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 16
At the Qsar of the Jinn
It took Areksim almost the entire morning to get the governor’s troop in rank and file and ready to leave. Only those soldiers who had already served under him in other campaigns were ready to leave immediately. The others however, especially the former prisoners, but also some of the newly recruited mercenaries, had difficulties to follow his orders. Some were simply afraid because of the events at Meryem's Spring and pondered to go back home. Others felt sick because they had quenched their thirst with the foul water two days ago and still others were simply afraid to go out into the unknown without supplies and spare weapons.
The advance of the expeditionary corps was slow, especially as two dozen horses had disappeared and now some mounts had to carry two or three riders. It was a small advantage that now the mules were also available for riding, which originally had been supposed to transport supplies and spare weapons.
Soon Areksim’s scouts had discovered the tracks that Tarit's group had left in the sand of the wadi. From the tracks they tried to determine the number of their opponents and finally agreed on forty. When Areksim compared this number with the number of men Udad said he had seen in the fortress, he became uncertain. Should he believe his scouts or the former prisoner. He ordered Udad to be brought and began to interrogate him. "Are you sure you counted only about thirty men in the Tighremt? Are you trying to deceive me about the true strength of the Imuhaghs, or did my scouts misjudge their number?" Udad became angry, "I told you there were no more than twenty-six Imuhaghs there at one time! Maybe there are more because some were keeping watch outside. But there were certainly not more than 30. I didn't know their leader are until now. But his name seems to be Tarit. To my knowledge is Tarit the favorite of the Amenokal, the desert king, and his sharpest weapon. But the other one, I know well! He was with me in the penal camp! It is the Amestan, the king of the No-One's-Land. And his son was present, too. The Imuhaghs called him Ikken, the little King Gaya!" Udad thought he had communicated enough for now and turned his back on the field captain. As he walked away, he muttered half aloud, "Believe it or not! I know what I saw, and I wouldn't underestimate the desert sons if I were you!"
Soon the column approached the spot where Tarit and the larger part of his party had taken the shortcut to the Qsar of the Jinn. The scouts rode up the side valley a short distance, but then turned back, "Lord!" their leader bowed to Areksim, "Lord, this road leads directly north into the stone desert. There is no watering place there, no place to rest, at least no place suitable for your entire troop. We suggest that you send a few of us scouts after them, but with the larger part of the troop continue on the path through the wadi to the Qsar of the Jinn, and there turn off in the direction of the Kasbah of the Desert King. From there It is only two to three days' journey." Areksim considered this suggestion for a moment, "I need you here. But well, appoint two of your men to follow the trail. But they should not try to get so close to the enemy. They may be discovered and slaughters these savages. As soon as they know where the group of Imuhaghs is heading to and who is leading them, they should turn and come back!" Areksim followed with the governor’s corps followed the Imuhaghs and KeYnNamM. But since his troops were slower than KeYnNamM’s, the distance to them increased by the hour.
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Yufayyur, Ikken and the two Angads had returned at crest of the valley wall to the tributary wadi where Tarit had left it and taken the shortcut to the Qsar of the Jinn. At the turnoff, hidden among dry scrub in the shade of boulders, they had waited for the governor's troops to pass. They were about to pursue the scouts and disarm them, but then refrained from doing so when they turned back to brief Areksim. When the expeditionary corps moved on and two scouts picked up Tarit's trail again, they knew what to do. They gave them a head start, then put spurs to their horses and caught up with them. When the scouts saw that they were outnumbered by the Imuhaghs, they surrendered without a fight.
Irat and Itri had already put the knife to the scouts' throats when Ikken recognized them. "Hello you two! I know you from the souk. You Lativ had a fruit stall right next to that of my blind auntie, and you Zeki worked in the cattle market. What are you doing here? Why are you chasing after me, Aylal, the Amestan and the desert sons? What have we done to you?"
The man with the fruit stand turned pale, then red, then pale again. Finally, he stammered "Ikken, is that you Ikken, my neighbor?" then he swallowed, "I am not following you Ikken, neither do I chase after Aylal! Suddenly you have disappeared. The whole town was looking for you. The governor announced that the King of One’s-Land had stolen you! He promised a reward to anyone who would bring you back. When that brought nothing, he had the entire souk turned upside down. He burned down your auntie’s stall, and he burned mine as well." Then he fell silent. After a while he continued, "And your half-blind aunt? He brought her to his house to take care of her!"
Ikken was surprised. He was happy to hear the good news about his old aunt, "Is she still alive? Is she doing well? What is she doing?" He wanted to know everything. But his neighbor suddenly made a distressed face, "She is dead. She died in the governor's house."
