“I am not going in there!” Rami lashed out, throwing his feet in the air. A sliver of a moment of Noor losing his iron grip was all Rami thought he needed to escape him. But by all counts, he fell short.
Immediately Noor shoved a piece of balled-up cloth in Rami’s mouth.
Yulhan only looked disturbed seeing how Noor had Rami in a strong hold while they tracked the tall wall they had been staring at behind the safety of the fallen tree trunk earlier in the night. The guards were off switching and here they were taking their chances.
“Keep your mouth shut, will you?” Noor hissed and shoved Rami under his arm, “I hate to reveal this to you but you are Azul, whether you like it or not, and this is your home.”
Noor’s comment was a much-delayed response to the tantrum Rami had thrown a few moments prior about how the real Azul was still back in the dungeons and that they needed to go back for him now. At the time Rami may have sounded convincing but he himself did not entirely know if the real Azul was still back in the dungeons.
And as expected, he was laughed at by Noor. At least Yulhan gave him the benefit of the doubt but continued to repeatedly confirm that he was indeed the only Azul that was there in the dungeons last night and that the large pig-shaped birthmark on his bum would solidify it all. “That’ll do it! Lift it, will you?” Noor had commented to which Rami refused to have his cloak lifted to be checked. “I have rights!” Was the reason he gave as he held onto his thin clothing so desperately, partly out of embarrassment but mostly afraid to find out the truth.
Alas, all that whining only had him end up cramped under Noor’s muscles with cloth shoved in his throat being dragged somewhere against his will. Rami’s eyes began to water in both claustrophobia and the sudden realization that the minute Noor and Yulhan would get the money they needed he would get abandoned in this unknown place he was about to see. They were as of now the only safety he had.
Yulhan suddenly held his hand out stopping the two behind him while peeping at the gate that was now visible. It was the entrance to the border. The post was lit with giant torches at its sides and a line of carts pulled by donkeys had formed in front waiting to be admitted inside.
“Ah yes, as busy as they were last morning,” Yulhan remarked.
Rami stumbled as Noor dragged him with them as they quickly sped through to the opposite end where the forest met the grassland once more. They ran past the back edge of the line of carts not being noticed by the sleepy travelers while their animals in harnesses sensed the three on the loose.
Finally, Yulhan stopped, making Noor and Rami crash into his delicate frame. “You said his shift is at dawn?” Yulhan whispered while diverting his gaze from the border entrance to a smaller gate by the side much further away from the crowd.
Noor thought for a moment, “He did say he’s usually stationed here in the early mornings but I’m not sure if…”
Noor’s sudden silence made Rami perk up. The cloth stuck to his mouth was dripping in saliva. It was barely managing not to choke him out while he held his breath in suspense. A shadow appeared moving about at the small gate by the edge.
Noor squinted harder, shoving Rami to Yulhan.
“That’s him! That’s Pec!” Noor whispered sharply in delight. Without another word, the three of them started sprinting across the grassland hoping the darkness lingering just before dawn would continue to help cover their quick journey without being seen by the guards stationed at the border entrance.
Rami was essentially being dragged by the time they reached the gate. Pec, to Noor’s dismay, looked shocked seeing the three of them appear unannounced. Pec’s eyes grazed past Rami for a quick moment. Yulhan casually stepped in front in less than a second diverting Pec’s gaze before Rami’s figure captured unwanted attention.
“Open the gate, Pec,” Noor demanded, seeing the older man not responding to the sight in front of him.
Pec shook his head, “The deal was to let you in last morning. I did not say I would do it again.”
“Of course not. But we’ve got the money. We can pay you,” Yulhan retorted.
Yet Pec shook his head once more, “I was not informed of this earlier. I cannot–”
“We’ll double it,” Noor said, immediately catching Pec’s eyes light up in the slightest. Yet Pec continued to remain stoic and reply, “I cannot–”
“Take it or leave it, Pec. This is good money,” Noor cut him off knowing Pec was only pushing the limit.
“Fine.”
