Rahab Bk. 06 Ch. 05: The Guardians

I looked at the priest and asked the question foremost in my mind:

"What legend, what prophecy, Father, is associated with me and this sacred Ark?"

He looked at me. His eyes were so deep that I felt as though I could drown in them; sensing my faintness, Ana held me. I could feel the tension.

He spoke softly, and I felt myself straining to hear his words:

"That is for the Guardian to tell you, it is his to reveal."

"And where, Father, can he be found?"

There was a sound from the end of the room, a sudden, brief, flash of light as a curtain was drawn back briefly. I could see a shadow.

"I am here cousin Rahab, it is good to meet you at long last."

Startled, I was so glad Ana was holding me; without her I should have collapsed. My thoughts were a whirl. "Cousin," what was this?

The Monk lit another candle, which revealed the newcomer to be a tall figure, taller even than Ana; he towered over me, and the cowl he wore hid his face which, as he threw it back startled me. He was white, his nose aquiline and his hair and beard were blonde; his blue eyes stared at me.

"I am Jacob Jacobson, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Isaac and, if I were to go back another four generations we would reach my ancestress, Rahab Danegythsdottir."

I felt giddy. I fainted into Ana's arms and for a while I knew no more.

My eyes adjusted to the light. I welcomed the fresh air. Ana's blue eyes were clouded.

"Are you okay my love?"

I looked at her, loving her more than ever.

"I suddenly felt faint," I said, "I could not cope with the surge of feelings. How, how can he be my cousin?"

A male voice, deep and warm cut in.

"When Kiev descended into civil war and disorder, our foremother, Rahab, daughter of Danegyth, fled south with her family and the Vangarians and ended in Constantinople, where our family lived until the fall in 1453."

"But." I interjected, "you are so like a Saxon, how can that be?"

"You forget, cousin, that Danegyth was part Dane, and she lived with other Saxon exiles, and our family inter-married in that group for generations."

I so wished I'd paid more attention to Rabbi Glickstein's family tree chart. Jacob explained to me that after Constantinople fell, our family was scattered. He and his father and wife had headed southwards to Sicily, and thence he and some of the Vangarians had taken some of the treasures of Constantinople to the Christian Emperor of Ethiopia, where they had taken on the role of guardian of the Holy Ark. My father, he explained, was from a cadet branch of the family, which had fled north making for Rus, but had clearly failed to get there. In the long years since Danegyth's Rahab, my sister and I were the first females to be born in the family.

I explained my history to him. I thought it best to hold back nothing, and explained my role in the Seraglio and that Ana was my wife as I was hers. I could see the look in Ana's eyes. I was proud of her and wanted my distant cousin to know it.

Whatever his views were on the matter, he kept them to himself; he had more urgent things on his mind.

I asked him about the 'prophecy' he had mentioned which mentioned me.

"There is a prophecy written in the Book of the Guardian that at the hour of greatest need a 'branch of the cedar of the Lebanon' would come to its aid. Our wise men have latterly identified that with you, as it also refers to the 'branch' as one who would save the Chosen People from their enemies. When we heard what had happened to the Jews of Yeghergis, it seemed clear you were the One. We had intended to send a delegation to Beirut, but instead you found your way here."

"But how did you know that I was your cousin?" The question had puzzled me from the moment he had mentioned it.

"That, dear cousin, was simple. We had been told that the new Viceroy was called Rahab and that she was a tiny Jewess who hailed from the province where some of our ancestors had fled after the fall of Constantinople. It appeared unlikely that there could be some other Rahab, especially when we knew you had fulfilled the prophecy given to Danegyth about leading the Jews to freedom."

As Ana reminded me later, whatever I may have thought of my deeds, they were well-known, and however little I liked the idea, I had a fame of sorts.

Reeling, as I still was, from the realisation Jacob too was a descendant of Danegyth, I had the wit to ask why it was that he had intended to send an envoy to Beirut for me.

