CHAPTER XXX: Tshekaland

Agogo first stayed right where he was rather than leading the way. He was as stunned as his friends. Either side couldn't stop staring. Agogo pulled closer to K'rar's party, raised a hand to touch K'rar's skin, and his hair. The knights were still soaking wet.

'Your hair is like that of corn plant,' he said. K'rar felt a bit embarrassed but he was also resisting the urge to touch the man's skin and hair. Agogo's companion was checking out the others, particularly Hazael. He just planted himself before her, ogling like an owl.

'Is this, woman?' he asked. All his friends converged to take a closer look.

'Yes. I am a woman,' Hazael said. Agogo came to her, and touched her hair too. Hazael helped him by untying her ponytail so he could feel her hair as much as he liked. Agogo said,

'You also hold panga?'

'Yes. I am a soldier too. Where I come from, this is called a sword.'

'Right,' said Agogo. His "r" sound was very deep, 'the Zenji raiders say "sword" also. Can you use sword?'

'Yes, I can.'

'I would like to see. Chief will like this one. What is your name?'

'Hazael.'

'Hazael. You walk with me,' said Agogo. Hazael stole a surreptitious glance at her companions. They were suppressing their laughter as best they could. Hazael said, to Agogo,

'I hope you aren't planning to fuck me.'

'Fuck?' Agogo said. Hazael chuckled at him. She was happy he didn't know what the word meant. She said,

'Let us get going, shall we?'

'Yes. Let us go. We are going to chief.'

They engulfed K'rar and his soldiers. Agogo stood next to Hazael, almost rubbing his massive shoulders against her. He, and the others were focused mainly on her. Ezio was the other side of her. He said softly in her ear,

'He's definitely gonna mount you.'

Hazael pulled his ear.

The Tshekala community was highly primitive, especially its architecture. The people lived only in round, grass-thatched huts. Even the few four-cornered houses were grass-thatched. The housing was organized in small compounds of three or four huts, many of which had a round granary on poles in their center. One or two of the huts would be much larger than others. The compounds were not paved or anything, but were swept clean with brooms whose marks were visible. Many compounds also had agricultural produce such as maize and sorghum laid out on large woven mats to dry, with some children being employed to keep the birds away. As for children, they were so many, moving around this way and that, and when they saw what their elders had brought to the village, they all stopped what they were doing to follow the party in an ever-increasing swarm. Several adults also joined in, speaking in their mother tongue loudly. On many occasions they tried to touch K'rar and his friends, almost offensively. The knights thought this kind of behavior was normal. Hazael took a small girl and carried her. Some huts had an all-grass exterior from top to bottom, like a massive grass roof sitting on the dust. All huts had just a single door made of hardwood. In more than a few places, a statelier compound popped up, with stronger structures of wood, like cabins, and some were made of both wood and earth. These stately compounds also had more than two houses, and one of these would be the storehouse for food instead of a granary in the center. Some were also surrounded by palisades made of neatly assembled reeds. The community was very large and in one place. More houses were situated behind the ones next to the road, many of them built right under or between the many trees. It was a woodland spinning off from the forest that had been cleared, and K'rar could tell that they were currently going through a community of the less privileged of this society. At some point as they walked, going higher as they did, K'rar had to ask where the animals he saw in the field were kept.

'There is kraal field near valley,' Agogo said, 'the plantations are there also.'

'And, who lives here, in this house?' Damaris was referring to one of the larger compounds with tall fences.

'This is elder's home. One of Tshekala's true warriors.'

'Yes,' said one of his colleagues, 'he teaches boys to fight.'

'Fight who?'

There was no answer to this question because Agogo had now brought them to another road, flanked by queues of tall trees with yellow flowers and green irregular fruits. Many of these trees' foliage met in mid-air and created a beautiful canopy. Their yellow flowers carried a fragrant scent. He said,

'This road goes to Tsheka-guru's palace. Me and Aruga will take you.'

The children were disallowed to come along this time, and only Aruga and Agogo went up with them. The Tsheka-guru obviously liked a quiet place without the constant din of kids. And as K'rar had imagined, there were more scattered houses, whether huts or four-walled houses, among these trees. When Agogo and Aruga came to the palace, they just left K'rar near the gate and scuttled from the scene. K'rar found out why when he approached the closed gate, guarded by three massive bare-chested guards, wearing only skirts serrated at the hem and wielding spears and a secondary weapon each by their waists, tied there by a string around the shoulder. The king obviously employed only the strongest, and most aggressive, men to protect him. They all prepared their weapons while staring at K'rar and his friends like they were from the spirit realm. The center guard, the leader probably because he was taller than his subordinates, stepped forward with a fierce frown.

