His eyesight became blurred and he soon saw the world turning dark.
When he woke again, he was lying on a hard table, back in the arena dungeons.
“Awake?” It was Amat. A physician was dressing his wounds. He felt heavy with drowsiness and a mighty soreness all over his body.
“What is happening?” Rhajit mumbled.
“You were kissed by the gods today and survived. Which is why you are here and not in the halls of Hec and why the rest are not in the Black Fires.” Something stung him greatly, an ointment that the physician was administering to one of the nasty wounds on his arm. The pungency of the strong ointments flooded his nose.
“Hold still!” The physician demanded. “Some of your wounds are showing the beginning signs of infection. You are not out of sight of death yet, my brave friend.”
“You may have anything you request, Rhajit! The king has granted it! And when you step out of these dungeons, you will be a king!” Said Amat happily, sharpening a blade.
“I do not care. I told you what I wanted. I also require something else. The livers, the kidneys and the hearts and the brains of the lions I killed. Get them for me, Amat. I will have them.” He mumbled through the pain-relieving draught the physician had given him.
“It is done. They are being slaughtered as we speak, meat for the poor in the crowds but you will certainly get all the things you request. They will be sent to the Victor's House. What do you need them for anyway? You want to know your fortune?” Fortunes! Rhajit groaned in disgust at this city man. Have they completely forgotten who they were?
“No.” He said finally. “What I will do with them is my business. Just give me what you promised me.” The physician squeezed and washed out the cleaning cloths and washed his other wounds, dressed them with more garlic ointment and wrapped them. Rhajit winced but remained silent.
“You must stay in one place. You cannot go about any time soon until the infection resolves itself. It must heal, which means you must rest! Else this time you will find your soul wandering the gray between-way, with no one to guide you. No glory in that. Now, you feel no sharp pain because I gave you a sedative. Rest, I say, for the king will require it. He is mighty impressed with your prowess young man and you have a bright future ahead, the gods willing. Your business, whatever it is, can wait.” Rhajit grunted stubbornly. The physician put away his instruments and ointments and left.
“So, you want to know the names of the men who were behind this?”
“Yes.”
“It was two men, Ainash priests, Shishak and Teman. They gave the order to execute the people who could not pay the tax. They forged the execution document and made it look as if it came from the king.”
“Shishak and Teman. Teman and Shishak. Good. I will remember.” Mumbled Rhajit. Amat narrowed his eyes, watching him intently, but said nothing. Rhajit wondered how Amat would even know this unless he also had something to do with it. And why would the king punish Amat along with the Ainash? But he did not question him further. Rhajit closed his eyes. He would kill them one day. It would not be easy to get to them but he would find a way. And then, perhaps he would come after Amat, the snake that sat before him. There was a sharp knock on the door, interrupting his dark thoughts.
“A carriage has come for the champion! You are to be taken to the Victor's House!” Said one of the prison guards.
“Let us all drink to his health, and our lives!” Shouted another one.
“The Victor's House.” said Amat, laughing. “Lucky man! There you will train, relax and be oiled and massaged, be given the choicest foods and live in luxury, Rhajit! And the women who come there every night. . .” They came and took the reluctant victor and loaded him carefully into the palanquin. He was too weak to fight them off so he accepted the fanfare, silently plotting how he would get to Shishak and Teman. He was still undecided if Amat should join them in death. Rhajit thought that his head would still make a good decoration hanging from his belt.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The past few weeks Anet had started her training under Ilim, whom some of the scions and many of the people in Gamina started calling The Prophet. Since he had come, the readings of the Law and the Writings had gone to him and he read with such vigor and charisma that he drew rapt attention from the crowds. Anet was sent to work with the guardian scions on how to wield weapons. She felt sore all over for days but she'd never had this much excitement. It was even more fun than perusing the citadel library, especially even the more fanciful sounding and exciting parts of the Holy Aishanna. She pretended when she wielded her skinny, wooden scimitar that she was fighting the great Gikunda-giki or the Lord dragon of the Llordis Sea. But each night she went to the citadel apothecary or to Tala's adjoining rooms for relief as she had many bruises, scrapes and sore body parts. When she wasn't practicing swordplay she was at her history lessons, same as all other scions. Or she had another new thing to do – surveying the land all around from the citadel. Ilim demanded that she pay close attention to certain land features, which direction she saw them, what was around them and at night for a few days she was made to sleep outside. Kaisha slept with her for comfort the first three days but after that she had to do it alone. He always questioned her on what she heard, the sounds and what animals they came from, what she smelled. She was already familiar with certain plants and what they did so what this was all for, she did not know. Nor did he enlighten her but it was far better than peeling beets.