"But my auntie was tough, half blind though, but healthy! She was healthy! I don't believe she died! He killed her!" Ikken drew a parallel with his father's fate. "The governor tortured my dear auntie to death. He wanted to get out of her where we are, me, Aylal and the Amestan! She did not know! I had not even told her that we were running away from the governor, much less where we were going. My auntie was not able to betray us, so he murdered her!" Ikken cried. Then, full of rage, he groaned, " “The governor has forfeited his life! First my dear father, now my good-hearted auntie. The governor has lived the longest!”
The two scouts thought that this news would seal their death. Irat and Itri tied their hands behind their backs and pushed them to the ground. But Ikken waved them aside, "Put away the knives, we have something to discuss." He argued heatedly with Yufayyur and the two Imuhaghs. In the end, Yufayyur stepped in front of them, "If you value your lives, swear off the governor and swear allegiance to the desert king." When they nodded, Ikken stepped in front of them; "If life is dear to you, swear allegiance to the Amestan, the King of No-One’s-Land!" With grim face Irat and Itri stepped before the arrested and threatened, "If life is dear to you, then swear allegiance to Ikken, Ikken the son of King Gaya!"
The bound scouts looked in amazement from the two Imuhaghs, to Yufayyur and then stared with bulging eyes at Ikken, the street kid they knew from the bazaar in Tinghir, "We swear allegiance to Amestan! We swear allegiance to the Amenokal! We swear allegiance to the Amenokal!" " they affirmed three time bowing deeply before Ikken, "We swear allegiance to Ikken, son of King Gaya, creator of the desert realm! We swear!"
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Toward evening, KeYnNamM's column turned from the wadi into the narrow side valley that led east. After several miles, it widened into a basin with three kasbahs clinging to its steep walls. In the purple light of the low sun, the lime-walls of the castle on the east side shone as if alive, while the castle to the south was already in the shadow and seemed to be asleep. The ruins of the kasbah on the north side of the basin gave the impression of a labyrinth from the distance. It was the oldest of the three kasbahs. Of its houses only parts the walls still were standing stood, while the roofs had collapsed completely. On top of the slender tower of the kasbah in the south a flags fluttered on a poles in the evening breeze.
"Prayer flags on the tower of a cursed kasbah?" the KeYnNamM asked the old scout from the Angad clan who rode beside him. Then he pondered aloud "Prayer flags! Perhaps they are there to appease evil spirits, to welcome them, to appease them?" As a resident of the Draa Valley, KeYnNamM did not know much about the religious beliefs of the Imuhaghs. They believed in spirits, he knew. Above all, they feared Kel Essuf, the evil Kel Essuf, the good Kel Essuf, the ghost of the desert. Through meditation, their scholars, the marabout, and the wise women contacted him, through him they could heal, predict the future, interpret the past. Kel Essuf, the wild, the lonely, the mourning, Kel Essuf was powerful and omnipresent. He was not to be offended. The desert people protected themselves from his wrath with amulets, men with a pouch in which they carried magic objects, women with amulets of silver.
The old one from the clan of Angad asked, "Shall I tell you the story of the Ksar of Jinns?" He did not wait, but began. "The first kasbah was already clinging to the steep mountain face when we Angad arrived in the valley. It was uninhabited and in decay by then. The dwarfish people who lived a meager life here told of the curse that lay on the place. Since time not known, a Jinn had been living in the fountain of the kasbah. He demanded a sacrifice day after day, not a great sacrifice, not a bloody sacrifice, no, he was content with a piece of flatbread or a little millet porridge. When the inhabitants of the Kasbah became rich, they began to neglect their duty. This annoyed the jinn. He waited for a year. When no one offered him a sacrifice even after that time, he ordered the fountain to reduce its water flow to a trickle. However, he people did not heed his warning. After another year passed without the inhabitants of the Kasbah met their duty, he let the fountain dry up completely. The people cursed the jinn, without considering their own fault. They left the valley and violent storms and waterfloods destroyed the Kasbah." The old Angad scout looked KeYnNamM in the eye, "Are you also doing your duty at the Draa? Do you honor the spirits?" When the king of No-One’s-Land nodded in agreement he continued, "Generations later, a young Imuhagh came to mourn his friend. He sat down by the little rivulet that sprang from the spring pot again, and his tears mingled with the water. This softened the heart of the Jinn. He took pity, and the water began to flow again, more abundantly than ever before. As long as the Imuhagh lived, he went to the spring every day and wept for his lost friend, and the water never stopped flowing. His brothers came looking for him and when they tasted the water from the fountain. It was so refreshing and made them happy. Therefore, they decided to found a new kasbah. They moved with their wives, their children, their slaves and their cattle to the new castle, which was bigger and more beautiful than the first one. But when Imuhagh died in old age, his children forgot that he had fed the spirit of the spring with his tears every day. No one came to the spring and fed the Jinn with tears, no one offered him sacrifices. Slowly, very slowly, the spring dried up and the second kasbah also ceased to live and decayed."
