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 did 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
