The Dovekeepers

The Roman soldiers set up camp in the valley at the foot of Masada and force their captives to build a zigzagging wall of stones. Ben Ya’ir immediately understands the wall is meant to encircle and trap Masada, rather than to protect the Roman encampment.

Fear spreads through Masada, just as the Romans intended. People begin to raid storerooms, desperate to make an escape before the wall shuts them in. Ben Ya’ir stands on a fountain and asks the people not to give up hope, using the words of King David in the Bible: “I will call upon God; and the Lord will save me” (419). The panic quells for the time being, but Shirah knows what is coming.

Even when it rains, the Romans continue to work hard at the wall. The women of the dovecotes weep when they see enslaved Jewish people being worked to death by the Romans in front of their eyes. Unable to bear the sight, Shirah goes to the bird observatory, carrying a bag full of cleaned dove bones, to divine the future. She throws the bones into the tower, and they tell Shirah that she will lose everyone she loves. Shirah will herself die, drowned in her blood. Meanwhile, Shirah tells Yael that it was she who looked after Yael as a baby.

After Shirah came to Jerusalem, she gained a reputation for being “impure” because of her tattoos. When Ben Ya’ir’s mother noticed the attraction between her son and Shirah, she sent the young girl away to be a housemaid. Shirah came to the house of Yosef bar Elhanan, where her job was to care for his neglected red-haired daughter Yael. Shirah grew to love the little girl, who was left only scraps by her father. Shirah stole silver cups from the house and sold them in the market in exchange for fruits and clothes for Yael.

At night, after putting Yael to bed, Shirah would go out secretly to the well to meet Ben Ya’ir. When Ben Ya’ir’s wife Challa went away for a few days, he and Shirah wed in secret and made love. Shirah got pregnant. After her pregnancy became visible, Yosef threw her out. Ben Ya’ir met Shirah and told her that Challa, his first wife, had spread the rumor that Shirah had slept in their marital bed, which was an unlawful practice. With Shirah’s reputation ruined, Ben Ya’ir needed time to convince his parents to let her join their household as a second wife.

Shirah knew Ben Ya’ir’s heart was in the right place but he was too young to defy his parents. She took refuge near a house of keshaphim and soon gave birth to Rebekah (Aziza). Shirah was only 13 at the time. Challa had Shirah and Rebekah cast into the wilderness. Ben Ya’ir was chained by his father to keep him away from Shirah. Still, he managed to send her two doves in a cage as a sign of his love. Shirah freed the doves and returned them to Ben Ya’ir. Years later, Ben Ya’ir sent her doves once again to show that he still loved her.

When the warriors venture forth to the Roman encampment to fight in small groups, some of them are captured and decapitated in full view of the people of the fortress. Decapitation is unlawful and means the spirit of the slain is left to wander. The heads are then thrown to the lion, but it refuses to eat them. A rumor arises that the lion is on the side of the Jews.

The Romans begin to launch fiery arrows into Masada, burning the orchard and crops. Adir is called to war and Aziza goes in his stead. A panic-stricken Shirah knows Aziza will not live long because of what the bones told her. Just then, Shirah hears the terrible sounds of the Essenes being massacred on the cliffs. A straying goat has led the Romans to the cave where Nahara and the others were hiding. Nahara is dead; Shirah weeps that the death is her fault. It was Shirah who took her away from Sa’adallos. Had Nahara stayed with her father, perhaps she would have lived.

Channa visits Shirah to ask for help in protecting Ben Ya’ir. She tells Shirah the warriors are going out tonight to stop the Romans from building a ramp on top of the wall. A bitter Shirah reminds Channa of her past cruelty. Channa admits she should have accepted Shirah in her home. She now asks Shirah to save the man they both love and leaves. Shirah decides that they must somehow poison the Roman soldiers.

Yael and Shirah go on the serpent path and find a beehive. They salt the hive to poison the honey and Yael leaves the honeycomb on a rock as bait for the Romans. Shirah fastens her second gold amulet, the one with the fish inscribed on it, for her protection. Since Yael is menstruating, the chained lion smells her blood and comes near her. Yael unhooks the buckle linking the lion’s collar to his chain and frees him. The lion looks at Yael. She lifts her arms before him, and he turns and runs off. Shirah, who is watching, feels she has witnessed a miracle. Her faith in God is renewed. When Ben Ya’ir’s band of warriors, including Aziza, reach the Roman camps, they find the soldiers intoxicated with the poisoned honeycomb and slay as many soldiers as they can.