'Why are they always angry?' muttered Ezio. Still, he maintained a half smile when he said, 'good afternoon, man.'

Two minutes raced by, while the guards had their turn staring at the party. The chief guard said,

'Je! Miungu imetuletea nini?'

'Wao ni wazito kuliko washambuliaji wa mashariki,' his companion said, 'walitoka wapi?'

The chief guard now asked, in the common tongue,

'Are you Scovian raiders?'

'No,' K'rar said quickly.

'Then who are you? And why you at Guru's gate?'

K'rar was struggling to cook up a suitable response, so Hazael said,

'We came from the sea. We have never been here, but we are glad to meet you.'

The man had transformed from the scaly faced soldier to an excited child. He rushed past his colleagues and stormed inside the gate, which he closed behind him. He returned almost three minutes later with about four other men, two soldiers and apparently two officials. The officials were dressed in complete cotton clothing rather than selected pieces of cloth. All four clapped their hands over their lips. The officials came to K'rar and his team and circled them like sharks, chattering incessantly once more in very unintelligible terms to themselves in their mother tongue. One of them touched all of them, something which the knights were either getting accustomed to or getting tired of. And, like with Agogo, they took a special interest in Hazael. Then the official with a thick goatee came to K'rar and said,

'Are you Mvogo? Mvogo the chief messenger for the eight gods?' his face was beaming, and his teeth out in a very wide smile.

'We are not gods,' said K'rar, 'we are just people, like you. Look,' K'rar pulled out his sword, which made the man flinch. K'rar chuckled, and then cut his palm slightly to draw blood, 'we have blood, just you.'

'Miungu haitoi damu.'

'What?'

'Gods cannot bleed.'

'That is what I am saying. We are just men. We come from a land far, far away. We are explorers.'

'Oh. But your skin shines like a lamp.'

'I am a man anyway. Are you a minister?'

'Oh, no. I am palace servant. I take care of palace compound for guru. He is waiting to see you now. Come, please.'

The Tsheka-guru's, or king's, palace, was on a very small piece of land if contrasted with K'rar's knowledge of a palace, but it was unique and beautiful in its own way. What would be the king's personal space was just a high, round fence made of three layers of reeds. There were numerous different four-sided houses scattered along the perimeter. These engulfed the palace, the main and biggest structure in the center, probably larger than all the seven combined secondary houses. All these ones were separated from each other by two-foot flower hedges. Overall there were more than ten courtyards, one for each house, and others belonging to the other structures, and one main courtyard in front of the king's residence. Also, the courtyards were all well-kempt lawns rather than barren compounds. The ground was teeming with several young female maids dressed in cotton skirts and skin loincloths over their breasts.

'Girls, at last,' said Hazael.

'And aren't they beautiful,' Chio said, 'stunning!' he kept his eyes on a group of three of them standing aside the road to let them pass, and thought one of them was smiling at him.

The main courtyard was very large. It took all the space between the gate and the very long, open shade that was the face of the king's residence, covered by the extended thatched roof and held up with timber poles. The king's throne was in this shade, and he was sitting on it. To his right was another throne, and his wife, obviously, was sitting on it. Between these royal seats were smaller tables on which the rulers' fruits and drinks were placed. Perpendicular to their thrones and down by three steps, were rows of six cushioned long benches, three on each side of the aisle, and it was easy for K'rar to figure that these belonged to the "elders" of the Tshekala. Just a miniature throne room, same arrangement. Also on the second step next to the king and queen, stood their guards, one for each one. They had a knack for picking the biggest chaps. The other guards stood in a line some feet behind the thrones. These were the ones to execute the king's commands. The monarchs' immediate servants, whether male or female, sat on stools near them, waiting for commands. Two of these stools belonged to the officials who fetched K'rar and his friends. Now there were servants waving feather fans for the royals. A male for the queen and a female for the king.

The monarchs were the most resplendent people K'rar had seen. The Tsheka-goma's, or queen's, hair was softer by the work of oils. She had it combed backward and into a bun. While she wore a smooth golden crown over her head, the Tsheka-guru wore the more traditional serrated crown, also made of gold. They were clad in long robes, red for the king and white for his wife. On top of these the monarchs donned leopard skins. The king's arms also had bandanas made of the same, while the queen just wore so many bangles of silver. Her earrings and nose piercings were also silver, and she was wearing a gold necklace with a diamond center piece. The king and his queen seemed between fifty and fifty-five years of age at least.

