The warrior of Persia

Kafele awoke within his cell this occasion infused with the faint light of a small candle filing the room. Scrutinising his bodies wounds he found balm lacing the gashes, infusing them with health. His cuts had been stitched tightly arresting the flow of blood. Already his body felt improved for it, stable. Though his feelings from Psamtiks revelation remained blurry his resolve of the truth felt clear, he could not be of Egyptian blood, his mother neither an Egyptian princess nor the owner of that headdress. For some uncertainty Psamtik wished to spread doubt in his mind. As to what the reason kafele felt unsure, if he entertained the idea of truth in the pharaoh’s words he would feel the last shreds of reality tear and surely he would meet oblivion.

Kafele rested his head back on his cot, thoughts as unclear as before.

Footsteps moved lightly on the stairs towards his cell. He was not sure how long he had been insentient perhaps the guards of his prison had missed his presence within the torture chamber long enough.

The key in the lock drew his eyes to the door awaiting the light to assail him.

As he turned dark eyes clashed with his own, the thin light from the doorway weaving the figure from vision. He went to raise to his feet the soreness of his body apartment with each movement.

‘Do not move.’

The softness of the voice staggered him, each muscle within his body frozen.

Silence beset the small chamber as he tried to gaze upon the person at his door.

Alas he could not see clear. ‘Tell me who you are?’ his voice felt gravely from little use.

‘Tell me who you are’ it requested back the fading light imposing the strength of the words.

‘My name is Kafele… and yours voice?’

‘I like to think I am the voice of reason on this side of the war but it appears your presence here makes my voice little heard.’ He considered the bitterness in the clearly feminine figure.

‘Well I can here you, though I cannot comprehend what you have to say to someone like me.’

‘As can I, I was foolish to think I could find answers from you. It is even more so that I came to reflect upon my king’s conviction. You cannot be who he thinks you are?’

Kafele felt the soft wind of the door securing to, an intense feeling of apprehension moved within in as it closed.

‘Because he has lied to me’ Kafele bellowed against the rushing wind. The door sped open with passion

‘My husband does not lie…believe me he has many a fault and perhaps a few I have not yet seen but I know of my husband he speaks the truth.’

His mother’s very words from the day of their death assaulted him. She had shared the same sentiment for Madu. ‘If he believes you his sister’s son then make no mistake, he truly does believe.’

‘And what of you… do you believe I am the one he speaks of?’

A heavy sign rushed against the candles flame. Slowly the figure emerged from the shades.

Kafele hitched his breathe, not once but twice today he had witnessed beauty he had never known once from the shine within a hundred jewels upon a crown and now in the dim light of obscure cell.

 ‘I believe that whoever you are, you will not help us fight this war’

Kafele fingered the possibility in his mind ‘And what if I could’

Sereya laughed ‘then we would still loose.’

With strength he found little necessity to draw Kafele quickly rose from his cot forcing himself nearer to the woman in his wake. With a flash of terror in her emotional eyes Kafele forced her against the far wall of the prison. He could not comprehend his actions before he had made the resolution to move firmly pressing the young woman now in his arms against the moist dankness of his cell walls. He fear felt palpable, compulsive.

‘Then why come here?’ he demanded releasing her skin from his grip though the sensation to touch her felt almost hallucinogenic. He had been so long without a woman and those he had bedded over the years left little of satisfaction within his maddening mind.

Shrugging away from his touch forcefully Sereya felt her anger enthral her senses.

 ‘I came to look upon the man who will be responsible for me and my son’s death. To witness the eyes of an immortal soldier who claims to be of Egyptian blood.’

‘I have claimed no such thing’

‘But yet you demand it…your very presence here excites dissention within Psamtik.’

‘Which is none of my concern.’

‘As am I. As are my reasoning’s for looking upon you tonight do not begrudge me one moment to sneer at my enemy, you should be dead.’

‘Then have them kill me!’ Kafele seethed, the very wish constantly violating his heart.

‘Do you think I have not tried? Just this night I sought to see your end but like I fore spoke reason seems little heard to Psamtik when you are around.’

Both bodies within the room felt overheated, intoxicated with fury. Sereya could almost taste the command within the room. Her skin felt warmed by it though the closeness to her enemy forced chills to exceed down her spine.

