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 5
Ikken's wrath
At onset of their escape KeYnNamM and the boys had to take hidden foot trails through the sun-parched foothills of the mountain to outsmart the henchmen of Governor Gwasila. By that time, they arrived at the barren Border-Land they could take small roads. In the meantime, the water hose was empty and the food depleted with exception of a some dried up pita bread and some dates. They didn’t dare to enter villages to stock up with supplies, therefore they crossed the barren country with empty stomachs and were totally outworn when they finally made it to the reedy swamps along the River Draa.
Now five days after escaping the governor of the city during the night after KeYnNamM’s trial they had arrived at their destination. Ikken and his brother Aylal stood in front of a primitive shelter on the banks of the River Draa. Ikken was disappointed. "Is this supposed to be our new home? Our shelter in the city wall behind our auntie’s market stall was a palace in comparison!" he protested. "You put us off all those exhausting days with promises of a great place, and now? This is just a lousy shelter, with a roof of reeds over a hole in the hillside, no beds or a table!"
KeYnNamM had to agree with Ikken. His save place was just a shelter among the dense bushes of the gallery forest on the left bank of the Draa. True, the sandy ground in the shelter was dry and there was a fireplace in front of the entrance surrounded by stones. But otherwise? It was a primitive shelter, such as hunters preferred during their tours. What KeYnNamM loved about this place, however, was its seclusion. He loved the quietness of the secluded spot, the grassy shoreline that extended to the reed belt on the shore of a small bay, the cooling provided by the Draa in the midday heat, and the dense forest that surrounded everything like a fortress’ rampart. "Not that bad at all!" he tried to convince Ikken, "Sleep here only one night and you will never want to miss the soft sand, the croaking of the frogs in the night, and the morning song of the birds."
"I'm hungry!" complained Aylal "My stomach has been rumbling since we left the town. But you don't have a stove to cook my duck eggs. Why did I actually clear out the nest? There's only the fireplace here, nothing else!" He was tearing up. "I've told you again and again KeYnNamM-Baba, I don't like dates anymore!" "Just wait a minute! Someone who lives in hiding can't just leave his property lying around for everyone to see. Come Ikken, help me."
KeYnNamM crawled into the bushes beside the shelter and began clearing away leaves and branches in a shallow spot. A wooden cover became visible. "Help me lift the cover from the pit, Ikken." When the pit was open, Ikken asked him, "Now what?" pointing into the pit. There was a clay pot, a bowl with a lid, a stoppered glass container, a small leather pouch, a hatchet and also a large spoon and a knife with a short edge wrapped in cloth,. KeYnNamM lifted the bowl from the pit, uncovered it, smelled the contents, and then held it under the nose of Aylal, who had joined them. "Smells good, Aylal! Smell! After more than a year the millet still smells like freshly harvested. Today we have millet porridge with eggs."
KeYnNamM checked the edge of the short-handled axe with his thumb, "Sharp enough! Unfortunately, this weapon is good for close combat only. The little knife is no good for a fight at greater distance either." Then he grinned, "But we have other weapons for our defense!" With that, he fished a roll of string and the leather pouch from the hiding place. "We need these strings for bowstrings!" Then he handed the pouch to Ikken, "Just look inside, the arrowheads and feathers are in here." Ikken frowned, "Where's the bow and arrow shafts? "The wood for long bows must hang straight and not dry out. Look there!” he pointed to a nearby tree, “In the tree, between the branches the bow staves and arrow shafts are hidden. Do you see them? Well-hidden and undetectable to those passing by!"
Later, as the water steamed in the clay pot over the fire, KeYnNamM poured in the millet into the water, let it swell, then beat in three of the duck eggs plundered from the nest. He flavored the whole porridge with salt from the glass jar and with herbs that he collected in the wood and in the meadow.
The three sat down in a circle around the pot and began to eat. Since only one spoon was available, they circled it. Aylal sipped the hot porridge with caution, but Ikken started to scarf it down like he had been dying from hunger. After the first few bites, Aylal beamed, "Best meal in a long time." and licked the spoon. Sticking his tongue out at his brother, "Ikken, are a worse cook!" When Aylal was satisfied, he climbed onto KeYnNamM's lap, who was sitting leaning against a tree, and snuggled close to him. "Now I'll take my nap and you be my bed, KeYnNamM-Baba!"
Ikken sat across from the two in the sand with his legs crossed. KeYnNamM was watching him closely. When the Aylal had crawled onto KeYnNamM's lap, Ikken had watched them both with half-closed eyes. As he did so, he pulled a face as if envious of his little brother. But then he stretched out in the sand and fell asleep.
