The children laughed at what had happened. Noor smiled and patted their heads, then he and Tulkas set off for the wells. Noor marveled at Tulkas's speed and kept wondering about the secret of his power, and how he could defeat him if it came to that. He had cut a Franks lieutenant to pieces in moments when he first met him. It was as if he had appeared from nowhere.

"Don't you dare draw attention to us with these foolish actions, like making kites," Tulkas scolded him. "We don't want the Franks to know we're here, or we'll be in trouble, and the situation will get worse."

Noor turned his face away from him and looked at the horizon defiantly. "I left them plenty of surprises all over the village while you were asleep."

"Then why didn't you escape? You had the perfect chance to slip away and go to your friend."

"True. But... the children. I should have run, but I didn't. And here I am."

Tulkas resumed walking without another word.

In the Franks camp, ten kilometers from the village of Adrar. The Franks soldiers had hung the men they had taken from Adrar on wooden posts. They exposed their backs and began to beat them with whips until they were bloody, hoping one of them was a follower of the Prince and would reveal his location.

They beat them violently. The ten men screamed in pain, barely enduring the agony. But the first twenty lashes are the most painful; then the skin goes numb, and the rest of the blows become much lighter than those before.

After an hour of beatings, while General Hugo painted the scene on his canvas, one of them finally confessed.

"Stop the beating!" one of them screamed. "I'll tell you the Prince's location!"

General Hugo looked at the man with delight, ran his fingers over his long, thin mustache, and then added the finishing touches to his painting. "This is a painting worthy of selling for a million Franks. I shall call it 'The Confession'."

The soldiers untied the man and lifted him up. He braced himself on his body and stood, weak and frail. "I know where the Prince is," he said.

General Hugo gestured with his brush at the rest of the prisoners. "And who else besides you knows his location?"

"No one but me," the man said in a hoarse voice. "These damned traitors know nothing. I asked them to join the resistance, but they refused, afraid of you, afraid for themselves, their children, and their homes. And now look, they've lost their homes, their children, and themselves, and they've been severely beaten." He looked at them with spite. "Are you happy now, you wretches, for not joining our struggle against the Franks? Here you are, prisoners in their hands, suffering terribly. But you will die as traitors, while I will die a hero."

One of the soldiers threw the man to the ground and brought the whip down on him. "Shut up! You are in the presence of the General, Commander of the Third Army!"

The soldier stopped him again. General Hugo ordered the rest of the prisoners to be untied. "Finally, one of those bastards has confessed. They preferred to be beaten to death rather than reveal his location. No doubt the Admiral of the Franks fleet, 'Claudy,' nicknamed 'Moonlight,' will be overcome with jealousy when I find the Prince before him and end the Ghlizan resistance."

One of the prisoners looked at the man next to him. "What is Qwaider doing? He doesn't know the Prince's location, and he didn't join the resistance like us."

The second man looked at him, tears streaming from his eyes. "Don't you understand what he's doing? He's saving us. He's sacrificing himself. He knows we're dead if they keep beating us. And he knows we will never confess his location, because he is the last hope for Ghlizan. So maybe he was afraid one of us would weaken and tell them."

The first man looked at Qwaider, whom the soldiers were dragging to the interrogation tent. "But he doesn't know the location. What will he tell them?"

"He'll mislead them. He'll tell them a fake location."

"And what if they go where he told them and don't find the Prince? Won't they kill him?"

"Yes, they will. But by then, we will be long gone from here and back with the Prince, and his trick will have worked on them."

The soldier untied the first prisoner. The prisoner wiped away his tears. The soldier thought he was crying from the pain, but he didn't know he was crying for Qwaider, this unknown hero who had deceived the enemy, protected the Prince, and sacrificed himself for his people.

Qwaider moved toward the interrogation room. He looked back and saw the soldiers escorting the prisoners out of the camp. "Long live the Prince," he said in a faint voice, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Long live the resistance."

***

General Hugo and his men set out for the location Qwaider had given them, to the west. On their way, they found the village of Adrar. They decided to invade it to secure provisions and food, and to camp there before continuing on their way.

After shelling it for several hours, resistance soldiers came out from every direction and surprised them. The resistance had learned their location because the prisoners who were freed had subsequently monitored the Franks camp well. They had formulated a plan with the rest of the Prince's men hiding in the vicinity to ambush the battalion and defeat it, hoping perhaps to capture General Hugo, return with this great prize to the Prince, and bargain with the Franks for him. This would also save Qwaider, because the Franks would think he hadn't been lying. Thus, Qwaider would deceive and mislead them time and time again.

Hugo's soldiers fled from the shock of the surprise, because the Prince's headquarters, according to Qwaider's estimate, was still miles and miles away from this village. They decided to return to the camp, gather larger forces, and return to the village in greater strength.

They mustered what soldiers they could and returned to the burnt village of Adrar, but this time they found no resistance. This was because the resistance had decided to let them enter the burnt village and continue on their way to the fake location Qwaider had given them. Then, when the long march had exhausted them, hunger gnawed at their stomachs, and the sun burned their heads, they would arrive at an empty location. Before they could even rest, the Prince and his men would attack them with all their strength.

But what the Prince's men did not realize was that the village still contained a few Ghlizan who had refused to leave their homes and go into the unknown.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.