Kafele could concentrate on nothing else. The pain in his body dulled, his sanity cleared for the few seconds he stood toe to toe with the wife of the man he revered most. Impossibility charged him before he could think he slanted his mouth over hers catching the air in her lungs as it rushed from her mouth.  The sensation felt overwhelming, pushing her body hard against the cold filth of the stone, grinding him into the soft linens of her gown. He wrapped his arms around her waist confining her to his space, sex pulsed the air. He could swear he could almost hear his madness evading relinquishing all to the strength of his attraction.

WHACK. The shock of her fist against his cheek threw him back upon the cot tripping his bruised legs with the strength of her anger.

‘How dare you…never touch me.’ Sereya paced quickly to the door of the cell only know realising he had missed an opportunity to escape in favour of drawing her in. He was no more than an animal encaged within this prison.

Gazing upon the man brazen enough force himself upon her person brought new heat to her insides.

‘You are nothing but an enemy of Egypt as you will always be. No matter who Psamtik thinks you are it is as clear as the sun you will never be anything but a defeated immortal.’

The door sealed tightly behind her.  

 

Sereya felt her anxiety ease as the door shut fast. Unconsciously, she grazed the back of her fingers across her softly enflamed lips. To be kissed by her enemy. The perception threatening her already wavering reason, why she had come here tonight seeking only to verify her certainty, this man could not save them not even if the God’s proclaimed it themselves.

Returning to her chambers Sereya quickly restored the key outside the prison entry. She hoped the degradation of her actions with Kafele did not play heavily upon her appearance.

‘Where have you been?’ Psamtik requested drawing back the covers of their bed with concern as Sereya entered their chambers.

‘Considering our fate my King’

‘And what have you come to?’

‘Little I can convince you of I’m sure’

‘Then please let us talk no more of it tonight.’

Sereya crept onto the soft bedding beside him. ‘As you wish… my king’ the sensation upon her lips still remorsefully entrancing her attention though Psamtik wrapped himself around her body protectively as she became peaceful in sleep. The animal encaged below her last conscious thought.

 

Kafele felt the earth move with him as he caressed the light Easterly wind that blew through the garden its softness breathe taking to one who had been so long without it. The soured decay of the air within his cell had infected his lungs, he had spent to long entombed in the darkness.

The clean smell of pomegranates flowering pleased his sanities, soothing the tension from his limbs. Red blue and purple papyrus flowers adorned the unruffled lines of the vast land skimming the edges of the large courtyard in which chickpeas and sunflowers bloomed. The sight captivating, even the fine swells of the fresh water upon the pond served to rock the lotus blossom softly.

‘Why have you brought me here?’

Psamtik took a seat close to the waters verge and gestured for Kafele to join him. The action simple enough Kafele felt no reason to use strength to defy Psamtik in his offer. Wearily he stepped from the shade into the sun, warmth embraced him. The energy he had been so long lacking suffused his form. He took a seat upon the finely caved knotted wood.

‘I think we have much to say to each other and I thought it a tactical advantage to do it upon the fresh flowering beauty of Egyptian soil’ Psamtik smiled if only to himself.

‘You think we do not have beauty such as this in Persia?’

Psamtik laughed ‘Perhaps so…I suppose my reasoning’s for bringing you here may well have been purely selfish then.’

Kafele heightened his brows.

‘I wished to see Egypt blossom under my rule… at least one last time’

‘And how do you find it?’

‘Saddening’

Kafee rested his bound wrists against his taught thighs ‘Then I would not dwell upon it.’

‘And I suppose you never desire to dwell amongst the past. Revisit contentment one last time’

‘I visit it every day and it maddens me.’

‘Perhaps the memory of this day will come to madden me in time; I find much ways upon your next choices’

Kafele brushed his palm across the rough surface of his chin. Days of hair growth left it abrasive and course. ‘I don’t even know why I talk with you, you will not learn of Cambyses from me and what’s more you leave me to fester in that cell. If I truly were your kin you would not have treated me just.’

‘I treat you so to disperse you need for bloodlust. Make no mistake I may consider who you are but I am not unseeing because of it. You have been raised as my enemy in this war.’ The words blackened Psamtik’s throat, if Haquikah knew the fate of her son would she have blamed him for not intervening. They had not known what had become of her for so many years, once they unearthed the truth it was too late her son had disappeared. 