The four escorts took them and stood them a few feet from the throne, and returned to their posts. They let them keep their weapons. K'rar made a bow courteously, and so did his soldiers. Then he had to endure a long minute of the royals' staring and grimacing and searching glances at one another before anyone said anything.

'You stand before Khong Je, third of his name, Guru of all the lands of Tshekala. This is my head wife and queen, Vara-Iste. I am told you only speak the common tongue,' the Tsheka-guru said.

'Yes, Your Majesty. It is our first language. Where we come from, no other languages are known, so we were most intrigued when we encountered your subjects speaking the local tongue.'

'Hmm. I am most intrigued only by looking at you. From what part of the land do you sojourn?'

'We have come by ship from a far-off island. We saw the land, and we decided to explore it.'

'An island? Far off, where?' the king bent forward.

'West. We sailed here from the west.'

Obviously, there was nothing west, but the king did not think they were jesting with him. He said,

'Are you saying you have never walked this land?' he spoke this language better than all the others they had met so far.

'No, Your Majesty. This is our first time here, and your subjects that we encountered at waterfall were our first contact.'

There was some silence, and the king said,

'I have countless questions that I wish to ask you strange people. But alas, I have not given you the welcome you deserve. Allow me, please,' he turned his head slightly, 'waletee viti na chakula.' Servants stood up, bowed their acknowledgement, and scuttled away. Some entered the palace, and others away from it. Those that went in are the ones that returned first, carrying chairs for all six of K'rar's team. Once they had sat down, spaced a foot apart from one side to the other, the Tsheka-guru said to K'rar in the center, pointing,

'So, let us begin with your name. I presume you are the leader?'

'Yes. I am the Commandant. My name is K'rar von Caspar.' K'rar introduced the lot of them on their behalf. The monarchs followed the trend of focusing their attention on Hazael. The goma, or queen, raised her hand slightly for permission to speak for the first time.

'You say you are soldiers,' she said, looking straight at Hazael, and pointing at her, 'does that include you, Haza-el?'

'Yes, Your Majesty.'

'And,' the king said, as the servants who had gone to the side of the building returned, 'who is your master? Soldiers fight for a master.' The maids were carrying trays full of similar food items. Tables were placed before each of the knights, and the trays placed on these. While looking down at some of the most bizarre items on the trays, Hazael replied,

'K'rar is our Commandant. We fight for him.'

'Does the Commandant not have a master, a king? Because I would love to meet him.'

K'rar could no longer keep the truth from the Tsheka-guru.

'I am Commandant of the Kaffrarian Knights, and also the king of Korazin. I have not been to my kingdom for ten years, but with my knights, I will be returning there soon.'

'So, you are a king?'

'K'rar von Caspar, the first of his name.'

There was another round of silence, and in between, the king and his wife spoke to each other sotto voce in their language, while K'rar and his knights munched away at the food they could eat while simply staring at those they were seeing for the first time. For instance, they each had a small bowl full of roasted, segmented worms that looked like grub for birds to eat. Damaris on the left end of the line, asked the maid standing next to him something related to these worms.

'So, all this time, I have hosted a king in my palace? Why did you not say so when you introduced yourself?' the guru even stood up from his chair now, and stepped down the three steps, 'get up, please. Let me greet you like a king,' he turned around and gave the order, 'piga honi na kuwaita wakuu wangu wote, na mlete wake zangu na watoto wangu wote. They must meet the most important guest to ever set foot in Tshekaland. And we will go to the market too, so prepare accordingly.' The officials and servants exited in large numbers to execute these commands. K'rar stood up, making all his knights do the same. The king took his entire arm to greet him instead of just his hand. He said,

'Tell me, K'rar von Caspar. Why is a king like you moving alone with five others? And why is your skin so pale?'

'As to why our skins are like this, the gods ought to answer that, as we are as intrigued as you are. As to why I move with only six soldiers, I already said, we just accidentally saw the land from our ship, and we decided to explore.'

'But, what is a ship?'

'Big boat that travels on the sea, Your Majesty.' K'rar thought, for all the advancement that his ships boasted, there were peoples who had never seen one at all.

'So you didn't come from the forest, then? That does make a lot of sense. The report I received said you appeared like spirits from the waterfall while some of my subjects were playing there.'

