877 BC
Fort Jezreel, Jezreel Valley, Israel
Obadiah gripped his throat. Execution stakes. Whose family would die?
He turned and absorbed the view. Beyond latticed windows, white doves chased each other through almond trees in blossom.
Yet the voice of the chief bodyguard jerked him back toward the doorway. “Stakes for the children, my lord?”
Arza, the accountant, had been stealing royal silver. The king made Obadiah his right-hand man and placed the accounts in his control.
