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 15
Ambush at the Oasis of Mhamit

The walls of rammed earth of the upper floors of the former residential castle, the Tighremt, of the Oasis Mhamit were collapsed and the ceiling beams had fallen. Tarit and his small group of awaited the arrival of Areksim's troops. Two of his Imuhaghs had ventured up the dilapidated tower, which had not yet collapsed. From this venture point they were able to overlook the path to the palm forest and around the narrow expanse of water as well as the small lake itself.

Toward midnight, the trained eyes of the sentries detected movements on the plateau to the east. The rapidly approaching dots grew larger and larger. Soon they recognized KeYnNamM by his horse and guessed that his companions must be Yufayyur and Ikken and two of their comrades. They informed Tarit, who sent a guide to meet the approaching men. At the time KeYnNamM were already close to the lake of the oasis, the vanguard of Areksim's troop appeared just on the path leading to the it.

The tighremt stuck to the stone wall of south slope. So KeYnNamM and his men had to cross the palm forest first to get to Tarit's hideout. Since Areksim's force was already dangerously close, they could not use the horses. "Dismount!" ordered KeYnNamM, "We'll cross the palm forest on foot and the guard will take the horses back to the plateau and wait there."

Suddenly the night was full of shouts. The governor's troop, almost parched with thirst, had discovered the glittering water between palm trees. The strict riding order dissolved the very next moment. Driven by thirst, the mercenaries jumped off their horses and ran like a horde of wild buffalos to the shallow body of water, fell on the ground at the shore and began to quench their thirst as hastily as if they had never tasted water before. Neither the commands of Areksim, their field captain, nor of Udad, his lieutenant, nor of his aide-de-camp could restrain the thirsty ones. But not only the mercenaries rushed forward, also the horses and donkeys could not be stopped. They galloped forward, overrunning one or the other mercenary and rushed into the shallow waters to drink. When the mercenaries had quenched their first thirst, some threw off their clothes and dived into the water, while the horses and donkeys rolled around in the cooling water, saddles and supply sacks included.

KeYnNamM and his group arrived almost simultaneously with the mercenaries at the lake, but at the opposite end. of the lake. They immediately grasped the favorable opportunity. Dressed only in their loose pants, without the telltale face veils and overgarments, they waded into the shallow water and took the horses by the reins that had strayed furthest from the mercenaries. They dragged the reluctant horses to shore and whisked them away to the tighremt.

Udad, Areksim's sub-leader, rushed along the shore boiling with rage. He shouted commands, bellowing for the runaway horses to be brought to shore, and when his orders did not immediately succeed, lashed out with his riding whip at the nearest mercenaries. When his eyes fell on KeYnNamM's group, who had mounted the horses in the water and were forcing them ashore with coaxing and encouraging blows, he was satisfied that his rampage seemed to have succeeded with at least some of his men. When he looked more closely, however, he noticed that the horsemen were driving the horses into the forest, not back to the west end of the lake where Areksim's troop planned their bivouac.

Udad rode in fast speed to the group that was taking the horses out of the lake. As he did so, he noticed that one of the riders was short and slender. The former head capo could not remember seeing a boy among his mercenaries. "Who are you? Come here, boy, you there! Who are you?" When Ikken did not immediately obey the command, Udad urged his horse into the group and tried to pull him over to his horse. "Keep your hands off my son, Udad you butcher! Do you recognize me? Do you remember Azrur! Do you remember the one you sent to his death on the ladder of heaven!" Udad suddenly recognized the voice! "KeYnNamM? You are still alive? You've lived too long, Amestan! Here!" He drove his horse beside Amestan's, plucked out his dagger, and stabbed at his enemy. KeYnNamM, however, bent to the side and intercepted Udad's arm, dragging him from his horse. Before the former head of the kapo of the crystal could react, two of KeYnNamM's companions jumped from the horse and pinned him to the ground. "Now what?" asked one of the Imuhagh, "Shall I cut his throat?" "Stuff his mouth and take him with us! Let Udad pay off his debt."

