The Sultanah Ch. 04

"Halt, who goes there?" A voice suddenly called out with a thick accent. The prostitutes instantly stopped. I looked up finally, and stopped moving. We had moved up and out of the marshy land by the water and were now standing a few dozen yards from the first farm. The barn was directly in front of us, but it was surrounded by a low wooden fence. The voice had come from that fence. I peered around the whores as best I could and could see three sentries sitting on the top fence post, looking at them. I dropped down lower, praying I had not been seen. I looked over at Soyguncu and she had also dropped onto her belly, facing towards the soldiers and watching. I continued to follow her lead.

"We are angels of mercy," one of the prostitutes said, "here to cure your wounds and heal your souls."

"Ain't that funny," one of the soldiers responded, "I didn't know you could reach the soul through the cock!" he said and the other sentries laughed.

"I imagine there is a lot you don't know about your cock, pretty young man like yourself. Why don't we go over to the woods and I will teach you a thing or two," the lead prostitute said. One of the sentries whistled and the others laughed.

"Well..."the sentry began again, and it sounded for the world like he was going to accept the offer, when another voice pierced the night.

"Nöbetçi, what in Tanri's balls is going on?" the voice called out. Instantly the sentries on the fence posts jumped up and stood with more dignity. I looked over in the direction of the voice. A tall, commanding man in a somewhat elaborate uniform had arrived. Flanking him were six soldiers.

"Sarge..." the one sentry stammered. I felt panic welling inside of me, there were too many things about the situation that were out of my control. I looked at Soyguncu. She raised her hand slightly and then lowered it in a calming manner. Settle down, she indicated. I took a deep breath and nodded

"We are just a couple of working girls, looking to make a few coins in the midst of a terrible war," one of the prostitutes responded. The sergeant looked over at the prostitutes now. For a long moment he just stared at them with a gaze that could freeze water. I wondered if any of my soldiers could fell this man. However, just when it seemed the sergeant would snap and sick his soldiers on my prostitutes, a broad smile spread across his face.

"Well Nöbetçi, I presume you and the boys have not fallen on these whores yet because you were waiting for me," he responded. I let out a low breath. Maybe this was still going to work.

"I was going to report to you Sarge," Nöbetçi responded. The sergeant laughed and shook his head.

"You're a piece of shit Nöbetçi, but I tell you what. I am going to give you a reward," he explained and started walking towards the prostitutes. He was looking over them carefully. Finally he found one in particular and grabbed her arm. He was gentle with her and pulled her out of line.

"I am going to go into the woods and fuck this prostitute. In exchange for you finding her, I am not going to court-martial you. Instead you will get to wait here while the rest of us get a much needed morale boost and watch the area. Since you let these hookers sneak up on you, I expect you to be extra focused," The sergeant explained. As he spoke Nöbetçi's eyes seemed to droop. He did not say anything and it was clear his conflict with his superior had been going on for some time. He knew he was beat.

"Yes, Sarge," he said dejectedly. The sergeant slapped him on the back and then turned to the other men.

"Men, pick a whore you can afford and meet back here when you're done," he said magnanimously, "Now madam, after you." He said and started to lead the prostitute he had selected back into the forest. In a short period of time all of the other sentries, except Nöbetçi had selected their prostitutes and had headed off away from the open field around the farm. Only Nöbetçi and the two ugliest prostitutes remained.

"What do you say handsome? You ready to go?" one of the prostitutes asked.

"Do you have a cock in your ear whore? I am not permitted to leave this spot. I am the only sentry remaining for the whole damned area. Besides, I wouldn't fuck you with a pig's cock," Nöbetçi complained. I looked over at Soyguncu and saw she was already looking at me. I looked toward the remaining sentry and gestured. Soyguncu shrugged her shoulders and the drug her thumb across her throat like she was slitting it and raised her eyebrows. I looked back at the young sentry. I didn't care if we killed him. He would kill everyone I loved and destroy everything I knew. But I didn't want him to make a noise. I looked at Soyguncu and lifted my finger. One minute, we would give the prostitutes some time.

