New Characters
Niza: A woman pursued by Judas; she betrays him to the Hooded Man.

Judas: The man who betrayed Yeshua; he is murdered by the Hooded Man’s henchmen.

Summary
An anguished Pilate calls to his dog, Banga, for comfort. Meanwhile, Aphranius gets three carts loaded with entrenching tools and barrels of water, and the cart drivers, escorted by 15 men on horseback, set off for Bald Mountain. Aphranius leaves as well on horseback and goes to Antonia Fortress, then to Greek Street in the Lower City. He meets Niza, a young woman, at a house there, and they leave separately after their brief meeting. At the same time, Judas of Kiriath is leaving his dreary house. He goes into Kaifa’s courtyard briefly, then heads toward the marketplace of the Lower City, where he sees Niza. Niza tells Judas to go the olive estate in Gethsemane, following her lead, and meet her in the grotto there. He follows Niza and calls for her in the estate’s garden, but instead two men jump out at him. The first man fatally stabs Judas in the heart, and Aphranius appears on the estate’s road to tell the two men to leave quickly. They take Judas’s purse and its thirty tetradrachmas. Aphranius comes back to Yershalaim, puts on his helmet and sword, and reverses his cloak into a military chlamys.

On the Passover night, Yershalaim is celebrating, but Pilate in his palace merely goes to sleep around midnight and begins to dream. In the dream, he, accompanied by Banga, walks with Yeshua in the moonlight, talking about “something very complex and important.” Pilate realizes that Yeshua must be alive if he is walking beside him, and Yeshua says both that cowardice is the worst vice and that he and Pilate will always be linked. Pilate wakes to realize Yeshua is indeed dead, and he sees Mark Ratslayer, who tells Pilate that Aphranius is waiting to see him. Aphranius informs Pilate that Judas has died in Gethsemane, but Aphranius claims not to know who killed Judas. Aphranius also tells Pilate the executed men have been buried, and the body of Yeshua was found with Matthew Levi in a cave on the northern slope of Bald Skull. Matthew Levi, who helped bury Yeshua, is now at the palace, and he meets Pilate in its garden. Matthew Levi asks that his bread knife be returned to the shop he took it from. He shows Pilate a parchment scroll with some of Yeshua’s sayings. Matthew Levi rejects Pilate’s offer for him to serve at Pilate’s library in Caesarea and declares that he will kill Judas. Pilate smiles as he tells Matthew Levi he has already killed Judas. Levi leaves after asking for a piece of clean parchment, and dawn breaks with Pilate and Banga asleep once again.

Analysis
Pilate’s weakness, weariness and fear are reiterated at the very start of the chapter. Judas, in contrast, is neither weary nor wary thanks to his desire for Niza, and therefore entirely fails to realize that she is leading him into a deadly trap. Her betrayal, together with Aphranius’ underhanded act of murder, replay themes of falseness, duplicity, and secret dealings seen constantly throughout the novel.

Pilate’s moonlight dream clearly shows his regret at Yeshua’s death and his sense of his own cowardice, but Pilate appears to be beyond help. The bloody business of Judas’ death is at hand, and Pilate accepts Aphranius’ evasive assurance that Judas is indeed dead. Pilate has also predicted that Yeshua’s body will be taken, but it is impossible not to compare the subdued story of Matthew Levi helping bury Yeshua with the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s resurrection. Here, events take place on a much more mundane level, and the bribe offered Matthew Levi is only a job as a librarian. In another mundane instance, Matthew Levi’s murderous desire is quelled by the simple fact that Judas is already dead.