₪₪₪

"What is Areksim up to? Who is supplying him with his information? What is the size of the task force?" These and similar questions rained down on Udad, who was suspended by his arms from a crossbar in a dark hole in the tighremt so that the tops of his feet just touched the ground. The former head of the Kapo and current lieutenant of Areksim remained silent. "If you don't want to talk, hang until you rot. You can call for help to all the boys you have molested, Azrur the Handsome, for example, whom you sent to his death! Neither he nor anyone else will help you." KeYnNamM nudged the one dangling from the beam so that the tips of his feet lost their grip and then left the dark chamber.

Tarit had already divided his team into groups and was now distributing the tasks. “You KeYnNamM, you sneak with eight men around the lake to the end of Areksim’s camp, to where the pack animals are tied and the provisions are laid down. Overpower the guards, steal as much of the provisions as you can carry and try to destroy the rest. Don't forget to untie the pack animals, don't try to take them with you, they will run away on their own.” After KeYnNamM nodded his agreement, he went on, “I will take eight men to the west side of the forest and creep to the place where the remaining horses are so close that we can attack them with flaming arrow and cause panic. Yufayyur and Ikken will stay here with the rest of our team. You, Yufayyur, and three men will be guarding the ramp that leads to the gate of the tighremt. You will hide in such a way that a passerby cannot detect you. You, Ikken, take one man with you to the top of the tower. From there you can overlook the whole oasis. As soon as strangers approach the castle warn Yufayyur. You shout three times like an owl and repeat the shout until Yufayyur answers with the same shout. When a large crowd approaches, you shoot incendiary arrows into the air to alert us. Then we will come back as fast as possible.” Then he turned to Yufayyur once more, “If Udad makes noise, cut out his heart!"

₪₪₪

Areksim shouted after Udad, "Damn criminal, where are you again? Everything is going wrong! Bring those damn rookies to heel! See that they get out of the water and recapture the horses!"

Earlier the field captain had seen Udad disappear in the dark, but that had been a while ago! Full of rage, he put spurs to the horse and drove it along the narrow path along the lake shore to its eastern end, beating with his whip at the soldiers standing in the water. Neither did he find Udad nor his horse. Even angrier than before, he rode the trail back to where the bivouac had to be built. On the way back, a suspicion arose. Udad was a criminal! Was it possible that he was making common cause with the desert sons, the Imuhagh? The incidents would speak for that, the raid at Meryem's spring, the false information about the Seven Goats' Well, the foul water of the last watering hole. He had to get the veteran soldiers firmly on his side, whom he had neglected so far in favor of Udad and his brood. At the designated camping area, the approved veterans had begun to set up a bivouac while others rounded up the horses and tied them down for the night.

Areksim drove his horse to the center of the bivouac, straightening in his spurs. "My lieutenant has disappeared, gone with his horse. I therefore appoint Maysar as the new lieutenant, and Tanan, Ayrad, and Winsen as his aides. The four of you will immediately take command of Udad's confidants, arrest them! They will remain tied up until Udad's disappearance is solved!" He felt comfortable with his decision. It would reconcile his old comrades-in-arms and at the same time settle the problems with Udad's former kapos.

The new leaders began to act immediately. Each of the groups of twelve mercenaries had to guard its own horses, which also meant that the horses were now tied close to the fires and shackled. They also assigned guard teams to relieve each other during the night.

₪₪₪

Tarit's and KeYnNamM's Imuhagh had meanwhile arrived at the agreed attack positions and were lying in wait. Both had immediately realized that Areksim's regrouping of troops required a change of plan. Tarit was the first to react. He sent half of his men to KeYnNamM for reinforcements and stayed behind with only four. Both groups watched the bivouac and waited patiently until the night chill indicated that midnight had passed. When darkness was at its deepest, the attack began.