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KeYnNamM didn't know what to think of Ikken. On the one hand, the taller of the brothers was a playful, curious teen, the typical adolescent who had peppered him with questions on the way to the Draa. On the other hand, he acted as if he was already an adult. He had always tried to protect his little brother. Like an overzealous, adventurous child, he had helped him to escape Governor Gwasila’s hatred, ignoring the danger that might threaten him and his brother. However, he had planned and executed the escape like an adult. In one situation Ikken behaved like an inexperienced child and in the other like an shrewd, experienced adult!
Ikken still had not told KeYnNamM why he had saved him, despite his repeated questions and despite his assurances of how he admired his boldness! Ikken kept silent about his motive. His only answer was a defensive shrug. KeYnNamM suspected that this reaction had something to do with the missing father. Aylal had hinted at something like that, and the little boy always called him father, Baba, not exactly father but KeYnNamM-Baba. But also, Aylal did not tell him why, the two had exposed themselves to this deadly danger.
Ikken behaved towards his little brother on their way to the Wadi Draa like an overprotective nanny, certainly not like a big brother who wanted to be an example to the smaller one. "Aylal don't!" "Aylal, watch out!" Aylal, don't do that!" "Aylal, it's too dangerous." Again, and again he warned the younger boy. For example, he had forbidden him to climb on the low tree stump when Aylal wanted to plunder the duck's nest. "Don't Aylal! You'd better let me get the eggs, you're too small! You might fall off!" But Aylal, of course, had not listened to Ikken and, of course, nothing had happened to him. Even towards KeYnNamM, Ikken behaved quite strangely. He often treated him as if he was a child who needed to be protected. "Watch out!" he warned him time and again, like when a startled scorpion raised its sting on the path or when a snake did not disappear quickly in the bush. He even warned him about a frog that jumped into the well when they wanted to drink from it. KeYnNamM needed to know what was behind this attitude of Ikken. He knew this was important if he wanted to accept the task of being their father.
After dark, in the dugout on a layer of fresh grass, with the snoring Aylal to his left and Ikken curled up like a sleeping dog further to his right, KeYnNamM pondered what to do next. The goal of his life up to now had always been to protect the inhabitants of No-One's-Land from the encroachments of the Empire, i.e. to prevent the robbery of children, of young people, of women and even animals. Now, however, another task had been added, a more difficult one. one that he had never expected to master. He wanted and he had to protect he boys who had his rescued him. He already loved Aylal, who seemed to love him back, like a son a father. He also loved Ikken, but he had to figure him out. He had to prevent the boys from being caught by the Emperor and his henchmen, he had to make sure they could grow up and become independent personalities. But how? He just didn't know yet, he even couldn’t imagine!
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One thing KeYnNamM had learned his life so far was, attack was the best defense. He always had to be one step ahead of his enemies, attack them before they attacked him, strike first before they could strike. He stared into the darkness, listening to the croaking of frogs, the barking of wild dogs in the distance, the song of nightingales and the hooting of owls. Still brooding, he fell asleep. Waking up, he suddenly knew what the correct answer was.
In the morning, Ikken volunteered to make breakfast. He wanted to show Aylal that he was at least as good a cook as KeYnNamM. The millet porridge with eggs turned out well, but Aylal still had something to criticize, "KeYnNamM-Baba's porridge tasted better, you should have salted it!" Ikken acknowledged his brother's criticism with a nod of his head.
While Ikken was preparing breakfast, KeYnNamM had retrieved two long bow timbers from their hiding and attached the bowstrings. He had chosen the man-sized bow for himself, and the slightly shorter one for Ikken. When Aylal protested, "And where is mine?" he put him off, "I have to find a suitable bow timber first! You need a smaller bow, these're both taller than you!"
After breakfast, he showed Ikken how to assemble an arrow. In the rear end of the shaft he notched a nock for the bowstring, in front of it he glued feather flags with tree pitch. The metal tip was attached to the front end. To do this, he stuck the tongue of the tip into a gap at the front end of the arrow and then wrapped pitch-soaked string around the gab.
"Why do you glue the tip to the shaft?" Ikken wanted to know, watching KeYnNamM's work intently. "So that the tip stays permanently attached to the shaft and can later can be pulled out of the captured animal together with the shaft.” He explained, “These are metal tips and I can't lose any of them." Then he instructed Ikken. "The arrows with metal tips are for hunting and defense. A little later we'll make some arrows for exercise. We need them badly because I haven't hunted with bow and arrow for almost a year. I need to practice aiming first. You, Ikken, are you a good shot? Are you good in handling a bow and arrow?" Ikken shook his head, "I don't think so! In the city we never needed bows and arrows!" Then he begged, "Will you teach me how to shoot and become a good hunter!"
