The Dragon's Breath

by James Boschert

  The people were trying to pull away from a member of their group who was lying on the dusty red ground. They could only go as far as the chains permitted, but they seemed to be frightened of a woman who was unmistakably pleading with her outstretched hands as she lay in the sun. One of the other prisoners shuffled forward with a small gourd of water and left it next to her, but drew away hurriedly as though afraid to touch her. The woman tried feebly to pick up the gourd and drink from it, but then fell back, twitched, and seemed to go to sleep. The rest of the people tried their best to keep their distance and chattered in their language with much waving and, in some cases, wailing.

  “That woman is very sick,” Reza observed.

  “It looks serious, and the others are terrified,” Talon agreed. Just as he was wondering if they could do anything, one of the overseers and two black assistants came hurrying up to the fence nearby.

  “Go and get that,” The overseer commanded his two men, pointing to the prone woman with his short leather whip. The men hesitated, real fear in their eyes.

  “Do it, or you will be flayed alive for disobedience, you dogs!” the man shouted, brandishing his whip, then he gave a gap-toothed grin to Talon and Reza. “They are cowards, every one of them!” he stated.

  Talon gave Reza a nudge. They moved off. The two black assistants, doubtless slaves themselves, ran forward, unlocked the chains and dragged the body away by its feet. Talon could not tell if she was alive or not at this point. He was sure that she would not be for long.

  *****

  They met up with the women just outside the bazaar. It was, by any standards, a poor replica of the ones they had known in Muscat and elsewhere.

  “How was it over there?” Rav’an asked pointing with her chin towards the area of the barracoons.

  “It is not a place for any of us,” Reza stated with disgust in his voice. Talon was relieved that his brother had undergone a change of mind.

  “Now we go and buy what we want,” he said, and led the way towards the other smaller maidans dotted around the dilapidated town.

  *****

  It took them three days to visit all of them. They had first to assess what was of good quality and what was not. Imaran took some time off from the slave market to assist with introductions to merchants he already knew, and to make it clear that Talon was under his protection to ensure good prices.

  Before long, all of them could discern the good ivory from the bad, the rotten from the sound horns, which they were informed were highly prized by the Chinese people. The Ambergris was difficult to gauge, but they had some help from the captain, who knew the better stones from the poor.

  They settled down to bargain for what they wanted, and before long there was a chain of slaves carrying tusks, horns and bags of Nutmeg to their ship, now docked alongside the stone pier. Talon went with Yosef and Dar’an to inspect some precious woods, ebony and mahogany. He purchased several tons of both, upon the assurance of Boulos that they sold for three times the price in Oman or Al Hind.

  They bought ambergris, ‘the sick of the whales’ as Reza liked to call it, once he knew where it came from, and exchanged colored glass beads for gold dust with the black traders who hovered on the edges of the trading maidans. They carried the metal dust inside the quills of an animal called a porcupine, sealed with a small blob of wax. Talon was astonished at how cheap this metal was in this part of the world. He thought of his Jewish acquaintances in Muscat and smiled at the thought of bringing them so much to add to their hoards.

  By this time they had spent a week on the island; their hold was almost full, and Boulos informed them that it was time to leave.

  “The winds will change in less than a week. We have to have these winds take us all the way to Al Hind, which is months away from here. We must be ready to set sail the day the first winds come to us.”

  “You have not yet loaded your slaves,” Reza pointed out.

  “We do that today and tomorrow so that they are on board for as little time as possible,” Boulos said. “We have loaded our other cargo, just as you have, so it should not take very long. We must not forget to pay our respects to the sultan on Pate before we leave,” he added.

  Talon could not help wondering about the sick woman. He wondered if that was all it had been, just one sick person.

  *****

  The next two days were busy as the captain took on fruit and supplies. He had the crew man the small boats and bring casks of spring water from several miles further along the coast, saying that he distrusted the agents in the town. “Who knows where their water has come from? They piss in it and then drink it in that place,” he said to Talon, waving his hand towards the town in disgust. Talon had to agree. The island of Lamu was not a happy place, with the misery of the barracoons and the filth of the town itself. The island of Pate had been pristine by comparison.

  On the third day, as preparations were under way for their departure, a messenger arrived by a small maneuverable dhow alongside Boulos’s ship, which was anchored in the inner harbor. The man said he was from the vizier. He was in a hurry and carried a letter for Imaran and Boulos, which he almost threw up to them before departing without further ceremony to visit other large ships nearby.

  Within an hour Boulos arrived on their gangplank and asked for Talon. His face was grim when Talon arrived on deck.

  “What is it, Boulos?” he asked.

  “I have a letter here from the Vizier. He tells me that the sultan is taken ill and will not be receiving visitors. We are forbidden to come to Pate and must wait here in Lamu until he is better before we can sail over there to pay our respects.”

  “But that could be days away! Why do you think we cannot go to Pate?” Talon asked.

  “God alone must know, but it is not worth future trouble for us to leave without visiting him. The sultan would be offended, and then it would be very difficult to trade here the next time.” Boulos sighed. “It is always something, my friend.”

