Pashtunwali“Do not worry brothers, I have discovered Rashtun is my 4th grade cousin, a friend of an uncle of his fought under my father command against the anglez and I obtained to be invited by Rashtun to his home for some dinner, of course only to have the possibility to get some intelligence…”said Mustafa and then loudly, speaking to Rashtun:
“So my brother, show me your home and may the Ruler provide to your family ten times the food you will share! Muletail and Yamad, you can wait for me in the house next to that camel, where food and straw to sleep are already prepared”
Which plan is designing Kismet Khan for our friends? Will he be their kismet, “destiny”? And which information will Mustafa steel during the dinner? And which is the tremendous secret that the Tajiks are defending so strenuously against the raid of Mullah Powanda’s bandits/patriots…?
Only the future (and dice) will tell us
The dinner in Rashtan’s house was more than abundant and even Mustafŕ, with a brain new red turban, gift by Rashtan, felt not so hungry at the end of the fourth dish. Chairman was Rashtan’s old father and in front of Mustafa and Rashtan other two Tajiks sit without opening their mouth. Two wifes of the old father were serving the important guests.
“Now you have eaten our salt and we are friends”said Rashtan with his tongue in the cheek smile “ and now let me introduce two best friends of my Uncle, very eager to help you. But now tell us why u arrive here pretending to be a Bunerwal? We were waiting for you and your khan, the famous Muletail”
“How do you know about him? “ Mustafa thought “I should have hold my tongue” but it was too late.
Rashtan was quick to reply “Some merchants anticipated his arrival; we are all good waziris’friend” smiling as a snake staring a rabbit.
“Well, all we need is to have a rest, food and a guide to accelerate our march towards Paiwar Pass, and possibly helping in negotiating our pass with local tribesmen. And you should take care to delay bandits which were behind us in Kajeray. And killing any Afridis or Zadran killers on our traces.”
“oh you can be sure, no Zadran dares go so far norhwards, and about Afridis… well we know very well how to manage them” Rashtan said, and then speaking to other”We know very well, don’t we?” “oh yes” they replied “Very very well” with a grim lauhghing.
Mustafa felt a twist in his skeleton, but was soon distracted by a tamarind cake brought by the younger wife and happiness returned in the house, flourished by lamb perfumes filling the air.
In the meantime, Muletail and Yamad rested out of the house where they were accommodated, and from there they were looking at the tower still visible even if night darkness was advancing covering all the shadows with an uniform layer of deep black.
“Let’s go to the roof” said Yamad “We’ll enjoy a better landscape” But arrived on the roof they found a couple of Tajiks smoking in the shadows, spending time playing with a drum and ready to grab their weapons at our hero’s arrival.
“Any problems?” they asked suspiciously
“No thanks”Yamad replied “We wanted just get a better view”
“Better view? Here? We say “Chahar chez est tohfay Mir Zakah, Gard-o- Garma, Gada-o- Goristan”.that in urdu means “Four things are the gift of Mir Zakah: Dusty winds, hot seasons, beggars and graveyards.” Said the Tajiks laughing and going to leave the roof looking for a new place to smoke and control the waziris.
“What they say about the gifts?” asked Muletail
“Nothing, it is an old Punjab proverb related originally to Multan, we Bunerwals were used to kid those Pashtuns with this rhyme Multan Goristan. These idiots just adapted it but losing the rhyme…well strange they make fun of themselves, no pride these Tajiks”
“Yes very odd” said Muletail and then speaking to the leaving Tajiks:”Here Divâr moosh dâreh, moosh ham goosh dâreh” Walls have mice, and mice have ears, in persian.
The Tajiks smiled embarrassed, “good night to you too” and quickly left.
“It is like I suspected” whispered Muletail to Yamad “They speak Urdu and don’t understand Persian, they are not Tajiks, this is a trap, go to call for Mustafa and be ready to run away quicker than a snake bite.”
Yamad run to Rashtun’s house and yelled “Mustafŕ Mustafŕ come out, Hussein must speak with you now!” Rashtun appeared on the door “what happens? Why crying so loudly?”