Psamtik’s guards sifted through the edges of the garden Psamtik had directed them to guard from the boundaries of the courtyard wishing to speak with Kafele alone. They patrolled eagerly awaiting any prospect Kafele would defy the trust Psamtik had lay upon him. The hostility within the grounds palpable. The immortal was a killer by occupation and sanity wavered with every breathe, one cruel move against Psamtik and Kafele would seek his end. The notion of ending the pharaoh’s life with his own did look appealing though Kafele maintained his sanity to hear the truth behind Psamtiks lies. The woman within his cell last night perverted his mind, her clear certainty of Psamtik’s beliefs however misguided they were grasped his cognizance.

‘If you know what I am then why would you think I would abet you? As an immortal I have pledged my life to Cambyses.’

‘’As a man you father pledged his life to Cyrus the Great…but revolutions, they have a way of… changes these things.’

Kafele twisted to look upon Psamtik. Though Psamtik sat beside the most feared immortal in Persia whose lucidity of mind incessantly stammered he smiled towards Kafele.

‘God’s you remind me so much of your mother.’

Kafele sought to end this deception but the fervidness within Psamtik’s eyes wrenched at his uncertainty.

‘If you claim to know her so well then speak of her?’

‘What would you have me say?’

‘Anything to attract me from my confidence that these are lies you speak. How would you have known me… that night your solider took me from the beach?’

‘I have known of your name for many years. Your presence as an immortal travelled far kafele increasingly so in these months of war. Your character voices you far in these lands; I believe they call you coldblooded such as Dabb lizard. My general followed you on the battlefield in Pelusium narrowly believing he had found you. The news that you were still alive has pleased me greatly ’

‘I’m sure they call me worse on this side of the fight.’

Psamtik mediated ‘Indeed…Kafele since this war began I knew you would be in it. You have the courage of your father, for many years he served fittingly in the Persian army. Do you know how your mother and father came to be together?’

Kafele beheld the sky in this morning. Since the moment they had drew him from the solitude of his cell he had not dreamed he would meet sunlight, the soft light resting upon his eyelids a strange comfort amongst the perplexity of his mind. ‘I can say I was not old enough to hear the story of their union before they were murdered.’

‘And what of their murder, do you comprehend why they were killed?’

‘Because my father wished to live above his place, he desired to be a satrap for Ziweye in a time of chaos. Cambyses had just come to throne, ordered that only Persian satraps rule. As my father was Median he had no right. He was set to become elected within the fall.’ Kafele declined his weary eyes to the floor. ‘No median as yet has become a satrap.’

Psamtik sighed willing to shed his verity to the one they called cold. ‘Kafele it has taken so long for you to know the truth, I fear you will not understand it.’

Psamtik met Kafele’s eyes with certainty.

‘I fear you will give your conception of the truth to me anyway.’

‘I am here to offer many conceptions of the truth Kafele. I concede this season may just be the most beautiful to arise in this garden forever more, I concede that our fates may just have become intertwined in ways I cannot explain nephew and most importantly… I concede that my knowledge of your parent’s death is the truth. What I do not know is if my telling you anything will help me in this war, that I must leave it to the God’s.’

Kafele retained his convictions by a thread, Psamtiks words felt so compelling. ‘Tell me your truths then King.’

‘Your mother was my sister Princess Haquikah the third. She met with eight years of age before I was born. My father Amasis the second held anxious ties with Cyrus the Great of Persia for many years and with the strength of our united peace both countries thrived, however Cyrus became greedy, covetous of our lands desirous to wage war upon Egypt if we did not sooth his swollen conceit with offerings. Cyrus the great weighted a heavy price upon the peace of Egypt. My father was to grant one of his daughters to Cyrus the great’s son Cambyses the third. Haquikah at fifteen had little choice but to yield. On the day she was to be seized my father made a desperate plea a Persian Soldier in regards my sister. If she was to be delivered to Cambyses he would surely make an example of her, a display of the power Cyrus invoked, and my sister would have been killed. Amasis arranged for means of escape. They would switch another in her place and emancipate my sister from Persia and Egypt to Media where she would live out her days. It did not become news to us that the Persian soldier to whom we entrusted her had took her as his wife until many years had passed and yours and your sister birth did not make heed until many years after that.’

