Rules are like family members, Ethan. You don’t know how important they are until they’re gone.

His father’s words had sounded so ridiculous this morning. So why were they rattling around in his head now, while he was half walking, half running to find his sister?

Leah’s not gone, he told himself. She’s at the mountain, probably making fun of someone for worshipping a cow. He pictured her, with her fake grown-up voice and know-it-all expression, arguing with someone three times her age about obeying the Lord’s rules. And for the first time he could remember, that image didn’t make him want to punch her.

Please, God, help her to be okay.

“Moses and his God are dead!”

Ethan stopped to see where the shouting was coming from. Two men ran from a tent just ahead of him. “Long live the new god of Israel!” one of them yelled. He kicked over a large boiling pot in front of the tent and sent water running everywhere.

“What are you looking at?” the second man shouted. He was holding a club and staring at Ethan.

Ethan felt his palms get sweaty. “I was just —”

He stopped. There was blood dripping from the end of the club.

Shuddering, Ethan started down the path again. I’ve seen enough blood for one day, he thought.

A long rumble of thunder rolled from the top of Mount Sinai. All at once Ethan pictured someone at the festival pulling out a club and beating Leah bloody for speaking out against the golden calf.

His heart skipped a beat. It’s your fault she’s there, he told himself. She’s looking for you.

He started running and felt the pain immediately. The muscles in his legs cramped, and his lungs felt as if they were on fire. I wish I hadn’t run all the way home, he thought. But he didn’t slow down. He couldn’t.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something moving on the mountain, about halfway between the bottom of the clouds and the ground. Whatever it was disappeared behind a ridge. A mountain lion, he guessed. Better not let Father see it —he might try to stone it to death for being on the mountain.

For a second he smiled. But then he remembered the blood dripping from his father’s ear, and he ran faster.

If I were Leah, where would I look for me? he wondered. He flinched at the thought of actually being Leah —doing nothing but cleaning clothes, washing dishes, and fetching water all day. No wonder she thinks about rules all the time. Maybe they’re the only things that make her life interesting.

Ethan’s legs were aching so much, he had to slow down. Soon he had to walk anyway because the path was clogged with people. In the distance he could hear trumpet blasts and screaming festival-goers. The sounds reminded him of celebrations in Egypt —the ones his father always pulled him away from. “People who worship strange gods do strange things,” his father would say. “Things you should never see.”

Ethan gazed around, shaking his head. Those Egyptian festivals couldn’t have been any stranger than what he was seeing now. To his right, two men were dancing together. To his left, a group of women were throwing themselves, face-first, onto the sandy ground.

In the distance, shadows of the mountain were creeping across the Sinai Valley. The platform was already in the shade. It’s getting late, he realized. It’s going to be dark soon. His heart raced. There’s no way I’ll be able to find her in the dark!

Desperate for just a glimpse of her, Ethan clambered to the top of one of the boulders that he and the other boys had hidden behind. Moments later he looked out over the entire crowd. But where was Leah?

He glanced at the sky. The sun was getting lower and lower. “What am I going to do?” he murmured. “I’m running out of time. There’s no way —”

“Eeeethaaan! Eeeethaaan!”

His eyes widened. Leah’s voice!

“Eeeethaaan! Eeeethaaan!” Her voice didn’t sound as loud this time. She was getting farther away!

He scanned the crowd as quickly as he could, looking for anyone who seemed to be out of place. He started on the right side of the mob, slowly working his eyes across the middle. When he got all the way to the left side, he started back on the right. Once, twice, three times he repeated the process —but without success.

His heart was in his throat as he turned his head to the right for a fourth time. Just then he caught a glimpse of a girl about Leah’s height. She walked slowly on the left fringe of the crowd. Her head kept moving from side to side, as though she were looking for someone. Ethan saw her cup both hands around her mouth.

“Eeeethaaan! Eeeethaaan!”

“Leah!” he yelled. He jumped up and waved his arms even though she was walking away from him. She didn’t turn around. He looked again to make sure it really was her.

“Le —” This time the word stuck in his throat.

From his perch on the rock, Ethan watched as five boys sneaked up behind Leah. He didn’t need to see their faces to know who they were.

“Leah, look out!” he yelled. He stepped to the edge of the boulder. It was a long way down, but he’d have to jump anyway. Holding his breath, he leaped —and felt the back of his robe brush the rock as he fell, and fell, and fell.

“Ooomph!” He landed on his feet, crouching. Ow! he thought. The sandy ground was harder than it looked. His knees and ankles tingled as he tried to stand up.

“Nice jump, boy!” a man in the crowd yelled.

“Do it again!” a woman added.

A huge crash of thunder shook the valley. Ethan noticed that the clouds on top of the mountain were much darker than he’d ever seen them. They rolled over and around each other as though stirred by a giant, invisible hand. Even though the sun hadn’t set, it looked like late evening in the valley, and the glow of burning torches on the platform caught Ethan’s eye.

Jolts of pain shot through his ankles as he started to run in Leah’s direction. He tried to shift his weight back and forth as he ran, and that seemed to ease the pain a little.

I must look pretty strange to these people, he thought as he half galloped, half waddled his way through the crowd. A woman who looked to be about his mother’s age fell to her knees in front of him and began waving her arms in the air. “Save us, save us,” she chanted.

