The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids (11 page)

    
In the beginning,
I saw
no one but
Hooshyar, who knew enough of men to see into their hearts.  He
thus
saw
that
I told the truth, and so, through him, I
came to
know the Zelaznid
peoples
as had no outsider before me.

     I remained in the old man’s hut for more than a month, learning from
the mouth of
Hooshyar the historie of his people.  This consisted of those
stories which
I have alreadie related in these pages, as well as
those events which had transpired since the disappearance of the Zelaznid peoples from the village of Sang-e.  The storie, in brief, was this.

     The reunited Zelaznid people, upon hearing that the soldiers were making their way to
the
village
of Sang-e, had turned to Lakku, their great and wise leader. 
It was he who
told them to
pack all that they could
and to assemble on the high hill
.  It was he who summon
ed
great power and called
out to the heavens until the hills
opened up, revealing a portal
t
o another port, a path to another world.

    
And so
the Zelaznid people, carrying all that they could, crossed over into an island world with green grasses, lush forests, vast beaches
, and endless blue seas -
a paradise beyond
imagination
.  Here the Zelaznids made
d
ue as
best they could
.  Yet
,
all was not
well.  The island was not large enough to sustain
their
population for long
;
nor did they know what other island
s there might be in the vicinitie
.
  The people
knew that they
would
,
at some future time
,
need
to
return to the world they knew, even at
the
risk of facing the warlords.

    
In the meantime, they lived as best they could and wor
k
ed to nurse their leaders back to health, for both Qutughai and Lakku had need of aid, the first for the fever that would not seem to break, and the second for a great weariness which overcame him
as a result of his efforts to open the portal through the
mountain.

     Of these, the greater concern
was for the
health of Qutughai, both because his was a more serious maladie and because
a
large
number of followers
had come to place their faith in the wisdom of his decisions and the strength of his arm
s
. 
T
he
weariness which fell upon Lakku
was heavie
,
yet
his ailment was
well
understood
;
for others had,
whenever
Lakku u
tilized
his tremendous and mysterious gifts, seen the old man be
set by a wea
ri
ness
which always
match
ed
the complexitie
s
of
his task
. 
So
it was that, as beloved as Father Lakku was, the Zelaznids feared much less for him than for the governor-general of Salabad.

    
W
hile the two great leaders of the Zelaznids remained unwell, the Arab
,
Abdul H
azred -
descendent of that same ‘Mad Arab’
of which so much
has been spoken
-
assume
d
leadership of that most ancient people. 
Hazred w
ell underst
oo
d their plight
; h
e kn
e
w what they had seen in the
ir
span of centuries. 
And so
it was that the Zelaznids
found a
kindred soul in Abdul Hazred and follow
ed
him most willingl
ie
.

     Yet,
his leadership lasted but
a
short time,
for Lakku, regain
ing
his health
after a period of some
weeks, resume
d
his place at the head of the Zelaznids.  Under Lakku’s guidance, the people explor
ed
their island and
built homes
for all and sundrie.

     S
ome among them, worried that their land
would soon be exhausted
,
built
a number of rafts.
 
S
ome thirtie men use
d these vessels
to explore the waters near the island
.  B
y
these
means
they discovered five other islands of varied
size, but no great landmass.

     Still
another group separate
d
from the others
and returned
to the land of their birth
.  They wished to
determine to what extent the world
still
threatened
them
and to determine
where the Zelaznids might at last establish for themselves a safe and permanent home. 
Th
e latter exploration
was
assisted by
both Lakku
and Abdul Hazred, who shared with one another all that they knew of portals
.

    
So
it was that the otherworlders divide
d
themselves onto the six islands of their new
port, while the Earthers returned
to the known world in order to see what they might find. 
T
his latter band, once they passed through the portal opened by Abdul Hazred, never again appeared
amongst
their island-bound
kinsmen
, but vanish
ed
from the known historie of the Zelaznid peoples. 
And yet
, tales of these souls have passed down through the years so
that
we know
that
they must have lived for some time in the land of their birth.
[52]

    
As f
or th
e
otherworlders, these people built for themselves a small but peaceful world away from those who
sought to
oppress them, living thus in quietude. 
And
Qutughai
did live for some years in ill health before
pass
ing
from their world
;
and Lakku
’s death
follow
ed
close upon
, for he was an old man
.  These great leaders were set upon rafts and sent adrift into the great sea, their bodies following their souls
to distant lands far beyond the reach of the Zelaznids.  Thus did Abdul Hazred, with
the full acceptance of the people,
assume leadership of the Zelaznid
s,
guid
ing
them for
some twentie
years
, during which time he trained some few
persons
who
would
follow in his stead
.

T

he otherworlders carrie
d
on in this fashion, from one age to
the next
, liv
ing
in harmon
ie
for
some
three hundred years. 
I
n that time, their numbers expand
ed
until the islands could no longer contain them
; neither
was ther
e
fuel enough to feed, house, and warm them.  So it was determined that the Zelaznids must once again return to the land of their heritage in hopes that they might at last find a permanent home.

    
T
he Zelaznids emerged
from the portal
to
discover
nothing remaining of the ancient village of Sang-e.  Moreover, they found themselves in the midst of a new war, though they knew neither the
motives of the
contending sides nor the status of the conflict.  Yet, war it was,
wherein
the Quizilbash
[53]
found
themselves
losing territorie to the legendarie
forces of Shaybani.
[54]
  In order to avoid the worst of the hostilities, the Zelaznids fled to the west, ahead of the
advancing soldiers
of Shaybani.

     The
Zelaznids
could not move quicklie, for there was much contention throughout the land.
And
, though they could not be sure
,
after three hundred years
,
that the peoples of Persia would react with anger to
their presence,
they
did not risk
revealing themselves.  As such, the Zelaznids wandered slowlie, living as best they could in the barren places of the land for some years, moving ever westward
, according to the seasons of the year
.
[55]
 

     It was the intention of their leader,
who
was called
Farzan, to take his people to
the cittie of
Constantinople,
home of
the wisest men in the world.  It took some little time
for them
to learn that Constantinople was no more.  The Turks, with the help of God, had taken th
at
cittie from the Rúm two generations earlier.
[56]

    
Even so, t
he Zelaznids had hope that this centre of wisdom would yet prove a readie home for their people
,
that
they might find peace
amongst
the learned of Istanbul. 
So
they travel
ed with the
seasons, meandering all over Persia, until they reached the shores of the Caspian.

    
But
what
a
terri
ble fate
they met in
that place!
  The
Zelaznids
had
sought to escape the
cruelties of war
; yet,
in the foothills of the Caucuses and within sight of the land of the Turks,
they stumbled upon
two contending armies, each as resigned to
ferocious
battle as the other.

     In the east, the Quizibash had fled from the
forces
of Shaybani. 
But
here, in
an effort to redeem their honour,
some
fiftie
thousand Quizilibash stood in full array before
two hundred
thousand Turks.  This time the lords of Persia meant to stand
tall and hold their ground
.
[57]
 
But
the armie of the
Turks
which
faced
the
strength
of
Shah Isma’il
, the poet
commander,
was no frontier force
.
[58]
 
Amongst the Turks was t
he personal guard of
the
s
ultan,
Selim I
,
which
number
ed
in the thousands and march
e
d into battle with cannon
s
and musket
s
.
[59]
  The poet
leader,
Isma’il, knowing of the
usefulness
of gunpowder,
nonetheless did not allow his armie to use it,
in deference to the glories of God.  Hence, outnumbered and with outdated technolog
ie
, the Quizilbash
were crushed under the feet of the
s
ultan’s armie
.
[60]