Chapter 12....................
As Mustafa and his men, along with Pedro and the villagers filed out of Alejandro's bar they were unaware of Salim watching them. He watched as they split up into two groups and headed out in opposite directions. He'd bide his time and wait until they returned empty handed. He knew where the woman they sought was hidden and knew that the information would be more welcome after a fruitless days search.
Mustafa and his trusted second Riaz, each took a group of warriors. Mustafa rode alongside Juan with Riaz alongside Pedro, who was now atop a horse vacated by one of the warriors left with Ardeth. A couple of vehicles made up each of the parties as they went their separate ways. Mustafa and Juan's group were taking the coastal road towards Corralejo and beyond. Riaz and Pedro were leading their party on the inland route and when that particular section of the Island had been thoroughly searched they would meet back at Cotillo, however long it took.
Samia jumped as the door opened slightly. She'd spent the last few hours baking away in her little roofless hellhole. Her lips were cracked and sore and she was struggling to swallow against the dryness of her throat. But still she was on her guard and instantly alert.
Hamman peered around the door and shoved a small cup inside, "Drink," he whispered to a wary Samia. When Samia made no move for the cup he once again urged. "Drink, please, you need this."
"Why should I take anything from you? How do I know it's not another trick? How do I know it's not saltwater again," she croaked.
"I suppose you dont, but this is the only chance you'll have to drink, Rashid will be back soon and then I can help you no more," he stated, shutting the door again behind him.
Maybe it was the light playing tricks on her eyes, but Samia was sure she saw a flicker of something in his eyes, was it compassion? was it guilt? She couldn't be sure but something inside her told her to drink the water, something told her it was safe. She picked up the cup and slowly downed the contents, burying the cup in the loose sand at the side of her when she'd finished. She was determined to give Rashid no excuses for revenge on the one who'd obviously helped her. But just why had he helped her? That was one thing she was going to find out if he showed his face again. She also desperately needed to know about Ardeth. Was he even alive? The not knowing was pure torture in itself.
Salim stretched out and prepared himself for the wait ahead. He had a good vantage spot of the bar and would know if anyone entered or left. He smiled lazily and mentally tallied just what he could charge for the obviously urgent information. He already had a pocketful of gold from Rashid's men, but was greedy. He was desperate to return to his village a very wealthy man and had no qualms about prolonging the suffering of others to achieve his goal.
"Aaahhhh" It hurt just to open his eyes, the light was blinding. Pain coursed through his head as he lifted it up to take in his surroundings. Then he remembered. Brandy, lots of brandy. He still had the now stale taste at the back of his throat and knew that the alcohol was the cause of this crashing headache. He gingerly touched his wounded leg, testing it to see whether the pain would leap out at him again, but found to his delight that the pain was dulled, and dulled quite sufficiently, enabling him to move easily.
He was on his feet in a heartbeat, and barking orders out to his men just as quickly.
"Why are there so few of you here?" he demanded, only afterwards remembering that the rest of them had taken off in pursuit of Samia.
"My Lord," answered Fazir, "You should be resting, my Commander and the rest of the men are out searching for your...your......"
"Wife?" Ardeth interrupted.
"Yes, they've been gone for a few hours now, I'm sure they're making progress in tracking her down," he responded. "You must not put too much pressure on your leg, my Lord, it was injured badly," said Fazir, hoping that his leader wouldn't be offended at his candour.
"The leg is healing well Fazir, the only pressure I feel is the pressure to find my wife, and quickly," Ardeth growled.
"My Lord, I have been given specific orders not to let you leave this bar," he explained.
"Have you now, I would think that Mustafa would know me better than this by now," he calmly stated. Never once giving away the anger and frustration harbored in his heart.
"As you see Fazir, my leg is recovered enough to enable me to walk without pain, see?" said Ardeth, walking tall around the room, without the slightest trace of a limp.
In truth, the leg hurt like hell when he stood and walked on it, but he was not showing any outward signs of the pain in front of the three men left with him. Even in his current state, he knew his swiftness and experience would enable him to take all three down if it became necessary.