  Talon had to agree. He looked out to the sea and noticed that there were many more clouds on the southern horizon than the previous day. The wind had picked up during the night and now came in from the South, bringing with it a fresh smell of the sea, driving away the stink of the island.

  Boulos noticed his look and hammered a fist into his palm.

  “By God, but this is not good. Here comes the vital wind and we are stuck here!” he exclaimed furiously. He stomped off, demanded to be rowed back to his ship, and then climbed his ship’s side, shouting at everyone in his way.

  Later in the day when the sun was still strong and the air was thick with humidity, Talon and Reza were sweating in the heat looking over at the town. It was too hot to stay below; the shade of the top deck awning was the only place where a light breeze could cool them.

  They were waiting for Rav’an and Jannat to come back from visiting a small shop where they had seen some colored fabric. Yosef and Dar’an were with them, so neither Talon nor Reza were particularly concerned. Rostam had also gone along.

  The normally busy quayside had gone quiet, almost too quiet. There didn’t seem to be a living soul around. There were some of the ubiquitous light brown dogs covered in flies lounging in the shade of some bushes, but no humans at all. It was unnatural.

  “That is unusual, even for the sleeping time. It is well past the hour when they should bring the slaves back to work. Someone should be here,” Captain Dandachi observed with some irritation.

  There was something about the silence and lack of people that Talon found ominous.

  “There are still a few bales on the wharf, Captain. There is nobody about, so we should use our own crew and bring them on board,” he said distractedly.

  Safa nodded and shouted down into the waist of the ship for men to get to work. Before long, the reluctant crewmen were sweating and heaving the last few bales and boxes aboard, but still not a single person could be seen anywhere, not even the normal traffic among the small boats, which was even
more strange. The men looked at one another nervously. All sailors are superstitious and attuned to situations that do not seem right. This was one of those occasions.

  Then one of the more alert crew members called out and pointed. In the distance where the center of the town lay, a column of smoke was rising slowly into the heavy air. It was dirty gray and billowed up into the sky, growing more dense by the minute.

  “There is trouble in the town, Master Talon,” the captain said.

  Talon felt his stomach lurch. “Reza, bring some men,” he called. “We need to go and find out what is going on, and we must find our people. Hurry!”

  He led the way at a brisk pace along the deserted quayside towards the town with Reza and three other men the captain had provided. All of them were armed with spears and swords. Talon and Reza carried their bows.

  “Be careful, Master Talon,” the captain called out to him, pulling on his beard. “There could be danger.”

  “Where did they go for the cloth?” Talon demanded of Reza.

  “Two streets beyond the harbor, Talon. I asked Jannat before they left. I wish now I’d gone with her!”

  The heavily armed group came to the end of the quayside and began to move cautiously along a narrow street. One of the men in the lead stopped and pointed ahead of them. “Allah preserve us! Look!”

  There was a body lying in the middle of the dirt road, abandoned. It was one of the slave overseers who had been working on Boulos’s ship. Talon walked up to the body and was about to crouch down over it when he glanced up and saw another body lying about fifty feet away further on. He stood over the dead man and could see that there was blood and froth at his wide open mouth. The eyes of the man stared sightlessly up at the sky. Talon felt a cold sweat break out on his brow.

  “Stay where you are!” he ordered the men.

  Reza joined him and stared down at the man. “Allah protect us all! He died of a sickness, Talon.” He muttered in Farsi so that the other crewmen could not understand. “We have to find the women and Rostam!” He was tight with the urgency. His eyes flicking everywhere in the hope of seeing them.

  “Yes, and I would bet that other man went the same way. This could be the Heyda,” Talon told him with an alarmed expression on his face. Reza nodded agreement, his mouth tightened in a grim line. The good doctor in Isfahan had explained that this kind of thing could strike anywhere, but in his experience it was mainly in crowded places and towns.

  They trotted up to the other body, which was also an Arab. The man was very dead, and the foul smell coming from the body indicated that he had voided his bowels as he died. The stink made the two men step back with their hands over their mouths and noses. Reza pointed up the road. Just a little further on was an almost naked slave lying on his back, twitching and moaning. The man vomited and then almost immediately voided himself. Now Talon was convinced. “This is Heyda! God protect us! We must find the women and leave!” he exclaimed.

  At this moment they heard something that made them look up sharply. It was a strange noise, one that sent the hair up on the back of Talon’s neck. It was the sound of a crowd of terrified, maddened people, many of them, and they were coming towards the harbor.

  At the same time, they made out six figures running towards them just ahead of the mob: three women and two men, with a smaller figure alongside. Hampered by their dresses, the women were unable to run very fast; it looked as though the screaming people would overtake them before Talon and Reza could reach them.

  “There they are!” Talon shouted. “Reza, we have to get to them first!”

  Both men reflexively took out arrows, knocked their bows, and began to run hard towards the women, who were now only forty paces away. They called out, and Rostam gave a high pitched yell and ran even faster. Yosef and Dar’an were looking over their shoulders at the crowd behind them, ready to sell their lives dearly should they be overtaken.

