After a short walk they arrived at a campsite. There were some small shacks made of wood and leaves, some tents, a small campfire and a small hut where some kind of toolmaker was sitting and making arrows. He already had half a dozen lying in front of him. Beside him a little boy was sitting who was carving twigs into bodies of arrows which then could be outfitted with arrow heads made of bronze.
Some men came running as soon as they saw Gwyn and took him aside to tend for his wounds again. Mabon also wanted to go over to get his arm fixed which immediately led to a small argument with Dil-Shad. She insisted that she would fix his arm. After he had made sure that everybody was being helped Laban went and got his head bandaged and lay down to take a quick nap. Against a concussion rest and sleep and not moving the head unnecessarily was important. As a veteran of many battles Laban knew that. In the end there were Brendan and Reza sitting around a campfire while everybody else was either sleeping or busy with something. Coran had disappeared with some men who looked like they had a say here, probably to discuss the situation.
Soon dawn came and it was still only Reza and Brendan sitting around the campfire. Brendan never talked much with Reza, mostly because Reza was not a talkative man. But Brendan felt that he actually wanted to know more about him and his enigmatic cousin Laban. He sometimes started to get this strange urge to bond with people after he had gone through particular grueling battles... like today.
"Reza", started Brendan. Reza looked up without saying anything. "Tell me where you met Laban", demanded Brendan seriously.
"In Khem-Ur."
"Come on, you jerk, of course I know THAT. You are his cousin after all, and you are from the land of sand, pyramids and god-kings. What I meant was, how have you met, what are your families doing and so on."
Reza looked displeased at him. "I have already told Mabon our story. I don’t want to repeat it." The warrior turned away staring in the darkness.
"Why do you assume that I know everything that Mabon does just because we are both Khom-Brogians. He is not the kind of guy that runs loose with his knowledge. Like a true magic priest. You know how secretive those bastards are."
But Reza stayed silent.
"I don't want to and I cannot force you, you bloody seclusive oyster. I just thought after all these fucked-up times we have been going through together you would stop playing the silent southern warrior and trust me like a…" For a moment Brendan wanted to say “friend” but changed his mind in the last second: "…comrade and long-time travel companion."
Reza looked at him. The dawning sun was casting warm orange light through the trees around them making Reza facial expression soft and kind, though it might be the light playing tricks. "I will tell you this. Laban is of noble heritage. Very noble heritage. And now stop bugging me, you crazy son of a bitch!"
"A lost prince like in some kind of fairy-tale?", thought Brendan.
Reza said: "But you would be shallow to assume that he is of royal descend or something."
"Damn!", Brendan cursed to himself and tried to keep a straight face, but a slight smile on Reza’s face told him that the southern warrior was very satisfied by the fact that he had looked through Brendan’s thoughts so easily.
"His family was powerful. They even rode with the royal chariots. Not just with one chariot but actually with three. Laban had a chariot, his father another one and my family, who is a sideline of the main family, also could afford the training and a chariot of our own to ride with the royal charioteers. Laban’s father was one of the highest-ranking generals in Khem-Ur. He had free access to the royal palace of lower Khem-Ur and was very successful in battles against the Nubatier who had overrun upper Khem-Ur and tried to overwhelm the northern kingdom of lower Khem-Ur."
"What happened then?" asked Brendan.
"I shall tell you another time."
"Oh, come on, buzzkill! It was just getting to the good part! Don't be like this!"
"Let’s say the trouble involved some priests... Those priests in the south are even more fearsome and powerful than the ones in the north. And they are power-hungry..."
"Powerful like Mabon?"
Reza snorted out loud. "The priest of the north are not in the slightest as powerful warlocks as the priests of the south. Maybe the gods of Khem-Ur are the strongest after all...", he mused.
Brendan nodded. He knew how powerful Mabon’s gifts were. A priest with even more power would be a quite frightening opponent... but only if he could not shoot him fast enough with his bow. A smug grin went over his face.
"Now you will answer a question of mine", said Reza and pulled Brendan out of his thinking process. "How did you get out of the city after being separated from me?”
Brendan smiled. Now was time for his narrative! He had been eager to tell since they had fled from the city. “You know, Reza, I am too modest a man to talk about my deeds of highest valor…” But Reza hit the back of Brendan’s head with his palm. “Don’t talk bullshit. Get to the point and spare your foul tongue for another audience.”
“Ok, ok, no reason to get rude. I think you saw that I threw my dagger at one of the soldiers. Well, of course I killed him. Then I gained their attention and just run, but those slouches didn’t follow me as a group. So, they split up. Reza, did you hear me? They split up! How could they be so stupid? They went in three groups; one man was left guarding the road where we had run into them. I waited until they had left and killed the soldier on guard. Then I followed the first pair and killed them while they were molesting a girl. The others didn’t pose any problem, too. They are inattentive, clumsy and slow. Can you imagine how I took the last two? You will not believe it, I…”
Reza snorted again: “Stop swaggering and get to the fucking point!”
Brendan gleamed with pleasure and resumed his story like an actor on stage. He was waving his arms and made a serious face. “I got to the house of the old one in a roundabout way, but no more warriors were to be seen. The old man told me whither you had gone. To be honest, I was thinking that I should be pissed because you fucked off without me. But then I thought that it would have been stupid to wait for me. So, I ran through the city and came to the crevice when Mabon and Dil-Shad were on the edge. And to make a long story short, I left no one alive. If I hadn’t turned up on time, both the little witcher and our lovely lady would have been dead in seconds – or worse.” Brendan looked sternly at Reza. “These warriors are powerful, but there are stupid as horseshit. That is our chance. If they were clever, we should get the fuck out of here as quickly as we could. But as they aren’t, we can… Argh, actually, what is our task precisely here?”
Reza shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe we shall force them off the city? Laban will have a plan, I suppose?”
Right at that moment came Coran back, accompanied by some dignified looking, aging men who nonetheless had the looks of warriors. They were wearing fine scale armor, had thick hands and well used but also well-maintained swords and axes at their side.
"Listen up everybody!", yelled one of the old chieftains with a deep and commanding voice. All the people started to come together. "I have talked with Victrix and the other chieftains. As you know, some southern mercenaries..."
"I am not from the south!", Brendan thought but kept his mouth shut and was impressed by himself. For sure he didn't want to get on the bad side of some grumpy old tribal chieftain.
"...have caused quite the upheaval in the city. They have slaughtered at least a hundred of the sea-men..."
"Two hundred! I killed a hundred already alone!", yelled Brendan in his thoughts. He began to like the old one.
"Not more than fifty and most possible not even forty", thought Mabon standing some feet away with Dil-Shad by his side. But he didn’t want to kill the arousing atmosphere of people preparing for warfare, killing and sacrifice.
"...and I think this is the good omen we needed!", shouted the chieftain putting even more intensity in his voice. "The day has finally come that we TAKE OUR KINGDOM BACK!"