Using his finely tuned peripheral vision, he calmly scanned the room for his weapons, hardly taking his eyes from Fazir, so as not to alert him of his intentions.
"My Lord, please, you should sit, you lost a lot of blood," pleaded Fazir, as he saw the mood in his Chieftains eyes change. He's witnessed the cunning of Ardeth Bay before. But a trapped and obviously determined Ardeth Bay was a whole new prospect, one he didn't relish finding out the end result of.
"Fazir, you would give me orders? Am I not your Chieftain? Am I not the one who should be giving the orders?" Ardeth stated menacingly.
"My Lord, I never meant to imply that I was giving you orders.."
"Then don't," whispered Ardeth as he swiftly pointed a scimitar blade at Fazir's chest.
Fazir felt as though he'd been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, and he knew who most remembled the devil right now.
"My Lord," he said apologetically, knowing full well that his two fellow warriors had lowered their weapons. "We are at your command, as always my Chief."
Salim was jolted from his comfortable position as he saw four men hurrying out of the bar. "Surely not?" he thought, as he caught sight of the man who'd been taken in there only hours before. The same man who'd been carried in there unconscious. He watched attentively as they searched the dusty street for some transport.
"Shit, shit, shit," he muttered. "This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen," he cursed, visions of his future wealth slowly slipping away. "Okay, here we go.." he thought. Time to make the best of the situation.
Ardeth was checking out the car when he heard the sound of Fazir drawing his blade. He turned swiftly to find a man he'd never seen before put his hands up in the air as a sign of goodwill.
"Who are you?" Ardeth demanded of Salim.
"I may just be the one person who can help you," Salim crowed.
Ardeth raised his head slightly, his face still devoid of any emotion. "And what makes you think that?" he asked.
"I know where the woman you seek is," he smirked, waiting for the information to register on Ardeth's face. But Ardeth's face remained impassive.
"And why would you think that we're seeking any woman," asked Ardeth.
"Because I know her and that kid of her's must be worth something, all the attention they've been attracting lately."
Only a miniscule twitch in Ardeth's eye gave away the fact that something was amiss. It was the mention of Hamid along with Samia that had caused the composed mask to slip ever so slightly.
"I see you know who I'm refering to?" smirked Salim.
"And what if I do, what makes you think that I would take anything you say to me to be the truth?" Ardeth replied.
"Because I know who took her, and I know where they took her."
"And, would I be mistaken in thinking that you're going to tell me her location?" quizzed Ardeth.
"Oh yes, I'll tell you, but it's going to cost you, dearly, my price is high," retorted Salim.
"Then I suppose If I'm paying dearly for the information I should at least know how you came about it?" asked Ardeth, still not letting his cool demenor waver.
Fazir was confused, shouldn't his Chieftain be ripping the man limb from limb for the information, not be preparing to enter into a bargain with him. He moved forward as if to talk to his Chieftain, but was silenced by a single look in his direction. A look that he'd seen before and well understood. Salim wasn't the only one with aces up his sleeve, Fazir knew that now and retreated back to his former stance, playing along with Ardeth Bay's game.
Mustafa was getting impatient as he turned to Juan. "We should be seeing something out of the ordinary by now," he complained bitterly. "Three hours we've been up and down these dunes searching, and in all that time not even a sparse blade of grass has looked out of place."
"I'm beginning to get the same feelings as you," agreed Juan. "I know this place pretty well and I can safely say that whoever has Samia, was certainly not headed in this direction. I can only hope that they've had more sucess inland."
"What would you suggest we do now, head back and regroup with Riaz?" asked Mustafa.
"I know we've only covered around half of the dune area, there's much more behind the hills over there, but I will say this. If they have her hidden any further back from here, it's going to be easy for them to see anyone coming within a mile of them, we'll be at a great disadvantage. I think we should head back and meet up with the others and tackle the outer dune area from opposing sides, where we'll have the element of distraction on our side," stated Juan.
Mustafa smiled at the young man. "Juan, you'd make a fine warrior," he complimented, as he motioned for his men to turn around and head back towards the village. "A fine warrior," he chuckled.
