The Ancient World Order

Chapter 13: Sahej of The Great Sands

The bright light of dawn was burning the prisoner's face. She had been tied up, naked, on a pole, freezing the entire night. The coarse, cruel sand beneath her feet was heating as the radiation of the sun reached it. "Water!" She yelled. "Water!"

Exhausted from riding and brokering alliances, day and night, Sahej was in the mode of murder, as he heard her yells. He would do anything for a few moments of peace. It had been little of that the last weeks. The Darma tribe was now deep into the desert of the Great Sands, ravaging and pillaging every clan and town they passed by. Every man of fighting age, they killed on the spot, while raping and enslaving the rest.

After the Wey hooves clan had reached out to Tahej, he had tried to form a coalition of clans, uniting them to stand against the coming threat. They had to, divided, the Darma would slaughter them easily. The problem was, the clans of the Great Sands had centuries of history of battling one another. Only once, they had united under the command of Achea the despoiler. However, with his death fifteen years ago, the horde scattered, and the clans returned to their old ways of battling one another.

Tahej knew this. Even if he formed unity between the clans, it would still hang by a thread. Also, once they defeated their common enemy, they would surely go back to the old ways of each clan for their own. But that was a later problem. Even though they have united several clans, it would be even harder to elect a leader. In addition, the clans were too proud to cooperate, and they all made demands of their own. The Black Venom clan would leave if they were not leading the vanguard, the Wind Claw clan wouldn't hear of any battle plan other than their own. The Wey Hooves clan were the one who had initially warned about the Darma, so naturally, they would be in charge. The Rado clan had the most riders, so they were the majority and should make all decisions.

While the clans were arguing, the Darma tribe drew closer. It wouldn't be long until they were within reach. The yelling prisoner was proof of that. She was a spy, evaluating the threat for the Darma tribe as they had advanced through the Great Sands. Tahej had always pressed the importance of intelligence. He too had sent out a net of spies, lurking in the coastal cities. By a fluke of fate, Tahej's spies had gone into a Tavern where a woman had approached them and offered gold for information. They had given it to her at first, trying to confirm their suspicions. As the talks proceeded, they were certain she was a Darma spy, so they apprehended her and brought her to Tahej.

"Water!" The shouts continued.

"Shut her the hell up!" Sahej heard men outside his tent shout in response.

With a raging jerk, Sahej flew up from his bed, half-awake and annoyed beyond comprehension. This was the first time in weeks he got any sleep to speak of.

Ideia, a bronze-coloured girl, the same age as Sahej from Black Venom clan, had shared his bed last night. She gently pulled his arm, urging him to get back to sleep. "She will tire herself soon enough." She said.

"Not soon enough!" Sahej responded in rage. "I will cut out her tongue! I can't stand hearing it!"

"How will she give us information then?" Ideia replied.

Her words made him even angrier. He knew she was right. He left, saying nothing more.

In the centre of training grounds, Sahej found the prisoner. He spotted brown stains everywhere on her body. The aftermath of torture, the coagulated blood had dried furthermore in the blazing sun. She kept screaming, but now in a panic as she realised that she soon will face her doom. There was a group of clan warriors standing by the prisoner arguing.

"Just one finger we can cut off!" A rider from the Rado clan told the surrounding men. Just as Sahej, these men felt anger over being woken up by their screaming female captive.