Book I of III: The Swords of the Sultan (30 page)

At the end of the hallway, there stood
another entryway that was much bigger than the rest, but this one
was not covered by animal fur, and Baltor could see a lot of
villagers inside this room, all facing the other way. Standing to
each side of the entryway, there stood two more guards armed with
spears.

The young man passed by the guards without
saying a word. Just as before, as Baltor neared the two guards,
they crossed their spears in front of him with that clicking
sound.

This time, the young man said nothing as he
continued his way into the room and without looking back once.

As Baltor patiently waited, he spent this
valuable time examining this incredibly large room that he
approximated to be at least one hundred feet in length, and six
hundred feet in width.

There were also a large number of villagers,
about sixty of them, who bowed as the young man passed—these
villagers wore furs, tribal necklaces, golden hoop earrings and
neck rings decked out with jewels.

Baltor observed—hanging upon the walls—the
heads of an incredible assortment of stuffed predatory jungle
animals—every single eye socket stuffed with a large jewel or
diamond.

If that wasn’t enough, he also saw a wide
assortment of tribal shields hanging upon the walls, most bearing
large and colorful feathers glued to the molten metallic substance
underneath, which was obviously gold—underneath each shield were
two crossed-spears, also made of gold, feathers dangling just below
the spearhead.

Because all of the villagers were now bowing
at the man who had neared the end of the room, Baltor could now see
at the very far end of the room that there were three thrones
adorned with furs, feathers, gold, and jewels, including
diamonds.

Sitting in the throne in the middle was an
elderly man, and in sitting to his left was an elderly woman. Both
wore an actual panther’s head ornamented with diamonds stuck in the
eye sockets, as well animal furs covering the whole of their
bodies, despite the hot and humid temperatures.

Once the young man had drawn near, he
stopped. Without bowing, he began to rapidly talk to this king and
queen. (57)

The young man turned around, pointed with his
finger at Baltor, and added something else foreign to Baltor’s
ears. (58)

After a good seven second pause, he added
something else. (59)

Once he had finished speaking this time,
everybody in the room turned his or her head to look at Baltor—he
had no doubt he was the center of attention, though he did not know
why. What he did know was the fact that this young man whom he had
been following must be royalty, because he hadn’t bowed one time
before this king and queen. Still, Baltor remained silent and
unmoving.

The king was the next person to say
something. (60)

A split second later, the guards pulled back
the spears into their original at ease position. The king beckoned
his hand for Baltor to enter—he did.

As he drew closer, he observed that both the
king and queen donned an extensive amount of valuable jewelry
around their neck and ears. About twenty feet away from the throne,
Baltor stopped in his tracks and bowed in the standing
position.

This king sharply said something (61) just
before he began to gesture with his hand for Baltor to come closer,
which words immediately drew Baltor’s gaze back up.

A second later, Baltor walked closer. When he
had gotten about five feet away, the king stopped the physical
gesturing of his hand, while saying something else. (62)

Baltor stopped in his tracks.

The five-foot-tall king stood up from his
throne, and as he walked around and around Baltor, he gave the
up-down look for about twenty seconds.

About the tenth time around, the king stopped
right in front of Baltor and as he patted Baltor’s chest, he said
something rapidly and excitedly. (63)

Even though Baltor didn’t have a clue as to
what had been said, everybody else in the room did as they began to
loudly “caw” in unison; that is, except for Baltor, the king,
queen, and this extremely important young man.

Baltor began to turn his head around in order
to look at the still-cawing crowds, but felt his jaw gently pulled
back toward the king. He saw that the king bore a very happy smile,
though Baltor did not know why.

Out of the corner of his eye, he next saw the
young man take the seat upon the left throne—this prince, as he
obviously was, was now gazing and smiling at Baltor, which smile
was the exact same as his father’s.

After the king had excitedly said something
else, the crowd stopped cawing, and then they began to shuffle
their way out the throne room doors—the king, meanwhile, sat back
down in the middle throne.

