4707 C
Castle of the Ten Trees Hills
The sounds of distant battles reached her in her lair, and the rattle of swords seemed to be the laughter of death, and Aynur rubbed her hands nervously, then straightened up and began to crawl. Wahara caught her, saying in alarm:
"Stop, ma'am, what are you doing?"
Aynur paused and said in agony:
"I can't hide like that when my men lay down their lives for me."
= "But this is exactly what the enemies want, that you reveal your position so that the sacrifices of our men will be wasted. Please stick to the plan and be patient."
Aynur returned helplessly, and sat down on the straw, with her back against the brick wall, while Wahara played with (Crow) saying:
"We will win, my princess. I trust Mr Omid and the rest of your great commanders. They are heroes."
= " Behroz won't stop this time until he sees my body crucified, I know my uncle very well."
"Perhaps your father, King (Ragal) has returned and rescued you from his brother."
= "My father," said the princess bitterly, "my father left me behind for fear of his life, and he had stopped writing to me before I even came out of Kandor, lest they track his bats and know his location. My family has no hope, Wahara, since my mother died I have not known the meaning of family is only in you, you, Arch, Amid and Fossan.
- "Do you not have any allies in any other part of the world?"
Aynur thought for a moment, then said:
- "In my childhood, I dreamed of travelling to the Coppery Lands, and seeing the masters' landmarks such as Edifice and Marvel, but it seems that if I were defeated I would take refuge in a point very deep underground, where the city of caves is."
= "(Lisya)? The rays of lightning do not stop striking its top, and the entrance to it is a labyrinth of complex grottoes, which can only be crossed by evidence."
Aynur took out of her dress a map of the Rokoshta sword, and presented it to Wahara, who said:
"Yes, I know it. It is the map that Mr Omid used to bring his great sword, but what does it have to do with it?"
(Aynur) turned her over, and pointed to an intricate network of tunnels drawn faintly on its back, and to a heroligian word, saying:
- "I asked the honourable wise about the word, and he said (Lisya)...it is the map of the underpasses, after I pass it successfully I will reach the walls inside the (Log Ma) caves, and there they will let me pass to meet the exiled wise (Shamhorsh). He was my grandfather (Magal)'s wise, but he banished him there for a horrible mistake I don't know, but he (Shamhorsh) knows me well and will help me survive there."
= "I will not leave you, ma'am, even if this is the last thing I do in my life."
Aynur looked at her gratefully, feeling for Soma's little wheeze, as if she was feeling her mistress' handshake. She thanked the gods for making her these two guardian companions.
Crow flapped its cattish wings a little, then went to a side corner, and began to dig into it, making a small hole, and then dropped his litter in it and filled it. Wahara thinks of a way to hide Aynur's trail, as her winged cat Crow hid his trail.
She has to be prudent as her lady, and think for both of them about the escape door.
**
The swords were thundering with a roaring rumble, and the cavalry of the pink army, for their great numbers, advanced slowly, and the troopers pressed more toward the fortress.
One of the leaders of the Rosy Army finished a new round of instructions, after slitting a warrior's throat and retreating toward the Imperial Pavilion. Before entering it, he stood for a moment, contemplating the spear planted at the top of the camp, and the head whose beard was blown by the wind, and which was planted at the top of the spear.
He presented that head himself to the emperor, assuring him that victory was his ally, but at the same time it was a moment of defeat, its pain still resounding in his memory with the sound of the slap that the emperor did on his face. Back then he was the commander of the entire Rosy Army, now he was demoted to only the captain of a corps of cavalry.
He entered the tent of Emperor Behrouz, and washed his hands and face from blood and dust. The Emperor asked him:
- "What news, Captain Munther?"
= "They are beasts of these war tribes," he said, panting. Compared to the dwarves they had faced in their previous attack on the castle, he was right.
- "Of course. (Salhador the Conqueror) has personally pacified these Sand-speakers for thousands of years, and the Masters have tried to defeat them through the centuries, they have only been able to wipe out some of their western tribes, and push the rest of them beyond Masters Highlands in the east. They only know the language of wars, that's why I ordered most of our forces to go out to meet them, it's a real battle and not just another failed raid."
He gritted his teeth as he received the signal of defeat as if he was receiving a second slap now:
- "Had it not been for the prudence of your decision, milord, to increase our numbers, we would not have been able to overrun them. Our many have already overcome their courage until now...a few hours and we reach the walls of the castle (Ten Trees Hills) built by Lord Atur the Great."
= "Last time we surprised them even before they closed the castle gate bridge, now the castle is isolated, are you ready?"
- "Perfectly, my lord, the battering rams, the pestles and the ladders are ready, we will enter the castle or turn it upside down, until I give you the head of the princess, and the Floral Throne itself is now secured against any further bypass raids of any forces, having summoned our allies from the (River settlement)."
Behrouz immediately recalled the sight of a gigantic arch, the likes of which could not even be erected by professional bull-builders, with the name of that town invoked. It is not in the whole Wasted World an arch larger or stranger than that giant arch, which was built over the great Bruneian River, and upon which was built the entire settlement, with its houses, warehouses, market and windmills. The jinns and their strange buildings. So think.
