Daniel

Beth paused on the fifth stair down from the temple roof. She looked into the courtyard.

Her hopes sank. She saw one of the guards from the tower. He was searching in the center of the courtyard. Beth thought that Katav and Frava must have sent the guards.

She gasped. The second guard was now headed up the stairs.

Beth ducked inside the temple and rushed to Anatu’s bedroom. She looked out the window. No one was in the street below.

Beth yanked the curtains down with one swift pull. She tied the lengths of curtain together. It made a long rope. She double-checked each knot with a tug. Then she tied one end of the curtain rope around a leg of the bed.

“She went this way,” a voice shouted. The voice was coming from inside the temple.

Beth quickly threw the rest of the curtains out the window.

This has to hold, she thought.

Beth sat on the windowsill and then turned stomach-side-down. She held tightly to the curtains as she lowered herself. She looked down. She was halfway to the ground.

Suddenly she felt herself being lifted. She looked up.

An angry soldier was pulling the curtain rope. He was reeling her back toward the window. “I’ve got you now, traitor,” he said.

Beth bit her lip and closed her eyes. She let go of the rope and fell to the ground. The jolt of the landing stung her feet. But the pain ebbed quickly.

She ran away from the temple as fast as she could.

The thin man from the banquet wore an orange robe. His hair was all white. His eyes were bright. He seemed amazingly fit for an old man. The man said, “This way. Follow me.”

The man led Patrick and Duzi out of the great hall.

Duzi paused in the corridor. “I must attend to my duties. I need to patrol the palace grounds,” he said to the man. “Will you take charge of the boy for the rest of the day?”

The man said, “I will accept him as my servant. But first he must answer two questions correctly.”

Patrick felt uneasy. What if the man asked more questions about the future?

“Name them,” Duzi said.

The man looked Patrick over with concerned brown eyes. “You are a worshipper of the God of Moses?” he asked Patrick.

Patrick nodded.

“Then why did you break the first commandment?” the man asked. There was a sharpness to his tone.

Patrick hung his head. “You shall have no other gods before Me,” he said, mumbling. “I let them think I was a child of Adad. I was afraid they would make me a slave. I was a coward.”

The man lifted Patrick’s chin. “Better to be a slave for the almighty God,” he said, “than to be a king for any other god.”

Duzi slapped Patrick on the back. “That’s it then,” he said. “You’ll find your way into the king’s court yet.”

Duzi bowed to the thin man. He said, “Thank you, O wise one.”

“Only God is wise,” the man said. “Call me Daniel.”

The city walls were high. Beth couldn’t see around them. She turned a corner. The street looked oddly familiar. Was she traveling in circles?

Beth had to find the palace. She peered around the corner of a wall. There were no soldiers.

Beth heard the clomping of animal hooves. She looked behind her.

A wagon had turned onto the street. Its wheels squished thin track marks in the dirt. The wagon was filled with baskets of pistachio nuts. A woman sat on the wagon bench. She was driving a team of donkeys.

Beth guessed the woman was going to the marketplace. Beth squatted low and walked alongside the wagon to hide.

Just then one of the soldiers turned the corner. He looked to his left. Then he looked to his right.

He’s searching for me, Beth thought.

Dear God, she prayed, hide me!