Leaving behind the magician and his mysterious knotted rope, they laughed and ran in pursuit of the sweet fruits that had fallen in the wake of the man wearing stripes. The chase ended quickly, the flute player being much swifter of foot and, perhaps, intoxicated. Out of breath, the shepherd boys found themselves beneath scaffolding left behind by the stoneworkers. They climbed the narrow wooden slats and from there leapt onto a turret high above the city. Their jaws dropped at the view of the activity boiling below them. Jesus knelt and lowered Anna to the ground.

Beneath, they saw a middle-aged woman standing at the top of some steps. Her dark hair was long and braided. She wore a brilliant robe the color of ripened plum. Around her neck hung a coppery medallion amidst several chains that clinked together as she spoke. A group had assembled around her, pushing in close.

“You must not give away your power!” the woman called out, lifting her voice above the clanking of stoneworkers and donkeys. “The light you seek, the Messiah you await, is within you. It is you yourselves who are The Way!”

A buzz moved through the crowd.

“Who is she?” Jesus asked. The strange woman reminded him of Zahra.

“A charlatan,” Peter sniffed. “Speaking against our Heavenly Father. Surely you know her kind? The ones who keep the old ways? Who refuse to acknowledge our God as the one true Lord?”

Jesus nodded. His hand drifted, almost unconsciously, to the medallion around his neck. Nearly seven years had passed since Zahra’s murder. Yet the memory of her rose within him as if he had seen her only yesterday.

Peter snorted. “My uncle said such women gather in secret hiding places and cast evil spells on people to make them forget God.” He shrugged. “Whatever they do, they are most certainly not welcome here,” he added. “Someone will remove her soon.”

Jesus turned aside to hide his look of dismay.

Peter spat a pit down at the crowd. He drew back giggling when it ricocheted off a bystander’s nose. He was preparing to spit another when a swarm of soldiers, guided by two Temple priests, suddenly lunged up the stairs toward the woman in the plum-colored robe.

Alerted to the ambush, those who had congregated around her dashed away, while others linked arms and formed a barricade between the soldiers and the woman.

A second wave of soldiers arrived, this group shoving its way into the crowd and ramming through the barricade. The air filled with screams and shouts of terror. The people struggled to keep their arms linked. They fought with fury, kicking at the soldiers and their weapons. Jesus saw one girl leap onto a soldier’s back and dig her fingers into his eyes. Enraged by the resistance, the soldiers grabbed anyone they could lay hands on, men, women, children, beating them into submission with clubs and chains.