However, after Night Prayers this night there was something special in store. Ilim had told her to pack a sack and wait for him by his house and so she did. He took her by mule to a place outside the citadel but still within the confines of the town and he had given her instruction. Three hard boiled eggs he had hidden and told her the features of each place where each egg was hidden and she was charged with finding them. The first egg was easy to find. It was only a few paces away from his house, near a cropping of red long grass. Anet tasted the long grass. She recognized its sharp, spicy flavor. She caught wind of a slight sulfurous scent and figured the egg was hidden within and went cautiously foraging through the grass toward the scent. She was right. She picked it up and put it in her sack. The first moon was high and the second moon was rising. She saw better than she had thought she would. Then she went for the second egg. He told her it was hidden on a hill north of the citadel but before the town wall. From where she stood, in the moons' light she could see the black shadows of the mountains they'd studied earlier against the dark horizon. Anet pulled her gray mantle over her head and shoulders as it was getting slightly chilly. When she was sure she saw no one, she made her way toward what she thought was the hill, northward. A tiny moth fluttered nearby. She watched it's sylph-like shadow against the ground and followed it, nearly forgetting the egg. “Observe the beasts. They know the hidden way.” She heard Ilim's voice in her head. Moths knew how to hide themselves in plain sight. At first its wings were a delicate, gleaming white. She followed it as it made its staggered path along the way. It finally rested upon a long blade of grass, crawled underside and folded its wings. Its color then blended into that of the grass blade, the faint light emanating from it had gone out, and she could not see it any longer. Anet looked at the underside of her covering garment. It was brown on the inside and gray on the outside. Perhaps she could be like the moth. She slipped along as quietly as she could until she found a large dug out hole in a clump of the tall grasses. She hid among them, flattening herself against the ground. She stayed there under the moonlight watching the stars for a long time until she heard a shuffling sound in the grasses. Peeking out from her hiding place she saw in the distance the shadow of an animal which made her heart beat faster. A lone wolf come up from the desert? A lion from the plains? How could it get in here with the gates to the town closed? She watched intently and as soon she could make out the silhouette better it looked more like a wild dog. It's eyes shined like starry pinpoints. It snuffled and sniffed here and there. She
quietly lay upon her sack to hide the scent of the egg as much as she could. She had brought a blade with her but was afraid to use it. She pulled it out anyway in case it came too close. She had learned not to scream or make noise during these lessons by getting a few beatings from Ilim for making too much noise. He told her one day she may have to find her way in the desert alone and it would not do to jump at every sight and sound she heard. She hated him for that. Soon the creature moved on. She would have to train harder with weapons in case she encountered an animal looking for meat on one of these night lessons. When she was sure the animal had truly moved from the area she lay on her back to watch the night sky. She gazed into the eyes of the moons and the far stars dotting the sky. Was He even higher than all this? She closed her eyes, no longer listening to the night sounds. The night reminded her of the dark backdrop in her dreams. She closed her eyes and prayed about them. What did they mean? Who is the dark man? Is he real? Was he wicked? What did he want? she asked fervently in her young heart for an answer, for she was confused. A few moments afterward, she went back to studying the night around her. Like a tiny ringing bell it came to her after a few hours, quite out of nowhere, one word: purpose.
