Far Away [Part 24] – The Whipping

When a fire destroys the Silk Store, Darius risks his life to save Weili and Arslan – only to face the consequences of the secret he kept.

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Fire!

The fire raced up the walls of the wagon with terrifying speed, and leaped from one bolt of fabric to the next like a demon thrilling at the prospect of destruction. One moment Arslan was stumbling backward, and the next the air itself seemed to ignite. Flames ran along the canvas roof and leaped from one bundle of cloth to another. I could no longer see the door clearly through the smoke.

Weili screamed. Her hair was on fire, and I saw that a piece of burning silk had attached itself to her cheek.

I seized Weili around the waist and threw her over my shoulder. Every pain in my body vanished. My wounded leg, my fever, the weakness that had kept me confined to Hakim Yusuf’s wagon – all of it ceased to exist. I lowered my head and charged through the flames, then leaped from the wagon and landed on my feet like a leopard.

The cold hit me like a hammer, yet it was welcome. Weili was useless, screaming and batting her hands in the air. I dumped her into the snow and rolled her through it, pushing handfuls of snow onto her clothes and hair. Then I smelled something burning close to my face and realized it was me. Flames danced along my sleeve and the hem of my coat, and my scalp was hot. I threw myself down and rolled wildly through the snow until the flames went out.

I leaped to my feet. “Fire!” I screamed. “Fire! Everyone up! Fire!” My own voice tore at my raw throat. Men shouted. A horse whinnied in alarm. Shadows appeared, and footsteps crunched in the snow. Someone lit a torch a safe distance from the wagons.

“Move the wagons!” I yelled. “Get the wagons away from here! Move the animals!”

Weili caught my arm. “Arslan!”

I jerked away from her.

“Please, Darius! He’s still inside. You have to save him. I can’t live without him.”

For one terrible instant I saw red. After everything she had done, after everything he had done, she was begging me to risk my life for him. She couldn’t live without him? An opium addict who had infiltrated our caravan and put everyone’s lives in danger? I wanted to strike her. I pictured it in my mind, my hand slapping her hard across the face.

Inferno

“Damn you,” I said, and I leaped back into the Silk Store.

It had become an inferno. Heat blasted my face and drove me back, and thick black smoke filled the entire space. I dropped onto my hands and knees, inhaled a lungful of thick smoke, then went flat onto my stomach, coughing and retching.

The floor was scalding hot. I crawled inside with my face as close to the boards as I could get it, hacking and squinting through the smoke.

“Arslan!” There was no answer.

Something burning fell onto my back. I rolled across the floor to smother it, then crawled farther.

I found Arslan with my hand before I saw him. My fingers struck a boot. I followed the leg upward and found him sprawled facedown on the floor, motionless. I grabbed his shoulder and shook.

“Wake up!”

Nothing. Whether the opium had overcome him or the fall had knocked him senseless, I didn’t know. Lying on the floor seemed to have saved him from the worst of the flames. I rolled him over, hooked one arm around his chest and dragged him toward the opening, pillowing his head on my chest, almost swimming across the floor with him. He was bigger than me, and my left leg finally remembered that it was wounded. Pain shot through it so violently that my entire body shuddered and I groaned out loud.

A burning strip of canvas dropped onto my hand, and I beat it out violently. I was getting dizzy, and could not see clearly.

“La ilaha il-Allah,” I thought, having no breath to speak. “La ilaha il-Allah.”

I gritted my teeth fiercely, seized Arslan tighter, shouted, “Not now!” at the pain, and dragged him backward in what I hoped was the right direction. Hands reached through the smoke and seized us both. Someone dragged Arslan away while another man pulled me out and down. Hands rolled me in the snow, beating at my clothes. My hair had caught fire, and someone rubbed snow into it.

Containment Operation

By then the camp had exploded into activity. Men ran half-dressed through the snow. Horses reared and screamed as teamsters hurried to lead them away. Guards were converging on the Silk Store from every direction, some carrying shovels, others blankets or buckets.

The cold and snow had revived me somewhat. My leg ached and I had burns in many places, but I staggered to my feet, seized a shovel and began hurling snow onto the blazing Silk Store.

Someone had brought a barrel of water, but I knew immediately that none of it would be enough. There was nothing left to salvage. Flames roared up into the night like a beacon, and sparks flew into the air like burning hummingbirds. The Silk Store was lost.

