SL Part 6h - Desert Destiny - War and Peace?

[Kamenwati]

Ijtihad… Rally to the Mujtahid

((OOC NOTE: Ijtihad means "Effort." Ijtihad is the intellectual effort of Muslim jurists to reach independent religio-legal decisions, a key feature of modern Islamic reform; one who exercises ijtihad is a mujtahid. This would be a good thing to use as a battle cry against the cruel and despicable Amir.))

Meanwhile, Kam had made the two day ride across the northern peninsula of Morocco with no resistance… right to within 50 kilometers of Fez, the capital… Now all three of Trade’s new inventions were manned and armed…

Not 5 miles away, lined 200 abreast, were three ranks of horsemen, ready to protect the Amir and his capital. Behind the horsemen were seven ranks of infantry, 450 men abreast…

Within the two days journey Kam took… 3,000 freedom fighters, but no organized cavalry, rallying to the call of “Ijtihad… Rally to the Mujtahid…” arrived in his path. The desert was alive with the rallying of forces… both for Kamenwati and Abu Said... But it was Kam that would lead the freedom fighters… Abu Said would command from his palace…

On the day they anchored and they departed the ship, the walking shadow did not emerge from the hold. In its stead was a vision of tan oilskin draped above hob-nailed boots. Tan linens wrapped into a semblance of a bedouin turban about the weather-beaten brim also enveloped the face underneath. In the bright desert sun, two short cylinders of smoked glass peered out from the linen wrappings. Three Hwatchas rolled with Kam's forces. Their wheels sported horizontal planks that sped their travel through sandy soils, each one drawn by a horse that had been brought on the voyage. The wagon rumbled along with supplies. The core of the unit around the hwatchas grew as their numbers did. Archers joined the flanks of the hwatchas, and he personally held the five remaining steeds for a cavalry unit that would defend the hwatcha line.

Elsewhere in the Tamazgha, forces were meeting in battles that would raze towns and settlements… thousands would die on both sides… everyday, literally, somewhere, the Amir’s forces were being reduced… the call of freedom ringing truer than any word could describe.

Kam now sat upon the horse, its white and beige coloring hidden beneath bright colored material of the Berber… A curved sword in his hand, the reigns and shield in the other, he swung his sword rallying his men forward… out before them, were hidden markers that would mark the range of the 'Hwatcha'… now hidden behind Kam’s forces…

Kam knew he was outnumbered… if only slightly…but the Amir is the one who controlled the experienced army. The 'Hwatcha' blocks were loaded and ready to fire. Kam could only hope that Trades’ invention would hold true.

The presence of the stolid shadow turned djinn did not change as battle approached. The rhythmic thump carried the hulking frame to Kamenwati. His voice rumbled low and deliberate. "Keep them in range, or close to it, and do not let your men mingle deeply with the enemy. I will do the rest. Let them come to us. The best offense for us in this battle is fought defensively."

Leaning down from the saddle, Kam nodded at Jack’s instructions. “I shall portray a heavy front, as if we prepare to frontal a charge, with the 'Hwatcha' hidden in the rear center, … and as they move, I shall thin the rear lines and thicken the flanks… the thin front line of flagged lancers shall keep the invention hidden. Then when the Amir’s forces are near the range stakes the front line shall lower their flags… that shall be the signal to fire.” He smiles at Jack. “I shall be in the front as I should be… Allah be praised, all should go well…”

Leaving Kam's side, a defensive styled line was formed with the hwatchas in the center, archers at the flanks, as many infantry as could be spared in front of the archers, and the cavalry guard just behind the center. With a practiced motion, a spyglass was raised to one of the smoked cylinders, and the forces were observed.

Kam smiled as Jack began preparing his defensive strategy… and as he positioned himself in the lead, his commanders gathered around, and as the soldiers formed, he disseminated his, and Jack’s, plan.

