Chapter One
The
month of Sin, 1700 A.T. V.
Rapheth's eyes
shined with wicked mischief. He put a finger to his lips to silence
their furious whisperings. They were trying to decide which way to
travel to get to the tavern unseen. He, Ephron and Shukala, his two
best friends, were prowling about in the bowels of the upper city,
Rhuctium. They were in the unnamed city, which stretched out in a
string of ramshackle, loose communities from Jhis to Rhuctium,
underground. It was a mysterious underworld that held everything of
the fascination and forbidden wonders that young men craved. They
went regardless of their parents' fears, regardless of Ilim's and
Zigal's dour warnings.
He heard the
familiar gurgle of the wide stream below and the whispers of small
rivulets of water streaming down filthy stone walls. It stank of
rotting garbage but they had learned to ignore this long ago. To them
the tavern was a kind of hidden secret from their respectable
families and it was worth every unmentionable smell crowding their
noses. They were now deep underground, nearing Marashiah-Degar's
infamous tavern where they'd shown their faces more than a few times
for drink, water-pipes and a bit of bawdy storytelling and harmless
trouble. Harech, one of the regular patrons - so regular he was
nearly part of the furniture of the place - had challenged Rapheth on
a wager that he could not steal his red cap from his head.
"Shukala, come!
I need you to do something for me," he whispered. Shukala and
Ephron followed behind, ready for mischief.
"What?"
"Go down
beneath the tavern to the center grate. I will bet Harech will be
sitting in his same spot right over it."
"Harech. Always
predictable." Said Shukala.
"I know it. Get
his attention while you are there. Maybe some trick. I know you can
think of something. Then Ephron and I will grab his cap!"
"He will owe us
a pithos of beer for this!" Said Ephron. Shukala laughed.
Rapheth put his finger to his lips once more.
"Quiet now or
we will owe him!" Shukala bounded down the path and
across the narrow rock ravine, nimbly avoiding the sewage stream
below and made his way carefully down the small cave opening that led
to the grate in the tavern floor.
The tavern was a
two-story building situated in a small cliff-face, made both of the
rock surrounding it and of heavy wooden beams and floors. There were
grates here and there in the floors to throw out unwanted things like
sewage, garbage and visceral matter from the kitchen. Belligerent
patrons who had too much to drink and too much fight in them had the
misfortune of being thrown out through these grates too, right into
the sewers below. The grate in the main floor led to a wide cave
beneath where goods, legal and illegal, were stored for the owner's
use and was sometimes used as a gateway to other hiding places. The
three youths were seasoned troublemakers and good in a fight. The
seedy unnamed city did not bother them in the least. All three had
daggers at the ready in case but rarely did they need to use them.
This night was the Day of Glorious Fires, the celebration of Hec who
rose brightest and highest in the sky this week. For many people who
observed it, it was a time for visiting family and feasting during
the day and revelry at night and people wore masks every night.
Rapheth and Ephron pulled over their masks to disguise themselves and
entered within the crowds going in the door. Far off a wild whistling
call came. A loosely gathered parade was winding its way through the
street. Inside they could hear the bawdy singing and playing of a
band of Rurrian musicians. Such foreigners would never have been
allowed to perform in any official public place or noble house in
Jhis. Hybronians thought their culture, next to Egian high culture,
was superior to all others. Rhuctium was a more tolerant city.
"A fine night
indeed!" Said Marashiah, the tavern owner. She watched over the
crowds milling in, sitting on her elaborately carved wooden Fundian
throne-stool like a queen of the underworld, The throne-stool, always
reserved for South Land royalty, displayed her uncanny ability to
acquire precious objects. She was a heavy-set woman with very long,
dry gray hair and a few black streaks running through. She wore it in
a large double-knot style, pinned to the back with a coral head pin
that she wore proudly. And she had a short beard. Upon noticing
Rapheth and Ephron, her eyes rarely missed anything, she grinned
widely, showing large, strong and very yellowed teeth. She took a
deep draw from her water pipe. The tobacco she used was very strong.
She blew it to the side in a serpentine stream of smoke, looking
supremely satisfied with herself.
"I know the
look of two fine and handsome young men if ever I saw it!" She
said and winked. Ephron chuckled. Rapheth pointed over to the large
central table where Harech sat singing along, off key and loudly, his
monkey mask affixed haphazardly on his head. The place was crowded
and thick with smoke. So noxious was the scent of smoke fumes, body
odor, greasy food and sewage that gentler people would have long
fainted, dead away. The young men sauntered over to the table and as
soon as they stepped up the man turned around, his mouth wide and his
eyes shining in drunken pleasure.
"Why, it's you
two foxes! And where is your friend? The black one?" Then he
laughed and pointed to his cap. "Think to get my cap, do you?"
