The Chronicles of Gan: The Thorn Read Online Free PDF Page A

round
of shepherd’s bread wrapped in a towel and some dried, spiced meat.
He also found a half-round of goat cheese, raisins and dried apples
in gourds with lids, and a small skin of wine.
    Well , he thought, not a king’s ransom,
but a good variety, even if it is a small portion.
    Jonathan decided it would be prudent to eat
only enough to curb his hunger, so he ate a chunk of the crusty
bread and some dried apples. On the back wall of the cave, a damp
trickle of a spring crawled down from the ceiling and disappeared
into a crack in the rock. Using a stashed wooden cup to catch the
water, he filled and drained it several times until his thirst was
quenched. He filled the cup two more times, splashing the cool,
clear liquid over his head so he could wash the dust from his face
and short-trimmed beard.
    Jonathan then went to work and coiled the
rope from the guard tower to a suitable size to be slung across his
chest. He tested the tension on the bowstring by pulling it to his
chin with ease. He then arranged the arrows in the quiver to be
sure they had not become entangled. He strapped on his belt,
sheathed his boot dagger, donned his large gray cloak, and grabbed
his shoulder sack and quiver. Then he made his way through the low
passageway to the ledge. Once outside, the brightness of the
morning suns made him blink as his eyes adjusted to the light. He
sat and dangled his feet for a few minutes while he thought about
his plans.
    The mid-morning heat would soon make travel
far less enjoyable. Behind him and above the rocky cliffs, the
small twin solar disks of Azure and Aqua had climbed from the
western horizon and into the dark blue expanse above him. The suns’
distance made them visually small, and Jonathan could block them
both with his little finger by lifting his hand skyward. Yet the
two suns were still so intensely hot and bright that they would
blind a man if he were to look straight at them. Jonathan could see
that the sun Azure was near to its companion Aqua, and knew that
the next morning during their rising, Azure would pass in front of
the lighter blue sun, marking the start of the Sabbath day. The
purplish hue in the summer sky now surrounding Azure was beautiful
to him.
    As Jonathan sat on the rocky ledge, he still
felt a fatigue as deep as his bones. He ran his hands through his
shoulder-length brown hair to untangle it, and scratched his beard.
He then reached into the pocket of his undershirt, retrieving the
cloth bundle hidden there. With deep respect, Jonathan unrolled the
cloth in his hands. A picture of a red serpent inside a white
circle had been embroidered on the soft, purple square of linen.
The Mark of the Serpent signified the Tribe of Daniel.
    In the opened cloth lay a stunningly
beautiful rod about seven inches in length and an inch or so thick.
The rod had been crafted of smooth, clear glass, knobbed at the
ends with white-gold caps etched with exquisite writing and
designs. Jonathan read the familiar engraving on each end:
“Holiness, Honor, Humility.” The light from the twin suns glinted
off the surface of the scepter, and within the glass, the embedded
thorn almost sparkled as Jonathan rolled the rod back and forth in
his palm.
    Centered within the scepter, and visible in
every detail, was a two-inch long, bloodstained gray thorn. It had
been pressed into the still-molten glass, and had thus been
preserved throughout the last nine hundred years.
    As Jonathan studied the bloodstained tip of
the thorn, his mind went back to a cold winter day long ago when,
as a young boy, he sat with his father in the Council Room after
eating breakfast.
     
    * * *
     
    “Father, why is there a thorn in your
scepter?”
    Samuel smiled and scooted a bit closer to
Jonathan on the wooden bench. He held the scepter up to the morning
light streaming from the high western windows and turned the rod to
catch the rays, dispersing the soft beams around them onto the
floor.
    “What do you see?” Samuel