Sadly, he looked at KeYnNamM, "Everything repeats itself! A third time the spring began to flow when a boy passed by looking for his white sheep. It was my great-great-grandfather. He had picked a bunch of flowers. With it he wanted to lure the white little sheep home. When he did not find the little sheep, he threw the flowers into the spring. The Jinn caught them, was reconciled and let the spring flow again. My ancestors built a new residential castle, which was more beautiful than any before. But when my great-great-grandfather died, no one brought flowers to the spring. It dried up and the inhabitants of the Kasbah had to move away. But their descendants still decorate the tower with flags and hope that the Jinn will be reconciled and make the spring flow again so abundantly that the castle can be inhabited again."
"But your brothers told me that jinns live in the castles and whoever spends the night there cannot close an eye all night. Sag is that true?" KeYnNamM was curious.
"Yes, the jinn had called his sons, the jinns, to help him, and only when he is reconciled will he send them home. Then the Spring of the Jinn will flow again." "Who will be the one to reconcile the jinn? You are old, you are wise. You know the past. Do you also know the future?" "I am not a marabout. I am not wise, God has not given me the power to see." then he pondered, "But the wise mothers say it will be a boy who wakes the jinn!"
Now, from the entrance to the valley basin, KeYnNamM could see the Fountain of the Jinn. The formerly fertile farmland of the oasis was almost completely covered with arid scrub, and in the former palm grove the withered tree-trunks stretched their leafless tops heavenward. At the narrow path leading from the valley to the kasbah on the eastern slope a deep green patch interrupted the gray monotony of dead plants. "Is it there, the fountain?” he turned questioningly to the old scout. The old Angad nodded. Just in this moment KeYnNamM perceived movement out of the corner of his eye between the walls of the ruins of the castle. Immediately He straightened up in the stirrups and reached for his lance but then he recognized Tarit of one of the riders.
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Tarit approached KeYnNamM in straight canter and brought his horse to a standstill in front of him with such lightning speed that it mounted up on its hind legs. "You are late! I was beginning to worry Areksim's troops would have caught up with you." He urged his horse next to KeYnNamM's, hugged his friend and squeezed him tightly. "Let's ride to the Fountain of the Jinn and you" he turned to the others, "you ride with my companion to our hideout up there. Take the horses with you, even if they prefer to go to the spring."
The Fountain of the Jinn was sheltered by an arc of stones. From a crack in the bedrock cold water trickled, only just enough water, to fill a shallow pool with sandy ground. Warmed up by the evening sun, it left the pool as a narrow rivulet that soon seeped away in the dry ground. The soil around the pool was just humid enough for the a few grasses.
Hot and sweaty from a long day on horseback, Tarit and KeYnNamM tore off their overgarments and submerged themselves in the shallow water as best they could. Afterwards, as they lay in the tepid water, KeYnNamM asked, "Have Ikken and Yufayyur shown up yet? I'm worried about the two. They're still too young to take on Areksim's mercenaries."
Tarit shook his head, "I'm worried too, but I'm relying on Yufayyur. He's not inexperienced and has proven many times proven his braveness. However, he is not daring." After a moment he added, "Believe me my Amestan, I would miss him as much as you miss Ikken and Aylal." When KeYnNamM looked at him questioningly, he continued "After Tamimt, Yufayyur, her brother, is the next to my heart. When he is gone, I miss him even more than Dihya and Lunja, Tamimt's sisters." KeYnNamM laughed softly, "You love him? I love Ikken and Aylal too, believe me, I can't imagine living without them anymore." When the sounds hoof beats was heard from the distance, they wasted no time and retreated to the hiding place of the desert sons to prepare the next part of the defense plan.
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Areksim was displeased and furious, furious as only a field captain could be when everything went wrong. The governor's force had taken far too much time to get from the oasis of Mhamit to the Qsar of the Jinn. Even now, as he entered the valley basin, the last group of mercenaries was not in sight. Probably this dawdler had not even turned into the side valley that led from the great wadi to the Qsar of the Jinn. Of course, there was a reason for this, actually several. First of all, two dozen horses were missing, having been stolen by the Imuhaghs either at Meryem's Spring or the oasis of Mhamit, may be some of them had simply fled. Now almost many horses had to carry two riders. The double burden made them correspondingly tired and slower. Secondly, many of the supplies had been set on fire during the raids by the Imuhag thus becoming useless, and thirdly, the desert riders had robbed the containers of arrows and spare lances at the Mhamit oasis. Desert riders? More accurate would be desert robbers! he grumbled softly, "Goddamn desert bandits.
