BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan

by J. Eric Booker

  After taking a deep breath through his nose, he continued, “As your Sultaness and I are like the brain in the human body, you all are our eyes, ears, noses, arms, legs, hands, and feet! It is only as one single unit that we can give duty, honor, and glory to the Sharia Empire! Be the Sharia Empire! For the Sharia Empire!”

  With the conclusion of his toast, Baltor consumed the entire goblet of wine, and once done, he raised the goblet back into the air.

  Everyone else repeated in unison, “For the Sharia Empire!” They also slammed the entire glass down, even if they weren’t normally hearty drinkers.

  Baltor allowed the servant to dutifully fill his goblet with more wine. He then proclaimed, “Your Sultaness earlier commanded to me that she has her own toast to make, which command I must obey…Honey?” Without waiting for a response, Baltor laughed as he sat back down upon his throne.

  Most of the people either lightly chuckled at the “endearing title” or the “jest” he had just made. Meanwhile, almost all of the adults began to refill their own glasses with the pitchers of alcohol—ale or wine—that had been sitting in the middle of the tables. Parents filled their children’s glasses with juice, milk, or water.

  Once Brishava saw that everyone had a full glass, about a minute later, she rose from her throne, and while raising her own goblet high into the air, she declared, “My toast goes out to my husband, Sultan Baltor Elysian the Fifteenth…

  “After all, not only has this man saved us all from an all-out war, which war would have minimally cost the lives of tens of thousands, and possibly everyone present here tonight, yet he has inspired each one of us to make the most out of ourselves with every precious moment! These are the valuable qualities I admire most about this man who is my friend, husband, teacher, and leader. Baltor is not just your Sultan—he is equally mine!”

  With that, she raised her goblet high into the air, and said with jubilation, “For the Sharia Empire!”

  The people responded back the same phrase just as jubilantly!

  With that, Brishava actually chugged the remainder of the red wine down, which was ninety-nine percent of it—she had only taken a sip during Baltor’s toast. She quickly sat back down as she felt the head-rush hit.

  After clapping his hands twice, Baltor declared, “Bring on the grub—let’s listen to some pleasant dinner music while we eat. Later, we’ll watch some dancers and other entertainers—ultimately, let’s have some serious fun tonight! All right everyone?”

  “Hooray!” almost everyone cried out jubilantly, using that word or another similar one.

  From amongst the din, a powerfully masculine voice was barely heard a moment later, “May I please be allowed to give a quick toast also, please?”

  A moment later, the din immediately died down, and then everyone began obligingly filling his or her mugs once again.

  The man that had spoken, as it turned out, was Thorn. He toasted, “I would like to say thank you for allowing me the chance to now serve the Sharia Empire! With you, Sultan Baltor Elysian, leading the reunited Empires to victory, we cannot fail! I have never in my entire life seen one as powerful, noble, and just.…that is, except for the Sultaness. Therefore, this toast goes to the both of you! For the Sharia Empire! Here—here!”

  The majority of the crowds replied, “Here—here!”

  With that, Thorn chugged the entire contents of his mug down … as did everyone else, except for Brishava who again took a small sip, as she was still dealing with a bit of the head rush.

  Right after the toast’s conclusion, Baltor clapped his hands twice.

  Immediately servants began to roll out dinner carts, and formal dinner music began to play.

  A few seconds later, Baltor looked over at Brishava, and asked, “Ready to head to the table?”

  “Yes, Hun…if you’ll guide me there. I’m still feeling a little tipsy.”

  “No problem,” he said with a loving smile.

  With that, he stood to his feet, walked over to Brishava, and extended his hand out—she took it, and rose to her feet. Together, they proceeded to their table, only twenty feet away from their thrones.

  Once they had taken their seats, the servants were already there, filling their leaders’ plates with whatever and however much food they wanted—breads, meats, fruits, vegetables, cakes and other delicacies … and if needed, more water, juice, wines, and ales.

  Once the last person at the head table had been served, one dish of everything was set onto the table’s far side—everything at this table had of course been tested for poison, as always.

