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Judah's Scepter and the Sacred Stone

By D. A. Brittain

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CHAPTER 1

Jerusalem: The Ninth of Av, 586 BC
As the first rays of dawn lit the sky, Teia rested her slender frame against the rampart’s wall and looked west beyond the city, to the valley below. What was once green, covered with vineyards and fragrant fruit trees, now looked like a blackened wasteland where only the smell of smoke drifted through the air from the vast camp of the enemy. As far as Teia could see, the tents of their foes covered the land.

The eyes of the young princess were drawn upward as she watched a flock of birds fly toward her, circle above, then soar off behind the palace and settle in the olive trees that covered the hills. Their flight reminded her of the freedom she’d had when she could walk outside the city’s walls. On her fingers, she counted the number of months it had been since then—and stopped at eighteen.

Teia was alone, except for the watchmen and guards stationed in the towers above her. Since the day she had been forbidden to leave the palace, the young princess came to its rooftop, where she could stand under an open sky and take in the endless views. She found that it was also a good place to evade her attendants and tutors.

She now stood in her favorite place of retreat, this time to escape her bedroom, where she had tossed and turned through another hungry and sleepless night. For days, the thudding drumbeat of the battering ram never ceased. The city’s steep cliffs and thick walls had managed to withstand the enemy’s attacks, but the Babylonian siege had choked off Jerusalem’s ability to receive food and basic supplies long ago.

“Get inside!” one of the guards shouted to Teia from above.
The princess heard the soldier’s call even as the ground shuddered beneath her feet. She turned and ran toward the palace door, then down two flights of stairs as she heard several shrill blasts of the ram’s horn blow the call to battle.

All appeared to be chaos when she entered the palace. Soldiers, servants, and members of the royal staff fled through the halls. Teia’s sandaled feet slapped against the polished stone as she ran down the long corridor toward the royal family’s residence, where she found one room after the other open and empty. She stopped when she saw her sister’s nightclothes strewn across the floor of the bedroom they shared.

“Princess Teia!” shouted her tutor, Ebed, as he burst into the room right after her. “Your father and most of the royal family have left the palace. We couldn’t find you, and now it’s too late to get you out. The Babylonians have broken down the northern wall and are flooding into the city. Soon they will be here! I have to hide you—now!

Teia’s eyes widened and she swallowed hard. “Where’s Hannah?”

“She left with the king. Here, put this on!”

Teia grabbed the robe from the Ethiopian eunuch’s hands and put it on. With her dress now hidden, Ebed pulled the hood over her head.

“Keep your hair covered and your head down until we get across the temple grounds.”

Outside, the early morning sun glinted off tens of thousands of swords, shields, and spears. Horses trampled the ground beneath their hoofs as they poured through Jerusalem’s now broken-down wall. As Ebed guided Teia out of the palace and across the temple’s outer courtyard, anguished screams and the clash of metal resounded from the streets below. The Judean soldiers, weakened by famine and pestilence, were in no condition to defend the city against an invading army, Teia knew. Jerusalem’s streets were soon clogged with the bodies of men, women, and children who lay dying after being trampled by Babylonian horsemen or cut down by their swords.

Leaving the horrid sights and sounds behind, Ebed rushed Teia into a room stocked with wood used for the temple’s daily sacrifices. No one had entered the room in months. The last few animals in the city, which should have been sacrificed to God, had instead been killed at the king’s orders for his own consumption. Even the temple’s grain offerings had ceased as food became scarce.
Ebed tossed large chunks of wood aside as he rushed to clear a small pathway across the room. Teia watched the tall Ethiopian kneel down and run his fingers along the floor. With one quick jerk, he lifted a large slab of rock.

“Come over here!” Ebed stood up in front of the hole in the floor. “Princess Teia, you will be safe here.”

He reached down and removed the hood from Teia’s head. Her light-brown hair spilled down to her waist.

“May the Lord God bless and keep you in his care,” Ebed said.

She nodded and drew in a shaking breath.

Ebed slid his large hands under Teia’s arms, then gently lowered her down into the hidden chamber before finally letting go of her.

