The Knight´s Legacy

Mongolia

They had been riding eastward for six days guided by a Mongol who claim to have camped out decades before in ruins next to the entrance to a cavern, which he had not entered by certain tribal taboos. Dieter and his fellow Klaus Berth suffered drastic changes in temperature in the desert, ranging from more than 35 degrees Celsius in the afternoon to 10 degrees Celsius under zero or even lower at night. Klaus was a young adventurer born in Asia who had joined the expedition as interpreter of the dialects of the region. Five Mongolian horsemen accompanied them with a troop of about thirty horses with weapons and provisions.

The winds swept every afternoon the steppe and forced the travelers to establish precarious camps to deal with them. That afternoon the guide called Sonam had announced that they were already close to the ruins, statement that  produced a certain expectation in Klaus and Dieter. The Moon stood clear in the sky and seemed that the feared wind  would not blow in the subsequent night . Sonam was dozing in his mount when suddenly awoke from his slumber probably moved by some sixth sense which allowed him to recognize the advent of events in the desert. Klaus asked him what was happening but the man was limited to ask for silence taking the index finger to his lips. After a while Klaus and Dieter heard a distinctive noise of hooves and glimpsed eastward a cloud of dust. The horses of the caravan got nervous and began to shake and neighing whilst the Mongolian horsemen commenced to murmur among themselves. Klaus asked Sonam that happened and then translated to Dieter.

“It is likely that those are Mongolian bandits, very frightening thieves, murderers and caravan raiders.

Sonam led the group to a few mounds surrounded by some bushes that would give them a minimum shelter against a possible assault. They arrived just in time, as the Mongolian riders already approached and the first shots were fired. The travelers dismounted and Klaus and Dieter barricaded themselves behind some rocks and prepared their war weapons. The bandits were already at about tone hundred meters and approaching at full gallop; they were a dozen and wielding long old rifles and short and curved sabers. The Germans opened fire and one of the assailants fell from his horse opening his arms, and  one of the other horses rolled heavily by land, but the rest of the riders already fell upon them, Sonam made fire with his old rifle and another Bandit slumped dead from his horse. The three Mongol drovers of the caravan who were still mounted undertook the escape leaving the rest to their fate but their cowardly gesture was punished. They were pursued by several of the bandits, one of them took his rifle from the cover of horse and shot at full gallop with a skill that only those Mongol riders have. One of the carriers, reached in the back fell forever. The other two continued terrified their flight but the distance with the persecutors contracted. A Bandit, mounted on a small steed as fast as the wind finally reached one of the fugitives and knocked him down with a slashes on the neck. The third carrier suddenly restrained his horse and pulling an old revolver fired almost at point-blank range on the villain, killing him instantly and avenging his fallen comrade. Then resumed the solo flight, since the other pursuers stopped following him and turned on the Germans and their guide.

Meanwhile the remaining attackers had exceeded the rocks where the travelers were sheltered. A saber blow had horribly wounded Sonam in the head but the brave guide kept reloading his weapon. When the Bandit returned to finalize him Sonam shot hitting him in the middle of the chest. Klaus with his gun in hand fired on another attacker but in turn was hit by a shot in the shoulder. Dieter, not very dexterous in arms, could however knock down one of the attackers with an accurate shot. The remaining marauders, who had had serious losses against an unexpected  resistance with modern weapons, decided to retire taking however horses and the provisions of the caravan. They had achieved their objective of looting, even though at an excessively high cost which they had not foreseen.

Dieter, the only undamaged in the group, overcoming the initial emotional shock was devoted to helping Klaus and Sonam, bandaged their wounds with pieces of clothing to stop the hemorrhage. Soon Klaus was able to stand up and went  to tour the battlefield showing an unsuspected warrior temple contrasting with his apparent weak physical constitution: the two carriers were beyond all help. Two of the attackers who lay on the ground still lived and Klaus ended their days with two shots in their heads; that was the tough law of those latitudes. Dieter was brutally beaten by the episode but issued no complaints: the war had finally reached him.

Sonam was mortally wounded and Klaus stood beside him to hear his sighs and exchanged some words, then the bravo guide expired.

