Recap: Ava learns a shocking secret: Nazanin and Omer were her parents and they gave her up because of her deformed left arm. Aunt Annabelle, Ava, and their servant are on their way to Jerusalem to stay with Queen Helena.
We rode on and on. It was endless. The dust of the road filled our lungs. The sun beat down on our carriage.
We stopped briefly and then continued on.
Day melted into night, and we made a camp under some juniper trees. We spread blankets on the soft ground. Aunt Annabelle stood a few feet away and davened the Maariv prayer. Mirhan stood in a different spot and also prayed.
I said my own prayer to Hashem. “Please help me make the right decision. I want to be close to You. Please take us safely to Israel. Please rescue Nazanin, Omer, and Galla. I couldn’t believe I was praying for them.”
The sky was studded with sparkling stars.
We all lay down to sleep.
I was dreaming of a large Temple with gold details and bronze gates. Aunt Helena was gliding toward me when I was awakened by the pounding of horse beats.
Aunt Annabelle was shaking me awake. “Jorno, our old neighbor, found us. He and his family are also escaping Aurora.”
Jorno was mounted on his horse. Worry lined his face.
“They’ve reached Aurora. There are terrible reports coming out from there, Your Majesty. I was able to escape with my daughter and wife. I saw the campfire and guessed from the carriage that it was you. I can’t stay. I must go back to my family. You must continue quickly.” He gazed out toward the horizon. “King Arna is furious that you are not in the palace. He is ransacking everything. It is a matter of a day until he will catch up.”
I somehow found my voice. “Sir, please, did Nazanin and Omer – did they escape?”
He glanced at Queen Annabelle. “The Arabians are barbarians. They have no mercy.”
He turned and galloped away.
“Did they escape?” I asked Aunt Annabelle.
“I don’t know, Ava. We must pray for them, and we must leave right now.”
Ahmen and Hiran packed up the camp. We extinguished the fire, and then Hiran piled logs over it so no one would see that there had been a recent fire there.
We galloped on and on in the dark. I closed my eyes and pictured Nazanin sobbing and telling me she wanted to keep me. She was my mother.
I felt a catch in my throat. Jorno’s answer to my question was the lack of mercy – the brutality of the Arab soldiers.
“Please, Hashem, spare them.”
Suddenly, I realized that every time I was in trouble or felt sad, I called out to Hashem.
Did this mean I was meant to convert?
The trail ahead was steep, and we had to stop often so the horses could rest. The sun was already out and beginning to beat down on the dusty mountains.
Aunt Annabelle recited T’hilim. At one point, she turned to me. “Ava, I’m so thirsty. Please pass me the jug of water.”
I was surprised that she was asking me for water. She was within reach of it, and she wasn’t one to arbitrarily give orders.
I glanced at her. Her face was flushed. I handed her the water.
“Are you feeling all right?” I asked.
“Very thirsty and hot.”
I touched her forehead. She was burning with fever.
“Aunt, I fear you are very unwell.”
“It is nothing. Hashem will help.”
She slumped down in the seat and closed her eyes.
A short while later, she opened her eyes and moaned. “Ava, I need a blanket. I’m so cold.”
It was hot outside with the sun beating down.
Aunt Annabelle was shivering.
I called to Ahmed. “Queen Annabelle is ill. Please pass back a blanket.”
He stopped the horse for a moment and threw a blanket inside. He spoke with concern. “Your Majesty, how can I relieve you?”
“Keep going. Don’t think of me now,” she said through chattering teeth.
I began saying the only T’hilim I knew. I said it over and over, and I begged Hashem to heal my aunt.
We continued on and on. She was sleeping and calling out in her sleep.
What if she would die before we reached Jerusalem? Tears streamed down my cheek. “Please spare my aunt. She is my true mother. I need her. Please, Hashem. I will do anything.”
The late afternoon sun slowly sank, and the sunset melted into a dark curtain of night, and still we galloped on, and still my aunt slept fretfully. I kept wetting her lips with the water jug and at times slipped water between her swollen lips.
Please, Hashem, save my aunt!
To be continued…
Susie Garber is the author of a newly released historical fiction novel, Captured (Menucha Publishers, 2025), as well as historical fiction novels Please Be Patient (Menucha, 2024), Flight of the Doves (Menucha, 2023), Please Be Polite (Menucha, 2022), A Bridge in Time (Menucha, 2021), Secrets in Disguise (Menucha, 2020), Denver Dreams, a novel (Jerusalem Publications, 2009), Memorable Characters…Magnificent Stories (Scholastic, 2002), Befriend (Menucha, 2013), The Road Less Traveled (Feldheim, 2015), fiction serials, and features in Binah Magazine and Binyan Magazine, and “Moon Song” in Binyan (2021–2022) and Alaskan Gold (2023–2024).