The exercise arrows did not have a metal tip. Their front end of the shaft was merely sharpened and hardened in the fire. Afterwards a pitch-soaked string wrapped around the front end until the hunting and exercise arrows were about the same weight and similarly balanced. Ikken was allowed to help KeYnNamM with this. Both made the same number of exercise arrows each.
"And what are we aiming at?" Ikken looked around, "At that tree there?" and he looked questioningly at KeYnNamM. "No, no! The wood of the trunk is much too hard. Our exercise arrows would hardly stick in tree. Besides, if we miss the target we would have to look for the arrows in the forest behind!" "I'll do that!" offered Aylal, returning from the riverbank with a bunch of flowers. “Thanks, Aylal, but I know a better target. Let’s build man out of reed. We can set him up in the grass strip along the riverside and shoot at him from different distances."
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As the man-sized bundle of reeds stood in the meadow, KeYnNamM pulled a displeased face! "We have to put a mark exactly where a man's heart would be! That spot will be our target! We have to hit that!" KeYnNamM pored over some moments. Then his face brightened. It was now literally beaming. He pulled his shirt over his head, "Give me your knife Ikken!" With a few quick cuts he separated the emblem of the empire’s prisoners, the green pentagram in the red triangle, from the shirt and fixed it on the reed bundle! "Here! This is the heart of the Emperor! With each hit we kill the oppressor and one of his servants!"
At first, Ikken didn't understand what KeYnNamM meant by that. But when his first arrow hit the target and pierced the emblem, the heart of the Emperor, Ikken understood. He began to shout enthusiastically "Gotcha! Hit! The Emperor is dead, the Governor is dead, and all his servants! They are dead! We hit them!"
Now Ikken also began to shoot arrow after arrow at the target. With each hit he cheered, "For my father! For my father! Death to the governor! Death to the Emperor!" Aylal, watching the two, began to get scared. He clung to KeYnNamM, "Why are you doing this? What did the emperor do to you? What did the governor do to you? People don't shoot people, do they?"
Suddenly, three ducks landed on the narrow strip of grass between the Draa River and the riparian forest, one duck and two drakes. The two drakes immediately tried to pounce on the duck to possess it. This resulted in a fierce competition and the two drakes began to fight furiously. Ikken, who still had a practice arrow left, aimed at the brawlers. Luck or skill, he hit one of the drakes and injured it so badly that Aylal was able to catch it. Dinner was provided!
After the meal, prepared by KeYnNamM, Aylal licked his fingers after only the gnawed bones remained from the roasted duck. Then he burped loudly and when neither KeYnNamM nor Ikken reprimanded him, he trolled yawning into the dugout. There he curled up in the far corner, calling to the others, "Good night" and immediately began to snore.
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Dusk approached slowly. In the twilight KeYnNamM walked down the narrow path to the bank of the Draa, sat down on a washed-up tree trunk and began to think about his next steps. Suddenly, soft footsteps startled him out of his thoughts. Ikken appeared in the dark. "Come sit down beside me, Ikken.” he tapped on the log right next to him. “Here!" Ikken sat down, but when he accidentally bumped into KeYnNamM, he moved a bit away. After a while, Ikken cleared his throat and asked uncertainly, "Do you actually know why Aylal calls you Baba, father, KeYnNamM-Baba?" "Not really! Your brother hinted at it, but I didn't understand him. Please tell me." Ikken continued to be silent! Then KeYnNamM told him what he had learned from Aylal. "At the square in front of the well chamber, you said to Aylal that I resembled your father. You said: Look closely Aylal! Look, he is as tall as Baba, he has his hair, and walks like him. Look how he swings his arms, just like Baba!” KeYnNamM hesitated, then asked cautiously, “Why, did you say that, Ikken?"
Ikken stayed silent for a long time, "Aylal should not have told you! I told him not to.” Clearing his throat, “However, I did not tell him everything about our baba." Slowly he began. "I saw your face for the first time in the well chamber. You were looking down at us through the grate. It frightened me. Your face looked like Father's when I was allowed to visit him in prison for the last time. His face was pale, exhausted, full of worry! For a moment I thought father was back, back as a ghost. But then you stepped back and I realized you were the man from the ladder to heaven, the Amestan who escaped death." Only after a long pause did Ikken continued, "I know the governor. I know him well and I knew you were lost without help!"
"But your father has only gone away! That’s what Aylal always says. Baba just left. He ran away from bad people, he didn't abandon us! Yes, Baba is gone but he will come back as soon the bad people have left!" "Aylal was a small boy at that time, he was only four years old. I had to tell him want happened in his way! I couldn’t tell him what really happened. Father made me promise to tell him only that he had left!" Ikken was silent for a long time, "Father didn't leave! He would never have left us alone, me and Aylal! No! The governor took him from us! The governor had him murdered!"
