The Jewels of Jezebel (The Reluctant Hero Series Book 2)
THE JEWELS OF JEZEBEL
A novel by
Summer Lee
The Reluctant Hero Series #2
Other Books by Summer Lee
Standalone Novels
The Witch of Endor
Standing Strong
Comes the Pale Horse
Warrior Woman
The Babylonian Queen
Beach Angel
The Biblical Adventure Series
The Staff of Moses
The Sword of Peter
The Fleece of Gideon
The Crown of Christ
The Ark of Noah
The Coins of Judas
The Sling of David
The Commandments of God
The Glorious Companions Quartet
Angel Heart
Kindred Spirits
Royal Family
Awaken the Passion
Forgotten Tales
The Maid from Moab
A Love for Solomon
A Home for Hava
The Reluctant Hero Series
The Shroud of Turin
The Jewels of Jezebel
The Sons of Destiny
The Stargazing Series
Under the Blood Moon
Sign in the Stars
The Jewels of Jezebel
Published by Summer Lee
Copyright © 2016 by Summer Lee
All rights reserved.
Ebook Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
To my good friend, Sandee.
The Jewels of Jezebel
Preface
Jezebel was a Phoenician princess in the 9th century who married Ahab, the prince of Israel.
Eventually, they ruled as king and queen. Jezebel worshiped the nature god Baal. She wore a lot of makeup and dressed in fancy clothes. She did not believe in the one and true God of the Bible. Jezebel was the daughter of King Ethball, a worshipper of Baal. Ahab wed Jezebel to cement a political alliance. After Jezebel became queen, she brought 800 Baal prophets to Israel and ordered the murder of the prophets of God.
At this major moment, Elijah, a prophet of God, announced that a famine was coming. This infuriated Jezebel. Elijah hid out. When he returned, he killed all the prophets of Baal. A story is told about Naboth, a Jewish man, who refused to sell land to King Ahab. In retaliation, Jezebel falsely charged him with treason and had him stoned to death. She then took his land for the king. Elijah arrived and confronted King Ahab about this brutal transgression. He then predicted that Ahab and all of his heirs would be killed and that dogs would lick up the blood of Jezebel, which happened. After Ahab died in battle, Jehu became king. He killed Jezebel’s son, and took Jezebel’s power from her. Jehu went to Jezebel’s palace and had her thrown out of her bedroom window. Knowing he was coming, she put on her fancy clothes and expensive jewels. She was trampled by horses and eaten by dogs.
Jezebel typifies evil, and her name is synonymous with idolaters, prostitutes and sorcerers.
Centuries later, Daniel and Magena are assigned to find those jewels.
Chapter One
The Inbal Jerusalem Hotel was the hotel chosen for the base of operations.
Daniel DiBenedetto sat on his bed, glued to the book he was perusing. He smirked at the thought of even picking up the black-covered, leather-bound book. He never picked one up before, because he thought that everything inside was fairy tales concocted by people with an overactive imagination.
His grin widened, when he thought about retrieving jewelry from one of the people in those fairy tales. In his eyes, it was like looking for Bigfoot or UFOs.
Neither of which he really believed.
Since it was an all-expenses paid trip, it wouldn’t hurt to check things out. He would then create a story of why he couldn’t find any jewels, or perhaps he would find amazing counterfeits in some local tourist trap.
He was smart enough to know that the city he was in was filled with people of the Jewish and Muslim faiths. He knew he had to keep his beliefs, or non-beliefs, to himself for the time being. He was very good at playing the game. Just because Magena could not lie, did not mean that he couldn’t. He knew that he could talk his way out of any situation.
Since he was outside of Turin, he decided to go back to his blonde hair and took the brown contacts out. He didn’t like the way the contacts felt anyhow. His blue eyes stood out in Jerusalem, but not as much as his hair.
On the other hand, Magena Nightcloud practically fit right in. Her Cherokee heritage, dark eyes, and darker skin, caused her to blend in perfectly to her surroundings.
She sat on the cushioned chair with her black-covered, leather-bound book as well, overlooking the street. The second story room gave her an amazing view. She glanced up every once in a while to see Daniel fidgeting as he read. “Well, you’re not bursting into flames, so I can only assume that you’re not evil,” she said with a slight grin.
He stopped reading and smiled at her. “This Bible thing has a lot of violence in it. I’m glad you wanted to research this Jezebel. She was one crazy chick.”
“She was a queen,” Magena corrected. “A queen with tremendous power and the beauty to pull it off. Such power should not have been abused by such a woman.”
“I don’t see where she abused it,” he rebutted. “She did what she wanted. Until her sugar daddy died, she had it made.”
“I don’t think you’re getting it, Daniel.” She knew that he was just trying to irritate her, because he could. “She was against God and got everyone to worship Baal. I know you understand this. I asked you to research her with me, because we need to have better comprehension of the woman before we can move forward.”
