BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan (17 page)

“When they attacked our village in the middle
of the night, in the middle of us celebrating Cash’s birthday
party, we didn’t hear them coming as they could fly through the
air, so we weren’t prepared, nor could we defend—this is how they
were able to destroy us all in one single night.

“Even though they killed everyone, too
include my parents, they strangely kept me alive! For about a week,
this beautiful woman—other than her really pointy teeth—tortured me
mercilessly with either daggers, or scorpion whips that
continuously pumped venom into my system, which made me feel as if
a horde of scorpions were stinging me simultaneously! Just as
torturous were these bolts of lightning that literally shot from
her fingertips and penetrated my body…

“The woman seemed to enjoy torturing me very
much as she laughed a lot, and as often as possible—not once did
she ask me a single question, not that I could have understood what
any of them said anyway! So many times did I think I was going to
die, but that woman would chant a few words that I couldn’t
understand, and moments later, my wounds began to heal, though
never completely—not even for a single second did she ever relieve
the pain!

“Just before they let me go, the woman first
cut my tongue out, and then handed me the reins to a horse! Just
before a very colorful sunset one evening that I could not bear to
look at for obvious religious reasons, I began riding my way west
toward Pavelus…”

For the Chao-chu-sha-maen tribe, colorful
sunsets were religiously symbolic of their god,
“Shaka-Tula-Suah-Lakasa-Casusea,” who shines down his heavenly
lights and blessings—in fact, the very name of this tribe literally
means, “Nation of the heavenly lights!”

Baltor, Humonus, Chelsea, and Brishava had
come to learn all this very well from the years spent with the
friendly villagers, and most especially, from this prince who was
their friend! Even stranger to them all was the fact that both
Humonus and Baltor had taught the villagers of Chao-chu-sha-maen
the martial arts style, yet it hadn’t saved them one iota!

Perhaps five seconds after Cheo had stopped
signing, he continued, “Only moments before darkness had consumed
the western horizon, I heard some strange repetitious whooshing
noises filling the sky to my east, sounding like a giant bird. When
I looked up and over, I saw the silhouette of something extremely
large and black hovering in the lit part of the dusky sky far away
to the east, though only for a moment, as darkness took over the
lands in the very next moment! Despite the darkness of night, as
there were no moons in the sky, for several minutes longer did I
hear those whooshing sounds, though they slowly began to dissipate,
and finally disappeared altogether!”

Now looking scared, Cheo concluded his spiel,
“At first I thought it might’ve been a bat, but if it was, then it
was at least ten thousand times the size of any bat I’ve ever seen
before—I know that I sound insane, but what I’m telling you is the
truth!”

Baltor had no question that Cheo was telling
the truth the entire time—the only thing his mind wondered was that
the “bat” might really be “a vompareus dragon…” But he purposefully
did not ask this question.

Instead, he looked up to the people
surrounding them, stood to his feet, and said with a friendly
smile, “You all may go back to your celebrating in a few moments,
after I get done saying what I have to say—the time has come for my
wife, friends, and I to depart back to the palace.

“But before I go, I need to say this to some
of you. Forces of the Sharia Empire, there will be a briefing
tomorrow evening at nine p.m.—for now, someone please find the
chauffeur and have him bring us the royal carriage so that we can
head back, and call it a night…”

As soon as the chauffeur had arrived with the
carriage, only two minutes later, and they had comfortably laid
Cheo to rest inside, the rest squished together on the other side
of the seat—Cheo fell right asleep.

Once they had arrived back at the palace,
about forty minutes later, Cheo was still passed out, and so they
set him up in a guest bedroom fit for a prince.

It wasn’t very surprising at all that Cheo
not only slept throughout the night, but most of the day, awaking
shortly before sunset.

Upon opening his eyes, he saw Brishava
sitting next to his bed in a comfortable chair—her caring eyes
remained firmly locked onto his.

For the first time since the tragedy that
befell his entire family, Cheo smiled.

Brishava immediately smiled back, and after
gently patting her hand on Cheo’s shoulder, she signed, “Are you
feeling better today?”

