BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan (39 page)

“And even if I should feel some pain soon,
the answer is no, I don’t want any of that pain-relieving medicine.
Though I feel light headed right now, I want my mind to be clear as
possible, just in case I don’t make it… I know I’ve lost a lot of
blood!”

By this time, Baltor gingerly picked up the
intestines, held them right over the wound itself, looked at
Darius, and said, “Okay, Darius, what I’m going to need you to do
is to quickly unlatch all the straps securing the chest plate to
the rest of the body armor. Once done and I tell you to,
ever-so-slowly remove it off the Ruling General—all the while, I
shall keep his intestines clear of that metal. Do you
understand?”

“Yes, my Sultan,” Darius said, just before
carried out his orders, which took a little over a minute and a
half.

Once Baltor had delicately placed the
intestines back inside Humonus’s stomach, he said, “You’ll be okay,
buddy, but just hang on, okay? A couple of minutes is all I’ll
need, and you’ll be stitched up and bandaged up, and good to
go…”

After coughing out more blood, Humonus
answered, “I’ll try, but I must confess something that I meant to
tell you long ago, but forgot about. That is, until about a few
minutes ago when I was laying here on the ground and thinking about
my life as far back as I can remember.”

All the while working, Baltor asked,
“Yes?”

Humonus answered, “Remember when you were a
little boy and I was your drill instructor, and I told you that
there must be the defenders so long as there are the
oppressors?”

At this point, even though Baltor’s eyes
squinted into contemplation to extract the memory, his left hand
pulled out a sewing needle from the medical bag, which
simultaneously pulled out the thread attached to the head of the
needle.

As he began to skillfully sew Humonus’s wound
shut into tiny stitches, he finally said, “Yes I do Humonus.
Darius, I need you to pour the remaining contents of this bottle of
antiseptic. Okay?”

“Yes, my Sultan,” Darius said, just before he
did as ordered.

“Yes, Humonus... I never forgot,” Baltor said
as he continued to sew.

Humonus replied, “Well, the truth of the
matter is, I knew all about your investigations into Vakshia’s
disappearance. In fact, I secretly followed you just about every
night, as you searched through and around those dangerous obstacle
courses—I was even the one who provided all those torches…

“Lucky for you, I happened to be there the
very night you found Vakshia’s body in the valley, but couldn’t
find out for sure whether it was her or not because you didn’t have
enough rope. At the time, we both presumed, but didn’t know for
sure, her to be Vakshia! Of course, I didn’t reveal my presence to
you…”

After coughing out even more blood, he added,
“But early the next morning, just before I headed out the door to
go to work, I brought along the sack containing the fifty-foot
length of rope, and placed it into a semi-hidden area of the supply
room, and skillfully threw lots of dust onto it....you found
it.”

At this point, Baltor had just finished
sewing, and so he pulled out a fresh bandage and placed it on top
of the stitches. He then searched his bag for the gauze tape.

Meanwhile, Humonus continued to reveal, “I
was even there the following night when you went back with enough
rope, rappelled to the bottom, tied Vakshia’s body around the base
of the rope, climbed back up, and began to pull her body up…

“I watched as Thesmul confronted you with
stiletto in hand, while confessing to the crimes of rape and
murder, just before he attacked you. I watched you two viciously
fight each other, until you finally kicked him over the valley’s
edge that killed him!”

Despite the shock at learning all of this for
the very first time, Baltor actually managed to say with a bit of
anger to his voice, “Humonus, why didn’t you come to my defense
against Thesmul? Or at the very least, defend me during my trial
with the High Council?”

Without waiting for an answer to either of
his questions, he said, “Darius, gently lift up his body so that I
can securely wrap the bandages around his waist.”

“Yes, sir.”

