A token is “a sign; something intended to represent or indicate another thing or an event. Thus the rainbow is a token of God’s covenant established with Noah” (Webster, American Dictionary).
It is ironic that the “token of peace” preceded the king’s death. Amalickiah “sent his servants to greet the king, seemingly to pay him reverence. … As was also a custom among the Lamanites, they bowed down to the ground to show their homage to him. Everything went as protocol among them provided. The king put forth his hand to raise them from their position of nothingness, and when he raised the first, the servant immediately stabbed him in the heart” (Reynolds and Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 5:45–46).