It had only been about an hour, but already Anka was in pain all over. She was squatting in a flat-bottomed amphora, on top of a dozen bronze daggers. On her head she balanced a pan of water, in the hope that if anyone opened the amphora they wouldn’t look past the surface. Her arms, legs and back felt like they were slowly turning to stone. All she could hear outside was the wheels of the cart grinding against the rocky path and trees rustling in the restless wind.
When she had climbed into the amphora, it was almost sunset,
and ominously dark clouds were swirling above. Lysta was hauling the cart
carrying the amphora, it was just the two of them. The plan was to get through
Niarush’s gates just before they closed them for the night.
The cart ground to a halt, and Anka could hear Lysta
talking. She took a deep breath. But before long, the cart was moving again.
Presumably the guards were in a rush to close the gates or were too lazy to
bother with any inspection. Suddenly the peace and quiet of the Paruan
countryside was replaced by the cacophony of Niarush. She was surrounded by
banter and quarrels, the cart rocked as Lysta swerved to avoid the louts. She
recognised some Paruan words here and there, but a lot of the conversations she
could hear were in a guttural but unnervingly familiar language. She even heard
one lisha cry out what sounded like “Delicious!” in Oshuan. No doubt it was the
dusk raiders.
Lysta took her deep into the town and set the amphora down
in a quiet spot. Then they waited, or at least Anka assumed Lysta was waiting
beside her. She hadn’t talked much with Lysta, not helped by the fact that Anka
was not yet fluent in Paruan and Lysta was not yet fluent in Oshuan. But Hyza
was unequivocal that she was as reliable as could be, and Oresh had said that
her skill with a spear was something to behold. That was enough for Anka.
“Wotcha doin’ here?”
Anka flinched in surprise, spilling some of the water over
her head. The voice sounded painfully familiar, where had she heard this man
before?
“Resting,” said Lysta, “I walk all day”
“Yeah but why here?”
“I have nowhere”
Anka heard the amphora’s lid be lifted. She held her breath
and stayed as still as a statue.
“You’ve been lugging this water all day, have you?”
“No,” Lysta said with a hint of impatience, “I do other
things today”
The lid dropped back down and Anka breathed again.
There was a long, unsettling pause, “Don’t step out of line,
don’t even breathe in a weird way, unless you’re looking for trouble”
She heard the man walk away, but Anka couldn’t relax. She
didn’t let herself move an inch or even close her eyes. As time wore on it felt
like her muscles had finished petrifying. In the distance they could hear the
shouting and guffawing of the lishas encamped by the gate. Eventually their din
began to gradually die down, until after what felt like an eternity of monotony
Niarush became perfectly still. Lysta lifted the lid.
“Let’s go”, she whispered
She helped Anka out of the amphora, which given how floppy
and useless her muscles had suddenly become she was very grateful for. She
never thought she’d be so glad to breathe fresh air, even in the middle of
enemy territory. They were in a deserted nook next to the imposing thatched
dome of the chief’s hall. Lysta was certain that they’d be keeping any captured
hurums in the storerooms in the basement, and as it happened as children she
and her friends would sometimes sneak in there to steal cured pork and other
treats.
Lysta patted a large stone at the base of the wall, “This
one”
She prised it from the daub and rolled it away, revealing a narrow
earthen tunnel. Lysta had obviously grown a lot, there was no chance she could
fit through there, but Anka could just about squeeze in. With a lot of
wriggling and Lysta pushing her backside, she came out the other end and
tumbled from a high shelf in the corner of an empty larder. As she picked
herself up, she saw movement up ahead. In the darkness, she dimly saw the shape
of a woman peering at her from a doorway.
“Anka…?” a quiet voice said
It took a moment to see who it was, her hair was a
free-flowing mess rather than in the usual neat bun.
“Dila? Dila!”
Anka launched herself at her and hugged her tight.
“How?” said Dila, “How are you alive?”
“Good friends and a good helping of luck. I’m sorry we
couldn’t come sooner, I was terrified it would be too late. And I’m sorry I
just let the soldiers take us from your home. I’m the reason you’re here”
Dila patted her on the back, “No you’re not”
“I’m here to make it up to you”
A boy hesitantly emerged from the gloom.
“Polur, it’s great to see you! Is your mother…?”
Dila wrapped her arms around Polur’s neck and shook her head
sombrely.
“Are you here to get us out?” asked Polur
“More than that. You’re our secret weapon. How many hurums
are down here?”