As Darius gently lifted and Baltor began to
wrap, Humonus answered, “Because…if the High Council had suspected
that I was involved even one iota, then Master Salmot would have
certainly claimed that I had been the one who schemed the whole
plot up in the first place, which plot included Thesmul ever being
around Vakshia in the first place. Not true, of course. Besides, I
always knew you’d be a winner, even during your battle and your
trial! You have always been destined to win—my Sultan…”

At this point, Baltor observed for the very
first time that there was a puncture in Humonus’s back about three
inches in diameter, as the gauze tape on his backside was becoming
increasingly slimy from the blood—the ground was totally soaked in
it.

Humonus was about to say more, but suddenly,
an excruciatingly painful look crossed his eyes!

A moment later, he confirmed,
“
Owwwwww
…now my back really hurts! Really, really, bad!
Listen, my best friend in the whole wide world and my Sultan, if I
don’t make it, I want you to tell Chelsea that I love her and
that—”

In that moment, Humonus died with his eyes
open.

For the next several minutes to come, Baltor
silently stared into his dead friend’s open eyes—eyes that no
longer reflected the sparkle of life!

Suddenly an incredible amount of pain surged
within Baltor’s own stomach and chest. As his head turned up toward
the night skies, his mouth screamed out his angers, grief and
frustrations … while bloody tears steadily began to pour out his
eyes!

Meanwhile, Darius and Traes could only stare
in utter shock and horror at Baltor! Especially from that scream
that sounded just like ten people had been screaming
simultaneously!

Still sobbing uncontrollably, Baltor stood
back onto his feet, turned around and began to walk—his chest plate
was covered in his own blood.

After walking for about thirty feet, he
collapsed onto his knees and continued to sob on both hands and
knees. It took him nearly ten minutes to regain a control over his
grief-stricken emotions! This was one of the two worst days in his
life, the first being when his parents had been murdered when he
was just a little boy.

Once he had finally regained control over his
emotions, he began to wipe all the blood off his face with the
sleeves of his shirt.

He then stood back onto his feet, turned back
around, and walked back toward his companions, who he saw were
still kneeling close to Humonus’s body and quietly whispering to
each other. They stopped whispering upon seeing Baltor nearing
their location.

Without a word, Baltor gently picked his best
friend’s body off the ground, and walked over to the male hawk.

After arriving at his destination, he turned
just his head around and asked, “Would you gentlemen please help me
buckle him into the backseat?”

“As you command, my Sultan,” both men gulped,
just before they rushed on over. Together, they strapped him into
the rear saddle.

Once this task was over, only thirty seconds
later, Baltor ordered, “Say nothing of what you just saw to anyone,
regarding my bloody tears. Just so you gentlemen know, within these
very jungles many years ago when I was just a young man, I
contracted a mysterious illness—ever since, whenever I cry, which
is very-very-very seldom, blood flows out my eyes. But trust me, I
am very human. Be silent of what I just told you—okay?”

“I’m sorry to hear about your illness, my
Sultan,” Traes sincerely replied. “As you command…”

“I agree with Traes, my Sultan,” Darius
added. “Yet I’m also very sorry about Ruling-General Humonus. Just
so you know, my Sultan, he fought most valiantly against the
dragon, while I must confess that I was so petrified that I peed my
trousers when we—him, the hawk, and myself—played chicken with
it!”

After revealing the gist of “Humonus’s heroic
battle,” he concluded with a sigh, “Shortly after the dragon had
landed on the ground with the lance still stuck in the wing, it
pulled the lance out and that wing magically healed! It was about
to even eat the Ruling General, but suddenly it stopped and sat
there for awhile. Minutes that felt like centuries later, it
changed its mind, took off into the air, and flew southeast! Only
minutes before your arrival, in fact.”

Baltor said, “Well, the time has come for us
to move, before the dragon or her army has the opportunity to come
back, so let’s go. Traes and Darius, you men ride on Leshava.”

“Yes, my Sultan,” both men cried, just before
all three men climbed into their saddles and buckled themselves in.
Once so, about twenty seconds later, they launched into the air,
heading northwest.

Upon reaching a thousand feet in altitude,
Baltor began to gaze all around, even through the darkness of
night.