Cheo cocked his head from side to side too
indicate the affirmative.

“Good,” Brishava signed, “I had my medics
tend to your physical wounds last night, but I am greatly concerned
about your emotional ones…”

“Thank you,” Cheo signed, though there was an
incredible look of sadness that suddenly crossed his face as he
began to visually remember the murders of many of his people…

Brishava interrupted his thoughts, by saying,
“Listen, you must never forget what happened—but there is something
even more important that you must never forget! Never forget that
you survived for a reason, so that you can exact justice…and one
day, rebuild the Chao-chu-sha-maen!”

“But,” Cheo signed back, “there can possibly
be no other survivors! One thing I forgot to mention last night was
that after I was let go, I saw the army make their way south to the
other village of Ca-shew-cha-camanan, and they could not possibly
have survived! What woman is there who will help me to reestablish
the Caw-she-cas Dynasty?”

“You do not know that there are no other
survivors, just yet,” Brishava signed.

After a short pause, she continued, “And even
if this should be found ultimately true, does it matter that the
woman that will continue your dynasty, and your legacy, be of the
same race? I don’t think so…”

“I guess you’re right, Brishava,” Cheo
signed. “No, you are right—everything you said! Yes, I can rebuild
the Caw-she-cas Dynasty! But first, I, at least, must go back to
seek vengeance and reclaim my lands, no matter the odds…”

A few moments of silence had passed before
Brishava verbally replied, “It is no longer an issue of you, but an
issue of
us
. Although we had been celebrating a major
victory against one enemy when you arrived, we still have another
that needs to be contended with. Now, it seems, we have two major
enemies…”

After taking a deep breath of air through her
nose, she added, “Moreover, we must take both groups of enemies out
before they get too comfortable…perhaps even unite together in
order to more easily destroy us! But I can safely speak for Baltor
and myself when we commit ourselves to helping you as best as we
can!”

“Thank you.”

While placing her hand gently on Cheo’s
shoulder, Brishava answered, “You’re welcome—now there is a pool
and some soap for you to bathe in right over there, and there are
some fresh towels, clothes, socks and shoes lying right beside the
pool.

“When you are done, open the door and snap
your fingers once to the guards stationed outside your room. They
will immediately alert me that you are through and ready to see
Baltor and myself. We’ll decide, at that time, if you’re up to
moving around more, or not—okay?”

“Okay…”

After giving Cheo a warm hug that lasted
about thirty seconds, she left the room—Cheo easily got up as he
found that he wasn’t in any physical pain at all anymore, and so he
took a bath.

Once done drying off with a towel, and
dressing into his new attire about three minutes later, he opened
the door and snapped his fingers once. The extra guard who stood
outside immediately hurried over to his Sultaness’ bedroom, just
before knocking upon the door.

By this time, Baltor was already up out of
bed, and was just finishing bathing himself—Brishava, who was with
him, replied, “Yes?”

From behind the door, she heard one of the
guards say, “King Cheo has indicated that he is now complete.”

“Does he look physically able to come
over?”

“Well, yes he does, my Sultaness…”

“Then ask the king to follow you and bring
him over here—he is fluent in Pavelian.”

“Yes, my Sultaness…”

Baltor hurriedly hopped out of the bathtub,
wrapped one towel around his waist, and began patting himself dry
with yet another towel. Once dry, he threw on his underwear, and
called out, “Assistants.”

They came in, pushing the cart-on-wheels with
today’s attire.

Only a few seconds after they had begun, the
door opened, and in walked Cheo—though Baltor saw him through the
mirror, he stifled back a laugh … so did Brishava!

For Cheo hadn’t notched his belt buckles on
his shoes, which made them flop around slightly—that, and he was
holding up his pants as he hadn’t wrapped the belt around his
waist, but the belt was wrapped around his shoulder.

Squashing any surging laughter, Brishava
immediately hurried over. Once she had drawn near to Cheo’s
position, she said, “Let me get you dressed up properly—take off
your belt, please. Did you wear some socks under those shoes?”

While taking off his shirt, Cheo signed,
“Yes, I am wearing socks and shoes. What is a belt?”