'No. We are not spirits, as you can see. We are simply of different color. Speaking of which, those we left on the ship are probably wondering what became of us. Allow me to send some of my soldiers to tell them. Perhaps even bring you something from the ship.'

'Ah, there is more on this, ship?'

'Yes, Your Majesty. The ship carries hundreds of people. It is how I will sail, I mean travel, on the sea to my kingdom.'

'Wow. I would like to see this big boat. But tonight, I must host you. We may go to the ship tomorrow, no?'

'Er…okay. I don't see why not,' he then said, 'Chio, you stay. The rest of you, report to the Stinger, and bring the king something that looks good.'

'Wait,' the Tsheka-goma Vara-Iste said, 'wait. Will you allow Hazael to stay? I would love to interact with a fellow woman.'

So K'rar stayed back with Hazael, and the rest left with three of the Tsheka-guru's men. It was approaching the evening now, as the sun was getting milder and the sky more orange, which is why K'rar sent back all but one of his team. The Tsheka-goma took Hazael by the hand to speak to her privately. The food was abandoned and taken away. Besides, the king had just called for a quick feast. The horns had been blown by men standing at the gate and along the perimeter fence so that the message was broadcast to everyone in the community. The frenzy in the palace itself foreshadowed what was happening outside of it. The whole chiefdom rushing to answer the king's call, which was probably something rare or something done in a known routine, which this was not.

The king proceeded to show K'rar around as everything was getting ready. The extra houses in the palace grounds belonged to his wives. He had nine wives, and he boasted about this. He said that he hardly bedded his head wife, as she was old, and that he alternated between any of the homes of his other wives. He had eight sons and five daughters, but only four of the eight sons and four of the daughters were still living here. K'rar learned from the conversation that among these people, children, sex and cattle were more important than anything else. In fact, K'rar learned, the king had the privilege of bedding any woman he lusted who didn't belong to his nobility class. The Tshekala were a small population, he learned, of just 3000 or so. The king showed him a map—they had a map—of the land he was on, and Tshekaland was at the northwest tip of it in a horn that was connected to the mainland by a tiny strip of land. From the description of the size of Tshekaland and its neighbors and their place on the map, K'rar learned that this promontory was many, many times bigger than Moab, and perhaps a hundred times larger than Xaxanika. It was a massive continent stretching thousands of miles east, where it widened southward. Somewhere in the extreme east was a desert, the Great Havela Desert. The king explained that all the lands west of it, including Tshekaland itself, were under the imperial yoke of the Zenj Empire, whether by submission to it or by force. Tshekaland was remote, and did not suffer the full might of the empire as the many peoples and tribes and nations closer to the empire's capital, San Vilgraek, although it would be crazy to be complacent.

The Tsheka-guru was a capable king because he had been to all the places he had told K'rar of, including the imperial capital, San Vilgraek. He had been there with many other kings of the land west of the city. The empire had swiftly squashed a rebellion organized by ten kings in opposition to it, including the Tsheka-guru, and had in fact taken six of them to San Vilgraek to humiliate them, and to forgive their sins if they didn't dare to try something as stupid as that again. To make sure of this, the Emperor had appointed over them a viceroy, stationed in the city of Krocher, strategically placed close to the western tribes and kingdoms. He kept a watchful eye over this northwest province of the Zenj Empire, making sure for example that they paid tribute, and didn't try to mobilize any fighting men. This, the guru said, is why Tshekaland didn't have a standing army. The Zenj Empire's soldiers, who made regular patrols, were ruthless. They were always ready to devastate any tribes that were harboring confident ideas.

Now the Tsheka-guru was still telling K'rar about all of these details by night. They were sitting side by side on chairs in the market, which was no market at all really, at least not one where goods were sold, but rather a public square where huge numbers could converge, like they were. K'rar had enjoyed or endured a series of performances of traditional dances and plays, of roast beef, and of bittersweet banana wine. Hazael was sitting on this table too, next to the queen, who had also given her an earful of information since they began talking. Also present were some very important persons, these including the guru's chief advisor, his chief mediator to the Zenj Empire, his chief military trainer, for preparing youths against a tribal attack from rustlers (the empire allowed this on some conditions) like the tall Konkomba boys. They all sat along the same side of tables, while a horde of villagers sat around the square, leaving a ring in the center for the performances.