“Purpose.” She whispered. Purpose. She soon fell asleep. When she woke it was barely dawn but she could see the hill in the north clearly. The first moon was slipping beneath the horizon and the second moon was rising once again. The crimson line of dawn was bleeding in. It was dark enough to still give her privacy and quiet from the sounds of people and animals stirring but light enough to see shadows clearly. She could make out the sulfurous scent of egg, and not just the one she had already collected. Anet bounded toward the hill and digging carefully through the bushes and tufts of grass she found the second egg and then she ran home back to the citadel. Tala who was waiting for her, let her in.
“Child, I was so worried! These lessons! If you ask me, the prophet should be ashamed having a young girl out there by herself!” She clucked. Anet smiled tiredly.
“Come child, let's get you something to eat in the kitchen. Medeah has something prepared for you.” Anet followed her and gave Medeah the eggs. She was given one of the eggs, a generous piece of bread and some milk which she ate hungrily and then went to bed. Anet now slept mostly during the mornings, after Morning Prayer.
However, later this morning she was beaten again.
“Why?” She cried.
“There were three eggs you were sent to find! Why did you come back with only two?” He snapped. Her face fell. She had forgotten the third egg.
“Oh.”
“Is that all you have to say? When you are out on the desert and you must use your wits with nothing else but the windstorm of the open desert and God's eye upon you, you cannot afford to forget anything or to play around! It is life or death beyond these walls. Many a man has died because of not respecting the majesty of the desert or the dangers of the world around him. A desert prophet must be even more careful to respect not only the wild but the Holy Word of God. If He asks that you make a trek here or there and does not tell you why immediately and you do not do the way He asks, it could mean your very life! Obedience to the desert trains one for obedience to God. It is the way of life, Anet. If you are to be a prophetess, you cannot afford to be careless.”
“Desert prophetess?”
“What in the world do you thing I am training you for, child?” Anet shrugged. She had momentarily forgotten her sore bottom.
“It is in you to foretell the future Anet, to expound on the Word of God and to lead the people to righteousness, like me. He is raising up prophets once again in the land. . .what is the matter?”
“Kaisha said that people no longer have the power to do that any longer. That no one is special enough.”
“Do not listen to foolishness! You may be able to listen and see things others cannot because it is God who gives the messages. It does not come from you or me or anyone else. Any man who boasts of such gifts without giving praise to God is either a liar or he works with demons. It is the spirit world that gives messages in dreams and we are simply portals for those messages, much like a man uses the ram's horn to call the people to congregate. A god may use a human to give a message. Beware which side you are on, whether it is good or bad, so that you are not used as an instrument of wicked spirits, Anet. Of those, there are many in this world.”
“Like the Unnamed One?” She asked quietly.
“Speak not of him!”
“Can I try again tonight, Father Ilim?” His expression softened for a moment.
“Yes. And this time do not let yourself be distracted. You must not forget. This is training but one day you will be on your own out there and enemies will abound against you, seen and unseen. You must be bold like the ram, cautious like the serpent and wise as the hawk. Even those touched by God can die if they behave foolishly.”
“ 'Do not test the hand of God less He is angered and let you fall.' ” She recited a passage of the book of Izingu, written by the scribe Izingu, leader of the Makebites, who took the true faith to them long ago.
“That is correct. Soon I must leave here, Anet. I have duties in Jhis.”
“Will you go back to the temple?”
“You are bold. I will give you that. Perhaps that is why you were chosen though it may have been better to choose a boy. In any case, no, I will not go back to the temple. I go back to denounce the priests at the temple for their evil and treachery against God and the people. I do not know if I will come back. I might survive the message or they may kill me for it. Never the less, I am commanded by God to give them this message. One day, perhaps when you are a woman the temple will be swept clean from the evil that resides there now. It is up to us to speak boldly for what is right even against those who claim to know the Law and the Writings.” Anet nodded. It all sounded very scary to her.
“Why would you want to do it if you might die? Won't they kill you as soon as you get there?”
“Not before the message of God is given. We each fight our own monsters and must be fearless. Not all monsters breathe fire or ice or have scales and sharp teeth. Not all warriors use swords. Some use words and visions and fight monsters that look like men.” Monsters in men. Anet thought on this.
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