“No, but now that I think about it, I didn’t feel you were absent by accident-you were absent intentionally.”
Jonathan reached into his shirt. He handed the purple cloth and rod to Pekah, forcing them into his hands, clasping them both with his own. “Then you will take it. Show it to Emperor Manasseh,” he said in a kind, yet stern, tone.
Pekah gaped at the scepter in his trembling hands as Jonathan released him.
“Pekah, you saved my life today, and I will be forever grateful. I’m giving this to you in hopes that it may be used, perhaps as an instrument in your hands, to convince Manasseh to end his aggression toward our peoples.”
“Will you not need a leather bag to carry it in?” Eli winked in Pekah’s direction. Pekah shrugged his shoulders as he followed Eli’s gaze to a small leather sack around one of the dead Danielite’s shoulders. Eli stepped over to the man and recovered it, opening it where Pekah could also see the contents. The bag held a severely damaged wooden spyglass. The ocular was broken, and the cylinder cracked. Noting that the item was rendered useless, Eli discarded it, then shook all the remaining fragments from the bag, and handed the pouch to Pekah.
“Here. Is it just like you remember from your dream?” Eli asked.
Pekah examined the bag and tested it by placing the wrapped scepter within. He drew the strings together and hung it over his neck. “Perhaps,” he responded with uncertainty. He felt a little strange that everyone was playing along with the dream he had related.
Jonathan stepped closer and gripped Pekah’s shoulder. “When we get to the city, I will stay behind on the trail and find a place to conceal myself.” He cleared his throat and with a wry smile added, “That way, you won’t have to throw me into the river to be rid of me.”
Eli laughed heartily. Pekah couldn’t help but smile, glad to have found friends who were genuine and trusting. Even though he still felt immense apprehension about taking The Thorn to the emperor-a man known for his cruelty-he knew now his dream was real, undoubtedly a gift of prophecy from the Great King.
The men counseled together about the horses, the wagon, and the men lying dead on the road, and decided that Eli and Pekah would take the wagon and team into the city as a gift to the emperor so they could gain an audience with him. They walked back to the horses and calmed them with soft words, patting and rubbing their necks. Then they led the cart to where the dead soldiers lay.
Jonathan located a soft piece of ground in the woods where they could dig graves for the fallen men. Using a shovel they found on the wagon, they turned up the rich soil beneath two overhanging oaks. They took turns digging until Eli became frustrated. With characteristic teasing, he used his bear-like strength to finish the last two holes on his own. The bodies were retrieved and laid to rest in the fresh burial pits.
“I want to find their families,” Jonathan said as he cut a lock of hair from each of the two Danielite soldiers.
One man had a ring, to which Jonathan tied the corresponding lock of hair, and the other had a narrow lace ribbon attached to his quiver strap, surely placed there by a loved one. Jonathan removed it, wrapping the hair within it. He tied it off in a small, rolled package, then stuffed both objects into the pocket previously occupied by The Thorn.
After covering the bodies, Eli spoke a word of prayer, and the somber men returned to the road to fetch the cart. None of them spoke as they resumed their journey. Only the sounds of the horses’ hooves and the grinding of the wagon wheels filled the air. Like the low-hanging smoke from a doused fire on a cold morning, Pekah once again felt the heaviness of war in the air about him. Conflict, death, burial-Pekah suspected the pattern would repeat many times in coming days.
Although expecting to find additional soldiers at some point along the road, their travel during the last of the morning and the rest of the day remained uneventful. They did not stop to eat their mid-day meal, but ate most of their own supplies as they traveled. During a momentary rest, they also raided a few of the supplies they hauled in the wagon. They found dried meats, a cheese softened on account of the heat, and a skin filled with water. Markings on the casks in the wagon indicated that they held wine, beans, spices, fruit, and olives. A few of the casks were marked for the emperor, which assured the three companions that the Danielite had been correct about Manasseh’s presence at Ain.
They traveled the rest of the day with nervous anticipation, discussing how they might best enter the city and what they might say to the emperor, disagreeing about how Manasseh would react to seeing the scepter. Although it would be difficult to convince him to end the war, they placed their faith in one distinct hope: Pekah’s dream was meant to tell them what they should do. Trusting that effective and convincing words would be given by the Spirit in the proper moment, they stoked the embers of faith within their hearts, confident they could provide, or produce, the environment and situation in which the Great Creator would work out His purposes.
And so they marched on, well into the early evening, when they came to a place in the road which led sharply downhill. It descended by way of a few switchbacks and continued a mile more into the outskirts of the walled city they now saw in the distance. The thinning tree line still provided enough cover to make them unnoticeable to anyone near the city who might happen to gaze their way.
From their new vantage point, they could see they were in the high hills east of Ain, bordered on both the north and the south by small mountains. Far to the west of Ain where the sister moons would later rise, an immense mountain range with high, snow-capped peaks and rugged valleys formed a jagged horizon. This range ran in a southeasterly direction, behind the small mountains on their left, toward the lands inhabited by the Gideonites. Between those distant mountains and the high hills on which they now stood was a beautiful valley, filled with numerous orchards and farmland, all of which lined the road to the city of Ain.
The three of them searched the immediate area for a place of refuge and saw that the tree line north of the road led to some rocky outcroppings, which promised a remote, and yet high, observation point.
“I’ll go up there to wait for your return,” Jonathan said.
Pekah handed Jonathan the remainder of the dried meat and cheese from the wagon. “Take the rest of this with you.”
They both helped Jonathan to load his shoulder sack.
“Take care, brother,” Eli said, hugging Jonathan tight.
“I will.” Jonathan let go of Eli and extended a hand to Pekah. “If I have learned nothing else in the last few days, your presence here has been quite providential. I’m convinced you will succeed. You must.”
“We’ll be back soon,” Pekah promised, not knowing what else to say.
“Eli…” Jonathan said with some emotion. “Please find Rachel and the other prisoners. Perhaps the emperor will be willing to trade the scepter for their release.”
“I hope so. But I wish there was another way. What if we never see The Thorn again?”
“The promises are sure, my brother. Somehow, it will find its way back into our hands. Certainly the lives of our people are worth more than the glass rod, are they not?”
Eli let out a slow breath. “Yes. You’re right. I certainly didn’t mean that Rachel’s life doesn’t matter. May the Holy One forgive us for putting it into Manasseh’s hands.”
“The One Who Would Suffer will someday claim the scepter as promised,” Jonathan said.
“I know He will,” Eli agreed.
Jonathan put both hands on the back of his neck, then let them fall as he turned his head. He suddenly had a strange look in his eyes.
“What is it?” Pekah prompted.
Jonathan nodded as he spoke. “I just realized. It may be a good thing to keep them apart for a while.”
“Them?”
“I didn’t tell you before, but there is a tradition passed down in my family-a prophecy. The Thorn will be claimed by the Holy One when He comes, a symbol of His authority as King. But it will not be the only item claimed. My sword, the sword of Daniel, will become His sword. It just occurred to me it may be a good idea to keep the two items apart for a while, even if we have to trade the scepter for prisoners. Does that make sense?”
Pekah scratched his head. “Yes. I think it does. If the scepter is not with you, the sword will most likely be overlooked.”
“Precisely.” Jonathan leaned away, then turned back to Pekah, his gaze earnest. “I need to tell you… besides Eli’s family, a few select friends of my father’s, and myself, nobody else on Gan knows that the sword I carry shares the same promise as The Thorn. And you are the first Gideonite to possess that information. Guard it well.”
