had been moved, the message also said a smaller device had been set up in the cave. The informant assumed it was a fake, but I suspected it was the prototype because they said the arena had been left behind. I didn’t know for sure if it was the prototype or a fake, until Francis smiled when I told him there was no way back. By then, you’d adjusted to the idea of staying here. Besides, I didn’t get you a wedding gift, and this seemed like a nice surprise.”
She swats me again.
“Now, we have work to do,” I say. “The first note said a detailed description of the plan will be waiting in the arena, but that Henry must wait exactly twenty-four hours after my past-self returns from Travelers. The timing will allow Martha and I to escape his tube car before he gets it.
I produce a piece of paper from inside my tunic.
“We need to have this inside the arena in two hours. We leave one hour after that.”
“It seems to me there must be at least one paradox in all of this,” Martha says.
Martha gets a look of concentration on her face, as she tries to sort out the timeline.
“Don’t think too hard about it, Martha. Working through potential paradoxes has been giving me a headache for days.”
****
The spot marking the entrance to the arena is easy to find, since my past-self buried the entrance just a day ago. It sticks out like a freshly dug grave. With no shovel, we take turns moving the two meters or so of loose soil with our hands to expose my old tunnel.
“We have fifteen minutes before this letter needs to be pulled forward. Before we go down there, Michael, I need to tell you how sorry I am. This letter contains all of the details of the assassination plan, including using the prototype device and to look under the Sphinx for the arena. It also specifically lists you and Francis as the assassins. This letter is his death warrant and condemns you to kill him. I wish I could erase your names from this letter. If I could, it would erase your memory of what happened here.”
Michael looks aghast at the suggestion.
“Erase these memories? I saw Christ crucified and risen. I saw an angel, and was baptized by Simon Peter. I’m Christian now. Despite all the bad things that happened to get me here, I’d rather die than give that up.”
“Cephas? I do have one question,” Michael says. “You figured out everything from little clues along the way. Did you know, ahead of time, that Francis was going to die?”
“No. I knew a lot of blood was going to be spilled on the ground at that spot, but up until you shot Francis, I thought the blood was mine.”
Michael says nothing more, so I snap three light sticks, say “this way home,” and slither into the tunnel.
When we arrive in the cave, I place the note in the arena.
“You dug that entire tunnel in the dark and little oxygen, with just a tiny shovel and that case for hauling dirt?” Michael asks. “The news reports didn’t do it justice. You are one tough cookie.”
I describe for them the battle of digging out and what I thought as the notes from “The World” arrived.
“Henry should take the bait very soon,” I say, when my story is over.
Within a minute, we’re blinded by a flash and the note is gone.
“We’ve been here for weeks, and you seem to be keeping track of time to the second,” Martha says. “How are you doing it?”
I reach into my robe and pull out a pocket watch.
“Why didn’t it fry in transport?”
“It’s mechanical - just springs and gears. It must be four hundred years old and still keeps perfect time. I swiped it from Brill’s museum too.”
When the note is pulled forward, we spend some time outside in the fresh air. When it’s time to move to the arena, I turn to Michael and let out an audible sigh.
“It’s okay Cephas. I already know.”
“Know what?” Martha asks.
“The prototype device is smaller than the other one,” Michael says. “It wasn’t designed to handle the mass of all three of us. I’m the biggest, so I need to wait for a second pull. Trouble is, they don’t know if it has two trips left in it.”
“Then you go first,” Martha offers.
“Sorry. Cephas is too important to risk, and he won’t go without you.”
A tear rolls down Michael’s cheek.
“Besides, my life has never meant anything to anyone. I want to do this for me.”
“You’ll make it back, Michael. I promise.”
The world needs you too much. I need you too much.
Martha and I enter the arena and sit on top of our packs, facing each other.
“Do you think time travelling as a married couple will be more intimate?” I ask.
“Whatever our journey-” is all Martha gets out before we’re sucked again into the void.