by Daron Fraley
The men then left the river and returned to the trail winding through the trees. They marched at a good pace for several hours and talked about various things, none of which were very important, but it helped to pass the time. While they traveled, Jonathan watched with interest as Eli used a smaller boot knife to whittle down the sharp ends of his stick. Eli also removed the bark and rough knots on the limb, making it smooth. By the time Jonathan noticed the long shadows of late afternoon around them, Eli’s walking staff was a work of art. Although the rounded surface had a slight natural curve to it, the now-carved branch proved to be very strong and sturdy.
Eli claimed he could not have found a better specimen if he had tried. As they traveled, he occasionally tested its strength by hitting dead branches upon the trees lining the trail, easily shattering them. After a few finishing touches to the surface of the staff, Eli sheathed his knife.
The heat of mid-afternoon was now well upon them, causing their pace to slow considerably as the trees thinned along the trail. The sound of the river, all but lost to them now, made Jonathan suspect it had taken a turn to the north. They discussed theories as to where the waterway had gone, but were not overly concerned, knowing the river would eventually meet up with them again.
About half an hour later, as they had predicted, the river came close enough to smell and hear, and just ahead of them, the simple forest trail drastically changed. They could see the path widen, being joined by a cart-road from the south which rose over a hill covered in wild flowers and grasses.
Pekah stopped walking. “Not far from here is a pass to the city of Gilad. Being this close to Gideon makes me a little nervous. I didn’t know we would find this particular road—I thought we were farther north than this.”
Jonathan pointed to the road in the distance. “This road goes to Ain?”
“Yes. I have traveled it before, although not all the way into the city.”
Jonathan’s brow furrowed, and he sighed with some frustration. “I’m not sure how to proceed, Pekah. If we take this road, there are sure to be Gideonite soldiers on it, and we’ll be found.”
Eli cleared his throat and motioned in the direction of the river. “What if we cross the water and continue west from there?”
The three of them debated their ability to re-cross later if the river deepened, but in the end, they all agreed it was a prudent thing to do. They left the trail before the road joined it and waded into the river at the shallowest part they could see. It took them some time to cross because of the current, but they did so safely.
Once on the other side, they found the area north of the river to be a bit more forested, yet still passable, even though there were no trails. Progress was slow at first, but their pace improved as they got used to navigating the thick timber. After many hours of strenuous hiking, they were rewarded with a good camping site for the night, just as the suns fell below the eastern horizon. The grassy glade before them proved to be even more secluded than the site they had used the night before, and far enough from the road on the other side of the river that they were certain any travelers from Gilad to Ain would neither hear them nor see them.
They made their camp as comfortable as possible with cut pine boughs for bedding, and then took time to eat a peaceful end-of-Sabbath meal, after a prayer together. Dusk turned into night while they ate. Before retiring, they stoked the fire high to keep any animals in the area from disturbing them.
* * *
Pekah was the last one still awake. He reflected on the day, immensely grateful for the peace he now felt. Staring into the night sky, he enjoyed seeing the three sister moons rise and begin to cross the sky in typical grandeur. The beauty of the procession and the face which they made went unnoticed by the sleepers. The sight of the moons made him smile.
In contrast to the previous night, and with his soul no longer aching, Pekah drifted off. During the early morning hours when the fire had dwindled to nothing more than low embers, he began to dream.
Chapter 10
Prophecy
Pekah wandered alone down a dark, moons-lit road bordered by many tall pines. Pungent scents of pitch and green needles mixed in his nostrils with the dust being kicked up from his boots. Each step he took sent pebbles skittering before him, bouncing and banging so loudly as they went that the sound reminded him of a rock-slide in the high wilderness areas of Gideon’s mountain ranges. Silence hung like a pall over the landscape, a stark contrast to the cacophony produced by the little rocks. Endless trees on an endless road blurred into what seemed like walls of a tunnel deep underground.
