Pharaoh of Fire (Land of Fire Book 1)

by Chadwick Duncan

  Kofi chimed in, “Be vigilant. The Sultan’s are unforgiving to outsiders. Do make sure not to get caught.”

  Haroun smiled, “I assure you, if we run into trouble, the sun is not going to be the only thing on fire when I’m done.”

  Kofi laughed, “Haroun you mad man! I love you. But seriously, we can’t just burn things up. Too many eyebrows will be raised.”

  Mbemba added, “I agree. Be more subtle this time. Action is the last resort.”

  He continued, “Your little fireworks was bad for business. We had less clients due to the mass hysteria over someone setting Selah Palace ablaze.”

  Another Creed member began, he was a brown middle aged man sporting a pitch black robe, “That was very careless of you. We sent you because your judgment is usually precise.”

  “Sorry, my brothers. The situation called for it. I will try and exercise more caution in the future.”

  Mbemba began, “Nevertheless, I will send Kofi with you three. He is also a native of the South like Ojo and his abilities will suit you well.”

  Haroun nodded, “As you wish, Mbemba. As soon as we rendezvous with Ymir we will fill him in.”

  Mbemba cleared his throat then asked, “So, what are your thoughts on Ymir? Do you really believe Ida was able to outrun him?”

  Ojo snickered, “As much as I hate that man, his eyesight is second to none. His marksmanship with his bow is also impeccable. He should’ve been able to hit her with an arrow at least.”

  Haroun added, “Precisely. Ymir has the keenest eyes of us all, that is why we had him overlooking her mission. So I believe it’s not a matter of if he was unable to stop her, it’s more so why he let her go.”

  Mbemba asked, “Do you think the two are plotting something without us?”

  The man in the pitch black robes responded, “Possibly. But why would Ymir tell us where she is going? Would it not make sense to lead us astray?”

  Haroun replied, “He is probably betting on her completing her task before we catch her. Ymir is not stupid, he knew if he came back to The Creed with no concrete leads on her that would make him seem suspicious. He had to sacrifice some information.”

  “Well if that is the case, we shall keep an eye on Ymir and see what arises. We need to capture Ida before we can interrogate Ymir. If he is truly working with her, we will get nothing from him if he knows he’s guilty. But if we tag along, we might be able to catch them both, or figure out if he tells the truth” Mbemba concluded. Suddenly, the door to enter to basement opened and Ymir came waltzing down the steps.

  “So, what did I miss?” Ymir inquired.

  As The Creed changed the subject and continued their meeting, Irabor and Ida had finally arrived at Yama in the cover of night. They were slightly delayed due to the injuries Irabor sustained from the lion attack, but they pushed forth. The streets were littered with poor and starving citizens. The stray dogs and roosters appeared malnourished and the produce from the market district appeared borderline rotten. The city was bright and vibrant with candles and torches at every corner to illuminate the night sky, but its inhabitants were the stark contrast.

  “I can see why Haifa wanted to leave this city, it’s dreadful,” Ida stated as she covered her face.

  Irabor nodded, “Yeah I agree. All the resources must be reserved for Castle Yama it seems.”

  Ida began, “now we need to find Castle Yama, I’m sure someone here can point us in the right direction.”

  Irabor turned to a woman lying on the ground. Her skin and clothes were filthy, with flies hovering around her. She bared lesions upon her skin and lips. Irabor began, “Excuse me, where is Cast-”

  Before he could finish his thought she began, “My price is ten shillings. Unless you want me to suck your cock, then it’s twenty.”

  Irabor retracted hurriedly, “What!? No! Vile woman I do not seek pleasure from you!”

  She replied, “I can drop my prices to five shillings just for you, you’re a tall piece of work now aren’t you?”

  Irabor stormed forward, “Ida let’s go! She’s a waste of our time.”

  Ida began to laugh, “Okay, Sapphire Eyes, lead the way.”

  Ida saw a little boy lying face down next to the entrance of a flat. He was wrapped in a tattered and filth riddled blanket. She kneeled by him and gently rocked him, “Little boy, little boy. Can you help me?”

