“What do you mean, ‘we’?” Mara said. She wished for a small fire to dry her gown. She did not wish to go outside and spy.

“Suit yourself,” said Karis with a shrug. “You’re probably right. It would be better for you to stay here and babysit the little kids.”

Mara ignored the remark. “And just what will you be doing?”

“I’ll look for our parents and the other adults,” she said. “I’ll listen for the news in the market and bring back some food.”

Obadiah shook his head. “You’ll get caught, and we’ll be stuck underground wondering what happened to you.”

Nathan cleared his throat and stood, hands folded in front of his chest. “The rabbis teach that when the Lord is with us, He will fight our battles. I say we let the Lord pound Saul good before we poke our heads out.”

“Yeah, he’s right for a change,” Akbar said. “We should stick together until they give up looking for us.”

Several of the others booed and said they’d rather be anywhere than where they were.

Sarah, who was usually quiet, said, “I don’t know why we let Karis drag us down here.” That drew several “yeahs” of agreement from the others, New Israel or not.

Mara was torn. Should she let Karis leave them in the strange, wet world under the city? Could she be trusted to come back for them after the way New Israel had treated her? She might even turn them in! No, that was silly. Their best chance was not sitting around getting on each other’s nerves. They had to take action.

But the strongest thought Mara had was also the most unexpected. What if Karis is caught spying, and they hurt her?

“I can’t let you go alone,” Mara said to everyone’s surprise. “I’ll go with you.”

Karis stared at her. “Really? It’d be safer to work together, that’s for sure.” She paused. “Thanks,” she said at last.

They spent the next few minutes collecting coins from the kids for food. As usual, Karis had no coins to contribute.

“You never have any money,” Mara said. “Can’t your dad juggle or sing or do anything for spare change? He should stop sponging off the church, you know. I’ve seen monkeys at the market that earn more than he does!”

Mara bit the inside of her cheek. She was irritated that she cared if Karis got caught, so she let the hateful words tumble out. But she did manage to stop the other mean words she had in mind.

Instantly, the friendliness in Karis’s eyes disappeared, and Mara felt horrible. She didn’t like that feeling, so she turned her attention to the others and tried reassuring them that this was the best plan. “Just two of us looking will draw a lot less attention than all of us running around,” said Mara.

The others grumbled, and Mara started to sing, “We are New Israel . . .” With little enthusiasm, the other club members halfheartedly finished the rest.

Karis frowned. “We’ve got to come up with some new words for that song. Something for everyone, and definitely more praise and less brag.” She smiled a little. Reluctantly Mara smiled too.

The girls said their good-byes, left Obadiah and Akbar in charge, and dropped to the ground to wiggle out of the room the way they’d wiggled in. Nathan dropped down beside his sister.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Mara questioned.

“Going with you,” Nathan said. “The rabbis teach that a cord of three strands is not quickly broken. I make three, and that’s stronger than two.” He waited until Karis was through to the other side before speaking low in Mara’s ear. “Can we trust her? You need me. The queen always needs a bodyguard.”

Mara looked at her brother’s skinny body. It would be another ten years before he sprouted any muscles. Still, she figured it would be nice to have him around. “Okay,” she said. “But no more jokes. I mean it!”

“Yes, your royal bossiness!” he said, bowing.

Out of the room they crawled, with only the faithful little lamp —now relit —for light. After the bright torches, the tunnel seemed pitch-black again, despite the tiny spot of lamplight.

Karis stood nose to nose with Nathan, the unexpected third party. Her face was half shadowed, half lit, eye sockets dark and empty like a skull’s. But way back in there, a small spark in each eye said he’d better not cause any problems. “Stay close,” she said before starting back at a trot along the passage the way they’d come.

It took the trio far less time to wind back to the paving-stone entrance than it had to herd all the children to the abandoned water well. Mara saw that Karis must have arranged the paving stones back in place to cover their escape. Now Karis listened for sounds of someone moving above. Apparently hearing none, she shoved the stones away, took a fast look around, and then motioned for Mara and Nathan to follow.

Quickly they darted back to the central business district, their clothes drying in the warm late-afternoon air. Then they melted into the crowd of people who were shopping for plums and cloth and live chickens. Vendors called to the shoppers, each trying to make a sale.

“Fresh, nice fish pulled from the Sea of Galilee!”

“Beautiful fabrics, the color of the sky!”

“Fine white wool of the highest quality!”

A donkey caravan clanked up the street of metalworkers. Hammered brass utensils glinted in the sun.

Coming close to the wine vendor’s stall, the three kids overheard a heated exchange of news.

“Another dozen believers in the Way were arrested just an hour ago!” said a large, red-faced man with a wheeze. “Add them to those taken in this morning’s raid at the ringleader Joshua’s house, and we’ll be paying taxes for a new jail to hold them all. Of course, they shouted that they have hurt no one, but we all know the strange ideas they spread. The Way, indeed! The way to ruin, I say!”