Kafele shadowed his words quietly, turmoil spiked his crazed mind. His family home had been a small ornate villa on the outskirts of a quiet city ripe for going undiscovered, though one clarifying thought did not make his words just.

‘This does not prove to me what you say is true’

Of course but I remember your mother well, my sister had dark hair the colour of mesdemet just as yours with softly brown eyes that spoke of wisdom yet unknown. Her nose fixed somewhat crooked upon her face though drew feature to the finest of skin. She would stroke the tip in confusion incessantly. I even recall her affection for red lips… more than once I used to see her look her face in the mirror and regard when they were painted. Perhaps she did not do that in the years that came but I remember it well of her.’

Kafele educed his memories of his mother, her nose sat inordinately crooked upon her face and the thickness of the red colouring of her lip paint marred his thought the vision so clear he could almost touch the callous surface of her dry lips in the hot Median sun.

Kafele drew cool breathe, the sensation chilling his lungs, from the weight of blood he had delivered to the torture chamber he could not sustain the heat within his body for long shivers began to comb his skin eliciting a groan from his chest. His rationality once gain wavered, no he could not afford to lose his mind now that so much somewhat became clear.

‘This cannot be’

‘Yet here we stand Nephew on the opposite sides of a war.’

‘Even if what you convey is the truth, I will not help you…I will not go against my country.’

‘Persia has never been your country. Your mother was Egyptian your father median what ties hold you to that land.’

‘I have pledged myself to its king.’

‘A murderer!’ Psamtik shouted evoking the swarms of guards to observe them cautiously.

 ‘Cambyses has never deliberately taken life from me.’

‘And what of your family?’

‘A king cannot patrol the entire of the Achaean, he did not know.’

‘Wrong’

Kafele watched Psamtik with restraint. ‘Careful Egyptian king your bait my anger. I have heard all you have to say so far out of constraint do not mistake it for compliance.’ Though kafele wondered how much more he could take before Psamtik’s words became undoubted. A fresh nightmare for his deranged mind, he was now barely preserving his madness.

‘There is little you can do to me here in my garden that will not get you killed’

‘Do you think I wish to evade death?’

‘I do not think… I know of the stories I have heard Kafele very few have seen you meet you death even touch it.’

‘It does not mean I do not pursue it with each day.’

‘Then why are you alive’

Kafele had often considered the same matter. His yearning to die walked hand in hand beside his defeat. The senses he would meet if he ever failed to live would rival the pain he felt with life.

‘I have never failed to live’

‘Quite… and I believe you will not fail to do so now by seeking to harm me. It must be problematic to seek death but fear it.’

‘I do not fear it’ Kafele hissed as his eyes met the floor in brief consideration.

‘Indeed let me tell you the truth of your family’s death and if you still thirst to kill me once I’ve ceased my words then you can finally have what you have so sought after.’

Kafele sneered quietly.

‘Once Cyrus the great passed his rule bestowed to his son Cambyses the third. By then knowledge of my father’s deception had been clear for many years. The woman in her place divulged all to Cambyses upon threat of death even the name of whom she had wed was placed within his knowledge for some time before he ever had liege to act upon it. At the time Cambyses came to the throne your father had planned to run for satrap of Ziweye. I know this for my father had revealed his correspondence with your father not much after, my father loved your mother so, and she sent word of her two children the first of my father’s grandchildren…of you and your sister.

Once Cambyses heard news of your family’s location he sent mercenaries to find you but there was little we could do from so far away. Your father rose for satrap under Cyrus the greats reign and did not know Cambyses knew of the deception until it was too late. By the time my father’s men found your home you were gone and your home thoroughly burned. I thought you dead for so many years until your name reached me in this war month’s back…’ Psamtik took in the face of his enemy and kin ‘but I did not dare hope’ Kafele could take little more.

‘Be at rest.’ Kafele demanded holding his callous hand between them both causing the shackles around his wrist to quiver. Revelation’s distorted his thoughts.

‘Now do you think your king so innocent?’