Pec’s agreement was music to their ears. Keys dangled and the lock on the gate clicked, unraveling the thick chain woven through the thick metal poles. Noor pushed the gate open grabbing Pec to his side. Seeing Noor continue to divert Pec’s gaze away, Yulhan immediately turned to Rami and pulled the hood of his cloak over his head. He gently pulled out the cloth stuck in Rami’s mouth and held a finger to his lips, “Keep quiet. Keep your head low. If they recognize you, they will let the guards know, and you will be dead before you know it.”
Rami’s brows furrowed in worry. He grabbed Yulhan by his elbow to whisper back, “You mean if they recognize Azul?”
Yulhan was taken aback for a moment before realizing their situation with “Azul” and then nodded in agreement.
“Who…who is Azul?” Rami’s curiosity made him blabber at such an inconvenient moment. But Yulhan only patiently smiled to reply, “You are crossing the Keimitaan border right now. And Azul is one of the most powerful figures in all of Keimitaan. So powerful the ordinary don’t dare mention him by his true name. The rumor has it he buries anybody who crosses him alive, letting them truly witness a slow and agonizing death…”
Yulhan reached out and pulled Rami closer looking deeper into his eyes, “...Listen to me,…Rami. You are now Azul. A man feared by the peasants and hunted by the nobles. You must stay vigilant till we take you to your–Azul’s home where you would hopefully begin to feel a bit more at ease.”
#
Rami was shaking. And it wasn't cold. The morning sun rays peeking through the crooked buildings breaking dawn was much warmer than when only the moonlight showed them the way. His muscles were beginning to be sore and his body began to ache. That should have been more of a reason to make him wobble his knees and feel as if he would stumble with every step he took. But it wasn’t his physical situation that was making him this way.
The moment they entered through the border wall and followed Pec through a handful of narrow passage-ways to finally end up at an opening into a corner of the city, Rami felt his stomach churn. By this time Yulhan’s words had truly sunk in. It wasn’t a dream or a nightmare anymore. It was his reality. A reality he seemed to be stuck in despite wanting to rebel against it.
As they stepped out of the passageway, the awful stench of piss and cow dung engulfed Rami at once making him gag before calming himself seeing Noor's judgmental eye find him. He was barefoot when he stepped out into the dew-stricken cobble-stoned path feeling cold to the touch. The rising sun cast an interesting shadow making Rami look up at the crooked buildings made of dark brick. His eyes watered as if they were in contact with something allergic in the air. He blinked a couple of times as his vision formed once more. The strange atmosphere, the distinct appearances of architecture and clothing, the clutter of everything from vintage signs to organic trash collected at the end of walls made him shudder as a response.
I’ve definitely gone back in time…
He thought as his eyes began to water once more with the slight breeze that swept past him and his company.
“That’s the lot of it,” Yulhan handed the last coin to Pec. The old man nodded in joy not sparing another moment before he thrashed the metal gate closed and left without a word.
Noor’s grip on Rami tightened. Rami hadn’t even felt Noor holding onto him before. He was simply too busy taking in the odd city dawning upon him.
“Strange, isn’t it?” Yulhan asked Rami, seeing his eyes sparkle in curiosity, “Very different to our village. It’s very very tight in here.”
Rami nodded, seeing tall, dark, and cramped buildings pushing against each other as clothing lines ran through whichever space was left free. It reminded him of his apartment, the big city, the small stores, and the cramped alleyways. Except everything here was eons dated.
“Why are you speaking to him as if he’s never been here before?” Noor whispered to Yulhan. Yulhan only nudged Noor before grabbing onto Rami and continuing, “Let’s get something to eat, shall we? I am truly starving.”
Before long they were seated at a corner table of a small shop by the edge serving brothy stew. There was barely anyone there. All these empty tables and Noor chose the one at the very edge covered by the shadow of a wall. Rami felt his stomach growl realizing he was starting to lose a bit of consciousness again feeling the lack of proper food get to him. He also hadn’t realized that Yulhan had disappeared by then and it was just Noor and him staring at each other at the table waiting for their breakfast.
“What is it?” Rami finally asked, feeling his vision blur for a moment.
