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 17
Udad's Revenge, Areksim's Death

Udad and his cronies lay bound on the dusty floor in the pitch-dark basement of the abandoned castle. They lay on their stomachs face down, forced to breathe in the hot, dry air along with the dust that had accumulated on the floor over the past decades. With each breath they stirred up the fine dust that clogged their noses and lungs.

At that moment, Udad hated his cronies. To him, they were cowards, incapable of anything but sticking their noses in the dust and bemoaning their fate instead of thinking about escape. He, Udad, on the other hand, cold-bloodedly considered how to escape the deadly serious situation. And he was thinking of revenge!

The head-capo had already learned at a young age that prevention is better than cure, and even now he had a remedy ready that could help him to escape. Carefully he felt with his free fingers the hem at the sleeve of his wide robe. There in a seam he had hidden a small knife blade. It was only as long as his little finger, thin as bird feather, but sharp. Once he got it out, it would be easy for him to cut the fetter one by one.

While his cronies groaned and cursed, he concentrated on this rask. He tugged at the fabric with his free fingers until he could feel the blade. Then he rubbed the cloth over its edge until it tore open and he could grasp the blade with two fingers. It took him even longer to scrape through the coarse rope around the left wrist. When that was finally done, he tore and tugged at the shackles until he could free first one hand, then the other.

Udad was triumphant! Quietly he sat up and stretched, going over the possibilities at hand. Should he make off on his own? Should he cut the others loose and take them along? Didn't they deserve it? He decided on the second, since his cronies would surely alert the guards if he let them down, leaving without them. He knew them well enough, after all. Besides, it would be easier for a group to escape and find their way back to Tinghir.

He cut one of his cronies loose after another. Then he ordered them to scan the side walls of the room for an exit. He himself chose the back wall, since he suspected it to be the passage to the back rooms of the Kasbah.

Neither the wall to the left nor the one to the north had even the smallest opening, and the passage on the back wall was buried by the collapsed ceiling. He climbed the mountain of rubble and was lucky. He found a gap, squeezed through and was already standing in the room beyond. His cronies followed and with their help they climbed through a hole in the ceiling to the floor above. From there they groped their way through a maze of small rooms to the back of the Kasbah and suddenly found themselves standing in the open.

What Udad did not suspect was that shortly before, the Imuhagh twins had arrived at the back side of the tower. They were still lying in wait in the dark when the sound of sliding stones, and the whispered commands of Udad, alerted them. Motionless, they watched as the fugitives took a path that led along the steep face of the basin to its exit. Immediately the brothers realized that it was important to prevent the escape of Udad and his cronies. They waited until darkness engulfed the five, then felt their way through the dark rooms to the front of the kasbah and began to throw stones at the guards from the window hatch of the room located on the floor above Udad's former prison. When the guards were not immediately alerted, they tried to attract their attention with half-loud shouts. They succeeded. The guards broke down the door to the room where they had locked up the prisoners. When they did not find them in the room, one of them alerted the field captain while the others went in search of the escapees. Areksim was alerted. Immediately he sent out search parties and ordered others guard the exit of the valley. The latter were able to intercept the five fugitives and arrest them despite fierce resistance.

As soon as the hunt for the escapees had begun, the Imuhagh twins left their hiding place in the kasbah, but not to return to Tarit and the Amestan. Instead, they searched for place Areksim and his aide has settled for the night.

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It was so dark in the valley that the twin brothers could assume that the guards would not recognize them as Imuhaghs. And really, they were lucky. Unnoticed, they reached the dry shrubs that grew around Areksim's camp. From this vantage point hey were able to observe the bivouac. Soon three bound figures were being brought, or rather dragged, to the center of it.  The two others seemed to have escaped or been killed. When one of the three fell down, the soldiers simply dragged him further through the sand and threw him to the ground at the edge of the pool that collected the water of the Fountain of the Jinn.

