The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids (8 page)

     Given
these factors, it
should not be difficult to, with scientif
ic precision, determine how Qutughai and the
Zelaznids vanished into the mountains.  In brief, they fled with great speed,
well ahead
of their pursuers
, leaving little in the
way of tracks until
they were
far from the pl
ace
where
the Salabadi
at last
gave up
their pursuit.

     Here was no
assistance from otherworldl
ie
beings
, no miraculous rescue.
  T
hese peoples, by virtue of their determination, escaped into the mountains and out of the
reach
of their enemies without the need for magic.  Yet, we might say that a miracle did occur, for never have s
uch
people faced so much danger and lived to speak of
it
. 
And
this is how
I am
, five centuries later, able to
record their tale
for
the benefit of
all.

R

eaching this point in the fantastical historie of the Zelaznids, the reader might well
begin to
doubt the events described herein.  To
this
I can say little but that the Zelaznids themselves have passed these legends down from father and mother to son and daughter.  These are the facts as told to me
by the last of their line, before the
Zelaznids
were hounded
from this world.  I cannot attest to the truth of
such
things, but I am certain that the tellers of these tales believed them to the depth of their souls.  For my part, I can do little but put the matter before the
public
as the Zelaznids would have wished. 
 

    
Interpretation I
shall
leave to the judgment of posteritie.

~
168
~

Chapter 4

The al-Hazredi Dynastie

S

ummer came to a close, bringing cold weather
earlier than usual to
the village of F
e
yzabad in the land of Kush.
[34]
  In the deep river basin, farmers brought in small plots of vegetables earlier than was their custom,
so as to
avoid the damage
of the coming
frost. 
Numerous
generations had battled the climate of the
se
mountains,
stretching back into time further than anyone knew
.  It was the way of the simple folk of
Feyzabad
to take what they could from the land and be grateful for all
that
they possessed.

     One such farmer, working a small plot far up
the
river, heard shouting in a language
that
he did not know.  Looking about him, he saw no one.  Yet the cry came once more, echoing between the steep walls of the mountains.  At last, he looked further up the river valley, where the land was not flat enough even for the small plots he tended
; and then
he spotted them.

     They were bedraggled, suffering from
chill
,
and thin with hunger.  These souls
, their faces pale and
haunted
,
lurched forward as if their legs answered to some authoritie outside of
themselves.  As they reached the farmer
, he recognized the language of the Mongols, who had swept through Feyzabad in previous years, though they had no
permanent
presence in the village. 
But
the farmer, whose name has been lost to posteritie,
spoke Arabic and
did not know the language of the Mongol
s
enough to understand the words.

    
Th
is
detail, however,
did not concern the farmer at that moment.  More pressing was
the fact that
these
strangers had come from the mountains
and
had,
according to their appearance
,
been
in the wilderness for some time.  He feared that
a partie as desperate as this
might well
resort to injustice in order
to sate their hunger.  Most alarming to the fellow was the presence of the well-armed Mongol
leading
the ragged band.

     It was the presence of th
is
Mongol
,
at the head of a train of
more than fiftie strangers, which
spurred the farmer to flee.  He could not know, because of the language difficulties, what the intentions of these strangers
might be
. 
But
he was determined that his village would not be caught unawares by a band of Mongols,
however wearie and incapable of battle they might
seem
. 
And so
the fellow made his way to the village wi
th all speed, to tell
the elders
of
what he had seen.

    
In the end, of course, there was no need for alarm, for these were those same Zelaznids, led by
the wise
Qutughai, who had fled Salabad for the securitie of the mountains
;
those same Zelaznids who had numbered two hundred and half again, now reduced to
sixtie and three
; those same Zelaznids who had spent four months wandering through the mountains
,
desperate for food and shelter; those same Zelaznids who had, three weeks earlier, slaughtered the last of their goats, so that they had gone some ten days without meat or bread.
  What harm could such miserable souls visit upon a well-provisioned and rested populace?

     On the contrar
ie
, the survivors had scarcelie reached the outskirts of the village before collapsing in relief and exhaustion before those elders who
had, with no few arms, come
out to meet them.  At once it was determined that these were no invaders, but men and women (there were no children
left
among them
)
who were
greatlie in need of aid. 
And so
the people of Feyzabad
transform
ed into a band of h
ospitalers, eager to mend the ills of the sad-looking souls who had dragged themselves
through such treacherous countrie
.  T
he
stunned
visitors
soon
f
ound
comfort
with
in the homes of the village
rs
.

     Some few days passed before the greater portion of the Zelaznids regained wits sufficient to relate the details of their ordeal to their rescuers.
  This they did with the assistance of Dalganj, an elder of the village who knew well the language of the land beyond the mountains.
  The storie came in fits and starts, first from one survivor and then another, until at last Qutughai regained consciousness and stood before the elders of Feyzabad.  He told the tale in its entiretie;
and
a more devastating chronicle
had never been uttered
within the
confines of the
village.

