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 Excerpt
Copyright 2012 © Carlene Havel &
Sharon Faucheux
“You’re not taking my wife anywhere!”
Phaltiel bellowed. He struggled to break free from the soldiers
who restrained him.
“Then we will take your widow.” The
soldier tossed an unconcerned glance in Phaltiel’s direction.
“It makes no difference to me.” He turned to the woman standing
nearby. “You will come with us.”
“I shall make preparations for a
journey of how many days?” Michal struggled to keep her voice
calm. The daughter of the king must not show fear.
“We cannot waste time with
preparations.” Captain Osh sat straight and tall on his horse.
“We will leave as soon as—”
“There must be some mistake,”
Phaltiel’s chief steward interrupted. “King Saul himself gave
his daughter to my lord Phaltiel.”
“King Saul no longer reigns.” Osh
glared at the steward. “He is as dead as you and I will be if we
fail to deliver the woman Michal soon.”
Michal
addressed her handmaid. “Come, Tirzah, we will gather a few
things quickly.” She felt the stares of soldiers all the way
across the courtyard and braced herself for the thrust of a
spear in her back.
“We have endured two days of hard
riding, Phaltiel.” The authoritative ring of the Captain’s voice
filled the courtyard. “Feed my men and see to our animals.”
Michal
breathed deeply to maintain her composure. Was it true her
father, King Saul, was dead? Was it possible her dear brother,
Jonathan, was now king of Israel? Was there a rebellion? A
foreign invasion? Were soldiers, like those in the courtyard,
even now rounding up her sister, Merab, and her family? She knew
an insurgent ruler could never risk her or her sister’s royal
blood flowing into the veins of a legitimate heir.
Michal
forced down her fear as she walked toward the women’s living
area. She prayed for courage as she concentrated on keeping her
steps steady on the tamped earth of the courtyard.
The clapping of the chief steward’s
hands broke the tension. Servants grabbed water jars to fill the
stone drinking trough for the military animals. Others stoked
the kitchen fire and made preparations for the soldiers’ meal.
Lord Phaltiel’s senior wife, Bida, stood watching the activity.
Such excitement rarely intruded upon the mundane life of Gallim.
Michal
quickened her steps to push through the crowd of Phaltiel’s
wives, children, and servants streaming into the courtyard. Once
indoors, she fought to focus on which of her few possessions she
should take.
“Tirzah,
fetch the coat. I’ll carry it under my cloak. Look through my
old robes in Bida’s chest, and choose one which clearly
identifies me as the king’s married daughter. I’ll take one
additional change of clothing and my sewing box.” She looked
around her. “There’s nothing else in this house I ever want to
see again. You can keep everything else.”
Tirzah’s
eyes widened in horror. “You would not leave me behind?”
Michal
clasped her servant’s slender hand. “There’s no reason to drag
you into whatever awaits me. If my father is truly dead, these
men may well be delivering me to an enemy. Maybe even the
Philistines.”
“Better to suffer with you than to
stay in this Godless house alone.” Tirzah’s tears spilled onto
her cheeks. “Please, my lady, I beg you on my mother’s bones,
let me go with you.”
Michal
wavered. Tirzah had been her companion since the two of them
were children. “All right. You may come with us. The Captain
said it was a two-day ride to wherever they came from. Of
course, that may not be true. Try to get us some food to take
along. Some dates and goat cheese would be best.” Tirzah
brightened and brushed away her tears as Michal continued.
“Anything you can learn from the soldiers or the other women may
be useful. We need to know who has taken King Saul’s place and
where we are going.”
“Yes, my lady. I will do as you say.”
Michal
straightened. “While you do your duty, I will do mine.”
With everyone else outside—their
attention fastened on the soldiers in the courtyard—Michal swept
quickly through the women’s rooms. She gathered the many idols
and
teraphims,
the superstitious god figurines
that sat everywhere.
As a girl, she participated in
religious activities meant to convince the king’s subjects of
the royal family’s devotion to the Living God. She went
mindlessly through the motions of the familiar rituals, paying
no attention to their deeper meaning. The devout faith of her
husband David made her more thoughtful. Yet it was only when she
was thrust into a life of misery that Michal was forced to trust
the one God of Israel.
Her family, alienated. Her husband,
bargained away years ago. Michal stiffened her resolve against
such sorrowful thoughts lest they overtake her. She would
concentrate on being grateful the soldiers did not murder her in
the sight of Phaltiel and his hateful wives.
Perhaps the soldiers would kill her
as soon as they were a little distance from Phaltiel’s compound.
Or someone could creep near in tonight’s darkness and dispatch
her and poor Tirzah in their sleep.
Michal
shivered at the thought of other possibilities. The prospect of
torture frightened her. A quick death would be an answer to
prayer. Some conqueror might be planning a public execution of
King Saul’s family. Even the ultimate humiliation of a forced
marriage to an uncircumcised heathen could await her. She
gathered her courage to bear whatever she must.
In the beginning of her exile, Michal
feared some stranger would bring the information King Saul had
successfully tracked down and murdered her beloved husband
David. When did she hear the news? Their tenth month in
Phaltiel’s household, a slave trader stopped to obtain water for
his pack animals. From the traveler, Michal’s handmaid Sarah
heard that David and his loyal followers still hid in wilderness
areas, protecting isolated farms from thieves and marauders.
Sarah reported to Michal how the man laughed, showing his fine
white teeth, when recounting King Saul’s irrational fear of his
own son-in-law.
Years passed with no new information.
Then one day Tirzah was cleaning the hearth in the kitchen when
the women from a band of wandering wool merchants came to warm
themselves. Hearing familiar words, Tirzah realized the
travelers were Judeans. Their country was now being ruled by
David, they said. Everyone was prospering under his progressive
benevolence. Yes, their king was that same legendary David who,
armed only with a slingshot, had in his youth fought and killed
the Philistine giant Goliath.
Michal
was overjoyed to learn her husband had so far evaded the dark
furies of her father, King Saul. She gave thanks that her
personal sacrifice to save David was not in vain. Was it
possible that he still survived to this day? If so, she was
certain some other woman occupied her place in his warm embrace
by now.
A startling thought invaded Michal’s
consciousness as she prepared to go with the soldiers. Perhaps
protocol would demand the presence of King David of Judea at a
festival given by the new ruler of Israel. Was it possible she
might glimpse her adored husband’s face once more before her
life ended? She must not break down before David’s eyes if some
heathen ordered her torn to pieces by a wild animal.
Michal
took the worthless gods she collected and dumped them on her
bed. The crude clay pieces shattered easily when she smacked
them against each other. So much for Shapash. One slender
figurine snapped in two when she laid it across her knee and
applied her full strength to its head and feet. She took her
sharpest knife and defaced the other two pieces of wood. The
pagans of this house would soon see how powerless their stupid
idols were. Other Prism titles you may enjoy: 
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