The Gideonite army had been camped there for the last four days, building embankments and connecting them with trenches. The trenches provided cover-the only way for the Gideonites to stay safe from an onslaught of arrows from skilled Uzzahite warriors. Each time Uzziel had checked, piles of earth and deep ditches were ever closer to the city walls.
Uzziel analyzed the strategy he had previously observed, marveling at the careful, deliberate planning being done by the Gideonite army. Clear paths on both sides of the advance had been left completely untouched by pick or shovel, along with a wide patch of ground next to the road from Hasor, running straight up the middle. This would allow siege machines and other heavy equipment to advance into position eventually. Yesterday, Uzziel had caught a glimpse of covered battering rams and weighted catapults being built. He expected the damage inflicted by the machines would be terrible.
Worried, Uzziel leaned against a merlon and looked over his beloved city. He felt gratitude for what he saw-elegant architecture and tactical design. Ramathaim nestled up against the Hara Mountains, its northern gates wedged far into a wide canyon leading to Karmel and other cities of Uzzah and Daniel. Two other semi-circular stone walls, each reaching for anchor points on opposite sides of the gaping canyon mouth, protected the southern side of the city. Skilled stone masons had anchored the gray granite blocks of the outer wall to the eastern and western cliffs, and the height was a dizzying drop of more than two hundred feet. The inner southern wall, although not as high, rested on the top-most terrace of a network of stepped gardens, orchards, and vineyards. A vast, arcing courtyard touched both the bottom terrace and the outer wall, unbroken except for a sloping road which climbed from the outer gates, up the terraces, through the main gates, and into the city.
Besides being the fastest way to the northern realms, the canyon provided a plentiful water supply to the city. Fed by natural springs, the small river descended from the heights above to duck under the northern wall, disappearing into numerous tunnels under the city streets. Various branches of the hidden river then poured into open-air stone canals that zig-zagged across the city until all routes met again at a beautiful pool in Ramathaim’s eastern quarter. Water then spilled over into an aqueduct that hugged the eastern cliffs and bridged the city walls. Reaching the end of its journey, the water plummeted into a small lake below the outer wall, and the remaining stream then meandered through the southern foothills until it turned east to the ocean.
As he looked northward, Uzziel thought of the reinforcements who had arrived the previous day. In addition to families seeking protection, warriors from neighboring communities to the north had poured into Ramathaim, greatly adding to its strength. The provisions they brought with them would easily allow the city to endure a siege of over ninety days, if the walls were not breached. Many of the northern cities had been emptied of their inhabitants, and a thousand of their men were staged in the northern canyon to protect both the passage and Ramathaim’s water supply.
All of this gave Uzziel some amount of confidence. Reinforcements and provisions were blessings from above. As long as the southern walls held, families would be protected.
Families.
Uzziel searched below for the road to Hasor, but still couldn’t see through the fog. Previously guarded emotions bubbled up within him.
Where are Asah and Rachel? They are now five days late.
Uzziel’s chest tightened. With Gideon here, may the heavens keep my daughter away!
He caught an unexpected sob before it could escape and gripped the parapet to steady himself. Neither of the attending soldiers seemed to notice his body trembling under the control he tried to exert. It took him several minutes to fight back the grief that threatened to overwhelm him.
With a heavy sigh, Uzziel motioned to Josiah and Abram to follow him back down the steep steps into the grassy outer courtyard. “I will come back later,” he said. “Perhaps with more time, the fog will burn off.”
“That’s fine. We can go,” Josiah replied.
Uzziel led the way. Already girded up, his robe was held in place by a coarse, white sash, but the steep decent still forced him to further lift the lower folds in order to prevent a fall. His robe, almost entirely white except for the exquisite blue hem, bounced on his bony knees with each step down the granite stairway.
Pushing thoughts of Rachel out of his mind, Uzziel thought instead of the colored hem. “As blue as the heavens above,” he was fond of saying, or as his wife Miriam would say, “As pure as the color of Azure.” Both were good descriptions for the rare color, produced from saltwater shellfish obtained in one particular lagoon a few days north of Karmel.
Uzziel was comfortable in the simple garment of a temple priest. The coarse, white cloth accentuated his red-streaked hair and long, well-groomed beard, also nearly white. Miriam said all the white caused him to look much older than he really was, perhaps even distinguished, but it still suited him well. Thinking of her made him smile.
Once on flat ground, his rapid pace across the courtyard made it hard for Josiah and Abram to keep up. They seemed to be distracted by everything around them, watching for any sign of danger within the city walls. When they reached the far side of the grassy courtyard and approached the main city gate, they were hailed from above. Gigantic wood doors, made of beams thirty feet long, groaned open to receive them.
The three men passed the sentinels posted inside the doors, expressing their appreciation, and the doors shut behind them. They followed the cobbled pathway across a second, much smaller, interior courtyard where several groups of soldiers were preparing arrows and other arms. Uzziel took the second street on the right that immediately began to ascend. Buildings bordering the street leaned in on them, getting closer with every step, until the width of the passage became barely wide enough to allow two horse-drawn carts to pass each other. The cobbled road steepened further.
Uzziel breathed more heavily as they continued on the sloped road. They crossed several intersecting streets and finally arrived at a beautifully crafted archway on the west side.
“Please come in,” Uzziel invited his bodyguards, who were now guests. “Would you join me for something to eat? Surely you’re hungry.”
The two Uzzahite soldiers said, “Yes, thank you,” almost in unison. At his direction, they sat down at the oak table centered in the main room of the residence. The smell of a hot breakfast wafted in from the brick oven in the adjoining chamber, making Uzziel’s mouth water.
A woman in her early fifties entered the room, looking quite surprised to see three of them there.
“Uzziel, I heard you come in, but I didn’t know you had guests with you!”
The soldiers politely introduced themselves as they stood up, and then at Uzziel’s insistence, sat again on the bench.
“I am sorry, dear, for the surprise.” Uzziel said, smiling. “Did you know it rained all through the night? I didn’t even notice. It left behind a nice fog to greet us this morning-couldn’t see a thing! The steps to the wall were slippery, too. Almost fell on my way up. Thanks to Abram, I didn’t fall-he caught me. The Gideonites are still there-I was quite disappointed to see them. I suppose they will not go away as I had hoped. It makes me wonder what they are eating for breakfast. I bet they raided everything they could from…”
Uzziel did not get the last sentence fully out before Miriam placed a hand on his arm, and he remembered to breathe.
“Sorry, dear. I’m so hungry!”
“I am glad… very glad, that I made extra today. Would you like some eggs? Isn’t it a beautiful day?” Miriam brushed her auburn hair out of her eyes with the back of her hand. Her question was sincere, yet hollow, like an echo in an empty barrel. She didn’t wait for answers to either question. She placed four plates on the table and dished out scrambled eggs before Uzziel even had time to say, “Yes, thank you.”