The two wagons on either side of the Silk Store were still dangerously close. I’d seen a massive fire once in Deep Harbor, in which an entire row of houses went up in flames. The shuihui, the water associations, didn’t even try to stop the fire. Demolition teams destroyed perfectly good houses on either side of the fire.

This seemed mad to me. I grabbed a volunteer and asked what they were doing, and he explained that they had to create a firebreak, to save the rest of the city. So I participated, wielding a massive hammer and splintering walls as the fire roared like a dragon. Meanwhile, the hand-pumped shuilong engines sprayed the houses beyond the break. The entire thing was a containment operation.

So was this. “Forget this wagon!” I shouted, gesturing with the shovel. “Save the others! Make a firebreak! Get them apart!” The act of shouting felt like dragging barbed wire through my throat. I burst into a fit of coughing that bent me over until I finally vomited in the snow.

I stood back up. “Move that one!” I pointed. “You four, get those horses hitched! Push if you have to! Get it away!”

Men obeyed.

“Clear the tents! Get everyone back! Move the mules!”

“Darius!”

Captain Karim came running through the camp, wearing boots and trousers but no coat, his sword belted over his nightshirt. I saw Hakim Yusuf twenty paces behind him, pulling on his coat, his medical bag tucked into the crook of one arm, and his breath steaming into the night.

One look at Captain Karim’s posture and expression told me that he was barely containing his rage. With a glance he took in the situation: the fire, the nearest wagons being moved at my command. He looked at Weili, who sat in the snow weeping, her hair singed and a piece of burnt silk melted into one of her cheeks. Then he looked at Arslan, lying nearby, relatively unharmed, but coughing listlessly.

Finally his eyes returned to me: my clothes scorched and torn, my hair half burned away, my eyebrows gone, my hands and face blistered, and a shovel in my hand.

“The Silk Store,” I said lamely. “Weili and Arslan were inside. I got them out. The wagons on either side -”

He held up a hand. “I can see that. Any casualties?” His voice was terrifyingly calm.

I shook my head. “No, Captain.”

He turned. “Corporal Bao! Take twenty men and move every wagon at least two hundred paces from the fire. I don’t care if you have to drag them by hand. Move them!”

“Yes, Captain!”

“Veteran Guard Wu! Animals! Get every horse and mule upwind and keep them there. Make sure none panic and bolt.”

“Yes, Captain!”

“Everyone else, snow on the fire! Watch the sparks! If another wagon catches, shout immediately!”

Men scattered.

Rays of Light

My body chose that moment to quit. My lungs seized up like a fist. I coughed uncontrollably until I fell to my hands, saliva running from my mouth. I tried to breathe, but every breath triggered another violent spasm. My chest felt scraped raw from the inside. My vision went gray, and I was afraid I was dying.

Hakim Yusuf took hold of me. “Sit,” he commanded. He spoke softly into my ear. “I know it hurts. I’ll take care of you, I’m with you. Don’t be afraid.” Yusuf’s words were like rays of light that fell upon my soot-stained heart. Tears came to my eyes.

Yusuf called Memdooh over, and instructed him to gently wipe the soot from my nostrils, and rinse my mouth.

Then he began giving orders. “You two, bring clean water. Not from the fire barrels. Clean water. And six blankets.”

He went first to Weili. Still coughing, I watched through blurry eyes. One of the guards was trying to peel off the piece of silk that had melted into her cheek. Yusuf slapped the man’s hand away. He knelt, examined the burn on her cheek without touching it, then looked into her eyes and mouth. “Don’t touch your face. Leave it alone.”

Memdooh began toweling my nose and face, and gave me a cup of cold water. “Sip, rinse and spit it out,” he said. “Don’t try to talk or shout. When you gonna stop the hero role? One of these days you’ll go in a hole.”

I squinted up at him. “Don’t make me laugh,” I managed to say, then started coughing again.

Someone arrived with blankets, and Yusuf had us strip off our wet tunics and wrap two blankets apiece around ourselves.

Yusuf returned to me. “Open your mouth.”

I did, and he peered inside, then wiped a thumb across the black soot beneath my nose. “Rinse and spit again.”

Memdooh gave me the cup, and I did so. The saliva was streaked gray. Yusuf’s expression darkened. “Do not let him fall asleep,” he instructed Memdooh. “Keep him sitting up. If his breathing becomes worse, notify me immediately.”