Teia looked up. She stood still as Ebed dropped a bloated goat-skin bag through the hole.

“The water will have to sustain you, Princess. Tie it to your belt. There’s an entrance to a tunnel off to your left that leads under the temple and out of the city. The exit is sealed, though. So just stay put, and I’ll come back and get you out of here as soon as I’m able.”

With shaking hands, the princess reached down and grabbed the skin of water that lay at her feet. She wound its leather ties to the sash around her waist as Ebed pushed the stone back into place. In total darkness, the princess listened to the muffled thump of wood hit the floor above her—sealing the fourteen-year-old in the underground cave.

Teia reached back for the wall and slid to the ground, her legs crumpling beneath her. Fear raced through her mind as she realized she was alone; her family was gone, and the enemy was near. With long, slow breaths, she tried to calm the beat of her heart as it pounded in her chest.

Why did no one plan for this? she wondered. The city’s been surrounded for almost two years! What did Father think would happen? Why didn’t he listen to Jeremiah’s warnings? She sucked in a sharp breath. How could they have left without me? Teia’s final thought brought a well of tears to her eyes that spilled down her cheeks.

She fought off the tears and forced her mind to move away from panic and from the darkness that engulfed her. She wiped her face and ran her wet hands over the soft fabric of her dress and wondered when, or if, she would be able to return to the palace—to her room … to her pretty clothes. She recalled the words of her grandmother: “You are a princess, Teia Tamar, descended from the royal line of David. You are not like other girls; you are special! Hold your head high when you walk in these fine gowns. You will be a—”

Teia’s thoughts froze. She lifted her head and listened to a low rumbling sound. Soon, bits of dirt began to rain down on her as the thunderous noise grew and the walls shook—her mind imagining the hundreds of soldiers now charging across the temple grounds. She could hear men shout over the crashing noise as the Babylonian soldiers wrought destruction above her. The young princess covered her ears with her hands, then bowed her head.

Please, Lord, don’t let them find me … don’t let them find me. Please … Please … I don’t want to die!

Teia prayed until she realized all had become quiet and still. She lowered her hands and listened; only a few faint voices could be heard.

“They’re leaving,” she said and then sighed.

Her shoulders dropped as the tension fell. She took a deep breath and rested her head back against the wall. But then her body stiffened. She smelled smoke!

——

After raiding the palace of the treasures of the king and his family, the Babylonians desecrated the holy temple. They stripped the gold-covered walls and looted stacks of gold and silver basins and bowls, along with any other sacred vessels and objects they found. They knocked down the nearly thirty-foot bronze pillars King Solomon had named “Jachin” and “Boaz,” which had stood for almost four centuries on the front porch of the temple. The Babylonian troops hacked the pillars into portable pieces, then took the crushed metal and everything else they could carry away before leaving the temple mount. As they withdrew, a few remaining soldiers set numerous torches afire before they tossed them into the temple and its surrounding buildings. Sheets of flames reached for the heavens as the house of God burned.

Fire soon engulfed the room above Teia. She began to choke and cough as she breathed in the smoky air. Her fingers groped in the dark for the opening to the water skin. Grabbing the hem of her dress, she soaked the linen cloth before pressing it over her face and raising herself off the floor.

With her free hand, Teia reached out for the wall. When her fingers found the rough rock surface, she guided herself forward until her hand pushed out into the empty space of the tunnel’s entrance. The princess moved through the opening just as deafening cash came from behind her. Ash and burning shards of wood shot through the air as mounds of flaming timber hit the ground.

The raging fire cast an eerie golden light down the tunnel. Tears streamed from Teia’s eyes as she ran forward until darkness filled the narrow passageway. With her lungs straining to breath, she leaned against the wall and dragged herself onward, until finally, disoriented and too weak to continue, she collapsed on the ground.

——

Except for a few small groups who managed to escape, most of Jerusalem’s citizens were dead or captive and bound for Babylon. Enemy soldiers rummaged through their homes and took what they found valuable. What they didn’t take, they burned. What they couldn’t burn, they tore down. In a matter of hours, the battle was over.

Jerusalem had fallen.

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