Words he seldom used unless he was sure Jehovah had indeed spoken.
Finn and Caleb exchanged shocked glances as Hakham left the sanctuary and ambled toward his chambers, dividing the reverent family members congregating across his path; at the same time, leaving two young men and two middle aged women stunned by Hakham’s decision and unsure whether anything had been established.
*~*~*~*
Finn escorted Louisse to her single chambers and after she refused further attention from the Raider, he wandered back to his own accommodation and pondered Hakham’s strange decision.
As he prepared for the following night’s clandestine raid, Hakham’s shocking decision to give him the responsibility for Louisse’s care opened a exasperating wound.
Unintentionally, Finn dawdled down a familiar frustrating mental path, reviving the ache and not able to recall his family roots. He couldn’t even remember his own mother, but he was sure there was a disturbing story behind her absence in his life today.
His mind drifted back to a raid several years ago when he was a very young man and freshly groomed by Hakham to rescue the resistance people from the Alama Masu. The raid had started out like all the others, breaking into the enemy’s camp and stealing doomed hostages from under their incredulous noses.
However, the enemy had practised a response to the Raiders’ attack this time and the alarm had been sounded quickly, trapping the raiding party into a bitter slugging match, something they were supposed to avoid at all cost. Each member of the raiding party was locked into a life-or-death battle and fought desperately while the odds were stacked three-to-one in favour of the Alama Masu.
As a consequence, the Raiders’ plan of attack never followed a predictable path again and every raid was a one-off affair.
An unseen, crashing blow sent the young and inexperienced Finn sprawling to the pavement and it was only Hakham’s prayer coverage and Jehovah’s grace that protected the Raiders and allowed them to escape with their lives.
As a part of his terrible injuries, Finn had lost his memory of the event and everything prior to that day, erasing every image of his childhood, his family and the events leading up to that point in his life. Hakham knew of Finn’s loss, and his decision today only added to Finn’s quandary. His thoughts began to drift back to the raid preparation and he wondered why Hakham would give him and Caleb the responsibility of surrogate mothers when there was a good chance they wouldn’t be coming back.
All the confusing thoughts seemed to swirl together, the responsibility of taking care of a mother figure, then the desire to become a husband and father turned his focus once again back to the beautiful Heather. Her sharp beauty, calming wisdom and fine character was sought by every young man in the family, but she declined every attention, leaving another broken heart in her wake.
Finn sighed as the image of the beautiful face tugged at his heart strings; he needed to see her once again before the final raid and carry her memory into battle one last time.
*~*~*~*
Chapter 19
It had been many hours since Dramble had interrupted the strange group and the cowardly men who’d struck the woman across her face with a harrowing blow. The sickening sound played across his mind repeatedly and no matter how hard he tried, the neck-snapping image and the scarf unwinding from her face forcibly, burnt ineradicably into the image receptors of his brain and refused to leave his memory.
The geodesic dome was looming larger with every meticulous step, but glancing up at the huge structure further distracted his mind from the task of tracking and possibly diverting him from an important clue.
A vision of Elly’s beautiful face abruptly focused his thinking and drove all other images from his mind. In a concerted effort he forced his concentration back to the trail, left like a signpost for him to follow and abandoned the bewildering looming image of the dome. Dramble took a last incredulous glance up at the hypnotising structure and then compelled his attention back to the coppery dust, but the construction kept vying for his attention. The dome resembled an oversized igloo, filling the skyline to the horizon and contrasting the stark, desert-like surrounds by its colourful green images of vegetation purportedly contained within its glass walls.
Dramble couldn’t afford to lose Elly’s direction at this stage even though he knew the abductors had taken her inside the bizarre structure, but the structure appeared far too big and his time was too limited to find her by searching every part. Besides, he had no clue of what he would face once he’d worked out how to breech the glass obstruction, but if he had a hint of a starting point he would have a greater chance of narrowing down where the abductors had taken her.
At one stage, by concentrating on the looming structure’s impressive dimensions instead of the tracks, he’d lost the trail completely and valuable time as well, forcing him to backtrack to regain his bearings. But as he did, a disturbing indicator appeared in the imprints on the ground.
The tracks were steady and stamped evenly into the dust, meaning Elly’s resistance had stopped.
Dramble began to feel uneasy and finding her was even more urgent than ever before. Long red shadows began to creep along the desert floor and reflected imposing images on the chaotic vestiges as night stole closer and swallowed the light in the deepening darkness.
The ruins deflected the cold sun’s rays and projected threatening images onto its neighbours, causing Dramble some angst when he caught the display in his periphery vision. Snapping his head around to confront an attacking foe, his heart hammered in fear, but he was relieved to find it was just a ruse of the strange environment.
Finally, the guiding tracks came to an abrupt halt and turned onto a fractured stone path, less than half a kilometre from a unobtrusive doorway into the glass structure. The structure close up was more imposing than expected, forcing Dramble to crane his neck to capture the full extent the image occupied. A shadowy movement from behind the glass arrested his attention and he quickly dove for cover, hiding behind a barrier of charred rubble and keeping a constant vigil over the entrance, while studying its vast expanse and searching for a way inside.