He laughed, his mouth still wide open. Rapheth took off his sand lion
mask and bowed mockingly to the man.
"Dear Harech,
we did not come to rob you of your most alluring red cap. Would not
dream of it! For it is a most beauteous cap. A most wonderful cap!"
"And a most
splendid color of red. Why would we even think of separating a good
man from his red cap?" Chimed Ephron, taking off his bull mask
and sitting down.
"Eh?" Said
Harech, both amused and slightly confused. He scratched his balding
head under the cap.
"Harech. We
have come to play another round of Hounds and Jackals. We will see
who wins this time." Said Rapheth.
"Come to lose
again? Are you sure, my little lordlings? Come then, since you both
are bottomless pits. And where is your other friend, I say?"
"I am afraid
you broke him in the last game, my friend!" Said Rapheth.
"Yes. He had to
ask his father to pay his debts and his father refused to advance him
any more coin."
"Did he now? I
am sorry I cleaned the poor boy out. Now, what are the terms?"
Asked Harech. Drunk though he was, Harech was still sharp in a game
when ladre was involved. Rapheth pretended to think of what terms to
offer when a thick curl of blue smoke streamed in from the grate
under the table. Shukala! The smoke enveloped Harech and
covered the table with a thin mist. The smoke turned into figures of
lithe, dancing women. Some of the crowd turned to look and gawk in
delighted surprise.
"Ai! What evil
magic is this? Mara! Ah, get it off!" Shouted Harech in a panic.
"Since when do
you want to escape naked dancing women?" Asked Ephron. Quick as
a fox Rapheth whipped his arm across the table while Harech was busy
slapping away dancing smoke figures, and reached for the cap,
snatching it off Harech's head.
"Aha! You all
see it the cap! I have it! Harech owes everyone beer!" Rapheth
jumped onto the table waving the cap wildly while the crowd roared
with laughter. Harech protested in dismay.
"See now,
Harech! We will have some imported honey beer from Jura and the good
Egian barley beer too. Mara, do not water it down. We want the good
beer!" Ephron shouted. Mara laughed.
"You lost this
time, Harech." She teased.
"Cheaters!
Cheaters! They used magic against me!"
"Magic? Are you
sure it was not too much strong drink playing tricks on you? Tonight
is a night full of magic and mayhem Friendly mayhem. I say we have
won the bet. Come now, Harech. Will you go back on your wager?"
Teased Rapheth. His eyes danced with a merry fire in them.
"And since when
do you not cheat? Come, do as you promised." Chided Mara
gently. Harech sat down, his face crumpled in a frown. He nodded and
the crowd roared in laughter again. Harech could afford it. For a
layabout who drank and gambled all night and slept all day he had
amassed quite a fortune for a small undertown man.
A group of men sat
watching the spectacle in a far corner. One of them smoking a water
pipe. He pulled the pipe from his lips and let out a plume of smoke.
The man watched the scene shrewdly, his eyes never leaving Rapheth.
Shukala, looking
quite self-satisfied, strode through the crowded tavern and sat
beside Rapheth.
"I see we will
be kept in good drink for the rest of the night. What is he paying
for? The good stuff or the mealy beer in the vat?"
"The best.
Nothing less." Said Ephron, giving Harech a pointed look.
Shukala, however amused he was and however carefree his friends were,
was always half alert to surroundings and to people. The men in the
corner on the other side of the room did not escape his notice. It
was dark where they sat and all he could make out from their table
were columns and rings of smoke buffeted around shadowed figures. He
felt suddenly as if their center table laid them naked and bare
before all while others sat safely hidden in corners to take in the
spectacle, of which Rapheth and Ephron were nearly always at the
center. As one of the tavern men made his way to their table with a
tray of goblets and a fired-clay amphora of barley beer, Shukala
tapped Rapheth's shoulder.
"Eh? Oh, Good
trick Shukala! You must show it to me one day. I knew you would not
let us down."
"Yes. Of course
not. But listen," he lowered his voice, "there are men,
there in the corner behind you. You cannot see them but I saw them as
I came in. They are watching us. I do not like the looks of them. I
think that I have seen them before around here. No! Do not look now."
He warned, grabbing his arm as Rapheth turned to look behind him.
Rapheth stopped mid-turn and calmly picked up a goblet of beer and
took a drink. Ephron leaned in.
"What is it?"
"The men there
in the back. I do not trust them." Said Shukala.
"They watch us,
Shukala thinks. Do not look or they will know we know they are
watching us."
"Huh! I will
look if I may. Who will stop me? If they want to stare perhaps we
should give them reason to!" Said Ephron defiantly. He swept his
gaze brazenly to the back corner. The men averted their gazes
quickly. Ephron snorted with disdain.
"What do you
think?" He asked them.