Nearly a minute later, only the royalty
remained in the room, and of course, Baltor.

It was then that the prince stood up from his
throne, walked over to Baltor, pointed at his own chest with his
left index finger, and identified,
“Cheo-Sucanamo-Caosnam-Rituan-Namao.”

“Cheo.” Baltor only repeated the first part
to his friend’s name, and after pointing to himself, he said,
“Baltor.”

Unexpectedly, the queen said something (64).
The very second she was done speaking, Cheo cocked his head from
side to side.

Without any further delay, the prince grabbed
Baltor’s hand, led him out of the throne room, and took him down to
the next floor. After passing three fur-covered entryways on the
right-hand side, he opened the fourth entryway, and after entering,
held open the fur so his new friend could enter.

Just before entering, Baltor already observed
that it contained a five-foot tall stand-up tub made of wood, and
filled with hot, steaming water—heated from a large pit of burning
charcoals underneath. Leaning against the near side of the tub was
a ladder.

After Baltor had entered, the prince said
something in his way-too-fast-to-comprehend language, (65) climbed
the ladder into the tub, took off his loincloth and threw it over
the side.

Baltor figured Cheo had been telling him to
get into the tub, so he took off his shirt, and then kicked off his
boots and socks.

Just as he was about to take off his pants
yet leave his underwear on, two beautiful girls came in from
another fur-covered entryway, each holding a sponge in hand.

Cheo was already sighing deeply as the hot
and medicinal waters soothed his aching muscles all the way up to
his neck. As for Baltor, he continued to stand there, completely
unmoving and watching, as the two girls also hopped into the tub
with the prince.

As soon as Cheo saw not only that Baltor
wasn’t even getting undressed, yet standing there with a beet-red
face even with his tanned complexion, he began to laugh in a
cocking fashion, “Ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca, etc., etc.” With his
hand however, he gestured for Baltor to enter the tub. Meanwhile
one of the girls began sponging the prince’s back underneath the
water.

Baltor got undressed, and quickly entered the
tub, which water proved to be very hot.

As soon as he stood within the tub, he
lowered his body even further until the level of the water caressed
the top of his neck. Right away his entire body immediately began
to relax—both from the heat and from the tribal medicine that had
been specially intermixed.

In under a minute, he could no longer feel
those aching muscles that he had long neglected. As the girls
massaged and scrubbed the two men within the confines of the
bathtub, Baltor and Cheo spent the next ten minutes trying to learn
to understand each other’s language, but all for naught.

This prince’s language was not only far too
fast for Baltor to comprehend, even when he spoke it very slowly,
yet it was too repetitive with all the
chaw’s
and the
chew’s!

One perfect example was when the prince said
Baltor’s name alone, he pronounced it this way,
“Ba-cha-cha-cha-al-chu-chu-chu-tor-chew-chew-chew.”

On the eleventh minute, the girls smiled at
Baltor and Cheo in turn, and then they exited the tub. Baltor
became quite surprised and relieved that they had never touched his
private parts, not even accidentally.

For the next minute, neither said a word to
each other but simply smile at each other, which was all they could
do. At the end of that minute, Baltor cleared his throat and then
exited the tub.

As soon as he had stepped back onto the
floor, he saw that the two girls had neatly set onto the floor two
pairs of fur loincloths and two pairs of jewel-covered sandals.
Quickly he threw his loincloth on.

Just after the sun had set twenty minutes
later—language or no language—the partying commenced.

Though Baltor didn’t understand the slightest
bit of what any of the villagers said, other than his or her name,
he understood their kind faces and friendly pats on his back.

He also rather enjoyed the roasted boars that
they had cooked over an open fire. Not long after his food had
begun to digest, the prince came back to Baltor with a long tribal
pipe in his hand.

After Cheo had lit it and taken a couple of
puffs, he then extended it out for Baltor. He took two hits, and
for the rest of the night, that was nothing but a blur … the only
thing he could remember for sure was that he was up until right
after sunrise.