[Kamenwati]

Briseis meets the Carnian Emperor

When one was exhausted, it was not difficult to fall asleep in a moving bustling carriage. Truth be told, the rocking and swaying helped; and with her head lulled between the corner of the wall and the window, gazing out upon a darkened land lit only with the quarter moon, eyes drooped and fell heavy against cheeks until Briseis was lost to the sway of the carriage and journeyed quite peacefully into the world of dreams.

Here in her dreams, she saw Kam, loading wagons with pieces of some strange equipment and journeying across the desert sands rallying forces with cries of a language she had heard while being held prisoner by Abu Said. Even in sleep her heart quickened see the rallying forces on both sides. Those protecting the Amir and the Capital and those across the desert, freedom fighters.

Briseis jerked away as the carriage rolled to a stop, her hand went to her throat to the painful tightening at what she had witnessed. It had only been a dream hadn't it? Her fingers massaged at the ache in her throat as she sat up to look out the window at the night, even with the darkness she could tell they were not on the road towards Genoa. The carriage rolled back and then forward as the horses pranced nervously.

Mathayus shifted in his seat and swung the door open. Stepping out, he stood guard as several tense and confusing seconds passed by until Briseis gasped as a figure seemed to rise from the darkness itself though she relaxed when Octavius climbed up into the carriage across from her; but her relief was short lived as her face contorted with confusion as Mathayus closed the door on them and went to the luggage rack hopping up to the only space available before the carriage began to roll again as Octavius released the curtains over the window and shrouded them into privacy from the outside world.

"My Lord" Briseis uttered softly as her head bowed, even after everything that had happened and even in the small confined spaces of the carriage she was itching to kneel and bow to her former master. "What's going on? I was coming to meet you..."

Octavius shifted in his seat finding some small comfort in the plush seats of the carriage after a hard horseback ride to the rendezvous spot to meet the carriage in time. Once Briseis letter had reached him, it had to take quick but careful planning in order to secure her safety across the lands and also his joining her to explain the situation. Naturally he had hoped she would heed him when he had written back telling her of his apologies to how she had been treated but naturally how he could not offer more than that. Surely he had thought her smart enough to know there was danger in Carnia now.

As she spoke and he saw her itching movements to kneel without being able to do so, he grinned. She was still his Briseis, in some form or another, but it was short lived. She had never truly been his Briseis at all and she was much changed since she had left Carnia. For several seconds he was silent trying to find the best way to explain things to her.

"Briseis...you have not had it easy, of this I am most completely certain and witness to it. To be treated as a piece of property rather than a person the whole of your life..." He stopped and sighed. "I have tried my hardest to abide by your father’s wishes but also not go against the laws that have governed our land since its creation. Your father loved your mother, though it was against the laws. He loved her so much as to face punishment taking her to his bed and punishment in allowing the child to continue to grow in her belly when they found out she was with child. It was no easy task concealing your mother’s pregnancy with you and to be born in the meat house, well... I suppose that is why you hate the smell and taste of meat so much, and for your mother to birth you there, left her much changed and weakened.

It broke your father’s heart when she died, just as it broke his heart to steal you away to Genoa and give you into my care. I regret that I could not love you like a father, as he should have been able to. If you had been given the rights and privileges his legitimate heirs did, I believe things could have been different for you."

Briseis sat silently as he stared at her. It made her nervous to look him in the eye but she chanced it every once and a while as he spoke, her hands folded demurely within her lap giving neither argument nor encouragement of what he spoke of.

With her silent, he let out another sigh and continued. "Briseis, your father... and his family, are dead." There was no easier way to say it. "After your rescue from Abu Said, Emissaries of the Amir arrived in Carnia to seek aid of Emperor Augustus in your immediate return to him, as part of his property that had been stolen from him, naturally leaving out you had been abducted in the first place.

As part of the Emperor council, your father and I heard of accounts of your time with the Amir. Your father became outraged and despite my reasoning began to rally his men, even that of his slaves to defend your honor which he felt had been tarnished and unjustly used. Everyone knows the emissaries were to blame for his death and that of his wife and children but since the Treaty of Peace with Tamazgha, the Emperor professed it a just death for disloyalty."

