Queenmaker Read Online Free PDF Page B

settled thing.”
    I was afraid for David, but to hear him speak this way was exciting, too. All that had been paid for Merab was silver and sheep and some men for the army. But Merab had not married a hero.
    “I will go with you.” Jonathan spoke slowly, as he did when he had been thinking deep; I could tell he liked nothing about this.
    David laughed and shook his head. “You will not, brother—this is my task, and I alone will set my hand to it. Do not fear for me, for Yahweh will protect me.”
    “Yahweh will not stand at your back with spear and blade.” Jonathan spoke so sharp that my eyes stretched to stare at him. “David, are you mad as well? Do you think the Philistines will lie down for your knife? You know what my father must mean by this!”
    “He means that his youngest daughter is of great worth in his eyes,” David said, and hugged me again. “And I am but a poor man’s son—what else could he ask of me? Gold and spices? I am a simple warrior, so he set a warrior’s price. No, no more, Jonathan.
I mean to do this, and I will come back to pay Saul what he asks and claim his daughter as I have said.”
    “Oh, David,” I said, “you will be careful, won’t you?”
    At that both men laughed, which made me angry. I could not see that I had said anything to mock.
    “I will be as careful, Michal, as you are meek and obedient. There, does that satisfy you?” He and Jonathan smiled at each other, and I scowled. “No, do not frown at me, but kiss me farewell. Come, now, smile for me, Michal—and you too, Jonathan. Do not worry if I am gone long without word—and pay no heed to any tales you may hear of me. True news will come only from my lips, so trust no messenger.”
    So we both kissed David and said farewell. He left that day, taking no men and carrying little. Jonathan and I stood on the wall over the gateway and watched him go until the haze and dust swallowed him into the blue distance.
     
     
    We did not see David again for half a year. We had no word of him either, until the day he came to Saul’s gate at the head of two hundred armed men. They had marched fast and hard from the Philistine border, and no messenger had outdistanced them to warn of their coming.
    “Behold, King Saul—David son of Jesse has returned to claim your daughter Michal for his wife, as you promised him.” David stood tall before the gate; he did not shout, but his voice somehow carried clear even to the top of the walls where all the city watched.
    “Well, well, so you are back,” my father called down to him. “You have been a long time about it, boy, but you are welcome. And if you have brought her price, you will have my daughter, as I said before the priests.”
    “If I am welcome, will not King Saul open his gate to me?”
    My father and Abner looked at each other, and Abner spoke
next. “Who are the men, David? Why do you come leading the enemy to our walls?”
    David smiled up at those who watched and waited. “They are not the enemy of Israel, Abner.”
    “They wear Philistine armor. The Philistines are not our friends.”
    David stepped back and spread his arms wide. “Look, King Saul—you set a price for your daughter’s marriage of one hundred Philistine foreskins. I have brought two hundred—for these men who were of Philistia have abandoned their idols and now worship only Yahweh. They were converted and circumcised by the prophet Samuel himself, and have come to serve the King of Israel.” Now his voice was raised to shout a triumph. “A great victory for Yahweh and no man lost, but many gained!”
    He stood there in the sunlight, and smiled, and the people watching from the walls cheered and called his name; some flung jewelry to him. I saw many gold leaves and silver flowers tossed down from women’s hair.
    My eyes were all for David, but then there was a sound from my father harsh enough to make even me look away from David for an instant, and so I saw him turn round on Abner.