He trudged on for hours. The scene around him did not change. More trees, dark walls of them. No sound except his thunderous steps and the pebbles jumping before his toes. Despair slithered across his heart. He stopped.
At that moment his attention was drawn to a leather bag hanging from a strap around his neck. Pekah pulled the drawstring open. Inside, he found a cloth-wrapped cylindrical object, which he lifted from the bag. As he studied the roll of purple cloth, he recognized the head of a serpent embroidered upon it. Taking great care, he unfolded it to reveal a clear glass rod. Engraved white gold knobs capped each end of it, and the glass held a thin, gray object embedded at the very center.
Curious, he brought the rod closer for inspection. The scene around him instantly changed, startling him. No longer on the pine-bordered road, Pekah found himself in a well-lit chamber, with wood-paneled walls and candles burning atop multi-stemmed candlesticks in all corners of the room. To Pekah’s surprise, Eli stood next to him, smiling.
Pekah lowered the glass rod in order to take in his surroundings, and saw an ornately carved wooden chair at one end of the room, empty, but flanked by two armed Gideonite soldiers. They glared at him crossly, and pointed to the object in his hand as if they wanted him to explain it. Pekah could not identify what he held. He looked to Eli for help, but before Eli could speak, another man entered the room from a door behind the chair. He recognized the man at once.
Dressed in the finest green silk vestments Pekah had ever seen, the man reeked of luxury. An almost gaudy amount of white gold and other finery trimmed the silk, catching every candle-flame flicker. A thick silver chain stretched across his chest to clasp a shimmering gray robe, which flowed from his shoulders like a mist.
His short brown hair was intensely dark, though not quite black. A cleft chin and a sharp, long nose dominated his clean-shaven face. His lips were pursed, his demeanor very unhappy.
As Emperor Manasseh took his seat in the wooden chair, Eli nudged Pekah and told him to show the object in his hands to the Gideonite. Eli added three words to his request, in a most serious tone: “Holiness, Honor, Humility.”
Pekah reluctantly did as Eli asked by extending his arm forward, the glass rod resting atop the cloth in his outstretched palm.
The very action of moving his arm forward sparked a fire of warmth under his shoulder which traveled through his arm, across his chest, down his back, and deep within his heart. Every part of his body erupted into feeling, as if the hot blast from a smelting furnace bubbled up molten iron within him, causing the hair of his head to react with motion as if from an unseen wind. At that instant of intensity, a flash of blinding light emanated from the glass rod. The invisible power sent shock waves through the room.
Chapter 11
Bodyguard
Pekah jerked up from his makeshift pillow, his gaze flitting around him. The morning was yet early, the twin suns making their presence known with a tinge of color across the western sky. Eli and Jonathan still breathed deeply.
Pekah’s heart raced. He rubbed his arms and ran his fingers through his hair as the remnants of feeling from his dream waned. He sat there amazed that it had felt so real, and wondered at the meaning of it. He replayed the scene in his mind, but could not make any sense of it. Unanswerable questions pounded in his head.
Where was Jonathan? What was the glass object? Why did the emperor meet with me? Where di
d the light come from?
Asking did not seem to help. Each supposition brought on harder questions, which left him even more bewildered. This went on for some time, and before he knew it, the suns announced their imminent rising by coloring the tops of the hills around the camp. Eli and Jonathan began to stir. Eli sat up first, and after a long, growly yawn, reached to hit Jonathan on the arm.
“Jonathan!”
Jonathan sat up and rubbed his eyes, glaring at Eli. “Ouch!”
“Look at Pekah. He seems spooked.” Eli said.
Pekah turned to meet Jonathan’s gaze.
“What is it?” Jonathan asked.
“I had a very strange dream.”
Jonathan stood and stretched. He wandered over to Pekah’s side of the fire and plopped down onto a nearby log. “What did you dream?”
Pekah took a few seconds to consider what he might say, and thought it best not to tell all he had seen. He started by describing his walk under the light of the moons, emphasizing the long dusty road and the endless trees that seemed to close in on him.