Whatever he did, he needed to evade capture if he was to help out the young woman who would be relying on him to set her free.
Dramble pulled in a frustrated breath and let it out carelessly, escaping from his lungs and sounding like a steam whistle chortling in the extreme silent domain. Again, he found himself waiting on the dawdling sun, nervously counting the moments until complete darkness hid him from prying eyes.
As he kept watch over the thickening night, shards of dim light from within the structure stole through the gaps in the vegetative curtain and escaped into the darkness through the glass walls. The massive edifice appeared to be coming to life like some nocturnal jellyfish laying flat against the surrounding beach sand, but without the water.
The thought of water disturbed him; surely Elly’s captors would have known she was desperately dehydrated and needed immediate help if she was to be any use for ransom purposes.
Dramble caught the foolishness of his own thoughts. Who would they attempt to extort a ransom from? Nobody knew they were itinerant visitors to this strange world and Elly’s folks wouldn’t know of her current dilemma anyway, even if they were capable or prepared to help.
It was suddenly obvious the captors had other plans for Elly, but nothing he could imagine consoled Dramble’s worrying.
With no apparent way to violate the structure’s defences, and Elly’s contorting face ever before his mind’s eye, raw adrenaline pumped through his veins and he decided he had had enough waiting, conceding the only way in was to be captured himself.
At that, Dramble sprinted for the glass doors blocking his passage into the dome, while splintered light spilled onto the paving around the door and lit up his small figure like a searchlight on a dark sea. He danced around the door, pounding on its thick glass with his open fists, looking for some way to violate the ex
traordinary construction’s defences or at least attract attention from within, but as always happens when he wanted to be caught, the exact opposite occurred and his animated actions went unnoticed.
A mischievous glint sparkled with determination and his grey eyes narrowed into slits. Desperate times called for desperate measures; and he backed away from the glass doors and into the dark ruins once again, picking up handfuls of attention and piling them onto the path leading into the dome.
With an aggressive stance and legs spread wide apart for accuracy, he yelled with all his might. “Hey, numbskulls! Here I am, come and get me or are you too much of a chicken?! Bawk, bawk, bawk... !” And then with all the determination he could muster, he reached to the stockpile on the ground, selected an appropriate missile and hurled the winning number at the doors, cracking the glass on impact and waiting for the desired and expected response.
*~*~*~*
Slung unceremoniously over the shoulder of a large hooded figure, Elly’s constant wriggling and slapping at her captor wore her out and just as she was about to give him her final exhausted encouragement, he ran out of patience and pressed something cold into her neck and her consciousness deserted her. Limp like a doll, Elly’s attempts to record her sojourn in the telltale tracks of the dust, keeping Dramble aware she was still alive and resisting, abruptly stopped too.
Once shocked fear had turned to indignation at her abduction, Elly became bold. It appeared they had no intention of harming her and the more they refused to react to her defiance, the more defiant she became.
As soon as they had covered some distance from the sheltering ruin and the threat of a counterattack had faded, one of the captors reached under his black robe and withdrew a green coloured army canteen. Elly watched the figure in disgust and when he tried to force the receptacle to her lips she struggled, intent on opposing his actions. The figure burst into an angry jabbering barrage of a language she didn’t understand and while Elly kicked and slapped at him, he finally overrode her strength and the cool liquid slid over her tonsils and down her throat. Tasting the life giving water running down over her parched organs, all the objections soon stopped and instead she tried to drain the canteen in one large gulp. The abductor violently reefed it from her grasp and exploded in his jabbering strange tongue again, castigating her for reasons she didn’t understand. However, a few hours later he gave the canteen back to her and realisation dawned, he was trying to stop her from overloading her system with too much at once.
For some unknown reason they wanted her alive.
*~*~*~*
A tickling sensation irritated Elly’s nose, dragging her from the depths of sleep. Still groggy and with her eyes closed to the surrounds, she listlessly swatted at the offender with an aggravated hand and slowly regained her consciousness after being silenced for bad behaviour by her captor. As more understanding trickled into the gathering dawn of consciousness, her eyes sprang open, wondering where she was.
Scanning her surrounds with an anxious stare, she kept her head and body perfectly still, while it soon became evident that she’d been placed on her side atop an animal skin rug in the centre of a large room and the beast’s long hair was annoying her face as she breathed.
Another bout of the jabbering language in close proximity caught her by surprise and before she could process her new environment, a hand grabbed a generous portion of her hair and reefed her into a sitting position. Elly felt the pain stinging her scalp and tried to scream at her assailant, but a massive hand covered her mouth and quieted her disapproval.
Then, another male voice rasped across the room in a language she could understand. “Be careful, Rashid; don’t bruise her. Malhalem loves blonde kafiri women and this little one will bring him much pleasure.”
