Found is here!
This is the 2nd story in a series. Please be sure to read Lost first (or risk confusion). You can also check out my 100 Themes Revival, featuring oneshots of 'extras' for my series.
I love reading reviews and respond to each one in the author's notes of a story. If you have lots of questions (or a question I prefer to answer to just you), I'll send you a PM.
I tend to update quickly. I try to do 1 chapter each day, but with encouraging reviews (or impatience to get a Theme up) I've been known to post multiple times throughout the day :)
Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I'm not John Flanagan.
Halt, Will, and Liam lay on their bellies hidden by their modified sandy cloaks covering their bodies. They belly crawled swiftly towards a drain missing a bar, creating a gap just big enough for a small man to get through. The drains here weren't near as large as the ones in Araluen but they made it.
The mission Crowley had assigned them would be considered suicidal by non-Rangers. They were to go to Persia and put an end to the rumors of an uprising against Araluen and its allies. Their old friend Selethen had been their guide but opted out of the actual mission. He told them in detail how to get back to Arrida and left them with a map. In Persia they'd learned that Sardar, a leader at the Hibernian Sunrise Warrior Academy, had a brother called Suhrab. Sardar was a younger brother and, in Persian culture, worth significantly less than Suhrab. Sardar ended up in Hibernia through a number of coincidences and now, eight years after Sardar's death, Suhrab wanted revenge. He prepared to attack all countries involved.
Halt, Will, and Liam spent some time spying before moving in. He maintained a lavish estate filled with his family and slaves. It was hard to tell the two groups apart. Suhrab himself was obviously the head of the estate. After him was a cousin who served as the general of his military, an uncle who ran his stable, and another cousin who beat down the slaves and lesser-family members. Suhrab had more wives and concubines than they could count but it was easy to see which ones he valued. The favored women dressed much nicer and had sons clinging to their hips.
Polygamy was the main reason none of the girls on the Special Task Force had come. They didn't want to risk losing them. Besides, the women inside were watched far more closely than the men. The women, the Araluens had noticed, shirked to the lesser-men for attention Suhrab failed to give. Some bartered secrets for favors.
Liam spoke their language and had gained the trust of Razeen, the uncle in charge of stables, and two of Razeen's wives: Darya and Shahana. Halt and Will had befriended Ishtar, a slave girl captured while watching over her father's sheep in Arrida, who desperately wanted out of the compound estate. She had learned broken Araluen going to the market with her father and agreed to help them once inside and then guide them back to Arrida. She only required they protect her until they made it to the border.
Darya had told them about the barred drain. Her children used it to escape chores and play on the other side of the desert dunes. As promised Ishtar was waiting on the other side with a candle. At least they thought it was Ishtar. The women wore scarves over their heads that made it difficult to tell them apart. Once they were close they recognized the figure to indeed be Ishtar. She took them up the steps quickly.
The guards said little about Ishtar leading three cloaked men through the servants' quarters. As they entered the quarters of the lower-family members, the guards still said nothing. Ishtar had assured them beforehand the 'lower guards' wouldn't give them trouble.
"We stop. Men will catch us," Ishtar whispered. Halt took out the packets of explosives Malcolm had invented.
"Time to make some noise then," he whispered. He threw one down and the three men ran down the hall Ishtar pointed out. Halt cut over and tossed another explosive over a balcony. Guards rushed down the stairs. He threw a few more and then the three rushed to the now empty hallway of the higher-up family.
Suhrab was killed in his sleep. Ishtar woke the wife he'd been sleeping with. She cried but they clearly weren't tears of sadness or pain. She whispered in her native language as she shuffled out of the bed into the blanket Ishtar offered her for modesty. Ishtar took off her headscarf and wrapped it around the wife's head. They spoke rapidly for a few moments before the wife went to a wardrobe and took out a much finer scarf. Halt and Will glanced over to Liam, who obviously tried to hide that he understood their words. Because Ishtar had not met Liam until that night, the women thought their conversation was private.
The wife handed her fine scarf to Ishtar, who quickly wrapped it around her own head. "We go now. Little time," Ishtar said to the men. Razeen and his wives were supposed to keep everyone distracted. The confusion proved they were doing a good job. The attack on Araluen and its allies became only whispers squashed by the death of the whisperer. Now that Suhrab was gone his eldest son would take over, a man Razeen assured them would not try to avenge anyone who died outside the compound.
For good measure they planted evidence against the military leader Razeen's wives would strengthen with the women's grapevine. Liam especially hoped the general went down. Razeen and both wives painted him as a pig who bought slaves rather than marry wives, making all his children ineligible for his fortune. Razeen may have four wives, but he treated each one with value.
Halt didn't think the lifestyle was right but he wasn't there to make judgments. Seeing all the beaten down women made him want to get back to Pauline as quickly as possible. He'd talked Lina into staying with Pauline in their apartment during the men's absence. Halt simply felt better knowing someone who could shoot a bow and throw a knife…and wield the strange tessens she'd introduced him to just before he left…was in the house with his wife and son. He'd wanted to ask Alyss to join them out of protectiveness for her as a daughter but she had children and a dog to mind at home.
They made a clean getaway under Ishtar's careful direction. Razeen gave Ishtar a horse for her journey as payment for her help in the plan. In the Persian culture, women were rarely thanked much less paid for services. Halt mentioned the idea to their new ally and Razeen agreed to provide a reward.
"Much thanks," Ishtar told them when they slowed to a more reasonable pace for their horses. "Much thanks to you."
"Get us to Arrida," Halt ordered impatiently. Ishtar nodded. She continued to lead the way through the seemingly pathless sand.