  The boy slowly rolled towards Ida, his face had a horrible sore upon his left cheek. Ida cringed before she began, “Here, you can have these,” Ida handed him a few tamarinds.

  The boy hastily reached for the snack, but Ida withdrew her hand, “If you tell me where Castle Yama is.”

  He began to open his mouth, his lips were as dry as the Moto and his breathe wreaked as he muttered, “I-It’s at the center of the city. Just continue down this road and you-you’ll find it. Now can I have that?”

  Ida handed him the snack, “Here you go. You earned it. Now go dust yourself off and make something of yourself.”

  Ida yelled at Irabor who was still storming forward, “Aye, I know where the Castle is. Follow me!”

  Irabor smirked, “Really? Finally using your words instead of your body to get things done, I’m impressed.”

  “Oh hush! What’s the point of having a skill and not using it?” Ida shrugged.

  The two advanced down the road for a while. They continued past various sand and clay buildings. Nearly all the buildings were falling apart and filthy, they barely seemed fit to house life. Irabor and Ida were slightly set at ease by how familiar the buildings resembled those in Istapor, just in worse conditions. Unlike Istapor whom had wealthy syndicates, like The Creed, to inject money into the city, Yama’s wealth was completely reserved for Sultan Selassie and his family. Ida realized this while she continued through the city, as crime riddled as Istapor was, people on average seemed to have a more comfortable way of like than all these people she saw laying on the streets ill and starving. Suddenly, they heard a few men yelling at them. The two turned around and saw two men wearing matching beige tunics with a lion lazily imprinted on the front charging towards them. The little boy whom Ida gave the tamarinds was beside them.

  They boy yelled, “There! There they are! Now can I get my reward!?”

  One of the men replied, “Get lost you bastard!” he then kicked the little boy out of the way and both soldiers ran towards Ida and Irabor.

  The soldier yelled, “You two! Come with me!”

  Irabor began as he stared at the soldiers advancing towards them, “Ida! What should we do?”

  He got no response and then looked to his side, “Ida? Ida!? Where did she go!?”

  He heard a voice behind him, “Run you damn fool!” he swiveled his head and saw Ida in full stride sprinting down the street.

  Irabor turned and raced to catch up to Ida. Ida hurdled over various obstacles, from civilians sleeping in the streets to broken down wagons as she tried to lose their pursuers. Irabor was not as agile, he took a more pragmatic approach and pushed each obstacle from his way. He tackled civilians from out his path, ran on them, and broke barriers with his immense frame, barriers which would substantially slow other men but not him. Irabor charged like a bull through the streets as Ida elegantly flipped and twirled to evade them.

  More and more guards began pouring out from adjacent streets and shops to engage in the pursuit. Ida spotted a soldier ahead of her and quickly turned into an alleyway to avoid his sight. Irabor was less fortunate however, the entirety of the soldiers were on his heels and the one up ahead spotted him charging his direction.

  “Damn! Where did Ida go!? I can’t believe she just left me!” Irabor thought to himself.

  As Irabor ran passed the alleyway Ida was hiding in, she threw a rock at the head of the lead guard in the chase. The rock was thrown with such precision and speed that it knocked him completely unconscious. He fell to his feet and all the guard behind him followed. To their misfortune, a few guards ran with their swords and lances er
ect, so as they fell a few impaled each other. Irabor swiveled his head and witnessed the men collapsing on one another. He returned his head forward and continued his charge towards the singular guard remaining before him. The guard drew for his short sword and charged back towards Irabor. As soon as the soldier swung his sword, Irabor shifted to his right, evading the downward swing of the blade. Irabor grabbed the guard’s head and slammed it into the wall to his left. The slam shook the walls and slightly cracked the clay upon impact. The guard was instantaneously rendered unconscious, possibly with no chance of ever opening his eyes again.

  Ida timidly came out from within the alley and faced Irabor, “Well, that turned out better than I planned.”

  Irabor fumed from his nostrils, “Better than I planned? Better than I planned!? You left me to fend off all this soldiers!”