Despite the successful foray of the Zealots, the Romans go on building their ramp, with more and more soldiers pouring in every day. Ben Ya’ir and Shirah make love one last time. The next morning, the ramp is complete, though a small space still exists between the ramp and the cliff. To bridge this gap, the Romans build a wooden platform on the ramp. On this, they place a 100-foot-tall metal-plated tower. The Roman soldiers are safe within the tower and shoot arrows and huge boulders at the fortress. The onslaught breaches the wall of the fortress.

Ben Ya’ir enlists all the men in Masada to build a second wall of mud, wood, and grass behind Herod’s wall to hold off the Romans. Shirah goes into labor. The labor is difficult, but at last Shirah delivers her daughter Yonah. Channa comes to see the baby and rejoices with Shirah over Yonah’s beauty, the differences between the women forgotten. Hours later, the Romans set the fortress on fire. Yael and Arieh, Revka and her grandsons, and Tamar’s son Yehuda shelter in Shirah’s quarters, where the women try to keep the children cool.

After the second wall is also breached, Ben Ya’ir calls all the inhabitants of Masada to a plaza. In an impassioned speech, he tells them that the Romans will invade the fortress by the next morning. The only way to resist the Romans now is to deny them the pleasure of looting, raping, and killing. The warriors must destroy all the rations, and 10 of them shall be chosen executioners to kill all the survivors to prevent them from falling into Roman hands. Amram is one of the chosen executioners.

After hearing Ben Ya’ir’s grim words, families begin to bid each other goodbye. Shirah hands over little Yonah and the book of her mother’s spells to Yael. She bids Yael to protect the book, her legacy, and all the children. Shirah will send a sign for Yael to flee. When Yael sees the sign, she must ask Revka about Shirah’s hiding place.

Chaos breaks out. The executioners move from house to house, killing families and setting fires. Shirah follows the bark of Eran, Aziza’s dog, and sees Aziza on the steps to a pool. Amram comes up behind her and slits her throat. He is horrified when he realizes it is Aziza whom he has killed. Adir comes rushing at Amram to beat him. Amram kills Adir as well. Eran the mastiff attacks Amram in grief, grievously injuring him. Yoav sees Amram dying but refuses to put him out of his misery.

Shirah goes up to the dovecotes and frees all the remaining birds. Ben Ya’ir finds her there. The two kiss and hug. Ben Ya’ir slits her throat and kills himself too. Shirah’s last thought as she drowns in her own blood is that Ben Ya’ir was wrong: “We were born to live” (474).

As the fortress burns and the ground grows littered with corpses, Yael guides Revka and the children to hide in the kitchens. She is prepared to die, but when she sees Arieh and Yonah at her breast, she decides they must somehow survive. When Yael spots the doves released by Shirah in the night sky, she interprets this as Shirah’s sign and asks Revka for the hiding place. Revka takes the group to the cistern where Shirah used to meet Ben Ya’ir. The women and children reach the cistern and hide there, its water protecting them from the fire.

Roman soldiers eventually find them. Yael knows the soldiers would have killed them if it were not for the fact that their survival in the face of so much death has scared the soldiers. As the soldiers take the women and children to Silva, Yael realizes they are the only survivors of Masada. Silva’s men demand the group be killed. Yael surprises Silva by answering him in Greek, which she learned from Shirah. She tells Silva her name is Shirah. She is the kinswoman of Ben Ya’ir, the slain leader of the Jewish resistance. She pulls out Ben Simon’s Sicarii knife as proof and cuts her palm. If Silva lets her live, she will tell him and the rest of Rome the story of Masada. Silva accepts her bargain.

Yael takes on Shirah’s identity. The convoy arrives in Jerusalem. Here, Yael’s story is recorded by the Roman scribes, and she and the others are finally set free. Yael’s story ensures that the heroism of the people of Masada, as well as the record of Roman cruelty, lives forever.

Unwilling to stay in Jerusalem, Yael uses Shirah’s second amulet to buy the group’s way to Alexandria, where Yael, Revka, and the children settle. Yehuda, Tamar’s son, joins the Essenes when he grows up. Revka’s grandsons Levi and Noah grow up to become bakers. Arieh is beautiful and extremely bright, though he is plagued by nightmares. Perhaps his father visits him in his dreams, as Yael’s does in hers.

Yael still has Yosef’s assassin cloak and has forgiven her father. Shirah’s beautiful daughter Yonah looks like Ben Ya’ir. She and Yael go to the Nile often. Yael thinks people called Shirah, the Witch of Moab, selfish, but Shirah was anything but, leaving the world her glorious daughter Yonah.