The Lamp of Darkness, - [any book recommendations txt] 📗

“What is your business in the palace?” The guard at the gates stood a full head taller than I, and I had to crane my neck to meet his eyes.

“I have come to speak with Master Dov, the head musician of the Court.” My voice shook. I had asked Ovadia to accompany me, but he insisted we could never be seen together.

The guard grinned at the quiver in my voice. “Dov is playing before the King and Queen. You can wait.”

“I’m a musician.” I swung my kinnor around from my shoulder. “Master Dov told me to meet him at this hour.” It was a lie, but it worked. The guard frowned once at my instrument and waved me past into the courtyard.

The sentry at the door to the Throne Room was less suspicious and immediately sent a page in to retrieve Dov.

The heavy cedar door pushed open enough for Dov to slip out. “Lev, I’m so glad you returned.” A warmth spread in my chest at his words. “The Queen has us playing twice as often as the King ever did, and we need the help.” He scanned me from head to toe, and his expression tightened. “I can’t have you looking like one of the peasants coming to petition the King. Come.”

Dov led me out through the courtyard, and I hurried to keep pace with his long strides. “When do we rehearse?” I hoped he would slow down to answer.

“There’s no time now.” We passed through the gates onto the stone streets of the upper city. “While the Queen is on her throne, we have at least two musicians playing at all times, ideally three. She often requires us again at night. The only time we could rehearse is while the Queen sleeps, but we need rest ourselves.”

The prospect of laboring over my kinnor for long hours did not bother me. Better callouses from its strings than from grinding grain. But no rehearsal posed a bigger problem. “When will I learn the music?”

“You’ll pick it up as we go.”

I stopped walking, and it took Dov a moment to realize I was no longer racing along beside him. He took a half step back toward me with a fatherly smile. “Don’t look so worried. No one else picked up the melodies for the wedding as quickly as you did.”

His words brought me little comfort. Those other musicians had arrived at the first rehearsal hung-over from the King’s wine. My mission depended on my invisibility, and nothing drew attention like a misplaced note.

We arrived at the marketplace below the palace. Batya had sent me once to the capital’s other market, in the square just inside the city gate, where farmers sold fruits and vegetables from their donkey carts. Now I found myself walking a street lined with stalls of cut stone, where vendors sold oil, wine, meat, and other luxuries. Only grain was sold in both marketplaces.

Dov entered a stall with walls draped in wool and linen cloth.

“Dov, back so soon?” A bald man with a sharp nose rose from a stool. “How can one who sits all day wear out his garments so fast? Or perhaps the Queen feeds the musicians too well?”

“I’m not here for myself today, Asher.” Dov pushed me gently forward. “Meet Lev, the newest Court musician. He needs a full set of garments, the same make as the rest.”

The cloth cutter’s keen eyes took me in with one quick glance, coming to rest on the worn collar of my woolen tunic. His smile faded. “Who will pay?”

“Ovadia has commissioned his first set. After that, Lev will pay for his own. How long will they take?”

His smile returned at Ovadia’s name, and he rubbed his hands together. “Two days. If it’s pressing, I can squeeze it into one.”

“Make it one,” Dov said. “Lev, come to me at the palace once you have your garments. I leave you in good hands.” He slapped my shoulder and hurried out of the stall.

The cloth cutter picked up his measuring rope. “I’ve been cutting the musicians’ clothing since King Omri first moved the capital to Shomron. I’ve never fit anyone of your age before.”

I bit my lower lip. Would my age draw the Queen’s notice as well? “I played during the King’s wedding,” I said. “Master Dov invited me to return.”

“Ah, you must be talented indeed.” His words were truer than he knew—more than my success as a musician depended on my talent. “Stand over here.” He stretched his rope across my shoulders. “I’m going to make them extra big. They’ll still look right if you keep the sash tight, but they’re too precious to replace at the rate you’ll be growing.”

As he looped his rope around my waist, his hand brushed the bulge under my tunic. “What is this?”