"I do not know
what to think of them." Said Rapheth, fingering one of his game
pieces.
"I think they
are Hatchet Men." Countered Shukala quietly.
"Puh!
Good-for-nothings." Scoffed Ephron. Rapheth grinned, feeling
bold.
"In any case, I
will not let them stop me from having a good time, whoever they are.
We have had our battles. We hold our own. Do not worry, Shukala. I
fear my father far more than those dogs!" Said Rapheth and he
finished his beer and went back to his game of hounds and jackals,
calling for anyone listening to come and play.
They played for
hours until the beer was done, only two vessels of beer in all and
three games of H and Js - Harech being a cheapskate and they being
forgiving and merely looking for merriment. Rapheth stretched his
arms and legs and yawned loudly like a young waking lion.
"I am ready for
bed. Let us go." He patted his friends on the back and got up,
grabbing his mask. He wrapped his robes about him hoping that Ilim
was still out and about. There would be lots of study and reading
tomorrow, and scribal duties. He was not supposed to be here. In
fact, none of them were. It was dangerous for schismatics within the
Aishanna-La to be about in any places but Hevan or Gamina unless they
kept their mouths shut, or unless they supported the Golden Temple.
Ilim and Zigal certainly did not and neither did anyone in their
little community. Yet, sometimes he felt he needed to just have a
little enjoyment. His thoughts of late took him to dark places and
darker dreams. Dreams of engulfing fire. It was merriment like this
with his friends that took his mind off of troubling thoughts. The
mysterious pieces of information he gathered from his mother and the
prophet Ilim seemed to piece together a picture that frightened him.
These things he kept to himself. Not even to his friends did he talk
of them.
He swept these small
guilty feelings from his mind. It was only a little fun. Nothing
wrong with that. Ephron and Shukala followed him out.
"Come back
soon! I will have some special ladies to entertain you boys next
time. There's a few who are curious about you. Handsome young men! I
know your folk are straight on the arrow. Come to Mara next time and
she will fix that for you. I know many women who would like to meet
you."
"No doubt they
would." Said Ephron. And therein lay the danger. Rapheth
realized. What sort of women? Who are they? He had been
brought up to mistrust people who were not like him. His whole life
seemed shrouded in mystery and secrecy. But he did not mention any of
this.
"Ah." He
laughed weakly at Mara and turned and left. They made their way
through the streets moving slowly upward toward the city above. He
and his mother had lived here, once. Villages intermittently
dispersed like sudden croppings of trees and bushes might populate a
wilderness. Much of it looked like a long and complicated system of
catacombs and caves where people simply squatted and made their
dwellings; the poorest of the poor, people with dark pasts, criminals
and others. The rambling underground city was built during the Age of
Empires, an age now largely forgotten by the people above ground or
below.
It was when they
neared the last level before reaching above ground that they were
aware that they were being followed. Rapheth gave silent signals to
his friends and they quickly rounded a corner and ducked into a small
cave, passing by a group of makeshift tents and holed out dwellings,
through long columns of hangings and boxes until they did not see
their pursuers. They laughed, after losing them and continued on,
nearing the opening of an abandoned cistern. Around the corner once
they got outside the four Hatchet Men met them. The youths came to a
dead stop, backing into fighting stances. The men had tracked them
through another way.
"What do you
think, Ephron?" Asked Rapheth, not taking his eyes from them.
"I think there
are only four and we are three. It will not be easy but we have seen
these odds before." He said. Shukala grunted and they pulled out
their knives. However the men whipped open their robes and where
before they were invisible or seemed so, now there were long
scabbards at their sides. These men carried army issued swords.
Rapheth swallowed hard. In a flash Ephron took his dagger and hurled
it at the face of one of their would-be attackers. The man was nearly
pierced in the eye but ducked just in time to be sliced on the
temple. He cursed in surprise at the mark. Rapheth and Shukala did
the same but this time their daggers were reflected, though one of
the daggers landed deep into the arm of one of the men. The youths
took off as quickly as they could, their pursuers right behind them.
If they separated it would be trouble and they did not know if there
were more pursuers on the way. Shukala picked up a large, broken clay
vessel and threw it, prompting the other two to do the same but this
did not slow the Hatchet Men down. The only thing that saved the boys
was their indefatigable speed and nimbleness. The men had a hard time
catching up. They turned a corner and found themselves trapped in a
dead end with no way to scale the building. The men after them were
angry now.
