ROOTED in front of that dangerous place, the Fourth Prince sounded his order. And even the walls caved in.
‘Now tear down those doors!’ he roared.
Then a throng of men crashed into those planks that marked the farmhouse shut. And within a moment the pieces fell apart.
Now the men stepped aside for their master to march in. The stout one looked in their eyes, and he could tell he needn’t tell them to stay out.
For even the newly bought ones among his slaves seemed to have caught on so fast. That he always did his search himself.
Particularly when things came to that time of the year.
So, the prince stepped into the hall alone, dark and haunted as it was. And his servants kept the watch outside the place.
The search in that building began when it was noon, but nobody could leave there until night fell.
The watchers outside lit their torches to stay on guard. Then their master came out only to get one when evening came.
The place was haunted. Cobwebs and darkness masking the prince’s stare were enough to tell him to leave.
But it was a place of owls, and bats, and a stench of blood too. And the more the Fourth One lingered, the more he got stuck inside.
Nay, the more the spirit of that house ruled him.
Suddenly, this desperate man looked to the spot where the First Heir was hacked down. And beneath that ground, he felt a hollow sound under him.
He mounted his torch on a wall, laid his sword aside. Then he bowed to open the floor, brick after brick.
So from that hollow place beneath the ground, the prince unearthed a golden chest, long but small.
And he knew he had found the glory.
Now he took back his sword from ground, and with it split apart the lock which bolted the box. Then he went for his burning torch and opened his treasure to see.
There in the golden chest it lay. The masterpiece he’d searched for those long years.
That treasure. It was the map of the Third Heir’s battle for power. It was the masterplan he’d sketched in a single large parchment.
The prince breathed a heavy sigh as he sighted his treasure. So he took the long scroll for himself, returned the chest to ground, and covered everything with the seal and dust again.
He took his arrow quiver and placed the parchment scroll in it, making it wound round its inside.
Now he took off his head band, wound it round the arrowheads before returning the weapons in the quiver.
This done, the prince stood upright and cleared his throat. Then he went out to meet his men.
There outside, the servants were on guard still. They were tired out, yet they dared not vent their trouble.
Not when it was to the standing heir. The next in the line of birth to the throne. The great Flaming Throne.
So as the servants saw their master return, they rushed to give him a hand with any load.
But he stopped short and raised a hand to still them.
He ordered instead: ‘Set this place on fire!’
Everyone heard that command, and the thing was clear. So the next moment, the men rounded up the whole house, with burning torches in their hands.
Now as the prince pounced on his horse and stirred him to run, the chief servant called to his men to torch the house.
In that instant, the building caught the flames; and the whole place went ablaze.
The Fourth One flew his horse back in a mad flight, as it leapt and flew and screeched in the heat.
So when he looked back at the flames spreading wide, he saw his servants on their mules also, running so fast to catch up with him.
This was the Fourth of the kingdom’s heirs. Fierce and swift as a mighty wind.
But when they named him by the God of Israel, no man could tell that he could grow to be His in name alone.
For he chose the parchment of the wayward prince of David. When the good king had called him Adoni-Jah.
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