"We are threatened as never before, as the Princess will tell you," he replied.

Miriam had already mentioned the threat from the Portuguese, and now its extent was laid bare.

When the Ark had come to Aksum, it must have seemed the ideal refuge. Ethiopia, a Christian Empire which had held its own for more than a thousand years, and which not even an insurgent Islam had been able to defeat, was the perfect place to preserve the greatest surviving artefact of Jewish history. But now, in the age of gunpowder and exploration, the Catholic Portuguese posed a threat. They were, Jacob told us, advancing from the south, and he knew that they had been actively seeking the Ark, knowing the legend of its existence. The hope had been that as Viceroy, I might be able to send troops to aid the Guardians.

"But why does the Emperor not provide troops?" It was a good question from Ana.

"That," Miriam explained sadly, "is because my father fears to anger the Portuguese." She explained that the Portuguese had a settlement in the Indies from which their trade passed through Aksum, but which they also used to try to "convert" the Ethiopians to Catholicism. In the process of evangelisation, one of their priests had discovered the secret of the resting place of the Ark.

It seemed, I said, unlikely that a troop of Ottoman soldiers would be well-paced to defend a Jewish relic from Christians armed with muskets.

"That," Miriam said, "was what I thought, which was one of the reasons for talking to the Abbot of St Catherine's. He said he would be willing to accept the Ark. The question is how we get it there given that my father would never allow it to leave."

My mind, so used now to such puzzles, came up with an immediate answer, but first I needed to know something.

"This Ark," I said, looking quizzically at Jacob, it is a facsimile, isn't it? Where's the real thing?"

He was clearly taken aback.

"How ... what, what do you mean?" He tried to recover from his initial error.

"Jacob, if we are cousins and are to save the Ark you must trust me as I have trusted you. There is no room for dissimulation between us."

He had the grace to look shamefaced.

"How did you know?"

"I have experience of Divine revelation, Jacob, and know how the Luminous feels; I had not that sense here with this."

He knelt.

"I am sorry, I should have known that the One would know that. Indeed, that you did shows you are the One. The real Ark is in safe keeping about a mile from here, this is for show in case the Portuguese or other raiders find us."

"Good," I said. He looked puzzled as he rose to his feet.

"Look," I said, squeezing Ana's hand, while Miriam and Tania looked at me as though I was speaking with Inspiration, which, in retrospect I was: "if the Portuguese were to find this, and if it were to be destroyed in a fire as part of the attempt to save it from them, the Emperor would be angry with them, he would never suspect that the Ark had left Ethiopia, and we should not be pursued by his troops or the Portuguese."

Jacob looked at me.

"You are Inspired cousin Rahab!"

There was a general chorus of agreement that there was everything to be said for this plan and nothing to be said against it. Time was of the essence, but it seemed to me that there was enough of that precious quality to give us a day or so before we had to leave. In truth, as I admitted to Ana later, my illness, long in abeyance had begun to return; I needed rest.

Jacob went to make preparations, Ana went with him to ensure that everything was done as I would have it; I was too weary to do it myself. Suddenly everything felt a trial, and I longed to lie down.

Miriam helped me to my chamber, as Tania had also gone with Jacob and Ana.

"Rahab, you must rest, what can I get for you?"

The tenderness in her voice touched me.

"You are such a kind woman, Miriam."

"I like you Rahab, and I sense we are alike, I shall miss you when you leave."

I agreed with her. I sensed a comradeship.

She suddenly pulled me to her and hugged me. I snuggled into her small but welcoming bosom. I longed for rest. This was not the prelude to lust, for in truth I was beyond that, I was Ana's, and Miriam and Tania were one; no, this was about tenderness. One woman nurturing another.

Her servants brought me some dates and some coffee. As I tasted them, some part of me revived. Miriam smiled; she was beautiful.