Noor only crossed his arms and pushed his shoulders back in reply while glaring at him.
“Look, Noor,” Rami started hoping to clarify things for strong-willed Noor, “If you're thinking I am trying to trick you two by pretending I am not Azul, I assure you, I am not playing any games with you.”
“They why do this? You are clearly the man we know, the man everyone knows. Why trick us into thinking you’ve lost your mind?”
Noor was not going to let it go. He was not going to ever move on or even entertain that perhaps something may have happened to Azul.
Rami sighed, “Fine. What would Azul have done?”
Noor straightened his back to Rami’s questions, “Whatever do you mean?”
“What would Azul have done after you two rescued him? Seems like Azul and you two are friends, from my understanding–”
“We were never friends. We merely grew up together.”
“In the same village?”
“Yes, we grew up together in the same village till one day you decided you had had enough and made a run for it.”
Rami furrowed his brows in thought, “He ran away from your village and came to the city? This city?--”
Noor suddenly thrashed his palms on the table in rage, “Stop asking me unnecessary questions and get to the point!”
“You need anger management classes!” Rami spat out in frustration but the display of anger was worthless for by this time Noor’s fingers had already grabbed Rami by his neck. And it wasn’t until the lady serving them stew shouted out that she was going to kick the two of them out of her shop did Noor finally calm down and push Rami back into his seat.
Rami dusted his cloak and drew up his hood to look back at Noor still crossing his arms and glaring.
“As I was saying, if I was truly Azul I would have recognized it was the two of you and thanked you.”
“Wrong! If you were truly Azul you would have impaled Yul, grabbed me by my neck, and choked me to death,” Noor growled back.
Rami suddenly snapped his fingers and pointed back, “Exactly! And I did none of that. I did not try to impale you or choke you. In fact, I don’t know the first thing about fighting. All I could do was run away and that too you caught me like five minutes later. I am not Azul.”
Rami felt pompous getting back at Noor so elegantly.
Yet all his triumphs faded away moment by moment seeing Noor stare back at him nonchalantly. And without a warning, Noor’s fingers found the back of Rami’s head and pulled him closer to whisper, “Well then, pray that you become Azul, you weasel. You wouldn’t survive a day if you weren’t him in here, not in Keimitaan.”
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Rami felt chills run down his spine as Noor’s whisper shattered his illusion. The realization that he could not get away from his new name or personality ‘Azul’ was slowly dawning upon him along with the fact that he was alone, afterall. He couldn’t really rely on Noor or Yulhan. They too are after something else. And once they had gotten what they needed they were going to disappear leaving Rami to himself in this unfamiliar place.
“Shoes?” Yulhan’s bright voice broke the spell.
Noor let go of Rami instantly and fell back into his seat looking towards the brightening sky as if he wasn’t just threatening Rami menacingly only a few seconds ago. Yulhan only momentarily eyed Noor before turning to Rami and placing two flimsy shoes made of straw-like material on the ground next to him. For some reason, Rami felt his heart ache seeing this display of kindness. Yulhan had disappeared without a word to find him a pair of shoes to walk in. His soles were bloodied and bruised. And to think that Yulhan knew it without even checking up on him made him feel warmth to a person who would most likely leave him as soon as they get the job done.
Rami had forgotten how achy his feet were until he fit them into the straw shoes to feel relief like he had never felt before. All those shoes lined at his apartment door side was nothing compared to the luxury he felt now.
“Thank—” he was only beginning to thank Yulhan when he found his gentle savior holding up a crinkled shirt and a shoddy pair of pants with a smile eager to witness Rami’s surprised expression.
“Go on, then. Get changed. We have a long day ahead of us.”
The rest of the day was a blur. Yulhan was at Rami’s side while they hid in the shadows of buildings and surveyed the city. Noor kept pointing and asking Rami for directions every time he forgot that the only answer Rami could ever give was a weak head shake and a trailing gaze admiring the odd architecture of the grimy and dusty surroundings they were finding themselves in. As much as Noor despised agreeing to it, they were lost trying to find Azul’s home in a city quite notorious for ballooning in size every passing year.
