"Ship is far away. Far away."
What were they doing up on that hill? Some of the soldiers had taken the piece of tree and stretched it on the ground. She glimpsed the activity through the crowd.
"Then how can Yaisuah say that you know God's will?" Foul-breath demanded.
This caught her attention. Yaisuah? Ship had said that name. It was the name Ship said had become Geezus and then Hesoos. Jesus. She hesitated, stared at her inquisitor.
"You call that one Yaisuah?" she asked.
"You know him by some other name?"
He gripped her arm hard. There was no mistaking the avaricious cunning in his voice and manner.
Ship intruded on her then. This one is a Roman spy, an informer who works for those who torture Yaisuah.
"Do you know him?" Foul-breath demanded. He gave her arm a painful shake.
"I think thi.... Yaisuah is related to Ship," she said.
"Related t.... How can someone be related to a place?"
"Isn't he related to You, Ship?" She spoke the question aloud without thinking.
Yes.
"Ship says that's true," she said.
Foul-breath dropped her arm and stepped back two paces. An angry scowl twisted his mouth.
"Crazy! You're nothing but a crazy old woman! You're just as crazy as that one!" He gestured up the hill where the armored men had taken Yaisuah. "See what happens to crazies?"
She looked where he had pointed.
The two men already hanging there were roped to the cross-pieces and she realized they were being left to die. That was going to happen to Yaisuah!
As the full realization hit her, Hali began to weep.
Ship spoke within her mind: Tears do little to improve acuity. You must observe.
She wiped her eyes on a corner of her robe, observing that Foul-breath had moved up into the crowd. She forced herself to climb up with him, pressing in among the people.
I must observe!
The armored ones were stripping the robe from Yaisuah. This exposed his wounds - cuts and bruises all over his body. He stood with a stolid watchfulness through all this, not even responding to the gasp which went up when the mob saw his wounds. There was an unguarded vulnerability to this moment, as though everyone here was participating in his own personal death.
Someone off to the left shouted: "He's a carpenter! Don't tie him on!"
Several large, crudely wrought nails were pressed up through that part of the crowd and thrust into the hands of an armored young man.
Others took up the cry: "Nail him on! Nail him on!"
Two of the armored men supported Yaisuah on either side now. His head swayed slightly from side to side, then bowed. Things were being thrown at him from the far side of the crowd but he made no attempt to dodge. Hali saw stones strike hi.... an occasional glob of spittle.
It was all s.... so bizarre, played in an orange glow of mute sunlight coming through a high layer of thin clouds.
Hali blinked the tears from her eyes. Ship said she had to observe this! Very wel.... She estimated that she stood no more than six meters from Yaisuah's left shoulder. He appeared to be a wiry man, probably active through most of his adult life, but now he was near the point of exhaustion. Her med-tech training told her that Yaisuah could survive this, given proper care, but she had the impression that he did not want such care, that none of this surprised him. If anything, he seemed anxious to get on with it. Perhaps that was the reaction of a tortured animal, cornered and beyond all will to fight or flee.
As she watched, he lifted his head slowly and turned to face her. She saw then the slight glow about him, an aura such as she had seen around her own body when Ship had projected her away fro....
Is he also a projection of Ship?
She saw that there was a debate going on among the armored men. The nails were being waved in front of one of them by the one who had taken them from the crowd at the far side.
Yaisuah was looking at her, compelling her attention. She saw recognition in his eyes, the lift of eyebrow.... a suggestion of surprise.
Ship intruded: Yaisuah knows where you are from.
Are You projecting him?
That flesh lives here as flesh, Ship said. But there is something more.
Something mor.... That's why You brought me here.
What is it, Ekel? What is it?
There was no mistaking the eagerness in Ship.
He has another body somewhere?
No, Ekel. No!
She cringed before Ship's disappointment, forcing herself to a peak of alertness which her fears demanded.
Something mor.... something mor.... She saw something then, a significance of the aura. Time does not confine him.
That is very close, Ekel. Ship was pleased and this reassured her, but it did not remove the pressure from the moment.
There is something of him which Time cannot hold, she thought. Death will not release him!
You please Me, Ekel.
Joy washed through her to be cut off abruptly by Ship's demanding intrusion: Now! Watch this!
The armored men had settled their argument. Two of them threw Yaisuah to the ground, stretching his arms along the timber.
Another took the nails and using a rock for a hammer began nailing Yaisuah's wrists to the wood.