  Ida rolled her eyes, “No I didn’t. You’re being so dramatic. I took care of most of them anyways, I just needed you to draw their attention ‘til I could find a way out of this.”

  Irabor walked towards Ida and gripped her by the collar of her shirt with his right arm and raised her from the ground, “If you ever run off on me like that again, I’ll slam your head in a wall too!”

  Ida rolled her eyes once more and looked away from Irabor, “Whatever you say, Sapphire Eyes. Now then, are you finished?”

  Irabor released her, then Ida began, “Can’t believe that little boy told on us. It seems we are wanted. We should move more carefully from here forth.”

  Irabor nodded, “I agree. Let’s clear out before more guards appear.”

  The two walked back into the cover of the alleyways as Ida began, “I wonder how much further is the castle.”

  “We need somewhere high. Somewhere we can see the whole city. Lord knows if that boy pointed us in the right direction, we could’ve been going in circles for all we know,” Irabor retorted.

  “That’s very true. Let’s see if we can find a tower somewhere,” Ida began looking around.

  The two scanned the sky from the alleyways and soon they spotted something promising, “Look! There!” Ida pointed. It was a tall tower a not too far ahead of them. It had loose and missing bricks with wooden platforms circumventing it.

  Irabor was uneasy, “That building isn’t finished yet. It’ll be very precarious to scale. Let us find something else.”

  Ida replied, “We don’t have time. We have soldiers and various eyes tracking our movements. We need to find the castle and fast and that’s the tallest building I see.”

  “I understand. Exercise caution. Make sure you look out for guards, I’ll keep a watch down here.”

  Ida nodded and then began scaling the wall to her right. She grabbed for bricks protruding from the wall and window sills as she climbed. The wall offered little difficulty as she climbed it in mere moments. The real challenge would be the tower. Ida ran across the rooftops, leaping from building to building and scanning for guards. She arrived to the tower and began scaling it. She first climbed the wooden frame, it was unstable and rocking with each upward advance. She eventually arrived to the top of the wooden frame, leaving only the precarious walls of the tower left to climb. She saw a few guards a couple of streets over having a conversation and stood perfectly still. The guards talked amongst themselves for a moment and then proceeded to walk off into the opposite direction.

  Not knowing home large of a window she had, Ida leaped from the wooden frame unto the wall to quickly finish the task. But as she grabbed a brick, it was dislodged and went flying through the air. Ida quickly caught herself with her left hand by grabbing another brick. She began to breathe heavy, her fingers were sore and sweat began to fill her eyes. She looked around once more, but no guards were insight so she collected herself.

  Her left hand began to slip from the brick. Ida’s face grimaced and she released a slight cry as she reached for another brick with her right hand. But as soon as she reached for another brick, it also came tumbling out. Ida’s left hand became numb as she gripped for dear life. She gripped the hole the brick fell from with her right hand and eased the pressure on her left. She regained her footing on the walls and resumed climbing up the wall. She soon got to a high enough position on the wall to see her entire surroundings. She spotted the castle nearly four hundred meters ahead. She released a sigh of relief. It was hard, but she could make out a few figure standing at the entrance of the castle, she knew it was soldiers.

  Ida released her grip from the wall, but she leaned forward and also allowed her feet to slide on the wall, creating friction as she fell. This slowed her down enough for her to manage to push herself from the wall into a backwards flip and grab hold of the wooden frame. The frame began to creak and shake as she secured it within her hands. She descended down the frame swiftly. She raced across the rooftops then leaped off towards Irabor, whom was caught off-guard with the incoming Ida. He quickly reacted and caught her in his arms.

  “Dammit woman you scared me! I thought you weren’t going to make it!” Irabor proclaimed as he placed her down unto her feet.

  Ida smirked, “Please. That was nothing. I had it completely under control,” she suddenly placed her hands on her knees and began breathing deep and fast.

  Irabor laughed, “So where is the castle?”

  Ida regained her breathe and began, “It’s that way. Not too far. The exterior is guarded however, so we’ll have to approach the castle unseen and find a way to climb inside.”

