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 8
The Fire of Liberation

"Where was your tent KeYnNamM-baba? The concentration camp is huge and the people, over there, are as small as ants. How can I know who is a prisoner and who is a guard? I can't tell the difference. From the distance all look the same!" Ikken was hiding behind boulders between KeYnNamM and Tarit on the mountain ridge facing the penal camp. From up here they could overlook the whole concentration camp. The Amestan had never seen it from this perspective.

Sure, he recognized the wound that the greed of the Emperor for crystals had torn into the mountain on the edge of Jbel Sirwa. Decades of mining had gnawed away about one third of the ridge. All that remained of the ridge bordering the penal camp was a steep rock face that formed the west side of the camp. The bare rock wall reminded Ikken of wooden beam gnawed by termites. In this case the holes in the rock face were the entrances to the tunnels where the convicts dug for crystals. Between this steep face and the shabby settlement for the guards and their commander at the other end, the penal camp occupied a stony flat, a dusty trapezoid, created by the leveling of the overburden from the mining.

The steep rock wall was a natural obstacle to any attempt of the prisoners to break out because it was insurmountable, especially since its upper edge was secured by a palisade fence. The fence led down along its edge to wind around the penal camp, along its northern boundary to the picket fence separating the guards' dwellings from the penal camp itself. Along the northern fence constructed of over-man-high stakes, the convicts had piled up all the brushwood that had accumulated during the digging of the ridge to expand the mine. This had created an impassable rampart of dry, intertwined branches, some of which were already rotting. The wood of the thinner branches was dry as tinder and thus perfect for KeYnNamM's plan.

KeYnNamM wanted to attack the camp from its northern side, since this was not possible from the south. To the south, the camp was secured only by a low fence, which could easily be moved as soon as new tunnels were driven into the mountain to replace the exhausted tunnels in the northern part of the escarpment. Along this fence, unlike the scrub wall to the north, heavily armed guards with sharp dogs patrolled day and night.

From up here on the ridge, KeYnNamM, Ikken and Tarit could get a good overview of the penal camp and the settlement of the guards. The convicts were either living in the exploited tunnels in the northern part of the escarpment or in tents in front of it. Neither the caves nor the tents provided sufficient protection against the brooding midday sun and the cold night wind. In the central part of the camp open shelters had been erected. In these the convicts had to separate the precious crystals from the worthless parent rock with hammer and chisel, without breaking the precious gems.

The picket fence to the settlement in the east was particularly high and the passage from the camp was secured by an iron-barred gate. In the mornings and evenings, the captives had to line up at the gate to get their servings from the strumpets of the guards. Their food consisted of a meager porridge of millet, beans, and sometimes chunks of meat. Barrels filled with water were standing beside the gate and were filled by the guards at will. A popular way of punishing the prisoners was not to refill the barrels for days.

The camp commander and guards were only indirectly concerned with regime inside the camp. The system was maintained by a Kapo recruited from the ranks of the prisoners themselves. The Kapo was recruited from the group of the most brutal criminals, who favored their favorites and subjugated all other captives. The Kapo was privileged. They were not only able to impose the arduous work in the pits on those who did not lick their feet, but also by the fact that they were the first to have access to the food and could choose the largest chunks of meat.

The most imposing building of the guards' settlement was the house occupied by the commander and his family. The smallest building and the one with the thickest walls, was the windowless bunker where the yield of crystals were stored till they were transported to the capital to the Empire by pack horses. The guards, mostly former soldiers, lived in long barracks without much comfort. They were provided with comfort in the kitchen building. It housed not only the kitchen and the storerooms, but also a canteen where the guards could spend their free time. However, the most important part of the building was the women's quarters. They not only cooked and washed, they also had to be at the disposal of the guards, which they did reluctantly or with pleasure, depending on their mood.

KeYnNamM waited a moment before answering Ikken. "Do you see the place where the palisade fence ends at the base of the escarpment and the fence begins along the north side of the camp?" As Ikken nodded, he explained, "That was where the tent was situated I shared with Amaynu, Ochuko and Idir. It is right next to the wall of brush, so we could best avoid the harassment of the Kapo and were not disturbed by the constant hammering that was caused by separating the crystals from the dewy rock. I hope the sleeping place of my three friends is still at the scrub wall, because that would facilitate their liberation."

"And how are we going to free your friends? There are only three of us! The three of us can't tear down the palisade fence and clear away the wall of brush. We would need a whole army for that. "We could even do this if we were only two. You and me and the fire! Tarit is needed elsewhere! But his main task was bringing the stone oil from the desert we need for the fire pots! This weapon will replace a whole army!" "Is it the stuff that stinks so terribly? Do you want to drive the guards away with its stench!" Tarit grinned! "I'd better leave you two alone. I'm not getting involved in a fight between father and son. I'll just get a bloody nose!" With a "Good luck! See you in the morning!" he set off to hike down to the roadway from the prison camp to Tinghir.