“That’s nothing!” said a thick barrel of a man, tugging down the sleeves of a dirty gray cloak that was much too small for him. “Saul broke into the nut vendor’s cellar and found twenty or more of them praying beneath the floorboards! If they have nothing to hide, how come that’s where you usually find them?”

“Jail them all!” sputtered the owner of the wine stall. “They buy little from me. Instead, they raise much of their own food and share it with one another. Why? Isn’t our meat and drink good enough for them?”

The donkey caravan clattered by, the little animals looking hot and tired and in need of a cool drink.

From across the street came the angry shouts and threats of a terrible argument. A throng of people spilled into the street, yelling and pointing. The donkeys stopped in their tracks, and the kids dropped to their knees in the dusty street, using the animals to shield them from view.

They peered between the bony legs of the beasts at the realization of their worst fears. Saul, grim-faced and determined, was crossing the street flanked by armed police. He was coming straight toward them.

Just then, a beautiful woman in silky yellow grabbed Saul by the arm and tried to stop him. Roughly he shoved her away. She stumbled and fell to her knees but was instantly up, pulling on Saul’s arm and beating against him with her fists. Others swarmed noisily about them like irritated hornets and in turn were hit and pushed by the men at Saul’s side.

“My husband!” the woman screamed in Aramaic. “Where is my husband? Where have you taken him?”

“What’s she saying?” Karis asked. Mara told her.

Two big men with sweat-smeared faces grabbed the woman’s arms and pulled her back. Saul threw her a chilling look of disgust and moved on.

“Your husband trusts in this Jesus Messiah, and he must pay for the false beliefs he teaches to others!” another woman shouted. “They will track down as many ‘believers’ as they can get their hands on!”

“Murderer!” the woman in yellow screamed at Saul’s back.

Mara peeked around the hind legs of a sleepy-eyed donkey with enormous ears, hoping for a better view. She saw the awful hatred in Saul’s reddened eyes. It was the look of evil.

And suddenly those evil eyes seemed to look right at her.

“Hyah! Move, you miserable creatures! Hyah!” The donkey driver whacked the rear donkey across the rump with a switch, and the caravan lurched forward.

The kids scrambled to their feet. Crouching over so as not to be seen from the other side, they kept in step with the caravan until they could hide behind a pile of fruit sacks.

“Phew!” Karis exclaimed. “That was close!”

“Did you see his eyes?” Mara said shakily. “Maybe Saul’s the monster everybody says lives in the tunnels!”

They both looked at Nathan, who was as pale as parchment. Without taking his eyes off Saul and his thugs, he muttered, “Did you see what I saw?”

“Of course we did,” said Mara. “We were right there with you.”

“No, no, you were too busy watching the argument,” Nathan said. “Didn’t you see what Saul and his men had on them?”

The girls gave him a quizzical look. “What?” they said in unison.

“B-blood,” Nathan stammered.

The three gulped as one.

“Let’s go,” Karis ordered.

“Yes,” said Nathan. “Suddenly those tunnels don’t seem so bad.”

“Not the tunnels,” said Karis. “This way.” She set off in the direction Saul and his men had gone.

Mara stopped her. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Yeah,” agreed Nathan. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Karis rolled her eyes. “Is there an echo out here? We’ve got to follow them and find out what they’re up to. The last time we saw our parents, Saul had them!”

“Good point,” Mara said.

“This is stupid,” Nathan said. “Why don’t we just have Saul over to the house for supper? After dessert, we’ll ask him if he would please take us to our parents.”

“Your brother’s got a mouth,” Karis said.

“You should hear him when he’s in a bad mood,” Mara replied.

The girls smiled at each other. Nathan shook his head. “Queen, you make a bodyguard’s job very difficult.”

Mara patted him on the head. “I meant to thank you for guarding me from the big, bad donkeys.”

Nathan started to stick out his tongue but must have thought better of it.

The trio crept after the men. Saul led his band into the stall of Porteous the potter. In front of the stall, beautiful horses the color of fine black tea were tied to iron rings set in a horizontal post. Two of the men checked on the horses before following Saul and the others beneath a shady awning.

“Thank you, Porteous, for watching the horses while we checked the area for fugitives,” said one of the men. “Those ‘believers’ would hide in a camel’s nose if they could find a way in.”

His friends laughed with him. All except Saul, whose face was like a dark thundercloud. They sat on upturned water pots and began to discuss the coming evening’s activities. Porteous, in a white turban and an expensive green cloak, looked nervous at having them there. They were rough and dirty men and looked like they wrestled lions in their spare time. And Mara noticed that their garments were streaked with blood.

“How are we going to get close enough to hear what they’re saying?” asked Mara uneasily.

Karis looked around. “There. He’ll help us.”

“He” was the water vendor, working his way along the street with two large goatskins on his belt and an impossibly large water urn balanced on his head. “Ho, you thirsty ones, come and drink!” he cried. An occasional customer would stop the man and pay him for a cup of fresh springwater.

The men ignored the water man. But just as he came even with the stall of Porteous, the children ran up and paid for drinks with a few of the coins they had collected from the others underground. The man stood in the shade cast by the huge, carefully balanced water urn and cheerfully filled three metal cups. He waited for the children to finish.