  Right away, Baltor used his seasoning shaker, spreading a bunch of the dried-red seasoning all over his food.

  Meanwhile, these servants immediately began to assist the other servants who were distributing out the food to the rest of the population, beginning with the nobles, and then the officers from highest to lowest, and finally to the remaining guests.

  Everything went “wonderfully perfect” for a little over half the night—that is, until about one o’clock in the morning!

  Only minutes before the incident that ruined just about everything occurred, a “celebrity musician” played from a strange looking horn that had all these various buttons and gadgets on it—the horn produced swanky, exotic yet beautiful dance tunes, some songs fast and others slow.

  All the while, contortionist acrobats danced amongst the guests, either on both their feet, sometimes on their hands, rolling around in unison, or even climbing and clinging onto each other, while forming all sorts of various shapes and patterns.

  Meanwhile, the guests, who were mostly drunk, had either been watching the entertainment, socializing and/or drinking with one another—all of course were in “celebration mode!”

  As for Baltor, for the most part, he had mostly sat upon his throne, as Brishava sat on hers. To their sides sat Humonus in a very plush chair to his right side, and Chelsea on the far side. Everyone, of course, continued to watch the amusing, artistic, and breathtaking entertainment!

  All, but one individual, was drunk, Baltor—getting drunk or even buzzed was impossible for him, no matter how much alcohol he drank. Not even drinking the alcoholized juices from the cah-su-cahn berries, which berries he had discovered in his friend Prince Cheo’s jungle kingdom of Chao-chu-sha-maen several years before, made him feel even a slight buzz.

  It was ironic he was thinking about all of these facts when he did, because just as his eyes had turned away from the dancers, he happened to spot something out of the ordinary. Entering the opened main entryway to the coliseum, there were two guards who were dragging a black man that was wearing a bloodied-up/dirty fur loincloth, as well a very scruffy beard and hairstyle.

  Baltor’s eyes zoomed in like binoculars, and a second later, he instantly recognized this barely conscious man—Prince Cheo!

  In a single moment’s time, Baltor became incredibly upset and angry upon seeing that this prince’s hands and feet were all shackled together—this was certainly no way to treat royalty in Baltor’s empire!

  He became ever more upset—if that was even possible—to see that Cheo looked extremely unhealthy, besides the fact he had lost all of his powerful muscles and looked skinny as a rail! Not only were his eyes three quarters of the way shut, while his feet drug on the ground as the guards carried him by the armpits, yet his face and body had scars of all shapes and sizes just about everywhere.

  In the next moment of time, Baltor immediately rose to his feet, while yelling at the top of his lungs, “I command that you two guards unshackle that prince immediately, before you ever-so-gently lay him down on the floor!”

  The musician immediately stopped playing his music with a sour note, the acrobats stopped moving, and absolute silence filled the coliseum for two reasons—one, the Sultan was unquestionably furious, and many of them got scared because his yelling voice had been amplified so loudly!

  Reason number two—a good majority of these people had ever before seen a black man.
That is, except for Baltor, Brishava, Humonus, and Chelsea—they knew exactly who this prince was.

  All four people rushed out of their seats and over to Cheo, who was now lying on his back upon the ground and unmoving—meanwhile, both guards were unshackling him as fast as they could.

  Baltor was the first to reach his friend, only three seconds later, as he knelt down onto his knees next to Cheo’s body, while gently cupping his friend’s head underneath his hand. Without looking away, he called out, “Get me a pillow—now!”

  At that very moment, Brishava, Humonus, and Chelsea were also kneeling around Cheo, and examining the horrible wounds.

  Besides the multitude of scars everywhere, they saw that Cheo had a particularly deep and jagged scar on his right cheek—he also looked really malnourished and exhausted!

  Fortunately for the guards, none saw any fresh wounds on the man, which meant that their guards hadn’t tortured him.

  Strangely enough, Cheo continued to stare uncomprehending without a single word spoken, even though his friends now surrounded him on all four sides.

