Atlai’s fever broke on the second day from the morning it started. Leila hasn’t left his side for all that time. She didn’t sleep, she ate what Aisha brought her and she only stepped outside a few times for a minute to leave for a privy. Only now she felt how exhausted she was. It came to her after the feeling of the relief, when Atlai’s fever broke. All tiredness pored into every inch of her body. Most of it was the result of an emotional exhaustion from the constant worry for Atlai.
Unfortunately, her relief didn’t last very long. Almost straight away she remembered that they have no food or water. Ahmed left yesterday to the nearest village for some supplies and she was very much reluctant for him to go, leaving her by herself with kids. But he insisted that it was the only way.
"We have enough water and food for a day, by then Atlai’s fever should break and he would need much of everything to gain his strength back" Ahmed tried to persuade her.
"But why can’t we all go. We’ll put him in the cart and the rest of us will walk. We can make it in couple of days. I know it will be hard with so little of supplies, but we can manage"
"Don’t be foolish Leila. You and the children won’t make it without water. If we walk all of it will go to Atlai and even for him it might not be enough. Besides, people in fever need as little disturbance as possible.
Moving Atlai in the cart would be too dangerous, you know that. So stop being so scared. I’ll be back in by next morning the latest. No one has passed us since we’ve been here, so you won’t be bothered by anyone."
Leila knew all of that, but something was telling her that they should risk it and go together. But Ahmed’s tone told her that his decision was final and she knew arguing with him would be pointless.
He has been gone all night and most of the morning now and should be back any moment. But Leila had a very strong feeling that something was wrong. The question was: what was she supposed to do now? Should she wait for her husband or try to get to the village herself? ‘Since Atlai’s fever broke I guess its safe enough to get him into cart and start moving’ the moment she thought that, she heard her older daughter shout for her in a frightened voice. She run out of the tent and straight away saw what scared her daughter so much. Approximately half a mile away a group of riders, about fifty of them were heading their way at full speed.
"Are those the raiders, Ma?" asked Simin
"No little one, there is no reason for raiders to be here"
Aisha looked at her mother with frightened, but hopeful eyes. Leila tried to look as calm as possible although she was terrified "Go inside to your brother, both of you." Maybe it was possible to talk to those men, convince them that her husband could pay if they waited for him. Riders were getting closer and Leila was standing, waiting for her fate knowing that there is nothing she could do.
It’s only a bad dream
Ahmed was making haste, he needed to get into the village as soon as possible because not only his son’s health was at stake, but he also hated the idea of leaving his family alone, as much as Leila hated for him to leave. That is why he spared no strength into pushing his mule forward at a full gallop and by the time he rode into the village it was barely alive.
The village looked like hundreds of others Ahmed have been through in his traveling days. About hundred and fifty houses lined up, making two streets towards the central market and that’s where Ahmed headed. First of all he needed to find a stable, as his first priority was to find a fast horse to get him back to the family as soon as possible. The mule he rode on would not make another mile and he would have to leave straight after he got supplies. The stable was not hard to find. Usually it was located on the outskirts of the market, because the horses are the first or the last things people buy. This market was no different from any other Ahmed had been to. In the stable he found only one man who was leaning against the doorframe looking outside.
Ahmed approached and asked "Are you the owner?"
The man looked him up and down, then looked at Ahmed’s mule and said "I certainly am. But I don’t buy mules and even if I were, this one looks like his going to pass. Have you been riding him long? Where have you come from?"
Ahmed ignored the questions and said "I’m not selling. I’m looking to buy"
The man’s face turned from mild contempt to the most hospitable smile in an instant and even Ahmed who knew his fair share of tradesmen and was aware of how many faces they could have, was incredulous of how fast and completely the man’s manner changed. Knowing that this one would be hard to bargain with, Ahmed cut to the chaise "Give me your best horse for the price you’re asking and as long as you won’t try to cheat me, I will not bargain. But let me warn you, I know horses, the first attempt you’ll make to cheat, will loose my trust and I don’t have time to give out a second chance. Do you understand what I mean?"