“Better comprehension?” he scoffed. “Let’s take into account the facts. We are getting information about a woman who may have, or may not have, actually existed, from a book about a god who may have, or may not have, actually existed! I’m not stupid! Even if she did exist, there is nothing on her to definitively point us in the right direction! I mean, seriously! Hah!”
She gritted her teeth, as was a common occurrence since she met him. “I am not going to get into a conversation with you about the existence of God. You have your beliefs and I have mine. I will not judge you for yours and I would ask for the same respect. I would like to point out that, even though you have professed your atheism, you still are looking through the Bible to find a path that will lead us to Jezebel’s jewels.” She smiled contently.
Daniel looked disinterested at her attempt to get back at him. “If the jewels do exist, then they have to be the ones that she wore when she was thrown out of the window. It stated that the only things left of her were her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands. That’s not only pretty specific, but it never stated what happened to the rest of her… other than being eaten by the dogs. That means that if Jezebel really did exist and this really did happen, then her jewels disappeared between the moment that she was run over by a horse after she was thrown out a window, to the point where the dogs ate her up.”
“Great job, Daniel!” Magena rushed over to him and looked over his shoulder as he peered into the Bible. “I know it doesn’t state anything more, because nothing else, but the way she died, was important. I stated that Elijah’s prophecy came true about her death. That’s why I chose Jerusalem. As far as my research could tell, this is approximately 73.2 kilometers from where Samaria might have been. There are ruins of Samaria in the Samaritan mountains.”
“That’s appropriate,” Daniel interrupted with a Cheshire grin.
“Anyway,” she continued, miffed, “that entire area has been gone over meticulously. I doubt that even if that was the area where King Ahab and Queen Jezebel ruled, that there would be any trace of either of them.”
“No, but it’s a start,” he said, as his mind tried to imagine what the people were like back then. “You have to look at things from the normal everyday Joe in those times. If I was a passerby and saw the queen that I hated fall to her death and then get eaten, I would grab as many of her expensive belongings as I could, before the dogs ingested them. By the way, this whole story would make an awesome horror movie!”
“I love it!” she exclaimed as she embraced him. As if she realized what she did, she pulled back. “I’m sorry, but I really didn’t realize how analytical your mind was underneath all of the poo.”
He shook his head and raised his brow. “Nice. When I find these jewels all by myself, you’re going to thank me.”
She put her hands on her hips and stopped herself from laughing. “So, what’s your plan? Maybe you’re going to just wing it and act like you came up with something. I want to warn you right now not to put me in any position where I have to lie or role play! I believe that we can get where we need to go by playing it honest.”
He stood up. Crossing his arms in front of him, he spoke in Hebrew. “אולי תוכל לדבר עםהמקומיים יותר אני יכול.”
Magena’s eyes widened. She knew that Daniel could speak Italian, but she had no idea he could speak Hebrew. “Just listen to you, show off.”
He smiled and said, “Maybe you prefer Arabic.”
“No, no, no!” she exclaimed, while waving her arms in front of him. “Why didn’t you tell me you could speak Hebrew and Arabic?”
“You didn’t ask.” He narrowed his eyes at her, knowing that he had the upper hand. “We need to go to the ruins of Samaria.”
“Good call, since that’s where the Temple of Baal was and supposedly where Jezebel drew her last breath. What do you think we should do, once we get there?” she asked, with a quiet tone. “I also am supposing that you mean SAH-maria in Israel and not SUH-maria in Iraq.”
He went to the front door. “Of course. I do know that we wouldn’t find anything in Iraq. I’m going back to my room to get ready. We have to scour the area and look for something that might have been missed. Something that no one would have thought was important. I have a feeling that we’ll find something that will lead us to our next clue.”
Chapter Two
In mid-afternoon, Daniel and Magena drove their rental car almost three hours on the Yitzhak Rabin highway to Samaria and the ruins.
They had to park on a dirt road, where they walked through a grove of trees. They both put on backpacks and were dressed in shorts and light clothing due to the heat.
There was a dirt path with rocks lined up on either side near a small hill. There were huge granite and wooden posts spaced about every ten feet of varying sizes.
“Street of pillars,” Magena commented nonchalantly.
“Yeah,” Daniel replied, with sarcasm. “You think?”
She walked over to the largest pillar and placed her hand on it. She then took out her camera and took some pictures. “It’s exciting to actually be here! Will you take a picture of me in front of one of the pillars?”
Daniel nodded as she handed him the camera. Magena posed in front of the pillar with a big smile. Taking a new pose each time, he took several pictures of her near some of the other pillars and then handed the camera back. “Those are going to be good.”
“Don’t you want any?” she asked, as she pretended to take some pictures of him, while saying, “click” each time she did.
“No.” He shook his head and became abnormally quiet as he looked around the base of the pillars. He started to kick stones around, as if he was looking for something.