"A pig's cock? Are they curly like the tails?" the other prostitute said and Nöbetçi smiled despite himself, "listen sweetie. All our friends are already gone. If we don't get some they are going to give us a real hard time. Like that cock sucking sergeant gave you," the prostitute said. The sentry's eyes rose and he smiled. It seemed this whore knew exactly what the sentry wanted to hear.

"Well one of you is out of luck no matter what, besides it ain't worth the risk," he said, but it sounded like he just wanted to be convinced. The bolder, smarter prostitute started to walk toward him. The other prostitute followed.

"Tell you what sweetheart, I know we ain't as pretty as those other girls. But I think we can make it worth the risk. Two, for the price of one. That solves our problem baby. And with two pairs of lips, two pairs of tits, and two wet cunnies, I bet we can get you satisfied and back out here before your sergeant finishes fishing his little cock out of his chain mail," the prostitute said. I felt my heart hammering in my chest, I was already looking over at Soyguncu. If he balked, she would have to kill him. She was pulling her small knife out of her pocket already.

"Well..." the sentry said, he was smiling and running his eyes over the two prostitutes.

"Tick-tock boy, times running short. Do you know any other boys who've fucked two at once?" she asked.

"Okay, let's go. Quick," Nöbetçi said. The prostitutes giggled and followed at him as they ran towards the woods. Once they were out of sight, Soyguncu quickly jumped to her feel and slung the barrel off of her back.

"Let's go quickly, there isn't much time," she said breathless. I stood quickly, removed my own barrel and followed after her. We quickly made it over the fence and into the farm. I looked around quickly and smiled as I finally saw that Soyguncu was correct, we were exactly where we needed to be.

I thought back briefly to the hours and days after Soyguncu and I had completed our previous caper at Tanri's Cathedral. That was when this plan had come into focus. I had watched after we had transformed the symbol of Tanri into the symbol of Gunes how the will of the Tanril followers had been sapped. Their beliefs were absolutely hollow and so, the destruction of their symbols had robbed them of any content. I had never needed to act directly against them and, in fact, did not have the power to do so. They outnumbered me. Instead, I had simply inflicted a small wound on their greatest strengths, their symbols, and exposed their larger weakness. And in exposing that weakness, I had defeated them. That insight had percolated in my mind. It had developed into something of a readily applicable maxim and then turned into a full-fledged plan. You don't need to comprehensively defeat any enemy when you are on the defensive; you just need to sap their willingness to fight. That was why I was standing at a make-shift supply depot in my enemy's rear with twenty gallons of pitch.

"You see, the grass here is dead from the heat, we won't need much pitch to get it started. I will take the barns, you take the field," Soyguncu said. My enemies had a massive army, that was their greatest strength. We could not move directly against them. But an army marches on its stomach. A massive army has a massive stomach. King Sican knew that his army could only maintain its siege if the soldiers were healthy and well fed. As a result, he had spent the weeks of his siege plundering the countryside. He had collect up all of the grains and all of the livestock from miles around Şehir. He had taken over the barns and the pens in this area to house them. In fact he had built more fences to hold cattle and more buildings to store corn. But still, he always needed more. Each day he was bringing in shipments of corn and sheep from his own country, his rents for the year in advance to feed his army. And it was all right here. A small wound with a little burned corn and dead cattle would expose the weakness of a massive army.

Soyguncu was already running towards the first barn. I had selected her to aid me in this task because she seemed brave, loyal, and stealthy. Besides, the reward I had offered her for the task would be more than enough to thank her for all her services for the crown. Saygili had found her easily, picking pockets in the market. She had accepted before the whole scope of the mission had even been explained. Now she ran inside a barn and I knew she was opening up her cask of pitch and pouring it out over the floor. Then she would move on to the next building and the next, leaving a trail of pitch behind her.

I did not wait to watch her efforts. I bounded off towards the fields. There were dozens of pens in the farmland on the edge of King Sican's camp that contained thousands of animals. But Soyguncu was right; the grass was high and dry in most of the pens. It would burn easily. I walked to one of the pens and looked at the cows inside.