“I noticed I was carrying a leather bag around my neck. When I opened it, I found a purple cloth with a serpent on it, and inside the cloth I found a glass rod, with white gold ends, both of them engraved with writing on them. There was also something embedded in the glass itself.” Pekah hesitated, not wanting to give up too much of the dream just yet, but he did add one other detail. “What do the words ‘Holiness, Honor, Humility’ signify?”
Jonathan and Eli threw glances at each other, and Pekah noticed the exchange. He ignored it and continued.
“One other thing that was quite peculiar—I’m not sure where I was when I pulled the rod from the bag. I stood in a room lit by candles. Eli was there with me.”
“Did you know what you had in your bag?” Eli pried.
“No, I have never seen anything like it. Do you know what it was?”
Eli again looked at Jonathan, who bit his lip and frowned. Jonathan had an expression on his face as though he was busy trying to come up with an excuse not to discuss it.
Pekah sensed something amiss. “You know something you’re not telling me.”
Jonathan exhaled deeply and stood. He reached into his tunic and pulled out a bundle of purple linen. He stepped closer, then knelt down by Pekah and showed it to him, unfolding the cloth to expose a white circle and red serpent embroidered on it.
Pekah was stunned. “That’s what I saw in my dream!”
Jonathan smiled and unrolled the cloth the rest of the way. A glass rod lay in his hand. “This is The Thorn, the scepter of Daniel. It belonged to my father.”
A shiver went through Pekah, making the hair stand on his neck. When he leaned over to see the scepter more closely, Jonathan motioned for him to take it. He picked it up, turning it to see the engravings at each knobbed end. Closer examination of the gray object embedded in the glass helped him discern what it was—a long, discolored thorn; sharp, and perfectly preserved. He turned the rod upward, exposing it to the first rays of morning light. The two blue suns sent their shafts through the glass, breaking into colors of a rainbow. Pekah could now clearly read the engravings on the knobbed ends, exquisitely carved letters spelling out the three words Eli had said in the dream.
Pekah’s mind began to race as he realized that this was the object Sachar had been searching for in the Council Hall at Hasor. “I . . . I . . .” Pekah stammered as he gave The Thorn back to Jonathan. He could not finish his sentence.
Eli pointed to The Thorn. “The scepter of Daniel will be passed down from father to son until the Great King comes to claim the throne.”
Jonathan returned the glass rod to its protective cloth and stuffed it into his tunic. “Did you see something else, Pekah?” Jonathan asked as he sat down.
Pekah looked away at first, worried about what the dream might mean. Why wasn’t Jonathan there? Should I tell him? Turning to Jonathan, he saw patience in the calm gaze of his new friend. Although comforted by Jonathan’s reaction to the situation, something held Pekah back. All he could do was say, “I would like some time to think this through, if that’s all right.”
“That’s fine. Talk about it when you are ready.”
“Thank you for understanding.” Pekah stood and stretched. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to the river to wash up.”
“I could use a wash myself,” Jonathan said.
Eli got up from his bedding and joined them. When they arrived at the water’s edge, they found the river slower and deeper than expected.
“We’ll probably have to cross soon before we end up swimming,” Eli observed.
“Pekah, what do you know of this river?” Jonathan asked.
“To my recollection, it does get wider downstream. I think Eli’s right—it may be best to cross now.”
Jonathan agreed, and the three men returned to their camp to gather everything. They kicked dirt over the fire and returned to the river bank, where they stripped down to their undergarments. Carrying their belongings high above their heads to keep everything as dry as possible, they made several trips. Once they had piled everything on the far bank, they took opportunity to bathe more thoroughly than on the previous day. They had no soap, but they did the best they could, hand-scrubbing and rinsing several times in the frigid water.
The day promised to be a hot one, and the morning air dried them quickly. They dressed, gathered their items, and hiked back up toward the road, taking careful steps to avoid making noise. Their route took them uphill.