Tarit and his men shot flaming arrows into the center of the camp between the pegged horses. The trails of fire in the sky alerted the guards and woke the horses from their light sleep. The pungent smell of the fire and the flying sparks made the horses skittish. They began to prance around, trying to break free, and when that failed, they began to lunge with their tied hind legs. The second hail of arrows increased the commotion and the soldiers could not calm the animals. The noise also woke Areksim from his restless sleep. He jumped up, uttered curses and began shouting orders. The majority of the still half-asleep men did not understand them, only some of the veteran soldiers immediately guessed what to do. They grabbed their weapons and when they saw where the arrows were coming from, they formed a strike squad and charged in that direction. Tarit and his small group had expected the attack. They shot incendiary arrows into the bivouac a third time, then left their positions and spread out in a fan’s shape in the dark. Areksim's combat patrol pushed into the void, while Tarit and his men went around the camp and joined KeYnNamM's group.

Areksim assumed the danger was coming from the north, because this was the direction the arrows had been coming from. Therefore, he neglected the southern flank for the time being. KeYnNamM's men took advantage of this. By the time Tarit and his men arrived, the defenders of the Empire of the Desert Sons had regained their full strength and advanced toward the expeditionary corps' supply depot. They did not even attempt to take away the bags with the supplies, but threw flaming pots between them. Upon hitting the ground, the fire pots burst and the mixture of rock oil, resin and saltpeter poured over the bags with the supplies, igniting them and soon a sea of flames spread in all directions. Soon the entire bivouac was enveloped in pungent black smoke. The men, guarding the of the supply depot, fled into the darkness, coughing and headless.

Meanwhile, Areksim, tried to bring order to the ranks of the expeditionary corps. His roar could hardly penetrate the noise of the frightened men. Only after a long time was he able to restore order with the help of his new lieutenants, the veterans.

₪₪₪

Immediately after the attack KeYnNamM and Tarit had retreated with their men to the tighremt. There they formed a temporary defensive line, but abandoned it when Areksim's expected counterattack failed to materialize. They then decided to send out two raiding parties of five men each to attack Areksim's force from the flanks. While the rest of the group, under the command of Yufayyur, remained at the foot of the fortress to defend it.

KeYnNamM, as a resident of the Draa was familiar with water. Therefore, he decided to attack the governor’s corps with his five men from the sea side. Their goal was to further weaken Areksim's strike force without engaging in a direct exchange. Observing that Field Captain had gathered his troops in the center of the camp, they decided to release as many horses as possible. They crept around the camp to the horses, cut the shackles of their hind legs and cut them loose. The animals stood dumbfounded at first, but then realized their freedom and trolled off into the darkness.

Tarit led his small group around the bivouac. He planned to sneak up from the west to rob the replacement weapons from the supply depot. At first glance the depot with the containers of arrows, bows and lances seemed unguarded. However, after observing the place carefully for some time, Tarit discovered that the guards were hiding in the brushes on either side of it. He sneaked around their hiding places in an arc and then approached them from the bivouac waving a sign, as if to deliver a message from Areksim. The guards reacted as expected. They left their hiding places and were overpowered without much resistance. Tarit and his men left the bows behind and took only the bundles of arrows and lances back to the Tighremt.

There they were already expected. From his vantage point on the tower, Ikken had noticed Areksim’s scouts skulking around the tighremt. When they came too close to the tighremt, Yufayyur was able to quickly disarm them. He locked them up with Udad in the farthest room of the basement. After the return of KeYnNamM, they prepared everything for the departure. The horses were already saddled in the stables and when Tarit appeared with his loot, the whole troop mounted and left the Oasis of Mhamit towards the Qsar of the Living Dead.

After Areksim had succeeded finally to get his troop in rank and file, the next messenger with an even worse news appeared, “Field Captain, Captain! The Imuhaghs have robbed all our supplementary weapons. The devilish Imuhaghs have overpowered the guards and taken all the arrows and lances."

Areksim would have preferred to make the unlucky messenger a head shorter, but he only shouted at him, "Is no one here able to do his job correctly? Get horses, we must catch up with the robbers and punish them! Quick!" In this moment a soldier with the next bad news turned up, "They have untied some of the horses. They escaped into the night and are now staying in the palm forest. We have to catch them!"

 Areksim began to curse. He cursed first the governor, then his own mother, then his wife, and lastly himself. "Go gather the rest of the horses and recapture the ones that ran away! I need twelve volunteers now to go after the robbers with me! Go!" The first to come forward were his trusted veterans, "Of you I'll take eight, the others are in charge of the camp!" Then he looked around, "You there, you there and you two there, you are coming along also!"