But K'rar was not very aloof so that he was oblivious to the fact that something was bothering both he and Hazael. Three times tonight, they had both exchanged strange looks at each other, because it had occurred to them that the party that had returned to the Iscalan hadn't returned, and K'rar was beginning to smell a fish, but before he attempted to ask about this, the Tsheka-guru stood up to say something.

'Friends,' he said, 'our guests here say they are soldiers from a far-off island, but we haven't seen this. Who is up for a duel?'

K'rar had no chance to escape this. Still, the crowd was bleating "msichana!" meaning, "the girl". They wanted to see Hazael, not K'rar. So Hazael got up herself, and walked to the center of the arena amidst cheers. She drew her sword, and announced, swirling the weapon,

'Your best fighter!'

The fighter that stepped onto the arena was none other than Agogo, whether he was indeed their best dueler or not. He was smiling from ear to ear like an idiot. Hazael frowned and said,

'I said, your best fighter.'

'Relax, banana-skinned girl. You take milk before solid food, no? Say, if I win, you give me one night.'

The villagers supported this with cheers. Hazael had also learned that they took sex, and women, very lightly. She said,

'Yeah, you shouldn't have said that. I'm not your trophy girl.' She took a fighting stance and said, 'come on then.'

Hazael let him come at her at first, studying his movement. He was poor. She put him and three others down in under six minutes, including a royal guard with huge muscles. It was moot after this to call K'rar to the center, but the men of the village were so mortified by Hazael that they wouldn't capitulate, so they called for a three on one fight against K'rar if he was really as good as Hazael had indicated by her own exceptional abilities. The village women were all for K'rar when he stepped onto the arena, where the three fighters, one of whom had been downed by Hazael, were waiting for him. K'rar would use both his weapons, the Nephilim sword as well as the standard curved blade of the Kaffrarian Knights. But no one had launched the attack before the party was interrupted suddenly.

By Tango raiders. The same raiders the Tsheka-guru had so vigorously explained to K'rar in so many words, but not Scovian army. The Tangos were the empire's ruthless slavers. They comprised of pardoned criminals, ill-disciplined soldiers serving punishment, and thugs in the employ of the empire's men of influence. They were not soldiers under the viceroy. They got their authority directly from officials in San Vilgraek, the highest of these being, most times, a prince. Their job was to maintain the fear of the empire, by raiding communities and abducting their young men for hard labor, and girls for prostitution and servitude in the homes of Zenji peoples.

They surrounded the area with horses in the blink of an eye, and chaos ruled. The raiders rode nearly a hundred horses. They were all dressed in red sashes around their heads, uniform wool-collared sleeveless tops, baggy trousers and heavy boots laden with heavy chains on them. Also, many of them had a uniform tattoo covering all of their right forearms, including the back of the hand. The raiders were clearly distinguishable from their victims. Though they were black men too, their skin was much lighter than their victims, and their hair also hard, but softer. Many of them were bald headed but for a pair of dreadlocks dangling from the back of their heads and tied at the ends by strings. Still others donned Mohican hairstyles along with the dreadlocks, and others had more than a few dreadlocks. Even their horses were vicious looking beasts, fitted with the many devices they used in their dishonorable job, including rhino-skin whips, which they were now using. Men and women and children alike were running this way and that, desperately trying to escape. Those who dared to try and fight back were maimed or killed. The raiders, many of whom had dismounted their horses, were selectively picking young men and women and binding them after a heavy beating. Hazael came to K'rar as soon as the chaos began, and both just stood and watched to assess the situation. The Tsheka-guru and all his people and officials, K'rar saw, were identified and allowed to leave by the raiders.

'They let the king go,' Hazael pointed it out.

'Yeah. They are slavers. They'll take all the young men and women with them, and he is not going to lift a muscle.'

'We can take them,' Hazael said, 'where are our comrades? It's been almost five hours.'

'They should be here, alright, but I don't trust they got to the ship. Get to higher ground and raise a smoke. The Iscalan needs to know.' Even though it was dark, the smoke signal was visible in the night sky to a keen eye, like the eye of a lookout on the ship, who would certainly be alert as an owl for the same reasons K'rar and Hazael were worried about.