Briseis face contorted with slight pain and still, further confusion. Her mouth opened only to close as he continued and she shook her head, the tips of her fingers pressing against her lips as her attention turned to the window covered by curtains, she studied instead the patterns upon the cloth until silence fell over the carriage. "I don't understand, why was his wife and children murdered too? Why are you telling me this now?"

"By law, the sins of the Father are the sins of the son and so on and so forth. By right of law, his family was condemned by his own actions. As the sole surviving child of Adonis Cassius, you are by right of law, his heir, and by law now or by decree of the Emperor, Lady of Lycia. It no longer matters whether you were born a slave or not. The new Emperor is only concerned with surrounding himself with the blood that has populated this land for centuries and you have the blood of a relative long standing in this land. This is a blessing Briseis, but it is also a curse; if who you are comes out to the Emissaries of the Amir."

"But then, my Lord, we will just not say who I am. And it is as much a danger to you, to be in my presence and especially knowing what I have come here to do." Briseis countered.

Octavius let out a laugh though it was short lived and shifted to lean his elbow against the side of the carriage. "I know very well what I am risking in being in your presence and I do so freely. Things in Carnia right now Briseis are bad. Things rest on the edge of a blade and the wrong move and everything falls. The island, its people, its all on the edge of a blade and their fates rest upon the new Emperor. The Treaty of Peace and Unity with Tamazgha was renewed when Abu Said took the throne after his father’s death because Emperor Augustus was still alive and the Treaty he himself had come up with a triumph to himself but since his death, the treaty is null and void in the face of his son. Hence, the Emissaries of the Amir are nervous and working harder than ever to ensure that a continued relation between our nations would be beneficial to the both. Yet they are not stupid, they know a daughter of Carnia has been soiled on their lands and by their Amir, and they aren't quite sure how this new Emperor is going to take it. So you see, while you are blessed to gain the title of Lady of Lycia, you are also cursed if the Emissaries ever find out that you are the daughter of Carnia so soiled by their Amir, for it would mean their demise. The new Emperor will not be able to ignore that despite your standing while you were tarnished, you are now a Lady of the Court and so deserve due justice for what was committed against you. This is why I sent Mathayus to secure you. I can get you into the palace grounds but I don't know how I can get you to the Emperor undetected."

Briseis sat silent again, staring at the pattern on the curtains weaving inward and outward in such an odd design she could not put a name to it. She had found out long ago who her father had been, even though she had never told a soul; besides Kam and she had never tried to visit or speak with him. She did not know the man who helped father her within her mother, so that he was a stranger to her, even though she had seen him many times throughout her life; as he was best friends with her former master. Yet as much as he was a stranger, he had, she saw in Octavius’ words, loved her, enough to defy their country for her honor, and so she felt such a great sadness at his passing that her eyes stung with tears. This also explained why she had felt like there was danger lurking past the shores of Martius. Now she understood where they were going. Briseis was not an overly intelligent woman and she would never say that she was. She did not understand politics and she did not know how to be a lady of title but she knew what was right. She knew the Amir could not be left on his throne, if for the sake of his people, and not what had been done to her.

"I know a way..." Her attention turned from the pattern to Octavius and her face was now full of revelation and assurance. Gone was the confusion and uncertainty.

There was a steel braveness to her, like a coat of armor, hard with courage, yet soft and pillow-like in her nature. Octavius could not believe he had agreed to her plan, it was dangerous on her part, ringing with so much uncertainty and the threat of death. Yet there was so much courage in her face, there was such a look in her face that reminded him of Adonis that he could not help but agree. Safe within Agora, he had delivered in Mathayus hands so that he could journey into the palace and the council of the Emperor threatening certain death to the man if harm came to Briseis. At first it seemed as if the plan would fail; for hours, the new Emperor walked around the grounds of the palace, several times passing the atrium without notice of the company there.

