Assassination in Al Qahira

by James Boschert

  “How will the danger come?” she asked, quietly changing the subject.

  “I do not know, but it might come as soon as tomorrow night, by which time we should be gone. I think it will be at night, when they hope our guard is down. In any case, you must not let the children sleep alone and you must have a guard at your door, all your doors. I shall talk to Malek and Panhsj about that and we will man the walls starting today.”

  “I will alert the servants for the need to be on guard,” she said, rising. Talon stood too.

  “Suleiman.”

  “Yes, my Lady?”

  “My grief is for the life that we once led and for the loss of innocence of my children. It is shattered like a broken pot and can never be repaired. Allah has been cruel to us despite what Khaldun might say to the contrary.”

  Talon could think of nothing to say.

  Silently and slowly, her head bowed, Khalidah withdrew to her chambers.

  * * * * *

  That evening Talon, Malek and Max were seated drinking scalding hot tea and having a serious discussion about how they needed to defend the buildings in the event of an attack. Talon was reminded of another time and place where the defense of a building had been crucial to their survival. One glance at Max told him that he was thinking the same thing. Khaldun and Panhsj joined them and a new council of war was held.

  “We should make every attempt to leave by tomorrow, but we must also take precautions for tonight,” Talon told Malek. “I think that our enemies will come by ship.”

  Malek agreed and immediately sent orders off for extra guards to man both the house and walls at once.

  “My duty is to the young master, so I shall also be here at the house,” Panhsj announced firmly.

  Malek and Talon liked this arrangement; then they discussed how best to protect the property at night and keep an eye on the road where the attack would most probably come from.

  Max had an idea. “Why do we not place watchers along the road and even in Beneade? We need as much warning as we can get,” he suggested.

  The rest of them looked at him in surprise.

  “That is a very good idea,” Malek said, and gave a wry smile. “It seems that both of you are thinking like soldiers, Suleiman.” The others nodded vigorous agreement.

  “We should post a horseman by the fort at Beneade who can ride back to the Fayoum and give us warning if anything suspicious happens there during the night.”

  He called over one of the syce and gave orders for two boys to take horses and ride fast to the village, where they were to remain unobserved, staying as close as possible to the fort while looking for any unusual activity.

  “Suleiman, you seem very sure there is a real threat,” Khaldun said to him once during the debate.

  “Hajji, I cannot be sure, but Panhsj and I do know that there is a threat that continues after Bahir. From where and from whom, we cannot tell, but it would be foolish to ignore it as we prepare to leave. A few sleepless nights for some of us would not do any harm and might be to our benefit.”

  Panhsj nodded his agreement. “Indeed, Aba, we were caught off guard once, and your brother paid for it with his life, Malek. I for one would prefer to have a sleepless night than to wake up with my throat cut.”

  They smiled a his ludicrous answer.

  Their spirits were dampened by the knowledge that danger threatened and that they must be prepared to face it. Meanwhile frantic preparations for flight continued. The maidan was now littered with huge bundles of household possessions and people’s personal baggage. The camels would be arriving the next day from the town near the lake.

  The soldiers of El Fayoum polished their spears and ran stones along the blades of their swords, waiting with tense anticipation for the night.

  Talon changed into pants and boots, with a loose shirt held at the waist with a wide linen band into which he could slip his knife and sword. He wore, as did Max, a tight fitting helmet over which his turban was tightly wound. They each wore a light jerkin, in chain.

  With Max he went to reconnoiter the thick walls of the estate to decide where they were most vulnerable. The outer sides were plastered with mud and very slightly slanted from the ground to a height of about fourteen feet, which to Talon was an invitation, but he didn’t think the enemy horsemen would be inclined to dismount and climb it. He thought they might instead throw blazing torches over the walls, in the hope they could burn the roofs and smoke the inhabitants out.

