Shield of the Sun Part 10

Once the fire was going, Sebek one of the bodyguards, broke bread and shared it out. The other, Khyan handed his water skin to Teti who shared it with Abbados. The bread made from durah was coarse and the water skin contained a beer that was bitter, but nevertheless they were both welcome and as they ate Teti began to explain what a rider was, ‘A rider is a man who sits astride a horse; I can see by your face you do not know what a horse is, so I will try to explain. In your country you have a pack animal called a donkey have you not?’

‘ No a horse is not a donkey, a donkey is a bad tempered draught animal, While a horse is a taller and more noble animal, fiery, courageous and intelligent when wild, the beast nevertheless can be tamed and trained to take the weight of a man on its back and that man is called a rider.’

'No, Lord they cannot, but they can run as fast as the desert wind, so many times faster than a man that they might as well fly.’

‘How can a man stay on one of these beast at such speed without falling and injuring himself.’

‘With training, lord and as I have said the animals themselves are intelligent and can be taught to obey orders, to turn left or right, to walk or to run and to stop.’

Abbados was amazed and intrigued by Teti’s description of this almost magical animal and could not help but ask another question, ‘How does one of these riders tell the horse to turn?’

‘That, you will have to ask one of the riders when they arrive, all I know is that they have some leather straps on either side of the horse’s head and by pulling on them they can make the horse turn left or right.’

Teti gave a shrug and said, ‘Like I say you can ask the riders, now why don’t you rest while you wait, Lord. Sebek will keep watch.’

Well now is the time thought Abbados; clever Teti has distracted you with all this talk of magical horses, if they are going to make a move it will be some time soon. He settled back, pretended to close his eyes and waited to see what would transpire. Sebek sat by the fire while the other two lay back and appeared to sleep. All was quiet and nothing happened for such a long while that he began to relax and just as his head began to droop they made their move.

Sebek rose and skirting the fire walked quietly over to where Abbados lay, for a moment he stood as if listening, then began to draw his sword. Before the weapon even cleared its sheath Abbados hacked into his knee with the axe, Sebek screamed like a girl, dropped the sword and lay squirming on the ground holding his knee. He stopped squirming when Abbados crushed his skull and then turned to the others. Teti looked shock by the speed of it all and stood as if frozen. Khyan however was all ready upon him and he had to jump back to avoid a blow meant to disembowel him. The tip of the blade raked his stomach drawing blood, but the force of the blow threw Khyan off balance and Abbados drove the axe into the side of his neck. Two down, now there was only Teti to deal with.

Up until now the fighting had taken place in the glow of firelight, but now as he faced Teti he realised that the black shadows of night were turning into shades of grey. So much for meeting riders two hours before dawn, the plan all along had been to kill him and now he realised that they did not even need the shield, They only needed him to steal it so that Tutimaios did not have it.

They squared up, Abbados tall and muscular, rat faced Teti slightly built. Yet for all the disparity in their physiques they were well matched, Abbados slow and powerful and Teti light and fast. The fight was bloody and took each more that two hours to mortally wound the other.

‘Is there such a thing as a rider?’ asked Abbados as they lay propped against the rocks.