The Silk Store chose that moment to collapse inward with a roar, throwing a fountain of sparks into the night. Men shouted and backed away, shielding their faces. The wooden frame followed, cracking and folding as the precious silks, linens, cottons and carpets inside burned together.

But the neighboring wagons were now at a safe distance. Nothing surrounded the doomed Silk Store but a wide circle of half-melted snow.

Three In a Row

Through watering eyes I saw Captain Karim standing before the crumbled, burning remains of the Silk Store, his bare arms folded across his chest. Weili sat twenty paces away. Arslan had begun to stir.

Karim pointed to Shah. “Sit them up. All three. Beside each other.”

Shah lifted me like a child and sat me next to Weili, with Arslan on the other side. I coughed long and hard, and nearly collapsed, but he held me until I could sit on my own. The two blankets should have kept me toasty warm, but I was shivering.

Weili, blankets pulled tightly around her, was still crying. Arslan sat slumped beside her, blinking stupidly and swaying as if the earth were moving beneath him. He hardly seemed aware of where he was, and had stopped coughing.

So there we were, the three of us in a row. It was like a children’s rhyme. Three little guards, sitting in the snow, one looked up and saw a crow…

Where was the crow? There should have been a crow.

What was wrong with me? I tried to clear my head. I knew exactly why I was there, just as I had known for some time that a reckoning must come. The only thing I did not know was what would be done with me.

“Captain,” Hakim Yusuf said. “I want these three in my wagon immediately.”

Karim’s gaze moved from Weili to Arslan and finally to me. “Not yet.”

“They need treatment now.”

Karim fixed an intense stare on Yusuf. “You have already treated them.”

Yusuf’s mouth was a flat line. “Partly, but they need to be inside. I need to dress their burns and remove the burned silk from the girl’s face, for heaven’s sake.”

“No. Don’t ask again.” Karim’s tone was so low, it might have come from a lion’s mouth.

“SubhanAllah! This is not acceptable. My authority supersedes yours in medical matters.”

The captain gestured to Shah. “Grab the Hakim and carry him to his wagon.”

Hakim Yusuf took a shocked step back, then – as Shah walked uncertainly toward him – held up a hand. “I will remain silent.”

Shah looked to Karim, who nodded, and Shah retreated.

I too was shocked. Respect for Hakim Yusuf was ingrained in all of us. He was our elder and father, in a way. Many of us owed him our lives. To threaten to carry him like a sack of grain was outrageous. I lost a little bit of my respect for Captain Karim in that moment. Just a bit.

The captain began pacing before us, boots crunching through the snow, one hand gripping the pommel of his sword. Behind him, the Silk Store had collapsed into a smoldering skeleton. Men continued throwing snow onto the wreckage. Smoke streamed across the night sky, and sparks rose toward the stars.

Karim stopped pacing and surveyed us. I had seen him angry before. I had seen him shout until men twice his size shrank like rolling beetles. This was different. If I had a choice between charging back into the burning Silk Store or facing Karim’s wrath, I would have chosen the fire.

Interrogation

“Someone,” Karim said quietly, “is going to tell me what happened.”

He pointed at Arslan. “You. Speak.”

Arslan stared. His mouth opened, but nothing came out. His lips worked silently, and I could almost see his mind stumbling through one lie after another, searching for one that might save him.

“It was Darius,” he finally said. His voice was hoarse. “He knocked me into the lamp.”

“Why was there a lamp in the wagon?”

“I guess Darius brought it to spy on us. He’s jealous.”

“If he brought it, how could he have knocked you into it?”

Arslan made no reply, and Karim snorted. He pointed at Weili. “Speak, Guard Weili.”

Weili held the blanket tightly around herself and shook her head. “I’m in pain,” she sobbed. “I don’t know. I didn’t do anything.”

Karim stared at her for a moment, then resumed pacing.

I sat between them, wet, burned and shivering. My lungs still spasmed every few breaths, and each cough was a spear in my chest. I could not understand what Karim was doing. Why was he asking them? Why not ask me? I was the Veteran Guard. Surely my word carried more weight than theirs.

Karim stopped and turned to me. “Veteran Guard Lee.”

Something in the way he said my rank made me straighten despite the pain.

“I don’t care what your feelings are. I don’t care who you love, or who loves you.” He took one step toward me. “You will tell me what happened, and you will speak truthfully, or as Allah is my witness, I will have you whipped from here to Persia.”