"Take the one
there in the middle," one of them said, nodding towards Rapheth,
"we'll kill the other two." They moved in swiftly, broad,
short iron swords at the ready, when just as swiftly another stranger
appeared behind them with a bright, sword flashing like a torch in
the late evening. He cut down one of the Hatchet Men before he had a
chance to move, running him through. Then he was on to the second
one, snatching up his braid from behind and slashing his throat. One
of them bore down on him but the stranger moved away quick as a
side-winder and grabbed up a large pot near a doorway and hurled it
at him, bashing his face with it, breaking the pot to pieces. One
escaped down the alley but the apparent leader of the group, the one
now with the bleeding face and broken teeth stood his ground. He
lunged at his opponent. The stranger moved nimbly and then did a
thing that surprised the youths and the other man - he lept over the
man, powerful and graceful like a desert ram and landed behind him.
However, the Hatchet Man was quick and moved to turn and lunched
again nearly taking the man's head. He ducked just in time and with
his body, using it like a whip lashing toward the man with ferocious
speed and the man was suddenly pinned to the ground, panting with the
last moments of life left in him. With the stranger's sword in his
belly he stared at his opened gut in shock and then he cried out in
agony. The stranger bent over, took a knife from the man's belt,
covered his mouth with his hand and cut his throat. He stood up and
looked the youths over, then spoke as if to command them before they
would try to escape. His face was covered. He lifted his face
covering and faced them squarely. They merely stood, gaping.
"Do not move. I
was sent to see about you and watch over you. Especially you, boy."
He nodded at Rapheth. Rapheth lifted a brow.
"Why?"
"A woman named
Zigal sent me." Rapheth drew in a sharp breath.
"Why did she
send you?"
"She thought
you might meet trouble. Seems worried about you. I can see why. All
three of you are reckless and stupid. You do not belong in the
unnamed city. You are soft Rhuctiumites." Ephron sniffed and
Rapheth frowned.
"I was raised
in the unnamed city. What is it to you?"
"I already told
you. Your mother sent me. You may have been raised there for a time
but not your whole life, otherwise those men would never have been
able to find you so easily. You are Aishanna-La. And of those
schismatics, that are at odds with the Golden Temple. I can tell."
Rapheth detected a slight sneer in the man's voice. "Good boys.
Why do you come around these dark places? What fascination does it
hold for you? You will be killed. Certain people are seeking your
soul, boy and your friends will be killed right along with you. Your
mother sent me to look for you. Come with me. Those men are not the
only ones looking for you and as you saw, one of them got away."
"I can fight."
Said Rapheth, suddenly feeling put out and humiliated.
"Of that I have
no doubt otherwise you'd already be dead. It grows late. I know a way
that we can avoid being seen by too many people. Where are your
weapons?" He asked. The boys carried more than a single dagger
and they showed him. He grunted in satisfaction and showed them the
way out of the alley and through a small, narrow door just around the
corner.
"So. . .who are
you?" Asked Rapheth.
"A mercenary."
"Mercenary! Not
very honorable." Said Ephron. The man ignored him. Shukala was
silent.
"What is your
name?" Asked Rapheth. The man looked about quickly and said in a
low voice.
"Rhajit. I am
from the desert."
"A tribesman
then?"
"Yes. As we all
are in one way or another."
"True."
"You
acknowledge this fact?" Rhajit seemed surprised.
"Of course. All
peoples come from the tribes. They are our first mothers and
fathers." Said Rapheth.
"All things
that are pure and righteous come from the desert." Said Ephron.
Rhajit grunted in approval.
"Where did you
learn how to fight like that? You jump so high in the air! Like an
eagle!" Asked Shukala.
"I learned it
from my life in the desert, long ago. Desert people are taller,
stronger than city people. Out in the desert the air is pure and it
fills the lungs with no contamination. The food is pure. Out there
boys learn to jump like the ram and to fight like lions. If a man
takes a deep enough breath, he may fly."
"I want to
learn how to wield a sword like that! Can you teach us?" Asked
Rapheth. The man turned and gazed at them, his eyes wide but
inscrutable to Rapheth. It seemed that the corners turned upwards in
a grin but his face was covered again.
"That I can do,
if you so desire. A young man of your age, it is high time you
learned how to use a proper weapon. Like a sword. One day you will
wield one. Yes, I will teach you and your friends. But come now. It
is a wild night and a dangerous one. Among the revelers there are
murderous plots in the air and wild dogs prowling about and I do not
mean the four-legged kind." He picked up his pace and took them
by ways they did not recognize back to Rapheth's home, the little
community in the northern quarter of Rhuctium with Rapheth and his
two friends hurrying to keep up. Rapheth wondered what omen this was
that his life was saved this night. Feeling guilty and foolish about
the whole affair he promised himself he would make an offering of
repentance at the temple. And he dearly hoped that Ilim would not
find out that he had left his studies to go cavorting around with his
friends. He would be ashamed if the prophet knew.
But to wield a sword
like that! It would certainly punctuate his days with excitement in
between the reading of the Holy writings and the Laws.
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