Briseis had changed once within the city walls. Unfortunately in a land filled with slaves, it was not hard to find the garb allowed to such servants. Now within the atrium she sat upon one of the stone walls surrounding a fountain, her knees tucked to her belly as she knelt with her hands before her in a submissive gesture, her head nearly touching the stone beneath her.

Mathayus was not far away, but as a slave, he went without notice and it was only his companion perched the way she was on the fountain’s edge that received curious glances and nothing more. While the Emperor himself did not seem to notice her when he paced with his council.

It wasn't until night had fallen and most of the court had moved inside to the great feast and the Emperor still with his council was moving past the atrium again did he notice the submissive female on the fountain. "Who is that?" He called to his council for answer.

"Your Majesty" Octavius spoke up amongst the confused councilmen who glanced at one another searching for an answering. "Her name is Briseis and she is paying homage to your Majesty for the actions of her family."

Secundus looked back to the Lord of Genoa and then back at the girl who did not even flinch or acknowledge that she had been noticed. "Bring her inside, clean her up, and have her brought to the hall." He rapped out before continuing along his path.

All but Octavius followed after the Emperor, and it was then Octavius signaled Mathayus, and then continued on as Mathayus went to help Briseis off the wall, stiff as she was from the same position for hours.

The hall was ringing with conversations as Briseis moved closer down the hall towards it. Her heart was pounding within her chest as her sandaled feet moved against the marble floor. Octavius had sent a plain wool toga with longer sleeves that what was perceived as class in the Carnian court; but she did not care, she was actually grateful, as she admired the burgundy color of the dress trimmed with gold. Mathayus stood guard while she was attended, washed, and dressed, with her hair swept back and pinned with golden decorations that kept the hair out of her face, but allowed it to flow freely down her back. The hall quieted as she entered the threshold and stood waiting as Octavius left the Emperor resting on his pillows to join her. Taking his arm, she was careful not to look around her for fear of fleeing as they crossed the floor to the Emperor.

"Your Majesty, may I present Briseis, Lady of Lycia…" Octavius rung words rung out as the hall erupted with conversations going back and forth of the new lady at court. The Emissaries of the Amir were seething, but in a hall full of people they could do nothing.

"Lycia?" Secundus asked with some surprise as he popped a grape into his mouth, chewed and swallowed before continuing. "I was under the impression that all of the Cassius family has been executed for disloyalty." His eyes swiveled to first Octavius and then Briseis.

"Your Majesty..." Briseis spoke up and she heard gasps surrounding her on all sides. "It is why I sat in the Atrium for hours. I know I have no right to beg of you an audience but I humbly do so in the hopes of restoring peace with the family that were so gravely accused. I know very well, my beginnings in this life saw that I could not lawfully be accepted, and my captivity in the Amir's court saved me from sharing their fate when it happened."

Again the court was ringing with conversations anew, and Secundus gaze averted with annoyance around the court, and then back at Briseis and Octavius. "Leave us." He commanded the hall.

Slowly the court filed out of the hall and the doors were closed in their wake leaving Secundus and Briseis alone. Briseis gaze swept around the empty hall now devoid of faces her fear had diminished some. Secundus ate in silence for a few minutes watching the woman whose gaze swept the hall before his hand lifted and he beckoned her to come towards him. "Sit, eat." He commanded.

Briseis moved slowly to the cushions upon the floor and arranged her skirts until she was sitting across from the Emperor upon them. Her gaze swept the table laden with all sorts of food but she could not find the stomach for any of it and so folded her hands demurely in her lap again.

Secundus grinned before taking a long pull from a Goblet of wine and then setting the cup down again. "You do not enjoy the comforts of my hall? If you are afraid I will have you executed, let us take that off the table as it were. Considering my council knows it is for you that the Cassius family committed treason, we cannot rightly charge you with it, as you were a captive of the Amir of Tamazgha. I know what you've done Lady Briseis, you and Octavius, it is very clever. I suppose now you would beg of me the men in which to defend what was so savagely done to you as I am sure you now know the Treaty of Peace and Unity with Tamazgha is null and void, until that is… I decide to sign a new one. Now would be your time to ask. So tell me, why you came to see me. Ask me. It is within your right."

