Servant of the Bones

" 'There are ways out of this city still, I can take you!' I said. Indeed we both knew of tunnels beneath the house of the Jewish district which led to the world outside the walls. They were old, true, but we knew them. I could have taken him through them. Or upwards, with great power, invisible through the air.

" 'Master, what will you do? Let them kill you? Tear you limb from limb? Either the fire will come racing at you from both ends of the street outside, or they will come, to tear off your rings and your robes before they kill you. Master, why are you choosing to die?'

"He had told me twelve times to be quiet and go back into the bones. I wouldn't do it. Finally I said, 'I won't let this happen to you. I'll take you from here, you and the bones!'

" 'Azriel,' he cried. 'There is time and you will be still!' He neatly put aside the last of his books, a volume of his cherished Talmud, and his books of the Kabbalah from which had come much of his magic, and then he waited, with his eye on the door.

" 'Master,' I asked. My memory of this is exquisite. 'Master what of me? What will happen? Will the bones be found without their casket? Where do I go, Master?'

"Surely I had never asked such a self-serving question. Because the look of surprise on his face was so bright. He broke off his reverie and staring at the door and he looked up at me.

" 'Master, when you die, can you take my spirit with you?' I said. 'Can you take your loyal servant into the light?'

" 'Oh, Azriel,' he said in the most despairing voice, 'what ever gave you such notions, foolish, foolish spirit. What do you think you are?'

"The tone of his voice infuriated me. The look on his face infuriated me.

" 'Master, you're leaving me to the ashes! To the looters'.' I cried out. 'Can't you clasp my hand as they kill you, if that's what you must have, can't you take my hand and take me with you? Thirty years I've served you, made you rich, made your daughters rich. Master! You're leaving me here. The casket may burn. The bones may burn. What will happen!'

"He looked completely confused. He looked ashamed. At that point the door of the house opened and two very finely dressed Gentile merchant bankers whom I knew came into the room. Both were anxious.

" 'We have to hurry, Samuel,' they said. 'They're starting the fires near the walls. They're killing the Jews everywhere. We cannot help you escape.'

" 'Did I ask you to?' said Samuel with contempt. 'Give me the proof that my daughters are away.'

"Anxiously they put a letter in his hand. I saw it was from one of many moneylenders whom he trusted most, who was in Italy and in a safe place, and it confirmed that his daughters had come and described the color of the dress of each and every one, and her hair, and gave the special word from her which her father demanded.

"The Gentiles were terrified.

" 'We must hurry, Samuel. If you're determined to die here, keep your word! Where is the casket?'

"At these words I was astonished. Only too quickly did I understand! I had been bartered for the salvation of the five daughters! Neither of these men could see me, but they saw the casket of my bones, which was in plain sight with the books of the Kabbalah, and they went to the casket and opened it and there lay my bones!

" 'Master.' I said in a secret voice to him. 'You can't give me to these men! These men are Gentiles. They aren't magicians. They're not great men.'

"Samuel was amazed still, staring at me. 'Great? When did I ever tell you I was great or even good, Azriel? When did you ever ask?'

"In the name of the Lord God of Hosts,' I said, 'I did for you what was good for you and your family and your elders and your synagogue. Samuel! What do you do to me now?'

"The two Gentiles closed the casket. 'Goodbye Samuel,' they said as one of them hugged the casket to his breast and they both hurried out the door. I could see the light of the fire. I could smell it. I could hear people screaming.

" 'You evil, evil man!' I cursed him. 'You think God will forgive you because this fire cleanses you and you've sold me for money, for gold!'

" 'For my daughters, Azriel. Spirit, you have found a powerful voice too near the end.'

" 'The end of what?' But I knew. I could feel already the others calling, those who had their hands on the bones. They were already outside the city gates. And my hatred and contempt was boiling in me. Their calls were a temptation!

"I came at Samuel.

" 'No, Spirit!' he declared. 'Obey me, go to the bones. Obey as you always have. Leave me to my martyrdom.'

"There came the call again. I couldn't hold my form. I was too angry. My body was dissolving. I had in my anger forfeited too much. The voices that called me were strong. They were farther and farther away but nonetheless strong.

"I lunged at Samuel and I threw him out the open door. The street was full of flames. 'There's your martyrdom, Rabbi!' I shouted. 'I curse you to walk among the undead for all your existence, until God forgives you for what you did to me, leaving me, bartering with me, leading me to love you, and selling me like gold!'

"From both directions terrified people ran to him, people who were suffering their final anguish. 'Samuel, Samuel,' they called out his name.

"My bitterness broke for an instant when I saw him embrace them. 'Samuel,' I cried. I came towards him. I was growing weak but I was still visible to him. 'Take my hand. Hold the hand of my spirit, please, Samuel, take me with you into death.'

"He didn't speak. The crowd surrounded him, sobbing and clinging to him, but I heard his last thought as he rebuffed me as he turned his eyes away. He said as clearly as if aloud,

" 'No, Spirit, because if I die with my hand in yours you may take me down into Hell.'

"I cursed him. "Wot enough grace and goodness for both of us. Master. Master! Leader!

Teacher! Rabbi!'

"The flames engulfed the crowd. I rose upwards through the flame and smoke, and felt the cold night pass through me and I sped towards the sanctuary of the bones. I sped away from smoke and horror and injustice and the screams of the innocent. I went through the dark woods, as a witch to a Sabbath, flying with my arms out, and then I saw the two Gentiles at the door of a small church at a great remove from the city, the casket on the ground between them, and wanting only death and silence; I relaxed into the bones.

"All I learnt of them was that they were weeping for Strasbourg, for the Jews, for Samuel, for the whole tragedy. And that they planned to sell me in Egypt. They were not magicians. I was a marketable prize.

"It didn't seem that mine was a long uninterrupted sleep. I was called, I was taken places, I slew those who called me, and some I can picture, some not. The history of the world was written on the blank and endless tablets of my mind in column after column. I did not think, however; I slept.