Rami was feeling light headed once more when he noticed the sun coloring the sky orange. The sun was already about to set and there was barely any light in the day left for them to be squatting around like this. He was shocked to see the time pass by so quickly yet arguably begrudgingly slow at the same time.
They were aimlessly walking in between alleyways when he tugged onto Yulhan and asked, “Do we know our plans for tonight?”
Yulhan whispered back, “Plans? Well, we are still trying to find your home.”
“Can we not like ask someone?” Rami asked, wanting to pinch himself for not asking such an obvious question well before and not at the end of the day.
“Oh no, not without giving it away. If we were to ever ask anybody where Azul lived they would alert Azul’s crowd that someone is looking for his home. That would only get us in much deeper trouble. Possibly be followed by eyes we don’t want knowing us. We have to be careful.”
“But wouldn’t that be better? Just to let them know it's me–Azul just looking to go back home?” Rami rambled on as they kept following Noor into another alleyway. The clothing lines covered the little sun left. They felt a bit of relief feeling a shadow hover over them.
Yulhan shook his head vigorously in reply, “Look here, Rami,” he whispered Rami’s name hoping Noor did not catch on, “We shouldn't expose your…situation to anyone yet. We wouldn’t know how one would react. To hear that Azul, an elite member of the Circle of Daggers, has lost his mind would be the worst outcome imaginable. Your name is what will protect you in the future. We just need to figure out a way to get you home without anyone realizing what truly happened to you.”
Rami remained silent and came to a halt realizing that Noor had stopped in front of them as well. It was as if he was drinking from a fire hose. All these details, all these explanations of what’s right and what needs to be done were making him anxious and fearful.
To his surprise, Noor looked back at them from the corner of his eye and spoke in a low voice, “Yul’s right. You can’t afford to expose your situation to anyone, not even men you would typically trust.”
Rami pulled his hands to his forehead as he squinted his eyes in a daze.
“Let’s start from the top. You need to help me out here. Who is Azul and why would his name protect me?”
There it was again, that same struck expression on Yulhan’s and Noor’s faces that looked to him as if he was a jester playing a trick on the King, daring to amuse the powerful with a silly joke.
Noor stepped closer and took a deep breath only to suddenly divert his gaze ahead as if he caught something moving behind Rami and Yulhan. His furrowed brows alerted the rest to whip their heads around to see nothing but the darkness of the sky settling into the city.
“What is it?” Yulhan whispered while Rami scanned the area feeling half awake.
“I thought I saw–”
The striking sound of metal suddenly overwhelmed the alley. The very next moment there was a loud burst of shuffling and they soon found themselves with sharp pointy swords at their throats threatening to be slit in an instant.
Rami stared at the silver pressing against his collarbone as his heart started pounding through his chest. Before he could react, a hand grabbed him as if he was a feather floating in air, bound his hands tightly by a rope behind his back, and kicked his knees making him fold like a paper and kneel on grime.
By this time chaos had completely unfolded in the alley.
“Let us go!”
“Shut up!” a metal fist came thrashing down on Yulhan’s face for the words he had spat on one of the armored men shoving him to the ground.
“You cannot silence us–” but Yulhan had only barely begun. Another fist came down on him when Noor, who was now held to the ground beside Rami, hissed back at the armored men twice the size of him, “Stop it, you cowards!”
And everything fell apart once more as more men shuffled in and tried muffling Yulhan and Noor.
Noor’s eyes fell on silent Rami, kneeling there shocked to his bones.
”Fight back!”
Rami listened as Noor kept yelling for him to fight back, free himself, and run away. But Rami could not move an inch. It was as if the ropes binding his wrists bound his entire body. It was as if he was frozen seeing his saviors punched and manhandled by unknown men covered in armor head to toe.
A sudden deep rumble of the ground beneath had everyone instantly slow to a stop. The unusual shift had the three in captivity alerted. Rami lifted his pitiful head to search for the source of this shift. It reminded him of the same rumble that disturbed the trio in the forest earlier. The same rumble that had the three of them fleeing through the woods hoping not to be caught by the hoofs ten folds faster than they were.