“Nothing, just Hussain wants to speak now with Mustafa for certain important reasons”
“Oh and when Muletail calls all waziris must run” At these words Yamad looked the white face of Mustafŕ
“Do not panic my friend, we Tajiks are good friends of Waziris, we escort you three tomorrow and we will teach you a short cut passing close the tower. But tomorrow, now it is too dark. My friends will ensure you have a long rest, cause tomorrow it will be a long day, a long march is waiting for us before you arrive in a safer area. Whatever the urgency of Muletail, Mustafa will remain here, he is eating our salt and leaving my father party now should be a great offence.
“Tomorrow I assure you will have a special badragga to protect you”
“Mmmh urdu again” Yamad thought “These are Tajiks as I am an heretic TSATF follower” spitting aside to remove the blasphemy.”Ok Mustafa reach us when you have done and rest before the new journey”.
Mustafŕ was tempted to reach his friend but the chicken with peas was calling him and he thought that was very inconvenient to offend the Tajiks, so returned in the house and the owner’s wifes astonished provided other food to be swallowed by the man with a stomach larger than a camel, as they called him.
Next day our 3 friends, Mustafa with his old turban as he did not want to use again the gifted turban after hearing Muletail’s doubts, with their badragga, composed by Rashtan and five other tribesmen started to walk towards the tower well before dawn.
“Be ready to react for any tricks they may want to implement” said Muletail, but everything seemed quiet and peaceful.
Kismet and 5 other Tajiks escorted them up to village borders.
“Have a nice journey, Rashtan will manage everything and may the Ruler protect your path”
“Thanks Kismet, I will not forget you, be sure” Muletail answered and then asked to Rashtan “Why so few inhabitants in this village?”
“Many warriors joined Powanda and his jihad, news is speaking about a great victory in Tochi valley, and together with Afridis victories in Spinwam district it means that soon we will be free of our Anglez guests. Other joined the bandits on the hills, other works…” Rashtan answered elusively.
He stopped speaking as they arrived close to the tower and other warriors were waiting for them fully equipped with tulwars and jezails; their grim malik did not seem very friendly, more similar to an horse theft than to a khan…
In the morning dusk Muletail could glimpse the shadows of other 5 warriors outside and on the roof of the tower
“Sag-e zard barâdare shoghâleh” said Muletail, but no one answered
“what did u say?” asked Mustafŕ in a whisper
“The yellow dog is the brother of the jackal,in Persian, that means One is as bad as the other. Also these are no more Tajiks than you and I”
“Well well well, what a nice present for the old Gul Zaraq, Rashtun what are you bringing us today? Cave needs always new volunteers to work in his dungeons…”
Suddenly the escorted became prisoners and Muletail said “You son of… you smell like camel stank; I knew you are not real Tajiks”
“Stop crying, nobody can hear you. No Gul, this pigeon is too important to be used in your caves, he will be escorted back carefully, and Umra will be more than happy to pay real gold for him. You can enjoy with the others; they will learn that the Afridis dinners must be payed and are very costly…” and giggled high pitched.
“What does it mean, who are you?” Yamad asked astonished
“Ask to the mighty Muletail, he has already understood, don’t you, filthy heretic dog? We are Afridis, a band sent by the Mighty Umra to look for Sikander’s treasure; legends reported to his stronghold speak about a big treasure hidden here around and you will spend the rest of your miserable life working looking for it”
“And the village Tajiks warriors?” “They will be your colleagues and you will divide the tower jails with them. Now they are working under the strict control of many Kismet’s warriors. But do not worry, nobody is strong enough to resist more than few weeks and Gul Zar is always in search of good workers” Rashtan answered laughing loudly.”And in few days we must depart before warriors returning from Tochi valley.”
“We were informed by our allies Zandar that some precious gifts were arriving, and we sent some friends to welcome you in Kajeray but I don’t know how you escaped them. Well now it is….”
Suddenly many cracks fires broke from the surroundings rocks and in the dark lights of the dawn Muletail could see four Afridis killed and 3 other hit but not incapacitate, with an outstanding score.
With a scaring yell a dozen of shadows erupted from the rocks and attacked the Afridis who tried to reach their safe into the tower.
What is happening? Who are these warriors, Tajiks bandits or…? What about the Afridis in the tower? Which secret is inside? And Kismet? But most important…will the destiny dice stop tossing only “1” and “2”???
To be continued