When KeYnNamM said nothing and stayed silent because he didn’t know how to console the boy, Ikken explained. "Now you know why I attacked the reed puppet today with such a fury! I shot the governor! I avenged my father!" Then Ikken fell silent. He started to tremble and then moved very close to KeYnNamM, as if he needed strength and protection.
"Do you want to know why the governor killed my father?" Ikken did not wait for KeYnNamM's answer, "Father had a stall in souk. In summer he had the sweetest grapes, the juiciest dates, the ripest figs and in winter the best dried fruit in the souk. All year round he sold fresh vegetables and fragrant herbs from the mountains. He had customers from noon until evening. At dawn every day he would went to our garden outside of the town. He watered the beds and harvested fresh fruit. When he returned to the souk afterwards the housewives were already waiting and crowding around his stall.
One day he governor passed by with his servant on an inspection tour, took one of the deep blue grapes. He tasted the berries as he walked on and stopped in amazement. He sent his servant back and to tell my father. "My master wants more grapes! They taste better to him than any he has tasted so far!" "These are grapes from my garden. The vines were planted by my father. May he rest in peace! I watered them and pruned them and now, now they bear the sweetest grapes in the whole town.
"Three days later, the governor came to the market again. This time he walked purposefully toward father's stall, tasting the various fruits, licking his lips, "Your grapes are truly the most delicious in the souk, your dates the sweetest, and the figs the juiciest. Where is your garden? Up in the mountains? Is it in the sun in the morning and in the shade of the trees at noon and in the moonlight at night? Does it have its own spring and is the ground saturated by the trickling water in the channels?"
"Yes, High Lord! All this is true and more. It is situated in a small valley, sheltered from the hot midday breeze. In the morning the larks sing, and at night the nightingales, and in the daytime the doves coo there."
"That's the garden I've always wanted." Smiled the governor, pulling a bag from his pocket, shaking crystals onto his palm so that they glittered in the sun, "Here, look how they glitter. They shall all be yours when you sell me the garden!"
"No, no governor! The garden is not for sale! I inherited it from my father and he from his father and he from his father. The garden belonged to my family even before the town was founded! It is not for sale!" Ikken was silent for a moment. "From that day on, the governor came to my father's stand every day, bringing more and more crystals, trying to persuade my father to sell. He, however, remained steadfast."
"When all the persuading was of no use, the governor hatched a jet-black plan." Ikken snorted contemptuously. "He promised a thief he had just convicted that he would let him go free if he hid a bag of crystals in my father's house. The thief did it when my father went to the garden to tend it and get fresh fruit. When my father returned before noon with the harvest of the day, policemen were already waiting in front of his house, accusing him of having broken into the governor's house. , Knocked the governor down and tied him up, and then escaped with a bag of crystals. My father protested most vehemently. He allowed the policemen to search his house, not being aware of any guilt. Of course, the policemen discovered the bag of crystals under the bed where the thief had hidden it! They immediately arrested my father and threw him into the dungeon!"
"Where were you? Where was your mother? Didn't the neighbors and friends help your father?" asked KeYnNamM, startled by so much perfidy. "Mother had already died a long time ago. She died when Aylal was born. Father raised us together with our old, half-blind auntie. He was the best father in the world!" Ikken sobbed softly, "When they captured father, Aylal was just four and I was eight. We stayed with the blind aunt because no one else would have us. The governor himself put my father on trial, not the judge. The trial turned out the way he wanted it to! He confiscated our house, our stall in the souk and of course the garden as punishment for the alleged theft. For allegedly knocking him down, my father was sentenced to death.
Governor Gwasila had the execution carried out the same evening after the sentencing. The only mercy he granted my father was a visit from me to the dungeon." Ikken sobbed out, but then bravely continued speaking, "At parting, my father asked me, 'Just tell Aylal that I have gone away!' Tell your brother only when he has grown up that it was the governor who had me murdered! Promise to take care of your brother like I would!" Ikken was silent for a moment. Desperate and full of hatred, he added, "That very evening the governor had his henchmen throw my father off the mountain into Bone Gulch. There the dogs bit him dead and jackals ate his corpse. I could not even bury his bones."
KeYnNamM took Ikken in his arms. The report had stirred him and made him angry at the same time. "The governor has violated all the laws of men, even the laws of the Empire! Didn't anyone stop him, not the judge, not the city captain?" After a long pause, KeYnNamM said solemnly, "The governor deserves to die!"
Ikken clung to KeYnNamM, distraught and saddened by the memory. But then he said in a clear voice "I couldn't let you die too! I had to set you free! You should not die like Baba!". Now the king of No-One's land knew that he had to avenge the father of Ikken and Aylal, execute avenge on the governor, the city and the whole empire.
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To be continued...
Posted 06/10/2022