The path ahead, opening out to a dark vast field, looked clear as day in the dawning moonlight when suddenly white horses dressed in glimmering silver started to appear in the distance, one by one, as if gliding down from the heavens being guided by the moonlight. Rami had never seen such a sight, not even in his dreams. His jaw began to loosen and remain agape at the striking visuals.
As the horses drew closer, galloping in wild spirits, Rami’s eyes caught the glint of the same armor the men, who were holding them down, worn by the riders. It made him gulp as fear started filling the distance between his ears and his pulse skyrocketed.
The horses came to a halt and the dust rolled over the three pushed on the ground. The riders got off one by one and made their way to the ones held captive. It was then that Rami noticed their armor was in actuality slightly different from the ones holding onto them. The riders’ armor was shiner, brighter, and had a heavy amount of engraving on it. One of them in particular had engraving in blue-black with delicate lines of gold running through. The helmet of that rider came off bringing locks of dark hair falling out catching Rami’s breath in ways he would have refused it ever did.
That helmet was tossed to the side as the figure finally turned towards him. Two dark striking eyes stared back at Rami while the slight breeze danced with those silky black locks. Silence washed over the crowd gathered in the dark alleyway.
Her eyes, laser focused and locked in, did not blink once. It was as if the hunter had finally found its prized prey. It had finally found that sweet soothing meat it wanted to dig into all day long. He knew it instantly. Rami knew that it was she who was in the dungeons torturing him all along. He knew it was she who threw the ice cold water on him day after day. It was she who threatened him to eat his meals so she could continue torturing him, making him truly lose his mind.
That’s what you look like then…
He thought as his eyes grazed past her darkened eyes and her sharp lips. All that darkness in the cell and his puffed up eyes had hid his captor's identity from him. And here she was in the bright moonlight, displaying all of herself out in the open.
“The rest of you, leave. And take the horses with you,” she commanded, her voice reverberating against the grimy walls.
As the men holding Rami swapped places with her subordinates she finally took her first steps towards Rami. Her eyes scanned the area while her teeth pulled out the fingers of her gloves one by one before her gaze landed back on Rami as her canine finally pried her entire glove off carefully but with perhaps a touch of intimidation. She tossed her gloves aside while smirking at Rami knelt there in the alleyway. He watched as her pace quickened and in a flash she was suddenly on top of him with a dagger, he did not know where or when she pulled out, to his throat.
“You imbecile! How dare you escape?” she whispered harshly as her voice growled at his ear. The dagger dug into his neck and he began smelling iron making him realize his blood was beading at her blade.
Rami panicked. His heart started racing and he squirmed in her hold. She held him down firmly as her eyes filled with rage. Her free hand pulled his hair from the back of his head making him tilt his chin towards her. The cruel smirk she wore intensified as she laughed seeing him in shock and added, “Scared my blade would hurt you? Or scared that you would end up back in the dungeons?”
The dungeons…
Those words brought a terrible panic in Rami. He felt himself choke on air as his breathing quickened and his pulse raced once more. He felt the darkness follow as he stared into her eyes.
“Give me a good enough reason I shouldn’t just get rid of you now? You’ve wasted my time all day. All day I have been looking for you. Tell me!”
Slap!
Rami felt his cheek burn. More than the humiliation of being slapped in the middle of a crowd he felt relieved the dagger pressing to his neck was finally out of the way.
He felt her hand raise once more when suddenly Yulhan shouted out, “Stop it!”
It was then that Rami remembered they were kneeling beside him all along. It was also then that she realized it wasn’t just Rami they had captured.
Her eyes darted to Yulhan as if he had interrupted her most desired moment of the day or perhaps her entire year. Yulhan’s eyes dimmed as he immediately looked to his knees.
Rami watched as she tilted her head in amusement and smirked, “What’s a vermin like you doing in Keimitaan?”
“Shut up, you coward!” Noor’s voice rose, making everyone gathered almost let out a gasp.
But Noor was ready to fight. He was pulling his massive body towards the woman making the guard who was twice the size of him struggle to keep him down.
