This Scarlet Cord (29 page)

Sala’s eyes followed her finger, then he turned back to her. “Has anyone else seen them?”

“No.”

“Then Yahweh is surely with us.” He motioned to the two men that it was all right and pointed to the flax. Sala and Rahab stood beside each other and watched as the two spies got down on their hands and knees and disappeared from view.

Rahab looked up at Sala and opened her mouth to ask him what was happening. Before she had the chance to speak, however, Sala’s mouth came down on hers, and for a long while she couldn’t talk or think at all.

Finally he let out a kind of groan and held her away from him. “Rahab.” Her name came out in a husky sigh.

Her knees were weak. “Oh, Sala, I’ve missed you so much. So, so much. I was up here all by myself, and I prayed to Elohim that you would come to me, and you came! It’s like a miracle.”

He said, his voice beginning to sound more normal, “I have to talk to you.”

“About those men on my roof? Who are they?”

He explained who they were and then told her about the problem they presented. “We couldn’t let them stay at the inn because they were seen entering and the inn may be searched. And we can’t leave them to find a place on their own because they speak little Canaanite. That’s why I brought them here. Your cousin Hasis told me about the party and I thought your house would probably be empty because you would all be over there.”

Rahab looked over at her roof and saw no sign of the men. “This might not have been the best place to bring them, Sala. My brother Shemu is suspicious of you and your father.”

“I could think of no place else. And you are one of us now. You, too, believe in Elohim. He is calling you to help us, Rahab. You are our only hope of keeping Gideon and Isaac safe.”

He looks thinner. And older. Perhaps, if I help these Israelite spies, Lord Nahshon will change his mind about me. Perhaps this is Elohim’s way of answering my prayer
.

She said, “They should be safe for tonight, but they can’t remain hidden under the flax for long. How do you plan to get them off the roof and out of the city without anyone knowing?”

“That’s our next big problem. We have to get them to the city gates early tomorrow so they can attach themselves to one of the groups who still go out to the countryside.” He looked at her anxiously. “Can you think of any way you might be able to sneak them out of the house in the morning?”

Rahab thought deeply and an idea slipped into her mind. “I could tell my father I found these men on the roof and that they are part of that group who hangs about across the street . . .”

She paused.

“And?” he said eagerly.

She nodded. “I think it would work. I will tell my father they hid in the house with the hope of getting a look at me. Papa is so furious with those men that he will take them and throw them right out the front door. Then it will be up to your friends to get to the city gates.”

Sala looked doubtful. “Do you think it would work? Wouldn’t your father call the guards?”

Rahab was feeling quite pleased with her plan. She smiled and shook her head. “He’s already done that, but they come back after the guards disperse them. Papa says the guards are useless.”

Sala looked disgusted. “I can’t believe those vermin are still hanging around here.”

Rahab shrugged. “I don’t think they’re so anxious to see me, really. I think they’re just bored, and hanging around my house is something to do. Boredom is a big problem these days. We have too many people in the city who have nothing to occupy them.”

He gazed down at her, his eyes bright. “You’re a wonderful girl, Rahab. You’re one of the smartest people I know.”

She was delighted. “Do you really think I’m smart?”

“Not just smart, brilliant.”

“If I help you with this, do you think your father might let you marry me?”

There was a white line around Sala’s mouth. “I think he might. I believe you are an agent of Yahweh, Rahab, and I think my father will come to believe that too.”

Her eyes opened wide in confusion. “Yahweh? Who is Yahweh?”

“Isaac told my father and me that Elohim revealed His true name to Moses while the Israelites were in the desert. His name is Yahweh, Rahab. In Hebrew the word means
I am
. Yahweh is to His people everything we need Him to be, and because we are following His plan, we will triumph. Joshua will take Jericho for Yahweh and His people, and when he does, you and I will be able to marry.”

He reached out and took her into his arms. Rahab slid her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his shoulder. His lips touched her hair. He said, “I think Yahweh always meant for us to be together—that is why He arranged it that I should be the one to rescue you from the slavers, that I should be the one to bring you to Him. I truly believe that.”

Rahab rubbed her cheek against the linen of his tunic and inhaled his scent. “I believe it too, Sala. I believe Yahweh is with me. I feel it in my heart.”

“Look up,” he whispered.

She raised her face and he kissed her. Her head fell back under the force of the kiss and he put his hand behind her head. Her arms tightened around his waist.

Someone shouted loudly at the front of the house and they jumped apart. “Just as well,” Sala said, breathing hard. “You go to my head like wine and I lose all sense of what is right.”

Rahab understood what he meant. Her knees were weak and she felt a little dizzy. She wanted his arms around her again to hold her up.

“I must go,” he said. “I’ll be a little way down the street in the morning, to take the men to the gate when your father throws them out. If something should go wrong and you need me, I’ll be close by.”