  Eventually people went to bed and the compound quieted. Panhsj had left for his duties at the main house while Talon and Max decided to stay on guard and let Malek get some sleep. Talon was unsure of how he felt about the threat they were possibly facing, and it worried him.

  Life had become very uncertain again and he could not see into the future with any clarity. He looked up at the stars and wondered if his two friends might still be alive and sharing the same view in faraway Persia. That is, if they were there at all. He sent a prayer out for their safety and that of the child he would never see.

  For Talon the night passed slowly, the waiting to be endured. Then around midnight the sentries at the gates sent an urgent message to Talon, who had been standing near the stables, that they could hear a horse in the distance.

  He rushed to the walls and was joined almost immediately by Max. “Listen,” the guard whispered.

  Sure enough, coming towards the estate was the sound of a horse being ridden hard. Soon they could make out the shape of one of the riders who had been sent out earlier. He rode up to the still closed gates and shouted, “A galley has arrived at Beneade!”

  Men rushed to open the gates and he trotted the sweating animal into the maidan, where he dismounted and was surrounded by men with flaming torches. Malek arrived looking disheveled from sleep and demanded silence. Then he asked the boy what he had seen.

  “It was a large galley, Jo Oustez! Like…like one of those big war galleys we see going up and down the great river sometimes,” the boy said in a high-pitched voice.

  “Did you see men get off the boat?” Talon demanded.

  “No, Oustez. We decided that I should come back immediately and Shebli would follow once he had counted the enemy.”

  Malek was silent while he thought about this, then he said, “For a galley to arrive at this hour is very suspicious. We should make ready for an attack. Man the walls and make sure that men are posted around the house,” he ordered. “Put out all the torches and pretend that we are not awake. Perhaps we can surprise the enemy…if they come. Put archers on the walls with the sentries.”

  Talon asked the boy, “You said that he would follow you as soon as he knew the approximate numbers of the enemy?”

  “Yes, Oustez. He should be here very soon. Insha’Allah.”

  “I shall report this to my Lady,” Malek said and headed for the house.

  Gradually the commotion in the enclosure died down, but now the inhabitants were wide awake. They waited for the second horseman to come, but when he failed to arrive after over an hour, Talon began to worry. He prowled around the maidan trying to think what might have happened. The one seductive possibility was that there had been no troops on the ship and it had been a false alarm. In which case, they could all go back to sleep.

  But he had a hunch. He sensed there was something not quite right, but he could not put his finger on anything. Malek came up to him in the darkness with a puzzled grunt, as he too had expected the other boy to arrive. They looked towards the black shape of the gate as though it could provide answers. The men crouching along the battlements near the entrance were wide awake and tense. It had now been a good two hours since the arrival of the first boy. Time enough for the other messenger to arrive, and/or the enemy.

  Talon heard a faint rattle of something on the walls at the other side of the estate, but there was no alarm called, so he relaxed when he heard nothing further. His eyesight in the night was enhanced by the blaze of stars overhead and the compound was not pitch
dark. There were deep black shadows in some corners, and many dark places that were indistinct in the night, particularly near the buildings. He thought he saw movement in the area of the bath house which was situated between the servants’ quarters and the main house. It was as though a shadow had moved. He stared hard at the same place and then he saw a furtive movement.

  A shadow detached itself from the deeper darkness of the building and moved very slowly in a crouch towards the main house. Almost as though it was a trick of his eyes, the shadow disappeared from view. Talon gripped Malek’s arm hard.

  “They have arrived,” he whispered.

  “Who have arrived?” Malek asked, puzzled.

  “Hashishini.”

  Malek tensed. “Where? In Allah’s name, where?” he demanded in a fearful whisper.

  “Raise the alarm, Malek. Raise the alarm, they are here,” Talon muttered, and then he ran silently towards the place where he had last seen the shadow.

  Malek yelled at the top of his voice. “To your posts, bring lights quickly, they are inside the Maidan!”