She put the camera away and rolled her eyes. “I hope you don’t expect to find something still around from thousands of years ago. I’m pretty sure that whatever the people of that time period didn’t get, everyone else down through the ages did.”
He looked at her, as if she didn’t understand what he was doing, but should have. “I get that. Thanks. I’m looking for something that everyone could have missed. I don’t know what it is, but I’ll let you know when I find it. If you have any better ideas, then let me know.”
He watched as she shrugged her shoulders and examined the pillars more carefully. At first she seemed to be just playing along, because she did not have any other ideas. She then took out a gardening spade from her backpack and dug around the base of one pillar. Looking around to make sure that they weren’t being watched, she continued her digging.
“We’re alone,” he said.
One of the ways Daniel impressed his professors at college was the way he saw things that no one else could see. His attention to detail was incredible. He didn’t care to explain that to Magena. It would have just sounded like he had a bigger ego than she already thought he had.
The ruins were exceptionally clean of debris. As he hoped they would be. That way he could concentrate on more important things. Looking out the corner of his eye, he could have sworn there was a figure in the distance standing and facing the duo. He did his best to not turn toward the figure, but still kept it in his peripheral vision. “Mags, don’t look at me.”
She started to turn toward him, but was able to catch herself in time. “Ooh, spy stuff. What are we doing now?”
He kept kicking away stones with his hiking boots, without looking at the voyeur. “We have a visitor. It looks like he or she is fascinated by whatever we’re doing. To my left and about 100 yards out. Be sly.”
“Got it,” she responded, as she maneuvered around the pillar slowly while continuing to dig. She ended up facing the stranger with her head angled down, so none would be the wiser. “He or she doesn’t really care if we see them. They probably want us to. It looks like the person might be wearing a full length robe. I can barely make out some kind of head covering, but at this distance, it’s not easy to see. I’m guessing a female, but that’s just a guess.”
“Fifty-percent chance of being right,” he chuckled. “I may have to agree with you, but don’t take that as a sign that I think you’re smart or anything like that.”
She rubbed her arm over her forehead to wipe away the beads of perspiration that were forming there. She was able to get a better view as she raised her head briefly and looked under her extended arm. “It’s not smarts that enable me to see whether she’s a she or not. It’s my eyesight, so you can definitely compliment that if you want.” She smiled and went back to moving the dirt around by the pillar.
There was no one else nearby. The figure slowly moved toward Daniel and Magena.
“Okay. I’m starting to freak out now,” Daniel said, under his breath. “I hope you’re handy with that tiny shovel. You might have to use it to protect me.”
She refrained from laughing by pretending to cough. She then stood up and stretched. “If this is going to happen, then it’s going to happen. How we feel about it has no bearing on the fact that she will be here soon. My mother always told me to confront my fear head-on. Most of the time, I will find that there really is nothing to be apprehensive about.”
With that said, she dropped the gardening spade and started to slowly walk toward their guest. She made sure her arms were visible and held them out about six inches from her side, so the figure could see that there was no threat of danger. She nodded and smiled.
Daniel kicked the stones back in place and watched, as Magena and the figure kept walking toward each other.
Magena looked nervous, but increased her pace with each step. She continued to smile. It was the first thing the stranger could see.
As she moved closer, Magena could see that her assumption was right. The figure was a woman. She could see her eyes, which had a lot
of black eye shadow. The woman’s eyes were the only things visible. She was completely covered in robes.
Both women stopped several feet away from each other, as Daniel caught up with Magena and put his arm around her waist.
“Hello,” Magena said, just loud enough for the woman to hear. “Do you speak English? Of course, if you don’t, then you wouldn’t be able to tell me no. Would you?” Appearing frustrated with herself, she stepped back.
Daniel motioned toward the woman. Before he could open his mouth, she said, “Yes. I speak English.” Her Hebrew accent was strong. Her voice was soft and low. “My name is Adana. I was an assistant to Israel Finkelstein at Tel Aviv University.”
Daniel chuckled. “Israel…?”
“I’ve heard of him,” Magena quickly interrupted. He figured he owed her one for saving him some face. That was not the time to be making fun of someone’s name. Especially if they might be able to help them. Magena continued, “He studied Jezebel. I believe I read where he was frustrated because the Bible contained little verifiable historical data on Jezebel and her family.”
Adana’s eyes widened with surprise. “I did not think that you would have known his work when I mentioned his name. I was hoping that you did, though. He knew that Jezebel was only mentioned where it was pertinent to the Bible, so there were key life events not readily available.”
“Your command of the English language is really quite impressive,” Magena returned, with some trepidation.
“Thank you,” Adana replied. “I studied in America for several years. I went to U.C.L.A. until my English was as it is now. I received a grant so I did not have to pay. Professor Finkelstein was kind enough to provide airfare and lodging. He has been to America many times.”
Daniel grinned at the talkative Israeli. “You sure are volunteering a lot of information there. What do you look like?”