However, he knows that the Bruneis snatched it from the jinn thousands of years ago, and since this time, humans have been the owners of it, despite the fact that some jinn continues to live in the settlement, nostalgic for their ancient history.
His agreement with the killer was direct and clear, he would attack in order to allow the rest of the killers he led to slip through, and the only condition he wanted to carry out the agreement was the head of Aynur, and in return, he would double his wages, and let him and his men depart in peace, and perhaps give him Soma the princesses' enchanted weapon.
This time, she will not seduce him with gold, but rather he will pay the gold to get her soul.
He looked at the tattered flag of Aynur's new banners, and at the copper flower under the pink throne, symbolising the god Cancer and the friendship of Mrn Atur, saying sternly:
"You won't get Kandor, Aynur, and you won't raise your banner on it."
He planted his imperial dagger into the coppery flower in order to rip it apart.
**
Drups shivered when he heard Delgis' terrifying whispering voice in his mind:
- "You started with the horse stables and did not find the princess there, and the others searched the bakeries and kitchens, the grain mill, and the blacksmith's workshop, and you finished the training building and the workers' dwellings. Continue searching even in the oil press, and even in the cattle barns. She did not leave the castle, as (Jova) strongly asserts."
Her way of talking to them from a distance was frightening, unusual, and akin to dreams, but it facilitated for them a wondrous communication, faster than mail bats, and even faster than lightning.
She passed on the wills and expert instructions of the Melted-Face assassin, and they moved quickly and professionally.
He stormed the weapon lockers to search for the princess and found it almost emptied after the warriors and dwarves had taken up their weapons in full before the start of the Battle of the Ten Trees Hills. And once again, that nagging feeling that had recently struck him, the feeling of a ghostly arm in place of his amputated arm. He thanked the gods that (Amed) did not suspect him after his temporary old age, especially because of the similarity of the colour of orange skin, and when he stood sideways to hide the amputation of his arm, pretending to be a gardener from the age-old people of the castle.
In this second infiltration, he would take advantage of the night to roll into hundreds of tiny organic balls, and then gather inside the place where he sneaks in, and restore his connected body.
But inside, he faced an unexpected crisis.
Sword (Rokushta).
(Amid) cut him into two equal halves with his great sword.
Had he not given his mental command at the last moment, his spinal cord would have ruptured in spite of him.
He died instantly.
Akradar warlocks sever themselves of their own accord without problem, and they keep in touch with every part of them no matter how small it is, but if parts of them are torn apart despite them, they fail to recover them, and they may be killed at once if the separated part is as important as the spinal cord.
The blow cut his stomach and back, but he had ordered his body to disperse quickly at the last moment.
His upper half slipped and fell to the ground, but the next moment he bounced back and stuck to his lower half again.
So (Amed) started tearing it right and left, but he noticed that the warlock's body did not fall a single drop of blood, so he stopped while catching his breath, while the killer gathered again, and he says to him in hatred:
- "You try again, and again you will fail, you washinian."
= "Last time I hit your left arm, and this time I'm going to cut off your head, akradarian."
They were now madly abhorring each other, and Drups' body quickly dispersed when Amed launched a new attack, and the sword was confused because it cuts so efficiently, it didn't understand why his master still cut the same body over and over, but Drups did an amazing thing, which Amed had never seen before.
At Amed's martial cry, four dwarves picked up the sound from outside, so they hurriedly entered to support the Chief of the two armies, gave up the idea of throwing daggers, and picked up four spears from the huge deep treasury inside, when they were completely dumbfounded.
Drups' eyes parted and leapt to the ceiling to look upon all, and his flexible body split into ten equal parts, and reshaped themselves, so that ten little dwarves, swift, headless, and without left arms, picked up disparate weapons from the closet, and pounced.
Five parts on the four dwarfs, and five on Amed.
Amed and the soldiers battled with the parts of Drups, desperately, and the two soldiers were killed, while their blows to the Drupsian dwarves tore them apart for a while, before their tears healed them smoothly and without a drop of blood, and they fought back fiercely.
but Amed understood that this was useless because the engine was the eyes on the ceiling, so he shouted at the remaining two dwarves:
"The eyes, your daggers."
But the Drupsian dwarves killed the two soldiers with the scattering immediately, and they all surrounded Amed, who looked angrily in the eyes, but ignored them while whispering to Rokoshta:
- "Break up like him, my friend."
The murderous Drupsian battalion pounced on him to tear him apart, and Rokoshta sprang up suddenly and then split into ten swords.
They all set out to fight the dwarves.
The enchanted dwarves, failing to reach Amed's body, retreated and despaired of defeating the Rokoshta Twins splintered like themselves.
Amed ferociously picked up a side arc from the armoury and shot it toward the eyes.
So the two eyeballs jumped quickly to avoid the arrow, and they joined together with the parts of the Drups, which gathered at once, and merged, and the fighting stopped, and Rokoshta gathered again in turn and bounced the hand of Amed, who said with confidence:
"Now you realise which of us is stronger, charlatan."
Drups had never faced a sword with such horrible power before, and it seemed like he would resort to another trick.
Most dangerous.
***