Empire's End by Jerry Jenkins, James S. MacDonald Read Free Book Online

I said.
    â€œThis is common for you?” the old man said.
    â€œIt has happened before.”
    â€œNot to me, stranger.” He turned to the boy, who looked scared. “If he tells us the correct name, Corydon, we will know he is the man of God.”
    â€œMy name is Paul,” I said, thrusting out my hand. “Where am I?”
    The man gasped but did not take my hand. He gathered the boy close to him and said, “Could he have come so far, so fast? Does his horse look tired? And where is his saddle?”
    â€œYou’re saying the Lord told you where I was last night?” I said.
    The man nodded solemnly.
    â€œIf I tell you where that was, will you shake my hand and tell me where I am?”
    He nodded, but his fingers trembled.
    â€œDamascus,” I said.
    He took my hand but fell to his knees, causing the boy to burst into tears and cry out, “Grandfather!”
    â€œIt’s all right, son,” I said. “Corydon, is it?” The boy fought to stop crying, pressing his lips together. He nodded. I helped the man to his feet. “And you, sir? Your name?”
    â€œAlastor. And you have arrived at Yanbu.”
    I knelt so I was eye level with the boy and showing deference to his grandfather. “Sir, you have plainly walked with God much longer than I. But am I to gather that below us is an enclave of followers of The Way?”
    The old man nodded. “We have all been driven many miles from our various homelands.”
    â€œAs have I.”
    â€œWe are to take you in.”
    â€œWho else knows this?” I said.
    â€œNo one.”
    â€œWill I be accepted or suspected?”
    It was nice to see Alastor smile at last. “If I were you, Paul, I would not tell the story of your journey.”
    That made me chuckle. “I barely believe it myself, sir.”
    â€œThe Lord told me you would come to us with nothing, but that we were to offer you food and lodging in exchange for your trade.”
    â€œMy trade?”
    Alastor nodded. “We are to leave you alone so He can meet with you in the wilderness in the mornings, and you will ply your trade in the afternoons.”
    â€œDid He say what my trade was to be?”
    Alastor shook his head. “You must understand, Paul. I did not know it was really the Lord until you confirmed what He told me. Forgive me, but you do not look like someone He would have sent.”
    â€œComing all this way so quickly—”
    â€œAnd without a saddle. Or sunburn.”
    â€œI understand,” I said. “But as for my trade, I—”
Do not reveal your training
. “—I, ah, don’t know what I can offer.”
    â€œPaul, if you do not know, I certainly don’t either. But for now I must obey the Lord. Are you thirsty, hungry, tired? Let’s water and feedyour horse and wash your feet, have my daughter set another bowl at the table—”
    â€œOh, I’m not—”
Accept
. “I would be so grateful. Thank you, sir. And Corydon, I am eager to meet your parents. Tell me—”
    â€œThe lad has recently lost his father, sir.”
    â€œI’m so sorry.”
    â€œAnd his mother is still in mourning, so—”
    â€œI understand. Don’t put her to any trouble.”
    â€œShe likes to keep busy.”
    I asked Alastor if he and the boy would like to ride down to the settlement while I led the horse. He looked to Corydon who nodded, and I helped them both up onto Theo.
    Curious eyes met us as we approached the commune, but the unsmiling people only nodded and kept to themselves.
    A cluster of nine unwieldy tents lay hidden about a mile from the trade route and another quarter-mile from the sea. The dwellings consisted of crude, rectangular sections of woven dark sheepskin and goatskin sewn together and supported by wood poles anchored to the rocky ground by wood pegs. A glance told me my father, a master tentmaker, would have been horrified at