The small fire that burned in the center of the bivouac suddenly flared up, illuminating Areksim, who stood up in front of the three prisoners. By now, almost the entire expeditionary corps had gathered around the field captain and the prisoners, partially obscuring the twins' view of what was to follow. Since they did not understand the language of the Empire well, they could not follow the following events in detail. However, the next thing they saw was sending shivers down their spines. The circle around the field captain suddenly widened and two of the prisoners had to kneel own in front of him. Then the field captain beckoned two of his men, who without hesitation drew their daggers and cut the prisoners' throats.  In the silence that followed, Areksim turned to the third. He ordered him to stand up and had his shackles removed. The one of the twins had already seen this third man. "It's Udad!" he whispered to his brother. "What are they up to?"  Neither he nor his brother understood why Areksim was acting this way. "Is he trying to impress his men? Is he trying to prevent a mutiny?" one asked. What followed was even stranger. A brief, heated argument ensued, with Udad initially doing the talking. He loudly berated Areksim, accusing him of treason against the emperor and the governor. As far as the two understood, the speech was designed as if he were addressing it to the troops, not the field captain.

At first Areksim tolerated Udad's behavior unmoved, but then began a longer speech, to his soldiers. This was Areksim's mistake. He became inattentive and suddenly Udad jumped forward, pushed Areksim's head back with one hand and severed his carotid artery with the small blade he held in the other.  A confusion erupted. It only lasted a short time. Then Udad's body, head severed, lay in the sand beside the dying field captain.

The death of their leader paralyzed the troops for only a moment. Areksim's old comrades-in-arms gathered in a circle around his dead body and took each other's hands as if swearing eternal loyalty to him and seemed to murmur a prayer. After a moment's hesitation, they brought the flag that had fluttered ahead of the expeditionary corps, wrapped the field captain's body in it. Six of his faithful took the bundle on their shoulders and struck out for the ruined kasbah. The rest of the soldiers followed the body bearers.

The Imuhagh twins knew that near the ruined kasbah lay the old cemetery of the Qsar of the Jinn, a bare field with piles of fist-sized stones. Each pile protected the bones of a deceased. Therefore, they assumed that the old fighters wanted to create a grave where Areksim would be buried before dawn. They were right.

Following the burial, the participants in the punitive expedition, especially the younger mercenaries, began frantically gathering equipment and supplies and packed them up. These full water hoses were loaded to the riding horses and pack animals. Just as the sun climbed over the rim of the valley, the first mercenaries left the Qsar of the  Jinn, at first only in groups of four or five, but soon as larger squads. The old comrades-in-arms of Areksim were the last to leave the site of the final defeat on their way back to the Empire. The twins watched this as they pushed their way through the excited crowd of the defeated force to the hollow way unnoticed by their  enemy.

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Tarit and KeYnNamM had become uneasy when the Imuhagh twins did not return. Their concern increased even more when they noticed the hustle and bustle in the camp of the expeditionary corps from their observation posts above the northern Kasbah. They were already discussing an advance to their rescue, when at the entrance of the hollow way the song of the desert lark, sounded. This was the signal they had agreed on with the twins. Tarit answered with the cry of the desert hawk and after a few moments the twins emerged unharmed and in an exhilarated mood.

Tarit listened to their report, "That’s the end the governor’s campaign against the real of the desert sons. The governor's great campaign has failed!" he announced to his border guards and the Imuhaghs who had volunteered to defend their territory, the great, wild desert. "We have won! Now rest my friends and draw new strength. After a bath in the Fountain of the Jinn, we will part early in the afternoon. KeYnNamM, the King of No-One's-Land, and I will pursue the fugitives to the frontier of the empire with the frontier troops. However, you will return, under the leadership of Yufayyur, my faithful son, and Ikken, the son of King Gaya, to the kasbah of the desert king, to receive your deserved reward.

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To be continued...

Posted 08/26/2022