A horseman had spotted them, and Hazael said, 'yes sir,' before facing the horseman and throwing her knife, a secondary weapon, in his path, hitting him squarely in his plexus. He fell under the horse with a thud, and Hazael retrieved both her weapon and the horse, mounted it, and looked for the easiest exit. K'rar ran beside the horse to help her clear the way. The spot with just one horseman between two houses would do, so they attacked this one, and cut his throat as if he wasn't there. There would be other Tangos behind, but Hazael was quicker, and if she got to the forest then they had no chance of catching her. Now K'rar's heroics hadn't gone unnoticed, and neither was his unique appearance. He had not only stood and waited for someone to attack him. He was actively helping to free those who were already tied up with rope. For instance he had gone after a trio of Tangos who had tied up three young ladies and a youthful boy, and had killed two of them. He was now tangling with the third when he was spotted by another team, one of whom called,

'Arrondo! Arrondo!' the Arrondo was the team leader. They caught his attention, and he was told, 'look.' K'rar had just finished slicing open the leg of his opponent, felling him. He then smashed the man's face in with his boot, and also took his fingers. The Arrondo watched in awe as K'rar took out one other man on horseback by using the same technique as Hazael, throwing the weapon at him on the horse, killing him before he bounced off the earth, and then mounting the moving horse. The Arrondo had been joined by a group of six of his colleagues, who were also watching in amazement. He said,

'Who the fuck is that?'

'Don't know, sir,' came the reply, 'he fights better than us, he is pale-skinned. He is certainly not a tribesman.'

'Well I'm not waiting to find out after he has killed all our men. I want him alive.'

K'rar now had to face an organized team of six men on horseback. He saw them. In other words, K'rar was not going anywhere tonight. He once more drew his second sword. The Arrondo remained on horseback as his men, in a file, prepared to attack. More were joining in at the call of their colleagues. They saw K'rar draw his second weapon, and even became wearier of him. This was in spite of the fact that on average, each man was at least one foot taller or heavier than K'rar. The first man lunged with his heavy sword. That encouraged his companions to attack with him. Whenever K'rar faced just two men in front of him and none behind him, he went on the attack. His double weapon was entirely a new technique to them, and because they fought from a playbook unlike K'rar, he was still too good for the first six of them, but they all had had to dismount their horses to fight on the ground. In just a few thrusts and parries, K'rar had broken the arms of two men, severely injured another's neck, and was in the process of pulling his sword from inside the abdomen of the fourth. The Arrondo was aghast. He began yelling at his other men,

'On him, on him!'

But K'rar put down eleven men first before he was overwhelmed. One man almost slit his throat while he was on his knees, but the Arrondo aggressively shoved him, saying,

'I said do not kill him!' he was looking down at K'rar, who was held down by about four men. The Arrondo added, 'who the hell are you?' K'rar just clenched his teeth at him but said nothing. The Arrondo ordered his men to bind him like the other human booty, but to keep him separate from them. He said to K'rar once this was done,

'You, young man, are my gift from the skies. Whether you like it or not, you're coming with me.' K'rar did not need to understand that this was not a compliment.

When the Arrondo called off the raid, he had with him 18 captives including 13 girls. K'rar was apart from this. He was even tied up to the Arrondo's horse unlike the other captives, who were bound in conjoined joined nooses around their necks, and bound at their hands too. K'rar watched in pity as these, especially the males, were beat up with whips, while he received preferential treatment from the Arrondo, who said to him as the raiding party turned onto the main dust road,

'Don't make me do the same to you, young man,' he also had an exotic accent, but he and his goons used only the common tongue, 'those ladies and gentlemen will be sold to whorehouses or auctioned off as laborers. But you, you are too valuable for such petty work, so I need you in pristine condition when we get there.'

'Where are we going?' K'rar said in an agitated hiss.

'There, your first words. I thought you were mute. But what do you mean where are we going? Do you not know who we are?'

'I have never been here. My knights will come after me, and when they do, you're the one who will be whipped up like that.'

The Arrondo was only interested in the first words. He took K'rar's threat as sheer banter, laughing it off,

'What do you mean by you've never been here? Are you Havelan? Do you have a skin condition?' from his conversation with the Tsheka-guru K'rar knew that the Havelans were the only peoples that the Scovian Empire had not managed to colonize on the west coast, not even managing to reach their capital, hundreds of miles south of this location, in the opposite tip of the coast.

K'rar scoffed. He might just as well have had the skin disease. He was in no mood to explain his origins once more to his captor. He just reiterated once more that his knights would come after him, and that when they did, they would save more than K'rar himself. The Arrondo just laughed at that. Still, he was friendly to K'rar from the start. He was being serious about keeping K'rar healthy even though he hadn't said why. K'rar knew they were slavers, but also figured the preferential treatment he was getting indicated he would be put to some other use.