Thunder rolled like boulders from the mountain, the deep sounds seeming to find their target in Ethan’s chest. As Uli pushed him up the path, he could see bright bolts of lightning striking faster and more furiously than ever.

Ethan could barely breathe, but now it wasn’t from excitement. A few days ago, this was the only place in the world I wanted to be, he thought. Now it’s the last place in the world I want to be.

He tried to laugh, but it came out as a sob.

“I think he’s crying!” Uli announced.

Ethan could hear Tovar and the twins laughing behind him. He wondered what Melki and Leah were thinking.

Leah, Ethan thought. If it weren’t for her, I might have a chance. I could try to fight my way out or at least try to run away and get lost in the crowd. But as long as they have her —

He had to think of something, and fast. Something that would get the other boys to let Leah go.

His heart pounded as they neared the boundary marker. No guards, he thought, looking around. The men had been a pain when he’d wanted to go up the mountain, but now he wished they were still there.

The flashes of lightning were coming even faster, flooding the landscape in blue-white brightness. Maybe we won’t get hit, he told himself. Moses never said we’d be struck by lightning if we crossed the line. But Ethan felt another tear trickle down his cheek anyway.

I wish I were braver, he thought. Suddenly that gave him an idea.

“Hey, Tovar,” he called out. “Has Uli always been a coward?”

“Coward?” Uli yelled. He pushed up on Ethan’s arm, still bent behind his back. A hot pain shot through the entire right side of Ethan’s body.

“Yeah . . . a . . . coward,” Ethan groaned. “You’re afraid to go up the mountain yourself, so you’re making a girl do it for you.”

Uli let go of Ethan’s arm and spun him around so that they were face-to-face. Ethan breathed a silent sigh of relief and wiggled his arm, trying to get the blood flowing again.

“I’ll show you who’s a coward,” Uli said. He gave Ethan a shove and then stepped toward him. Ethan looked back and saw that the boundary marker was only about fifteen feet away.

“Let her go!” Uli yelled back over his shoulder. “Otherwise he might start crying again. I’ll go up the mountain with him. I’m not afraid of Moses’ God.”

Melki and Tovar glanced at each other, shrugged, and let go of Leah’s arms. She just stood there, staring at Ethan, looking scared and confused.

“Run, Leah!” Ethan yelled. “Run home! Don’t stop until you get there!” The tone of his voice seemed to snap Leah out of her trance. She looked at Ethan one last time and then pushed Tovar out of her way and ran back toward the festival crowd.

“Ow!” cried Ethan as Uli shoved him in the chest again. Ethan stumbled backward, but kept his balance.

The boundary marker was now almost close enough to touch. Ethan noticed that Melki, Tovar, and the twins stayed where they were.

“Listen, Uli,” Ethan said, gazing worriedly at the stack of stones. “Something bad’s going to happen if we cross that boundary. We might not get struck by lightning, but if someone sees us, they might take us out and stone us.”

Uli snorted. “Who’s the donkey now?” He pointed to the festival crowd. “Do you think anyone down there is going to care if we cross this stupid line? Look at them! We have a new god. We don’t have to worry about Moses’ rules anymore.”

More thunder rumbled overhead. “I am looking at them,” Ethan said, starting to feel dizzy. “The whole camp is a mess. Maybe God gives rules for a reason. Maybe He doesn’t want us on the mountain because He’s holy, and —”

Before he could say anything else, Uli turned and gave him one more shove. Instead of stumbling backward this time, Ethan fell to the ground. He stuck his rear end out to absorb most of the impact and managed to get his elbows behind him in time to keep from hitting his head on the ground.

In an instant Uli was on top of him, straddling his stomach. Ethan squinted at the boundary marker and saw that his shoulders were even with the back of the stone pile. His heart jumped. If my head touches the ground —

Uli looked over at the boundary marker and smiled. He put his left arm on Ethan’s chest and his right hand on Ethan’s forehead. “Here we go, Sheep Boy!” he said.

