A muscle jerked in Atretes’ jaw as he joined them in the meal. It hurt his pride that Theophilus caught fish without effort while he caught nothing. He ripped the skin from the fish and pulled a hunk of succulent meat from the bones. It tasted like sand in his mouth, and he knew it was pride he swallowed.
Theophilus spooned grain gruel into a small bowl and sprinkled pine nuts over the top. He set it before the silent barbarian. “I’d like to hear about the god you worship, Atretes.” He took his own bowl and reclined against the packs, eating his meal in silence, waiting.
Atretes debated saying anything. Thinking about Tiwaz opened old rifts of doubt. Rizpah sat with Caleb in her lap, feeding him pieces of fish. She looked so tranquil. How tranquil would she be when she faced the Thing? Sensing his perusal, she lifted her head and smiled at him. The soft glow in her eyes eased his mind, but quickened his senses. Could he bear to lose her?
“Will you tell us about Tiwaz?” she said, searching his face in question. She lowered her head again and spooned more gruel into his son’s mouth.
“Tiwaz is the supreme sky god,” he said, tossing the stripped fish skeleton into the fire. “His consort is Tellus Mater.” Mother Earth. “He’s the god of battle and presides over the Thing.”
Theophilus frowned. “The Thing?”
“The assembly of my people. The men gather to settle disputes and establish laws. No man can be flogged, imprisoned, or put to death except on word of the priests in obedience to Tiwaz, who presides over battle. Tiwaz is the god of the wolf and raven, the god of the dead, and supreme master over magic.”
Atretes’ description filled Rizpah with misgivings.
“He is a god of valor, as well. Tiwaz was the only god brave enough to face the wolf, Fenrir. He fed the beast his own hand in order to bind him. There’s no god in Rome or elsewhere with more courage.”
“If that’s so, why did your god allow your people to fail in their rebellion against Rome?” Theophilus said.
Atretes hesitated and then was compelled to answer frankly. “Tiwaz is also known as the Arch-Deceiver.” He had come to think of Tiwaz more in that way over the past years in Rome and Ephesus. Tiwaz had been his battle cry in Germania, and Rome had been victorious over him. In fact, every time he had cried out to Tiwaz in jubilation or anguish, some further disaster befell his life. “He metes out victory and defeat with the indifference and arrogance of an earthly tyrant or any other god.”
“Then why worship him?” Rizpah said.
Atretes gave her a dark look. “I don’t. Not anymore. But I will pay him honor when I return home. He is more a god than yours. Tiwaz may be capricious, but he’s powerful. He’d never let his son die on a Roman cross or leave his believers to be food for beasts.”
“He left you a slave of Rome for ten years,” she said and saw she had roused his temper. “There is no Tiwaz, Atretes.”
“You forget the adversary,” Theophilus said, surprising them both. “The enemy of God goes by many names, but his purpose is the same: to blind men to the truth and keep them from fellowship with Christ.”
Atretes tossed his empty bowl aside. “Why would anyone want fellowship with a dead man, or with a god who lets his own son die?”
“Christ is alive,” Rizpah said fervently.
“Your Jesus Christ was crucified!”
“Yes, and he arose.”
“So some say, woman, but I’ve never seen him. Nor have you, if you’re honest.”
“Not in the physical sense, no, but I know he lives,” she said with conviction. “I feel his presence in the very air I breathe.”
“Jesus died in order that all of us might live, Atretes,” Theophilus said. “He obeyed the Father and was crucified in atonement for all our sins. When Jesus arose from the tomb, he removed every barrier, including the fear of death, between God and man. Our faith in Christ Jesus sets us free from anything man can do to us. Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life. There is no death in him. Through Christ, in Christ, we overcome the world.”
“So,” Atretes said, smiling sardonically, “if I were to kill you right here, right now, you believe you’d still be alive by the power of this god of yours.”
“Yes.”
Amused, Atretes drew his gladius casually and turned the blade. “Perhaps I should test your faith.”
“It may come to that,” Theophilus said, well aware Atretes still hated and distrusted him enough to plot his murder.
“Why do you press him?” Rizpah said in alarm to Theophilus, frightened that he should issue such a challenge. She looked at Atretes’ cold face, her heart beating frantically. Turning Caleb toward her lest he witness his father committing murder, she clutched him close. “If you kill Theophilus, I’ll take my son and return to Rome,” she said in a trembling voice.