CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
It was in the morning during the men's second wave of sleep that was coming over them in the before-dawn hours, that a cawing shriek was heard coming from overhead.
The sun wasn't out yet, although it wasn't totally dark.
The men had, at least one hour of sleep left to them before they were to wake and make their way around the strip. At first they tried to ignore that squawking but it soon became so frantic and intense that they could no longer bare it.
Boyce's slight affection for the single crow he had seen flying around, during their journey, was quickly waning and he quickly sat up to see where it was and shoo it away.
He opened his eyes and saw six male figures standing around the opening of the den.
"Lloyd, we're surrounded!" Boyce screamed out to him and Lloyd quickly sprang to his feet when he saw them.
"Lloyd!" Boyce called out and Lloyd answered him quickly. Boyce continued. "This is getting ridiculous!"
"I would say so!" replied Lloyd. "We should've thought twice before charging our friends, here!"
The men took their capture in stride with the rest of their delays, and
Boyce laughed.
"Under the circumstances I couldn't see being cordially invited."
One of the hunters poked Boyce in the ribs with the end of his club and
Lloyd watched.
"I guess that means silence?" Boyce jested.
Lloyd and Boyce were quiet while the leper hunters took them into the heart of Palatka.
Hung in discomfort, they heard the sounds of life get louder until they saw buildings and people pass them on each side while they were carried deeper into the heart of the city.
The haul into the city finally ended and they were dropped to the hard ground, and plumes of dust lolled about their heads.
When the dust settled from in front of their faces they saw a pair of scabby and puffy, sandled feet before them.
Each man slowly leaned backwards as far as they could and looked up at the tall body of a heavy set man, dressed in plain-looking robes and he was fanning himself from the heat.
"Release them!" said the leper and several of the hunters cut the ropes and the two captives got up from the ground beating themselves clean from the dust in their clothing.
"Thank-you!" said Boyce.
"Yes!" echoed Lloyd.
They looked at one another for a long time, then the Palatkans that had them released spoke.
"I am Urre, ruler of this race!" he said then proceeded. "I will ask you why you attacked my men?"
Lloyd and Boyce glanced over at each other and Boyce spoke.
"We seek forgiveness for that aggression!" he said and the Palatkan ruler waited. "We slept on the hill and when we woke we saw your men. Unaccustomed to seeing Palatkans, we undertook to defend ourselves. We are sorry!"
Boyce finished and Lloyd felt ill because of Boyce's statement about the Palatkan's appearance.
Urre had an insulted expression and from behind him came a sedate and shy voice. It was a man's voice yet it was very gentle.
"Are you the travellers from Besten?" asked the man.
"Yes!" answered Lloyd. "I am Lloyd Bartlett and this is my friend and apprentice, Boyce Loebh."
"They are the ones we have agreement, to let pass through Palatka!" said the man.
"Hold your tongue, Munsen!" ordered Urre. "They had broken their agreement with their attack upon our people."
Boyce and Lloyd looked at one another, realising that they were in a predicament.
"Take them to their cells." ordered Urre.
Several Palatkans grabbed Boyce and Lloyd, and dragged them off to one side of the city, to the cliffs of the canyon where huge dungeon-like cells were made for Palatkan prisoners.
They were cold and dingy rock cubes, barren of anything on which to rest on and to keep warm with.
The cells smelled musty and there were unrecognizable things written on the walls and ceiling, and some were even seen on the floor when the layers of dust were kicked up by the men's pacing.
"You should never have said that we weren't used to Palatkan appearance!" Lloyd scolded Boyce then sighed.
"I was being honest with them!"
Lloyd put his hand on Boyce's shoulder and tried to console him, from his error.
"It's alright, Boyce. Maybe we can talk to Urre and see if we can apologise properly." He moved away and looked out of the hole in the rock door. "Until then, we should make the best of this place."
"It is so cool in here but outside the heat is blistering!"
"Wait until his evening. It'll be worse in here."
Lloyd came away from the door and leaned up against one of the walls and huddled himself into a ball.
"Better get some sleep now because it will be too damned cold to sleep later tonight!" Lloyd instructed Boyce and he went down on the floor and tried to sleep.
It was difficult but they finally managed to fall asleep and after sunset, Munsen came to them with offers of warm blankets and a hot broth of cooked fowl.
He called to them several times and Boyce finally got up and went to the rock door.
Lloyd also had gotten up and went to the door.
"I am Munsen, the high-priest of Life." he said to them. "I was told that you will be in our rituals of Life and Energy, after-tomorrow." Munsen told them.
"I will make a tough meal, my friend!" Lloyd promised to him.
"You know of our ways, then?" Munsen urged for clarification.
"Yes, we do!" Boyce said. "Would there be any way for us to appeal to
Urre, to honour the passage agreement?"
Munsen looked down and shook his head.
"I am afraid that our Lord Urre had never intended to allow you passage."
Lloyd and Boyce glanced at one another and Lloyd sighed.
"You were right, Boyce!"
"I had brought for you blankets and hot broth to drink. Your cells will be unbearably cold by dark, and these should help!"
He pushed the blankets through the hole, followed by the large amphora of broth.
"I am truly sorry that it's not very much, but it is all that I could get for you!"
"At least we'll be more comfortable before we die!" Lloyd commented in a sarcastic tone of voice.
"Please don't!" pleaded Munsen.
"I am sorry!" Lloyd was apologetic, realising that this man was really and sincerely trying to be kind.
"Listen!" he told them. "Long before we had your Bestenese Emissary come to have us sign the agreement of safe passage, I had a dream-vision about it and about you."
Boyce and Lloyd eagerly listened to the man.
"I saw that Urre would not honour the agreement. Now, I set in motion a plan to throw him down from power if you did come and if you were captured. You came and you were captured."
"What is your plan, Munsen?" requested Boyce.
"I have many friends that are, at this very time, arming themselves for our attack tomorrow. If we succeed in destroying Urre's rule, you will be given supplies and be allowed to go freely, and in peace."
"What if the overthrow fails?" Lloyd had wondered listening to Munsen speak.
"I have other friends that will risk their lives to free you, if the rebellion fails."
"Why?" Boyce was confused momentarily and he needed to be given a reason why someone, who they didn't know, would die for their release.
"I had seen the doom and destruction of Palatka with your deaths, and so if you had but a hair harmed on your heads. Palatka must have peace with you, Boyce Loebh; yet, I don't exactly understand why?"
Munsen's reply fit into the men's understanding.
Somehow Munsen knew these prisoner's importance and he knew that their harm would mean the extinction of his civilization.
"We engage our uprising tomorrow. When you hear commotion and thunderous booming, keep low to the floor. We have found a way to make a burning substance that is explosive. It can shatter rock and kill."
"Please take care and may the true living God bless your victory."
"If we believed in Him, I would hope that it would be so!" Munsen said and before he left he told them that he would try to see them once more before the battle, and then he left them.
"He has a leader's compassion!" Boyce stated.
They wrapped themselves up in the blankets given to them and they drank the broth.
They fell sleep and the blankets helped to keep some of the chill from them and they managed to get some sleep, though uncomfortable as it was.