LEGEND OF DEATH'S ASSASSINS

CHAPTER 15

Maybe it was the screeching of the caravan, or the stench of sickness and constant cough that finally woke him up. He wiped his eyes with the clean spot on his wrist and rested his head on the bars. The sun was yet to hang on the horizon and his limbs and brain cells were just too weak to think straight. But he couldn’t go back to sleep. How could he? The constant headache and the ringing in his ears was giving him a hard time. He couldn’t sleep, not with those nightmares that was constantly tormenting him. The prisoners were all asleep, or pretending to be, it was hard to say.

“You look troubled, young master. Something is hunting your dreams, right?”

Nadi did not lift his head to the croaked voice, sitting at the opposite end of the cage. The brown beard and the smelling stench was all too familiar for him to care. And he hated the fact that the man was fond of calling him master when they are alone. The masters here are the merchants and the slavers. The high born and the nobles. The elites and everyone living free. They were the masters, and not him. He was way insignificant to command such authority. What master sit with chains and the reek of wretchedness? it was beyond him and he wished the old man would cease from comparing his lowlife with such great a title.

“Mind your own business.” Nadi muttered, hoping the man would keep quiet before the masters heard them.

“Mind my own business.” The man laughed, “I wish I have one.”

Nadi’s stomach churned. He had not eaten for the past three days. But it was fine, he was not hungry and the churning of his stomach have nothing to do with appetite. It was the man’s words. Yes, they don’t have any business. They lacked everything. The only thing that seemed to belong to them was their name. Everything else was given to them by the Masters. Those men were the strength in the wind. They commanded everything from Midgol to the eastern part of the city of Ezion.

“You saw it right?” the man asked. The carriage tossed them from side to side, but the screeching resumed almost immediately at the master’s commands.

“What?” Nadi asked, trying to pay attention.

He was drifting back to sleep, but he must keep his eyes open. He must avoid going back to sleep. Those nightmares. Ah, he didn’t want to dive into those nightmares again. He was Nadi, and have no sister or family or living in a strange world with machines that could move fast in water or those that could fly in the air like a bird. He was Nadi, a slave without a master. And this is their world, this was the real world.

I think I am running mad.

Nadi held his head and buried them on his knees. There have been tales about men who ran mad in the slavers prison. This might be his turn. It’s just a matter of time before he becomes totally deranged.

“You saw it right?” The man repeated.

“I heard you the first time. Just wondering what you mean”

“Okay,” The man whispered. His chains clattered as he tried to move closer to Nadi. It was only for a short distance. Those chains were much closer to the bars to allow freedom of movement.

“You saw them. You saw it. I mean, your life before?” the man whispered.

Nadi lifted his head towards the man’s direction. For some passing moment, the gentle wind and the screeching of the wheels were the only perturbation that sniggered at the irony of the man’s question. Nadi’s life before was nothing pleasant. He had been adopted by a merchant who sold him to the highest bidder in the slave market. For sixteen years, he had worked as a slave, going from one master to another. The scars on his back was the testimony of the blight of s*****y. But his life before? Wait, what life before? This was his life for crying out loud and there was nothing pleasant in them. Just pains and torment.

“So the rumors were true after all.” Nadi looked away, “Have you heard the others talk?”

“Talk, about me?”

The man’s question showed how surprised he was. Nadi would have enjoyed seeing his face, but too bad the light of the sun was still pricking the hazy body of the dark morning clouds.

“Yes, about you,” Nadi said

“What do they say,” The man asked again. The surprise in his voice seemed to have vanished and was replaced now with curiosity.

“They said you’re a mad man, and a good one.”

“Uh, who cares what they say behind me,” The man’s chains clattered as he returned to his place in the cage, “I would have cared if their words would set me free. And speaking about madness, we’re all mad. Sanity lost its definition a long time ago. So yes, saying I am mad is a compliment in itself.”

Nadi remained silent, brooding over the man’s word. Even though the man sounded foolish, there was truth in what he had said. It was hard to distinguish who was insane or with their wits. Save for the masters, the people in this cage were…well, mad or half mad.

“You didn’t answer my question, young master,” The man said from the dark.

“Because I have no answer for you.”

“I will take that as a yes,” The man chuckled.

“Do whatever you please,” Nadi breathed in, “You have the freedom at least. Until the masters comes, you have the freedom to speak as you wish.”

“What was it like? Your life before, I mean.”

The bright lights and the cacophony of gibberish undertone of people, resonated in his ears, even before he could get himself to shut them out. It was getting worse. Before, now the noises have been in his dreams. But nowadays, he could get a flash of some life he had lived before or was about to live. It was getting hard to control. Perhaps his madness was taking the best side of him. He needed to stay true to himself, or else this setting madness could drive him to his death.

“What do you care?”

“A lot, young master,” The man’s chains clattered again and this time, Nadi could see his face as he walked into the moon light that was shimmering into the cage. His hair was a cascade falling roughly on either side of his face. The many crease made him look vacillating and almost like some witch doctor. Nadi could not tell how much days the man has left, before the masters come for the old and the sick.

“what do you mean?” Nadi asked

“If you saw it, then you must prepare for the sun to come.”

Nadi tried to laugh but held himself when his side began to burn. He had sustained an injury the day before, and now it seems he has ripped open, a healing wound.

“You really are in insane,” Nadi held his side trying not to laugh hard, “Of course the sun will always come. It’s common sense. Besides, it’s a normal cycle of life.”

“Wake up young master.”

The urgency in the man’s voice wiped away the laughter that lingered in Nadi’s eyes.

“He will come for you. The foretold words have been written. He will come for the one, for the chosen one.”

“Go back to your corner old man,” Nadi grunted, “or I will call the masters.”

That seemed to settle the matter. The man did not say anything further, his chains only rattled as he returned to the corner where he has been staying.

The sleep in Nadi’s eyes were gone now, and until the noise and the voice of the masters started echoing outside, did he realize that the caravan had stopped. They were still in the forest and the sun was still hanging on the other side of the world.

It was not the first time he was hearing about the word foretold. He had heard it for the first time in Ekron, when he was still serving a trader there. Seems everyone was bearing the Foretold word. And this Foretold word is usually heard about the slaves. Nadi has never heard a master uttering the words. Maybe that was because the slavers and merchants does not need to be saved. They were the god the slaves see after all.

“You must find him, young master. You must find the one.”

The old man started coughing and as if that was the signal, two people in the cage started coughing as well. Nadi rubbed his eyes and tried not to pay attention. If the old man’s words were true…

“Help,” Someone suddenly screamed.

Nadi’s heart jumped into his stomach when he heard the scream. It was from the door, and standing there was one of the masters, with a dueling cane in his hand. The forest surrounding them did not look like the City of All Things, Migdol. If they were stopping here, that means that the extraction and selection has started.