  Irabor rubbed the scruff on his chin for a moment then began, “I am sure the royal family shits like everyone else.”

  Ida replied, “And? So what?”

  “That means the sewage has to run out somehow. There is probably some passageways that allow the waste to escape. Maybe we don’t need to climb up, but dig down.”

  Ida frowned, “I am not rummaging through those disgusting drain ways. I will climb into the castle, you can play in shit if you want.”

  “Ida! Be reasonable. You can’t expect to scale the castle walls and not be seen, regardless if it's night time or not. In all honesty I’m surprised you weren’t seen right now.”

  Ida barked, “I am not going in there! So it’s either you follow me up the walls or get out my way!”

  “Fine then! Have it your way. But if you get caught you’re on your own. Now lead the way to the castle.”

  Ida stormed passed Irabor and shifted through the alleyways towards Castle Yama. They peered out onto the street to make certain there were no guards. They advanced down the street through the crowd of civilians walking the streets as well. After a few short moments, the castle was in sight. They continued their advance towards it, as they approached, Irabor noticed a barred off small tunnel at the base of the castle.

  Irabor leaned and whispered in Ida’s ear, “Look over there, to the lower right side of the castle. That is our way in.”

  “I already told you, I am not going in there,” Ida shrugged him off.

  Irabor mumbled, “Well I guess this is where we split.”

  Ida turned and gripped the forearm of Irabor, he then gripped hers in return. Ida smiled and stated, “May the best man win.”

  Irabor advance rightward towards the sealed sewage exit, while Ida went left to a shadowy area on the wall of the castle. Irabor creeped over in the crowd and avoided the eyes of any curious soldiers as he made his way over to it. Once he rounded the wall, away from the soldiers guarding the entrance, he walked towards the iron bars. He crouched down and examined the bars. He saw that they were covered in rotten meat, feces, and various excrements. The tunnel wreaked and the pungent scent nearly knocked Irabor unconscious as he knelt in the waste. But beneath the filth covering the bars, he could that they were rusted. The bars seemed eroded in some areas, with one end of a bar not attached to the walls at all. Irabor knew this was his only opportunity in and gripped the bar. He sat in the waste and positioned his feet on the wall for leverage. Irabor tugged with all his might, the bar rattled as his brute strength began to
overpower it.

  Veins began to be visible from Irabor’s arms and forehead. Blood rushed to his head, causing his scarlet eyes shine brighter. He released a faint grunt and clenched his teeth while he pulled. Irabor’s shirt began to feel tighter as his muscles were pumped with blood and expanded. Suddenly, his red irises doubled in size, and the metal bars were removed from the tunnel, taking some concrete with it. Irabor sighed in relief. He heard murmurs behind him and saw a few civilians watching him, but as soon he locked eyes with them, they turned away and carried on with their business. Irabor started crawling on all fours through the fecal matter. Flies infested the tunnel as he crawled.

  “Tayo is really lucky I liked him. He has me crawling in shit to kill his murderer,” Irabor stated as he continued.

  It was as if he braved purgatory itself as he made his way through the tunnel. Eventually, he saw a light shining down from the end. He made his way to the end and looked up, it was a small opening. Irabor palmed the structure and realized it was made of wood. He stood unto his feet and placed his upper back and arms on the wooden panel while in a crouched position. He pushed, quickly breaking through the wooden panel and emerging into a small room. It was dark and cramped, with a singular candle for illumination. He stepped out the waste bowl and nudged the wooden door that sealed the room.

  Irabor came out into a long, dimly lit hallway, with cages to his left and right. Each cage had one or two men chained up against the wall. The men’s rib cages were visible as they laid motionless up against the walls. Their eyes were shut and their breathing was faint. Their skins were covered in lacerations and dirt. The room nearly smelt as rancid as the sewage and was so quiet he could hear the mice squeak.

  “This must be the prison cells. It seems like they keep their dungeon under the castle. Everyone must be asleep. Time to find Didi,” he thought to himself.