I stared at him, and found myself nodding slowly as realization dawned. Karim already knew. Maybe not what had happened in the wagon, but he knew enough. He knew how I felt about Weili. Perhaps he had seen me arguing with her after she left me for Arslan. All these months on the road, he’d noticed more than I had guessed. And he was warning me that whatever I felt for her had no place here.

I swallowed hard, then began. “I woke up and needed to pee. It was very dark outside. I saw a faint light coming from one of the wagons and went to investigate. When I looked into the Silk Store, I saw Arslan cooking opium over an open flame, and Weili smoking it.”

Karim held up one hand, and studied me intently. “You don’t sound surprised.”

“Sir?”

“You say you found Arslan cooking opium over an open flame, and you say it without surprise, as if you expected it.”

My eyes widened. I was cooked.

“Have you seen this before?”

I looked down and chewed on my lip.

“Veteran Guard Lee?”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“How many times?”

“Twice.”

Get My Whip

Karim stared at me. His expression did not change, but something in his eyes hardened. He looked over his shoulder. “Shah. Go get my bullwhip.”

Shah’s face blanched. For a moment he stood frozen, as if hoping he had misunderstood. Then he hurried away.

I glanced around at the guards assembled in the snow. No one looked sleepy anymore. Their faces were hard in the firelight. Some stared at Arslan and Weili. Others stared at me.

Only a few days ago, we had lost ten men trying to protect a single wagon. Ten graves stood in a mountain meadow behind us. Men had been shot, stabbed and poisoned to prevent thieves from taking what belonged to Five Stars.

And tonight we had lost another wagon for nothing.

My gaze moved among the guards until it found Longwei. He was watching me, and there was the faintest trace of a smile on his face.

“Go on with your story,” Karim said.

I looked back at him. “I moved to extinguish the flame. Arslan tried to block my way and tripped over his own feet. He fell and knocked the lamp over. The fabrics ignited instantly. I carried Weili out and went back for Arslan.” I swallowed. I’d stopped coughing, but my throat felt like raw ground beef. “That’s it.”

Shah returned carrying the bullwhip. He held it carefully, the long leather lash coiled in his hands. Karim took it from him without a word. He uncoiled part of it and let the end fall into the snow.

“All guards, form a circle.”

The men moved at once, surrounding Weili, Arslan and me. I looked from face to face. Men I had eaten with, ridden beside and fought alongside stood shoulder to shoulder around us. No one spoke.

Unrequited Love

Karim pointed at Arslan, who had fallen asleep. “Wake him up.”

A guard fetched a bucket and threw the water full into Arslan’s face. Arslan gasped and jerked upright, sputtering. Water streamed from his scalp and beard, soaking his clothes. He stared wildly around the circle, then at the whip in Karim’s hand. Whatever remained of his opium stupor seemed to disappear.

Karim’s gaze settled first on Arslan, then Weili, then me.

“I find all three of you culpable.”

My stomach dropped.

“Arslan, you brought corruption into my camp. You endangered this caravan and the lives of those who work to guard it. Then you sat here and lied to me about what happened.”

Arslan opened his mouth.

“Do not speak.” Karim turned to Weili. “Deng Weili, you were a willing accomplice. I expected better from you.”

She bowed her head, weeping silently.

Then he looked at me. “Darius. You knew.”

I met his eyes.

“You knew, and you said nothing. Now I know why these two could not stop the fleeing raiders. Directly or indirectly, these two are connected to the loss of two wagons full of goods. Do you have any idea how much this costs us?”

His voice rose. “If you worked as a guard for the rest of your life, it would not pay for the loss.”

Karim’s hand twitched, and the whip brushed back and forth across the snow with a mesmerizing, serpentine motion.

“The future of the Five Star Trading Company rests upon this venture. Perhaps the future of the emperor himself, for seven of these wagons belong to him personally. Our nation is at war. This caravan is vital.”

He stepped closer to me. The whip cut a line through the snow.

“Yet you allowed it to be endangered because of your juvenile feelings of unrequited love.”

The words struck like a slap. A few of the men shifted uncomfortably, but no one looked away.

“You displayed extraordinarily poor judgment. I am tempted to strip you of the rank I gave you and return you to Guard.”

He paused.

“But I will not. You paid for that promotion in blood, both yours and that of the enemy.”

