KeYnNamM 

The Man-with-No-Name,

the King of No-One’s-Land

By: Ruwen Rouhs
(© 2022 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

RRouhs@tickiestories.us

Chapter 4
Escaping Death

The moment the governor hit his head on the table and the guards rushed to help him, KeYnNamM jumped up and used the momentary confusion to escape. With a dash he jumped over the garden wall down into the alley and ran uphill out of the city. He knew instinctively that this was his only chance to escape the governor and his hatred.

He had just covered twenty paces up the steep path when a child's voice called to him, "Baba, Baba, KeYnNamM! KeYnNamM-Baba, hurry over here! Here I am!" A boy in a frayed shirt stepped out of the bushes at the upper end of the garden and pulled him to the narrow path that led along the garden wall up onto the plateau of the city hill. The hidden trai hidden by thorny brush wasn just a steep gully that the winter rains had washed into rocky ground. On all fours the boy crawled up so fast that KeYnNamM had problems to follow him as he kept slipping on the loose pebbles. Halfway up the gully, a taller boy waited for them. He took KeYnNamM by the hand and helped him along.

From the top of the plateau, only the roofs and roof terraces of the houses in the alley could be seen, as they were leaning with their backs against the rock wall. In one of the houses renovation work was going on. As the evening approached the laborers had already left. Now the house was unattended. A narrow plank led from the plateau to the roof terrace, where building material was piled up. The taller boy pushed the man over the plank onto the terrace and then pulled the footbridge away. On the terrace, they hid behind building materials and junk.

Crouching behind the junk, the man could catch his breath the first time. Glancing at the boys, he immediately recognized them. They were the brothers from the well house. "Ikken? Aylal?" he asked, to be sure, "Ikken and Aylal, the ones from the well house?" Then after a moment's hesitation, he continued amazed, "Why are you helping me? Why are you helping me to escape? I am a stranger! You don't even know me!" Instead of an answer, Ikken put his index finger on his mouth and breathed, "Hush, hush," and Aylal beeped, "KeYnNamM-Baba, hush, hush!"

Huddled close together, they listened to the commands and the stomping feet of the search party rushing up and down the alley in front of the palace. Every time someone rattled at the closed door of the vacant house they trembled with fear, waiting for the door to be broken open. But no one broke the door and entered the house. The city watchmen neither did search the ridge behind the houses nor the roof terraces. Only the city captain came clambering up the gully to check the roofs and terraces of the few houses. But he did not discover their hiding place.

When the evening light had finally given way to a moonless night, the three ventured out of their hiding place. Aylal had fallen asleep in the meantime. Therefore, KeYnNamM took him in his arms like a small child and followed Ikken along a sandy path across the ridge to a narrow trail that led down into the town.

At this time of the day the narrow winding streets of Tinghir were deserted. Still, Ikken checked at every street crossing for late night strollers and signaled when no one was in sight. They were lucky. Only twice they had to hide in dark house entrances from nocturnal walkers.

KeYnNamM's arms soon became heavy from carrying Aylal and when the boy woke up, he took him piggyback. Only now he remembered the green pentagram in the red triangle on the back of his shirt. This emblem of the emperors prisoners would have betrayed him as the property of the Emperor. Therefore, he was relieved that the telltale sign was obscured by the slender body of Aylal.

For KeYnNamM the walk through the dark alleys seemed never to end, as it always did when he walked a route for the first time. Then at last, when he almost didn't expect it anymore, they had reached their destination. Ikken told him, "We're almost there. We just have enter the souk and  to cross it."

KeYnNamM knew the town from previous visits, but now in the dark he would never have found the road to the bazaar. Ikken, however, curried through the night like a mouse. Soon they had reached the souk, which lay deserted. Ikken led them through the narrow alleys between the market stalls to the city wall, where the smallest and oldest stalls had their backs huddled against the thick mud-wall. Ikken slipped into a narrow gap between two crooked huts, pushed aside a plank from the side wall of one of them, and shoved KeYnNamM, still carrying Aylal on his back, into the pitch-dark hut.

Inside, it smelled of dried herbs, spices and fruit. Ikken rummaged around in the dark, found what he was looking for, lit a small oil lamp and beamed with the light at a square opening in the wall behind a shelf. "In here!" he urged KeYnNamM, "This is our shelter!" Behind the opening was a cavern in the city’s mud-wall. It was barely man-high and only about ten foot deep. For a long time, this cave had been the home of Ikken and Aylal. It was their sleeping place and the few belongings they possessed were hanging on the wall or were hidden in the small chest at the foot of the sleeping place. Aylal did not wake up when KeYnNamM put him down on the blankets of the sleeping place. However, he did stir, yawned briefly and immediately went back to sleep.

"I'll go get us some water and some food." Ikken whispered to KeYnNamM, "Wait for my return! Get some rest and keep quiet. I don't know how long I'll be gone. Please don't try to look for me or run away. I'll be back!" Ikken stayed away for a very long time. When KeYnNamM almost couldn't stand it anymore because of thirst, the boy finally arrived back at their hiding place. "We have to leave the Tinghir! Real quick! The city guards are searching the entire city for you and for us, your helpers. They assume the helpers are two boys, a taller one and a shorter one, but they don't know who they are. They are knocking at every door and ask for the three. Soon they will also show up at the souk. They don't know yet that it was Aylal and me who helped you. But they'll find out soon! We have to leave town, right now."

KeYnNamM was about to climb out of the shelter into the market stall, but Ikken held him back. "Not through the town, there is a better way to escape!" He pushed aside some boards on the back wall of the shelter. "Through here! On your belly! Take the water hose with you. On the other side of the city wall you have to push the bundles of brushwood aside and you'll be out in the open."

Crawling on his belly, KeYnNamM had to struggle some time to push away the heavy bundles of brushwood that camouflaged the exit of the emergency exit. When he finally managed to get up to his feet outside the city wall, he noticed that his shirt was soaked with sweat because of his excitement. Next came Aylal, whom Ikken had shaken awake, and then Ikken himself with a leather bag full of food.

Immediately Ikken took charge and did not tolerate a pause. "Take the water hose over your shoulder and Aylal by the hand." he ordered KeYnNamM, "First I'll camouflage the exit of the passage with brushwood and then I will follow you." He pointed to the east, where the sun was just rising. "See the road there, it is leading to the Border-Land!"

₪₪₪

To be continued...

Posted 06/10/2022