Dila assembled the twenty-four remaining hurums. Despite
Dila assuring them that Anka was a friend, they all had haunted looks in their
eyes.
“Listen closely,” said Anka, “once you’re outside, you’ll
meet a lisha called Lysta. She grew up in this town, she’ll give you a dagger
and then lead us to the gate. Don’t talk, don’t make any noise. Move quickly
but watch where you’re going. At the gate, we’re taking out the guards. It’s
late and they’re lishas, so they’ll be out cold by now. Get into teams of four
or five. Two need to pin down the arms, one needs to hold their mouth shut, and
one needs to slit the throat. Everyone understand? They think they’re better
than us because they’re strong. The only way to defeat them is to prove how
weak they actually are. Let’s show them we’re more than just food, let’s show
them why they shouldn’t fuck with hurums, let’s show them how strong we are”
“I’m not waiting around to become some bastard’s dinner,”
said Dila, “lead the way”
Anka helped the captives climb up to the hole in the wall.
To her surprise, every single one was willing to take the risk. Even Polur had
a determined look in his eyes. Once everyone else was out, she scrambled back
up the tunnel. She borrowed one of the daggers Lysta had been handing out to
chip off the handles of the amphora. Lysta gave her a quizzical look, but Anka
knew from that night in the Ekuan quarter that they would do the job.
In single file they dashed through Niarush, sticking close
to the town wall, slinking behind the cuboid homes of the townspeople as they
slept. The moon was shrouded by dark clouds, the only light they had to avoid
tripping over detritus came from distant flashes of lightning. There was
silence save for the rumbling roar of thunder as the storm announced its
arrival.
There were several lishas at the gate, just as they’d hoped
they were all slouched against the wall snoring. Following Anka’s instructions,
the freed hurums piled onto one lisha at a time, pinning them to the ground and
forcing their mouths shut simultaneously before drawing their daggers across
the throat and not letting go until the brute, desperately trying to flail and
scream for their life, finally fell limp.
Anka and Lysta climbed up onto the ramparts, where another
lisha was fast asleep, oblivious to the death being dealt soundlessly to his
comrades below. Lysta pounced on him, pinning his jaws shut and wrapping her
legs around his body. Before he could even wake from his slumber, Anka leapt
onto him and drove the amphora handles into the jugular, spraying her hands
with cold blood. Nearby there was a flaming torch – Anka raised it high and
waved it in the air, signalling the army waiting in the darkness outside the
walls. Almost all of the guards had been taken care of, it was only a matter of
time before they opened the gate.
Then the blare of a horn boomed from the chief’s hall. This
woke a lisha on the ramparts they had missed, who saw the bloody bodies around
the gate and hastily blared his own horn. Anka jumped when a bolt of lightning
struck nearby, flooding Niarush with bright light, the sky cackling deafeningly
at its own cruelty.
She looked down to see if the gate was open yet. There was a
column of lishas charging through the town, howling at the dusk raiders to get
out of their tents and prepare to repel an attack. Blasts of wind came rolling
from the ocean, bringing battering sheets of rain. The hurums started prying
open the heavy wooden gate, but moments later they were inundated with lishas
who pulled them away. Lysta, seeing the sea of enemies, jumped down onto the
ground outside the walls.
“Anka, come! I catch!”
She clambered up onto the battlements, but before she could
jump, a scaly hand grabbed her by the neck and pulled her back. It was Kisha, a
smug grin showing off her jagged teeth. Out of the gloom below emerged the throng
of the New Sapphire Temple’s lishas and hurums, their spears and swords ready
for battle, but jittery as they faced the solidly closed gate. They were headed
by Bukur and Oresh, who stood aghast as Kisha raised Anka into the air as
though she was a spoil of victory.
“Run!” Anka rasped as Kisha squeezed her throat
Oresh ran forward, his eyes glued on Anka, as though he had
abandoned all thought, his instincts driving him to scale the stone walls. More
lishas arrived on the ramparts and, seeing the army assembled at their gates,
immediately began hurling spears and firing arrows.
“Run!” Anka screamed as loudly as her lungs could bear
Lysta grabbed Oresh’s arm and dragged him out of range. The
New Sapphire Temple melted away into the night, to which the beastly lishas
roared with glee. Anka saw Oresh’s bright eyes, clouded with tears, fade into
the darkness before Kisha hoisted her over her shoulder to carry her back
towards the heart of Niarush. At least he survived, Anka consoled herself, hopefully
he can find a good life for himself without me.
Constructive criticism welcome
© Paul Bramhall
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