  “Now, Talon, or we are all dead!” Reza said as he drew his bow in one fluid motion and released an arrow, which sped past Rav’an to imbed itself in the chest of one of the scarecrow figures running towards them; a second arrow, this time from Talon’ bow, sped past Salem into the mob and another man fell. Two more arrows found their mark and more men fell.

  By this time Rostam had reached the corpse. With a surprised yelp he jumped over it. The women swerved past it with terrified exclamations but didn’t stop running.

  “Don’t stop, Rostam! Rav’an, go for the ship!” Reza shouted as he took aim.

  The others came abreast of the two archers, who waved them past. All of them were panting, their faces tight with fear. “You two, go with them, see them on board. There is nothing you can do here,” Talon shouted at the two unarmed young men.

  The two men loosed more arrows at the slowed, milling rabble, but it was clear that they had only halted them for a short time. The mob began to growl like a live animal. It was time to leave.

  “Go! Run! Come on!” Talon shouted, as he loosed one last arrow. He slapped Reza on the shoulder, and they turned to run back the way they had come, towards the crewmen who had come with them off the ship, shouting at them to return. Everyone now fled for the dubious safety of the ship half way down the length of the quay. Behind them, the far end of the formerly deserted street was suddenly full of screaming people in hot pursuit.

  ‘We have to get away from the quayside!” Talon panted as the group hurtled along the wharf side. Rostam was already on board; Dar’an, who could run faster than all the others, scampered up the gangplank of the ship and yelled at the captain, pointing back at the town. There was a flurry of activity as the captain realized the danger and immediately began shouting commands at the already nervous crew, who jumped into action. Eager hands helped the women on board, and then men ran to seize long poles used to push the ship out from the side of the quay.

  Talon glanced around for Boulos’s and Imaran’s ships, but then realized that they were a lot safer than his own ship, as they had pulled away from the wharf side earlier that day and anchored in the waterway.

  His vessel was one of only two left tied up. He drew his sword as he ran and slashed at the thick rope that held the bows of the ship to a short stone pillar. When the end of the rope parted and dropped into the water, he ran towards the after end of the quay, but Yosef and Reza were already there. They hacked furiously with their swords at the thick hawser tying the after end of the ship to the quay, and when it finally parted the three of them raced for the gangplank as the crew began to pole the ship away from the stone walls. There were many willing hands to help them scramble aboard and pull up the plank, and then it was all hands to pole the ship from the quay.

  Everyone shoved on the poles with the desperation of men who knew they would die if they did not succeed. It was hard work to start the ship moving, all the while watching the approaching mob. Talon and Reza took up station on the high afterdeck with their bows while the rest of the crew reached for whatever they could find to ward off unwelcome boarders.

  Men armed with swords and spears lined the side of the ship, waiting. Talon glanced behind him to make sure the women and Rostam were safe, and was rewarded with a quick gesture from Rav’an as she herded Jannat and Salem below. Salem was pulling a reluctant Rostam by the hand, but the boy squirmed loose and dashed up to the top deck to be with Talon. “I want to see! Papa, I want to see!” he squeaked.

  Talon and Reza could not help themselves. They laughed. The boy was simply too excited to know fear. The rest of the crew was startled to see the two men laughing. In the face of this very present danger it sounded insane; they shook their heads in wonder.

  “Stay close to me and uncle Reza, Rostam, or you will be sent below,” Talon told the boy in a stern manner, trying not to smile. He waved to Rav’an, who hesitated, then came up to join them.

  “It’s no safer below if they get aboard than here,” she stated. “Give me a weapon,” she demanded of Yosef, who ran off to get his own bow and hers from th
e cabins. She turned to Rostam. “If you move an inch, young man, you will be sent below immediately!” She didn’t appear to appreciate the absurdity of the order.

  Rostam looked up at her with wide eyes and nodded wordlessly. The captain hesitated and then came over. “Lady Rav’an, you should go below. It is going to be very nasty soon. That mob over there will try to take the ship from us.”

  She gave him a withering stare with gray eyes that flashed. “Thank you for your concern, Captain, but this is my ship, too. I do not intend that those people should take it from us.”

  Talon bit his lip while Reza stared off into space with a wooden expression on his dark features. The captain saluted in silence, then glanced at Talon, who gave an imperceptible nod. He retired to the steering deck of the ship to join the other men waiting for the onslaught to come.

  “Hurry with those poles, get us out away from here!” he bellowed. The men put their backs into the work and the ship slowly, very slowly moved away from the stone wall.

  In an instant the end of the quay was full of people, screaming and waving weapons as they ran, shouting and demanding for the vessel to stop and take them aboard.

  “The Heyda is here!” the cry went up as they swarmed along the quay. “Take us away, take us away! In the name of the Prophet, take us with you!”

  Many of the crowd ran straight towards the other ship, which was manned by only a skeleton crew who had only just begun to desperately try to pole their vessel away from the quayside. The maddened mob swarmed over the sides of the doomed vessel, brandishing their crude weapons and overcoming the crew, killing the very men who were their only hope of escape. The men on Talon’s ship watched in grim silence as the bodies were thrown overboard to splash into the water, and then the mob began to plunder the ship. None of them seemed to know what to do with their newfound opportunity, although a few fumbled with the sails in a pathetic attempt to raise them.