We talked. She told me about how Tania, who had come from the southern provinces of Nubia as a slave, had become her servant, and over time her lover and something more. We discussed how it could be that a woman of her position should get erotic satisfaction form submission to a social inferior. Miriam seemed puzzled by a phenomenon I had long pondered; so, I explained.

Social position, I said, was one thing, but internal disposition, who one was deep inside, and what one wanted from a lover was quite another. I told her about Lady Emm in London, who loved being spanked by her maid, and indeed, was content to be milked and used by her, and about myself and Jess. I was, and I thought she was, a woman who needed a stronger lover to take control. The problem was that in so doing, one could be abused, I had seen it in the Seraglio. But women liked us could be the beneficiary of great good fortune and find a strong woman who would accept that our submission was a gift of love, and who would cherish it as such.

"You are a wise little thing, Rahab." she smiled, kissing my cheek and she hugged me.

"Is it wrong of me to allow Tania to have males when she needs them?"

"No," I said, "that is the gift of love we give them back."

"Is your Ana one who needs men?"

"She has needs, like your Tania, which are not ours, and how selfish it would be to deny them that."

Miriam hugged me, kissing my other cheek.

"You set my mind at rest. Not once has Tania sought to use her control of me for her own benefit outside our play."

"Then you have found, as I have, a rare treasure."

I kissed her on the lips, not a lover's kiss, but a loving one; there is a difference as women like us know.

"Do you feel strong enough to come with me, I want to make sure that things are ready, and then we must eat. Abba Seraphim will have food for us in an hour."

Buoyed up with coffee and dates, and the happiness I felt, I held Miriam's hand and we wandered in search of our lovers.

As we approached the stables where our goods were stored with the horses, we heard a noise, so we proceeded with caution. It sounded like a struggle was going on. Could it be the Portuguese?

Miriam hesitated, but I had my dagger, and I was not afraid, so I motioned to her to follow me over to the discarded bales of hay, behind which we could hide. Crouching there, I peered over, and once I had seen it, I motioned Miriam to follow suite, squeezing her hand.

Ana's gorgeous bottom was naked, though one could not see it all as, between her cheeks was Tania's face; to judge from the noises Ana was making, Tania's tongue was working on her cunt; she was thrusting it back and moaning, her strong arms pulling Tania's face deeper into her. Tania's pendulous breasts were swinging, as were Ana's firm ones; both sets of nipples were swollen.

Then, of a sudden, Tania gripped Ana's hips and rolled her over with a cry of triumph: "I have you now Ana!"

Ana's laugh rang out firm and clear.

"Says who" And with that she spread her thighs and pulled the Nubian between them, manoeuvring so their cunts touched. They both groaned as contact was made. The picture was perfect.

Ana, tall, blonde, her muscles and torso firm, her perfect breasts swelling into the blackness of Tania's, the latter's nipples a pink chocolate colour; the black against the white, then black embraced by and embracing the while; it was perfection. Just in aesthetic terms they were the two most beautiful women I had ever seen, and together, they were an erotic tableau. Miriam's hand was under her skirts rubbing.

"Do you think Tania would allow that?" I whispered, conspiratorially.

"I don't care, if she wants to beat by backside, it's worth it; anyway, I like that too," she giggled.

She played with herself as our lovers played their erotic wrestling match, as each strove for advantage as they pushed their wetnesses together. But my Ana knew a trick or two, and every time Tania looked to be pushing her, she would respond by biting Miriam's nipples. Then, as their orgasms approached, Ana took a moment, grasped the Sapphic stick and, moments before her own orgasm overwhelmed her, thrust it into Tania's arse, making the Nubian scream with passion. At that, Ana came too, their passion sending Miriam over the edge and though I had resolved not to touch myself, there was a spasm between my legs too.

As the Amazonian wrestlers lay in each other's arms, kissing and loving each other, Miriam and I slipped away, but not before I had given her fingers a lick.

"They deserve their privacy," I whispered. We slipped away, leaving them to their reward of each other. Never were two women more physically well-matched.