The man’s face hardened "I understand. Come with me"
He led Ahmed to the back of the stable, where he showed him a magnificent animal.
‘This is going to cost dearly’ but money was not what was on Ahmed’s mind. To buy this horse, he would have to sell one of the stones and that meant to risk drawing unnecessary attention. What bothered Ahmed even more was the fact that he would need to come back to the village with the family and at least one person in here would know about his fortune. On the other hand he was much too eager to get back to his family, so such a horse would be handy. He finally decided ‘sooner or later I’d have to sell one of them’ so he asked the tradesman "How much?"
"This is the finest horse I've ever had. I was planning to sell him to a royalty, so you understand how much I cherish him. He is my most valuable possession"
Ahmed could see that the tradesman was stalling, trying to figure out what price to put on the horse. It was tricky because if he’d put a ridiculously high price Ahmed would walk out thinking he was being played for a fool, however it would be stupid to miss the chance of overpricing a sale. After all, Ahmed agreed to pay whatever tradesman would ask for. Any other time this little charade would amuse Ahmed, but today it only irritated him "I asked for a price" he said with a tone that left no room for further talk.
The tradesman sighed. "Sixty silver coins"
Ahmed smiled. It was too high price even for the horse such as this, but arguing would cost him much more.
"All right, but one more thing, I need you to take care of my mule for a few days until I get back and I assume it will be included in the price of the horse" he looked heavily at the tradesman.
Not believing in his luck tradesman agreed.
"Fine then" Ahmed said ready to go "I’m going to the market to buy few things. I’ll be back in a short while."
"Should I prepare the horse?"
"Yes. Thank you."
With that Ahmed left. It took him an hour to sell one of the stones and to buy the necessary supplies. He was relieved to see that nobody paid much attention to him and even the jeweller assumed that Ahmed was selling some family heritage, which wasn’t such an unusual thing. So without any incident he returned to the stable, where he found his horse ready and waiting for him. He paid up sixty silver coins, after which he walked to his mule put his hand on the side of its neck and said "I’m sorry my friend but I’ll have to leave you here for couple of days. I’ll come back, don’t you worry"
The mule responded with a nod. Ahmed turned to the tradesman "You take good care of him. I’ll be most displeased if I don’t find him in good health"
"Don’t worry master. I’ll treat him like a prince's horse."
Five minutes later Ahmed galloped out of village at full speed. The distance he spent an hour to cover on a mule took him only quarter of that time to do on a horse. And yet, he was pressing harder and harder. He couldn’t explain why, but he had a terrible feeling that he was too late and something bad had happened. The closer he was getting to the camp, the worse he felt.
By the time he got close enough to see the camp from the distance, he was sure that his worst fears were true, so when he saw a group of men moving around the tent he was not surprised. Pushing his horse even harder, Ahmed made it run faster. He could hear by the sound the horse made that it went over its limit and won’t be able to keep such speed for long.
Dismissing that fact Ahmed continued to push it when he saw that men finally noticed him. Pointing to his direction several of them picked up their bows and soon enough arrows started to fly towards Ahmed. The first bunch ended up nowhere near where he was, but as Ahmed was closing up arrows started to fly closer. He suddenly felt sharp pain in his right leg, but without even one glace he continued to ride at full speed. Shortly after, another one hit him in the shoulder followed by two more, one in the stomach one in the chest. He was only thirty feet away and yet another one hit him in the chest again.
A moment later he drove through the group of men like a bull through the crowd. And while the horse was riding through, Ahmed jumped of it aiming at the centre of the group, taking down six men with him. Before any of the raiders could understand what was happening, ten of them were lying on the ground torn or broken. There was nothing human in Ahmed anymore he became like a wounded bear. With arrows sticking out of him, he started to tear apart anyone whom he could get his hands on. In a blink of an eye Ahmed managed to kill