“Don’t . . . do it!” Ethan grunted. He could feel the veins in his neck standing out as he strained to keep his head off the ground. “Whatever happens to me is going to happen to —”

CR-RRR-AAAAAAA-CK!

Ethan felt the explosion in the pit of his stomach before the sound of it reached his ears. The noise was so sharp, so clear, and so loud that it made the hair on his arms and neck stand on end.

The ground below his shoulders rattled. Small chunks of rock, dirt, and sand pelted the side of his face.

Screaming, Uli tried to cover his head with his arms. Ethan couldn’t tell if the boy had been hit or not.

Using every bit of strength he had left, Ethan lifted his hips and flipped himself over. Uli lost his balance and fell onto his left shoulder. Ethan expected him to get up and charge again, but Uli just lay there with his arms still covering his head and his knees drawn up to his chest.

Get away from the mountain! a voice in Ethan’s head shouted. He tried to lift himself, but his arms felt like loose tent straps. He collapsed face-first back into the sand.

A deep roll of thunder started overhead. Oh no, he thought, here comes more lightning! He squeezed his eyes tight, covered his head with his hands, and braced himself.

But nothing happened.

Ethan lifted his face from the sand and listened. Everything was quiet. The singing and dancing had stopped.

He looked back at Melki, Tovar, and the twins. None of them were moving. They stared in Ethan’s direction with their mouths open.

What’s wrong? he wondered. Am I on fire? He reached back and patted his robe but didn’t feel any flames.

All at once he realized they weren’t staring at him. They were staring at something behind him. He turned slowly to look, not sure he wanted to see what was there.

“Moses!”

Only after the word was out of his mouth did Ethan realize he had said it.

The old man looked down at Ethan and then back at the crowd. He was standing about fifteen feet past the boundary marker. The long silver beard looked longer than ever. The white cloak with the up-and-down purple stripes was dusty and wrinkled. He was still as a statue —except for his nostrils, which flared like an angry bull’s, and his eyes, which seemed to move from person to person in the crowd.

Ethan lowered his head and noticed something on the ground at Moses’ feet. At first it just looked like rocks, but then he realized they were pieces of a whole. The whole was a flat rock carved with some kind of writing. It reminded him of stone tablets he’d seen in Egypt, the ones chiseled with symbols like eyes and birds and names of pharaohs.

Are those God’s new rules? he wondered.

All at once he realized what had happened. That must have been the crash we heard. It wasn’t lightning striking —it was stone breaking. Moses must have dropped the tablets —or thrown them down —when he saw the idol!

Out of the corner of his eye, Ethan saw a wobbly Uli stand up, look around, and sneak off —away from Moses and the crowd. Melki and the other boys just watched him go.

A moment later Ethan realized he was still lying on the ground. Standing stiffly, he brushed the sand from the front of his robe. He heard someone in the crowd murmur and saw that Moses was coming toward the boundary marker.

Backing away from the pile of rocks, Ethan gave Moses room to pass. He moves fast for an old man, Ethan thought numbly. Especially one who’s spent the last forty days mountain climbing.

The old man didn’t seem to notice him. Ethan fell in step behind Moses, figuring that if Melki or the others had anything planned, the safest place to be was in the Israelite leader’s shadow.

But as Ethan passed the other boys, the way they all looked down at their sandals made him think he wouldn’t have to worry about them any longer.

The crowd at the foot of the mountain backed away as Moses got closer. Ethan couldn’t tell whether they were angry because their festival was over or were afraid of what was going to happen to them.

As the crowd fell back, Ethan saw Leah waiting for him with a grin on her face.

“I thought I told you to run home,” he said.

“I didn’t know that was a rule,” Leah replied. “Otherwise, I would have obeyed you.” Her smile faded. “The reason I came looking for you was to tell you that something’s happened to Father. He —”

“Father! I almost forgot! I know what happened,” Ethan said. “We’ve got to get back there —now!”