Okay, maybe I don’t look strange to these people, he thought, making a wide circle around her.

When he finally reached the edge of the crowd, he heard Leah’s voice above the singing and shouting.

“Let go of me, Melki! What are you guys doing?”

Ethan breathed a short sigh of relief. She sounded more annoyed than worried.

He pushed his way through the last few people in the crowd, out into the open, and looked around. Uli, Melki, Orek, Patek, Tovar, and Leah were standing less than ten paces away on his right. Uli and Melki were holding Leah’s arms.

Melki smiled and motioned for Ethan to come closer. “Look what we found wandering around,” he said.

“I can’t believe you’re in on this!” Leah said when she saw Ethan. “I thought you’d stopped wasting your time with these rebels.”

I came to rescue you! he wanted to yell. I nearly broke both of my ankles jumping off a boulder to get here in time! But he didn’t say anything. He just stared at her, trying to think of a plan to get them both home safely.

Finally he asked, “What are you guys doing?” His hands and legs were shaking, but he tried to keep his voice calm.

“We’re going to play Mountain of the Gods again,” Uli answered. He had a smile on his face, but his voice sounded mean. “Only this time we’re going to use a real mountain.”

“Melki told us about your plan to climb the mountain and get a closer look at the lightning,” Tovar explained. “It sounded like a good idea.”

“We heard the boundary guards are gone,” Melki said. “Now that Moses is out of the picture, nobody cares who crosses it anymore.” He glanced at the struggling Leah and snickered. “Well, almost nobody.”

“A rule is a rule!” Leah said through gritted teeth. “God will punish anyone who crosses that boundary. Maybe He’ll even strike them with lightning.”

Melki laughed. “Yeah, right. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Leah the Law Lover?”

Uli grinned. “Well, there’s only one way to find out. Let’s test your theory, Law Lover.”

Ethan’s mouth went dry. “What do you mean, test it?” he asked.

“Let’s take your sister over the boundary and see what happens,” Uli replied.

“No!” Leah yelled. She tried to jerk her arms free, but Uli and Melki held them tight. She looked at Ethan. “This isn’t funny,” she said. “You shouldn’t even joke about things like that.”

“Who’s joking?” said one of the twins.

“Come on, Ethan,” Melki said. “She’s been making our lives miserable since we left Egypt. Let’s show her what happens when she breaks one of Moses’ precious rules.”

“Yeah,” said the other twin. “Nothing happens.”

Melki and Uli started dragging Leah up the path toward the boundary marker. Her eyes got wide and her mouth dropped open. She twisted her body and tried to fall to the ground, but Melki and Uli wouldn’t let go.

“Noooooooo!” she cried.

You’ve got to do something! Ethan told himself. Now!

“Let her go!” he screamed.

Melki and Uli stopped and stared at Ethan. Tovar and the twins stared too.

“Ethan!” Melki said, sounding exasperated. “I thought you were with us!”

Ethan swallowed. “So did I.”

“You’re sick of rules, remember?” Melki said. “You said so yourself about a million times.”

Ethan lowered his gaze to the path. “That was before I saw what happens when the rules are gone,” he said so softly he could barely hear himself. In his mind he saw his father lying in the tent bleeding.

He looked up to see Uli’s angry face. “Hold her,” Uli told Tovar. “Make sure she doesn’t get away.”

Tovar grabbed Leah’s arm. She didn’t try to escape. She didn’t even look at Ethan.

She’s probably praying, Ethan thought. He glanced up at the storm clouds on the mountain and thought again about the invisible hand that seemed to be stirring them. Lord, if You are still up there, please —

Before he could finish, Uli grabbed him by the front of his robe and swung him toward the ground. Ethan tried to catch himself but couldn’t. He landed on his back with a spine-rattling jolt. Uli planted his fists firmly on Ethan’s chest.

“I knew you were one of Moses’ sheep,” Uli growled.

“It’s . . . better than being . . . one of Aaron’s donkeys,” Ethan managed. With Uli pressing down on his chest, the words came out muffled and breathless. But Uli heard them, and tiny splotches of red appeared on his cheeks and forehead, spreading until his entire face looked sunburned.

“Get up,” Uli snarled, grabbing a handful of Ethan’s hair and giving it a yank.

“Oww!” Ethan yelled. He grabbed Uli’s left arm, the one that was clutching his hair, and managed to pull himself up to a standing position. His eyes watered and his scalp tingled.

He looked over at the adults who were dancing and chanting less than twenty feet away. A couple of them watched his struggle with smiles on their faces. Why don’t they do something? Ethan wondered.

“Help!” he yelled. “They’re going to —”

Uli grabbed Ethan’s right arm and twisted it behind his back so that Ethan’s knuckles were almost touching his shoulder.

His shoulder felt as if it had burst into flame. He tried to groan, but no sound came out. The burning sensation shot down his arm to his elbow and then back up to his wrist. He still couldn’t make a sound, but he couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks either.

“Let’s take both of them to the mountain!” one of the twins yelled.

Ethan looked up and saw a jagged bolt of lightning explode through the clouds and disappear behind the mountain.

“Maybe the next one is coming for you,” Uli whispered in his ear.