Cavalier

Chapter Nineteen

They move down to the Desert of Maon, but their reprieve is brief. Word travels quickly from the lookout on point, and it all goes right to David's ears travelling on Benaiah's voice.

"Saul knows we're around here somewhere. He doesn't know where, he's doing a pretty broad search, but—we need to find cover somewhere, David."

David frowns. They haven't even had the chance to unpack yet. "Do you see anywhere close?"

"There's a—a mountain—"

David turns to look. Indeed, there is a mountain. It's not huge, but there are caves and nooks and crannies and other available hiding places and David says, "That's where we're going, guys."

He sends a sentry ahead while getting everybody ready to move again to scout a place on the mountain to hide. Saul's forces are closing in behind them fast if what's being said on the radio is any indication. If David and his people get to the mountain, they might have a chance. Right now in the open desert, however, it is nothing but a chase and they are being chased simply for the fact that Saul knows they're somewhere near.

It must've been the nomads they passed yesterday. That's the only thing he could think— 

"They're gaining on us, bossman," Uriah says quietly.

"I know," David replies.

He prays. He prays, because that's the only thing he knows how to do. He prays, because he's desperate not just for his salvation but for the salvation of his men and their families and what God has willed to happen will happen whether David likes it or not but David prays that, even if it's just for today, they are delivered from Saul.

He prays, God, that simple word over and over and over again, and puts his all into it. They're going around the base of the mountain, Saul and his men perilously close in the rearview mirrors, when Jashobeam says, "Wait." 

"What?"

Jash frowns before a tentative smile breaks it. "They're—David, I don't quite believe it, but—"

"They're turning around!" the man at point radios in.

David doesn't dare breathe. "Stop," he says into his radio, and his vehicle and all of the ones behind him slowly stop, as if they're all hesitant to do so because it might make Saul change his mind.

They wait for what feels like an eternity, before the man at point says, "They're not turning around! They're leaving, bossman, they're really, truly leaving."

Everybody starts hooting and hollering, but David's expression stays grim. Jashobeam notices. "David?"

"They'll be back," David says, and he feels sick with the truth of it.

-

They move into En Gedi. There are a more than a few ruins in En Gedi and David splits his followers up among them in the hopes that, even if some of them get captured, not all of them do.

David keeps the smallest number of people with him, all of them able bodied, unattached younger men. They make their lodgings deep in a cave and when the men on point report that Saul is back (because he'll always come back, he'll always chase after David, and a voice that David's soul knows says, stop), it is into the depths of the cave that they retreat before radio silence takes effect.

Of course, it's that very cave that President Saul chooses to visit when he needs to relieve himself. It's a deep cave, and dark, and Saul's back is to David which makes it extremely likely that, if none of David's men move a muscle, they'll get out of this alive.