Anna nodded and trotted to the tree. She ran her palms along its ever-molting, cream-colored bark as if greeting an old friend. She felt its dusty balm coat her fingers. With a single pull on a lower limb, she lifted herself along the trunk and disappeared high in the branches. Boosting herself into the tree’s emerald canopy, she hollered for joy. Beneath her, the Sisters passed smiles among themselves.

When Anna leapt back to the ground, she held a cluster of figs in the belly of her tunic. Before eating the fruit, she offered her harvest to the others. The Sisters gathered to admire what she had found. Each pulled a single pink heart from Anna’s store and marveled at the skin’s silky texture. Together they gave thanks to the mystery that had assembled the fruit’s intricate beauty and with that, sunk their teeth into the syrupy, seeded middles.

“Sister Anna?” Shereen asked. “Would you be able to assist Sister Rachel and me in the collection of the Seven Cures?”

Anna looked to Ruth for guidance. Ruth nodded. Sister Rachel then put a basket into Anna’s hands and led her back into the aromatic garden where they began to unveil its secrets.

CHAPTER 17

Somewhere in the mountains north of the Great Desert—25 A.D.

Solomon approached the village on foot. Alone. His cheeks burned by the sun. His gingered beard in straggles.

He emerged from the dark like a spirit.

“Greetings,” he croaked in a hoarse whisper.

The men around the fire assessed the lone traveler with suspicious eyes.

“May I sit, brothers?” he asked.

The men said nothing, but made a space between them. The one seated closest handed over a skin of water.

Solomon drank. The liquid stung his throat.

“Have you traveled far?” one of the men asked.

Solomon nodded. He had, in fact, journeyed back through the Great Desert. This time he had exited from the sand where its northernmost border brushed against the mountains.

After learning of the movement to exterminate those who kept the old ways, he had disbanded his group of shepherds, selling off the sheep and paying each man his due. Although the others, even Peter, had little difficulty securing new positions, their having crossed the Great Desert being proof enough of their worth, Solomon had abandoned his life as a shepherd.

He turned instead to traveling between the villages scattered in the foothills, determined to assess the rising threat, and do all he could to thwart it.

Handing back the skin of water, he asked, “Brothers, tell me. Am I near Kerek?”

The men’s faces widened in the firelight.

“Why do you seek to go there?” one of them asked through a suspicious squint.

Solomon prepared to answer, then stopped himself. His eyes swept across their faces. The direct and empty stares caused the hair to rise along the back of his neck. He was not among friends.