Areksim could just hear the stomping of hooves of the Imuhagh leaving at the tighremt when he arrived. He was about to set off in pursuit of the robbers, when one of his lieutenants alerted him to the muffled cries coming from the cellars of the old castle. When the search party returned after some time from the pitch-dark basement with Udad and the freed scouts, the former head of the kapo had to be dragged because he could not keep on his feet. In front of Areksim they let go of him and he collapsed. "What have they done to you! I must have been mistaken about you, Kapo!" said the field captain with an apologetic undertone, "When you disappeared yesterday, I assumed that you had changed the sides and gone over to the Desert Sons! I guess you didn't!” after he got a closer look at him, “What did they do to you?" Udad said nothing at first and then only, "KeYnNamM ordered them to avenge the deaths of young boys in the penal camp. He gave them a free hand. They raped me, one by one. The Imuhagh are all beasts."

₪₪₪

The morning sun bathed the steep walls of the wadi in light. Tarit raised his arm and ordered his troop to a halt. "This is where we split up! KeYnNamM and I have agreed that he will ride with five of my most experienced border guards in the wadi as far as the Qsar of the Jinn. They will also take the horses that we took from Areksim. Because of the many tracks, he will think that our whole group heads to the Qsar of the Jinn." KeYnNamM added "With Tarit we meet at the Qsar later!"

Next Yufayyur came forward, "Ikken and I will form the second group with Irat and Itri. Our job will be to watch Areksim's movements from the plateau and warn KeYnNamM if necessary. Irat and Itri are coming with us, because as Imuhagh from the tribe of the Angads they know the desert around here like their own tent! We will take the fastest horses!"

"And we," Tarit turned to the others of the group, "We'll take the shortcut across the plateau to the Qsar of the Jinn. There, in the dilapidated tighremt

by the spring, we will prepare everything to receive Areksim and his men in a suitable way. I expect KeYnNamM to reach us in time before the governor's commander and his corps." Tarit turned with the main force into the next wadi that branched off to the north and was soon out of sight.

₪₪₪

KeYnNamM was worried about Ikken. I'm already worrying like a real father! He thought to himself and shook his head. After all I am responsible for him. Since the beginning of the campaign, KeYnNamM had got to know a totally new Ikken. Was it the red hat that had supposedly once belonged to King Gaya, was it the absence of Aylal, Ikken's little brother, whom he usually guarded like the apple of his eye, or was it the friendship with Yufayyur? Did their friendship bother him? Ikken and Yufayyur had been inseparable since they met first. They always had something to talk about and as soon as others came within earshot, they began to whisper. If they thought they were unobserved, they would hold hands or one would put an arm over the other's shoulder. At first, KeYnNamM was envious of the close friendship between the two, then he remembered his first time with Tarit. They had been inseparable too, stuck together day and night. He had to smile. Hopefully Yufayyur wouldn't take advantage of Ikken's naivety. Let them, he told himself then, love falls where it falls and Ikken has already shown that he can accept responsibility.

"Ikken, Ikken!" he called to him, "Ikken! Just a word with you!" He gave the horse the spurs and rode up to Ikken, "KeYnNamM-baba?" "Excited?" when Ikken looked at him uncomprehending KeYnNamM only said, "Our task can quite be dangerous. Be careful!" "Yufayyur is with me! Together, nothing will happen to us!" Yufayyur urged his horse to KeYnNamM's other side, "KeYnNamM-baba!" he began and suddenly blushed, "May I also say Baba, Amestan?" as KeYnNamM nodded, "I never let Ikken down and Ikken will never let me down! Remember Tarit and you have always been there for each other also." Suddenly he looked to the ground, "He told me everything, everything.” And repeated, “He told me everything!"

At the turnoff to the next side wadi, Yufayyur and his small group took their leave and soon disappeared around the next bend in the narrow dry valley. KeYnNamM, however, spurred his horse and tried to catch up with his men, who had ridden on.

₪₪₪

To be continued...

Posted 08/12/2022