Kafele shook his head in chaos ‘If what you reveal is honest then why would he not come for me. I’m an immortal in his guard it would not take much to strike me down’

‘I do not think Cambyses knows of you’

The final word of his father seeped into his mind ‘Tell your fearless king that one day he will look upon a man such as me and tremble’, the transparency of his words evident, the great king Cambyses had had them killed. If Psamtik was to be believed and Kafele’s judgement exact, his every aching second ensued after Cambyses met his revenge. The moment he lost all clarity of mind, any value of belonging brought to him by the very king to whom he pledged his life.

The suns warmth swiftly chilled upon his skin. ‘If he does not know my name then clearly… it is time that he did’.

The gravity of Kafele’s resolution staggered him. He had not planned on giving Psamtik anything much less himself but as the certainty of his words washed him Kafele felt little alternative, continue to preserve his silence until he could confront  Cambyses after his conquest of Egypt or join Psamtik and fight this war. Kafele had never much appreciated loyalty, there were few he felt deserved such trust. Only one person could encourage such a trait within him and madu had pledged Kafele to this fight many years before it began with the promise he had made Cambyses that Kafele must complete and when that day arrived his father’s words would finally silence his torturous cries ‘I will hear his pleas to the gods and laugh in his fearful wake.’ Then he would make Cambyses plea even beg to the very Gods that made him king.

‘Will you help me?’

‘Even if this story is of validity what gain could you receive of telling me?’

Psamtik had known from the start of the conflict between Persia and Egypt that Kafele would be in it. Since knowledge had garnered him that his nephew fought for the Persian sword Psamtik feared he would never be able to explain Kafeles true relationship to the very country he fought against,     revealing these secrets meant more than he had originally anticipated. He was not only know relaying a burden from his chest he had carried for twenty four years when news met him of his sister’s families death but from the stories he had heard of his maddened nephew he felt he was still placing the stakes of his country into enemy hands. Still he had craved the day to meet his lost kin and though he had garnered it under uneasy circumstances he was relieved he could speak so freely of the furtive reasons he had sought kafele out from the start of this was war and had him brought to the prisons beneath his home.       

 ‘As an immortal you know much of what is to come of this siege…How Cambyses plans to take the city. I know we have little time before the Persians reach our gates….and I am adrift with no means to protect my people. My army have descended under the weight of the Persians attacks through Egypt. Apries does not understand the habits of Persian soldiers much less how they intent to take Memphis. I know he is wise in war…but the Persians are the strongest force we have yet confronted even your methods are foreign to me. If you give us what we must know I believe we can hold them off until the Greeks relieve us.’

‘The Greeks?’

‘I have sent a declaration of assistance to Greece for aid. If we can hold the Persians off till then…’

‘You will never make it until the Greeks arrive. Perhaps you will last until your mercenary reaches Greece but the Persian army are quick this war will be won in days not weeks and unless you have an emissary who can glide upon wings the Greeks will never heed your word in time.’

Psamtik looked towards his newly learned nephew ‘Then it looks we need your help more than I thought.’

Kafele grimaced ‘How can you trust me... are there no more Persian soldiers within your prison better than me for this job.’

‘Indeed but none that I trust with my life.’

Kafele groaned impatiently ‘You know you can’t trust me with this’

‘I fear, with this…I can trust no one else.’

Psamtik shook his head, time in a war weighed heavy on his broad shoulders, his youthful face cracking around his mouth from countless frowning over battles lost. Time, it seemed, was not a great healer when coupled with burden.

 

 

‘What do you want from me?’ Kafele raised his hard stare from the ground and struck Psamtik with that gaze, his expression was guarded but the light behind them seemed weary and dull.

‘Help’

‘What use could an imprisoned immortal be to a Pharaoh about to lose his kingdom?’ Kafele groaned.

‘If I release you, you will no longer be imprisoned, as for that you are an immortal is the very reason I sought your help Kafele. I have known for many years that my nephew has become one of the most feared immortals alive. I’m sure even your father never garnered such a title…’

Kafele brought his hand to his temple to placate the thoughts of disappointment his father would have felt if he had known half the things his son had done. ‘He would not wish it’

‘Perhaps there is much he would not wish about what you have become my nephew but you have been brought into to my hands until the gods deem worthy to part us maybe…’

Psamtik raised his face to the sun treasuring the gift of his freedom perhaps for the last time. ‘What I am offering you is a chance… to show you are more than the one you have become’.