There was much in her past that she wished to forget. The night she met the Amir was one of them. Not the night of her captivity, but the night in which he had so savagely raped her and in the end ripped her right of children away from her with the death of his bastard within her belly. Yet she could not forget looking into the face of her past. Secundus had been heir to the throne then, his father a just and right ruler, who was merely trying to secure the land for his people and the right allies for it.

At the time, it was right, but times were changing. So much had already changed. She watched Secundus wondering if he remembered her, it had been such a long time ago and she... a slave at the time. "I am not afraid your Majesty. Not of dying. After so much, death is the least that frightens me." She answered honestly and then looked at her hands wanting to find the right words to relate what she had to say.

"I do beg of you men, your Majesty, but not for what you think. No doubt the Emissaries of the Amir would have you think his land being unjustly attacked for the sake of a woman, a slave? On what you were raised, on what we were raised. It is not only uncommon but unthinkable." Her lips pressed together for a moment and then she sighed. "I would hope your Majesty would not be so easily deceived."

Secundus laughed as he wiped his hands upon the tablecloth and then rolled from his side to sit up. It would surprise her to know he did remember her. She had changed so much since he had last seen her, but inwardly, not outwardly. Outwardly, she was as beautiful as he remembered her to be.

Abu Said hadn't been the only one who had wanted her that night but his father had held him back from the chase of the slave girl in order to secure the Amir’s hand in unity. "I'll admit to hearing accounts of the war brewing upon the Amir's soul and from his very own men's lips. Sugarcoated, no doubt, in order to secure our loyalty again. So tell me, Lady of Lycia. How are you any different? Don't you wish to paint a picture for me to secure my loyalty for your cause just as they do for theirs?"

Briseis eyes found Secundus and had there been people in the hall, she was sure there would have been gasps, perhaps even fainting. "Your Majesty, if you would but remember me. Remember that I grew up with only one true lesson, loyalty to my master. I am not saying people cannot learn on their own to deceive, but I have never learned that lesson. Of what gain could it possibly get me? Me, an ex-slave turned midwife, and then forcefully turned sexual slave. I suppose you think me bitter and wishing to exact my revenge against the Amir. I can say with all the honest breath within my body that I wish no such thing on the Amir. I do not even wish him harm, at least where I am concerned. Surely your Majesty has heard accounts of what he has done, that is not some pretty picture. Of what he has done to his people. This is my cause, your Majesty, it cannot be allowed to continue. I count my imprisonment a blessing, surely news of his wrongdoings would have stretched too wide for his hand to cover in time, but in my imprisonment and rescue, his misdeeds have been discovered. The man who fights upon the Amir's sands now does not do so for the sake of my honor, but for the freedom of his people."

Secundus rose abruptly from his pillows and swept past the low tables to begin pacing the floor. "Is that what you seek then for Carnia? Freedom? To destroy centuries of tradition? What would you seek next, my crown?" His face flushes with anger.

Briseis realized as he stood that she had mis-spoken and her head dipped as he began to pace and spit angrily at her. "No your Majesty. Please, you misunderstand me. I seek only to see the continued lives of your people, my people. We were born here as those of our families before us back to the times in which Rome was great. Your Majesty please…" She turned on the pillows to look at him. "Rome is dead, the Roman Empire is dead. We have been our own Empire for centuries now. The rule of your father and that of his father before him, they had one singular goal, to restore the glory of the old roman days and yet they never went for it, perhaps assuming as what I know now to be right. The Roman Empire is dead. There is only Carnia which has stood on its own for so long, seeking alliance in its own right, never looking towards Rome for approval, or for the restoration of the past. The past is behind us, Secundus." She knew it was a gamble to use his name but she was following her heart. "You are standing on the edge of greatness in a sea of a changing world. You can change with it, be known as the ruler who brought our country into a new Era. The choice, your Majesty, is wholly yours. No one can make it for you."