When they reached level ground, Pekah pointed to signs in the disturbed dirt which told of a medium-sized wagon. Judging by hoof prints between the wheel marks, they could tell the wagon was pulled by two horses. On either side of the wagon tracks were the footprints of three men. Pekah and the others readied their weapons. Taking care to scan their surroundings in all directions, they advanced to a pile of manure and found it still slightly warm.
“Not more than an hour old,” Eli said as he knocked the pile over with his staff. “If we keep walking, we are going to have company.”
“Should we re-cross the river?” Pekah asked.
“I don’t think so,” Jonathan replied. “We are less than a day from Ain, and I would like to know who these travelers are.”
Pekah fidgeted. “And if they are Gideonite soldiers?”
A sparkle in his eye, Jonathan said with a sly grin, “We will take them as prisoners.”
Eli chuckled, grabbed Pekah by the arm, and pulled him down the road toward Ain. “We don’t want to be late!”
They kept an intense pace for a good hour and a half. Because they had missed their morning meal, they ate as they traveled, sharing some crusts of bread and dried fruit. Thirst drove them to the river for a brief drink, but they returned to the road, walking even faster than before.
Each bend in the road tightly hugged the long tree lines, which had become far more dense. Less common now, oaks were largely outnumbered by various types of pine. The thicker evergreens offered them very little forward visibility, so they traveled from outer edge to outer edge of each curve of the road, straining to see ahead of them.
As they rounded one particularly large bend, they were surprised to see that the horse-drawn wagon they had been following had been abandoned in the middle of the lane, loaded with food supplies and numerous casks marked as wine. No one was nearby. Ahead of the wagon they could see another bend in the road. Pekah and Jonathan drew their swords, and Eli held his staff defensively with both his large hands.
They crept forward, straining to pick up sounds around them. The two bridled horses were somewhat skittish, stomping nervously as the men approached. Eli hushed them with a gentle pat as he walked by.
As they rounded the bend in the road, they found the body of a Gideonite soldier lying in the dirt to one side. Pekah looked to his companions for their reactions, but they were intent on continuing. At the start of the next turn, they found another dead soldier dressed in gr
een, wearing the Mark of the Raven. Blood near the body had not yet congealed. The smell of it offended Pekah’s nostrils, making his nose twitch. Jonathan motioned for them all to hasten.
Almost jogging, they made their way to where the road skirted a large pine. On the other side they found two dead Danielites, over which crouched a Gideonite, very much alive.
Startled by their sudden presence, the soldier jumped up, nocking an arrow into his bow. His sword lay on the ground at his feet, and he nudged it to the side with a gentle kick.
Holding his hands and sword up in alarm, Pekah yelled at the man, “Do not shoot!”
Both Pekah and Eli stepped ahead of Jonathan, but Jonathan moved next to them, completing the line.
“You there! Why do you travel with a Danielite?” the soldier hollered at Pekah.
Pekah glanced at Jonathan, then back at the soldier. “We are traveling to Ain,” he said, his tone curt. So as to not provoke the soldier, he instinctively lowered his weapon, Eli and Jonathan following suit.
With obvious irritation, the soldier pulled the bowstring back a few inches, pointing the arrow tip at Eli’s feet. He appeared to recognize the coarse weave of Eli’s white tunic, and the general features of Eli’s face, which all but shouted “Uzzahite.”
“It’s very uncommon for the three tribes to walk together,” the soldier snarled. He nodded at the fallen Danielites. “These two surprised us from the trees and killed my men. But they did not kill me, as you can see.”
The Gideonite spat on the ground. He kicked dust into it as if daring them to start the fight.
With almost fatherly sternness in his voice, Jonathan broke his silence. “Soldier, we have no quarrel with you. Lay down your weapons.”
The soldier changed his stance, targeting Jonathan’s feet. Eli took another step forward, raising his staff to his chest, and with insistence said, “You had better listen to the man. A peaceful surrender is far better than the alternative.”