Covenant of War Read Online Free PDF Page B

despicable it was that some of their own tribesmen had become traitors and joined the rebel from Judah. Those loyal to David demanded that the Benjamites quit resisting and accept that Yahweh had willed David to take the throne. Benjamites retorted that the rebels should not presume to speak for Yahweh, and David’s fighters shouted that at least they were fighting for a man as king.
    Abner glanced at his troops in the ranks farthest back. These were the greenest soldiers, those too nervous to taunt the Lion’s warriors. They stared wide-eyed.
    He squeezed the sickle sword tighter.

FIVE
    Eleazar saw a foot lashed out and withdrawn, then a hand, then the first pair started fighting. Joab’s warrior pivoted his hips, using the force from his charging attacker to hurl the man head over heels. As soon as Abner’s man landed, the other eleven pairs tore into one another.
    Billowing clouds of sand and dust obscured them after only a few moments. As the shouting of the spectators rose to a roar, Eleazar strained his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse inside the fray. But dust rose with every kick. He could not discern what was going on.
    Then, through a break in the dust cloud, one of Abner’s fighters leaped outside the circle and snatched the short sword handed to him. It happened so quickly that none of Joab’s sparring guides had the chance to shout a warning. The man with the sword then wrapped his arm around the neck of his nearest opponent and plunged the tip of the sword through his back until it burst out of the front of the ribcage in a crimson spray. Joab’s fighter slumped forward, shock on his face.
    Eleazar was so angry that he charged down the rocky slope to killthe man himself, but he found himself watching events unfold too quickly. Every sparring guide from each side of the circle suddenly produced a blade from under their tunics and tossed them to the fighters in the middle. The warriors caught them, as though previously rehearsed, and yelled angry war cries as they rushed toward their nearest opponent.
    “Stop!” Eleazar yelled. It was Abner’s man who had started it, but he was sure that Joab had prepared his fighters beforehand to do the same. Before he could reach the circle, the duel erupted in blood. Each of the remaining fighters attacked his opponent with such hate that none controlled his aim. Men seized the hair of their opponent in one hand and stabbed with the other.
    All twelve pairs slumped against each other on the sand, writhing in pain. Some vomited blood and bile; others pawed agonizingly at the hot metal buried in their midsection. Screams, gagging, spattering of urine and blood, all of it reached Eleazar’s senses as he arrived at the edge of the dueling circle.
    Shammah and Josheb arrived next to him. Around them rose the shouts of soldiers grieving the loss of their brothers.
    There was but a moment of hesitation, and then Eleazar saw the first ranks of sparring guides from Abner’s army run forward, driven by vengeance. Behind them up the slope came the line of soldiers from the main force.
    It was impossible to stop it now. Josheb shouted at Eleazar and Shammah to fall into their wedge. Open war had begun, and as distraught as he was at the treachery and needless death, they could spare lives by taking some.
    Abner was moving as soon as his soldier struck the first blow to begin the slaughter. Furious, desperate to save his men from thecoming massacre, he ordered his archers forward to provide defensive fire, then directed the aide to “get the guides out of there!”
    The ranks of Joab’s men charged, and Abner yelled, “Archers! Hit them now!”
    The Benjamite bowmen and slingers planted their front feet on a line of small boulders and prepared to shoot.
    Before they could release their weapons, however, Eleazar and the two fighters with him broke through Abner’s lines with a yell and a crash of metal. They each had pikes, which they swung with such accuracy and speed that,