Secundus had continued to pace but his face slowly ebbed from the red hue of anger as she spoke to him about change and that Rome was dead. That he was standing on the edge of greatness and yes she had peaked his pride with that, his chest slightly puffing out at the idea of being immortalized, unlike that of his father and his grandfather who worked tirelessly for what she called a dead empire. "In a world of men seeking only to further themselves with their lies to me. I want your honesty lady." He spoke and turned to look at her.

Briseis hands folded in her lap again as he looked at her and for a moment her head bowed, her fingers tapping on one another before raising her head again to look at him as she spoke. "We, are only as great as our hearts will allow. Surely no time like this has happened before, or ever will again. A slave turned a noblewoman addressing the Emperor. No one could have ever fathomed it nor dreamed of it.

My goal, your Majesty is simple. To secure the freedom of the Tamazgha people from the Amir. They deserve better than him sitting on the throne and surely as his heart is dark, the land will darken and whither with him on the throne. To unify you with his land again, to unify Carnia with Tamazgha would be a mistake, and one our people would suffer from as well. I do not profess to see the future, but you would not sit long on the throne if you sign a new Treaty with them.

The other part of my goal, all rests in your hands. I seek to see Carnia thrive, its people happy and looking to a land now rich with its own culture. We left Rome as it fell so that we could remember and restore.

What we did not fathom was becoming a land of our own. We are no longer Romans, but Carnians and we have a right to thrive, to be recognized in our own right. Only you can give that to us, your Majesty.

In some ways I wish I were in your shoes as you are given a chance not many men can ever say they have had. You can liberate your people from a dead dream and bring them into a new world all of their own. You can be Emperor of your own nation and govern it as you see fit and not based upon traditions that are gone and dead. The possibility can be endless your Majesty, but the choice is completely yours, of where we go from here."

Secundus had stopped pacing to look at her as she spoke. He had never thought that tonight, he would dine with a former slave nor that she would put such thoughts into his head. Folding his arms behind him, he let out a sigh and then released a hand to usher her to rise. "You have given me a lot to think about my lady, I shall think about it tonight. There is no use making a decision now. We shall return to this in the morning. For now, I shall have a servant show you to a room. You are to be my personal honored guest for the time being. I shall not be refused."

As Briseis followed the servant from the hall, she felt her heart still beating heavy within her chest. The Emperor had given no rise that he would align himself with Kam to free the people from Amir, but nor had he given any rise to believe he would align himself with the Amir, as his father had done. It took her hours to fall asleep situated on one side of the bed she wished beyond hope of it coming true that Kam were laying beside her.

Carnia Goes to War

Light was cresting over the hills of the isle when finally she fell asleep and it wasn't until late in the morning when the streets were filled with the chaotic screams of people that she awoke again. At first she had thought the palace was being attacked until she realized the cries were joyous. Sweeping the covers back, she rose and moved to the balcony to look out just as the door flew open and Octavius rushed in.

"Carnia is going to war!" He cried his eyes sweeping the room to find Briseis with her arms wrapped around her body looking back at his sudden arrival. Crossing the room and weaving around the bed, he came to join her panting with the jaunt to bring him to her rooms. "Secundus is sending troops into the desert."

His voice lowered to a whisper nearly cut out from the parade going on below. "The word is, we're going to aid the Amir from its intruder but I was with the Emperor and his Generals this morning when he revealed the plan is to make the Amir think he is coming to assist him and to change sides when they get there. Whatever you said... you are bringing change to Carnia, Briseis. Gods help us, things will change." His hands rose to her shoulders and settled there, squeezing as if to comfort her.

Briseis eyes averted from Octavius as he spoke that Carnia was going to war, but her face betrayed her, shock and despair until he revealed what the Emperor plan was and she hugged her arms around her body as her heart sang with relief. Kam was getting aid.

