A.D. 30(115)

To this no one replied.

“Take me to Herod, Saba,” I said.

We parted ways then, but I was sure our paths would cross again, for it was no mistake we had come into such a knowing together.


HOW TO GAIN entrance into the king’s courts was not a concern to me. I only knew that I would, and I rode into Tiberias without care of what fate might befall me. My course was set and Saba never questioned it.

We entered the city on camelback through the front gate as two common Bedu wrapped in desert clothing, one with clouded eyes, for I did not cover my face.

My sight was only for the palace, and I paid little attention to the city itself as Saba guided us through.

When we reached the inner gates before the palace grounds, I felt no fear, only confidence, though the guard stood in my way.

“What is this?” he demanded. “A woman with leprosy?”

I looked at him and said only what I had come to say.

“My name is Maviah, daughter of Rami bin Malik. Herod eagerly waits for the message I have come to deliver.”

He stared back as if trying to think of how to contest me, but I offered him no resistance. He too was like the wind and the waves, ferocious until calmed with acceptance rather than fear.

The guard then turned and ordered another to take word to Herod. What then was this power that I could stand like a pillar before men who would otherwise challenge me?

We waited only a short while before they took us through the gate, then to the palace and into Herod’s courts. Much had changed since my first encounter with the tetrarch of Galilee in Sepphoris. I did not feel like that woman now.

This time I could not see the display of Herod’s wealth, but I judged his court in Tiberias by size alone to be even more grand than the one in Sepphoris. My blindness forced me to see in a new way, and perhaps that was now my greatest gift.

Herod was waiting in his new court. With a woman. This was his new queen, Herodias. She stood by the window across the room, arms folded, staring at me. Part of me wanted to see her face more clearly. I was curious about the woman who’d captured Herod’s heart. Who could be more beautiful than Phasa?

“Leave us,” Herod ordered the guard.

They closed the door, leaving Saba and me with the king and his new queen.

“It is true then,” Herod said, approaching. “Maviah returns to the den of the lion.”

“She is blind?” Herodias asked.

Herod made no response, circling me.

The queen lowered her arms and crossed the room. “And mute as well,” she said. “A mangy dog from the desert who limps back to be punished for her betrayal.”

Fear whispered to me for the first time, accusing me of weakness. I shifted my focus to the calm seas inside, where nothing could threaten me.

“Is it contagious?” she asked, then faced Saba. “Speak up.”

“She was blinded in the court of Aretas,” Saba said. “She can see, but poorly with these eyes.”

It was true—he was reminding me. I could see more clearly than any of them. But a part of me was beginning to doubt in the face of one so sharp as this woman. She reminded me of Shaquilath in Petra.

Still I said nothing.

“And why did Aretas have her blinded?” the queen asked.

“It was the prince of the Thamud,” Saba said. “He felt threatened by her.”

“Threatened? By this?”

Silence settled over us. And then words came to me.

“Do you not feel threatened, Herodias?” I asked, voice calm.

“By whom?”

“By the Baptizer,” I said, looking now at the king. “I understand you have imprisoned him, a sage who holds no sword.”

I walked to the window, where the greater light allowed me to see to the horizon, however fogged. Herod made no attempt to stop me.

“Aretas’s queen, Shaquilath, first felt threatened by me.” I turned to them. “All kings and queens struggle to protect what is theirs, do they not? The Baptizer, John, speaks out against your marriage, so you have put him in a dungeon. Perhaps you would prefer him dead.”

“Perhaps we would prefer the same of you,” Herodias said.

I knew then that Herodias would not rest until John the Baptizer was dead. And she was as capable of killing me.

“Perhaps,” I said, approaching again, now crossing my arms. “We see ghouls where there are none but our own selves, haunting us in the darkness. It is your own fear, not the Baptizer, that chases you, Herodias.”

She was silent.

“As for me…” I faced Herod. “A blind woman presents no threat to the king of Galilee and Perea. I come only to help you protect yourself from the one who does.”

“The Baptizer is a fool,” Herodias said. “What can you know of him?”