"King David is dying."

         The words echoed in Abishag's head as she fled the harem and scurried to the bed chamber of the King of Israel--a man she'd never met. Fleetingly, she wondered, "Why me, now? Is it by chance, or because of my violet eyes and raven-black hair, or my reputation for nursing the others when they're ill?"

         Doors parted, revealing a still form draped over a bed. "So this shriveled pelt is the fabled King of Israel," Abishag thought. "David, the warrior who bested a king and his army, will freeze in the chill of a spring night without my body to keep his warm."

           But when he opened his eyes, she instantly glimpsed the man he once was.

           "No light touches his eyes," Abishag thought. "Yet they glimmer from within."

          Abishag brushed past the curtain in the doorway and lit a candle. She looked from David's flickering eyes to the candle and wondered if either fire would last the night.

          David's voice reached her from the darkness, strained, as though it was difficult for it to make the journey of a few yards.

         "You remind me of Michal," he said. "I was a young man when she used to stand behind that curtain and watch me play the harp for her father, King Saul."

         David gave a soft laugh that dead-ended in a cough.   

       "Yes, I was young once and as foolish as any boy taken with a girl. You would’ve laughed if you’d seen us: how we feigned ignorance of each other’s presence while straining for a glimpse and, later on, how we whispered, the curtain between us a stone wall. After all, she was a princess. I was only a musician at home and a simple soldier away."

        Abishag looked at him doubtfully. In the harem, she'd heard the old servants whisper very different things about this man. His family wasn't  noble, but was wealthy, they said. And she, for one, could picture him more easily as a rising lieutenant than a simple soldier.

       “Prince Jonathan, Michal's brother, was my closest friend," David told Abishag. "He arranged my first meeting alone with her. She was as in love with me as I was with her. Soon after, Michal begged her father to give me a chance and against all common sense, he let us marry."

       Abishag tucked herself against him, the rumors, like deformed butterflies, fluttering through her head. Jonathan was more than a friend; Michal, less than the first great love of his life. The marriage, Saul’s insurance against a coup d’état by his ambitious young general.

     “Love is never as passionate and ridiculous as during youth,” he said. “Michal and I were like two gazelles turned loose to play. Life was perfect, until-" The king clutched his chest, remembering. "I can still feel Michal’s hand planted here. Her eyes are crazed, her voice breathless.

    "'You must leave,' she says.

    "'Tired of me already?' I ask with a smile.

     "She won't return the smile. Her hand clenches, turning ivory.

    "'Understand me,' she says. 'The people see you as the man who protects us from our enemies, the Philistines. In the streets, they chant 'Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands.' Because the people love you so, my father fears you.'

   " 'He needn't.'

    "'David, he plans to kill you before dawn.'"

    The frail king seemed lost in his memories.

    "Michal saved my life," he added. "She helped lower me out of a window to my escape."

    “You left her there?” Abishag asked.

    “She bought me more time by putting pillows in my place in the bed and lying to her father's men, telling them that I was ill. Saul was furious when he discovered the lie. Still, Michal was his daughter. Saul wouldn’t harm her.”

    "But he did give her to another man." Abishag knew her history.

    "Yes. Yes, he did. It was a long time before I got her back. I asked her to come and she left her new life to come back to me."

     "But by then, another woman had taken her place," Abishag's voice was cool, her violet eyes half-accusation.



Author's Note:

     Saul suspected David of treason and made many attempts on his life. Even the marriage between David and Michal (which was originally to be to Michal's older sister) was full of intrigue. Saul said that in order to marry Michal, David would first have to kill a hundred Philistines. Saul was sure he was sending the young man to his death--not on his honeymoon--but against all odds, David completed his mission successfully. He got the girl but not for long; he was soon forced to flee with his loyal band of soldiers.

    The Bible maintains that David meant the king no harm. In fact, it repeatedly shows David sparing the crazed Saul's life. In the end, David didn't become king until after the deaths of both Saul and Jonathan.

    While Michal did come back to David, it wasn't her idea. He requested her as one of the terms of an exchange and their reunion was arranged by Saul's general. The Bible doesn't tell us how Michal felt about the arrangement; just that her new husband followed her for miles, weeping, until he was turned back. Samuel also tells us that David and Michal's affair didn't end happily. After she called him foolish for celebrating in public in a state of undress, he refused to sleep with her anymore. In Biblical times, a woman's success was measured by her children, so this forced childlessness was punishment indeed.

Bibliography:
Samuel 1, 14:49, 18:20-30, 19:11-18, 25:44,
Samuel 2, 3:13-16, 6:16-23
The Holy Bible: 1611 Edition, King James Version. Weblink.

Image Information: "Lord Byron on His Deathbed" by Joseph-Denis Odevaere, c.1826. Weblink.