Cavalier

Chapter Twenty-Six

It's a long, hard journey, and it's so tempting to give up at so many points.

First is at Besor Ravine, where some of the men—perhaps the ones that were willing to commit mutiny—are too exhausted to go further. David doesn't blame them, he can't, it's been a few very emotionally exhausted days, and so that's where he leaves two hundred men behind.

The loss of numbers make him balk, but it leaves quickly. God has sent them, so God will deliver them the victory.

A few days later, Eleazar says, "Bossman, look," and points out David's window, and David looks just in time to see a figure collapse on the ground.

"Stop," David says, and repeats the order over the radio. "Stop, everyone stop, somebody just collapsed in the field. We need to go get—whoever it is."

He climbs out of the truck, but some of his men are already way ahead of him, and by the time he gets to the person—a very sickly looking man—he's already being examined and fed and watered.

David, unable to do anything else, kneels by the man's head. The man is barely conscious. "Hey there," he says quietly. "You're kinda in rough shape, hey?"

The man coughs. "'s been three days 'n nights since 've eaten 'r drank 'nything. 'm tired. 'n hungry."

"I get that," David says, "but I need you to eat and drink a bit and answer a few questions for me before you get some rest, okay?"

The man tilts his head, barely, and David takes it as a nod. "Where did you come from?"

"Was with th' Amal'kites," the man says, and David is painfully aware of his heart, "but they went on withou' me 'cause I got s-sick. Three days ago. We'd done a lotta raidin'—the Kerethites and some a Judah's territory 'nd—some in Caleb, too."

"Anything else?"

The man closes his eyes. "We burned Ziklag."

God, David thinks, God, because this is God who brought them to this man, who's given them the means by which to revive him and give them hope at the same time and his mind is a mantra repeating thank you thank you thank you as he asks, "Can you take me to them?"

It's a long shot—the man is sick, and who's to say that they'd disclosed their travelling plans before they left him?—but the man says, a little stronger, "Swear t' me in th' name of God that you won't kill me or hand me over, and 'll take you right to 'em."

David's blood is roaring in his hears as he says, "I swear."

The man smiles.

-

They reach the Amalekite raiding party by dusk. David outlines the plan quietly over the radio as they get into place, eyes locked on the party happening just beneath them as their enemies revel in their plunder. "God is with us," he says. "God is with us, and he has delivered the Amalekites into our hands. I don't know how long this fight will be, and it might not be easy, but rest assured of our victory. It's a guarantee."

A low rumble sounds, and David smiles.

"Benaiah, if you would, please," he says into the radio, and he can hear Benaiah's smirk in response.

"It would be my honour, bossman," he says, and the low rumble turns into a battle cry.

-

They fight until the evening of the next day. David thinks he could probably go the rest of his life without fighting, and he's sure he's not the only one, even though he knows that the pledge is not realistic. He's bloody and sore and weary and dirty but it doesn't matter because God is with them and he never left and the proof is right before him and crashing into him, Abigail and Ahinoam crying as they hug him and he cries, too.