“We are in the midst of an unknown wilderness, without horses, guide or provisions.” Objectively stated Dieter, hiding his inner anguish. “ Our situation cannot be more critical. What did Sonam tell you before dying.”

“The ruins we seek are behind those hills. There is a cave where we can find some shelter and perhaps water.”

After bury the fallen in the struggle, Dieter helped Klaus, whose condition was deteriorating by the wound that hurt atrociously and  began to cause fever, to transpose the hills and go down the slope on the other side. As they approached some large rocks Dieter glimpsed the remains of some stone constructions, partially covered by sand, towards which they walked. There he deposited his companion and inspected the surroundings. With relief he indeed found among the rocks a spring from which emerged a faint thread of water, which quickly slipped out between the rocks to a low area where a thick mud accumulated. With effort he could quench his thirst and charge his canteen for Klaus. Among the rocks he could distinguish in passing a dark c***k covered partially by some bushes, fact that reminded him of the entrance to the cavern that Sonam had mentioned. As he had to help his fellow first Dieter decided to come back later to figure out what the c***k was.

They had spent three days in the ruins, time in which Klaus wound had worsened, the fever had elevated causing seizures until it finally descended. Dieter realized that the critical period had passed although the healing process was not ideal. During those days they had eaten slices of the dead Mongolian horse and drinking the spring water. He had returned to the place where he presumed that a cave existed and found that  separating the shrubs at the entrance  behind them a passage that got deep into the rocks existed indeed, but by the time he refrained from plunging into it. On the fourth day, watching the horizon Dieter saw that the sky darkened at very fast pace. Klaus had told him about these tremendous storms in the desert that surprise travelers and sometimes bury whole caravans. For that reason he dragged the still convalescent comrade up to the entrance of the cave and cleared the bushes to provide easier access. While developing these tasks a wind very strong began to blow in the desert and barrages of powder started covering all the features of the landscape. Dieter no longer hesitated and  introduced himself and Klaus in the cavern. There, in the most absolute darkness he heard as wind snorted outside as well as strong hits produced by stones lifted  by the air in movement and crashed against the rocks. The young man  decided to spend one of the few remaining matches to recognize and eventually condition the interior of the cave for their eventual  stay in it. With hard foliage from resinous shrubs they improvised a torch with which Dieter explored the proximal part of the cavern that soon proved to be very extensive and have several branches and meanders. At one of the twists he stumbled on a partially hidden stone in the sandy bottom of the cave and fell on the ground uttering an interjection. As he picked up the fallen torch and inspected the soil saw that when sliding his shoe during the fall it had left exposed a shining object. He picked it up and examined at the flickering torch light. Great was his surprise as he noticed that the strange object was an approximately circular metal disc of about four ten centimeters diameter and about three millimeters thick. Dieter thought that it possibly was a silver coin. No doubt it was very old and was worn down by use; as he brought it closer to his eyes he observed embossed characters of a sort of writing completely unknown for him. His heart began to beat faster as he  clearly discerned a swastika on the front cross. He continued digging in the surrounding area and stumbled with some strange objects, seemingly cranial bones but too  thick to be human; all this caused him a great perplexity, and decided that he was not at the moment able to conduct an assessment of the various objects found so he kept some of them.

Two days after the storm, in which they only had fed on lizards that were approaching the spring to drink, the young men sighted a long line approaching their redoubt snaking through the vast plain. They soon realized that it was a caravan, which still showed the hard punishment that the storm had inflicted it, which probably had surprised them uncovered. Its members were traders of different nationalities, from the plains and the mountains: Tibetans, Chinese, Indians and Persians, mounted on camels, horses and guarded by Mongolian horsemen. Some carts pulled by horses provided a slightly more comfortable ride to some privileged travelers..

The caravan stopped as the guides spotted the survivors, who were first surrounded by the riders until they verified that they were dangerous A Hindu trader offered to travel along with his daughter in his cart, one of the richest in the caravan. Dieter and Klaus immediately accepted the offer given the still precarious state of health of Klaus. As they opened the curtains on the side of the vehicle to climb it, Dieter´s eyes met a pair of huge black eyes of a young woman, whose veil did not completely hide a beautiful coppery face.