  In the ensuing eruption of noise Talon arrived at the spot where he knew at least one assassin was lurking, or had been. But there was nothing. Every nerve taut, his sword held forward on guard, he swiveled his head rapidly from side to side. Could he have been mistaken? He didn’t believe he was, but there was no one nearby. The house was waking up from the noise outside.

  Then a door forty feet away from where he stood opened and light fell on the ground outside, as someone with an oil lamp came to investigate. Talon saw a shadow detach itself from the darkness of the wall nearby and the person at the door went down with a choking sound. He saw a dark shape swiftly slip past the body. The clay lamp that the victim had held fell to the floor and shattered. The oil spilled and caught fire, spreading up the length of the curtain at the entrance to the door with a speed that astonished Talon, who now ran as fast as he could towards the flames, his sword forward and a dagger in his other hand. Another shadow ran after the first, jumping over the flames and the dead servant. They disappeared into the darkness of the house behind the blazing doorway.

  Talon had almost reached the door when a man in dark clothes leapt out to intercept him, a sword held high. Talon spun on his toes and slashed hard at the man, who spun out of the way of the blade and delivered his own downward blow to Talon’s head. Talon blocked the blow with his sword and knife crossed over his head and then disengaged very fast; his blade flickered and the man fell back with a cry, his hand going to a deep cut to his neck, the main artery severed. Talon did not wait, but bounded into the flaming doorway, shouting a warning to Panhsj as he did so.

  He leapt over the body of a fallen servant and ran down the corridor shouting as he went. He had a vague idea as to where the women’s quarters were, but his ears picked up the sound of steel on steel and a cry of pain. He changed direction rapidly and headed along another corridor and saw bodies on the floor.

  He mentally gasped at the sight of three servants lying in an untidy heap at the entrance of a room. He heard a cry of alarm and pain. Even as he raced towards the dead men, he marveled at how quickly they had been dispatched.

  Blood was everywhere on the tiles and he slipped in his mad rush to reach the source of the cry, but he recovered his balance by slamming against the wall. Hurtling through the door, snatching aside the torn curtain, he saw Panhsj fighting off two men dressed as Talon’s former opponent had been. Panhsj’s left side was covered in blood and Talon could see that it was Panhsj’s own.

  He took in the situation at a glance. Khalidah was lying on the floor, blood on her neck and a knife that she had carried to defend herself lying near her hand. Talon wondered if she were dead, but there was no time to think of that. He noted that the children were huddled in a corner and that Kazim had a knife with him.

  “Suleiman! They are trying to kill Panhsj!” Kazim squeaked unnecessarily.

  Talon slipped in behind one of the attackers, just as that man realized that they were not alone. Talon’s blade almost beheaded him but he was incredibly fast and blocked it just in time. There was a sharp rasp of steel and sparks flew as the swords met, then he slipped under the blade and shouted, “This is not our fight any more!”

  He parried another blow from Talon, and then they locked swords. They came face to face and Talon stared into the dark eyes of his opponent.

  As they strained against one another Talon grated out, “What are the Ismaili doing here?”

  His opponent’s eyes widened with surprise. “Who are you?”

  “I am Fidai,” Talon grunted, and started to use his greater strength to gain the upper hand; but the man, with a rapid twist that almost caught Talon off guard, dropped to one knee and tried to cut Talon’s legs off with a savage swipe that Talon barely avoided by leaping high. He managed to slash down onto the man and to inflict a deep cut to the man’s right side that made the man gasp and stagger back. But he still had the speed and strength to dive out of the door and vanish into the night.

  Talon did not follow; his concern was for Khalidah, and Panhsj. The other assassin, seeing this new threat and hearing his companion call out, ever so briefly paused as he looked for an escape route past Talon. But then Panhsj charged. His blade hammered down the defense of the assassin and cut deeply into his shoulder. The man cried out and fell to his knees, blood gushing out of the huge wound Panhsj had inflicted.