That afternoon, Baltor awoke to find that he
was lying on a blanket of furs—what really startled him was the
fact that he wasn’t alone, for curled up next to him was a
beautiful young woman—fortunately still clothed.

Only seconds after he sat up in bed, an old
tribeswoman was entering and carrying a green leaf with some funky
green substance. It wasn’t until she patted her stomach that Baltor
realized this was food.

When he took a taste of the nasty stuff, it
took all of his willpower not to spit it back out.

The old woman, however, wouldn’t leave until
Baltor had eaten the entire contents of his bowl. Unfortunately, in
the end, she did not give him something to drink, in order to wash
down the very bitter aftertaste. The young woman continued to
sleep.

Once breakfast was over, only a minute later,
a tribesman entered the room, approached Baltor, and with a gesture
of his hand to follow, led him up the hallway until they reached
the throne room—the king and queen were not there this time.

The prince was sitting in his throne, now
adorning a black, fur coat and loincloth, some golden earrings and
other types of tribal jewelry. He stood up and approached Baltor
with a kindhearted smile. Baltor smiled back.

Over the course of the next several hours,
they tried very hard to learn the other’s language, but again, all
their best attempts proved futile.

Just after nightfall, and the feasting and
partying had once again recommenced with the prince, his parents,
and the villagers by the large bonfire outside, Baltor knew that he
must continue on his quest and soon, but now he no longer had his
camel, and even worse, the map!

It had always been in his hopes that maybe
Cheo might at least have some sort of clue about the tower,
especially since it’s supposed to be in his jungle. But due to all
the previous failures in communication, he was about to lost hope …
until suddenly, a brilliant idea crossed Baltor’s mind!

After picking up a nearby stick off the
ground, he drew the picture of the camel into the dirt.

Because the prince had a clueless look in his
face, Baltor realized that he didn’t know anything about his
camel.

Therefore, he scribbled out the camel with
his foot, and began to draw the picture of the tower. He looked up
to see a fearful expression upon Cheo’s face, and a moment later,
for the prince to obliterate the drawing with his foot, while
excitedly clucking something incomprehensible for a few seconds.
(66)

Baltor, realizing that the prince did know
something about the tower drew its picture for the second time—and
for the second time the prince scribbled it out with his foot,
while clucking his tongue repeatedly again. (67)

Baltor slapped his chest, said his own name,
drew the tower into the sand for the third time, wiggled his index
and middle fingers back and forth a few times to indicate that he
was traveling that way, and then pointed at the drawing with the
stick.

The prince was about to obliterate the
drawing, but then he stopped that foot only an inch away. A second
later, he placed it back where it originally had been, which was
next to his other foot.

Baltor looked up. Cheo sighed in resignation,
pointed at Baltor and then the drawing, point to the night sky
overhead, and then extended four of his fingers.

Baltor nodded his head in understanding and
agreement that the prince wanted him to stay four more nights. But
as the prince looked confused from the nodding gesture, Baltor
cocked his head from side to side, to indicate the affirmative.
Cheo smiled.

During the next three days and nights, even
though verbal communication had proven impossible so far, both
refused to give up. Despite this setback, fortunately, Cheo and
Baltor learned how to communicate in other ways—sign language and
drawing.

It was through drawn pictures that Cheo was
able to explain that his culture was not the culture of the
cannibals. In fact, the two tribes were hated enemies for
centuries, having warred too many times to count. They, Baltor and
the prince, learned quite a few other things about each other as
well, though not a whole lot.

He also noticed that the villagers really
loved to party every night, including Cheo’s parents, and every
night was a great old time. And during the days, he and the prince
spent just about every waking moment exploring all the natural
wonders and beauties of his kingdom, from cascading waterfalls to
unusually shaped rock formations. Very little sleep did either of
them get through this whole time, but neither were they tired.