“All right.”

He gave her a crooked smile. “I can’t kiss you again or I’ll never leave.”

Her return smile was tremulous.

He turned and began to climb down the ladder. Neither one of them said good-bye.

Twenty-Eight

T
HE FOLLOWING MORNING KING TAMUR WAS APPROACHED
by his friend and closest counselor, Farut, while he was down at the stable behind the palace, looking at one of his chariot horses that had come up lame. The chariot horses were Tamur’s pride and joy, and he still took them out most days for a run. He dreaded to think of what it would be like trying to keep them exercised during a siege.

His face was flushed from bending over when he turned to face Farut. “What is it?” His voice was testy. He didn’t like being interrupted when he was with his horses.

“I am sorry to interrupt you, my lord, but some information has come to my attention that I think you should hear about immediately.”

“And what is that?”

“It’s been reported that two possible Israelite spies have been spotted in the city. Apparently they came in yesterday with a group of shepherds. The two were spotted in the Sign of the Olive wine bar, and one of the patrons, a merchant from Gaza, escorted them out because they were so clearly out of place. A guard stopped and spoke to the men as they were going down the street, but he let them pass because he knew the merchant. The next we heard of them was that they were seen at one of the inns in the Lower City.”

“How do we know these men were spies?”

“The guard said that they did not speak our language very well. In fact, they hardly spoke at all. Unfortunately, this didn’t seem to give him a clue that something might be amiss.”

“Who was this merchant? Bring him in. It sounds as if he might be a spy as well.”

“I am having him brought in, my lord. But meanwhile, we must trace these so-called shepherds.”

“I want every available man combing the city for them. Try every inn, every wine bar, every shop. They must be hiding somewhere.”

“Yes, my lord. I will pass the order immediately.”

Lord Nahshon was having breakfast alone, Sala having gone to watch for Gideon and Isaac, when two palace guards came into the inn and asked him if he was the man who had taken the Israelite spies away from the Sign of the Olive the previous day.

“Spies?” Nahshon looked at them in bewilderment. “What spies? What are you talking about?”

“Are you the man who took away those so-called shepherds?” One of the guards leaned his face close to Nahshon’s in a distinctly threatening manner.

“I removed two peasant men from a wine bar yesterday, yes. If they were spies I had no idea. They were just out of place in that particular company and I did everyone a favor by removing them.”

“Come with us,” the guard said. “Some people at the palace want to talk to you.”

Word raced around the town like wildfire. Two spies were loose in Jericho. They had come into the city with a group of shepherds yesterday and were in hiding somewhere. All good citizens were to keep watch for them. Anything out of the ordinary was to be reported at once to the military.

When Sala heard this, he knew Gideon and Isaac could not possibly try to leave the city by the gate. Everyone going through would be thoroughly questioned—if they did not close the gate altogether.

He had to let Rahab know.

He did the only thing he could: he walked up to her house, opened the door, and stepped inside. He was surprised to find the front room empty but didn’t stop to wonder where all the family had gone. Instead he started toward the stairs. He put his foot on the first step, looked up, and saw Shemu coming down.

“What are
you
doing here?” Shemu asked as he continued to descend.

Sala remembered Rahab’s warning that Shemu suspected him of being a spy, but there was no time to invent another story. He would have to tell the truth. “I have a problem, Shemu. Can we go somewhere where we can speak privately?”

Light steps sounded on the stairs and Rahab, followed by Atene, came into view. Rahab’s eyes were huge as she looked down at Sala. “Is something wrong?”

Shemu’s eyes flicked from Sala’s face to Rahab’s, then back to Sala’s. “Come with me up to the roof,” he said. “We can be private there.”

He pushed past Rahab and Atene and told them to stay below. The two girls ignored him and followed Sala up to the roof.

The first thing Sala did was look to make sure Isaac and Gideon were hidden. The flax looked undisturbed and the rest of the roof was empty. He began to breathe easier.

“Now,” Shemu said, crossing his arms and leaning his back against the mud brick wall, “tell me what is going on here.”

The group of men who had made a habit out of standing across from Rahab’s house were talking about the rumor of spies being seen in the city when they saw Sala push open Rahab’s door and go in.

“Didn’t we see some men just walk into that house yesterday?” said the heavyset man who was the group’s leader.

One of the men, who had been chewing on a piece of wood he used as a tooth pick, said, “We did.”

“And we didn’t see them come out, did we?”

“No, we didn’t.”

“And now this young man, who looks as if he is in a great hurry, does the same thing. I find that odd.”

Murmurs of agreement came from the other men.

The heavyset man continued, “No one has gone into that house except the family who lives there for as long as we’ve been watching. Who are these strangers?”