You, my son, shall be the guarantor of all these things I order. Should you not carry out my final orders, God shall punish you, and you shall not find peace in life or in the death thereafter.

All eyes fell upon the new king. Maanu shook with impotent rage, and it was Marvuz who took charge of the situation.

"We shall bid farewell to Abgar as he has desired. Now let each of us return to our duties."

Slowly, all those who had been in the royal chambers began to file out into the corridor. The queen, pale and quiet, awaited her son's decision on her fate.

Maanu waited until the chamber was empty, and then he addressed his mother: "You will not leave this room until I call for you. You will speak to no one inside or outside the palace. Two servants will remain with you. We will bury my father as he has requested. And you, Marvuz, shall see that my orders are followed."

Maanu strode quickly from the chamber. The head of the royal guard turned to the queen.

"My lady, it will be best that you obey the orders of the king."

"I shall, Marvuz."

The queen's eyes met his with such intensity that the head of the guard lowered his eyes in shame; then, bowing quickly, he left her alone.

The instructions Maanu then imparted to Marvuz were clear: He would bury Abgar as the old king had desired, and an instant after the royal mausoleum was sealed, the royal guard would arrest the leaders of the Christians, the hated Josar and Thaddeus. They would destroy all the temples in which the Christians met to pray. Maanu had also personally charged Marvuz with finding and bringing to the palace the sacred shroud of Jesus.

The queen was not allowed to leave her chamber until the third day after the death of Abgar. The king's body lay until that time on a richly ornamented bier placed in the center of the first temple that Abgar had ordered built in honor of Jesus.

The royal guard watched over the body of the man who had been their king, and the citizens of Edessa filed by to pay homage to the man who for so many decades had secured peace and prosperity for their city.

"My lady, are you ready?"

Marvuz had come for the queen; he was to accompany her to the temple. There, with Maanu, she would lead the procession to the mausoleum where Abgar would rest for all eternity.

The queen had put on her finest tunic and richest veil, and she had adorned herself with the best of her jewels. She looked majestic despite the lines of age and the signs of suffering on her face. By the time they reached the small Christian temple, it was filled with people. The entire court and the principal elders of Edessa were there. The queen looked about for Marcius, and for Josar and Thaddeus, whom Maanu had summoned, but did not see them. She felt uneasy. Where were her friends?

Maanu, wearing Abgar's crown, was in obvious high temper at the open defiance of his orders and his guard's inability to secure the shroud of Jesus, which was no longer in the place where for so many years it had been kept.

A young disciple of Thaddeus began the ceremony of farewell with a prayer. As the funeral procession was about to depart for the mausoleum, Marvuz was able to approach King Maanu.

"My lord, we have searched the houses of the leaders of the Christians, but we have not found the shroud. Nor is there any sign of Thaddeus andjosar."

Then the head of the royal guard fell silent. There, before him, pushing their way through the crowd, came Thaddeus and Josar, pale as death. The queen opened her arms and, fighting back tears, took each of them by the hand. Josar looked at her tenderly but spoke not a word. Thaddeus, too, was silent.

Maanu gave the order for the procession to begin. He would settle accounts with the Christians later.

A silent multitude accompanied the body to the mausoleum. There, before the entrance could be sealed, the queen requested a few moments to pray.

When the tomb was finally sealed with its stone door, Maanu made a gesture to Marvuz, and Marvuz signaled the guard, who rushed forward to arrest Josar and Thaddeus, in the full sight of all those present. A murmur of terror ran through the multitude as the people realized that Maanu would not obey the will of Abgar, that he was determined to persecute the Christians.

Some tried to flee, whispering that they would leave Edessa that very night.

But there was no time even to try. At that instant the royal guard was destroying their houses, and many believers were slain on the spot.

Horror was on the face of the queen as Marvuz dragged her away, back to the palace. She saw Thaddeus andjosar seized. Neither man offered any resistance or uttered the slightest sound.

Edessa trembled with fear and anguish. All about the city, men and women howled in pain and desolation. The smell of fire rose to the top of the hill on which the palace stood, while Maanu, in the throne room, drank wine and observed with smug satisfaction the terror on the faces of his courtiers.

Maanu had ordered the queen to remain standing. Nearby, Josar and Thaddeus, their hands tied behind their backs and their tunics tattered by the lashes dealt them by the royal guard, still had not spoken a word.

"Ten lashes more! I will have them beg me to end their torment."

The guards furiously lashed the old men, but to the wonderment of the court and the wrath of the king, they uttered not a sound.

The queen cried out when Thaddeus fainted, while tears flowed down the face of Josar, whose back was covered in flayed skin and blood. Then he, too, sank senseless to the floor.

"Enough! Stop this!" she demanded.

"How dare you give orders!" Maanu shouted.

"You are a coward-torturing two old men is not worthy of a king!"

With the back of his hand Maanu slapped his mother. The queen staggered and fell to the floor. Cries of horror rose from the throats of the courtiers.

"They will die here, before you all, if they do not tell me where they have hidden the shroud, and their accomplices will die as well-all of them! No matter who they may be!"

Two guards entered with Marcius, the royal architect, followed by his frightened young servants.

"Has he told you where the shroud is?" Maanu snapped at the guards.

"No, my king."

"Then whip him until he talks!"

"We can whip him, my lord, but he will not speak. His servants have told us that he has done a terrible thing: Several days ago he cut out his tongue."

The queen looked at Marcius, and then she looked at the unconscious bodies of Thaddeus and Josar. She realized what they had done. In order to keep the secret of the Holy Shroud, they had made this terrible sacrifice so that they would not falter under the torture they would surely suffer.

She began to weep in grief for her friends, knowing that her son would make them pay dearly for this affront to his will and power.

Maanu's entire body trembled with rage, and his face was red with wrath. Marvuz approached him, fearing what he would do next.

"My lord, we will find someone who knows where the shroud has been hidden. We will search everywhere in Edessa, and we will find it-"

The king was not listening. Turning to his mother, he pulled her up from the ground and shook her as he screamed at her: "Tell me where it is! Tell me, or I will cut out your tongue!"

The queen sobbed, her body racked by convulsions. Some of the nobles of the court stepped forward to intervene, seized with shame by their own cowardice, for they had stood by as Maanu struck his mother. If Abgar had seen such an action, he would have had him killed!

"My lord, release her!" begged one.

"My king, calm yourself; do not strike your own mother!" another pleaded.

"You are the king and should show mercy!" counseled a third.

Marvuz seized the king's arm as he was about to strike his mother again.