Riaz and Pedro were having similar thoughts as they continually scanned the dense scrubland for any clue of Samia. They'd followed some tire tracks from the house, but had been despondent when they'd disappeared into the dense scrub. Their water supplies were running low in the scorching sun and their horses were beginning to get fretful. They also decided that the place at the outer edge of the dunes would be the most likely spot to search for Samia next.
Wearily they turned their horses back around and rode off to regroup with the other search party.
"I wonder if Ardeth has woken up yet?" remarked Pedro.
"It's not the fact that he's woken up that should cause concern," stated Riaz, "It's what I fear he'll do if he is awake and moving. I think my Commander could be in for a dressing down he'll never forget," cringed Riaz.
Pedro smiled a little. "Then we'd best make sure that we have Samia back safe and well before long, she's the one with the knack of calming him down. There are some subduing skills that a woman posesses that a mere man could never hope to surpass."
"And seeing that my Chieftain is indeed a mere man................."
"You're learning," cackled Pedro.
Ardeth played the game of agreeing a price with Salim for the information, all the time watching the man's avaricious look as the amounts of gold grew higher.
"Now, am I to know your source, for there's no payment to be made until I'm sure you're telling the truth. How do you know where she is?" he questioned.
"I've known of her presence on the Island since the very first day she got off the boat with the boy," he crowed once again. "I always did think to myself that she looked as though she was running away from something. One always has to be observant in these needy times, you never do know when the slightest bit of information could become useful."
"Go on," encouraged Ardeth.
"I met a stranger in the inn in Cabras some weeks later. You don't get too many people wandering around these Islands swathed from head to toe in red robes, so I put two and two together and approached him, asking him what his business was on the Island. I told him where to find the girl, but the meddlers in Cotillo decided to send them on a wild goose chase," he explained.
Ardeths memory took him back to the day he'd been in the harbormasters office in Tenerife, when he'd first set eyes on Rashid and his henchmen. Samia had been in danger even before then. The thought chilled him to the bone.
"The next time they came back, they didn't come the usual ferry route, they slipped in the back door in some fishing boat. That Carlos always did think he was a cut above the rest of us, so I suppose he got what he deserved," he continued.
Ardeth once again thought back, hadn't Pedro mentioned a brother of his on the fishing vessels named Carlos. Allah, this whole thing needed to be resolved right now, before any more innocents were dragged into it and hurt.
"So, by this time I knew exactly where the woman and boy were living, all I needed to do was point them in the right direction. I knew there was some man living there with them by that time, but he wouldn't have been much of a match for them. Rashid would have taken him down in no time," Salim gloated.
"So Salim, where are they now?" Ardeth asked with a perceptible raise to his voice, which suceeded in alarming Salim slightly.
"Money first," he demanded.
"You should have paid more attention to the man living with her," sneered Ardeth, as he grabbed Salim and immobilised him.
"What the? No......no, " he pleaded
"This is the end of the line," he whispered close to Salim's ear. "The woman who's life you chose to bargain with so freely is my wife," he explained, his face now full of such hatred it could have eclipsed the sun itself with it's darkness.
In one fluid motion Ardeth had sliced into the neck of Salim, not deep enough to kill him instantly, but just deep enough for him to be rendered motionless and speechless.
"Killing you swiftly is too good for you, this way you get to count your blood money while you die," he snarled, as Salim was tossed over the harbor wall with a sickening thud.
"My Lord, how are we to know where to look for Samia now?" Fazir quizzed.
"I know where she is," replied Ardeth.
"But how?"
"It seems we have a sympathizer on the inside Fazir," Ardeth said as he pulled out a small piece of paper with a drawing on it. "Someone....mistakenly or not...left this behind at the cottage when they took her, I tried to follow the map, but with my leg bleeding as badly as it was and having no ammunition, I needed to arm myself first. That's how I came to be at Pedro's house. Unfortunately I had underestimated the debilitating power of a gunshot wound. I passed out before I could act on it. It was only when I came around and found myself stitched up that I knew I could then track them down. But by that time all my men had already left."
"But why play that game with.......him.......," Fazir spat, looking over the wall.
"You should know by now that NO-ONE......... NO-ONE......... plays with the lives of any Medjai or his family and lives to tell the tale."
