A Rock & A Hard Place

Prologue
0:1 On the Road to Mahallam
0:2 Desert
0:3 Quahabat
Chapter 1

0:1 On the Road to Mahallam

The landscape jerked side to side, as she lurched with the movement of her unfamiliar mount. Nadah seemed a lone figure on the road that led to the bay, though in reality she road in the wake of a small band of tribesmen, set out the night before. Even now she was aware of their discrete observation and rear scouts. This was their territory. She road alone more out of courtesy for her vocation than anything else. Normally no one traveled alone here.

The day's heat had not yet broken with its usual ferocity. There was a breath of air rising off the lake beyond the horizon. Through Sajal's eyes, she could just make out the shoreline. The hawk circled high above her, a small red speck in the wide blueness. The animal was enjoying himself. The morning was mild. Of course, that already was difficult to bare for most northerners. Fortunately, she had ways of working with the weather. Coming along side it. Understanding what her role should be within the environment. Adjusting her body as her mentor had taught her.

Her mentor. Nadah was suddenly stifled by the closeness of her isolation. The clan seemed so far away now. She, more hermetic then most of her kind, began to feel a slight vertigo as she slipped further into this uncharted land. Her safety net was only of the most tenuous kind here, the kind that could quickly become a noose. She had been chasing witch-fire too long in that sprawling city. Foolishness compounded by idiocy.

And she was no closer to her wild goose.

Brooding silently to the accompaniment of tinkle and creak of her camel's harness, Nadah thought, "Goddess, I wish I could take off these gloves."

***

0:2 Desert

His mouth was dry. The dull sound of flies buzzing came to him on the wind. Leaning against the sandstone, Hodge slowly rolled his head up, careful of his side. No movement. He held his breathe for a beat. He doubted the ambush had abandoned his party, even if they were restricted by sunlight. He licked his cracked lips. The thirst was unbearable. He lowered himself down to a sitting position, gently.

Their party had been stuck in an ambush-turned-standoff for days now, neither side gaining ground. They were like two wrestlers, sagging against each other, sapping each other's strength. His hand idly strayed to the hilt of his exposed blade laying next to him on the sand. He didn't remember setting it down.

The stone he leaned against was about 50 ft from a larger rock outcrop, riddled with shadows even now in the morning light. He had sent the other two out to find help or at the very least escape. The survivors had burned ever last scrap of fuel they had last night. Without fire Hodge considered himself a dead man as soon as the sun set. His gaze fell again to the eastern horizon where Miller and the boy Fete had crept away with the sunrise. Maybe the creatures had become more reckless at dawn. The fresh meat was probably too appealing.

The "meat" were the remains his unit traveling south on this diplomatic mission. Strewn between the two lithic edifices were broken bodies, soldiers thrown about like ragdolls. Hodge could just make out the artfully-shode foot of the diplomat, some 20 ft away, to his far left. The man was quite dead. There could be no doubt about that.

If the damn priest had not been so badly wounded, they might have stood a chance. Rubbing his eyes in frustration, Hodge looked over at the prior. The bearded man seemed to sleep but his breathing was too shallow. He had taken a hard blow to the head early on and not wakened since last night's encounter. He'd put up some kind of barrier around their rock, but Hodge was unsure how long it would last if the man stayed unconcious. Looking critically at the older man, Hodge was pretty sure this was the last contrubution the priest would be making in this life.

And of course with no priest, the wounded were on their own. Hodge looked back at the horizon. Where the hell were his men?

***

0:3 Quahabat

It was cool in the dim palace, as the magistrate leaned over his paperwork. A slight breeze stirred the thin fabric hung from the ceiling between pillars, adding to the audience room's tranquility as glimpses of the looking pool beyond poked out from behind silk. This was lost on the minor emir. He was not tranquil. Trouble was brewing in his prefecture.

Last night had been a litany of complaints and suspicions about the foreigners. They had taken up residence in one of the inns under his protection. This in itself was not news. Quahabat was a crossroads of trade. Many strange faces could be seen at any given time. Hakem grimaced. It's what the foreigners hung out the window that was the problem.

The Emir Hakem, son of Jabir, again shuffled through the accounts his scribes had hastily penned last night as he had brought the mercantile chaos invading his audience room to order. The foreigners had openly displayed the sun symbol out the second story window of the House of Abel. They had claimed the inn as a temple to the old pantheon. The leader was said to be a soldier yet acted as if he were an imam. The woman carried the symbol of the moon on her hand and was knowledgeable in the ways of herbs. The two traveled with some type of djinn, possibly a yemman. There were one or two others in their party. There had been offerings made outside the hotel. A woman was healed when the foreign imam's shadows passed over her. The owner offer his family into service. The list was long. "These visitors," he smiled nastily, "have been very busy since they arrived."

With a sigh, he reached for a cup of sweet tea set out for him by his staff. Mint, meant to sooth him. His servants were apparently concerned for their welfare as well as his. His audience room was dark and silent. Normally the muted sounds of his scribes would be heard at this time of the morning, but he had dismissed them. The less witnesses the better for the audience he intended. He had sent his steward to retrieve the foreigners. He had some time before the second call to prayer to find out just exactly what was happening in his prefecture.