Another reason was that criminal Udad. How could he have promoted the head-kapo from the penal camp at the crystal mine to his deputy and his cronies to lieutenant? But that was clearly the fault of the governor. He had recommended these scums. They have proven themselves in all situations, the governor had raved! He, Areksim, as the experienced field captain, should have been more suspicious and not listened to the governor. Scums remains scums!
The governor’s expeditionary force had arrived at the Fountain of the Jinn. Udad's hands were still tied behind his back. He loudly proclaimed his innocence, demanded to be released immediately and reinstated in his old position as a first lieutenant. Areksim, however, refused both! Udad's face was red with anger. He cursed. He insulted the field captain. He threatened him and at last he vowed to return immediately to Tinghir to complain to the governor.
Areksim had had enough. "Maysar, Tanan, Ayrad and Winsen come here!" he roared to his new first lieutenant and his adjutants, "Take Udad and his cronies to Kasbah over there. Throw them into a stable and barricade its entrance so they can never cross my path again! Let them starve to death!"
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With their companions, Yufayyur and Ikken had tracked the governor's expeditionary force until they were sure that the last group of mercenaries had disappeared in the side valley leading to the Jinns' Qsar. Then they took the shortcut to Tarit's hideout above the deserted settlement. There they met only one of the Amenokal’s border guard, and two others who were caring for the horses. "Hey, who are you bringing?" was the first question of the guard, "They are none of our men, they are not even Imuhagh. They look like the governor's mercenaries." "They are! We intercepted them. They weren't the best sleuths!" the first of the two Imuhagh accompanying Ikken and Yufayyur replied and the second added proudly, "They swore allegiance to Yufayyur and him?" he pointed to Ikken, "They recognized him as the heir of King Gaya." "Then why didn't you disarm them?" "I know both of them. They were my neighbors at the souk in town. I trust both of them."
Suddenly Ikken teared up, “Yufayyur, how am I supposed to tell Aylal that the governor killed his auntie, the woman who raised him?" Without thinking the desert son answered, "Ikken, you must cut off his head and bring it to Aylal. That won't lessen his grief, won't comfort him. But the governor's head will show your brother that injustice will not be tolerated." As Ikken looked at him doubtfully, "You are not alone Ikken, the Amestan, Tarit and I, we will avenge the governor’s victims, all of them, your father, your auntie, all of them! We will avenge all the governor has murdered out of arbitrariness!"
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Darkness descended over the desert. In the increasing dusk, Ikken and Yufayyur were searching for Tarit's troop. The troop had taken position at the crests of the hills around the basin where the spring of the Jinn originated. Their special task was to guard the path up to the plateau of the mountains, which led further to the Kasbah of Amenokal. The friends did not have to search too long, as both Tarit and the KeYnNamM were with de group guarding the path. When the two arrived, Tarit and KeYnNamM were discussing the best tactics to prevent the further advance of the governor's forces.
"We have already inflicted significant losses on Areksim, destroyed part of his supplies, took possession of his reserves of arrows and lance, taken more than twenty horses. This is a substantial loss for by the governor's troops, and most importantly, his men are no good for a war in the desert." "You're right Tarit." said a soft voice from the dark, "Only about a quarter of the mercenaries have war experience, the others are bloody recruits!" "Hello, hello, is that you Yufayyur?" Tarit asked.
"Is Ikken also ..." "Sure KeYnNamM-baba! And we have another good news! I have caught two of his scouts! And what do you think? They are my neighbors from the Souk! They've switched sides and sworn allegiance to us!"
KeYnNamM rushed toward Ikken. In the darkness, he almost ran him down. However, caught him at the last moment, lifted him up and began to dance with him in his arms. "Put me down, Baba. Don't crush me to death!" Ikken tried to catch his breath, because what he wanted to communicate was important. "But that's not all! Areksim has removed Udad his sub-leader from his position, the head-capo from the crystal mine. He has imprisoned him and his four cronies."
"That’s good, Areksim has weakened his troops himself! That’s good for us. Now I finally know who the five were who were locked in the Kasbah." Tarit, who still had an arm around Yufayyur's shoulders, barged in, "We should free the five, because knowing Udad, he will surely try to take revenge on Areksim." “Good idea, but how do we get to the Kasbah unseen. Only someone who knows this place well can do that!"
"I'll do it, me and my twin brother." came forward a young Angadh, "We know every hole here. Even as children, we and our friends played in the old towers. Every kasbah has hidden back entrances, including the Kasbah where the Five are locked up."
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To be continued...
Posted 05/27/2022