They took their time. A very long time. And while their mouths sipped the cool water, their ears strained to catch every word of the men loudly talking a few feet behind them.

“We’ve got to wipe these ‘believers’ out,” said one. “There are too many of them. They’re upsetting our religious leaders.”

Mara snuck a peek at the men.

“And when the religious leaders become upset, we all become upset,” said a particularly burly man with a jagged scar from one ear to the point of his chin.

“Few will miss them,” a third man offered. “It’s not like they hold important offices or contribute much to the economy. Many of them are old, and some are women.”

Mara shivered despite the midday sun. If women and old people aren’t important to these guys, she thought, then children must not be very valuable either. Why doesn’t Saul say something?

“I told you we shouldn’t have let those people go this morning,” accused the man with the scar. “You can frighten them, but it only seems to make them stronger and more determined. We should have killed them while we could!”

Nathan choked on his water, and Mara and Karis both pounded his back. “Our parents,” he squeaked. “They might be free! Maybe we can go home!”

Mara and Karis laughed loudly to cover Nathan’s words. Mara peeked under her arm again. Saul sat still as stone, his eyes burning with a fanatical light.

“Here’s what we do,” came the voice of the first man, looking annoyed at the noisy children in front of the potter’s stall. “We must rid Jerusalem of these unwelcome people and stop this foolish faith in that crucified Jesus before it has a chance to grow by even one more person.”

“When?”

“Tonight. My friends tell me the church of the Way plans a meeting at the same house we were at this morning. The fools think we won’t raid the same place twice. There they’ll be, giving thanks that we didn’t keep them in prison after all. We take one hundred armed men, and we storm that meeting. This time we finish the job.”

Nathan choked again. The girls pounded him again.

“Are you done, children?” cried the water vendor impatiently. “I have other customers waiting. Do you wish more water? No? Then your cups, please. Give me your cups.”

The man with the scar startled them. “What’s the matter here? Vendor, do you not see we’re trying to have a discussion? Move along and take these —”

He stopped and peered at Karis, nearest him, who was pulling her hair across her face. “Hey, weren’t you at that meeting of the Way this morning?”

Mara and Nathan edged away, averting their faces.

The water man repositioned his huge water urn and hastily moved off. Mara and Nathan stayed ahead of him in the shadow cast by nine feet of man and jar. He shooed them off.

Karis stayed right where she was, the shoulder of her threadbare gown tight in the grip of the scar-faced man. “Yes, you were there!” he shouted eagerly. “You and those other kids slipped out before we could catch you!”

Safely away from Saul’s company, Mara and Nathan looked back.

Nathan laughed dryly. “She doesn’t look so sure of herself now that she’s about to get what’s coming to her!”

Mara stopped and just about lifted Nathan out of his sandals. “No!” she snapped, giving him a good shake. “Do you remember what our father said at the meeting this morning when everyone was ready to fight each other? He said, ‘Would Jesus be pleased with us?’ Would He, Nathan? Would Jesus want us to let those men hurt Karis?”

Mara surprised herself. Was she changing her mind about Karis? She couldn’t stop thinking about the rocks raining down on poor Stephen. She wouldn’t want the same thing to happen to Karis.

Nathan’s eyes dropped, and he shook his head. “Naw,” he said, shamefaced. “He wouldn’t want that.”

“Then you’d better ask God to make you invisible,” she told him, “because we’re going back there!”

Nathan tried to give her a look as if she’d lost her mind, but she was already twelve steps ahead of him.

They hurried back the way they’d come, hidden behind a large cart piled high with baskets of every size and shape. When the cart drew abreast of the potter’s stall, Mara and Nathan dropped to a crouch so they couldn’t be seen. Large, decorative clay pots blocked them from the view of the men who were still shouting at Karis and paying no attention to the street.

“Where are the other children? Tell us!”

“You’re not from Jerusalem, are you? Where are you from?”

“You’d better loosen your little Greek tongue. Or we’ll loosen it for you.”

“Take a good look at the setting sun, girl, because you won’t be seeing it again for a very long time!”

Mara and Nathan scurried quietly between the horses that were tied to the post, then turned and faced the tall animals. Mara reached up and untied the reins of the horses nearest her, and Nathan followed suit with those nearest him.

At first the animals only shuffled their feet and bobbed their heads, uncertain of what was happening. Mara looked at Nathan, and he nodded. On the silent count of three, they jerked upright, flapped their arms, and screeched like crazed owls.

With a wild whinnying, the horses stampeded. Ears flattened, snorting madly, they whirled and bucked and kicked away down the street in opposite directions, nearly taking Porteous’s awning with them.

The stunned men chased after their horses, forgetting Karis, who had twisted out of the big man’s grasp. They ran, yelling terrible curses and threats at anything that moved. Saul’s rage was the worst. He swore to put an end to the Way. He wouldn’t rest until he had killed them all.

Mara, Karis, and Nathan ran for their lives. Back to the tunnel entrance they flew. Suddenly the terrifying underground passage looked like one of the safest places on earth.