  “Prince Cheo,” Baltor could only say, while trying to fight the bloody tears that now wanted to pour from his eyes, as he looked upon his friend who had obviously been through—HELL!

  After regaining a control over his distraught emotions, Baltor managed to say in Cheo’s language, “Cheo…my brother! Are you all right?”

  In that next moment, a nobleman—who had originally been sitting on a soft and plush pillow at a chair nearby—laid the pillow underneath Cheo’s head. After a bow, that nobleman headed back to his table, but did not go back to sitting.

  Meanwhile, one of the two guards who had drug Cheo inside, reported very nervously, “My… my Sultan! I…we didn’t—we didn’t know who he was, nor did we ever see a man with black skin before! I—we swear that this is the way he looked when he arrived at the city gates on horseback not even a half an hour ago!”

  Without pause, the other guard continued, “We—we didn’t know what to do with him, which is why we decided to bring him here to you! We were honestly afraid that he could turn hostile on us at any moment—we thought he looked dangerous!”

  Baltor asked the two incredulously, “You thought he was dangerous? What on earth is the matter with you two? This man is Prince Cheo of the Chao-chu-sha-maen Kingdom, and from here on out, you are all to treat him as royalty! You—go get him some water… You—go get him a blanket.”

  Even though the guard who had been ordered to get a blanket immediately began to do so with great haste, the guard who had been ordered to get the water answered, “Yes—yes, my Sultan! Can we please say that we are truly sorry?”

  “Let’s talk about apologies after you’ve gotten the damned water, okay?” Baltor snarled.

  “On the way, my Sultan,” the guard exclaimed just before he took off at top speed while nervously gulping all the while.

  Baltor’s attention immediately focused itself on Cheo, who had just squinted open his eyes. Baltor intentionally asked this question in both languages, “My friend…can you hear me?”

  Cheo didn’t respond verbally, but with his head still resting on the pillow and his eyes closing for the very first time, he slowly cocked his head from side to side one time. Only the four knew that this was Cheo’s way of saying, “yes.”

  Still they all wondered why Cheo hadn’t verbally responded, as he knew all too well how to fluently speak his native language, as well Pavelian!

  A moment later, Baltor asked, “Good! Are you okay?”

  Cheo’s head circled around one time, which indicated the negative response—just then, the second guard had returned with a pitcher of water. He said, “My Sultan, here is the water you requested—so, are we please forgiven?”

  After taking the pitcher of water, Baltor replied with a bit of irritation to his voice, “Not yet. You and your fellow soldier stand by, whenever he gets back with that blanket!”

  “I’ll look for one too, sir, just in case he can’t find one, my Sultan,” he said, before fervently looking around for a blanket.

  Meanwhile, Humonus had already taken off his own five-star formal trench coat, and gently laid it over Cheo’s body to keep him warm.

  Baltor then began the process of dunking his index and middle finger into the icy water. Once wet, he then began gently patting those wet fingers upon Cheo’s blistered lips, in order for them to get moist enough so that he could open his mouth…

  Nearly a minute later, once Cheo had slightly opened his mouth, Baltor first poured but a few of drops into his mouth, and a few moments later, a few more drops. Finally, he poured a very short burst of water into Cheo’s mouth.

  Just then, both guards made it back, each bearing a thick blanket in hand.

  Humonus took back his jacket, and, while putting it on, ordered, “Roll that blanket into a bundle and set it underneath his feet—you, lay the other blanket right on top of him.”

  “Yes, Ruling-General Humonus,” both guards snapped as they began to execute their orders.

  While laying the blanket over Cheo, the guard that had initially asked for forgiveness asked again, “My Sultan—I hate to interrupt…but I—we’ve got to know whether we’re going to live or die! And most especially, your Majesty, will you please forgive us?”

  Baltor sighed, “So long as you two are never prejudicial toward anyone for the rest of your lives, then yes, you are both forgiven, as you will have learned the way we all should really live! Deal?”

  While Baltor looked back down so that he could pour another small burst of water into Cheo’s mouth, he heard both of the guards reply, “Deal, my Sultan!”