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Under the cover of dusk, KeYnNamM and Ikken stalked the stockade fence. They did not need to be quiet, as the hammering continued even as the crescent moon hung in the sky, bathing the landscape in pale light. Even when the hammering finally died away around midnight, there was no complete silence. Instead, a constant murmur from the prisoners in camp penetrated over the fence. This background noise was disturbed and interrupted again and again by sharp cries, which could be both cries of pain or of pleasure.

The stockade fence stood out black against the night sky as KeYnNamM and Ikken crept up the slope toward it. Having reached its foot, they listened into the darkness, but everything was quiet, i.e. only the steady murmur of the prisoners could be heard, as well as the barking of dogs from the south fence of the camp. This meant, the fence in front of them here was not guarded today, as KeYnNamM knew from his time in the camp.

KeYnNamM carefully fished the first of the three fire pots out of the sack, twisted the stuck stopper out of the narrow neck of the clay jug, pulled the strip of fuse a span out of the jug with the help of the thread tied to it, and held it into the flame of the glare lantern that Ikken had been carrying along. The smell of stone oil mixed with resin and saltpeter rose to their noses. Ikken sneezed. He protested, "Quick, throw the fire pitcher over the fence or I'll sneeze myself to death and they'll know we're here."

Striking out wide, KeYnNamM hurled the first fire-pot over the stockade fence. He prayed that the thin wall of the clay pot would shatter into a thousand shards on impact, the highly combustible mixture would catch on the scraggy branches and be set ablaze by the glowing fuse. They waited a moment and when smoke rising over the fence indicated that at least some branches had caught fire, they crept along the fence.  A little further down, KeYnNamM lit the fuse of the second fire-pot and threw it over the fence. The spot was much closer to the guards' settlement than the one where the first pot had been thrown over the fence. Now, moving as fast as they could through the darkness, they rushed down the slope a little closer to the settlement to throw the third fire pot over the fence. The downdraft that blew from the mountain into the valley fanned the nests of embers that had been created by the burning oil and soon three snakes of fire traveled along the fence from the rock-face down to the settlement of the guards. When the fire found dry food, the flames blazed brightly, a shower of sparks flew through the night and ignited not only the dry brush along the fence inside the penal camp, but also the meager bushes on the valley slope.

KeYnNamM and Ikken did not wait for the success of their action at the fence, but climbed the hillside to get a good overview of what was happening in the camp. Hidden behind a boulder, they waited for the alarm cries of the guards and prisoners, or at least the howling of the guard dogs, whose fine noses would be the first to detect the smoke.

As soon the three fire snakes were creeping along the palisades, the first alarm calls sounded mixed by incomprehensible commands, by curses and the nervous barking of the guard dogs. Soon the brush along the fence was fully ablaze and they could see the guards trying to herd the prisoners together to prevent an escape, because extinguishing the fire seemed not possible.

KeYnNamM and Ikken waited patiently. They guessed the prisoners could not break out till at least part of the palisades had completely burned down,. Would Amaynu, Ochuko, Idir succeed in escaping? That was the question that tormented KeYnNamM. The four of them had used the call of the dessert lark for communication and he used the call now. He rose out of his cover and imitated the call of the lark three times. He waited. No answer! No one seemed to have recognized the call and answered. KeYnNamM however was not sure, since in the meantime a hellish noise had broken out in the camp.

The initial silence had quickly given way to loud shouting. At first, Ikken did not understand why the noise had increased so much and why the crowd had gathered into a clump and no one was fighting the fire. "They're fighting with each other, prisoners and guards are fighting with each other," KeYnNamM whispered to Ikken, "Look the guards want to prevent the captives from getting to the source of the fire, but the prisoners keep pushing towards the fence. They want to fight their way out and escape as soon as the fence is burned down. The dogs are no help anymore either! Do you hear how they are howling? The convicts are probably trying to beat the beasts to death."

In the faint moonlight, Ikken could see that two parties were facing each other. The larger group had surrounded the smaller one, despite the latter had lances whose tips flashed in the moonlight. Many of the prisoners had armed themselves with long poles, with which they defended themselves against the lance thrusts of the guards and struck at them. Others picked up chunks of stone that were lying on the ground and threw them at the guards. The numerical superiority of the prisoners was considerable and could not be compensated by the guards even by their better armament.

The guards' group was pushed further and further. Before the guards could be overrun, however, they changed their tactics. They no longer tried to advance to the burning fence to prevent the prisoners from breaking out, but changed their direction of attack. They broke through the encirclement and tried to reach the gate to the settlement. They succeeded, however with further casualties only. The camp women, who had been cheering the guards on from the beginning, opened the small passage next to the main gate, through which they were able to escape one by one. While a smaller group of prisoners besieged the gate, most of them run to the fence, looking for places where the fire had already completely burned down the north fence and the embers were dying already.

Where the north fence abutted the rock wall and the fence had burned down to a few palisades, the prisoners threw large stones on the hot ashes and thus built a passable path over the embers. In the first light of day, a steady stream of fugitives now left the penal camp. The first seemed to have taken with them only what they carried on their bodies. Those who came later dragged their few belongings in bundles on their backs. KeYnNamM was sure, that many had hoarded a small treasure of crystals, as he had done at the time in the camp. Back in freedom they would need them to get away. But how far would the few stones last on the run from the Emperor's henchmen?