As Mustafa and his men, along with Pedro and the villagers filed out of Alejandro's bar they were unaware of Salim watching them. He watched as they split up into two groups and headed out in opposite directions. He'd bide his time and wait until they returned empty handed. He knew where the woman they sought was hidden and knew that the information would be more welcome after a fruitless days search.
Mustafa and his trusted second Riaz, each took a group of warriors. Mustafa rode alongside Juan with Riaz alongside Pedro, who was now atop a horse vacated by one of the warriors left with Ardeth. A couple of vehicles made up each of the parties as they went their separate ways. Mustafa and Juan's group were taking the coastal road towards Corralejo and beyond. Riaz and Pedro were leading their party on the inland route and when that particular section of the Island had been thoroughly searched they would meet back at Cotillo, however long it took.
Samia jumped as the door opened slightly. She'd spent the last few hours baking away in her little roofless hellhole. Her lips were cracked and sore and she was struggling to swallow against the dryness of her throat. But still she was on her guard and instantly alert.
Hamman peered around the door and shoved a small cup inside, "Drink," he whispered to a wary Samia. When Samia made no move for the cup he once again urged. "Drink, please, you need this."
"Why should I take anything from you? How do I know it's not another trick? How do I know it's not saltwater again," she croaked.
"I suppose you dont, but this is the only chance you'll have to drink, Rashid will be back soon and then I can help you no more," he stated, shutting the door again behind him.
Maybe it was the light playing tricks on her eyes, but Samia was sure she saw a flicker of something in his eyes, was it compassion? was it guilt? She couldn't be sure but something inside her told her to drink the water, something told her it was safe. She picked up the cup and slowly downed the contents, burying the cup in the loose sand at the side of her when she'd finished. She was determined to give Rashid no excuses for revenge on the one who'd obviously helped her. But just why had he helped her? That was one thing she was going to find out if he showed his face again. She also desperately needed to know about Ardeth. Was he even alive? The not knowing was pure torture in itself.
Salim stretched out and prepared himself for the wait ahead. He had a good vantage spot of the bar and would know if anyone entered or left. He smiled lazily and mentally tallied just what he could charge for the obviously urgent information. He already had a pocketful of gold from Rashid's men, but was greedy. He was desperate to return to his village a very wealthy man and had no qualms about prolonging the suffering of others to achieve his goal.
"Aaahhhh" It hurt just to open his eyes, the light was blinding. Pain coursed through his head as he lifted it up to take in his surroundings. Then he remembered. Brandy, lots of brandy. He still had the now stale taste at the back of his throat and knew that the alcohol was the cause of this crashing headache. He gingerly touched his wounded leg, testing it to see whether the pain would leap out at him again, but found to his delight that the pain was dulled, and dulled quite sufficiently, enabling him to move easily.
He was on his feet in a heartbeat, and barking orders out to his men just as quickly.
"Why are there so few of you here?" he demanded, only afterwards remembering that the rest of them had taken off in pursuit of Samia.
"My Lord," answered Fazir, "You should be resting, my Commander and the rest of the men are out searching for your...your......"
"Wife?" Ardeth interrupted.
"Yes, they've been gone for a few hours now, I'm sure they're making progress in tracking her down," he responded. "You must not put too much pressure on your leg, my Lord, it was injured badly," said Fazir, hoping that his leader wouldn't be offended at his candour.
"The leg is healing well Fazir, the only pressure I feel is the pressure to find my wife, and quickly," Ardeth growled.
"My Lord, I have been given specific orders not to let you leave this bar," he explained.
"Have you now, I would think that Mustafa would know me better than this by now," he calmly stated. Never once giving away the anger and frustration harbored in his heart.
"As you see Fazir, my leg is recovered enough to enable me to walk without pain, see?" said Ardeth, walking tall around the room, without the slightest trace of a limp.
In truth, the leg hurt like hell when he stood and walked on it, but he was not showing any outward signs of the pain in front of the three men left with him. Even in his current state, he knew his swiftness and experience would enable him to take all three down if it became necessary.
Using his finely tuned peripheral vision, he calmly scanned the room for his weapons, hardly taking his eyes from Fazir, so as not to alert him of his intentions.