As Octavius’ hands settled on her shoulders, she couldn't help but smile. "It wasn't me Octavius, the world was all ready changing. At least now Carnia can change with it." Lids slid closed over the soul seeing sapphire eyes and her thoughts turned to Kam. He would get the troops he needed to defeat the Amir, and she would be waiting for him.

[Kamenwati]

The Battle for Fez

The entire Tamazgha was ablaze with war… From the borders of Egyptian lands on the east, to the Great Sea on the West… from the northern coasts at the Middle Sea, to the lands of the southern desert… lands that lie unexplored jungles… Hordes of soldiers, both on foot and steed, faced one another…flags of nations…flags of families… fluttered in the warm subtle breezes… commanders shouted orders in languages European’s would not understand… then, with shouts and sword waving, the armies would clash… Men would fight until the end… the thoughts of surrender or retreat never crossing their minds. The sands of the desert would be stained with blood, as it had for a millennium… the screams of death and life-ending wounds filling the air… Flags that once fluttered in the air, now lay buried in the sand, its owner dead, his hand frozen upon the staff.

For months, the Tamazgha rebels in the heart of the Tamazgha, had suffered defeat after defeat at the hands of the Amir… the rebel forces greatly outnumbered, the Amir’s forces motivated by the insanity of the cruel ruler. Kamenwati was in command of a rebel army; the Amir hell-bent on crushing his mortal enemy.

To the East, the Amir’s Berber forces and the Egyptian forces battled back and forth... sometimes gaining land, sometimes relinquishing the same land. The Amir, his navy now decimated by pirates, had formed devil-deals with Spain for resupply and arms… and now Carnia had been convinced to join the Amir or be crushed beneath Berber sandals… The site of roman phalanxes marching once again in the desert brought fear to those who would face them…

Kamenwati and Jack looked out over the sand, the Amir’s forces facing them… Jack’s defensive styled line, the hwatchas in the center, archers at the flanks, as many infantry as could be spared in front of the archers, and the cavalry guard just behind the center… Kam’s offensive line ready to form as the Amir forces began to move forward… the Carnian phylanxes on the Amir’s left and right flanks…

Kam looked to Jack… “This is it, Jack Trades…” as he smiled and spurred his horse forward, back to his commanding position at the lead of the front line.

The Amir forces began to march forward, their lances lowered…1400 meters… 1200 meters… 1000 meters… 800 meters… Soon the first lines would be within range of the hwatchas…

In the background, loomed the towers of Fez…and the Amir… and as his commanders upon the field of battle yelled orders to attack… one Carnian phlanx wheeled about marching for the city walls, preventing any forces from escaping… while the other attacked the Amir’s rear forces… the roman style of fighting soon eliminating the Amir’s reserve forces…

Confused, the rear lines began to fade into disarray, as the main body continued to march forward… 700 meters… 600 meters… Kam, sitting atop his steed, waved off his fourth, fifth, and sixth lines, leaving the front two to keep a façade of a battle line… those lines relieved would be reformed into the flanks… 650 meters… 600 meters… and to the rear-center, Jack, and his assistants, would adjust the new inventions, then light the fuses… 550 meters…

The Amir’s front battle lines would begin to run the last 500 meters straight at the rebel forces… The Battle of Fez would soon erupt into a conflict… the Amir’s main effort to kill Kamenwati and the rebels that would defy his cruel rule… to end the threat of revolution.

