Continued from Chapter 3 - Part V
Dramatis Personae |
Nabati:
Mun'at Ha'Qadri: General of the Nabati army, tasked with uniting the tribes of Arabia and subduing the Saba' confederations that control Arabia Felix.
Shullai Ha'Maleki: Prince of the Nabati, riding south under Mun'at's command.
Ravîv'êl Bikrum: Crown Prince of the Nabati. Currently governing the conquered settlement of Dedan.
Malka Qênu: King of the Nabati, and leader of the united tribes.
Rana'in: Elder warrior and long-time friend of Mun'at.
Khalil: Raider under Mun'at's command, usually tasked with leading the cavalry and light skirmishers.
Haza'el: Captain of the Nabati.
Wayyuq: A spy and pathfinder in the service of the Nabati, but not of their tribes.
Sabeans (Saba'):
Mubsamat: Queen of the Saba' with ambitions to end the tribal rivalries that plague her people.
Tharin: Captain of Mubsamat's guard, tasked with contacting the approaching Nabati on Mubsamat's behalf and bringing them over to her cause.
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Chapter 4
New Friends, New Enemies
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(Part I)
They walked in silence, their shoulders hanging low and the hafts of their bloodied spears dragging in the dirt. To either side the valley walls rose sharply, jagged and black to match their broken hearts, and as they trudged forward a thin breeze began to nip ar their heels. In any other instance they would have found it playful, smiling as it flitted its way among the rocks and between their legs, but such levity would not hold to their weighted souls. And so they shifted uneasily, taking for an irritant what should have been a boon, and in the melodies of the wind they heard only elegies.
As they rounded the final bend of Wadi al-Jizl Mun'at raised his eyes from the rose hued sands below, his gaze falling on a wide vale of scattered green. To the east rose Uhud, to the west Salaa*, lesser brothers to Jabal Jinn, but ahead lay a city of white and red, its glory well marked by the domes and turrets adorning each mighty district. Mun'at did not smile, could not after such a night, but the creases and lines around his eyes softened, showing a face at peace with its master. Yathrib was safe.
A quarter day's march northeast of Mar'ib, beyond the bands of green and blue, of field and flood, lay a hell of man's making. Nestled against the now scarce waters of Wadi Adhana huddled a small city of tents, outbuildings, sheds, and makeshift workshops, an incessant din of hammering rising from them day and night. Too many of the nobles on their high walls refused to see it, but war was coming, and the Saba' would be ready. Far'am Rafshan, half-Qatabani exile and twice renounced traitor would see to that.
He walked the muddy lanes with head held high, surveying the craftsmen and smiths about their business, and though the work progressed with ease his brow remained clouded. The enemies to their north, east, and south were well known, but there were others within their own ranks, devils with smiling eyes who would caress with one hand while sharpening their blades with the other. That night on the palace walls he had seen them, individuals who mistook ambition for courage, ruthlessness for strength. By their designs his land would bleed, he knew that, and Far'am Rafshan would become twice exiled, thrice renounced. He would not let that happen.
Carried on the wind, a low rattle reached their ears, the sound of a distant scree slope settling, and as if in answer a rending shriek tore from the heavens. The highest eagles calling to their prey, no doubt. Karab smiled and nodded to his brother Hasan, foremost sons of the Athtar Yazi'.
They had been lying in wait for the better part of two days now but the great raptors' cries assured them their patience had not been in vain. Year by year the traders and raiders out of Ma'in crowded ever closer to the lands of Saba', coveting worlds they could never hope to keep, clinging to their foolish delusions of empire, and in that forthright arrogance they had sent a motley band of warriors to test Sarat's strength. Down below the mighty peaks, below the sheer walls and cavernous drops, beyond the eagles and great horned beasts of the upper domains there lay a dizzying maze of knife-edged gullies and twisting ravines. And there, infinitesimally small on the far-reaching horizon, traced a thin column of doomed men hopelessly trying to navigate the labyrinthine courses that led to the higher passes.
With a crooked fiendish grin Karab quietly began to pick his way down the mountainside, the company of stout Hashidi tribesmen falling in silently behind.
Beneath sadd al-'Arim, the Great Dam, stretched an impossibly bright and chaotic plain. It was a place unlike anything in the deserts beyond the mighty Sarat, and indeed little similar to the other regions of Saba'. By dint of careful management the arid lands had been transformed into a patchwork paradise of water-heavy fields and scattered farms, the whole body of it divided and joined together by a sprawling network of narrow canals. The Hadramawt to the east was a blasted sandbox, Hijaz seldom better, but here lay a cradle of life and purposeful motion.
Halik Il'Yakif walked the crest of a narrow berm separating a field of khat* from the sorghum plantations that dominated the landscape. His feet were caked in a black crust of clay and earth, the hem of his robe nearing a state beyond repair, but he paid these details little note, his gaze instead fixed on a rise some few hundred paces distant. As he neared it the indistinct mound resolved itself, showing a small hill of broken stone and baked brickwork, over which had been casually spread a dusting of finer soil and sand. Along one edge steps had been cut, regular angles pressed into the rock or shaped from wood and reeds, leading to the poor mountain's summit.
Halik climbed the crude stair with ease, his legs sliding over the irregular intervals with confident familiarity. In an instant he had gained them all and his feet turned toward the south, to a low bench set beneath the sprawling and spiny foliage of an aging acacia. He sat and looked out with furrowed brow, but his dark eyes saw nothing. For six generations his clan had farmed these lands, never busying themselves with the petty games and avarice of the other noble houses, but he had broken that long tradition. He had allied himself with a lion, a hunter of men, and his heart could not fathom what the result of such iconoclasm would be.
Halik Il'Yakif lowered his head to his hands, cupping his face and blotting out the light. The queen was a traitor, he was certain of that, but a traitor to whom? Alliances and friendships on the high plateau shifted as often as the sands of al-Rub' al Khali*, and he could no longer tell which way the winds were blowing. To his dismay he was no longer certain even of which way he faced, whether the coming storms would push him forward or strike him down.
He brooded and worried for what felt an age of the world, but finally he was pulled back to the present by the sound of many wings taking flight. Lifting his eyes Halik saw a great flock of cranes and lesser fowl ascending into the sky, their disturbance centered on a distant figure walking toward him, following the same narrow road along the berm's crest. With each step the shape became more clear, showing the gentle lines and alluring curves of a woman, a woman alone but by her bearing not one with which to be idly trifled. Curiosity rising, Halik stood and moved toward the upper base of the stair, prepared to meet the unasked-for guest, when his heart suddenly shuddered within him. There, standing beneath, shining in the noonday sun, towered the Queen of the Saba'. There stood Mubsamat, her lips smiling like a maiden's, but her eyes chips of flint.
*Glossary |
*Uhud and Salaa are two of the many mountains which surround Yathrib (Medina).
*Khat (also spelled qat) is a plant native to the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. The leaves of the plant can be chewed, providing a stimulant effect as well as mild euphoria.
*Al-Rub' al Khali, the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, covers much of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, stretching from the Sarat and Hijaz mountains in the west to the Al Hajar mountains along the eastern coast of Oman.
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Continue to Chapter 4 - Part II