Among the Gods by Lynn Austin Read Free Book Online

family—and look how you’ve shown your gratitude: you skip classes, rob vendors in broad daylight, humiliate me in public. After everything I’ve done for you.”
    “I never asked you to do any of it!”
    “No? Then why didn’t you leave two years ago? Why stay under my roof? Why accept the food and the clothing I’ve given you?”
    “Because I had no place else to go, thanks to you.”
    “Thanks to me ?”
    “You’re the wanted criminal, not me. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d still be living in Jerusalem, not on this filthy rathole of an island in the middle of nowhere!”
    “You call this a rathole? I guess you’ve forgotten what your house in Jerusalem looked like? Or how your own mother treated you?”
    “It was better than this! You treat my sister and me like the dirt beneath your feet!”
    Nathan’s words stunned Joshua. “How can you say that?”
    “Because it’s the truth! The only reason you gave Miriam and me a home in the first place was because you killed her father.”
    Joshua went cold all over. “What did you say?”
    “I know what really happened to Maki. Mattan told me. It was your fault that the soldier killed him. You ran out of the door and opened your big fat mouth too soon.”
    Joshua stared at Nathan, too stunned to speak. It was true—Maki’s death was Joshua’s fault. But he’d never imagined that anyone else knew the truth.
    “Everyone around here thinks you’re such a big hero,” Nathan continued. “But I wonder what they’d say if they knew the truth. If they knew that Maki died because you screwed up!”
    Joshua grabbed Nathan by his upper arms and lifted him off the ground, shaking him. “Shut up, you little—!”
    “Go ahead, hit me. I dare you. When they ask me about the bruises, I’ll tell Miriam and everyone else what really happened to her father.”
    Joshua’s entire body trembled. He released Nathan, then turned and quickly strode away, well aware of what he might do to the boy if he lost control. He headed blindly toward the riverbank, then stumbled aimlessly around the deserted docks, trying not to imagine what would happen to his reputation if Nathan carried out his threat.
    Joshua told himself to stay calm. He could easily explain about Maki. He’d made an honest mistake in a moment of panic. He had been upset after killing the first guard because he had never killed anyone before. He had overreacted when he saw that the second guard had caught little Mattan. But even as Joshua replayed the events in his mind, he knew his excuses would sound feeble after so much time had passed. He would risk losing the entire community’s respect for not confessing right away as he should have, instead of waiting two years. They might wonder what else he was hiding. And the men might be reluctant to follow his leadership, afraid that he’d panic again in the heat of battle and cost someone else his life.
    Sweat soaked Joshua’s clothes, but he knew it wasn’t from the sun’s heat. He walked for a long time, wandering blindly around the island until he ended up back at the mud pits, where he’d started. Nathan was gone, but the workers had returned to their labors, standing knee-deep in ooze as they mixed mud and straw with their bare feet.
    The only way to save his reputation, Joshua decided, was to win back Nathan’s trust and friendship. But how could he do that? Joshua didn’t know anything about raising a son. He never should have agreed to adopt Nathan in the first place. He should have let his brother, Jerimoth, assume responsibility for Nathan as he had for Miriam’s younger brother, Mattan. Now it was too late.
    Not knowing what else to do, Joshua headed for the market square to ask Jerimoth’s advice. He found his brother in his booth bargaining with a customer over the price of a bolt of cloth. Joshua ducked beneath the welcome shade of the canopy and waited for the men to finish their haggling.
    “I need some advice,” Joshua said when the