"My Lord, please, you should sit, you lost a lot of blood," pleaded Fazir, as he saw the mood in his Chieftains eyes change. He's witnessed the cunning of Ardeth Bay before. But a trapped and obviously determined Ardeth Bay was a whole new prospect, one he didn't relish finding out the end result of.
"Fazir, you would give me orders? Am I not your Chieftain? Am I not the one who should be giving the orders?" Ardeth stated menacingly.
"My Lord, I never meant to imply that I was giving you orders.."
"Then don't," whispered Ardeth as he swiftly pointed a scimitar blade at Fazir's chest.
Fazir felt as though he'd been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, and he knew who most remembled the devil right now.
"My Lord," he said apologetically, knowing full well that his two fellow warriors had lowered their weapons. "We are at your command, as always my Chief."
Salim was jolted from his comfortable position as he saw four men hurrying out of the bar. "Surely not?" he thought, as he caught sight of the man who'd been taken in there only hours before. The same man who'd been carried in there unconscious. He watched attentively as they searched the dusty street for some transport.
"Shit, shit, shit," he muttered. "This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen," he cursed, visions of his future wealth slowly slipping away. "Okay, here we go.." he thought. Time to make the best of the situation.
Ardeth was checking out the car when he heard the sound of Fazir drawing his blade. He turned swiftly to find a man he'd never seen before put his hands up in the air as a sign of goodwill.
"Who are you?" Ardeth demanded of Salim.
"I may just be the one person who can help you," Salim crowed.
Ardeth raised his head slightly, his face still devoid of any emotion. "And what makes you think that?" he asked.
"I know where the woman you seek is," he smirked, waiting for the information to register on Ardeth's face. But Ardeth's face remained impassive.
"And why would you think that we're seeking any woman," asked Ardeth.
"Because I know her and that kid of her's must be worth something, all the attention they've been attracting lately."
Only a miniscule twitch in Ardeth's eye gave away the fact that something was amiss. It was the mention of Hamid along with Samia that had caused the composed mask to slip ever so slightly.
"I see you know who I'm refering to?" smirked Salim.
"And what if I do, what makes you think that I would take anything you say to me to be the truth?" Ardeth replied.
"Because I know who took her, and I know where they took her."
"And, would I be mistaken in thinking that you're going to tell me her location?" quizzed Ardeth.
"Oh yes, I'll tell you, but it's going to cost you, dearly, my price is high," retorted Salim.
"Then I suppose If I'm paying dearly for the information I should at least know how you came about it?" asked Ardeth, still not letting his cool demenor waver.
Fazir was confused, shouldn't his Chieftain be ripping the man limb from limb for the information, not be preparing to enter into a bargain with him. He moved forward as if to talk to his Chieftain, but was silenced by a single look in his direction. A look that he'd seen before and well understood. Salim wasn't the only one with aces up his sleeve, Fazir knew that now and retreated back to his former stance, playing along with Ardeth Bay's game.
Mustafa was getting impatient as he turned to Juan. "We should be seeing something out of the ordinary by now," he complained bitterly. "Three hours we've been up and down these dunes searching, and in all that time not even a sparse blade of grass has looked out of place."
"I'm beginning to get the same feelings as you," agreed Juan. "I know this place pretty well and I can safely say that whoever has Samia, was certainly not headed in this direction. I can only hope that they've had more sucess inland."
"What would you suggest we do now, head back and regroup with Riaz?" asked Mustafa.
"I know we've only covered around half of the dune area, there's much more behind the hills over there, but I will say this. If they have her hidden any further back from here, it's going to be easy for them to see anyone coming within a mile of them, we'll be at a great disadvantage. I think we should head back and meet up with the others and tackle the outer dune area from opposing sides, where we'll have the element of distraction on our side," stated Juan.
Mustafa smiled at the young man. "Juan, you'd make a fine warrior," he complimented, as he motioned for his men to turn around and head back towards the village. "A fine warrior," he chuckled.