"You are beasts of Bütün Dünya," I responded, "Better wasted than in the bellies of your enemies. Gunes praises your for your sacrifice. It will not be forgotten," I said. I popped over my barrel and then opened a smaller hole on the other side. The black bitch began to pour out of the bottom of my barrel. I took off at a run. I ran along the outside of the pens (they were arranged in a massive rectangle, with small pathways between the various small pens). I zigzagged around the various pens, surrounding some entirely with a thin line of pitch. After a few minutes, I felt my barrel become lighter. Shortly, it was completely empty and I dropped it in the grass. I had only spread pitch around a small fraction of the total area around the pens. I had to hope and pray that the wet grass and dry fencepost would be enough.

I made a beeline back to the place where we had encountered the sentries. Soyguncu was already there, looking nervous. She was holding a lantern in her hand, she had stolen it from one of the barns. It was lit. When she saw me she sighed with relief.

"Have you spread it?" she asked. She handed me the lantern.

"As far as I could. Let us hope it is enough," I replied.

"I was able to get to more than half of the granaries. We will do some damage at least," she said.

"Ah well that was not bad!" A voice said loudly. Out from the trees strolled Nöbetçi, a whore under each of his arm, "My father was right, ugly girls try harder...hey who the fuck are you?" he asked. He looked up at saw Soyguncu and I standing. I felt my blood run cold. We were out of time.

"Don't worry about them, tell me more about home," the clever prostitute said, trying her best. Nöbetçi shoved her to the side along with the other prostitute. They tumbled to the ground, got to their feet, and then took off in the direction of the river. The sentry seemed to gather that this meant something was not right.

"Alert! Intruder!" he called as loud as he could. I didn't hear or even see Soyguncu move. The next thing I noticed was a knife protruding from the sentry's throat. She had pulled quickly and thrown it with deadly accuracy.

"We should have killed him earlier," she said. But even as she spoke, the other sentries were pouring from the woods. Some still had their pants around their ankles, their cocks flapping ludicrously as they moved.

"Halt, and identify yourself!" The sergeant was yelling. He was in the lead and he was only a few dozen yards away. I watched as him feet pounded on the grass coming closer. I could hear stirring in the camp a few dozen yards distant. There was no time to be nervous now, I had to act quickly. I noticed where the sergeant was heading.

"I am Sultanah Varis I, the angel of death," I called out to him loudly. His face looked slightly perplexed but he kept running. And his foot feet directly in the line of pitch leading from the barn. I took the lantern in my hand, spun it once round my hand, and tossed it as hard as I could. I looked up in the sky to watch it arc across the darkness. I could see Soyguncu watching as well. The lantern reached its highest peak and then fell down onto the earth, crashing at the sergeant's feet.

The ceramic reservoir of the lamp burst and flames shot up all around the sergeant. He screamed in a primal rage as the flames began to licked up his leg. The flames reached the pitch and soon the grass all around the man was on fire. He no longer had any thought of pursuing us. Instead, he was running in panicked strides all around the area. Everywhere he touched spread the flames. Soon, the dry grass for two square yards around him was on first and spreading. More importantly, the pitched was igniting as well, racing out toward the granaries and light the grass around it. The other sentries saw what was happening and forgot all about us, they rush toward the fires even as the sergeant dropped onto the ground, and no longer moved.

"Fire! Fire!" they yelled and I could hear more rumbling from the camp behind us.

"This will not be safe much longer, we must go!" Soyguncu said now. I could feel the heat from the fires starting to lick at my face. I turned and looked out towards the pens where the animals were held. Already the pitch there was beginning to burn as the fire spread quickly in the grass.

"To the river!" I yelled to Soyguncu and we both ran towards the marshy land we had traveled through before. When we reached the low backs of the river we dove into it, sure that we were pursued by the fire. We swam out a couple of feet to where the water was around our waists before turning back and looking at the shore. Once we reached that point we realized the prostitutes were huddled on the banks of the river, looking nervous. They had obviously fled when their clients had rushed toward the fire, knowing that retribution would be swift if they were caught. We beckoned them out to stand with us. Once they reached the water we all focused on the shore and watched the fire burn.