     In brief, the storie ran thus.

     Reaching the end of the known path into the mountains, and choosing not to
wait for otherworldlie
beings to come to their aid as
they
had
for
Zelaznu
in days of old
, Qutughai had ordered the band to
follow
the path to the west and south, rather than following the river to the east.  This route was
slow-going
, but quite strai
ght, and found the partie
making reasonable distance each day.

    
But
the nights were cold and food was scarce.  At
first
the band survived on the provisions they had bro
ught with them. 
But
several
among them
, hop
ing perhaps that Zelaznu himself would descend from the clouds to save them from their fate, failed to ration their supplies and thus exhausted their
stores of
food much more quicklie than th
ose
more provident souls
.

     It so
happened
that those who had planned poorlie
soon
turned to those who had provisioned themselves well, demanding food from those who
possessed
it.  More than one such conversation ended in violence, with several
persons
falling by the wayside
along the journie
, the victims of fratricide borne out of desperation
;
while others,
including
all of the
child
ren
in their midst
,
succumbed to natural deaths brought
about
by exposure to the elements.  In such an environment, it became difficult to protect the goats, animals
which
had run out of food themselves.  Thus, one by one, the herd was reduced
for the purpose of
providing food for the dwindling masses, until none remained.

     For ten days before stumbling into this valley, related Qutug
h
ai, the Zelaznids had subsisted on what few
plants and roots they could find
in the cracks and crevices of the mountain
walls
.  With little to eat, they had walked on day and night, almost unconscious on their feet,
desperate to leave the bleak purgatorie of the peaks.

     To this, the people of Feyzabad expressed much sympathie
,
press
ing
Qutughai for details of
the Zelaznid people and why they had felt the need to flee into the mountains
.  The great governor-king
thus
related all that he knew of the Zelaznids, from the
time
the Ginyu
left t
he great Gobi to the
ir last days
in Salabad.
  Once
the tale
had been
told
with some measure of completeness, the leaders of
Feyzabad
gre
e
ted the Zelaznids anew with much wonder, impressed
and moved
by the
sad
historie of th
ese
people.

     Calling for silence, the leader of the cittie, who
was called
Faraj, addressed Qutughai, saying, “There is great wonder in the words that you speak.  Though I do not know the truth of the tales
that
you tell, I
yet
judge that you are a good people. 
Whatever
reasonable thing that you might wish of us, I beg you to but speak of it.”

     To this, with great humilitie, the great governor-general replie
d
, “
Your
people have served us well with food and shelter.  There is nothing that we
require
except
to find
the descendants of those kinsmen
who left Salabad so long ago, following that same Zelaznu
from whom they
take their name.”

    
Once Dalganj had
translated
this in
to
the language of the Arabs,
Faraj expressed his understanding, for he knew well the importance of kinship, especially for such lost and rejected people as the Zelaznids.

     “I regret to say,” said he, “that I have heard of no people like as to
yourselves
.  I would that I had, so that I might convey you to them. 
But
if there are others of your k
i
n
d who
dwell yet in this world, then it is the warlords of Kabul who will know of it.
 
These warlords, fighting as much
with one another
as with the Khanate,
[35]
send
agents
throughout the land once each year to collect tribute from those
who are
too weak to resist them.  In
Feyzabad
we were last visited by such an official
some three months past.  If anyone should know of the peoples
in
this part of the world, it will be the bur
eaucrats in Kabul
.”

     Qutughai expressed gratitude for this information. 
He did not know if
the other
Zelaznids had survived
.  Yet
Qutughai was determined to follow
this
trail
,
wher
so
ever it
might lead, i
f
the Zelaznids in his charge might
someday
be reunited with their lost
kinsmen
.
 
And so
it was that, after acquir
ing
sufficient rest, the Zelaznids
ventured out of the village of
Feyzabad
and down the valley. 

     This they did with a strong sense of their own
f
ortune, for the villagers had equipped them
with what supplies the
y
could
spare
.  Dalganj,
because of his abilitie to
speak
both
the Mongol and Arabic tongues, agreed to accompanie them as far as Kabul.  It was thus a joyous partie that began its journie to the south, for the Zelaznids felt certain that they would soon find
the descendants of
their lost
kinsmen
.

W

ith what sympathies, I wonder, might the most skeptical reader feel towards these ancient peoples
,
were I to convey the details of their harrowing
travels
from
Feyzabad
to Kabul - the hardship of the hills, the difficulties of the chill autumn desert, the endlessness of the plains.  Would the reader, n
ow filled with doubt,
acquire
an understanding of the truth
, assured at last that the Zelaznids
were
in the right,
that they
were
preserved
by the heavens for some greater purpose? 
How else to explain their survival in a land of privation and war?