Riaz and Pedro were having similar thoughts as they continually scanned the dense scrubland for any clue of Samia. They'd followed some tire tracks from the house, but had been despondent when they'd disappeared into the dense scrub. Their water supplies were running low in the scorching sun and their horses were beginning to get fretful. They also decided that the place at the outer edge of the dunes would be the most likely spot to search for Samia next.
Wearily they turned their horses back around and rode off to regroup with the other search party.
"I wonder if Ardeth has woken up yet?" remarked Pedro.
"It's not the fact that he's woken up that should cause concern," stated Riaz, "It's what I fear he'll do if he is awake and moving. I think my Commander could be in for a dressing down he'll never forget," cringed Riaz.
Pedro smiled a little. "Then we'd best make sure that we have Samia back safe and well before long, she's the one with the knack of calming him down. There are some subduing skills that a woman posesses that a mere man could never hope to surpass."
"And seeing that my Chieftain is indeed a mere man................."
"You're learning," cackled Pedro.
Ardeth played the game of agreeing a price with Salim for the information, all the time watching the man's avaricious look as the amounts of gold grew higher.
"Now, am I to know your source, for there's no payment to be made until I'm sure you're telling the truth. How do you know where she is?" he questioned.
"I've known of her presence on the Island since the very first day she got off the boat with the boy," he crowed once again. "I always did think to myself that she looked as though she was running away from something. One always has to be observant in these needy times, you never do know when the slightest bit of information could become useful."
"Go on," encouraged Ardeth.
"I met a stranger in the inn in Cabras some weeks later. You don't get too many people wandering around these Islands swathed from head to toe in red robes, so I put two and two together and approached him, asking him what his business was on the Island. I told him where to find the girl, but the meddlers in Cotillo decided to send them on a wild goose chase," he explained.
Ardeths memory took him back to the day he'd been in the harbormasters office in Tenerife, when he'd first set eyes on Rashid and his henchmen. Samia had been in danger even before then. The thought chilled him to the bone.
"The next time they came back, they didn't come the usual ferry route, they slipped in the back door in some fishing boat. That Carlos always did think he was a cut above the rest of us, so I suppose he got what he deserved," he continued.
Ardeth once again thought back, hadn't Pedro mentioned a brother of his on the fishing vessels named Carlos. Allah, this whole thing needed to be resolved right now, before any more innocents were dragged into it and hurt.
"So, by this time I knew exactly where the woman and boy were living, all I needed to do was point them in the right direction. I knew there was some man living there with them by that time, but he wouldn't have been much of a match for them. Rashid would have taken him down in no time," Salim gloated.
"So Salim, where are they now?" Ardeth asked with a perceptible raise to his voice, which suceeded in alarming Salim slightly.
"Money first," he demanded.
"You should have paid more attention to the man living with her," sneered Ardeth, as he grabbed Salim and immobilised him.
"What the? No......no, " he pleaded
"This is the end of the line," he whispered close to Salim's ear. "The woman who's life you chose to bargain with so freely is my wife," he explained, his face now full of such hatred it could have eclipsed the sun itself with it's darkness.
In one fluid motion Ardeth had sliced into the neck of Salim, not deep enough to kill him instantly, but just deep enough for him to be rendered motionless and speechless.
"Killing you swiftly is too good for you, this way you get to count your blood money while you die," he snarled, as Salim was tossed over the harbor wall with a sickening thud.
"My Lord, how are we to know where to look for Samia now?" Fazir quizzed.
"I know where she is," replied Ardeth.
"But how?"
"It seems we have a sympathizer on the inside Fazir," Ardeth said as he pulled out a small piece of paper with a drawing on it. "Someone....mistakenly or not...left this behind at the cottage when they took her, I tried to follow the map, but with my leg bleeding as badly as it was and having no ammunition, I needed to arm myself first. That's how I came to be at Pedro's house. Unfortunately I had underestimated the debilitating power of a gunshot wound. I passed out before I could act on it. It was only when I came around and found myself stitched up that I knew I could then track them down. But by that time all my men had already left."
"But why play that game with.......him.......," Fazir spat, looking over the wall.
"You should know by now that NO-ONE......... NO-ONE......... plays with the lives of any Medjai or his family and lives to tell the tale."