Leídan Aznawar of Khand

The morning came swift enough, but inside the palace, nothing indicated about it. Leídan hid still in the same chamber he had fled to hours ago and nothing in the hallways ran or screamed around that a prisoner had disappeared. He could not stay in the room he was, and so he left it to find a way out of here. Perhaps he could have done that in the night, but that irreversible now. Through the windows, the sun peaked in the east over the first roofs of the houses, and bathed most chambers in an eerie light, that grew slowly brighter and more intense. On his route through the next chain of chambers, he met nobody. Suddenly he came out into some sort of armoury, where hundreds of swords, shields, helmets, spears and other kinds of weapons were stocked. He mouth fell open by the amounts he saw, realising it was enough to stuff an army of two to three hundred persons. There was no-one inside and the air was musty. He closed the door behind him and inspected some weapons for a moment. Soon as he saw the blade of the first sword, he saw it was dead and that the metal was slight corroded. He felt it as he ran his finger over the surface of the blade. Leídan drew the conclusion that nobody had touched this in more than a decade or longer. And the person who had ordered it here to place, was most likely dead.

He left the chamber and wandered through the hallways. He hid in alleys when he saw servants, but otherwise he walked on until he reached the personal quarters of the lord of this city. Leídan sneaked without problems into the chambers and closed the door behind him. There was no lock on them. The first was an anteroom, with next a receiving room, there were a study room, a clothing room, a bathing room and a bedroom. And through each chamber he came through, there was no soul to be found. Nothing indicated it was inhabited at all and in the clothing room hang some clothes, but most shelves were empty. Where the host was, he didn’t know. What Leídan surely knew now, was that there no lord over Oud Ilaz existed. If he had been there, he was dead. From the bedroom he took the sword with him, so he was armed. He inspected also the hostess’ chambers, the ones for a lady. But the state was there the same as in the lord’s chambers. A mystery ruled this city then, and raided the surrounding areas.

Despite the shagur around his head, he could hear well. Footsteps either voices were not muffled by the fabric. Leídan left the lady’s chambers and headed quiet toward the main hall, that was not hard to find from here. He reached them without problems. The sword he had tried around his waist and hidden under his sehada. In a side room there, an anteroom, he discovered a bunch of funny people, with among them his sister Neida. He was as surprised as they were, but there was no time for questions or explanations. He wanted to be gone as quickly as possible. However soon as Neida saw him coming into the room, she had to explain something to him, before her brother would complete blow the cover he knew nothing about yet. She wanted to say something, but Leídan moved past them to a corner with curtains, where he could disappear behind. She frowned when the curtain at the backside of the room revealed another door, which could be opened and led toward a stairs, which winded downwards.

Leídan was not much surprised to find this trapdoor, which it was. Anyone could disappear this way and nobody would suspect something, or ask questions. The door did not exist. He turned around and growled with a low voice, which was barely to be heard: “Come immediately, whoever you are waiting for, he won’t come.” Then he vanished through the door taking the abduction route. It led always to multiple directions, including a door to outside. He heard the footsteps of the little group and low voices discussing and muttering what he wanted. Angry Leídan cut in over his shoulder: “Be quiet, don’t talk and walk silently.” He was brisk as an army commander, but it was the only way now to get them safely without being noticed. He tried the first door they came by, which was open and the small chamber behind deserted. From there was another door that led to outside on a deserted inner yard and the yard had an entrance that could be opened from the inside. There were no guards posted. There he took a few moments to study the strange entourage of maidens, a general, a young boy and the servants. Neida were an outfit that changed her somehow into a noblewoman. “Where are our Azumehda, and who are all these people with you? What has gotten into you?” he said angry and frustrated to her. Neida shook her head and took him by an arm. “I had to come up with something. I am a princess, this is my aunt, and that are the general and his son. You are his other son, and we were seeking you. The rest are servants. It is how we got in and how we like to leave,” Neida whispered to him. “Where is your carriage then? We will be going now,” said Leídan looking for a way to get to the yard where it hopefully was. “We have no carriage, we came on foot. The Azumehda are safe,” Neida replied surely of herself. Unbelieving her brother raised his eyebrows, making clear she was wrong, and that she had made some calculating mistakes. He took charge again, and looked at the general. “Can we get out of here and make it to our Azumehda? Have you any weapons?” Nawúe shook his head. “None of us have, except for a few knives.” Leídan rolled unbelievingly with his eyes and then stormed away toward the gate, it would have been much easier and safer if he had been alone. He vanished through the gate, leaving the rest temporarily alone.

Neida and her group were quite confused. Nawúe set out also to follow Leídan. An half hour later both men returned with the two Azumehda, a couple of horses and a carriage. The women and the boy had to take place into the carriage, the servants had to take the horses and one would see to carriage. Leídan sat on his own Azumeh again and wore all his weapons now. Nawúe was also armed, and sat on horseback. So they set out toward the east gate where probably they would not be found so quickly, if people came into pursuit. The noblewoman idea was good, but his sister had not thought it through and through. Fighting was about tactics, and women were not so well with fighting. That could better be done by men. The entourage mingled among the people of Oud Ilaz, catching no more glances than anyone around. Before they knew they reached the east-gate and Leídan led them on if it was most normal behaviour to come and go. He drew out a deep breath when they were out of sight of the city and back into wild land.