Shifting Sands by Fuad Baloch

Author:Fuad Baloch
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Red Crescent
Published: 2019-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

Severance

Men fought ahead. Kabbad, this time, after another long, arduous day of riding. Better they did so with their limbs than steel, though. Less of a mess to clean up afterwards that way.

Ruma bit the insides of her cheek, barely seeing the kabbad game. She’d expected her plans to go wrong from the beginning. After all, who could claim to anticipate the future without mistake? But the first wound had come quicker than she had expected, a harbinger of more sacrifices to come.

A day had passed but still the scouts’ news troubled her. It was one thing expecting losses, but quite another to prepare for the crippling doubt that followed. A part of her wanted to retreat, to give it all up just like the Pithrean demanded. Another wanted her to take her time, analyse options over and over left to her, to redraw her plans, to take her time.

“I can’t do that,” she said to herself, shaking her head. Bhalpur wasn’t that far off now. Her plan was still in motion. She still hadn't played out all her cards. There was still the possibility… no matter how remote, that she could pull it all off. No, the doubting part of her shouted back at her. She ignored it.

Sivan’s face floated up. She brushed it aside. He was a good guy, one to keep to himself, a soul that sought no harm, did no harm. Yet, as much as it hurt to dwell on it, war was especially brutal on the good ones.

This isn’t you! shouted the annoying voice within her. You’re one to care for those around you.

“I am not the girl I used to be,” she said slowly.

Cries went up from the kabbad ground. Just six men stood in the circle now, their features shrouded in the fading sunlight and the dust they’d kicked up. Ruma forced a grin on her face and leaned forward. The sand underneath her sandals was cooler now that the sun had barely another hour to go. The steady drumbeat picked up, accompanied by loud, ululating singing urging the fighters to give their all. She crossed her arms, swaying slightly on the balls of her feet. Had the distance between her and the other onlookers grown in the past fifteen minutes or was she imagining it?

Look ahead! She did. In another ten or so minutes, these men would have a champion to felicitate for a night before the cycle would reset once more. Her thoughts drifted.

Bhalpur was where she intended to trigger her trap. Once she did so, there would be no turning back. The end would hurtle towards her.

More doubts rose. Was it hubris that she consulted with no one? Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to rethink her strategy. She could still send word to Gareeb, pull him back, focus more on building alliances, acquiring garrisons, strengthening a guerrilla network of spies and insurgents.

She didn't have the time for any of that. Wasn’t that what the fracking Pithrean had said?

“First… speak to me!”

Nothing.

“Alf is the greatest!” shouted a priest to her left.

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