  “Don’t kill him! Don’t kill him!” Talon shouted at Panhsj, whose face was contorted into an expression of fanatical blood lust. He barely heard Talon. He stopped, his sword raised high for the kill; he towered over the man who now slowly toppled over.

  “Watch for a knife, Panhsj. Stop his bleeding; we have to know who they are,” Talon said.

  He turned around searching to see if there were any other attackers in the room and then he went to Khalidah. He slowly turned her over and looked. Despite the blood, he could only find a small, dark bruise that was rapidly swelling on her right temple that also trickled blood. She groaned and opened her eyes. Her eyes tried to focus and then, seeing Talon, she gave a start and tried to sit up. Without ceremony, Talon picked her up and carried her to her sleeping platform and laid her down.

  “Do not talk, you have been hurt,” he whispered. “Kazim and Jasmine, attend to your mother.”

  The children, wide-eyed and frightened, did as they were told while he returned to the fallen man and checked to see if he was alive. Searching the man Talon produced a knife and tossed it away so that it fell against the wall. Panhsj knelt nearby, holding his arm, which was bleeding from a slash.

  “Who are these people?” he gasped.

  “From what I can tell they are Ismaili—you know them as Batinas or Hashishini—but why they are here I do not know,” Talon grunted.

  He tied the wounded man’s arms behind him and then tore another strip of cloth from his robes and bound up the freely bleeding wound in the now semiconscious man’s shoulder.

  Talon removed the cloth covering from the face of the assassin and slapped him hard. The man, or rather, the teenage boy, for that is what he was, opened his eyes groggily and then focused on Talon and Panhsj.

  “Kill me now,” he pleaded in a whisper.

  “You will be granted that wish, I promise you,” Talon replied grimly. “But first you will answer a question or two.”

  The youth looked at him with hate-filled eyes and said nothing.

  There was a loud commotion in the corridor and then several men burst into the room, led by Malek.

  “What is happening?” he shouted. Then he saw the scene in the middle of the room. He held his men back. They peered over his shoulder at the chaos but were arrested by what happened next.

  Talon smacked his hand onto the wound, making the boy arch his back and utter a shriek. The wound bled freely again.

  “Answer some questions and you may go on your way,” Talon said, through clenched teeth.

  Twice more he struck the
youth, each time with the promise that he would kill him following the answered questions.

  On the third time the youth seemed to realize that there was no mercy to be found here. He shook his head and muttered, “We came to kill the boy.”

  “Who sent you?” Talon raised his hand as the youth hesitated.

  “A man called Al Muntaqim, no other name. He is following us with his men, by ship…he will be here in the morning.” The youth was very pale now, his forehead beaded in sweat.

  “Are you Ismaili? If so, from where?”

  “Sinan …Rashid.” The youth’s eyes glazed over and his body tensed for a few seconds then relaxed. His eyes stared sightlessly past Talon’s shoulder, then he fell over onto his side.

  Who soars through air without being stricken

  Is a fly soon crushed in a net or prison;

  And the ant lifting it limb is a sign;

  Its fall is near, for an arrow will strike him.

  — Eli Ben Josef

  Chapter 23

  Flight

  Under the cover of darkness Talon stared in the direction of the quay where the dark silhouette of a ship was tied up; he could make out that its bow was facing upstream. It was a sizeable war galley, long and low in the water, larger than he had expected. Malek had told him it might be a Dromon. These were large and fast two-masted galleys that had been copied from the Byzantium navy.

  This one, however, seemed to have an extra upper deck across the very back of the ship, beneath which he could make out what seemed to be a cabin space. He could see several men standing on this raised deck leaning on the rail and other men standing by the other rail, and he guessed they might be the steersmen. There were dim lanterns hanging here and there along its rail; they provided poor light to see by. Standing behind him and peering over his shoulder were Panhsj and Max. They too were trying to make out the activity on the boat; unfortunately for them, the men on the ship were clearly wide awake.