450 meters… Still Kam held his forces at bay… waiting for the time they would attack… and as the smoke of the Hwatcha fuses sputtered and filled the air… that odd, and to some, terrifying, sound screaming overhead…

Fuses were tied together and lit. They sizzled quietly over the cart until reaching the arrows. A terrific "HUWAFATCHAAHA"... rushed over them with a roiling cloud of smoke as one hundred arrows shrieked out toward the horizon… some simultaneously, some staggered behind the others… then another "HUWAFATCHAAHA" and 100 more arrows flew from the other cart…then a third set of 100 followed the second set in another scary sound of "HUWAFATCHAAHA"… A few of them sputtered and slipped silently into the crowd of oncoming attackers, while the others coughed and then exploded violently just over head of the Amir’s forces… men, by 100s, screamed and fell, never to rise again… others flopped about the desert sand as if they have been hacked at, or burned by oil… the Amir’s center was now being assaulted by hundreds of arrows, as long as a man… while the roman-styled phalanx at its rear takes its toll… yet the front lines of the Amir’s forces ran blindly into the smoke, trusting to find an opponent…

But what they found was a weak line, one that its ends soon circled and enveloped them like a self-sealing coffin… Kam had ordered a weak front, only to envelope the enemy as he sought to crush the weak lines… Within the blinding smoke, two forces fought… men died screaming a violent death, as swords clashed and skin severed under sharp blade and piercing lance.

By the time the desert wind had cleared the smoke… the Amir forces had been decimated… Outnumbering his opponent 2 to 1, the Amir’s forces’ death count now quadrupled his opponent’s.

The Carnian phlanx now reformed with its otherand stood before the walls of Fez… Kam reformed his men encircling the great city… and Jack now ordered the Hwatchas relocated in strategic places around the city and re-elevated with the ability to fire over the city walls.

By dusk’s dimming light, Kamenwati now sat atop his steed near the main gate of the city… his booming voice calling for the Amir… and his surrender of the city.

The tan djinn stood in characteristic silence as the battle began. A spyglass with a leather sun shade on the end was raised to a smoked glass eyepiece. The crews busied themselves with arranging the ammunition as ordered. The defensive line stood its ground and presently unoccupied infantry aided the crews. A few minutes into the charge, the hearty voice rumbled quietly from within the folds of linen cloth. The crews turned to the hwatchas as the voice bade them. Numbers and commands were given in a soft, unhurried manner, and the obeying fingers turned distance and windage adjusting screws to the finest of degrees. As the charge progressed, the burly figure muttered something about Kam. Before the enemy forces were in range, Jack lifted a calloused hand to shoulder height and chopped the air with the simplest of commands. "Fire."

Seconds later the hwatchas shrieked to life and the first 300 arrows flew. Just as the arrows departed, tan folds of oilskin cloth fluttered as he wheeled upon the crews and bellowed orders over the roar. Empty firing blocks were replaced with loaded ones, and in twenty seconds another 300 flew. Displaying an uncanny precision with a naturally imprecise weapon, the arc and timing of the arrows met the first ranks of the Amir's forces just as they entered their reach. The following ranks, their charge impeded by the shock, smoke, and bodies now among them, received the brunt of the second volley. The hwatcha crews and the assisting infantry hustled to load another 600 arrows as the spyglass roamed over the battlefield and new adjustments were barked. Five hundred yards is a long way to charge while under fire, and those that had survived and regrouped endured another full showering before reaching the waiting Kamenwati.

As the Amir's forces were encircled, the flanking archers were ordered to volley into the consolidating group of enemy. More adjustments were made and the hwatchas fired dangerously close into the meeting of forces without tire or mercy. After the fighting had finished, the djinn moved the artillery to a single new firing position for siege, but kept the cannon (which were never fired in countering the charge) they had brought in a defilade position on a small dune rise, out of sight. Before Kam would ride out to call for the city's surrender, Jack gave him his report. "I donnae know exactly how ye think this battle will progress, but we do nae have the ammunition for a long siege. I have enough, probably, tae punch a hole in the walls at a weak point and cover an assault, but we'll have tae call in supplies and set up a workshop tae keep up prolonged artillery fire."

Kam rode to Jack and as the horse stomped the earth, the man in the Berber armour looked down at his accomplice… “With Allah’s graces, it will not be a long siege… Prepare what you will sir… I require the gates to open… one way or another… as I prepare my people for one last effort here, so shall you do this one last task…”