*~*~*~*
Chapter 20
Louisse had spent many restless hours laying awake on her bed, trying to gauge Hakham’s logic. She was impressed with her earlier award-winning performance before the altar of judgement and even more amazed at the incredible good fortune of stumbling over Christina’s innocent and haphazard escape from the family underworld, consequently letting her off the hook and spilling just enough contention into the situation to cast doubt over her guilt.
Even though it appeared she had hoodwinked the great Hakham, unnerving questions kept her from sleep and her conscience passively rumbled in the dark alleyways of her mind until an echoing voice silenced it with a crisp... get a grip!... command.
Finn had made many visits to her single chambers to check on her condition and comply with the elder’s directive. His magnificent figure filled the entry to her room but he refused to pass beyond the boundary door.
Feeling annoyed at the constant monitoring of her movements, she sent him on a flurry of personal errands, hoping he would become irritated at her pettiness and finally leave her be. But as each new whim was completed, he returned to her door prepared to continue the charade, ad infinitum. It was Louisse herself who concluded the game after tiring of the Raider’s constant attention and she waved him away, feigning a headache.
To her dismay, moments later he returned again with a herbal root someone had collected from deep within the cave system, allegedly for the express purpose of calming worried nerves and relieving headaches. He left a tumbler of water and the root meal at the door of her chamber and let her choose to contend with the pain.
If Hakham’s childish game of mummy and son was to continue, it would make it very difficult for her to resume her business with the Alama Masu and miss out on the niceties contained within their glass city walls. They owed her for the missing payment anyway and someone was going to pay for the bruise tattooed across her face. She angrily rolled on her mattress, shifting from her stomach and lay flat on her back, ignoring the tumbler and the vile root concoction waiting at her door. Then, with a gentle touch of her finger, she traced the smarting bruise and could only imagine what a sight it had made of her face.
A small figure standing at her doorway broke into her brooding and beckoned to her. “Louisse, it’s Christina; may I come in?”
Louisse couldn’t believe the nerve of the woman, visiting her after the damning shredding of her character before the whole family.
“What do you want, Christina?!” she bluntly replied.
“Caleb gave me a gift from the last raid he was involved in. It’s a small amount of the Alama Masu food; I just wanted to offer it to you in the hope you could forgive me.”
Louisse swallowed hard and couldn’t believe what the nutty woman was about to do, and then she fell silent for a long time before she erupted, “I know what you are up to, Christina, but it won’t work. Leave me alone before I call Finn in to take care of you!”
Louisse heard something being placed on the rocky floor of her chamber and then heard Christina dejectedly shuffle away.
When she raised herself to her elbows, she could see the unmistakable shape of an Alama Masu food tube and the coveted grey crystals it contained. She stared at it for many moments, salivating at the treat, but her conscience once again began to rattle its sabre and alert her to His presence.
Another crushing realisation flawed her. She had threatened Christina with Finn’s presence, drawing on the Raider’s protection instead of dealing with the situation herself. She was baffled. What was happening to her?!
*~*~*~*
A black robed figure quietly crept through the silent passageways and eventually stood at the doorway to Finn’s chamber. As he approached, he could hear whispers coming from the room and then Finn’s and Hakham’s silhouettes etched against the dark background of Finn’s underground home.
“Finn, are you ready? It’s almost midnight,” Caleb’s undertone broke into the meeting from the protection of his dark hood covering his head.
“Come in, Caleb,” Hakham’s unmistakable rasp beckoned the Raider’s second-in-command.
Caleb joined the two men before Hakham pronounced a blessing and Jehovah’s p
rotection over him, just like he had done moments earlier for the black robed Finn.
“I am unsure whether you will escape with your lives tonight from Baal Malii, but it is imperative that your mission does not fail. If the floundering red sun rises before completing your task, then it will be too late and have a devastating effect for our people. I know the plan of Jehovah, and He Himself will divulge it to you once you have violated the glass walls. Take the way that leads to the garden of the palace and into the Malhalem’s Harem. I will act as intercessor before Jehovah’s altar until you have returned, or some word is known. Have faith in the mighty Jehovah, Creator God and protector of our people.”
As Hakham finished his encouragement, Caleb and Finn pulled up their hoods and stole out of the sanctuary maze, leaving Hakham behind and swiftly wound their way through the familiar tunnels and disappeared into the darkness while Hakham nervously watched the two brave Raiders leave, fearful for their safety.
*~*~*~*
A half a dozen stunned black hooded Alama Masu warriors stood facing a small ranting figure making poor impersonations of a delirious chook in the dark and calling their characters into question.
He was obviously an unrobed kafiri who had gone off his rocker and without the mark, he stood out an easy target.
Charred fractured bricks lay strewn across the entry path like a crazed minefield, and glass mingled with the dust of the ruins while the glass door to their protected world had shattered and left a gaping hole to the uncontrolled pollution of the detritus.
An angry warrior stepped forward, intent on capturing the troublemaker and taking him straight to the front of the line for the morning’s executions as a reward for his foolishness.