While Brishava politely showed him what the
belt was with a point of her finger, Baltor pointed his own index
finger at three of his assistants, and said, “You three—assist the
King into his attire, and give him a hair grooming job and facial
shaving.”

“Yes, sire,” the two assistants then
answered, just before they did.

Twenty minutes later, the two men were
done—now both looked very snazzy. As the assistants were done, they
bowed and exited the room with the closet on wheels. Baltor,
Brishava, and Cheo were now alone.

It was Baltor who began the conversation
with, “So…are you ready for dinner, my brother?”

With a small smile, Cheo signed, “Yes my
brother, I am very hungry, actually.”

“Good,” Baltor said aloud, “Humonus and
Chelsea should already be at the dining hall by the time we arrive
there, and so should dinner that we will spend in silence so we can
think. After dinner, we’ll discuss out our ideas and figure out
some brand-new battle plans, based off our existing options and new
problems. At nine p.m. tomorrow night, we shall brief our troops of
whatever decisions we come to. So that is the plan for tonight,
okay?”

Cheo signed, “Okay.”

“One last thing I should say before we go—you
know that you are royalty here, my brother, right?” Baltor asked,
while first pointing to his left eye and then to his forehead.

Cheo delivered that wide smile that Baltor
had come to love, and while returning that same physical gesture,
he answered in sign language, “Yes, my brother, I do…thank
you!”

“Let’s go eat, already—I’m starving,”
Brishava signed.

The group of fifty-five, fifty-two of them
being a platoon of guards, all departed for the royal dining room.
Upon arrival, the guards stayed outside, while the remaining three
entered.

Inside the room, they saw not only Humonus
and Chelsea, yet the servants who had already rolled out their
carts filled with steaming trays of food.

After they had taken their seats, the
servants began to serve everyone the food—dishes were left in the
middle of the table before they left.

The entire dinner, as planned, was spent in
silence…

Once dinner was over, fifteen minutes after
it had begun, Baltor was the first to rise to his feet and say in
Pavelian, “I have thought long and hard about all the options that
may exist, as I’m sure you all have, and I want to hear what you
all have to say…in turn.

“King Cheo will begin. After he’s done, it
will again be my turn. Then each of yours—please do not interrupt
until that person who is speaking is completely finished and sits
down, or someone is asked a direct question. By the end, we should
have an indisputable plan. Sound good?”

“Yes,” everyone said.

Baltor sat down.

Cheo stood and signed, “When I spoke earlier
this evening to Brishava, I told her that I wanted vengeance for
the genocidal crimes against my people! After having listened to
you all, I have changed my mind. Now, I just want justice to be
served for my people—our people!

“Even if you can send me but one determined
man or woman, then our resolve alone will be enough to help us
overcome our enemies, no matter the numbers. I believe that their
entire army will literally capsize upon itself—that is, once we
stealthily have located and destroyed their leader!”

Just after Cheo had signed the word “leader,”
he smacked his right fist into the palm of his left hand quite hard
for emphasis, which caused a loud noise to reverberate through the
room for a second.

He then continued to sign, “I assume and hope
that you passed along all the information I revealed to you earlier
today, Sultaness Brishava. Am I correct?”

Brishava signed back, “Yes, you are…my
brother!”

“Thanks—that is all I have to say,” Cheo
signed before sitting down.

Baltor stood and said, “I feel that it would
be best if I was the one man to go along with King Cheo—especially
for the fact that they have magical capabilities! As you all well
know, I have a bit of magic and a hell of a lot of skills within
these bones! I can fight completely blind, and I know that he and I
can even decimate the entire dark gnome army, if the need should
come.”

Though all but Baltor and Cheo raised his or
her eyebrows upon hearing the word “gnome,” no one said a word.

Casting his eyes toward Humonus, Baltor
continued to say, “Ruling-General Humonus, regarding the Forces of
the Sharia Empire, we should stick with our original battle plan as
to where our troops should deploy. Instead of me leading them,
however, I think that it should be you. Do not stop the day you
reclaim Lasparus, yet leave only twenty thousand troops behind to
protect her.