For some reason, that hurt even more.

The Choice

Karim stepped back to take in all three of us.

“I offer each of you the same choice.”

He lifted the bullwhip.

“Exile, or twenty lashes.”

A murmur went through the circle and died almost immediately.

“Choose whichever you wish. But understand me clearly. There will be no discussion, no bargaining and no delay.”

His gaze passed slowly over us.

“Whichever punishment you choose will be carried out right now.” He pointed at Arslan. “You first. Choose.”

Arslan shrugged. “That’s easy. I choose exile. Just give me my mule, pack and bow.”

Weili, in her shock, stopped weeping and stared at Arslan. “You’re leaving me?”

He shrugged. “I told you from the start I’m traveling to see the world. This was always a one-way trip for me.”

Weili looked to Captain Karim. “Exile for me too, then. I’m going with Arslan.”

Arslan shook his head. “No, babe. Life on the road is hard enough. I can’t be burdened with you.”

“But I love you!”

Arslan shook his head and snorted. “Be real. This was only ever a bit of fun for both of us. Besides, you don’t love me. You love the kid.” He gestured toward me. “You think I don’t know it?”

Weili gaped at him. Her nostrils flared, then she turned to Karim. “Give me the lashes, then. I don’t care.”

Karim looked unsettled. “Are you sure you -”

“The lashes!” Weili screamed. She kicked her feet in the snow. “The lashes! Do it hard! Kill me!”

Hakim Yusuf stepped forward, but before he could speak, Karim cut him off with a slashing motion of his hand. “No, Hakim. Discipline is my area of authority.”

The captain turned to me. “Darius?”

“The lashes, of course,” I said. “And give me Weili’s twenty lashes as well. I will take her punishment.” There was no doubt in my heart that this was what I must do. Never in my worst nightmares could I imagine seeing Weili whipped. After all was said and done, I still loved her. Perhaps it was stupid and childish, just as Karim had said. Perhaps it had led to this very moment of humiliation and loss. But it was true.

I saw a fleeting look of relief pass across Karim’s face. To tie a burnt, weeping, heartbroken woman to a wagon wheel and whip her? The idea was outrageous, and he knew it.

“No!” Weili shouted. “He can’t do that! It’s my punishment, I deserve it, I want it, you can’t -”

The Decision

“Quiet,” Karim said firmly. He resumed pacing back and forth, the whip slithering along in the snow behind him. We watched him, our heads turning one way and the other like cats watching a bird, except we were the birds and he was the hunter.

He stopped before me. “Stand up.”

I struggled to my feet. It wasn’t easy, as my legs had fallen asleep in the cold snow.

“Darius,” Karim said, and his tone was almost conversational. “You put me in an impossible position. You’re the least culpable of the three, yet now I’m supposed to whip you alone and let the others off? Even I know injustice when I see it. Yet discipline must be enforced. There must be consequences. What am I supposed to do with you?”

“Give me the lashes, Captain. Mine and hers.”

Karim exhaled noisily, stepped back and raised his voice. “Deng Weili will be stripped of half of her pay for the remainder of the journey. Arslan is exiled.” He gestured to Corporal Bao. “Take a few men and accompany him as he gathers his things and leaves. If he returns, shoot him on sight. Take him.”

As men led Arslan away, Weili wailed, “No! I need him!”

That was a dagger in my chest. What was it about this bald, drug-smoking liar that Weili loved so much? I couldn’t fathom it, but something flipped inside me. Some second heart that had beaten only for Weili gave up the ghost and died. I promised myself at that moment that I would never speak to Deng Weili again.

“Veteran Guard Darius Lee,” Karim went on, “will receive his own twenty lashes, plus Deng Weili’s twenty, per his request. Forty lashes in all.”

“Captain!” Hakim Yusuf shouted.

Karim held up his hand in a gesture that said, “ Wait .”

“There are mitigating factors. Darius saved two lives with no thought to his own safety. Because of this, his punishment is reduced to ten lashes.”

“Wonderful,” Meilin muttered. “Exactly what the Hero of the Pass needs. He’s been shot and burned, so let’s whip him. Why not cut off his foot as well, just because?”

“I heard that, Veteran Guard Meilin,” Karim growled.

“Sorry, Captain.”

Hakim Yusuf held out his hands, pleading. “Captain, the boy is burned. He’s still coughing up smoke. His leg wound has not fully healed. Even ten lashes could kill him.”