KeYnNamM didn't waste any more time thinking about it, but searched the line of fugitives for the friends from his time as prisoner. He had to find them, at least one of them, who could tell him what had happened to the others. Had any of them survived? Had the governor them killed in revenge for his escape? Anything could have happened. For a moment, sadness and fatigue overcame him and his eyes fell shut.

KeYnNamM startled when Ikken nudged him! "There look KeYnNamM-baba, look the big black man supporting a smaller man, are you looking for them?" It was Ochuko and the one limping along beside him was Amaynu. Idir walked right behind. He had a thick bandage wrapped around his head. KeYnNamM jumped up, waving his arms and yelling, "Ochuko, Ochuko, up here! Here we are! Ochuko, Amaynu, Idir, up here!"

Ikken had never seen KeYnNamM-baba run as fast as he did now. Slowly he climbed after him and when he saw the four of them hugging each other, dancing around like maniacs, patting each other on the shoulders, kissing each other on the cheeks, he became a little envious. After all, he had spotted the three without ever having seen them before. Ikken was quickly reconciled, however, when the tall black man leaned down to him, beamed at him, and lifted him up, "You're the brave one who saved the Amestan! It must be you! You and your little brother are famous, you are even admired by the guards in the camp."

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Despite the lance wound Amaynu had in his thigh, they decided not to follow the throng of fleeing prisoners into the valley, but took the more arduous route over the ridge to the north. Around noon they rested at a spring on the edge of a cedar forest and did not descend into a valley that led east until the early evening. When they saw the first village, a fortified village surrounded by walls on a bare hill top above the valley night had already broken. Amaynu, Ochuko, Idir who still wear the shirt with the emperor’s emblem, hid among bushes by the creek while KeYnNamM and Ikken climbed the steep path to the Qsar.

As the two stepped through the gate into the narrow courtyard of the fortified village, a long-drawn lip trill shooed the children playing outside into the houses. The courtyard was now deserted, with only scrawny dogs circling the both and growling dangerously. Anxiously, Ikken scanned the dark window openings and narrow entrances in the loam house for life. Just as he grabbed KeYnNamM's hand to pull him toward the gate of the Qsar the door of the largest of the houses opened and a hunched figure moved slowly down the few steps into the courtyard. In the darkness, neither KeYnNamM nor Ikken could tell whether the figure in the wide cloak was a man or a woman.

Ikken shuddered as the figure circled them three times, muttering verses that could have been prayers as well as curses. Like frozen, he clung to KeYnNamM. He shuddered even more when the figure stopped in front of him, ran a bony hand over his hair, and then poked a pointed index finger into his chest, right there where his heart was beating. "I smell it, I smell it!" the figure murmured, in the frail voice of an old woman, "It's you, you're the new king. You don't fool me!" Then she turned to KeYnNamM. "Where is the old Amestan, the Amestan I loved when I was young and beautiful? Where has he gone?" KeYnNamM could not make sense of what the old woman was saying, for he did not understand the dialect she spoke. The only words he could guess were king and Amestan and they unsettled him.

Ikken understood the old woman well because he knew the dialect of the mountain people who sold their sheep and goats at the souk of Tinghir. "The old witch knows you KeYnNamM-baba, she knows that you are the king of the No-One's-Land. She knows your father! She calls him old Amestan. She wants to know where he is! But why doesn't she call me king too?"

Now it ran cold down KeYnNamM's spine, talso. Then he answered, "Yes old one, I am the new Amestan of No-One's-land. A long time ago, my father was put to rest in the royal tomb in Tamegroute. You will never again see the joy of your youth. You must be content with the new Amestan, the one who has never heard of you!" "Be welcome Amestan, like your father you are always welcome here."

Then turning to Ikken, she laid her hand on his hair in blessing, "You don't understand yet, little king. But now my life can end, because now I am sure that the line of the protectors of the people will never draw to a close!" Then the old woman turned and disappeared through the gate into the night.

KeYnNamM and Ikken were still listening to the old woman's footsteps fading into the night, when a babble of voices woke them from their astonishment. A stout man, undoubtedly the village elder, the Amrar, bowed low before them, "What brings you and your son to our poor village, High Lord? The sun has set. Be my guests, my house is also your house, my table your table, my bed your bed! Your arrival brought our mother the peace she longed for so long! Lord, be welcome"

KeYnNamM asked the man to straighten up, "Lord of this valley, we are wanderers and have lost our way. We, my son and I, ask you for bread for us and our three friends who are waiting by the creek. Two of them are wounded and the third has to take care of them. We don't want to be a burden to you and your village. The fresh water of the stream is enough for us as a drink and the soft sand of its banks will be our bed, but we haven't eaten since yesterday. Take our crystals for bread and cheese! Take them Amrar, for stones do not satisfy."

The Amrar clapped his hands and immediately women brought bread, cheese and dried meat. When KeYnNamM wanted to pay, the village elder did not accept the crystals. The Amestan therefore called one of the boys standing around and poured the glittering crystals into his open hand, "Distribute them among your friends and treat strangers as your fathers do."

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To be continued...

Posted 07/01/2022