Chapter 3: Peace and Prosperity
After spending some time at Mahzums court and at the marketplaces I could finally understand Arabian fully and fluently. When I told Mahzum he said
''Excellent, finally I can speak in my native language. It feels much more natural'' ''Yes'' I mumbled back.
After the time of the war, a long time of peace was started. The nation was not very stable, the army would surely be busy for the months to come...
I had not been fighting since I got lost in the desert. I had begun to lose my skill with a sword and I decided to start training again.
My opponent came at me. I avoided, attempted to counter. Missed and as he came at me again I ducked and grabbed hold of his Swords handle and disarmed
him. Mahzum came by and saw me train. ''I see you still haven't lost your skill'' he said. ''No, it wouldn't seem so'' I answered him. ''Hopefully
I won't have any need for it'' I added. ''No, hopefully'' another man arrived. I put my sword back. ''But just to be on the safe side...'' While
handing over a envelope. ''What is this?'' I asked but he had already left. I retrieved my small knife from my pocket and cut the envelope open.
Inside there was, well a letter of course. I saw it was addressed to Mahzum. I handed it over to him. He took it and read it through. He looked
up at me and said: ''No, you won't need that sword for a while'' he said. He walked away and dropped the letter. At first I was gonna hand it back
to him, but when I saw what was written I stopped. The letter was from Morocco.
''Dear Friend
It would seem as you have been expanding rapidly this last year, perhaps one day a great empire will forge out of Oman. However, many empires
have fallen because of their lack of allies. We wouldn't want that now would we? Therefore we take it on ourselves to protect you. We don't ask
anything in return. We both share the same threat, the mameluks. They have been coming deeper into both North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
Anyway, this document means that if anyone attacks you, we will stand by you and defend Oman from the aggressors. Perhaps one day a closer
relationship between our countries can start. For now, this will do.
/Abu-Sa'id I ,Sultan of Morocco''
That part of the letter, were they wrote that Oman needed allies, Mahzum thought alot about. Of course he didn't want to ally those not following
the true faith, nor those who were to far away to help. The only candidate would seem to be Haasa, right northwest of the Omani border.
I was sitting in my house. I saw Mahzum walk around the marketplaces. He was about to grab an apple, when a arrow came flying out of nowwhere! It hit
him in his chest. I grabbed my sabre and ran off. I soon spotted the assasin, he was running on the walls. It was too high jump from the wall down
out of the city, so I ran to the stairs. When he saw me at the bottom of the stairs, he shot two arrows against me. One missed and one hit glancing
my shoulder. It was only a surface wound. I kept on running and finally as he was about to leave the city I caught him. I quickly cut his bow
in two. ''Who sent you?'' I shouted at him. I ripped off his mask only too see what I had feared. It was the Bedawi of Najd himself! Unable
to control my anger I took my saber and impaled him on it. Right after that I heard the screams: ''MAHZUM IS DEAD!''. I had been too late.
If only I had seen the assasin before, I could have saved his life. I blame myself for it to this day.
The crown passed on to Mahzums son, Nâsir. He was much more capable of running the country then his father.
His first act was to fortify the province of Dhofar, bordering Yemen. Everyone knew what would come next...