My heart raced at the question. Out of laziness, I’d taken to keeping my knife with me rather than hiding it after each journey. “It is my knife,” I said, unable to think of a good excuse why I wore it under my tunic instead of around my waist as normal.

“Hmm,” he said, still staring at the bulge. “There is more to you than there seems. It will stick out even more under the new linen garments. Leave it behind if you don’t want anyone to notice it.”

I nodded eagerly. “I’ll do that tomorrow.”

He knelt and measured from my foot to my waist. “That’s a beautiful kinnor you have. Where did a boy dressed like you come by such a fine instrument?”

Once again I was caught without a story. “It was my uncle’s. He gave it to me.”

The cloth cutter’s eyes went back and forth from the instrument to me. “A generous gift,” he said at last. “That is all I need.” He folded the rope between his hands. “You may return at this time tomorrow.”

I stepped out of his stall, my face pale. I needed to make some changes. From this point on, I would leave my knife behind at Ovadia’s. The clothing would help me blend in with the other musicians, but there was nothing I could do about my age. The only way to make up for looking too young was to play my kinnor perfectly, so anyone hearing me would know I belonged. Without a chance to learn the melodies in advance, that would be impossible.

“Fear not, my servant Jacob,” Peleh called to me when I arrived with the bread.

“Why are you calling me Jacob?” I asked.

“Why do you look so afraid?”

There was nothing Peleh could do to help me, and I was in no mood for his talk, so I ignored his goading. Sadya removed the saddlebags from the donkey and replaced them with a second set of saddlebags filled with grain from the stores we kept at the cave.

Peleh caught my eye as I turned the donkey for the return trip. “Don’t let worry too deep into your heart, Lev. Never forget that a power greater than any of us is in control.”

I held my silence. If the power was so great, why was Peleh hiding in a cave? I returned the donkey to Ovadia’s and dragged my feet each step of the short walk to the musicians’ quarters. At least if I were well rested, I might make less of a fool of myself the next day in the Throne Room, but with musicians coming in at all hours of the night, there was little chance of that.

I stepped into our one-room house and found Betzalel hurrying to leave. “I’m playing a banquet tonight,” he said. “There’s room if you want to join.”

Other than the first night with Zim, I hadn’t played my kinnor in weeks. Nothing would feel better than playing, but it wouldn’t help me be ready for the Throne Room, nor make me better rested. “I’d better not.”

“As you like.” Betzalel shrugged and disappeared out the door.

Zim sat up on his sleeping mat. “You’d better not? You’re a musician. There’s nothing better you can do. How do you expect to eat?”

“Eating is my last concern. Master Dov took me on as a Court musician today.”

“The Throne Room?” Zim whistled. “I didn’t take you for one to chase the glory of Kings.”

I couldn’t help grinning at his reaction. “You dreamed of this once yourself.”

“True, but that was before I’d arrived in Shomron. I’d rather play my music before Baal than Dov’s melodies before the King.”

“His melodies weren’t so bad at the wedding.”

“There won’t be wedding music in the Throne Room.”

“I wish there was.” At least I already knew the wedding music.

Zim squinted at me. “What’s wrong, Lev? You say you’re not worried about eating, but you look sick to your stomach.”

I couldn’t tell him about my real concern, but the flood of words I’d held back from Peleh came tumbling out. “I’m going to make a fool of myself. I’m the youngest musician ever to play in the King’s Court, and I’m being thrown in without a single rehearsal. I haven’t even heard the melodies. At the first missed note, the Queen will ask Dov why he brought some talentless boy before her. I’ll be lucky to make it through my first day.”

Zim’s head dropped back on his sleeping mat as he laughed. “Nervous, are you?”

I regretted my words, but at least they’d let something out. I already breathed deeper. “I am.”

Zim jumped up and grabbed his drum. “Bring your kinnor,” was all he said as he headed out the door.

“I don’t want to play for Yambalya tonight,” I said as