Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar

nodded.
    “And you two begin to grow on me,” she replied with a pleased grin.
    “We must move quickly before it grows light,” Ezra interjected. “It’s too far down for your ladder. Do you have any sturdy rope, Rahab, or were you expecting us to fly?”
    “The Lord parted the sea for you. He can provide you with a pair of wings, surely?”
    “Yes, but while we wait for them to sprout, perhaps you would be good enough to fetch some rope,” Hanani growled.
    “Rope you shall have, my Hebrew friend.” Rahab rummaged in a chest until she found her rope, and Hanani, wasting no time, tied it about his middle with a secure knot. Ezra lowered him outside the wall, his chest heaving with strain as he carried the weight of his friend’s body. Hanani’s feet touched the ground just outside Jericho.
    Ezra tied one end of the rope around his waist and looped the other through a hook in the wall where Rahab normally hung a lamp. His brow became more knotted than the rope as he handed her the free end. “Do you think you can bear my weight? The hook might break my fall if you lose your grip, but at that speed, I suspect my back would snap anyway.”
    Rahab’s mouth went dry. “I won’t let go. Just … don’t dawdle on the way down. Don’t stop to see the sights or anything. Get down as fast as you can.”
    Ezra sputtered. “Don’t worry. I’ve seen enough of Jericho. But I’ll be back to fetch you and your family on the day of war. Now, hold tight to this rope; my life rests in your hands.” He gave Rahab one final encouraging smile and climbed over the window ledge. He hung there by the tip of his fingers for an infinitesimal moment as Rahab wedged her feet against the corner of the wall and wrapped the rope several times about her arm. Then he let go. Rahab gave a muffled screech as she was pulled forward with a wrenching force.Her body slid across the floor, yanked by Ezra’s dangling weight, and she pictured him falling toward the ground. Holding on with her whole might, she jammed her feet against the doorway and held on.
    “Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, help me!” she choked. Then she found her balance, caught her breath, and started to loosen the tension bit by slow bit. Ezra tried to help when possible by wedging a hand or foot in the cracks between the rocks, but these were few and far between, so Rahab ended up bearing his whole weight most of the way down. Never had she borne such a burden. That man weighed two of Rahab on a well-fed day. Planting her feet more firmly, she hefted the rope until her palms bled and her arms were bruised with the friction she tried so hard to control. She ignored the blood and ignored the sting and kept at it. Ezra had made it halfway down the wall when the rope slipped from Rahab’s arm, peeling a good portion of her skin with it. He shot down with alarming speed and Rahab had no breath left with which to exclaim. Using her whole might, she grabbed the rope and held on. She gulped. Ezra dangled a man’s height from the ground, and then slowly touched down, the most gentle part of the entire descent.
    The men began to run toward the hills as soon as Ezra freed himself from the rope’s tangled knot. In the predawn darkness, Rahab lost sight of them before she had a chance to blink twice. With an alacrity inspired by danger, she pulled up the rope and stored it away as fast as she could in case the soldiers returned to examine her house again. Then the ladder, and finally she tended to her burned and bloody arm and hands. At least the men had remembered to take all their belongings this time, God be thanked.
    What remained now was to convince a family from Jericho that they were safer in the Lord’s hands than in the hands of their own gods. To convince them to place their lives in the promises of their most dreaded enemy.

Chapter
Six

     
    A re you mad?” her brother Joa exploded. “Have you lost your entire mind?” Karem bellowed. Rahab opened her mouth, but Joa had