  “Then you both may live,” Baltor said without looking up. “Dismissed, and keep living, soldiers!”

  The two guards bowed one more time and hastily departed, while breathing extremely deep sighs of relief.

  Meanwhile, Cheo pushed the pitcher away from his mouth, indicating that he didn’t want any more to drink. Baltor took that cue, handing the pitcher to Humonus who held onto it just in case.

  Baltor asked in Cheo’s language, “Can you now talk, my friend?”

  Cheo circled his head around in a circle one time, which indicated the answer, “no”.

  “Why not?”

  Cheo fully opened his mouth—what was missing was his tongue … it had been cut out!

  “Oh my God,” Baltor breathed.

  “What happened, my friend?” Brishava immediately asked with a whole lot of concern etched on her face and in her voice.

  Cheo weakly, yet intelligibly, signed back with his hands, “Not even two months after you guys left—they came and killed my people with an army of astronomical proportions. Perhaps millions…?”

  Baltor asked, “Who?”

  Cheo signed, “I do not know who they are—I have never seen people like them before. Though they are humanoid, they definitely are not humans. More like monsters from a horrible nightmare, but in real life!”

  Humonus, who had just returned after setting the pitcher onto a nearby table (though he was watching and listening the whole time), verbally asked, “Can you tell us anything about them, like maybe what they looked like?”

  Cheo fervently signed, “Yes—they all had even darker skin than me—a pure black color! What really made them stand out, besides the fact that they stood at six feet tall on average, were their pointy ears and teeth, silver-colored hair, angular eyebrows, and even more so, their weapons that magically glowed a reddish color! Oh, and they possess powerful magics that could make ten-foot circles of black clouds, which clouds could even temporarily snuff out the light from torches or bonfires…

  “When they attacked our village in the middle of the night, in the middle of us celebrating Cash’s birthday party, we didn’t hear them coming as they could fly through the air, so we weren’t prepared, nor could we defend—this is how they were able to destroy us all in one single night.

  “Even though they killed everyone, too in
clude my parents, they strangely kept me alive! For about a week, this beautiful woman—other than her really pointy teeth—tortured me mercilessly with either daggers, or scorpion whips that continuously pumped venom into my system, which made me feel as if a horde of scorpions were stinging me simultaneously! Just as torturous were these bolts of lightning that literally shot from her fingertips and penetrated my body…

  “The woman seemed to enjoy torturing me very much as she laughed a lot, and as often as possible—not once did she ask me a single question, not that I could have understood what any of them said anyway! So many times did I think I was going to die, but that woman would chant a few words that I couldn’t understand, and moments later, my wounds began to heal, though never completely—not even for a single second did she ever relieve the pain!

  “Just before they let me go, the woman first cut my tongue out, and then handed me the reins to a horse! Just before a very colorful sunset one evening that I could not bear to look at for obvious religious reasons, I began riding my way west toward Pavelus…”

  For the Chao-chu-sha-maen tribe, colorful sunsets were religiously symbolic of their god, “Shaka-Tula-Suah-Lakasa-Casusea,” who shines down his heavenly lights and blessings—in fact, the very name of this tribe literally means, “Nation of the heavenly lights!”

  Baltor, Humonus, Chelsea, and Brishava had come to learn all this very well from the years spent with the friendly villagers, and most especially, from this prince who was their friend! Even stranger to them all was the fact that both Humonus and Baltor had taught the villagers of Chao-chu-sha-maen the martial arts style, yet it hadn’t saved them one iota!

  Perhaps five seconds after Cheo had stopped signing, he continued, “Only moments before darkness had consumed the western horizon, I heard some strange repetitious whooshing noises filling the sky to my east, sounding like a giant bird. When I looked up and over, I saw the silhouette of something extremely large and black hovering in the lit part of the dusky sky far away to the east, though only for a moment, as darkness took over the lands in the very next moment! Despite the darkness of night, as there were no moons in the sky, for several minutes longer did I hear those whooshing sounds, though they slowly began to dissipate, and finally disappeared altogether!”