If any of the sentries had noticed us sprinting into the water, they had forgotten it entirely. Already, one of the barns filled with grain was a massive inferno and others were beginning to catch. The sentries were running around frantically, searching for dirt to toss onto the flames. They had no buckets so they did not even attempt to run down to the river. They were screaming loudly for help as they worked futilely against the flames.

Finally, soldiers from the camp had reached the area. Most stopped at stared dumbfounded as the grass, fences, and buildings burst into red flames. By the time a few dozen soldiers had made it out toward the field, it was too late. Even the arrival of officers and lords was ineffectual. From my vantage point in the river, I could not see everything. But I could see several barns and temporary buildings that were so heavily engulfed in flames that there was no way to put it out, everything inside was ruined. And it was spreading.

Soyguncu had apparently done an excellent job of spreading pitch and also spotting buildings. I did not know fire could move that fast. Soon it was zipping along the dry grass towards the livestock fields. These were farther away but I could see the light in the distance growing brighter and brighter as the pitch I had spread, the fences, and the grass went up in flames. And I began to hear the animals. I felt more than a twinge of guilt and to this day cannot describe the sounds that I heard as the animals began to roast alive. The most horrifying sound was the clomping of hooves as animals tried to escape the flames. I feel no such concern for the soldiers who relied on them.

We had been watching in silence for several minutes when something slightly unexpected happen. There was already pandemonium in the enemies' camp. Most of the men had no idea what was going on and were terrified that a sally from the city had caught them unawares. Others knew there was a fire but seemed helpless to stop it. I imagined that the lords had already reported the fire and that King Sican and his command structure already knew that their food was in danger. I had expected and prayed for all of these results. What I hadn't expected was for the fire to so severely weaken the fences surrounded the livestock.

I heard a loud cracking sound and I assumed it was a barn collapsing (there had already been several of those). Instead, I heard a growing rumbling sound. I strained my eyes in the dark to see what was happening. There was a burst of bright, red light tearing through the nearest fence. The light shot swiftly into King Sican's camp, pushing through a campfire and lighting tents on fire. Soon, the light was followed by dozens, maybe hundreds of others. I could hear more moving in the distance. I thought for a single, fevered moment that Gunes had appeared herself, to throw fire balls at our enemies. Then I heard a loud, panic lolling come from one of the fire balls as it ran directly thought a tent and trampled a solider inside. A cow. The cows had been lit aflame by the fire and had burst from their pens. They were panicked, tearing through the enemy's camp and lighting everything they touched on fire. They had inadvertently been turned into weapons. I looked at Soyguncu, she turned to me, smiled and shrugged.

"Sometimes a plan works out better than expected," she said. Her face was lit was red light in that moment, flickering as it reflected off the river. She looked like a vision of Gunes herself.

"Sometimes you don't know what you can do until you jump right in," I said, and turned my eyes back to shore.

* * * * *

The rest of the night passed in a blur. We watched the fire burn and the panic increase for a while with increasing amazement. But eventually, the fire became so great that soldiers began to run into the river downstream from us to escape the heat and the flames. We realized that it would no longer be safe to wade there. Soyguncu lead us a mile or two upstream. We walked in the direction of the rapidly rising sun, splashing our tired eyes with reddish yellow light. Many of the prostitutes, too tired to go on, climbed back onto the shore and found places in the trees to hide. It was far too dangerous for the Sultanah, so I kept walking. Eventually, we reached a place in the river that Soyguncu knew to be a shallow ford used by farmers and traders in the region. We crossed on tiptoes in the cool water. It felt divine of my slightly toasted skin and the gentle flow of the river soothed my aching muscles.

We reached the far side. We knew that patrols from King Sican operated on this side of the river, but we moved in the trees directly near the shore and avoided seeing anyone. Now we started moving back the direction we had come, back towards the city. The sun was growing higher in the sky now and we could see the terror we had wrought. The fires were still burning in many places and the entire camp was engulfed in column of smoke. We could hear the cries of the wounded and smell burnt flesh, animal and man.

But we didn't have time to dwell on our handiwork. Only a handful of people in Şehir knew about my mission. I needed to get home quickly, climb back up the rope, and arrive back in the city before anyone decided to steal my laurels or take advantage of the chaos outside our gates.