Ch 8

He saw a haughty general of his armies approaching. He smiled with satisfaction. He was a brave among the brave.

The man tried to prostrate himself. He would not let him. He liked his company very much and before the other spoke he saluted him.

General Tang! I salute my bravest among equals! ---- saluted the great emperor.

--Your Majesty.

-Come on. Tell me, what brings you here so early in the morning? You should enjoy the pleasures of the Turukki, delicious women, I must confess...

The man smiled. Of course, it was true! They were delicious women, ready to give pleasure without tiring, with spirit and sensuality.

--Again, the lords of the Sub-Area tribe... Raiding caravans, stealing tribute, ambushing soldiers from distant garrisons.

--Someone must be warming an ear. They have always been a peaceful people,"-- the mighty lord nodded in warning.

So have the Ma-ling lords. They want to advance to the noon lands, to take over the grape fields.

-They grow wild there. I know those lands. I have never tasted their liquors. It is a sin,"-- warned the great warrior.

The other nodded. His lord was evading. He did not want to start the day with tribulations. It was better to be silent.

--Go on. Go on. Don't think I'm not interested in hearing the news,"-- the great warrior encouraged him with a smile....

I wait and he said it.

Again the Sauwar lord revealed himself. He brings with him a tribe of Magyars. Fierce and murderous. Among them were those who had flayed Harun Al Rashid the slaughtered.

--He always rebels. We always defeated him.

--You have always spared him," said the general painfully. Useless in the blood shed, to obtain forgiveness from his sacred Great Warrior. It was unjust.

The great warrior understood. Walking towards his tent he covered his face so that the other would not see his pain.

They were cousins, they had been childhood friends, they had been friends for a long time, they had fought over the headwaters of the rivers, they had both fallen in love with the same woman... Now he was the almighty and the other the enemy who was always standing on the horizon.

--It is Queen Paskur," --understood the caliph, throwing the blame on the cruel woman who was the enemy of both and when it suited her she incited either side. Generally to Sauwar.

The general took the opportunity to finish his report.

--He has a lot of gold. He is no longer at war with the Lembas....

--He could not defeat them either. But what has the edge of his sword? Is he so dull that he knows only defeats? No war to win?

--My lord, let it not be against our own,"-- exclaimed the general, raising his hands to heaven, asking for the intervention of the Most High.

--He is not a fool. He is used to losing. I am more worried about the Ma-ling. They are getting more ambitious every day.

--What do you plan to do?

--I don't want war. I'm going to calm Sauwar's inflamed spirit. He's still young. I'm going to give him a special gift.

What will it be?

--With my daughter Mang wasing I'm going to marry him. That will seal our alliance and then there will be peace. Later... It will be later. You take care of the Ma Ling. I can't attend to two war fronts.

The man was silent.

--The art of war is to know how to build a lasting peace. For now it's just a game of chess with four players on the board. Come...Join me for breakfast, without stopping to think what his daughter Mang Whasing was doing at that moment when she did not come to join him....

Mang wasing knew of her father's wishes and intentions. The only female right in the middle in age of her 7 male siblings. Daughter of the marriage to his third wife the late Maharani of Astorh, who died at the age of 16 a day after giving birth to the beautiful Mang wasing.

She wanted to marry, but not whom her father indicated; she wanted to marry Costel, her personal chief guard. He was a convert from the southern tribes of Lhasa. It was a passion she could barely control. They had both tasted the flavor of each other's bodies, and each time they sinned when they finished, they realized they had gone madder. A slave girl from the mysterious savannahs of the black-maned lions had taught him how to calculate the days when they could sin.

And that is what they were frantically doing, when the doors of their fourth palace were violently broken down, so that the palace guards could enter with their lord father.

Money had broken loyalties, envy, gossip, jealousy and betrayal. It was evident that the information came from the harem.

Between screams and naked she tried to stop them from dragging away her love.

Her father threw a sweaty sheet over her and then slapped her twice.

--I should not have listened. The pain in my heart is so great,"-- said the great warrior in anguish.

--Father. It is not a sin. I love him. He simply responded to my advances and reciprocated my love. I forced him," --exclaimed the young woman in anguish.

--You must thank the god of forgiveness that it was I who came. Not one of your brothers. You would be dead. --exclaimed the great warrior, unable to escape from the immense pain...

....