Deker pulled out his sword and swung at Molech, sending the head of the bull floating away down the cave on two legs. But this Molech was slow and wobbly, and Deker soon tackled him to the dirt. He pulled off the bull's head and saw the ravaged face of a Reahn soldier, or rather a former soldier. It looked like the man had tried to cut away a military tattoo from his shoulder.
"Who are you?" Deker demanded in ancient Hebrew.
The man's eyes went wide, but not in fear. He began blabbering in the dialect of the Reahns, but Deker couldn't understand him.
"He wants to know if you're really a Hebrew," said a voice from behind that Deker immediately recognized as Elezar's.
"And where the hell have you been?" Deker demanded.
Elezar stepped forward with a torch. "Finding an exit. There's a cave that leads out the back of the mountain and down into a valley. It will take us a day to reach the Jordan, but if we avoid the Reahn scouts at the fords, we should be able to swim across and make it back to Shittim by the following day."
The would-be Molech nodded slowly to confirm to Deker what Elezar said.
Elezar bent over the man and examined him under the light of his torch. "This man is dying," Elezar said. "Look at his pupils, his pale-blue skin. No wonder the Reahn army cut him loose. We should let him die and go our way."
"A little late for that," Deker said, and shoved the man up into a seated position against the cave wall. "Ask him what he's doing running around playing Molech."
Elezar exchanged words with the man, who grew animated as he spoke quickly and waved his hands until he tired and they fell to his sides. Then the words came more slowly but clearly.
"He says his name is Saleh," Elezar translated. "General Hamas forced him to wear this real, hollowed-out head of a bull and roam the caves to scare local villagers so that in times of trouble they would avoid seeking refuge here and instead turn to the walls of Jericho for protection."
Deker asked, "And what did this guy do to deserve this kind of duty?"
"Saleh says nothing. Hamas raped his wife and then offered up the daughter she bore to the great statue of Molech inside Jericho. The daughter was burned in the temple ovens. Then Hamas made Saleh a digger in the trenches outside Jericho where they leave the sick and the dead to rot until the sun peels the skin off their bones. He did this for months until one day there were no more sick-besides himself, at that point."
Deker frowned. "What do you mean? There are always sick people."
"Not in Jericho anymore," Elezar said. "According to Saleh, Hamas proclaimed that Molech had healed all the sick and blessed Jericho with divine health and prosperity. That's when Hamas sent Saleh to work the caves for the sake of the straggling believers in the outer valley. To keep them more scared of Molech than Yahweh. He is glad to see that the army of Yahweh has finally arrived and that at last the disease of Molech will be destroyed."
At that moment Saleh grabbed Deker by the shoulders with his gnarled hands and looked at him with his pale eyes, the light of life visibly fading. He babbled something unintelligible before his hands weakened and let go of Deker.
"He said to burn the Reahns," Elezar said. "Burn them all
to hell."