Yet she remained quiet waiting for Noor to realize she was not even in the slightest taken aback by his insult. She then looked to her guards and coolly instructed, “Get rid of these two.”
“No!” Rami found himself gasping as his voice immediately got drowned out by Noor, who began to curse the woman in return. Rami knew in his heart they were going to kill Yulhan and Noor.
“No, they can help,” Rami’s voice drowned out once more as Noor shouted out, spat, and kicked dirt at the woman.
But Yulhan only remained small before his guard pulled him up and kicked him to walk.
“You are going to get nothing out of him,” Yulhan suddenly spoke, making his soft voice strangely pause the commotion. Noor looked to Yulhan thinking he was perhaps addressing him only to notice Yulhan was addressing the woman. And he had her full attention.
She pointed at Rami in reply, “Whatever do you mean? He is a high ranking official of the most powerful criminal organization in all of Keimitaan. He is someone I can get everything wringed out of. As far as I know you are a nobody.”
“No, we are not. We are…his spies. We helped him break out of the dungeons,” Yulhan began to weave a careful web of lies, making Rami and Noor exchange looks before diverting their gazes in the hopes their astonishment went unnoticed.
She thought for a moment falling back into a relaxed posture and then suddenly began to clap loudly.
“Well, congratulations! Sadly, you won’t live another day to reap the rewards from your master.”
Yulhan stomped his foot in frustration and pressed on, “You need us! Without us,” he pointed to Rami kneeling on the ground like a mouse, “you won’t get anywhere with him. He’s…” Yulhan looked into Rami's eyes in desperation as if he was about to commit a crime, “...he’s lost his mind.”
Rami sighed. All that preaching about not revealing his situation to anyone was broken by the very preacher himself.
Suddenly, she burst out laughing at Yulhan.
“Stop making things up, boy!” she exclaimed.
“He’s not lying,” Noor chimed in, “You’ve tortured him and starved him to the point he’s lost his mind. He remembers nothing. And if it weren’t for us, he wouldn't have made it out of the dungeons, he wouldn’t have made it here. You won’t get far with him, not with him like this.”
Her eyes found Rami and scanned him a couple of times head to toe before tilting her head in thought as if she had caught something that had been hiding in plain sight.
“And what value would you provide? You two are merely his spies. I desire more sensitive information only he would know,” she looked to Noor raising her brow in question.
It was the first time Rami saw Noor’s lip quiver in fear before he gulped and replied, “We’ll help him infiltrate the Circle for you. We’ll help him get you the information that you need. We are the only two people he truly trusts. We are the ones he hired personally to be his spies, out of the knowledge of the Circle, of course.”
She stepped closer to Noor, looking into his eyes as if she was reading him like a book. Noor held his breath as his life sentence was being written. She slowly nodded her head thinking while stepping back closer to Rami and grabbing his chin with two fingers. He felt them press hard on his skin almost with the intention of bruising him ever so slightly.
“If this is a trick you are playing on me–”
She stopped as a sudden burst of laughter of children started drawing in. Within a second Rami saw her men shuffle. Her men grabbed Yulhan and Noor and disappeared into the shadows while Rami was grabbed by his collar and pushed against a wall at the edge and away from the alleyway.
He was about to whimper when she clasped her palm across his mouth and held him rough against the wall. It was as if she knew what was to come before it happened. She was quick to stop him from making noise.
He stayed put meeting her at eye level. Her face was thin and long with her slightly tan skin smooth and radiating. Her black locks still danced with the slight breeze of the night as her eyes watched the bundle of children play with a ball in the very alleyway Rami was just being interrogated in. Something in her eyes that were watching over the children gave it away. There was softness mixed in with all that display of rage and power only moments ago. And without missing a beat those softening eyes realized its veil lowering at once.
She glared back at Rami. Their faces only inches apart. Rami felt her palm press tighter against his face as she reached closer to his ear and whispered, “Don’t you dare think of running away from me again. And if you do, I will find you and I will drive my dagger through your weak little heart and make you gnaw in pain. You cannot escape me now, Ascari. You will never escape me again.”