The City of Amul

V

The main headquarters of the now substantially reduced city guard were located in the northern part of Amul and midway between the city center and the outermost walls.

The night had enveloped the city and from one of the many doors a small figure appeared.

Rostam was the youth's name and he was visibly tired after a long day of work at the stables.

It was in moments like these that he wished he was an actual warrior instead of a mere officer of the horses.

"Ya ya yaaaa…" he lamented and threw himself over a chair in the main hall.

Beyond half closed eyelids he could see a big fire on the other side of the long room.

It was the mysterious Magi that had come from the capital recently and they were currently doing the traditional rituals in honor of Hormazd in front of a group of soldiers in preparation of their departure.

Each soldier had a piece of sandalwood in their hands and were eagerly waiting for the chants of the Magi to conclude.

""Beyond, apart and without them…" the Magi proclaimed with arms extended.

"There's nothing in existence!!!" the soldiers responded with loud voices.

The Magi smiled and clapped.

"Blessed be this day" they said and then threw their own piece of sandalwood into the fire.

This was the signal for the soldiers to follow suit and throw their pieces too.

At this sudden influx of materials the great fire roared with intensity and explosive beauty.

The soldiers stayed looking at the fire—some of them praying— while the Magi spoke with the Dastur (chief priest) of the city and left the keeping of the fire to them.

Rostam was not a man tied to the beliefs of the common man but even he could appreciate the honest and pure prayers of his fellow soldiers, as many of them were most certainly praying for their lost loved ones.

"Quite a spectacle isn't a?" a sudden voice came from behind and made Rostam fall of his chair.

"Don't surprise me like that Visha" he roared.

"Why not ya idiot?" she laughed and sat down beside him.

Rostam had known Visha since they were kids and could not really contain her oppressive and erratic energy, then or now.

He cleaned his clothes a bit and sat down too.

A couple of seconds passed before any words were exchanged.

"Gotta be honest with ya man...that weird priest gives me the creeps" she lamented with a long face, "my luck aint it chief !!"

"Stop acting like a kid please"

He said.

And was ignored.

"You are going to have the honor of escorting a Holy Man tomorrow, that's a big deal!!" Rostam very much wanted that honor for himself, partly for the glory but also for another reason.

"Send my regards to Andras when you see him okay?"

"That pipsqueak went and took off to have his glory and honor pretty quick, didn't he…" she was quite mad about this situation, to the point of grinding her teeth.

"Im worried about him too you know" he said quite serious" you know how hot headed he can be"

"Gods do I know"

Both of them were very aware of the desire that was deep inside Andras's heart. Being a dishonored noble boy had instilled in him a desire to gain something of value for himself.

"It's been what….two years already?"

"More or less"

"He needs to let it go and get accustomed to this…"lousy backwards city", as he puts it already!!" she was serious while saying this.

"Don't be so hard on him Visha, he must be hiding a lot of grief about it too" Rostam looked down.

"I could say that you are too sof-" she couldn't finish her sentence before a sudden, striking, noise invaded the entire hall.

Several cylindrical objects had come through the windows and crashed on the floor of the main hall.

These object contained some sort of liquid, as Rostam quickly noticed.

But not quickly enough.

Without missing a beat after they crashed, a volley of fire arrows came from almost every front window and lit the entire hall on a deadly storm of fire.

Chaos ensued as the third act on this play.

"What is going on!!"

"We are under attack??!!"

"Put it out!!"

"Go fetch Captain Jamshid, quick!!"

The soldiers continued screaming and trying to get their bearings amidst the smoke and fire.

Meanwhile, Rostam, Visha and a small group of composed warriors had already put on their helmets, leaped for the door and gone out to the main street to find out who was behind this attack.

What they saw took their breath away.

Several dead bodies of soldiers full of arrows adorned the streets while several other fires raged on other parts of the building.

Whoever was behind this had already killed most of the soldiers on guard duty on the front of the headquarters.

"There's no way" one of the soldiers screamed, "where are the bastards!!"

"Look!!"Another one signaled to the right side of the street.

There they could see the few remaining soldiers that escaped the first attack in pursuit of a group of about 20 hooded individuals. The hoods were all on horseback and therefore the pursuit of the soldiers was in vain.

But the soldiers were not yet safe because some of the hooded figures, while riding their horses in retreat, were still firing arrows back at them.

That signaled to Rostam's group that these attackers were not just regular people but rather quite skilled and deadly.

"Rostam, go back and tell Captain Jamshid!!" Visha ordered and took off with the rest of the group to help.

It was made abundantly clear how thing had happened.

This group of killers had come from the opposite side of the street on their horses already firing their deadly barrage of arrows. The surprise factor, combined with a well-coordinated assault must have taken out a majority of the soldiers in the front, which gave the attackers ample opportunity to fire the incendiary liquid and the following arrows inside the main hall.

"The terror they caused would prevent most of us inside the building from coming out to help quickly" Visha surmised while preparing an arrow of her own alongside the rest of the group.

"FIRE!!" she screamed and five deadly projectiles flew towards the fleeing attackers, possibly killing two of them.

Paying no mind to their dead they continued their retreat.

"Those bastards even attacked us on the dead of night!!" a soldier screamed and once again…

"FIRE!!"

And a second round of arrows sparked out, these time dismounting another two. (Some of the few remaining soldiers from the front guard also fired a few arrows they still had left and killed one extra enemy)

At this point the rest of the group was out of sight.

"Damn it" Visha cursed and spat on the floor.

Suddenly from behind a second group of 20 mounted warriors passed through, this time from the city guard's side, and went in pursuit of the hooded aggressors.

"Captain Jamshid acted quickly…boy am I glad" a soldier let out a sigh of relief.

The group wasted no time and immediately went to help the survivors up ahead

But Visha could not do the same, lost in thought.

"I don't get it…there should have been enough soldiers here to counter an attack, even a surprise one" one of the soldiers lamented.

"EXACTLY!!" Visha beamed to life, "But remember what happened yesterday!!"

The soldier was lost for a second until he realized.

"The fires on the outer rim!!"

"They a distraction to weaken our already depleted forces by diverting even more soldiers from our center!!" Visha grinded her teeth with fury.

Whoever did this was certainly someone from within the city, as they had known about the Parkus force leaving and waited for that specifically.

On top of that they were quite the smart ones, dividing the enemy force, attacking at night, with the soldiers inside either tired or distracted by religious rituals and with the element of surprise on their side.

Visha would only later come to know the fact of the five stolen Nis horses wich were used by the attackers not only to make themselves stronger by using them as the vanguard and later rear force, but also to deplete the number that the city guard itself could use.

"Something is no right about this, no no…" she cursed to herself.

With the enemies now running away to safety and the Parkus force campaigning way too far already, things were about to take a turn for the worse.

Of the fifty soldiers stationed on the center of the city...twenty seven had perished, either by fire or arrow.

Of the enemy side...

merely five.

Chapter 1- END