Even though he discovered that the skies were
mostly clear in almost all directions, the entire northern horizon
was already filled up with dozens of storm clouds filled with rain,
thunder, and lightning!

Due to the strong winds also blowing in from
that direction, as well the smell of rain, Baltor strongly
suspected that this night would contain a tropical thunderstorm—his
binocular-vision took effect, and his suspicions were immediately
confirmed that the storm clouds were fast coming their way, perhaps
within the hour.

A few moments later, Baltor drew forth a
picture of Cheo in his mind’s eye before he drew a forth a picture
of the world map.

The very second Cheo’s location was known
upon the map, but a few of them later, Baltor telepathically asked
Praetor,
Can you please fly a little bit more to the northwest
and add quite a bit more speed, Praetor? There’s a nasty-looking
storm coming our way, my friend.

He heard in his mind, “Yes, my Master,” just
before Praetor rapidly increased their altitude by a few more
thousand feet—Leshava naturally followed right behind her
brother.

Once they had risen to a grand height of four
thousand feet, both hawks angled their flight pattern so that
though they would be descending at a slow rate, while their speed
significantly increased so that they would arrive at their army
even quicker.

In a different part of the Galgaa Jungle,
where the cavalry and the giants were camped…40 minutes later.

One of posted guards near the command tent
spotted—for about three good seconds—two black specks maneuvering
their way around the large storm clouds and toward the
encampment!

There were two contributing reasons why this
was the one and only guard who saw the specks at all—if one of
these two following reasons had not been there, he would have also
remained completely oblivious.

One, a large and lengthy bolt of lightning
had just zigzagged its way across the southeastern skies, which lit
up that entire horizon for eight seconds. Two, the rain that had
started thirty minutes ago had just stopped thirty seconds
prior.

That guard immediately looked over at his
fellow guards, whistled to draw their attention, and stated,
“Look—over there in the sky to the southeast! There are two
creatures flying our way… don’t know what they are though.”

Standing ten feet away was a female guard,
whose uniform revealed her rank as a captain. She asked, “Where,
Private Xayen?”

While pointing, Xayen replied, “I don’t see
them anymore, Captain Nova, but if you’ll look that way and stare
hard, maybe there’ll be another flash of lightning. I wonder why
there’s no more lightning right now?”

“I don’t know, but I hope that you’re—” Nova
answered, just before her mouth cut itself off in mid-sentence as
she clearly saw two giant hawks, each bearing two riders perched on
the ground about forty feet away from the command tent.

Because she had been told to expect at any
time the arrival of one giant hawk but not two—she called out to
the guards around her, “Surround them with weapons drawn!”

Approximately two dozen guards that were in
the immediate area did as ordered. Many more were on the way.

Once both hawks had been surrounded, they
observed that there was a “bandaged up” rider slumped forward in
the rear saddle unconscious, which body looked shockingly like
Humonus—even more shocking was that the front rider looked like
Baltor!

On the other hawk they saw and recognized
Darius, but not the other man … nobody had tried to unbuckle their
straps, yet.

Nova called out, “Halt! Who goes there?”

Baltor answered, “I’m your Sultan.”

Just to be on the safe side, especially
because of the optical illusions she remembered seeing before, she
asked, “How do I know that you’re really the Sultan? How do I know
that you all aren’t another ploy by the dark gnomes who are using
an optical illusion to deceive our eyes, and then to attack us
blindly and kill us all?”

“Very good questions, captain. Though I know
not your name.”

“My name is Captain Nova.”

“Nice to meet you, captain…yes, I am indeed
Sultan Baltor Elysian the Fifteenth.”

Two seconds later, Nova replied, “If you are
the Sultan, then I sincerely apologize—okay? But, I do need to know
for sure that you are who you say you are, first.”

Baltor replied, “Even if I was to show you
the insignia ring upon my left index finger, bearing the Symbol of
the Sharia Empire, you would probably still suspect me as an
optical illusion.”

Just then, Ray silently arrived in the area,
along with sixty more guards following right behind him! Strangely,
however, Cheo had not woken up from the alarm.