“I said ten lashes!” Karim bellowed, his rage coming through. “Shah, tie him to a wagon wheel.”

“No need,” I said. I let the blankets drop from my shoulders, walked to the nearest wagon wheel, turned my bare back to the assembled group, and gripped the cold, hard wheel with both hands.

“Captain,” Meilin said.

He turned to face her. “Yes?” His demeanor was calm, but that one word was colder than all the snow around us.

“Give me five of his lashes. I mean it.”

He regarded her, and his visage softened. “I know you do. But no.”

The Whipping

I glanced back to see him standing ten paces behind me, the whip hanging loose at his side. For a moment he said nothing.

Then he spoke. “Veteran Guard Lee, listen carefully. You will remain on your feet until the punishment is complete. If you fall, I will have you stood up and tied to that wheel. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Captain.” I tightened my hands around the wheel.

I would not scream. That much I decided. With Shah at my side, I had fought raiders that outnumbered me. I had buried friends. Poisoned arrows had not killed me. I had crawled into a burning wagon and dragged a man bigger than myself through the flames. I could endure ten strokes of a whip. Kuangren had done it, and so could I.

I heard Karim step away. The murmuring among the guards ceased. For a few seconds there was only the crackle of the dying fire and the hiss of snow still being thrown onto embers. I gripped the wheel harder and stared at the wagon in front of me. This wagon was the Spice Market. Any guard would know it in their sleep, for it carried with it the aromas of star anise, cloves, Sichuan pepper, ginger, nutmeg, camphor, and most of all cassia.

The scent of cassia came to me now, and I inhaled deeply, which caused me to cough hard, like a dog trying to throw up a bone stuck in his throat. Still, the scent was sweet, and made me smile. Maybe this whipping wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe I –

Karim shouted, “One!”

The whip cracked, and pain exploded across my back.

I screamed. There was no decision involved. The sound tore itself out of me, raw and high, and my body arched away from the wheel. My hands nearly came loose, and I gasped for breath. That single lash was equal to being shot in the leg with the poisoned arrow. It was a line of fire across my back. I’d escaped a burning wagon, only to be burned a different way.

“Two!”

The whip cracked again, and I screamed again. So much for my manly resolve. I was now unsure I could make it through. A feeling of dread grew inside me.

“Three!”

My knees buckled. I caught myself against the wheel and forced my legs straight. Someone among the guards murmured something. Another voice answered. I couldn’t understand the words.

“Four!”

When the fourth lash struck, I cried out and pressed my forehead against the wheel. Tears ran down my face. I heard Weili shouting, but couldn’t make out her words. Desperately I inhaled, taking in the scent of cassia.

You’re not here , I told myself. You’re a little boy, and your mother is making a cassia cupcake for your birthday. You take a bite, and it’s the best thing you ever tasted. Your mother smiles, but her smile fades as your father walks into the house.

“Five!”

I felt number five, but unlike the others, the pain was distant. Nevertheless, my fingers slipped. My fingers clutched desperately at the spokes and I somehow remained standing. I heard Hakim Yusuf’s voice, sharp and angry.

I tried to get back to that moment with my mother, but it was gone, faded like a dream after waking. The world had contracted to the cold wagon wheel beneath my hands and the cruel whip behind me.

“Six!” And a vicious crack.

My legs gave way. For a moment I hung from the wheel by my arms, my knees in the snow.

Karim had warned me. If you fall, I will have you stood up and tied to the wheel.

The thought of being tied to the wheel was unbearable. I would never live down the humiliation. Kuangren survived this, so could I! Of course Kuangren had been tied to the wheel. Still, I dragged myself upright, wrapped both arms around the wheel and held on. I could no longer hear anyone around me. My ears were filled with a roaring sound that blocked everything else out.

“Seven!”

The whip came down again. Something inside me broke loose. My hands released the wheel, and the snow rushed upward, though I never felt myself strike it. Then there was nothing.

* * *

Come back next week for Part 25 – To Save A Prince

Reader comments and constructive criticism are important to me, so please comment!

See the Story Index for Wael Abdelgawad’s other stories on this website.

Wael Abdelgawad’s novels – including Pieces of a Dream, The Repeaters and Zaid Karim Private Investigator – are available in ebook and print form on his author page at Amazon.com .

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The Deal : Part #1 The Run

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